Dustings #109

For the first time in over eight years, I will be devoting an upcoming week of posts to my “lifestyle blog” Splooge (inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop). This will happen during the third week of posting this month, starting Monday the 20th. If you don’t want to hear the non-magic stuff, skip that week.

If you’d like to submit a non-magic related question before that time, feel free. I don’t really have “advice” per se, but I have the way I think about things which my resonate with some of you. But the odds of me having an answer to your question are slim. If I feel I have something worth saying for every 1 in 10 magic questions I get, the non-magic questions are going to be more like 1 in 20. Don’t take it the wrong way if I don’t have a response.

---

In this month’s newsletter I was reviewing a trick and I mentioned that I normally force the card needed (rather than just handing it to the spectator as the trick instructions suggest). The force is a force of one card in six. I said if people were interested in exactly what I was doing they could write me. I got a lot more requests than I anticipated, so I’m including it here. It could be used for other forces of one card in a few where the cards you’re using don’t have a border. (It can be done with cards with a border, but the action is much more visible.)

Normally, I like a force with some procedure to it. I think it slows things down and (depending on the procedure) can feel more fair than a more straightforward force which is often over before it starts.

But for the sake of the trick I was writing about, a procedural force didn’t make sense.

Instead, I want it to be as direct as possible.

Here’s what it looks like, I spread the cards between my hands and ask them if they want the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth card. Whatever they say (with one rare exception) I extend the cards to them to have them remove that card. That’s it.

To do this, the force card is in the third position.

As I’m taking the cards from my left to right hand to spread them, I cull the third card

With normal cards with a border, you can tell one card has sort of “disappeared” but with borderless cards, you can’t unless someone told you what to look for.

I do this spreading of the cards near my body. Then I’m going to extend my hands toward them for them to pick out the card.

If they say they want the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th card, I will extend the spread towards them while simultaneously inserting the card into the spread where it needs to go and respreading when the cards get to them.

So if they said they wanted the 5th card, here’s what it would look like (with a red card for clarity, otherwise there’s not much to see).

If they say they want the 2nd card, my left thumb pins down the actual second card, while my right hand takes away the top card and the culled card, and I go forward with that for them to take the “second” card. (Again, with the red card so you can see it.)

If they say they want the first card (they never really do), I pull the top and culled card to the right (similar to the last paragraph). And then coalesce the spread, so the force card is second from the top. Then I do a double turnover. This isn’t ideal, but I actually haven’t had anyone ask for the first card, so I don’t sweat it too much.

This sort of thing works well with blank backs too. Usually I would find this to be too direct, but in the case of the trick I was talking about in the newsletter, this is just a preliminary point early on in the trick. Not the focal point of the effect.

---

It’s cool when magic tricks evoke things in the real world. Like this trick, for instance, that I can only assume is inspired by that classic reddit thread.

(Guys, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t go clicking on that link. For your sake. And certainly don’t try to track down the pictures.)

Spont In Your Pocket

I received this email recently from Colin C.

I'm a fan of this Spont: set a reminder on your phone to go off in two minutes and turn the volume on. Then go start a conversation with the person you want to show something to. The reminder interrupts the conversation. Then you glance at your phone and say, "oh, hmm, do you mind helping me with something?" And off you go.  This is appropriate for something like the "Protection Spell" trick you posted or any trick that has a presentational aspect of a regular or repeating action. It gives the experience a tiny push to start it all.

Your phone is an excellent Spont tool. Phones constantly interrupt us and change the direction of what we’re thinking or doing. So it’s perfectly natural-seeming to allow the phone to direct you into a performance.

Colin’s idea is a good one. You’ll want to play it off like you totally forgot you needed to do this thing. But… since they’re here… would they mind helping?

You can also use a fake call or fake text app to spur you into a magic trick as well.

I don’t usually use one of those apps, I just set an alarm and make it sound like a call or text message. The phone is in my pocket or on the table face-down, the alarm goes off, and I either excuse myself to “take the call” or act like I’m reading the text.

“Sorry. It’s this guy who wants me to test a magic trick for him. I told him I’d do it by the end of the week, but I guess he’s getting impatient.”

This usually generates questions. “Who is this guy?” “You test tricks?” And quite often they will directly offer to be the subject for the trick. If not they will almost always happily agree to watch the trick if you ask.

The phone is great for a “spontaneous” third-party magic trick. I’ll answer the phone (supposedly) and have a quick chat with someone and then direct the person I’m with through a trick as if I’m being directed by someone else on the line.

