The Sad End to the Unnamed Magician Saga

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So here's how this played out.

A month or so ago, an announcement was put on the Magic Cafe for the Ultimate Open Prediction.

Now, there were a number of clues that what was being offered was being wildly mischaracterized at best and completely fabricated at worst.

Some people seem to think I was calling the trick fake just because I couldn't figure it out. Guys… I can't figure most shit out. Do you see me here calling other tricks fake in the 11-year history of the site?

No. There were obvious tells in the write-up that the trick wasn't legitimate, and that's why I called it out.

It was at that point I made my $20,000 offer for the rights to sell the first 200 copies of the effect. Did I want to have to pay out on that? Honestly, yes. I would have been happy to. I would have been happy to be wrong, and it wouldn't be difficult for me to find 200 people to sell this to. But I knew it was unlikely to be the case.

Later I heard from someone in the know (we'll call him Mr. X) who told me that I was right. While UM did have a trick to sell, it was not really anything like what was being suggested in the post on the Cafe.

It's at this point that UM ends up writing me, I post his email, and he gets upset with me for posting the full thing. When I asked what the problem was, he said he was upset that I let it be known that what he was selling was not a psychological force.

I replied to him, "Don't you WANT to clarify to people that it's not a psychological force? Won't that help your sales? What you have is something that is supposedly much more reliable."

It was all pretty confusing.

Recently he wrote me to tell me he wouldn't be taking my $20,000 offer. Why? Because he had an offer that was multiples of that number made to him, apparently.

Okay, sure.

Well, I informed him, that's okay. Because my offer is $5000 above whatever his highest offer is.

UM replied to me:

"They'll be offering more than whatever you will be, as they want the effect at all costs."

So I told UM that I would surpass any offer on the table. We are fully in Ridiculousland at this point. I'm now in a bidding war with an imaginary person for a non-existent trick.

And that's where things stood last night.

At the same time I was getting emails from a supporter (we'll call him The Uncircumcised Magician) who believed he had come up with a trick that met all the conditions laid out in the original Cafe post. It didn't really. Only if you seriously contort what "no dual reality" and "if you were the participant, you would experience the effect exactly as you do while watching the video" means. But it was interesting guess.

At first I just thought he had sort of cleverly crafted a bad trick that also seemed to match up somewhat with the conditions for UM's trick. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe he had hit on what UM actually planned to market.

So I reached out to Mr. X again and asked if The Uncircumcised Magician's method was close. And he told me that it was more or less the same thing (he doesn’t know the exact method, but knows the general deception being used).

So I then reached out to the Unnamed Magician to rescind my offer earlier today.

It's not my place to explain what the actual trick is. But I will explain where you're being lied to…

You're not buying the trick in the video. You're buying a longer, more complicated, worse trick. If you perform it for someone, film it, and chop off the first half… then you'll have the trick in the video which you can show to a third party as the Ultimate Open Prediction. The person you actually perform for doesn't experience the "ultimate open prediction," nor does anyone watching it being performed live.

The promotional post said "no dual reality." That’s true for the trick that was performed on the girl. But the trick you experienced watching the demo video is quite different than the trick the girl experienced taking part in it. That's the definition of dual reality.

I'm going to give the Unnamed Magician the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he saw this as a scam, necessarily. Much of the material he has released in the past are things you'd be unlikely to perform for regular people. They are "magician foolers." So he's spent years seeing magicians not as his peers, but as the marks.

And I have a feeling that thinking warped him a little. And when he decided to market this trick he realized he could almost "fool" magicians into thinking they were getting one thing when actually he could only deliver something else. I don't think he saw that as a problem at first. Maybe he thought people would think it was clever. The way they think it's clever how you skirt around the conditions in a good magician-fooler.

But then I think it dawned on him that this was going to be a big letdown to people when they realized what it was. And this is probably when he came up with the "$100 pre-sale" route—which is unlike any way he's ever sold anything in the past. That approach ideally allows for a nice payday before bad word-of-mouth sinks the product.

