Dustings #114

Tobias Dostal is absolutely in the upper echelon of magic creators, in my opinion. His trick, Card Around The World, was one of my favorite contributions to the Jerx Holiday Part last year. (Don’t bother looking for it now, it was only up for a limited time.)

But, is there anything that can be done about the way we roll out tricks in the magic community? Because I’m already sick of his new effect, and I haven’t even performed it once.

Do I need 28 emails about this trick? Because that’s what I got. And every dull magic reviewer on youtube had to give their two cents too. The trick is unavoidable.

I realize this is probably good marketing. But, for me, it takes a little bit of the excitement out of it when the product becomes so ubiquitous. And I don’t love the fact that someone googling melted ring magic trick would be brought straight to videos on youtube showing not only that it’s a trick anyone can buy, but the workings of the trick too.

Oh well. I guess there’s nothing that can be done about that. I just like bitching about it because I have a platform to bitch about stuff.

---

Does anyone want to try and justify this trick?

It’s not Craig’s trick. He’s just demo’ing it. (It’s extra confusing because Craig has a trick called EDCeipt and this is called EDC Receipt.)

Just to be clear, here’s what happens in the trick:

One spectator thinks of a celebrity.

Another spectator picks a card.

Craig says he’s going to find that card by using “Sleight of Receipt.”

Two more cards are selected.

The receipt is placed in the deck and it “finds” the two most recently selected cards.

Then it’s noted that the first letter of the items on the receipt spell out the first card that was selected.

Oh, and if you scan a QR code on the receipt, it brings you to Gordon Ramsay’s website. Which was the celebrity thought of earlier on. Remember that?

What are we doing, folks? This is not a trick. It’s just a pointless combination of a bunch of shit. It’s only a “trick” to the extent that a bowl full of diarrhea is a “meal.”

We can do better, guys.

I have bad news for you…. It’s not 1980 anymore. Having a specially printed fake receipt is not enough to build a trick around. Making a fake receipt is something any dolt with a 4th grade education and a 15-year-old ink-jet printer could accomplish. You’re not fooling anyone.

---

Now that I think of it… here’s what I’d do if I bought that Liquify trick mentioned above.

I’d buy a bunch of inexpensive white rings so I could give them away.

Then, when I crossed paths with an attractive woman, I’d make this face:

Then I’d say, “I have something for you.”

And I’d undo my pants, and I’d reach into my boxer-briefs with the white gimmick on and make it look I was playing with the load she had just induced.

Then I’d solidify my spunk into a ring for her and give it to her as the ultimate in romantic gesture.

Mailbag: Blind Fly

What do you think about this trick? Is there a way to pull this off without offending some people? I think it would make me laugh if I saw it. But is it that different than Baffling Bra or other tricks that some people find offensive? I don’t know what to think. —MM

It’s hard to say. There’s not some line of demarcation where things become offensive.

That’s not how it works.

It’s more like this…

Very few things are always offensive or always inoffensive.

Everything else is audience and performer dependent.

On two different occasions, when I had an office job, co-workers were reprimanded by human resources for doing or saying something inappropriate. And both of those times the guys said to HR, “I was just making a joke. Why doesn’t Andy get written up for the things he does?” And they went on to repeat a litany of awful things I had said or done in the office. The woman who ran HR (who told me about these incidents) told them, “He doesn’t get written up because no one has ever complained.”

I have some sort of gene that allows me to identify how far I can push things, and with whom. Or I have a pheromone that causes people to laugh at what I say and not get worked up about it. I don’t know. Whatever it is, I don’t know that it’s something that can be taught.

Props like this, or even the Baffling Bra, are at worst mildly risqué. But the problem is, many magicians already come across as creeps regardless of what they’re doing. If you add any element of “lewdness” to the interaction, then that’s only going to exacerbate the creepiness.

