Last Call: Jerx Supporter Slots Are Open (For the final time.)

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[Update: Family-Level slots are now filled.]

For the first time in over a year, supporter slots are now open here at the Jerx. This will be to support the 7th season of the site going from now until October 2023.

(Yes, October of next year. Going forward, Jerx Support Seasons will last 18 months. This is to go along with a more reasonable publishing schedule for the books. A book a year—on top of all the other writing I do related to this site—is bonkers. This new schedule will allow me to keep things going without burning out.)

This is not a post to convince you to back the site. It’s the opposite actually. I want to dissuade most of you.

If the money is even possibly an issue for you, you don’t need to think about supporting the site. Supporting this site is an indulgence, and wholly unnecessary for your advancement as a magician. The tricks and ideas I share in my supporter material are really just specific examples of broader concepts that are discussed for free on the site.

If your interest in the material isn’t that great, but you figure you’ll sign up to support in order to snag the next book because you’ve heard it could be a good investment, I’d prefer you not do that. I didn’t get into this to write books that are good investments. I want to write books people are excited to hang onto, not excited to sell.

This post is for the people who already know they want to support the site. Not anyone on the fence. If you’re on the fence, your money can definitely be used for better purposes.

There are now two levels at which you can back the site.

Friend Level ($10/month - No Physical Rewards)

Family Level ($25/month - Limited Spots)

Actually, there’s a third level as well.

Casual Level ($0/month - No rewards or anything. Just enjoy the site.)

Benefits of Supporting

Friend Level

Those who are at the “Friend Level” will receive the newest iteration of my review newsletter.

This new newsletter is called Love Letters and will be released on the first of every month, starting June 1st. Based on this post, each newsletter will cover the three commercially available effects that were my highlights during my performing and testing from the previous month. These may be individually released effects or something plucked from a book, video, or magazine. It will be mainly new tricks, but I’ll also be looking back at older tricks too. I’ll detail some of my experiences performing with the effect, and let you know how I’m using it and any “Jerxian” presentational ideas I have for it.

I’m excited about this format because it means I get to turn you onto stuff I’m really enjoying. I don’t need to spend four pages talking about a trick that sucks. (Well, I never needed to, of course. But that’s what ends up happening when you’re doing reviews traditionally.)

Since I introduced the concept of a “100 Trick Repertoire,” I’ve frequently been asked to release the details of what my repertoire consists of. I’m not intending to do that just yet. But with this newsletter you will definitely get word of what new stuff I’m cycling in. (My repertoire usually turns over by about a third each year. So with 36 articles over 12 issues, you should catch all the good new stuff.)

At the Friend Level you will also be able to purchase future releases I’m working on. Yes, that’s right. Spending your money will mean you can give me even more money later on. I don’t want to give too much detail on that yet, because I don’t want to commit to something that doesn’t end up fitting into my new schedule. But I have a few physical tricks I’m working on, as well as a hardcover, expanded reprint of The Amateur At the Kitchen Table that will be coming out at some point. The only way to have the opportunity to obtain anything I release is to be a supporter of the site. I’m not trying to be exclusionary with this stuff. It’s just that this is a small operation here, so everything I do is going to be a limited edition, and I’m just naturally going to offer those to things to supporters first. So there would just never really be a chance to make it out to anyone outside of that group.

People at the Friend level will also form the waiting list to get to the Family level (if they so choose).

To sign up at the Friend Level, visit the support page here.

Family Level [Currently Full]

Family Level supporters will receive the benefits described above, as well as:

Free advertising in the Love Letters newsletter up to two times a season. (You can advertise anything. It doesn’t have to be magic related. Hell, it doesn’t have to be an ad. Maybe there’s just a really handsome picture of yourself that you’d like others to see. You have two chances every 18 months to put whatever you want in front of all the Jerx supporters.)

A copy of my next book, Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon, which will be delivered at the end of the 7th season. (October 2023)

Family slots are limited and will definitely be gone by the end of this weekend—more likely the end of today. (Why do I limit the these slots. Two reasons: 1. This protects the financial investment of the people who support at this level. They end up with a physical product that is a limited edition and will maintain its value. 2. As I wrote in a recent letter to my supporters: “I like to know the people who are supporting my work. I'm always writing about my own personal journey and interests in magic. I'm not trying to create ideas that are broadly popular. I like knowing the name of every supporter, and the personal details about yourself that many of you have shared with me. There are a lot of magic sites out there trying to make a ‘community.’ I'm not interested in a community. I only want a bunch of individual relationships with the people who support the site. And I can't maintain that if I have an unlimited amount of supporter slots.”)

