Gardyloo #18
/My little sweeties... it's Valentine's Day tomorrow! You know those weird, creepy tricks that mentalists like where they try to imply that the reason for the trick's success is the "strong connection between the two of us"? Go perform one of those for your wife, for god's sake. Help in the fight against weirdos using magic.
"This trick works because of our strong connection." Between you and someone you're not in a relationship with = you're a giant weirdo.
"This trick works because of the strong connection between the two of you." A zillion times better. But I often wonder how many people have had their signed card merge with the signed card of someone whose face they can't fucking stand anymore. Other than a situation where I really know the people, I don't like to imply their "bond" is causing the magic. Even at a wedding, I need to really be in on the situation between the two. I've been to some weddings where the participants were like, "Well... this is a big mistake. I know it. You know it. Everyone here knows it." I mean, that was the feeling in the air. That wasn't part of the vows or something. So I'm careful about that sort of thing. Just my philosophy.
"This trick works because of our strong connection." Between you and someone you love in a healthy relationship. I'm all for that. Be a sweetie. Do magic for someone like that.
Seriously, dude, if your name is Mark Sherman, and you live in Washington state, all my emails to you get bounced back. Get in touch with me and give me an alternate email address. Maybe your're dead. Or—it's your work address—so maybe you got fired. In either case, getting your JAMM subscription is probably not foremost on your mind. Hell, perhaps you got fired for getting things like your dirty amateur magic magazine subscription sent to your work address. I don't know. Just get in touch so we can clear it up.
Also, this goes for everyone, if I haven't responded to an email in regards to a specific issue between us, and it's been more than a couple of days, don't hesitate to get back in touch. I don't like to leave things dangling, so if I have, it means I've either lost track of the issue or I misunderstood something and thought something was taken care of that wasn't, so feel free to bring it back up with me.
Reader Thomas Hodgson created this letter for his performance of Rest In Pieces.
While the letter made perfect sense for him because it was performed near the beginning of the year, if you want to use it you may need to justify the "new year" as a new year of the service. "Yes, the service started in September of 2011. So this is the first puzzle for year seven." Or whatever.
You can download the pdf for these here.
I'm going to be conducting some magic-related focus-groups within the next couple of weeks for a project that is not primarily related to this site. We may have some extra time with the groups so if there is a trick or concept that you'd like tested in front of real people who are being paid for their brutal honesty, let me know.
It would have to be something fairly quick to demonstrate and then get feedback on, however, because our time is limited.
The writing credit for The Amateur at the Kitchen Table in the January table of contents for Genii is nice and confusing.
It's got a real "Rambo First Blood Part Two" vibe to it.
Also, is "Andy" really a pseudonym? Is "John" a pseudonym for John Lovick?
If it helps I'll use my full name around here. It's His Honor Count Captain Andrew Winthrop von Munthe af Morgenstierne IV, B.V.M.
Also, does anyone know if I'm the only person to get two books reviewed in Genii in consecutive months? I think I'm going to claim that I am. Who cares if it's true. No one is going to look it up.
A little Valentine's magic trick I put together. Would you believe you can do this in real life for someone? You can. I mean, there will be a giant box of chocolate on the ground at the end of the trick, but you can definitely do it.
