January Daily Check-In

Jan. 27th - This magic poop sounds a lot like my penis.

It’s soft. It’s hard. It melts (hearts). And shatters (conventional notions of how beautiful a cock can be).

Plus, I pretty much only use it to relieve stress and play gross tricks.

Jan. 26th - It’s impossible for a Craig Petty release to not have some drama in its associated Café thread. (As someone who enjoys the drama, that’s great. But I’m sure Craig has got to be like, WTF?)

Jan. 25th - It’s called “Cups & Balls” and it’s about a close-up magician and private investigator named Jonathan Cups who must go undercover in Miami’s gay gigolo scene to find the man who murdered the governor. The only thing known about this mysterious male prostitute is that he has one testicle. While the right man can be identified with a simple squeeze, there are 732 male gigolos in Miami, and Jonathan Cups needs to start working his way down the list. To get the job done, he must hire or seduce his way through all the suspects so he can get a hand on their scrotum to find the elusive “one-testicled man.” The most difficult part of all of this, as Jonathan repeatedly tells his girlfriend, is that he’s “not gay.” Tell that to your erection, Jonathan.

Cups & Balls
If he doesn’t want to blow his cover… he’s going to have to blow his load.

The book will be out late May.

And, excitingly, a 12-part series will be streaming on Tubi for the holiday season.

Jan. 24th - There are no tricks in this new book I’m writing. It’s just magic-based erotica.

Jan. 23rd - One week left.

BTW, next month’s newsletter is probably going to be a disjointed mess. Since the newsletter covers the stuff I’ve been using the previous month, and this month, I haven’t done much performing at all. I still have some stuff I want to write about, but it won’t be the typical structure. If this is your first issue, just know it’s usually more composed than this coming issue.

Jan. 22nd - It’s official. We’re all getting put in Tannen’s Magic Internment Camps.

Jan. 21st - On his first full day in office, Trump gave an executive order that magic is no longer an art, reversing this. Sad.

Apparently this is the first step towards putting magicians in camps. Scared.

Jan. 20th - In this Cafe thread, there seems to be a question about terminology. I’m here to help…

If you say a trick can be done with a “borrowed” deck, that means someone can hand you a deck, and then you can go into the trick. At most, you may need to move around a few cards as you casually spread through the deck.

Saying something can be done with a “borrowed” deck doesn’t mean you borrow a deck and then go off somewhere and do something with it. If that was the case, then pretty much any trick could be done with a “borrowed.” The Invisible Deck can technically be done with a borrowed deck if you bring a roughing stick and lock yourself in the bathroom for 15 minutes.

If you’re trying to say there are no gimmicks involved, then the phrase you’re looking for is that it uses a “normal deck,” meaning, “no gimmicked cards.”

Also, if you say in your ad that the deck can be “shuffled completely,” that means as much as the spectator wants, in any manner.

I have no clue if the person using those terms is using them incorrectly. I’m just clarifying because there is seemingly some confusion about what they mean.

Jan. 19th - Checkmate, people who say magic isn’t an art.

Jan. 18th - My car is doing this thing where, like, 1% of the time the brakes don’t work. It’s not ideal for northeast winters. Some would say it’s not ideal for anywhere at any time. But I think it’s kind of fun. Plus, I only have a couple more months on the lease for this car, so I’m going to ride it out.

(Note: If I slam into the back of a bus and die, do not go hounding my estate for “your book” or “your money back.” I had to explain this to someone recently. For supporters at the highest level, you’re not buying a super expensive magic book in installments. You’re supporting a site. The book is a gift for the Rich Uncle Millionaire-level supporters who have been on board for 18 months. But if you leave, or I leave, that’s just the end of the transaction. (This makes it sound like I’m planning to stop the site 17 months into some future season. That’s not the case. I just wanted to clarify because this is a point I haven’t made on this site in a few years.))

Jan. 17th - Nope. It doesn’t write itself.

Jan. 16th - Just hit the halfway point of book 8. The rest pretty much writes itself. (I’m hoping.)

Jan. 15th - If you’re waiting on an email from me, be patient. 🙏

Jan. 14th - Thinking about the “psychological force” of a “Rose” when asking for a flower. And the fact that magicians think this is a thing that would fool someone.

