Mailbag #81
/Have you played around much at all with timing forces? If so, do you have a favorite? Or any thoughts? These feel the most clean to me as a way to force a card on people—GA
I’ve never used them that frequently, but I received an email a couple weeks ago asking for my thoughts on a specific timing force of Peter Turner’s. The writer included a video of himself performing the force and it looked great.
As with most timing forces, the general idea was that if you deal through the cards (or the spectator does) and you ask them to tell you to stop at any point, they will generally stop a couple beats later.
I’ve been trying this out a bunch the past couple of weeks and I found that the likelihood of this working was almost directly inversely proportional to how much magic they’ve seen me do. It didn’t really work on anyone I was close to, but it worked with some regularity on people I didn’t know too well.
Then it dawned on me:
The “timing” in a timing force is based on the spectator waiting the absolute minimum time they can to get the trick moving without being rude.
But if someone has seen you perform frequently in the past, it’s presumably because they enjoy watching you perform. Those sorts of people aren’t just looking to get a trick over with. They don’t mind prolonging the experience. During my recent testing, one friend of mine dealt through 42 cards before deciding to stop.
Timing forces also often require you to make the spectator feel rushed. That goes against the feeling I’m usually going for when I perform, which is a very comfortable, casual, “we have all the time in the world here,” type of feeling. Rushing people through something sends the psychological signal that the activity is unpleasant or boring.
In most tricks where I have someone select a card, I want that moment to feel incredibly consequential. I don’t want it to feel rushed or perfunctory, which is how it sometimes comes across to me when I’m viewing a timing force.
So those are the reasons I don’t see myself leaning hard into them. For my performing circumstances, they’re not ideal. For other people, I can see them being a good choice. And I agree that when you’re an outside observer watching them, they can look very fair.
I saw your post recently on Jeff Carson performing at Smoke and Mirrors. I called the theater today to let them know about Jeff's record and the guy I spoke with, [one of the owners of the theater], basically said he was aware of the situation but he sadly didn't seem to care, though he did say he would never let Jeff perform for HIS family. I think if Smoke and Mirrors is going to allow registered sex offenders to do shows there, the theater should be boycotted. What do you think?—JB
I’m not really a believer in boycotts per se. I think people should have the information and then act on it according to their own personal set of ethics and beliefs.
Jeff Carson (aka, Jeffrey Leach, Ron Geoffries, et al.) is a convicted sex offender who couldn’t keep his hands off a 10-year-old and molested her for years. She eventually summoned the courage to speak up after he was busted for molesting a different kid. You can read the original reports on this here.
After being convicted of his crimes he continued to perform for children. An excerpt from this article says:
On Wednesday night, I reached Leach [aka Jeff Carson] at his home in New Jersey and asked him if he thought it was appropriate for him to perform for children given his status as a sex offender. He told me that he didn’t want to comment. “Offering a comment would mean that I care,” he added. “And I really don’t care too much.”
Okay. He doesn’t “care too much.” Smoke and Mirrors Magic Theater doesn’t care too much about his past crimes either. Maybe you don’t care too much too. In which case, for you, this is an non-issue.
If it is an issue for you, don’t go to the show. If you think it reflects poorly enough on the theater, then don’t attend shows at the theater. If you want to make your voice heard even more on the issue you can make more noise about it online in a review or on facebook or whatever.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to feel. I’m just going to give you the information and say how I feel about it.
I know the show is for 18 and over, but I’m not sure the best defense for promoting a convicted sex offender is, “No, no, no… his sexual offenses were against a pre-pubescent individual. See? And he was only convicted of molesting that person for 6 more years. So… until they were 16? That’s like two whole years before the age cut-off for this show.”
Oh, okay. What is the policy exactly? If I rape an adult, can I do kid’s shows there in the future? Because it seems to work the other way around.
If you’re like me, your one concern might be that someone in the audience might see his show, enjoy it, and hire him for a future show that is for kids or attended by kids. You KNOW he’s not going to turn that down.
The good news is, from his marketing material, it looks like he only does hack, basic bullshit. So he’s probably not going to wow a crowd of adults.
Also, he’s not one of those guys you look at and think, “How could this guy be a child molester?” He at least has the decency to look 100% like a creep who wants to touch kids. If I walked into a room and this guy was there and he wasn’t sniffing a pair of some kid’s dirty underwear, I’d think, “Oh no, what’s wrong? Are you having a stroke?”
Kids on stage, hands in pockets, belt askew, hastily tucked-in shirt. Yeah, that tracks. And he chose this picture to put on his website. “Here’s a good shot of me,” he thought.
I pray he’s an investor in the Smoke and Mirrors Magic Theater or something. Then I can at least understand why he was given a show there. If there’s no financial incentive and the theater was so desperate for performers that they dipped down to this child molesting, bland bitch, then magic is fucked.