Mailbag #21

The contest I mentioned in yesterday’s post will actually happen tomorrow. Sorry for teasing your little nutties like this.

Is Haim Goldenberg a supporter of yours? Or are you Haim Goldenberg? He pretty much just took your Coronavirus Magic Day #3 post and is now marketing it as a trick called CAMfabulation. I hope you’re getting a taste.—CA

A number of people wrote me about this. Look, It would not surprise me in the least if he read that post and decided to put his handling out as a download. Nor would it surprise me at all if he just came to the idea himself. It’s not so unique an idea that other people wouldn’t have it as well.

I’m not looking at it as anything nefarious. I just see a situation where the readers of this site got the basic idea earlier and for free because I’m a sweetheart.

My issue with Haim’s version is that the prediction is in an envelope. I’ve tried the trick with a prediction in an envelope. The reactions are nowhere near as good as when the prediction is in view from the beginning. Even just holding a dummy billet in my left fingertips throughout the whole process and switching it in for the accurate prediction when opening it up gets a better response than a prediction in an envelope.

Trust me. I’ve been performing variations on this for years. I first mentioned a version of this effect five years ago on this site, and I was doing it for years before that. If the prediction is completely hidden, then it needs to be complex, not something you could have just scribbled off camera. However, if the prediction can be seen in some manner then you can get away with writing the prediction yourself in real time.

Your audience will tell you this, by the way, if you use a hidden prediction. There will be a moment of surprise and then they’ll say, “Wait… did you just write/draw that off screen while we were talking?” It’s a very straight-line solution. But, if they feel they were able to see the prediction the whole time, then you have something that is much more difficult to backtrack.

I've long taken your advice to invest in my happiness to heart and I think it might bear repeating on the blog.  For those of us who are able to work remotely and thus have no disruption to income, but will not be spending money on entertainment in the near future, we might consider donating that money to the artists we enjoy who are especially hurt by the situation.  Now more than ever is the time to show our support in a financial way. —CC

Yes, definitely. Those of us who haven’t been significantly affected by this situation financially should do what we can to sort of spread the wealth in whatever way we can. Especially to those who weren’t at a job with a regular paycheck and thus wont be getting unemployment benefits—freelancers, gig economy folks, that sort of thing.

That reminds me… are there any web designers out there who would be interested in redesigning this site? I’m pretty much happy with the way it is, and prefer to keep it simple. But your creativity may exceed mine in this ares and if you have an idea for some way to change it up while maintaining the simplicity and the esthetic of it, I’m open to hearing pitches.

Do you think magicians are going to have to reconsider touching people? —AG

This isn’t really an issue for the social magician. You should already have some sense of the boundaries of the people you’re performing for, so once we get back to normal, you should perform within those boundaries. There are some people who wouldn’t be comfortable even touching hands before all of this, so obviously I wouldn’t do anything that involved touch with them. Then there are other people who are much more liberal with their physical touch. Those people may be fine with anything: hand holding, close whispering, putting hands in each other’s pockets, swapping gum, hugging, touching various body parts, whatever. Sure, you may want to re-establish your boundaries with them when this is all over, but I think anything is still on the table. If you’re not good at picking up on people’s comfort level, then you probably should just keep to yourself.

For the professional, it’s a different story. I forget who the mentalist was, but I believe it was someone well known. He would pull a coin envelope out of his pocket, have something put inside, and then ask the spectator to lick the flap while he held it. His dirty fucking pocket envelope! It’s astonishing the lack of insight some performers have.

The simple rule for the professional performer (even if there had never been a virus outbreak) is that if you wouldn’t cross a physical boundary with a stranger in a non-performing situation, then it’s not something you should do in a performing situation. You might say, “Yes, but it’s my art, and to do it as I want to, I need to hold their hand and caress their cheek.” No you don’t. You almost certainly don’t really need to touch anyone anywhere. You’re a magician, not a proctologist. If you feel you absolutely have to touch someone for an effect, then get permission before you identify your spectator. What I mean is, I’ll see performers bring someone on stage and then be like, “Is it okay if I [hold your hand, touch your forehead, etc]?” But at that point you’re essentially coercing the person into going along with it using social pressure. And frequently the audience can tell the person feels super awkward. It’s so much better to just eliminate that before you choose someone. “For this next piece I’ll need a volunteer. Before you raise your hand, just know that for this to work I’m going to need to invade your personal space a little and rest my hands on the top of your head. So if that would make you feel uncomfortable, don’t volunteer.” That may feel like an unnecessary step to some of you, but I think by getting it out of the way early on, you don’t have to interrupt the flow of the effect once you’re in it, because you know the other person is down to clown.

Look, no one likes ratcheting up the physical interaction with people in a trick more than me. For god’s sake, I wrote about fingering a girl with a D’lite on your hand so you can make light shine out from her vagina. But I was saying that’s something you could do for someone you already had that level of intimacy with. I wasn’t like, “Here’s a good idea for you trade-show performers.”