Here’s the thing… If you ask a friend to name a flower—in the context of magic or mentalism—and they say Rose, you have the most bland, basic bitch of a friend imaginable.

If they are then amazed that you predicted they’d name by far the most common flower in the world, then you have the dumbest, most bland, basic bitch friend imaginable.

Jan. 13th - RIP to Bish the Magish. A true character back in the MCJ blog days.

—Forty—

Jan. 12th - As of today, I switched from a Time Blocking-style of scheduling to using something called the Flowtime Technique. If you’re into productivity/scheduling things, you may want to check it out. I have a feeling it’s going to work better for me.

Jan. 11th - Today we entered the long-middle phase of book writing. I’m past the excitement of starting and nowhere near the anticipation of completion. But all is going well, except I’m so immersed in it that I’m dreaming about it, too. Last night I dreamt I completed the book and sent it off to the book printer. Then I realized I forgot to edit it. Then I realized I forgot to put the illustrations in. Then I realized I had only written up three tricks, and the rest of the pages were blank. And the logic of this dream was that there was nothing I could do to correct this issue, so I was going to be sending out a book with three tricks and a bunch of blank pages in it. I was like, “Oooohhhh… that’s not good.”

But I’ve always appreciated an unpleasant dream. I like anything that makes reality seem more pleasant.

Jan. 10th - The schedule for the Juxe is playlists coming out at the end of January, April, July, and October. That may change, but that’s what I’m thinking as of now.

Jan. 9th - If your name is Joseph R., and you’re a supporter, and you have a live.com email address, your email box is full.

Unfortunately, this is the only way I know to get a message to someone whose email box is full.

Jan. 8th - This was one of the best Christmas gifts I got this year.

It’s a digital camera without a screen on it. So there’s no seeing the pictures you take until you put them on your computer later. I brought it to a couple parties this holiday season where it was passed around. People seemed much more excited to take pictures of themselves, each other, their sexual organs, than they are when they can immediately see the results. Recommended.

Jan. 7th - I just got the first preliminary sketch for the next book cover. It’s going to be so good.

Jan. 6th - As of this month, Genii has a new editorial staff.

I have a cover story idea for them. Track down the old L&L audience and do a “Where Are They Now” type piece.

If not a cover story, then maybe a recurring small feature.

If not a recurring small feature, then maybe some sort of web exclusive.

If not a web exclusive, could you at least track down Diana and give her my number? I always had a thing for her.

Jan. 5th - I just met my Sunday deadline for the newsletter for supporters. You should see it in your email now.

With the holidays, I wasn't trying out as many new tricks this month, so this issue is a bit of a break from the normal format. It’s just an issue of Vegetarian Times. I hope you like sea vegetables.

Jan. 4th - I had a dream last night where a magician was trying to make his act more modern, so he changed his patter for the Ambitious Card and called it, “The Card With Rizz.”

Jan. 3rd - Support this site because you want to support the site. Not because you want to get the supporter reward book and then flip it. Supporting this site is not an investment. At least, it’s not a good investment. It’s Beanie Babies. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

If you decide to support the site, do so based on this logic. And do it with the understanding of what I write in this post.

Btw, the full supporter slots that opened up over the course of this season will be made available to the people at the top of the waiting list at some point in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Jan. 2nd - The moving holes look great. The part where you apparently punch the holes looks fake as shit.

“Let me just casually lay my palm across the card as I punch a hole.” That’s fine if you want to seem like you’re from Neptune. But to earthlings, it just makes the holes seem suspicious. Come up with a presentation where the card is already punched. Then you don’t have to do the fake-o hole punch part. And you don’t even need to have a hole punch on you.

Jan. 1st - It’s 2025. Take THAT, Zager & Evans! We did it! Man IS still alive. Woman—in fact—can survive.

What’s that? Oh… 2525? 500 years from now? Oh no. Of course humanity will be long dead by then. Well, regardless, happy New Year, everyone. While I’m working on the next book this month, I’ll be checking in here daily just to say hey.

Until 2025...

This is the final post of 2024. Regular posting will resume on Monday, February 3rd. Newsletters will be sent to subscribers on Sunday, Janaury 5th and Sunday, February 2nd.

During January, I will check in here once a day with a quick update… like just a sentence a day. It won’t be anything interesting. It’s more for my benefit than yours. There will be one post at the top of the page that I will update daily.

