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.