Chocolate Mint and the Distracted Artist

My taste in performance material is getting pushed more and more out along the bell curve. I either want to do immersive effects that my audience really needs to invest in and that take all evening to play out, or I want to do a three second effect that happens with no fanfare and no preamble. I just have no need for a 3-4 minute routine. That feels like a 14 month relationship to me. Let's either be in it for the long haul or let's have a hot few weeks together. 

Of course, that's a little bullshit on my part too. I'm sure most of the things I regularly perform take 1-4 minutes to play out. But the things I enjoy performing most are much longer or much shorter than that. 

I wanted to test out some variations on micro-performances (things that play out over a few seconds), so I drafted some readers to help me out. For a long time now I've developed the feeling that the more focus you put on a short trick, the less impact it has. This evolved into something I first talked about with The Distracted Artist Presentation. DAP isn't about no presentation, it's about no trick. 

So I had four people present the same effect three ways. And then I had them make note of if the spectator ever mentioned the effect again, and if so, how long after the effect did it happen. For me, that is the sign of a successful trick. It's resonant. 

We have a tendency to judge a trick's power by its initial reaction. So we think a jump and a freakout is the best we can hope for. And it is great to get those reactions but I don't think they're the most powerful reactions.

When were you the most scared in your life? Was it the time someone jumped out from behind a corner and screamed at you? I mean, you jumped and yelled which indicates fear, but that moment doesn't really stay with you. But hearing someone rattle a doorknob when you're home alone, peaking out a window and seeing the shadow of someone scurry by; that will stick with you for the rest of your life, even if you never jumped or made a sound more than a quiet whimper.

I value magic that sticks with you over magic that initially shocks you, so the metric we used for the "power" of the trick was how long after it was performed was it brought up again.

The trick was simple. A quarter is borrowed, the magician takes it, unwraps it, and eats the chocolate inside. 

The three presentations were:

The "Patter" Presentation - "You know, when I was a kid my parents never let me have candy of any kind. When I took up magic there were all these tricks in books about how to change pennies into quarters and things like that. But the only coin trick I ever practiced was how to change regular quarters... into chocolate quarters."

I would consider this a somewhat standard magic presentation for this type of effect.

The No-Presentation Presentation - We would borrow the quarter then say, "look," and do the effect. 

The Distracted Artist Presentation - For this to make sense we'd perform somewhere where you could sit down to eat, and there were also gumball-style vending machines filled with candy in the establishment. This is true of a lot of cheap, primarily take-out, Chinese restaurants in NYC. The way it would play out was this, the performer would say, "Do you have a quarter? I want to get some candy." And he would nod his head towards the gumball machines. Once the other person put the coin on the table, the performer would continue the conversation they were having and, at some point, casually pick up the quarter, unwrap it and eat it. The only instructions I gave the performers after that was to act equally confused for at least a minute after the performance. And if the person was still questioning them after that point, they could loop around to the patter presentation given above. So it would go something like this:

Magician: [performs effect] ... and she really needs to stand up for herself.
Spectator: What was that?!
Magician: What?
Spectator: What you just ate.
Magician: Oh, right. Thanks.
Spectator: What was it?
Magician: The chocolate quarter you gave me.
Spectator: I didn't give you a chocolate quarter.
Magician: Wait... what? This is the coin you just gave me, yes?
Spectator: But it wasn't a chocolate coin.
Magician: Yes, it is.
Spectator: ...
Magician: I asked for a quarter because I wanted something sweet. Why else would you give me a chocolate coin?
Spectator: I didn't, I... I thought you wanted some candy from over there.
Magician: Oh. I see. I thought you'd given me a chocolate coin because I said I wanted some candy.
Spectator: You thought I just happened to have a chocolate coin on me?
Magician: I didn't give it that much thought to be honest. 
Spectator: That wasn't a chocolate coin.
Magician: Sure it is.
Spectator: I'm so confused. You did something.
Magician: No I didn't. Well... maybe. I mean, when I was a kid first learning magic I did practice changing regular coins into chocolate coins because my parents wouldn't let me have candy. But I haven't done that for 20 years. I think you just gave me a chocolate coin.
 

So, I had four guys, who each performed the coin to chocolate coin effect for three people, and they did it once in each of these styles. So it was performed for 12 people altogether by four different magicians. Yes, that's not scientific. When I get my research grant to study magic I'll have much stricter scientific controls. Get off my back. As it is, I paid for 24 Chinese meals for this dumb experiment. That was a big enough investment without getting into double-blind testing.

I asked the guys to note if the trick was brought up again after the initial performance had died down and to note how long after it was mentioned. One other thing, in all the versions I asked them to leave the foil wrapping on the table as a reminder of the trick.

Test #1
Performer: A.C.

Patter Presentation: Brought up 2 minutes after the effect.
NO Presentation: Not mentioned again.
Distracted-Artist Presentation: Brought up twice at 3 minutes and 8 minutes after the effect.

Test #2
Performer: D.J.

Patter Presentation: Not mentioned again.
NO Presentation: Not mentioned again.
Distracted-Artist Presentation: Mentioned 12 minutes after the effect.
Notes: "She brought up the trick on the way out of the restaurant when we passed the gumball machines."

Test #3
Performer: T.T.

Patter Presentation: Mentioned again 1 hour and 8 minutes after the effect.
NO Presentation: Mentioned again 5 minutes after the effect.
Distracted-Artist Presentation: Mentioned numerous times throughout the night. Last mention was just under 6 hours after the performance.
Notes: T.T. lives in a large loft in Brooklyn with 14 other people. His performances were for three of the people he lived with so the opportunity for them to bring it up extended further into the evening.

Test #4
Performer: D.R.

Patter Presentation: Not mentioned again.
NO Presentation: Mentioned again 11 minutes after the effect.
Distracted-Artist Presentation: Mentioned 8 minutes after the effect and 92 minutes after the effect. Then mentioned again over text 4 days later.

Conclusion

Does this prove anything? No, not really, I suppose. But it does match up with my experience that short pieces of magic resonate the longest when they are not presented as magic performances. 

Here is my hypothesis on why that is. I think when people go to a magic show, they want to see a magic show (very bold statement, I know). But when magic is thrust upon them, in a casual setting or in a walkaround magic situation where they don't know it's coming, I think there is -- at least in part -- a sense of "I didn't ask for this. Since he's doing something I didn't ask for, he must be doing it for his gain. He must be showing off." No, maybe they're not consciously thinking that, but on some level I think they are.

Walk down the street and hand someone who's not asking for money a 50 dollar bill. The normal reaction is not, "Oh, wow, thanks! You're so kind. What a good person you are." The reaction is suspicion and maybe even refusal of your gift. I think that can happen with magic too. You think, "I'm doing something nice. I'm providing them a moment of mystery." And they're thinking, "What's this all about now?" And with a short trick there's no time to tear down that suspicion. The whole thing happens in that cloud of uncertainty.

But to allow the effect to happen with no forewarning -- without even saying, "Look, look,"-- you get to have your moment of magic before they can put up any guard of skepticism about the trick or about your motives. And because you're not immediately taking credit for it, you continue to block any resistance they might otherwise have. Let's go back on the street and instead of handing someone $50, you just point to the bill by their foot. "Did you drop that?" Now there is no skepticism or wariness, they just pick it up and happily pocket it. 

To be clear, you're not pranking people. This isn't The Carbonaro Effect where you're doing magic under the guise of someone who doesn't do magic. This is just a way of giving them that magic moment without the awkwardness inherent in many magical performances. There's no neediness. There's no suggestion that you want "your powers" to be recognized. There's no sense that you're like, "Okay, I've done something great, now you acknowledge me for it." They are free to let the moment pass as quickly as they want or hold onto it for as long as they like. And what I've experienced, and was borne out in this experiment as well, is that people are more likely to allow this type of performance to rattle around in their mind than a more traditional style of presentation or lack of presentation.

I adopted this style because I wanted to perform more. But I would see talented friends of mine, performing strong magic, who would kind of be mocked a little for performing in social situations. It's not just magic. I've known people who sing at the drop of a hat in public and all my friends are like, "Enough with the singing." Even if you don't want attention (and I don't want attention) if you do any type of performance a lot you will seem like you crave attention. And that's off-putting to a lot of people. But if you say, "No, really, it's not about me. I'm doing this because I know you'll like it if you give it a shot." That's almost even worse. So I adopted this style to give them the benefit I wanted them to receive before they even knew it was coming.

Your legend, if you frequently adopt the Distracted Artist Presentation, is not of being someone who is always showing people tricks. Your legend is that you're someone whom strange and wonderful things happen around. Ultimately you are taking responsibility for these occurrences and you're not suggesting they're anything other than tricks. The story you're telling about yourself is that you're into magic, you studied it very hardcore as a kid, and sometimes you just absentmindedly end up "performing" something without even realizing. Like the artist doodling on a napkin. The study and practice of magic is so ill-understood that it almost feels believable that something like that could happen. Or, at the very least, it's such a pleasant fiction that no one bothers to fight it.

The final benefit to this performance style is that it gives people an opportunity to ask for more. Something cool and fun just happened which you've reluctantly taken credit for, after that a lot of people will want another hit off the pipe. Now you can go into a more standard magic presentation. They're no longer the random person on the street who you're forcing a $50 on. They're beggars. They're crackwhores. They want it. They need it. Just a little taste, daddy, of that sweet sweet magic.

Pre-emptive Tangents: The Best Coin Vanish

I've decided that when I have a post that contains a long tangent that could stand on its own I will pop that baby out like a tonsil stone (don't click that link) and use it as something of a teaser for the upcoming post. 

In my next post I'll be writing about a small experiment that I recruited some readers to help out with about a month and a half ago. It took a little longer to complete than expected and it's by no means scientific, but I think it's somewhat interesting nonetheless.

One subject that came up in preparation for this experiment was what the best coin vanish is (in our case we were using it as part of a transformation). This is something I've thought about for a while now. I'm lazy and I generally just want to know one vanish, one double-lift, one pass, one color change. Of course I know more than one of all these, and there are different performance conditions that prevent you from using only one, but in my utopia I would just have one in my arsenal; I'd Eternal Sunshine those other methods out of my brain. 

After years of keeping track of these things in my own performances, I determined that -- for my style -- the most deceptive vanish (not the most amazing necessarily, but the most deceptive) the one I never got busted on, and one of the easiest vanishes to perform was also one of the first ones I ever learned.

Yes, all of you know what's going on there (or should). And presented so straightforwardly in a 6-second gif, it's not the world's greatest mystery. But in the real-world --perhaps with an added delay of placing the coin in the other hand, or using it as a transformation-- it always flies. I think the reason why is this: put a coin on the table and ask someone to take it and hand it to you. The overwhelming majority of the time they will do the identical actions of that vanish, just without the vanish. 

This can't be said for any other vanish.

If I said, "Hand me that coin," and you did this:

I'd be like, "What a nutjob."

If I said, "Hand me that coin," and you did this:

I'd be like, "Uhm... is there such a thing as instantaneous adult-onset cerebral palsy? What just happened to you?"

If I said, "Hand me that coin," and you did this:

I'd be like, "Goddammit, you told me you were going to stop drinking! It's like you love that bottle more than you do me."

You might say I'm doing intentionally bad faux-vanishes to make a point, but it doesn't matter how good your moves are or how smoothly you execute them if they seem affected in any way. Go ahead and record yourself doing the moves of your favorite vanish, but don't vanish the coin. Instead hand it to someone from the hand it's "supposed" to be in. If anything rings false about the action, it's going to be suspect. You may still fool the person, but it's going to feel magic-y rather than magical

One caveat I haven't mentioned recently is that I'm speaking just from my perspective and in relation to my performance style. If, unlike me, you want to be recognized for your skill, then doing something in a manner that is unnatural but smooth is perfectly fine. If, however, you want to reduce or eliminate your presence and influence in the moment you're creating, you must use moves that draw no attention to themselves.

That goes for that goofball double-lift you've been doing too, with all that flippy and flappy action. Just turn over the card like a human for once!

In the next post we'll use this methodology and examine a simple trick performed three ways and attempt to quantify the magical resonance of different performing styles. 

ooh fancy.  

My Two Cents: Voodoo Card and Stegosaurus

Here are a some thoughts on recent releases that were discussed in past issues of X-Communication. I didn't want to limit the audience for these ideas to those who get that newsletter, but I also didn't want to post them publicly here as they hint at or discuss methods to effects that aren't mine to discuss. So they're on password protected pages that can be accessed by people who own the things being talked about.

In X-Communication #6 I gave some thoughts on Chris Ramsay's At The Table lecture. For me, the strongest effect in the lecture was his handling for the Voodoo Card effect. It's essentially the same effect as Guy Hollingworth's original, but the card can be signed. Tomas Blomberg has evolved the handling further, incorporating a justification I mention in my review that really solidifies the effect and a switch with a retention of vision aspect that makes it pretty much invisible. His handling also allows for the multi-stage reveal in the Hollingworth original, which I think is a more satisfying structure.

You can see Tomas' handling and read the relevant section of my review on this page. The password is the word that Chris Oberle uses about 20 seconds into the lecture during his introduction. It follows this phrase, "He has a big ______" -- just the first word after "big," lowercase.

---

In the Christmas issue of X-Communication I gave a positive review to Stegosaurus by Phill Smith. I particularly like the structure of the trick. It starts off with a couple of phases that seem like a word puzzle. And while we often say, "This is a puzzle, not magic," as a critique of something, I think these first two phases will capture the interest of intelligent spectators. And those phases will lull them into a false sense that they know what's going on. And that only makes the final phase that much stronger.

While I like and recommend the effect, it's not something that I would ever plan to perform ahead of time. It's more the type of effect I would get into when I'm with a group of people and we unexpectedly have some time to kill. So I've made some personalizations to the effect that allow me to perform it in a more impromptu manner. I've also come up with a presentation for it that I think helps justify the somewhat odd procedure of the trick. At least it does so to my satisfaction.

You can read those ideas on this page. The password is the word that appears at position number 10 of the list on page 10 of the Stegosaurus pdf.

The ICUMMT - The Invisible Close-Up Magic Multi-Tool

As first mentioned in the last post, if you want to be rigged up to perform all sorts of magic effects with seemingly nothing on you, then I think this is one of the most versatile set-ups you can use. 

Required items:

• a rubber thumbtip
• a 1/4" neodymium disc magnet
• some type of pull apparatus. For the purpose of this explanation will just assume it's a piece of elastic cord that is safety-pinned up the sleeve of your jacket.
• a strong monofilament (fishing line)
• PK Ring

Glue the magnet inside the tip of the thumbtip (I used this stuff.)

Take about 8 inches of monofilament. Tie one end to the PK ring. Tie the other end to a length of elastic cord which is attached to a safety pin. This gets pinned up the sleeve of your jacket in typical pull fashion. When the elastic is not extended the ring should hang to about the middle of your forearm. 

When I used this regularly it was set up in a particular jacket that worked well for an up-the-sleeve type of pull (stiff, wide sleeves). I just pinned the apparatus inside and would have it on me any time I went out in that jacket. The thumbtip would be in the watch-pocket of my jeans.

Whenever I saw an opportunity to perform something, or, more frequently, when I sensed someone was going to ask me to show them something, I would push up my left sleeve slightly, grab the pk ring that was dangling there, and put it on my left ring finger or pinky finger. I now had half of a universal pull in position. But we'll get to that in a moment.

What can you do with this set-up? A better question is, what can't you do with this set-up. No... wait... that's a much worse question. There's a lot of things you can't do with this. Here are some of the types of effects you are prepared to go into from this set-up.

1. Unlike with Annemann's Invisible Pull, you can use the thumbtip as you would a normal thumbtip. So you're set for any thumbtip magic just by dipping your thumb in your watch pocket.

2. You're set-up for any pk ring based effects.

3. You're set-up for a watch stop from either hand via the pk ring or the magnet in your thumbtip.

4. You have the cleanest ring vanish imaginable. Just take your ring off (let the pull take it), apparently squeeze it, and it dissolves away. 

5. And the main purpose of this set-up is that it allows you to build a universal pull from seemingly empty hands as you perform.

Here's a basic example of that. Let's say you're at a bar and you decide to show someone a quick trick. Slide the ring off your finger and hold it in essentially a left finger palm. Get the thumbtip on your right thumb. This is all done before you "start" the effect. You pick up a bar napkin and let it unfold. You run it through your left-hand in standard thumbtip silk vanish technique and steal the thumbtip away. The magnet in the tip of the thumbtip connects with the pk ring, essentially creating a universal pull. The napkin is stuffed into the left fist and vanishes via the pull. You're completely clean at the end unless your spectator starts undressing you, which is entirely possible when she's so turned on by your napkin vanish.

What I did with this most frequently is I would be standing around outside a bar with some friends while they smoked. I don't smoke but I like being outside. Someone would light a cigarette and I'd ask for a drag. I'd give it a long inhale, then I'd put the lit cigarette in my left fist (it would get snuffed out on the magnet inside the thumbtip) then I'd take the lighter and push it in my fist as well (the thumbtip I used gripped a standard Bic lighter pretty well). Then I'd exhale the smoke and vanish the cigarette and lighter in the puff of smoke. 

Another nice thing about this set-up is that it can vanish things that aren't actually stuffed into the thumbtip. For example, with the ring part of the pull in finger palm and the thumbtip on your right thumb, you can take a napkin or a folded-in-half dollar bill with your right hand and place it in your left, pulling off the thumbtip as you take the item. The bill or napkin get's pinched between the two magnets and can be pulled away from there (In this case the vanish is very jacket-dependent. Make sure you have the sleeve space to accept something like that.)

I never played around with using it as an under-the-coat style pull, although I think you probably could.

I think there's a lot more that could be done with this, actually. I don't use the ICUMMT any more due to a shift in my philosophy on preparedness, but there are definitely times when I wish I had it on me. 

ALL MANUFACTURING RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE JER-- aw, fuck it, I'm never going to take the idea any further. If someone else wants to, knock yourself out.

Magician Foolers Part Two: The Vanishing Vanishing Silk

This is one of the first tricks I ever created. I'm sure I couldn't have been the first to do this effect using this method. I was 13 or so when I came up with it, and I don't consider myself that precocious. 

There was a magic shop in my town. It was a real shit-show of a shop and I'm glad it's gone. But that's another story for another day. 

I had attended my first lecture there and afterwards, while people were eating stale popcorn from a large tin bucket, a few people were encouraging me to join the local branch of one of the magic organizations. I don't remember if it was the IBM or the SAM and the difference is too inconsequential for me to google it. I asked what it entailed to join and I was told that I would need to perform a routine. (I'm sure there were some other requirements too. Pay some dues? Fill out some forms? Kill a runaway?)

I was stymied by the idea of performing a trick for people who were likely to already know the secret. As a beginner magician, that's all magic was for me, the secret. There was one other young guy at the lecture. He was 17 and considered himself a bit of a hot-shot on the magic scene. For the purposes of this blog post we'll call him Jason, because... well... I'm pretty sure that was his name. I pulled him aside and asked him what type of thing I could perform for this group that would impress them. The average age there was "almost dead." What could I, as a kid, perform that would fool these wisened, wizened, wizards?

He told me there was a group of effects that people considered "magician foolers" and he would help me find some. I was enthralled by this notion. Magic that was so incredible and impossible it would fool magicians! And I spent a few weeks trying to come up with my own effect that would qualify as a magician fooler. I eventually stumbled across an idea that utilized some of the rudimentary knowledge that I possessed at that time that I thought might be able to fool some magicians. But certainly, I thought, this effect is not up to the mighty standards of a true "magician fooler" effect. 

At the next gathering I attended at the shop I cornered Jason again. I told him I'd come up with a trick and asked him for any help he could give me with it and if he could show me some other tricks that might fool these magicians. We sat down at a table and he pulled out a deck of cards. A few other guys joined us. Then he performed three "magician foolers" for me. After each trick the crowd around us grew. And all these guys were really enthusiastic about the magic. I was just sitting there, surrounded by heavyset, older, white guys, and I wish I could play that moment back for you, and you could see my expression, and hear my thoughts like I was Kevin Arnold in The Wonder Years. I think it would be funny to see the forced smile on my face, and watch my eyes dart side to side, and  hear the confusion and disbelief in my voice as I thought, What...in...the...fuck...is going on here?

They were the shittiest tricks I'd ever seen. And I looked around at these braying idiots with the dawning horror you would read in a novel where someone realizes, "Oh my god, this is a party for vampires!" or something like that.  Except my realization was, "Oh, these people are all terribly dull. And this hobby that I thought was about dazzling people can be wildly boring." I have since found dozens maybe 100s of magicians I admire and enjoy being around, but in that moment I was just like, "Ugh. These people suck." And I just wanted to be out of there.

"Magician foolers" weren't some ultra-impressive tricks. They were just tricks that were so convoluted and uninteresting that they only appealed to people whose sole criteria for a successful effect was: do I know how this is accomplished? They hadn't raised the bar. They'd lowered it to the point where no one other than magicians would care about the trick. 

Jason passed the deck over to me and suggested I show everyone the trick I was working on. "It's not a card trick," I said, and pulled out the little silk that came with the Klutz Book of Magic. 

It seemed my nerves had gotten the best of me because I was flashing the thumbtip on my right thumb wildly, forgetting to point it at the correct angle to make it invisble. (And yes, I use "thumbtip," one word, to describe the gimmick and differentiate it from your actual thumb tip. This should be standard in magic. Okay? Thanks, bye!!!!)

I stole the thumbtip with my left hand somewhat clumsily, then I poked the silk into my left fist with my right forefinger and then my thumb. I drew my right hand away. It was, perhaps, unnaturally tensed and awkwardly positioned, but at least I remembered to keep the tip of my right thumb pointing at the audience. I opened up my left hand to show the silk had disappeared. 

"I've just started working on it," I began.  

"You need to practice in front of a mirror," someone interrupted. "You flashed the thumbtip multiple times. We can see it," he said and gestured towards my right hand.

"I what?" I said, letting my right hand relax and open. 

There was no silk. There was no thumbtip. My hands were truly empty.  

My "magician fooler" was not a silk vanish, but a thumbtip vanish. And I'd fooled them badly.

I promised to show them how I'd done it at the next meet-up at the shop. And then I just never, ever, ever went back when people were meeting up there. For a second time I'd fooled them with a disappearance.

I still like to use this trick when I'm meeting a group of magicians for the first time. Or, even better, when dealing with some dude who knows a little about magic and feels the need to pontificate on everything when I'm messing around at a party or something. This is a good trick to shut him the fuck up. 

Its a very satisfying structure to lower expectations and then destroy those expectations. I do it with women too. "For someone who was so excited about trying a Quesalupa," they say, "I never expected you to be such a vigorous lover." 

How did I do it? Simple. I had the silk and the thumbtip, but I also had a universal pull in my left hand and just used that to vanish the whole shebang.

(Can we take a moment to admire that ad for the universal pull? First, I like when it says, "This is not another pull," when, yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm also amazed by this line: "Its excusive [sic] design made it get the Inventions First Prize during the Second Argentinean National Congress, in 1981." Okay, that sounds perfectly reasona-- wait... what? I have no idea what the Second Argentinean National Congress is. The only reference I can find to it is in regards to this gimmick. Maybe it's just some cruddy Argentine magic conference. I don't know. But it sounds like something much more significant. And that only makes the idea that a pull won the "Inventions First Prize" there sound all that much more ridiculous. It would be like if you said, "And then he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his slush powder." Or, "And then he won the pulitzer for his magic blog."

I have a big affinity for pulls. You can do such visually astonishing magic with them. But it can be a pain in the ass to pin them into your coat and stuff. I'm lazy. It's strange. I'll spend 6 months preparing for some effects, but then bristle against setting up a pull. "I can't be opening and closing safety-pins all day! Jeez louise! I'm not a tailor for god's sake." But I'm going to get back into them I think. Well, when fall rolls around and we're back in jacket weather. (I did once use a pull that went up the leg of my shorts that I could use when sitting. I tried it once in real life and it whacked me in the balls hard as hell. That's another thing I wish we could go back and watch. Me being like, "And with just a blow your ring is gone- FUUUCCCCCKKKKKKKKK.")

Many years after I first performed this effect I read an idea in the Jinx, called the Invisible Pull, where Annemann combined a pull with a thumbtip. Alas, you can't really use it to vanish the thumbtip itself, as in the effect above, but it still seemed like a very versatile idea to me for other effects. I never really got accustomed to the handling for it, and I'm guessing not many other people did either, as it seems to not have caught on. But in experimenting with it I came up with a whole new set-up that I think a lot of you will find interesting. It's not just a pull or thumbtip. It's kind of an invisible close-up magic multi-tool. In fact, that's what I'll call it, The Invisible Close-Up Magic Multi-Tool (ICUMMT).

At the end of his write-up for the Invisible Pull, Annemann says:

And while I have had some things to say about that gimmick, he has been completely ignoring my emails. So instead I will be posting my evolution of the Invisible Pull, the ICUMMT, on this site next week. 

Magician Foolers Part One: No Glove, No Love

These days when I hear the term "magician fooler" I tend to think about things like this card to condom trick  on Ellusionist. This is the sort of trick that looks like it was put together by some concerned Jerx readers who were worried I didn't have enough to talk shit about. Thanks guys, but I don't need you to set the ball on the tee for me to that extent. I'm all set content-wise. 

The effect itself is neither here nor there. I could get away with performing it and I even have some interesting ideas for it presentationally, but I would never use it because it says Magix on the packaging. So even in the best of circumstances where you could pull the trick off in a clever, perhaps mildly risqué way, it ends with the spectator's "souvenir" being a direct link to the name of the magic product. I don't know who is responsible for that dipshittery, but it's completely fucking boneheaded. "Let's make a card vanish and reappear in an ordinary object." Okay, good idea. "But then let's make it clear via our branding that it's NOT an ordinary object. In fact, let's put the name of the trick itself on the trick." Oooohhh... savvy marketing!

In an ideal world you shouldn't carry anything with you that's obviously a magic prop. But if you have to, just go all out and carry around some plastic Tenyo prop before this thing. Here is the hierarchy of pathetic-ness in regards to what you can be caught carrying with you as a magician:

1. Non-magic props - Not pathetic
2. Deck of cards and/or Silver Dollars - Mildly pathetic
3. Obvious magic props - Pathetic, but potentially charming in a sad-nerd way
4. A fake non-magic prop that is clearly a magic prop - Embarrassing for you and everyone around you who either has to be a jerk and call you out on it or play along with your transparent bullshit
5. A fake non-magic prop that is clearly a magic prop that is meant to look like a condom - Heartbreakingly pathetic. If I had a son and I walked into his room one day to find him dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, wearing his mother's panties on his face like a bandit's bandana, holding a picture of a bull terrier's butthole in his hand and he had one of these fake condom's in his pocket, the first bit of scene staging I would do would be to get rid of this fake condom magic trick. He just can't be remembered that way.

I call the trick a "magician fooler" because it's really trying to take advantage of 13-17 year-old boys, and older awkward virgins, who think that if they do a trick with something that's related to sex it will make them seem like sexual entities. Sorry, boys, it's not going to work. A condom is maybe mildly racy, because your dick goes in it, but by that logic you could try and woo women with a color-changing Depends diaper. Condoms may be "sexy" in a very abstract, "this guy is looking out for my health and safety" kind of way. But removed from the act itself they're just going to be weird and off-putting to those girls in your earth science class. "Here's the little rubber tube I put my ding-dong in so when I squirt my jiz I don't give you gonorrhea " Oooo, daddy, so sexy! Trying to seduce a woman (as the ad suggests) with this type of trick would be like adding this song to your fuck-mix.

And finally, Ellusionist, don't hesitate to put me on your payroll. I could have fixed this for you. "Let's come up with a presentation that justifies the usage of a condom," I would have said. "Let's not put the name the trick is marketed under on the trick itself," I would have suggested. Then I would have offered you a new name for this effect. The perfect triple entendre of a name that would invoke conjuring, dick-slang, and a safe-sex cautionary tale. What would that name be? Simple. Two words: Magic Johnson.

The Jerx App

Hey guys, if you ordered the book and you have an iPhone then the Jerx app is available for you.

Some things to note:

1. This is free for the people who bought the book. You'll probably eventually be able to find it in the iTunes store as well, but it's going to have some absurd price on it.

2. Rather than try to hide the app behind some phony financial app or something, it's hidden behind itself. If someone tries to go into the app or asks you what it is, you can open it and it will show L'il Jerxy and his magic trick or tip of the day. These are just going to be stupid bits of "advice" or tricks. The real app is hidden behind this opening screen.

3. The app has one main purpose  (Codename: Chocolate & Vanilla) that is not currently listed on it. I'm waiting to release that functionality until the book comes out because it goes along with one of the effects in the book. But it's much bigger than that too. In a sense it's a utility gimmick. It does one very simple thing, but the simple thing it does can be used for a variety of different effects: close-up, stage, magic, and mentalism.

4. While the purpose of the app is the Chocolate & Vanilla capability, there are going to be other mini-tricks on it as well for you to screw around with. The first mini-trick that's loaded on the app right now is Wish List. Wish List is a version of this idea that I mentioned last summer. It's a way to get into a five item equivoque. You go to your friend's house and tell them you want to try this psychological test but it requires 5 very specific items. "You might not even have all these things," you say. You open your phone to get the instructions for the test and then rattle off the items you need. You and your friend then notice those are the exact 5 things sitting on your friend's kitchen table. "What a coincidence," you say. She doesn't believe you but you can immediately show her the directions you copied earlier into your phone that have those as the required items and those five things are listed throughout the brief instructions. You tell her you don't want her to read the whole thing because you don't want it to affect the test. So you send a screenshot of the instructions to her phone to check later. She selects an item through "process of elimination" (wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink-wink) and when she opens the the photo of the instructions you sent her it states that item is the one that will be selected when those group of items are laid out in that particular order. 

It's a weird trick because the magic moment doesn't come at the end, but the beginning. And then everything that happens after that is meant to legitimize that moment including the "trick" itself.

5. Eventually everyone who buys the book and who has an iPhone or iPod touch will get the app. But be patient because we're limited by how many we can give away at one time before we update it and things like that. "Why not just make it a free app?" I don't want it to be free. I want it to be free for the people who support the site by buying the book. Everyone else can go screw.

6. Have an idea for a magic app? Hire Marc Kerstein to build it. I don't even know if he's looking for those types of gigs. But if he is and you could use his services, definitely check him out. He can probably do non-magic apps too. That one to track your period, for instance. But again, I don't really know. He didn't ask me to say any of this, I'm just saying it because he's handled the creation of the Jerx app for me. And I'll say, "Hey, can you make it do this?" And then 13 minutes later there is a new build of the app with that feature. 

Catch you on the flippety-flappety, Flappy-pants-pappy.