Hurricane Andrew
/Not much time to post today. I was spending my free time this evening working on the book. An update on that will be coming soon.
I just wrote an email to a reader of this site who was complaining that he felt a recent magic book that was widely acclaimed wasn't really all that great. Here's the thing, people, this site is going to spoil you. Yes, yes, I know my ideas are brilliant and unparalleled and represent a paradigm shift in the presentation of magic and are at least 25 years ahead of their time. And okay, so maybe my writing is funny and charming and, at times, insightful in a way that is very rare in our art. And yeah, I'm probably good with kids, animals, and the elderly; a friend to the downtrodden; and a generous, skilled, and well-hung lover. Sure, maybe all that's true. I'm not going to argue with any of these things you want to say about me. The downside of all of that is, of course, that when you're not here -- in these strong arms -- other magic writing and ideas can seem dull and grey.
I'm sorry about that. I will do my best to tone it down some. I promise tomorrow's post will be so astronomically stupid that it will hopefully take me down a notch or two in your eyes (and therefore bring everyone else up, relatively). I know you're thinking, "Take you down a few notches? Like you can put a dimmer switch on a supernova?" Look, let me at least try.
But I have to be honest with you, on Friday I'm going to present you with a Tomas Blomberg effect from his book Blomberg Laboratories, and I'll tell the story of how I took this great idea and made it a transcendent one by putting it in the perfect context. And then we'll be right back where we started from. I'm sorry.
Coming This December
/I love Christmastime.
Because you love Jesus, Andy?
Hardly. Because I love giving gifts, parties, big dinners, singing, cookies, seeing old friends and family, snow, fires in fireplaces, peppermint mochas, and the smell of pine. Well, I like traditions in general.
So this December, whilst you're busy with your parties (for hosting), marshmallows (for toasting), mixing and mingling in a jingling beat, and firing up your crockpot to make the perfect appetizer for some holiday gathering ("Holy Infant" style Cocktail Weenies - So Tender and Mild), I will be launching a new tradition here.
The First Annual Jerx Advent Calendar
The theme of this year's calendar is The Best of the Magic Circle Jerk. From December 1st through December 24th there will be a post in the early evening, around when the Christmas lights go on, highlighting a post or series of posts from my first magic blog. A lot of you weren't around for that, and much of it is nowhere to be found, even on the Internet Archive, so this will be new for many of you, or the first time you've seen some of the posts in 10+ years. If you like people yelling at me and me making magic-related dick jokes, you will especially enjoy these old posts.
These posts won't replace the normal posting here, they're just intended to supplement what I anticipate will be less frequent posting during the holiday season while I'm busy ice-skating at Rockefeller Center and trying to figure out if I like eggnog.
Looking forward to making the yuletide gay with you this Christmas.
Dear Mentalists: Pre-Show Work
/Happy November, my darlings!
Today I have a quick tip about pre-show work for my dear friends in the mentalism community.
In the past couple of weeks I have heard the following statements said by two mentalists in two different performances.
"Before the show today I spoke with a gentleman and asked him to think of any card in the deck. You never told anyone what it was? You never wrote it down, correct?"
and
"Earlier, before the show, I asked a person to think of any city anywhere in the world."
Do you notice a problem with these statements? It's an issue that's so glaring that I'm sure it's one of the first things mentioned in whatever the fundamental texts are that talk about pre-show work. And yet, I would say that I see it more often than not in routines that use pre-show.
I almost feel dumb saying it myself. It would be like telling some coin guys, "Hey, when you do a false transfer you need to close the hand that 'takes' the coin or else people will see that there's nothing in it." But if you kept seeing people performing a false transfer like this
then you would probably say, "Huh, I guess people don't know they're not supposed to show the receiving hand empty after a false transfer."
So, again, I know this is basic, but enough of you are screwing it up that I think it warrants mentioning.
What you claim to have done pre-show needs to be something that would be too cumbersome to do in the show itself.
It is wildly suspicious to say, "Before the show I asked someone to think of a card," because it takes two seconds to ask someone to think of a card, so it makes no sense to do that before the show. Especially when you spend a minute and a half telling people how fair the selection was. "You could have thought of any card, yes? You never wrote it down. You never told anyone. Nobody asked you what it was." Etc., etc. If this was all so above-board, why didn't you just do it in this moment rather than before the show?
I'm not suggesting pre-show has no place. (Although I think most mentalists would agree that there was a time, a few years ago, where the method was used and abused as a solution to every problem. "Drawing duplication? Just pre-show it! Any card at any number? Just pre-show a card, and pre-show a number! Straight-jacket escape? Just get out of it pre-show with the help of a buddy!") But you need to justify why you did this thing before the show. Maybe you needed to hypnotize the person, or interview them to find out how they think, or you needed to do it outside, or they had to draw the card they were thinking of to activate a certain part of their brain. I don't now, it's your show, you come up with something. But understand that coming out and saying, "Before the show I asked someone to think of a city," is only slightly more credible than coming out and saying, "Before the show, I placed a coin in this closed fist. Presto! It's gone!"