Introducing: Jerx Points

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So I have this ebook that I've been working on very sporadically over the past few months. I think I'm calling it 20 for 20. It's my 20 favorite tricks —other people's tricks, that is— from the past 20 years. And I kind of go through them and talk about them and talk about my presentations for them or the changes I've made to the them. Some are well known, some are hidden gems, I guess. These are the effects that I've performed the most in my life -- the impromptu stuff, the everyday tricks.

And I haven't known why I'm writing it, because I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. I'm not going to sell it, because it's not the type of thing you'd sell. It's fairly substantial, but these are my personalizations, not my routines. And it's not the type of thing I would post on this site, because, while I don't explain the routines, I do talk in general about the methods. And this ebook really consists of material that has made-up my day-to-day repertoire. I don't want 100s or even dozens of people having access to it. But I do enjoy the sharing of ideas with a small group of like-minded people. 

(I think most people who write a blog are looking for the widest possible audience. But I'm only looking for a wide audience so I can identify a super narrow sub-group of that audience. As I express to people in the GLOMM welcome email, it's about a winnowing process of finding a group of people with whom I share a similar ethos. I spent 25 years on the outskirts of magic identifying with very few people. (And happily so.) This site has allowed me to share my ideas and find those handful of people I'll want to continue interacting with after this site is gone.)

So, anyways, I began to think of ways to identify even smaller subsets of people for when I want to release things, like this ebook, to just a handful of readers. And at the same time I was thinking how much it delighted me to see people destroy their copies of Erdnase, or post pics of themselves in their GLOMM shirts. And then it struck me to combine these things.

I like whenever people invest time and energy into seemingly meaningless fun. That might be the mission statement of this site, actually. And I want to recognize these actions as they pertain to this site so today I'm launching Jerx Points. 

Jerx Points are like Marlboro Miles. Except you can't get a canoe with them. Actually... I've changed my mind, you can. 500 Jerx Points get you a canoe.

Jerx Points are not primarily about rewards, although there will be rewards. The five people with the highest number of Jerx Points (or anyone with over 100) will receive the ebook I was talking about at the beginning of this post at the end of 2016. 

But that's not what Jerx Points are about. They're about pride. The pride that can only come from ordering a copy of Expert At The Card Table just so you can destroy it. Or the pride that comes from taking part in any of the activities/objectives that I might think up. Eventually there will be a permanent link in the navigation bar that will contain all the Jerx point generating things you can do, and I will be adding to the list from time-to-time.

We will start with what's below.

Earn Jerx Points

- Buy the Jerx. Vol 1 - 40 points

- Join the GLOMM Elite Membership - 30 points

- Put a picture of yourself in your GLOMM shirt on social media - 5 point

- If that picture contains anyone who has had their own Penguin Live lecture - 15 points.

- Post a GLOMM banner on your professional magic website - 15 points

- Make a video of yourself destroying a copy of Expert at the Card Table and post it on social media - 15 points

- This is the inverse to the one above. Look to youtube for examples of self-serious videos that fetishize Expert at the Card Table. Make one in a similar style that is an ode to one of these books:

Post it on social media - 15 points. 

- Start a rumor on twitter that helps cement Andi Gladwin's legacy as a magic's dark, brooding, bad boy. Things like how he fingered your wife in an elevator (and made you watch) or knocked your teeth out for looking at him wrong. #BADwin - 3 points.

- A GLOMM tattoo. With video proof. You're an idiot - 100 points

There will be more of these to come, but that should get you going. 

I am the final judge on whether you get the points or not. You can only get points one-time per objective. Unless you do something really cool the second time.

Some of you already have a number of Jerx Points. Don't go bragging about it, hot shot. In fact:

- Any tweet that brags about the number of Jerx Points you have - minus 2 Jerx Points.

- Any tweet that humbly mentions the number of Jerx Points you have - 2 Jerx Points.

You are also free to come up with your own ideas and submit them for Jerx Points. This will be like @Midnight or Whose Line Is It Anyway, where I'll arbitrarily award points for your effort. I'm not really looking for things that promote this site directly. In general anything that legitimizes the GLOMM is funny to me and would get you some Jerx Points. Some guy offered to write a death metal song about how Erdnase sucks -- that would be a Jerx Point worthy effort. Any artistic endeavor done with genuine talent and an investment of time that reflects some dumb thing I talk about here is potentially a Jerx Point worthy event.

You'll have to notify me on twitter or email to make sure I'm aware of your Jerx Point efforts, but you're responsible for keeping your own tally too. Include proper hashtags where applicable: #erdnaseblows - #GLOMM - #BADwin.

