Dear Jerxy: Why Magic?

Dear Jerxy: You seem to talk a lot of shit about magicians, so why are you into magic?

Bring-It in Boise

Dear Bring-It: I don't think your question really makes any sense. That's like asking, "Hey, you claim to enjoy sex, so why don't you like rapists?"

I like magic a lot, but I don't always love the people it draws to it. I do think it's getting better. I think it's becoming a more open and inviting arena. It's still pretty homogenous, but it's definitely a little better. When I was a teenager going to my first magic conventions, they were 100% white, 100% male, and 95% over 40. In the early 2000s I saw a Sankey lecture here in NYC. I scanned the room looking for anyone who wasn't my father's age. There were maybe four people in my age range. Three of them were total fucking spazzes: matted hair, BO, wearing sweatpants and a dress-shirt stained with Arby's Horsey Sauce. I ended up hitting it off with the one normal guy, but honestly 90% of our conversations were just, "Can you believe this group?" 

I get the sense magic lectures and conventions aren't so much like that anymore (but I haven't been to one in so long, so who knows). I think this is in part due to the internet. By making magic not such a secret society I think it has encouraged more normal people to get involved. Back in the day I always felt like magic was 1/3rd lovers of the art, 1/3rd anti-social weirdos looking to have something over other people, and 1/3rd pedophiles who were like, "I hear little boys are into this hobby."

Here's what I like about magic:

The old guys. I was just complaining about old guys, but I do love the Dai Vernon figures in magic and the way they're revered. Even when they've lost their skills they are still respected and adored, and I think that's a great thing about magic.

The young women. In all honesty it's pretty embarrassing what a dong-fest magic is. Not only is it male-dominated but it's also often demeaning and dismissive of women who try and get involved (if not just completely creepy towards them). But I guess the one good part of being so backwards is that we get to enjoy the emergence of a feminine perspective in magic in the modern day. Sure, this is shit we should have been supporting and have sorted out 100 years ago. But we didn't. So when I see someone like Ekaterina Dobrokhotova bring a distinctly feminine charm and power to her performances, it feels like maybe it's more of a sea-change in the art than just a novelty. I still think we do a horrible job of supporting women in magic, and I think women often make the mistake of emulating the dull habits of their male counterparts. But I do see many women who are just getting too good to be ignored.

The History: I love the stories of magic. I mean, not the boring history that I assume they talk about at those magic history conventions. But like how 12 morons died doing the bullet catch! And magicians as spies, or saving lives from theater fires, busting psychics, stealing tricks, all that good stuff.

That most of you stink at it. Most of you are so terrible at performing magic for real people that I come off as super talented to them. Their expectations are so low. Everyone who, for example, plays violin in front of a crowd, is generally pretty good. You've got to be great to stand out as a violin player. But with magic you just have to be competent.

That deception can be an art form.

That it encompasses everything because it is essentially nothing. Magic doesn't exist. So when you learn magic you're not really learning magic. Instead you are learning dozens of other arts and crafts that allow you to present the illusion of magic. Whenever I talk to friends with kids and we talk about hobbies for the kids, I encourage them to get into magic. Magic is a great gateway to the world around you and it helps you identify your passions. Outsiders just think of it as sleight-of-hand. But I can't even begin to list all the areas I've had to explore in order to learn and present a particular trick, or magic in general. Writing, acting, comedy, electronics, memory and mnemonics, psychology, gambling, topology, cons, filmmaking, cold reading, juggling, crafting, dance, mime, mathematics, science, history, carpentry, theater, origami, sewing, forgery, animal training, drawing, optics, physical fitness, puzzle solving, and so on and so on. I love that "doing magic" might involve rubber cementing a bunch of shit together, or memorizing the most popular female names of the 20th century, or determining the sight-lines and angles of every seat in a theater so you can build a stage to vanish an elephant on. Other hobbies don't have that range. If your kid plays piano it's not like, "Oh, well sometimes she sits at the piano and plays with her fingers, and other times she uses different colored light rays to make you think you heard the song." 