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What does 2025 hold for the Jerx?

There will be a new trick added to the Jerx app in February. A new reward book for supporters at the end of spring.

Oh, and it’s this site’s 10-year anniversary. How will we be celebrating. Well, I’m celebrating it right now, with this balloon emoji.

🎈

Do I have other plans for the 10-year anniversary? Not really. If I was trying to sell something, I’d use it as a marketing opportunity. But I’m not really trying to sell anything. And doing a big celebration post would end up requiring a lot of effor on my part, which feels like the opposite of a celebration. It’s like throwing your own birthday party: a lot of work and kind of sad. So it will probably be a pretty chill affair.

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From the: “That’s Not It, Chief” Department of Bad Answers

A couple of people sent me the following exchange from the Magic Cafe.

There’s a new trick called Sonore, from Ellusionist.

Everyone hears you playing a harmonica, but when you pull your hands away from your mouth, you’re holding a wafer cookie which you bite into. This is just one example. It can also be used for other audio illusions.

On the Cafe, someone asked, what’s to prevent people from just assuming you have a tiny speaker (or even your phone) playing a sound?

Geraint from Ellusionist gives an answer to the question that is… not great.

Let’s break it down because I think he could use some help with the messaging.

He writes:

I think it's all about subverting expectations. The sound sells the illusion.¹ By the time the illusion is revealed and your hands are empty - and you don't have sleeves, people are either with you or they're not.²

I've seen this quite a bit lately. Magicians wondering if the method is too complacent.³

I said it on another thread. We're always going to run into a percentage of spectators who want to work it out. And the bigger majority will be those who just enjoy it.⁴

There will also be spectators who dismiss it as 'must be a trick deck' or 'maybe that other guy was in on it'.⁵

Whether it's a packet trick showing 4 aces that become queens, or whether you're making a harmonica vanish - you'll never be able to please & fool 100% of people, 100% of the time.⁶

You've just gotta pick what you love - and hope people come on the ride with you.⁷

¹ Well, the sound doesn't really "sell" the illusion. The sound is the illusion. When the trick is over, they'll be saying, "Where did that sound come from?" Not, "How did he turn a harmonica into a cookie?" This is why having an idea where the sound is coming from is so detrimental to the effect.

² "By the time the illusion is revealed" people are already "with you or they're not"? What is he suggesting here? All that has happened to this point is you've seemingly played the harmonica. Is he saying that your faux-harmonica playing will be so rapturous that they've already decided if they're going to look at the effect critically? I don't think that's how magic works.

Also, I'm not sure "sleeves" plays into the equation. If I thought someone had a secret little speaker on them, I wouldn't assume it was flopping around in their sleeve.

³ If by "lately" you mean, "throughout the recorded history of the art of magic," I agree with you.

⁴ This is such a fundamentally flawed notion of how magic works. Magic is not split between the spectators who "want to work it out" and some mythical larger group that wants to "just enjoy it." A person can only enjoy magic by trying to work it out. That's what makes magic special—that it's un-work-out-able.

If I don't show you an empty hat before I pull the rabbit out of it, you won't enjoy the trick. You might enjoy me. You might enjoy seeing a rabbit. But you won't enjoy the magic because your mind has easily created the solution which destroys the magic.

⁵ Correct. And then we put deceptions in place that make them think, "No, I guess it COULDN'T have been a trick deck." (A deck switch.) Or, "Hmm, I was wrong, there's no way that guy was in on it." (Have the audience member chosen randomly.)

This is the methodological heart of magic: adding deceptions to a trick to account for the spectator's initial theories. And we have to cover at least their most basic, high-level guesses, or else we don't have a trick.

⁶ This would be a good argument if the notion of a small speaker or your phone was something that would only occur to a tiny fraction of the audience. It's not. It will occur to everyone.

⁷ "Hoping the audience comes on the ride with you" should not be a primary part of your methodology. The way to get people to go on the ride with you is to account for their suspicions as best as you can.

I’m not saying Sonore is a bad gimmick/effect. I’m just saying the response in that Magic Cafe thread didn’t do much to sell me on it.

For what it’s worth, I tried out this effect a few times leading up to Christmas. I didn’t use this actual trick (it’s not out yet). I just created a shortcut on my phone that would play a brief audio track of a harmonica playing. The shortcut was triggered by a remote in my pants pocket.

