Pod Meets Magic

Pod Meets World

The hosts of Pod Meets World welcome Adam Wylie, a former Disney Channel star turned professional magician, for a session filled with nostal

Key takeaways

• Adam Wylie transitioned from acting in DCOMs like 'Under Wraps' to becoming a professional magician at the Magic Castle.
• The Magic Castle is described as the 'Mecca of Magic,' serving as a private club for magicians worldwide.

Main topics

• Disney Channel nostalgia
• Professional magic techniques

Notable quotes

Magic really is that awe and wonder that you guys experience.

Conclusion

A captivating episode that bridges the gap between childhood nostalgia

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Speaker 6 (0:04) What up? This is Jay Valentine, co-host of the R &B Money Podcast alongside my brother, R &B legend, Tank. Together, we've built a space for artists, executives, and fans of R &B music to reminisce and tell the real stories behind the music. I Speaker 7 (0:17) have no money. I was hood famous. Speaker 6 (0:18) They think you're going to get everybody out. Speaker 7 (0:19) We lived in a project. Real Love came out. They're hearing the music and we had nothing. From Speaker 6 (0:24) Smokey Robinson to Mary J. Blige, B2K to Jill Scott, if you're a super dedicated R &B fan, This is where you belong. Listen to R &B Money from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (0:38) Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. A beautiful woman smiles and hands you a scotch, but you have no idea just how messed up her job actually is. It was the most sexist. I think you could have. Until one day, a group of stewardesses spark a revolution that reshapes America. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:18) Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I talk to actor Stephen Root. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the street and go, yeah, I can use that. And Open Igloo co-founder Alia Mohammed. Speaker 8 (1:31) I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is on renters' minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. Speaker 4 (1:43) Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What up, y'all? This your main man, Memphis Bleak, right here, host of that rock-solid podcast. And each week, we bringing you exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations with the biggest names in the game. You Speaker 6 (2:04) had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting a... If you're not trash, you better be not just good, you better be great. Speaker 4 (2:14) Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. Speaker 1 (2:34) Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Danielle Bishel. I'm Speaker 3 (2:36) Ryder Strong. And I'm Wilfredo. Speaker 1 (2:40) Welcome to Pod Meets World on Disney+. I'm Danielle Fishel. I'm Speaker 3 (2:43) Ryder Strong. And I was just about to take a sip. I'm Will Friedle. Great timing. Of Speaker 1 (2:47) our unbranded water. Speaker 3 (2:48) Water. Speaker 1 (2:49) Brought to you by Speaker 3 (2:50) water. By the mountain Speaker 1 (2:52) streams. Speaker 7 (2:53) Earth and this plastic Speaker 2 (2:55) bottle. Which is totally safe for the environment. Totally safe. You're Speaker 7 (2:59) not supposed to talk. Speaker 2 (3:00) I'm so sorry. I will disappear. Speaker 1 (3:03) This week. We are competing yet again. We recently all sat down or stood up to paint alongside our dear instructor, Allison. We Speaker 2 (3:14) were Speaker 1 (3:14) sitting. And Will was unanimously crowned the winner. I was? I won? Yes. You won by a landslide by our audience. And understandably so. You really did do a great job. But we figured we would take another crack at it. And at the same time, we're going to bring a little bit of... Disney magic to Disney+. Spirit Speaker 3 (3:37) finger. Spirit finger. Speaker 1 (3:39) You may know him as Zach Brock on Picket Fences or Brad from Gilmore Girls, but he is a Disney Channel legend starring in the first ever DCOM, Under Wraps. You know it well. I know them Speaker 3 (3:54) all. Speaker 1 (3:54) And 1999's Can of Worms. That Speaker 3 (3:57) movie was weird. We talked about this, Adam. We did. Listen, can of worms is odd. It is. It's really weird. It's fun, but it's super fun. But super weird. It is. Seriously. Yeah. Huff a dumpling and watch can of worms. You have to. There's no other way to watch it. Really. Speaker 1 (4:15) Not to mention, he is a prolific voice actor heard on shows like Hey Arnold, The Wild Thornberrys, Phineas and Ferb, and my favorite, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. But today he is our resident magician with over a million views on TikTok. Please welcome to Pod Meets World, our magic expert, Adam