In reality, there is probably no kid in the world who would be offended by this. And if you’re performing for all adults, they’ll understand it’s a joke as well. It’s when you’re performing for kids and there are adults in the room that you’d be most likely to have an issue. Regardless of whether they know it’s a joke or not, there’s going to be a certain amount of adults who won’t think the trick is appropriate for kids.

It’s somewhat understandable. Unfortunately, magicians have a rich history of shoving kids faces into their underwear. Usually, in that case, the performer is wearing the underwear. But either way, there are going to be adults who just aren’t okay with anything even on the edge of sexuality (even if a bunch of 8-year-olds don’t really see it that way).

Theatrically, it’s probably funnier to use on yourself anyway. And then if anyone gets offended, they’re just being ridiculous.

Blindfold yourself before you’re going to read someone’s mind or something. Then immediately start sniffing the air.

Sniff Sniff Sniff

Let an unpleasant look come across your face.

Continue on with your patter, but every now and again turn to speak to someone on the side of the stage and say, as an aside, “Is someone cutting up durian for the fruit salad?”

Or, “Is there a sewage leak?”

Or, “Did someone put the cat’s litter box in the oven thinking it was a tray of lasagna?”

So you’re alternating your patter with little asides about some horrible thing you’re smelling.

Eventually you can’t take it anymore and come to the front of the stage—still blindfolded.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to stop the show. But obviously someone is playing an awful trick on me. The moment I put on this blindfold, someone decided to start tormenting me by unleashing some god awful, putrid smell into the air. At first I thought maybe it was just a coincidence. But it’s now clear that someone is targeting me with this putrid smell and they think they can take advantage of me because I’m blindfolded. I’m not sure what the scent is… It smells like maybe the rotting corpse of a guy whose intestines burst after he consumed too many deviled eggs. And I don’t know how you’re directing that smell at me. But if you don’t stop this torture, I will stop the show. Okay?" Wait a moment. Take a big inhale. “That’s it. Show’s over. I won’t be subjected to this anymore.”

Pull off the blindfold. Notice it’s underwear. Wrinkle your forehead as it dawns on you what’s going on. Give the underwear a quick whiff. Control yourself from vomiting.

By making yourself the victim, you get to play the moment for more than just a brief laugh, and up the ante on how gross it actually is to have this pair of underwear around your face. And if anyone says they’re offended by it, you can just tell them to fuck off.

Reactions

Diane Morgan is a clearly a Jerx reader. (Or maybe the writer.)

The comment about reactions is dead on. The amount of magicians who are okay with these types of reactions is astonishing.

I think a lot of magicians are so fucking dense that they think that if people don’t like a trick they’ll just sit there with their arms folded. No. If people don’t like your trick, they will politely clap and go, “Wowww. That’s great. Thank you.”

That’s the social contract. And it’s the least they can do.

When people are really affected by your trick, they will violate the social contract. They may curse, hit you, scream, shut down, maniacally laugh, leave the room, cry, or something along those lines.

Not everything will elicit those sorts of reactions, but that’s what a really strong reaction looks like. Not smiling and clapping.

Saying, “This trick gets a great reaction because they smiled and clapped,” is like saying, “I think the waitress has a crush on me because she was friendly to me. I’m going to giver her my number.”

Honestly assessing audience reactions is probably the rarest skill with magicians.

Speaking of which, can we stop doing this:

“If I find your card, you all have to give me a big round of applause. Deal?”

I’ve heard the excuses. I’ve heard that often audiences don’t know how to react to magicians. I don’t really believe that (see the Diane Morgan clip above).

If you’re performing in a professional-ish situation, and you think people don’t know the correct way to respond, then maybe instead of begging for a reaction, it would be better to prime them for how they can react earlier in the performance.

“Magic is unusual in the arts. When I’m done with a trick, most of the time people will break into applause. That’s a great feeling. Or they may swear. Or scream. Last night, a woman punched me in the shoulder. And these are reaction I get from people who like what I do. It’s unsettling to not know how people will react. I don’t feel other performers have to deal with this sort of thing. Like, if you enjoy a tap dancer, you’ll clap at the end of his performance. It’s not like sometimes you’ll clap, but if he’s really good you may pull his hair, or push him down the stairs.”