So now you have the full(ish) story. My offer to help the Unnamed Magician rehabilitate his image after this if he ever chooses to someday is still on the table, but otherwise, I'm hopefully done talking about it.

UPDATE: Ugh… maybe I’m not done writing about this. We’ll see. The Unnamed Magician tells me Mr. X is lying to me, and that there’s no way he knows the real method. If that’s the case, then I feel comfortable sharing the method that Mr. X confirmed for me and I will do that in the near future.

What's the Worst Thing About: The Breakthrough System

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The What's the Worst Thing About posts are a form of free advertising I allow on the site, where people can send me their product and I'll let everyone know the worst thing about it.

The idea is to undermine the typical dynamic with magic reviewers where they have a tendency to minimize the negatives in hopes that they'll get more free stuff in the future.

Why would anyone releasing a product take part in this?

Well, I'm not inventing negatives. I'm pointing out actual issues as I see them. So if you're confident in your product, then the thinking should be: "I know it's not perfect. But I know the positives far outweigh the negatives. So I'm fine with people knowing potential weaknesses and being able to weigh them against what I'm offering."

Today we're talking the worst thing about The Breakthrough System by Johannes Mengel.

Before I break down the good, bad, and the worst, I will note that there are about 40 videos and four hours of material in the teaching section. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you love watching instructional videos. I don’t. So for me it was a downer.

The Bad

— Sometimes the trailers for tricks with multiple methods can be confusing.

Some elements of this trick can be done totally impromptu, some require something extra that you can procure very easily pre-performance, and some require you to be rigged up in a way that is the exact opposite of impromptu.

When watching this, you may think it's being said that you can just borrow a can and go into all of these variations of the effect immediately. You can't. Some you can. But perhaps a more useful trailer would show a quick impromptu routine, followed by a quick gimmicked routine that's possible.

— If you think, "This will be a fun thing to do whenever I see someone with a can," the question becomes: How often are you around people with cans? I've been working on this for a month now and haven't been in a situation where people have cans of soda or beer on them. Of course, this is going to be different for everyone and the environments in which you spend time. Once summer rolls around, I'll have some opportunities to perform this. But until then, I'll have to orchestrate the situation.

— Also, let me remind you of something: recently emptied cans are fucking disgusting. When done fully impromptu, this would potentially be a bit of a sticky, drippy mess. But “let me rinse and dry out this can” certainly takes the steam out of the performance.

— The version done in the spectator's hands requires you to immediately take the can from them after the penetration. I'm not sure that's very well justified. "You do it in your hands." And then at the point where the magic has supposedly happened you quickly take everything back to display it yourself.

— I don't know quite how to put this, but there's something… unromantic, about the effect. It doesn't have the simplicity of a vanish or transformation or levitation. It doesn't have the impossibility of a coin in a bottle through an opening it couldn't fit in. It's a piece of trash rattling around in another piece of trash. Johannes clearly has a passion for this premise. But he comes off sort of as someone on the spectrum who's really into, like, dump trucks or some other obscure thing that doesn't hold the same fascination for most other people. In the trailer above, Johannes makes a comparison to this effect and walking on water. That’s how into this trick he is. I don't think they're quite comparable.

“And lo, Jesus put the tab of his Mount Sinai Dew—which he had borrowethed from a spectator for it was not his can—straight througheth the bottom. And the disciples said unto him, 'Truly, thou art the Son of God.'“

The Good

— You could take my last point and spin it positively. You're able to take something completely pedestrian—a piece of trash—and do a multiphase magic routine with it.

— This fits in very well with my Zero Carry philosophy. While there are some variations in the instructions that require you to be heavily gimmicked, they're completely unnecessary. There is enough material that is impromptu or near impromptu that you could create a very solid 3-4 phase routine with this. (You could go longer, but I wouldn't.)

— If you like this premise, you're not going to find a deeper dive or more complete examination into it than you'll find here.

— It's not difficult, although to get it looking as good as Johannes does will require some practice.

What's the Worst Thing About The Breakthrough System?

The price. It's $150.

Now, that's a fine and fair price if you fall into the category of "who this trick is for." Here's what Johannes told me.

