Until November...

This is the final post until November. Regular posting resumes Monday, November 4th. The next Love Letters newsletter for subscribers will be sent on the 3rd.

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GLOMM Lodge #4, The Otters, has now been established in Sacramento, CA.

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Great Moments in Patter

“Nah, never seen one. What even is one?”

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What’s your favorite card color change? The Erdnase color change? The Shapeshifter? The Snap change?

My favorite is definitely the Triple Changing Pedestal.

What could be more magical than saying, “Hold on, let me go get my everyday card pedestal. The one we all have in our homes to rest cards on,” and then doing the impossible with that common object?

And you get the bonus effect of the card magically rotating 45 degrees.

And guys, just because you can get chicks with this type of strong magic, doesn’t mean you should. Be cool and don’t abuse this power.

Also, keep in mind, if you flip it over and shove it up your ass like a buttplug, it’s EDC.

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Hey all, have a great rest of your October. If you do anything cool costume-wise or magic-related for Halloween, let me know about it.

Otherwise, I’ll see you next month as we move from the spookiest part of the year to the giving-thanksiest part of the year (in the U.S., at least).

Chicken Scratch

Here’s a nice prediction idea that came to me via Nathan Wilson. It’s the sort of thing I like in that it’s couched in a sort of typical magical performance, but then it takes an unexpected left turn.

Imagine

You have your friend scroll to a random article on the home screen of CNN or the NY Times or any site like that.

You ask them to think of any word in the headline to the article they randomly scrolled to and to concentrate on that word.

You grab a nearby piece of paper or napkin and—after a few moments of focusing—you write down a word.

“Does the word you’re thinking of start with an E?” you ask.

No.

“It’s not ‘Egypt’?” you say.

No.

“Damn. This was one of those mornings I woke up, and I felt like my mind was really on top of things. You know? Like I’ve been practicing this stuff and some days I really feel like my mind is processing things and anticipating things on another level. Today was one of those days, so I thought I might get this one. Can I see the headline? I want to see if I can pick out the word you’re thinking of.”

Your friend shows you the phone.

“Hmmm…,” you say. “No. I’m not getting it. Was it ‘mystery’? That’s just a guess. No? Oh… ‘unravel.’ Okay.”

You look more closely at the phone.

“Wait… what is that? This picture…? I’ve seen that before.”

Your face scrunches up a little as you try and put the pieces together.

“What the… wait…,” you grab the prediction you just wrote and turn the paper over. On the opposite side of the paper or napkin is a doodle you were distractedly doing earlier in the interaction.

Your doodle matches up with the image from the article they randomly selected.

“Fuck, that’s crazy. I knew I was feeling some kind of weird energy today.”

Depending on how they respond, you can go deeper into describing the different “energies” associated with reading someone’s mind as opposed to “seeing the future.” And how you’re not really familiar with these things enough to differentiate them all. But you definitely felt something weird this morning… etc., etc.,

Method

This is just a presentation for Inertia by Marc Kerstein.

I think the key is to make your doodle abstract. It’s not like, “Oh, I was drawing a picture of a bear in a tree and you randomly stopped on a bear in a tree!” No. You’re just drawing simple lines and shapes that end up matching with the image they’re looking at in an impressionistic way.

Looking at the image upside down first can further delay exactly how closely your image matches, to sort of give an extra bit of drama to the final reveal.

Below is Nathan’s original email to me…

During dinner, you absentmindedly draw on a napkin. You never bring any attention to it, just doodling. I then have this presentation to get people to think of words and try to mentally send them to me. But instead of them writing it down this time, I have them scroll through a news website and find an interesting word. This, of course, is Inertia.

The trick continues by you messing up the word, and when they show you the image, you seem confused. You aren't confused that you got the word wrong—mind reading is hard—but that the image looks so darn familiar. That is when you look at your napkin and realize that your doodle is a pretty close match to the image of the headline they selected. 

I have only done this once, and it was presented more as a trick with a prediction in an envelope I gave them earlier that day. But the doodling seems way more interesting to me. 

D'Lite'd

D’Lites are probably the best selling magic trick of all time. This, I’m sorry to say, is just a fact.

For undoubtedly some legal reason that I’m not all that interested in, Rocco (the inventor of the D’lite) rebranded and came out with Prisma Lites a few years back. They’re the same thing.

