Instant Rebate

The ISO app got an add-on feature that allows you to use augmented reality to replace the serial number on a dollar bill in a photo on a spectator’s phone.

Ryan Plunkett wrote in with this idea:

I just saw this ISO app update come through, and this is what popped into my head.

You have someone take a bill out of their wallet and you take a photo of them holding it. You then drag them over to a vending machine and have them pay for a bag of chips. They have a free selection. You show your hands empty, reach inside the vending machine to pull out the bag of chips, then cleanly open the bag to show the bill inside.

The method is rather simple. The final bill is in a thumb tip that you hide inside the base of a vending machine. The ISO app switches the serial number and they actually spend it. When you reach inside of the lower compartment, you place the thumb tip on, and reveal accordingly.

This seems incredibly practical and possibly something that fits your style. —RP

I’ve seen a similar trick done in the past with a torn corner, but doing it with the ISO app and the Serial AR functionality takes it to another level because you don’t have to ever touch the bill before it’s inserted into the machine.

And I really like Ryan’s idea of having the thumbtip ready to go inside the base of the machine.

What I would likely do is take the picture of them holding the bill, have them insert the bill, then give them the camera to record a video. That way they’ll have video evidence of me reaching into the machine with empty hands, pulling out their freely chosen chips, and finding their dollar inside.

The strongest element of using ISO with a bill to impossible location effect is that you never have to touch the bill at the start of the trick. You don’t have to switch the bill or switch a corner or anything like that. And using the vending machine as a way to “vanish” the bill (in a manner of speaking) lets you maintain that hands-off element of the trick while allowing the spectator to get rid of the bill. And unlike burning the bill or tearing it up and flushing it down the toilet, you get chips out of doing it this way.

Mailbag #87

A good friend of mine is getting married in june and he asked me if i would like to perform (sort of walk around). Im finding myself being very critical of the type of magic that would actually suit the venue, style, rhythm. And at the same time, the slower pace higher investment type of magic i enjoy performing im not sure would play out that greatly. i have performed before in walk around but im trying to see if there is a way of not performing lets say... the "classic image of a magician".

My first solution right now would actually be, to perform one trick per table (12-14 tables total) and maybe make more out of those tricks. Something more fun, invested, and all around interesting for each table.

Any thoughts? —JFC

I would try to do something that creates some kind of memento for the wedding couple along the way. For example, The Rehearsal Dinner effect as written up in this post.

Or maybe plan on doing an Anniversary Waltz type of effect for the bride and groom and as you go from table to table showing the groups something beforehand, you get people to sign and write messages to the new couple on the other 50 cards in the deck. So when all is said and done the couple would have a deck of cards will all sorts of greetings from their friends/family. And they’d have the merged card souvenir from Anniversary Waltz.

You wouldn’t even have to force the two Anniversary Waltz cards, because they would be the only ones left without writing on them.

I wouldn’t worry too much about how you come off during this. If it looks like you’re entertaining people while trying to do something special for the bride and groom, then you’ll come off fine.

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I wanted to share an idea that I’ve performed a few times with pretty solid reactions that was inspired by an off hand comment in [a previous Love Letter newsletter].

In the letter you mentioned the idea of trading pants with someone. I found that super interesting but particularly impractical for me and my audience. But we could trade shoes. 

Essentially I am doing Wayne Houchin’s French kiss routine but after the card is folded, it is placed under their foot. To make the magic happen the spectator and I take off our shoes (trying to keep the card under them and not lifting too far off the ground.) and physically stand where the other person was standing. 

Been super fun and gets people truly interested in what’s happening. —NW

French Kiss is a great structure, but it has felt increasingly desperate to me as the years have passed. At least when performed for a stranger or someone you don’t know well. I have a couple variations I’ve worked on and at least one that will see print someday, but I like this idea of using your feet.

