Anna DeGuzman explains how she became a professional magician through content creation

I love cards. I'm known for cards, but I actually feel like I want to try something different today

I want to do magic with the mind. I saw that you got your start with magic, with illusionist, by doing card artistry online, right

And that's you learned from online videos. I did from YouTube. I watched you do that

So could you tell me a little bit about when you were learning? Was it always your intention to make your own content

Yes. I mean, I was watching because I wanted to make videos that other people could learn from because magic is kind of gatekeepy, right

Naturally, you have to keep the secrets. But how else is anyone supposed to learn and start

So I do like sharing ideas with people. And then from there, people can watch and make it their own and then come up with new ideas and methods

Can you tell me a little bit about, too, like what the state of like the online magic community was when you got started versus how it's evolved to now

I think magic is so much more accessible now. Which also makes the art need to elevate to keep up

Because now you're like, okay, how do I make sure this is 360 proof

And if people play it back in slow motion, they still don't figure it out. Like, that's not how a lot of, like, magic or mentalism works anyway

So it's okay. But back then, there wasn't that many resources. It was from books, like old school books

Like, you really had to search for the answer. And now it's a lot more accessible

But I do still think the best stuff is stuff, like, you can't find. And then for your magic that you do on stage, since you've been a content creator, you've been making stuff online

Like you said, it kind of upped the ante with what you needed to do for a trick. Do you feel like being a content creator has influenced the way that you perform on stage as well

Definitely. Because when I was creating my show, my live show, I'm thinking a little bit like if someone pulled out their phone in the middle of the show

which you're not, you shouldn't do, right? You're supposed to like keep it private, not pull out your phone in the middle of the show

But if you do and you're like recording and you posted it on Instagram, what is that 15 second clip look like

You know, like I think in visuals, like if someone were to watch your story of my show and they only saw 15 seconds

Is that like a captivating visual that makes you go, oh, that's interesting. What's happening? I want to see that show

So that's how I think about routines, about how people not there watching it would think about it

So you have like the people in the audience who are filming you. but then like obviously you also making your own content So I curious with being in the stage of your career that you at now like you are a professional magician you have your own live show How do you think about the role of yourself as a content creator

within that bucket of your career? You need to be thinking about socials

It is part of the game. There's no escaping it. It is something I tell everybody in my field

because again, magic is something like you're not supposed to film the show. You're not supposed to show your live show into the public

because then why would they pay for a ticket to see you live? But they have to because now, wow, if they see your video of your live show

they're going to want to experience it for themselves in person to know, like, oh, it wasn't a video trick or it wasn't edited

So it's actually counterintuitive. A lot of people fought it for so long, like, oh, I don't want to post my show

Like, you can't see it other than in person. But nowadays, it is what feeds the cycle of, like, the content also helps the live gigs and back and forth

How do you get inspiration for your content? Like, do you ever find yourself being like, oh, I've already done, like, these tricks

Like, I need to keep it fresh, or does it feel pretty organic? What is that like for you

Creating a new illusion is really fun. I don't know if my process is like a lot of other people

I think they're told, you know, you need to practice this many times before you show it to the public

I like to take risks, and a lot of the times I'm doing stuff for the first time, which, like, a lot of, like, professional magicians would be like, you shouldn't do that

like, you know, because that's risky to the art, you know, if you get exposed or whatever

But, like, honestly, like, what is, like, there's a thrill in knowing, like, this is something that I'm doing for the first time

And, like, let's see if it works together. Like, that's what magic really should feel like, right

Like, it shouldn't feel like everything's set up and, oh, I've done this before so we know it's going to work

Like, I'm going to give you an example. Like, you know those escapes? Like, straightjacket escapes

Yes. Yeah, those escapes. I'm like, okay, if someone's doing a show five days a week doing escapes, every time you're like, okay, he survives

You know, a part of you needs to feel like, oh, he's never done this before. And like, there's a chance it can go wrong

That's why you watch shows live. You kind of want to see if it can go wrong

The magic is the risk. Yes. I know that you've talked about how magic can be a bit of a male-dominated space

