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Mischief Makers Episode 34: Magic Goes Wrong

Dave Hearn: Hello and welcome to another episode of Mischief Makers, with me, Dave Hearn. Today I will be talking to Magic Goes Wrong superstars, Louise, is it Beresford?
Louise Beresford: Beresford.
DH: Beresford.
LB: That's the one.
DH: [laughs] And Shane David Joseph. Double barrel.
Shane David Joseph: Double barrel!
DH: Hello, team. Say hello for us.
LB: Hello!
SDJ: Hello everyone!
DH: So we've got some exciting news. Louise, you are...this is live. This is hot off the press…
LB: Hot off the press! Also, I have also just found out this.
DH: Tell us what you've just found out.
LB: So we found out that [she laughs] apparently two members of the cast off today suddenly, and I have to go on as Madame Escapade. I normally play Peg and Madame's Escapade is my mother. So not only am I playing a different part, but I'm playing the other part in my scenes. So who knows what line is going to come out! Talk about going wrong! Let's see what happens!
DH: I'm looking forward to it immensely. And I'm seeing the show tonight as well for the first time.
LB: Oh no!
DH: So what I'm loving about this, is that a lot of the people are going to hear this, and all of this will have already happened.
LB: I know.
DH: So you're already going to have been fantastic.
LB: Oh stop it! Thank you.
DH: I'm already going to love the show and people will be listening to this feeling like this is irrelevant information now. But right now, very exciting.
LB: But this is very exciting right now. Exciting is the word for it. Sure.
DH: How are you feeling?
LB: Um, I'm feeling nervous. I think I've done all of about one rehearsal of it all the way through.
DH: Wow. And that's a full one rehearsal.
LB: Yeah, yeah, yeah! I've done one of the scenes twice, but I am in the scenes with Madame Escapade during the show.
DH: Sure.
LB: So I do watch her do it every night. So who knows what words are going to come out of my mouth?
DH: Well, thank you very much for being here.
LB: Thank you!
DH: But we are going to lose you in 15 minutes that's what we're going to do.
LB: I'm going to rush off early to go over those lines.
SDJ: And who's playing your part?
LB: Steph.
SDJ: Steph is playing your part.
LB: It's going to be really great.
DH: Shane, who's going to be playing your part?
SDJ: I hope me! I hope I will.
DH: Fantastic.
LB: Who knows?
DH: I will be playing the part of vibrant audience member.
LB: Yes!
DH: Such things as "great, great stuff, guys".
SDJ: Yes!
LB: Positive heckling!
DH: That would actually be quite annoying for you wouldn't it? If you came out, and you were just like hello and welcome, and I was like, great stuff, Shane!
[they all laugh]
LB: I'd better get a whoop when I come out by the way. I want a whoop.
DH: Ok, let's rehearse that.
LB: Ok, ready?
DH: So I'll give you three versions.
LB: [towards Shane] You do the introduction by the way.
SDJ: Please welcome Madame Escapade and Peg!
DH: [seriously] Whoop! Were you happy with version one?
LB: Let's do it again.
DH: Ok. Do you have any notes from version one?
LB: I want more energy. I want to feel it. That was just like, I just told you to say whoop. I want to believe that you want to say whoop.
DH: Very good, ok.
SDJ: Was what I did alright?
LB: Perfect.
SDJ: Please welcome Madam Escapade and Peg!
DH: [more energetically] Whoop!
LB: That sounded sarcastic.
DH: That was a bit sarcy wasn't it, you weren't wrong.
[they all laugh]
DH: So third version. Third times a charm.
LB: This is the one. This is the one, ok?
DH: Ok.
SDJ: Please welcome Madam Escapade and Peg!
DH: [loudly and enthusiastically] WHOOP!
LB: Ok, yes that will do. I'll take that, actually. The pop at the end is really nice because it makes you different from everybody else, and so I'll know it was you.
DH: Exactly. I've got a strong plosive.
LB: I want the plosive P.
DH: We were doing this on the other one, weren't we? We were doing plosive business because we've got these mic guards. So me, Nancy Zamit and Henry Lewis were doing a sort of symphony of Ps!
[they all start making popping P sounds]
DH: This is all great stuff. This is strong, strong content.
[they all laugh]
DH: I'm having a wonderful time. So we've now got you for 13 minutes.
LB: Great!
DH: That's two minutes well spent. OK, so this first section is called Getting To Know You. So Louise and Shane, we're going to get to know you, but we're going to probably get to know you a bit more, Louise, for now because you've got to go. So sometimes I ask guests to improvise a little jingle because I don't have any tech.
LB: Yeah.
DH: Well, that's a lie because I'm in a studio and have lots of tech. But I'm not using any tech, so do you want to try and improvise this at the same time?
LB: Getting to know you is the jingle?
DH: Yeah
LB: Ok, ready and...
LB and SDJ: [talking over each other] Do you want to see me the way I am?
[they all laugh]
DH: Do you want to see me, the way I am?
LB: Is that what we're going with?
SDJ: Yeah, it's quite deep!
DH: Yeah! So is that the question you're posing to our audience? Do you actually want to see me the way I am?
SDJ: Yeah, it's the truth.
DH: Wow, and they can't answer. So I'm going to answer for them.
LB: I'm going to go with it. I kind of regret doing it with you but...
SDJ: But hey, I went with it.
LB: We're here, here we are.
DH: We're going to learn. Ok. So first of all, tell us a bit about how you guys came to join Mischief.
SDJ: Great. Well, I got called up to audition for Sophisticato. And so I got the script and I read the script, and I was very much like, I get this, I get this character.
