The Open Evite

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Some scheduling notes:

The Lucid ACAAN will be posted next Tuesday. I’ve finally got the pieces in place and will be testing it out this week.

I’ve been looking into TOXIC force alternatives since I asked about them last month. I will be doing a post on them in the last week of posting in April. I’ve come across a replacement that I’m pretty happy with, and I think is better than TOXIC in some ways.

In the most recent newsletter, I shared a trick where you intuit the combination to a padlock during a video chat.

In my opinion, magic over video chat is fully back as a viable, fun way to perform. It’s no longer the depressing necessity it became during Covid.

One way I like to lead into a video chat performance is by sending a mass email to a group of friends. For example:

Hey everyone,

I’m doing some research on a new type of virtual safe-cracking, and I could use your help. If you have a combination padlock at home and a few minutes to video chat, let me know. Miss you all!

The key elements here are:

  • A very brief description of what you’re doing.

  • A low-pressure invitation to help.

  • A heads-up about what objects they’ll need to participate.

The benefits of this type of approach:

  1. You’re reaching out to as many people as you want in one fell swoop and potentially setting up a bunch of performances.

  2. You’re creating anticipation minutes, hours, or even days in advance. This is especially true if you ask them to gather a few random objects: “If you’re free tonight and can round up a deck of cards, a candle, and something that belonged to a dead relative, let me know.”

  3. You’re putting your friends in the driver’s seat. You’re not pressuring anyone to let you perform—they don’t feel obligated to do it just to “be nice.” They’re reaching out because they want to see something interesting.

  4. You get to reconnect with friends.

  5. It helps justify the virtual format because you’re reaching out to a bunch of people at once. If you’re just reaching out to one person you see regularly, it might make more sense to show them the effect in person. But if you’re contacting a group, it makes sense that some of those people might be people you see regularly, and some aren’t—and, for ease of things, you’re offering a virtual performance to all of them.

Some notes:

  • You want to use this for the right trick. Obviously, don’t use this if the premise is: I have something special I want to show you specifically.

  • I tend to BCC everyone if I don’t want people comparing notes.

  • Along those lines, I often don’t reach out to different members of the same friend group. Instead, I’ll reach out to one work friend, one old high-school friend, one friend from yoga class, etc. Unless, of course, I want them to talk about it behind my back.