I’m not saying that’s great, but if you put more than the 8 seconds of thought I put into it, you can probably come up with something.

I’ve also heard the idea is that if the person who booked you overhears applause, they’ll think you’re doing a good job. I mean… okay… but “I tricked the booker into thinking people liked me,” is hardly a great rationale for something.

I hate lines like this for two reasons:

1. You’re messing with people’s natural reactions, which is the most valuable thing we have to assess how a trick is being perceived.

2. It comes off as sad and desperate to audiences.

In any situation, coercing people into how you want them to react to you feels pathetic.

Now, if you liked this blog post, hit that like and subscribe button and tell your friends.

How To Be A Person With an Interest In Magic

In last Tuesday’s post, I wrote about the benefits of inhabiting the role of the Enthusiast. And I’ve written in the past about how I think it’s important to come off as someone with an interest in magic.

I find many magicians are loath to do this. In fact, they’re much more comfortable showing someone a magic trick than they are suggesting that they themselves have an interest in magic. Which says a lot, considering many magicians aren’t at all comfortable with performing.

But I think it’s important for me to clarify what I mean by portraying yourself as “someone with an interest in magic.” I’m realizing that phrase can be really misinterpreted in a way.

I’m not saying you should go around telling everyone about your “hero” Lance Burton.

I’m not saying you should put up a bunch of Houdini posters around the house.

I’m not saying you should walk around wearing a two-piece Criss Angel outfit.

That sort of thing isn’t going to do you any favors. When I say that I try and come across as a magic enthusiast, I don’t mean that I’m a fan of magic performers or that I watch a bunch of magic on tv or something.

What I want to portray is that I am an enthusiast for the concepts behind the premises I use when I perform.

I’m someone with an interest in magic. Specifically, things like sleight of hand, mind-reading, strange psychological quirks, hypnotism, rituals, secret societies, gambling, memory, unexplained phenomenon, etc.

My story is I was once a kid who was into magic tricks and David Copperfield specials, but that interest has metamorphized and shattered into all these different interests that I can tie back to a general interest in “magic.”

Expressing these interests is much more fascinating and potentially relatable than saying, “I like watching magic tricks on youtube.”

Here are a few quick ways to exhibit this “interest” in magic that don’t involve performing. (If the only time you express an interest in magic is when you’re performing, it suggests that you’re only interested in magic insofar as you can use it to get adulation from people.)

Decline Invitations

If you weren’t going to take someone up on their invitation in the first place, you can always decline their invitation with a somewhat intriguing excuse.

“Oh, I wish I could come to your cat’s birthday party, but I’m busy tonight. I’m going into the city for a gathering of this… like it’s this group I’m in that gets together to talk about obscure magic concepts. There’s this 98-year-old hypnotist/psychologist guy that they’re bringing in from Belarus who can supposedly cause people to lose their ability to read temporarily. And he’s going to try and teach it to us.”

Or…

“Oh, I wish I could come to your cat’s bar mitzvah, but I have a bunch of shit to do tonight. I’m trying to get into this… I guess you’d say it’s a ‘secret society’ but it’s just this group of magicians in the northeast. But to get in the group, you have to accomplish a magic challenge that they design for you. It’s corny. But anyway, I have to figure it out and submit my video to them by midnight tonight.”

Leave Breadcrumbs

Leave an old strange booklet on your office desk.

Or a strange crystal, or a stack of half dollars, or an interesting deck of cards, or some inscrutable instructions for a “Coincidence Ritual.”

If someone comments on these things, don’t go into a trick. Just say, “Ah, it was something I’ve been playing around with. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.”

Usually, people assume a magician’s tricks are something that anyone could do if they knew the secret. The idea that you’re dipping into something that might not pan out suggests something more interesting at play.

