Season Two Status

See details on Season Two and The Jerx Monthly and sign up if you're interested at the post below. I will update this chart from time to time when it's warranted.

For those who have asked via email when I think the site will return, I genuinely don't know. I think most of the people who are into this site have already signed up, so what remains will trickle in over time, probably as new people find the site.  It could be a while. You have to realize that the number of people who are interested in looking at the pursuit of magic from this perspective is tiny. While this site has a good sized readership for a site of this nature, it's mostly casual fans. I'd put the passionate fans at about 12%. 

But why would anyone expect it to be any higher? A site about magic that has an underlying ethos of taking the focus off the performer? It barely makes sense when you consider the reason most people get into magic. It would be like having a blog of vegan recipes where I promoted the vegan lifestyle so that we could be healthy enough to chase down animals on foot and slit their throats. 

I've been putting the additional time I've had from this hiatus to good use. First, I've been refining some routines that I'm pretty excited about. And second, I've been working on some test layouts for The Jerx Monthly, which will be the pdf magazine of reviews and tricks/ideas that will go to the people who sign on to sponsor year two. My stylistic inspiration for the magazine is not Genii or MAGIC or any classic magic magazine. It's actually an old magazine called Secrets. It may not influence all the content, but at the very least I'm thinking of doing the covers and maybe a feature article in this style.

Coming Soon!

(possibly, or coming eventually, or coming never)

The Jerx, Season Two: Young Reckless Hearts

The Jerx Monthly

The Jerx Premium Playing Cards

My original funding plan for season two of The Jerx was to offer no bonuses and just let the people who wanted to support give and—if there were enough of them—I would keep going with the site.

I've had a change of heart after discussing this plan with a friend of mine who reminded me, "Andy, you don't like the people who freeload off the site. Why would you offer them the same experience as those who support it?"

And yeah! He's right! I hate those bums!

I had been caught up with the idea that to provide "bonuses" would require more time, and time is the commodity I don't have. 

Then I realized the stupidly simple solution to the issue. Instead of offering 5 posts a week on this site, I will hold back my favorite post or two each week and instead include that in a new project The Jerx Monthly.

What is the Jerx Monthly? Well... it's like the Jerx... but... monthly.

It's going to be a PDF magazine of, probably, 20ish pages of all original material (it won't reprint anything from the blog). It will be the best of the tricks that had been slotted for season two of this site, plus the sorts of new product reviews I had done in X-Communication, plus the Jerx Centerfold.

This is, I think, a better deal for everyone. It's certainly better for me because it allows me more flexibility. Instead of five posts a week on this site, there will be three posts a week, and then four reviews and four tricks/essays in the magazine. It's the same amount of content but now the best content is being saved for supporters of the site. 

Why not just put it all in a magazine? Well, because some stuff is more appropriate for a blog and some stuff is more timeless and makes more sense as a magazine article.

In addition, those who keep their monthly donation active throughout year two will receive the limited edition Jerx Deck. This is an idea I've had for a couple years. It does one really stupid thing that is funny to me. You'll see.

So here are the perks for Jerx Season Two supporters

• The knowledge that you're keeping this site going. And my appreciation for your support. (Value: $6.00) 
• A subscription to The Jerx Monthly - 240 pages of original content over the course of the year.
• The first Jerx Deck. A hyper limited-edition deck of playing cards. The cost of the deck and shipping are covered in the $10/month donation.
• This may not mean anything but you'll have priority email contact with me. I'll white-list your email address. One of the big timesinks of this site is the time spent going back and forth over email. I genuinely enjoy communicating with people about the site, but it sucks up a huge amount of time. So now only supporter's emails will come through immediately. Everything else will go to a folder that I'll check every week or so as time permits.  

So when does this start? 

Well, it's not definitely going to happen. Here's the situation. If and when we reach 100% funding, this site will start back up and the Jerx Monthly will start arriving soon after. I will update the chart below that shows the funding percentage on a regular basis.

(If you signed up but didn't respond to the verification email, I have no idea that you signed up so make sure to check your email and confirm your subscription to the list of supporters.)

And let me say a huge and genuine thanks to those of you who signed up to support season 2 at a time when you were offered nothing more for your support beyond the continuation of the site itself. That's truly appreciated. 

If you haven't signed up yet and you're interested in another year of this site and the bonuses that come with funding season 2, sign up below. Thanks.