This works well for something like a very procedural, self-working card trick. Like a card location. They can’t really question the procedure because it’s not me telling them what to do. It’s this other guy on the phone.

Then I can act incredulous and really emphasize the impossibility of what’s going to happen. [Into the phone.] “No way. That’s bullshit… pause… okay, sure. Fifty bucks if you can.” [To my friend.'] “He says if you hold the deck up toward my phone he’ll be able to tell you how far down your card is. [Into the phone.] “Okay, she’s doing it. So where is it. 34th card down? No fucking way.”

This takes a card location, which can come off sort of dull even when it works, and turn it into a very different magical experience, as you are seemingly transmitting the information back and forth between the parties. It doesn’t necessarily make the trick stronger. But it makes it unique and memorable, which in turn will make the experience stronger.

I’m sure there are other possibilities insofar as how your phone can lead you into an effect. I’ll probably think of/collect other ideas for a future post.

[Note: Here’s Tommy Wonder doing something similar on his old L&L videos. This is, once again, an example of the vast difference of doing something in a formal show versus in a casual setting. In a formal show, this comes off as sort of a “cute bit.” It’s part of the “presentation.” But in a casual setting, it can be the sort of thing that grounds a trick. It enmeshes the trick in the real world.]

Cross-Referenced: A Hoy Book Test Variation

Here’s a Hoy Book Test variation that was inspired by the mailbag post on Monday. As I said in that response, I don’t particularly feel the need to justify the use of a second book with the Hoy Book Test. But I had the idea for this variation where a second book is required and tried it out the other day with my friend Lyndsey at the public library and it ended up going over surprisingly well, and I think it’s conceptually pretty interesting.

I asked Lyndsey to grab any novel from the library.

She came back with a book called The Drift by C.J. Tudor.

I checked to see how many pages it was (getting the info—the first noun or interesting word—I needed for the Hoy test) and handed the book back to her.

“Okay, about 340 pages. I want you to take this book and do something a little strange with it. I want you to hold it in front of you and almost let it guide you to another book that seemingly has nothing to do with this one. Another novel. One with about the same number of pages. Anything in the 300s is fine. I know it sounds stupid, but actually try to imagine it’s pulling you to an area of the library and then let it guide you like a dowsing rod to a particular book.”

Lyndsey left and came back with both books: The Drift and then some other book whose name I don’t remember, but the title might as well have been, “Lonely Woman Fucks a Cowboy.” It had one of these types of covers:

I explained to Lyndsey the theory on how there are really only seven types of plots, broadly speaking.

“That’s kind of well known, but what people don’t always know is that there is usually even more connective tissue between stories than just those plots. Even from page to page and book to book, you’ll see correlations between the thematic elements, or names, or words that start with the same letter. I’ll show you.”

I took the cowboy book for myself and slid the other book over to Lyndsey. [I don’t bother to force anything here. She brought back two random books from the library. And I just took one.] I told her to flip through the pages, and I’d say stop on a random page.

I stopped her on page 90 of the book she held, and I opened my book to page 90 as well. “What are the first few words on that page in your book,” I asked. She read out from the first line. It was about a guy named Paul who had a “new life.” I read from page 90 in my book. It was about a guy named Todd who the narrator went to high school with and how he hadn’t changed in years.

“See?” I said, “on both page 90s they’re writing about a male, with a one syllable name, and about how their life has or hasn’t evolved. Even though this is a cowboy romance, and that book is some kind of survival story, there’s still that overlap.”

I got a little lucky here, but I was prepared to find some correlation (or lack-there-of (you’ll see)) between what was on the pages regardless. I just happened to get one that was very obvious.

“Here, we’ll try it again. Once you look into this stuff, you get pretty good at seeing the connections. Here, I’ll flip this time and you call out stop.”

I flipped through the book and stopped where she said to, then miscalled the page for the one I knew in the book she held—168. I told her to go to that page but don’t read anything yet. As she did, I secretly flipped a few pages in my book so I could actually be on that page as well. If you’re way far away from the page you need to get to, you can also just close the book absentmindedly, and then open it back up and flip to that page.

I read the first line from my page 168. It was about a road that was very straight.

I knew on her page 168 the first words were “The wind.”

Now it’s just time to improvise.

“Okay, so this is. about a very straight road. Now, your book takes place in the mountains or something, yeah? So I doubt it’s going to be about a road. But I think it will be something that goes straight and goes off into the distance. Something natural. What does that in the mountains? A bird maybe? Or like… the wind or something? Can you read the first few words on that page?”

