In Search of Lost Time

In Search of Lost Time is the presentation I've been working on for the Invisible Deck.

First and foremost I want to thank Cristian Scaramella for writing in with his similar presentation for a different effect. When I read it, I knew it was a great idea, but I also knew it wouldn't suit me for a couple different reasons. So I changed a couple elements and it evolved further and further into something that is quite similar to his original idea, but quite different as well. I think you will like it, and I think Cristian will like to see how it has evolved. A brief description of his original idea will be at the end of this post.

There are three variations on the effect that follow. Don't be turned off by the first version. It requires a stooge. I'm including it here because it was my first idea as far as this plot goes and I want you to be able to track the progression through the second and third version. I'm also including it because it is a fun version to perform if you have the right person with you to pull it off. 

Version One - Swann's Way

Imagine

You're sitting at the table with two friends. We'll call one Mary and the other one Bob. 

You're on the subject of magic, or perception, or hypnosis, or the mind, or whatever. And you offer to show them something. 

"A lot of what we think of as 'magic tricks' are just demonstrations of hypnosis but reframed to seem like a trick. Watch... Bob, I'm going to show you a trick and Mary you'll see how it's all done."

You place your hand on Bob's forehead.

"Bob, I want you to close your eyes. And as I count back from three you're going to fall into a deep state of sleep: three, two, one. Okay, Bob, just keep breathing normally and remain in this deep state of sleep.  In your mind I want you to imagine descending a staircase. You go down step by step by step by step. You keep going down, deeper and deeper. You are now in a deep recess of your mind... you can think of it as a 'random' part of your brain. At the bottom of the staircase there is a card on the ground. You pick up the card and it is the four of hearts. Do you understand? The four of hearts. Now, if anyone ever says to you, 'I want you to name any card. The first one that comes to your mind at random.' You are going to say the four of hearts."

During this monologue you remove a deck of cards from its case, take the four of hearts from the face, turn it upside-down, and slide it into the middle of the deck, making it clear to Mary what is going on.

"In a moment I'm going to wake you from your sleep. You will not remember anything I just said to you. You will awake feeling rested and as if you had just shut your eyes a moment ago. You will remember none of the directions I have just given you on a conscious level. Only as I count up from three will you start to remember the things I say. One. Two. Three. Open your eyes. You are now fully awake."

"How do you feel?" you ask.

"Uhm... fine," Bob says.

"Was the process comfortable for you?" you ask.

"You mean the two seconds I had my eyes closed? Yeah, it was fine," Bob says, slightly confused.

"Okay, great. Now Bob, I have a deck of cards here. I'd like you to name any card in the deck. Just any random card you can think of. Just name the first one that pops into your mind."

"Uh... I don't know... the four of hearts."

You give Mary a knowing look. 

"Bob, before we met up today I put one card reversed in this deck. Would you be amazed if it was the four of hearts?"

He says he would be. You spread through the deck to reveal the four of hearts.

"Holy shit!" Bob says. "There is no way. That was a completely random choice. That's crazy."

You look at Mary. "You see?" She gleefully reacts to Bob's amazement. 

"That's just not possible," Bob says to himself as you put the deck back in the case.

Okay, let's pause this description. Bob, as I mentioned, is a stooge, his reactions are all phony. But do you see where we are here? It's a beautiful position because now you say, "Mary, let's try it with you so we can show Bob what happened. We won't use the four of hearts. We'll use something different."

You place your hand on Mary's forehead.

"Mary, I want you to close your eyes. And as I count back from three you're going to fall into a deep state of sleep: three, two, one."

You take a one second pause and immediately you say, "Two. Three. Open your eyes. You are now fully awake.

This will be a very strange moment for Mary. Did you really just do the same thing you did with Bob, or are you screwing around in some way? Now you're going to lay the hammer down and really screw with her mind.

"Now Mary, I have a deck of cards here. I'd like you to name any card in the deck. Just any random card you can think of. Just name the first one that pops into your mind."

She names a card and you show her that yes, that was the card you had reversed in the deck and hypnotically planted in her mind.

What I love about this:

• I love that you tell them you're going to show them a "demonstration of hypnosis but reframed to seem like a trick." When really you're showing them a trick reframed to seem like hypnosis.
• I love an explanation that is crazier than the trick itself.
• I love the feeling it gives the spectator of actually having lost a minute or so of time, in a way more concrete than any real hypnosis ever could.
• I love how much fun it is for the stooge. Most of the time a stooge is used to make you look better. But here a stooge is used to establish a false reality in which you expose a trick. And the people who have played that role have really enjoyed messing with the spectator in that way.