So who is this for? First of all, people who actually like the plot, people who appreciate organic magic. Secondly, people who would value deep dive into a subject who are not just looking for a quick trick. This masterclass is the result of almost 20 years of my work on this plot and it is covering 20 versions/variations how to perform it. So it's an in-depth study of the plot, not a "quick download".

For example, I was approached by a guy at the Blackpool convention who said he casually performs at pubs for tips and earns 500 per night, so obviousy for that kind of person who regularly performs in environments where this trick makes perfect sense and who earns his investment back in a few hours and will use it for the rest of his life, the product is not expensive and it's a no-brainer for him.

So yes, if you like the trick, if you want to take an hours-long deep-dive into it, and if you make a ton of money performing for tips in environments where there are cans around, this is a no-brainer, must-buy.

But that's like…what… six people?

For the other 8.3 billion people on the planet, the price is a little steep.

Part of the fun of buying magic is taking a chance on things. But Johannes has priced this out of the "take a chance on it" range. He hasn't priced it as something you try. He's priced it as something you commit to.

So if you look at the trick and think, “That looks like it would be fun to play around with,” or, “I could probably do that at a 4th of July party,” or, “I have an idea of how I might use this someday,” then this isn’t for you.

You need to already be in the camp that loves this idea—where putting a tab inside a can is so appealing that whatever the method is, you’re willing to learn it.

I can’t say it was a mistake for him to price it this way. This is clearly a project he cares about and has put a lot of time into. The download is detailed, he offers a one-on-one teaching session, and he’s self-releasing it. So this may be the only way he feels he can be properly compensated.

The price isn’t outrageous. But it’s a signifcant barrier to entry, especially for people who are on the fence, or for whom money is tight. And the fact the price is high enough that you need to be sure this is for you, is the worst thing about The Breakthrough System.

The Social Magic Litmus Test

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Here is a simple heuristic to keep in mind when identifying magic that's good for social/casual performances.

Ask yourself, "Could I perform this on Instagram?"

If the answer is a resounding yes, then it's not great for social situations.

If the answer is yes, that means the trick doesn't need anyone but you. That means the only role for the other person is "audience."

That's not great for casual situations. In fact, I'd say it's uncomfortable.

If I invite you to my house and pull out a guitar and say, "Let's sing some songs," that could be a fun time.

If I invite you to my house and pull out a guitar and say, "I'm going to sing you some songs…" Well, now we've got a real weird situation going on.

Sure, maybe if you love my singing this will be a real treat for you. But in most circumstances it's going to be pretty awkward.

The hard truth that came to me far later in life than it should have is that magic is no different. Putting a friend, family member, co-worker, acquaintance, or whoever in the position of the person on the receiving end of your "art" isn't some kind of gift you're giving them. If anything, it's their attention that's a gift to you.

If you want to "Perform" rather than to interact with the audience, stick to the stage, or Instagram, or the mirror.

Mailbag #168

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The whole Unnamed Magician fiasco feels like someone trying to take advantage of non-performers. When you actually perform for people regularly, you know that there’s no way to imperceptibly “influence” them reliably. But that’s a belief a lot of non-performers hold as being possible.—AS

Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth to this.

Someone in my email was trying to tell me I didn't understand the possibilities of how the mind can be manipulated, and he pointed to the studies on subliminal messages from the 1950s where they flashed "Eat Popcorn" on the screen so quickly it couldn't be consciously registered, and it increased popcorn sales by 58%. "You probably have no clue how much human actions can be influenced,” he wrote.

I had to bring him back down to earth by pointing out that 58% wouldn't actually be a great number to build a magic trick around.

And, more importantly, it never happened.

The guy who claimed to have conducted the study admitted he just made it up. And other studies of subliminal advertising have shown little to no effect.

I hate to break it to you, but "influence" in magic is a presentation. It's not a method.

Yes, true influence exists.. But it works at scale, over time, and through repeated exposure. And even then it's probabilistic. Real-world influence has no mechanism for producing a specific, invisible, repeatable outcome, which is exactly what you'd need for it to function as a method in a magic trick.

