Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #155 - Keeping Secrets

Episode Date: September 5, 2014

Mark talks about keeping secrets secret.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today I thought I would answer a question that I get a lot, which is, what is the hardest part of your job? And the answer is, and this is an easy one, I get asked this all the time, the hardest part of my job is the amount of secrets I have to keep. part of my job is the amount of secrets I have to keep. Basically, what my job is, is I and the rest of R&D are trying to make an exciting game, something that we think players will get really excited about. And so we do that, we come up with it, but we work far ahead. And so, for example, for example, this week, I'm going to be going later in the week to Comic-Con. Now, for you guys, that happened probably two months ago.

So in June of 2013, I handed over my file to the development team. Hands off, June 2013. So July 2014 is the setting of Comic-Con. So that's 13 months later. That's the first time I'm even allowed to mention anything about concert arc here, other than the little tiny teaser I did in the spring. That's the first time I'm allowed to talk about it at all, and

really talk about it. I can't do that until it releases in October of 2014. So when I hand over a set, there is at least a 16-month gap between me handing it over and being able to talk about it. And remember, by that point, I've worked on it for a year in design and up to a year in pre-design, what we now call exploratory design. So I've been working, I mean, and sometimes I even plotted some stuff before that.

So, like, there are sets in which I figured out what we're doing because I plotted the seven-year plan. And then, like, it's years and years and years before I can talk about it. And that, by far, is the hardest thing I have to do. And the reason is we really, really pride ourselves in coming up with things we really think will excite the player base. You know, and remember, I'm a magic player. Before I was a magic R&D person, before I made magic, I played magic. And I still get excited. I remember when things happen, I, the magic player, will get excited. I'm like,

oh, that's so awesome! But one of the things that's really hard is, we'll come up with an idea. I'll be in a design meeting. Maybe I'm in exploratory design, and I come up with a really cool idea, or my team comes up with a really cool idea, and we're like, we've got to do that. It could be three years, four years before the public ever sees it, you know? And so, like, what I've learned to do is I've got to kind of hold it in and just keep in my excitement and then bottle it up and wait for when I finally get a towel. Because one of the things people always say is whenever I get a towel stuff, I seem so excited.

And they're like, you can't possibly be that excited. And I'm like, no, I've kept it pinned in for so long. So today I'm going to talk about some of the secrets I had to keep and sort of just walk through sort of different things I got to do. And then there's some funny stories of just sort of watching people come to realize things. And a few of the stories today were secrets leaked out a little bit. And anyway, today is all about secret keeping. And what I, like I say, what I consider the hardest part of my job.

Okay, we'll go back to the very beginning. So I first get to Wizards, and I am on Alliances. That's the first team I worked on. Now, if you remember, Alliances had the pitch cards, so Force of Will being the most famous. So the idea was that you could, without spending mana, you could discard a card, and a few cards like Force of Will also pay a life, to get an effect without having mana.

You could be tapped out and still cast these cards. Now that, I mean, it's funny how we look back that things that become such an established part of the game don't seem all that crazy. But at the time, it was crazy! I talked about this during my Alliances podcast. Like, there were members of the customer

service that felt like we were breaking a rule that just could not be broken in magic. So I knew we were doing something awesome. In fact, the story behind Force of Will real quickly is, so I'm on the team, the card was made, and it had some name, and I didn't like the name. I thought the name, like,

I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew, like, this was the card. Like, usually in the set there's just one or two cards that, like, the beacon of light shine on, like, oh, like, this is the card that's going to define the set, that's going to be the thing that all eyes are or two cards that, like, the beacon of light shine on, like, ah! Like, this is the card that's going to define the set, that's going to be the thing that all eyes are drawn to. And, like, I knew it was Force of Will. Um, but

it had some name. I forget what the name was. It was a goofy name. It wasn't a name that said, you know, that said, ah! Um, and so, I went to the people that were doing names, and I said, you know, I think this needs a better name. And the response to them, the response to me, or, sorry, their response to me was, okay, think this needs a better name. And the response to them, the response to me, or sorry, their response to me was, okay, come up

with a better name. And so I spent, I don't know, I spent hours and hours looking for things, and finally I came up with Force of Will. And I thought that was the best name ever. And I went back to them, and I go, how about Force of Will? And they're like, eh, it's okay. It's like, no, no, no, it's really good. And I'm like,

come on, guys, this needs a dynamite name. This is a dynamite name. And I finally convinced them to change it to Force of Will. So anyway, that's... Oh, by the way, okay, my little tangent. It turns out I had two influences on Force of Will. I thought my only influence on Force of Will, by the way, was that I named it. But it turns out...

