Dustings #49
/Wait… what the fuck!!!!
Look at this BULLSHIT from Joshua Jay’s Instagram.
Hmmm… your first book? Really, Josh? YOUR FIRST BOOK?!?!?!
Jason Alexander (who I’m sure will be relieved to know that Joshua Jay considers him “wildly talented”) wrote the intro to Josh’s book, Magic The Complete Course.
Gee… let me do just a base level of research.
Huh… well… would you look at that. Now look, I’m no math expert but even I—without busting out the calculator—am fairly certain that 1999 comes before 2008.
WHY IS JOSHUA JAY TRYING TO MEMORY-HOLE THE MAGIC ATLAS?
Look, it’s bad enough that he’s completely dismissing what’s generally considered the “bible” of pubescent magic: A Teen’s Routines.
But okay, I can understand why he might not consider that his first “book,” because it was a comb-bound manuscript. And maybe it’s no good. (Admittedly, I’ve never read it. I was upset that Josh stole the title of a book I had written describing my teen “routine” of masturbating six times a day. (If you squint enough at the picture on the left, even his cover looks similar to mine.))
However, The Magic Atlas was a real-ass book. And it deserves RESPECT. And that book will not be forgotten so long as this truth-telling blogger lives and breathes. Sorry, Josh.
A few people emailed me to let me know about a debate on facebook in regards to “googleability” and magic effects. I’ve said pretty much everything I have to say on the subject in recent weeks. Here’s the thing, these are both viable positions to take:
“I do what I can to make sure my magic is un-googleable.”
and
“I don’t worry about people searching out my effects online.”
What is not a viable position is, “People only google effects if you’re not good.” That’s not reality. This is beyond obvious to anyone who is paying attention. Do a boring trick in a boring way and nobody is going to care to try and find out how you did it. Do a strong trick and a certain percentage of the audience will feel a need to try and figure it out.
Magicians—who often don’t tend to have the highest self-esteem and self-worth—have to convince themselves of the opposite. “No one ever tries to figure out how I did my paddle trick because they are so charmed by performance!”
If your argument to why people might try to find out a trick’s secret is that the performer isn’t good enough, then you’ll have to explain why every performer of note has people online (non-magicians) trying to figure out how they do what they do. Is no one a good enough performer?
This is not a new disagreement. It’s an extension of the same things people would say before the internet about examining objects. “People only want to examine objects if you’re not a good magician.” In what world would that fucking be the case?
“This guy just changed a red deck of cards to blue. And it was so good, I have absolutely ZERO INTEREST in taking a look at the blue deck!” This, they tell themselves, is how the human mind works. And then they wonder why people treat magic like it’s something for kids. Well… perhaps because you’re expecting a child’s level of discernment? Tell a charming story about a fairy who gives money for teeth that have fallen out and a kid will just believe it. Tell that story to an adult and they’re probably going to at least want to see some night vision surveillance-camera footage before they’re really amazed by the idea.
That being said, I don’t think you have to be concerned with google-ability if it doesn’t bother you. Ultimately this is just people coming at magic with different end goals in mind. If you see yourself as an “entertainer” primarily, then I can understand why you wouldn’t be overly concerned with people googling a trick afterwards. As an amateur magician though, my goal isn’t purely “entertainment.” I can entertain my friends and family with a conversation, I don’t need to pull out a deck of cards. When I perform magic for someone it’s because I want to entertain them specifically with an impenetrable mystery. And for them to have an impenetrable mystery, they have to try and penetrate it. When they probe the trick, when they ask to examine an object, when they try to find an answer online—these are all steps that make the magic stronger, if it survives these tests. Yes, people can be so delighted by an performance that they don’t care about the secret of the trick all that much, but that’s not usually a sign of really strong magic.
A very adorable notion in the facebook debate mentioned above is that people were saying, “Don’t use the name of the trick if you don’t want people to google it.” That’s how out of the loop they are on this issue.
People don’t google names of tricks. Laymen don’t even necessarily know tricks have names. They google what they see.
Below you’ll see how the most basic description of the Ambitious Card autocompletes a ton of similar searches, most of which would give the person a workable method for what they saw.
I’m always happy when I find an optical illusion that is particularly deceptive to me, and I found this one to be particularly strong when I first saw it. (I think it works better on a computer screen than on a phone screen.)
It looks like two somewhat different perspectives from the same vantage point. But really it’s the exact same picture next to itself.
It’s not magic, of course, but anything that can be used to get people to doubt what they’re seeing can easily be used to transition into a trick.