Jerx Christmas - Christian Grace - 3:13 AM

Okay… it’s past three in the morning now, and I’ll admit that I’m feeling a little zombie-ish. A lot of the guests have changed into pajamas but we’re still going to stick it out until sunrise. It’s a little more subdued now. Some of the magicians are still showing each other tricks. And the non magicians are chatting and listening to Christmas music in the glow of the tree. It’s really nice actually.

My neighbor, Hallie, just cracked open a giant box of Sees candy and we’re passing that around.

I just handed it off to Christian Grace.

Christian and I hadn’t had a moment to really talk tonight besides a nod of the head. So when I brought him the candy we settled in for a moment.

He asked me if I had been enjoying anything recently from his Magic Monthly subscription platform that posts two new tricks every month.

I told him I enjoy most everything I see there. But one thing that really fooled me recently was his Ambitious Card move called Surreptitious Swap. That one totally fried me.

Then I asked Christian if he thought there was any trick on there that was maybe a little underappreciated.

He mentioned a trick called, “Locking the Deck.”

“Oh, yeah, I can see how that would kill, especially for laymen. Especially if you snuck two blank cards into their deck of cards and did it with their own deck.” Christian nodded deeply. “One thing I thought when I watched that trick is that instead of saying I was ‘locking’ the deck, I’d say I was giving it a ‘factory reset’… that might be a term that resonates more with people. And I think it makes sense in the context of the trick.”

We sat there for a moment, chewing some dark chocolate covered sea salt caramels.

“Oh,” I said. “I meant to ask you. Do you have anything you’d be willing to let me share on the site as a Christmas gift to the readers?”

“Why don’t you share those two videos,” he suggested.

Great idea.

Here are Surreptitious Swap and Locking the Deck by Christian Grace. If you like them, check out Magic Monthly.