Zach King

Zach King is a guy who posts videos on Vine. I also think he's one of the most successful magicians of our time. You can argue that it's not magic because of the techniques involved (a mixture of video edits (mostly just straight cuts) and practical effects) but that argument is a non-starter with me. In fact, knowing that's the method often makes it more amazing to me. You can also argue that it's not magic because everyone knows it's not real. Hey... I hate to break this to you, but everyone knows you're not real too. Yes, people know he's not real. The question you have to ask yourself is: Why does he have so many more fans/followers than the people doing similar videos in a more traditional "magic" style?

Zach has said his goal is to "inspire awe and wonder in people," and he does so through the means of deception. That, for me, is pretty much the definition of magic and why I consider him one of the most successful magicians of our time.

Here's a still-shot of Zach showing one of his videos to Rachel Smith of ABC news (don't go clicking on it, dum-dum, I said it was a still-shot).

That look on her face -- the combination of complete captivation and delight -- is, for me, the greatest reaction you can get with magic. And magic is one of the only art forms that can elicit such reactions regularly. But the problem with some magic, specifically all of mentalism, is that during the performance the magician is trying to garner credit or respect for this skill that most everyone knows he doesn't really have. And that pulls the rug out from under the "captivation and delight" moments because then the whole thing becomes a transaction rather than a gift (think of how joyless a Uri Geller performance is because it's supposed to be about him, not about the experience). The moment of magic in so many effects also becomes the moment of validation seeking, --"Look at my awesome power!" -- and the two just don't mix. It would be like going down on a woman, and in the midst of her orgasm putting your dick in her hand and being like, "Okay, now do me." You understand how that might undermine the moment? Ugh... why am I using sexual metaphors with you nerds. I wish I knew some Dungeons and Dragons or Legends of Zelda bullshit so I could reach you.

I think the reason for Zach's popularity (beyond that of traditional magicians doing similar things in the same medium) is, in part, because he doesn't ask for your belief. He's not asking for anything. He's just trying to give you a compelling, magical, moment. I think magicians could learn a lot from that.

I also think there is a powerful feedback loop to be exploited here. Zach has been inspired by a lot of traditional magic effects. I think we could, in turn, be inspired to replicate some of his videos in real life.

Hallmark

Effect

A card is torn in pieces and one piece is held by the spectator. The other pieces vanish. The restored card is now found in a sealed envelope.

Method

Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound like much, but there's more going on here than it might first appear. 

The first thing you need to do is take a duplicate card, tear a corner off the card, then put the playing card inside a birthday (or upcoming holiday) card and mail it to you friend. The next time you speak to them tell them you sent them something in the mail but that they shouldn't open it until you two get together this coming weekend (for example).

Put the torn corner somewhere where you won't lose it before the weekend.

My Baby, She Wrote Me A Letter

I've always liked the structure of a headline prediction where you mail it days ahead and ask someone to hold onto it for you. I wanted to incorporate that into a magic trick because I think it's inherently intriguing -- at least mildly intriguing. For a couple days your spectator will see the envelope sitting on their kitchen counter and wonder what that's going to be about. Anything that extends a trick out from the few moments it takes to perform is good in my book. Using the mail makes the effect bigger and test-conditions-y, in a way. Not only that, but receiving a card or letter in the mail is a less and less common phenomenon. So just the act of getting something interesting in the mail that isn't a bill or junk mail is a small treat for most people. 

On the day of your performance, bring a deck of cards and the torn corner to your friend's place. The torn corner should be in your left pocket.

Tell your friend, "I want to do something special for you, because it's your special day." Tell her to get the birthday card you sent.

Have her shuffle the deck in preparation for the Reverse Psychology Force. Force the duplicate of the card in the envelope on her. 

"You're sure that's the one you want?" you ask. "Okay. Great. Well... there you go. Now you've got your own personal card. And actually the 7 of hearts -- if you look into the meaning of playing cards and fortune telling-- the 7 of hearts means the coming year will be an extremely happy one for you." You look at the card. "I know it's not much of a gift, but it's unique to you, because you chose it. I mean, I guess I could have gone to the mall and gotten you some store-bought bullshit, but what kind of present would that be? This [you point to the card] is at least something unique and personal. Of course society will say it's not a great gift because it's just a playing card. Some people just don't understand what's really valuable in this day and age. Okay... see you later," you say and start walking out. You stop and turn back.

"Okay, I admit, it's kind of a weak gift. I'm sorry. Things have been pretty tight down at the Chevron station."

"You don't work at a Chevron station," your friend says.