To reiterate, yes, there will be rewards and exclusive content for those at the top of the Jerx Points Leaderboard. But this is not about that. It's about being able to take pride in something for once in your rotten life. It's about creating a legacy to leave your grandkids. ("They say Poppy had the most Jerx Points in all of Missouri!" -- "It's true son. He was a great man... maybe the greatest.")

To spare myself some emails, I'm completely serious about all of this. Even the canoe.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Masuda?

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So, did you come up with any good ideas for Liberty Vanish? Yeah, me neither. It might be one of those tricks that is just a fun visual and you can't do anything that's really going to stick with someone past the momentary shock.

If someone was to force me to use it (which seems pretty unlikely) here's what I'd do with it. 

You may have to modify the gimmick to do what I suggest, but I think it's possible. First I'd make a copy of the gimmicked postcard with the statue vanished. Then I'd print up a bunch of postcards with that as the actual image. Then I'd lop off the bottom 25% of the gimmick (making any necessary adjustments to the gimmick to make this workable). And I'd set the whole thing up out-to-lunch style on top of some other postcards I'll mention below. What we want to do is take advantage of their suspicion of the card by expanding it to suspicion of an entire stack of cards. You'll see.

So your friend Bob comes over. You say, "Oh, I want to show you something I got at this weird garage sale." You show him a stack of postcards rubber-banded together. You flick through the edges and he briefly sees a bunch of different locales. "Here's the weird thing," you say. You grab a marker and have him put his name or a mark at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty postcard. Then you make the statue vanish. What does he think? He thinks it's a tricky postcard, but more than that, he probably suspects the whole stack. Good. 

You take the rubber-band off and immediately spread through the postcards face down. They all have some cryptic message on the back. "See you soon," (or cryptic-ier words to that effect). You hand him half the postcards and when he looks at the faces he sees that all of them are missing their central figure. A postcard of Egypt with the pyramids gone. A postcard from Brazil where Christ the Redeemer is not on his pedestal. Mt. Rushmore with no faces. (You'd have to make these in photoshop.)

At this point you cull the gimmicked card under the spread of cards you hold. You continue to spread through and once you get to the bottom one (which would apparently have been the postcard he signed) you pull it out of the spread and hand it to him to examine. As he does you ditch the gimmick. Maybe cop it out if it's not too big? I don't know. I mean his attention should be on that signed, altered postcard for at least a few seconds. Then you toss the rest of the cards on the table for him to look through if he wants. 

(I like the fact that you draw suspicion to an entire stack of cards. He might imagine a slit in the top card leading to a hollowed out section in the stack with a little reel type thing that pulls the image back or some other complicated situation like that, but at the end you can just spread the entire stack out and it's just cards.)

On the back of his card it says:

Wish you were here.
Since you're not,
I'll come to you.

"What does that mean?" You ask each other. 

He gets to leave with his signed, permanently altered postcard.

When he gets home he walks into his bedroom and finds his wife buck naked wearing only one of these.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your hard massive cock, yearning to blow its load," she says.

"God Bless America," your friend replies.

There you go. It's doable as along as you can get your friend's wife to play along. If you can't, then get friends that are more fun in your life.

Also, was there a gas leak at the Cafe? In the thread there on this effect there are people complaining that the Statue of Liberty that's provided for you to produce at the end doesn't look like the one you vanish. Uh... no shit, goofballs. It's supposed to be a joke at the end of the trick. "She vanished... and here she reappeared!" There's some real magician-think going on in that thread. "If the plastic Statue of Liberty doesn't look like the real one, then my audience will never believe I made the picture on a postcard disappear and then reappear but now as a two-inch three-dimensional figurine!" I would contend the last thing you'd want to reproduce is something that sort of looks like the real Statue of Liberty but smaller. Your audience will be like... Uhm, do you want me to believe this is the the statue from the picture or... what are you going for here? I think the goofy statue provided by Masuda is much better. If you can't get your friend's wife, I mean.

Interactive Magic Post

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This isn't a post about interactive magic. It's just a question that I'd like you to consider until my next post.

