Jerx Christmas - Brent Braun - 11:57 PM
/Okay, this is fucking unbelievable.
Earlier tonight I saw this great trick where my name vanished from a card and appeared on the ceiling. It was performed by Brent Braun.
I went to track Brent down because I was thinking how maybe it would be interesting to try that trick with a “freely” chosen word, instead of someone’s name. And as I approached him I overheard a conversation he was having with someone where he said he’s going to start a blog called The New Jerx.
I broke into the conversation and I was like, “Excuse me? What did you say? You’re going to start a blog called The New Jerx?”
And he was all, “Relax dude. Bill Madsen started the New Jinx after Annemann did the Jinx. What’s the difference?”
And I said, “That was 25 fucking years after Annemann put his head in the oven!”
And he waved that off like I was being silly. I can’t believe it.
Anyway. I stole his phone and got into his draft for the New Jerx. I’m just going to post it here. If he wants to steal from me, I’ll steal from him…
Name On Ceiling
A spectator's name appears written on the ceiling in their house. This is a simple use of the Frixion Pen that creates a moment that’s strange, hilarious and sometimes pisses people off. So be careful. With Great power comes great responsibility and all that jazz.
The setup: You will need two business cards that are blank on the back and you will secretly write your friend's name on the blank side of one of them before the trick starts*.
Dude have you seen that new ink that can be heated and turns into gas?” Show them the Frixion Pen.
Then proceed to show them two blank cards while hiding their name that's already on one of them. The Flushtration count works well for this, As will any other modified version of the count that fits you well. Just don't make it too flashy. You are showing two cards not proving to them that you can show two cards while hiding one side.
Hand them the prewritten card face down and have them hold it at their fingertips. As they are holding it, make up a clever reason to use their name. I usually say something like “here let's use your name”
Write their name on the card with the Frixion Pen trying to make it look similar to how you wrote it earlier. Show the signature and then turn it face down as you remove the lighter. Hold it face down about 8-10 inches below the card they are holding and take a few moments to really act like you are lining them up. This will set them up from phase two.
Show them their name one more time before you turn the card facedown and heat it with a lighter causing what you just wrote to vanish. As this happens use your eyes to slowly follow the gasified ink up to the card they are holding. Turn your card over to show its blank and then slowly move your hand up to show them that the ink has transferred to the card they are holding that they believe was blank before this moment.
That’s crazy right?
Wait a beat and then offer to show them again but from a further distance. Take the now blank card and hand it to them facedown. Take the card with their name on it and hold it face up this time. We want them to actually watch it vanish this time to increase the belief that it’s being gasified.
Hold your hand about 2 feet below their hand this time being extra careful to line it up. Heat the face up card from below and they will be able to actually watch the ink turn into gas. This moment is incredible because they thought you were lying the first time so this is the first real WTF moment. After it's vanished slowly raise your hand up and slowly turn over the card in their hand, It will be blank.
Wait Stop!!! This is the most important moment of the trick. Acting and timing are what will make this work. Look a bit confused for a beat then slowly look up at the ceiling as if you are watching the gas float up to the ceiling. This is the first moment they will see that their signature is now on their ceiling.
*Earlier in the setup I forgot to mention you have to wait until they leave the room and secretly climb up onto a table or chair and write their name on the ceiling. I left it out because I knew many of you would stop reading right then so… your welcome.
D-Bag
So the problem with Digital Force Bag is that in many cases it's sort of a weak way to force an item because you personally wrote the list. What if we could make the fact that you wrote the list the premise and also repeat it 3 times so it becomes self contained, more impossible, and hilarious.
So we have to set up the premise. I will assume you already know Digital Force Bag if not you should buy it asap. It really is clever.
So I'm a fan of a lot of things right, like Board games, sports teams, Helping others out. that sort of thing. Have you heard of the site called Only Fans? It allows you to become a fan of people and help them pay their bills and pay off their law school debt or whatever.
Anyway I can’t afford to subscribe to everyone but I do have a list of people I would like to subscribe to and I let my friends help me pick out who I should subscribe to
Name a Number between 1-20. “7”
Show them the OnlyFans list:
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Ryan Reynolds
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Close the App
Then say
Actually I seriously have been getting into sports teams recently and have become a huge fan of The Buccaneers. The problem is they don’t win many games so I made a list of other NFL teams I would like to become a fan of.
Name a number between 1-20? .”11”
Show them the NFL Teams list
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Your mom
Ok we are back to that part where you have to become a great actor. You have to pause, slow down and talk about how ridiculous this all was. You need to create a down beat and get them to trust you a bit more. After waiting a few minutes you will sort of shift gears and say actually do you have something I can write on? Do you have something I can write a prediction with? You need them to feel the shift you need to feel like this is more serious than the previous nonsense. You need to say words like Prediction and intuition maybe even ask them their star sign. You want this to feel like the boring part of most mentalism shows.
After you have felt the room shift and they have gotten you paper and a pen to write down a prediction you say
I seriously do have a list of some strange foods from around the world. I've written down a prediction and if this works it will be crazy.
