Gardyloo #42

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Next week's posts will be dedicated to the Jerx 2017 Gift Taking Guide. Over the course of three posts, I'll discuss ten things (or categories of things) you might want to ask for this holiday season. These things aren't strictly magic related (as in, they're not specific tricks or DVDs or something) instead they are things that are tangential to magic that you may want to put on your wishlist.

Here's a fun trick. It's particularly good for those times when someone is just begging you to learn some magic.

Effect:

You ask someone if they'd like to learn how to make a coin vanish. You bring out a bag of powder. "This is Woofle Dust," you say. You spit in your hand then sprinkle on some of the Woofle Dust. You place a coin in that hand and a moment later it's gone.

You offer to teach them how to do it. You have them spit in their hand and then sprinkle the powder on their palm. Then they place a coin in that hand and make a fist. "Hold tight!" you say, and grasp their hand, holding it closed. 

After a few moments they'll start to struggle and squirm. "It's burning!" they'll yell. 

Fight with them to keep their hand closed. "I thought you wanted to learn magic, you little bitch," you say. "You have to become acclimated to the Woofle Dust." 

After a minute, let them open their hand and find a hole burned into their skin. "You put the coin in upside-down, dummy," you say.

Requirements:

1. A half dollar
2. A clear forcing bag. One half is filled with powdered sugar, the other half with industrial strength lye.

Method: 

Spit in your hand and sprinkle some powdered sugar on it. Do a false transfer of the coin and make it vanish.

Now switch the bag over and have your friend spit in their hand and sprinkle some of the lye on their palm. Hold their fist shut until you can smell the chemical burn in their hand. 

Call your friend a pussy.

Switch the bag back over and dump some of the powdered sugar into your mouth.

(You may want to put a small mark on the side of the bag that has the powdered sugar so you don't put lye on your skin or down your throat. Maybe a lower-case p for "powdered sugar" on one side, and a capital P on the other for "poison." Wait... that's a terrible idea... those letters look identical in isolation... wait, come back!)

Episode 79 of the podcast Criminal might be of interest to some of you. It deals with a famous medium named Helen Duncan. I found it pretty interesting. Like all non-dickheads, I have an issue with anyone using deceptive techniques and then genuinely purporting to talk to people's dead relatives. But, at the same time, I do think this is a subject that can be pretty fascinating to incorporate into your presentations in direct and indirect ways.

The ad copy for this trick called The Skirt is fantastic and strange. I'm 75% sure that English is the second language of whoever wrote it. And I am 100% sure whoever wrote it is a raging virgin, constantly having to change his jizz-stained underpants after seeing a Dove bodywash commercial or a booby shaped cloud.

The effect resembles a leg in a slit skirt when a lady is walking. The face-up card would be the woman's leg. The face-down cards surrounding it would be the skirt. Instantly the face-up card vanishes, leaving only the cards (or skirt) that were next to it. 

The above vision is consistent with this project concept. That in itself is sexy. And that is why it is named The Skirt. 

Oh, baby, I can't wait to see this sexy trick!

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Oh...

Oh my god...

Oh my god, it's happening!

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While there's no denying the sexiness of this trick, there may be some debate on whether or not there is an actual trick here. 

Hey, see this little sliver of card?

No.

It's right here, see? I'm going to make it vanish. It's like a leg vanishing in a skirt.

Leg's don't vanish in skirts. They just go behind the skirt momentarily.

Uh... what? Oh, then forget that analogy. Nothing's going behind anything here. It's vanishing. Yes, 97% of the card is already behind other cards, but won't it be a genuinely sexy vanish when the final three percent disappears?

If I say yes can we get this over with? Ew... do you have an erection?

Probably. Look, the card vanishes. Now I will put the deck in the case. Like a penis going into a vagina. The above vision is consistent with this project concept. That in itself is sexy.