Jeff Prace writes:

I saw your recent post that called out the Random Card Generator and my other products—thank you for sharing them!

I have a presentation that helps make carrying the prop seem less orchestrated. When asked to perform in a casual environment, I say something like:

"This is actually great timing, because I was organizing my wallet today and found this card another magician gave to me. I think he made them. It's so someone can pick a card even when there's no deck of cards. I got it a year ago and totally forgot about it."

The RCG I take from my wallet is weathered, as if it really had been carried and forgotten about. The picture doesn't quite capture its disrepair. Because it's a small/flat disposable thing, people can relate to this. It being bent and torn doesn't impact the method, and I found audiences are less hesitant to tear it.

Yeah, this is a good approach.

Any time you can make a prop feel less deliberate, you'll have a stronger casual moment of magic.

The real win here is that it reframes the object from "a prop for a trick" into "a thing that happens to exist." If it feels like you just stumbled across it—maybe you're killing time waiting for your food to come in a restaurant, digging through your wallet, slightly confused about what it even is ("What the hell… oh right, that new age store was handing these out")—then the moment lands as an integrated part of real life. And that will always play stronger than the alternative: pulling something out with the implicit message, "Here's a special item I brought from home to show you a trick."

Please tell me that your recent ruminations on speed are leading to telling us to keep one hand in the pocket of our tailored smoking jacket and with insouciant suavity turning over the cards while saying "it can't get any slower..."—CS

No, but this does bring up a good point.

I've been harping on the fact that you need to slow down and be beyond fair in the way you handle things and clarify conditions when you perform.

But this should all be something your audience senses, not something you tell them, and certainly not something you build a presentation around.

It's one thing to say, "I just want to be really fair here…." That's fine. But the moment you're like, "I want to perform the most fair trick in the world. Everything we do is going to be completely fair," then you've turned something that's very powerful when implicit into something people just don't believe when stated explicitly.

You want to give people the feeling of fairness and openness, but the moment you start saying that, it's like saying, "I'm Honest Jim. The honest used car salesman." It only makes people question you more. Fairness has to be demonstrated, not declared. The second you declare it, you've lost it.

The Unnamed Magician Speaks

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Your first April post arrives a week early as there has been an update to a topic I wrote about last week.

If further updates occur, I’ll add them to this post.

Otherwise, I’ll see you back here Tuesday the 7th.

The Unnamed Magician has reached out to me to "clarify" the "trick" he's "selling."

He writes: (or SHE writes… Unnamed Magicians can be SHEs these days.)

This is Unnamed Magician. You can verify that this actually is my email from my profile on Lybrary.com. (So this isn’t a troll email from someone else pretending to be me.)

I have definitely thought about your offer, but as some other magicians have privately made me better offers (which were made after your blogposts), I am currently considering all my options. Hence why you haven’t heard back from me.

I do understand your position about why the effect appears to be impossible. But perhaps there is some confusion that needs to be cleared up here. 

Perhaps you are thinking that I am making the claim that the spectator can truly stop anywhere they want (during the deal), and wherever they do stop, the next card will be the one I predicted. 

If that’s how you’ve interpreted my trick, then you’re right to think it’s impossible. But that isn’t what I’m claiming 

Since a card can’t freely float around the deck changing positions, as we both know, the spectator can’t freely stop anywhere. Thus, in reality, the spectator only has an illusion of free choice in my trick.

Without giving away my method, I can tell you this much about it (I trust that what follows stays between us and doesn’t go anywhere else):

[Andy’s Note: There’s nothing in what follows that wasn’t already implicitly or explicitly stated in the Magic Cafe thread. So there was nothing for me to keep “between us.” And I did inform him I’d be sharing his message.]

My method is essentially a way to force the spectator to stop dealing at the correct point (a force that works about 95% of the time), but without them realizing that they’re being forced or cued to stop there.

On the other hand, consider a case where the spectator deals through the deck and you kick them or cause them to feel a vibration via some means, cuing them to stop dealing. In these cases, the signal or cue is something they consciously register / are aware of. Thus, these cases would fall in the instant stooge / dual reality camp.