(But speaking of interactive magic, one of you has to be friends with David Copperfield, right? Can you get him to do this for me? What I want is to get him to re-record this trick. He doesn't need to get James Earl Jones, he can use Steve Harvey or something. Or no one, for that matter. You see, I had this idea that I would start up one of his old specials to watch with a friend. And when he gets to the interactive trick and he's like, "Come up to the screen so you can touch my finger," I would rush up to the screen, unzip my pants, and put my dick on his finger while looking over my shoulder at my friend and braying like a jackass. Then I want Copperfield to say, "Andy, get your little dick off the screen you stupid animal." And I would just freeze, and swallow hard, and shamefully zip up my pants while, on screen, David gets back to the trick. You see? And I would just cut that into the special where the original version appeared. It would make David look great -- well, at least to my one friend. And you might think, "Well, she'll just know you used some connections to get him to re-record it. It might be funny, but it wouldn't be magical or anything." But I think you're wrong. Here's the thing, my anonymity goes both ways. My non-magic friends don't know I have this site. The don't know I have "connections." So the idea that somehow I could have finagled Copperfield into making a dick joke for the sake of one of my friends isn't even feasible. Oh, and I have a way to make it look like we're watching video from an old VHS but we're really watching something I'm playing from my computer. So at the end we could re-watch the actual tape and all would be as it was in the original broadcast. And I'd turn to her and ask, "That did happen right. We didn't imagine that. And how did he know my dick was so little?")

Oh, right, the question I'd like you to consider... Here's a trick that recently came out called Liberty Vanish.

Back in the days when I didn't have a magic blog empire to run, I would ask my friends to give me their shitty tricks they bought and I'd try and come up with a way to use them. It was just an exercise to try and keep my magic-mind sharp. This morphed into my "friends" emailing me links and saying, "So, do you think there's anything worthwhile you can do with this?" They didn't buy the product in the first place. Now they were just looking for free consultation without even investing in the trick itself. Leeches. 

Anyway, one of them asked if I had any ideas for this trick. He likes the visual, but recognizes that this is, what I call, a half trick. A full trick would be: you vanish the statue of liberty and let them see the postcard to verify it's really gone. Examination -- in the context of a trick like this -- is not optional. Examination is the only confirmation that the trick has happened. What I mean is, without examination the trick is "It looks like the Statue of Liberty vanished." With examination it's, "The Statue of Liberty vanished from this card." That might not be how they articulate it, but that's the level of conviction they would be able to have in the effect.

Regardless of that, I'm asking you now what my friend asked of me: Do you have any ideas for this effect? Maybe a context that might make it something more than it is? Can we use that visual moment in some other fashion? I don't actually want to hear your ideas at this point. For now I just think it's a good exercise to think of these things. I'm going to think on it too and tomorrow I'll let you know if I come up with anything.

A Big Concept and A Little Idea

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The Big Concept

Here is a duality you should keep in mind when creating and performing magic.

1. Magic is great because it focuses all our attention on the present moment, perhaps more than any form of art or entertainment. 

2. Magic is at its most memorable and powerful when it is not just about what's happening in that moment. That is to say, the most resonant magic suggests that this magic moment is just a glimpse at some grander concept that is inherently interesting, engaging, or mysterious.

The most profound magic directs 100% of our attention to moments that are manifestations of compelling ideas that exist outside of that moment.

[I want to clarify, because there is some confusion on this point. The trick should never be an analogy for something outside itself. The trick itself should be a part of this outside concept and thus a part of the world around you. Don't connect the trick by simile or metaphor or "this card represents [whatever]." Those things devalue the magic moment. They suggest the magic moment is only valuable as a representation of something else and it needs some kind of veneer to make it relevant. Instead, make the magic moment an example of something relevant that exists outside of the effect.]

The best tricks are like the best first kisses. It's not primarily the mechanics of the kiss that make it great and overwhelming, it's the thought of what that kiss is an expression of that will make her spine deliquesce. 

Imagine this. You come to my house and I show you a shark tooth. It's 12 inches long. "Whoa! That's huge!" you say. At first you're just impressed by the size and heft of this tooth. And then your mind flashes to the image of how massive a shark would have to be to have 50 of these in its mouth.

There's the moment of magic (seeing the shark tooth) and then the context of what it implies (there's a gigantic shark out there). Do you leave remembering the tooth or remembering that image of the shark? Both, probably, but I think it's the thought of that shark that stays with you.

When it comes to magic tricks I strive for great effects and great contexts (presentations). But I will take a weaker effect in a strong context rather than the other way around.

If you tell your friend you want to show them a trick and you float a coin in your hand, that may be a great magic moment. But, if you say, "I was walking in the woods and I tripped over this piece of metal coming from the ground. It seems like it's part of some larger object. Strange. And ever since then my tooth have been feeling loose in my skull. Oh, and look what I can do now."* And then you float the coin, and when you're done you spit a tooth out of your mouth. You still get that great magic moment, but it's evidence of something more profound than "just a trick." And no, they don't need to believe in this "more profound" thing. It's just a context to expand that magic moment outwards. (* And yes, that's a straight Stephen King, Tommyknockers rip-off. But it's apropos as an example because the whole notion of this is that you show someone something that is just a fragment of something greater buried underneath.)

