A Critical Examination of the Films of Rob Stiff and Magic Makers: Part One
/In 2013, with Breaking Bad ending production, there was a hole in the landscape for prestige dramas.
Enter Rob Stiff, the man behind the much maligned Magic Makers corporation. What Rob realized was that what magic ads were desperately missing was a goofy, ill-conceived, storyline into which the tricks could been shoe-horned. And with that, Rob went to work putting together ads—sorry, short-films—to showcase some of the effects offered by his company.
Rumor has it that HBO wanted to buy a season order of 24 episodes of the Magic Makers Theater Playhouse to run in 2015, but they were turned down by Rob who wanted to do half the number of episodes in order to maintain the quality.
Today we will take a look at some of the original masterpieces released by Rob Stiff and Magic Makers in 2014.
Out of this World
Plot: A virgin on his first date with a non-cousin suggests showing her a card trick after playing poker. She shoots his ass down when she realizes he’s planning on showing her the 21-Card Trick. She instead proposes that she show him a trick of her own that involves him separating the cards into reds and blacks without looking at the faces. Fortuitously, he happens to stop exactly half-way through the dealing allowing her to do the necessary switch of the leader cards required by the method.
After the dealing is done, the woman switches the necessary packets in what I genuinely believe is a pretty good casual way of handling the switch. She then goes on to reveal he has separated the cards into reds and blacks.
At the end, he’s convinced she can read his mind, but the truth is that she just knows all simps think the same.
What’s weird about this film is that it begins with our male lead making the incredible claim that he “never loses a poker hand.” Not a single hand!
“Until today,” the woman replies.
“We’ve got to play best of five,” he shoots back.
Is the implication here that they sat down to play one single poker hand? That’s hardly worth pulling the cards out of the card case to do that. And then he suggests playing “best of five.” But still, that’s like two minute of playing time.
Between playing one hand of poker and then offering to stumble his way through the 21 card trick for her, it’s clear he was attempting to set her up to be used to things that are quick and underwhelming.
Trick Rating: 5/5 Out of this World is a Classic.
Film Rating: 3/5
Wild Card
Plot: Rob Stiff—living up to his last name in both his acting and card-handling abilities—plays the role of “the magician,” in this heartfelt drama about how to compassionately handle the mentally ill who enter public businesses. Taking a seat at a coffee shop/diner, Rob does what I fear people who only casually read this site assume I do: He dumps a bunch of decks of cards on the table desperately hoping someone makes a comment about it. When the waiter engages him, we get an overdubbed performance of Wild Card that will have you wondering why you ever thought that was a good card trick, and begging for the dumpy pedophile who accosted Tommy Wonder in the video clip in Monday’s post to come and liven up this performance.
Trick Rating: 2.5/5 I find Wild Card more fun to perform than to watch.
Film Rating: 2/5 Rob Stiff is a Rob Schneider type. He shouldn’t be the lead.
The Vanishing Coin Trick
Plot: In this erotic thriller, a love triangle threatens a young couple’s relationship—and the bakery they co-own—when Rob Stiff rocks their lives and vanishes a coin.
This film features the same actress as Out of This World, who also reappears in a lot of Rob Stiff’s other work as well. That’s understandable. You can’t expect a magician to know more than one female to put into these sorts of things. And it’s fine that she’s used a lot because she always steals the show. As the character of Jen, you really feel her heart being torn between this mysterious stranger who knows one coin trick, and her long-term boyfriend who seems to really get off on unnecessarily getting his hands all over the baked goods.
You may find it odd that the phrase “clumpy frosting” is tossed around so frequently as if it’s a common saying. It’s not, of course. What it is is a nod to the famous “gay bakeries” of the early 20th century, where asking for “clumpy frosting” was a secret signal to the proprietors that you were part of the gay lifestyle. And, “eating the clumpy frosting from another man’s cinnamon roll” (as happens at the end of this film) was gay code for what would eventually be known as felching.
Trick Rating: 3/5 - It’s alright. The half dollar isn’t really justified. It’s just there because you need it for the mechanics of the trick.
Film Rating: 5/5 - Stiff’s masterpiece.
That’s all for today. We will look at the rest of Rob Stiff’s oeuvre in a future post.