Until August...

Okay, it’s that time of the month (my menses), where I’m going to split until August.

Don’t imagine me taking a 10 day vacation every month. It’s just the time when I shift the focus from the blog to the newsletter (and the next book, but that’s an all month thing).

I was just reflecting on how much of an idiot I am. Coming into this season of The Jerx, I was saying, “I need to cut-down on the amount of content I’m putting out.” And somehow the method I came up with for doing that was to go from 12 post a month to 20, and go from four newsletters per year to ten. I’m a dipshit.

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I introduced the Second Helping feature last month where people can advertise their book or multi-trick video release for free on this in exchange for letting us help ourselves to the second best thing on the release (see the details here).

This month, Brandon Toh kind of broke the system by giving me something to share which people can already get for free. So it doesn’t really fit in with the premise of this feature.

You can download the full booklet from Brandon at his site (you might as well, it’s free—or “name your own price” which for magicians is “free.”). He believes the second best thing in the book is the effect Decja Vu. Check it out here.

If you’d like to offer something from your (not free) release in a future installment of Second Helpings, you can just email me and we’ll set it up.

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Perhaps I judged Bolted too harshly in last Friday’s post. At least that’s what Michael Weber wrote in to suggest. He writes:

You are usually open minded and willing to consider alternative approaches to magic, so your reaction to Bolted was a bit of a surprise.

Back in 1994 I was practicing Houdini's Water Torture Cell in my magic den when one of the glass side panels broke. 

It sent a torrent of water through my apartment and the four apartments directly below mine.

Wooden props like the Vampire Block and Card Duck were spared because they floated. 

Books, magazines, manuscripts, posters, playbills and photographs did not fare as well.

One of the non-magic  losses was all my wedding photos, except for the one picture I kept in my everyday-carry Le Paul wallet.

Because it was the only surviving photo of that special day, I used strong hardware to secure it inside a protective  plastic holder.

I am not trying to claim any priority in the idea, but the fact they've recently hit on something I've done for decades may suggest you were a little quick to criticize.

He’s right. I’m wrong. I just didn’t have the creativity to see that it actually makes perfect sense to keep something precious to you in a clear case with bolts going through it. In fact, the only issue I have with Bolted now is: too few bolts. Get a baker’s dozen or so of those bolts running through their card to really make sure it’s in place for good.

Michael proves that old Dai Vernon quote correct…

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I just cracked myself up. I was watching Asi Wind’s Vanishing Inc Lecture. And he said something like, “And then you ask them to write down something you couldn’t know. Like their dog’s name, or the name of the first person they kissed.”

And I said, “Or the name of the first dog they kissed.”

And I’ve been delighted by that for a good 8 minutes.

It’s super late though and everything is funny to me at this time of night.

Perhaps you can put it in your show. Maybe as one of those moment of faux humility the pros sometimes script into their performance.

“Now I’d like you to write down something I couldn’t know. Like the name of the first dog you kissed or something like that. And what I’m going to do is… wait… what’s going on? Huh? What did I say? Oh my god, how embarrassing. I meant to say, ‘Like the name of your dog or the name of the first person you kissed.’ How silly of me. And I’m supposed to be the one with the super-powered mind! Hahaha! Oh boy. What a charming mistake on my part.”

“But seriously, write down something I couldn’t know. If you did kiss a dog, hell, write down the dog’s name! Hahaha. What a totally fun spontaneous moment! Perhaps you didn’t even kiss the dog. Maybe you just gave him a hand-job. Or got him off in some other way. Maybe you have some ‘rule’ about only kissing when you’re in love. You’re like a Julia-Roberts-in-Pretty-Woman-style prostitute. So you sucked that dog’s dick or ate out his furry little asshole or something, right? Hahaha. Get your face all up in there. ‘Ahhgahhgahhgahh. Yumyumyumyumyum.” Who knows? Whose to say? We’re just having fun here. Hey, maybe you were on the receiving end of a multi-dog gang-bang and all holes were filled with hot dog cock. I don’t know. It happens. And it makes my job more difficult because I have to think of which of those dogs you’d be likely to think about. You see what I’m saying? Haha. Hey, do we have fun at a Joshua Jay show or what?”

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Okay, beat it. See you in August.

The Deconstructed Journal

A couple weeks ago when I wrote up my magic organizational system using Notion, I mentioned that I use the application to organize many other things in my life as well. I received a few emails asking how else I use it, so I decided to discuss that today.

Things I track in Notion that would may be of general use/interest to others:

Books I Read

I track Title, Author, Start and End Date, and short summary.