Five things:

1. Here's how to set this up. Take your invisible deck in your hand, oriented so the first card you'll use with your stooge is face down in the deck (the four of hearts, in this case). Spread through the deck, remove that card, and place it face up on top of the deck. So it is opposite of its normal orientation in the deck and not with its rough/smooth partner card. Put the deck in the case. When you run through the effect with the stooge you will remove the deck from the case, take the top card (4H) and apparently put it face down in a face-up deck. In reality you're putting it back in its place in the invisible deck. This is all just an act so the spectator can have some sense of what happened when her eyes are closed later on.
2. It's better if there's not a clock in direct line of sight for the spectator. You want her to not have any way of knowing how much time has truly passed.
3. Don't do anything close to a real hypnotic induction. You want it to feel like there's no way you could have really hypnotized your spectator just by counting down from three.
4. You have to make it clear you're going to be using an entirely different card. You don't want her to say the four of hearts too just because she thinks that's what was expected of her.
5. If you want to add an extra little element, you can have your stooge get a sandwich or a big glass of beer or something. Then, in the two seconds your spectator has her eyes closed, your stooge quickly and quietly discards 90% of this sandwich or chugs most of his beer. So when she opens her eyes again, there is a subtle suggestion that more time has passed. At the very least have him change his position in his chair.

Version Two: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

I love that presentation. But I wanted to be able to do it without a stooge. Not just without a stooge, but one on one with a person.

Well, you don't really need a stooge. All you need to do is establish in your spectator's mind what the baseline effect is. 

So this is how it can play out one-on-one, no stooge.

You and your spectator are talking. Perhaps you've just met. She's asking you what you do for a living or what your interests are. You throw out a bunch of jargon about psychology, influence, hypnotic suggestion—a bunch of words that might capture her attention. You tell her you study that sort of thing (as either part of your profession or a hobby).

"Would you like to see the type of stuff I do?" you ask.

She quickly says yes. Why wouldn't she? This sounds pretty interesting.

You take out your phone and show her a video. It's you and another person and you essentially have the same interaction that you do with the stooge in version 1. 

When it's over your new friend will think about what she just watched. "Hmm... that's interesting," she'll say.

"Actually," you say, searching through your bag. "I have a deck of cards here. Would you like to try that same experiment?"

In my limited experience, she will happily agree. You see, when you offered to show her what you do, she was a little excited to see something interesting. Showing her the video, instead of something in the here and now was a bit of a letdown, even if it's a somewhat interesting subject. So when you offer to do it in real life, with her as the subject, it's very intriguing.

Then you just complete the performance as in version one. 

So in this version you just need to have that video on your phone. So, I guess technically it does use a stooge. But you just need him once and you can perform this over and over.

Version Three: The Past Recaptured

This version might be my favorite. It doesn't require a stooge or a pre-recorded video on your phone.

You do need to have your phone (or something that records video), but most people have that on them at all times anyway. Other than that, all you need is an invisible deck.

What I find so delightful about this version is that the spectator plays the role of the stooge and the mark. It's almost an instant stooge trick for one person.

Here's how it works. You ask your friend if they can help you out with something.

"I'm submitting a trick to a magazine. They want to see what it looks like on video first before they know if they'll accept it. Will you be my spectator for the sake of the video?" (You could also say it's an audition video for a tv show or whatever you want.)

You then go on to tell her that you're going to need her to fake her reaction. That you're just going to pretend to hypnotize her instead of using the real hypnotic induction process you've come up with.  "If I go through the real process in the video, they'll just take it from me and not give me the credit, so I'm only going to show them part of it," you say. (Alternatively, if you say it's an audition video you could say it needs to be under 2 mins but the "real" induction technique takes 5 minutes. So you're just going to fake it for the video.)

So you stooge her and tell her what to say and do. Then you record that video.

You scan through it with her when you're done to see if it looks alright, and then you say, "Hey, can I try it with you for real?"

Now you do the second half of the trick as described in version one. She herself has taken part in establishing the false narrative of what the baseline effect is. And then she is fooled by what happens. In a way she takes part in fooling herself. It's a totally great moment.