With my method, the thing that’s influencing them or cuing them to stop dealing at the correct point isn’t something they are consciously aware of. Thus, after the effect if you were to ask them why they stopped dealing where they did, they will say “I just felt like it” or “I randomly did.” To them, it will appear like a free choice. Thus, they won’t be an instant stooge and they won’t be experiencing a different reality (compared to those watching). 

I can’t say more without revealing the actual method, but I just wanted to explain as much as I could without outright giving away the method. I’m definitely not claiming that the spectator can freely stop anywhere as a matter of fact, only that they have an illusion of that (in reality they are forced to stop at the correct point but in a way that they aren’t aware of it, and the force only works about 95% of the time). 

Of course, it isn’t a psychological force - those only work about 80% of the time in the hands of a good performer and aren’t repeatable. 

Furthermore, when performing this for lay people, I can simply tell them to deal through the deck and stop wherever they want. But when performing this for magicians, I will say beforehand “When you deal through the deck, don’t decide ahead of time where to stop. This won’t work in that case. For example, if you’ve already decided right now that you’re going to stop at a particular position in the deck, then this trick won’t work. In order for this to work, you need to deal through the deck without any knowledge of where you’re going to stop and just stop randomly somewhere along the way.” This is to prevent a CAAN type mentality from arising, as my method certainly can’t work in the context of a CAAN trick (as obviously I can’t force the spectator to think of a particular number ahead of time).

I hope this clears up some confusion.

Best,

Unnamed Magician 

Now, a younger version of me would probably be angry at this point. "This guy thinks I'm an idiot!" But I've evolved. Now I just feel embarrassed for him.

"I have definitely thought about your offer, but as some other magicians have privately made me better offers (which were made after your blogposts), I am currently considering all my options."

First, no. No magician is paying more than the $20,000 I offered you. I have a working relationship with the handful of people who actually spend serious money on rights, and this isn’t the kind of thing that commands that kind of price.

There are endless ways to do similar tricks already in the literature. Certainly none come with the fantastical conditions this one claims. But they would play mostly the same for a lay audience. Nobody is going to pay that kind of money just to impress magicians.

Second, my offer wasn’t just $20,000—it was $20,000 with you retaining the rights. That’s already an unusually favorable deal. So when you say you have “better offers,” it raises a more basic question: What would a “better” offer even look like?

Third, even if you were considering some other offer… you’re also still taking pre-sales on this. Why wouldn't you still want the most public skeptic of your trick to confirm it’s legitimate.

Fourth, just to get this off the table, you no longer have a "better offer." As of now, I’m offering $5,000 more than whatever your highest offer is for the exclusive rights.

You can see the shape of the escape hatch forming.

At first, the likely explanation for why this would never be released was going to be:
“Not enough sales. That’s why you’ll never see it.”

Now, with that option gone, a new explanation appears:
“Someone else bought the rights. That’s why you’ll never see it.”

Different stories, but the same outcome.

Now let's get to the method he's suggesting.

"With my method, the thing that's influencing them or cuing them to stop dealing at the correct point isn't something they are consciously aware of."

mmhmm… sure.

Over on the Cafe you have some people saying, "You can't say this trick isn't real. You can only say you don't think it's real."

Actually, that's not true. When you start putting conditions on a trick it becomes very easy to say if a trick is real or not.

A folded card is removed from a coin-purse. It's the spectator's thought-of card.

Okay, that's fine.

A spectator brings their own coin-purse to the show. They look inside. It's empty. They think of any card. They open the purse and now there is a folded card inside. It's their thought-of card. You never touch the purse or the card. Completely impromptu. The card is a genuinely free choice and never spoken or written at all. You don't even know the card until the spectator unfolds it.

That's not real. And this can be stated definitively. It's not just: "Well you can't think of a method. That doesn't mean there isn't one."

When conditions are given for an effect, they cement certain "realities" of the method. When those realities are contradictory, you can safely say the trick isn't real.