Wiley. Yes. You forgot one of his most Speaker 5 (4:40) important credits. What's Speaker 1 (4:41) that? Speaker 5 (4:41) Please. Boy Meets World. Oh, right. Season three. Episode 18. Dances with Sweater. That is correct. Speaker 2 (4:49) Yes. I am dances. And thank you for immortalizing. Whenever I like hear. Boy Meets World, I always think of you going, dances? Like every single time. I brought you your dry cleaning. Dances? It was Speaker 5 (5:04) a good episode. Speaker 2 (5:05) It Speaker 5 (5:05) was a great episode. Do you remember being on the set? Oh, Speaker 2 (5:07) yeah. I remember. And Vader was there and he was telling me about his dislocated pinky and was like, how much do you weigh? Here, grab. And just lifted me up like that. I was like, Speaker 3 (5:16) oh, isn't that the best? Crazy. Speaker 2 (5:19) He was incredible. Yeah. Wait, weren't you in Balloon Farm too? That is correct. Which, by the way, I wanted to talk to you about that. I didn't mention something. And I think it is supposed to be a kid's take on The Rainmaker. Okay. Is really what they were going for. That makes perfect sense. I'm confused now. Is The Rainmaker the one? 110 in the Shade, the musical version of The Rainmaker. I Speaker 5 (5:43) went Speaker 2 (5:43) right to, what's the Grisham novel? Speaker 5 (5:45) It's also called The Rainmaker. Okay, probably not that one. The Rainmaker is a guy who comes to town and he tries to make it rain or whatever. It's like, is he lying or is he telling the truth? Okay. Maybe that's what it was. That's Speaker 3 (5:56) exactly right. Speaker 1 (5:57) Oh, all right. Okay, well, Adam, thank you so much for joining us. None of us were ever officially in a DCOM, so we appreciate you bringing this type of credibility to our show. I am Speaker 3 (6:09) happy to represent. We were all wonderful World of Disney. We're cousins, but it's not the same. Speaker 1 (6:14) Yes, we all. We're here now. Doesn't matter. Yeah, we're all on the same platform. We're good. How did you merge from the wonderful world of Hollywood? Yes. To magic? Speaker 2 (6:23) Well, that's a very interesting question and it has an interesting answer. Now, the short answer that I give everybody. is I needed time to kill on set, as we all do. But that's kind of not the actual story. The actual story is that I was doing a musical. I was doing Oliver when I was very little. Speaker 1 (6:43) I Speaker 2 (6:43) was about five years old. And this kid came up to me. and said, this guy, Mr. McIntosh, is showing everyone a puzzle, and you're never going to figure it out. And I was that precocious kid who was like, I'm going to be a performer my whole life. I'm going to figure out the puzzle because I'm smarter than no one. So I go up there, and he was doing the disappearing handkerchief. And I saw it, and I was like, what? Do it again. Okay, I'm going to figure it out. Do it again. After the fourth or fifth time, he goes, Adam. This is called magic. Yeah, it is designed I'm a professional magician at the Magic Castle and I am designing this is designed for you to not figure it out and I was like, oh I'm like my mind fell on the floor and He showed me the trick. He pulled me aside and she said this is how it works. Then gave it to me Went to a magic shop the next day because if you know anything about the prop it was not child-sized. Oh, I do know the prop. It was not, you could not, it was not. It Speaker 7 (7:43) was too Speaker 2 (7:43) obvious. It was too obvious, yes. Speaker 7 (7:44) Just a child. Speaker 2 (7:45) Yeah, just ring, ring, ring, ring. Yeah, it was like a bell on my thumb. So I went ahead and went to a magic shop and got one that was a junior size, which was still too big because I have been a very, very small person my entire life. And the rest is kind of history. But as my acting career took over, it was off and on. I really didn't learn sleight of hand until my later teens. I was doing a show in New York. I was doing Footloose. And I went to France afterwards for my first time ever at France. I went to Nice and all these amazing places in Paris. And I left every single magic trick I owned on that airplane at 17. And I thought. Well, magic is done for me because I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to rebuy all of those gimmicks. So goodbye, magic. It was fun while it lasted. About three years later, I did. There was a new trick that came out and it was a rising card with any borrowed deck. And I was like, that's cool because I don't need to. It's cheap and I can do with anybody's cards. That's for me. So I bought it and I did. a trick and they were like, do you know anything else? I was like, yeah. So I did two more things that I could remember from Mark Wilson, Mark Wilson's