The trick gets a nice initial moment of surprise. But after that, it played out more like a gag than a magic trick, as you would expect.

I tried a different version where I told a couple of friends I learned 30 songs this year on harmonica and I had them choose one at random from my little notebook of harmonica songs (a Svengali-style notebook with the names of songs and some notes written underneath). I then “played the song” they “chose” and ate the harmonica after. That got a much better response, as the reality of me actually playing the harmonica was established much better, since it started with me playing a freely chosen song.

I’ll probably try it out a couple of more times at least, since I made up the notebook for it, but I don’t know if it has long-term potential. As a trick, “harmonica to wafer cookie” doesn’t have quite the emotional resonance I’m looking for. And as a gag, I much prefer someone seeing me playing the clarinet only to reveal it’s actually a huge black dildo.

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Tenyo Trick Alternative Presentation

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Museum of Penny Alternatives

For the Juxe Music Club I told people they could affix a penny to their submission form or just any other round thing or penny alternative. Here are just a few of the notable ones I’ve received so far…

Most Nostalgic

A Chuck E. Cheese Token

Most Historic

10 Pfenning from both former East and West Germany.

Most Clever Way To Save A Penny

Most “Why Didn’t I See This Coming When I Said People Could Affix Any Round Thing?”

It was sent like this, half-outside its wrapper, leaving a greasy lube stain on the envelope. 😐

Most Unsettling

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Hope you are all enjoying your holidays. Have a great New Years! See you back here soon.

The Experiences Part 3: Front Porchers

[Note: There is one more post scheduled for this month. Not sure exactly when I’ll get it up.]

Since about half of my readers are not from the U.S., I feel like I should first describe what a front porch is. Not just as an architectural feature, but the meaning it has in American culture. Forgive me if this sounds condescending, I just genuinely don’t know how well understood this is.

The front porch is this part of the house…

In America, the front porch has long been a symbol of community and connection. It’s a threshold between the public and private. In nice weather, people will sit out on the porch and pass the time away, interacting with neighbors and others who pass by in spontaneous meetups that can last a few minutes or late into the evening. There is a version of front porch in rural, suburban, small-towns and urban neighborhoods alike.

There’s often a rocking chair or a porch swing. It’s frequently the part of the home that gets most decorated to celebrate the seasons and the holidays.

The most historically charming aspect of the front porch is in its openness and informality. Unlike the seclusion of a backyard or the walls of a living room, the front porch blends the intimacy of home with the inclusivity of community.

Of course, what I’m saying now is somewhat antiquated. This description is definitely more true of the front porch 75 years ago than today. But there are still plenty of places where there is a big “front porch culture.” And the front porch still stands as a reminder of slower, more connected times.

A few months ago, I heard some friends of mine described as having “Front Porch Energy.”

The phrase was true of my friends, but I also realized it was true of what I was seeking for with the Vibe I wrote about this summer. The Carefree Vibe.

Quickies are intended to be a concentrated, stunning moment.

Tantric tricks are intended to be a time-consuming, immersive, deep dive into a magical scenario that genuinely messes with people’s minds.

Front Porchers are designed to be mysterious and amazing while creating a fun, easy-going and welcoming vibe.

Front Porchers Should:

• Feel casual and relaxed

• Not seem overly planned out or scripted

• Have a role for the spectator other than being there to glorify you

• Be leisurely paced. Maybe 2-15 minutes.

• Often have elements of storytelling or nostalgia.

• Feel like there’s some aspect of conversation or discovering something together.

It should have the vibe of a front porch conversation on a summer night.

A Bad Example

Think of the Cups and Balls. This is a trick with no Vibe. No Front Porch Energy.

It’s overly scripted and choreographed. Here is where I do the Vernon wand spin. There are too many magic moments which all seem just like each other. The spectator is just a bystander.

A Good Example

Genuinely, almost any trick that:

A) Has an interesting premise
B) Is fooling
C) Takes a few minutes to perform
D) Is not overly scripted
E) Involves the spectator

Front Porchers aren’t really trick-dependent (in a way that Quickies are). It’s more about how the trick is delivered.

Take, for example, a plastic gimmicky Tenyo trick. That type of trick is homeless in my “Three Experience” categorization.