DH: Nice, ok. And we are getting to know you because that says a lot about you.
SDJ: Yeah. A bit more about me, when I was in year five...
LB: Wow, we really went far back didn't we!
DH: I love this, scorching hot into the past!
SDJ: My primary school was doing a talent competition, and I had a marvellous magic box.
DH: Sick.
SDJ: And I was like, I'm going to do some magic. I told my great grandfather - Strong Man we called him - and he said, you should watch this guy called Tommy Cooper.
DH: Nice! Good reference!
SDJ: And I thought that was brilliant. I watched a lot of Tommy Cooper, and he inspired me to be this kind of magic comedic guy.
DH: Nice.
SDJ: End of the story, I won the talent competition as a comedian magician in year five.
DH: Wow.
LB: Is that on your Spotlight? I hope so!
SDJ: It's not, and it should be.
DH: What tricks did you do?
SDJ: I did a great trick with these two mini buckets. You ask an audience member - I got Mr. Assante up - to put a dice in it.
DH: Nice. Easily duped, Mr. Assante. Very pliable.
SDJ: Yeah, and he doesn't know what's going to happen.
DH: What did he teach?
SDJ: Maths. Although it was in year five, so he taught everything. But he taught me maths. Great teacher. Wherever you are, sir, you were great. I got him to put the dice in, and whatever numbers are on the top, he had to remember it. Then I put the lid on, and I said to him, can you see the dice from the top? No. The bottom? No. The sides? No.
DH: Sorry. Can I just ask, how big the bucket is? Because the mime you're doing in the room is like the size of a Brazil nut?
SDJ: Yeah, it's more like the size of a dice.
LB: What, the bucket is?
SDJ: Yeah, yeah.
LB: Is it technically a bucket though?
SDJ: It's a little bucket.
LB: It's a thimble.
SDJ: It's a mini bucket. It's the size of a thimble that has a lid on it.
DH: We're really pulling this trick apart now.
[they all laugh]
SDJ: It's a good trick. I basically can't see the dice, but then I know where the dice is and what the numbers are.
DH: Of course.
SDJ: And then I got Mr Assante to put it on his head, and say these magical weird words and made him look really silly on stage infront of my friends. And then I told him what the number was, and he was like, wow! So that was one trick.
DH: That was really impressive. I imagine that moved you up through the social eschalot.
SDJ: Yeah. Oh yeah.
DJ: Really mocking the maths teacher.
SDJ: Yeah. But still got along, still did my studies.DH: Good man, ok!
SDJ: So yeah, so fast forward to today. I had this kind of dream to be some sort of magician, to be some sort of performer. And I kind of had that from quite a young age. So the role kind of sat with me quite nicely, I would say.
DH: Nice!
SDJ: Yeah. And then to go back to your original question, that's how I joined and got to be part of Mischief.
DH: Did you tell that story in the audition?
SDJ: I didn't tell it until like the third round when I met Ben Hart.
DH: Ben Hart, magic consultant and of Britain's Got Talent fame.
LB: Yeah, yeah.
SDJ:Yeah. And I told him that I did a lot of magic when I was a kid. The year before, I actually did a Penn and Teller masterclass.
DH: Oh, nice!
LB: Did you!?
DH: Online?
SDJ: Yeah, online. I was bored in lockdown.
LB: Oh, I didn't know that!
DH: Have you met them yet? I suppose they've not been over have they?
LB and SDJ: No.
LB: They sent stuff. They sent some flowers.
DH: They're quite a formidable team, and they're really, really lovely. Penn is exactly what you think he's going to be like.
LB: Really?
DH: Yeah, he's exactly the same as he is on TV. He's hysterical and he has so many amazing stories. He's just great. I saw their show in Vegas, and it was brilliant, it was so much fun. I got a little shout out too.
LB: Did you?
DH: Yeah, he was doing a trick and he was just like, can you see this card? Yeah, do you see this card? Dave! and I was like, Oh, yes, yes? And then he asked me to pick a card.
LB: You sure it was definitely you?
SDJ: And not a random Dave?
DH: It could be anyone. But then he knew where I was sat. I got special seats, actually.LB and SDJ: Ooooooh!
DH: Yeah, special seats for Dave! But now you're getting to know me, and that's not what this is about, so.
[LB and SDJ laugh]
DH: So Louise, Lou, Louise, let's talk about you. So tell us how you came to join Mischief.
LB: Well, well, well! Mine was a very quick turnaround, because Peg and Madame Escapade are brand new characters to the show.
DH: Oh yes.
LB: They were not in the original, and that was one of those things, I think. You guys, have I got the timing right, that it was rehearsing and then lockdown. And then, I think something like that, it was one version and then during lockdown, I think they decided.
DH: We did some rewrites.
LB: Yeah you also did some rewrites. And lo and behold, Peg and Madame Escapade were brought in. And so literally I auditioned when they started the first week of rehearsals, it was in that week, the auditions started.
DH: Nice.
LB: It was such a quick turnaround.
DH: That is fast!
LB: To the point where, when I found out I got the part, my agent got the call and they said, we want to offer it to Louise, and my agent was like, great! They were like, could she come in today for rehearsals? [LB laughs]
DH: Nice! So were you doing anything? What were you doing on that day?
LB: What was I doing on the day...What, when I got the part?
DH: Yeah, yeah.
LB: I was writing! Because I write as well.
DH: Nice.
LB: So I was actually writing. So, yeah, not that exciting. But uh, yeah, it was great.
DH: I think that's very exciting. We're going to get into that. But tell us more about your first day.
