Until October...

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Hey, if you’re someone who has been a supporter at the Rich Uncle Millionaire level throughout this season of The Jerx, you will be getting the next book shipped to you in October.

For this to happen, you will need to respond to the email that collects your shipping information that will be sent out next week. The book will ship at the end of October, but it will only ship to those have verified their address.

This is the final post until October. Regular posting removes Monday, October 2nd. The next issue of the newsletter will be in supporter’s email boxes on Sunday the 1st.

There’s been a good amount of chatter in my email box about the new card index called Dex.

The questions seem to be about if I’ll be getting it, or if I have another index I recommend.

I don’t have it. But I’ve seen some of the instructional download for it, and it looks well-made and well-thought-out. It’s not revolutionary in its approach. It’s the sort of thing you expect from an index. You’re not going to be like, “I never could have imagined something like this!”

If I was an index guy, I’m sure I’d get this. But I’m not, so I don’t see myself picking it up.

Card indexes are kind of in a weird grey-area for me. I can definitely see the incredible possibilities with one. But devoting a pocket to one, and then having to likely carry around another full deck as well… that’s just not my style. My EDC philosophy is to have a wide enough repertoire that performance opportunities abound even with minimal stuff on me. When it comes to EDC, I want to minimize what’s in my pockets and maximize what’s in my head. If I left the house with an index in one of my pockets, I’d feel obligated to look for opportunities to use it. When I walk out of the house thinking, “I’m going to use this (prop/gimmick/technique/trick) today, I feel I end up with more forced, less organic moments of magic. Whereas, if I’m focused on the situation and environment first and then think, “What do I know that would fit well here?” I tend to have stronger magic interactions that feel less forced.

So if I do get this, it will likely be to perform a specific trick at a specific moment in time that just happens to need a good index. At the moment, I don’t have that need. But that may change.

An interesting find from Joe M.

Here is a funny story about a magic book (I reckon it is a copy of Psychological Subtleties - which also fits the time when the story would have taken place) involving Bert Kreischer and Louis CK.—JM

Thinking of Hot Rods recently, I was reminded of my friend Andrew’s approach to dealing with the Hot Rod force.

It would look like this:

Him: Name any number between 1 and 6.

Spectator: Six

Him: Great. And, generally, do you prefer—are you more comfortable with—letters and words or numbers and math?

Spectator: Oh, letters and words. I’m terrible at math.

Him: Okay, then we’ll spell six.

Of course, this doesn’t work with someone who is very comfortable with numbers. But most people consider themselves more comfortable with letters and words. So it’s a safe-ish bet. It worked every time I saw him try it. It’s sort of laughable because it’s not like counting to six requires knowledge of higher mathematics. But it felt like a somewhat legitimate question and course of action in the moment

Okay, I’m out of here for September. I’ll be back here soon for the SCARIEST month of all!

Autumn starts in just a few hours. I’m psyched. Enjoy it. See you soon.