So when I do this podcast, there's a guy named Chris Page, who's one of the original Playtefters, who was on the East Coast Playtefters, who did Alliances. He's on the design team for Alliances. So whenever I do a podcast, he always listens to it, and then he sends me information to tell me things that I did not know.

So one of the things he told me was, he was one of the editors. I did a puzzle book, And he and I think Beth Morrison were the two editors for my book. And then Charlie Cattino also. The three of them worked on my book. Charlie, I guess, was my editor. And then Chris and

Beth Morrison, who was one of the rules managers way back when, would test my deck to make sure that it was working within the rules. They were sort of puzzle testers. Anyway, so it turns out that my puzzle inspired Chris that he was trying to think of a way when you had like a lockdown situation that you could have an answer.

And so Chris told me that one of the inspirations for the picture cycle was my puzzles. So indirectly, anyway, I thought that was very nice. Very sweet of Chris to say that. So anyway, okay, I thought that was very nice. Very sweet of Chris to say that. So anyway, okay, sorry. Going off on a tangent. So I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew that Force of Will was going to be this thing. You know, and I was, like I said,

I worked really hard to make sure it had a cool name. And, oh, in fact, the other thing is Force of Will... Oh, no, no, I'm thinking of a different thing. Sorry. Anyway, so I'm excited. And I want this set to come out. So I get there in 2015.

So we were working on alliances, and we handed it off. Now, it turns out that the elapse between when we turned things over and when they got out to the public was shorter back then because I worked on it in the fall of 2015, and it came out in the spring of 2016. We're way ahead now. But even then, even though I did it in, I don't know, what was it, six months, nine months wait? It seemed like eternity.

I'm like, oh, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. And I remember that the pre-release for Alliances happened at a pro tour on the boat in Los Angeles. We always used to do the pro tours. I had an old podcast about tales from the boat. The Queen Mary. So we were on the boat in Los Angeles. We always used to do the pro tours. I had an old podcast about Tales from the Boat. The Queen Mary. So we were on the Queen Mary. It was one of the early pro tours. And at the event, we had the pre-release.

I mean, the pre-release wasn't just there, but one of the places the pre-release was held was on the boat. And I remember watching people open up packs. And I just, like, one of the things that's awesome, that's really, really fun, is, especially when I was younger, is I used to go to every preview so I could get my hands on

because I love watching people open cards. I mean, it's a little harder now with the Family of Five. I get out as much as I can and I really try to get to sets that I did. But I used to go to every preview release and that one of my favorite things is watching people open cards.

So, oh, so I'll transition to a different story. In Invasion, we did the split cards. So for those that don't know the history of the split cards, I think I talked about this during the Invasion podcast, but the real short version is that I originally came up with the split cards for Unglue 2. That was the unset that never got made. And the inspiration for them was the most popular card from Unglue

had been BFM, which was a creature so big, a 9999 creature, that it had to go on two cards. So I reversed it. I said, well, people like a magic card that's so big it's on two cards. How about magic cards so small that two of them fit on one card? And I came up with the idea of just cards

that you have two options. You can do card A or card B. Unglue 2 got killed, but I really liked the concept. So when we were doing Invasion, I went to Bill, who was in charge of Invasion. I was on the Invasion team. And I said, Bill, these would be perfect. Now, it was a long uphill battle, but eventually we actually got them made

the way I had always intended. Two small cards on a card. And then, somebody got a hold of a printing sheet from the printers and it was up on, I don't know, it was on the internet. Somehow, someone had pictures of the

press sheet, and on it was the split cards, and I was deflated. We had purposely not shown the split cards in any of the previews, that we wanted it to be this, there was five split cards at Uncommon in the set. We had purposely not shown the split cards in any of the previews. There was five split cards at Uncommon in the set. We wanted to be this total, like, oh my god, what is this? And we didn't tell anybody about it.