encyclopedia of magic. And they said, do you know anything else? And I said, no. And they said, you should really get back into this. And you know what? I said, yeah, I think I will. And I started accumulating knowledge. And so you were what, like 18 at this point? Yeah. Okay. About 18. No, I was about 20 actually. And at 21, I met my friend, uh, Vincent Rodriguez III. If you guys know him, he is Josh on My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and actor, singer, dancer, a whole bit. And so Vinny and I were doing Camelot in Boston and we did the same card flourish at the same time and he opened my eyes to what magic could do and how to further it without any gimmicks, without anything. Speaker 7 (9:44) And Speaker 2 (9:44) it blew my mind. And I have... been working towards becoming a professional ever since. A couple years later, I was doing Wicked at the Pantages. It was my golden birthday, and I thought, for my golden birthday, I'm going to join the Magic Castle. And I did, and two years later, I was performing there, and I was doing a musical for the owner of the Magic Castle at the same time. The rest is kind of history. Wow. Speaker 3 (10:06) When we did an episode of Boy Meets World where Eric has to shoot pool balls into, and it's like multiple balls in one shot. Oh, Speaker 2 (10:13) it Speaker 3 (10:13) was Chef Anton? And Chef Anton was my mentor there, and he came and taught me everything, and it was the coolest thing in the world. So he like set up the shot and did, oh, yeah, I actually took the shot. Absolutely. That's Speaker 1 (10:22) not Speaker 5 (10:22) really much of a trick. It was Speaker 3 (10:23) just like knowing Speaker 1 (10:24) how to do Speaker 7 (10:25) it. Speaker 1 (10:25) It's just not much of a magic trick. All Speaker 7 (10:28) magic Speaker 2 (10:29) is that. Right, right. Magic really is. the awe and wonder that you guys experience and me being able to be lucky enough to see your reactions. What we do, what I'm doing, what Chef Anton is doing is a conduit for that reaction, which is the magic. The magic trick, I'm doing the trick. We are all as a unit providing the magic. Does that make sense? Yeah. We Speaker 3 (10:52) looked him up again and we were like, is this a joke? It's him. He says he teaches. It's got to be a joke. He teaches underwater magic. Oh, no, that's not a Speaker 2 (11:01) joke. That's not a joke. They have waterproof cards. Like, I promise you. So he's doing scuba magic. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I promise you it's Speaker 1 (11:09) a Speaker 2 (11:09) thing. Speaker 1 (11:09) That's so cool. What would you say is the biggest difference between acting and magic? And what would you say makes them very similar? Speaker 2 (11:18) Okay, so I would say the biggest difference is the unscripted-ness of the whole thing. The improv is abundant. You have to really be on your toes. Things are going to go wrong. Period. No magic show is going to have a perfect run every single time. That's just not possible because we're all human. We're all going to make mistakes. But of course, like live theater, your job is to not show that. Your job is to remember that you know where you're going and your audience does not. Speaker 1 (11:47) Right. Speaker 2 (11:48) To lead them down a path of, oh, I meant to do that. Here's why. And sometimes that's on purpose. And sometimes. That is not. But you don't want your audience to be able to tell the difference. So mistake Speaker 3 (11:58) and Speaker 2 (11:59) misdirection are two very different things. Or the same. Or Speaker 3 (12:01) the Speaker 2 (12:01) same. And how it's very similar is at the end of the day, it's just performing. Speaker 7 (12:06) You Speaker 2 (12:06) cannot do it alone. It's for an audience. You have to read your audience. You have to know how to play what you are doing. You have to be able to listen. You have to be able to read what's coming at you in order to understand what's coming back. And you have to be self-aware. There are times where I admittedly have not been self-aware. And, you know, I have an amazing wife who keeps me grounded and who goes, hey, you need to check that. And I go, okay, you're right. All right. I didn't realize I was doing that. And then, you know. Speaker 3 (12:34) Ken, is there, is it one of those things where it's like you can't learn magic past a certain age? I mean, now that I'm 50, could I pick up magic now and by 55 be decent at it? By 51, Speaker 2 (12:46) you'd be able to join the castle. No, by, I would say, what is it now? Okay, I would say in the next five months. If you and I worked once a week, I could get you absolutely in the next five months to be a Magic Castle member. If you give me five or six months past that, I could get you probably good enough to submit to the close-up room. No. 100%. Once or twice a week. I'm going to take you up on that. Okay. Speaker 3 (13:10) Really? 