LB: Thank you. My first day was great. I sort of walked in, and it was literally the Friday at the end of the week. I sort of wandered in and you guys were doing the dove scene.
SDJ: Yeah! We were like, we have a Peg! Yes!
LB: Everyone looked to me like, hello? And I was like, Hi, my name's Lou, I'm playing Peg and the relief on everyone's face like, Oh, finally, a Peg is here! Yes. Hello. Hi
DH: Did you feel like there was a lot of pressure on you for that?

SDJ: At the endish? No, you just tell me things at the end.
LB: Oh my God, what are those lines, I don't know!
SDJ: We'll run those later, it's fine.
LB: We'll run them later. I'll try and do the first line. I have bound my daughter, Peg, in a straightjacket and locked her in this three ton, iron safe. She will now escape! and then she doesn't.
SDJ: Whoop! That's incredible!
DH: Very nice!
SDJ: I can't wait for tonight.
LB: I know! We really need to go over those lines.
SDJ: Yeah.
LB: It's the little ones I'm worried about actually. The bigger monologues are in my head, and then it's the little ones where I'm like, I say something here?! Yeah, ok!
SDJ: You're going to be great.
DH: It's so exciting. And you're going to be doing tricks I've never seen. I've only I've only ever read them on paper.
LB: Oh yes! I've also done one of the tricks only once, so we're going to see how that goes.
DH: Nice! It's going to be fun.
SDJ: Yeah, we don't want to spoil too much.
LB: No, no, no, not at all.
DH: No. Well, I've read the script a few times, so I sort of know what's coming, but I'm always surprised by magic because I'm so easily fooled. Lou, I don't wanna hold you up now.
LB: Dave's putting his foot down.
DH: I'm putting my foot down. I also have a vested interest in the show, I'm a shareholder, so get the hell out of my recording studio!
[SDJ laughs]
LB: I know, I'm so sorry. You're technically one of my employers so I must leave.
DH: Yes, get out of here, please.
LB: Thank you for having me, it's been really nice.
DH: No, thank you very much!
SDJ: Good luck, Lou!
LB: Don't mess it up Shane. I've carried you this far. Ok, you're on your own now.
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ I'm ready. We'll run those lines later.DH: Now there's going to be some hard-hitting journalism for you, mate.
SDJ: Yes! I can't wait. I'm going deep.
LB: Holy Moly.
DH: Actually, we're just going to leave a little silence. We're going to leave silence while you exit the room.
LB: No! Stop!
DH: She's putting her scarf on...
LB: Ok, bye guys!
DH: Did you have a bag or anything?
LB: No, nothing. I've already been to the theatre and dropped it off.
DH: Oh, lovely. You've brought nothing, but you've brought so much at the same time. So good luck tonight mate, and I'll see you out there on stage. Listen out for my whoop!
LB: Bye!
DH: Take care, mate.
SDJ: See you soon, Lou. Wow!
DH: So that was fun, we've never had someone exit halfway through an interview!
SDJ: This is incredible! I'm so excited for tonight!
DH: It's going to be fun.
SDJ: What's going to happen?
DH: So we've got to know about your experience of magic.
SDJ: Yeah.
DH: So we were talking earlier, you're currently 23 years old.
SDJ: I'm currently 23, and growing yeah.
DH: And you will be 24 next year presumably? And then 25 the year after.
SDJ: I hope so!
[DH laughs]
DH: So you're currently 23. And you went to Bristol Old Vic?
SDJ: Yeah, I trained at Bristol Old Vic.
DH: Nice! When did you graduate?
SDJ: In 2019.DH: Holy shit. So, how much work have you done? That's a bad year to graduate, isn't it?
SDJ: Well, no, because it was before COVID. So I came out and straight from there, I did a show at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre doing a Christmas Carol. I was Freddie, Scrooge's nephew. Is he called Freddie? We called him Freddie.
DH: He's Freddie.
SDJ: Yeah, we called him Freddie.
DH: I thought you were going to say Freddy Krueger for some reason! I was about to say, what show was this!?
[SDJ laughs]
DH: So is this your first West End gig?
SDJ: Yeah, my West End debut.
DH Nice! How are you feeling about that?
SDJ: I love it.
DH:Has the effect worn off a little bit now? Are you kind of settling in a bit more?
SDJ: Um, yeah. I mean, I'm quite a chill, calm person. So even through rehearsal, I don't think anyone knew my age until like week three and they were like, what!
DH: Who's this guy? Who's this 42 year old?!
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ: Yeah. So I'm quite calm and collected anyway. So it's been quite cool.
DH: You kind of need to be in that show, I think, it's quite frantic. And Sophisticato is a weird track because it's quite lonely, I think, isn't it?
SDJ: It is. I remember doing tech rehearsal, I was like, oh, I don't actually see anyone during this show. I do my bit, I come off while everyone else is doing their bit.
DH: You introduce all the bits.
SDJ: Yeah, So I don't see anyone. But now I've found my moments where I can have my chat and my tea breaks, which is nice.
DH: What kind of tea you having?
SDJ: I love green tea, green lemon. Actually, if I'm really, really treating myself, jasmine green with a ginger nut biscuit. Oh, I love a ginger nut biscuit.
DH: Tell you what I really like is a gingersnap biscuit dipped into a ginger tea. It's nuts, man.
SDJ: Wow. Double ginger!
DH: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it's like triple..no...
SDJ: Triple ginger! Where you getting the triple?!DH: Fresh ginger in there, chomping on a root of fresh ginger.