"Well, I certainly won't be if things continue the way they're going." You point to the playing card. "I'm sorry. I should have gotten you more. Wait... I know what to do." You ask your friend to tear it into 8ths and give it back to you. When she does you toss all 8 pieces in the air. "Hooray!" you say. "Whew! A shower of confetti. What an amazing experience that must have been for you. I hope you enjoyed my gift. What better experience than to stand there as 1000s of pieces of confetti fall down all around you."

"8 pieces," she says.

"What an amazing moment that must have been. Confetti... it's nature's rainstorm."

"Wouldn't a regular rainstorm be nature's rainstorm?" she asks.

"We should clean this up," you say, and pick up the pieces. "Actually," you say, "I want to try something legitimately special for your birthday."

You now go into The Jerx Torn-Corner Handling.

The Jerx Torn-Corner Handling

I will describe this in the context of this trick but you can figure out how to use it with other tricks. I came across this method a few years ago and it's the only one I've used since. It's the simplest and most convincing vanish of the pieces as far as I'm concerned. And it's fun because the spectator essentially switches in the matching corner and assists in the vanish of the pieces. 

Here's how it's done. You ask your spectator to grab the birthday card for you. As she does you take the matching piece out of your left pocket and hold it in your curled left fingers at your side. All the other pieces are in your right hand at the base of your fingers in a relatively tidy little pile. When she goes to hand you the birthday card, you are going to do a shuttle pass action and pretend to place the pieces from your right hand into your left, but actually retain them in your right. You're holding back all the pieces in a clump like they're one object. Then with your palm down right-hand, and the pieces in Ramsay Subtlety, you will take the envelope from your friend. Simultaneously you will cup your left hand and jiggle it a little like you're trying to get the pieces to settle in some way. Your fingers should be slight spread so the piece that's in your hand can be seen. This piece is masquerading as all the torn pieces, so you don't want to show too much, but just a flash of it. Close your left hand into a fist, and place the envelope on top of your left fist. You put all your attention on your left hand and tell her to concentrate on it as your right hand ditches the pieces.

Now you act as if you changed your mind about how you want to proceed. You lift the envelope off of your left hand and tell the person to reach into your left fist and remove one of the pieces. You keep your left fist fairly tightly closed. Just loose enough for her to barely reach in. You say, "If you get more than one piece, just put the others back." Of course, they can't get more than one piece. There's only one piece to get. And as they remove this one piece as a "receipt" they have just switched in your torn corner, removed the only trace of a card, and reinforced the idea that the hand is full of pieces. 

Look at this vanish from the spectator's perspective. The shuttle pass is a very natural action which is immediately reinforced when they see an empty right hand, and apparently pieces of card in your left hand. At this point suspicion should be low to non-existent. They then clean up the situation for you when they remove the piece from your hand. Only after that do the pieces vanish. In this case I would place the envelope back on top of my left fist, then with my right hand I would press down on it as I opened my left hand, so the envelope was sandwich between my palms, as if I was pushing the pieces into it. 

I would then hand them the envelope to open and find -- inside a birthday card -- their "freely" chosen card restored except for their "freely" chosen piece.

Follow-Up: Reverse Psychology Force

I received a number of emails about the Reverse Psychology Force. Half of them were hyped-up and super complimentary about the idea. The other half didn't get it. 

The half that loved it included some magicians whose work I really admire. So that reinforced the notion that I was on to something with the idea.

The half that didn't get it were a bunch of nobodies. So what do I care what they think? No, but I did receive some emails that said things like, "What's the big deal? You force a card and ask someone if they want to change their mind? How is that new?"

Which makes me think I didn't quite explain well enough the moment in the force that makes it so powerful. The moment which makes it, honestly, more powerful than any force I could do even with a gimmicked deck. 

If you haven't read the original post, scroll down a few day, you'll find it. The rest of this post assumes you're familiar with it.

So, you get to the moment in the force where the spectator is looking at the force card and you ask them if they like the card they have or if they want to start over and get a new card. How does this differ from just doing the classic force and then asking them if they want to change their mind? It differs in subtle but big ways.

