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Hello, Thomas from VirtualMagie.

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Today, we're welcoming Vincent Hedan.

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Hello, how are you? Great.

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So before you tell us about your news

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and all your wonderful projects,

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tell us about yourself.

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How did you get started in magic?

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In a very traditional way, actually. With a magic box.

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Which one? It was Gérard Majax's box, I don't know if you

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remember, a big box.

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with... I'm much younger than you...

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We must be close.

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But I started with that box, and it's true that

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I really put a strain on it.

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And my brother had the same one. My sister had the same one.

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They were a little younger than me, and they didn't take to it at all.

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And, I don't know why,

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Actually, it clicked for me, and I never stopped, except

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the year I graduated from high school, I think, so as not to screw up too much.

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So this is a very classic answer:

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magic box from a very young age, at seven. And so

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you continued, what, cards right away? Yes,

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because I was in a small village near

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La Rochelle in France and there was no club.

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There was no store, there was nothing.

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So it was easier to buy a deck of cards at

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the convenience store and do lots of things with them than to have

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accessories that were hard to find.

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You worked a little, what did you do? Semi-pro?

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I was mainly a student. Then, when I was a teenager,

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I did a little bit of event gigs.

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And after that, I focused a bit on my studies.

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I went abroad,

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I first failed science studies, where I did

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mathematics and programming, and then I

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dropped out, came back, and studied languages,

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studying Asian languages: Korean, Indonesian, etc.

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I went to Korea thanks of that.

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I lived in Australia to do magic too.

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I went back for a year

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where I only did magic there.

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And I came back in 2012 to do FISM.

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How did mentalism come about?

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I think it happened by accident.

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because the type of magic that interested me as a

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spectator and that interested me to perform

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naturally, that came naturally to me anyway,

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perhaps we could describe it as a little cerebral or

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intellectual and not very visual.

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And so it falls under the mentalism category.

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But when I won first prize in mentalism in 2008

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in Aix, at the FFAP competition,

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I performed an impossible memory trick,

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not a trick where I read people's mind,

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but they put me in that category because it was the

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only one that was long enough to

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accommodate the length of my act.

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And when I won, people

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associated the category with my work.

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So I'm not complaining, because I love this category,

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but I originally competed with a memory act.

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It's a bit unusual.

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So it's actually an accident, but it fits

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with what attracts me and my nature.

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So since then, you've released quite a few creations, including books,

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tricks, and other things.

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What motivates you

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to do this kind of things?

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At first, it's the idea that I want something.

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It doesn't exist, or not exactly the way I want it.

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And so I'm going to create it for myself.

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And then afterward, I'll obviously show it to my magician friends

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in the circles or groups we have.

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And if I see there's interest,

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if there are people who say "Can I have one?"

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"Can I have two?" I'll do a few.

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And then it becomes something that's distributed,

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but it's rarely the idea to say we're going to get rich by

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selling something because the market for

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magic doesn't work like that anyway.

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So it's often a tool for me.

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And that's why what I do

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sometimes seems a little difficult. For example, Pi.

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Can you remind us what that is? It's an effect

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of memory with the value Pi.

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So 3.1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3, etc.

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And I give the impression of having

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memorized 10,000 decimals.

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But that's fake. So it's easier than actually

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memorizing, but it requires a little work because

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some versions use a stack.

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Are you telling me you have to

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work to do magic?

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Magic is the only category where

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you buy something and it says:

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"It's easy, it works all by itself right out of the box."

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There's no such thing as an automatic violin.

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It's the same with magic.

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And Pi, maybe people think it's difficult

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because, in fact, I didn't create it to please the

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lowest denominator, let's say.

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It's not politics.

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It's something for me.

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So this is the method I like.

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And sometimes people like it too,

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but that's not always the case.

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So, over here, we asked for your book,

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but apparently you don't have it yet...

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What's this new book?

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So I wrote a book two years ago which

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was called "Your Mind Is My Playground"

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which is a collection of effects.

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There are 13 effects, close-up and on stage.

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And they are effects with a very simple purpose:

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to be very simple, very direct,

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very easy to do with no complicated equipment,

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but which also had an advantage in the presentation because

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I didn't want to make yet another ambitious card or another

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matrix, especially in mentalism, that's not the point.

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It was about creating effects where the presentation is attractive

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for people, and they're almost more drawn in by

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the story and what we're presenting and the interaction we have

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with them than by the impossibility of the effect that is

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present, but we focus on the presentation.

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And now, I've released the second volume, which has been ready for...

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I've been thinking about it for two years.

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And then I released it because it fit well with the

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calendar and it's the same idea.

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It's called "Your Mind Is Still My Playground."

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It's a sequel to the first one.

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Will it the third be called "always"?

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You're not far off, you're not far off.

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It will be out next year,

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I think next year or in two years.

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And so in this one,

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you don't need to have read the first one,

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even if we go over certain principles and the same things,

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there are about ten close-up and stage effects.

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And it's stupidly easy to do.

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Technically, mentally,

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there's no complicated equipment.

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It's very, very simple.

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I think you also have a great project, because all this was written,

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that kind of thing, but in live performance,

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anything nice to announce to us? I spent

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a lot of time writing and also translating

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books for the magic market.

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What? All of Jermay's anthologies, for example.

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Pradier's book, which was released for the conference.

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It's very strange to translate as a French person, a French person!

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But Étienne is a professional.

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He works a lot. He wrote his book in English,

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because at the time, that was the market

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he wanted to pursue.

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And it's true that it's a shame

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to deprive yourself of his knowledge.

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There's an incredible experience,

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a bit like David Stone with,

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it was "The Real Secrets... of Close-Up", or "The Keys...".

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These are guys who have worked a lot.

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And so we have everything to learn from them as professionals.

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And then for the past three years,

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I've been trying to find a venue,

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to put on a show that

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I've had in mind for a while.

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And now, finally, I've managed to do it.

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And so, starting in January, every Wednesday,

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Saturdays at 9:30 p.m., my show will be at

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the Comédie Saint-Michel. In Paris.

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Which is a venue that people know,

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perhaps because Tesla was there.

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Julien Losa too.

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Julien left us because he's in Brazil.

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He travels a lot.

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No, in Alaska.

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He's on cruises, he travels all the time.

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But he spent a lot of time in that room

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with great success.

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It's a great show. And there,

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I'm not taking up the torch at all because it's a

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very different show, but it's true that people

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know the venue for him too.

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So it's nice to follow in his footsteps.

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See you soon in Paris to see you.

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I hope so! Or order from your website.

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And of course on VirtualMagie.

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Yes, yes. See you soon, friends!

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Goodbye.