Until December...

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Hey-ho!

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was a delight. We smoked the turkey and it came out perfect. And I was in them mashed potatoes like…

This is the final post until December. The next newsletter will be sent to supporters on the first, and regular posting will resume here on Monday, December 4th and run through December 22nd.

Magicians Are Less Prone to Mental Disorders Than Other Artists

The research, published on Wednesday in the journal BJPsych Open, measured psychopathological traits of almost 200 magicians and compared the results with data from other artistic groups and the general population.

It concluded that magicians scored significantly lower than other types of creatives and “normal” folk. […]

Gil Greengross, who led the research, said it was the first study to show a creative group with lower scores on psychotic traits than the general population.

He said: “Our research shows that magicians do not exhibit higher levels of mental disorders. The results demonstrate that the association between creativity and psychopathology is more complex than previously thought.”

This is… interesting.

I do believe studying magic…the art of manipulating reality…does require a solid grounding in reality.

But I also think there’s another way to interpret the results. And, sadly, I think it’s likely more accurate.

Look again at the researchers quote: “Our research shows that magicians do not exhibit higher levels of mental disorders. The results demonstrate that the association between creativity and psychopathology is more complex than previously thought.”

Or… maybe it’s not. Maybe the relationship between creativity and psychopathology is precisely what you thought it was. Maybe your mistake was thinking that that magic is (for many performers) a “creative” exercise.

If I perform a trick I didn’t invent, with patter I didn’t write… I have fun, and the people I perform for have fun. But it’s about as “creative” as following the directions on the back of a box of cake mix.

Adding to the, “Maybe magicians aren’t as psychologically sound as that article suggests”-file, we have another sack of shit to kick out of the GLOMM.

Dewald Venter received a sentence of 13 and 1/2 years for sexually abusing three boys. See the article here.

The lowlight:

The court heard during the trial that Venter used his skills as a magician to charm his victims.

My point has never been that magicians necessarily abuse more kids than non-magicians (although I would bet my life’s savings that they do). My point is simply that magic gives people an opportunity to get close to kids. If you’re an assistant manager at Kohl’s, you’re probably not leveraging that into access to kids. But since we do have that access, we have to be better at policing our own. Not all mall Santas want to bang kids, but given that it’s a job where kids sit on their lap… it makes sense to be extra vigilant in regard to who is taking part in that activity, yes? Well, that logic holds up for magicians as well.

If nothing else, just assume someone wearing that many bracelets has fucking issues and keep your kids and yourself a safe distance from them.

Dan C., writes:

Had a quick idea with the [Half Down technique]. I tried it out today and it worked great. If they say they want to get rid of the face up cards, insert the force card face up, third from top in the face down half. For me, this is easier than going to the bottom. Then you can hand [that half] to them and do Mark Calabrese’s Red Medicine force immediately by handing them the deck right away. […] A bonus is that you can use your half as a demo for what you want them to do.

This is actually a great idea. Red Medicine, by Mark Calabrese is a really strong forcing technique. And leading into it with Half Down makes it even stronger, in my opinion. And no adjustment to the cards need to be made.

I will likely use this in the future.

  • They shuffle.

  • Half Down procedure

  • If they choose the face-up half, I can hand that to them and walk them through a Cross-Cut Force.

  • If they choose the face-down half, I can hand that to them and walk them through Red Medicine.

Thanks, Dan.

Here is Chris Rawlins’ original idea which inspired Tuesday’s trick, The Logbook of Notable Events. My trick was the same underlying method, but this is something you can do at any time. In Chris’ own words…

You are sitting with a friend and you tell them that you have something for them. You explain that in your notes application you have created a special note, just for them.

“Earlier this morning I wrote the message for you and even though its just for you I won’t let you see it just yet. I’d like you to pay close attention to that feeling inside you right now, that feeling of curiosity, of wanting to know. Whenever that feeling become too much and out weighs the acceptance of not knowing just ask me to show you the note. I’m interested to see when that feeling of curiosity will take over. Till then I will not touch my phone, In fact why don’t you place it in your pocket for now...”

At some point your friend expresses the desire to know more and you take your phone from them. You point out that it is 13 minutes past the hour and openly unlock your phone and open the notes application. You point out the top most note titled The Minute You’ll Ask and open the note.

