Mailbag #74

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This first message comes from Mac King, reflecting on his friend Max Maven…

What a treat to read your recent post about Max. I count him as one the most influential people on my show. He watched with a genius eye and could come up with just the right turn of phrase or little moment to enhance a performance. His ability to suggest trick plots that fit me was perfect. His knowledge of methods was massive. He was encouraging and smart. In addition to my show, Max influenced my everyday life. Book recommendations. Movies. Jokes. Food. Music. And one of my two or three closest friends. I loved him so.

The little text exchange you screenshot was telling. He was generous and funny.

I first met Max Maven when I was teenager, at an Abbott’s Get Together in 1978. I was sitting with Lance Burton in the bleachers in the un-air-conditioned sweltering Colon High School Gymnasium. Max was introduced and us two Kentucky hillbillies had never seen anything like that. The first thing we noticed—obviously—was his trademark widow’s-peak. Then that orotund Max Maven voice. And then his ensemble. Black. Obviously. But not just black. And not the black puffy pants and knee length blouses he favored in his latter years. No. A solid black beautifully fitting three piece suit. But without a shirt—chest hair proudly billowing from his vest. And then Lance and I were like, “Wait. He’s not wearing a shirt and yet there are white shirt sleeves visible at the end of his rolled up jacket sleeves.” We thought that was so cool. Already a mystery and he hadn’t even done a trick. And then he did a trick. Lance and I were 18 years old at the time, and as often happens with 18 year old magicians, we thought we were hot shit. So Max did his first trick. I looked at Lance, Lance looked at me. We each shrugged our shoulders helplessly. Neither of us had a clue. Second trick. Fooled us just as bad. Third trick. No idea. Every-single-trick simply pulverized us. Easily the most I’ve ever been fooled by one person at one sitting—before or since. —MK

I have little to add, other than that sounds like peek Max. No shirt? Chest hair flowing in the breeze? Sweet. Sadly, “Max Maven” + “Chest hair” produces no good results in an image search.

Although googling around I did stumble across Max’s entry on the Mork and Mindy Wiki. What a life.

I miss when professional magicians had a signature look. Max and Mac are great examples. Penn and Teller. Doug Henning. That’s one of the few cool things about being a professional, you get to cultivate a signature style. Sadly, these days, it seems like most magicians “style” could be described as “I’ve visited a Men’s Wearhouse.” Wouldn’t Josh Jay be, like, 1000 times better if he had held onto that red suit? Or if he had a dope-ass mohawk?

An extended tribute to Max by Mac will be in the next Magic Castle newsletter. There’s a dress code if you want to read that.

Is there a plot/premise/trick that has stymied you and you’re just unable to crack? You could maybe put it out to the readers to “hive-mind” the problem. Just a thought —CF

Hmmm… I don’t know if I would call this a plot/premise/trick, but the thing I’ve probably put the most time into thinking about and testing ideas related to lately is how to make a 1 in 4 trick (or tricks with similar odds) more resonant with spectators.

Take a trick like Killer Elite by Andy Nyman.

I used to do this trick a bunch when it came out 20+ years ago. It’s super easy and, like a lot of tricks of this type, it’s kind of fun to perform because you don’t exactly know how things will go. And while it always got a good response, no one ever came back a month later and said, “It’s still screwing with my head how you knew which killer I’d take.”

The problem with a trick like this is, if you were to perform it for every human on the planet, it would work 2 billion times, just statistically. It’s hard for a trick to carry too much weight when it seems so possible.

What I’ve learned from testing similar tricks is that the “answers” most people come up with for a trick with decent odds are:

A) “I guess everyone says _______.” This seems very reasonable considering that they themselves just said it.

B) “The magician could have gotten lucky.” With such a low-stakes trick, it’s always possible your method was “hoping for the best.”

It’s hard to deny either of these answers.

So for a long time I just avoided tricks like that. But recently I’ve wanted to incorporate a couple into my repertoire so I’ve been playing around with some ways to make the initial moment of suprise these tricks generate more durable. After trying out a few ideas, I have one technique that I’m pretty happy with which will likely be in the next book. But it’s not something that can be repeated for the same people. It’s something you can use once for any given audience. So I’m still playing around with other concepts regarding how to make the somewhat improbable feel more impossible.

I’ve got a Christmas present question. I remember you saying you got your start with the Amateur Magician’s Handbook. I’m getting a beginner magic book for a young person in my life, would you recommend that? —FQ

No. Not at all. It was dated when I was reading it 30+ years ago.

Get Joshua Jay’s Magic The Complete Course.

That’s dated too, as you’ll find out when the kid you give it to says, “What’s a DVD?” But it’s a much better choice than some grimy old book with black and white photos of disembodied hands palming thimbles.