Movies I Watch

I track Title, Director, Date I watched it, Who I watched it with, and short summary.

Seasons of Television I Watch

I track Name of the show; the Season; the day I started watching; the day I ended watching; if it’s the sort of show that tells one story over the course of the season I’ll write a couple sentences about the arc of the season; and I have a checkbox to indicate if I’ve completed the full series, and another checkbox if I’m rewatching the season.

Meetups and Dates

If I’m seeing someone I don’t see on a regular basis, I’ll keep track of it here: Who I saw, where I saw them, the date, anything interesting or amusing that happened.

Things that made me laugh really hard

Not just laugh a little, but if a conversation or something I’m watching/listening too has me doubled over with laughter, I’ve started keeping track of that. It’s fun to relive the things that almost made you pee your pants.

Notes on non-fiction books

If I’m reading about something historical, or something like that, I don’t keep notes. But if it’s a book about anything productive or business-y, I’ll usually make note of the 3-5 valuable sentences in the whole book.

App Ideas

I have no idea how to make an app, but I better learn because I have close to 100 ideas for apps.

Business Ideas

Products, inventions, potential money making ideas.

Story Ideas

Basic plot elements for things that may one day emerge in some creative outlet.

Meals

Not every meal. But when I’m eating somewhere new, I’ll note the restaurant, rate it, and mention the best thing I ate.

Outings/Adventures

I make note of where I went, what I did, who I was with, the date it occurred.

My Anticipation List

I’ll discuss this in a future post, but basically it’s just a list of stuff I’m looking forward to and the date those things are happening.

Finally, I have some daily checklist stuff for habits and tasks I need to do daily.

Beyond that I have a bunch of pages devoted to specific projects I’m involved with.

I would say I’ve moved 95% of my planning/tracking systems over to Notion. The one thing it’s actually not good at is any spreadsheet that you’re using to manipulate numbers and data. For those sorts of things I still use Google Sheets.

As the title of this post suggests, I think of this manner of tracking things as a “deconstructed journal.” The nice thing about Notion is that any database you keep that has a date element in it can be converted into a calendar with just one click. So I can just change the view to “Calendar” view and see who I was with, what I was doing, what I was watching or reading, etc. It’s perhaps not the best choice if you want to journal about your thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams (although you could do that as well). But if you just want to keep track of the things and people and events and moments that make up your life, it’s a really good way to do that.

The Juxe: Boy/Girl Vocals

I’ve always been a sucker for boy/girl co-lead vocals. It’s a quick way to my heart, musically. Here are a few of my favorites.

Proofs by Mates of State (Lawrence, Kansas)

I love this song. Boy/Girl counterpoint vocals that are just perfect. That opening “Yeah!!!” kicks. The Japanese group Chatmonchy did a really great cover too.

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Just To Make Me Feel Good by Adam Green and Binki Shapiro

Adam and Binki have a real Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood thing going on here.

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You’re Gonna Fall Back Into It, By I Will Always Love You by Wolfie (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)

From a Pitchfork write-up of the band:

These four kids play like they think they're out-rocking AC/DC-- with cheapy instruments in a mid-Illinois garage. They're also just bursting with joy, from the boy/girl vocals (chirpy deadpan versus bratty drawl) to the keyboard leads and tambourine-shaking buildups. Something in the combination of carefree melody, garage-pure setup, and hyper-energetic "rock"-- along with this combo's sharp songwriting skills-- make this stuff a revelation, for whatever tiny portion of listeners "gets" it.

Mailbag #27

Is there any salvaging this trick? —EC

The link in the email went to a re-release of a trick called Bolted. Where you bring out (supposedly) a souvenir card in a case like this…

And then the spectator’s signed card switches places with the card in the case. So the premise is Signed Card to Impossible(ly Stupid) Location.

What exactly would be the purpose of a protective case for a card that puts two bolts through the middle of it? On what planet does that make sense? Is that the premise of the trick? That you’ve transported your spectator to a planet of morons?

It would be like buying a vinyl protective cover for your 1957 Chevy which you have to staple onto the car.

It makes no logical sense. However, if, at the end, they could unbolt the frame and remove the card (which is what any human would want to do) then I could probably still come up with a reason for the frame. But the spectator can’t do that. So no, the trick isn’t salvageable in my opinion.

Okay, okay… if I had to perform this trick, I’d have a card selected and signed. Then I’d say, “I’m going to make your card vanish and reappear, but because of where it’s going, I have to do this first…,” And I’d carefully tear out a couple of holes in the card (in the areas where the bolts would be). Then have the card vanish and reappear in the frame.

