Dustings #88

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I have a larger-than-usual Virtual Focus Group planned for this weekend. This is where I distribute videos of magic tricks to groups of non-magicians from across the (English-speaking) world (strangers-—not friends of mine) and get their feedback and first impressions on the tricks.

If there are any effects (new or old) you’d like me to get in front of their faces, let me know. And let me know what question you’re hoping to have answered by this testing. (Something other than, “Did you like the trick?”) We’re usually asking things like what their interpretation of the effect was, or looking to see if the method that is used is one of the first things they consider.

We have a group of 50 people lined up, which is our biggest Virtual Focus Group yet. We have them through the rest of the month. (It’s like a grand jury. They’re available for multiple sessions.) So if you have something you’d like tested, let me know.

Responding to this week’s mailbag and the subject of magic subscription services, I found myself thinking that Penguin should have a weekly Instant Download subscription. Maybe like $20/month and you receive their top new instant download each week.

I don’t have the business sense to know if this would be a good economic move or not, but it seems like it would work out for everyone. Most instant downloads are in the $10 range. So it would be a theoretical $40 value for $20 for the customer. And I’m guessing on average a Penguin customer is probably only buying one or two downloads a month, so it would likely be an increase in revenue for Penguin. It would probably build a little more buzz and reviews for those downloads, and since everyone who wasn’t subscribed would still be paying full price, that should help revenue long term. And as long Penguin was including their best downloads in the subscription, I think customers would be pretty happy with it even if not everything is in their wheelhouse.

Mark S. wrote in with this idea which I think could be a quite intriguing storyline for a trick…

Not sure if this is of interest to you or not, but I read recently about a premonitions bureau that was established in the UK in the 60's to take premonitions from the general public with a view to predicting and averting disasters. Sounds crazy, but it actually existed. It has the makings of an interesting premise for a trick.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Premonitions_Bureau