You can of course cancel your subscription at any time. I would recommend not signing up at the Family Level if you think you may cancel, as the primary bonus for signing up at that level (the book) is only available to those people who supported through the full Season 7 (May 2022-Oct. 2023)

As I wrote in the title to this post, this will be the last time supporter slots are officially open. In any future seasons that may happen beyond season 7, slots will go to returning Family members first, and any unclaimed slots will be offered to Friends. If a time comes when there isn’t enough interest from those groups to keep the site going, then I’ll know it’s time to shut this bitch down.

The Project on Word Transmission

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I have something for you today that is a combination Hook, premise, justification, and (potentially) a trick in itself.

It’s this site here, which simply consists of images of words written on business cards with a little information attached to each image. It is, apparently, some site that is devoted to a project related to “word transmission.”

I’ve purposely left the details of what any of that means as vague as possible, so you can fit this site into whatever story you want to make it about. More on that in a moment.

As a Hook

You’re checking out your phone while waiting for a friend. Maybe they’re meeting up with you at a bar or cafe or perhaps they just stepped away for a moment to use the bathroom.

When they get to you, you’re scrolling through this site. Maybe they’re nosey and they’re like, “What is that?” And the Hook is set.

If not, you can show them a picture (with the information scrolled off the screen) and ask them something like, “If you had to guess, how old would you say the person who wrote this is?” Or whatever. Either way, you have their focus on the site.

As a Premise

So this site exists, but why does it exist? This is where you come up with some kind of story for your presentation. Obviously it has something to do with learning to pick up on words, in some manner. But how exactly this site came together is going to be up to you to convey to them.

Is this something you and a group that you’re a part of have been putting together?

Or is one person behind this site and they’ve been collecting these images in their travels? If so, who is that guy and what’s his story?

Is it part of some kind of research project? Or just a mentalism rehearsal tool?

Example

Maybe your friend asks you what the site is, and you say, “Oh… it’s a little hard to explain. Okay… let’s try something. Think of any word—any word at all, no restrictions. Now forget that word and think of a second one. Got it? Okay now forget that one and think of a third. Last time. Forget that word and think of a new word.

“So that’s the fourth random word I had you think of. In mentalism [or psychology or linguistics or whatever your premise may be] the fourth word someone thinks of is kind of like a black hole. You can learn to get pretty good at guessing the first word people will think of. And if you know enough about them, you can often intuit the second word they’ll jump to. With years of practice you can begin to recognize the patterns in picking up on the third word people will think of. But the fourth word is just… a void. It’s completely unpredictable there’s no rhyme or reason behind what people think of as their fourth word. So it’s almost impossible to pick up on that thought because it’s like you don’t even know what you’re looking for.

“But I’m in a group of people that is trying to crack that code on the fourth word. So this is a collection of 'fourth words’ from people around the world. The idea is that if we get enough minds looking at it from different angles with enough examples to look at, we’ll eventually being to spot the patterns. We all send in our pictures of the words people thought and every month or so they get uploaded for everyone to study.

“Wait… do you remember what your fourth word was? Can I get you to write it down for me?”

As a Justification

Whatever story you come up with, this site of pictures of words written down on business cards certainly justifies why you might have someone write a word down and then why you might take it back.

After they write their word down you take it back and place it in your wallet saying something lie, “Thanks. I’m going to put it away because I don’t want to accidentally get a peek at it. Tonight I’m going to take a picture of what you wrote and send it in. But for now I want to be in the dark about what it is so I can try something out with you.”

You had them write it down because apparently that’s part of the process that dozens of people around the world are doing for this particular project. You took the card back because you need to take a picture of it later on. Those actions are pre-justified by the existence of this site.

As a Trick

Those of you with the Xeno app will recognize this is a Xeno site which also works with the Inertia Pro app. Those of you with knowledge of those apps already know what this means. If you’re not familiar,, what it means is that the spectator can look at this site on their phone and you can peek whatever they’re looking at and you can force any particular entry on them as they swipe “randomly” (with them looking at the screen and the phone in their hands).

Combine this site with Xeno, Inertia, and a peek wallet and you could have a three phase one-ahead type of prediction routine where you seemingly predict three thoughts but no one ever has to name what they’re thinking of at any point in the routine.

I don’t really do routines with multiple phases myself. But I do perform “long-form” routines that take place over multiple interactions. So maybe the first time the site is introduced I use Xeno (or Inertia) and I’m able to give them the sex and general age range of the person they’re thinking of who wrote the word. Part of the reason for having the name, age, and location data that goes with each photo is to allow for these “lesser” reveals. You can also pick up on things related to the handwriting style, ink color, cursive or print, etc.

The next time I see the person a couple weeks later, I say I’ve been practicing and now I’m able to pick up on whatever word on the site they’re thinking of.

Then a month or so later… “Remember that site we were looking at with the words written down? Well, I think I’m read to try that now with any word at all. Can I get you to write something down here….”

