Podcast appearances and mentions of michael goudeau

Penn, Matt, and Reddi are joined once again by Michael Goudeau and the unstable internet connection in his laundry room for another Zoom Q&A with Patreon backers! Goudeau's holiday decor challenge, the music in Penn's head, The Residents, Penn's holiday and New Year's traditions, the concept of legacy, and more. Please note: this bank episode was recorded on December 15, 2024.

Penn, Matt, and Reddi Rich are reunited once again with Michael Goudeau as they take listener questions on Zoom prior to Penn & Teller's tour of Australia. Real time reactions from the Royal Variety Performance, what would you do with $2 million?, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Penn's visual memory, and more.

Penn, Matt, Reddi Rich, and Michael Goudeau take questions from Members of the Congregation on Zoom! How the recent election has impacted both performers and audiences in Vegas and beyond, female pioneers in comedy, Dylan & The Dead, Penn's favorite thing about Iceland, and more!

Penn, Matt, and Reddi Rich are back for another Patreon exclusive Zoom hangout with special guest Michael Goudeau! Goudeau updates everyone on his new life in the woods and his new cake-spinning routine, the gang's thoughts on the election, Penn's missing photo mosaic artwork, and more.

Penn, Matt, and Reddi record via Zoom from undisclosed locations as Penn recounts a harrowing ear piercing complication and prepares for an electronics shopping spree, Matt recaps his show with Michael Goudeau and Bryan Saint, a special listener update from Jason Garfield, and more!

