Monday Mailbag #39
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I got a bunch of emails telling me that Vanishing Inc. ripped off my business idea that I posted here. (In the section that starts—ominously enough for Vanishing Inc.—with me saying, “I have zero business sense.”) They have a new program called Vanishing Inc. Plus which is essentially exactly what I wrote about in that post: bundling their lecture offerings with deals on shipping and adding incentives to get you to purchase your magic from them.
Now, to be clear, they didn’t “rip me off.” I put the idea out there because I wanted someone to do it. And I also put the idea out there essentially saying, “Isn’t this an obvious idea? Why isn’t anyone doing this?” So it doesn’t surprise me if they were already working on it. And I would be shocked if Penguin doesn’t come in with something similar.
But yes, it’s more fun to think they “ripped off” the idea, so I’ll go with that angle. Another thing they ripped off from me was a program I had in place a few years ago called “Jerx Points.” This was where you would get “points” for certain things you did and, in turn, you would be rewarded with hyper-limited-edition (between 1 and 20 copies) of ebooks and or tricks. I’ve removed most of the mentions of this from the site, because I stopped doing the Jerx Points program and didn’t want people to end up doing stuff for points that no longer exist.
Well, Vanishing Inc ripped that off too! And now you can get your Vanishing Inc. points when you buy stuff or sign up for VI+.
I suggest you hop on that points program. If you fail to get 2000 or 6500 points, Vanishing Inc will make you wear this bracelet and hat.
Update: Okay, it looks like I misinterpreted how the program works. You need to obtain 2000/6500 points in order to get them to send you these things. It’s not to keep them from sending you these things. This is very confusing. Under what circumstances would you want these?
I think Vanishing Inc. may be over-estimating the enthusiasm for Vanishing Inc branded items. Among the “rewards” in the points program are Vanishing Inc. Sharpies, Vanishing Inc. card clips and Vanishing Inc. close-up pads.
It’s unclear to me for what type of audience it would make sense to use a Vanishing Inc close-up mat. Is there the option to just cut to the chase and have the exact URL where they can buy the trick I’m currently performing for them embroidered on the mat?
Unsurprisingly, they’ve taken the number one “Jerx point” activity (getting a Jerx-related tattoo) and made that the big point getter at Vanishing Inc as well.
If you get a Vanishing Inc tattoo you get 10,000 VI points. That’s the equivalent of a $50 gift card or 5 Vanishing Inc silicone wristbands. I’m not quite sure that’s worth the physical pain—or even just the financial cost—of a tattoo, but that’s not for me to decide.
The important question this brings up is: Are Vanishing Inc. points transferrable to your next of kin? I mean, getting a Vanishing Inc. tattoo has to be seen as a likely precursor to suicide. At the very least it shows you’ve given up and don’t even value your physical body anymore. So it would be nice to know if the desperate soul that commits such an act can bequeath those points to a friend or loved one.
And what exactly constitutes a VI tattoo? Do I have to get the logo? Or would this tattoo on my torso of Andi and Josh count?
How often are you truly fooled by a trick? What was the last trick you were fooled by? —JB
Hmmm… it’s fairly common that I don’t completely understand the mechanics behind a trick. But, probably, 98% of the time I’ll have enough of an idea of what I’m seeing to satisfy me. The gum pack changed color? Eh, it looks like some kind of flapping mechanism of some sort. I may not know the exact method, but I know enough to feel like I wasn’t really “fooled.” Regular spectators are like this too. We like to imagine they’re not, but they are. They might not be able to articulate the nature of the gimmick on the pack of gum, but if they think, “Eh, it’s a trick pack of gum,” I think that alone is enough to say they weren’t fooled. (It’s enough in their mind, at least.)
But, at any rate, the last time I felt pretty fooled was recently when someone sent me this clip of Ryan Plunkett performing a trick at the 5:45 point in this video.
The way the face-up cards just start appearing in the face-down deck is unlike anything I have really seen before. So I was fooled. After doing a bit of research I know somewhat more of what was being used for the effect, but even knowing the gimmick, I’m still pretty fooled.
In last week’s post on the Tone Hook, I wrote:
The best way to get into this is to be very casual at the start. “Can you hear this? How about this?” You’re not even really fully engaged with what you’re doing at this point. You’re just half-heartedly playing the tones without expecting anything. It’s only when your friend says they can hear something that you get excited.
CC writes:
Have you considered not proactively asking? Maybe you are just clicking on sounds on your own, and then the other person asks "what is that?" when a tone plays. That's when you start the engagement, explaining that you were just listening for yourself, and you replay all the sounds again to see which ones they can hear.
I suppose the downside is that there is no mystery built up around "why is he asking me these questions?" but it has the upside of the other person seemingly starting the interaction. —CC
Yeah, definitely. I think that’s probably the ideal way to do it. I did consider that before, but I’ve yet to be in a situation where I can use it in that manner and I do the write-ups based on my experience actually performing it. This Hook is one I’ve so far only used with people I’m working in the same room as, and normally they have headphones in, so I have to be more proactive with the tone.
But if I was just hanging out with someone in the same area and it was normal for me to be looking at something on my phone or computer, I would definitely just keep playing that tone until it annoyed them enough to comment on it. Then I’d act all innocent. “What? You can hear that?”