WWJD If Someone Googled the Secret to a Trick I Had Performed?
/What Would Jerx Do? Is a new feature here at the Jerx that will look at some examples of how I would handle specific situations that come to me via reader mail.
I certainly don’t have all the answers on how to deal with every situation, but I do usually have a pretty clear manner in which I would approach the situation that may work for others as well.
Our first question in this series comes from Z.A.
How do you normally respond when someone says they have googled a trick?
Context: Did Nineteen [A trick from the JAMM #3] probably a month ago, ran into someone who watched it and they privately said oh I enjoyed the trick today, but I looked up how you did the one from last time.
I wasn’t sure the best way to respond, clearly they had come across some description of the TOXIC force.
I mumbled something about it being on someone else’s phone and that I hadn’t touched it before hand ..but clearly wasn’t a satisfactory answer, more he seemed kinda bummed?
I’m wondering if it would have been better just to be like, “oh nice man yup thats it” or something. Just cop to it since he clearly wasn’t trying to ruin others enjoyment as well?
I fortunately don’t get this sort of thing too often. But when I do, this is the tactic I’ll take…
I don’t want it to become a debate about whether they figured out the trick or not. If you do that, it reinforces that that’s the purpose of the interaction. “I’m going to trick you. And if I do, I win. And if you figure it out, you win.” I want to get away from that feel altogether.
For explanation purposes, let’s say I vanished a coin with a French drop. Then a week later someone comes up to me and says, “I googled it. I know how you vanished that coin.” I wouldn’t say, “No you don’t” Nor would I say, “Alright, you got me. I’m busted.”
I would say something like. “You do? Wait… you found it on google? That would be surprising. I don’t think the guy who taught me would put it online anywhere. But wait… let me see what you got. I’m curious.”
I would then make them teach me a French drop or whatever method they learned online. I would stumble my way through it. My attitude would be like, “This is cool. Thanks for showing me this.”
I would say things like:
“This is fun. I haven’t done this sleight-of-hand type stuff since I was a kid. The type of vanishes I’ve been working on aren’t nearly this much fun to practice.” [Implication: I’m doing something other than sleight-of-hand.]
“Did it say what to do if they ask to see your other hand? This way to vanish a coin is cool because it doesn’t hurt at all. But the nice thing about the way I was doing it is that it leaves both your hands empty.” [Now, that’s a lie, of course. If I did a standard French drop previously, then my other hand was dirty at the end. But there’s no way for him to go back now and determine that. Also… what was I implying when I said this way, “Didn’t hurt at all”? What was I doing that hurt?]
“You know the best part about doing it this way? You could do this all night. The way I was doing it is really a once a week thing. Also, you don’t lose any money this way.” [Implication: The way I was doing it… the money really disappears or something? And you can only do it once a week? Huh?]
So that’s my approach. If someone comes to me with the “solution” for how I did something, I have them teach me that method. I want them to get the sense that I’m enjoying what they’re teaching me. And then as I’m “learning” it, I make comments comparing and contrasting what they’re teaching me to the method I actually used.
You see what I’m doing here, yes? They went searching for answers. And I want to impress upon them that doing that is only going to lead to more questions for them. I’m going to deny them the satisfaction of figuring it out. Not for the sake of my ego, but because I don’t want that to be the nature of our interactions going forward. In social magic, you usually have to think long-term. “I show you something and then you google it to try and figure it out,” is not the basis for satisfying magic performances.
Now, of course, this tactic won’t work very well with a super-specific trick. If someone says, “I googled it and I learned that top that floats and vanishes wasn’t your grandpa’s old top. It’s a magic trick you can buy.” Then I’m busted and I just gotta shrug and say, “Yeah, you got me.” But that’s why I generally avoid tricks like that.
In regards to the specific trick mentioned, Nineteen—when presented as I write it up in that issue of the magazine—really can’t be busted. In that trick you make a prediction of the outcome of a series of mathematical operations. But your prediction is wildly incorrect. In the end, however, there is an outrageously fortunate “coincidence” that makes your prediction correct in a way. But the way I present it, I never take credit for the prediction being right.
So if someone came up to me and said, “I know how you did that trick last time.” The interaction would go something like this.
I’d say, “Huh? How I did it? But I didn’t do it. I fucked that trick up big time. I was way off.”
Them: “No, but I know how you got it so the number would match in the end.”
Me: “I got the number to match? I’m lost. That was a lucky coincidence. Do you think if I knew what number you would have gotten in the end, I wouldn’t have just wrote that down in the first place? But I’m curious… show me what you’re talking about.”
And then I’d let them try to teach me the TOXIC force.
If you have a specific situation you’d like my thoughts on for a future WWJD post, feel free to send it along via email.