If you think it's impossible to come up with really great presentational concepts for all your tricks (especially if you have a large repertoire, like I recommend) you're right. Thats why I like to come up with universal meta-presentations that can be used for all tricks, or at least all tricks of a certain type. I've mentioned some of these before.

Here's a meta-presentation that is very down-to-earth and can be used with any effect. "Can I get your opinion on this trick I'm working on?" Then the effect is not just about that "magic moment," it's about you and your relationship with the spectator and trusting their judgment and wanting their input. This may seem like a very pedestrian "presentational angle" but it's also one of the best because it's the closest to being true. I didn't say the "grander concept" mentioned above needed to be mysterious. It can just be something interesting. And people are (usually) interested in things when they've been asked to give feedback. Plus, the idea of magic being something that is practiced and honed and perfected is a "bigger" idea that is very easy for people to get on board with.

If you want to go with something a little more interesting you could ask for their opinion on something because you meet up with a group of magicians every Wednesday and whoever does the best trick gets their meal paid for by the others. And this is what you're working on for your next meet-up. Now what you're showing them is not just a magic moment, it's part of a story of a group of magicians and a gentle rivalry and things like that. 

Or, bump that shit up even more. "I need your opinion on something. There is a trick that has vexed magicians for centuries. They've said it's impossible. It's like the problem on the chalkboard in Good Will Hunting. Well... I think I figured it out. Will you watch it and let me know if it works?" So again, the moment is not just about the trick. It's about perseverance and tackling impossible problems. And it implies that the climax of the effect has some resonance beyond that moment.

In the past I've offered a universal presentation to be used with gambling effects. We often make the trick into some story about something that happened in the past: "One time I was at the table and this card-shark sat down next to me, but he had a funny way of dealing." Whatever whatever. Instead, recast the effect as a rehearsal for something to come later. "Can I get your help? I've got a big poker game this weekend and I'm working on a new scam. These guys are bad dudes, I don't mind taking their money. Let me try out a couple scenarios with you." Now the magic moment -- or the gambling demonstration -- still packs the same punch, but it has a different meaning. It's a dry run for something you're going to try later instead of just a trick in the moment to show how skilled you are.

I remember the first time I presented an effect like this to a friend who was notorious for trying to bust me on things. All of a sudden, this guy who was always watching intently and questioning everything I used to do in the past, was now getting excited because he was "not seeing" all the moves and switches I claimed to be doing. When the moment was no longer about fooling him or impressing him he became 100% into it and a fan of the material in a way he had never been previously. It wasn't him vs. me anymore. My side was now our side.

The Little Idea

Finally, I want to end with a little idea I have for a universal meta-presentation for Tenyo-style effects. Tenyo tricks are so fun and so fascinating to me as a magician, but I would just never perform them. They seem so far removed from anything truly "magical." By that I mean there's no staying power to the effects. People watch them and think, "Huh, well... there you go. I guess he's got a plastic thingamajig that allows that to happen somehow. Neat." Not only is the trick obviously "a trick," but it exists only in that little bubble of space in front of you for that moment in time. It's almost impossible to make it about anything other than that plastic gizmo. 

Or so I thought, until one night while eating some short-cut pasta (orzo, I thought) and I had this idea. I don't know if it will translate well in writing but I can't tell you how much this improves any plastic-y gimmick-y effect. The one requirement is that the trick ends in an examinable state. I really love this idea.

Imagine you have a friend over for dinner. At some point in the evening you say, "Oh, I'm glad you're here for this. I got something in the mail today. I was hoping someone else would be here to experience it with me and I'm glad it's you."

You pull out a little package and begin to unwrap it revealing a plain box inside. As you unwrap the box you tell a story like this. "So, in Japan, there's this guy who runs this little factory. Now, I don't know how much of this is true, but this is what I believe to be true. It's not anything you can google because this stuff is all secret, but this is what I've picked up from other people. So, he runs this small factory and no one knows for sure where it is, and no one knows for sure who works there. And this factory of his produces one magic trick every year that he sends out to a couple hundred magicians. People who have done something in magic that he enjoyed. No one knows how this guy finds out about your work, or how he find out where you live. Just one day you start getting these packages in the mail."

