Mailbag #187

/

I was just catching up on the live blogs from Magic Live 2026 […] one of the effects everyone seems to be jizzing about is 'Pass The Salt' which I believe is an Alakazam release. Is it me or am I the only one thinking 'When the fu*k will you perform this?'

Strolling - "Has anyone got a set of salt and pepper shakers ... no?.... OK,let me do a trick with these salt and pepper shakers I happen to be carrying"

Restaurant - "Let me do a trick with these salt and pepper shakers I happen to be carrying... unfortunately I cannot use the ones already on the table which you have probably used to season your lovely meal"

Do you see an issue ?—NB

I understand the jizzing. It’s a really strong, straightforward trick.

But I understand your concern as well. In most performing situations, carrying around your own salt and pepper shakers would be weird and/or redundant. You’re either performing somewhere that already has salt and pepper shakers, in which case, why did you bring your own? Or you’re performing somewhere that doesn’t have salt and pepper shakers, in which case, why did you bring them at all?

It’s going to take some fairly deft routining to avoid looking like a goofball who showed up with his own salt and pepper shakers. But I doubt most magicians are going to worry about that. The trade-off most magicians are happy to make is looking like a goofball, just so long as they can fool people.

The bigger question for me is… can they taste the “salt” that’s left in their hand? If I changed pepper to salt in a friend’s hand, I guarantee the first thing they’d do is stick a finger in it and taste it. I’m curious if that’s something you can do with Pass the Salt, or if they end up with a handful of asbestos or ketamine or something.

I’m wanting to upgrade to the iPhone Duo soon. But I don’t want to if the Jerx app won’t be optimized for it. It’s by far my most used magic app and Echo Sync has sealed more deals for me than any trick. I’m willing to carry around a second phone if necessary but if it’s going to updated to work with the Duo I would be thrilled. —SV

Yeah, what you’re going to need to do is solder your old phone to the iPhone Duo. (Essentially making an iPhone Trio.) Then you’ll be able to use all your magic apps on the one device.

Actually, Kerstein is already on this. He wrote this weekend:

I’ve gotten myself a (fancy) new iPhone Duo and realised the app needed a bit of work to support its bigger inner display and weirder outer one, so am working through making it all look better on there.

(This would have to be done sooner or later anyway - Apple are insisting that any app that’s updated from April 2027 or so *must* support the iPhone Duo..!)

I’m also making it look much better for iOS 26/27 on all devices at the same time too - the fake Notes, Safari and Camera UIs are now all updated and look much more accurate.

So there you go. The one thing you don’t have to worry about when buying one of Marc’s apps is if it’s going to be maintained.

The rest of your magic apps may end up being a clusterfuck on the Duo, but the Jerx app and others from Marc should be good.

You’ve given your thoughts on the perfect card trick to teach a layman in the Almanac.

But what if the person wants to become a magician, or is a beginner magician who doesn’t know any card magic yet?

I’ve found myself mentoring someone. What is a good trick to teach someone just starting out?—CB

I wouldn’t start by teaching them one particular trick. I’d start by teaching them three different types of tricks.

  1. A basic sleight-of-hand trick using a double lift. (E.g., a two-card transposition.)

  2. A relativley strong self-working trick. (E.g., Collusion by John Bannon.)

  3. A dead-simple mentalism effect that relies more on presentation than method. (E.g., a key-card effect or peek where you “read their mind.”)

These three will give me a sense of what excites them about magic. Do they enjoy the challenge of learning sleights and performing straightforward card effects? Do they prefer clever methods that allow them to accomplish something amazing without a lot of technical work? Or are they less interested in methods altogether and more drawn to the performative aspects of magic?

Another reason for starting with a double lift is to get a feel for their tolerance for shitty-looking sleights. Early on, I’d record them turning over a card. After teaching them the double lift and having them practice for a while, I’d ask them to compare their double lift to how they originally turned over a single card. It doesn’t need to be identical, but it shouldn’t draw attention to itself by looking bizarre.