At the end of the download for Prisma Lites, Rocco is talking seemingly off the top of his head about the “millions” of things you can do with Prisma Lites. And then offers three examples…

Let’s rate these examples.

“Maybe you wanna take ‘em on a dance floor next time you go dancing.”

Pros: The idea of lights and a dance floor go well together.

Cons: He doesn’t exactly suggest a trick with these. Just that you would take “em” on the dance floor. Also, I don’t spend a lot of time on a dance floor. I guess maybe at a wedding? Do I want to be the guy who brought two d’Lites to a wedding? Hmmm…

Rating: 5/10

“Maybe you wanna show your friends how you can take a light out of their ear and blow it and make it disappear.”

Pros: Simple. And pulling something from someone’s ear is classic.

Cons: Pulling something from someone’s ear is also shorthand for what a hackey magician does.

Rating: 4/10

“Go up to your mother and tell her, ‘Look, you dropped something on the floor.’ She looks down, you reach up and pull a little red light and make it disappear in frunna ‘er eyes.”

Pros: An absolute masterpiece of trick structure. Your mother will be amazed.

Cons: None.

Rating: 10/10

It’s clear from these examples that the d’Lite has many uses. It can be used to make a light appear on the dance floor, with your friends, or in front of your mom.

Andy, isn’t that all essentially the same thing?

No. Shut up. Those are all wildly different applications of what must certainly be the greatest gimmick of all time.

In fact, I just thought of another great trick in the spirit of Rocco’s ideas. Maybe you go to your grandma’s for Sunday dinner and you say, “Grandma, there’s something in the marinara.” And you reach in and pull out a light and make it disappear right in front of her fat face.

See? Like Rocco and Einstein said, use your imagination.

If, for some reason, Rocco’s ideas aren’t enough. Here are some other uses for d’Lites/Prisma Lites that I’ve written about.

Make snow glow

Prove you had your brain removed

Freak out your girlfriend

Swingin' Enigma

Here’s an idea for Christian Grace’s Enigma effect. This isn’t an effect I do, and I’m not in the Facebook group for it or anything, so if a similar idea has been expressed somewhere, let me know, so I can add crediting.

The idea was inspired by an email from Alexandre M. who was writing to me about performing Enigma using some divination tool that is outside of the performer’s control. That way, you as the performer don’t have to justify the more “process-y” aspects of the trick. They’re just part of this “ritual” or this “system” that exists outside of you.

That gave me this idea.

So you would start by having your friend think of a word.

Now you spin a story about this pendulum you bought at… whatever your story is.

You mention the interesting thing is that this pendulum can supposedly harness actual thoughts.

You draw this on a piece of paper.

You have the spectator imagine their word letter by letter. They dangle the pendulum over the drawing and see what direction the pendulum starts swinging in order to see if this pendulum can really pick up on their thoughts.

Three things will happen, and they’re all equally good.

1. It will work perfectly.

The spectator’s ideomotor response is strong, and the pendulum will swing in exactly the direction it should on each letter.

If they don’t understand how pendulums work, this will be completely inexplicable and already something of a miracle.

You say: “I know! Isn’t that insane?! But wait… check this out. I’ve been working with this pendulum for a few weeks now and have become really attuned to it. Let me show you something….”

2. It doesn’t work at all.

Either it swings randomly or barely swings at all. You do your best to interpret which direction it’s swinging for each letter, but sometimes it’s right and sometimes it’s wrong. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. It’s just random.

You say: “That’s weird. I’ve had much better results than this so far. You know, what sometimes happens is because you know the direction it should move, and you’re holding the pendulum, that sometimes you subconsciously prevent it from moving in that direction. Let me try holding it, and it might be able to move more freely since I don’t know your word at all.”

3. It does work… but they sort of understand how pendulums work and that they’re controlling it, so they’re not that impressed.

If they imply, “Yeah, it worked. But it’s just me moving it subconsciously,” this is may be the best case scenario.

You say: “Yeah, I’ve read that idea too. That you’re just moving it without thinking about it. There’s a name for the phenomenon, but I forget what it is. Anyway, I don’t think that’s what going on here. Because… look… I don’t know what word you’re thinking of. But let me try holding it.”