She opens the book and reads, “The wind died down….”

There was like a half-second where she didn’t react. Her attitude was sort of like, “Yes, that’s correct. You thought it might be about the wind, and it was.” She was almost too caught up in the premise at first.

But then it hit her. It can’t be that all books have some sort of similarities from page to page. “Wait… what?” she said. “How is that possible?” She grabbed my book and compared it to hers.

If you don’t like bullshitting on the spot, then you’re not going to have fun with this premise. I enjoy this sort of thing, so I don’t stress it. And I’ve given myself a wide range of opportunities to find a “hit.” I’ve said there’s going to be a correlation thematically, or that letters used or the types of words will be similar in some manner.

And while the end result has to be the first word or two they’re looking at on their page, I can use any word or imagery from the first sentence of the page in the book I’m holding to get there. So there are a lot of paths to take.

And remember, you know what word they’re going to be reading in the end, so no matter what, you have that hit in your pocket. So even if you have to just give up on the premise, you still have a trick that works. You can always just say, “Hmm… well from the way this top line is structured, I would guess the first word or two in your book would have something to do with teeth.” (Assuming that’s the word you know they’ll be thinking of.)

To practice your BS’ing, just get two novels and go through page by page. Looking at the first line in one book on a given page, and seeing how you might use that line to get you to the first words on the same page in a different book.

I find it very easy to do 20% of the time, somewhat challenging 50% of the time, and seemingly impossible about 30% of the time.

Structurally, having them riffle the pages and call out a page number during the introductory phase completely normalizes that procedure. And the premise of all books having this connection page by page completely justifies the second book as well.

The key is to have some idea in the back of your mind how you might handle a correlation or a non-correlation for both sets of pages.

Cheat Sheet

First Set of Pages

If you can make some sort of correlation: Make it.

If you can’t make some sort of correlation: “Okay, interesting. So your book has a noun related to business. And mine has the word ‘trot.’” Start “working out” what that means under your breath. “Okay, so page 90 is a noun there and a verb here. Business. More of like… an animal? So something natural, I guess you’d say. So that’s a differential of what…47? 49?” You’re just mumbling something like that to yourself under your breath. The idea here is that you didn’t expect these two words to be similar. But you’re somehow calculating some sort “relationship” between those two words. So you can then apply that “calculation” in the next phase.

Second Set of Pages

If you can make some sort of correlation, and you also could the first round: Make it. Showing once again how these books are connected.

If you can’t make a correlation, and you also couldn’t the first round: “Okay… so if that same differential is carrying on through the book. Hmm…. then since this word is ‘keyboard,’ the first interesting word on your page should be…hmm… it’s going to be food related. Something big and heavy. What’s heavy? A turkey or something. Read what it is for me. Oh… a watermelon? That makes sense. I should have gotten that.”

If you can make some sort of correlation, but you couldn’t the first round: “Okay, so when we were back on page 90 there was no discernible connection. But that’s not going to be constant. These things sort of fluctuate and intersect like sin waves. So with that differential…hmm… here on page 168 we should be much closer. Not thematically, not with a 47 differential of course, but with my word—Sunflower—yours will probably also start with an S. Somewhat long word. A couple syllables, at least. But again, thematically, it shouldn’t be something that exists in nature. Something… I don’t know… like ‘spreadsheet’ or ‘switchblade’ or something. What is it? Oh… it is spreadsheet? Yeah, that seemed likely.”

If you can’t make some sort of correlation, and you couldn’t the first round: “Okay, with that initial differential and my word—Sparkling—yours should be something hmm … a proper noun… more towards the front of the alphabet. Like a man’s name with a D or an E at the start. Maybe F. Although…[shakes head] no that’s too much I think. Can you check? What is it? It’s Dominic? Yeah, that makes sense.”

To be clear, all this talk of a “differential” is just to imply there’s some sort of metric that can be used to track how different two words are from each other.

At some point, it makes sense to get a look at another page in your book so you can repeat this, if you want. Just switch books to “see if you can do it from the other direction.”

Spreading Negativity

In March, I suggested the idea of doing a tournament to discover the worst trick of all time and solicited your nominations. After playing things out in my head, I realized a tournament wouldn’t quite work out the way I had intended. And yet here I was with a few dozen nominations for the worst trick of all time. What to do with them?

So I conducted a poll in the last post of April asking if I should post the nominees or not. Does magic have enough negativity, or does it need more?

