The Jerx Cold Approach

Building off of an email in last Friday’s mailbag, I want to talk about cold approaching. While I would never walk up to a stranger on the street and offer to show them a trick, I would turn to a stranger in a cafe and show them something. Which is obviously similar in a way.

I wouldn’t say this is something I do a ton. That is, I don’t often do a completely cold approach. Usually I’ll engage in a conversation and do some “baiting” (as described in The JAMM #1). Or I’ll use a “hook” as I originally described in this post (and as will be expanded on in the next book). Those are both techniques to get them to initiate the effect.

But occasionally I will make a trick itself my initial interaction with someone.

Here is my big tip for that situation. Do not say, “Hey, do you want to see a magic trick?” or “Want to see something cool?” Instead say something like, “Could I get your help with something?”

I’ve mentioned this in the past to other magicians and sometimes their attitude suggested they didn’t like the idea. “Asking for their help rather than giving them the gift of a magical performance?" was kind of the gist of their response. Or, "I don’t want to ask for their help. That makes it sound like this is going to be burdensome. I want them to know it’s going to be fun.” I promise you, if you think this way, you lack an understanding of people. People are usually more than happy to help someone, even a stranger. On the other hand, being unexpectedly thrust into the role of “audience member” is not something people are generally super comfortable with.

Asking for “a little help with something” is a very non-threatening and disarming way to engage another person. Ask Ted Bundy. That’s how he would get hot co-eds to go off with him where he could murder and rape them. In that order.

It’s one thing if you’re going to go up to them with a camera to film something for youtube, then you can say, “Want to see a magic trick?” But that’s not the right approach for a more low-key initiation.

So I always frame it as them offering me help. And I keep up that attitude through the whole thing. I thank them at the end for their help. Ideally they’re thinking, “Why is he thanking me? That was awesome.”

Here are the ingredients to The Jerx Cold Approach, for use in cafes, lounges, bars, parks, libraries, trains, buses, planes, and other places you might be passing time around strangers.

1. Ask if you can get their help with something.

   “Excuse me. Could I get your help with something?”

2. Acknowledge any awkwardness and give a sentence of background.

   “I know this is a little unusual, but…

   …I have this magic trick I’m working on and I just need someone else’s eyes to tell me if this looks right.”

   or

   … I need an unbiased opinion on something I’m working on?”

   Or words to that effect.

3. Mention some short timeframe.

   “It will just take a minute.”

4. Show them something quick.

   Stick to your word and make it not take much more than a minute.

5. Thank them for their help and pull back.

   Get your “help” and stop bothering them. This wasn’t an excuse to chat them up. If they want to continue the interaction they will come to you with a question or response to what happened. This happens almost always. Probably 95 times out of 100. (Assuming the trick was good and you’re not creepy.)

That’s it. Very simple. The idea is to ease people into the trick, but do it quickly.

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And here are my “Dont’s” for cold approaching.

Don’t disturb people if they’re busy.

This should go without saying. If they’re studying or reading or have headphones on, let them be.

Don’t hesitate.

You are sitting there reading, writing, playing with cards, or whatever. You turn to the person and engage with them. Don’t sit there staring at them, thinking whether you’re really going to interact with them. Just get to it and ask. If they sense you’re stalking them, it’s going to creep them out.

Don’t say “mind reading” or “psychological experiment” or anything that might sound potentially invasive.

It’s just a “trick” or a “thing I’m working on.” Something like that. If, after the effect, there is a connection and you keep talking, you can feel free to paint a weirder picture for them. But initially you just want it to feel like it’s going to be quick and uncomplicated..

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Compare these two situations.

1. Someone turns to you and says, “Do you want to hear a monologue from a play?”

2. Someone turns to you and says. “Can I get your help with something? I know this is a little odd, but I need to memorize this monologue for a play I’m trying out for. I think I’ve got it, but would you mind looking it over while I recite it to see if there’s anything I’m missing? It will just take a minute.”

If you don’t see that the second way—while still an unusual request—is a much more natural and gentle way to get into the interaction, then you may be beyond hope. Of course, if you want to be that blatant for whatever reason, go ahead. I’m not writing this post to change anyone’s mind if they think that’s a good way of doing it. I’m writing it for the people who see the flaw with the first approach but don’t know a better option. The people who write me and say, “How do you initiate a trick with someone when you don’t know them. Just say, ‘Hey, want to see a magic trick?’” No. I don’t do that. This post is what I do.

Sunday Horror

Here are a couple picks from the horror streaming service, Shudder that you might like. You can sign up for Shudder and get 7 days free, so you can check these out and bail if you want.

