Dustings of Woofle #3
/There are some questions in my email box about some logistical things regarding supporting this site. So just to be clear…
1. Magic For Young Lovers is completely sold out. There is no reprint coming and no ebook version coming.
2. The next book that will come in January 2020 is also sold out. Some slots may open up if people drop out, and I’ll create a waiting list for any that do, but otherwise, that’s it.
3. Some people seemed to think there might be a separate blog for supporters. God no. I’ve mentioned I’ll be reserving the most valuable tips, tricks, theory, and testing results for supporters, but that will come out in the publications supporters receive (digital and physical), not on a separate site.
4. The first quarterly newsletter for supporters will be out next month.
A lot of magic is fooling but not particularly magical. It’s rare that we see something that is the opposite: magical but not fooling.
These appearing business cards look great, but no one will have any question about how the ink appears.
One thing I’ve learned via testing magic is that one of the first “explanations” an audience will have for something appearing/disappearing/changing color is that it happened via a change in temperature. Even when we did a color changing deck, this was one of the most common explanations given.
In this case, where it looks exactly like what laypeople have seen of things changing via heat, there’s probably no way around the fact that they’re going to jump to that conclusion. I’m not trashing the idea. Often I’d rather do something magical looking that doesn’t fool people than something that fools people but is just a puzzle to them. (Obviously the ideal is both… something that doesn’t fool them and isn’t magical looking. Wait. No… the other way around.)
I’m thinking of having some business cards produced that identify me as a the chief product designer for Freezy Freakies. I think that would be a fun lie to tell people who I meet briefly.
Is anyone available to do a wellness check on Max Maven?
I was perusing Penguin’s live lectures the other day and saw that David McCreary’s lecture had almost 700% more five star reviews than Max’s lecture the following week.
Max presented a three-phase 20 minute mentalism act based on his 50 years of being a pioneer in the field of mentalism.
The highlight of David’s lecture was his suggestion that you put marshmallow fluff in an Elmer’s Glue bottle and squeeze it in your mouth during the show so it looks like you’re eating glue.
This just feels to me like the type of thing Max would see and say, “Ah, okay. Well… the public has spoken,” and the next thing you know he’s napping on the railroad tracks.
From the Bitches Be Crazy Dept.
I’ve got good news for you, your copy of Magic For Young Lovers has become just a touch more valuable as it has become even more exclusive.
The bad news, for one Jerx supporter, is that this is what his ex-girlfriend did to his copy. Yikes!