Well, 89.8% of you thought it could do with just a little more. Okay, you monsters, you asked for this. I’m not going to stand in your way.

I will happily do a rebuttal post to this. If you use or have used one of these tricks and you love it, feel free to write me and I’ll post your input as well. These tricks were nominated as The Worst All Time. But I’m happy to share the opposite opinions. “That TWAT doesn’t stink!”

I got many more nominees than this, but not everyone provided their rationale, so I’m just posting the ones that give some sort of argument.

Here are the TWAT nominees alphabetically, along with the nominator’s rationale, and an occasional note from me in [bold].

Akronym

It’s a clever method that I’ve only gotten to work on my LEAST INTERESTED spectators. Anyone who is actually interested in what I’m showing them realizes that the words that they are choosing have nothing to do with the wikipedia page they’re on. I can keep them from reading through the page but how am I supposed to get people to ignore that the word they picked on the page for Abraham Lincoln was ‘jujitsu’? Or that “smartphone” appears in the first couple of sentences of the page for the Titanic? These words can’t be ignored because they are the focus of the effect, and the same potential weakness comes up over and over with the trick. When you get lucky and the words aren’t THAT ludicrous it gets a great response. But I haven’t had it work at all on anyone who is paying attention.

[I don’t own this. But I’ve watched two people who raved about the trick fail with it for this exact reason. I like the thinking behind the trick, but I don’t think I could ever perform it because there’s no talking your way out of it if someone notices the words are strange. And anything I ever do with my phone for that person in the future would be totally suspect. Cool idea though.]

Applause Applause

I haven't bought the gimmick, but if you listen carefully, you can tell how it works. Actually, you don't even have to listen that carefully. You can clearly hear him click a button, and then the applause sound that plays sounds wildly different from the one that came from their phone. And I'd have to imagine that, when done in person, you could also just tell that the sound is coming from a different place, let alone a different speaker. All of that, plus a deck that cannot be examined, plus (I'm assuming) some basic sleight of hand, all for a worse version of the stop trick.

Aquarium

I’m not sure if the trick is bad or just pointless. Or maybe my opinion of it has been skewed by the trailer, which contains bizarre lines like, ‘Incredibly, the magician finds the fish,’ and, ‘it’s not the only fish in the deck.’

Maybe all omni deck routines suffer from this a bit, but it just seems like such a non-sequitur: “And now the deck is a fish tank!”

Wait. The deck is a what?

[I agree that the omni deck is kind of stupid. The kind of trick that seduces magicians because it can get a strong initial reaction, but also highlights the meaninglessness of most magic. That being said, while I have no dobut the presentation included with Aquarium is terrible, I think it can be used in service of some more surreal premises. See here.]

Arrival

Check the video, to see how he seems to have totally misunderstood black art. It's as if he is thinking “They can't tell for sure this isn't just a black sheet near the front. To the audience there is a possibility that the black sheet actually is further back.”

Especially notice the part from a real show which seems to be performed in black light.

The Chinese Teapot

What is the effect?

Where do you do this, why, for whom?

If you find someone to show this, the ‘method’ should be clear to anyone over 2  years old.

Chinese Sticks

Never liked that trick. Even before I was into magic.

It's obviously a gadget. And the person running the gadget knows the trick. And it's not even that interesting of a trick.

“What? Those tubes have some sort of weird wheels inside. That's magic?”

Boring. Not mysterious. And not even Chinese. Geez.

Dancer’s Dancers Thumbs

The trailer's music rips, but there's no way this is fooling anyone. If someone showed up halfway through, they'd be able to guess the secret. If you described the effect to a blind kid, they'd be able to guess the secret.

[I don’t know if this fools anyone or not. And I wouldn’t do it myself. But I kind of love it.]

Dead Famous Deck by iNFiNiTi

A deck with AI-generated portraits of dead celebrities.  Way to keep it classy.  Especially with recent deaths like Kobe Bryant and Queen Elizabeth.  I have nothing against dark humor (I'm pretty morbid myself) but there's no joke here; it's just ghoulish.”

The link is for the Celebrity Deck because I can't find the Dead Famous deck for sale anywhere.  Perhaps they realized it's so bad they canceled its release, even though it is still mentioned in the Celebrity Deck advertising.

Dean’s Box

Magicians love it and there are certainly some clever principles going on, which are utilized well in other tricks. But this, I've only ever seen bomb with real crowds.