Your friend sits in silence as they read the note and scroll all the way to the bottom of the note and then back up to the top. They are unable to believe the absolute accuracy of the prediction. It shows proof that you knew exactly when their curiosity would take over. With a smile you take back the phone, screenshot the note and email it to them as they sit there in shocked silence. The email subject reads...

Curiosity Won...

Method:

Here we are using the whole list as a chronological documentation of time. Instead of each number having a card, item, song or place next to it we place the words NOT NOW on a numerical list from 1 through to 60. These points each representing each minute in the hour. The force text becomes “Minutes past is when you’ll ask!” and by secretly inputting the correct two digits to match the minutes past the hour of the current moment you are able to create a note within your phone that looks just like what you are seeing on the right hand side of this page. Your spectator will scroll to the bottom of the note to check the legitimacy of the force text’s location.

I really enjoy screenshooting the note so that the force text is roughly centre and emailing that to them after our time together as a playful reminder of what happened and so that they are indirectly encouraged to share the story with someone else.

Great idea. Thanks, Chris!

I’m working on the next version of the Jerx Almanac, which will be mailed to supporters in January 2024. If there’s a “tool” you want me to cover in the 2nd edition of the manuscript, let me know. (Those of you with the last edition will know what I’m asking.) I may not have any thoughts on what you’re asking about, in which case, obviously, I won’t add it to the Almanac. But if I do, I’ll create a new section for it.

Okay, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your November! I’ll see you in December as we embrace the holiday season, wind down 2023, and get ready for the joys of winter.


It's A Burger King Kid's Club Thanksgiving.

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I think this may be my first ever post that actually falls on Thanksgiving.

So today you’ll have to indulge me as I thank the people who help out with the site. And also tell them which member of the Burger King Kid's Club they would be. 


Thanks to Cara W. She would be Boomer if she was in the Burger King Kid's Club. This is primarily because she's a cute, red-head. Not because she's super big into roller-hockey. Cara is my friend Nate's wife. She helps with all the physical mailings related to the site, which there was a ton of the past two months with the release of my most recent book and first trick. Cara also oversees the PO Box (which is about an hour and half from where I live at this time). When I'm in that part of NY State, I usually stay with Cara and Nate and they're fantastic hosts. So thank you both for the help you give.

Jacob H. and Anthony H. are the I.Q. and Snaps of the Jerx. Jacob is I.Q. because he's brilliant. And Anthony is Snaps because I'm weirdly attracted to him. No, Anthony is Snaps because he's a professional photographer. I don’t buy any magic directly. All the tricks I buy to potentially review are bought through other people. Jacob and Anthony (along with Andrew below) are the primary people purchasing the tricks. Jacob and Anthony perform one of my favorite services. They learn many of the tricks I buy and perform them for me so I can experience them for real before knowing the secret. This is such a luxury. It's so much better experiencing the trick first-hand rather than reading about it, or even seeing a demo. Plus it gives me the chance to hang out with Jacob and Anthony, who are both a blast. So thank you, boys.

If Michelle Martinez was a member of the Burger King Kid's Club, she'd be Wheels. Look, it's not flattering to say to a lovely, vibrant, graceful woman, "You remind me of Wheels from the Burger King Kid's Club." Hell, it's not particularly flattering to refer to a kid in a wheelchair as "Wheels," for that matter. But Michelle is super smart and, like Wheels, is great at fixing things. Michelle helps a lot with tech-related issues that creep up with this site and with other work I do. Thank you, Michelle. You make issues that would otherwise be endlessly frustrating and turn them into minor annoyances. What’s better than that?

Thanks to Stasia "Lingo" Burrington - Lingo was the artist of the BK King's Club, and Stasia is our artist. I was introduced to Stasia a decade or so ago when I saw a Tarot deck she had designed and painted for a friend of mine. Ever since then, she has handled over 90% of the artistic requirements for this site. She's not only a brilliant artist with her own distinct style, but she's also capable of mimicking any other style I ask of her. One of the most important aspects of a collaborative artist is that they're able to extrapolate what you're asking for from just a few specifics. This is where Stasia excels. I can tell her the vibe of the piece and give her a couple of reference points to work from and she always nails it. While she's proficient with dark and creepy subject matter, what I really love about her art is the combination of sweet, smart, sexy, surprising, and cute elements that characterize her work. These are elements that are frequently missing from the world of magic, where aesthetics is so often an afterthought that’s easily dismissed by saying, "Let's put a skull on it." I couldn't be happier to have Stasia's consistent contributions helping define the style of my work. Thank you!