[DH and SDJ laugh]
SDJ: Amazing.
DH: So you've come out of drama school, you've done Christmas Carol, COVID is kind of on its way, lockdown is happening.
SDJ: COVID hit the year after. I was auditioning and the year after COVID hit and then everything just went quiet. Silence.
DH: Wow. How did that feel? Was that quite scary?
SDJ: Scary, but then it was also that thing of, I completely understood every single other person in the world was going through it. So I was like, well, what can we do? Try and enjoy life, read. I actually started writing as well, so I've been writing with my writing partner and moving as well.
DH: What kind of stuff are you writing?
SDJ: We're actually writing a TV series, and it's called Everybody's Favourite Party People. It's about our old part-time job as children's party entertainers.
DH: Oh, wow, ok.
SDJ: It's basically about two children's party entertainers that get roped into spying on criminals.
DH: I'm loving this!
SDJ: So you've got this cuteness and fun of the kids and parties and pirate partie, versus the gore and the backstabbing in the house as parties are going on. So we're working on that, and we've got some producers involved now so that's really kicking off, which is really good fun.
DH: That's really exciting. Is it a comedy?
SDJ: Yeah, Comedy drama.
DH: Ok, great. Do you find that you've been more towards not just in the writing, but in performing and auditioning, more towards comedy? Or did you just sort of end up in Mischief?
SDJ: I think from a young age, I've always steered towards comedy. I remember vaguely like my my GCSE drama teacher saying, Shane, you need to do some serious stuff now. But I was just having a good time just fooling over, do you know what I mean? So comedy's kind of come to me quite naturally. Even at Bristol Old Vic, my artistic director used to call me Funnybones Babs, "oh he's got funny bones babs!"
DH: Are you Babs?
SDJ: She calls everyone babs.
DH: Oh! I thought it was like a barber in the room consistently!
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ Yeah, he's got funny bones babs hasn't he!

DH: Oh, so Babs doesn't do anything.
SDJ: No, it's not like an imaginary friend, Babs.
DH: I do think you have funny bones.
SDJ: Oh, thank you.
DH: You've made me laugh a lot already.
SDJ: Oh, brilliant.
DH: I said that in quite an angry way.
[SDJ laughs]
DH: How dare you make me laugh on my own podcast!
[SDJ laughs]
DH: So you then end up in the West End. It is an ensemble piece, but Sophisticato kind of quarterbacks the whole thing.
SDJ: Yeah.
DH: Does that feel like a lot of weight on you? Or does it feel like it's shared amongst everyone?
SDJ: The way I see it, I feel it's shared. I mean, as the character, I think Sophisticato does put a lot on himself and needs to make this good. However, there's a part of me that feels like he's done this kind of greatest showman thing, and he's brought on these characters to bear this weight. Like, you'll do the psychic stuff, you'll do the escape stuff and together we'll make this great show. So it's not all on him, however, when something bad happens, it's like, oh no, this is affecting the money we're raising.
DH: I see, yeah yeah.
SDJ: So, every night now I'm going in as I'm here to make some money for this charity, that's my aim.
DH: It informs the character.
SDJ: Yeah. Instead of it being, this is looking bad on me, it's we're not going to make any money with this.
DH: But do you find that pressure transfers to you as Shane? Like, if something goes wrong, do you feel that you've got to go out and fix it? Like you're the point man for the show?
SDJ: I think there's a blurred line sometimes. Like a oh no, I need to catch that. Naturally, bits of me come into the show to cover up or say, everything's fine, we're going to move on, don't worry everyone, there's a bear in here, but do not worry.
[DH laughs]
SDJ: So bits of me trickle in, but not I wouldn't say completely to a point of I'm traumatised. Shane is traumatised.
DH: Yeah, I would hope not. I wouldn't want to discover that here either!
SDJ: I hope not!DH: I promised hard-hitting journalism. Because we've got some Questions From The Web coming up.
SDJ: Oh, fantastic.
DH: So yeah, you've had some experience of magic before, as we found out. Tell us a bit about some of your... I suppose this is quite a hard question because you can't reveal too much... but some of your favourite parts of the run so far. It doesn't necessarily be even in the show, like stuff that's happened like press night or opening night or whatever it might be.
SDJ: Favourite parts? I mean, first of all, just rehearsing the show. I've just enjoyed that whole process.
DH: Quite a strange experience,
SDJ: Strange. I think what I've quite enjoyed, which some people may not enjoy, is the fact that you as Mischief are always trying to tweak and change, make something better. Why isn't this getting a laugh here? How can we make this tighter? And that's meant through previews, even till like last week, there's been slight changes and that's kept me on my toes, and that's actually kept the show fresher, I would say. It's been harder to get into a pattern of performing this, and it's made it a bit more exciting. It's even made my brain think, how can I make this better? Do you know what I mean?