[This is a bold choice, given how most magicians feel about this trick. But I like the nominator going out on a limb. And look, if you’re someone who has a trick on this list, you can console yourself by saying, “Dean’s Box is on that list. And that’s a classic. My trick is probably a classic too!”]

Downfall

The fact that this is available for one cent at Penguin should be a tipoff.  I got it as a free bonus in an order, and it's so bad that I'm glad I didn't pay that full cent.  While there is a kind of gimmick mechanism involved, it is mostly exactly what it looks like to a spectator: placing an object precariously on the edge of a table and waiting for it to fall on its own.

Double Miracle

Why it’s bad…

In addition to being overly procedural (which may be fixed with patter)...

Spectator picks a card. But they never look at the face (so they don't know what card it is). 

Place unknown card in between two face up mates. Then cut the three card packet into the middle of deck.

Then magician takes deck under table and spreads through cards and names the chosen card (which the spectator can't confirm since they never looked at the card).

So as proof, magician shows there's no longer a card in-between the two mates.

That's a really convoluted way to show you know what the spectator's card is. Also...

I think it would occur to most people (non-magicians) there may be a way to get to the three card packet since cards are back-to-back/face-to-face. Plus...

Magician keeps cards under the table a loooong time.

[I don’t know if I’d call this the worst trick, but it is a tremendously oblique effect in both method and premise. I can’t imagine choosing to perform this for a layperson with all the more direct card tricks you could show them.]

EDCeipt

The only thing that comes to mind here is that trick using receipts that Craig Petty put out. It is so boring. It amazed me that such a boring trick could have created such controversy at the time.

Given the controversy - it is only fair that Craig Petty and Michael Weber share the honour of releasing the worst trick of all time.

Fast Fingers

The presentation offered with the trick is insane. It also demands the use of an incredibly weird prop, but the prop can't be examined (I assume??). And the routine diverts away from the only interesting thing (the weird prop) at a sharp angle, only to end up in the most boring place possible.

Flakes Box

Looks Fake. Abuses a mediocre method.

Hole in the Head

Hole in the Head was hyped up around when I first got into magic. It's weird because Ben Harris actually has great ideas, i.e. floating match. The trick was that you would make a hole appear in your shadow's head. The audience can't look at you, and you have to be wearing glasses. What layman would see this and not want to look at you? Oh, and also, if you do the convincer taught of waving your hand over the hole, then your fingers move backwards, just in case anyone wasn't clear on the method.

HOT

While it may be a recent release it has been such a clusterfuck on multiple levels: the prop itself, presentation, handling, method, and then an addendum that adds problems. Even if you do get through Alexander's handling without anyone pointing out the issues, turning the coin over, dropping, grabbing, etc. It is still pretty lack lustre. I don't think I've had a release where I've felt as entitled to an apology as this one. I came away from this feeling like I needed to offer them a beginner guide to making magic. It is has however made me feel like I could release a best seller as this managed a few super positive reviews, though they haven't outweighed the negative reviews.

Hug

This is easy. The worst shit ever is obviously HUG by Nefesch.

Everything about it is so bad it's funny. The method will be obvious even to a blind person. Priced at $45 -- a total robbery. And the quotes. Oh my.

[This one was trashed when it first came out. But I like this Blake Vogt performance of it. At least as a quick, visual moment of weirdness.]

Level Up

The ad says “classic coin magic with game cartridges.” Matthew Wright’s quote says, “With less and less people carrying coins and cash it’s great to see classic plots and moves given a new lease of life.” As if carrying game cartridges around (with no game system) is somehow more common than coins these days.

More importantly, anyone who is familiar with Nintendo cartridges won’t recognize any of these games as being legitimate, and anyone who isn’t familiar with Nintendo cartridges will be watching a trick with completely unusual, meaningless objects. And while a coin that is a dime on one side and a penny on the other might be hard to conceive of, a piece of plastic that has one sticker on one side and another on the other is a pretty obvious method.

Light of God

I would like to nominate Light of God (self-lighting bulb). It’s an impressive gimmick, and it works well enough for an initial surprise, especially when you put it in someone else’s hand. But the novelty wears off quickly and I’m sure just about everyone can figure out it’s being activated remotely. Anyway, that’s my pick.