One site describes Kid’s Club member Kid Vid this way: He loves electronics of all sorts, and peppers his speech with terminology related to video and computing. That has got to be my brother, Marc Kerstein. Marc is always saying stuff like, “Dude, you gotta debug your attitude if we’re ever gonna surf the information superhighway together. Minesweeper! Floppy disk! Netscape Navigator!” Also, he dresses just like Kid Vid. Marc oversees the Jerx app and possesses the trait I love in people more than any other: competence. You know you have those people in your life to whom you can say, “Show up in three months at noon with a screwdriver,” and never mention it again. And they’ll show up on that date in three months at 11:55 with three screwdrivers to choose from. Then there are those people in your life, and you say to them, “This is really important. I need you to show up tomorrow at noon with a screwdriver.” And you remind them later that night and in a text in the morning. Then they show up empty-handed at 1:15. “Oh, a screwdriver? I thought you said hammer.” “So you brought a hammer?” “No, I didn’t bring that either.” Marc is the former type of person. Look at the way he continually supports, maintains and updates the apps he releases. That’s pure competence, and that work ethic is almost unmatched in the app creation space, where creators regularly abandon apps when they break after 6 weeks. Marc reached out to me in the early days of the site and said if I ever wanted to do anything app-related, he’d help me out. And he went on to build and maintains the Jerx App and adds in new ideas from time to time as I come up with them. I couldn’t have been more fortunate to hook up with him rather than one of those dud app developers. But I will not thank him because he is British and doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

Thanks to my publisher and overseer of logistics, Andrew "Jaws" Costello. Andrew is Jaws because he’s a tall, proud, man of color. No, not really, but there are only so many Kid’s Club members to choose from. What he has in common most with Jaws is a love for Burger King. (“Bring back the BK Broiler!”) This site wouldn't exist without Andrew. My old site wouldn't have either. He was the one who encouraged me to start that site. He’s an insouciant, smart, kind, troublemaker—one of my favorite types of people. He is a writer/editor, and—since taking on the role of publisher of the Jerx in the past few years—he has started his own small publishing company. He has written an occasional post for this site as well, when something came up that prevented me from writing (any post title that starts "A Critical Examination of" is one that he wrote). If you read those posts and think, "Hey, he sounds like you!" Well, there are two reasons for that. The first is that he reads over (and frequently adds to) every post before he publishes here. So his voice has been present throughout this site from the beginning. And second, we've known each other for decades and shaped each other's humor like friends do. He also writes a good portion of the non-magic posts. Sorry. If you're upset that this site about performing magic for your friends is written by a magician with friends who take part in the site... I don't know what to tell you. While I've mentioned Andrew in the past in my books, we haven't openly acknowledged his role on the site much because he was always supposed to be the initial "fall guy" for the site. The occasional personal detail was planted that would lead to him and if you were desperate enough to follow the breadcrumbs of IP addresses or paypal accounts, you would come back to Andrew. And you'd say, “Ha! Andrew=Andy. We've found the Jerx!” And he would reply. “Aw, darn. You figured out the mystery! Oh, well.” And there your search would end with that easy solution. Or, if you dug deeper, you’d get a couple other red herrings. But as it happened, no one ever really searched too hard to find out who was behind this site. I think that reflects well on magicians.  (Andrew wants it known he remains “more than happy” to take credit for the site.) Thank you, Andrew!

There are so many others I could thank for their contributions, but so few BK Kid's club members left, so let me quickly shout out some people who have contributed this past year: Andrew S., Joe, Ben, Pat, Chris, Madison (the boy), Madison (the girl), Lauren, Tom, Eric, Mitch, Sara, David L., and anyone else who has sent along a link or an idea that I've used in some way.

And, of course, thank you to the supporters of the site who keep this thing going. You're the real heroes. Be sure to bring that up to anyone who questions you this holiday season. "Don't you know who I am? My monetary donations help a magic blog operate. So yeah, I think I will take the last piece of pie."

The Good-Enough Canon (Your Help Needed)

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There is a seductive quality to magic as a hobby that I think often prevents us from using magic for the greatest good. And that is the enjoyment that comes from tinkering with new ways of performing the same old effects. This is something that we as magicians enjoy, but it usually adds very little to our actual performances.

