Mailbag #123
/I’ve been getting a lot of emails that are like, “I got this trick and I’m not getting good reactions from it.” While I can sometimes give my theory on it, these can be hard to answer because while it might be the trick, it might just be you, or it might be the environment. So I can really only say how I might do the trick differently (or why I wouldn’t do the trick at all). Just FYI.
I’ve been doing the new Stitch trick for a few days now and the reactions have been pretty underwhelming. What gives? Will you be reviewing this in your newsletter? Or do you have any thoughts on how to get a better reaction with it? —RS
I won’t be reviewing this, no. I can see myself having the same issue you’re facing.
This is the sort of trick I would have been really drawn to years ago, but in recent years I’ve realized this is unlikely to get me the type of reactions I want from a trick.
Why?
Here’s what I think…
For a visual trick like this to be affective, there needs to be an openness and a clarity to the handling within the parameters of the trick.
What do I mean?
Well, here’s what I DON’T mean.
I don’t mean, “If you’re going to cut your finger in half, then you must do it without the tube. You must do it out in the open or everyone will just assume it’s a trick.”
That’s not what I’m saying.
What I mean is, if the parameters (or the conditions) of the trick are: “I can cut my finger in half when I place it in this tube,” that’s fine. But you can’t then be all cozy with how you display your bifurcated finger afterward. Not if you want to really affect people.
The “obvious” solution is that—depsite the tube—you must just be bending your finger in some way. If you don’t openly show your hand back and forth, then you’re not showing people what they want to see at that moment.
With visual effects, if the method for your affect doesn’t allow you to display to people the first thing they want to see to confirm it’s really happening, then you just have an optical illusion or a puzzle. You don’t really have a magic trick. Not a truly convincing one, at any rate.
It’s like this:
The impossible statement: “I have a really hot girlfriend!”
You don’t believe me. You want to meet her.
The conditions: “Ah, well, she lives in Canada. You can’t meet her in person.”
Now, I want to prove that impossible statement given the conditions.
The proof: We do a FaceTime chat with her. She says she’s my girlfriend. She says she’s in Canada.
That would be fairly convincing to you.
But what if we talked to her on FaceTime and she was sitting in a darkened room where you couldn’t see her? You would be unlikely to think I was really dating this beautiful Canadian model.
That’s sort of what’s going on here:
The impossible statement: “I can cut my finger in two and restore it.”
The conditions: “I just have to put it in this tube to do so.”
The proof: I put my finger in the tube, cut it in two, pull off the top part and show my hand all around.
You can’t do that last part with Stitch. And there’s no reason (other than the method) why you can’t or wouldn’t.
To me, that’s the trick’s weakness.
As a puzzle though, I think it’s still solid and entertaining and over quick enough. So I don’t think it’s a bad idea to do. Just don’t expect people to be, like, enchanted by it, because it’s not that sort of trick.
When you talk about “housing” your tricks do you have something in place for tricks with full deck stacks as far as keeping them ready to go at all times?—CD
I only have a handful of effects in my repertoire that require a significant stack—that is to say, a stack that I can’t either get into on the fly or with 15 seconds or so with the deck in my hands.
If there is a trick in my repertoire that requires a full deck stack, then that means I will have a deck on display in my home that is stacked for that trick at all times.
This is the benefit of having a small display of normal decks in your house. You can have someone grab you a deck “at random” and they’ll be grabbing you a deck that is ready to go for some miracle.
Or, if you’re inspired to perform that particular trick, you can go and grab the deck yourself. You never have to excuse yourself to go set something up.
For me, the last step of rehearsing a trick with a significant stack in my repertoire is to reset the stack. This leaves that trick always “housed” in my deck display.