Introducing: Friends + Astronauts

There was a time, in the 80s and 90s, when people used to get all excited for the premiere of a new video on MTV. It would be hyped for for a week and then, at like 10pm on a Wednesday, your sister would hijack the tv and make everyone watch the premiere of the new video off Duran Durans’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger album.

Sadly, many of you are too old or too young to have enjoyed this phenomena. But today I get to be your Martha Quinn and premiere a new magic venture.

Supporter, Eric Hu has created a site with this stated goal:

“I got some friends to help with a simple project for a great cause, and this is it. We’re gonna teach magic tricks for free (all previously unpublished) in support of each other, the magic community, and COVID-19 relief efforts.”

The site is called Friends and Astronauts.

He’s releasing material in “collections” so a few ideas will go up at a time, stay there for a bit, and then he’ll remove them and put up the next collection. (At least, as of this writing that’s his plan.)

I was shocked to see that all the the contributors to the first collection of material were current or former Jerx supporters. The odds of that seem astronomical to me. Like when all the guests at a mysterious dinner party realize they all played a part in the tragic accident that disfigured that young boy 20 years ago. “We didn’t win a contest. We weren’t randomly sent these invitations. We were brought here for a reason.” It could be a coincidence. Or maybe it was done to entice me to mention the site. Well, it worked.

I won’t spoil the material—you can check it out on the site. It’s not the sort of stuff you see much here. It’s more quick, visual ideas that could be incorporated into some larger effects.

I don’t usually think too much in terms of multi-phase routines, but Ryan Plunkett offers a sleight where one ace turns into two, then three, then four progressively as it’s turned over. I think it could be cool to incorporate this as a finale to a Universal Card effect. Four people select cards which are then lost in the deck. A joker is introduced which becomes each persons card, one at a time. In the end, you secretly switch the normal joker for the set-up with the selections at a point when people believe the trick to be over. Then, as a last beat, the “joker” dissolves into the four selections as it’s turned over in the hands. It would take some work to come up with a handling that allows you to routine that all together, but I think it’s doable.

Check out the site for some other cool ideas. Support the performers and/or the charities mentioned. And keep an eye out for future collections.