If you learned ten 4-Ace routines over your time in magic (and that would be a low number for many of you) it’s not like the first routine you learned was shit, and then they got progressively better and better and now you have this perfect 4-Ace routine. It’s more likely that the first one you learned was “just ok” and the next few might have gotten quite a bit better. But then it likely plateaued. And all the 4-Ace routines you’ve learned since that time were slight variations with barely any discernible differences to the audience (the people we’re supposedly doing this for).

We’re all guilty of this. We have a trick that’s good enough, but we fiddle around and waste our time with new methods not because they are huge advancements forward, but just because they’re new. This is time we could be performing or coming up with presentational ideas that might have an actual significant impact on audience.

I have a friend who is a massage therapist. She learns new techniques regularly. But her focus is still on the people she’s serving. She’s not learning new techniques just to mess around in front of a mirror.

With magic it’s very easy to feel like you’re doing something when you’re just wasting your time with different variations of tricks that are only minor tweaks for your own entertainment.

Of course, that’s fine if “fiddling around” by yourself is the manner in which you want to engage with magic. But I know magicians who are frustrated with their lack of ability to perform and bond with people through magic and yet they hardly try to. Instead, they’re alone in their room “perfecting” a particular trick or plot. It’s like spending all your time furiously masturbating and expecting that to lead to a loving marriage.

I’ve decided to tackle this issue in a somewhat regimented way for myself and I’m going to track it with a new project that will be covered in the monthly newsletter.

I call it, The Good Enough Canon.

My plan is to take this list of card plots from Magicpedia and work through them systematically—trick by trick—and identify what seems to be one of the best versions of each plot that’s out there. And once I learn that, I’m going to stop fucking with that plot unless I hear there’s some new version that has VASTLY improved upon what has come before.

I’m not necessarily looking for the ultimate version of any given plot. That might involve a very advanced handling or gimmicks or elaborate set-ups. Instead, I’ll be asking - What’s the best version of this effect I can find while at the same time prioritizing things like: ease of handling, gaffless, impromptu, borrowed deck.

It won’t have to meet those criteria, but those are elements I value in the material I perform, so they will definitely carry weight with which version I choose for the Good-Enough Canon.

At the same time, I’ll also give thought to what can be done presentationally to enhance these standard plots. In the end, hopefully I’ll have a “good enough” handling with a solid presentation for each plot listed.

Please note, there are almost 100 plots on that list. This project will take me somewhere between…oh… 8 and 25 years to complete, probably, if I end up taking on a new plot every two or three months.

But I’ll make a deal with you, I’ll be covering this project in the Love Letters newsletter. It will continue on in that newsletter or any other newsletter I do in the future. And when I end this site, I’ll continue to update former supporters as the years go by. And if I die before I finish it, I will make it the goal of my haunting to update you on the newest entrants in the Good-Enough Canon.

But I’m going to need your help to do this. I’m going to need the collected wisdom of the group to “nominate” versions of each plot that you find to be especially good. (Not all at once, but as I come to it.) I don’t have nearly the knowledge that many of you have. So I’ll be asking you to direct me towards what you feel are the best versions of these effects. Remember, I’m doing this with the amateur/social performer in mind. So, while not entirely necessary, we want to lean towards impromptu, or normal deck effects that don’t require sleights that exceed the intermediate level. And ideally it won’t be super complicated to remember. Again, these things won’t always be possible, but that’s our guiding star.

And since I’ll want to be able to direct people to where they can learn the trick, I’ll also be taking into consideration the availability of an effect. If it’s buried in an out-of-print book, I’d be less likely to add it to the Canon than something that is easily available.

Also, we’ll want a version of the trick that doesn’t veer too far from the standard premise of the trick. Turning one of these classic plots into something wholly new, sort of takes us away from the general idea of the project which is to find a strong version of that plot.

So let’s start alphabetically, with the first one on the list, the 21 Card Trick. This may seem like an underwhelming trick to start with, but perhaps that will be a good test of the viability of this project.

Do you know an especially good version of the 21 Card Trick? What makes it good? Where can I learn it? Send me an email. I won’t respond individually to each email, so let me say “thank you” in advance. I’ll definitely take each nomination into consideration.

The Logbook of Notable Events

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Imagine

We’re getting out of the booth of the one late-night Cafe in the area, after enjoying—like the most basic of bitches—our first pumpkin spice lattes of the autumn. My friend Bella goes to put her phone in the back pocket of her pants but as she’s distracted in conversation, she doesn’t quite do the phone/tight-jeans math correctly and accidentally just slides it along her butt and lets it go where it drops to the hardwood floor with an apprehension-inducing clatter.

