Jerx Christmas - Caleb Wiles - 5:05 AM

/

I walked over to my bookshelf to join someone who was standing there. It turned out to be Caleb Wiles.

Caleb picked up my copy of Scarne On Card Tricks.

“That’s one of my all-time favorite magic books,” I told him. “I bought it at a Wegmans grocery story in Central New York, back when Wegmans was good.” (Sorry guys, Wegmans sort of sucks now. You sure as hell aren’t going to find Scarne On Card Tricks there anymore.)

“Yeah, this is a great book,” Caleb said.

I took it from him and flipped through the pages. I landed on a trick called Quadruple Coincidence.

“I love this instruction here:

The performer now instructs the spectator that the success or failure of the experiment depends upon being able to follow out orders, and should the spectator fail to follow orders, the trick cannot possibly work.

What’s more magical than ‘THIS TRICK WON’T WORK UNLESS YOU FOLLOW MY GODDAMN ORDERS!’”

Caleb said, “You want to know what makes this a quintuple coincidence?”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I actually have a version of this trick that I came up with that you do with one deck.” (The trick in the book requires two.) “If you want I’ll share it with your readers.”

Of course! Here’s Caleb and his buddy Matt…

Caleb is the president of a non-profit called Magic For a Cause. Their mission is in three parts, per their website.

  1. We organize magic shows to raise funds for charitable causes. All proceeds go straight to the charity... we never take a cut.

  2. We provide magic instruction to empower young people to develop social skills and confidence.

  3. We engage in community outreach to perform magic for underserved groups (such as children’s hospitals, foster care group homes, etc.)

If you are interested in donating, please check out the site at the link above.

Caleb also says… “I'm also looking for people who are interested in helping with the project overall (graphic design, website design, custom print services, submitting easy-to-do tricks, etc.) If anyone is willing to contribute, they can reach out to me directly at caleb@MagicForACause.org “ Do it!