Middle Seat

I’m pretty sure a lot of people ended up getting this trick for free during Penguin’s Black Friday sale last year for good reason, they needed to get rid of these stupid things. I would apply the term uncanny valley magic props to this. Had this trick been a Tenyo trick, I probably wouldn’t be so hard on it because Tenyo stuff is so out of left field anyway. But it’s not. Maybe if on the prediction it was a small circular sticker on the chosen seat instead of it being a permanently highlighted seat I’d feel different. That way people think you change which seat it is with each performance. I don’t know. This thing just gave me more questions than answers.

The Pom Pom Stick

It never fails to bore me to death. On top of that there is seemingly no point in it or at least not one that I would describe as "magical". Plus every time I've seen it performed it's always a grown ass man saying the word "pom-pom" too many times, which seems just kind of weird.

Rainmaker

Rainmaker was basically a squirt gun strapped to your back so you could make it rain whenever you wanted. I can't think of anything more obvious or stupid.

Rumble

A thimble routine, but done with a rubber band wrapped around your finger.  Joe says this makes it “relevant” as if thimbles don't belong on fingers and rubber bands do.  I suppose for him thimbles are only for Monopoly boards and rubber bands are a natural extension of the body.  More likely, though, he turns ideas into rubber bands tricks the same way a lot of magicians look at a new idea and think “yes, but what if I did that with playing cards?”

The Skynet Project

The reason it’s bad is because of the ridiculous method. To make a freely named card appear in your palm, you have to wear a belt with all 52 cards inside these stupid little metal clips that are stuck by magnets around your waist.

A card is named, then you feel for the correct one of the 13 clips, each of which has 4 folded cards, which you then surreptitiously put into your pocket. THEN you have to pull out the one card of four that corresponds to the chosen card.

The idea that someone is going to walk around in life wearing a fucking belt full of playing cards is what makes this one of the worst trick releases ever. I was lucky to find another sucker to buy it from me.

The Wizard’s Flipbook

Like a classic Magician's Coloring Book, this is cut in such a way that you can flip through it and see different sets of pages, but unlike the classic, this one has eight separate sequences, making the gimmick obvious to a spectator and very visible even when not in use. One review notes: “The secret is to perform this bit of magic under dim light and several good feet away from the audience.”

Mailbag #116

I just came across your post on the Hoy book test and I was wondering how you justify the need for a specific page from a second book in a [traditional Hoy situation]? (Incidentally your ‘Take me to a random blog post’ feature is brilliant, and has led to me reading so many posts that would otherwise either be buried in my memories or never even have read otherwise.)—YG

Personally, I don’t try and “justify” the need for a specific page from a second book.

Justification is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you’re giving people a rationale as to why you’re doing the thing you’re doing. On the other hand, you’re drawing attention to the thing you’re doing, which might otherwise fly by people.

I generally don’t pre-justify unless I know it’s going to come off as weird in the moment (which I don’t think the Hoy test does). Like if I have you think of a three-digit number then reverse the digits, then subtract the smaller number from the larger, then reverse the result and add it to the result. Etc., etc. That needs justification. That needs some kind of rationale because it’s so beyond what you would do to have someone think of a “random” number.

It seems I’ve already addressed this, specifically in relation to the Hoy Book Test in this post, Justification in Social Magic. (Don’t worry, I didn’t remember it either.)

To give you a short version, I would say that flipping the pages in one book to randomly select a page number, and then looking at a word at that page number in that book on the other side of the room, actually feels like a relatively fair way to identify an unknown “random” word.

If I was going to justify it, it would happen afterward and only if someone was openly questioning it.

But I don’t get people asking why we used the second book. I will occasionally get people who question things like this.

“So you can just read my mind of any word?”

“Like just by thinking of it? No, not really. You really need to see it in print. Your occipital lobe is the part of the brain that identify symbols when you read, and that’s the part that is also capable of projecting thoughts.”

“So if I look at any word in this book, you’ll be able to tell me what it is.”

“If you read through and consciously pick a word? Hmm… possibly, but probably not. That involves you specifically choosing a word that appeals to you or one you find challenging. That’s a whole different thought process and area of the brain. That’s why we just do it with a random word like we did. But we can try it if you want. If you think you can focus your mind in that way.”

---

I have a question about an upcoming gig, but could be just as well applied to any magicians' gigs.

I have agreed to do walk-around magic at a couple of school proms, and I wanted to expand my repertoire beyond card tricks. I was looking into chop cups and linking rings, but want to avoid the 'series of meaningless impossibilities' that you have written about before. Also, while those tricks are visually fun, they definitely have a certain...aesthetic.