If switching shoes is even a bit too impractical, you could do something where they write “left foot” on a card, it’s folded and put under their left foot. You write “right foot” on a card and place it under your right foot. Imagine you’re facing each other, so the cards are under the feet in a mirrored position. If you both step to your right (his left) so now the card is under the opposite foot, you would expect the designations no longer to match the foot on top of the card. But when you reach under you’ll have his “left foot” note under your left foot, and he will have your “right foot” note under his right.

Perhaps not an earth shattering miracle, but it could be fun. And at least there’s some “logic” to that presentation. Whereas French Kiss can come off as, “I want to pretend to kiss you.”

Dustings #84

I was thinking again about the influence plot and I realized the main issue I have with it is that it’s usually presented this way:

“I just read your mind!” (Or, “I predicted exactly what you would do.”)

Followed by:

“Actually, what happened is that you were influenced.”

In magic or mentalism or whatever, I don’t think it’s great dramatic structure to say, “This impossible thing just happened.” Followed by, “Actually, this somewhat possible thing is what really happened.” And then show them evidence of that more possible explanation.

I think it’s much stronger to start with the somewhat believable explanation. Then say, “Actually it was [some more impossible thing].” And then provide evidence of that more impossible thing.

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Spring App Cleaning

Once a year I think it’s a good idea to go through your magic apps on your phone (if you’re an app person) and douche out the ones you haven’t used in the past year.

It may seem like a pointless exercise because it’s not like these apps are taking up much space in any real sense (other than some minor amount of storage space on your phone). But I think it’s just good as a way to remind yourself of the apps you have, and perhaps inspire some new ideas with apps you haven’t considered in a while.

As Marie Kondo says, if the apps don’t “spark joy” in you, just get rid of them. Even digital clutter is depressing, and opening up your magic app folder to find a bunch of apps you wasted money on doesn’t put you in the best mindset for performing. You can always download them again in the future if you’re struck with some inspiration for a particular app.

You ever move apartments or houses after years of living in the same one, and you’re packing up your books and you’re reminded of ones you’d forgotten about, or you’re reminded to re-read something? Or you remember some ideas the books inspired in you the last time you read it? That’s sort of what this process is meant to mimic. A quick but purposeful re-examination of your collection in order to get you to reconsider them or trash them.

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Here’s an odd find. If you have the Christmas Plus app on your TV, it has a section called Free Movies and Magic which is just all the David Blaine specials.

I’m sure these are probably available on youtube, but it was nice to find them all in one spot here.

You might be saying, “Andy, are you okay? What’s going on in your life that has you looking at the on-demand Christmas channel in mid-April?”

LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!

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Big fan of mine, Glenn Bishop (aka Bish the Magish, aka the man they call Mr. Hypnotist) is ramping up his efforts to get more gigs.

I wish him well, although I don’t know how useful “direct mail” and 30-plus-year-old promotional material will be in capturing business in 2023. I think Glenn should have a tiktok channel where he and his bros go around picking up babes, pranking people, and having the best time with magic. If he’s not down for that idea, then maybe an ultra-erotic Onlyfans. (Not too sexual. Just sensual.)

In hopes to assist Glenn in his bid for some “early mourning” shows, I would like to remind him that a few years ago I updated his promotional material to give it a bit of a more modern edge, which I hope he’ll find useful.

Sneak Preview of the Next Book

Okay, what the hell. I said last week that I wouldn’t give more information about the next book, but I’ve changed my mind and decided to give you all a sneak peek at the material in book number six.

I hope supporters won’t be too mad that I’m sharing these gems with the leeches who just read and don’t support, but these little babies are too good to keep to myself.

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I had a tough time coming up with a name for this first trick, but I’m sure you’ll agree that what I settled on is accurate.

I guess I could have also called it “Fun With A Sheep’s Bladder.”

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This is less of a magic trick and more of a lifehack.

This is, actually, the only way I measure anything at all.

In fact, it’s how I identified and measured the trees I needed to construct my new log cabin.

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Since this write-up I’ve actually made an interesting discovery: burning almost anything will change its color. Keep that in mind.

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I was going to save this one for my book of tricks to attract women, but decided to let it slip early.

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You asked for it, readers, and I delivered: a practical pun.

