YouSaid · the spoken record

Simon Coronel

lines on the record: 195
first: 2023-06-28
most recent: 2023-06-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Exactly. Hide my soul in my sock where they can't find it and drag it into the corporate drudgery. That was sort of the mindset at the time”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is before Accenture. This was in the monthly because I realized it was going to be a while before I had free time. I was going to go into this high pressure corporate environment. And I did it as kind of almost creative pilgrimage to kind of, I thought it was like almost injecting inspiration into intravenously to kind of keep that fire burning.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You blink and you're 40 in middle management and wondering where the decades went. And I kind of sensed, wait, that could be me. You never know who you are until you're there in the moment, until you're faced with the actual trolley lever, right? You don't know which what you'll do. And so I went on this round-the-world pilgrimage with all my remaining savings at the time. It was the first time I came to America to see the magic castle, to see Vegas and all the circuit oscillation shows and all the stuff I'd heard of in the world.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, compared to a nine year old, right? You've got a little very wise. And when I joined Accenture, I realized I had this sort of flash forward to going, yeah, I'm young and idealistic. I'm going to join for a couple years, then quit and do something that leads me towards something, whatever. I don't know. And I just had a sudden flicker of like, wait a minute, I've heard this story. I've heard how this can go.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I realized when I joined Accenture, I joined it with the intent of sort of doing it for a couple of years, seeing what it was like, get enough experience on the resume that it would hold its value. That was at least the conventional wisdom at the time. And then do something else, like start a startup or like go full magic or something I didn't really know. And I remember before I joined Accenture, there was this like, I think I was also lucky to get into magic late because I was just barely wise enough to make some smart choices. Barely. Wisdom is a heavy word for you have when you're 18. But Laurie.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“God, that man, I feel so lucky to have gotten to his books when I was at like early teenager, learned so much about just being a human being in the best way. And one of his characters, Granny Weatherwax, one of the witches, who's just an amazing character, there was this quote she says to one of the other witches that, yeah, the hard way is pretty hard, but it's not nearly as hard as the easy way. And there's deep wisdom there, but I think maybe I ran too far with that. I think maybe I made it too hard for myself. And that's been good. And now let's try maybe acknowledging it a bit. So yeah, it's very scary and very intimidating.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think I'd seen too much of that. That I wanted to make sure I didn't give myself that out, that I didn't give myself the crutch. There's a quote from Terry Pratchett, is one of my favorite authors.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We sort of acknowledge it. And I think one of the reasons I hit it was I've just seen so many people use it as an excuse or a crutch where they're just kind of being an asshole and go, oh, I want the autism spectrum, so it's okay. I'm like, what? No, it's still just an asshole.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The kinds of things that you're doing a lot of in a high pressure, high powered business strategy consulting environment. And I was doing okay. I was getting the job done and doing a pretty okay job of it, but it was just exhausting. It was killing me to do so, all the extra cognitive load to deal with some of those things that are not easy for anybody necessarily, but were like extra exhausting. And at the time, I now have learned the term masking, hiding it, trying to, you know, do the work to pretend to not be dealing with this stuff. All the reasons that people learn to do that and learn that they should. And I'm only just now kind of going, you know what? What if we try not doing that?”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, human interaction is challenging. It's difficult. There's extra layers. There's a lot of extra thinking and analysis to figure out. And in a high-pressure business environment, there's a lot of that. And so it was a lot of situations I found very awkward and uncomfortable and stressful, even more so than they would be for anybody, I think. A lot of it's like trying to figure out what is universal and what is unique. And the answer is lots of both. And also I'm now realizing I spent so many years focused on like trying to work around that and make up for those deficits and do the extra work to deal with it that is now increasingly apparent that I probably also have some kind of executive function disorder situation going on. Maybe ADHD, maybe something else I'm not going to self-diagnose. I'm going to wait till I can actually get to a professional to deal with that. Because again, things I didn't realize weren't universal. Difficulty with scheduling, with remembering things, keeping track of time, being organized, organizing data, things like that.