100%. 100%. I want to Speaker 2 (13:12) try. Let's do it. So within a year. Within a year. By the time you're 51, we can do that. Speaker 5 (13:16) Here's the thing. I think that like, yeah, I mean, I think. what you would bring, which I'm sure you brought too, is what I think is probably the most ineffable thing, which is performing. The ability to talk, the ability to like. entertain an audience that might not be as teachable. You know, the tricks I imagine are somewhat teachable because that's usually a logic thing or a sleight of hand thing. And once you learn that, yeah. That was Speaker 2 (13:39) absolutely nailed. If you're an amazing performer, you're going to be an amazing magician. You don't need like Speaker 7 (13:43) certain size hands or any of that kind. I have very tiny hands smell like cabbage. Speaker 2 (13:48) I am, I'm not built for card magic and yet card magic is like my main source. Okay. It's crazy. We've talked Speaker 1 (13:57) quite a bit about the Magic Castle, but there are a lot of dear listeners and viewers who don't know a ton about the Magic Castle. You have performed all over the country quite a bit at the Magic Castle. For anyone listening or watching who doesn't know anything about the Magic Castle, what could you tell them? Speaker 2 (14:14) So it is described, the Magic Castle, as the Mecca of Magic. Okay. What that means is magicians from all over the world do flock to try to perform here, Speaker 7 (14:24) which Speaker 2 (14:25) is incredible. It's amazing. It is the world's biggest, most private club for magicians and magic lovers on the planet. So basically, magicians from around the world perform in different rooms. Each room is a different size with a different style. of magic. There are many styles of magic. There's close-up magic. There's parlor magic, which is like magic in your living room, a little more distance. There's stage magic, which is big illusions, grand illusions, sawing the person in half, making the tigers, lions, bears, or my appear or disappear, all of those things. And there is bar magic, which is a mixture of kind of like a... Strolling magic, which I'll get into, and a close-up magic. There is strolling magic, and that is doing small bits of magic like at a wedding reception, at an event, where you go up to different groups of people and you kind of move on. And then there's like the comedy magicians, which is mostly a comedy act with some magic thrown in. And then there are mentalists, and mentalists are mind readers. I knew you were going to say that. You're good. Maybe you should be a mentalist. I knew Speaker 3 (15:28) you were going to say that too. I also know exactly what Danielle's thinking and that's not true. Speaker 2 (15:33) So very incredible. So it's deceptively big, but it's a private club. So you do need to know a magician to give you either a guest pass or walk in with a magician or be on a magician's guest list. But it is. And Speaker 3 (15:45) you also have Speaker 2 (15:45) to Speaker 5 (15:45) be well-dressed. Speaker 3 (15:46) You also have to be well-dressed. There is a dress code. That there's a dress code. Speaker 2 (15:49) Yes, there is a dress code. Speaker 3 (15:51) I've only been once. Soon to be twice. Soon to be twice. But the entire experience is, it's this great combination of being old school magic and old school Hollywood. It's really cool. The combination of the things of getting dressed up and everything when you walk in, it's just, it's a... It's Speaker 5 (16:09) just Speaker 3 (16:09) too late. It's Speaker 5 (16:10) ridiculous Speaker 3 (16:10) to say, but it's a magical place. It really is. Speaker 2 (16:12) It's too late? It's too late. At night? Yes. Well, it opens at 5 p.m. That's Speaker 1 (16:16) what Speaker 2 (16:16) I need. That's Speaker 1 (16:17) what I need. Speaker 2 (16:18) Most people leave by 9 or 10 anyway. You Speaker 7 (16:20) can do the Speaker 2 (16:20) early bird special magic. Speaker 5 (16:22) I Speaker 2 (16:22) mean, I understand the last show is Speaker 7 (16:25) like... Speaker 5 (16:26) Fruity, Speaker 7 (16:26) fruity, Speaker 5 (16:26) magic special. That's what I need. I think the Speaker 2 (16:27) last show is at like 12.45 a.m. Speaker 3 (16:30) Like, it goes late. So that would be the biggest magic performed all night? is if Danielle stayed that long, because you would literally go, now that was amazing. Speaker 1 (16:39) Now that was incredible. If that's not here, it's one o'clock Speaker 3 (16:43) in the morning. Speaker 1 (16:44) That's incredible. Speaker 2 (16:44) Yeah. Well, I mean, hey, you