New Release Roundup
/NOTE: I’ll be out next week for my end of summer break. Regular posting will resume on Sept. 6th. For supporters of the site, the next newsletter should be with you by the end of the months. Mwah, mwah!
As requested in a mailbag recently, here are some initial thoughts regarding a few new and upcoming releases. These are just my first impressions, feel free to tell me where I got something wrong. I’m not going to be linking to the products anywhere, because nobody’s paying me and you’re smart enough to use google.
Ellusionist’s How to Control Minds Kit
If you had fun imagining Ellusionist’s typical, barely-pubescent customer stumbling their way through some mentalism after the release of their “How to Read Minds Kit,” you will be absolutely delighted imagining them trying the pseudo-hypnotic effects in Ellusionist’s new release, How to Control Minds.
It’s a kit that comes with a “Collector’s Engraved Brass Pen” for fuck knows what reason. It’s for “collectors”? Yeah, for me it would be for my trash collector, because that shit’s going straight in the garbage.
Of course, you need to understand they have to have something to put in the box. Most of these effects don’t require props, so they were kind of screwed. Trust me…when one of their selling points is having “50 Billets” in the box (i.e. 50 small blank pieces of paper), you ain’t getting anything good in that box.
The bigger problem is that you’re going to have a lot of dorks buying this thinking, at best, that these are “easy” to do as the kickstarter claims, or at worst that they’re REALLY going to be controlling people’s minds. The ad purposely plays down that these tricks require someone with Peter Turner’s performing abilities (which are legit for this style), and are that these effects are helped greatly by the spectator feeling the pressure from an audience (and in this case a camera crew). And still most often the target person will realize that they were sort of just playing along. Which makes it terrible for one-on-one casual performing. (If you don’t believe people know they’re playing along, contact me and we can set up some testing with real people. As long as you cover the costs. I’m not paying for testing I already know the answer to.)
But Ellusionist knows what they’re doing. That’s why this is a kickstarter. Their ridiculous “goal” for this kickstarter was $10,000. Like… huh? You don’t have 10k in the bank, Ellusionist? You couldn’t swing that yourself? Do you want a loan? I can cover you. Pre-selling through kickstarter is insurance against how disappointed their customers are going to be.
The ad says:
Copy what we share with [sic] you'll be able to "just do it".
You don't need to be dexterous.
You don't need to be a showman.
You don't need to "know it all" before you can start wowing your friends.
People say you can't buy talent - but this kit proves them wrong.
Okay, good luck with that!
This is odd too…
First, if your son or daughter is lacking confidence. they probably won’t find it as they’re getting a wedgie surgically removed after they fall on their face trying to impress their classmates with these tricks. These types of effects rely on confidence to work. They don’t create it.
Also…you forgot to get your nephew a Christmas gift? Bitch, it’s August. You’ve got time.
Renaissance Square by Max Giaco
This came out a while ago, but it was just recently "re-released" in Murphy's Magic "The Vault" Series.
It looks like a pretty clever collection of principles being used here. I'm just not sure how interesting Leonardo da Vinci is as a presentational subject. That might need some modification. I'll probably pick it up and play around with it. If I do go with the da Vinci presentation, then I will change the reveal on the back of the page so that it looks like illustrations of cards taken from da Vinci's notebook. If you're going to go with the theme, there's no reason to bail on it at the end.
Infinity Watch Version 3
The newest version of another watch that allows you to predict the time someone thinks of. I continue to like the idea of the effect and can think of a couple different interesting presentations for it. But I can’t get over the idea that there's going to be a non-negligible part of the audience who says, "Oh, is that like one of those watches you can set with your phone?" I discussed my reservations in this post which is now, somehow, almost three years old. Since then I've heard from probably two dozen people who use one of these watches in a magic effect. I would guess about 2/3rds of these people have told me they've been busted at least once because someone in one of their audiences was familiar with the technology and the other third said no one ever busts them (at least not to their face). So who knows.
A smart company would release a watch that functions in this way, but that looks 50 years old. That way people aren't thinking of modern technology. If it's scratched and rusted and clearly dead. Then you tell the story of your great-grandfather and how he passed away and his watch stopped at the exact moment he died, which the spectator is able to name. Or whatever.
I'm fascinated by this bit of stupidity. One of the issues that people had with the Turner watch was that it said "Turner" on the watch which was very easy for a spectator to google and realize it's a phony magic watch. The people over at Infinity watches said, "Uh-uh-uh... we won't make that mistake!" And in their ad it says:
UNTRACEABLE: The watch brand is renamed to "BLUTHER" purposely so that spectators cannot find it online.
Guess what? Now they can because you just put the name of the watch in the ad, you dingbat.
[UPDATE: C.K. wrote in to point out what a bad decision black hands on a black watch face is. He’s 100% right, of course. I totally missed that. If you’re looking for this response from your magic— “And I predicted your thought of time!” - “Huh? Wait… I can’t… hold on… let me get my glasses…
… okay… yup… looks like you did. Neat!”—then definitely go for the black on black watch.]
Genesis System Project by Adam Wilber
This looks like a lovingly created “system” of color changing effects by Adam Wilber. But I have bad news for you. You cannot fool people with a color-changing anything that changes color based on temperature. Laypeople know such things exist. In fact, this is pretty much the only thing they know that exists that might account for an object changing in color.
I have not put this in front of the Virtual Focus Group yet, but anytime I put anything that changes color in some way in front of them, “the color changes with temperature” is a hypothesis they offer that is nearly universal. This goes for cards changing color, ink moving or changing, color changing knives, color changing sponge balls, color changing anything.
So, for me, this is just not a methodology that works for a magic trick. It would be like using magnets to do a trick where one thing sticks to something else. If there are effects in this kit that don’t use the color change overtly, then there might be some effects here that are more usable, but I don’t know if that’s the case.
It’s a bummer because it looks like a lot of thought was put into this, and if it really left people at a loss for an explanation, then I’d be all for it. But I think it plays into one of the few explanations a non-magician has at their disposal.
How Magicians Think by Joshua Jay
Josh has a new book coming out for the public called How Magicians Think…and Why Magic Matters.
I’ll save you some time…
How Magicians Think - “Oh please, oh please like me because I can turn $1 bills into $100s. Please?!?!?! Fuck… please!!!! Pay attention to me! Uhm…. I can read body language!!! Okay, okay… what else… I know I seem like my personality is kinda junk and all, and in the rest of your interactions with me I’m a total zilch with no confidence, but I can actually influence people to do what I want, just with a few simple words. I SWEAR TO GOD!!!”
Why Magic Matters - It doesn’t, really.
But I don’t really want to talk about Josh’s book. Instead I want to talk about my crowning achievement on this blog. And that is the introduction of a new feature to this site called, The Wit and Wisdom of the Jay Brothers. I learned recently, that Joshua Jay has a fat identical twin brother named Fat Joshua Jay. And in this recurring segment I will highlight some of their thoughts/advice on magic and life.
Joshua Jay
“Don’t run when you’re not being chased!”
Fat Joshua Jay
“Don’t run.”