Mailbag #169

I'm surprised you thought the worst thing about The Breakthrough System was the price. I think it’s great and the price is fair.—MM

I'm not saying it was overpriced based on the strength of the trick. I'm saying the price feels high for me based on what you get—which is essentially a long video download. (True it also comes with a 1-on-1 teaching session. But if you need a 1-on-1 session after four hours of tutorial, that almost feels like a negative more than a positive.)

In magic we say you're buying the secret, but really you're buying the medium the secret comes in. Instant downloads usually cost between $10 and $20. Non-limited edition hardcover books are maybe $50-$120. A simple specially printed deck effect might be $25-$50. Longer-form video downloads are maybe $40-$60.

This is where prices have generally settled.

You might think, "We should price things in magic based on how good the effect is or the contents are." Okay, but that's subjective. If I buy a book and don't like anything in it, do I get my money back?

The economics of magic is like a carnival game. There are 10 boxes, each has a secret prize in it. Nine of the prizes you would find worthless. One would be valued at $100 to you. It's $10 to play. You buy all 10 boxes. You spend $100 and get $100 of value. Nine worthless items and one $100 prize.

Should we raise the price of the box you find valuable because you find it valuable? No—because other people are playing too, and they value different boxes. Every box has someone who loves what's inside. If we priced each box at what its biggest fan finds "fair," every box is $100.

Now to play the game you have to spend $1,000 to guarantee $100 worth of value to you. No one would play that game.

If magic was priced that way, the system would crumble.

In pricing magic—especially non-physical items—you have to factor in the risk that people aren't going to like it. And "not liking it" doesn't require the method to be bad. It just has to not be for them.

I've purchased hundreds of items from Penguin Magic. How many do I use regularly years later? About 1/10th. That 10% is worth ten times what I paid. But the stuff I never used wasn't worth shit.

I don't think good magic should feel like a “fair price.” It should feel like a steal. And this helps make up for all the times we invest in magic and it's garbage.

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Sometimes when I’m introducing or transitioning into a trick, people will say things like, “Wait… is this a magic trick?” or “Ohhh, this is a magic trick.” It’s not negative—more like a realization—but it still happens even with people I’d consider pretty acclimated to the immersive style. This is usually happening when I am using one of the “invitations” or just trying something with a cooler premise.

For example, I might say something like:
“I read this article that had a little exercise to test intuition—want to try it?”
Then at some point they ask if it’s a trick.

I do want them to understand it’s magic, but I don’t want to break the premise. I usually respond with something like “it’s magic-adjacent” or try to lean into it, but it can start to feel a bit tongue-in-cheek. I’m not sure that’s the right approach.

Related to that—something odd happened recently.

I performed for a close friend who I would have thought was fully on board with immersive magic.

We were hanging out, and I started casually handling a deck. He asked if I was going to do a trick, and I said something like, “I was just playing around—but actually I’ve got something I’ve been working on. Want to help me test it?”

By the end of the routine, as he realized what was happening, he seemed genuinely upset. Later he described it as feeling like a prank. After that, he disengaged from anything else I showed him.

My instinct is to back off for now—maybe just perform for others when he’s around, or if I do show him something, reset expectations more explicitly (“this is a trick”).

Does this seem like a one-off reaction, or is there a better way to handle situations like this?—AP

Hmmm… I think this may be a one-off thing or a "you" thing, because I haven't really experienced this sort of negative reaction.

I guess this all depends on your personality and your friends' personalities. They all sound very ready to believe you. That's a gift in a way, but it also means the gap between "engaging with a premise" and "feeling deceived" is smaller than it is for most people.

Some random thoughts:

—The first time someone asks, "Wait, is this a trick?" you can pause and say, "Oh, of course. I'm just playing around." They should get the hint that moving forward they don't need to stop and question these things.

If they do question you again in the future, I would just play it seriously. "A trick? No. This deck is actually haunted by a real ghost."

—It might be helpful to have a verbal tic, or a tone of voice that clues people into the idea that we're entering a fictional realm together. It could be as simple as the word "strange." People can catch on quickly you’re moving into a trick when you introduce something with a phrase like:

"The strangest thing happened."
"Want to see something strange?"
"I was reading about this strange experiment."

My verbal cue that I'm going into a trick is that it's pretty much the only time I sound serious. I'm fairly light-hearted and shit-talky about my personal life or world events. It's only when I'm talking absolute nonsense that my tone gets serious.

"Did I ever tell you I ate my twin in the womb? Yeah, it's pretty bizarre but not uncommon. The weird thing is that when it's rainy, like it is today, his spirit will whisper things into my brain that I should have no way of knowing. Here, shuffle these up…."

… all said with a completely serious tone.

—If something feels like a "prank" to someone, that means they thought it was real and then realized it wasn't. If this is happening a lot, try approaching it from the other direction. Make sure they know it's a trick from the start, but then present it in a way that makes them question that.

For example, if you introduce a crystal that's supposed to have the power to generate "order" in chaotic situations, you may have a friend who thinks you're being serious when you start, and then realizes it's a trick later on.

Instead, start off by saying, "Can I show you a magic trick? Okay, so this crystal can be used to create order from chaos." Then maybe you go through some procedure and it doesn't work. You look up something on your phone: "Wait… were you holding the crystal in your dominant or non-dominant hand? Oh… try switching hands." And this time it works. Now they're thinking, "Huh? The crystal actually does something? I just thought this was a trick." Now you're pulling them from a trick mindset into a non-trick mindset. You can blur the lines both ways.

I’ve written in the past that the feeling of magic comes from them knowing something isn’t real, but having it feel real to them in the moment. Which means with an overly-credulous spectator, lean into the "this is a trick" framing up front. They have to have solid ground under their feet before you can pull it out from under them.