For the second part, you’ll take the pendulum and hold it over the paper in one hand, while you hold a pen below it in the other.

You act as if you’re going to try and follow along the swinging of the pendulum with the pen. At first, you’ll just draw back and forth as the pendulum swings. Then you’ll act as if the pendulum is moving in more distinct orientations and you’re doing your best to mimic it with the pen.

If you want to build up the reveal, you can sort of block what you’re writing with your arm and hands as you hold the pendulum over what you write.

Try to interpret what you wrote…

“Is it…hmmm… I don’t know what that is. A C? C-O-N-O-T? Or…hmmm….”

They—as seemingly the only person who knows what the word is—will see their word immediately in the scribble. Comet.

You: “Oh yeah, yeah, I can see that now. I wish I understood how this works.”

NOTES

1. The first phase with vowels and consonants can either be played as a demonstration of the pendulums abilities, or as almost a “tuning” exercise to get the pendulum “aligned” with their mind.

2. If, after the first phase, you still need to narrow down their selection, you can add a second beat where they think of specific letters or shapes of letters. You ask them to try to not let the pendulum swing, and you try and interpret what you’re seeing based on the tiny movements of the tip of the pendulum. “It seems like a curved letter at the start. Yes? An O or a G or a C or something?” And so on.

3. Obviously, as they’re futzing around with the pendulum, you have a bunch of freedom to do what you need to do to get their word via the Enigma process.

Update: It looks like the earliest reference to using a pendulum with Enigma can ve found in a March 30th post in the Facebook group for Enigma by Gordon B.

Mailbag #124

[Re: The Delayed ESP post]

After the person chooses an esp shape, you can tell them to look for things that are that same shape during the day.

Then, when you are reading their mind, you can ask them to send you the image(s) they saw during the day.

This way, instead of reading their mind to learn an essentially random shape, you’re reading their memory of what they saw, and you can also see it, well enough to get the basic shape.—PM

You could definitely do it like that, but it might be of limited effectiveness because in the end you can’t actually tell them the objects they’re thinking of. You’re still just revealing the shape. And I think they might be expecting you to say what they saw earlier in the day.

Instead of using “real objects” as part of the set-up, it would probably be stronger to use them as part of the reveal.

You talk about how they’ve been focusing on their shape all day, and in particular how to transmit that shape to someone else.

You then take their hand or have them rest their hand on your shoulder and you’re “guided” to different objects in the room, which turn out to be the shape they had in mind.

This would be super straightforward with a circle or square.

The plus sign could be “found” in any two intersecting lines you find.

Wavy lines might be tricky, as you won’t find exact representations of that in most places. But that imagery could be found in the drapes, or anything fabric. Or in anything liquid in the room. Or let them guide you to the fridge where you pull out a package of bacon.

The star could be difficult if there’s nothing star-themed in the room. Here’s what I would do. I would let their mind guide me to different objects all over the room. And I would act like I don’t get understand why I’m being drawn to those objects. A soda can. A picture on the wall. A book on the shelf. The door. A birdcage. Again, I’m drawn to those objects. And again. Soda can, picture, book, door, birdcage.

Ah! Then it hits me. I’ve essentially mapped out the shape of a star on the floor by walking from object to object in the pattern I’ve been guided.

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In [this post] you wrote about having a “small display” of decks in your house. What constitutes a “small display” in your mind? Is there a minimum or maximum you shoot for?—SL

Hmm… I don’t know that it’s that important generally.

But personally I’ve made a change to my deck display in recent years. I used to display all my decks (like, all my ungimmicked decks, I mean). But now I’ve cut that down to about a dozen or so decks. 

Why?

Well, when I had 70 or 80 decks on display, it was because I wanted people to notice them and be drawn to them, which would naturally allow me to transition into an effect. 

But I asked myself if I would have such a large display if I didn’t want to use it to transition into a trick, and the answer was “No.” Large collections of objects aren’t really my thing. It suggests a sort of obsession that I don’t really feel for objects. 

A small display of a dozen or so decks will still draw people’s attention. But I feel like it implies a relatable level of interest.

Most guys probably have one bottle of cologne. I have a half-dozen or so. So you might say, “Oh, this guy likes cologne.” But if I had 50 bottles, that might come off as “weird cologne guy.”

A dozen decks represents a slightly outsized interest in playing cards without seeming goofy.