The Unnamed Magician wants you to believe that he has a way of “influencing” the spectator that reliably gets them to stop dealing the cards 95% of the time, but that they don't sense.

That's not a thing. It doesn't exist.

If an external cue is 95% reliable then it will be obvious.

If an external cue is subtle, it will be unreliable.

What he's suggesting is a technique that:

  • Interrupts an ongoing action at a millisecond-precise moment.

  • Does so without crossing the threshold of conscious awareness (no sound, vibration, visual flicker, pressure, unease, etc., that the person registers).

  • Works repeatably across different people, dealing speeds, rooms, and attention levels.

What is this technology supposed to be?

Subliminal audio or visual cues have a success rate of about 10%.

Infrasound or sub-audible tones don't offer controllable reactions with pinpoint precision.

Guys… you wouldn't have a 95% success rate on this thing even with the most advanced brain implants. Even in a lab, using one of those things, influencing behaviors tops out somewhere around 70%. And that's with calibration, cooperation, the other person consciously engaging with the system… AND A FUCKING IMPLANT IN THEIR HEAD!

What he's describing is science fiction.

Doing this effect with a borrowed, shuffled deck, and having an external cue that is precise + reliable + invisible = incompatible conditions = not real.

There's a logical flaw with what he's suggesting too. Let's do a thought experiment. Let's imagine a scenario where he has stumbled onto something that offers reliable, precise, and completely unnoticed behavioral control in a complex voluntary task like stopping a card deal at one exact moment.

That still wouldn't work, because you would also have to get them not to stop earlier than the point you triggered your "invisible cue."

We've all done tricks where we ask people to stop dealing through cards at any random point. And what happens? Do they just deal through the deck to the end because they never got hit by our secret pheromone laser? No. Usually they deal a few cards and stop. Does this new technology prevent them from doing that before they get to the force card?

Also, in the demo video he asks the young lady if she wants to keep dealing. So we're suggesting that not only does this technology get them to stop dealing, but then it sort of… hypnotizes them to not want to deal a couple more cards? Okay. Sure.

The truth is simple: a cueing system that could invisibly and undetectably control someone's actions with this level of precision and reliability would be worth billions. It would revolutionize neuroscience, marketing, defense, and medicine. It wouldn't be sold on The Magic Cafe for a hundred bucks.

Look, I don't love having to write posts like this. And to the Unnamed Magician, who probably thought his email might throw me off the scent and buy himself a little more time to keep selling this without a credible challenge—it probably feels particularly harsh. But this is me being nice. I could have talked wayyyy more shit about this.

Here's me being even nicer…

I know the Unnamed Magician is feeling pressure in his real life and money has become an issue. And with this attempt to make some quick cash crumbling around him—and his reputation taking a hit—he's probably feeling a bit trapped. I don't love that for him.

Here's the thing: I've seen people dig themselves out of worse holes than this. The magic community has a short memory for people who own their mistakes and a long one for people who don't.

So if he ever wants help finding his way out of this predicament, he can reach out. I'll work with him on it. I have no issue with the guy. Only with this particular approach at a cash grab.

Until April...

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This is the final post of March. Regular posting resumes Monday, April 6th.

The next issue of Keepers will come out on Sunday, April 5th.

Regarding the open prediction trick mentioned earlier this week (here and here). I have now received confirmation from someone in the know that this is complete horseshit.

My $20,000 offer and endorsement still stand though.

In fact, I’ll open the offer to anyone who wants to take me up on it. Create a trick that looks like that, and meets the requirements set forth in the advertisement:

1. Uses a borrowed, shuffled deck.

2. The deck is never touched by the magician.

3. The prediction is made verbally before the dealing begins.

4. Works 95%+ of the time.

5. Uses no dual reality or stooging and “if you were the participant, you would experience the effect exactly as you do while watching the video.”

And I will buy the rights to sell the first 200 copies of the effect off you for $20,000. After which the rights will revert to you .

This offer is completely genuine (as is any offer I make on this site).

I got a lot of positive feedback regarding Thursday's Zero Carry post. Thanks for those messages.