"He's supposedly a funny little dude. His name is Mr. Yento, I believe. This guy is like 4 feet tall and 200 pounds with these big glasses. And one time when one of the magic magazines did finally track him down when he was out for a walk, they tried to interview him and apparently he just giggled for 5 straight minutes. Not in a creepy way, but in a way that had them all laughing too. At one point the interviewer looks down to stop his recorder and when he looks back up the guy is 40 yards away scurrying into the forest. Like apparently he ran 40 yard in 4 seconds. Like an NFL wide receiver."

"But here's the thing. He doesn't create tricks for other magicians to perform. He creates these tricks -- these little plastic tricks that look like toys -- and they, somehow... I don't even really know how to say it... they perform themselves. You just follow the instructions and something magical happens and no one has any clue how it works. But it only works that once."

"And that's why I'm glad you're here because I just got this year's package and usually I'm too excited to see the trick to wait for anyone to come by. And one of the rules is you're not allowed to record the trick. I don't know how he'd know. But apparently he knows."

So you open the box, and remove the packing material and you find this little plastic thing. Then you remove a small envelope with little cards in it. Each card is numbered with a step for you to follow. You go through, step by step, following the directions on the cards. And at the end the thing vanishes, or changes color, or penetrates, or whatever, and this Tenyo effect is now real magic.

For those of you who disagree with a main tenet of this site that removing yourself from the equation leads to stronger magic, you will be a believer if you perform a Tenyo trick this way. I've only had a chance to perform this a couple times but it's a gigantic difference. The tricks aren't twice as powerful, they're 20 times as powerful. It's a completely different thing for people.

What makes this so good?

1. The trick is no longer just the trick. It's an example of something bigger and more wonderful, as I've discussed in this post.

2. The idea of a Willy Wonka-esque mad genius, with a secret factory in some Japanese forest, sending out packages of tricks that perform themselves to mystify other magicians is just a ridiculously perfect presentational idea. One of the top 10 presentational ideas in the history of magic. Who are you to say that, Andy? Oh, just the guy who came up with like 6 of the other top ten presentational ideas in the history of magic.

3. Your actions can't be questioned. You're just following instructions on cards. "Following instructions" is the ultimate excuse for getting away with anything questionable. Ask the Nazis.

4. 200 people in the entire world get these packages, once a year, and it only works once. You're giving your spectator a rarefied, special moment... with a mass produced, plastic molded Tenyo trick. What a great thing.

5. I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I think it's true with these Tenyo-style tricks. They look like toys and I think people have their defenses up about being fooled by a toy. Magic alone can make people feel stupid, but to be fooled by this Happy Meal toy? I think people will deny their astonishment to a certain extent; it might even be subconscious. But with this presentation you get to set the example of how astonished they can feel free to be. If you, the knowledgeable magician, are blown away by this effect, then they can feel uninhibited about indulging in their own amazement.

6. There's a lovely little line in the presentation about how he sends these packages to "people who have done something in magic that he enjoyed." This raises the question, what did you do to earn a spot on that list? And that naturally leads into some other effect. "Oh, well, you know that problem on the chalkboard in Good Will Hunting? Well, there was something similar like that in magic...."

If you're like me you will do this set-up. You'll get a nice but unassuming little cardboard box, about 6 inches square. You'll get some natural wood excelsior packing material. You'll get some kraft paper to wrap the box in and some kraft paper cards and a little envelope to put the instructions on. You'll put your favorite examinable Tenyo effect in the box surrounded by the packing material. You'll place the envelope with the instruction cards inside. You'll close the box. Wrap it in kraft paper. Put your address on it in a simple, clear handwriting, and then add a dozen different old Japanese cancelled stamps you ordered off ebay. Tie the package up with an X of twine. Packages with real stamps and twine look like something from 50 years ago. This is good. Timelessness is a good thing here.

When you perform the trick, cut the twine, but remove the wrapping from the box gently so you can use it again. You can use everything again except the twine. And you'll want to do it again and again, because it's so much fun. This trick has made me a Tenyo collector.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to put all that effort into a Tenyo trick. That's stupid.

Yes, I know, I know. You wouldn't waste your time on this. You're going to practice your pass for two hours a day for eight years until you can get it invisible so you can expertly perform a difficult trick that your audience will never remember.

But okay, that's fine. That's your path. When I drive home for thanksgiving I don't honk on my horn and scream at the cars going the opposite direction, "Where are you going!? Home is this way!" They, like you, are going to a different destination than I am.

Magic in the Media: Now I Saw You

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I just got back from seeing Now You See Me 2.

Uhm... can you guys say AWESOME?

You're going to need to in order to articulate the phrase, "Wow, that movie was really not awesome."