“Shit,” she says.

She bends to pick it up and slowly turns the screen to herself—mentally preparing herself for a cracked screen.

“Is it okay?” I ask.

She turns to me and holds it up and smiles, the bounce back in her attitude. “It’s good!” she says.

“Oh good,” I say. “Wait, wait, wait. What time is it?”

She glances at her phone. “9:50”

I shake my head. “Of course. Wait. Sit back down. I want to tell you something. You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

We settle back into the booth. We’ve been friends long enough and she’s seen enough magic from me that my previous statement has her anticipating something fun.

“So…when I was a kid—starting when I was 9, I kept a journal. And I would make a note of the date and time whenever something interesting (to my young brain) would happen. It could be something big, like the moment I found out someone died. But mostly it was small stuff. Like when my dad broke a glass. Or when I stubbed my toe.

“Then, like eight years ago, I found this journal of ‘notable moments’ and I was reading through it and I noticed some weird patterns. Like, I kept track of whenever we saw a deer in the middle of the road while driving. And I noticed that all the times I made a note of seeing a deer, it happened one minute after the hour. Like not always the same hour of the day, but always a minute after the hour. 9:01, 12:01, 5:01 or whatever.

“And I thought… well at first I didn’t know what to think…I thought it was a coincidence, I guess. Or maybe there was an outside chance that there was some kind of natural phenomenon that caused it. Maybe somehow one minute after the hour was a time that…I don’t know…messed with deer in some way? Like messed with their equilibrium and caused them to run around more carelessly? So they ended up in the road more at that time? It doesn’t really make sense, I guess I was just trying to justify it somehow.”

I sit back in the booth and pause, looking up to the ceiling as if I’m debating if I should continue.

“Okay… I hesitate to go on, because here’s where it gets weird. There are things that happen in our life…. For the time being, forget about scheduled things. So, there are some things that happen all the time. You get a text. Or you get an itch. Or you burp. Or whatever. And then there are events that happen once or twice in your lifetime. Maybe you get in a serious car accident. Or you win a decent amount of money in a lottery or raffle.

“But then there are some things that fall in-between. The type of events where… if they happened three times in a week, you’d think something strange was going on. But if they happened three times in a year, it wouldn’t strike you as that unusual. And if it didn’t happen at all for three years, you’d probably not even notice that it didn’t happen. They’re notable events, but not wildly unusual.

“They’re the sort of thing I was tracking in my journal. And when I read through my old journal and noticed that deer coincidence, I had an idea. I went and added information from that old journal into a spreadsheet. And I started keeping track of other notable moments as they happened as well. And as the years have passed since I started doing this tracking… weird patterns began to emerge. Coincidences that really couldn’t be explained in any natural way.

“There’s a pattern to when these sorts of things occur. Patterns that you would never in a million years start to notice unless you were specifically tracking them—which no one would ever really bother to do. Some things just always seem to happen at a certain number of minutes after the hour.

“And I don’t know what it means. I don’t know if this is sort of the ‘signature’ of a god or a software engineer. I don’t know if this is a wink at us from the Almighty. Or just an example of code re-use by a lazy programmer of the simulation.”

I pull out my phone. “You dropped your phone at…9:50, yes?”

I go to my notes app and have Bella open it and go to a note called, The Minute These Things Happen.

“Scroll down to 50. What happens at 50 minutes after the hour?”

She scrolls down and reads:

50. People drop their phones.

Later that night, I’m leaving Bella’s apartment. We’re saying goodbye and I swing on my jacket. My phone flies from my pocket to her floor. Our heads turn to the clock.

Method

DFB, as you know.

This trick comes from an idea that was originally sent to me by Chris Rawlins. His idea is much more “doable” in the sense that you can do it any time you want. You’re not waiting for some random incident to occur. I took his idea in a more… Jerxian [shudder] way and came up with the story and presentation you see above. I will include Chris’ original idea in Friday’s post. Thanks to Chris for sending me the idea and allowing me to pass it along to you.

There is something very powerful about a trick that you clearly could never have planned on performing. This is the ultimate in “organic” magic. The spectator initiates the moment. Even when they didn’t intend to.

