Until August...

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This is the final post of July. Regular posting begins again Monday, August 3rd.

The next issue of Keepers will be sent Sunday the 2nd.

Regarding the emails and comments on Trident from this mailbag post, Reid Ferry has this response…

  • Hi everyone,

    First off I want to thank everyone who has supported Trident, it’s really blown me away. My #1 goal it to ensure people who pick up the project will be happy with their purchase. So with that said if you have any questions or concerns please reach out and I’ll be happy to help.

    There is so much more that goes into Trident then many people realize. I chose to be transparent and put out a live performance, knowing that some magicians would look at it and think they know how it’s done. And that’s fine, it doesn’t really bother me. It’s their loss and they’ll never be able to perform it. The neat thing about Trident is it’s one of the only propless mentalism pieces where the method is not only reliant on the script. There’s a system that goes on in the performers mind that cannot be backtracked from a live performance. 

    Now I do want to stress that I think the propless version is probably the least interesting thing that you can do with the system. While I chose to showcase the propless performance, you are buying a new mentalism system. I have clearly stated it is a system that can be performed propless if chosen, but can also do many other things. 

    Either way, Trident is extremely deceptive when performed correctly. Ive performed it hundreds of times, some of which was to some of the best mentalists in the world, and they had absolutely no clue how it was done. Of course you’ll pick up on some aspects of it when you watch it back several times on video but I’m sure people can appreciate the difference from a real performance. 

    Please feel free to reach out with any questions and I’d urge you to consider thoughts from people who have seen it.

In that same mailbag I wrote:

Any truly propless “any word” revelation has to be obvious almost by definition.

I received an email that asks:

I just don’t really get this- wouldn’t that apply to any prop based revelation? 

‘I wrote it down and now they know- option 1 they are magic. Option 2 they saw what I wrote down somehow, maybe sleight of hand or tech.’

It’s the convincers that make the difference, why would propless be different? Harder, yes! But different? Sleight of hand and tech etc have all been eliminated- crack this and it IS the holy grail.

Let’s break this down. Fooling magic requires a hidden deception: gimmicks, sleights, technology, incomprehensible mathematics, linguistic deception, etc.

The strength of these deceptions are what make a trick “not obvious.”

For example, if the spectator thinks, “He only could have known my word by looking at what I wrote down,” but you have deceptions in place to make it seem like you couldn’t have done that, then you have a non-obvious peek.

Now, if someone thinks of any word, and there are no props used or limitations on the word, then the only way for the magician to get that word is to get information out of the spectator. The information has to be enough to filter out 10s of thousands of other words to bring you within a few guesses. 

For that reason, the information used to figure out the word can’t be subtle. It may be clever and they may not see every leap in logic you make but they'll see the clues they've given you.

Remember, to fool someone, you need a deception.  When revealing a thought of word, that deception can hide in the props used: how they're gimmicked or how they're handled. Or that deception can be baked into the words the spectator is allowed to think of (e.g. anagrams or binary). But with propless, there are no props. And there is no deception that’s inherently within the set of "all possible words." So logic demands you must extract A FUCK TON OF INFORMATION in order to whittle it down.

This is why I said it’s obvious “by definition” because the limitations of the method require it to be. To reiterate, I’m talking about truly propless, and truly any word.

Solid advice from the team at Vanishing Inc. Don’t go bowling or get a meal with him either. You’re bound to end up wishing you were anywhere else.

Really enjoyed this photo triptych from Vanishing Inc. detailing the aesthetic evolution of magicians over the years:

  • First, the 19th-century gentleman-conjuror: The perfect tuxedo and the quiet confidence of classic sleight-of-hand.

  • Then, the 20th-century transition: Losing the jacket for that slightly casual, 'working parlor magician' look.

  • And finally, the prototypical 21st-century master: Backwards baseball cap, rolled sleeves, and just absolutely firehosing a jet of vomit-water into a bucket.

Truly, a golden age for the craft.

Catch you all back here next month. This is your yearly reminder we’re in the back half of summer now .If you haven’t visited an ice-cream stand, taken in a drive-in movie, gone to a baseball game, attended an outdoor concert, or hit the beach to enjoy the waves and the bodacious babes… get going. Summer 2026 on’t come around again. Now is the time to be out having fun and making memories. “Now” is always the time.