Q&A Week: Day 3

How is Magic bettering the world? How can I as an artist use Magic to better the world? Does it matter?

I don’t really have answers to this sort of question. I only perform for friends and family. If your friends and family are always interested in seeing you perform and psyched to sit through what you’re showing them, then you’re making their life better. The rest of the world can fend for itself.

What is the key difference performing social magic for strangers versus people you know?

With people you know, you can be more comfortable asking for more time from them. Just like you probably wouldn’t tell a five minute joke to a stranger, you wouldn’t do a 20 minute trick for a stranger.

Also, if it’s someone you know, they’ve probably seen you perform before. With every performance you can push the boundaries a little and do weirder stuff, without making people feel uncomfortable. After a while you can let go of the reins completely and do whatever you want because they’ll know to trust you that it will be worth their while. But the first time you perform for someone you want to be a little gentler with them. If it’s a genuine stranger then they don’t know anything about you or your motivations, so you don’t want to get too weird with them. You want them to be able to engage comfortably.

When I perform for people who have seen me perform, I don’t need to say, “This is a trick.” They already know that. But with a stranger you want to ease them into the weirder stuff.

Why is my weenie so small and stinky?

Someone beat you to this.

You mention in The Bubble making props in the spectator's view, kinda like White Monte. Do you plant ordinary objects "laying around" to use?

Sometimes. I don’t really plant stuff around my house. But I will plant stuff at some of the coffee shops I visit regularly. One has a book and game shelf that i will leave stuff on. Obviously, there’s a chance someone could make off with what I leave there, but it hasn’t happened yet (that I’ve noticed).

More often, rather than having something planted, I’ll have something prepped ahead of time and then switch those items in before anyone is really paying attention. For example, I may have some business cards from the cafe I’m at that I’ve secretly prepped in some way—maybe it’s just marking them in some manner. And then I’ll ask someone to grab me five business cards from he counter and when they come back with them I’ll just switch them very simply in the process of getting a pen out of my bag. No one is looking for a switch at that point.

Harrison Greenbaum says "Magicians are a Beatles cover band but think they're John Lennon". Thoughts?

I’m not sure I buy that. I don’t think most hack magicians who are performing ancient tricks with unoriginal patter think that they’re doing something original. Instead they say things like, “The classics are classics for a reason.” Magic doesn’t really have a history of encouraging originality.

The issue, as I see it, isn’t that magicians think they’re creative when they’re not, it’s that so many magicians don’t even approach it as a creative enterprise in the first place.

Do you think the six card repeat fools anybody?

It’s a difficult trick to make fooling because the method that is used is often very close to what any normal human would suspect. That being said, I think it can fool people, but not when performed like this. That just looks like someone passing half a deck back and forth between his hands. (Especially given the fact that he breaks the rhythm of his count every time he passes the block.)

Do you have/use a script?

I have a premise in my head and then I may have a line or two I want to hit perfectly. But no scripting beyond that. It’s hard to have a script and not feel scripted.

One of the issues with writing my material out is that it may seem like I’m telling you my “script.” I’m not. I’m just writing something similar to what I said in the performance I’m thinking about when I write the post.

Do you have any magic guilty pleasures? As in, bad tricks that you like? Or maybe something you tried to improve but couldn't?

Hmm. I don’t think so. Not in the way you mean, at least. The closest thing I can think of is that I like buying cheap magic sets and playing around with them. So that’s a guilty pleasure in the sense that I’m only doing it for the sake of my inner 8-year old.

As far as tricks I couldn’t improve. Yeah. That’s most tricks.

There’s a whole genre that I’ve had a hard time improving: rubber band tricks. One of my first books in magic was Scarne On Card Tricks. That’s a 70 year old book of card tricks that a beginner can do. And yet, I feel I can take any trick from that book—perform it in some sort of context—and get someone thinking about it at least all night, and potentially for months or years to come.

On the other hand, I can perform the most modern, clever rubber band magic, get a really strong initial reaction, and then it’s almost immediately forgotten, or so it seems. I’m not sure why that is. I think it may be because rubber bands are inherently unromantic. Playing cards, money, pen and paper, cigarettes, hell maybe even thimbles are all props that potentially have some emotional weight to them. Rubber bands don’t. No one ever says, “Ah, I remember my grandmother used to get together with her friends and stretch rubber bands at the kitchen table.” Rubber bands are intrinsically worthless and disposable, and it feels like audiences treat the tricks to be done with them in a similar way. Even if they’re amazed by the trick in the moment, I never feel like it’s the sort of thing they think about for long after.