I'm in for $10/month to support season 2, subscribe to The Jerx Monthly, and receive the Jerx Deck

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Peruggia

This is a variation on Larry Becker's Sneak Thief routine which I was introduced to via Andy Nyman's Magician's Graphology effect. 

I'm going to dance around some of the details of the method, but that's because I don't see this site as a place for beginners to learn methods. I'm writing for magicians with a pretty healthy understanding of magic techniques and what I write below will either be clear to you, or it will set you off in the right direction to track down further work on it. 

The Sneak Thief effect is this: You hand out four business cards (in this handling) and ask four people to draw something on a card while your back is turned. The cards are mixed up face-down. You take them back and turn them over one-by-one and you're able to identify who drew each picture. With the last picture (since it's obvious who drew it) you instead reproduce that picture without ever having looked at it (apparently).

The peek in Sneak Thief is one of my favorites. It's bold but you'll never get caught doing it.

However, I've found there to be a fairly significant issue with the Sneak Thief routine. While you won't get caught during the moment you peek the final drawing, there is nothing to add to the spectator's conviction that you didn't just peek the drawing at some other point while you were handling the cards. Magicians and mentalists get caught up in the success of the peek. "They didn't call me out on looking at the drawing when I was doing it right in front of them!" But just because people don't catch you doing the peek in the moment, that doesn't mean they don't assume that's how you did it.

Peruggia is the Sneak Thief routine perfected for close-up. The conviction level that you never saw the final drawing at any point is incredibly high because that drawing never leaves the spectator's hands.

Here's the method. You hand out four business cards that are marked in some way, nail-nicks, pencil-dots, whatever. You just need to know whose is whose when they're returned to you. 

You turn away or leave the room and ask everyone to draw a simple picture on the back of their cards. You then ask one person to gather up all the pictures and mix them drawing side down so no one knows which is which.

You turn around or return to the table and tell the spectator to give the cards one last mix and deal three of them into your palm up right hand (or whatever your dominant hand is). Ask them to place the last card on their right hand (you demonstrate with your cards that they should place it the long way, along the palm). You want to be opposite of the person who ends up holding onto the last card.

You now turn over the top card of your stack and you display the drawing to everyone to look at. During this time you will get your peek of the bottom drawing, as per the original Sneak Thief routine. Because of the markings you will know who this first drawing belongs to. Do your psychic reading of the person who drew it, or get your psychological impression or whatever the case may be. Then finish by identifying the person who drew it. 

At some point during this process you need to move the bottom card to the center of the pack. This is not a secret sleight, just something that happens as you're holding the cards. Don't even look or pay attention to it. If someone notices it, you're just absent-mindedly mixing the cards.

You now hold the stack of drawings at your right fingertips. The first drawing you looked at is facing up, the other two are face down beneath it. You are now going to do a variation on John Bannon's Assisted Switch with the card the spectator still holds. This is a more advanced version, but you're free to do it as Bannon describes it in Smoke and Mirrors if you're more comfortable that way. (You just have to justify how they hold the cards in that one.)

Essentially what you're going to do is the second step of an Elmsley count, but into their hand.

Here it is broken down step by step.

1. You bring both your hands towards the spectator.

2. You say, "I'm going to have you take this card too."

3. Your left hand takes her right hand and pulls it gently and slightly towards you. Your fingers are below her hand and your thumb is on top, pressing down on the left side of the face-down business card and raising the right side a little bit.

4. You apparently thumb off the picture you just looked at into her hand, but actually you execute the Assisted Switch. Your left thumb levers up the right side of the card which will give you the maneuverability you need.

Here's what that all looks like. (I'm demonstrating with playing cards for clarity, but it's actually easier with business cards, as long as your business cards will slide against each other.)

Believe it or not, it's not that much more difficult to do this switch than it is to do the beginning of an Elmsley count without the spectator's hand under the card.

At this point you may or may not want to ask the spectator to sandwich the cards between her hand, "so no one can get to them." Or whatever. 

So you've switched in a drawing that they don't even know you've seen yet, for one that was in their hand from the start, without it ever seemingly having left their hand. You are incredibly far ahead. In fact, you're done, method-wise.

Reveal who drew the other two drawings. And after you do each one, place it cleanly between the spectator's hands with the other cards.

Now you can reveal the last person's drawing directly, but that's not how I do it. I want to both exceed their expectations and justify why I gave back all the drawings to the one person, so here's what I do.

I say, "Obviously, that last drawing between her hands is yours [indicating whoever drew it]. So let's try something a little different." I turn away and ask them to turn all the drawings face down and mix them all up and place them in a row on the table. 