Again, this all just to push and pull against the idea that the next time you show them something, they can automatically dismiss it as “just a trick.” Sure, it was a trick, of course. But what exactly is behind some of these tricks?

Ask “Magic” Types of Questions Without Going Into A Trick

For example, you ask your friend if they have a minute to help you with something.

“Imagine you’re walking down a path in the woods. The path splits in two. There’s a sign that says Red and a sign that says Black. I want you to think about it and let me know which path you’d choose if you had to.”

Then you continue on like this, taking them to paths marked Hearts and Diamonds and so on. Essentially you’re equivoque’ing down to one card… except with no equivoque and no payoff. This is just part of your “interest” in regard to “something you’re working on.”

So they give their answers, and you maybe make notes or just nod to yourself, “Okay, okay,” as if this is all meaningful to you in some way. And that’s the end of it.

Or you ask them to hold a quarter in each hand, and you say you’re going to concentrate for a few moments, and you just need them to hold the coins for the moment. After 30 seconds, you say, “Okay, this might be easy to do or not easy to do, but if you had to say one of those coins was hotter than the other… which would you say is the hot one?”

Again, there’s no payoff. This is just you playing around with some concept related to something that interests you.

But at a later point in time, when maybe you bend a coin for that person in the future, they might think, Wait… did that have something to do with the thing I helped him with?

Sometimes people will express a very distinct interest, wondering what it is you’re working on. Great. Tell them you’ll show them in a week or two. You’ve set the hook. And now you have a week or two to figure out what the hell you’re going to show them.

---

These sorts of things allow you to engage someone’s imagination without actually showing them a trick. This accomplishes a few things:

1. It builds anticipation for when you do show them a trick.

2. It gives you a way to transition into a trick, e.g., “Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when…?”

3. It creates a richer backstory for your performances. It’s not just about this 2-minute moment, but there is a history and some mysterious underpinnings to what they’re about to see.

Mailbag #121

What trick of yours is Derren Brown talking about in this video around the 52 minute mark? Is this available somewhere?—OL

He’s talking about my presentation for the Invisible Deck called In Search of Lost Time.

That trick is available on the site here.

With further discussion about it here.

---

An interesting detail about Mac King came out in this recent email exchange I had with him.

Good morning. Just wanted to congratulate you on your answers to that kid Ryan’s email questions. Particularly the question about why magic makes a great hobby. Delightfully insightful. And then I flatter myself by thinking that the rest of the email was similar to my experience growing up. Are you sure I’m not the person who writes The Jerx? —Mac King

My response:

There's only one way to tell if this is a Fight Club scenario and I'm you during some fugue state…

Tonight I'm going to put a traffic cone in my asshole up to the point where it starts to hurt. Then I'm going to push it a few inches deeper. Tomorrow, make note of how your anus feels. It's foolproof. (Unless you regularly wake up with a mysteriously sore asshole.) 

He replied:

If a traffic cone is snug in your ass then we are definitely two different people. An entire traffic cone would easily slip into my sphincter without any lubrication. 

I wanted to make sure this detail was captured for any future Mac King biographers. Wouldn’t want this nugget lost to time.

Dustings #113

The winner of the Gumbo song cover contest has been notified and will be posted here in the future. The other submissions will be receiving Gumbo the trick. Or, more likely, I’ll just paypal them $20 to buy it themselves if they want. So they can watch it morph, watch it last, etc.

---

I read this line in the book, A House With Good Bones by T Kingfisher, and I’ve been using it sometimes when I’ve flipped from talking about something semi-normal to something crazier.

The other day I was telling someone how there is an old ritual that can be used to induce coincidences.

It’s at this point I’ll often get a look—especially if they haven’t seen me do too much magic. The look says, “Does he believe this? Does he expect me to believe this? What exactly is going on?”

It’s here I say this line, “Yes, it’s impossible. I know it’s impossible. I am telling you this, knowing that it’s impossible. The impossibility is the point.”

The idea is to harp on the impossibility so it leaves no misunderstanding about what it is I’m suggesting. It makes it clear I’m not a lunatic. It makes it clear I know what reality should be.