I'll be honest, the movie barely makes any sense. And not in the way that, like, Ulysses doesn't make sense to me, because I'm an idiot. But in the way a retarded monkey shrieking gibberish doesn't make sense to me. 

I remember when I first heard word about the original movie, it was pitched as something like, "Magicians use magic to rob banks," which sounded like the greatest movie ever made. Except they made the mistake of having them capable of anything. So they're essentially like superheroes which is not what people want (in this case). They want to see real humans using their cunning to pull off these elaborate schemes. It's telling that the most exciting scene in the second movie is when the group is working together using card sleights and flourishing moves to hide this computer chip thing they're stealing (that fortunately is the size and shape of a playing card). This is when they are at their least god-like. They're just magicians using (somewhat) legitimate magic skills. 

But outside of that scene, most of the "magic" is just ridiculous. I don't know why they even bother having magic consultants if literally anything is possible for these characters to do. It would be like having magic consultants on Thor 2. 

Magic was mentioned a few times on some of my favorite podcasts recently. I always like hearing magic mentioned by non-magicians in a non-magic context. It gives you a much better insight on the state of the art than listening to a bunch of magicians yap about how great Derek Delgaudio's show is. (Which I have no doubt it is, but let's not kid ourselves that magic doesn't have a long way to go in order to dig itself out of the hole it dug for itself in the past 100 years.)

Here are a couple of clips from those podcasts mentions.

First is the show Doughboys which talks about chain restaurants. In this conversation, hosts Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell, and their guest Claudia O'Doherty discuss the hierarchy in a deck of cards. It ends with a nice exclamation of disgust towards magicians by Claudia.

55 - Baja Fresh with Claudia O'Doherty
Doughboys

On Pistol Shrimps Radio, a show where they call the action for a women's recreational basketball league in L.A., one of host Mark McConville's analogies leads into a discussion of Lance Burton's "hole in the floor tricks." 

Pistol Shrimps Radio

And finally, I was making the point above about how one of the shitty aspects of Now You See Me 2 is it has magicians performing impossible tricks and a friend challenged me saying it didn't matter because regular people have no idea what is or isn't possible. I disagreed with that. And here is Tom Scharpling (a non-magician) on The Best Show making the same point.

The Best Show
Tom Scharpling

Gardyloo #10

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I've been asked when the final drop-dead date is to get your book order in. I should have something for you next week on that.

It's time to award the winner of the #erdnaseblows contest. This person is getting their book for free. There were 8 submissions:

1 - Cleo Lunt
2 - Jon Shaw
3 - Jason Leddington
4 - Cristian Scaramella
5 - Martin Colclough
6 - Robb Weinstock
7 - Nick Olson
8 - Chris "Brue" Laypan

The winner will be picked by the New York State Lottery Commission.

Your entry number is the one associated with your name above. If your number matches the first number drawn of the evening Daily Numbers drawing on 6/11/16, then you win. If a 9 or 0 is the first number we will go to the second number (and so on). Good luck! And may the odds be ever in your something something.

Here are some preliminary sketches for the GLOMM logo. The bunny's pose is inspired by this cover for Practical Mental Effects, which I've always liked. In fact, it used to be a 12 foot mural in my bedroom when I lived in Manhattan. No kidding.

I received this fine email today from a guy named "Jerry." Hey, thanks for the support, Jerry!

So first you're selling a book for $250 and then you're selling a t-shirt for $50. What's the matter no more smart ideas for your blog? Is it just a money-making thing for you now? I could have seen that coming. Enjoy it, sell-out.

Dear Jerry,

First, get bent. Second, lick my balls. Third, it's a $260 dollar book. Get it right.

Let me tell you about the sweet economics of running a magic blog and something like the GLOMM project. I get the idea 8 months ago. I recruit some people I know to help with the project: an illustrator, a photographer, a model ($600). I do an initial printing of the shirts ($426) and then a second ($450). I get pins made ($230). I get membership cards made ($170). I create a website ($150). So at this point I'm in for $2000+ and that doesn't count dozens of hours of my time. Then I sell a membership kit, paypal takes a cut, and I pay for the shipping and handling. So let's say I clear $40. Well, that's not too shabby considering I'll sell 1000 of these and end up making $40,000. Not bad! Wait... no... I'll actually probably sell 40 of these if I'm lucky and lose $500 on this enterprise. 

Hey, no one asked you to sell t-shirts. And you could have just done them on the cheap.

Yeah, I know. I'm not the one complaining here. I'm perfectly satisfied with the situation. You were the one bitching. I'm just pointing out how dumb you are for thinking this site is some grand money-making scheme.

Jerry! Who told you to stop licking my balls!