This is a presentation where you can predict anything. But to maintain the power of the trick, don’t pick something that happens too often. Ask yourself, “What’s something that happens around me a few times a year?” and use that. If people don’t drop their phone around you, then don’t go with that option.

If you didn’t grow up in an area with deer, don’t use that as the backstory.

Whatever your backstory example is, you’ll say that happens at one minute after the hour. That way it will always show up at the correct position on the list and not get bumped by whatever event you’re using for the trick itself.

Other things I’ve considered predicting: the minute someone experiences déjà vu, the minute someone forgets a name. You can see those ideas and more in the full list I use in the DFB app here. This should inspire some ideas, even if you’re not feeling any of these exact things.

I wouldn’t actually use it to predict the time of anything too negative (although you will find such things on the list). Those are just there to add some color to the concept when your friend reads through the list.

The Minute These Things Happen

You see a deer in the road
A parent yells at a child in public
A sock is found on the sidewalk
The first thunder strike of a storm is heard
Forgotten money is found in a jacket or pants pocket
Liquid is spilled
A deadly-looking accident is passed in a car
The power goes out
Someone loudly drops silverware on the ground
An emergency message is made on tv/radio
A glass or dish gets broken
Someone drops their phone
You hear news someone you went to school with died
Someone vomits
People forget names
A fast-food drive-thru gets your order wrong.
An unknown child rings your doorbell or knocks on your door
Your prom theme plays on the radio
You get the hiccups
A basketball game goes into triple overtime or a baseball game goes to the 12th inning
You see a celebrity in person
You find mold on your food
You lose your wallet
You see a dog with three legs
You pass (or are passed by) a neon green car
Your phone shuts off despite having power left
A car backfires
You pass a house or building on fire
Someone twists an ankle
You're contacted by someone you haven't heard from in over 5 years
Someone falls down
You find a hair in your food
You meet someone with your birthday
You get scratched by a cat or bitten by a dog
You see an unexplained light in the sky
You see a rainbow
You get a phone call from someone who doesn't say anything.
You forget why you walked in a room
You drop something down the drain
You notice a credit card or similar has expired
You notice a huge coincidence
You get caught in a traffic jam
A light bulb dies
You feel a sharp pain in your side
Someone drops food on the ground
You laugh so hard you cry or pee
A cashier gives you extra change
You find something you lost ages ago
You see a friend in an unexpected place
The batteries die on a remote
You get caught in the rain without an umbrella
A car with one headlight passes in the other direction
You experience deja vu
You walk into a cobweb
You hear that someone you know is pregnant
A child swears
A bird flies into a window
A cat vomits
You wake up from a nightmare

Mailbag #104

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In last month’s Love Letters you wrote this about a trick:

It looks crazy good. It just requires a thread hook-up that’s slightly more complicated than a Loop, so it’s nothing I’d ever be likely to do.

I’m somewhat surprised by this attitude since you write up other tricks where you go all-out. Why not go all-out for a thread hook-up? What’s the deciding factor in when you’ll put in the effort and when you won’t? —TD

For me, it’s helpful to think of magic as falling into two categories:

  • Short, fun moments of magic.

  • Longer, immersive magical experiences.

For immersive magical experiences, I will put in a ton of time and energy to make them work because the full encounter tends to stick with people long-term.

But when it comes to short, off-the-cuff, moments of magic, then I prioritize how convenient they are for me to perform. These effects are going to be less planned out and more spontaneous. So, ideally, they’ll be more-or-less impromptu.

The trick you’re referring to was a version of the Dancing Cane done with a straw. While I thought it looked really great, it required a special set-up specifically for that trick. Which means I’d have to leave the house with the intentions of doing a “dancing straw” trick. I’m just never going to be in that mindset.

Now, perhaps some day I’ll come up with an idea for a grand magical experience where floating a straw is the climax of the story. In that case, I’d put the energy into it learning it.

But for a casual moment of “hey, look at this,” then I’m not looking for a trick that I have to be unusually prepared for.

This kind of flows into the next question as well…

I’ve been meeting with a “productivity specialist” and the question he wants me to answer for myself is what areas of my life I find myself wasting the most time. I’ve been asking others that question, and I thought I’d ask you as well. When it comes to creating or performing magic, what areas are you wasting the most time/energy?—TP

A month or so ago, I found out they made tiny little Skittles.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was in a store that sold obscure snacks from around the world and I learned that they also make giant Skittles.

And so I bought them and spent a few hours coming up with a handling where a Skittle would shrink and grow, change color, etc.