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with magician Lance Burton about how he wrote (and directed and starred in) the delightfully comic “Billy Topit: Master Magician.”LINKSA Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/Lance Burton Website: https://www.lanceburton.com/Billy Topit Website: http://www.billytopit.com/Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/Albert's Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcastLance Burton TranscriptJohn: I loved Billy Topit, both Jim and I did. I've made a number of low budget movies in my life, about a half dozen of them and the driving force behind them has almost always been, let's get together with some friends and make a movie. I got the sense that that was kind of part of the DNA of Billy Topit. Is that right?Lance: Well, yes, I just have to correct you on one thing: Billy Topit was not a low budget movie. It was a nobudget movie. We literally just decided, you know what, I'm not going to spend any money. Everyone volunteered. So, if it ever makes any money, I'll go back and pay the actors.John: Well, okay. But as someone who has done the same thing, I've done that a half dozen times with the no money. The results you got, given the no money status, were great. Your sound is exceptional. One of the things that's normally a big sign that it's a low budget movie is the sound is not good. It's a hard thing to get right and when you do get it right, it makes it sound like a big budget movie. The cinematography is terrific, the editing is fantastic. I don't know if you bought the music, or if someone did the music, but whatever it was it fit perfectly, and it just sailed along. So, for a movie that had no budget, you did an exceptional job of making a real movie.Lance: Oh, thank you. You're right, the sound is the one thing you really don't want to skimp on, because that's something you really can't fix in post a lot of the times. So, we did try to pay attention to the sound recording. As far as the music goes, some of the music was from my show that I already own. Some of the performance pieces, some of the music we use just for the movie, was rights free music that that I got from a company called Digital juice. They have all different sorts of music and it's searchable. So, you can find you know, rock and roll hard driving music, you can find, you know, instrumentals, you really have everything.Then there was a couple of pieces that a friend of mine, who's a musician wrote and recorded for me. And one of the pieces in the film, my lead actress, Joelle Rigetti, she had actually recorded an album a couple of years ago and she gave me the album during the production. She said, “Hey, anything on here you want you're welcome to use.” And I listened to it and there was one track, I went, this is perfect for this one scene I have. It's that it's the scene where the whole cast is waking up on the second day, brushing their teeth and getting ready to go out. That's actually the lead actress singing.John: The stuff you picked all really meshed well together.Lance: Oh, thank you. It was during the post-production process when it really struck me—as we were editing and doing that—how much the music adds to a production, not just a live show. I already knew that for a live show. But as I was making the film, it really just struck me again, you know, wow, music really does add a whole new dimension to the movie or live show.John: Yeah. So, where did the idea for the movie come from?Lance: Well, I'll tell you exactly where it came from. When I was a kid, there was a television series on TV called The Magician starring Bill Bixby. It only lasted one season, because the network got a new president that came in and he just, you know, cancelled all his predecessors' shows. But it actually did good in the ratings. But it only lasted 22 episodes.The magic consultant on The Magician was Mark Wilson and so when I moved out west, I met Mark Wilson, and became friends with him. Then when I was shooting Knightrider, guess who they hired to provide all of the large illusions and props for the episode? Mark Wilson. He was sort of the magic advisor on that television show. So, Mark, and I got to hang out for seven days on the set as we were shooting. He's actually in the episode. You can see shots of him. He's sitting in the audience during one of the opening performances. In fact, I get him up on stage at one point as a volunteer. So, anyway, one day after filming, Mark and I are going out to dinner and we're in his car and we're driving along. And he says to me, “Lance, how do you like doing this work?” And I said, “What do you mean, Mark? You mean like this episode?” He says, “Yeah, how do you like, you know, acting on this, this TV show?” And I said, “I'm having the time of my life. I get to do magic. I get to act. I get to work with a stuntman, and this is great.” And he says, “Well, you're doing a good job and you ought to think about doing more of this.” And I said, “More of this, so what do you mean?” He says, “You ought to start a notebook, start keeping some ideas of how you could incorporate your magic into a TV series or movie, you know, like with the Bill Bixby series.” And I thought, Oh, that's a good idea. So, I did, I started writing, every time I had an idea about how to use magic within the context of the drama series, or, you know, a story, I would write it down. So, after a few years, I had all these sort of clever things that I came up with, to use magic and propelling the story forward, or to get out of this sticky situation or whatever. And every few years, I've pulled that out, and I'd go, “You know, I'm going to try and go pitch this,” and I would go to Los Angeles and set up some meetings. And I was trying to pitch to do a series every few years and we got close a couple of times, but we never were able to sell it. But the area I was working in was so similar to things that would pop up on my TV screen later. I kept thinking, “Man, I've got something here, I just need to, like any kind of magic trick, you know, I get it in my head and it's frustrating, I just I gotta get it out, I got to put it on the stage because it's like in my brain is like scratching the inside of my skull and it's really annoying.” By that time, the technology had progressed to the point where we had these high-definition cameras that weren't, you know, astronomically expensive. And we had editing software so that somebody on their laptop could put out a professional looking product. So, I finally just said, hey, you know what, I'm gonna do this. And I called my buddy, Michael Goudeau and he came over and we fleshed out the story. And then we wrote the screenplay within, like two or three months. And then we eventually just started casting it and shot it. So, it all goes back to Bill Bixby and The Magician from 1973. John: Well, most things do. Most things do go back that. Were you always planning on directing?Lance: You know, directing and acting at the same time is really difficult. But I had been doing it all my life, you know, with my live show. And we started in on this thing and then at some point, I heard an interview with Barbra Streisand, and someone asked her that question, and they said, “Is it difficult to act and direct in the same production?” And she had a great response. She said, “No, it's easier that way. That's one less person I have to argue with.”Jim: She's right. Absolutely right. So, talk a little bit about how the movie changed, you know, from your initial script and then through shooting and editing. Were there a lot of kind of, oh, let's do this. Oh, that didn't work. Lance: I'll tell you what: when I first had the idea, I didn't have a real clear idea of the tone I wanted to take, you know? As far as it could have been a drama, it could have been a comedy or whatever. But I started chatting with my buddy, Michael Goudeau. Now, Michael worked in my show, as my special guest star. We've been friends for, you know, since the mid-80s and Michael said, this was his idea. So, I gave him credit. He said, we should write this is a family film and I said, why is that? He says, because I have two small children and about two or three times a year, I have to take them to the movies and we have to pick a family film, and they're always horrible. That's why I'd like to see a good family film. Something good, we can take the kids to see. And I said okay, that's fine. You know, that fits. Magic's always been considered a good family entertainment. So, we chose to write it as a family friendly movie, and as a comedy, but I give credit to Michael for that, and it didn't alter that much. Once we had the script completed, the idea was, you know, to keep to the script as close as we can within reason. Now, there were some scenes that were improvised and there were some things that I added during the course of the movie. I'll tell you one thing that we added: the film starts with a dream sequence, with Billy floating a lady in the air. And then he wakes up in bed and you realize, oh, that was just a dream. He doesn't really have a big Las Vegas show. He's a birthday party magician and that was the first thing we shot. So, as we were shooting, I read a book by Robert Rodriguez about his experience shooting El Mariachi. That was recommended to me by Rory Johnston, who played the bad guy in my movie. When I explained to Rory what we were going to do, he said, oh, you're doing like a no budget movie, like Robert Rodriguez. And I said, Who's Robert Rodriguez? He said, he is just a director, he started out by making this movie called El Mariachi. He had $7,000. That was it and he made a whole film. And so, I bought the DVD to watch. I wanted to see what a $7,000 movie look like. And then I read his book and he had some really interesting advice and thoughts. He was talking about the power of three—which magicians will do also—where you have a callback, or something keeps popping back up, and it happens three times. In El Mariachi, there's like this sort of dream sequence. But it happens three times. And I started thinking, he's got a really good point there. So, I started thinking, where else could I insert, I need two more dream sequences? And I've got to find a place to insert them. So, we wrote two more dream sequences and found the right place to put them. And we shot that, but that kind of happened once we started once we started shooting.Jim: You know, John, as he's mentioned, has shot some low budget movies here and there, populated largely by friends of John. And I get the sense that, in watching your movie, that these people are all your buddies, that they're all your pals, these are all your friends. Lance: Oh, yeah, they're all my friends. The only time there were people in their movie, really, that I didn't know, like extras in the restaurant. We would just ask people, do you have any friends that you can come over and be background actors? And a lot of them are my friends. Like the birthday party scene: those kids are all kids of friends. Like, hey, if you got kids, bring them over to my stage manager's house.John: It really looks like you guys are having fun throughout the whole movie. I don't mean to denigrate it in any way, but it's a really goofy movie. It is surprisingly silly in a really fun way.Lance: It's a silly movie and a lot of that stuff is Michael Goudeau. Everybody loves Michael and loves his comedy and kids especially love him. So, that's we wanted to go for. For instance, when we were writing the date scene, you know, that was a silly scene and they were doing the game with the milk, the little milk containers. And Michael said, listen, when I take my kids to a movie, when it gets to the romantic the date scene, they are bored. They are like, oh, they're falling asleep going, oh, when is this over? So, let's beef this up with something silly. Hey, great. That sounds great. So, again, a lot of that stuff was just the purpose of the movie was to keep everybody's interest.John: And that's probably something you've learned from being on stage forever, is feeling when the audience might be getting bored and being ahead of them. Lance: Yeah, you don't want to get to that point. You want to keep it moving. Jim: Your friend Michael is in the movie?Lance: Yes, he is in the movie. He's one of the jugglers. Jim: Okay. But the taller one or the shorter one?Lance: The shorter one. He was my co-writer on the screenplay and also co-executive producer.Jim: At the very end, in the credits, there's some very clever, funny, little teases about the possibility and it was sort of like, gosh, I hope there is a sequel. Is there talk of that--?John: And I will say, I'm going to speak from my podcast partner here. We're standing by ready to help you if you want to do.Jim: Absolutely. I'll drop everything. Lance: Billy Topit Part Two, The Empire Strikes Back. Billy Topit Part Two, the Search for Spock. I tell you, that was just me getting at the end of the editing process and doing the credits and it's just going out. This will be funny. Just me just making up silly stuff.John: And the image of you doing that of sitting on a computer and editing, do you have the filmmaking bug now or you going to it doesn't have to be a sequel, Billy Topit, but...Lance: I've enjoyed. Here's the thing that I enjoyed the most on the whole process was learning to edit. My good buddy Bob Massey was our photographer and our editor. But in the process of editing, I would go over to his house, and we would work on it and then he'd have to go do something. I was like, do we have to stop? And one day he said, you know, I can give you the software. I bought this and I can put it on two computers legally. So, if you want to, I'll show you how. I went, yeah. So, I went out, I bought this and I put this stuff on, and I started to learn how to edit. Bob was there to help me, show me. I really loved it. I really, really loved the process. And a lot of it is very similar to magic. I'll give you a good example of that: There's a scene at the end of the movie where they've opened the big show and I do the sawing a couple into eight pieces. So, we got the two, the boy and the girl and they get sawed apart and they come out of the boxes at the end. And the boys were in the girl's clothes and they chase each other offstage. And then they run past the camera and then the second shot, you see them run into view in the wings. And then they have a scene in the wings. Well, we shot the first part, with the doing the trick, and then running past the camera. We shot that at the Monte Carlo hotel in 2010. And the scene in the wings, we shot in 2013, on the other side of town at Rory Johnson's church that he went to. They allowed us to shoot there. So, the two scenes that are supposed to be at the same time were shot three years apart in different locations.As we were shooting the first one, I knew in my mind what I wanted to do: I wanted him to run past the camera, and then I would pick it up. And the rest of the cast hadn't even been cast yet by the way. I didn't even know who the other actors were going to be. But I knew there was a scene over there. So, as they run past, I'll pick it up. Whenever we get to that three years later, we shoot the thing. Now I'm editing it together. So, now I take the music from the first part of the shot, playing during the trick and the audience reaction. You get the audience applauding and cheering, and they run past the camera and we go to the second shot. But you still hear the audio, you still hear the music playing, and you hear me out on stage going thank you and the audience applauding. And so now when you put it all together, it's like it's seamless. No one knows that that scene was shot three years apart. It's like a magic trick. It's an illusion. There's a good example of how the sound helps enhance the illusion. And there are a few magic tricks that we do on stage where sound is a very big part of the illusion.John: I don't know at what point in the process you read Robert Rodriguez's book, but he based El Mariachi on what he had available. He wrote the script based on the town, the bar, the tortoise, the dog, all of that. You seem to have done a very similar thing, in that I'm guessing you already had some footage you on stage or was it a relatively easy thing to get. For an average person, that's a really hard thing to get.Lance: Exactly. And I had to shoot all that before the show closed, because we were getting ready to close the show. So, we captured all of that all the stuff that had to be shot in the theatre, we captured that. John: But for the average person writing a script, to write that in a scene, you can't shoot that. The lights alone in the ceiling are more than your budget.Lance: And I was well aware that. I had this opportunity that we'd written it into the script and it's like, okay, I gotta shoot this now, because if I wait another two months, it's all going to be gone.John: Exactly. And I felt the same with the scenes in the casino, which would be I think, normally a difficult thing to do. But you obviously had a relationship to make those happen.Lance: The casino scenes, those were all shot afterwards. That was my buddy, John Woodrum, who owned this little casino called the Klondike. We wanted it to be a locals type Casino. I talked to a few of the casinos and some of them were like, yeah, we'd let you come in here and shoot, we have a coffee shop. How many days do you need it? And I'm going to myself, I don't know how long this is going to take to shoot. I never shot a movie before. And then finally I went over to see my buddy, John and I said, John, I've got this movie I'm shooting, and some of the action takes place in the casino. And there's a coffee shop and you've got a coffee shop. What would you think about a shooting here? And he looks at me says yeah, whatever you want. Come on in. I'm like, what? Come on, anytime. That's like, Okay, I found this. I found our location. John: You are a low-budget filmmaker at heart. You got all the tricks that are necessary to be good at this and you did it on your first movie. That's exceptional.Lance: It was a fun process and it's not dissimilar to shooting a television special or a TV show, but it is a little different. There is obviously magic in it. But you know, there's also the whole second element of the story and doing the scene and the acting and getting all the actors on the same page.John: And speaking of the actors, I was thrilled to see our friend Louie Anderson in there. He was a Twin Cities guy who I knew back when he was here and I had the good fortune of working with him a couple times in the corporate arena. And to see Johnny Thompson obviously having so much fun, it was just great. And then to see Mac kind of turn up. I don't want to spoil it. But he does turn upLance: Mac turns up there near the end of the film. It was great fun, being able to work with Johnny. To be able to direct your mentor is a really special thing and that was just so much fun working with Johnny, and he was just so good in this role.John: He was such a good actor, he really had that ability to turn it on. Lance: And Pam too. John: Oh, yeah, Pam was in there as well. It was just so much fun to see them just pop up like that.Jim: A delight, the whole thing was from start to finish was a delight. I watched it by myself after my wife went to bed and I just was giggling through the whole thing.Lance: Thank you. Here's my favorite story from the whole process. I had this idea to do the trick on the telephone, The Wizard, that that anybody that is amateur magician knows the trick. Well, when Michael and I were coming up with a storyline, I had this idea of using The Wizard as part of the kidnapping thing, to find out where the assistant was being held. In order to do that, of course, I had to show what The Wizard was. The reason I wanted to include that was I wanted kids especially to be able to watch the movie and then after the movie, I wanted them to be able to perform The Wizard for their friends. After we had our premiere, my wardrobe lady from the Monte Carlo—and she also did wardrobe on the movie—she called me like a week later. Her stepdaughter, who was in junior high school at that time, the little girl had gone to school the next day and had performed The Wizard for her friends. And when I heard that, I was like, yes, touchdown.John: Mission accomplished. Lance: Mission accomplished. It's exactly what I wanted. I wanted kids to go and actually perform a magic trick for their friends.Jim: But I really liked how you then turn it around and use it as a plot device. Lance: It's integral to the story. Yes, and those are those are especially the kind of things I like with magic in movies or TV shows: where you can take something and bring it back in later as a practical device.