---

You can even take this one step further. Imagine you do version three for someone, we'll call her Amanda. So you do version three for Amanda and she's completely amazed by it. Then at some point down the road, you show version two to a mutual friend (we'll call her Nicole) using Amanda's video for the first part of the effect. So Nicole sees a video of how the trick played out with Amanda (but she doesn't know it's a "fake" version). Then she gets fooled by the effect. So now if Nicole and Amanda talk they will both be like, "Oh my god. That was so weird!" And Amanda will be talking about the second go-around, non-video-recorded version. But Nicole will be assuming she's talking about the video she watched, the stooged-version that she has no idea is a stooged version. Which will reinforce with her that there really was a chunk of time lost when you performed it for her because the same thing happened to her friend and she saw the video of that encounter. (Or so she thinks.) And even if Amanda were to clarify things ("Oh, in the video I was acting. But then he did it after for real.") it wouldn't negate anything you did for either of them. 

I'm not sure if that makes sense. 

---

I want to again thank Cristian Scaramella. The original idea he sent me was to actually hypnotize someone amongst a group of friends, and to hypnotize him to name a card you had in your wallet. And that's how the group of friends would feel the trick is done. At a later date you could do some super quick, phony fake induction for a member of the group. And they would think they had been hypnotized to name a particular card when really you were just prepared to remove any card from your wallet via Kolossal Killer. I changed it up because I don't do hypnotism, I hate Kolossal Killer, and I wanted it to be more practical for my purposes. 

I can't emphasize how much fun this trick is to perform. Each version has its own benefits. It's a mixture of two of my favorite performing styles (what I define in The Jerx, Volume One as The Peek Backstage and The Romantic Adventure). And, like most of my favorite tricks, it's something that happens to and with the spectator, it's not just something that happens in front of the spectator.

As I wrote in a post a year ago...

And the trick will almost certainly be more powerful to her because she is central to the presentation and the effect, rather than just a witness to it. This is the locus of audience-centric magic. Bring them an experience that happens to them, in real time, and would not be the same without them there. "Magic is the only art form that doesn't exist without an audience," magicians are fond of saying. And then they perform for people the same way they would for a tree stump. 

450 Minutes: Thumb-Writing

I was gifted a Vernet Band Writer from a friend of mine. As far as anything in the nail-writer/thumb-writer area is concerned, this feels pretty stable and usable to me. 

I've never been really good with a thumb-writer. I'm not a total spazz, I can write a couple of digits, or make a checkmark fairly easily. Especially when I have two hands holding a stiff pad. But I think the ideal would be able to write a word or two quickly and legibly with one hand holding a business card. And then not to have to come up with some excuse why it looks so bad. "Oh, I wrote this in the middle of the night, with the lights off, and the pencil in my butthole because my hands were holding a birthday cake."

Now, the truth is I haven't really seen many professionals use a thumb/nail-writer to write full words regularly either. And on the rare cases I do, their legibility can be squarely put at "peeing your name in the snow" levels. So is it even possible to get really good at it?

If you're like me, you're willing to put practice into something, but if you don't see some signs of improvement somewhat quickly, you're likely to abandon that pursuit. With this new series, 450 Minutes, I'm going to practice something for 15 minutes a day, every day, for 30 days. I will commit to putting in the time regardless of whether I see improvement or not. Then we'll see to what extent I improved over the course of the month—if at all.

So, let's see where things stand now. Here's my one-handed thumb-writing abilities as of today, having not practiced anything more than a couple numbers or letters in many years.

This has been sped up 50% for GIF purposes. It took me 15 seconds to do that. And no, I haven't changed the name of this site to The Jeiv. I just suck. Meet me back here in a month to see if I've gotten any better.

What's my plan? Well, I bought one of these books and I'm going to work my way through it as if I was first learning to write.

That seems like a logical first step. Then I'll just use a random word generator to shoot words out at me and I'll attempt writing them, hopefully getting a little smoother over time. I've been playing the long con with my thumb-writing game because my normal handwriting is already pretty shitty, so I don't have to worry too much about being overly neat.

See you in a month.

Well... I'll see you before that. But I mean I'll check back with you on this particular subject in a month.

Handling Hecklers The Jerx Way

I hope everyone is having fun at Magic LIVE. I was asked to speak there but had another engagement. Here is part of the lecture I would have given.

