Jerx Christmas - Spooky Nyman - 8:40 PM

The line for the bathroom extends down the hall. While I was waiting, I ran into Spooky Nyman.

“Great to see you,” he said. “Wow. What a guest list. So diverse. White, middle-aged, men of every height! I guess I’m the diversity because I’m under 30.”

“Hey,” I said, “that’s not fair. A lot of these white, male magicians are quite elderly, not middle-aged.”

I asked Spooky what he was working on and he mentioned he has a new trick out called Tourist Trap, and that his ESP Testing Set was coming out in a more durable plastic version. That trick really fools people, so I’ll definitely be picking it up that version.

I mentioned that I really wanted to grab some back issues of Mazel Magazine because I love those small independent magic magazines. I asked when the next issue was coming out. The answer is: never. Writing the magazine was driving him crazy. I get that.

Anyway, while I took my leak I asked Spooky to hop on here and share something with the readers, so here goes…

X-Ray Spex

EFFECT

‘Do you remember those adverts in comics for X-Ray Specs? They promised you could see through walls and people’s clothes and things. I actually sent off for these when I was younger and believe it or not, they do actually work!’

You put on a pair of X-Ray Specs.

‘Not with walls. But they do work with clothes. It’s just one person’s clothes they work with though, and unfortunately, it’s you Sir. Love the tattoo by the way. I’ve grabbed three mugs, all totally opaque, and you’ll notice I’ve placed a card in front of each mug - these mark the position the mugs are in’.

The cards say:

This one is Position No.1

This one is Position No.2 

This one is Position No.3

and are placed in front of the three mugs in a row.

‘Does anybody have a ring or a coin I can borrow? Perfect. I’m going to turn my back and I want you to place the ring under any one of the mugs. In a moment, as quietly as you can, I want you to start mixing the mugs up, two at a time. So let’s start with the mugs that don’t have your ring underneath. Swap those over. Now choose two more - which did you choose? One and three, great, swap those. Again? Two and Three you said? Great, swap them...’

This goes on until all parties are happy. You turn around, place the X-Ray Specs on, and are immediately able to tell them which mug their ring is under.

‘Let’s try it again, but this time, I am going to give one of you the gift of X- Ray vision. You see, these goggles don’t work for just anyone - their true power can only be harnessed by somebody who is genuinely excited about magic. Having seen underneath this man’s clothes, I can assure you all that he really is genuinely excited about magic. Perhaps a little too much.’

You ask the participant to turn their back, before placing the ring under a chosen mug and mixing them. You ask them to announce, loudly ‘I BELIEVE IN MAGIC’. When they turn around, they place the X-Ray specs on, and unbelievably, are able to see through the mugs and find the ring. Although unnecessary, this can be repeated if you wish.

METHOD

Take a look at the artwork for the cards [the full artwork can be found here] - at first glance they appear to be colourful placeholders. Innocent enough, right? No, idiot! They’re guilty as anything!

The first part of the trick, where you perform, is Bob Hummer’s Mathematical Monte. This is an absolute miracle, but one that I am not qualified to teach here. You can find it cheaply and officially at Lybrary, or like me, learn it from the excellent Card College Lighter book. It is genuinely baffling when presented correctly. I think the presentation of this trick takes away the process-y elements of the principle.

The glasses are actually Red Reveal glasses. Essentially they are 3D glasses but instead of red and blue lenses, they just have red lenses. Remember ‘spy decoders’ you used to get in toys and comics? This is that. You can buy Red Reveal glasses relatively easily, or you could splash out and get a pair of X-Ray Specs from a toy shop and stick red acetate behind the lenses. In the meantime, you can test this out by donning your 3D glasses and closing your right eye.

When the spectator looks through the glasses, the redder colours fade away, meaning you can only see the bluer/greener colours. To that end, if the cards are on the front side, when viewed through the glasses, Card Number 1 says ‘No’, Card Number 3 says ‘No’, but Card Number 2 says ‘This one’. This is how they are coded.

Below you can see the effect on two different versions of the “No. 1” card.

The cards are also double-sided - the other side is missing the dot after ‘No’ on all three cards, and therefore can be used to code a different position, Position 1, to the spectator, if you want to repeat it. Or alternatively, remake the cards so that the colours code nothing on the reverse - that way if other people want to try the glasses, the cards don’t give the game away.

I have lots of fun ideas with this Red Reveal principle - boxes with the design built in, ACAAN’s etc. In the next few years I’m going to put out a book with lots and lots of Red Reveal ideas. To that end, I would ask you to enjoy this trick but not run with the principle too much for now. It is very dear to me and I’m very protective over it.