And so there was this, like, one of the things that I talked about, I wrote a whole article about this, is how I feel about leaks. And here's my official stance on leaks, which is we work really hard to create something that's exciting. And a lot of what we do, a lot of what I do, is to try to build hype before a set comes out. And I want to maximize excited players. I want players to be at a fever pitch when the set

comes out, so they're so excited for the set. And to do that, you have to be very careful sort of how you put out information so that you build up to what you want. And so we spend a lot of time thinking about how we put out things. So when things leak, when things come out that aren't supposed to come out, and they always come out not in the order you want, and sometimes with missing information, and it's just not ideal. I know people say, oh no, it's awesome. It makes me more invested. And like, look, we will put out information. We know you want information, and we will put it out. And we put it out in a lot of different places so that, you know, you can learn it through social media. But when we actually plan it, it comes out much, much better than when it kind of, like, when it gets spoiled,

it's just somebody taking whatever they see, taking the most interesting thing, not putting it in context, and just throwing it out there, sometimes getting it incorrect. So, anyway, I'm not a fan of leaks. Not a fan. Okay, so in the invasion, the sheet comes out, and the split cards are a picture of a sheet, of the uncommon sheet with the split cards on it.

And so players are talking about, on the internet, what are these? And it was hilarious, which is they were bending over backwards to come up with any reason it would be something other than what it just was. Like, my favorite was for people that thought we hadn't yet decided. These were test sheets, and we hadn't decided which of the two cards we wanted. So we put them both on there to signify that one of these two would be on the sheet.

Anyway, so it gets out there. People don't know quite what to make of it because it's pretty weird. So anyway, I go to the Invasion pre-release. So the Invasion pre-release I went to, Wizards of the Coast used to have a series of stores, and in the U District, the University of Washington District,

there was a big tournament center. And in the basement, we had a giant place for it to play, and we'd have big pre-releases there. So I went to the tournament center to watch the pre-release. So I go down in the basement, we had a giant place for it to play, and we'd have big pre-releases there. So I went to the tournament center to watch the pre-release. So I go down to the basement, packed, packed with people playing in the Invasion pre-release, and I watch this one person. And it was clear, like, talking to players, there was a lot of talk about the split cards, but I realized that not everybody knew. So I'm watching this one guy open a pack,

and he opens a pack, and one of the tells that someone's looking at a split card is they tend to turn it sideways, because to read it upright, it has to be sideways. So I see a guy open a pack, I see him turn the card sideways, and his brow furrows, and he's like staring at it, and then all of a sudden, like a light bulb goes off in his head, like he figures out what it is, and this giant smile comes to his face. And he taps his friend on the shoulder, and he shows the friend the card, and the friend has the same, like, furrowed brow, like, what is that? And then his friend, like, says something, and then his friend smiles, you know, and

it was just like watching the people discover that, just watching the moment of discovery. That is one of my favorite things. So people always ask, okay, during preview season, do you pay attention to what people say? Yes, I pay attention to what people say. It's like, I worked really hard on this. I want to see what people have to say about my things. Now, be aware, it requires having a thick skin.

In general, dealing with the public requires a thick skin because everybody will love something and everybody will hate something. No matter what you do, that you may spend hours and days and months and years like perfectly crafting and making something you're so proud of and someone will read it and two seconds later go, that's horrible.

I hate it. Now, the important thing is I try to understand why people say that. Sometimes it's a say that. Sometimes it's a gut reaction. Sometimes they just think it's weak when it's not. And so it's very, very interesting to me to always listen. You know, one of the things that I try to do is I like hearing feedback, even negative feedback, because within negative feedback is honest to God constructive criticism. It's not always worded constructively, but when people say things, there's things that they mean that's important.

You know, and that you want to read through the emotion to the underlying, like, what is it that's really driving? What are they trying to say? You know, and some people won't say it nicely, and as I say on my blog, I prefer people to say things nicely. There's no reason you have to be rude. You can, like, if you dislike something,

I'm fine with you saying, I dislike it. In fact, I don't even take offense to someone saying, you know what, I played that, I wasn't real fond of that. You know? R&D does that all the time. Like, I will spend a lot of time and energy making a new mechanic, someone will play it, and I go, what do you think? They go, yeah, that was horrible. I hated that. You know? And that's kind of how we function in R&D. So I'm used to criticism. I'm not saying people need to like everything. And if people don't like something, I want to know why.