You were the first woman magician to get to the finale of America's Got Talent, which is so cool

You worked with the Magic Castle, which is incredible. You did your research. I did my research

So with that in mind, I was wondering if you had any other women in the space who you wanted

to call out as creators you admire as magicians you admire yeah that you think people should be checking out out well i mean i gonna throw it back to juliana chen who is the og female magician card manipulator

i had the pleasure of meeting her and doing a show with her it was my first time meeting her

she was a name in magic and you know in there's only so many female magicians that when i finally

met she's someone who I've heard of and been like compared to for so long that I I was so like in

awe of her she has so many accolades of like first female magician to win fism who's Chinese like

so Asian female magician like it was just something like I had not seen and the fact that she's still

doing it and she's toured all over the world she's truly an inspiration for me she doesn't really do

a lot of content she's definitely like more behind the scenes not behind the scenes more like I always

say the best magicians are the ones you haven't heard of yet and she's like a magician's magician

like I feel like we we know her we adore her but I think more people should check her out super

underground deep yeah yeah all right awesome well if you want to wrap up if you would love to do

a magic trick for us we'd love to see it I love cards I'm known for cards but I actually feel like

I want to try something different today um I want to do magic with the mind this is like

sleight of hand right so we're gonna do magic with the mind instead we just met

today we've never met before never met before you confirmed like you know where

yes I remember my mat for you know how all these cards are different do you see yes

yeah do you want to shuffle here like oh god go ahead just take like a handful of

these yeah yeah hey good you know how to mix them like I can do do them I could do a little

little of this maybe okay not my forte maybe a little bit about fine peregrine we'll do one of

these oh wow yeah okay go ahead and I'll take this okay let's do this we're gonna make some

all together. Let's do that. Sorry you're making me nervous Bethany. No I'm sorry I'm sorry

Okay. Cool. Go ahead and like touch like three the backs of three but don't look at them

Okay One Okay Keep that up Two And also next three Which one was this one or this one Are you sure Are you sure Positive You don want to change I don want to change Okay we going to stick these out so that they are outside of the deck

Perfect. Okay. Can you hold on your hand? Put the other hand on top

The other hand on top? Basically. All right, you could have chosen any of these cards

I want you to think of somebody right now. Let's take it back. Respectfully, you're in a relationship, aren't you

I'm dating, yeah. Yeah, I don't know about well But when you were a kid like did you have a celebrity crush? I did have a celebrity

Do you have somebody in mind and and like you're thinking about this person and there's no way I could have known who this was right

Yes, okay, um You didn't tell me did you write it down? No. Did you whisper it to somebody you never said it out loud? No, okay

I'm getting like were you a Disney kid? I was a Disney kid. Yeah, I'm getting Disney but I was a Disney kid

I feel like that I would I think we have a similar celebrity crush okay okay

I'm getting like it's not really an actor it's more of a musician okay look at me spell the name

of this person he's not that tall he's not that tall is he but it's let's think of one of the

letters in his name there's not that many letters in his first name can you count how many letters

are in his name like that oh yeah you're already like yeah because it's a short name because if it

was like a long name like seven or eight letters you'd have to think about it for a second yeah think of the one of the letters are you thinking of the first letter yes uh say the letter in your

head like j j j j j is it joe jonas yes that's crazy oh my god and then you're holding on to

these cards right yeah you could have picked any card you saw you shuffled them right you touched

any of them and i guess you had to change that last one was like yeah yeah can you go ahead and

flip these cards one at a time. These ones. Yeah. And see a J, Jack, O

Next one. Maybe it's episode. Is there a J in there? The Jack

Not this time. No. I was going to spell like Joe. Like Jack

Eight, Ace. Well, Ace is kind of like heartthrob. He's like, yeah

Right, right. Well, Ace is also kind of like a one. So this is like eight, one, five

Do you know when Joe Jonas' birthday is? Oh my god. August 15th

Our Leo King? Our Leo King. Yes, I'm also a Leo, so he's my twin

That is crazy. Thank you so much for having me at Bashful. Oh my god, thank you so much. Thank you