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At least I kind of now know what we're working with and can start the incredibly long, difficult process of working out what to do about that. And that then was the next couple of decades of my life, trying to work out what to do about that and how to learn those skills that weren't there naturally and learn how to read nonverbal signals and communication and just all that that's still ongoing. It's still a challenge every day. It's a pain in the ass, but there are worse problems. I don't know.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, and I figured, why not when you asked me on this? This is a good chance to just rip off the band aid in most public possible arena. We're going to the honest, truthful phase of my life or something. But in my early 20s, I was diagnosed with at the time Asperger's syndrome, like high functioning autism spectrum thing, which to the surprise of no one At the time, so many people have the same experience. It was a relief. I was like, oh, that's why all that stuff was confusing and awkward and didn't make sense. It's bad news. Like, it's not good news, but at least it makes sense. There's some explanation.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, this sort of gets into the, and this is the thing that, again, as I mentioned earlier, I feel very sort of, I don't know, nervous, timid about talking about because I've spent most of my life adult life actively avoiding hiding the neurodivergent stuff”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And it's similar. It is very hard to maintain that sense of what it is. And I think I see a lot of magicians who get into it when they're younger. There's often this disconnect of, so I have very clear memories as an adult, technically, legally, legal adult, 18. I can remember seeing what are considered in the magic industry very sort of simple, almost beginner tricks. And I can remember the visceral memory of being profoundly affected by them and being profoundly amazed. I run to many magicians, like not the good ones. The good ones get it. The good ones understand who have long ago lost touch with the power of these illusions. They're like, oh, that's just basic. Listen, man, do not underestimate the power of that because I have those memories still. And those guide so much of my creative process with magic of like, I remember what it felt like to see these things just barely. Like I try to hold those memories because they're so precious and valuable because they enable that empathy with the audience. Right.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The main reason is a lot of good things begin from empathy. Understanding the experience of the other person or people in so many ways, in so many fields of human endeavour. And magic in particular, like you observed earlier, requires an understanding and awareness of the mind of the observer, of what's happening perceptually. And one of the things that I think is really difficult about magic is that once you learn how it's done, it becomes very hard to remember what it was like to not know how it was done. It's very hard to maintain empathy with the audience experience. Very, very difficult. Even more so than most other arts.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was a vibe people I hadn't seen for years were there. And this is the closest I will ever come to saying something self-congratulatory. Because even just being Australian, it's like, ah, awkward. But this was someone else. This is something someone else said. So I feel less uncomfortable about it, even though it's still very uncomfortable. And this friend said, well, yeah, you know, because the magic castle was founded back in the 50s in the Vernier on having the best magic in the world was there. And that was true. And for a long time, that had kind of stopped being true. And the best magic was maybe in Madrid or South Korea or Germany or a bunch of other places that are these real hot spots of magical innovation and excellence. And it hadn't been the castle actually for a long time. And then she said in this amazingly dramatic way, but tonight that changed. And I was like, oh, chills, tingles. And also, I don't know how to handle the implied responsibility of that.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And because the thing is, the magic castle was, I mean, again, it's the real place, but there had been even pre-pandemic. It had been going through kind of a dark age in that it had just been less inspiring. There were fewer really amazing people hanging out there. It was under management that wasn't particularly tapping into the beautiful, wonderful things about the place. And I'd found myself just less inclined to go there on any given night. Normally you go there and you have an amazing night. And it's incredible and you meet amazing people and see amazing things. And that had just been happening less and less in the years leading up to the pandemic. And then the pandemic, obviously, was awful. And so many people that night mentioned versions of, you know what, this feels like the old school castle again.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then we went to the Magic Castle that night just to have a drink, and we kind of remember we actually know, sorry, the night we flew back, we went to the Magic Castle. This is before the coffee. And we kind of went, you know what? Let's go have a drink at the castle. Why not? Hang out. And as we walked up the hill to it, we were going, I wonder if anyone's heard, because it had been that day. It was that same afternoon. We're like, I wonder if anyone's heard. I don't know, maybe, maybe not. And we walk in and everyone has heard. Everyone who works there, the people in the kitchen, like everybody had, like it was the number one news. We're like, oh, God. And that night was amazing. It was fun.