It’s the difference between going up to someone and saying:

“This is going to sound crazy. I want you to know that I know it sounds crazy. And I wouldn’t believe it if someone said it to me… but there’s a dragon in my basement.”

As opposed to just walking up to someone and saying,

“There’s a dragon in my basement!”

---

The remnants of Hurricane Debby came through New York today and knocked out the power to the café I was writing in. After waiting around for about 10 minutes to see if it would come back on, I decided to head home. On my way out, Bella, the barista, pointed at me and said with mock accusation, “You did this!”

I walked over to her.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m not someone to be messed with.”

As I walked out, I turned back to her and said, “I’ll fix it.” I held my hands out in front of me, paused, and then clapped them together.

For a beat, nothing happened.

But as I was about to say, “That would have been cool though,” the lights flickered on.

So I ended up saying, “That…There you go.” And flashed her the peace sign and backed out the door as she stood behind the counter with her mouth hanging open.

She’s a little chatterbox who talks up everyone who comes in, so I have a feeling this story may grow to legendary status before I return there next week.

Mailbag: Bullies/Hecklers

Hey, I'm probably one of your younger readers. [Irrelevant personal detail.] I'm still in high school and I've been trying to follow your advice about performing more. Most of the time it’s great but sometimes people make shitty comments. It's like heckling I guess but since we’re in school it feels more like bullying. They don’t try to reveal my tricks, it’s just general comments about the trick (or me) being stupid or lame. Do you have any tips for a comeback or a trick to shut them down?—TH

You can search “heckler” on this site for examples of how I handle such people on the rare occasions I encounter them.

For your particular situation, the best idea is to avoid performing when people like that are around. You want to be cultivating a group of people who are into seeing what you do, not spending your time dealing with some douchebag who doesn’t like it (or feels threatened by it).

If you can’t avoid it, then you shouldn’t be looking for a comeback to “shut them down” and certainly not a trick.

If someone says something shitty to you, your first instinct might be to say something shitty back. Your next instinct might be to ignore it. These are bad ideas, especially if you are in some way “lower status” than them (less popular, physically smaller, etc.).

If you do those things then you’re giving them what they want. You’re showing them they affected you and “hurt” you in a manner where you felt the need to lash out or shut down.

Instead, think of it like this… have you ever had, like, a 2-year-old cousin start punching you in the shoulder? And you might sarcastically play along like he’s hurting you. “Oww, stop, noooo, you broke my arm.”

This is the attitude you can bring to these types of interactions where someone is being verbally rude or aggressive with you.

So if Todd is like, “What a fucking magic-dork you are.”

You just put your hand on your heart and let a phony pained expression come across your face. “Todd, how could you say such an awful thing!” Then immediately drop the pained attitude and turn to someone else and engage them in conversation.

This lets Todd know:

1. I heard you

2. I understand what you were intending to do with your remark

3. I really don’t give a shit

You can also steal a line from my friend Tim, who will often say this, in mock offense…

"YOU say THAT to ME?”

He says it like he’s the queen.

He says it as if every element is appalling to him.

That YOU would have something to say.

That it would be THAT.

And that you’d say it to ME.

Pretending to be offended when someone is genuinely trying to offend you is about the best thing you can do. Especially if that person feels they’re superior to you in some way.

This is actually a devastating psychological ploy. If someone is trying to get you to feel any emotion (happy, upset, aroused, etc.) and you want to destroy them, just obviously pretend to feel the emotion they were trying to produce.

The email writer is in high school, so imagine you waited all year to approach a girl you like. You go up to her and say, “You look really nice today.” It would hurt if she made a face or just turned away, or otherwise rejected you in some way. But what would really make you shrivel up is if she acknowledged it by sarcastically pretending to care. “Oooohh… gee thanks. How will I even be able to sleep tonight after getting such a great compliment from such a cool guy? Oh wow. Is the room spinning or am I falling in love?”