Dustings #154
/This is your annual reminder not to buy any new magic for the next few weeks. You’ve got Black Friday coming up, and you don’t want to miss out on a deal just to get something a few weeks early. [The Jerx: Magic companies hate him.]
Yeah, I know magic companies don’t love me reminding you of this. But it’s just general good advice for all purchases around this time of year. I don’t even shower for the first few weeks of November in case the water company runs some kind of Black Friday deal. [The Jerx: His girlfriend hates him.]
Even if the product you’re interested in is older and unlikely to be discounted, it might count toward a spending threshold that gets you some freebies. (Or free bees if you’re ordering from Mann Lake Ltd., the #1 Choice of Professional Beekeepers.)
A note for magic companies: Consumers believe the minimum discount for what constitutes a “good deal” is 30%. [Source] That’s the minimum. I see companies post on The Magic Cafe with their 15% Black Friday discounts and seem confused when there’s no interest. That’s not a Black Friday deal. That’s a random Tuesday deal.
Help Wanted
In the 11+ years I’ve been doing this site and talking about products I’ve purchased here and in the review newsletter, I’ve never actually purchased any of those products myself. (It would be fairly easy to unravel my identity by looking at who bought what or signed up for which service.) Instead, I’ve always used proxies to buy stuff for me.
One of my proxies is going off the grid for a little while, so I’m looking for someone new to purchase things for me. It will mostly be digital products. And (obviously) I’ll pay for everything.
If you’re interested in helping out, send me an email.
I was reading about the movie Deliverance the other day (I like to know as much as I can about what I’m masturbating to).
You know that scene where the hill-country kid is playing the banjo?
Well, it turns out he wasn’t really playing it. The actor had the right face for the part, but couldn’t play the banjo, so they had a kid who could play reach his arms through the sleeves and do the fingering.
This reminded me of Kevin James’s trick Instant Magician, where you (the actual magician) stand behind someone and reach your arms around them, performing the magic with your hands while they play the role of the magician.
And I thought, this provides a great bit of lead-in patter for Kevin’s trick. You tell the people about Deliverance and how the banjo kid didn’t really play the banjo. It was actually someone’s arms coming from behind him.
Then you say, “I thought this same technique could be used to make someone look like an equally dextrous yet vacant, inbred imbecile… a magician!”