Movie: One Cut of the Dead

I’m not going to tell you anything about this. And to truly enjoy it, you shouldn’t read anything about it. Nor should you watch a trailer. Just fire it up and watch it. It’s not particularly scary, so if you’re a big puss, don’t worry about that. A couple things I’ll say about it, which don’t spoil anything are:

1. The sort of person who is into magic is also likely to be the sort of person who will appreciate the layers to this movie and the way things are set up early and pay off later.

2. Keep in mind when you watch it that the movie is 90 minutes long.

Show: Cursed Films

This is a five-part series looking at “cursed” horror films—films that have a number of unfortunate or tragic incidents connected with them. The series asks the question: Are these films cursed? The answer is no, they’re not, of course. They just had a lot of incompetent people who made bad choices involved in the production. So, okay, maybe you could say they were cursed. But not by Satan or something, just by morons.

The Juxe: Music for Writing

To be the most prolific writer on the subject of magic in the history of the art (check me on that), one must—unsurprisingly—spend a lot of time writing.

I like to write to music, but anything with lyrics distracts me. So here is what I listen to when writing. It varies depending on my mood and whether I’m writing for the site, the newsletter, the next book, emails, etc. But generally it’s going to fall into one of these categories.

Ratatat

This is my go-to. Sometimes chill, sometimes high-energy electronic rock. For deeper concentration I will usually put one song on repeat and just let it play for hours as I write.

ChilledCow stream

When I can handle the distraction of unfamiliar music, this is my favorite option. It’s a 24/7 stream of “lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to.” It’s something that seems to work for a lot of people. As I write this now, there are 44,000 other people listening live at the same time.

Classical Piano

When it comes time to write a book, I usually lean towards classical piano music. It’s likely the most calming music for me, and working on a book is the most overwhelming thing I have to do, so that’s probably why. This video is one I’ve played a lot. Classical Piano Music for Brain Power. BRAIN POWER!!!!

Monster Rally

When I’m in the mood for something different, I go with Monster Rally. This is “sample-based tropical pop.” Sort of a modern take on mid-century lounge music.

Mailbag #22

Ellusionist just sent out an email about the 1900s deck. Which is like the 1800s deck but a century newer I suppose. Do you have any uses for these? It seems like an old looking deck would have some potential. —DH

Yeah, I think these look great. The problem is, they feel brand new. So they’re good for display, but not good for something where the spectator is going to touch them. Which, for me, is most of the stuff I would want to do with them. Imagine a book with a dust-jacket that was designed to look old and tattered, but when you held it, you realized it was just printed that way. You would be more certain that that’s not really an old book than you would if I gave you something that wasn’t beaten up and just told you it was old. You would think, “Huh, well, maybe it is.” It’s the incongruity that would be suspicious.

That said, if you want an old looking card and you want to age them yourself, this would give you something of a head-start. Get them a little damp. Scuff them up a bit. Bang the corners on something.

Combine this with an Intercessor or similar gimmick and you can do some truly mind-blowing shit. As I described in this post.

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I've been deep in a YouTube rabbit hole binging on videos by a freestyle rapper called Harry Mack.

This guy has an ability to freestyle rhyme that borders on the supernatural, and that's part of what made me see a parallel between what he does with strangers and what (good) magic, social or otherwise, should aim to do. 

Check out this video of him approaching strangers at Venice Beach. Notice how every stranger he approaches begins with a sceptical look on their face. In fact, they often look downright suspicious (not unlike when a magician takes out a deck of cards or vaguely proposes 'a psychological experiment'). But then something wonderful happens.

1. He tells them honestly what he intends to do.

2. He exudes genuine positive social emotion. If you aren't on board, you'll be the one who looks weird or standoffish, not him.

3. He demonstrates a skill that's truly worthy of attention. Freestyle rap sounds like it could be fucking lame (like magic), but he's clearly a virtuoso.

4. He makes the raps about them. His rapping is good in general, but the moment they hear him mention their hat or their randomly suggested word, their faces light up.

5. He doesn't make fun of them or play one person off another. Everyone is welcome. It's one big party.

6. He thanks them for their energy and participation - he doesn't overtly expect their admiration.

I think there's a lot that magicians can learn from this type of non-magic video about what people actually value in social interactions. […]

It's not a huge discovery (most magicians, even on the magic cafe, know that the best magic puts the spectator's emotions in the spotlight), but I thought that the wonder this rapper creates in such a short amount of time encapsulates that principle really nicely. —JM

I think it's a good analogous situation. I personally can't imagine walking up to someone randomly with the intent of "performing" for them in any context. That’s not really my scene. But for people who do do that sort of thing, you’ve outlined some good things to keep in mind. And they certainly apply in less overt types of performances as well.