I worked on it for a few days and showed it to a couple of people and their reaction was…

They liked it. It was a nice, quick visual moment. But there was nothing about it that truly captured their imaginations.

This type of primarily visual magic is fun for the eyes, and it can really rock a kid’s brain, but I’ve never had much luck with it connecting with an adult audience. I know this. In fact, I’ve written posts about the limits of visual magic. And yet, there is a part of my brain that is still 10-years old and expects so much more from these tricks than they’re really capable of producing.

It’s still worth it to me to know some tricks like this. I think “eye candy” should be a part of anyone’s repertoire. But if it requires a big investment of time or money or for me to carry around stuff (like a mini skittle, a giant skittle, and a bag of skittles that I’ve rejiggered into a change-bag)—then, for me, it’s a waste of time and energy.

It goes back to what I was talking about in the previous question. I don’t want to invest too much in something that doesn’t amount to too much more than a “fun moment.” But I find myself falling into that trap often, and when I do, it usually ends up feeling like a “waste” of my time and energy.

I'm excited to perform some version of your Stackless Slates trick [which appeared in an old newsletter and with a different handling in the 2022 book] In addition to performing for adults, I'd like to perform it for some kids. However, I'm not comfortable doing spirit-based performances with kids for reasons that I assume are obvious. "Uncle Colin" is already pretty weird due to his unusual hobbies like magic. I know you don't specialize in performing for kids, but that demographic is an important part of my social magic audience at this point. I'm wondering if you have any ideas of alternate presentation stories that work well with tricks that typically use "ghosts". I realize forcing this change will likely dull the impact, but I'd rather do a great trick for a hungry audience at lesser potency than not do it at all. —CC

Hmm… I feel like “ghost stories” are perfectly appropriate for kids. In fact, that’s usually the audience for ghost stories, so personally I wouldn’t hesitate to do a “light” take on that theme with them.

But, if you want to get away from that all together, then the “entity” behind that trick could be:

  • Fairies

  • Trained Fleas

  • Your “imaginary friend.”

  • An invisible Bigfoot who lives in your closet (have one of the kids toss the “slates” in the closet and then have the kid remove them later). If you could rig up some growling sounds to play while you wait outside the closet, that would be…

Dustings #99

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My Buddy Paul
a Clarification Technique

Building on ideas talked about in Wednesday’s Pre-Climax Summary post, here’s another way you can emphasize the fairness of certain conditions when you perform.

“I did this for my buddy, Paul, the other day and he completely forgot that he had shuffled the cards at the start and the whole experience was lost on him. So keep that in mind that we started this out with the deck shuffled by you.”

Or (as in yesterday’s Half Down technique):

“I did this for my buddy, Paul, and he was convinced that I somehow made him eliminate one of these halves as opposed to the other. So I want to slow down and make it clear to you that you have a completely fair choice of either of these packets. Which do you want to keep and which do you want to get rid of?”

If it’s not completely clear, you’re verbalizing anything questionable or anything you want to emphasize, and claiming it was something your buddy Paul said or questioned. (Your buddy doesn’t have to be Paul. (It could be Saul.))

So instead of, “Here’s what I want you to remember,” or, “Here’s what you’re probably thinking,” we have “Paul” as, like, an independent “third party” to give some weight to these points.”

I think it’s a fairly natural way to emphasize certain conditions when you perform.

Don’t overdo it, or people will start to wonder what Paul’s fucking problem is. But used sparingly, it’s helpful.

“Here’s my used rubber to take home as a souvenir.”
- A magician after having sex

I haven’t made this point in many years, but I was thinking about it again this week…

In most cases, it’s up to your audience to decide what is a souvenir and what isn’t.

I’ve had plenty of people who have kept signed cards from card tricks. And I’ve had plenty of people who have loved the trick, but wouldn’t even consider taking the detritus from an effect.

Telling someone, “You can keep that as a souvenir,” is like saying, “Hey, do you want my autograph?”

It’s kind of presumptuous to say, “You’re going to want to remember this so much, you’ll hold onto this piece of trash to remind yourself of it.”

Of course, if the item is something that they might feel like they couldn’t ask for (something seemingly expensive, or maybe something that they would assume is a “trick” magic item that they can’t take with them), then I’ll make a point that they can keep it.

But with, like, a signed card or a billet they wrote “Tree” on, I just leave that out on the table while I put the other stuff away. If they want it, they will either just take it or ask for it.

