Dustings #55
/Do you have a copy of the November 1967 issue of Genii lying around somewhere?
It’s the one with your grandpa’s friend on the cover.
At any rate, I need to give credit where it’s due. A number of years ago I wrote a post about how snapping your fingers was just about the dumbest, least creative way to “cause” magic to happen. And then I went on to define and codify Imps—the things you do or the things that happen that apparently cause the magic to occur.
Well, 50 years earlier, on page 13 of that issue of Genii, it seems Joe Fenichel had already discovered the ultimate Imp…
[Thanks to Joshua B. for directing me to this as.]
Fleshing Out the Sankey-verse
I noticed something recently about Jay Sankey’s website and promotional emails. Many of the endorsements for his tricks come from people who have absolutely zero other mentions of themselves online. For example, if you search the name “Wes Perlmann,” who gave a quote about Jay’s trick, Bigger Finish, you will find no record of such a person existing, other than his quote about that Sankey effect.
There are two possibilities here. The first—which I believe—is that Jay has a die-hard following of hermits and mole-people and others who live their lives so far off the grid that there is no record of them online. Yet they love Jay’s tricks so much they just need to come out of hiding to give him a quote.
The second possibility is that these people don’t exist.
I don’t believe that, of course, but if it’s true, I’ve decided to expand the Saney-verse by putting a fake face to the fake name.
I used the site thispersondoesnotexist.com to get the images below. That site creates “photographs” of people that are just generated from an algorithm. They aren’t photos. Those people don’t exist. At least they didn’t exist until now. Now they exist as a group of people with no online presence who are also die-hard Sankey fans.
Here are some quotes from Jay’s site attributed to non-entities, and the computer-generated faces I’ve assigned to them.
"Jay performed 'Melting Point' in his lecture for our club, and when he revealed the gimmick everyone's jaws hit the floor."
-Darcy Bedoin
Darcy Bedoin, whose magic club is easily impressed.
"Melting Point is a mind-blowing trick and the nail makes for a great magic wand.
-Francois Lyrio
Francois Lyrio, who thinks a nail makes for a great magic wand.
"Bigger Finish is the kind of trick people never forget."
- Wes Perlmann
Wes Perlmann, who over-exaggerates how memorable jumbo cards are.
"I just opened the package and the Contained gimmick looks absolutely brilliant!"
-Christopher Orfson
Christopher Orfson, a very enthusiastic young man.
"Soundwaves is even easier than I thought it would be. I love Jay's brain!"
-Stephan Marquote
Stephan Marquote, suspiciously silent about how he feels about Jay’s cock and balls.
Here is an idea for a pre-trick Rep. It would be used for a coin trick. You ask, "Want to see a coin trick?" And you toss out a washer (or washers) on the table. They might comment that they’re not coins. Whether they say something or not, you just correct yourself. "Ah, well, it's not technically a coin trick. I use washers instead of coins. I got sick of losing 50 cents or a dollar every time I vanished a coin, so I switched to washers.”
Now, what is the point of saying such a thing? I just think it adds a little color to a presentation. You’re saying something in an off-hand manner that makes complete logical sense, but only in a fantastical world. These types of statements are usually interesting, at the very least. And occasionally people will get so caught up in the logic that they seem to momentarily accept the crazy premise it’s based on.
In a world where vanished coins were really gone for good, you wouldn’t vanish coins. You would vanish washers or bottle caps or something. So it makes perfect sense to comment on that. “Yeah, I don’t vanish coins. That just gets too expensive. Some people do it for clout. But if the money really means that little to you, donate it to the homeless.” Or whatever.