Lemonade From Lemons Week: Day Five

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I’ve been pretty depressed these past couple of days as Artificial Intelligence Week turned into a huge flop. My plan to take a permanent vacation while computers churned out content for this blog indefinitely has gone up in smoke.

To answer a question I’ve gotten a few times over email: Yes. Those are the ACTUAL posts that were written by the AI program at Writesonic. That wasn’t me trying to be funny and write nonsense. You can try it out at that site yourself. And no, that’s not like a joke site. Their actual claim is that they can write content for your site with AI.

I will cut them the smallest amount of slack because magic is a bit esoteric as a subject matter, and I didn’t really do them any favors with my stupid opening paragraph that they had to build off of, but still… I wasn’t quite expecting that level of grade-A gibberish. I kind of thought I’d get some regurgitated content that had been scraped off other sites on the web describing some simple magic tricks in a clunky, but at least somewhat understandable fashion. Nope.

But maybe I’m being too shortsighted? Maybe there’s actually a lot of good content in those posts that I just can’t see because I’m too stuck in the old world where tricks had to “make sense” and “have a point” and “be doable.”

Well, that's what we're going to find out. It's been a while since I've had a contest on the site, and it's time for that to change.

The Jerx Artificial Intelligence Contest


I'll tell you up front, this is not going to be a simple contest to enter.

But hopefully the prize will make up for it.

Prize for the Winner

- A 2021 Supporter Slot for the Jerx which includes a copy of the next book. (Value $260)

AND

- A $200 gift certificate for Penguin or Vanishing Inc. or wherever (Value... well, $200)

(If you're already a supporter, I'll simply refund your payment.)

How To Enter

Submit a video of yourself performing one of the tricks described by the AI in Wednesday or Thursday's post.

Those tricks can be:

  • The one under the heading of Amateur Magician (Wednesday's post)

  • The one under the heading of How to Perform Magic Tricks At Home (Wednesday's post)

    Or from Thursday's post:

  • Card Trick

  • Pocket Trick

  • Coin Trick

  • The Best Magic Trick for Beginners

  • Disappearing Coin Trick

  • Vanishing or Appearing Handkerchief Trick

You may choose to do a fairly faithful interpretation of the trick as described in the post. Or you may choose to somehow turn it into a real trick that actually has some kind of purpose. So you can choose to see this as an exercise in making a funny video, or you can choose to see it as a creative exercise. Or both.

Feel free to be inspired by other elements of the AI posts as well.

It can be a performance straight to camera, or for an audience, or couched in some other form. (For example, if I were submitting an entry, I'd do it like it was an ad for a 2010-era Ellusionist release. A bunch of meaningless "artsy" shots of me walking on a railway bridge, interspersed with some performance footage, and then me saying, "I'm Andy Jerxmann, and this... is Pocket Trick." And I'd put the palm of my hand over the lens, blacking it out.)

I will pick the winner based on which entry I enjoy the most. If I can't decide, I'll send out a poll to some of the original supporters of the site and have them vote on it.

There will only be one winner, but there may be some prizes for Honorable Mentions as well.

If you're just thinking of turning on your webcam and stumbling your way through one of the "tricks," you'll probably be wasting your time. Because someone is going to put some effort into this and easily outshine all the low-effort submissions. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if there were only a couple of people who put some effort into it, so if you do have a good idea for a video and you execute it well, you could have a good chance of winning.

The videos may be posted here whether you win or not. You can choose if I use your full name or just a first name or pseudonym.

The best way to get your video to me would be to make it unlisted on Youtube and send me the link. Although we can figure something out if that's not an option.

Deadline: Videos should be submitted by October 8th. I will select a winner soon after.