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Right. I mean, pandemic alone and everything else plus all of that. But the thing that was great was Shoot and I flew back to LA and we slept. And then the next day, we did what we had been knowing for months or over a year at this point that we knew what we wanted to do more than anything. And we went to a cafe and we just hung out and had coffee without stress or worry or the upcoming pressure. And it was perfect. That was what we were talking for years. You know, once this is over, oh man, we can just hang out and have coffee. And like, that's the best possible thing.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pressure, that forwards movement. And for the first time, I felt, you know what, I'm going to take a few months and just do nothing and just sit and just regroup and catch my breath. Because also I was unsurprisingly massively burnt out. I was so burnt out at that point. I'd been going.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the things that came out of it, two big things. One was for the first time I felt my imposter syndrome, which nearly everyone has, unless you're a raging narcissist. I think everyone has imposter syndrome to some degree. I felt it just pop like a soap bubble, just a delicate little, and felt free of it, which isn't the same as having an ego or anything because not everything I do is good. But that demon on the shoulder that tells you, no, you suck, you're not good enough. That was finally a big enough event that even that demon got squashed by it and couldn't rebut. Demon was like, oh, all right, okay, fine. You can do good stuff. All right, fine, show up. That was one. And the other thing was it was the first time in my adult life since finishing high school that I felt like I could stop and catch a breath for a moment because I'd never felt that before. I always felt like I hadn't proved myself. I hadn't like figured out a career. I hadn't achieved the thing. There was always something to do. There was always that.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A bit of both. It was one of the many things, and I mean, one thing I still haven't fully processed it. You know, this was July last year. It's now April. It feels like eating a six foot wide donut. I don't know how to get all of this knowledge. Yeah, I'm nibbling at it, but it's not going in. It still hasn't gone in yet. I'm still actively figuring it out. Did that really happen? I keep forgetting it happened. It's not fitting into my brain.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The first time I'd felt like sort of clear headed in weeks or months or just like the catharsis of it, I don't even know how to describe it.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sat there just empty hey, complete just and then people kept coming up and just saying, you know, it was great or congrats or can we get a photo or can you sign my thing? And it was just this sort of.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So then they announced the stage grand prix, which is this duo from Belgium, who also did this amazing stage act. And then we come back out and then all the winners come back out, which is three times eight plus a heap of people. A genteel pandemonium in the loveliest sense because again everyone's there out of love. And it's just had been this beautiful thing, and basically everyone felt good about all the announcements and just, and we just stood on the stage and all the official photographers took photos and then everyone else took photos and a bunch of people wanted to pose for selfies. And then eventually, there's this photo somewhere once it had sort of started to calm down, as in went from 3,000 people down to only a few hundred people. And then Shute and I just kind of sat down on the steps at the front of the stage and just...”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really cathodic. Really good. It felt right. It was the right decision. I mean, it's not what I would have chosen to do if I'd had the option, but it was very clear that I was not going to have a choice. This was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not. And so it felt good to, yeah, to not hide and to not, you know, not be ashamed because that's what I want for everybody else.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I walk up on stage and I stand there. And the only thing I'm thinking about is try to keep shoulders back head up. Make it clear that you are not going to hide. And I just stand there on stage. And I find out later that the presenter was like awkwardly kind of expecting to give me the mic to give a speech. Whereas like, I'm just like, I'm just fucking heaving and sobbing. Someone called it ugly crying, just like holding this enormous goddamn trophy, just bawling my eyes out on stage. I found out later this was live streamed as well. So I'm like, okay, cool, great, fine. And then the main FISM guy comes over and we pose the photo and I'm still just weeping. And then walk off stage and try to find a tissue.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Side quest in my head now at this point just so I can not think about it is that all we can ever do is try to lead by example. And even that, you very rarely get a chance to do. And I do, you know, what does it be the change you want in the world, even if it's in a tiny, almost trivial way? And I go, you know what? If this happens, don't think about it. Don't think about it. But if, but don't think about it. Okay, if it happens, I realize I'm not going to hide it. I'm not even going to wipe a tear away. I'm just going to let it rip. And at least, I mean, I'm going to cry. At least I can do it on my own terms. And then they say, my goddamn name, and as predicted, I burst into tears, just uncontrollable, like convulsive sobbing.