Mailbag #157

I'm not sure if you're aware, but the Ted Karmilovich conviction info on your blog was referred to on The Magic Cafe thread about the book. It's how I've become aware of it (and your blog).

Several posters on The Magic Cafe thread spoke very negatively about the matter including that they wouldn't buy the book. Then those posts (and all other posts referring to the conviction and your blog) were deleted.

I had no idea about the conviction and I'm staggered he has it, as well as how it's been seemingly suppressed or otherwise glossed over by those in the community who knew. So thank you for mentioning it. Any sort of light on this is extremely important. I wouldn't be happy purchasing the book then finding out about his conviction, so I'm grateful I have that knowledge which has ultimately come from your blog post.—RM

I got a lot of feedback on this from last Friday’s post.

Yes, the story is real. Yes, it’s the same Ted Karmilovich.

You can see the story in the paper itself here, and an article after his conviction here (although you’ll need a paid subscription to do so).

Some people say, “I don’t care.” I’m not suggesting you have to care. I was just relaying information that had recently come my way.

I certainly wasn’t trying to spoil the release of the new hardcover collection of his material.

It’s sort of amazing this wasn’t common knowledge. It was a front-page news story with a long (5-year) prison sentence. And it wasn’t like this happened in the 1940s. It was the early 90s at the dawn of the internet age.

It’s definitely something that was known in certain circles. In the August 1995 issue of Genii Magazine, Danny Orleans ends his review of the Mother Of All Book Tests with this:

Some of you will say the high price “is criminal” and Mr. Karmilovich should “ do time” for gouging the magic buyer. Perhaps that would give him time to think up another great mental effect.

As I said, make of the information what you will.

You don’t have to care at all.

Or you may feel it was just a one time (seven month) mistake on his part.

Or you may say, “I can separate the art from the artist.”

Or you may decide you don’t want to spend $250 on a massive tome of material of a convicted sexual predator whose good stuff has been available for a long time.

All of this is fine with me.

But, if you come at me saying I’m “ruining his legacy,” get ready for me to dunk on your dumb ass relentlessly.

You can’t “ruin someone’s legacy” by noting something they did. That is their legacy.

As for the Magic Café deleting references to this, I don’t know what’s going on there. Maybe some of the decision makers there like Steve Brooks, Tom Cutts, and David Scribner don’t want to establish a precedent of magicians being exposed for taking advantage of vulnerable children. Maybe—for whatever reason 🤷‍♂️—they prefer sex crimes get swept under the rug. I’m not sure why that would be though 🤔. Hmmm. Well… I guess they’ve put us in a position where we just have to draw our own conclusions.

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Do you have a “Best of” list or a Trick of the Year for 2025? —KL

I don’t really do “best of” lists. When it comes to identifying my favorites releases, I do that in real time as the year passes in the monthly newsletter. It’s not a collection of reviews of everything, it’s just my favorite things that I started performing that month. So to create a list of my favorite things I discovered that year, you can just take the items I write up in the newsletter. That captures everything.

But, to give you some answer, I’ll mention two of the most useful effects that were released this year. These are probably the things I performed the most because it was very easy to find opportunities to include them at the spur of the moment. They’re not locked in to a certain premise or presentation. And they’re both dead easy.

Modern Oracle by Chris Rawlins and John Cottle

A set of Magic 8 Ball style cards that give yes/no answers. You can use the cards to reveal thoughts or cards or any known entity, really.

Or just have the deck accurately answer any yes/no question someone asks it.

There are more approaches to this than you’d initially expect.

People are familiar with the concept of a Magic 8 Ball, and the idea that this deck of cards might exist seems totally feasible. It can be presented as a fun novelty item. Or a something you thought was a fun novelty item, but turned out to be something stranger.

Easy, examinable, familiar, flexible.

SAM by Christian Grace

I generally don't like tricks with direct presentations. For example: "Think of a word… Look, that's what I wrote down!" I find that sort of thing unpalatable.

But I do love tricks with very direct methods, because they give me freedom to dress them up however I want.

That's what I like about SAM. You simply ask someone to pick up on the word you're thinking of, then immediately reveal they got it right by showing they're very close to what you searched for on your phone moments ago. (This can also be framed as your prediction being correct.)

With a modicum of creativity, you can build this into all sorts of premises.

I've found the slightly-off nature of the reveal goes a long way toward eliminating the "obvious" solution.

Second only to Echo Sync on the Jerx App, this was my most used phone trick this year.

More information can be found here.