Mushy songs, maple syrup for Jandro, & Mac King's crew pranks him.  Brought to you by Trade Coffee: https:/DrinkTrade.com/PennSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flow & tachypsychia on stage, changing prejudices with humor, & getting to know Nebraska with Mad Apple's emcee, Harrison Greenbaum.  Sponsored by Stamps.com:Stamps.com/Penn    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Harrison guested with us last summer, but after he was on the panel at Matt's ScoopFest, we recorded this bank episode.  Mimicking Penn's career path, naked comedy, & the worst way to compliment the cast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Gillespie from Reason completes his exploration of how the politics of the pandemic changed Penn's mind.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pictionary, the kiteboarding queen, & Goudeau's last pie before leaving Las Vegas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remembering Aye Jaye, Queen Elizabeth II, & September 11.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Moving strategies, angry Congregation mail, & being jealous of dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dee Snider's message to GOP candidates, the Grand Canyon vs. Mt. Rushmore, & a new beginning for Goudeau.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New exercise regimens, studying at a higher order of magnitude, & the upcoming civil war.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Goudeau just drove 3,000 miles, & then he drove 3,000 more, just to eat at Abbott's Amish dinner & leave his Uber at your door.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who books three jugglers for one cruise, how long does it take to drive to Alaska, & why are we so afraid?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a month of touring Australia, Penn & Teller return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Kangaroos, ibises, & the climax of the Sydney Opera House bit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Selling out the room, method clowning, & Piff's point of view on the bravest magic convention volunteer.  Make sure to watch Piff's comedy special Reptile Dysfunction on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Teller's prayer, Piff's new old comedy special, & how to budget a magic show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'll be honest: I have no idea what's in this one.  I've driven cross-country & back over the past two weeks & can't hold anything in my head more than a few minutes.  I remember Goudeau shows up.  Maybe someone else should be writing this.  Send your comments to:   QuestionPenn@gmail.com. Also, don't let this be your first episode ever.  You'll need Episode 824 (part 1) for context. -reddi-rich See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we tired of rehashing the topic of "women in magic"?  Turns out, we're not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