The multiple, legitimate, free choices during the face down selection of the card
+
The psychological force card
+
The length of the selection procedure
=
The absolute illusion to the spectator that they are making a genuine decision to keep this card over any other one in the deck

Like many of you, I used to do the thing where I'd force a card on someone and then say, "And you're happy with that card? Okay so we'll take your card..." Where you kind of pretend to give them the option to change, but really you're just rushing them along and not even giving them any time to consider changing out of fear they'll say, "Yes, I want to pick a different card." With the Reverse Psychology Force there is no rushing. In fact, not only is there no rushing, you must slow everything down at the point you ask them. You are giving them the option to change and not ushering them on to something else, but letting them sit with the decision. So it feels for all the world like a genuine choice. It is a genuine choice but it's structured so they'll never take it. And it's this moment -- this moment where you slow down the process to wait for their final choice of a card after they've seen the face of the force card -- that can't be replicated in any other force. I mean, you can replicate it, but in that case you're just hoping to be lucky. This force doesn't require luck. The Reverse Psychology Force is like a three-legged stool. In a spectator's mind, in that moment of decision, they're thinking (at least on a subconscious level):

1. I've already made multiple free choices during this selection
2. I like this card I've selected
3. I don't want to "start over" because this process takes a bit of time and I want to get on with it

It tics all three of those boxes. And it's all those together that makes the result of their "free choice" always, "I'll keep this card."  That's what I feel makes it the strongest force there is. The opposite of a force, is a free choice. And this is the only force I know of where the biggest free choice is apparently made after the force card is known. It's 100% disarming.

I wish I was able to express to everyone how much stronger this has made my tricks that involve a card revelation. It really allows me to do anything. And after any reveal you want, you get to backtrack to that moment. "You shuffled. You selected any card. And you even had the choice to change your mind after you picked this card." It's unexplainable to people.

This weekend I performed it with 100 tea-light candles in my bedroom indicating the card. I have french doors between my living room and bedroom and I had black-out shades on the bedroom side of the doors, so at night, when you looked through the door's windows into the bedroom it looked like a completely dark room. I performed this force on my friend in my living room, had her look into my bedroom, we walked over to the doors of my bedroom, I pushed them inward and it was almost like the room was painted with light as the doors swept open. It was essentially a black-art principle and looked very magical. (Although I wasn't trying to imply that the candles "magically appeared," or anything. It was just a neat looking effect in the moment.) And there was her card, the one she had just "freely" decided to keep.

And yes, I'm an idiot, and I left 100 candles burning on my bed unsupervised leading up to the performance of this trick. 

Sundry Drive No. 8

Do you want to release an effect, but the method is a hot piece of shit? Well, something that works really well -- especially in the mentalism community -- is to say that your method is "bold." So just write out an honest description of your method, but substitute "bold" in for "shitty." Like if you have a method that works only 60% of the time, and even when it does it's the most blatant, obvious method, just be like, "This method is pretty bold." 

Another hot tip is to say your method is "a little cheeky." If you say your method is "bold, and a little cheeky," that means it sucks shit, isn't reliable, and a 6-year-old could have thought of it.

---

There are certain goals in life that I don't understand. Like running a marathon. I understand it's an accomplishment, but whenever someone I know says, "I ran a marathon!" I always think, "You should have ran twenty-eight miles. That would be more impressive." Because 26.2 is just an arbitrary number, and you can always theoretically run a little further, so with any running based accomplishment I'm always like, "Huh, you should have kept running. You stopped just short of doing something even more impressive."

That's why I like binary goals. Dunk a basketball. Do a backflip. Be able to bench-press as much as you weigh.

I especially like that last goal because you can attack it from two ways, either build your muscles or lose weight.

I've decided on a goal for myself recently. I want to be able to solve a Rubik's cube underwater. Not for the sake of other people, but just for my own entertainment. So do I increase my lung capacity or do I try and solve a Rubik's cube quicker? I don't know. I think it's important to have stupid goals in your life.

What does this have to do with magic? Nothing really. I'm trying to give you a peek into my soul, man. My Soul!!!!

---

Speaking of a peek into my soul, one thing that made me happy this week was when I googled the phrase "Cram it up your buttholes, bitches," and saw that it had never been used before (at least online). Kind of hard to believe for a phrase that has such a lovely rhythm and poetry to it.

---

Inspiration for a self-referential magic trick.