You know, part of one of my goals is I don't mind making mistakes. I just don't want to make the same mistakes. And if I do something and it doesn't work out, okay, well, why? So next time I don't do it that way. Let me make a new mistake. Okay, talking secrets. Okay, another big one was Scars of Mirrodin. Okay. So I talked about this. Did I do a Scars of Mirrodin podcast yet? I'm not sure. But anyway. So

what happened was ever since Legends came out, in Legends there were two cards that had the poison mechanic. And the poison mechanic was when you hit the opponent with a creature, it gave them a poison counter, and then if they had poison counters, they lost the game. So it was an alternate win condition. But a flavorful alternate win condition. So I love poison. I say, woohoo, poison.

And I think there's one card, I think, in the dark. So I get to Wizards, and Lion's doesn't have any poison in it. Next up is Mirage. Mirage has one poison creature. Then I think Vision has one poison creature. And then Arnie decides, you know what? We're not doing poison anymore.

And I'm like, what? What? No! No! And so I argue with them. I go, no, poison's really cool. Poison's really cool. And they're like, eh.

I mean, the thing at the time was Poison had always been really, really weakly. And my argument was, look, people love it. It's horrible when people love it. That's a good sign. If people absolutely, like, must play it and it's horrible, that speaks volumes of it. That's my big argument

why we did Tribal in the first place, which was people were making Tribal decks when they were horrible. You know, they were just terrible. But people enjoyed playing them. I'm like, that's a sign of something people really emotionally connect to. Anyway, I lost that fight. So that was in, back in, we were designing Mirage back in 95,

because it came out in 96. So I vowed, then and there, that I would try to bring Poison back to Magic. And then in Unglue 2, I tried to bring it back, and that got put on a hiatus. And then in Tempest, I tried to bring poison back to magic. And then in Unglue 2, I tried to bring it back, and that got put on hiatus. And then in Tempest, I tried to bring it back, and that got taken out of the set in development. In Unglue 2, I tried to bring it back,

that got put on hiatus. So years later, I'm doing Scars of Mirrodin, and I'm like, oh, the Phyrexians. And I realize that there's a golden moment where the Phyrexians being this invasive realized that there's a golden moment where, like, the Phyrexians being this invasive force that I'm trying to get a sense of a disease, and I'm like, oh, poison works perfectly. It works perfectly.

I came up with the infection. My team and I came up with the infection mechanic, and, like, this is a thing of beauty. After 14 years, it took 14 years for me to bring poison back to the game, right? But I had, from the moment I knew that Poison was coming back, which was early in design, to the point at which

the public could see it, I think was three years. Three years. Now imagine you love something, because I love Magic. Magic is my favorite game, hands down. And, I mean, it's a passion.

Obviously I love my job, if you can't tell that. And one of the reasons I love my job is I'm doing something that, I have a it's a passion. Obviously, I love my job, if you can't tell that. And one of the reasons I love my job is I'm doing something that I have a great affinity for magic. I believe magic is a great force of good in the world. I believe it brings happiness to people. It brings people together. It teaches good life skills.

That is just a good, wonderful thing. And that I want to make it as good as I can. I want to bring fun things to it. And it was my quest to bring poison back to magic. So I'd done can. I want to bring fun things to it. And it was my quest to bring Poison back to Magic. So I'd done it. I'd finally done it. And there's a point at which it was locked. It was in the set.

It wasn't leaving. I mean, early, early design, I didn't know that. It had to make it through the rest of the design. It had to make it through development. But there's a point where I'm watching the slideshow, and they show me, you know, I remember when I saw cards up on the, whenever I see it in the slideshow, that's like, it's done. Like, we're done.

There's art. There's names. Therehow, that's like, it's done. Like, we're done. There's art, there's names, there's Slate Protect, it's done. So when I see it, when I'm not sure whether something will make it to print, it's when I see it in the slideshow

that I start to finally let a sigh out. I'm like, oh, it made it. And so when I see the slideshow, which is still months, I mean,

months and months and months before the public will ever know, you know, I was like, okay, I did it, I did it, woohoo! And then, here's the hard part. This is one of the trickiest things is let's take poison, for example, is I'll do poison and I'll be an advocate

on social media. I'm like, I love poison, poison's great, I want to bring poison back. People go, you should bring poison back. And I'll go, yeah, yeah, I want to bring poison back. But behind the scenes, I brought poison back. And that, so people will bug me to get poison when I have, behind the scenes, made poison. When poison's in a set.

