Gardyloo #44
/In a previous post I mentioned my friend Andrew's “Board Room.” That is, the Wonder Room concept but built into a display of cards and board games.
He recently added a new game to the mix that I thought was worthy of note.
What Shall I Be - The Exciting Game of Career Girls
The game is a little over 50 years old and comes from a time when girls had, essentially, one of six options for a career.
Model, Actress, Ballet Dancer, Nurse, Airline Hostess, and Teacher.
That seems about right. I mean, what else would a female be capable of being? I mean, I suppose prostitute goes without saying, but that might be weird in a game like this. I guess they could work in a science lab or something… you know, holding the beakers for the men, maybe?
At any rate, Andrew is trying to figure out some ways to utilize this game in a magic context. There are a few different options. The nice thing is, since it’s a game no one knows how to play, you can make up any sort of rules you like. Rules that just happen to fall in line with the process for some trick. Or you can play the game for real and then screw around with the pieces in an “unplanned” way after the game.
Because the game comes with dice and game pieces, I told him it would be perfect for Phill Smith’s Quinta.
Have the person roll two dice and combine them in any way to make a number, then count their way back and forth along the game cards. They don’t land on any of these.
Instead, they land on this one.
Or, you know, the reverse of that sort of thing.
Reader, MK, emailed this picture he and his sister created as a a lo-fi finale for the Red Pinetree Gift Lottery from the JAMM #11, which he’ll be performing at a Hanukkah dinner soon.
Love it. And RPGL is one of my new favorite things to perform. It doesn't feel like a trick until that very last moment (if even then).
I don’t perform for other magicians a ton. I used to. In fact I used to pretty much only perform for other people who had an interest in magic. It’s a safety net, because you don’t have to try that hard.
On the rare occasions I do perform for other magicians, here’s something I like to do. I’ll do a trick with a gimmicked deck or some gaffed cards or whatever, and when I’m done I’ll push the cards towards them and, as a final exclamation point to the effect, I’ll say two words: “Completely examinable.”
About 30% of the time they’ll pick up the deck and give it a thorough look and realize it’s totally gimmicked. Then they’ll be like, “What do you mean it’s examinable?” And I’ll just say something like, “Hmmm. Yeah... I guess you're right," like an idiot.
Now, since I was probably going to discuss method with them anyways, I haven't really lost anything here.
But about 70% of the time they’ll either only give the deck a cursory look (and miss the secret) or they won’t look at it at all because they take me at my word.
On some occasions I'll come clean and say, “No. I’m just messing with you,” and get into the method with them. But often I'll just box up the deck, put it in my pocket and say, "I think I'll keep that one to myself." This drives people crazy. Especially if they were playing it cool and the reason they didn't pounce on the deck is because they assumed you were going to explain it to them.
It's fun to screw with magicians.
The French Twins, have recently released a new effect called Cigarettes (real creative name, guys).
I've always thought card in cigarette could be pretty powerful, but I'm too lazy to be rolling up cards and putting hem in cigarettes. So I'll probably pick up some of these to play around with.
You may remember the French Twins from a previous effect, Card to Condom (or Magix). Of that trick I said:
"If I had a son and I walked into his room one day to find him dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, wearing his mother's panties on his face like a bandit's bandana, holding a picture of a bull terrier's butthole in his hand and he had one of these fake condom's in his pocket, the first bit of scene staging I would do would be to get rid of this fake condom magic trick. He just can't be remembered that way."
And after busting on that trick for a full blog entry, the twins wrote me to tell me how funny they thought the post was. And that they realized the demo video had a "nouvelle vague cheap softcore porno" feel to it (their words). So they seem like good guys.
Although I'm not quite sure what their brand is exactly. "We create tricks to be done immediately pre- and immediately post-coitus." That seems a little limited. But I look forward to seeing their forthcoming effect, "The Light and Heavy Jizz Towel."
This isn't magic, but they're friends of mine and it was making me laugh a lot tonight, and this blog is nothing if not a moment by moment record of my whims, so here it is...
Ethan died, and his friends and family can't stop wondering what they could have done to stop it.