While We Were Out
/Here’s some stuff that came up over the break..
I was out with a friend who had recently received a trick called Light Year. It’s brand new and I was focused on other stuff this past week so it slipped by me and I hadn’t seen it before he showed it to me in person.
It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s these little tiles with holes all over them.
And when the cards are aligned over a light source, the holes form a number the spectator is thinking of.
I thought it was really cool. If you had told me the effect and then put me in a room to figure out exactly how to create the tiles in a way where this would work, I would probably die in that room. My mind just doesn’t work in that manner.
There was another magician-friend out with us as well. He liked the looks of this too. And we watched it performed 5 times and it got nice reactions every time. But interestingly, the reactions weren’t like, “How do these crazy tiles work?” The reactions were more like, “How did he know the number I chose?” Everyone seemed to understand that these tiles could be aligned in different ways to make different numbers. So while the reveal was kind of cool to people, that didn’t seem to come off as the impressive part. The impressive part was how he figured out the number (he used a couple different peeking methods). What interested us as magicians was the less interesting aspect to normal folks.
If you watch the trailer you’ll see the trick gets a sort of descending “whoaaaaaaa” reaction each time it’s performed. That’s a decent mid-range kind of reaction. And that’s what my friend was getting from his performances as well. Because I like the trick, I’m going to try to come up with some presentational angle that will boost those reactions from good to great. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.
Interestingly, the tile reveal got the strongest reaction when my friend had the tiles laying out from the beginning, and didn’t touch them throughout the trick until the reveal. That required him to force the two-digit number.
What does this tell us? I don’t really know. As I said, it was just a few performances total, and only one where the number was forced. So it’s hard to draw any strong conclusions from that. I’ll give it some more thought and borrow my friend’s set and see if I come up with any ideas worth sharing.
Hey Penguin Magic,
The Bestsellers on the right side of the home page haven’t been updating for weeks. Get your shit together.
[Update: Here’s the info from a Penguin insider known only as, “The Emperor.”]
There's a reason the bestsellers on Penguin haven't changed. Our web developer has updated the site so that the right side of the page is all-time best sellers, in no particular order. The left side of the page is what is trending.
It reflects this list:
https://www.penguinmagic.com/top10.php
All of this is helpful for new people that visit the site but the labels have not been updated.
For instance, when you click on See All Best Sellers on the right side of the page it takes you to the expanded top 10 list from the left side of the page.
Also, as I said, the list on the right is in no particular order, yet for some reason, it is numbered. The list on the left is in order, but it is not numbered. Go figure.
I agree, it's a mess and the whole team has made repeated complaints.
Well, folks, there’s your answer. God knows why this has been going on for weeks. It seems like changing the headers on these lists would take about 6 minutes for anyone who took one class of “Intro to HTML for Active Seniors” at the public library. But what do I know.
And here she is with the rest of the Magic Rocks crew.
I don’t think of myself as much of a stage illusion enthusiast. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen this type of show, that I really ended up having a good time, and it was great to see Mallory in action.
Poor Joshua Jay was scandalized after watching the Tom Hanks classic, Big, this past week.
Relax with the caps lock, sweetie. It’s just a movie. Poor, Josh, getting all riled up. Calling the local police precinct. “Pardon me. What are the laws involved with BEING INTIMATE with a 13-year-old who has made a magical wish on a carnival machine and his body has transformed to that of a 30-year-old man?”
I understand the concern. In the movie his mind is still that of a child, but they make it clear his cock and balls are all man.
I get it though, you don’t get involved in magic at a young age like Josh did and not have your antennae up for people trying to take advantage of kids. If Josh had grown up on the rim of Mt. Vesuvius, would I be surprised if he was a little on edge while watching Joe Versus the Volcano? No. That would make perfect sense.