And then I have to act all nonchalant because I can't tell them I made poison. Poison's in a set. So, that's one of the hard things, is that sometimes they'll do something and like, you know, for example, I get asked all the time for things that people want. You know, people wanted us to return to Ravnica.

I knew we were returning to Ravnica. You know, people, the things people want. I'm like, I know, I know we have it. And they'll come on and they'll plead with me. And they'll plead with me how much they want and how great they think it'll be. And I just have to, like, stay mum. me how much they want and how great they think it'll be. And I just have to like stay mum. Okay, another great reveal, another awesome reveal was Unhinge. I talked about this a little bit in my podcast on Unhinge. So what happened was we wanted to do a fun reveal.

Because I get asked all the time. At the time, for example, we had made Unhinge, people were like, when are you making your second Unset? And I'd done Unglue 2, but that hadn't happened. And so I wanted to do some fun reveal. And so the idea we came up with was the timing worked out so that on April Fool's Day, I could announce it. So I did this article where I said, hey, guess what? Unhinge is coming out. The second unset's coming out.

It's called Unhinge. And then I did it like, you know, the article was written like, hey, it's coming out. The second unset's coming out. It's called Unhinge. And then I didn't, like, you know, the article was written, like, hey, it's coming out. Unless this is an April Fool's joke. But, you know, if we did come out, like, wouldn't this be a perfect time to do it? You know, and so I did this thing where I really sort of, like, try to make it sound like maybe I'm joking, maybe I'm not. And like I said, we did a poll, and 50.1 I said, we did a poll and 50.1% believed it was coming out and 49.9% believed it was the April Fool's joke.

Which is about as good as you can get for the audience. But that was another one where people have been asking forever and like we did it, but I had to hold it in. And like I said, the cool, cool cool cool

part of my job is it is so much fun making decisions where I just know it's going to bring happiness to people you know what I'm saying one of the things Return to Ravnica we announced Return to Ravnica

it's just the name at PAX East a couple years ago PAX East before it was going to come out. And we had a videotape. We recorded it. I was telling. And in the videotape, which we showed around, there's two people right in front of the camera hugging. We announced it.

They're so excited. They're hugging each other. That feels good. That feels good. When you get to do something and just, you know, you just can see the euphoria like that. There is no greater joy in my job than just seeing people happy, just seeing people so excited by what you're doing, you know. And one of the things that I have a lot of fun, I'll admit, is I have a great time teasing the audience.

Like I have information. I know they want it. I know I can't, you know, I know there's a time and place I'm allowed to tell them. And so I have tried to perfect the art form of teasing information. And my blog is a perfect place, by the way. So if you've never listened, I have a blog called Blogatog

where I answer questions. I answer a lot of questions. And whenever I can, I sneak in little bits of information. Sometimes I'm more open about it. Sometimes you realize I'm giving you a clue. Sometimes I hide it. Because I answer so many questions that I can ask,

people can ask very blatant, on-the-nose questions, and I can sort of go, yeah, maybe. And people don't necessarily realize that I'm giving them a clue. Like I said, I can hide some of my clues in plain sight. So, one thing that's fun, I know people do this, is go back and read old blog talk things, and you're like, he just said that! He just said that! How did we miss this? He just said it!

And I can do that, and it's kind of fun. And so, but, I mean, and like I said, one of the big joys of, like, the hardest thing about my job is having to hold things in. The joy of my job, or one of the joys of my job, is getting to finally tell people. And like I said, people sometimes doubt my excitement.

People actually, like, I think, I mean, people said, is he really that excited? I don't think any one, I don't think one human being can get that excited. And then people who know me go, no, he really gets that excited. I do not fake my excitement. Now, I'm easily too excited, but, I mean, it's not, to be fair, part of my job is to figure out what I think will excite players,

and then I do that, and then I'm excited because I know you guys will be excited, and, like I stressed earlier, I'm a magic player. I, too, get excited. Like, when we do things that are cool that I know magic players will love, well, I am a magic player i too get excited like when we do things that are cool that i know magic players will love well i am a magic player i get excited you know

and that i think to be honest so people have asked about the special sauce what is the special sauce of wizards r&d i'm going to tell you not even wizards r&d magic in general um because we spread around the secret sauce beyond just r&d the The secret to the secret sauce is having people who make the game who love the game. Because one of the things, and I talk about this in my podcast, that I feel responsibility to Magic that supersedes my responsibility to Wizards of the Coast. No, no, no. It's my job. I'm paid good money.