In that way, at least, you’d be creating some intrigue about the purpose of your actions. “Why is he tearing the holes?” “What does he mean, ‘Because of where it’s going’?” Then, when the frame is revealed, it’s not just a card to impossible location, it also give them an “answer” to the minor mystery.

In fact, here’s what I’d probably do. I’d do card to wallet. Then I’d say something like, “I’ve been performing this trick for a long time. The unfortunate part is—you saw my hands were empty when they went in my pocket, and you saw how fairly I removed the card from the wallet—and yet despite that you will still go home tonight and the logical part of your mind will think, ‘He must have just snuck the card into the wallet at some point when I wasn’t paying close enough attention.’ The idea that the card really vanished from the deck and really appeared in the wallet is just too unbelievable.”

As I say this I’d be tearing the holes out.

“So to prove it to you, I’m going to vanish it and make it reappear again. But this time, somewhere where I couldn’t possibly just ‘sneak’ it quickly. Now, because of where it’s going to go, I have to do this first.”

And take it from there.

In this way, you’d sort of be justifying the oddness of the frame. The idea being that you had to resort to making this thing to prove to people the card was actually vanishing and reappearing somewhere else.

The one thing you absolutely can’t do is suggest it’s a frame for something you want to protect. That’s beyond insane.

I think tearing the holes adds a little smoke to the proceedings. It goes further to suggest a card that’s not just sandwiched between two things, but enclosed and linked into the frame.

But still, the fact that the person can’t undo the apparatus to remove their card makes the thing a no-go for me. When it comes to magic props, I want something normal looking that is examinable. But I can still work with something strange as long as it’s examinable, or something unexaminable so long as it looks like a normal object. What I can’t use (and really no magician should bother with) is something strange and unexaminable.

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Re: Tuesday’s post, Stumble. Pause. Answer.

I'd add something else to what's been said.

The answer itself shouldn't be too long, since you haven't really thought it through that much, and all through the answer you should be giving the impression that you're not sure that it *is* the answer. And then just continue on, to put that whole thing into a parentheses, as if it's just an aside, of lesser importance to the task at hand.

So I would amend your example answer to something more like:

"Hmm...Uh... I don't know really. I've always done it that way. (implying: I'm just as clueless as you) Uh...I guess maybe I don't want you to think I'm playing the odds? Maybe I just want to get to the pure mindreading experience? I'm not sure. Anyway, concentrate on your card..." —JS

I know where you’re coming from—and in some circumstances that is the way to go—but I was getting at something somewhat different in that post.

What you’re suggesting here is a very natural way to reply to a question. But it doesn’t really gain you anything with the spectator. Instead of Stumble-Pause-Answer, it’s essentially Stumble-Pause-Guess.

If I’m doing a trick where the conceit is that I don’t really know what’s going on (which is something I do a lot), then Stumble-Pause-Guess is a fine way to reply to a question. It’s very consistent.

But, what I’m looking to do with the Stumble-Pause-Answer technique is capitalize on the inconsistency of a stumble, followed soon after with a somewhat cogent/logical answer.

In what situations in real life would you not answer immediately and then come back moments later with a clear response? I think that has the hallmarks of saying something that’s true, but it’s just something you hadn’t given much thought to in a while.

Like, let’s say you asked someone, “How did your daughter get into horseback riding?”

They might say, “Oh… I don’t know. She’s just been doing it for… a long time now… [Pause] Oh, actually, it was her former babysitter who used to ride years ago, and that sort of lit the spark. She adored that babysitter and wanted to be just like her. And when she turned 8 she had her birthday party at the stables, and since then it’s just been her passion.”

That’s a very clean, clear-cut, detailed answer, but it doesn’t seem out of place after an initial stumble and pause. You can sense that it just took the person a moment to put the pieces together in their head. There’s a flow to that sort of answer that I like, and that I think comes across as natural. If someone gives you a response that sounds simultaneously unplanned and logical, that’s going to feel legitimate.

That’s what I’m aiming for. And to be clear, with my style of performance, I’m trying for a feeling not to actually convince anyone of anything. And that will depend on my ability to deliver a clear answer in a manner which doesn’t sound scripted. You want (or at least I want) social magic to have the flow of a real conversation, so they’re continually getting caught up in it and have to remind themselves that we’re talking about something that can’t possibly be real.

To simplify the advice in the previous post: For the amateur performer, in situations where you do give an answer to questions about process/procedure, it’s often best to stumble into the answer.

