Doin' It

Hurricane Andrew

Not much time to post today. I was spending my free time this evening working on the book. An update on that will be coming soon. 

I just wrote an email to a reader of this site who was complaining that he felt a recent magic book that was widely acclaimed wasn't really all that great. Here's the thing, people, this site is going to spoil you. Yes, yes, I know my ideas are brilliant and unparalleled and represent a paradigm shift in the presentation of magic and are at least 25 years ahead of their time. And okay, so maybe my writing is funny and charming and, at times, insightful in a way that is very rare in our art. And yeah, I'm probably good with kids, animals, and the elderly; a friend to the downtrodden; and a generous, skilled, and well-hung lover. Sure, maybe all that's true. I'm not going to argue with any of these things you want to say about me. The downside of all of that is, of course, that when you're not here -- in these strong arms -- other magic writing and ideas can seem dull and grey.

I'm sorry about that. I will do my best to tone it down some. I promise tomorrow's post will be so astronomically stupid that it will hopefully take me down a notch or two in your eyes (and therefore bring everyone else up, relatively). I know you're thinking, "Take you down a few notches? Like you can put a dimmer switch on a supernova?" Look, let me at least try. 

But I have to be honest with you, on Friday I'm going to present you with a Tomas Blomberg effect from his book Blomberg Laboratories, and I'll tell the story of how I took this great idea and made it a transcendent one by putting it in the perfect context. And then we'll be right back where we started from. I'm sorry.

Coming This December

I love Christmastime.

Because you love Jesus, Andy?

Hardly. Because I love giving gifts, parties, big dinners, singing, cookies, seeing old friends and family, snow, fires in fireplaces, peppermint mochas, and the smell of pine. Well, I like traditions in general.

So this December, whilst you're busy with your parties (for hosting), marshmallows (for toasting), mixing and mingling in a jingling beat, and firing up your crockpot to make the perfect appetizer for some holiday gathering ("Holy Infant" style Cocktail Weenies - So Tender and Mild), I will be launching a new tradition here. 

The First Annual Jerx Advent Calendar

The theme of this year's calendar is The Best of the Magic Circle Jerk. From December 1st through December 24th there will be a post in the early evening, around when the Christmas lights go on, highlighting a post or series of posts from my first magic blog. A lot of you weren't around for that, and much of it is nowhere to be found, even on the Internet Archive, so this will be new for many of you, or the first time you've seen some of the posts in 10+ years. If you like people yelling at me and me making magic-related dick jokes, you will especially enjoy these old posts. 

These posts won't replace the normal posting here, they're just intended to supplement what I anticipate will be less frequent posting during the holiday season while I'm busy ice-skating at Rockefeller Center and trying to figure out if I like eggnog.

Looking forward to making the yuletide gay with you this Christmas.

Dear Mentalists: Pre-Show Work

Happy November, my darlings!

Today I have a quick tip about pre-show work for my dear friends in the mentalism community. 

In the past couple of weeks I have heard the following statements said by two mentalists in two different performances.

"Before the show today I spoke with a gentleman and asked him to think of any card in the deck. You never told anyone what it was? You never wrote it down, correct?"

and

"Earlier, before the show, I asked a person to think of any city anywhere in the world."

Do you notice a problem with these statements? It's an issue that's so glaring that I'm sure it's one of the first things mentioned in whatever the fundamental texts are that talk about pre-show work. And yet, I would say that I see it more often than not in routines that use pre-show. 

I almost feel dumb saying it myself. It would be like telling some coin guys, "Hey, when you do a false transfer you need to close the hand that 'takes' the coin or else people will see that there's nothing in it." But if you kept seeing people performing a false transfer like this

then you would probably say, "Huh, I guess people don't know they're not supposed to show the receiving hand empty after a false transfer."

So, again, I know this is basic, but enough of you are screwing it up that I think it warrants mentioning. 

What you claim to have done pre-show needs to be something that would be too cumbersome to do in the show itself.

It is wildly suspicious to say, "Before the show I asked someone to think of a card," because it takes two seconds to ask someone to think of a card, so it makes no sense to do that before the show. Especially when you spend a minute and a half telling people how fair the selection was. "You could have thought of any card, yes? You never wrote it down. You never told anyone. Nobody asked you what it was." Etc., etc. If this was all so above-board, why didn't you just do it in this moment rather than before the show?

I'm not suggesting pre-show has no place. (Although I think most mentalists would agree that there was a time, a few years ago, where the method was used and abused as a solution to every problem. "Drawing duplication? Just pre-show it! Any card at any number? Just pre-show a card, and pre-show a number! Straight-jacket escape? Just get out of it pre-show with the help of a buddy!") But you need to justify why you did this thing before the show. Maybe you needed to hypnotize the person, or interview them to find out how they think, or you needed to do it outside, or they had to draw the card they were thinking of to activate a certain part of their brain. I don't now, it's your show, you come up with something. But understand that coming out and saying, "Before the show I asked someone to think of a city," is only slightly more credible than coming out and saying, "Before the show, I placed a coin in this closed fist. Presto! It's gone!"

And Then There Were None

A lot of the movies I like are pretty dumb. And one of my favorite types of dumb movies are the ones where a group of people, usually strangers, find themselves at a location and then they need to figure out why they're all there and what they have in common. (And usually they're being killed over the course of this.) So it's like, "Oh, I just came to this dinner party of strangers at this fancy mansion because I got an invitation in the mail. Because that's what a rational human would do, right? Just show up to a random dinner party of people they don't know? Well, anyway, now I'm being stabbed to death." This is Ten Little Indians, And Then There Were None, Saw 2, Identity, and about 400 low-budget movies on Netflix at the moment.

I always thought it would be fun to bring that dynamic into a real-life moment, and I recently came up with a way I'm going to try and do so in the future. Perhaps this will inspire you to do something similar.

Imagine you're in some situation where you're in a group with people you don't know well (you could just as easily do this with friends, but I think it's more fun if they're strangers). Maybe you're at a wedding reception but it's not someone you're super close with and you end up at the table of mix n' match leftover people who don't really fit at any other table. Or maybe it's a business conference, and you're at a table with people you haven't met before. Any situation where you're waiting around with a small group of people. 

You want to get four people to give you a dollar. This idea came to me this weekend when I was at a wedding reception and I was teaching this young girl seated next to me how to fold an origami dollar flower and then other people at the table pulled out their own dollars and wanted to learn. So your goal is to create this type of situation. It's not difficult to do at a table full of strangers. They're looking for someone to take the lead and keep them entertained. So maybe you show a simple magic trick with a bill and offer to teach them how to do it. Or you can say, "My brother-in-law works for the treasury and he showed me this way to tell if a one is counterfeit. I didn't even know people counterfeited ones. Do any of you have a dollar?" Or you can say, "I have an interesting logic puzzle with a few dollar bills. Can I get a bill from a few of you?" Or you can offer to show people some of the "secret images" on a dollar bill. (Google it, and prepare to be underwhelmed.)

Whatever the situation, some people are pulling out dollar bills and you remove one from your pocket as well. You take the first bill from someone and look at the back and say, "Hmm... that's strange," as you place it on top of the bill in you hand. You take three other bills as well and with each one you act a little more confused. You spread the bills in your hands, portrait side up. Everyone is waiting for you to show them your little stunt. "This is weird," you say. "Did you all get these bills here? From the bar or something?" You look at the bills then talk to yourself. "No... I think this was part of my change at the Exxon on Route 12. Did any of you recently go to the Exxon on Route 12?" People are looking at you and wondering what the hell is up.

"Look," you say and turn the bills over. "All of our bills have these little markings on one edge. What is that?" You spread out the bills to show random lines on the back of the bills. You hand a couple out and then toss the rest on the table. "That's weird, right?" You look at the bills with everyone. "Is that supposed to be football lacing? Or a train track or something?"

Eventually someone will start putting the bills together like puzzle pieces. If not, you kind of nudge them in that direction. When they're done, they'll have this:

"That can't be good," you say.

Spend the next few minutes trying to break it all down. How did you each end up with a piece of this picture? You're strangers. No one could have known you were going to be sitting together today, could they? Did you all shop at the same place and get change from there? Could someone have been following you around in the days before this event? Or maybe they snuck the bills into your wallet/purse somehow? And what does it all mean?

At some point, people will examine the bills more closely, or you pick them up to look at them again, and you notice a message written in small letters on the portrait side of each bill. 

"Tonight. All but one will die. Choose who lives."

You pick your butter knife up off the table and stare at everyone. "I'm not going to have this decision made for me," you say, pointing your knife menacingly.

The End?

Now look, I know a lot of the effects I write up don't read like "tricks" in the traditional way. But fooling people is not the only way of giving people a magical experience. I love performing tricks and working on tricks, but that is just one aspect of creating magic.

If you google "magical," the second definition is the one that guides my relationship with magic:

mag·i·cal - beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life.

Or, from dictionary.com: Magical = mysteriously enchanting.

When someone sees a performance of Cups and Balls, or 3-Fly, I don't think they're being delighted in a way which seems "removed from everyday life." They may be fooled and entertained and amazed, but they know they're watching a performance as opposed to taking part in an experience. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's a distinction you may want to make if you're interested in giving people a different type of "magical" moment. 

A personal experience is generally more affecting than a performance, even if the performance is stronger. A woman buck-naked and spread-eagle on a stage, fucking herself with an eggplant is less sexually charged than that same woman sitting next to you and resting her hand on your leg, even though that's less sexually explicit. And it's true with magic too. Something personal will often seem more magical than something more amazing but less personal. 

The purpose of this trick is not to convince people that you were really all singled out by some mysterious madman to be murdered that evening. On some level they will realize the situation is orchestrated by you and it's a little production that they're taking part in. That's 100% okay. It's not about convincing people of the reality of the situation, it's about having them engrossed and intrigued in this brief interlude while you wait for your food to come or whatever. There is a magic trick (borrowed bills all have secret markings on them), but that's not what makes this magical. It's the way the situation unfolds and the implication of a broader connection between strangers that makes it "magical." 

The method is Richard Sanders' Extreme Burn 2: Locked and Loaded. You pull out the gimmick as your bill and take the other bills on top. The switch now becomes an invisible switch and there is absolutely no heat on your bill, the switch, or the handing out of the bills because, as far as they know, nothing has happened yet. The bills you switch for should include at least one new-ish bill, and one old bill. That way you're covered no matter what types of bills you borrow. It's like the Tossed Out Deck principle. Anyone who remembers giving you a new bill will assume the new one is theirs, and anyone who remembers giving you an old bill will assume the old one is theirs. Make sure to draw their attention as you collect their bills. The switch is so invisible that you want them to remember that you simply gathered up the dollars, noticed something weird, and then handed them back out. As I said, there's no heat on the switch, and the markings on the bills are ten times the misdirection you need to ditch the gimmick.

A lot of you have had enough experiences with disengaged spectators that you think this type of thing will never connect with people, but I've done similar things frequently enough that I can tell you it does. I've found the more you can remove yourself as the magician from the experience, the more on board people will be. In this presentation you are not "the magician." You are not looking for acclaim or appreciation. You're just facilitating this magical experience.

People want to play. They just don't want to be forced to play, like in some corporate team-building exercise. This presentation allows people to play along if they want, or sit back and let the situation unfold without their input. Either way, I think they'll see it as a welcome break from the potentially awkward and dull chit-chat that they may have been dreading at a table full of strangers.

---

Tomorrow is halloween, everybody! Make sure to eat some candy. It's good for the soul.

Also egg and TP some deserving a-hole's house tonight. That too is good for the soul. Where I'm from, October 30th is called Devil's Night. I guess in some places it's called "Mischief Night." That seems like a big fall off in intent. Like around me you were expected to be inspired by the Devil himself in your antics. But those of you who celebrate Mischief Night? Who are you emulating there? Pippi Longstocking or some shit? No, it will always be Devil's Night for me. Although I heard in some places it's called Cabbage Night which is so stupid it almost comes out the other side to being great again. 

At any rate, enjoy the holiday, and I'll see you soon.

Friends of The Jerx: Pipo Villanueva

["Friends of The Jerx" is where I highlight people who have contributed to this site, the projects they're involved in, or the subjects they're interested in.]

Our first friend is Pipo Villanueva. Pipo! Is this a common name in parts of the world? I don't know. It seems like it would be common for a cartoon mouse. But a human? This is my first Pipo.

Pipo has recently released a video download called Magic for the Shortsighted. It is self-produced but it is of equal, if not greater, quality to anything coming from the large magic video producers.

The type of magic Pipo creates is very different from the type of magic I usually do. He is working with, for the most part, traditional plots performed in a traditional setting. That being said, these routines are beautifully constructed, and I will be working on at least a couple of them. 

My favorite effect on the video was Reset 180º. I've been playing with versions of Reset since I was a kid, and this is the cleanest version I've seen. The changes and the clean-up at the end are so smooth that I thought he was using double-sided tape or something like that, and I thought, "Oh, that's lovely, but I'll never use it." In general I don't do any tricks that require exposed tape or sticky dots or things like that. It's just not my scene. I've had some bad experiences with sticky stuff. No, I don't have to explain it. Leave me alone. Okay, so my grandfather died in the Great Molasses Flood, and one time a kid with Maple Syrup Urine Disease whizzed on my close-up case. Does that satisfy your grim curiosity? Geeze... Where was I? Oh yeah, so I watched the explanation and was waiting for him to pull out the repositionable glue stick or whatever, but it never came. It's all just in the handling. The clean-up that you deal with at the end of most Reset routines is particularly well constructed. In fact it's invisible and completely fooled me.

My other favorite routine is the Atomic Coin. It's Pipo's handling of a Copper/Silver/Brass effect based on a routine by Jeremy Pei. It is one of the most straightforward CSB routines I've seen. You give your audience three coins to examine: one copper, one silver, one brass. You then introduce a fourth coin and have that examined as well. This coin, when squeezed together with any other coin, replicates the attributes of that coin (i.e., it changes into that coin). So you transform this coin into each of the other three one at a time by squeezing them together. Then, for a finale, you squeeze this coin on its own and it essentially replicates itself, growing many times its original size. The fact that everything is in full view the whole time (no coins are ever put back in your pocket mid-routine) and yet everything is examinable before and after the effect is what makes this so strong in my opinion (in addition to the usual beautiful changes you get with a CSB set, and one of the best uses of a jumbo-coin that I've seen).

Do Pipo and me a favor: Go to Pipo's site and check out the trailer for this video.

If it seems like something you'd enjoy, click the link on the right-hand side of the page to order it on Vimeo. It's 6 effects and over 2 and a half hours of instruction. 

You can also check out two performance videos on his site. The cups and balls video is in Spanish, but everything on Magic for the Shortsighted is in English, and his English is near perfect. (Don't worry. As you know, I don't support anything other than English-only magic instruction. I won't ever lead you astray. USA! USA! USA! #Trump2016 #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.)

You can also find Pipo's blog on his site which he updates at the adorable pace of once or twice a month. 

Matrix or Treats

A few weeks ago I asked if anybody knew of any place to find foil-wrapped chocolate quarters that could pass for real quarters. After talking to a few people I think it's safe to say that no such product exists and would be somewhere between difficult and impossible to produce in mass quantities. This is too bad because I had a good idea for how I wanted to use them. 

I want to tell you about the trick, because even as an aborted idea, I think it's still pretty good. 

This summer I came up with a choreography for a matrix routine where -- in the process of the effect itself -- the coins you started with were secretly switched for four other coins. But what to do with this? 

The idea of switching them in for  chocolate coins really appealed to me because as much as I like very detailed, immersive presentations, I'm always looking for tricks that are so visually interesting and bizarre that they become like surrealist art, and they don't need a presentation. And this would have been one such trick.

Imagine you borrow four quarters, and lay them out in a square formation. Then you spread a deck of cards and have someone slide out any two. With the selected cards and the borrowed quarters you perform a matrix routine. When you are done you unwrap the "borrowed" quarters and toss the chocolate coins inside into your mouth. Then you pick up the two selected cards and fold them into your mouth, chew them, and blow a bubble with them. 

That was the effect. I had the switch of the coins worked out. I had found a way to print card backs on thin sheets of bubble-gum, and had a simple switch worked out to ring these in for the selected cards at the end of the performance. The only thing I didn't have was the chocolate coins. 

I'm now throwing the idea out to you. Perhaps you have coins in your country that would work. Or perhaps there's some way to make an edible quarter that isn't foil-wrapped chocolate. I don't know. Maybe this will inspire a whole FISM act for you, where you borrow all the props and then eat them at the end. Go ahead and use that concept. It wouldn't be the first time someone took my idea for their FISM act. (I'm looking at you, Cornel & Monique, 1964 FISM World Champions in General Magic. You know what you did.)