Ultimately this is just an extension of the most basic ideas I wrote about amateur/social magic years ago: that its power is directly correlated to how much it doesn't feel like a professional performance.

Carrying around unusual props and objects for the purpose of showing people magic tricks is what the professional performer does.

Or, as I put it five years ago…

"This is a general concept in amateur magic. When you're a professional, you bring your props to the show. When you're an amateur, you bring your show to the props."

First Banksy was identified. And then this guy gets “unmasked.’

Are you worried you’re next? —GM

Not really. First off, nobody really cares.

I'm not someone making millions of dollars anonymously, like Banksy.

And I’m not someone exposing magic tricks online because no one will pay attention to me otherwise.

So there’s not much incentive for people to want to “expose” me.

Second, the way I’ve set things up from the beginning is that there’s a disconnect between me as the person creating the content and the way that content gets to you. In the next year or so, I’ll probably explain what that “disconnect” is and you’ll realize why it would be essentially impossible to “discover” who I am without interviewing people in the real world. And then the only people who would give you a name would be trying to mislead you.

Third, okay, I confess. I’m that guy in the video. Mamma mia! It’s a-me, Mago Dominik. You already figured me out. You can move on with your life.

Chris Rawlins sent me an extra copy of his effect Fair Play, which is a version of Miraskill but disguised as a color-matching card game. The design is excellent and could certainly pass as a simple game you picked up at some bookstore or game store.

I will be giving away this extra copy via a contest I call:

Who Can Name the Most Average Number?

To enter, fill out the form below with your email and your guess for the most average number.

On April 2nd, I will determine the median number from the entries and whoever submitted that number will win.

I don’t hang onto your email addresses, they’re just so I can contact the winner. (If you think I’d ever do something to harvest email addresses for… like…marketing or something, you genuinely have no idea how I run this site.)

Peace out. See you back here in April.

Fundamentals: Zero Carry

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The final fundamental concept I want to examine this month is the newest of the three.

When I first introduced the term Zero Carry, it was a designation for one trick I wanted to have in my repertoire—a go-to impromptu effect with an engaging premise.

Since the time I first wrote about it, it has evolved into something else entirely and become a guiding principle I'm using to design my current 100 Trick Repertoire.

This is an example of me introducing a term for a concept that still wasn't fully formed. I knew there was something I was circling around in my brain that went beyond just wanting to do "impromptu" effects. But, like I was with the Magic Eye portraits of my youth, I was too focused to see the full image. I needed to let my vision blur for the image to come clear.

(We had a Magic Eye store in the mall near my house when I was young. It was just people standing around staring at pictures on the wall with their eyes glazed over asking themselves if they were seeing something or not. What did they imagine the shelf-life of that business would be when they opened it? Did they put their arm around their 6-year-old son and say, "Someday, this will all be yours." Cut-to four months later: "Going out of Business!" "Everything Must Go!" "Buy 1 Get 14 Free!")

I now realize that what I was circling around with Zero Carry originally was not an impromptu trick or repertoire. But a genuinely carry-less approach to performing.

Why?

The stuffed-pockets of the EDC crowd often leads to magic that feels stilted, inorganic, and scripted. That doesn't mean bad magic, but it's frequently magic that is more dismissable. The magic is seen in the gimmick or the prop rather than in the moment.

The minute you pull out a fake red button to do a trick with, you've eliminated the element of spontaneity which is one of the cornerstones of powerful casual magic.

It may be a strong trick, a fooling trick, and great for walk-around magic at a restaurant gig. But for casual performing in social situations it creates a weird vibe. It comes off almost as desperate. People frequently see magic tricks as an attempt for you to show how clever you are… and now you're carrying around something to do that with? It's not a great look.

That level of seeming preparation dials down the impact of what you do.

It's the difference between making an off-hand funny comment or telling a funny story, and carrying around a small box that says Genuine French Birth Control Device on it, which, when you open it, reveals a little guillotine to chop your dick off.

Oo, la, la, indeed.

Even if you think that's funny, it's canned funniness.