That will suggest that whatever they’re questioning—which is probably 100% required for the trick to work and is the only thing that’s going to allow you to pull off this miracle—is actually something you haven’t really given much thought to.

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Joshua Jay sent me the following image. No, I had nothing to do with it, and I don’t know who did. Although I do appreciate that I’ve apparently created a whole cottage industry of people doing their own freelance Josh/Andi erotic fan-fiction.

Mystery Card

Here’s a little mystery you might be able to help solve. Reader, Carl W’s friend’s grandfather was a police officer who dies in the 1930’s in a shootout with some bank robbers. Which is how I imagine most police officers in the 1930s dying. That or this.

In his wallet they found this card. But no one seems to know what it means.

Do you have any idea? I’ll give a prize to the first one who gives me an accurate answer. What will the prize be? I don’t know. Let’s say it’s $2. That way you can only be pleasantly surprised with whatever you get beyond that.

Now, while it looks like it might be something fun and mysterious, there’s also a chance it’s a Ku Klux Klan membership card. And no, I’m not kidding about that. At least that’s the suspicion some people have. Although I’m not sure if that’s based on anything other than the fact that it was found in the wallet of some guy in the 1930s. Wallets used to come with a special slot for your KKK membership card back then.

It’s obviously something strange—it’s not something that you get punched 10 times for a free sub sandwich—but what is it? If you have any insight, please send it my way and I’ll pass it along.

It does remind me of those “pocket mentalism” cards that people sell. I’ve never been a huge fan of those, because—despite what they might be dressed up as—they very often look like a prop for a magic trick. However, if you had something that looked old and weathered and you said, “We found this in my grandfather’s wallet after he died. I carried it around with me for years before realizing something strange about it…,” that could be a cool presentation. Perhaps I’ll work on that.

[Update: So far the most common guess is that the boxes represent some sort of gestures. For example, second column, in second box down: wipe brow, pinch left ear (with words written incorrectly as well as backwards). One guess that has come up a few times is that these gestures might be baseball signs. But I can almost guarantee they’re not that. (Although I’ll double the prize to 4 whole dollars, if that turns out to be the case.) When you see a third-base coach giving signs, they look complicated, but they’re not. They just bury the signals in a lot of decoy movements. You would never have signs so convoluted that you needed this sort of card to keep track of them. And we know what the signs in baseball represent (steal, bunt, take, hit and run, delayed steal, etc.). We should be able to find them in some form on this card. It wouldn't make sense to have a card of gestures without indicating what they mean, even if that’s coded too. But more importantly, how big is this baseball team that you’re printing up specially made cards in the 1930s? You got 25 guys on the team. You’d just have them write the signs down and take five minutes to learn them. You wouldn’t go to Ye Olde Vistaprint.]

Dustings of Woofle #26

There’s a new trick coming out called Initial Shock.

On Vanishing Inc., the ad copy says:

“Powerful, visual magic that ends in a unique souvenir your spectators are sure to keep and cherish forever!”

Wow! That sounds awesome! I wonder what this “unique” souvenir that the spectators are going “cherish forever” is? It must be something really special. Let’s see… if I had to guess… hmmm… I’d say it’s a small hand-painted pewter sculpture of the spectator’s first pet. No, that’s too prosaic. Unless they really loved the animal they probably would only cherish that for a few years, not “forever.” So maybe it leaves them with a short audio recording of their most beloved deceased relative sending them a message of love from the afterlife (and revealing which European country they’re thinking of). That’s probably something more like it. Something they would definitely cherish.

Hold on, let me read the ad a bit further to see what it is.

Oh, here it is.

It’s a playing card with their initials on it. How wonderful.

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Joshua Jay has an interesting new project for younger kids.

Here’s part of the ad copy:

The book itself is a "magic" mailbox that lives on the child's nightstand. Every night before bed a letter "appears" inside the mailbox teaching the reader about a fascinating place around the world (thirty letters are included in total). The letters contain cultural information, geography lessons, and of course, a little magic. Magic Mail includes a giant fold-out map so that the reader can tick off the places they've "visited" through this magic mailbox.

To be clear, there’s no real “magic” here. You, the parent, would have to slip the letter in at some point so it will be there when you look at night. But still, for $20, I think it could be a fun thing for the right kid. And definitely better than reading the same dumb book to them every night.

Josh has encouraged kids to write him back when they reach the end of the month-long project. He’s posted some of those letters on his Instagram. It’s great to see everyone having a lot of fun with this.