It’s not a Quickie visual surprise that comes out of nowhere.

It’s not something that can support an hour-long Tantric presentation.

And by itself, it doesn’t have the charm we would want for a Front Porcher. “Here’s this mass-produced magic trick. Now I’m going to show you what this mass-produced magic trick does.” That’s how most Tenyo performances come off. It’s fine. And it can fool people. But it’s vibe-less. Soul-less.

The Yento presentation creates a Front Porcher from a standard Tenyo trick. A charming, captivating thing that we’re discovering together. It doesn’t re-write the rules of the universe. But it’s well worth the small investment of people’s time, in a way tricks often aren’t.

Throughout the years, you’ve seen me write up tricks starting with, “Can I get your help with something?” Or, “I was reading about this thing, I wanted to try it out with you.” Or, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here. You’re the perfect person for this.”

These are all ways to get into a trick with a Front Porch Energy vibe (before I had learned the term).

What Front Porchers Are Good For

Entertaining people

Creating a greater connection with people

Establishing a pleasant memory. They might not remember the exact details of the trick. But they’ll remember having a good time if the vibe is right.

What Front Porchers Aren’t Good For

Blowing people’s fucking minds.

Yes, you can certainly find 100s of tricks that you can perform in a few minutes that will absolutely destroy people’s brains.

But if I have a trick that is sort of “perfectly fooling”—a trick that is almost unsettlingly fooling—then I will usually want to save it to create a bigger experience for people. A Tantric Magic experience. I save my strongest tricks and methods for Tantric tricks. If I’m going to ask someone to invest an hour in an experience that suggests we’ve gone back in time, then I need to build that experience around a flawless trick. A trick so mind-blowing that they feel forced into the only explanation I’ve given them (time-travel).

Front Porchers are not for that purpose. They’re casual, fun, moments of magic that prioritize vibe and connection (of course with a fooling trick and intriguing premise at the heart of it).

And they help establish a baseline of good-to-great magic for people to enjoy and get comfortable with as you plan for your next tantric experience to open a rift in their reality.

These three experiences I’ve written about the past few days are the best uses of magic—at least for me.

1. A quick, unimaginable, visual surprise.

2. An immersive story.

3. A friendly, interactive, mystery.

The problem is, most tricks in magic are not designed with one of those experiences in mind. They’re designed to make the magician look clever or powerful or talented. That’s the “magician-centric” approach I’ve had an issue with, even before I could fully articulate the type of magic I thought should replace it. These three experiences are my approaches to audience-centric. Not because their role is always central, but because their experience is.

The Experiences Part 2: Tantra

The second magical experience I want to talk about is the “Tantric” magic experience.

Other words I’ve used for this sort of experience on this site are: “Immersive Fiction” and “Romantic Adventure.”

This is, more or less, the opposite of the Quickie.

Tantric Magic should:

• Unfold over a significant period of time

• Have a premise the spectator is already familiar with

• Blur the lines of where the trick begins and ends

Premises

We’re trying to pull people into a story. So, ideally, the premise should be something they’re already familiar with, so we don’t have to do too much work for them to step into the experience.

Things like:

• Time-travel

• Ghosts

• Imaginary friends

• Reality-glitches

• Lucky objects

• Astrology

• Scams or heists

• Deja-vu

While I do like tricks that delve into more obscure premises (like Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and things like that). I don’t think they’re ideal for Tantric Magic (they’re better for the experience we’ll talk about tomorrow). We want the barrier to entry for the story to be as low as possible to encourage them to go along with it. For that reason, it’s best to use a premise that they’re already familiar with from the real world.

Timing and Example

The total experience needs to take, at least, 20 minutes.

Sometimes I have tricks that don’t conclude until days or weeks after they begin.

Keep in mind, the experience begins when you first mention it to the person.

Consider this trick. You stop your pulse and while you’re “dead” you’re able to interact with the spirits and learn what word your spectator wrote down.

The “trick” part of that may take just a few minutes. But if I introduce the idea to you, and we execute the whole thing in three minutes, it’s going to have a very “trick-ish” feeling to you. There’s no depth to it for you to get wrapped up in the story.

But if, a few days earlier, I text you and say, “You have your CPR certification right?” And then we make plans to hang out later in the week to get dinner. I insist on going to my favorite restaurant. “Just indulge me. I might not get the chance to go again.” At dinner, I tell you about how I’m working on this “spirit communication thing.”