One of the biggest problems with magicians—beginners and people who have been doing this for decades—is their inability to recognize when their own technique looks like shit. This is a habit you want to beat out of them early on. “It doesn’t matter if they specifically know you’re turning over two cards as one. If they suspect anything weird is happening in that moment, your technique has failed.”

That’s the approach I’d take. But I have no idea how well it would work. I’ve never actually mentored someone who was seriously interested in performing magic. (I’ve been asked, but I always deflect. I just tell them, “Everything I know I learned from a blog called The Jerx. The guy’s a genius. Start there.”)

Dustings #154

/

This is your annual reminder not to buy any new magic for the next few weeks. You’ve got Black Friday coming up, and you don’t want to miss out on a deal just to get something a few weeks early. [The Jerx: Magic companies hate him.]

Yeah, I know magic companies don’t love me reminding you of this. But it’s just general good advice for all purchases around this time of year. I don’t even shower for the first few weeks of November in case the water company runs some kind of Black Friday deal. [The Jerx: His girlfriend hates him.]

Even if the product you’re interested in is older and unlikely to be discounted, it might count toward a spending threshold that gets you some freebies. (Or free bees if you’re ordering from Mann Lake Ltd., the #1 Choice of Professional Beekeepers.)

A note for magic companies: Consumers believe the minimum discount for what constitutes a “good deal” is 30%. [Source] That’s the minimum. I see companies post on The Magic Cafe with their 15% Black Friday discounts and seem confused when there’s no interest. That’s not a Black Friday deal. That’s a random Tuesday deal.

Help Wanted

In the 11+ years I’ve been doing this site and talking about products I’ve purchased here and in the review newsletter, I’ve never actually purchased any of those products myself. (It would be fairly easy to unravel my identity by looking at who bought what or signed up for which service.) Instead, I’ve always used proxies to buy stuff for me.

One of my proxies is going off the grid for a little while, so I’m looking for someone new to purchase things for me. It will mostly be digital products. And (obviously) I’ll pay for everything.

If you’re interested in helping out, send me an email.

[Update: Thanks for all the responses to this. I’m all set now. 🙏]

I was reading about the movie Deliverance the other day (I like to know as much as I can about what I’m masturbating to).

You know that scene where the hill-country kid is playing the banjo?

Well, it turns out he wasn’t really playing it. The actor had the right face for the part, but couldn’t play the banjo, so they had a kid who could play reach his arms through the sleeves and do the fingering.

This reminded me of Kevin James’s trick Instant Magician, where you (the actual magician) stand behind someone and reach your arms around them, performing the magic with your hands while they play the role of the magician.

And I thought, this provides a great bit of lead-in patter for Kevin’s trick. You tell the people about Deliverance and how the banjo kid didn’t really play the banjo. It was actually someone’s arms coming from behind him.

Then you say, “I thought this same technique could be used to make someone look like an equally dextrous yet vacant, inbred imbecile… a magician!”

Commercial Interruption

/

I picked up Ringo and Amazin Box from Trick Trick Go while I was at Magic Live. Figured I’d lean into this whole vibe of magic that’s funny and cute but still totally impossible. Ideally I’d construct a repertoire around that type of material.

The reactions haven’t lined up with what I expected, though. I thought sprinkling in some humor would dial down the whole “look how clever I am” energy and just let people enjoy the moment. Instead, folks seem a little more closed off if anything.

Do you have thoughts on these tricks—or this style of stuff in general—for casual magic?—EM

There’s a counterintuitive concept behind your question.

We often talk about “commercial” magic. Tricks with a clear premise, built-in entertainment, and a reliable payoff. They’re made for real-world performing: walkaround, table-hopping, corporate shows.

Combining Ringo and Amazin Box looks like an incredibly commercial routine. You borrow a ring and then drop it into a small clear bag filled with other rings (which you also theoretically borrowed). Their ring then appears inside a tiny Amazon package. Funny, cute, commercial magic.

The counterintuitive idea is this: The elements that make a trick commercial tend to weaken a trick in social settings.