I turn back, take the hand of the person who did the last drawing and move it back and forth along the row of business cards. I know which one is hers because of the markings and after a few moments I lower her hand flat onto one drawing and place my hand on top of hers so she can't lift it. Then I quickly turn over the other three drawings showing that I was able to locate hers. This no-stakes Russian Roulette actually gets a decent reaction and seems like the end of the trick. 

I say to her, "You're the only one who knows what's on the other side of this card beneath our hands, correct?" I look to the other participants to get their agreement. Then I look to the person who held the cards during the first section of the effect. "You don't even know what's on the other side, and you had it between your hands the whole time." (This assumes the person whose drawing it is isn't the person who was holding the cards earlier.)

Then I just finish by describing the drawing in a manner that's in keeping with whatever presentation I was using earlier in the effect. 

Callbacks

Here are some updates to a couple favorite effects from earlier this year. 

In Search of Lost Time

ISOLT is a handling for the Invisible Deck that is less about the effect of the ID, and more about using it as evidence for a lost period of time while your spectator is, apparently, "hypnotized."

That original post has three versions of the effect. This is a variation of Version Two: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.

Here's how it works. You need an Invisible Deck. You're talking with your friend about one of the weirdest methods you've ever heard for a magic trick. "The interesting thing is there really is no method. It's based on these tests they were doing at Stanford University."

You then show them the video at this link (which is also embedded below). 

The video shows a woman undergoing a hypnotic induction. You don't need to watch the whole thing straight through. You can jump ahead, but just make sure the spectator understands what's going on.

Watch the beginning of the video, up until the woman starts the mental journey down the staircase. 

Jump forward to about 1:30. The experimenter is telling her a card to think of. A card she should name if ever asked for a "random" card. You say, "See, look what he's doing here. He's telling her what card to name in the future."

The experimenter tells her she will forget these instructions on a conscious level. Then he "wakes" her, asks her to name a "random" card and shows her that card has been reversed in the deck before they started. You narrate along with what's happening so it's clear to your spectator. 

"So he's just told her what card to name, but she doesn't remember any of this. So this is the first time she's hearing about a card as far as she knows. Now she's seeing this as some kind of card trick, but really she's just naming the card he told her to name."

"It's one of the strangest methods I've ever heard of. It doesn't use sleight-of-hand or psychology to predict what she'll name. You just tell them what to say and then make them forget you told them. Voila! Can I try it with you? Not with the four of hearts, but some other card."

Once they agree, have them lower their hand and close their eyes, like in the video.

"In a moment I'm going to relax you more completely."

[Pause 5 seconds.]

"You are fully awake. Open your eyes."

I find it helps to place your hand on their shoulder or something to make it clear it's "over" because, from their perspective (i.e., reality) you haven't started yet.

"Do you remember?" you ask with a smile. "No? Okay, okay. Let's try it out. Go ahead. Name a random playing card."

They won't believe you at first, of course. They'll think you're just fucking around. It's when you show them the card they freely named is the one that is reversed in the deck that they really begin to question what the hell really happened. 

Bookmark the video URL on your phone and you have a really strange 8 minute experience for someone whenever you have your invisible deck.

---

In, A Big Concept and a Little Idea, the "Little Idea" was a universal meta-presentation for Tenyo tricks. This idea has developed a bit of a following and I hear from a lot of people who have been using it or something similar. I understand why it's (relatively) popular. It leverages the "weakness" of the toy-ish-ness of Tenyo effects into a strength, but it does so in a much more interesting way then just saying it was the first trick you ever got, or something like that. (I find people want to be fooled by the first magic trick you got as much as they want to be stumped by the first math problem you ever attempted. Which is to say, not at all.)

Working through the trick with the spectator, and being fooled with the spectator is a particularly enjoyable magical experience for everyone involved, I've found.

In this file you will find a pdf to print off instruction cards for the trick Crystal Cleaver. Print them on the Avery business card sheets, front and back. These sheets are made so you can pop the cards out when you're done printing. It's fun. Pop pop pop.

Some things to remember:

1. This is supposed to be your first time seeing this stuff, so act like it. Don't be too familiar with it.

2. The instructions are intentionally not overly-clear. Look to your spectator to help you figure things out. "Crystal box?" you say. "I guess they mean this one, right? That would make this one the 'mystery box.' I guess."