I know that your blog is mostly about a unique blend of immersive, social magic, but is there any way that some of the qualities of good magic as you describe it can be applied in a professional, walk-around setting? How do you make 'instant-reset' tricks performed in a professional capacity look anything other than 'look at this thing I was paid to do'? Is it possible to give even a glimpse into the kind of Jerxian, reality-bending experience you write about? Or is it a fool's errand to try and adapt the principles on your blog into a paid gig, like walking into a bar and showing everyone a video of a shooting star you and your girlfriend saw after you first kissed and then asking for money? Is it about having that one or two unrepeatable, seemingly experimental tricks that will leave a couple of particular groups with something truly special?—JB

Two or three times a year, I will hear from a professional magician who tells me that I’m underestimating the potential to which some of the ideas I write about here could be used in a professional performing situation. I don’t know that it’s a matter of me “underestimating” something as much as it is a matter of me giving it no thought whatsoever.

“How do you make 'instant-reset' tricks performed in a professional capacity look anything other than 'look at this thing I was paid to do'?”

I think that’s a losing battle. Your last sentence is probably your best bet. Have a couple of items in your bag or briefcase that you can go grab and perform that you supposedly hadn’t intended to show anyone. Don’t carry them in your pockets. Make it a little awkward for you to excuse yourself and get something. Maybe you have to run out to your car. You hadn’t planned for this. But this couple or this group happens to have the “right energy” or for whatever reason is “perfect for this thing [you’ve] been working on.” That’s the best case scenario of making a moment or two feel “special.”

Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you. I personally would lean into having some non-magical “bit” to do with the groups. Like I’d say to the group, “So, my manager really wants me to get some performance footage while I’m out on this gig, but he really likes those big, over-the-top reactions. So can I record you reacting like I just showed you the world’s greatest trick? Before I leave tonight, I’m going to find whoever gave the best fake reaction and give them $50.” Then give your phone to someone else in the group and have them record as you say, “Is that your card?” And the group goes wild. With the biggest ham in the group screaming and pulling his hair and jumping all around, “Oh my god!!!!!” Then as you go from group to group, people will be waiting to hear you exclaim, “Is that your card?!” And see how their friends go absolutely bonkers. It could be a fun running bit throughout the night. (And you could then edit these obviously fake reactions together for your youtube or your website. “Here are some real, genuine,, reactions to my magic.”)

I don’t know if that’s the best idea I’d come up with. It’s just a first thought. My point being, I don’t think in that situation you can get the magic to feel fully spontaneous and personal. But you could introduce some other type of interaction with the groups that is genuinely out of your control and unrehearsed.

Until May...

This is the final post for April. Catch you all back here on Monday, May 6th.

The next issue of the newsletter comes out on Sunday, May 5th.

Hey, supporters. Remember that thing I wrote you about in last issue of the newsletter? The thing at the end? You have until the end of this month to pick that up if you’re interested.

---

I had someone mail me something recently and it ended up getting sent back because it was never picked up on our end.

The process to mail me something is to use the address found here. And then to inform me that you’ve sent me something. I don’t handle the PO Box myself (because I don’t live in the immediate area) and I don’t send the guy who does out to check it unless I know something is coming.

---

So, remember that post I wrote about doing a tournament to determine the worst trick of all time?

Well, I’ve reconsidered for a few reasons.

First, the reason I was considering it in the first place was to prove the maxim “there are no bad tricks, only bad magicians” right or wrong. But the thing is, I think those of us with at least a glimmer of a neuron still firing in our brain already know that that’s bullshit. So it would sort of be a series of wasted posts.

It might still be interesting to determine what the worst trick of all time is. But people’s criteria varies so widely that it would be difficult to really narrow it down in any meaningful way.

But I did collect a number of submissions, and it was sort of interesting to read the reasoning behind those submissions.

So, just for the hell of it, should I post those submissions? Please vote:

I’ll collect the votes over the break and then make a no decision next month. In the meantime, you can still give some submissions. (Without a rationale, I’ll most likely not print them regardless.)

---

Craig Petty is a polarizing individual in magic. I personally think, whether you like him and his style of magic or not, he provides a valuable service by demonstrating newly released tricks on his youtube channel.

But I also think he might be working himself too hard, or maybe the negativity he receives is getting to him a little. Did you see his latest video? I don’t know how noticeable it is, but it feels like the quality of the content is slipping a little.

---

See you back here in May.

Short Sheeting - A One-Ahead Subtlety *

I have a new item I’ve been carrying around in my computer bag recently that might interest some of you.