If I wanted to make money by selling t-shirts to magicians, I would have done one with a bunch of skulls and flames to match your awful style. (I take great pride that the shirt has been much more popular with the non-magicians who see it.)

I created the GLOMM site a) because I liked the idea of creating an organization for the sole purpose of kicking people out of it, b) as an absurd anti-piracy measure, c) as a de facto "fan club" for this site. At the end of this video there is a girl wearing a Jerx shirt (getting ready to masturbate to old-school Michael Ammar). People had asked me if I'd be printing them, but I never wanted to. It seemed like too much of a direct championing of this site and thus a championing of myself which is gross. But a shirt promoting a fake magic organization that was spawned by this site is something I can get behind.

And what if I did make money from this site? The notion that that is some terrible thing is bizarre to me. It just means the site will exist for longer. I think people get that it takes a huge time commitment to write a site like this (which is one of the reasons there aren't other sites like this) but I still think a lot of people feel like, "Well, he should spend 20 or 25 hours a week on it for free. I mean it's not hard labor, it's all just fun." But by that logic I should never be paid for anything, because I've had fun at every job I ever had. Having fun is my default. 

I love magic and thinking about it, creating it, and performing it. I also love masturbating and eating cereal but if I had to do it and write about it 25 hours a week I'd need to find a way to justify that time expenditure. I'd just be so raw. And so full! Similarly, writing about magic is not something I'd normally be doing, so I have to find a way to fit it in with the rest of my life. As I've said from the beginning, this site will run for as long as their is fuel for it. I have more content than I know what to do with. It's time I lack. And when people support the site monetarily it affords me time. Simple!

With that said, if you're in the "Magic Blogs Should Be Free" camp, or the "Magic Blogs are a Human Right Not a Luxury" faction, just know that when October comes around and it's PBS fund-raising time again, there's going to be a much more straightforward set-up as far as donations to keep the site going, barring a last minute endowment by a generous benefactor. You're not going to like it. It's going to be a very simple calculation of if X number of people are willing to make a small-ish monthly donation, the site will remain. If not, it goes the way of MCJ. I'll be very happy either way. Happy to keep doing the site or happy to have such a large chunk of time back. I'm an expert at crafting win-win scenarios in life, and this is one of them.

There you have it, Jerry. That's actually the preface to my next $260 dollar book. Magic Blogging for Some Fun and Little Profit. That's free, but the rest will cost you. And now fuck right off.

Hey, speaking of shirts, 3XL and 4XL (or as I call it, "The Magician's Medium") should be printed in the next week or two.

Until next time! xoxo

The GLOMM - Part Three - A Routine

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Originally I had considered loading up the GLOMM membership card with a bunch of outs and reveals for magic and mentalism tricks, but I looked at other examples of tricks in this style that use fake credit cards or membership cards and they all seemed universally terrible to me so I decided against it. Somehow a card with a whole bunch of extraneous information on it seemed less interesting than a simple, straightforward card that implies some greater, enigmatic organization.

But there is a trick that is fun to do with the membership card. It's a little play-lette with a satisfying dramatic structure and a premise that is at least mildly intriguing. It requires a bit of acting (at least as I do it), but you just have to act like an indignant idiot, which shouldn't be too hard for you. It utilizes a couple very useful tools that should be in your repertoire anyway. And it's pretty much self-working. 

During some dead time while hanging out with a friend you are looking for something in your wallet and you pull out your Global League of Magicians & Mentalists membership card. She makes some comment on it or you bring it up yourself.

"Oh this? Yeah, this is just the card that indicates I'm an Elite Member in the Global League of Magicians & Mentalists. It's no big deal. I mean... well... technically I guess it is. It's pretty exclusive. The GLOMM is open to every one, but only a rare few are Elite Members."

"Actually, there's something I wanted to try that I was reading online today. It's a trick that supposedly is guaranteed to work for Elite Members, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Can I get your help? Let me see if I have those instructions I wrote down earlier."

You pull a piece of paper from your pocket and unfold it. "Ah, here it is."

You turn your GLOMM membership card face down on the table. You take out your phone and open it up to the calculator and hand it to your friend. "We're going to create a personalized magic number for you, okay?"

You start going through the process you wrote down or printed out earlier in the day.

"Step 1. Have the spectator enter any two digit number that has a personal meaning to them. Don't let me see it, I think I'm not supposed to know what it is."

"Step 2. Press the multiplication button and then have the spectator enter any three digit number that has some meaning to them. This one you can share with me. What was it? 592? What's that? The numbers on your license plate? Ok, that works."