You’ve reminded me of some thoughts I want to give out on cold approaching which I’ll put in a post next week.

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You said posts this year were going to be “short and stupid” but I haven’t noticed that. Is that still the plan? —JP

That’s not only the plan, that’s what is going to happen. It has to or it will just be unsustainable, time-management wise. The posts will be shorter and I’ll be on the “first 20 days of the month” schedule that I mentioned when this season started. This is something like my 75th day in a row posting. No one needs to hear from me that much.

Memorized Deck Poll

Hey kids,

I’m not 100% committed to this idea, and I won’t necessarily be going with the popular vote. But it’s an idea I’ve been tossing around and I wanted to get your input.

Speaking of memorized decks, my friend (who is a stack aficionado and—for god knows what reason—has three different stacks memorized) ordered a Stack Watch from Ellusionist for his son. He received it yesterday and immediately facetime’d me to show it off. I have never seen anyone laugh harder in my life. Then he brought his 13-year-old son in and he lost his shit laughing as he tried to find a card and then rotate the bezel to a certain position and we were imagining this taking place during a trick. Watching him go from patter to looking at his watch for 16 seconds in an attempt to find the card, then jumping back into patter was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. We were all crying. I want to thank Ellusionist for this because I love watching people laugh. It was one of the most joyous moments of my year. And in my mind it fully justified the existence of that product.

Here’s a game you can play. Tell someone to go to look at the picture of the watch on Ellusionist’s site and show them the cards around the bezel. Then say, “Find the seven of spades.” I played this with a few people. The shortest time was 10 seconds. The longest it took was 58 seconds.

Now, perhaps as you use the watch a lot you would become more familiar with where the cards are. Sure. I buy that. But that would be the most scattershot way of familiarizing yourself with mnemonica. It would take much less time to actually memorize a stack. And you wouldn’t have to be the type of person who walks around with a knock-off Rolex on your wrist.

Here’s the thing, if there was really a way to put a memorized deck crib on a watch in a way that was useful, readable, and not obvious to someone else looking at the watch, I’d be all for that. My criticism of this product is not, “Don’t be lazy. You should just memorize the deck of cards.” Why would I give a shit if anyone other than me is lazy? I don’t think it’s “lazy” to not memorize a deck. It’s just might not be your priority. And that’s fine with me. We all have different priorities. If you buy a pre-made cake at the grocery store instead of making one from scratch, I’m not going get on your ass about that. But Ellusionist isn’t offering a pre-made cake. They’re offering a bag of flour with a spoon in it and suggesting it’s about the same thing.

The ad says that it requires no work and no memory, anyone can find a card and its position with “one quick glance.” No. No, you can’t. In fact, it would legitimately be a magic trick if someone who didn’t know the stack already could find a card on the watch with a “quick glance.” I’d probably be more impressed by that than having a card at a number I named.

To be fair, I don’t know what Ellusionist’s definition of a “quick glance” is. If it’s at all similar to the “quick glances” magicians give to any chick at a magic convention showing a centimeter of skin, then I guess 10-60 seconds does fit that definition.

On a different subject, I will give Ellusionist credit for their new PIcasso Pro effect. I don’t have it yet, but it looks pretty good. (There are definitely some people who seem to be having issues with it though. So it’s better to do some more research before picking it up rather than just being swayed by me saying it “looks pretty good.”)

I would probably buy my own URL and forward it to the required page… assuming that’s possible. Otherwise you’re at the mercy of the trick’s URL staying secret.

Speaking of URLs… here’s a note for Ellusionist regarding this trick. I’m not going to mention the main URL here, so that it doesn’t show up in anyone’s google search who you wouldn’t want it to. But shouldn’t the main URL go to a generic landing page? Why would you direct them to a subdirectory that’s identical to the main page? This may seem nitpicky, but if anyone does question the site itself, isn’t the first thing they’re going to do be to look at the main page? And wouldn’t it be strange that it’s the exact same as the page you sent them to? It’s just an odd design choice, in my opinion. But maybe no one really gives a shit about any of this.

Art of Astonishment Project

Like many magicians, I’m a big Paul Harris fan and his Art of Astonishment trilogy was one of the most exciting magic releases of my lifetime. If you also have a nostalgic place in your heart for these books, I want to draw your attention to a project on youtube that Paul Harris fan, and Jerx supporter, Dani Marko has been working on for a couple of years. He’s attempting to film all the effects in the entire trilogy. He’s up to 70 effects as of this point in time.

I like this project for a few reasons. First, because I have a soft spot for any big dumb project. Second because it’s reminding me of a number of tricks that I used to do or thought of doing that I should really put in the rotation. And finally because I’m seeing some tricks in a new light that didn’t quite jump off the page for me originally. For example, here’s Griffin Under Glass, which is an effect I read many times but never really thought of performing. But now seeing it, I think it would probably be quite fooling for someone who doesn’t know what’s coming.