Yes, let’s get it out of the way, a computer bag is really no different from a purse. It’s a purse which holds a laptop. But don’t look down on that. Be grateful we have an excuse to carry around a little bag with us. For years, only women had this luxury. They needed something to hold their pocket mirror, rouge, and a box of tampons.

In those days, women weren’t allowed in the Magic Circle and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. It was commonly understood that pretending to move sponge balls with your magical powers was a thing men did. A woman’s brain wasn’t quite yet evolved to handle these things. Their role in magic was to sew the toothpick in the hem of the handkerchief for the gentleman conjurer in their family.

So the sex that had the most ability to carry around little magic props was the one that was barred from performing.

But with the advent of laptops (and computer bags), all of that changed. Now men too had a tiny bag to carry around their little tricks.

Why did the concept of EDC only develop in the last five years or so?

Because, until very recently, carrying anything other than a pack of cigarettes or a pistol was customarily understood to be a sign of homosexuality.

But now, like women and kangaroos, we can take advantage of having a little pouch with us when we go out.

Something I’ve been keeping in my computer bag is this notebook from Field Notes.

The paper is thick. (Relative to other paper, at least. It’s not like Texas Toast thick.) It has lines on one side and a little grid on the other.

In the spiral of the notebook I keep this pen. Which was either designed to go in a notebook like this, or just happens to fit perfectly.

When you carry around something like this, you’ll find a lot of uses for it, even if you don’t imagine using it often. Getting or giving a phone number. Making quick notes. Tearing out a sheet to make an impromptu bookmark.

It’s easy to assume the smartphone has removed the need for physical notebooks, but for a lot of purposes, I prefer just pulling this out and jotting something down. Not because I’m anti-technology in any way. But just because I generally find it easier.

But, like a variety pack of tropically flavored condoms, this isn’t just something that’s functional, it’s also fun.

Impromptu “billets,” one-ahead routines, writing down words or drawings, predicting tic-tac-toe games, and so on.

Here’s a subtle one-ahead convincer that I’ve been using recently with one of the tricks I wrote about in the last newsletter. But it can be used for any one-head routine (probably with at most three “hits”). I’ll describe it here with two, because that’s how I normally use it.

I tear a page out of the back of the notebook and tear it in half across its width. I discard the bottom half and tuck the top half in the back of the notebook. It just sits there until I need it.

Now, when I’m performing the one-ahead routine, I open the notebook to write down my first guess.

I actually write down my force (or otherwise already known) object on the half piece of paper.

I then rip the page below it in half.

I pin that half against the notebook with my thumb and crumple up the other half. Hiding the ripped spiral things at the top as best as possible.

This is put on the table or in a cup or in the spectator’s pocket or whatever.

I now collect the first piece of information from them in whatever way the routine affords me to.

Now I act as if I’m writing down part two, but I write down what I just learned on the bottom piece of already-ripped-off paper.

Then I rip off the top half of the connected page. My friend hears the “plip-plip-plip” of the paper being torn from the notebook.

I once again pin the just ripped off piece of paper to the notebook while I crumple up the other piece and toss it with the first piece of paper I removed and crumpled.

I can now put the notebook away, and it has the half-sheet already removed and ready to go for another performance.

This is an interesting, subtle audible convincer. They hear a rip after the first prediction, and that is, in fact, the prediction that has a ripped top. They hear the tearing of the page off the spiral after the second prediction, and that’s the prediction that has the spiral-torn top.

How much does this add to the deception? I’m not completely sure. But I believe it does help. I was originally doing something similar that also involved marking the sheets with a 1 and a 2. But I realized that was somewhat redundant, as the sound and the condition of the page already “marks” each sheet.

The handling of this is somewhat sloppy, and you’ll have to be a little cozy with your hands. You can’t really have people looking at you while you do it. But that’s okay, you can just say, “I don’t want you to see what I’m writing just yet.” And hold the notebook to yourself.

You can do it with a 3-phase one-ahead routine as well. Although it’s more complicated than I feel like writing out at the moment. You’ll start with the top 2/3rds of a page ripped off already. You can figure out the rest.

Update: Turns out there is a similar idea called Triposte in Mind, Myth and Magick by TA Waters. His uses a notebook with a spiral on the side. So you miss out on the audio aspect of the deception, and the visual aspect is much more subtle (the difference between the margin at the top and bottom of a page). Still worth looking at if you’re interested in playing around with the idea more. Had I originally purchased a notebook with a spiral on the side, I probably would have come to the same idea he did.