DH: Yeah, because I think we always want to cultivate an environment of everyone engaging with the ideas. I remember when we did Comedy About A Bank Robbery, we had a friend of ours from front of house, had an idea for a joke. It was a really strange thing because, I've been chatting to him in the green room and he was like, I've got an idea for a joke, I shouldn't, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I was just like, What? He was just like, I've got this joke, and then he said it to me and it was really funny. And we tried it out and it worked pretty well. And it's that weird thing of going, you don't wanna impose yourself on someone else's work, but I think with us, it's like, yeah, let's hear your shit ideas, let's see what they are. If they're shit, we won't keep them, and if they're great, which they probably are, we'll use it and 100% steal it.SDJ: And that openness to just try something new, and I've felt that throughout the whole process. My voice will be heard, and Henry and Nancy are there as well to spearhead and say let's try that, let's do it, let's see what happens. And then, as you say, if it doesn't work, we move on.DH: Because it's scary, right? You're in a room full of people you don't know, the writers are there, Nancy is there as well, as like an old guard of Mischief, the founding member. And you know, you've got an idea, you've got a thing that you might want to try out, that probably feels quite like a big step to say something in that room.SDJ: Yeah, I think outside of it, yeah, I guess I felt possibly it's a big step. But because everyone made us feel so welcome and so like, this is OUR show, it became that quite quickly. I feel everyone felt like we're owning our characters quite early on, so the freedom in the room has been really, really, really great.DH: That's really good. I think for a comedy as well, it has to be that. SDJ: Exactly.DH: Otherwise everyone gets a bit like, oh, is this funny? Did you get that horrible thing in..I'm going to guess week three, where everything stops being funny?SDJ: Yeah, yeah, week three where we've all seen it before, no one's getting a laugh. But Henry and Nancy gave us a nice speech of saying how this happens every week three, which you guys have experienced, and how they appreciate us sticking to our guns and sticking to what we rehearsed.DH: Yeah, you got to, and it's actually hard. It's one of the things that we found really hard as a company, having that level of autonomy over your own work, to then be able to change things. So you get into week three, and you have a director being like, please don't change it because it's funny, it works just trust me, and you're kind of having to stick to that. And that can be quite scary, as once I imagine as soon as you did your opening night, you're like, oh this works, this is fine, right?SDJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DH: All the stuff that doesn't work becomes really obvious.
SDJ: Yeah.
DH: And you become like, ok yeah, we could cut that.
SDJ: Or remover that, or shift that, yeah.
DH: Shane, shall get some questions from the web?
SDJ: Yeah, get the web involved.
DH: Do you want to do a jingle?
SDJ: A jingle for the web?
DH: Yeah. So the sections is called, Questions From The Web.
SDJ: Great.
DH: When you're ready...
SDJ: Boo, boo, boo, we're at the website, questionnaire.
DH: We're at the website questionnaire! That was nice, that was good. I enjoyed the slightly panicked beginning and then you really settled. That was really good.
SDJ: That was my version of electronic buttons.
DH: Oh, I see.SDJ: Boop boop boop boop! There you go.
DH: Nice! And what was the first thing that you said, with the other one? Do you really want to get to know me?
SDJ: The way I am.
[DH and SDJ laugh]
DH: Yes, I think we did know the way you are. Ok, so this question is from Alice. Alice. I said that bad, take two. Here we go. This question is from Alice G.
SDJ: Let's use take two.
DH: If you had to pick one costume from the show to wear in your daily life, which one would it be? I know you wear the same costume throughout, but anyone's costume.
SDJ: Anyone's costume? I mean, I love my costume.
DH: It's pretty sick isn't it.
SDJ: My costume is suave. Pattern of the hat, the material, and it's just great.
DH: Would you wear that like out?
SDJ: To the club? Probably not.
DH: To the club.
SDJ: Up in the club. Probably not.
DH: Which club are you going to?
SDJ: I don't know, any club. Any club that will have me with a rum and coke.
DH: Rum and coke is your weapon of choice?
SDJ: That is my weapon.
DH: Nice. What about, if we're going to Fabric.
SDJ: Fabric?
DH: Yeah. Ministry of Sound, one of those big kind of clubs.
SDJ: The costume I'd take, I'd go straight to Lou's sparkly costume, with the wig and glasses.
DH: Nice. Ok, so where are you wearing this? We talking like the Ritz or something, maybe?
SDJ: Sophisticato is going to the Ritz. Apparently we're going to The Ivy tonight to try that out. I've never been there.
DH: You've never been to The Ivy?
SDJ: Never been to The Ivy.
DH: It's really fun. Well, it's kind of just like a restaurant with no windows. It's lovely, very quiet and moody. Sometimes there are famous people there.SDJ: Apparently there's a piano there.
DH: Yeah, lovely. Can you play the piano?
SDJ: I can play a tune. I can play a bit of guitar.
DH: Nice. But not on the piano. You can play guitar. Can you play the piano? Yeah, I can play the guitar.
[DH and SDJ laugh]
SDJ: Yeah, I can play a tune on the piano, and a tune on the guitar? That was my lockdown project, playing the guitar.
DH: Oh, nice. Well done, by the way!
SDJ: Thank you.
DH: Do you speak other languages?
SDJ: No, no. Just English and a bit of GCSE French.
DH: Nice. I don't speak any..oh no... pamplemousse. What's a pamplemousse?
SDJ: Pamplemousse?
DH: Is that a grapefruit? Sounds right, and people are nodding in the room. Poubelle, that's French for bin, right?
SDJ: Oui.
DH: Oui
SDJ: D'accord.
DH: La piscine.
SDJ: la piscine? That's swimming pool.
DH: Comment t'appelles-tu? What does that mean?
SDJ: Comment t'appelles-tu? No, I don't know.
DH: Comment t'appelles-tu, isn't that like, what's your name?
SDJ: Yeah.
DH: People are nodding in the room.
SDJ: J'habite dans the village...oh..I can't speak French!
DH: What were you trying to say? This is hard-hitting journalism. I've caught you out.
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ: J'habite dans un village. I can't even remember it now.
DH: Does that mean, I live in the village?SDJ: Yeah, called Hayes, I was going to say called Hayes. But I can't even say that, so it's just pathetic French really?
DH: I admire your optimism.
SDJ: Thank you.