3. If you want to use the spectator's ring, just don't include the other ring in with your package. The imperfect English of the instructions allow for the idea that you're supposed to use either a borrowed ring or the ring that's included with the effect.

4. If you really want to play up the weird backstory, when you're done with trick say, "We have to go take this and throw it off a bridge or I won't get next year's package."

I's Gots Talent

If anyone is going on America's Got Talent next year, here's a routine for you to use on your first appearance.

Your introductory video plays. You're overweight, your hair is a mess, you have thick glasses. A blotted cranberry sauce stain runs across your shirt. 

"My parents always said I'm a dreamer," you say in voice-over. "I know I'm not a hollywood pretty-boy fancy-guy. But don't judge a book by its cover." Your words are slurred. Not like a drunk, but like someone who was kicked in the head by a donkey.

We see a clip of you stumbling down the sidewalk, waving to an elderly woman on her porch. "Hi, Miss Lucy!" Under your left arm is a picture of a dog, and in your left hand is a small urn. 

Again in voice-over: "I carry my dog Roscoe everywhere I go. If you look up 'friend' in the dictionary, you'll find old Roscoe. He died in 2012 and I'm still putting the pieces back together. And I think part of that journey means finally following my dream."

You step out on stage. You exchange some uncomfortable small-talk with Simon. Your shirt has a couple more stains on it. You set the urn and the picture of Roscoe on the floor. "So what is this dream you want to follow?" Simon asks.

"I want to sing opera," you say.

The crowd titters. Simon gives a look to the other judges. There's a close-up of a girl in the crowd covering her laughter and pointing at you. Inspirational orchestra music swells in the background. "Yeah, I get it," you say. "I know I may not look the part. Maybe you think I'm a dreamer, like my parents do. But the one thing you have to remember is this..."

The orchestral soundtrack hits a crescendo, then falls away to silence.

"In the end... dreams come true," you say. Some in the audience applaud. Howie and Simon glance at each other as if to say, "Let's see what the kid's got."

The entire theater falls silent as you step up to the mic and begin to sing. It comes out like this:

In quick succession, three of the judges give you the red X. The last holdout, Heidi Klum, gives you the X once it's clear you've changed the words to the second verse to suggest that you were masturbating in the tub.

Nick Cannon joins you on stage. "Is that good or bad?" you ask. "Did I win. I won?" you scream, your eyes getting big.

"No, no," Nick says. "You've been eliminated."

"Eliminated through to the next round?"

"What? No." Nick says. "Your journey is over."

"Oh... I see. I see. Simon, can I ask you a question? And don't pull any punches. How would you describe my performance in one word."

"In one word?" Simon asks. "Ghastly."

"Fair enough. Fair enough. I get it. I'm not Mr. Handsome. I'm not some... Carson Daly or something so I'm not good enough for the show. This is so predictable. Who X'd me first? Who did it? Who was so threatened by me?"

"I did," Simon says.

"Right, you couldn't handle it. Mr. Big Shot is afraid of my star power. And then you were next, right, Mel B? Because you just follow what Simon does. Then Howie. And then, last of all, Heidi. Ok. Cool. Cool cool cool. So predictable," you say in disgust.

"So predictable."

"In fact," your slurring stops and your voice transforms to adopt a refined British accent, "I predicted it all earlier today."

You unzip your fat suit and step out of it wearing tuxedo pants and a dress shirt. Nick Cannon hands you your jacket. You remove your glasses and pull off your grungy wig to reveal a slicked back head of hair. And then you peel off your fake bushy mustache, uncovering a tight well-groomed mustache underneath. You straighten your ascot. The audience is flipping their shit.

You're the picture of sophistication. You look like the guy from the cover of the John Booth book, "Extending Magic Beyond Credibility."

Nick puts his hand on yours before you can light your cigarette. "We can't smoke here?" you ask, incredulously.

"As I was saying, so predictable. First Simon, then Mel, then Howie, then Heidi. Please, lift your Dunkin' Donuts cups and show the cameras what's underneath."

Under each cup is a number 1-4, with each person holding the number of the position in which they eliminated you.

The audience applauds this unexpected effect. 

"Not only that," you say, unbuttoning your right cuff and rolling up your sleeve. "Simon, you could have described my performance in any one of a thousand different ways, but you chose one word in particular." You pick up the dog's urn from the ground, dump some ashes into your left hand, then smear them along your right forearm. A word appears in ash:

GHASTLY

The audience roars. Simon turns to Mel B and mouths a big, "Wow!"