“The thing is, some people can get the spirits to come to them directly. But if you don’t have that gift, you can sometimes open up the ‘channel’ by going to them. That’s what I want to try with you tonight.”

At this point, you’re not worried that I’m really going to kill myself. You’re not thinking, “Oh, another lame magic trick.” You understand you’re entering a sort of interactive fiction (because I’ve done similar things with you before). In this story, your friend has invited you out to dinner, and he’s going to pick up the tab because he wants you to help him out later and stand by as he sends himself into the spirit realm to see if he can communicate with someone there.

Later, I have you write something down, show it to the spirits and then burn it. “This will give us some proof if it works. Otherwise, it might just be a dream or vision or something.”

I tell you I’m going to try and put myself in another state. I won’t be “dead.” But part of me will be… not quite alive. “If I don’t come out of it after 45 seconds, put the smelling salts under my nose. If I’m not back after a minute, then there’s real trouble.”

I have you monitor my pulse. It slows and then stops. I’m slumped back on the couch. After 45 seconds, I haven’t moved. You put the smelling salts under my nose. I start coming around.

For the first few seconds, I seem a little confused. I’m just looking around the room.

“Oh,” I say, recognizing where I am. “Wait… how long. How long was that?”

You tell me it wasn’t even a minute.

“Holy Jesus,” I say, still out-of-it, “it felt like… months.”

I’m trying to shake it off. “I can’t believe that was real.”

After a little bit, you remind me, or I remember about the word you wrote down. “Oh, right, that word! That was the whole point. Uhm. Shit. He told it to me, but it feels like so long ago. It was… oh, god, if we did all this and I don’t remember…no, I’ll get it…there was something unusual about the word, right? Did it begin with an X or something. Oh, wait, no, a V. Two Vs. Velvet!”

Again, this is a premise I could execute in two minutes. “Write something down. Burn it. Now feel my pulse as I send my consciousness to another plane of existence…. I’m back. Was I gone for months? It felt like it. Did you write down Velvet?”

But the story doesn’t grasp people when presented that way.

The time component is an integral part of Tantric Magic. It’s the part of the journey that lets them get wrapped up in the story.

If I tell you I want to take you to a mystical secret garden, and we walk out to a garden in my backyard, then I’m asking you to do a lot of the work of imagining this is really some sort of hidden magical place. But if instead we walk into the woods for a half hour, I can bring you to a place that looks just like the “secret garden” I would have showed you in my backyard, but here the journey makes it easier for you to imagine this is something special.

If I tell you I have a piece of metal from a crashed alien spaceship and pull something from my pocket and make it levitate, you’ll think, “Oh, cute.” But if I tell you to meet me at my bank and I open my safe deposit box and slowly unwrap an object from multiple layers of fabric to show you this piece of metal I salvaged from a crashed alien spaceship, that will have a very different feeling to you (even when you still know underneath it all that this is just a trick).

A strong trick + a recognizable premise + time = Tantric Magic.

What Tantric Magic is Good For

• Creating long-term memories connected to magic.

• Making people feel special by being the recipient of a unique, tailor-made magic experience.

• Making magic not feel completely trivial.

• Fucking with people’s minds.

When Tantric Magic Isn’t Good

When performing for someone new who doesn’t know what to expect.

When performing for someone who doesn’t like magic. (You might think that it would go without saying that you shouldn’t perform for people who don’t like magic. But I’ll still do Quickies for those people. Just to mess with them. Tantric Magic is for the fan.)

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Around the time I started writing this blog, this type of magic was all I wanted to do. The lesson I learned was that you can’t just do this type of magic AND perform regularly for the same people.

Tantric Magic is an experience you give people maybe 2-4 times a year, at most.

There are plenty of magic tricks that you can build out to be a big experience like this. But if that’s all you ever do, then this immersive magic experience will cease to feel like something special. You have to pace yourself.

I said this about Quickies too. You can’t do these things too often. Together, Quickies and Tantric Magic make up, probably less than 20% of my magic performances. So what is the other 80%? What is the experience we’re going for with a normal, everyday magic performance? That’s for tomorrow.