[DH and SDJ laugh]
DH: OK, so this next question? Oh, no, one more, actually. I'm excited because I'm still on the costume thing. You have to pick another one other than your own.
SDJ: I think the sparklyness of Peg's I'd wear, and I'd probably wear it to Notting Hill Carnival because it's got the red, the yellow, the greens. I'd be rockin it and it would be great.
DH: You'd be having a great time. Okay, so this next question is from Lauren Cocrum. How did it feel coming into an established show? Did you feel the expectation, and if so, how did you deal with it? That is hard-hitting journalism.
SDJ: Hard-hitting! To be honest, no I didn't feel the expectation.
DH: Great.
SDJ: I didn't see the show last time.
DH: Absolute smackdown on Lauren's question.
SDJ: I just read it, and I just saw my own interpretation until someone told me no, stop interpreting it your way.
DH: Here's Henry Shields, copy what he does.
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ: Yeah, which no one has ever said. So I was just given free rein to do my thing. No one ever said that's not the angle we wanted to go with, so I was quite happy that my initial idea, and what I've developed now, has worked for the part and people are seeming to enjoy it.
DH: I was going to say, between you and me Shane, but actually between you, me and the other two people in this room and everyone listening, I've heard very good things about your performance.
SDJ: Oh, thank you!
DH: I haven't seen it, so I'm going to reserve judgement because I'm a hard-hitting journalist.
SDJ: Yeah, you are.
DH: I'm going to say, I think it's going to be fantastic. But don't you dare relax all right, because I'm going to be in there, screaming hard-hitting questions. Tell us about your past!
[SDJ laughs]
DH: So along with that WHOOP! it's going to be the most sinister, sarcastic, cynical whoop you've ever heard. It’s going to be like, whoop.
SDJ: Whoop.DH: Yeah, well done Lou. I can't believe she ran off! No, good for her. Good for her because this is exciting. So, yeah, you would go for, I completely lost my train of thought.
SDJ: Yeah, you were going to go back to the costumes. We finished that.
DH: No, we've finished the costumes and then we, oh yeah, you didn't feel the pressure of coming in and that expectation. That's great, and I think that's a real testament to you as well, because we were saying before, I feel like I've got to an age where I'm allowed to patronise young people. And so I think because you are young, and you are coming to it as your first job, I think that's amazing that you've just come in and been like, okay, great, I'm going to do my thing. And you're probably nervous on opening night and that kind of stuff, everyone is, but I think that's really cool that you've just come in and made it your own. I love that your description of it is, I made it my own and no one's told me not to so that's going to keep going. Basically that's my whole career, I'm doing this thing until someone tells me not to, and then I have to do loads of ADR on the TV show because the directors like, you did so much weird stuff and we have to cut it all. But then that's on you man, you didn't tell me not to.
SDJ: That's your fault, not mine.
DH: Yeah, exactly. Let's get another questions. Oh, another great name, this question is from Danny Savage.
SDJ: Danny Savage.
DH: Danny Savage is like, Luke Vicious.
SDJ: Yeah, yeah. He's not vicious, he's Luke Vicious.
DH: Luke Vicious, like lukewarm, Luke Vicious. Magnolia Tepid. No, now I'm just saying different names that are nothing to do with anything. Lucian Brutal these are good names!
SDJ: Nice name!
DH: Danny Savage, you have inspired us. Ok, Danny Savage asks, it's a long one and it has brackets. So I'm going to say open parentheses.
SDJ: Lovely. Should I write this down?
DH: No, no. Actually, do we have a pen? No. The screen is just here, so I could just turn the computer around.
SDJ: That would be helpful.
DH: So Danny Savage says, tell us a bit more about the actual magic tricks, opening parentheses, not revealing how, closed parentheses, in the show.
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ: Wow.
DH: It's not finished yet, either. Sorry, I've just made that very complicated. Were they hard to learn? Do they ever go wrong? Sorry, that's an exclamation mark with a question mark. Do they ever go wrong? and saw the show a couple of weeks ago, it was great. Now there's a hyphen before it was great, so what I got taught at drama school is that denotes a thought crashing into another thought.

SDJ: Wow. We're learning stuff on this podcast.
DH: Yeah. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to read this with the punctuation that Danny Savage has provided. Okay? Tell us a bit more about the actual magic tricks, not revealing how, in the show. Were they hard to learn? Do they ever go wrong? Saw the show a couple of weeks ago it was great.
SDJ: Fantastic.
DH: Thank you.
SDJ: Danny Savage, well
DH: Did you actually hear the question, because I put a lot of fluff around it.
SDJ: You've added a lot of things. I don't know if I'm going to answer Danny's question anymore, or your question.
DH: Yeah, I've made it about me again. It was more of a performance piece, but you get it, you heard the question.
SDJ: Yeah. To answer your question Danny, basically all these tricks start from a very basic idea or basic version of the trick. I think you could look into any magic book or whatever and learn basic skills, whether it be some sleight of hand or something, and it's been put onto a wider scale. That's how I would describe a lot of the tricks.
DH: OK, yeah. So the elements of it are quite simple.
SDJ: Very simple, but just done to a bigger degree with the use of misdirection. It's a simple idea made into a bigger format, I would say. It's hard to say without revealing any specifics.
DH: Or revealing the trick?
SDJ: Yeah, and I don't want to reveal anything.
DH: So, the dove act, for example, is like a traditional dove act but with a goes wrong element to it. It's what you would recognise as a traditional dove act, so that's why we know that it's funny because it's on a huge scale where lots of things go wrong.