I don’t know if this project will haver a broad appeal to all magicians. But if you bought the books back in the mid-90s I think you’ll be into it. Sure, a lot of of Paul’s stuff had been on video before that, but much of it wasn’t. And youtube was still a decade away. So there was nowhere to see some of it other than doing it yourself. It was a very different time. If the Art of Astonishment books came out today… well, they probably wouldn’t be books. They’d be instant downloads. Paul would have a bad beard and work for Ellusionist and teach his effects while sipping whiskey and talking about how much sloppy poontang he gets when he performs Vacuum Cleaner Cards at the bars. “Yeesh, what a mess.”

Dani tells me he wishes he was a more “competent performer” but for my purposes of seeing some of these effects in action for the first time, he’s more than adequate.

Full warning, he speaks some kind of nonsense language (sounds made up to me). But if you’re familiar with the effects from the books, you won’t be lost. And honestly, regardless of what gobbledygook he’s speaking, it’s definitely going to make more sense than Paul Harris’ original patter.

Here’s Twinkie Bottle, another effect I’ve always wanted to see performed, but haven’t until now. (On GayTube they have a whole section for “Twink’s Butthole” but I learned the hard way that that’s something else entirely. (If you clicked that link and now you’re mad at me… what exactly were you expecting?))

I also like some of the personal touches which Dani brings to the effects. Check out what he does with the sticker in his performance of Paul’s effect, Apple.

What I particularly like about this project more-so than ones where people are doing a trick a day or a new trick a week for a year, or whatever, is that you can complete those projects and only do stuff thats good or stuff you like. If Dani completes this, he will to have to push himself to some tricks he wouldn’t gravitate to otherewise. That makes it a more interesting challenge, in my book. And he’ll have to do some of Paul’s stinkers too. (There’s not too many of them in the Art of Astonishment. The real challenge would be to do all the tricks of Paul’s that he left out of the AoA trilogy. Those are the ones that range from “not great” to “truly dogshit.”)

What's the Worst Thing About: Nate Staniforth's Making Tricks Into Magic Course

A couple months ago I offered people a way to advertise their product on this site for free. And that was for them to send me what they were offering and then I would write a post documenting what I felt were the worst things about that product. (I gave my rationale for this in that post.) Oddly enough, this didn’t turn out to be a super popular idea with people who were putting out magic products.

But now we have our first person willing to take me up on the offer, and that is Nate Staniforth with his online workshop, Making Tricks into Magic.

This is a two-hour online course teaching a series of techniques (and two tricks) for more powerful magic. This is based on Nate’s many years of professional performing.

The course is nicely put together and easy to navigate through. What I appreciate is that there isn’t unnecessary rambling. He gets to the point quickly in each “chapter” of the course. He’s an engaging speaker who has clearly given these things a lot of thought. I like both tricks he teaches (make sure you watch until the end of the course to get some upgrades on the second trick which should make it much stronger). I think anyone who is performing or considering performing professionally will find at least a couple concepts here which should have a positive impact on their magic. And for 50-ish bucks, that seems definitely worth it for the working pro.

Nate and I have some similar philosophies in regards to our approach towards, and our goals for magic. So if you like this site and you’re curious about a professional’s approach to this sort of thing, then I would recommend you pick up the project.

Technically you don’t need to be a professional magician. I think his ideas translate pretty well across the board, regardless of your performing environment. But that is the background that he’s bringing to the this.

Yes, but what are the worst things about this project?

I’ll give you three.

1. If you’re not good at extrapolating, you might find things to be a little too succinct. I appreciated the fact that everything was broken down into “chapters” that only lasted a few minutes each, but I would bet there are some people who would want things explained in more detail.

2. In a similar vein, I think there needs to be more tricks incorporated in the course. Yes, yes, I know, we all have more tricks than we could possibly need. But the way to explain magic theory is through the language of tricks. Even if Nate didn’t want to get into teaching and explaining a bunch of different tricks (I get that), I think he could have used more tricks as examples to help demonstrate his theories. So he wouldn’t even have to teach them, necessarily. Use a standard trick or standard performance and break it down and rebuild it using the techniques described in the course.

3. This picture…

For the next week, Nate is offering a 10% discount for people who use the code jerxreaders. I told him if I ended up really hating the project I wouldn’t mention the discount code as that would have been a little weird. “Hey, this is shit… And here’s 10% off that shit!” But that’s not the case here.

If you have a new product or project and you’d like me to tell people the worst parts about it, you can read about how to do that here.