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it becomes very clear to me over that half hour sitting there that if, as much as I try not to think about it at all, if they say my name, I realize I'm absolutely going to burst into tears. And I'm not a crier. I cry like once every year or two, like maybe. And I realize, oh yeah, there's no way. Because I'm already like just at the memories of what it had taken and what it had cost and how much it had taken to walk this path and get to this point and how I never thought it would get anywhere, let alone here, let alone what I'm, despite myself thinking. And I realized, oh yeah, I'm going to, I'm just going to break down. And I realized in that moment that one thing that's always made me sad is when people cry so often the first instinct is to hide or apologize or pretend not to. And that always breaks my heart. I wish that weren't the case. It's sad that society teaches us to hide that or to shelve that. And I kind of decide, you know what, the only thing.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I'm there in this deep internal struggle, like, don't think about it, medit Zen, remember the mindfulness. Focus on the breath. But then the inner voice is like, but maybe, and I'm like, no. And I'm thinking about it because it's the first time I've had to catch my breath. And I am thinking about the last year and a half and the last 10 years and the last decades and this whole damn journey.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Don't you fucking do this to yourself? Don't you get your hopes up because you get disappointed. That is how that happens. Don't you do it, but then the brain goes, well, look, imagine you're a FISM judge and you're thinking, okay, who do we give the Grand Prix to? And my brain was like, there was a riot. Something happened that's never happened before. And I'm like, don't shut up, shut up internal voice. Shut the fuck up. Don't you do this? Don't get the hopes up. But this goes on for like 10 minutes and 20 minutes. And they're slow rolling this thing. I'm there with this internal.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The internal dialogue is going, don't you do this to yourself, you son of a bitch. Don't you do it? This is what leads to disappointment. Don't you fucking think about it. Can we swear?”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was great. And I'm sitting there, and when there's 150 contestants or thousands in the preliminaries, Anything could happen. You don't know. You're up against so many people. You don't even think about what the outcome is going to be. So much of it's again Epictetus, right? It's out of your control. But now I'm sitting there and they're slow rolling the award ceremony and there's other announcements and they announce the next one's going to be in Italy and that's a whole thing and they thank the sponsors and they do the thing and I'm sitting there holding this first place trophy and now thinking about, wait a minute, they're still going to announce the Grand Prix. And now rather than 150 people or hundreds or thousands of people, it's down to four people. It's me, the guy I tied with, shoot, and the card guy from France, I think, that's slightly embarrassing, wherever he's from.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the award ceremony is the first time we find out what actually happened. And it turns out that Shoot wins first prize in Parlor Magic, which is amazing and wonderful. And I tie for first in Close Up Magic in MicroMagic, which is incredible. Holy shit. I just wanted to make this thing real. And I was so happy back in 2009 to tie for third. Now, one day I'll get my own award. Like, I keep tying for things, it seems to be a running joke. And then we go back and sit in the audience with the trophies. And this is the first moment I've had in days, if not weeks, to pause for breath. I'm sitting there in the crowd amongst friends and like Vincent, a guy from Australia, came second in Parlor Magic after shoot, which is amazing. And Dom went there to do a stupid joke for a show he's working on and achieved it. And just everyone got some version of what they came for. And it's just beautiful. And all the other prize winners, I would call it worthy. Because sometimes someone wins, you're like, eh, really, is that who's the world champion of that? But it was all beautiful. It was just this beautiful moment.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I walk out on stage fighting the trembles. Like, I'm adrenaline soaked and haven't had time to get in the zone at all. But I do the thing, it goes okay. I'm freaking out, but holding it together. No one can tell. The tremor is very slight in the hand, but I keep it together. And the person, the different person I bring up is amazed, and it works well. And I'm like, now it's over. Thank God. Goddamn, now we're actually done. And so then there's a few hours while the judges deliberate and then there's going to be the award ceremony.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Again, Dom and Reuben and Viem never are not surprised because they're like, yeah, classic Coronel, it's always like this. I'm like, yeah, I wish that wasn't true, but it is. One day I'll be fully ready for a performance. One day it'll be great. And at that point, I'm thinking, if it comes down to it, I would rather walk out in my crappy t-shirt and jeans with a trick that works than in my nice stage suit with a trick that doesn't work. Luckily, we get both barely.