Of those dozen decks, half are normal decks (some of which are stacked in some manner) and the other half are decks that are unusual in some way (e.g., they’re not typical playing cards, or they’re playing cards that supposedly have some strange history, or something like that). This is the other benefit of a smaller deck display. It allows me to more easily funnel them towards a deck I want to do something with than if I just had these dozen decks mixed in with 50 other normal ones.

Dustings #117

I don’t usually ever go back like this, but for supporters who have the most recent newsletter (LL#27), I have to double-down on my recommendation for the first trick I discussed in that issue. I had only performed it a few times before that write-up and I’ve gone on to perform it a bunch more since then. The variation written up there has been really messing with people in a good way.

And, while I described my handling as “clumsy” (or something like that), it all happens when their back is to you and they’re concentrating on something else, so it doesn’t matter in the least.

I was high on the trick before, but now it’s one of my favorites of the year.

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Great Moments In Patter

“In your head, you focus on what this word is. If it’s a small word, imagine whatever the word is. If it’s a large word… imagine whatever it is.”

And if it’s a medium-length word? WHAT THEN???

Obviously, Pete is making the distinction so he can gesture in that way to get his peek. But the fact that there is actually no distinction between the two things, sort of struck me as funny, especially from Pete who I think of as being pretty precise with his wording.

If you want to keep the same gestures, I would say something like, “You can either imagine the object itself in front of you [peek gesture], or imagine the word spelled out in front of you [wide gesture].”

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If you do the trick Inverto by Liam Levanon, and you do the trick as described in the instructions (where you’re using your phone to reverse the image of a selected card), here’s an idea you might want to use…

As you disccuss the different filters on instagram (or snapchat or whatever) you talk about the mustache one and show how it gives you a mustache on the screen. Then, as they turn to you, you have the mustache in real life.

It would just be a matter of positioning them and choreographing it so you can slip the fake mustache on while their back is to you and before you lift up the phone for them to look into.

It would make a dumb lead-in to Inverto, or a goofy follow-up as another example of you manifesting the effects of photo filters in real life.

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Pseudo Chatbot Update

There’s been an update to the pseudo-chatbot feature in the Jerx app. In the settings, you can enter whatever name you want to use for that chatbot.

There are two benefits to this.

1. Now you can come up with a name that is completely ungoogleable, should anyone decide to try and look into it further.

2. You can use a name that goes along with whatever story you want to spin about this supposed chatbot that exists on the dark web that you have access too.

You don’t have to make it jokey. You could name the program DeckSorterH6 and do ShuffleBored and place the phone on top of the deck and write, “What is the orientation of the cards in the deck?” Then it will shoot out its response as if it’s somehow reading the cards in the deck.

If you use your own deck, you can claim they’re special cards that the program can “read” via RFID chips, or something.

To me that’s a bit too on the believable side of technology.

So I will probably do something simpler with a borrowed deck. I’ll name the program CardFinderTX4 or something. Borrow a deck and do some type of Automatic Placement trick where the spectator seemingly mixes and loses a chosen card in the deck. Then the phone is placed on top of the deck and they type in, “Where is my card?” and it spits out:

Your card is located at the 37th position in the deck.

Or whatever the case may be.

This will be a good impromptu piece for when I can use someone’s deck at their place. With the right method, there will be no explanation.

It also allows me to play dumb. It’s the bot that’s doing it. Not me. I wish I knew how it worked.

I just need to find a good Automatic Placement trick. If you have a favorite I should check out, let me know.

I might use it as a reveal for the Trick that Fooled Einstein. Again, I would make it seem like somehow the program is “reading” the number of matches in our hand (or whatever) by waving the phone over our closed fists.

This also provides a little justification for why the revelation is so strangely worded. It’s AI. Who knows why it says things the way it does?

Of course, the app can be used to reveal anything that’s forced. It’s just a matter of finding the right trick to use it with. I would save it for a trick that would otherwise be a dull prediction. One of those tricks that you like, but you just don’t have a particularly good premise for. In that case, the AI premise will add an element of interest to it. But if your trick already has some interesting or charming aspect to it, then it would probably be a step backwards to use this particular reveal.

(Thanks, as always, to Marc Kerstein for his continued updates and maintenance on the Jerx app.)