How to Deftly Handle Hecklers The Jerx Way

"Thank you. Thank you. Please, please, stop your thunderous applause. Please. I only have 15 minutes. Thank you. Thank you.

Wow. What a great crowd we have here tonight. I see Joshua Jay in the audience. And there's David Penn. And here we have Jeff McBride. Incredible. For magicians, this place is a real Who's Who of the industry. For non-magicians, this place is a real Who's That of the industry. No, no. I kid, I kid. But seriously, how does it feel that Rick Lax has 50 million more hits on his latest Facebook video than you've had on all your social media combined?

And here's a transcript of his video:

I want you to think of a common four-legged house-pet. Like a cat. But not a cat, because I just said that. Lock in your answer by hitting the like button. (Don't question the technology, that's just how it works.) Are you thinking of a dog? KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD!

That guy is more famous than you. That, I'm afraid, is a scientific fact. 

But I tease you because I love you. 

Today I'd like to talk about a subject that's very important to magicians, if the number of times it has been brought up on the Magic Cafe is any evidence. And that is the question of how to handle hecklers. 

Ma'am, would you assist me and heckle me as I perform this next trick? This will help me demonstrate The Jerx Way to deal with hecklers. Just let me get a line or two into the performance.

Say there, do you know how a deck of cards is like a calendar? Well, it's not really, but it's the only premise I've got-

[Woman] Boo. You aren't very good.

FUCK OFF, YOU UGLY CUNT! 

You see what I did there? I took control of the situation and I demonstrated that my position is one of higher value. It's subtle, but it works.

Let's try it again. Sir, would you help me out and play a heckler? Just say something like, 'I know how this one is done.'

[Man] I know how this one is done.

You know... it seems like you really like opening that mouth of yours. You open it again and I'm going to fill it with something. You hear me? It's rock hard and 8 inches long. It's either going to be my cock, or the barrel of my Colt Python .357 Magnum? Got it? It's your choice. Either way you're getting a hot load down your throat if you don't keep your mouth shut, you fucking inbred.

Now this is the type of line that's really going to make your heckler think. And if you can get them to really contemplate your art they will be much less likely to demean it with rude comments.

One last time. Sir, would you just say, 'It's in your other hand.'

[Man] It's in your other hand.

OKAY, THAT'S IT, YOU COCKSUCKING PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE! Ring-Ring! Ring-Ring! [mime answering a phone] 'Hello? Who's this?' Oh, it's my ballsack calling. 'Yes? Okay, I'll tell him.' It says you better be ready to straight gargle my nuts if you can't keep your trap shut for another 10 minutes while I do my show. Do we have an understanding? For your sake you better keep that mouth shut tight. If you make any sound—if you so much as hiccup—you better lock your doors tonight, motherfucker, because I will give up magic, and my new hobby will be hunting you down, tying each of your buttcheeks to a clydesdale like the jeans in the fucking Levi's logo, and having them pull your asshole apart until I can fit my skull in there. Then I'll wear you around on my head like you're a goddamn Kentucky Derby hat, so everyone can see what happens to people who interrupt my show.

A line like this will have people say, "Gee... I thought I was helping the show with my interjections, but... what if I'm not?" And isn't that the insight we hope they walk away with?

That's all my time. Thank you for your attention. You've been a great audience. And remember, with MAGIC Magazine shutting down, and Genii moving all of its content distribution to Snapchat, The Jerx is your #1 source for articles about the important issues that face todays performer. Read it every day as part of a complete breakfast."

The Invisible Deck

I am going to be off-the-grid for most of this week. I have a couple shorter posts that will pop up later this week, including the first in a new series called 450 Minutes. I may be a little slower responding to emails as well. But still please send me any gossip from Magic Live.

On Friday I will be posting the Jerx Invisible Deck routine. This is brand new and has already undergone three big evolutionary stages just in the past few days. I want to perform it in its current state a few more times before I write it up, but I think those of you who enjoy my routines will really like it. It's not just a different presentation really, it puts the effect in a very different context and makes it a very unreal experience for the spectator.

You'll see on Friday.

---

Some of my favorite variations on the Invisible Deck are:

The X Deck by Jay Sankey - A simple little addition to the ID which negates the idea of sleight of hand.

The Inevitable by Mark Elsdon - A nice way to extend the trick and make the "moment" in the ID seemingly grander. (Even though it's ultimately the same trick, it seems much more amazing.)

Shake, Shuffle and Twist by Steve Bedwell - I was much younger when I first saw this and wasn't really cognizant of the idea of using an Invisible Deck in a way other than the standard way, so I was fooled by it. Sadly, I don't know where this is available anymore.

---

I was looking up the Invisible Deck on wikipedia and it says, 

"Joe Berg created the Invisible Deck in the 1930s, originally calling it the Ultra Mental Deck. It was Eddie Fields who came up with the invisible presentation after watching a patient in a psychiatric unit of a hospital shuffling an imaginary deck of cards."

That seems too good to be true. And, as I mentioned to someone recently, miming an overhand shuffle looks identical to miming cupping the balls and stroking a huge shaft, so maybe that's what the guy in the psychiatric unit was doing.

I do think it's a pretty interesting and slightly creepy idea. It might make a good halloween presentation. I'm a fan of those types of things.

You could tell the story of Eddie Fields and how he was in a psychiatric unit and saw a guy shuffling an invisible deck of cards. Then you have the spectator play the part of the crazy person and you play Eddie Fields. "And Eddie wanted to engage the patient so he asked him what card was now on top of the deck and the patient said...." Here you wait for your spectator to name one. "And Eddie said, 'Oh, the seven clubs, is that so?' And he mimed taking the card and looking at it. He was just playing along and said, 'Yup, that's the seven clubs, you're right.' And he put the card back in the 'deck' but the patient started flipping out and cursing him out. He said Eddie was 'ruining the deck' because he put the card in upside down and he better fix it. Eddie went to take the non-existent deck back to 'fix' it and the patient was like, 'What are you doing? Are you out of your fucking mind? There's no deck there. The deck is over there.' And he pointed to a table across the room where there was a deck of cards on the table." Matching your actions to the story you're telling, you point across the room to a deck of cards on the table in real life. You walk over to deck, uncase it, and continue your story. "As he spread through the deck he found one card turned the other way. The seven of clubs. Just like that crazy fucking lunatic [here you point to your spectator] had said."

Magic Words

As I mentioned on Monday, I will occasionally be posting on the weekend in the future and these posts will be non-magic related, similar to the stuff I was writing during The Splooge days of this site.

Today I'm going to offer you some magic words.

I travel a lot so I spend a lot of time in hotels, restaurants, and on various means of transportation. I'm fairly low-maintenance so I don't like to spend a ton of money on these sorts of things. I do appreciate a really good meal, a nice room, or better travel accommodations, I just don't care enough about them to pay for them. I've read articles about ways to "socially engineer" your way into upgrades on these sorts of things and the advice is usually ridiculous or obvious. How do you get the best available room when you check in at a hotel? Smile when you approach the front desk, the articles say. Gee, thanks! I never would have thought of that. I've been scowling and hammering that little bell on the desk and screaming, "Where you at, cocksucker?!"

You can try to be funny or charming, but you never know how that is going to be received. The person might not find words like "cocksucker" funny. Or they might think you're hitting on them or something weird. 

I've found one line to work well in numerous situations. It works well with men and women, fun people and humorless people, regardless of if they're having a good or bad day. It's a line to use whenever you're asked for your preference in regards to something you don't have a particular preference on. I stumbled across it accidentally one day when I was checking into a hotel.

The girl behind the counter said, "And what floor would you like to be on? The first floor or a higher floor?"

And I said, "Hmmm... you know, I think I trust your judgment on this. Just put me in whatever room you would want yourself."

"Well, I would want to stay in one of our one-bedroom suites," she said. 

"Perfect," I said. And with that I got a $500 a night room for the $82 I paid on Priceline. 

That was the most extreme example, but I've since used variations on that statement with other hotel desk clerks, concierges, chefs, and travel staff and have had similarly good results with it. 

The other night I went out to dinner with four friends. The chef/owner greeted us at the restaurant and asked what we were considering for dinner. I said, "Hmmm... you know, I think I trust your judgment on this. Can you just bring me whatever your favorite is?" My friends agreed with this and we ended up getting a five course meal for about $20 a piece, which was 50% less than a single entree would have been.

Why does this work so well? Well, I guess it's probably obvious, but if someone was to say they trusted your judgment and then ask you to choose the best whatever for them, I think it's human nature to give that person the best you have to offer. You don't want to put someone in a shitty room with a window that faces an alleyway after they asked you for the room you would want for yourself. It would reflect poorly on you. 

I think it also helps that it's not just some line I give. For me it's true. I do trust the judgment of the person who works there to know what's best. 

You might think this is no different than asking for someone's recommendation. "What room do I want? Well, what do you recommend?" "What seat do I want on the plane? Well, what do you recommend?" The difference is that they hear that said to them all day everyday, so it carries significantly less weight. And also, a recommendation isn't binding. "You recommend the Tiramisu? Hmmm... actually I'll go with the chocolate cake." But when you give your power over to someone—when your attitude is, "I couldn't possibly know better than you. Just choose for me."—I think people take that as a sign of some respect and then want to do well by you. I mean, it's annoying when you're with a friend and they foist the decision making onto you. But this is a different situation. They're supposed to be the expert. And people in the service industry are often in a position where they're treated like shit, so showing some deference is probably an attitude they appreciate. Well, it's worked for me, at least. (To be fair, I'm super delightful and charming by nature. You on the other hand....)

Thinking Big and Small

If you could do any trick in the world, what would it be? Put aside the method for a moment. Just think of what would be the best trick that doesn't yet exist. 

For those of you who have ordered the book you're going to read about the greatest trick ever performed. It's the epilogue to the book, and I say it's the greatest trick ever performed without any hyperbole or my usual faux-pomposity (that's based on genuine pomposity) at all. It's legitimately the best magic trick ever performed. And it all started a year ago today with this post. I didn't end up following the timetable I had originally planned but it ended up working out better than I hoped.

But let's drop that for now and get back to the question... what's an effect you would do if you could do anything?

I had an idea for a trick where a spectator would think of someone, living or dead, who they were not on good terms with, but they wished they were (or had been). They would carve that person's name on a log and that log would be tossed on a fire in the fireplace. As the log burned, a teakettle with water in it would be placed over the fire until the water was hot, but not boiling. As the water heated up, they could choose to tell me about this person or not.

When the water was hot I'd take it off the fire and let it cool a moment. I'd also bring out a wine glass and a sharpie and have my spectator draw a line anywhere she wanted, horizontally, on the wine glass. Then I'd pour the water into the wine glass to the rim. I'd have my spectator take a sip and then I'd have her make the wine glass sing (or if she didn't know how, I'd do it for her).

I'd have her drink a little more water and then make the glass sing again. And I'd have her note how the pitch changed. 

Then I'd have her drink down to the line she had marked on the glass. And, again, make her glass sing. This time the squeal of the glass would swell and transform into the voice of the person whose name she carved into the log. The voice would say, "I love you," or "I miss you," or "I forgive you," or whatever was appropriate.

---

Another trick I'd like to do is give my spectator a hand mirror and ask her to look into it and identify something on her face that she considers a flaw. 

Then I'd say, "I will make that flaw disappear."

Then I'd hand her a pair of plastic vampire teeth and have her put them in her mouth.

When she looks in the mirror again, the flaw is gone. Everything is gone. Like all vampires she no longer casts a reflection.

---

I'd like to do a version of the bill switch where the bill changes into a statement from their bank or creditor saying that their largest loan or credit card has been paid off. And when they check their account online they find it's true.

I have a friend who actually performed this once. He's not a magician but I taught him the bill switch so he could do it. He paid off his girlfriend's $22,000 in student loans. Not a huge amount compared to what other people have to pay in student loans, but still a significant amount, and an amount that she felt was overwhelming. Neither of them were well off. He raised the money by selling a bunch of his possessions, including his motorcycle, and working a part-time job at night without her knowing for almost 6 months (she, too, worked at night and assumed he was home sleeping). 

At a small gathering for her birthday he told her he couldn't afford to get her a real present so he learned a magic trick for her instead. He borrowed a dollar from her and asked what she'd like him to turn it into. She said she wanted him to turn it into a $100 bill. He folded the bill and unfolded it revealing a statement from her student loan provider saying the loan was paid off.

Later that night he proposed to her with a $200 ring with a tiny sliver of diamond. It was some good magic.

My ideal trick would be to do the bill change to loan payment statement, but to be able to do it impromptu for a stranger.

---

I'm thinking about this because recently the question was asked on the Cafe what the greatest trick was that hadn't been invented yet.

And, in a hilariously typical example of magician creativity, do you know what the answers are up the point of this writing?

• You predict a playing card the spectator names.
• You make a coin disappear.
• Any Card at Any Number

(Oh, and one dude wants to throw a pitcher of water in the air and have the water stop in mid air. I give him credit for at least naming something that doesn't exist yet, but that still seems to be thinking kind of small and arbitrary. I think it would be much cooler to pull out your dong, point it to the heavens, unleash a blast of urine and have it freeze in mid arc. Claim it's part of some sick fetish where you love getting peed on, but not with someone else's urine. Ew gross. What are you, some kind of animal? So you just do this. Freeze the stream. Go lay under it. Unfreeze it.)

I think it's telling that when given complete creative freedom to come up with a trick, what we have is three standard magic effects. That was the best they could do. Oh, they put some constraints on the effects to make them impossible, but they still just chose dumb, boring magic tricks when they could have said anything. 

It would be like if I said you could design your ideal sex robot. She would look and feel exactly like a real woman. Someone famous, or your high school girlfriend, or whatever you want. And you said, "Oh wow... anyone? Hmmm. Like a celebrity? Anyone at all? Could I take one woman's face and put it on another's body? I can? Completely mix and match however I want? Or just create a dream girl from my imagination? However I want to do it? Hmmm... okay... think think think.... Oh! I know what I want her to look like! My wife in her prettiest dress." It's like, come on, dude, you can barely tolerate that slob of a wife.

The argument will be that they were trying to come up with realistic tricks that hadn't been invented yet. But that's not what was going on. They were coming up with magician-centric tricks that hadn't been invented yet. You can tell this because they're naming constraints that only a magician would put that much weight on. The difference between a normal ACAAN, and the one described in that thread is marginal at best and would get only a slightly better reaction. The coin vanish described would be on par with using a Raven. Hell, with a Raven they see it vanish. And the card trick described (spec names a card, it's the one on their hand) is something we can get very close to 1000 different ways. That's the "greatest" trick that hasn't been invented yet? Hell, there are a couple dozen effects on this blog that will get a significantly better reaction than that.

Magic doesn't need us to come up with some more rational and reasonable ideas for effects. We've got plenty. I'm not saying the guys in that thread are uncreative, but magic has a tendency to have you thinking along certain lines. (I mean, at the very least, isn't it a better trick if you put a baseball card in someone's hand and it turns out to to be whatever player from history they're thinking of?)

You might say the ideas I mention at the top of this post aren't possible and that's true enough, but it doesn't mean they're fruitless to think about. All those ideas have lead to other effects that are doable.

It's in its early stages but I have a very rough version of an effect where a wine glass plays a mentally selected song, and it started with me thinking about the effect mentioned at the top.

Working on the vampire effect led directly to the idea behind the Jerx App which the book buyers are getting, and the effects possible with that thing are insane. With the functionality that will be added to the Jerx app upon the release of the book you will have the ability to:

• have concrete evidence that you were able to hypnotize someone or cause selective amnesia in them
• press on someone's head in such a way that their reading comprehension goes to a 2nd grade level
• convince people you've implanted false memories in their head
• have spectators read each other's minds and not know how they did it
• have one spectator unknowingly instant stooge another spectator without the second one ever realizing he's been stooged or the first one ever realizing they played a part in the stooging (wrap your head around that)

And all this came out of trying to come up with a way for a spectator not to see their reflection.

If you're a creative type, please think big. For my sake. I don't have a Jerx blog that I get to read. (Well, I have this one, but I had to write the goddamn thing.) I want more cool ideas to read and think about. Come up with crazy shit. Even if you only get 10% of the way there, the idea is bound to be better than a card prediction, or another ACAAN, or another version of that trick where you slide a card through a folded card or dollar. (That effect is covered guys. We got it. Thanks. Let's move on to something else.)

Multiocular

I got a lot of nice feedback on All Seeing Eye of the Beholder (read that post first if you haven't, or this one won't make sense) but very few can perform it due to the unavailability of Biokinesis, as well as—let's face it—the questionable wisdom of doing Biokinesis in the first place. A lot of people get a little squeamish when it comes to fucking around with their eyes for some reason. Chill out, people. That's why god gave you two eyes, ya pussy, so you can screw one up via an ill-conceived magic trick.