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. Oh, yeah. And so and go into preparation mode. And again, that day is its own insane story of all kinds of weird things went wrong. The first place winners all perform again, this time for all 12 judges. The close-up and stage judges joined together to judge everything. So the close-ups haven't seen the stage thing. The stage judges haven't seen the close-ups. They're all now going to watch them and judge, are any of these acts worthy of the Grand Prix? And if so, which one for each? 10 minutes before walking out for that performance, I am in the stairwell, the fire escape stairwell in my t-shirt and jeans, not my suit, fixing a problem with one of the props that has gone wrong for reasons. It's a whole story. There are visual aids. It's a separate thing.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To the hotel room and start prepping for another performance. And for both of us in different ways, that's a non trivial undertaking. And it's like, oh, god damn it. But also amazing. Oh my God, this is incredible. Oh my God, what a joy. It's such a complex yin and yang of emotions.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Having given it everything to make it to the finish, and suddenly you need to run another five miles. And we're just like, oh my God. Oh, God. We did not prepare for this. We did not think this was what was going to happen. And so we go back.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have probably, it seems likely we have probably won our categories, or you can tie for first. They can offer like a special prize. You never quite know. There's a lot of exception cases throughout history that have happened. So we're like, probably means, which is a weird place to be. We're like, we think that means we might have won our category. Definitely.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Horrible, horrible success. And this is incredible because we're pretty sure we don't know for certain. This is also what makes it impact.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They have the option but not the obligation to give out one overall quote unquote grand prize. It's French big prize for overall close-up and overall stage, the two big mega prizes that they don't have to award, but that's the big final thing. But Shute and I, like, we're done. It's great. It's over. Thank God. We get to relax. And finally party and hang out. And then one of the organizers comes up to us and goes, um, forget the words, but like, yeah, be ready to perform again tomorrow, which is simultaneously amazing and terrible news. It's amazing. What about the chat?”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, exactly. And obviously it's subjective. How do you judge art? Should you try and judge art? Should you even have competitions? These are very reasonable questions, but at least that kind of trying. They're genuinely going in. And then of the winners, the first prizes.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, absolutely. Yeah, it's not just who's best on the day. It's like, is this good enough by the standards we've sort of admittedly arbitrarily subjectively set? But yeah, I respect that intent.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that does happen. That has happened many times in its history. They try to make it mean something over the decades. I love that. Yeah. I really respect that.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. Makes it interesting. And the way it works is they award a first, second, and third prize in each of these eight categories. And one of the things I really respect about FISM, because again, it has many flaws. It's not perfect by a long shot. But I respect that the judges don't have to award any of the prizes. If an act isn't understood, they don't have to award the first prize, for example, and often they don't.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, kind of thing. Yeah. The cutting a person in half is the classic big box grand illusion, as they call it. Mentalism, the illusion of mind reading or fake psychological abilities or whatever, and comedy magic, it gets its own category, which again is an odd false dichotomies all over the place, but that's the category. It still makes it fun.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So under stage magic they have general stage magic, manipulation, which is heavy sleight of hand focused, so difficult dexterity to give the illusion of impossibility, state grand illusion, which is like big box tricks basically. Not really my thing.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Parlor Magic is more for sort of 50 to 100 people in a more stand up situation. Generally, again, that's an oversimplification, but that's kind of how they roughly define it. It's always a bit nebulous and blurry.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The audience, the audience. Yeah. So normally, and these categories are sort of, I would debate whether these are useful categories, but the way they define it is Closet Magic is done where you can physically touch the audience, where you're in physical proximity. It's truly close up.”
2023-06-28 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #679: Simon Coronel, World Champion of Magic — Quitting the Day Job, The Delights of the Magic Castle, Finding Glitches in Reality, Learning How to Use Your Own Brain, and Worshiping at the Altar of Wonder · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT