Mailbag #136
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I was in the setup for a "big" trick with two friends and one of them asked if I've tried this trick before.
Wondering what your approach is if/when someone asks you that question for an experience that ideally feels like it's custom happening just for them in this unique moment.
Don't love lying, but also don't love diminishing the uniqueness of the moment.—JT
This is a question that comes up a lot (not the writer’s question, but his friend’s question).
“Have you done this before?”
“Does this always work?”
My approach is to let the nature of the trick decide my answer.
If I’ve framed it as “something I’ve been working on” or “something I’ve been looking into,” then, built into that framing is the idea that yes, I’ve done it for others. But I still won’t say, “Oh yeah, this works every time.” Instead, I’ll say something like: “I’ve tried it a couple of times, but this is the first time this has happened.” That keeps the uniqueness alive, without having to claim total novelty.
Of course, sometimes the premise is: “This weird thing always happens.” So in that case, I might shade the truth the other way and suggest it’s happened more than it actually has.
But if I’m creating an experience that is supposed to come off as a one-off impossible moment, then I will say or imply that no, nothing like this has ever happened before.
Is this lying?
I guess, maybe.
I’ve made the argument before that magic tricks are little stories that have no end, until the person you’ve performed for is 100% convinced it was “just a trick.” So, for me, the trick is always going on.
So if I say, “This is the first time I’ve ever done this,” I don’t feel like I’m lying any more than when I say, “I put the ball under the cup.” This is all part of the ongoing story we’re building together.
I’m pretty good at determining if a lie is self-serving or serves the experience. Telling someone you can read their mind because you have a soul-connection in order to get them into bed is a self-serving lie.
But saying, “No one has ever separated the deck into all reds and blacks like that. That’s incredible”? That a “lie” that builds on the experience. It lifts them up and adds to the texture of the moment I want to create for them. I’m fine with that.
That said, a few caveats:
Don’t say, “I’ve never done this before,” if there’s a good chance they’ll run into someone you’ve already done it with.
Also, the people I perform for regularly, already know that the magic experience has some level of bullshittery to it. So even if they did find out I’ve done something before when I told them I hadn’t, they wouldn’t flip out about it. If I was performing for someone who I thought would be genuinely upset to find out I wasn’t completely honest about it, then I would feel like I was performing for someone who was taking it all a bit too seriously for my taste.
Remember, my goal is for people to know it’s a trick, but also entertain the idea, “But… maybe it’s not?” When people get that “spirit” then they’re not going to get too worked about things either way.
If stuck, I’ll usually revert to the line I mentioned earlier, “I’ve tried something similar in the past, but it’s never gone like this.” That’s vague, and true-ish. Even if I’ve done the trick 100 times before, it’s never been with this person. You can never step into the same river twice and all of that.
I’ve always loved ‘printing’ effects, and I’m looking forward to getting this version with credit cards by Craig Petty. Can you think of any way to ground the performance and give it a little more weight?—LO
Yeah, that’s a tough one.
I’ve never loved the “printing” plot. I think it’s a fun trick, but the pacing of it has never felt great to me. It’s a series of okay moments that get weirder, but not necessarily more impressive. The pacing doesn’t match the rhythm I usually go for, which is to build toward one clean, impossible moment.
Also, if I was a non-magician watching the trick, I think part of me would be distracted by wanting to see the other side of the card again before the next printing happens. At least after the first couple have been printed. And yes, I know they see the cards blank at the beginning, but once the magic starts happening, that moment fades into the background pretty quickly.
As for grounding the effect… I’m not sure that’s the right approach.
The printing, the concept of credit card “blanks,” the way the credit cards themselves look—all of that makes this more of a cartoonish trick than something “real.” So I would let it live in that absurdist world.
I would frame it as a counterfeiting technique. (I can only guess this angle is mentioned in the instructions. It makes perfect sense.)
“I read this article about credit card cloning—apparently people can duplicate cards using these cheap blanks you can get online. Totally freaked me out. Now I won’t even let my card leave the table at a restaurant. Here, let me show you how it works…”
It gives you just enough plausibility to start with—but the moment the visuals kick in, you’re clearly in fantasyland. And I think that’s where this kind of trick works best. If you lean into the absurdity, it can be an entertaining, visual piece.