The Experiences Part 1: Quickies

This week, I have a three part series for you on a new way that I’ve been categorizing effects.

It’s not a system based on what’s used during the tricks (e.g., card tricks, coin tricks) or the setting in which the effect is performed (e.g., stage or close-up) or anything like that.

This categorization system is based on three types of experiences I enjoy having with the spectators through magic.

What is the value of categorizing effects in the way I’m going to explain in these three posts? Well, I’ve found these three experiences to be the best types of interactions I’m capable of having with people through magic.

And, I’ve found when I have a trick that is methodologically-sound, but just isn’t quite working for some reason or another, it’s often because the experience of the trick doesn’t fall into one of these categories. Sometimes a trick is like having smoked brisket for breakfast or getting a 30-second back massage. These things aren’t bad, necessarily, there’s just something off about the experience. Brisket enjoyed with friends on a summer evening, or a 45-minute back massage, is going to have a profoundly different (and stronger) effect on people because that’s the right experience for those things.

The first experience I want to talk about…

The Quickie

Quickies should be:

• Visual tricks

• With little set-up

• That are ideally under 30 seconds.

Example

I’m at my friend’s place, and we’re helping her daughter put together a craft for Christmas.

At one point, I pick up the glue and put a little in my palm. “I used to do this when I was a kid all the time.” I dip my finger in the glue and let it stretch and drip from my finger. After a moment, I spin the glue around the end of my finger, where it forms into a solid white ring. I pop it on my thumb where it lives the rest of the night.

This is, as you probably know, Tobias Dostal’s Liquify.

This is a great trick for a quick visual moment.

But if you were to try to expand this into a three-minute routine, you’d likely have something bloated and poorly paced. Something that put so much focus on that final transformation that you’re giving people time to consider and anticipate gimmicks and sleight-of-hand.

You’d be taking a trippy, visual moment and turning into this overly-planned trick climax. And putting too much emphasis on something that is usually kind of stupid if you think about it. (Turning glue into a ring, for example.)

What Quickies are Good For

• Capturing people’s eyes and attention.

• Making them question what they saw.

• Creating a unique visual memory for them

• Engaging people who might not sit for a longer piece of magic.

What Quickies Aren’t Good For

• Creating a real “magical” feeling in the spectator. It’s over too quickly for that.

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I don’t stock up my repertoire with a ton of different quickies. I’ll have 5-10 that I make sure I work on regularly.

You don’t want to do them too often. The primary value of the Quickie is the shock of this weird thing happening out of nowhere. If you make this your “thing”—to surprise people with weird visual moments—they will soon be less and less surprised.

When I was 11-years-old, a 16-year-old girl pulled me into her backyard and flashed me her boobs behind a garden shed. That experience is burned in my brain, primarily because of the shock of it. I can’t say I have a detailed memory of anything else about that girl, but the memory of that experience as a whole is as strong as most any from my childhood, in a large part because it was so unexpected.

That’s what we’re going for with Quickies. Not the most fooling, strongest magic. But an unexpected concentrated moment of something impossible or surreal, that feels like nothing they’ve seen before.

Mailbag #128: Openers

Hey Andy, I understand if your response to the following email is simply ‘I don’t do that kind of thing’, but I wonder if perhaps you have any thoughts on ideal openers, mainly for stage work but close up too. The classic advice is ‘you want something quick and visual’, but having tried various things and though about it for a while I don’t think this is necessarily good advice, particularly if your goal is trying to build a sense of story and structure.

Thoughts?—YG

I don’t do that kind of thing.

But if I did, I think I would be less concerned with the trick itself than what it is I would say to open the performance. If you say something that gets people to like you or people to be intrigued by what’s about to happen, then the particular trick that follows is less important.

Take this with a grain of salt because I have no experience performing magic “shows,” so I’m just talking from my instincts and working in other areas of entertainment.

The theory of starting with something “quick and visual” seems to be predicated on the idea that people aren’t really interested in what you’re going to do, so if you don’t capture their attention quickly they’re just going to take a nap or walk out or start throwing things. I don’t buy that.

Let’s assume we can break up people into three groups.

• People who love magic.

• People who like it (if it’s good)

• People who hate it.

If you walk up to their table and immediately go into a trick to “grab their attention,” what are they thinking?

People who love magic: “Oh, wow! Magic! Great!”