Carrying around stuff to show people tricks feels like canned magic. Not farm-to-table astonishment.

There are three elements to my Zero Carry Philosophy

Impromptu Magic

This is the obvious one. Magic with objects that can be entirely found in your environment.

The issue with impromptu magic though is that it's frequently a little too quick and meaningless. "I take the ring off my finger and it appears back on my finger!" It's a fine trick, but it's not going to stick with people long-term.

So what I find myself looking for these days are impromptu tricks that feel like a full experience—that have a full storyline to them. So it's not just a brief, throwaway moment, but a genuine little story for them to walk away with.

Wonder Room

The Wonder Room is my concept of having magic tricks in some sort of permanent display in your house. There are various approaches to this that I've written about on the site, but a "basic" setup would be to maybe have a shelf somewhere where you display "weird objects" you've come across due to your interest in magic, and then maybe another display of interesting decks you've stumbled upon.

You're not carrying around these objects or decks with you on the regular. Instead, they're openly displayed in your house. This leads to a very natural way of presenting magic where people can just ask you about something you have exhibited and you can show them what makes it "weird" or "interesting."

There's a very pleasant flow to this type of interaction. Rather than you seemingly having a secret stash of magic props in some other room that you bring back when you want to perform something. Instead you have an interest in something (magic and/or strange phenomena), and, like most people with an interest in something, you have it on display where you (and others) can appreciate it. People ask about things and you talk about them.

You treat these things like objects of interest. Rather than treating them like shameful objects—hiding them under the bed like Nazi memorabilia or furry porn.

Organically Housed Tricks

"Housing" your repertoire is a term I came up with which means having a place for a trick to live where you can easily perform it whenever you're inclined to.

For example, if you keep Color Monte cards in your wallet at all times, you can always perform Color Monte whenever you feel like it.

Organically Housed Tricks are tricks that live in a natural context.

Your wallet isn't a "natural" context for a card with a red diamond, a card with a blue diamond, and a card with a guy gloating because he won $14.

But really no context is normal for such a trick.

On the other hand, think of Jeff Prace's Random Card Generator. Put that in your wallet, and again you're just seen as carrying around a magic gimmick.

But I will frequently use it as a bookmark. And that's an "organic" house for the trick. People use cards of all types as a bookmark. If the subject of magic comes up I can say, "Sorry, I don't have any cards or anything on me." Then I can "notice" my bookmark. "Wait, they were giving these away at the casino the other day... it's supposed to help you identify a lucky card." And then we're off.

This may seem like a small thing—using a card as a bookmark rather than carrying it around in your wallet, but it's an added bit of authenticity that I find adds a lot to the casualness of the best social magic.

Further examples from Jeff Prace (since I'm on his site).

Penrose Pendant could live around your neck.
Mon-key could live on your keyring.
Chapstick-Addict and The Passenger Wallet could live in your pocket.

How does this differ from EDC? you might ask.

The difference is that Jeff Prace could be walking around with all these tricks on him, get hit by a bus, and the people at the morgue wouldn't be like, "This guy sure liked carrying around a bunch of magic tricks."

I'm not suggesting building your repertoire around impressing the mortuary attendant, I'm just pointing out how invisible and inconspicuous organically housed tricks can be.

Impromptu magic gives us a stable of effects that we can go into at any time in many different situations. It’s Zero Carry because you literally don’t have to carry anything with you.

The Wonder Room concept gives an outlet for tricks that don’t have to be carried around with us. And it allows our friends to guide the interaction by what objects they take interest in. It’s Zero Carry because they objects are on display, not carried on you.

Organic Housing is an approach to props and gimmicks which emphasizes their everydayness by putting them in a natural context. It’s Zero Carry because you don’t *seem* to be carrying anything with you solely for the purpose of showing someone a trick.

The goal of these three branches of Zero Carry is to create magic that seems more spontaneous, natural, unrehearsed, free-wheeling, and in-the-moment. This is what casual magic should feel like.

Zero Carry isn’t exactly about having nothing. It’s about never seeming like you needed anything.