I mean, I believe that I need to be a. No, no, no. I haven't, you know, it's my job. I'm paid good money. You know, I mean, I believe that I need to be a good employee. And I am. But there is almost something that goes beyond that. That magic, magic has a force.

As just a force of good in the universe has done so much good for me. I mean, I, you know, it's given me my dream job. I met my wife. It's helped me build my dream home. I've traveled the world.

I get to be a little mini celebrity. I mean, it's done all sorts of awesome, awesome things. And I feel like I need to pay it back. I need to, sorry, pay it forward. I need to pay it forward and pay it back. I guess those are both expressions, which both actually apply. To me, I feel like I'm one of the key people guiding this awesome, awesome force of good

in the world. That it brings happiness. And it just, it does lots and lots of good things. And I've shared stories about just in fact, I did an article not long ago where I asked people to talk about positive things, positive impact magic has had on their lives. And I put a whole bunch of

articles up. I put a whole bunch of letters up. And each letter was only 200 words long or less. And I put up like over 6,000 words of letters. And I got 14,000 words of letters. And I just couldn't put it all in letters. But I mean, it is really humbling to read letters where you find out the impact the game has on people. And the fact that I get to be one of the people that does that,

it's a great honor, and it is something I take very seriously, and that I feel duty-bound to make magic awesome. I mean, that goes beyond my job. It is my job. I mean, obviously, for my job, I wanted to be awesome too. But just as a personal, almost like an ethical thing, as just a core to my being, that I want magic to do good. And I believe that R&D feels that way. That R&D sees magic as something over and above

just being a job. That it is something special that we are the caretakers of. And we treat that really, really seriously. I mean, the amount of time and energy that we are the caretakers of. And we treat that really, really seriously. I mean, the amount of time and energy that we go over every nook and cranny. There's not a decision that we make that we do not agonize over, that we do not argue over, that we do not, you know... One of the things that we do is we talk about everything.

Everything goes under a fine-tooth comb. Because people ask me all the time, like, I'm the head designer. Why am I constantly having to fight for my things? And the reason is, that's how we get things good. If just I could rubber stamp stuff and it goes through, it wouldn't be as good. I have to prove that everything I do, doesn't matter that I've been doing this job for over 19 years, I've got to prove that every single thing I do is worthy, and if it's not worthy, it ain't going in.

And I'm not above that. I have to make sure that everything we do is of the uppermost tier. The reason I... I hands down believe Magic is the best game ever made. The best game ever made. And the reason for that is that there are so many people

pouring their heart and soul into making it. And there's so many people playing it who are giving us feedback. One of the things you don't... Maybe you understand, maybe you don't,

but the reason I do blog talka-tog, the reason that I do all the social media that I do is to be a head designer, to continue to evolve Magic, and Magic is an ever-evolving game. I need to understand what it's doing. I need to understand who's playing and why they're playing and what's fun about it, and I need to keep my

finger on the pulse. And that's why I do so much social media. Like, I want to hear from you. And the reason that Magic is awesome is, A, the people working on it, I think, really, really care. And the people playing it really care. And you guys give us amazing feedback. And that is a big part of why I think Magic keeps getting better,

is we keep getting feedback from our audience and applying it, and that we just keep, we constantly innovate. I talk about how creative work is innovation. Well, Magic is nothing but innovation. It's just a game that constantly innovates. You know, just as we innovate to make the game, the game itself innovates to make it better. It's a self-innovating game.

Why is magic so awesome? Because it constantly improves itself. Anyway. I got a little off topic there, although not that much off topic. But that, my friends, is all the secrets about the secrets. Or some of the secrets about the secrets. But I had fun sharing with you today. And like I said, next time you see me and I seem really excited,

and you want to doubt that I'm excited, I swear to you, I actually, actually am very excited. I both am very excitable, and I love, love, love what I do, and I love magic, and I love telling all you about it, because it's cool stuff. So anyway, thanks for joining me.

I parked the car, and it's time for me to be making magic. Talk to you guys next time.