Did you ever have anxiety performing magic for people? If so, how did you resolve?

I’m fortunate enough not to have anxiety about anything. I might be missing part of my brain. I can’t even say I’m 100% certain what people mean when they say they’re anxious about something.

Anxiety seems to come from thinking too much about the “what ifs” of a given situation. What if the trick goes wrong, what if the person doesn’t like it, what if I screw up, etc. I think one of the cheat codes to life is just to ignore the “what ifs” in low-stakes situations. Introducing yourself to an attractive stranger at a coffee shop, getting a new hair style, or performing a magic trick for people—these are all objectively low-stakes situations. They don’t warrant you being concerned about the outcome.

If you were forced to do a formal show at gunpoint, what would you perform?

At gunpoint? Pull the trigger.

Q&A Week: Day 2

Do you have any clever uses for those gimmicked envelopes that allow you to make stuff appear in the spectator's hands?

I’m not 100% sure what you’re talking about. So I guess no.

What's the best magic wallet for the casual performer?

It depends what you want to do with it. The only thing I do regularly with a wallet is peek with it. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% happy with any peek wallet I’ve used. In general I find the ones with simpler peeks to be better than the ones with more clever methodologies. Any wallet that requires you to go back into it to get the peek is not good, in my opinion. When we tested peeks years ago, that action of going back into the wallet was the point where suspicion flew off the charts (this was back when we used an app that allowed people to gauge suspicion in real time—something I want to get back to at some point). It didn’t matter how quick you were or what your motivation was to go back in. I’m not saying those methods are total garbage. Obviously people use these types of wallets and have some measure of success with them. But I don’t like anything that piques suspicion at the moment you’re actually doing the dirty work.

The wallet I use most regularly is the Jaks Wallet from Secret Tannery. I’ve published a couple different peeks with it in various places. (the most recent book and in a newsletter last year). My only issue with it is that it doesn’t hold cash.

When a trick is over, do you let the spectator dwell on it and eventually change the subject, or do you change the subject yourself?

Hmm. I’m not sure. I’ll pay more attention and let you know if I find I have a particular technique. I have a feeling it depends on the people I’m performing for, the nature of the trick, how they react, etc. I don’t think there’s one satisfying pat answer. I certainly don’t immediately move on to something else. But I also don’t just sit there like a goon staring at them until they’re bored. I would say most often I let the moment resonate for a while, then we talk about it for a little bit, then we transition to some other activity, and ideally they’ll come back to the trick throughout our time together as they think more about it in the back of their mind.

Having a Rep (repercussion) to the effect, as I’ve written about on the site, is my favorite way to transition out of an effect because it reinforces the trick while also moving you past it.

How did you first get into magic? Whats your origin story?

Here.

You seem to present only one effect at a time. How would you best present multiple and not have them blur together into one memory?

It’s very simple, just use different objects. Not all card tricks. Not all coin tricks.

But, ideally (for social magic) don’t do multiple tricks. Make each trick its own unique interaction. That’s how you’ll make it memorable.

Any presentational ideas for SNAPS?

Not yet.

How can I find the right time to perform a longer trick?

Prep people for it ahead of time. “I’ve been working on something that I really want to try with you. Are you around this weekend?” Set it up like a date. Anticipation can add greatly to the experience.

We often talk about how powerful it is to be able to perform things seemingly impromptu. And that’s undoubtedly a good thing. But there is also a power in performing things that seem planned, if the spectator gets the feeling this is an experience you’ve crafted with them in mind.

What impromptu trick have you performed more than any other?

I don’t use it much now, but for a long time I did Mr. Clean's Coin Across by Jay Sankey pretty frequently.

There is nothing I do that regularly these days because I’m usually trying out new stuff for the site.

Do you think your style and philosophies can apply to formal theater shows? Would you write articles about professional show in the future?

I think some of the specifics about what I write could be adopted, but not the general esthetic. To me, the key to social/amateur magic is getting away from the formality of a professional show and making the interaction feel more natural/genuine. But what feels natural/genuine in real life would feel awkward and disingenuous in a formal show.

At this point, I have no experience performing a professional magic show, so I wouldn’t have anything to write about it. I do have something I’m working on, but I don’t know if I’ll end up talking about it here.

Why is my weenie so small and stinky?

Jokes.

