Gardyloo #75
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My pal, Marc Kerstein, has released a new ebook called “Tricks With Your Phone.” Which is a really weird title because it’s a collection of thimble magic. What the F? No… it’s not. I’m just pulling your little dingus. Actually, the book looks at a new feature in the most recent iOS for iPhone and its uses for a number of different types of effects (with the potential for countless more). If you have an iPhone and if you’re at all into the idea of doing magic with it, I’m going to recommend you pick this up. My recommendation isn’t based on me having gone out and performed the tricks from the book and receiving great reactions. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet. My recommendation is based on the potential I see with this product to truly benefit from the hive mind of a lot of magicians thinking in concert.
The book presents some tricks and also some fundamentals on how this new feature can be used for other effects. And purchasers will gain access to a facebook group which should beget a bunch of new tricks because the possibilities are somewhat endless with this new feature. And Marc has the technical know-how to shepherd any good ideas that come up in the facebook group to fruition.
You can see the description of the effects included on the product page here.
This isn’t an advertisement. I’m posting about this for my benefit. The next month and a half I’m going to be enveloped in the fog of finalizing Book 2, but when I come out of it, I’m hoping to find that the collective wisdom of a bunch of magicians has come up with a lot of fun ideas for me to play around with. (I’m not holding my breath on this. It’s just my hope.)
Maybe it’s just because I’m a hardcore move-monkey, but for me, the coolest card technique of all time—and I’ve been saying this for years—it’s gotta be the Biddle grip, baby!
Reader M.K., directed by to Helder Guimaraes’ website and suggested I scroll down to the “past shows” section.
Here’s the info about his show, “Nothing to Hide.”
“In 2012, Helder Guimaraes premiered his show Nothing To Hide at the Geffen Playhouse, directed by Neil Patrick Harris. The show was critically acclaimed and ended up Off-Broadway, at the Signature Theater, playing a sold-out limited run of four months.”
Hmmmm…. I feel like there’s something missing in the description of this show. Like some element that Helder is forgetting to mention. What is it… what is it… what is it…? There’s something, but it’s slipping my mind. I saw the show, I should remember what it was. It wasn’t like… a talking dog or something was it? What am I thinking of?
Wait… let me try and really search my memories of the show…
Nope. I guess I was just misremembering.
Well, one thing I do remember about Helder’s show, Nothing to Hide, is that it was great. I’d put it up there with all of my favorite shows I’ve seen: Teller, Siegfried, Pendragon.
I was in a coffee shop writing Wednesday’s post when the girl next to me sneezed.
“Bless you,” I said.
But I was premature as she then went *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* in rapid succession.
“Whoa,” I said. “Do you always sneeze like that?”
“Every time!” she said. “It’s always eight.”
“I’m a two sneeze man, myself.” I said. “As was my father and his before him. On our family crest is a man sneezing twice.”
She laughed. “It’s funny how everyone has their set number.”
“There should be a dating site,” I said, “that matches you up based on how much you sneeze.”
She laughed again. “Would we be a good match? Or do we have to have the same number?”
“Oh no, we’re good,” I said, “You’re high and I’m low. So we balance each other out.”
“In-ter-est-ing…,” she said, tapping her pencil against her cheek.
A few minutes later she slid a piece of paper over with her phone number on it. “If you want to get together sometime and sneeze with me or something,” she said.
I said something clever like, “Uhm, ok. Sure!”
I was feeling pretty proud of myself. She was cute. I’m pretty competent at wrangling cute chicks, but I usually have to put in more of an effort. She seemed fun. Maybe she was the one! This was our meet-cute! And we’d have little stories the rest of our life about how if she hadn’t sneezed at that moment we never would have met. And I’d make her a Valentine’s Day card that said “Achoo-se You to Be My Valentine,” and all that sweet stuff.
And then some guy enters the coffee shop, comes over to the table and is like, “Hey, baby.” And he leans down and kisses her. They’re clearly a couple.
I gave her a look and she kind of swatted her hand in the air as if to say, “No, no. This is nothing.” So I’m not sure what to take away from that.
Oh well. I’ll keep you updated should love blossom.
Hey, maybe there’s a trick in there. Like if you perform for larger audiences you could ask if there are any high quantity sneezers in the house, then you could intuit their sneeze number. Or the sum of a small group’s sneeze number.
Ah, who am I kidding. I’m just trying to salvage that interaction.