The Worry Hut Hook

Here is a good, but somewhat expensive hook for something that would normally be presented as a mind-reading demonstration.

It comes from the Uncommon Goods shop and it’s called the Worry Hea1ing Hut. (After the email in Monday’s mailbag, I’m making a point to make sure uncommon, non-magic phrases that might come up in your presentation don’t directly lead back to this site with a google search.)

You won’t need me to explain how this could be used. It doesn’t require any huge leaps in creativity.

Here’s what I like about this. It’s a thing that exists in a non-magic context. It’s something the person you perform for can find online from a major retailer. So, while it’s something that you will have to explain to someone, it’s not really something whose existence you have to justify.

Also, the ritual is built into the product. It’s not a ritual you’re tagging on to an existing product. It’s not like, “Did you know for centuries the Etch-a-Sketch has been used to read fortunes?” No, this is a thing that was made for this purpose.

I played around with one of these this past weekend and here are my thoughts.

Asking Them to Write Their Worry

It’s important to say something like. “I don’t want to see what you write down, but don’t write down anything you wouldn’t want me knowing about”

In a normal situation I would leave this object out on my end-table or something and wait for someone to make a comment about it. So they’re not going to be thinking “magic trick” right off the bat. But I do want to warn them that this “worry” they write down might be something that is revealed in some way. It’s not a fun magic trick if it ends with, “And your secret worry is… you might have AIDS! Ta-dah!” You want them to be cool with whatever they write down being revealed.

Handling

I had intended to use this with a center tear. The person writes down their worry. The paper is ripped up and burned and then the worry is revealed in some way.

I decided against a CT for a couple of reasons. First, the construction of the little house itself is such that there are gaps in the bottom, where small torn pieces of paper can slip through. Second, if it’s a bunch of torn slips rather than one piece, some might not burn in the process, which is not ideal because you want it to feel like this burnt offering has been, ya know… burnt.

So I decided to go with a billet switch instead. I played around with a couple of different ideas where the billet would be switched in the process of taking off the roof of the house and the billet being placed inside, but in the end I settled for something much simpler. I just lapped the original while picking it up off the table and placing the (now non-existent) billet into my other hand, where a dupe was secretly waiting.

So I started my performances last weekend by showing the house and describing its purpose.

I had my friend write down their concern on a slip of paper and fold it in half twice.

I had them set the paper down so they could trace a simple sigil on the palm of their left hand with a finger from their right hand. This is, supposedly, part of the ritual. But really I just want an excuse for them to set down the paper so I can pick it up and switch it in a moment.

The “sigil” is any simple design. I just made it up. But if you want to be “legit” with it, here’s a sigil that is supposed to protect against anxiety and worry.

I had them hold out their left hand flat. I placed the paper on their left palm, and told them to pin it there with their right index finger. It was in the process of picking up the paper and placing it in their hand, that I did the switch. (I’m not a huge fan of having a set billet switch. It’s not really necessary when performing for one person, in my opinion. If you have some fundamental techniques of lapping, shuttle pass, and a one-hand billet change in your toolbox, you can just sort of feel out what’s the right move to use in the moment.)

The purpose of asking them to “pin the billet to their palm” is because it justifies me touching the billet, because it’s not 100% obvious what I mean. I don’t like in magic routines when you demonstrate something that there’s really only one way to do. “Hold the coin tightly in your fist, like this.” “Put the cards behind your back.” Does this stuff usually fly? Probably. But I’m still not a fan, because I feel on some level it comes off as unnatural.

So they’re holding onto the dupe billet and I have the real one either palmed or in my lap. If it’s in my lap I grab it before we go outside (where the burning should be done).

They do the rest. They drop the paper into the house, put on the roof, light the match and burn paper. Fortunately, this takes time. And as they do this, I just step back a little and open the billet to see what they wrote.

Revealing the Information

You have a few options. You could reveal the information in a sort of “showy” way with an Ashes to Arm type of effect. I don’t think this is a good idea, necessarily, but you do have the time to prep yourself while they light the paper (which takes a good 20 seconds or so). And you have ashes around naturally. So it’s something to consider. I just don’t think it makes a ton of sense along with this prop

Or you could not reveal the information at all. You could just have this information of something they’re concerned about and then maybe do something to ease this concern for them without them knowing.

But what I did, and what will probably be my standard way of handling this, is I said, “The way to know if the ritual worked, and the worry will be diminished, is if you can see the words in the smoke. That’s why I didn’t want you to let me see what you wrote. You might just imagine you saw the word, but since I don’t know what it is….”

I can then look into the smoke and “read” what their concern is as it dissipates into the air. “Okay… I feel like i see something. A mate? You’re worried about finding a mate? No… there’s more. A roommate? You’re worried about finding a new roommate?”

The nice thing about this is that—while you are revealing something you couldn’t know—the premise of the routine is that this is evidence not of some power of yours, but of the fact that the ritual has worked. So you still get that moment of the reveal, but without having to play the role of “mind-reader.” And, unlike most billet routines, the writing is 100% motivated with this prop.

Thanks to Paavan B. for giving me the heads-up about this product.