"Step 3. Press the multiplication button and have the spectator enter a random three digit number."

"Step 4. Press the equals button. Your spectator has created their 'magic number.' Despite the fact this number was arrived at based on the spectator's personal choices and random number selection, you will find the number reflected on the front of your GLOMM membership card."

"What number did you get," you ask. "4,141,079?" You scribble it down on the other side of the instructions you've been reading from.

"Well, this might be hard to believe, but does my membership number look at all familiar to you?"

Without looking, you snap up your membership card and show the front to your spectator, with a big shit-eating grin on your face. She gives you a confused look. Your smile falters as you look at the front of the card yourself.

"Sixteen! What the fuck!?"

You turn on your phone and place a phone call. Your spectator only hears your end. 

"Uhm, yes, I would like to talk to someone there. My name is [Your Name] and I... what? Yes... Member no. 16, that's correct.... Actually that's what I'd like to talk to someone about. You posted that trick online today and you said it was guaranteed to work. But I just performed it and it failed miserably. Now, I'm paying good money to be in this society and I demand a certain level of respect, not to be jerked around like some common--... What's that?...Yes.... Yes.... We followed the directions. Well I... No, we did it correctly, but at the point where it said it would match the number on the other side of the card, it was way off. My membership number is 16... What?... Actually, that is what it says, madam. It say, 'you will find the number reflected on the front of your GLOMM membership card.'... 4,141,079... yes... that's right... Well, no, it doesn't say the number on the front of the card... What do you mean?... Turn what upside down?... [You turn the paper in your hand upside down.] Oh... I see... my mistake... I understand. Thank you. Yes. May GLOMM be with you as well. Thank you."

You set your card and the number you wrote down on the table in front of your friend. Without saying anything you turn the number over.

Method:

This uses two things that should be in your repertoire because they're incredibly useful for creating spur of the moment magic effects.

The first is the TOXIC force, as it's commonly known. This is a way to set up your calculator on your phone to force any number. Here's how it works on the iphone. Turn on your calculator and turn it sideways so it's in scientific calculator mode. Enter the number you want to force into the calculator. In this case 4,141,079. Hit + then hit 0 then hit x i.e, multiply then hit 0 then hit ( i.e. left parenthesis.

Again that's:

4,141,079
+
0
x
0
(

Now turn your phone to its normal orientation and the scientific calculator part will go away. You can turn your phone off and/or exit out of the calculator, just don't close the calculator app. 

When you're ready to perform you turn on your phone, open up the calculator (in regular, non scientific mode), and give your phone to your friend. She can do any calculations she wants but when she presses the equals sign it will show your force number. Mathematics!

(I assume you can do this, or something similar with an Android or even a regular calculator. I don't know. Honestly, just get an iPhone if you're a magician. It makes things so much easier. iPhone is the phone of magic. Saying, "Can I do it on Android?" is like watching a card trick and saying, "Can I do it with dominoes?")

The second part of the method is just a utilization of the fabulous Cryptext by Haim Goldenberg. This is something every magician and mentalist should have in their brain. I use it all the time. (I built an effect into my phone number, in fact.) It's the best way to have a prediction or revelation in full view the whole time.

The rest plays out as I described above. With the membership card in your wallet you're all set to go. You don't even need the instructions written down, you could just do them from memory, but I like to pretend I'm not overly familiar with them. I like it to seem like I don't quite have a grasp on the whole thing. And that I'm just an overconfident dope. "Does my membership number look at all familiar to you?" I say with all the slimy magician faux-confidence I can muster and a big phony smile on my face. While my spectator thinks, "Did this idiot never notice his number was 16?"

Of course you could play the whole thing straighter. You don't need to play the smug idiot. You don't need to do the fake phone call. You could just guide her through the calculation and then say, "Would you be amazed if your number that you just created was printed on the front of my card?" You turn it over. "Hmm... 16... Would you be amazed if I was within 4,141,063? No, I'm kidding. You see it's not in my membership number where your number is echoed, it's in the acronym for the organization itself..." blah, blah. Or whatever. That would still be good.

But I prefer the presentation above. I like bringing up this secret sub-set of a magic society. I think that's inherently interesting. I like playing stupid. And I love anything that plays out as half of a phone conversation. Like an old Bob Newhart routine. I think there is a lot of opportunity for comedy there. And there's something intrinsically engaging about it because they can't help but fill in the other half of the conversation even though they know you're not really talking to anyone.

Get your membership kit here. (You won't be member 16 (well, one of you will be) so don't be confused if you're, like, 17 or something. "Hey, my card is broke!" No, they're just all uniquely numbered.)