The Good-Enough Canon (Your Help Needed)

There is a seductive quality to magic as a hobby that I think often prevents us from using magic for the greatest good. And that is the enjoyment that comes from tinkering with new ways of performing the same old effects. This is something that we as magicians enjoy, but it usually adds very little to our actual performances.

If you learned ten 4-Ace routines over your time in magic (and that would be a low number for many of you) it’s not like the first routine you learned was shit, and then they got progressively better and better and now you have this perfect 4-Ace routine. It’s more likely that the first one you learned was “just ok” and the next few might have gotten quite a bit better. But then it likely plateaued. And all the 4-Ace routines you’ve learned since that time were slight variations with barely any discernible differences to the audience (the people we’re supposedly doing this for).

We’re all guilty of this. We have a trick that’s good enough, but we fiddle around and waste our time with new methods not because they are huge advancements forward, but just because they’re new. This is time we could be performing or coming up with presentational ideas that might have an actual significant impact on audience.

I have a friend who is a massage therapist. She learns new techniques regularly. But her focus is still on the people she’s serving. She’s not learning new techniques just to mess around in front of a mirror.

With magic it’s very easy to feel like you’re doing something when you’re just wasting your time with different variations of tricks that are only minor tweaks for your own entertainment.

Of course, that’s fine if “fiddling around” by yourself is the manner in which you want to engage with magic. But I know magicians who are frustrated with their lack of ability to perform and bond with people through magic and yet they hardly try to. Instead, they’re alone in their room “perfecting” a particular trick or plot. It’s like spending all your time furiously masturbating and expecting that to lead to a loving marriage.

I’ve decided to tackle this issue in a somewhat regimented way for myself and I’m going to track it with a new project that will be covered in the monthly newsletter.

I call it, The Good Enough Canon.

My plan is to take this list of card plots from Magicpedia and work through them systematically—trick by trick—and identify what seems to be one of the best versions of each plot that’s out there. And once I learn that, I’m going to stop fucking with that plot unless I hear there’s some new version that has VASTLY improved upon what has come before.

I’m not necessarily looking for the ultimate version of any given plot. That might involve a very advanced handling or gimmicks or elaborate set-ups. Instead, I’ll be asking - What’s the best version of this effect I can find while at the same time prioritizing things like: ease of handling, gaffless, impromptu, borrowed deck.

It won’t have to meet those criteria, but those are elements I value in the material I perform, so they will definitely carry weight with which version I choose for the Good-Enough Canon.

At the same time, I’ll also give thought to what can be done presentationally to enhance these standard plots. In the end, hopefully I’ll have a “good enough” handling with a solid presentation for each plot listed.

Please note, there are almost 100 plots on that list. This project will take me somewhere between…oh… 8 and 25 years to complete, probably, if I end up taking on a new plot every two or three months.

But I’ll make a deal with you, I’ll be covering this project in the Love Letters newsletter. It will continue on in that newsletter or any other newsletter I do in the future. And when I end this site, I’ll continue to update former supporters as the years go by. And if I die before I finish it, I will make it the goal of my haunting to update you on the newest entrants in the Good-Enough Canon.

But I’m going to need your help to do this. I’m going to need the collected wisdom of the group to “nominate” versions of each plot that you find to be especially good. (Not all at once, but as I come to it.) I don’t have nearly the knowledge that many of you have. So I’ll be asking you to direct me towards what you feel are the best versions of these effects. Remember, I’m doing this with the amateur/social performer in mind. So, while not entirely necessary, we want to lean towards impromptu, or normal deck effects that don’t require sleights that exceed the intermediate level. And ideally it won’t be super complicated to remember. Again, these things won’t always be possible, but that’s our guiding star.

And since I’ll want to be able to direct people to where they can learn the trick, I’ll also be taking into consideration the availability of an effect. If it’s buried in an out-of-print book, I’d be less likely to add it to the Canon than something that is easily available.

Also, we’ll want a version of the trick that doesn’t veer too far from the standard premise of the trick. Turning one of these classic plots into something wholly new, sort of takes us away from the general idea of the project which is to find a strong version of that plot.

So let’s start alphabetically, with the first one on the list, the 21 Card Trick. This may seem like an underwhelming trick to start with, but perhaps that will be a good test of the viability of this project.

Do you know an especially good version of the 21 Card Trick? What makes it good? Where can I learn it? Send me an email. I won’t respond individually to each email, so let me say “thank you” in advance. I’ll definitely take each nomination into consideration.