What would be your presentation for CineMental by Nikolas Mavresis?

I don’t know. I don’t own it and haven’t given it any thought.

What's your least favorite trend in modern magic?

The influx of charisma-less guys “reviewing” magic on Youtube while managing to offer essentially no insight into the product at all other than what could be gathered within approximately six minutes of opening the box the trick came in.

Q&A Week: Day 1

Here is the first set of questions.

Spelling and phrasing are the question-asker’s, not mine.

I’m answering them in the order they came in, with the exception of the second question. I’ve grouped together three questions there that were on the same subject.

What is the best effects/presentation for Mentalism that’s short form (like on instagram)?

I don’t think mentalism is well-suited for “short form” and I don’t even have an instagram account. I couldn’t be less suited to answer this question, I’m sorry to say.

— Any chance you have a presentation for Metal Phone in the works? The gimmick is impressive, but the responses are falling flat.

— What are your thoughts on Metal Phone by Joao Miranda? Especially as a piece for social/amateur magic.

— Ur Timeless routine [See here.] saved that trick. Have anything for metal phone? The block has been a letdown for my specs. They want to see a real phone.

I’ve heard similar concerns from a couple of people I know in real life who have used the effect. They’re both good performers so if they’re both having an issue I’m inclined to believe there might be a problem with the trick itself, not just their performances.

Watching the demo for this, I think I see what is likely causing the issue. Going from “This card penetrated my phone” to “Just kidding, it penetrated a strange metal block,” is not even a lateral move. It’s a step backwards. Spectators are familiar with phones. They’re not familiar with strange metal blocks. So the easy answer for them is just, “It must be something funny about this metal block.” Bingo.

Not that they know how it works, but you’ve given them some sort of answer (“there’s something funny about that block”). Whereas, if your working cellphone came out, then there would be no questioning the legitimacy of the object that was penetrated.

In earlier tricks of this type, you started by penetrating a box of matches with a needle (not impossible at all) or a cased deck of playing cards with a coin (more impossible, but a spectator could come up with some plausible solutions pretty easily). So when you go on to reveal the metal block, you’ve done something significantly more impossible than what they thought you did. That makes sense as a dramatic structure.

But that’s not what happens with this trick. The revelation of the metal block is a surprise, but not a magical one (relative to what they thought happened). It would be like if you sawed a box in half and said your wife was inside. Then you put the halves together and said, “Actually… it wasn’t my wife… it was… this black guy!” That would get a, “Wait… huh?” sort of response that I think some people are getting from this trick.

All that said, don’t sell yours yet. I think I have a couple ideas (one handling idea and one presentational idea) to make this stronger. One of my proxies has placed an order for one so I can try it out, but I won’t have it for a couple months, so I won’t be able to give my thoughts until then (unless I end up meeting up with one of my friends who owns this in the meantime.)

Do you play with Cardistry? And does cardistry dilute the magicalness of effects done in performer's hands?

No. And Yes.

Why do you perform magic? What is the goal?

That sweet poontang. The ill nana.

My goal is to craft memorable experiences for my friends, family and the people I meet as I go through life. And to do so in a manner that they can’t get from any other kind of interaction.

Just read about project slay them about adding a trick a week to my reportoire. Does that advice still hold and do you have any new ones?

Does that advice still hold in order to build up your repertoire? Yes. Do I have any new what? New tricks I’ve added? Yes. I add new tricks constantly.

I know it can be not that good question but how can I think creatively?

I don’t really have a good answer for this.

I read this book a long time ago and thought it had some very sound advice, although I doubt it will make you creative if you don’t aren’t already have some natural aptitude.

I’m not sure to what extent someone can develop creativity. I can’t say I’ve ever met someone who wasn’t creative—then they took a course or read a book—and all of the sudden they were super creative.

However, I do think there are some creative people who just haven’t found a way to leverage that power yet, and for those people, I think maybe you can find a way to harness that ability from a book like the one I linked to above.

Is the Connect 4 prediction trick available anywhere or will it ever be?

This is my friend’s trick. I don’t know all the details of how it’s done, but I know it requires custom made props for the game. He has made one copy in the past for a magic collector but I don’t know if he plans on making/selling more. I will let people know here if it ever becomes readily available. But if you’re expecting something you can do with a normal Connect 4 set, you’re dreaming.

I’ve been working on a simplified version of a Connect 4 prediction that I will likely put in some publication in the future.