This would be great to do on Fool Us.

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Finally! Something to do with the galls and copperas rattling around the bottom of your old magic drawer.

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And last but not least, the trick that gives the next book its name…

The Fitzkee Structure

In last week’s Taxonomy post, I included Dariel Fitzkee’s list of the various types of magic effects.

• Production (appearance, creation, multiplication)

• Vanish (disappearance, obliteration)

• Transposition (change in location)

• Transformation (change in appearance, character or identity)

• Penetration (one solid through another)

• Restoration (making the destroyed whole)

• Animation (movement imparted to the inanimate)

• Anti-gravity (levitation and change in weight)

• Attraction (mysterious adhesion)

• Sympathetic Reaction (sympathetic response)

• Invulnerability (injury-proof)

• Physical Anomaly (contradictions, abnormalities, freaks)

• Spectator Failure (magician's challenge)

• Control (mind over the inanimate)

• Identification (specific discovery)

• Thought Reading (mental perception, mind reading)

• Thought Transmission (thought projection and transference)

• Prediction (foretelling the future)

• Extrasensory Perception (unusual perception, other than mind)

While I don’t see too much value in the list as just a categorization of magic tricks, I think you could utilize the list as part of a dramatic structure for a long-running “storyline” in your magical endeavors.

I’ve suggested in the past that creating some continuity to your magic performances is a powerful way to get people hooked into seeing and hearing about your tricks. If everything is just some stand-alone piece of magic, there’s nothing intrinsically keeping them interested from the trick you show them one day to another.

But let’s say you have a close friend, a spouse, a roommate, or whatever, that you see regularly. And what if you introduced this list to them as something you were tackling? Maybe as a personal project. Or maybe you need to work your way through this list before gaining acceptance into some secret society. Or you have to show proficiency in each of these areas before certain other secrets are revealed to you. You can make the story behind why you’re tackling this list as believable or outlandish as you like.

But now you have a structure that allows you to show them 19 tricks—perhaps over a year or two of time—that don’t need to be tied together in any way other than the over-arching storyline of you working your way through the list. They’re witnesses to you accomplishing this goal. It gives the magic tricks themselves a greater meaning.

To add some drama to it, there should be failures and setbacks along the way. For example, maybe vanishes just aren’t your thing. They don’t come naturally to you. So you place a half-dollar on your left palm and wave your right hand over it. “Can you still see it?” you ask. They can. You try it again. Still no luck. You skip it for now on the list. You try it again a couple of months later. It doesn’t vanish again. Sometime down the line, you try it with a peanut instead of a coin. “The lighter density might help,” you suggest. The peanut doesn’t vanish either. You continue working your way through the list in the meantime. Until one day you’ve finished everything but that goddamn vanish. “I’m just going to focus on it for the next week and see if I can get it,” you tell the person who has been with you through this journey.

The next time you see them, you place the coin on the palm of their hand and wave your hands over it and…

It’s still there.

Shit.

Okay. One more time. Slowly you wave your hands over the coin and it completely vanishes.

You let out a guttural grunt and slump down, resting your hands on your knees. “Fucking finally,” you exclaim.

That build-up makes it actually worth getting a Raven rigged up in your jacket to vanish the coin.

The Raven is a beautiful coin vanish, but it’s over so quickly. This structure turns it into a 17-month coin vanish. It has so much more weight to it.

You might think, “Ah, my wife barely likes magic tricks. She’s not going to want to watch me work my way through this list.”

Okay, fine. But does she like you? This structure makes the story about reaching a goal, which everyone can relate to. Not just random tricks.

You might not like weightlifting, but if your best friend asked you to spot him for a few minutes once a month while he worked on achieving a personal goal for his deadlift, you’d go out in the garage and help him out. And you’d be invested (unless you’re a total self-absorbed piece of shit). And when he finally reached his goal of deadlifting double his body weight, you’d be psyched even if you never gave one second’s thought to weightlifting ever again.

Creating a broader narrative for your tricks to live within will ratchet up the interest level of anyone who watches this play out. The Fitzkee list is a great structure to do this.