People who like magic: “What the heck? Oh. He’s a magician. Wasn’t expecting that. Hopefully he’s good.”

People who hate magic: “Oh god. What is this corny shit?”

What if, instead, you took that initial time to talk a little bit and make a human connection and build some rapport.

People who love magic: “I like this guy… and he’s going to show us some magic, too? Awesome!”

People who like magic: “I like this guy. And he does magic too? Intriguing.”

People who hate magic: “I like this guy. He’s really going to show us magic? Ugh... Well… I’ll give him a shot.”

That’a why my initial instinct would be to focus on connection as opposed to magic.

Obviously, you still have to pace yourself and not just sit there chit-chatting (especially if you’re doing a short walkaround set). But I would still make my focus identifying the right thing to say at the start to get them on my side(rather than the right trick to do).

The worst stereotypes about magicians are that they’re desperate for attention, have no social skills, only care about their tricks, etc. Rushing into a trick only seems to emphasize these perceptions.

Now, you mentioned trying to “build story and structure.” If that’s the focus, then that suggests a more theatrical type of presentation (as opposed to casual walkaround or table-hopping). So maybe something like a parlor or small stage show.

In that situation, you’re not going to be connecting with the audience individually like you would in a more close-up environment. So for that, I would focus my opening on getting them intrigued about where the show is going.

“Last night, at 3:40 in the morning, I drove 120 miles and spent two months rent on what’s inside this box. I can’t show you what’s in it just yet… I don’t even think it would make sense if I did. But I promise you, 20 minutes from now we’re all going to see something unfathomable. Or somewhere out there, some guy is laughing his ass off with a few thousand dollars of my money.”

So, depending on the situation, my “opener” would be about building connection or intrigue. These, by definition, will attract an audience regardless of how they feel about magic.

Eventually, when you do get to the first trick, it should be very strong. You want them thinking, “Ah, I was right for investing my attention in this person (or in this story).” For that, I don’t think the type of trick matters, so long as it’s a strong one.

Short version: What does a stripper do? Does she come out, whip off her Catholic school-girl skirt, spread her legs, and say, “Look at my pussy! I know it’s what you want! Pay attention to me!” No, she starts slow. Walks around the pole. Gives you a chance to fall in love and builds the tension about what’s to come. Connection and intrigue. Be more like a stripper. Not some sleazy, trashy, low-class magician.

An Approach to Your Goals in the New Year

I saw this the other day…

I’m sure there’s no scientific studies backing up this fact, but it’s just kind of logical.

Here’s how I would utilize this concept. I would identify three areas I want to make progress in next year. Let’s say:

1. Writing a mystery book.

2. Learning bass guitar

3. Mastering a bottom deal (because I mistakenly think there’s some value in this skill).

And I would identify a daily task for each area that I can accomplish in about 20 minutes:

1. In 20 minutes, I can write a hastily written, unedited page of my book.

2. In 20 minutes, I can get in one lesson on my bass guitar learning app.

3. And in 20 minutes I can do a few hundred bottom deals.

If I’m consistent with these daily tasks, I will undoubtedly have made a lot of progress on all of these long-term goals. I will have at least a rough draft of a book, 365 bass lessons completed, and probably a pretty passable bottom deal.

Then I would recommend lumping these daily goals together where you create one daily “power hour” to work on these things.

I don’t know if this is counterintuitive or not, but I’ve found it easier to block out one larger period of time than three smaller ones. Even if they add up to the same amount of time. You might think it would be easier to find smaller gaps in your schedule to fill, but—for me, at least—it doesn’t work out that way. It’s just easier to prioritize one block of time, even if it’s longer. And you only have to get motivated to do it once per day, instead of three times.

You might say, “There’s no way I can find a free hour per day! I’m too busy!” Okay, well, tough luck I guess. Obviously, I’m not telling you to set an hour aside each day to work on some goals or projects if you literally don’t have an hour to do so. (But I bet you do.)

I’m just recommending consolidating your self-improvement or project time into one block. Even if the goals are unrelated. I find this helps you commit to all three and not let one or two drift away.

And setting a few goals to focus on for a year is a fun way to give the year structure and make it more memorable. “Ah 2025, that was the year I learned bass guitar, perfected a bottom deal, and wrote Joshua Jay, Boy Detective.”