Monday Mailbag #34
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I really enjoyed your Associative Memory Imp post, and I had an idea for a minor tweak I thought you might like.
It could be pleasantly weird to pair the ‘mistaken’ final card with a mistake in reciting the poem. That way, you could confound correcting the recitation with ‘correcting’ the trick, e.g. for that last stanza/ace:
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll I am the master of my fate:
I am the general of my soul
[I cut to and turn over random card. Seemingly a mistake. I turn it over]
[Pause a beat] No. That’s not right... It goes: I am the captain of my soul.
[I give the “random” card a little one-handed spin on my middle finger, then turn over the card to reveal the last Ace.]
—MT
Yeah, I think that’s a great idea. The only thing to be concerned about is that you don’t want to break the person’s focus between revealing the incorrect card and revealing the correct card. So you don’t want to pull back and have them look up and take their attention off the card. I’ve seen that happen with similar “faux mistake” situations. The mistake breaks the rhythm so they lean back or shift their gaze in some way, and the correction ends up not hitting as hard as it could.
So I would recommend keeping your focus burned on the card in your hand to suggest that they shouldn’t take their eyes of it either.
But other than that one potential issue, I think it’s a great addition to that Imp and I’ll be giving it a shot.
I’m going to be moving to New York City next year. I know you lived there for at least a few years so I wanted to know if you had any NYC -specific tricks that are particularly impressive to people. —TY
New York City specific tricks? Hmmm… no. Not really. I mean, I do try to take advantage of the environment as much as possible wherever I’m living, but I’m not sure I did much that could only be done in NYC.
One time I was in Grand Central Station with a couple friends and I sent one of them to stand off in the corner somewhere while another person drew a picture with me about 30 feet away in an opposite corner. That spectator then walked over to the guy in the other corner who was able to tell him what he drew.
I was able to cue him from across the room due to this.
I will tell you the absolutely most impressive thing you can do in NYC. It’s not a trick, but it’s something I would do all the time and receive tremendous accolades from strangers. When you’re on the subway, someone’s going to light up a cigarette or be playing their music really loud without headphones. It’s usually some sort of sketchy/scary looking character. It’s clearly someone who doesn’t give a shit about social norms or offending other people. So most of the train will just sit there and deal with the smoke or music filled car.
A few years into my time in NYC, I just made a rule with myself that whenever that happened I would go up and tell the person to knock it the fuck off. Regardless of how scary the person was, or what my instincts told me to do.
Most often the person would put out the cigarette or shut off the music. They might give me a look, but not much more than that.
Sometimes they’d play dumb like they forgot they weren’t listening through their headphones or that you can’t smoke on the subway.
And maybe 10% of the time it would escalate a little. But the secret here is, while everyone on the subway is acting like a big pussy initially, once you make the move to confront the person, you’ll immediately have back up if it escalates. Even if a person won’t confront someone doing something wrong, they’ll usually be quick to support someone who does confront them. So you’re never really alone.
And you’ll become the hero of the subway.
(There’s also a small percentage chance you’ll get shot. So maybe don’t do it.)
I was eating out with a friend and some new acquaintances the other night and the conversation turned to tv magic. My friend decided to mention that I did magic and so of course everyone rounded on me and started asking me about magic etc.
At one point one of the guys asked me if I knew how Dynamo walked on water. I answered honestly that I did. This of course led to the inevitable ‘so how did he do it then?’ When I politely declined from divulging I didn’t need to be a magician to predict the next question; ‘But why can’t you tell me? It’s not like you’re going to do it anyway...?’ Of course I started to explain that it wasn’t mine to give away, hey maybe I will do it one day, and anyway it would ruin the trick if you knew how it was done.
Well it got them off my back, but later that night I was thinking about it and I realised I don’t think any of that adequately answers the question. I mean, why not? Why can’t I tell them how it’s done? I’m not convinced that them knowing the effort and thought that goes into these kind of tricks would decrease their appreciation of magic; au contraire! I think they would walk away with a newfound appreciation of (what can be the art of) magic. Also I’m not really clear on the ethics of revealing secrets in this context. Is it even wrong at all? Perhaps so, but if so I’m not clear as to why. When all is said and done, possibly the best answer really is that from a business standpoint if I may do it in the future I should hold back, but come on, let’s face it. Even if I do get my own tv show I almost certainly shan’t be doing the tricks they were asking me to reveal.
All in all I suppose my query is this: what - if anything - would you recommend answering, and in general what are your thoughts on the matter? Perhaps the best answer would simply be to lie and say, ‘hm, wow, I have no idea!’?
Anyway, I’d be interested in anything you have to say on the matter. —YG
I don’t think there’s much to be gained by telling them. But it’s a matter of personal conscience.
Here in the U.S. we haven’t really had a standout performer like that in some time, so you don’t get those questions much. (Or maybe I just don’t hang out with people who watch magic on tv.)
Here are the sort of things you could say/do in a similar circumstance.
“I have no clue. The rumor in the magic circles are that there are only 2 people in the word who really know. So anyone who says they do is probably full of shit.”
“I used to think I knew how he did it. I thought what he did was [here you’d accurately describe what he did]. But then one time I was at a magic convention and he was there, and we were both in a group of people who went out walking later at night once things had shut down for the day. And as we were walking he genuinely just skipped over the top of a fountain that was 25 feet across. And it was a completely normal fountain and he was completely unprepared. So I guess my theory was wrong.”
“Yeah, I know how he did it. But I did some freelance work on that special and I signed a non-disclosure agreement so I can’t tell you exactly. However, if you stop by my place next week I can show you something similar and I’m sure you’ll figure out how I do that and you’ll be able to extrapolate the method for what he did.” If they do show up the following week, show them something similar, but make sure there’s no chance it’s something they could figure out.
Explain it to them under the condition that they can’t tell anyone that you told them. A couple weeks later, ask who they told that you explained the trick. They’ll probably say they didn’t tell anyone. Then you show them an official looking letter from the Global League of Magicians and Mentalists (or some other body) saying that your membership is being terminated for exposure. “One of you must have told. Unless they had someone at that restaurant who was paying attention. But that seems unlikely… although they have done weirder things in the past.” Now, in order to maintain your membership, you have to come up with two unique tricks to make up for the one you exposed. And now you’ve set yourself up for a storyline for some future performances.