Contranym

This idea is for English speakers only.

I think there’s a trick to be found in the concept of “contronyms.” This is when the same word has two opposite meanings.

At first, I thought there might be some way to use them subtly in some Third Wave Equivoque-style statements. There may be, but I haven’t figured that out yet.

You could probably build a little act around using this concept more overtly. If you’re the sort of person who puts together “acts” with high-concept themes.

You could have different trick titles and then let the spectator/audience determine what the title means.

For example, “The Cleaved Rubber Band”- Which definition of “cleave” do they want to use? And then you either link the rubber band to something or split it in two.

Or you could have them count ten coins into your hand which you close into a fist. “This trick is called, ‘Three Coins Left.’ What do you want that title to mean? That three coins have gone? Or that three coins remain?” Whatever they choose you is what you make happen.

For a finale, you could do an escape. Have yourself tied to a chair.

As you’re getting tied, you narrate the process.

“My hands are bound. My feet are bound. My chest is bound.”

As a curtain is raised up, you say, “I am bound.”

The curtain drops and you’re free.

“Bound for home, bitches! See ya!” And you scamper away.

And yes, I know rubber band tricks and escapes aren’t generally in the same show. I’m brainstorming, stupid. Leave me alone.

Mailbag #86

I really love your routining for Hide-A-Key from Love Letters #10. It rounds out the effect in such a satisfying way.

Have you had any issue with anyone questioning the key itself? Does it look like a legitimate key to you?—LO

While I haven’t performed this trick hundreds, or even dozens, of times, in all the times I have performed it, I’ve never had anyone comment on the key looking strange or anything like that. And I perform for the sort of people who would call me out on such a thing.

In the U.S., at least, this style of key is pretty ubiquitous. Double-sided keys like this were mandated for cars over 30 years ago. So people here are familiar with the style/shape of key. (Of course, now most cars don’t have actual keys at all. But this key style is still familiar to people.)

While I wouldn’t perform this for a locksmith, I’m pretty comfortable showing it to anyone else without them questioning it.

You just need to ask yourself, does the key look strange to you? If so, then maybe you shouldn’t get it, because apparently, you’re from an area where this key type isn’t common. But it didn’t even raise an eyebrow from me when I first saw it (and I’m usually hyper-critical about the look of magic props).

Keys are so unstandardized, that it would be unusual, I think, for someone to think something was off, just based on looking at the key. If they ask (which they probably won’t) tell them it’s for your gym locker or storage locker or something other than a house key or car key.

Now, once the key vanishes, they might have some suspicion about the key itself, but they’d have that regardless of what it looked like.

With the version of Hide-A-Key I perform, the focus is more on the reappearance than solely the vanish. The structure used in that effect would be inexplicable to people even if you performed it with a mysterious ball of goo. So if you do it with something that looks even vaguely like a normal key-like, you shouldn’t have a problem.

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What is your writing schedule like? How do you block out your time? I’m embarking on writing my first novel and I just don’t know how to schedule things out. —JP

I have a very complicated writing system I use to manage all the different outlets I end up writing for: the book, the newsletter, the site, and other professional writing gigs.

Getting too much into the weeds of the system I use probably won’t help anyone out. But I will tell you the general principle I follow, and this is what works for my brain. I overestimate the amount of time everything will take.

If, for example, I was planning on writing a novel of about 300 pages, I would estimate about 4 hours of work per page. I would then see how long it will take for me to find 300 4-hour blocks of time in my schedule. If I average one a day, then it will take me 10 months to write the book.

As I said, that’s an overestimate. It usually doesn’t take me 4 hours to write a page (although it has). By scheduling for the maximum amount of time I need, I end up feeling positive even if it takes me the maximum amount of time. And on days where I knock out that page in 60 or 90 minutes, there is a real sense of momentum and progress.

I know other people don’t work in this way. There is the old theory that work expands to fill the time you’ve allotted for it. But that’s not how my my brain operates. I’m more a follower of that U.S. Navy SEAL maxim: Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.