Commercial magic is often so polished and self-contained that it can really only come off as a mini-performance. People can laugh, react, and participate, but they can also sense that the whole thing has a predetermined course. Whatever they contribute, you’re still heading toward the same ending.

When you pull out your bag of rings and cute cardboard box, there’s no real way to play that off as anything other than a meticulously planned routine.

If, as you say, you find people more “closed off” with this type of material, that’s likely the reason. It’s not that they dislike what you’re doing. They’re just giving you space to do what is clearly a structured performance. You’ve shifted from hanging out together to putting on a little show, and they’ve shifted into audience mode. From your side, that can feel like they’ve pulled back.

If you want to incorporate routines like this in an amateur setting, I recommend the approach I laid out in Rehearsal as Presentation.

“I’m working on something I might perform at [whatever event]. Can I try it out on you?”

Now there’s a reason you have a bag of rings and a tiny Amazon box ready to go. The routine is still a routine, but the interaction around it has a purpose: they’re helping you work on something. That gives them a role beyond just being your audience.

What Would Diane Freeling Do?

/

For me, probably the hardest part of a magic presentation is reacting to something I’m supposedly not responsible for. What I mean is, if I’m doing a Spectator as Magician plot, or I’m demonstrating some “strange object” I found, it’s difficult for me to respond in a way that’s congruent with that premise. It’s so much easier to perform in a magician-centric style. Something impossible happens, you give a slightly smug nod and a wink. “Pretty cool, huh?” Your job is done.

I’m not an actor and have no real skill in that area. And I would guess reacting with genuine awe, amazement, or confusion is one of the more difficult things for an actor to do. You usually just end up with something like this.

But I’m trying to get better at it.

If someone separates the deck into red and black, purely on instinct, and your response is, “Hey, good job,” you’ve made it so easy for them to completely dismiss it as “just a trick.”

But if you can show genuine confusion and shock—maybe you suggest they cheated somehow—and finally you just express amazement, then you’re going to have them really chewing on what the nature of the experience was.

In an attempt to get better at expressing amazement, I remembered a technique a podcaster once talked about. He said he watched stand-up comedy before every social situation he put himself in. He said it put him in the right mindset and boosted his energy.

I thought maybe I could try something similar, but with awe and amazement rather than humor. I’m not great at producing those reactions on demand. But maybe I could borrow the energy of someone who is.

One of my childhood crushes was JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist.

In early scenes in Poltergeist, she finds the house is doing some strange things. JoBeth’s reaction, as Diane Freeling, isn’t fear at this point. She goes from confusion to wonder to awe. By the time her husband returns from work, she’s almost drunk with delight.

A month ago, I watched this clip a few times, paying special attention to JoBeth’s performance as she encountered these unusual things. I decided to try running that scene in my head before showing people tricks, borrowing whichever part of her performance fit the situation. Her initial confusion turning to amazement when something strange first happens. The way she tries to calm her husband into a state where he might be willing to appreciate what he’s about to see at 2:30 in that clip. Or her joy when the weird thing actually “works.”

I’m not a naturally ebullient 33-year-old woman, so it’s not like I’m completely mimicking her. But it’s her energy filtered through my own.

Believe it or not, this has been wildly effective for me. My reactions are starting to better match the story I’m asking people to go along with. When someone separates a deck into red and black, or matches up ESP symbols, I’m having a far easier time seeming as amazed as I should be. When an “old ritual” actually works, I’m appropriately incredulous. When an object we’re focusing on across the room moves on its own, I’m as thrilled as the situation warrants.

It feels a little odd to me, because in real life I’m not someone who has big reactions to things that are strange or unusual. I’m almost pathologically even-keeled regardless of what happens. So it was hard for me to play certain emotions because they just don’t register with me much in real life. But by letting myself channel a character, I’ve found it much easier to access those reactions. And when I treat what happened as something worth being amazed by, the people I perform for seem much more willing to do the same.

Mailbag #186

/

What is your point of view about letting AI do the scripting for my tricks?

I am tempted to go this easy way…

—SD

I think you’re likely to sound insane if you do that.

Here are two better “easy ways.”

  1. Say “Check this out,” then do your trick. It’s not creative or clever, but that’s okay. Having AI do it for you isn’t creative or clever either. And at least this way the magic may still hit hard, and people won’t be distracted by some weird script. Having no script is better than having some goofy computer-generated approximation of how an interesting person talks.

  2. Find magicians you like and use their scripting. They’re going to be a better resource than ChatGPT for scripting that works well with actual people.

AI can be a good resource for brainstorming and researching ideas. I use it that way, as almost a Google search I can have a conversation with. “What’s the history of the idea that when people die, the last thing they saw is burned into their retinas? Does this have a name? Is there even a hint of truth to it?” That sort of thing.

But when it comes to scripting—especially in social magic, where the idea is to sound casual—it’s best avoided.

Love the one ahead tweak.

I also like the idea of using a marked deck to offer a free choice instead of a force.

What if they, on the 1 in 13 chance, choose one of the sevens?—LT

It actually doesn’t really matter. You still write a 7 down. Show it. Great, you nailed the value. “But I couldn’t get the suit. Let’s try again.”

Let them pick another card. This time you’re not getting anything. “Let’s come back to that.”

The written 7 still anchors that as the “first” card. Whether you got it right or wrong.

Okay, the next question is “What if they pick a 7 again?”

Then you say, “It’s funny, I’m still getting a 7. Weird. Did you maybe pick a 7 again?” And you just do that until they pick something other than a 7. Which, if I’m not mistaken, should be a maximum of four times. Unless you did this with a forcing deck. (Try not to.)

Are you okay with us sharing your posts on Facebook? There are posts that really need to be seen more. Your One-Ahead technique is incredible and the Alright Force fully solves every problem with the Toxic force. Those are just a couple recent examples. I’d like to share your ideas more broadly but only if you’re okay with it. —MT

You can share anything you want. We’re about 10 years past the point when I thought I might be able to keep this site fully under the radar. But don’t do it for my benefit, because I don’t really care about getting more eyes on this stuff. If you think a post would be useful to a particular group or relevant to a discussion, though, go ahead.

The only thing that would annoy me is missing out on interesting feedback because it’s buried in a Facebook discussion I’ll never see. So share away. But encourage anyone with something interesting to add to email me directly.

The Rewitching Hour

/

I was asked:

This year we have an extra hour of halloween due to daylight savings bullshittery! How would you use that as a premise and make the hour magical?

I thought about it for a while, but I wasn’t having any luck coming up with anything that didn’t sound corny and cartoonish. “This card is the mummy. This card is Dracula.” Okay, sure. Part of the problem is that Halloween is kind of corny and cartoonish. It’s not a genuinely scary holiday.

The closest thing I came to an actual Halloween-themed trick is to make a change bag from a pillowcase. Where I’m from, kids often trick-or-treated with pillowcases to collect the candy. So you could talk about how you’re jealous of kids these days because when you were growing up, Halloween night was never Daylight Savings as well, but since they shifted the date of DST, now it happens pretty regularly. “Now kids can get away with eating a lot more candy on Halloween night. I’ll show you.” You dump out a bunch of candy from a pillowcase and eat it with your friend. Then, just before the clocks tick back, you have them throw the empty wrappers in the pillowcase. When the hour goes back, you dump out the pillowcase, revealing all the candy, wrapped and uneaten again.

That’s the only specifically “Halloween” trick I could think of that incorporated the time change.

But what I would be more likely to do is just use it as a backdrop for any traditional seance-y or “haunted” effect. “Halloween night, leading into the Day of the Dead, is traditionally believed to be when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest. Then, when the clocks go back, we put another hour’s worth of wear on it. Supposedly, that makes it easier for things to come through.” That sort of thing.

If you want to skip the Halloween aspect, DST is a good time to do any complex prediction effect. Shuffle-Bored, for example. Before the hour turns back, you have them go through the process and you record the results. We ended up with this many face-up cards, this many face-down, this many red cards, black cards, etc. Then you explain how you used to think that moving the clocks back was just changing what we called the time. It didn’t change anything about time itself. But you’ve learned of this weird phenomenon people experience that certainly seems to suggest that in some way we’re actually living the same hour over again.

Once the clock goes back, you repeat the Shuffle-Bored process and—impossibly—get the same results. “See? That’s crazy, right?”

The interesting part of this is that this is one version of Shuffle-Bored that can start from a genuinely borrowed, shuffled deck. The first time you go through the process, you’re actually just doing it. And you’ll end up with some random assortment. Then, after that, do a Red/Black shuffle to apparently mix the deck (really maintaining the two sections you just created). Then go into the trick again. This time, the apparently random process leads them right back to the same assortment they created earlier.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the trick itself. It’s the MacGuffin. The trick may feel like the payoff, but the experience really starts earlier, when you look at the clock and say, “Okay, we’ve just got a few hours to go.”

Ultimately, what’s going to make anything you do at this time exciting is that you and your friend stayed up waiting for something strange to happen at a specific time. You’ve given the night a little plot.

Until November (sort of)...

/

This is the not the final post for October. I’ll have one more post for you early next week. Then regular posting resumes on Tuesday, November 3rd. (So one of November’s posts is shifting to this month.) The next issue of Keepers comes out Sunday, November 1st.

NOTE TO RICH UNCLE MILLIONAIRE LEVEL SUPPORTERS

The next book will ship over the course of the next month.

You will be getting an email very soon that will collect your most current shipping address.

I won’t ship a book to you until you do what that email says.

I don’t have a bunch of extra books floating around so I can’t afford to just send a book out to what I think might be your address, or what I got from you when you signed up 8 years ago.

So just keep an eye out for that email. I’ll put a trail of bigfoot emojis (bigfeets) in the subject line so it stands out.

🫈🫈🫈🫈🫈🫈🫈🫈

Yesterday’s post has received some of the most enthusiastic feedback of any technique I’ve shared on this site. So if you skipped it, you might want to go back and give it a look.

And to be clear, I was just giving an example of how you could do it, and a routine it could work with. But the broader idea—seemingly anchoring the original (force) prediction on the table from the start so that you can build the the One Ahead routine in impossibility—is something that you could likely find a way to make work for most One Ahead effects.

MC writes regarding Monday’s Mailbag post on Double Deception:

“Like… there are certain techniques that allow you to vanish a card. That's not easy, but it's something you can learn with practice. The really hard thing is controlling the magic so precisely that you can vanish one particular card out of an entire deck, while leaving all the others untouched. Does that make sense?”

This line reminds me of the scene from Bloodsport where Frank Dux (JCVD) has to prove himself worthy of entering the Kumite by smashing a stack of bricks using the Death Touch.

It’s actually a pretty solid reference point for any trick where you’re manipulating one object out of a group. The impressive part isn’t just what you’re able to do to that one object. It’s the precision involved in doing it to that object while leaving everything around it untouched.

In other words, the things you don’t affect become part of the impossibility.

Herman Jonker, a former Dutch mayor who performed as magician Robert List (and was the Dutch national magic champion in 1978), has been kicked out of the GLOMM.

From what I can gather from the translated reporting, authorities found approximately 1,000 files of child sexual abuse material, along with explicit Snapchat conversations in which he fantasized about sexually abusing young children.

On July 7, 2026, a court sentenced him to one year in prison for possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material. Subsequently, several magicians publicly alleged that he had sent them inappropriate messages years earlier.

According to Wikipedia, his defense was that he hadn't put the child pornography on his computer himself. Other people had sent it to him.

Oh! Well, why didn't you say so? Case dismissed!

That's essentially the grown-up version of telling your parents the cigarettes they found in your backpack belonged to a friend.

He’s 78, by the way. I mean… don’t let age get in the way of your dreams and all of that. Unless your dreams involve molesting pre-schoolers. In which case it’s okay to let them rot like the rest of you.

And here he is, in case you're still looking for a truly hideous last-minute Halloween costume idea…