Nick Cannon quiets the crowd. "Okay judges. Now that you've seen the complete act, have you changed your mind about sending him through to the next round?" The judges convene and you are sent through unanimously.

The crowd cheers. Nick asks you if you have anything left to say.

"Not really," you say. "I already said it earlier. In the end, dreams come true."

The place goes wild for your hacky platitude. Music swells. 

Invest In Your Happiness

[Weekends are for non-magic posts.]

This is a subject I've written about before, but it's going to take on a new importance in regards to this site very soon. (Foreshadowing!)

Here is what I wrote about it a year ago.

I will tell you what I do. I put an item in my budget (I don't really have a budget, I just do this mentally) for $30 a month. Then I decide what my 3 favorite sites/performers/podcasts are and donate $10 a month to them. Of course, I support other content providers as well by buying the things they release or whatever, but this is what I do for the three entities that provide me the most joy on a regular basis. I don't just do it for them, I do it for my own peace of mind. Peace of mind in the sense that if the site I'm supporting does eventually shut down, I don't have to wonder if my contribution could have made a difference. (And when we're talking about very small enterprises (not something like NPR), a few donations a month one way or the other could very well be the deciding factor.)

That "line in my budget" is now $50. And as i said, it's not just about supporting those projects. I do it for my benefit. This is the way I think about it. "These things make me happy. The fact that they're free is great. But if I'm not supporting the things that make me happy, what the hell am I doing? Why am I hoping to just skate by and hoping these things stick around?"  I watched too many blogs, podcasts, youtube channels, and things like that fall off the face of the earth because people weren't backing them. Now at least I can say I've done my part.

You may think I'm setting you up with this post, and I am, in a sense, because Season 2 of the Jerx will happen only if people are on board to support it. But that's not my point in writing it. I'm completely content either way regardless of what happens with this site. I'm writing this because I think it's a genuine tip that has made my life better.

You get more enjoyment out of the things you like when you support them. It makes you feel more enmeshed in the good things in your life.

I've come to realize that not supporting these things is the ultimate form of low-self esteem. There's something that gives me a couple hours of pleasure a month and I'm going to mull over the idea of giving them a few dollars a month? Fuck that noise. I value my happiness too much to be cheap about it. So should you.

Gardyloo #16

Hey app owners. Version 1.3 should be in the app store now or will be shortly. It adds a pretty sweet new feature to the app that I think you're going to like called "Light Lunch." Check the instructions for the details.

---

JL writes in to suggest this mask for those of you want to go as a homeless Kenton Knepper for Halloween. (Or regular Kenton Knepper. What's the difference.) 

---

Professor Andster writes in to suggest combining the recent Drone Strike trick with Bazillion Dollar Bill Mystery and having the second half of the bill appear attached to the drone. It's a good idea. The nice thing about BDBM is you can literally cause that bill to appear anywhere. A floating island in the sky is a good place. 

---

Friends of the Jerx: Andy Martin Wants You to Listen to Derek and Clive

["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.]

Andy Martin has many products and services he could ask me to shill if he wanted to, but he doesn't. Instead he just wants me to spread the word about British comedy duo Derek and Clive.

Derek and Clive are characters created by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Well "characters" might be too much of a stretch. The audio recordings they made aren't exactly big character studies. In fact they remind me of the audio tapes I used to make with friends when I was a kid. Just two people sitting around trying to make each other laugh. But Derek and Clive are much, much filthier than I ever was or have been, and much darker too. Apparently Moore and Cook's relationship was falling apart and you can hear it in these recordings. I don't know about that because I knew nothing about Moore and Cook's partnership. 

There's not really much to say about the albums they put out. They defy any critical analysis really. I wish I had discovered these recordings when I was a 13-year-old British boy in the late 70s. I have a feeling I would have found them to be the funniest thing ever back then. These days the language, while hyper crude, isn't so shocking. So something like a horse race where the horses are named dirty words doesn't really reverberate that much with me. Although watching how much Dudley Moore gets a kick out of it during the recording does make me enjoy it.

So do Andy Martin a favor and check out some Derek and Clive. If you're a genuine sick fuck weirdo you'll probably really be taken with it right away. I've been listening to it on and off for a year now. I particularly enjoy the improvisational style and the dynamic between the two performers. At the very least you'll start talking about everything giving you "the horn" which is something I picked up and enjoy saying about pretty much anything. (Because pretty much anything does give me the horn.)

Here's the album Andy recommended to me: