SW:    We have talked about competency and mastery.

QR:     It takes about 600 hours to achieve competency in any subjects.  But to achieve mastery, it may require 6,000 hours.

SW:    Tell me about professional speaking.

QR:     I saw an ad and bought a couple of audio tape programs in 1989.  Both were by top professional speakers. As I liked to speak, I inspired myself by saying, “I want to do that.”

SW:    And you became interested in intuition?  Was that partly because of what you had done with illusions?

QR:     Without consciously realizing it, I always followed my intuition. I did stand out from the others in school.  I was more introverted from most of the other boys in the class.  My interest in magic of course helped there.  I had always followed my inner voice. 

SW: So how did you get started?

QR:  One Christmas, I was talking to a neighbour on the subject of intuition.  She had asked me about my career and how and why.  I said, “Well, I always listened to what was inside me.”  She ran a local ladies club and asked if I would come along and talk on that subject because they were always looking for speakers.  So I put together a 45 minute talk and I went along and they were very pleased.

Looking back, it was a very basic talk, but I thought that was the end of it.  It must have gone better than I thought because I started getting calls from other ladies clubs who had heard about it.  So over time and from the questions asked by audience members, I made notes and eventually published a book on this subject called “Intuition: Your Secret Power.”

The biggest flaw in western civilization is the “follow the herd” instinct. People are so hypnotized by doing what everyone else is doing that their own inner voice becomes muffled and drowned with the clutter of outside noise.

SW:    I have read your book and found it very worthwhile.  How many talks have you given on intuition?

QR:     Maybe 900.

SW:    Because you talk for other magicians, you have become the magician’s magician.  What is the most famous magic place in the United Kingdom?  I know you have spoken there.

QR:     The Magic Circle in London

SW:    In the U.S.?

QR:     I have spoken at many meetings, but the main one is The World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas.

SW:    How many attendees?

QR:     About 1,000 attendees.

SW.    You recently lectured in the Netherlands.

QR:     Yes, it was at what we call the FISM.  It is held every three years and it is the biggest and most prestigious meeting of magicians in the world. I  gave two sessions – the only sessions where the doors had to be closed because the room was crowded.

SW:    Tell me about your CD course for magicians.

QR:     I have developed a course for magicians who want to develop as children’s entertainers.  It is a mixture of DVDs, CDs and manuals.  It is perfect for someone who is starting off or is already a semi-professional.  It will knock three years off of their learning curve.

SW:    Could knock it five years off of their learning career?

QR:     It certainly can if they are beginners. They get seven complete forty minute shows with comprehensive details on how the shows are put together and why. By putting the principles into practice the magician will double the reaction to his show.

SW:    Tell me about your memory program.

QR:     For 10 years, children go to school and they are given huge chunks of information and they are never given a system to remember that information.  I developed a fifty minute program where I teach the students the principles of memory training. They astonish themselves because at the end they can do many things they would have thought impossible beforehand like saying the alphabet backwards. I’m now licensing this program to other presenters.

SW:    Tell me about your hobbies and their results.