Zero Carry Part 2

Thanks to everyone who has written in regarding the Zero Carry post from last Tuesday. I've received a lot of good leads and I will be revisiting or tracking down some of these effects to give them a look. The next write-up will be too long for a post, so it's likely going to be a special issue of the Keepers newsletter coming up.

To reiterate something I said in the original post, I'm not looking strictly for "propless" tricks. Everyday objects are perfectly fine.

That point led some people to wonder if I'm just asking for "impromptu" tricks. Yes and no. The Zero Carry slot in my repertoire is for a trick that is not just impromptu, but also lends itself to an extended interaction with a fleshed out premise. So not just a coin vanish or something.

With EDC, we think of carrying around props and gimmicks to allow us to go into a particular effect. We have these items with us so we can perform on the fly when the opportunity arises. We have a gimmicked coin or something in the watch pocket of our jeans so we're never caught off-guard.

ZC is like that, but it's like having a strong impromptu effect that's in the watch pocket of your mind. One that you've given enough thought to that there's no ramp-up to get into it. You can just flow into it from any situation.

Now, my whole argument behind having a 100 Trick Repertoire in the first place is to have a wide variety of effects that will work in a multitude of situations. So it may seem strange that I'm trying to find one trick to put undue focus on. But the truth is, having such a large repertoire is exactly why I need something like this. If I was just doing the same half dozen tricks over and over, I wouldn't need to isolate one in this manner.

Here's what I mean… If someone walks up to you and says, "Tell me something you like," your mind will sort of glitch out at the generality of the question. However, if they come up to you and say, "Name a book you like," you'll probably have a far easier time answering that, even though it's technically a more specific question.

I don't have an issue transitioning into a trick from a specific situation. If people around me are talking about astrology, or coincidence, or ESP, or how different people perceive things differently, or whatever, it's easy for me to pluck the trick from my repertoire that will fit that situation. "Interestingly… I was just reading about this. Actually, maybe we can try something…" That's the beauty of the 100 Trick Repertoire.

What I find difficult is when a performance opportunity springs up out of the blue. Since I work out of cafés, it's not unusual for someone I interacted with months or years ago to approach me and ask to see something. Or, at a social gathering, someone might ask me to show them a trick, and if I hadn't planned to perform something, that can throw me.

So having a designated Zero Carry effect is for those situations—allowing me to flow right into something without having to do a mental checklist to make sure I have everything I need and that I remember all of the steps.

To be clear, it's just a fallback trick. It's not the trick I will always do in this situation. You don't want to be the guy always doing the same trick. But having this trick chambered allows your mind to be really chill in these types of situations. When you know you have something solid locked and loaded, you're not scrambling or second-guessing yourself. That mental calm actually gives you the freedom to assess the situation and choose something different if it feels right. Or you can just relax into your fallback without any stress. Either way, you can flow into the trick casually and calmly, which is exactly the energy you want to project when someone approaches out of the blue asking to see a trick.