SDJ: So yeah, Sophisticato does this trick in honour of his father. He is making all of his father's doves appear from absolutely everywhere and from different props, like popping out of a balloon or stuff like that. However, it all goes very, very wrong and you just watch Sophisticato suffer more and more. They're hidden in intricate places, and then they're revealed, like..
DH: That's quite seductive, wasn't it? Hidden in intricate places...
[SDJ laughs]
SDJ: Hey, hey! I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to reveal.
DH: Yeah. Danny Savage, that was a savage question.
SDJ: Very tough. How did the question end again?
DH: To be fair, I ruined it didn't I. Were the tricks hard to learn? SDJ: Were the tricks hard to learn? Of course, know you now I did a lot of magic when I was younger...DH: Yeah so you came from a rich magic background.
SDJ: Yeah, these basic ideas. Actually during the audition with Ben Hart, I told him that I did this Penn and Teller masterclass last year, and then he revealed a little small ball and said, well, you can make this disappear then. I was like, yeah, I can, I just took the ball, made it disappear.
DH: I believe that's called a French drop.
[SDJ laughs]
DH: You can't see my face, but I look very smug. Is it a French drop?
SDJ: I can't remember, to be honest.
DH: You took the masterclass, Shane. What is this?
SDJ: I didn't revise.
DH: Hard-hitting journalism has revealed your lies yet again.
[DH and SDJ laugh]
SDJ: I can't do French, can't do magic.
DH: Sorry, yeah, so you made the ball disappear?
SDJ: Made the ball disappear, and our director and casting director were like whoa, Shane, you've kept this a secret. So that was useful. So the tricks, I did find quite easy to learn initially.
DH: With those basic elements.
SDJ: Yeah, and then Ben has taught us, taking it a step further. All this thing about smoother is faster, so it's better to be slow and steady rather than rush through a trick.
DH: Same in comedy.
SDJ: Yeah, and a constant reminder is that there's a difference between the method and the execution, something like the execution...
DH: The prestige.
SDJ: The Prestige, great film! There's the method behind the trick, but then there's what the audience sees, and it's up to us as the actor, as the magicians, to consistently be remembering what we expect to see, even when it goes wrong. So when I'm revealing a dove, I really need to believe the doves going to appear, and doing that every night can become quite robotic, and it's just keeping that freshness day by day.
DH: Reminding you that it's the first time.
SDJ: Yeah, exactly.
DH: You know I saw a live dove act with real life doves?
SDJ: Really?DH: It's quite unsettling. I saw it in Vegas with magician Chris Angel, who the Blade is loosely based on. It was quite amusing because I'm really bad at magic, so I get fooled very easily, and then I'm always disappointed when I find out how the trick is done. It's just something that's beyond me, right? So he starts this trick, he comes out and he puts on this huge jacket, and I was like ok, and then just like loads of doves come out. And you're like, Oh, all the doves are in the jacket, obviously. Then all the doves land on this little tree as he gets more doves out, the tree is on stage, and then he waves his hand and the music swells, and all the doves, it's amazing, all the doves fly over. the audience and land on a specific part of the audience.
SDJ: Wow.
DH: And I was like, wow, and I followed the doves across, and I look behind me and there's just some geezer with a huge whiteboard with a massive target on it, that they've obviously been trained to go towards. They fly into the target, drop into a box and then he closes the lid and legs it.
[SDJ laughs]
DH: And I'm just like, what is this? As if we're not supposed to see the the guy with the boards and just a box of doves.
SDJ: He just shoves them in the box?
DH: He's in the audience! He was sat a few rows behind me, but the audience is huge. So he must have just had to run through people with a box of doves. And I was like, wow, no wonder people don't do this thing anymore! And also, sometimes the doves just flew off.
SDJ: It's just messy.
DH: There's too many variables.
SDJ: Unknown variables.
DH: So Danny Savage's other question is, do the tricks ever go wrong? SDJ: Yeah, some tricks have gone wrong, and sometimes we've had to improvise over and just move on. So like the Blade trick, he's holding his breath in a tank.
DH: Oh, the water tank?
SDJ: Yeah the water tank. Which is very, very tough for Kazeem, who plays the Blade, and sometimes Kazeem has to cut the trick because it's actually quite dangerous. And that means I've had to move on or even do a sped-up version of the trick. I have a contingency that if I see a flashing red light, which tells me, we need to do the speed up version, and I go into speed up mode.
DH: Like a truncated version of the trick.
SDJ: Yeah. And then I tell people, you've missed out a few of the tricks so you have to come again.
DH: Nice! Keep them guessing! Me and Shields when we would do that, it was really strange actually as it was a conversation I had with Shields where no one had ever really spoken to Shields about his anxiety about that trick, because everyone was focussed on me in the tank and we don't want you to drown and all that, which is like, wonderful. But then actually, I remember speaking to Shields, and he was just like, it's my least favourite moment of the show, because when you're Sophisticato you don't know what's going on inside the tank, and you're focussed on the audience members you have on stage, the comedy, the patter of the routine, while stage managers and the Blade are communicating. And so we used to do a thing, where it wasn't as set as what you guys have, but if I was struggling, I would sort of make a gesture to speed up. But then Shields would just be looking into the wings and seeing four stage managers frantically telling him to speed up. But he doesn't know, am I saying speed up because I'm not feeling it today or speed up, something's really wrong, we need to get out of here. Have you found that at all? That slight disconnect from this person that you're onstage with, but they're just in a tank of water?
SDJ: Yeah, it's very strange. And even some days, Kazeem might be saying he's actually not feeling too well, like his sinuses might be a bit off, and we'll say, ok cool, we'll go in with the fast version today. There's no point in pushing it.