Okay, sure, this is lovely. But let’s be honest. He should have brought up a translator and then “talent swapped” with him. Or acted like he got shocked by the microphone and could now speak Korean. Or sent around a magic “elixir” to the Korean-speaking members of the audience so “you will hear what I have to say next as if it was spoken in your native tongue.”

If you’re going to bother learning something in secret, make the most out of it.

Half Down

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One of my issues with the Classic Force and many other forces is that they happen too quickly. If the purpose of any force is to make the person feel like they could have ended up with any card, then speed is your enemy.

When I was first learning magic, there was this idea that you shouldn’t just force a card and then do some kind of crazy reveal. Like, you shouldn’t classic force a card and then show that the card is printed on the back of your t-shirt. “If you do that, then people will know the card was forced.”

Well… yeah…but maybe that should give you some clue that it’s not a good force.

The classic force, the riffle force and other forces such as these are good for getting a potentially random-seeming card into people’s hands quickly. So they have their place in magic. But when it comes to getting close to convincing them that this was a random, free choice, they’re not well suited for that.

For a sense of conviction, there needs to be some distinct choices made by the spectator. Saying “stop” as cards riffle by isn’t a choice. Nor is reaching out into a moving spread of cards. Those are actions, not choices.

Here is a technique you can add to any force. This technique offers them a genuinely free choice that seemingly would have an undeniable impact on how things play out.

Start by having the deck shuffled by the spectator. Take the cards back and cut half of the cards off the deck and turn them over face-up.

“We’re going to start by eliminating half of the cards and it’s your choice. I’ll even show you what you’re keeping or getting rid of.”

You now start spreading through the face-up cards. If you spot the card you want to force, cull it under the spread and skip to the paragraph with a bee at the start of it.

If you don’t see their card in the face up half, turn everything over and spread again and cull the card out here.

So you’ve either shown them both halves of the deck, or just the half that was face-up originally. You have their card culled out of the deck beneath the spread of face-up cars.

🐝 Pull your hands slightly apart, so the packets are fully separated.

“It’s up to you. Which half do you want to get rid of? The face-up half, or the face-down half? … You’re sure? I just want to be certain because at the end of this I don’t want you to think I somehow made you take either pile. Whichever one you want to get rid of, we won’t use.”

They reiterate their choice.

Path One

If they say face-down. You can cleanly just toss the packet aside.

Path Two

If they say face-up. You bring your hands together, placing the culled card beneath the face down cards, as you square up and remove the face up cards and go to set them aside.

Now pause. “Final chance. Are you sure you want to get rid of the face-up cards?”

  • Branch One - If they say, Yes. (And at this point I’ve never had them not say yes, I don’t think.) I cleanly toss aside the face-up cards.

  • Branch Two - If they change their mind and say they want to get rid of the face-down cards. I double-check with them. If they’re sure, I place the face-up cards under the face-down cards and then start taking the face-down cards in groups up four or five off the top of the deck. I turn these groups over and toss them to the table. “Okay. You’re getting rid of these and these and these and these.”

What we’re going for here is a situation where the packets are fully separated, the spectator makes their final choice, and the packet they choose to discard is directly tossed aside and eliminated. That’s what happens here 95+% of the time. The other 5% is still relatively clean, just not perfectly clean.

Now, let’s back up. If they say they want to get rid of the face-up cards, and then confirm they want to get rid of the face-up cards (Path Two, Branch One), you will be left with a face-down half with the force card face-up at the bottom. You can either half-pass it. Or turn it against your leg on an offbeat. Or you can take small packets from the top of that half, turn them over, and show the audience some of the cards that are still left in play, and place them underneath that half. Eventually you’ll end up with all face-up cards with your force card at the face (this will also happen at the end of Path Two, Branch Two). Obviously, you don’t want to bring too much attention to that, so you’ll turn everything over and give the cads a shuffle that retains the bottom force card.

From here you can go into a Cross-Cut force or pretty much any other force (even a classic force) with the remaining half-deck. If at the end, they say, “You somehow made me pick the 4 or Hearts.” You can bring it back to this clear moment of choice, e.g,. “Well, I don’t know how I could make you pick the 4 of Hearts. I mean, I didn’t even know what cards were going to be in play at the end. You shuffled and got rid of half of them at the very start. What if the 4 of Hearts had been in that half?”