Mailbag: Uncanny Valley Props
/Have you seen Lloyd Barnes new release, ProCaps? It’s like the old nickels to dimes but done with soda bottle caps.
Am I crazy in thinking this is a step backwards? —JR
I don’t know too much about this other than what I can see in that demo. I haven’t followed any of the pre-release talk on this, so my assumptions might be a little off.
Let me start by saying that I love the instinct behind this. Taking a weird magic prop and turning it into something that looks like an everyday object is almost always a good idea.
But here’s the thing. If your goal is to make a magic prop look like an everyday object, you have to nail it. You can’t get most of the way there. A bottle cap that looks 92% like a normal bottle cap is an 8% odd looking bottle cap.
And a 8% odd-looking bottle cap is a 100% odd bottle cap.
If you came home and your wife was 8% different from what she normally was, you wouldn’t think your wife was a “little off.” You’d think something was completely wrong with her.
Sadly, they weren’t able to nail the look of these caps. It’s what I call an “uncanny valley” prop. It looks almost right. But the small differences are actually what make it stand out so much for a lay audience.
An unbranded cap with the recycling logo on it is something I’ve never seen in my area. More importantly, the inside looks pretty questionable after the cap has picked up the shell.
“Okay, Andy, but certainly it’s better to have something that looks ALMOST like a normal object than something that looks unlike anything anyone has seen before.”
No.
Look, the old style brass caps were an oddity. But they were an oddity that could be examined. And if your presentation contextualizes that oddity, then you have something that isn’t inherently questionable.
For example, imagine we’re sitting at a table in a cafe. I’m looking through my bag for something and I say, “Oh, check this out.” And I toss a brass cap out on the table. “I bet you haven’t seen anything like that before.”
“Hmm… I don’t think so,” you say.
“I can’t remember if I told you I was doing some consulting for Chase Bank. You know how you can deposit checks online now? They’re working on something like that for cash. We’re in the earliest testing phase at the moment. We’re only working with coins for liability sake. We don’t want to be losing 1000s of dollars if something goes wrong. But it’s kind of cool.”
I fiddle around on my phone for a bit.
“Okay, so I have $500 in my checking account.” I show you my screen with $500 listed in the account.
“Now, let’s see,” I dig around in my pockets for some change. “We’ll use a few nickels I guess.”
I stack four nickels on the table and cover them with the brass cap. Then I place my phone on top of the cap.
“It just takes a few seconds when you’re using such a small amount of money.”
After a few second I pick up my phone and look at my account. I show you the screen and it now has $500.20 in the account.
“And the cash itself just goes to the bank.” I gesture to the brass cap on the table. You turn it over and the coins are gone.
“They’re still a couple years away from creating the adapter for bills and mass distributing these. But it’s fun to play around with. I’ve been sending all my pocket change to my bank account just for the hell of it.”
Now, that’s a version of the trick using the classic gimmick and a couple screenshots of your checking account.
If you’re a friend of mine and know me well, you’ll probably understand that this is just some fun nonsense.
There’s a chance—especially if you don’t know me too well (and you’re not super bright)—that you think it’s maybe possible.
But what you’re absolutely not thinking is, “That’s bullshit. That’s not what a brass coin deposit adapter for cell phones looks like.” Because it’s just a made-up thing. You have nothing to compare it to.
But if instead I use something that’s supposed to be something you’re familiar, and it doesn’t quite look like that, that’s all you’ll think about. You won’t think, “Ah, perfectly ordinary bottle caps.” You’ll think, “Those are weird bottle caps. Oh, and you just happen to be able to do something magical with them?”
Yes, you can still fool and entertain people with these. But a good portion of the audience who sees this will realize that they’re being fooled by your special fake-o bottle caps. The caps aren’t ancillary to the effect. They’re a primary focus. If they weren’t important, you’d just cover the coins with your hands. You wouldn’t be carrying around bottle caps with you.
That’s the other thing. You have these two bottle caps that don’t really look like anything else nearby. So… you’re just carrying around bottle caps with you? Is that the look you’re going for?
Using the “weird” brass cap may not be the ideal solution, but to me it’s the better option than a not-quite-normal looking cap that can’t be examined.
Here is the hierarchy of magic props as I see it.
Normal, borrowed objects.
Apparently normal objects that can be examined.
Unusual objects that can be examined. (You can use a story to justify its existence.)
Apparently normal objects that can’t be examined.
Unusual objects that can’t be examined.
Normal-ish objects that don’t quite ring 100% true to the audience and can’t be examined.
It looks to me like ProCaps falls into that final category. (I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.)
The thing is, it’s really hard to put time and money into manufacturing a prop that maybe falls a little short of your expectations and then just give up on it. So I can understand why this is being pushed, even though it’s maybe not what the people behind it hoped it would be originally. Would they have bothered manufacturing this if they knew the best they could get was a cap that looked like something was nested inside of it? Probably not.
That being said, I’m sure Lloyd, Murphy’s and Craig Petty have done their best to come up with routines that de-emphasize the caps and draw people’s attention elsewhere. I’m just not sure that’s what I want with this particular gimmick. The beauty of the original is that people could focus all their attention on the cap and coins and were left able to freely examine everything.