DH: That must be nice for you, it not changing in the moment.
SDJ: Exactly. Sometimes it has happened, where I've started and then I've just seen flashing red, and I'm ok, right, here we go.
DH: But you do realise how impressive that is for you to be able to adapt to that, as your first job and being on the West End. It's a big thing to take on.
SDJ: I really appreciate that.
DH: So that is amazing that you'll just do it, and that's just part of your life. Do you know what I mean?
SDJ: But it's great. I see it as a positive learning experience. Whatever comes my way next, it's going to be so much easier than this. When I do A Streetcar Named Desire or something, I'll just say my lines and go off. This, I'm constantly on on the ball.
DH: You set the bar for like rancid challenges.
SDJ: Yeah, exactly. I'm grateful for the experience, I would say, yeah.
DH: It's a fun show. Wait, hold on, what else did Danny Savage say? Oh, he says, saw the show a couple of weeks ago, it was great.
SDJ Brilliant. Thank you, Danny Savage.
DH: Yeah, lovely stuff. I'm seeing it tonight, Danny, I'll let you know what I think. OK, so we're into the final section now, which is probably pretty good timing. OK, so this next section is Quick Fire Round. You ready? You want to hit me with a jingle?
SDJ: Jingle? Kapow pow! It's the quick-fire round!
DH: Nice! Okay, so this is the final section. I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions and you've just got to answer them as fast as possible, without thinking too much about it. OK, here we go. What is your favourite colour?
SDJ: Red.
DH: Texting or talking?
SDJ: Talking?
DH: If you were an animal, what would you be?SDJ: A gorilla
DH: If you were to describe yourself as a dessert, what would you be? SDJ: Uh, truffle.
DH: Just a truffle. A solid truffle. Very good. Is a Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit?
SDJ: Cake.
DH: Nice. If you were one of the 52 playing cards, which would you be?
SDJ: Uh, Jack of clubs.
DH: Nice. What is in your pockets right now?
SDJ: Nothing.
DH: Nothing! He has nothing! Where's your phone?
SDJ: I brought a bumbag. A Fila bumbag.
DH: Oh, very nice!
SDJ: I put it around the shoulder
DH: Very cool, I enjoyed that.
SDJ: Bringing it back!
DH Speed! Right, here we go. What's your favourite film?
SDJ: Back to the Future.
DH: Oh, quick! What is the best age?
SDJ: Best age? Right now. 23.
DH: Nice, very good. Someone said Bronze Age in one of the, I thought that was a strange.
SDJ: What's the Bronze Age?
DH: Like the Triassic age or, you know, prehistoric
SDJ: Oh!
DH: And finally, who is the best person on Mischief? On Mischief? Take two. And finally, who would be the best person in Mischief to be trapped on a desert island with? Let's use take two.
SDJ: Sydney.
DH: Sydney, Yes! Although, would he drive you mad?
SDJ: No, no. Because I think constant talking about life in general and positivity will keep us sane. You know, they say, like when you're in a desert, you should have something to read, so you're consistently reading something.
DH: He's actually quite a difficult man to read.
SDJ: Exactly, you'd be consistently reading.DH: Who knows what's going on in his mind?
SDJ: All sorts.
DH: This is a great advert actually to listen to Sydney's podcast if you haven't. It's really fascinating. He's such a wonderful man, I love him very much. Okay, excellent. So finally, just to wrap up, do you have any top book/ TV/ podcast recommendations, anything you're watching at the moment? Or theatre shows?
SDJ: I just haven't had time to do anything. What have I started reading? Actually, Lexie Ward, who's been our assistant director on the show, borrowed me a book called Songs of Spider-Man.
DH: Yes, about the musical. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard very good things.
SDJ: It's brilliant. It's about the making of the Spider-Man musical and how horrific and awful it was. And then you watch some dodgy YouTube videos of Spider-Man The Musical, and it's very weird. So I'm reading that at the moment on the train, which is great fun.
DH: You know Henry Lewis saw that on Broadway?
SDJ: Did he? Oh my gosh, I've got to talk to him about it. Also, I'm in a small narrative podcast called The Flock. And I'm soon to be in one called Mask of Sanity, which is an Audible series coming out soon.
DH: Wow! So keep your ears peeled. Keep your ears peeled? Keep your eyes peeled?
SDJ: Your eyes peeled, your ears...open?
DH: Ears open, yes. You should keep your eyes open as well, and keep your mouth open.
[SDJ laughs]
DH: Keep your mouth shout and your ears open. You heard it here first. Keep your mouths shut, and your ears open. Slightly more aggressive podcast I've gone for today.
SDJ: I like it.
DH: OK, so thanks very much for joining us Shane.
SDJ: Thank you for having me!
DH: Thank you for shouldering the extra weight of losing Lou early on. SDJ: That's fine.
DH: Empty chair next to you is looking...
SDJ: Quite sad! But I'm so excited to see Lou play Madame Escapade tonight. Who knows what will happen!
DH: So am I! I'm very excited. Shane, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. You can see Shane and Louise currently appearing in the wonderful Magic Goes Wrong at the Apollo. I had to think about that, and I've got it written here, so I don't know why I didn't just read it. Do keep an eye out for our next episode. You can follow all the latest in the Mischief world on all our social channels. So what we going to do is, you're going to say, making Mischief with me, so I'm going to go, thanks for listening and keep making Mischief. Thanks for listening and keep...DH and SDJ: making Mischief!
DH: Nice!