World records, touring in Alaska, & when sideshow arts go wrong, with magic's Lucy Darling. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Con techniques vs. magic techniques, 21 vs. Press Your Luck, & thinking fast vs. thinking slow. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Advice from Teller, John Stossell's Emmy, & the best explanation of stage hypnosis Penn's ever heard, with The World's Greatest Con host Brian Brushwood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some history of free speech, some solutions to new problems, & how to be sure you won't get sued, with our 1st Amendment attorney Bob Corn-Revere. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to properly curse on the radio, with the author of The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor's Dilemma. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

G. Gordon Liddy, Billy Joel, & the morality of hidden camera. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Secret, former, & mistaken identities of The Carbonaro Effect star & current guest resident of the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We allegedly solve abortion, wheat-borne listeria, & the greatest transportation-based clowning gag of all time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new venue near the Green Door, an old venue in Canada, & five of seven NDA violations survive the edit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Penn & Teller show is unrecognizable, a great reason to go back to college, & Criss Angel's international culinary debut. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Penn & Jeff Ross remember Gilbert Gottfried. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Goudeau does magic, Mac King does variety, & some people walk banks. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mac King joins Penn & Goudeau for the backstory on Penn & Teller's appearance on Fox's The Masked Singer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Teller's Theory of Mind, the romantic comedy grand gesture, & Penn connects the dots between the perspective of the lens & the perspective on humanity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not the best way to fall asleep on an airplane, not the best excuse to explore the southernmost continent, & not the best reason to lose optimism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How Penn & Teller should satirize themselves, QuestionPenn@gmail.com clarifications, & Penn's plans for visiting friends out of town. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An inappropriate joke during the birthday cake trick, David Copperfield's museum, & magic shop demonstrations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frog song, grape juggling, & gambling on chocolate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hollywood honey, a tribute act's 4th wall, & a controversial gift for the podcast crew. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrations of life, Lawrence O'Donnell's advice, & an odd predator/prey evolution. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How one man changed the course of a career & a city. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CB radio, competitive parenting, & how to tie your shoes properly. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The mutual fund of ending the world, the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino's cakes, & the importance of lights. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Volunteering celebrities in magic shows, escape artist Don Knotts, & a confession from Handsome Jack. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're Not Gonna Take It vs. Give Peace A Chance, what Penn, Jason Garfield, & Oprah Winfrey have in common, & we say goodbye to the Amazing Johnathan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tall funny people, unexpected celebrity lookalikes, & free food from Howard Stern. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Penn asks Gilbert about sports; Gilbert asks Penn about drugs.  Only Dara has any answers at all, & nobody knows icing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Banned commercials, working with deadmau5, & Penn may be throwing in the towel on American politics. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.