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I used to think the perception of magicians as losers was a more modern day phenomenon. But then I was watching The Lady Eve, from 1941, and they make a big point early in the movie of explaining that Henry Fonda’s character is kind of a dork because he does card tricks.

Here’s Barbara Stanwyck, early in the film, describing her ideal mate.

Naturally.

Stumble. Pause. Answer.

In my post on March 2nd, I wrote about justifying selections. Specifically in the case of a mentalism trick where having someone select something might not make much sense. Think of a standard “pick a card and I’ll tell you what card you’re thinking of” trick. What’s the purpose of the selection? If you’re reading their mind, why not just have them think of a card in the first place?

If a spectator were to question that, my response, as I wrote in that post, would be along these lines:

Them: “Why do I have to choose a playing card? Why can’t I just think of one?”

Me: “Hmm… okay. I think I see what you’re getting at. I suppose what it comes down to is the difference between asking myself, ‘What card is she thinking of?’ vs, ‘What card would someone like her be likely to think of?’ When you actually pick a card at random, I can just focus on the thought itself. But if I asked you to imagine a card, then it becomes less of a process of thought transmission and more of an exercise in personality assessment or a guessing game based on statistics. That’s not really the sort of thing I do.”

Pete McCabe wrote in to say,

Your answer is excellent, but when you explain why it works, I think you may have left out a key part. It’s in the first sentence:

“Hmm… okay. I think I see what you’re getting at.”

I think it’s valuable that when asked, you respond as if the question hadn’t occurred to you before. This is a bit subtle, and it’s exactly the kind of “acting” that many magicians are terrible at. But if you have a pat answer to this, it makes it seem like a pre-planned performance/trick, as opposed to something happening organically in the moment. Plus, if you’re ready for that question, maybe it’s part of the secret.

Not a huge point, maybe, but useful, I thought.

It’s a good point, and one that I didn’t stress enough in the original post. It’s actually a good way to handle many of the questions you’re asked by a spectator, not just the one I was addressing.

For the amateur, I think it’s good to anticipate the questions and challenges a spectator might come up with, but when they do come up, it’s best for your attitude to suggest, “Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that before.”

There is something that feels very right (very real, very truthful) when you seem to not have an explanation, followed relatively quickly by an answer that makes some sort of logical sense.

If you answer too quickly, that feels like you were planning to have to cover for this issue.

If you don’t answer at all, or only come back with an answer later on, it suggests that you had to create an answer.

Imagine you’re a detective interrogating a murder.

“Where were you last Friday eveni—”

“I WAS AT MY DAUGHTER’S DANCE RECITAL AND THEN I GOT A MEAL AT BURGER KING AT 9:36 PM! I HAVE MY CREDIT CARD RECEIPT RIGHT HERE.”

You would think, “That’s someone who knew he had to cover for something, and planned and rehearsed his answer. There’s something sketchy about that."

Now imagine this interaction.

“Where were you last Friday evening?

“I have no idea.”

Then six weeks later the guy says, “I was at my daughter’s dance recital and then I went to Burger King. Here is a receipt to prove it.”

You might think, “Well, that makes sense, but the guy had six weeks to fabricate this alibi. If it’s true, why did it take so long?”

Finally imagine this exchange.

“Where were you last Friday evening?”

“Friday? Hmm… honestly I’m not sure. Usually I’m home on Friday nights. But I can’t say for certain. Oh wait… Last Friday was my daughter’s dance recital. I was there until… I guess 9 or so, and then we got something to eat at Burger King. The receipt might be in my car still.”

That’s likely going to have the ring of truth.

And that’s how I try to answer a lot of questions in magic because I feel like that’s how people answer questions in real life when they’re answering truthfully. And I want the interaction to have the illusion of truth, even when the spectator knows better.

The technique is simply: Stumble. Pause. Then answer.

Stumble - Say, “Hmm…,” or, “Huh, I don’t know,” or, “That’s a good question.”

Pause - Just a second or two. Not enough time that it feels like you’re concocting an answer, but enough time that it feels like the answer is dawning on you.

Answer - Slowly ramp up into your prepared answer.

Here’s why I think this works well…

If I ask you a question and you have an answer that seems sound and makes sense, then it is likely because of one of these two reasons:

1. You’ve given this some thought and planned to answer this question.

2. You’re just stating something true. And truth should seem sound and make sense.

Now, by stumbling when the question first comes up, you’re taking #1 off the table. So when you do have a sound answer it’s going to feel like #2. Meaning it will have the flow of someone expressing something true, even if what’s being stated is preposterous.