"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."  -- Gary Provost

---

Field Report: The Light House

This is one of the few things I've ever performed that came to me in the spur of the moment and I was able to execute it in the moment as well. There was no planning involved, but I was only able to accomplish it due to a very specific circumstance.

I was meeting up with a potential collaborator on something that is non-magic related. We were having coffee at a place near my apartment. She was slightly older than me, in her mid-40s, and worked in publishing. As the conversation evolved from the subject we were originally there to talk about, she began telling me about her house in the Hamptons that she had does redone with her husband. They were putting the finishing touches on it right now like choosing the lighting, the window treatments, some final painting options, etc. I told her that sounded like a lot of work for a big house. I had just redone the lighting in my apartment and even that was a lot of effort.

As we continued to talk she began asking me what other types of projects I'm involved with and I mentioned that often I use my background in magic when working on a project. She seemed very intrigued by this and asked to see something. The coffee shop we were at had decks of cards and other objects that would have lent themselves to being used in a magic trick, but I was struck with inspiration and I took the box of crayons and a sheet of paper from the stack of stuff they had set aside for kids who came in with their parents. (This is near Park Slope, Brooklyn, an area famous for people lugging their kids around while they get their expensive coffees or buy yoga-pants.)

I drew four squares on the paper, with the second one being smaller than the others. Then I took an orange crayon and printed the word "BLUE" at the top of the page. I told her to take any four different colored crayons out of the box and then color in each of the squares one of those colors. She had a free choice of any crayons and a free choice of which color she would use for which square. I then gave her the black crayon and told her to scribble over one of the squares she had already colored in. She scribbled over the third square which she had originally colored red with the black crayon.

We were left with the image below. I told her to hold onto that drawing for now.

We stopped by my apartment and before we went in I asked her to take out the picture we made at the coffee shop. "You may wonder what this is," I said. "It may seem like some psychological test to see what colors you would choose. [The project I'm working on with her has its roots in psychology.] You might think there was a psychological reason I made the one square smaller or that I printed the word Blue at the top but I did it with an orange crayon. And you might think that I could tell something about you by which color choices you made, and then which square you chose to black out. But this isn't psychology at all. It's all very straightforward. I printed the word Blue at the top, because that's what this is, a blueprint. This is my apartment. On the left is my kitchen, the small square is my bathroom, the next square is my living room, followed by my bedroom. Remember when I said I just changed the lighting in my apartment?"

I gave her my key and had her go inside. The lights were on in the kitchen, glowing purple. The bathroom was lit up with yellow light. The lights in the living room were off. And blue light was shining from the bedroom. When I flipped on the living room lights, everything was bathed in a deep red glow.

The method here will be obvious to some of you, but other people are completely oblivious to it. I knew after talking to this woman, her relationship with technology was not one where she would be familiar with what was going on behind the scenes.

The method is that my apartment is completely decked out in Philips Hue lights, these lightbulbs can pretty much emit any type of light you want and they are controlled with your phone. Below is a video of the lamp on my nightstand going from a standard lightbulb, to fluorescent, to red, blue, and finally purple.

It takes under 20 seconds to set the lights via an app on my phone. So in the process of checking a text after leaving the coffee shop, I set all the lights in my apartment to match her drawing. Presto.

These lightbulbs are pretty cool. They can be pretty much any color, they can mimic any type of lighting (halogen, skylight, antique, etc.), they can flicker like candles, they can be set to go off like lightning, they can synchronize to whatever music you play. You can have it so they emit a very natural light and if you have multiple bulbs set-up you can set it so it will appear as if clouds are passing in front of the sun. What I mean is that intermittently the lights will dim in sequence as if something is traveling across the sky blocking out the sun. There are dozens of apps you can buy to do different things with them. You can have it so any time you start a movie the lights dim to a particular "theater" setting automatically. You can really set them to do anything you want. If you wanted all of the lights in your house to glow blood red whenever you said, "I am Satan, Lord of the underworld," you could do that.

I use them frequently in the context of other tricks, but this was the first time I used them as a secret method. I doubt I'll use them again like that, but who knows. One of the things I'll do with these lights is give my spectator the four aces and ask her to separate the reds from the blacks without looking at the faces. I'll have her try it over and over, in different colored lights, until she gets it right. If she gets it right under blue light I'll say, "Hmm, yeah, this is probably around the same color as your aura. So in this light you'll have a hypersensitivity and you'll be able to do all sorts of seemingly extra-sensory things." To "prove" this I'll perform OOTW for her under the same colored light and then show her that she separated the entire deck perfectly. "You should really buy some blue lightbulbs," I say. "Obviously it's a color that makes you extra perceptive and usually that brings about increased creativity and concentration as well." I'll take any chance I can get to spout nonsense in a very rational way.

Another thing you can do with these lights is set them to glow in any color that you pull from any picture on your phone. For example, I will sometimes take a picture of the person I'm performing for and then set the lights in my living room so one light is the color of her lips, one the color of her eyes, one the color of her hair, and the other color of her flesh. I haven't found a great rationale for doing this, but people find it interesting to be in a room that's illuminated in the colors of their own body. And you can certainly come up with some bogus reason for why this helps you reach into their mind, or fool their eyes, or whatever. 

The bad news is the lightbulbs are like $60 a pop, so if you want to deck out your whole home and you have a wife you have to justify your purchases to, you're screwed.

What Do You Do?

How do you answer that question? I mean, if you're a full-time or semi-professional magician, how do you answer it?

I'm fortunate enough to be involved in a lot of different types of things, but most can be boiled down to "writer" or "consultant" so I'll usually give one of those answers. Sometimes I want to talk about the work I do that's related to magic, but I would never say, "I'm a magician." Do you say that? I have a hard time saying that. It's not that you're all a bunch of losers and I don't want to be associated with you. I mean, you are all a bunch of losers and I don't want to be associated with you, but that's not the reason. To me it sounds so awkward to define yourself as the thing that you pretend to be. It just brings to mind the image of a mentally retarded person with a traffic cone on his head bellowing, "I'M A WIZARD!!!!!" 

I think that's why some people were more comfortable calling themselves "Illusionists." It seems more honest. But then, of course, the differentiation between "magic" and "illusion" became a joke itself.

You might think that when you say, "I'm a magician," that it goes without saying that what you mean is that you're an entertainer who performs magic effects, but I don't know if that's true. I've watched too many friends in a bar talking to a woman and when the woman asks, "So what do you do?" and my friend says, "I'm a magician," the woman will turn to her friend and grab her shoulder and say, "Ooohh he's a magician," as if it's the most hilarious thing in the world. It's always met with a comment like, "Are you going to make me disappear, Mr. Magician?" It's never met with a question like, "Ah, interesting, close-up or stage? What's the busy season for a magician?" It's always treated as a goof. Other occupations don't get this. If you say, "I'm a pilot," people don't say, "Ooohhh... you're a pilot. Zoom, zoom, up in the air! Are you like, Wilbur Wright, or something? Are you going to crash me into a mountain so I have to eat my soccer team, Mr. Pilot?" No. They just say, "Oh, interesting. Airline or commercial?" 

One tip I might offer is taken from the world of wrestling. If someone asks "What do you do." Don't say, "Magician." Say, "I'm a professional magician." If you say you're a wrestler, people are a little confused. They wonder if you were in the olympics or something. If you say, "I'm a professional wrestler," then it's clear that you put on the leotard and jump around; that you're faking it. I think if you say, "I'm a professional magician," you are inherently saying, "I do this fake thing for entertainment purposes," which I think people have an easier time accepting. I'm not 100% sure if that will be better, but I think it would be. I'd be interested in your thoughts on what you call yourself -- if you've put any particular thought into it.

Magic plays a big part in the work I do, but I'm not a professional performer so I can get away without mentioning it up front. My business cards are so general that they look like something a hitman would use in some old noir film.

I tend to bring up magic with people the same way I would... oh... say, a fetish for having women shit on a glass coffee table while I lay underneath. I'm all like, "So... are you into anything weird? Oh... come on... you must have done some strange stuff in your life. Not even in college? Huh... Me? Oh, no, I'm not into anything weird. Nope. Well... sometimes... and this is only when I've been drinking.... no, never mind. You know, it's so fucked up the way society will judge people for what they're interested in. Am I right? I mean, what people do behind closed doors is nobody's business. Okay... I have a confession to make... when I was a kid I did something a little bit, hmmm, a little bit 'silly,' I guess you'd say, and I bought The Amateur Magician's Handbook...."