I think it's worth investing time to look for variations on Dan's structure because there are a couple aspects of his handling that are sort-of unique compared to other glimpses and perhaps worthy of capitalizing on. The first is that you get a full glimpse of the drawing (or word/whatever) for as long as you want, allowing you to take in all sorts of details. To be able to not just say, "You drew a boat," but to then be able to describe the number of lines used, the number of waves, the angle of the sail, all of these things make it seem like you're actually viewing the image in that moment rather than just having "glimpsed" it at some point along the way.

The other quality of Dan's handling that it might be worth taking advantage of is that the billet that goes into their hand can change when it is removed. Now, in general, this is probably not a good idea, as it points to the method somewhat. But, if you have a really strong visual moment (like your eyeball changing color, or the one in Variation 1 below) I think the card changing can be seen as another part of the whole effect, and not a hint towards the method (assuming the change of the card is tied to the visual moment).

Both variations below are slightly more intense than your standard drawing or word reveal. But the great thing about amateur magic is you usually know your audience and know when you can push the envelope a little.

Variation 1

I haven't done this version myself, but I think it's workable.

This starts off the same: they hold a picture in their hand, you place another picture of a red eye in their hands as well. Then you kind of stare off into the void. After a moment you start describing the drawing, but you act like this is hurting your eye in some way so you rush through it but get in as much detail as you can. Finally, when you can't stand it anymore, you reach up to your eye, with an empty hand, start rubbing around it a little, then a stream of red liquid comes shooting out of your eye, splashing onto the wall or floor or your spectator. When the eye card is removed from their hand, the red color has drained from it as well (don't bring it back as in the original ASEotB). The implication here is that somehow via this strange ritual the red of the All Seeing Eye absorbed the essence of their image and then via some ethereal osmosis you were able to soak up that red into your actual eye so you could tell them what was drawn on the paper. But then you had to expel it out. 

The method? Does anyone remember this gimmick? That's all there is to it. You'll just have to load it with something that isn't going to blind you when you, invariably, shoot it right back into your eye like an idiot. I'm not quite sure what that would be, but I'd probably start my search with something like thinned out Kryolan eye blood or something like that.

Variation 2

This is similar to something I have done for a long time, but not with Dan's handling, although I think the ideas work very well together. Your spectator draws something and holds it in their hand. You draw a stick man on a separate business card and say that this will serve as your avatar. "I know it seems a little hokey, but there's a little more to it than just this." Then you take out a diabetic testing lancet, poke your finger, and smear the blood on your stick man. You take a moment to "align yourself" with your avatar, then you place the card in your spectator's hands. 

It's probably a good idea to go sit in a chair at this point. Slow your breathing. "Something's going to happen in a moment. Don't worry. Everything is fine. Keep your hands tightly closed. If I'm not back in five minutes then you can call-" Immediately your body slumps and you slide out of the chair to a pile on the ground, as if your "essence" has left your body. After 30 seconds to a minute, start to "come to" and get up and stretch your limbs. "Dammit that hurts," you say. Then you begin to describe their drawing to the tiniest detail. As if... what exactly?... your consciousness left your body and was projected into your avatar in the spectator's hands? I don't know. I just know as a bit of theater it's more intriguing than "Project your word letter by letter onto a blank screen in your mind." If you're going to do something bogus, why not do something intriguingly bogus rather than some mental spelling test?

Diabetic testing lancets are like 5-10 bucks. I think every magician should have one. There is something unsettlingly interesting about using your blood in an effect, and this is a painless way to obtain some. I'm a big fan of bodily fluids in magic. Well, spit and blood, at least. Hell, I'd consider other ones too. It gives things a little witchcraft-y/medieval element which can be an interesting break from more traditional presentations. No, it's not something you'd do professionally. And you wouldn't do it for the boys when you're showing them your new gambling routine. But for the right audience it works. Just last weekend I was showing something to my younger female cousin and her teenage friends. At one point we all spit in the palm of our hands and piled our hands on top of one another as part of an effect. It was gross, and they were all squeamish about it, but uncontrollably laughing the whole time as well. 

In general I don't explain too much with this sort of presentation. I don't turn it into some long storytelling bizarre magick type thing. It's all just a part of the process. Let them fill in the blanks. 

(And please don't email me to lecture me about hygiene and safety. I try to write as if my audience is full of reasonably intelligent people. Yes, don't do anything where your blood is coming in direct contact with others. If you have hepatitis B or something, don't go spreading your blood around people. Don't cum on objects your audience is handling. You know this stuff.)