Mailbag #82
/I guess I’m just dumb but I’m having a hell of a time trying to figure out the patter/timing for the TimedOut app. For instance, for Dicebot 5000, how do you handle the gap between placing the phone down and turning it over to show the outcome?
Thanks!
Moron in Mississippi
[He gave himself that name.]
Well, first, there shouldn’t really be that much time to kill with the TimedOut app. Depending on the settings you have for it, you should only have to kill 10-15 seconds at most, I would think.
Whenever you have a trick where you might need to kill some time, you don’t really need to script out patter. All you need is to know what subject you’re going to talk about if need be.
So with the first phase of Dicebot, you will either have no time to kill, a little time to kill, or 10-15 seconds to kill.
No time: “Okay, turn over the phone.”
A little time: “Okay… that was fair right? It seemed to roll like a normal die? Well, turn over the phone.”
More time: “Alright, I’m going to be embarrassed if these turn out not to be the sort of dice that I thought they were. But I swear they look just like them. Let’s check. Turn over the phone.”
In the second phase, you’re turning over the phone yourself (at least as I do it), so you’ll likely feel more comfortable and in control then.
For the second phase:
No time to kill: Just turn over the phone.
A little time: Take a deep breath, as if you’re building up anticipation for the moment, then turn over the phone.
More time: “This is the part where the technology has me completely lost. I can sort of understand how it can control the role of an individual die. But you stacked them any way you wanted, and yet look a this…"
Again, I’m not saying I’d memorize this stuff. I’d just have it in my head. For the first phase, if I need to kill some time, I’ll talk about how I might be mistaken about what these dice are. And for the second phase, I’ll talk about how I can’t understand the technology involved in this part.
You might be more comfortable planning to talk about these things regardless if you need the time or not and then just waiting for the out you need to loop around again, or cutting yourself off.
Being comfortable bullshitting is an essential skill for the social performer. A good way to practice is to use a random word generator to give you a word and then record yourself as you talk about that subject off the cuff for a minute. Go back and listen and see if you sound natural. Most likely you’re rushing, try to slow it down.
On a tangential note, I’ve had the chance to use Dicebot 5000 a few times since I originally wrote up that post (once at a friend’s house, once at a board-game meetup, and once at a place called The Board and Brew in Philadelphia) which is a fun board game cafe—and it’s been getting really great reactions. Especially the second phase. After the first phase they’re sort of wondering if it was just luck or something. The second phase is completely inexplicable to people.
This trick, Transporter Card by Rizki Nanda, recently came up on Penguin. We all know exactly how this is done. I have no interest in doing it, but I could easily replicate it myself if I wanted to. But should anyone do it without paying for it? I feel the same way for Nicholas Lawrence’s On/Off or Penguin’s The Pinky Thing. Tricks like this that involve only your body feel like they are the equivalent to paying someone to teach you “Got Your Nose.” If you had to do this, would you buy it or just do it without shame? —CJR
The only thing that matters to me is whether I like it enough to want to do the trick. If so, then I buy it.
My reasoning is this:
I’m bound to get more than just the basic idea when I purchase something. I should be getting valuable thoughts from the person who created it and has many more reps under their belt with it than I do.
I can figure out most tricks. I don’t really care about that. There’s an old line in magic that you’re paying for the secret. I don’t think that way. I think you’re paying for the idea. Tricks with your body are no different than a card trick or a mentalism trick that I can figure out by watching it a few times. If I didn’t think of the trick—and the only reason I now have the concept and a potential method in my head is because someone else put that idea out into the world—then it makes sense to me to pay for it.
I want to encourage people to release their ideas. Supporting them by buying the things they release—especially when I like the idea enough to want to do it myself—is the most direct way to do that.
On a grander scale, I’ve found the best way to bring more positive things, people, and energy into my life is to constantly be trying to balance the karmic scales. When I was younger and in the mindset of trying to find out what I could get away with and how I could game the system, I was usually just scraping by. When I went from being a taker to a giver, the universe rewarded me.
On a smaller scale, that means if someone comes out with a trick where you can vanish the middle of your finger and I think to myself, “Shit! I want to do that trick where I can vanish the middle of my finger!” Then I just go ahead and happily pay the $20 for the trick where I can vanish the middle of my finger, even if I think I have it figured out. The universe brought that trick into my life. I want the universe to see me as grateful. We happily give to those who seem the most grateful. I don’t think the universe is any different.