Name a number between 1-20? “17”
Chicken’s Feet -East Asia
Haggis -Scotland
Tripe -Atlanta
Tuna Eyeballs -Japan
Black Pudding -Africa
Spam -United States
Grasshoppers -Thailand
Wasp Crackers -Japan
Fried Spider – Cambodia
Witchetty Grub – Australia
Escargots – France
Stink Bugs – Africa
Mopane Worms – South Africa
Tequila Worm – Mexico
Vegemite – UK
Pickled Egg – UK
Your mom
Southern Fried Rattlesnake – United States
Guinea Pig – South America
Rocky Mountain Oysters – United States
Pause for the laugh then open the prediction to show you wrote “YOUR MOM”
That’s it. I should mention if the situation is right and it's from someone you haven't met it's sometimes fun to secretly ask someone they are there with if they know where their mom lives and add that to the final number and prediction it only takes a few seconds to do this the the but then it would read something like.
17. Your mom -New Albany Indiana
The most important part of the final phase is the shift you have to build it like its a miracle and that something impossible will happen. That's also why we use food and the country it's from. This sort slows the scroll and makes this feel like it will be an actual prediction. The bam!!!
Also Digital Force Bag will allow you to have 100 items but I like the idea of shorter lists. 30-40 items at the most. The one exception to that might be the last list. The longer it is the harder it will turn when they get there. Again our goal with taking time to write the prediction is to sort of shift their thinking off the your mom list so they don't get ahead of you. I should also mention that for some performers it can be much funnier to use “Your dad” as the prediction for each phase.
Hacking The Reminder
So what if you could tell your future self something what would you say?
I know this sounds impossible but I have created a way to do just that. You can talk to your future self and tell them anything you want. Sounds crazy right?
But I'm getting ahead of myself. So some days just suck. Like everything that can go wrong is going wrong and then you get cut off in traffic and spill your $8.00 coffee in your lap. Sure the warmth feels good but this day sucks. Some days though, some days are incredible and you are on top of the world.The problem is many of us have a tendency to remember the bad days more than the good days. We tend to forget the small things that make us happy.
Enter Hacking The Reminder.
Next time something happens in your life that makes you smile, take out your phone and say “Siri’ or Google” Remind me in 17,324 minutes that spending time with Daniel Garcia makes my life better.
Fast forward 12 days you are feeling overworked and underappreciated and bam! From out of nowhere your past self reminds you of better times. Reminds you that things will indeed get better and in fact have been better.
I have hundreds of these reminder bombs sitting in my phone, I've forgotten about most of them but randomly I get reminded about my past events from my past self.
When you set them you just say Random numbers and times to get them to come back when you least expect it. Here are a few examples.
Remind me in 714 days and 11 minutes that I get to do pretty amazing things.
Remind me in 28,000 hours that taking action now is more important than waiting for perfection
Remind me in 123,219 hours that Redbull Fruitcups are delicious
Remind me in 4000 hours and 27 minutes that I’m lucky to have the friends I have.
Remind me in 387 days that spilling warm coffee in your lap actually feels pretty good.
That's it, I hope you find this useful its helped me on many days when I was struggling.
Sales stuff:
If you enjoyed these ideas you may enjoy my book Plots Ploys and Other Cons here is what some smart people had to say about it..
“This book is basically a grab bag of genuinely amazing tricks, performing insights from a serious pro, and bonkers pranks. It's really good, really weird, and I enjoyed it a LOT. Also it looks really pimp.”
-Phill Smith
“Not only is PP&OC filled with incredible inspiration to make your magic better, it will be the most fun thing you read this year!”
-Daniel Martin
“Sure, this book contains methods and routines. More importantly, Brent is sharing his philosophies on how to really do MAGIC. Some of the bits are fun and silly. Others will empower you to not just create memories, but to create moments that will become the stuff of legend.” -Kevin Reylek
“Brent Braun likes to mess with people... in a good way. Whether he's bending minds in a stage show or warping reality in a social interaction, he's always putting in the effort in to blow someone's mind.Plots, Ploys, and Other Cons is full of bold ideas and clever gambits that are as fun to read as they are to unleash on your friends and audiences.
My favorite trick is The Paper Prediction Principle: a down-to-earth Confabulation effect that's dead simple. With a trip to the office supply store, you've got a knockout closer for your next stand-up show.
The Chair Principle truly rocked my world and instantly elevated my professional walk-around performances. This simple idea is worth the price of this book many times over. Overall, I think you're going to love living inside Brent's head for a while.” -Caleb Wiles
“This is a great book. It’s the type of book I want to read. Not a book that’s just full of minor variations of standard effects. But a book full of interesting ideas. Some that are fully formed and practical and some that are a little out there. It’s kind of like a blog in book form. haha, I hope Brent doesn’t decide to take his ideas and put out a blog called The New Jerx!! haha. I’m just being silly. He wouldn’t do that.” - Andy at The Jerx
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