Those effects together build nicely. It starts with a simple tick where you’re able to pick up on the sex and age range they’re thinking of. This is mildly impressive, but saying, “I think it’s a guy in his 30s” is a fairly minor effect.

But when you come back a second time and directly nail the word they’re thinking of—from dozens of options—that’s going to feel much more impressive.

Then, sometime later, you’re able to remove this trick from the screen into the real world and do it with any word they can think of.

Those tricks are all similar enough to belong in the same “storyline” but also different enough to not feel like the same thing, over and over. And at the end, you bring it full circle by telling them you’ll be sharing their word with the group in the next “collection” of words, which ties everything together nicely and connects separate performances that happened over weeks (potentially) into one cohesive whole.

[Thanks to Xeno-master, Dan R. for putting the site together for me. And thanks to everyone who submitted images so I didn’t have to attempt to write in dozens of different handwritings, when I can barely write in one.]

Dear Jerxy: Pet Tricks

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Dear Jerxy: Last August my wife and I adopted a dog. His name is Tony and he's great. (Photo attached.)

I've never had a dog before, but many of my co-workers do, and they passed along the Rule of Threes. Basically, as your dog acclimates to the new environment, you'll see different aspects of their personality emerge after 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, and maybe even 3 years. I'd never heard about this before, but apparently it's common knowledge among dog owners. (And it's been more or less true -- Tony's a lot more playful and expressive since we first took him in, and the personality changes have roughly followed the Rule of 3s timeline.)

This seemed like an interesting premise for a potentially long-running Jerxian performance -- kind of like receiving a Yento package every year that you open in front of your family, except your dog is now taking the place of the mysterious self-working trick. So the story would be that my dog just started exhibiting some new, weird behaviors, but because of the Rule of Three-ish nature of things: a) his latent abilities couldn't have emerged until "X" months of acclimating to us and his new home, and b) this is now just another aspect of his personality that we're going to be learning about and dealing with at regular intervals for the rest of his life. ("We've been trying to keep track of it and it seems like it's every seven weeks or so. [Opens calendar on iPhone] Oh wow, you came on a good day -- it's been seven weeks since the last incident...")

In trying to compile a catalogue of tricks that would work with this premise, it seemed like the Jerxian angle would get lost if I'm participating too much -- it risks coming across like a typical "storytelling" trick where the story about my dog just feels tacked on and there's nothing really immersive about the experience. Something along the lines of Moon Barks At Dog would fit the parameters of what I'm aiming for. (But not exactly that because of potential logistical problems. Put your pet and a haunted deck in another room, close the door, and then come back to find that he's cut the deck to the right spot -- pretty good, unless your dog messes with the deck after the door closes...) Also, I'd want the catalogue to include tricks that could be performed in places other than our home -- like if we're out for a walk and run into someone -- so any props involved would have to be organic to the setting where you might naturally encounter a dog and their owner.

Anyway, i was curious how you would tackle this project. (And I figured there were probably some other Jerx-offs out there who've incorporated their pets into a trick at some point and might have thoughts on this, too.)

Signed,
Bringing Entertaining Spectacle Through Interesting Animal Legerdemain Is The Yearning

Dear BESTIALITY: I do tricks with pets relatively frequently (every few months or so).

The Haunted Deck is one of my go-to effects for this. Place the deck and the animal in the bathroom. Close the door and give the animal a chance to “do their thing,” then open it a little bit later to show the dog/cat/bunny/ferret or whatever has cut the deck and dragged out the selected card a little bit. (You will need a hands-off Haunted Deck to do this.)

But I can understand why you might not want to leave your dog alone in the bathroom with an expensive gimmicked deck. (“He found your card! And chewed it up. And peed on it. Great.”)

More often than not, the tricks I do with pets follow that type of format. They are put in the room with something and left alone with it for a minute. When we come back something has changed, and I pin that change on the animal. Why does the animal have to be left alone? It’s evolution. They’re not inclined to demonstrate their powers in front of people because it’s an evolutionary advantage to appear less capable than they truly are.

Triumph the Close-Up Magician Dog

With a Cheek-to-Cheek deck, have someone select a card. Mix the cards face-up and face down and return their card to the deck. Put your animal in the bathroom. Spread the cards to show your friend that the deck is completely mixed up. Throw the deck in the bathroom with the animal. In the process, turn it over so all the cards are facing the same way except the selection. Toss the cards in such a way that they spread across the floor somewhat. (Don’t let the spectator look in after the deck has been thrown in.)

Come back a few minutes later. The cards on the floor have been rearranged so they all now face the same way except the selection. Good boy!

The Invisible Dog

“I’ve reversed one card in this deck. Your dog will be able to determine what it is.”

Two pieces of paper are laid on the ground and a treat or piece of food is placed on each. On one sheet it says “RED” and on the other it says “BLACK.”

The dog eats the black one first.

You scribble out red and black and write in clubs and spades. He eats “clubs” first this time.

You continue on with this winnowing process:

  • High-Low

  • Odd-Even

  • 2 - 4

Eventually the dog has “selected” the Two of Clubs. You reveal that’s the card that was reversed in the deck earlier on.

Cat Scratch

You use the Hoy Book Test (or a Svengali pad, or whatever else you like) to force a word. Let’s say you’re using the Hoy procedure. You don’t have the participant look at the word. You tell them to open the book to that page and show that page to your pet (we’ll say it’s a cat for this example). You toss the cat into a room and close the door. Then you show two small blank slates and toss those in the room too with some chalk and close the door.

“Kitty! I want you to write the first word you saw on that page of the book.”

You put your ear to the door. “I think I hear him writing something,” you say. You tell your friend to listen in as well and some scratching sounds are heard.

(For the scratching sounds, just stand with your ear against the door. Motion for your friend to stand in front of you with their ear against the door too. In this position, just scratch the door itself with your finger down at your hip. You can’t really tell where the scratching is coming from. Even if they do suspect you’re making the scratching noise yourself, that will only serve to lower their expectations, which should only make the climax hit harder.)

Now, you tell your friend to open the page and see what the first word is, “so we can verify if he gets it right.” After a minute or two you go in the bathroom and poke at the slates with your foot. One of them seems to have random scribbles on it. The other one you can just barely make out something written on there. “Darn…something maybe. Oh wait… damage? Was the word damage?” It was! Good kitty.

On The Go

I’ve never really done any completely impromptu, on-the-go, pet related tricks. Not that I can remember, at least. I’m not sure it’s the type of premise you really need an anytime, anywhere version of.

But if I had to come up with something on the fly, the easiest option is to use some kind of mentalism-related phone app and stick the animal in the middle of that process.

So rather than you reading your friend’s mind. Your friend would look at any word on a particular page (Xeno app or Inertia app or something similar) then whisper that word to the dog, then the dog somehow transmits that word to you. For example you can hold the dogs two front paws and do a sort of “20 Questions” type of thing with him. “Okay, Scrapple, is what they’re thinking of something natural [shake left paw] or man-made [shake right paw].” Pause a moment and act as if the dog is pressing down on your right hand. “Ah, okay. So it’s man made. Is it bigger than a phone booth [shake left paw] or smaller [shake right paw].” That sort of thing… until the dog has clued you in to the person’s thought.

Or using the Jerx App, if you force a word on someone (perhaps using the Hoy procedure mentioned above), you could then go to a drawing app and hold that out to the dog and they could use their nose to write some sort of sloppy reveal of that information on the phone.

Pacing

This is not the sort of premise I’d want to beat into the ground with the same people over and over. I probably wouldn’t do a pet-related trick with the same people more than twice a year. It’s such a strongly different premise that using it more often would be overkill.

Dustings #65

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Gee… I wonder where that smoke might be coming from?

This is the new Mist Watch release. Look, I’m on the side of anyone who wants to take a run at making a smoke-producing gimmick. The idea of such a thing is certainly magical. And something vanishing or appearing in a puff of smoke is just classic. We should definitely be working to perfect this idea. But if the best we can do now is to strap a grandfather clock to our wrist, we might have to admit we’re not at the point where we can make a smoke-producing gimmick that isn’t obvious due to its size.

I like big watches. I’ve worn big watches in the past. They don’t look like this. This watch looks suspicious long before smoke ever comes pouring out of it. The watch is so big that someone might not see the smoke appear because your colossal watch is in the way. “Smoke appeared? I’m sorry, I didn’t see that. Your watch was blocking out the sun. It’s very dark in here.” Or you might get this, “Yes, I saw the smoke. I didn’t know it was a trick though. I just thought that was from the gears on your massive watch grinding together.”

Feel free to show that gif to your non-magician friends and ask them where they think the smoke might be coming from. My friends—even my dumbest ones—all said the watch. Maybe they’re uniquely skeptical, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s just a combination of two things: “where else could it be coming from” and “giant fucking watch.”

I will accept this argument for this product: “Yes, anyone thinking critically will likely identify the watch as the source of the smoke. But everyone knows it’s just a trick anyway, and I’m just using it to add a little atmosphere to the mystery (not as the trick itself) and for those purposes it will be fine.” Okay, fair enough. I think there’s definitely a style of performing where that works. There are people who think, “Who cares if the prop looks real?” “Who cares if the premise is illogical?” “These are magic tricks, they’re just supposed to be entertaining.” I think that’s a perfectly valid approach to magic and in that context I think this watch will work for you. Even if you know where the smoke is coming from, it’s still magical if not fooling.

I too agree that magic is first and foremost about entertaining. But I also feel like for the magic to be the most impactful that the other elements should not draw attention to themselves. Magic hits the hardest when people don’t see the seams. For me, this fat bitch watch is a big “seam,” so unfortunately I don’t think we’ve quite cracked the smoke-production gimmick situation just yet.

Guess it’s back to this shit…

I was thinking of the question in Monday’s mailbag about the show where there’s a guy that comes to your house as the pizza man and it turns into a magic show. I think a whole series of shows could be built around this concept. That is: People coming to your door and the interaction morphs into an immersive magic show. A girl scout comes to your door selling cookies, a Jehovah’s Witness comes by to preach the good news, a traveling salesman stops by to sell you on a vacuum. Gradually things shift and you’re somehow into a unique type of magic show.

I’d probably show up as cop. “We’ve had a noise complaint. What is this… some kind of bachelorette party or something?” Bam! I rip my pants off. Grab my boombox. It’s out of batteries. Shit. I’m standing there in half a police outfit and a g-string. “You don’t happen to have 8 D-batteries, do you?” It’s all quiet. “I’m kind of really only comfortable dancing to my special mix tape. I feel bad. Did you guys have other entertainment planned or anything?… Hmmm… Well, I know a card trick if you want to see one.”

Okay, that’s not the greatest transition, I know. I’m spitballing here. I just like the idea of coming to the door as one thing, that becomes something else, that becomes something else.

Rob D., sent along this page from the new book, The Expectation Effect by David Robson. This is very much in line with my attitude towards “rituals,” when I perform effects that use them. I can understand if you don’t want to use those types of presentations because they suggest some kind of witchcraft bullshit or something you don’t want to get behind. I often will use the idea that it’s not that the ritual is some kind of “magic” but that it’s a way to channel the power of the mind. Which is an idea that is still mysterious and wonderful, but also kind of true.

Speaking of including ritual style presentations in your work, I recommend picking up a set of something called Platonic Solids.

This is the set I have.

Platonic Solids are crystals or stones cut into shapes of the regular polyhedra. They are supposed to do… something. I don’t know what. Some chakra something or reiki? I don’t really understand it. But that’s the beauty of it. I’ve never met anyone who understands it. So I have completely free range to make up whatever I want to say about these. So I can suggest that certain combinations of these stones laid out in certain orientations can affect: luck, intuition, coincidences, memory, psychic connection, gravity, or whatever. That’s tremendous presentational freedom that comes just by having a set like this on a shelf somewhere. Any trick you might not currently have a good presentation for can be folded into this framework. And you can use that until you come up with something better. And they’re just kind of interesting to look at and hold for the person you’re performing for. A good, cheap, all-purpose presentational tool.

Draw Cycle

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This is a post about a new feature on the Jerx App that will be coming out today (or very soon).

First, a brief history of the app for those of you who are new here.

The app was initially designed as a free bonus for the people who purchased my very first book, The Jerx Volume 1. At first, it was going to be an app with one simple purpose to be used in one of the tricks in that book. During the process of creating the app, I realized there were many more uses for it than I originally anticipated. The main function of the app is really a utility function that can be used for a number of very different effects. (There are 10 or so effects listed in the instructions.)

The Jerx App is also a place where I dump other app ideas occasionally. Simple ideas that it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to release as their own app. So I just drop Marc Kerstein a line and ask him if some idea or another would be easy enough to program. And if so, he works on it and it’s added to the app.

I’m not trying to sell anyone on the app. It’s priced at a premium, and intentionally so. If I had people buying that first book for $250 when I had zero track record of putting out a physical product, and part of the allure for some was a bonus app—and then I go and sell it later for $15 or something, that would devalue the faith they put in me back then. For me the app is worth the cost it currently sells for because I use it all the time. And I intend to add more little ideas to it as time goes on. But it’s certainly not something anyone needs to have. As I said, I’m not trying to sell the app. I’m just giving some details about the history of the app for new readers. I don’t make any money when the app sells. Marc does, but there are plenty of other great apps you can buy if you want to give Marc some dough.

Draw Cycle

Here’s what the new feature in the app does:

It’s designed to look like a drawing app. And it cycles through a series of options while the phone is facing you, but then it locks onto one when you move the phone.

So, a boring way to use it would be to make your prediction, ask someone to roll an imaginary die and tell you what number came up. By shifting the phone when that number is on the screen you lock it in place and the phone can be given to the spectator and it acts just like a normal drawing program.

There are, of course, much more interesting ways to use it. I, for example, will be using it to perform my Fuck, Marry Kill routine I wrote about years ago. I used to use the iForce app for that effect, but the method was too complicated to remember if I didn’t do it for a couple of weeks. This will make it much simpler.

Obviously you don’t want to be staring at your phone while it’s cycling through the options. What you want it to feel like is that you’ve written something down on your phone and now you’re just holding it towards yourself until you’re ready to reveal what you wrote. You want to be able to spot what you need using your peripheral vision. (Although occasionally glancing at what you wrote wouldn’t be the weirdest thing in the world.)

You can also use haptic feedback so you don’t have to look at the phone at all. That will work best with a small number of potential outs whose order you know. (The numbers on a die, for example.)

You can make as many outs as you need, and change how long each image stays on screen, from fractions of a second to two seconds.

Imagine you had this set up so you could reveal one of 20 common zoo animals. I would draw the pictures and load them in alphabetically. That way if you’re at Bear, you know you can pay less attention for a little bit if they named Zebra.

But also keep in mind when you’re deciding what trick to do with this. If—in this example—they name Zebra, and it just looped around to the beginning of the alphabet (and the beginning of your outs) that you’re going to have to vamp for a little bit. In this case up to 40 seconds, if you have 20 images set to flip every 2 seconds. Do you have a hard time bullshitting for 40 seconds? I personally don’t. My tricks are usually at least 5 minutes of bullshitting. But if you do, you may want to avoid a trick with a lot of outs.

This tool would be ideal for situations where there seems to be a lot of potential outcomes, but there’s really only a handful. The Mind Power deck. Or how about using it for the thought-of words in WikiTest? Or a Svengali-style pad that forces a list of, say, 8 celebrities (but you flip through and show what appears to be hundreds of different celebrities). So they flip to any page, mentally select anyone on that page. And it’s someone you drew a picture of on your phone. The combination of methods there would be very strong.

You get the idea. There are a million uses here.

I’m going to go email Marc and ask him if it wouldn’t be too difficult to store different sets of outs so you wouldn’t have to re-do the options when you want to change tricks. That email will start the way most of my emaIls to him start, “Okay, this seems like it should be easy enough to do…” Because nothing is better than when someone who doesn’t know how to do what you know how to do tells you that what they want you to do is going to be easy.

Oh, and if you want to do a “hands-off” version, you could place the phone in empty coffee cup or mug in such a way where you can still see the screen. “I won’t touch the phone again,” etc. Then just turn the cup/mug towards them at the appropriate time.

For those of you with the app, after you update it, you can check out exactly how to set-up and use Draw Cycle on the instructions page.

By the way, if you’d like a similar multiple outs type thing, but one where the phone is face down and you don’t need to touch it, I recommend Marc’s Amalgam app. In “season 1” of that app there is a program called Timed Out, which will let you do just that with 6 outs.

Monday Mailbag #66

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How are you feeling about Lloyd Barnes new effect Lux? They spent a week or two doing a completely corny hype campaign which had the opposite effect they intended on me. All I could see when the trick was finally revealed were the flaws. But maybe that’s just confirmation bias. What do you think? —SC

Yeah, I get being turned off by the advertising campaign for this trick. It does make me feel like, “If this trick is so good… why do you have to try so hard to sell it to me?”

That’s not to say this trick isn’t good. I think it’s a good tool. It’s not (as advertised) “the most powerful everyday carry item ever created.” It’s a fucking UV marker and flashlight. Certainly the most powerful everyday carry item should look like something that people carry with them every day, right? Yes, a UV light and marker is something you could carry with you every day. If you’re a fucking weirdo. But let’s not devalue the usefulness of the EDC (everyday carry) designation so that it’s just synonymous with “small.” EDC in magic and mentalism should suggest not only something you can carry with your everyday, but also something that a normal human might reasonably carry with them everyday (and also something that requires little to no set-up to get into). That’s what “EDC” should refer to if the term is to mean anything other than that it fits in your pocket.

Because I’m in the midst of the book mailing, I wasn’t able to get this out to a new Virtual Focus Group to get their thoughts on the effect in the trailer. I did however show it to a few lay people who I know personally to get their thoughts. I would say the general consensus was that they thought it was a cool trick, but when asked if they had a guess how it was done, they all had an idea. Their ideas were wrong. But that doesn’t matter. To a layperson, a satisfying explanation is no different than the right explanation. And most laypeople have heard of disappearing ink or ink that appears with heat. So if they think this trick is just that technology applied to UV ink, that’s what they’re going to think.

That’s not a flaw of the prop, that’s a flaw of this particular usage of it. If you draw an X in UV ink and I make it disappear and then reappear on me. Your first thought might be, “Cool!” But your next thought will be, “Oh, there’s probably something special about that ink.” (Again, that’s not the solution, but it’s an “obvious” one.) If not, why would I have done it with UV ink and not a Sharpie? With a little bit of thought, the logic of the trick falls apart.

But I will still get this. I’m going to get it to do a perfect version of Teenage Dream aka Out of This World with cum covered nudie cards. In this version, all the cards would be treated with the UV ink, and you’d just make the necessary cards glow. So there would be no required "handling” for the OOTW portion. You would just hand them the deck and have them deal it into two piles. No switching. They wouldn’t even have to be even piles.

I would hesitate to use this with a trick where the UV ink appears or disappears. That will definitely be the tempting way to use it. But I’ve found it’s not a great idea to do something magical with something people don’t already full understand. Most people don’t have a firm understanding of how UV ink/light works in the first place. It’s already sort of magical. “I’m going to do a trick with this thing you don’t fully understand” is a less-than-ideal situation.

If I was going to do that, I’d prefer to have the UV ink at least be used in a context that makes sense to an audience. Perhaps a hand-stamp from a club or concert vanishes from one person’s hand and appears on another. (“This is how I go about getting me and my friend into the club, while only paying for one of us.”) Even better if you could secretly stamp someone at an earlier point and then the image could appear on them.

This idea presumes that the type of UV ink used in this effect is the sort of thing that can be purchased for use in stamps/stamp pads. I don’t know if that’s the case. If so, this type of idea may already be addressed in the instructions.

Regarding the post: Extinct - An Interactive Effect (Don’t read this email if you haven’t read that post yet.)

That was fun and it was a perfect demonstration of your style of performing that you’ve been discussing the past few weeks. Even though I knew it was all fiction, I found myself really wondering if it was true. I knew it was a trick, but simultaneously, I was second guessing my memory. Knowing that it was all fiction, I found myself wondering how much was fiction and how much was true.

It basically played out as, “Clearly all the NLP stuff is BS… but maybe I really did forget the deer? No, I know for sure I didn’t see it there… but maybe I wasn’t paying as close attention as I thought? Well whatever it is, it definitely isn’t NLP because he’s basically making fun of NLP. But maybe there’s a little validity in it? He said it only works for 35% of people, so it has to be something psychological I guess.”

Obviously, all of that is taking place on a subconscious level in my “layman brain” and at the same time, my “magician brain” knew it was just a clever change of the site. But even still, I found myself WANTING to believe the fiction and consciously pushing aside the fact that I knew it was just a trick because believing in the fiction is more fun than discovering the trick. —MH

The “Extinct” interactive magic post from a couple weeks ago garnered as many emails as almost any post I’ve ever done on this site. It was all essentially positive feedback, although there was a subset of respondents that seemed to think I was genuinely suggestion the trick was accomplished through psychology and “wonder words.” I wasn’t. I was screwing around. (Given that I haven’t championed psychological methods in the seven year history of this site, it would be weird for that to be my thing now.)

But a lot of the responses were similar to the email above, in that they described a kind of ping-pong’ing of their understanding of the nature of the effect. With many readers thinking it was a joke at first, to then realizing the trick “worked,” or maybe it was a joke and they just also happened to forget that word, or maybe the psychological elements can actually influence people, but no it was probably just some kind of trick.

It’s not an impenetrable mystery because with a little bit of effort, it’s a trick that can be figured out. But for a few moments it seemed to nicely mess with people, and have them really questioning themselves, which I was happy to hear.

Now, what I do is I try and take that feeling, and instead of thinking of it as something that just happens during the trick, I try to instill it in people over a lifetime of performing for them. That’s my goal with amateur/social magic. To have them in a state of questioning things. So they don’t get bored or find the interactions predictable.

I’ve been helping my friend work on a new magic show called the M@gic Piz-za Guy. [The actual name isn’t that wonky, I just wrote it that way so this site won’t show up if someone searches for it.] Essentially you have a party completely unrelated to a magic show, and he arrives at some point in the night pretending to deliver extra pizza, which kicks off a "Twilight zone-esque" immersive fictional experience.

While getting ready to pitch this concept to a potential client she pointed out this to us,

“ Well, magic relies (imo) on the agreement between magician and audience that magician will lie and deceive, but it will be benign. The audience, by agreeing to watch, knows what it is getting into. Unexpected magic may lack that agreement, which could be disturbing or upsetting. Like the dupes on carbonaro's show- THEY don't enjoy the experience. The show is about seeing them confused.”

I thought the comment about the reactions you see for the people in the carbonara effect show really are much different than what you see and like a David Blaine show or a David Copperfield show was the most telling insight.

What are your thoughts about getting consent from people to participate in a more immersive Magic style experience? In your work it seems like you’ve got a lot of on ramps to get people to buy-in to the experience, whereas what my friend is doing is looking more to spring it on them in a way that they’re not expecting. It’s not quite as hit and run as what you see in the Carbonaro effect, and they do have to buy in and participate in order to get the most out of the story line at some point, but now I’m putting myself in the mindset of someone who finds himself having to play in escape room without having consented to participate in such an activity ya know? That sure doesn’t sound fun.

First, I love the idea for this show. I think it sounds great.

As to your question, I think it’s so easy to fool and deceive people when they’re not ready for it, that I can’t imagine wanting to do it, really. It would be like taking pride in having sex with the most attractive woman in your office while she was in a coma. That’s not really something to brag about.

If I was putting on a show like this, I would want people to know they are going to see “a type of magic show” or “a type of immersive theater.” Or something at least. I’m not saying I would spell out exactly what’s going to happen. I wouldn’t say, “There will be a pizza guy. But he’s a fake pizza guy. And that’s actually the magician,” and so on. But I would want people coming in with some expectations. Not just thinking they’re there for a party, and then being confused, and then having to sort of “figure it out,” and then be like, “So do I have to stop this conversation I was having in order to watch this thing I didn’t know about and didn’t come here for?”

This goes along with my overall approach to performing which to establish that things are “just a trick,” “just fiction,” etc. And then do all that I can to pull them into the moment and get them to “forget” it’s just a trick and for it to feel legitimate. That’s a seduction. You can take pride in that. That’s wooing the hottest woman at the office before she’s in a vegetative state. So that’s how I would handle it. Although reasonable minds may disagree.


Dusting #64

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The site will be away for spring break next week. (Spring Break = Getting my taxes finished and starting the book mailing.)

Regular posting resumes April 25th.

Before we go further I want to clarify the upcoming schedule for current and (potential) future supporters of the site. “Clarify” might be the wrong word. I want to “finalize” the schedule because what I’ve said recently has been a little up in the air due to certain factors. But here, as of now, is the planned schedule:

This Weekend - An email will go out to supporters collecting their shipping fee and current address for the support rewards package.

Next Week Thru The End of the Month - The support packages will ship out.

May 2nd - The new support “season” will commence, with a new support structure in place. Current supporters will have first dibs on the available supporter slots. Depending on the interest of current supporters, I’ll decide if I’m going to keep going with the site and associated content. If so…

May 6th - Unclaimed supporter slots will be made available via this site.

That’s the plan.

With my concerns about the supply chain setting back the production of the books and decks this year, one thing I failed to consider was that it would have a negative effect on my ability to get packaging. In past years, I’ve had custom-sized packaging printed for all the orders. This year that was going to set us back weeks. So, sadly, supporters won’t receive your book in a box like this

Or last year’s box which was cleverly disguised as a box of “luxury pinecones.”

Fortunately, the packaging we are using does an even better job at protecting the book, despite being much simpler than what we used in the past (a box built to the specifications of the book, inside a padded envelope).

If you look closely at this gif of a dryer, you will see two things inside. The first is a beach towel. The second is stiff white envelope inside which is this year’s book and deck of cards.

I was testing the new packaging in a dryer to simulate a book being tossed around by careless postal workers. (The bath towel is there because that’s what I used to sneak the package into the laundromat. I didn’t want people seeing me toss a package directly into the dryer like a goddamn sociopath. “Young man, that’s not a mailbox.”)

When I took the book out of the package it was in excellent condition. So the packaging might not be as fun this year but it will do the job of packaging, at least.

Julien Losa is releasing Ted Annemann’s Jinx magazine, with a new layout and format for about seven bucks a month.

As he describes it:

Every Friday, one issue of The Jinx, retyped, corrected, with a better layout/design, making it a more comfortable experience to discover or rediscover the best magic and mindreading magazine of all time ! + Two videos a month with demos/tips of some tricks of The Jinx !

At first I thought, is this really necessary? But now I think it’s probably a pretty good idea.

I have the three-volume Tannen’s (?) set of the Jinx and while the material is great, it really isn’t the best reading experience—small font, and jumping around to finish an article and stuff like that. This could be considered part of the charm of reading the Jinx. But it also could just be considered a pain in the ass.

I think Julien’s enterprise is worthwhile, especially if you’ve never worked your way through the Jinx. Getting one issue per week could be a fun way to do it.

Here is the first issue of Julien’s re-formatting, so you can see if this is something you might be interested in. If so, you can sign up here.

Remember last year when I did a week or so of posts on artificial intelligence? And I even had a contest for people to make videos inspired by those posts?

Well, somehow this video on how to be a magician was not one of those contest videos. This is a real thing, put out by a real youtube channel, presumably to be a helpful resource to people.

It’s a crazy video. Not as crazy as the content created by the AI that I was using for those posts last year. But it’s somehow weirder in a way. Like some of the advice is on the border of being legitimate/useful. And then thee’s stuff like, “Make sure your vest pockets are big so you can vanish plates.” I’m not 100% if the video was written by a robot, or just a very dull idiot.

Oh, and that same youtube channel put out the video below on how to french kiss. I figured a loser like you could probably use this. It’s three minutes longer than the video on how to become a magician. I guess that speaks to the relative difficulty of each enterprise.