Jerx Christmas - Justin Flom - 7:25 AM

Guy’s I’m super excited. All night I’ve been trying to wrangle this trick out of Justin Flom.

He was hesitant to give it up at first. But I think the combination of sleep deprivation along with gallons of mulled wine, dozens of christmas cookies, and a nearly lethal dose of holiday cheer have warmed his heart to the point that he has decided to share it with us.

As Justin presents it, it’s already a strong trick. But if you personalize it, I think it has the power to be a strong and emotionally resonant trick.

Before we get to that, let’s let Justin explain.

After Justin recorded that, we went and looked up how difficult it is to create those one line drawings yourself. So you could do this trick with anyone’s image. Your girfriend’s beloved grandfather. The president of your company. The four-year old who got dragged off by that falcon at whose memorial service you’ve been inexplicably asked to perform magic.

Honestly, it doesn’t look that difficult. It looks pretty easy, actually. Although I’m sure it’s not really that easy. But it seems like the sort of thing a capable artist would be willing to do for you custom for pretty cheap. Or you could muddle through it yourself.

But imagine taking it a step further…

You come out with a completely blank deck of cards. Blank on both sides. Cards are distributed out to people and they’re also given a marker to do a random scribble in the manner you tell them. The line should start on one side of the card and go off another side or the same side. They can make a little loop or other simple shape, or just keep it a curve or straight line. Something simple. And you gather all the cards together and mix them, and now their own random doodlings combine to make the bride’s face, or whatever.

You’d have your 16 card set-up that’s blank on one side, and 25 (or however many) more fully blank cards. Start by giving them a few truly blank cards and showing them how to do the random scribbles on one side. Then take them back. You’re handing out a few at a time, so they’re not really sure how many there are altogether. Once all the cards have scribbles on one side, you pass everything out again to have them scribble on the other sides as well.

With cards going in and out, being scribbled on by multiple people, it would not be difficult to hide the fact that 16 of them started out with scribbles on one side. What would be difficult is making sure you distribute them and re-collect them in a way that keeps your stack in order.

It may just make more sense to swap in your stack at some point when you’re collecting up the cards. Either way, I love the idea of the collective unconsciously creating this image of someone special.

Even if your one line portrait wasn’t super smooth and crisp, that doesn’t matter. If it even hints at the portrait of someone important, that’s a miracle.