Hi Andy, have you purchased any new books lately? If so which ones, I’m looking for some inspiration. Thanks

I haven’t read any new magic books in a while (I’m far behind even on books that were gifted to me). I’m trying to readjust my schedule so I have more time to work through magic books. If I manage that and I find something interesting, you’ll definitely hear about it in the review newsletter.

What (if any) are some ways you use loops?

I use them mostly in the usual ways: haunted deck, the one where you tip up a pair of eyeglasses, a moving fork trick I learned from a Geoff Williams DVD.

One trick I do with loops that I’ve never seen anyone else do is on Calen Morelli’s Penguin Live Lecture where he uses loops to float and manipulate his hoodie strings. I like that trick a lot.

I was asked to do a 20-minute set of mentalism as an opener for a long-form improv show in Chicago. How would you approach this?

I would decline the offer.

In an alternate reality where I did do the show, I’d probably do something like the stage version of the trick described in this post. That would make sense in an improv show context.

Q&A Week: Intro

In the Fall 2019 issue of the supporter newsletter, I mentioned that one of the best parts of doing the site was being able to run it with full autonomy. Even though the site is reader-supported, I have great freedom in how it operates due to the generosity of the supporters who don’t really make any demands on me in regards to what I write about.

And unlike working in a big corporation where everything needs to be tested and approved before implementation or cessation, I’m free to try something new and see how it goes and immediately stop it if it doesn’t turn out as I hoped. There’s tremendous freedom being in that situation. It’s like if you’re a guy who loves to have sex without condoms and you’re an abortion doctor. You don’t have to worry too much about consequences.

Last week I announced a Q&A feature. I am now suspending (aborting) that feature. The reason I’m suspending it is because I didn’t get the results I had hoped for. I’m not sure I knew 100% what I was hoping for, but whatever it was, I didn’t get it. I had thought that having the Q&A form might lessen the number of full emails I received. But that didn’t really happen. I get a lot of emails from operating this site. And while I think people understand that I can’t respond to every one with a long thought-out response, I still feel weird responding to an email of many paragraphs with just a couple sentences. So part of the idea behind the Q&A was to limit people to 150 characters. I said, “Give me a short question and I’ll give you a short answer.” But I got a lot of short questions which required long answers.

And because I made it easier to contact me, I think the quality of the questions, unsurprisingly, went down. People only go to the effort of putting their thoughts/questions into an email, if they have something they think might be worthwhile. Whereas with the short, Q&A format, there was a bit more chaff with the wheat. This makes sense. The easier you make communication, the less thought out it will be, on average. If construction workers could only say something to hot females via a written letter, women would probably have a much nicer time walking down the street, and the comments they did receive via mail would likely be of a higher discourse than, “Hey, nice pooper!”

So, I’m suspending the Q&A feature. It may be something I do from time to time, but I’m turning it off for now.

Now, just so it wasn’t a complete loss, I’m going to burn through the questions I received over the course of this week. I said I would give “short answers” to any questions for which I had a satisfying answer. Instead, I’m giving unsatisfying answers to all the questions that came in whether I have anything worth saying or not. A dozen or so questions per day, starting tomorrow. See you then.

Joyful Noise #1

Sundays are for off-topic posts.

In this series I’ll mention some of the little things that have been bringing me joy recently. Now, the fact of the matter is, I’m a pretty light touch in the joy department. It doesn’t take much to make me happy, and my tastes lean towards the unsophisticated. I won’t be recommending my favorite scotch here, for example. Or what cigars I’m smoking these days. I’m not smoking any cigars and my favorite scotch is no scotch.

Here’s some stuff I’ve been enjoying:

Podcast Episode

Reply All tells all sorts of stories. Technically the stories are supposed to be about the internet, but pretty much anything is about the internet if you try hard enough.

Here’s the description of this episode:

A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet. 

It sounds like an unambitious episode of Black Mirror, but it’s a true story. And one of the main “characters” in the tale is Christian Lee Hutson, whose song, Northsiders, was my favorite depressing song from last year.

I found the story really fascinating. I listen to almost all podcasts on 2x speed, but for the first time in my life I slowed it down to normal so it would last longer. The episode is self-contained. You don’t have to be a regular Reply All listener to follow it. Here it is.

Youtube Video

I bet there’s a decent sized overlap between fans of magic and fans of special effects (practical effects, not CGI). So there’s a good chance you might enjoy this compilation of special effects genius, Tom Savini on Late Night With David Letterman from the 1980s.

Reading Material

The only subscription I have to any physical media is to Archie Jumbo Comics. I can’t really say for certain why. It has never once made me laugh or even crack a smile, but for some reason I have great affection for it. The stories are all just disconnected nonsense, and a a lot of them are reprinted from 20 or 40 years ago so they seem out of place in the current day (Archie can’t find his Walkman!) but I still get a weird kick out of it. I like that Betty and Veronica are rivals but also best friends. I like that Archie is constantly on the search for pussy. I like that Jughead’s primary character trait is that he likes hamburgers. The writers thought that would be enough to sustain a character for decades. And apparently it was.

And I like that the monthly digest always has a direct connection to the time of year. Archie is always getting ready for school or halloween or spring break or whatever. Once a month, when I get the issue, I use that as my reminder to make sure to sit down and schedule out some seasonal/time-specific activities in the coming weeks. (I’ve mentioned why I think this is valuable in this post, How to Slow Time).

But mainly I just like how dumb it is. Here is a page from an issue a couple months ago.

It’s not part of a larger story. There’s no purpose to it. It’s just a page of Archie in different jackets. Huh? It’s like some sort of wholesome anti-comedy. It makes me happy.

The Juxe: My Favorite Live Music Performance

On Saturdays, during the posting window (the 1st thru the 20th of the month), I’ll be writing about music. What does this have to do with magic? Nothing. I just like sharing music with people and this is my site, so I get to do what I like.

The Juxe is like, I guess a play on a jukebox mixed with the name the Jerx? It works well enough, get off my back. Unless you have a better idea.

My taste in music is primarily in the genres of indie pop, indie rock, power pop, garage rock, punk, surf, with some rap, electronic, and folk music as well. I listen to a lot of modern music with mid-20th century influences.

But today, rather than talk about something new, I’m going to talk about my favorite live music performance which is quite old.

It’s The Who performing A Quick One (While He’s Away) from “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus,” which was shot in December 1968. This was a special that was supposed to be released on the BBC, but the Rolling Stones had it canned. The reason for that, some say, is that this performance by The Who made their performances look like shit in comparison. That story may be apocryphal, but I kind of buy it.

I’ve never been a huge Who fan (although the album, The Who Sell Out is a favorite of mine). And I generally don’t like songs longer than four minutes. And I’m usually underwhelmed by live performances. But despite all that, this is one of my favorite videos on all of youtube (which, I’m told, has upwards of 10,000 videos).

Roger, Keith, and Pete are all great showmen and that marries so well with this song that goes through multiple “movements” on its way to the electric finale. The energy from about 6 minutes on is particularly crazy, and the film editing is some of the best I’ve ever seen at capturing that energy. The whole thing is great from the opening a cappella bit to the weird clown at the end. “Oh, that’s marvelous!” Agreed!

Book Of The Year

I woke up today to a few emails telling me that all references to my book, Magic For Young Lovers—which had apparently been the leading vote getter to this point for the 2019 Book of the Year award at the Magic Cafe—had been removed by Cafe staff from the thread tallying those votes.

Obviously there is no better email I could receive. Yes, it’s very nice to hear that a book that was released over a year ago, as a limited edition, with no advertising or marketing, that was not even allowed to be discussed on the Cafe, had more votes than any other book released this year. That’s very flattering.

But what’s more flattering is that the Cafe staff, notably Tom Cutts, Dave Scribner, and Steve Brooks are so helpful in going out of their way to carry on with the fiction that my thoughts and opinions make me such a troublemaker that they need to muzzle people from spreading the word about this site.

This is the dream team.

I know what you’re thinking…, “Those guys have the power to remove posts from the Cafe, AND, on top of that, they look like a bunch of friggin’ magazine models?!” It’s true. Some guys have it all. However, while you may just see three guys with superstar good looks, I see what is essentially my guerilla marketing team.

For example, if you ask Tom Cutts why you can’t mention my site on the Magic Cafe, he will give you some line about how I’ve done things in the past that show me to be a dangerous guy with an incredibly dark temperament. What does he base this on? Beats the fuck out of me! I think he’s just a sweetie who’s intent on keeping my reputation as magic’s unstable, iconoclast, rebel intact. Thanks, Tom!

The fact is, I haven’t been very good at maintaining that image. I’m the most prolific writer in magic and while my material may have an “edge” compared to the standard magic writing, that doesn’t change the fact that my output is primarily about using magic in a manner that takes the focus off yourself and brings joy to others. That’s pretty uncool, I know. But thankfully my boys at the Cafe got my back and are doing what they can to maintain my bad-boy cred.

New readers here are likely confused as to why mentioning this is site is banned on the Cafe. It goes back to 2003 and my old blog. That blog started as a response to the Cafe and the weird way it operated back when people still used that site. Steve Brooks would wield his “power” in what many felt were questionable ways and then I would go on my site and call him fat. Not because I have any issue with fat people. All the best people I know have a tendency to put on weight. I just did it because it got under his (considerable) skin.

It really made him angry. Maybe—and this seems unlikely—but maybe he wasn’t aware he was fat? Is that possible? I would have thought he had a clue simply based on the increased frequency with which he found himself holding up a pair of ruined underpants, saying, “They just don’t make elastic waistbands like they used to.” Or from that interaction with the stewardess where she said, “Shall I make it a double?” And he said, “The gin and tonic?” And she said, “No, the seatbelt extender.” He’s seen his body, right? Surely he must have caught his reflection in a mirror; or in the cracked surface of a particularly glossy glazed doughnut as he raised it to his lips; or—at the very least—in his wife’s sad eyes.

Here’s the thing, the one innate gift god graced me with was an unsettling proficiency for shit-talk. And while it’s maybe annoying to have some dude making fun of your weight, it’s a whole other situation when he does it with such panache and unabashed glee.

And I pretty much garnered folk-hero status because I was pissing off Steve and his cohorts. It’s not that people liked me making fun of someone just for the hell of it. They felt that Steve wasn’t listening to them. Even valid concerns about the site would be met with a response from Steve along these lines: “Well, this is MY Cafe, and I make the rules. And just like any other cafe, if you don’t like the rules, you don’t need to come.” That attitude annoyed and frustrated people so they gravitated towards what I was doing even if it was immature or vulgar because at least I was getting the Cafe to pay attention.

Things went from bad to worse between us when a whistle-blower inside the Cafe started leaking the staff’s private messages to me. In those messages they talked about contacting the blog host to get my site shut down. I would have loved to see that attempt:

Dear Blogspot,

Please take this site down because we don’t like it.

Signed,
A group of fucking morons who has no idea how anything in the world works.

When they figured out they couldn’t just have a site taken down because they didn’t like it, one of them suggested reporting me to the authorities for child porn. Seriously. I think the idea was maybe they could accuse me of that and maybe that would be a heinous enough accusation to get the site taken down even if it was based on absolutely nothing. And not a single person in that Cafe staff discussion was like, “Wait, what? That’s fucking insane.”

Ah, but I’m the dangerous one with the dark temperament.

Now, I never had any real animosity towards Steve. I wrote my old blog when I was bored at my day job. It was just a way to pass the time. I didn’t think Steve was an evil person, he was just someone who stumbled into some power for the first time in his life and he got off on using it. Unfortunately for him, the success of the Cafe was more a matter of timing than skill. And when the only thing you have to offer on your site is other people’s content, you need to do a better job of listening to the people who provide that content. Steve’s attitude was, “This is my Cafe.” And to continue that metaphor, it was his Cafe, but the people there were responsible for cooking and serving their own food. And if you take them for granted, they’re going to find somewhere else to go. Which is exactly what happened.

At any rate, I forgive Brooks for the sketchy shit he tried with me all those years ago. But if he gets something out of holding a grudge, I don’t want to deny him that.

The truth is, I prefer people find this site because a friend tells them about it or because of a fortuitous google search. Not because of a post in a public magic forum. So I’m happy you can’t talk about this site there.

And here’s the thing, if they hadn’t interfered, and MFYL had won book of the year, what good would that do me? The book sold out in January 2018. I have no more copies to sell. I guess there’s some degree of pride I could take in winning the magic book of the year, but I’m not really wired that way. In fact, I take much more pride knowing they were willing to invalidate their whole contest to keep me from winning again.

I just feel bad for the authors of the other books. They’re denied the full sense of achievement they could take if their book wins because it will have an implied asterisk next to it from anyone who’s paying attention. It would be like if you were taking part in a 500m sprint and halfway through a sniper took out the guy in the lead. You’d feel like a bit of a fraud saying, “I won!”

Just so the Cafe management doesn’t go and botch this again next year, I am officially removing anything I write from awards contention in perpetuity. Okay? You’re welcome. Problem solved.