Until October...

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Hey, if you’re someone who has been a supporter at the Rich Uncle Millionaire level throughout this season of The Jerx, you will be getting the next book shipped to you in October.

For this to happen, you will need to respond to the email that collects your shipping information that will be sent out next week. The book will ship at the end of October, but it will only ship to those have verified their address.

This is the final post until October. Regular posting removes Monday, October 2nd. The next issue of the newsletter will be in supporter’s email boxes on Sunday the 1st.

There’s been a good amount of chatter in my email box about the new card index called Dex.

The questions seem to be about if I’ll be getting it, or if I have another index I recommend.

I don’t have it. But I’ve seen some of the instructional download for it, and it looks well-made and well-thought-out. It’s not revolutionary in its approach. It’s the sort of thing you expect from an index. You’re not going to be like, “I never could have imagined something like this!”

If I was an index guy, I’m sure I’d get this. But I’m not, so I don’t see myself picking it up.

Card indexes are kind of in a weird grey-area for me. I can definitely see the incredible possibilities with one. But devoting a pocket to one, and then having to likely carry around another full deck as well… that’s just not my style. My EDC philosophy is to have a wide enough repertoire that performance opportunities abound even with minimal stuff on me. When it comes to EDC, I want to minimize what’s in my pockets and maximize what’s in my head. If I left the house with an index in one of my pockets, I’d feel obligated to look for opportunities to use it. When I walk out of the house thinking, “I’m going to use this (prop/gimmick/technique/trick) today, I feel I end up with more forced, less organic moments of magic. Whereas, if I’m focused on the situation and environment first and then think, “What do I know that would fit well here?” I tend to have stronger magic interactions that feel less forced.

So if I do get this, it will likely be to perform a specific trick at a specific moment in time that just happens to need a good index. At the moment, I don’t have that need. But that may change.

An interesting find from Joe M.

Here is a funny story about a magic book (I reckon it is a copy of Psychological Subtleties - which also fits the time when the story would have taken place) involving Bert Kreischer and Louis CK.—JM

Thinking of Hot Rods recently, I was reminded of my friend Andrew’s approach to dealing with the Hot Rod force.

It would look like this:

Him: Name any number between 1 and 6.

Spectator: Six

Him: Great. And, generally, do you prefer—are you more comfortable with—letters and words or numbers and math?

Spectator: Oh, letters and words. I’m terrible at math.

Him: Okay, then we’ll spell six.

Of course, this doesn’t work with someone who is very comfortable with numbers. But most people consider themselves more comfortable with letters and words. So it’s a safe-ish bet. It worked every time I saw him try it. It’s sort of laughable because it’s not like counting to six requires knowledge of higher mathematics. But it felt like a somewhat legitimate question and course of action in the moment

Okay, I’m out of here for September. I’ll be back here soon for the SCARIEST month of all!

Autumn starts in just a few hours. I’m psyched. Enjoy it. See you soon.



Harvest Time Part Six

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Most years, around the Harvest Moon (the full moon closest to the start of autumn) I have a Harvest Time post. Harvest Time is, traditionally, a time for gratitude. It’s also a time for renewal and transformation. In the same way crops are harvested, and the fields are cleared to prepare for the next planting season—I take this time of year to reflect and prepare for new growth.

The Harvest Time posts have also been my opportunity to make some declarations that ideally turn some people off from the site. This is my way of gathering up the readers and supporters I want to continue on with and leaving behind the ones who aren’t resonating with the vibe here. Separating the wheat from the chaff, to bring it back to harvest terms.

I’m genuinely not looking for more readers or more supporters. I think people think this is some reverse psychology type of marketing. “He says he doesn’t want more supporters as a way to get more supporters!” No, I just don’t want to be in the mindset of chasing a dollar with this site. Then I have to start thinking about what appeals to the broadest group of people, rather than just following my own interest. If I had to concern myself with appealing to a wide readership, I couldn’t go down rabbit holes like spending three posts talking about the Hot Rod.

It dawned on me the other day that the reason we’re getting 9-hour instructional downloads is because the people releasing the tricks are trying to appeal to as many people as possible. My desire—that they would just release a download with the most powerful uses of the trick or gimmick based on their experience performing with it—was rooted in my narrow experience of writing this site. It occurs to me now what a luxury my situation is. I can just write about my experience with things because I was never looking to make this site as big as possible or to appeal to people broadly.

I don’t have a message to spread. And I’m not trying to maximize my profits from this site. I do this because I enjoy thinking about magic and writing about magic and testing out magic ideas in the real world. The support structure of the site lets me identify a core group of people who are on a similar wavelength. Maybe they aren’t traveling the exact same path, but they are at least navigating the same constellation. And it affords me the time it takes to write and perform so much. That’s what the support structure is there for. Not to optimize my earnings. I’d rather be supported by 50 like-minded souls than 50,000 casual fans.

Wait… hold on a sec…

50,000 supporters X $25/month X 12 months in a year =

15 million dollars.

Okay, I take that back. For one year, if 50,000 of you want to support the site, I’d be okay with that. But after that I will regain my integrity and just write for the true fans.

As I mentioned, often the message of my Harvest Time post is intended to prune away some readers/supporters. And that’s true with this year’s message which is this:

Don’t support the Jerx as a financial investment.

Why do I say this?

Late last year, a copy of The Jerx, Volume One went up for bid at one of those fancy-pants magic auctions. They estimated it would sell for $300-$500. It ended up selling for closer to $4000.

Every few weeks, someone will email me about it and be like, “Holy shit…Did you see this?” They, understandably, assume I’d want to get on here and talk about what hot shit I am and rub it in the faces of the people who had an issue with the price of the book when I first released it.

But I actually don’t like that the book sold for that much.

First, I don’t love the idea of people selling the books at all. In my utopia, everyone would just hold onto them forever because they cherish them so much. Yes, I know, that’s a ridiculous notion, but it’s genuinely how I feel. Imagine someone said to you, “Hey, you know that love note you wrote your girlfriend? She sold it for $300.” Would you like that? I mean, part of you might be flattered someone would pay $300 for a love note you wrote. But the other part of you would be like, “Hmm… I wish she didn’t sell the note I wrote her. Maybe I should be fucking the person who paid $300 for it?” For me, and the way I operate the site, the books are closer to a love letter than they are a copy of Scarne on Card Tricks, so it’s a little depressing when I hear of one being sold, regardless of how much it sold for. As corny as that sounds.

Second, it sets up a false expectation in people. “That book sold for $4000? I have that book. I’m going to sell it for $4000!” I promise you, you’re not. I think that price was a fluke based on there being a small number of people who really wanted it and it rarely being sold by anyone who had it. If others go to sell their copy it may only sell for 1/10th of that price.

"Geez, Andy. Don’t talk down the potential value of the book like that. What if I want to sell it someday?”

I'm just being honest. I've always said I would protect the value of the books by not reprinting them in any form, and I've kept my word with that. But I'm not going to promote the idea that they're worth so much money just a few years down the road.

There are a limited number of supporter slots. I want those slots to be filled with people who get some joy and value from the material, not speculators.

Aw, Screw It, Here's Another Hot Rod Idea

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An email I received earlier today…

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the famous Hot rod stick.
I really like your handling with the imaginary die and the hand move.
However I’m still thinking on the motivation of this trick, the hook ?
how would you justify bringing out the stick ? What would be the motivation or maybe you think motivation isn’t always needed ?—KQ

Yes, motivation is definitely lacking here. I think the force I described makes the trick stronger, but it’s still just a meaningless exercise. It’s a little visual treat for the eyes. And I’m fine with that for a 30-second trick. This is the sort of thing I know someone might have a good reaction to, but I don’t expect them to be thinking about it months from now.

Even if you contextualize the Hot Rod, I don’t think anyone really believes it. If you say, as I used to in high school, “I stole this from the guy who was selling class rings. It was meant to show the different color options,” that sort of gives some justification for why the stick exists, but does anyone buy it? And if they do, it’s still something foreign to them, even if you’ve given it a justification. So it’s not like they think, “Oh yes, the old class ring sample stone plastic rod… just like my sweet mamá used to have!”

In general, my belief is, if you have a weird object, don’t try to sell it as something normal to your audience. They’re unlikely to believe it. Instead, frame it as something special or unusual or strange.

The Birth Date Gemstone Hexad Detector

[Speaking to someone I just met]

“Oh, actually, it’s perfect that I met you. I wanted to test out this thing I just got with someone I don’t really know.”

I dig into my bag and pull out the hot rod.

“Have you heard of the birth date gemstone hexad? Yeah, most people haven’t. So, you’ve heard of birthstones. Like each month has a different one. Well, the birth date hexad, is a series of six stones that are assigned to the days of a month. (A hexad just means six things, I think.) So for example, anyone born on the 8th of any month will all have the same stone. If we were born in the same month, our birthstone would be the same. But our birth date stone might be different depending. There’s only six total stones. And they’re distributed unevenly throughout the month. I think it’s based on the positioning of Saturn’s six largest moons… or something.

“Anyway, your birth date gemstone is supposed to be very lucky for you. I got this thing which is a Birth Date Gemstone Hexad Detector. It has the six stones on this side. And they’re on the other side here in the same order. They look the same, but they’re not exactly the same. One of these is the control side, and the other is the detector side.” I flip it back and forth a couple of times. “Uhm… I don’t really know which is which, but it doesn’t really matter. Here, hold it in your fist.”

I give it to them to hold in their fist so all the stones are covered.

“What day of the month were you born?”

She says the 23rd.

“Okay… I think that’s… I’m not 100% sure.”

I open my phone to a numbered list entitled Birth Date Gemstone Hexad. I show it to her. At the 23rd is Ruby.

“Oh, I thought that might be it. That’s cool. That’s rare. Only one other day has ruby assigned to it.”

I scroll through the list to show that while all the other stones are repeated multiple times, ruby only appears on the list twice.

“That makes you pretty rare. Let’s see if it worked. Open your hand.”

They open they see all rubies. (Or, possibly, they open their hand and the stick looks the same. “Maybe that’s the control side. Turn it over.”)

Method

This was the trick I originally started performing a few months ago when I reintroduced myself to the Hot Rod. A version of the Hot Rod that not only eliminates spelling… but also counting!

It uses a standard Hot Rod and the Digital Force Bag app to put Ruby (or whatever your force gemstone is) at your spectator’s birth date position.

So you’ll make your list in DFB with the other 5 gemstones repeated frequently, and not in any particular order. So it might be

  1. Diamond

  2. Diamond

  3. Amethyst

  4. Sapphire

  5. Amethyst

  6. Citrine

And so on.

I like to put the force stone only one other time on the list. This makes it seem less likely that the stone would be picked, of course. And it has the added benefit of maybe making them feel like it’s mildly special that they have this stone on their birth date.

There’s one problem with this trick, and that’s the fact that I meet a lot of people who:

  1. Believe in astrology

  2. Believe in crystals vibrating at certain frequencies

  3. Believe they give off a unique energy due to when they were born

So, if I tell those people, “I have this special stick with stones on it that change color depending on when you were born due to the energy you’re emitting,” they think, “Hmm… of course. That seems reasonable. Just more evidence that what I believe in is accurate. Thank you for validating my science.”

The strength of it as a magic trick is inversely correlated to their belief in crystals, astrology, etc. But because it also hits hardest for someone I just met (and therefore couldn’t know their birthday) I never really know what their beliefs are.

So now I present it like this, as I remove the Hot Rod.

“Do you know your Lucky Hexad color?”

I don’t just ask them if they know their “lucky color” because then they just name their favorite color and then I have to talk my way around that. By giving it a proper name, they’re certain to say “No.”

I inform them about the Lucky Hexad—six stones that are said to be the most lucky—and how each correlates with a person’s lucky two-digit number. And how this little detector can sense someone’s lucky stone just by them holding it.

They hold the hot rod. We look up whatever they tell me their “lucky number” is (or just a number they like or has some significance to them) on a list.

“Okay, 66 is correlated with the ruby. That’s the rarest, actually. I think the ruby only correlates with 3 or 4 numbers on the list. Let’s see if this worked. Open your hand….”

The benefit here is that even people who believe in “luck” don’t expect to manifest some physical proof of the concept. So it definitely comes across as magical regardless.

And while it’s possible for you to research someone and know their birthday, there’s no obvious way you could have determined their lucky or favorite 2-digit number, unless you know them really well.

So this works equally well for believers or non-believers (in luck or in anything of a similar nature).

In fact, the strongest reaction I’ve gotten with this was with a total “rational” asshole guy I met. I introduced the stick, told him how it can detect someone’s Lucky Hexad color… blah, blah, blah. I asked him for his lucky number, and he said, “I don’t have to tell you.”

I was like, “Oh, okay. But then we’ll never really know if it worked.”

I had him open his hand, we saw that the detector side had turned red. “Hmm, it must be a ruby number then. That’s rare.”

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“Your lucky number must be correlated with the ruby hexad stone. I can’t say for sure because you won’t tell me what it is.”

“You’re supposed to tell me what it is,” he said.

“I don’t know where you got that idea from.” I said.

“Okay, it’s 34,” he said.

“Let’s check.” I opened my phone to my list of Lucky Hexad Correlations and showed him the list as I scrolled down it. Next to 34 was one of only three “Ruby”s on the entire list. “Yup, looks like it worked,” I said. “Crazy how it knows.”

He was kind of amazed by this. But then seemed to get angry that he was amazed. It was funny. He would think about it and try to figure it out. But he would just come back with stuff like, “There’s no such thing as a Lucky Hexad Stone!” Yeah, no shit. The last thing he said was, “How did it know?” I consider that a victory. Even if he didn’t really believe it, Mr. Rational was forced to consider that somehow this stick “knew” his secret number.

People will ask you to do it for someone else, or people watching will ask you to do it for them. I just say that it takes a few weeks for the detector stones to return to their normal state. Problem solved.

Believe It Or Not I Have Thoughts On the Hot Rod: Part Two

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Here’s my no-spelling version of the Hot Rod force.

Actually… there’s not a simple explanation for how it works. While, in practice, the force is just about as straightforward as possible (it mimics something people do all the time) the description of the force will take some time. There are a few different small ideas working in concert. The biggest of these ideas is that instead of just asking them to name a number between one and six, you’re going to ask them to roll an imaginary die. This small change adds more substance to the selection of the number, and we’re going to exploit that substance in varying ways depending on what number they choose.

There are a few different ways this can go, and you’ll just have to kind of familiarize yourself with the possibilities. I’ll walk you through the different paths.

It starts after you’ve introduced the Hot Rod to them. Now, normally when I say I’ve “introduced my Hot Rod to someone,” that means I’ve pulled out my sweet cock for them to behold. But in this case (and for the rest of this post) I’m only referring to the bejeweled plastic stick.

So, you whip out your juicy, throbbing, rock-hard Hot Rod for your spectator, and you show them how it has six jewels on each side, and then you hold it in your right fist. See last Thursday’s post for more detail on this part of the effect.

Dialogue in bold.
Spectator response in italics.
Discussion in plain text.

Start

Phase One

I’m going to ask you to do something a little unusual. I want you to roll an imaginary dice and let me know what number comes up. (I use dice for the single noun as well, deal with it. That’s what most of my friends say. Maybe my friends are uneducated.)

So, for example…

With my left hand, I roll an imaginary die on the table.

I got a… five.

I say “five” as if I’m just tossing off any random number. Of course, I’m actually saying “five” in order to make it less likely for them to say that number.

This is one of the benefits of the “imaginary die” ploy. If I say, “I want you to name a number between 1 and 6. For example, 5,” that sounds like I think they’re a fucking moron. You don’t need to give an example of a number between 1 and 6. In that scenario, they might not know I’m trying to steer them away from 5, but I believe it will seem “off” on some level.

But rolling an imaginary die is something they’ve never done before. So giving them an example of what I’m asking from them feels more natural.

Go ahead… What did you get?

If they say Three or Four.

Okay. Do you want to start from the left side or the right side?

Again, see last Thursday’s post for how to handle this choice of side.

If they say Two

Okay. We’re going to use that little stick like a game board. Do you want to start on the left end or right end?

I open my hand as per the Either Side Ploy described in last Thursday’s post and place my finger on where they wanted to start.

And you rolled a two, yes?

I now count two MOVES from the starting position.

This is the next benefit of using an imaginary die: it allows us to relate the little stick to a tiny game board. How do board games work? How does Monopoly work? You start on a space, and you roll to see how many moves you’ll make. You don’t just roll a number and have your game piece dangling out in the ether, and then start counting the first space as One. No, you start somewhere, and then count the number of moves the die tells you too.

By placing your finger on the starting stone then confirming the number of moves, this way of counting feels completely natural.

If they say One, Five, or Six

Okay, so you get the idea, yeah?

At the start of phase one, I say, “For example.”

If they roll a 2, 3, or 4, then only my roll of 5 was the “example.”

If they roll a 1, 5, or 6, then this whole first phase has been the “example.”

In which case, I am now going to give them more information, and we’re going to do the dice roll “for real.”

Probably 80+ percent of the time—maybe even 90+ percent—you won’t need the second phase because people will say 2, 3, or 4. But to make this force 100%, you can move on to Phase Two if you need it.

Phase Two

Alright, here’s how it’s going to work. We’re going to use that little stick like a game board. We’re both going to roll our dice, and then we’ll use the numbers that come up to determine which jewel we’ll use going forward.

I’ll roll first.

I got… a… three.

You always get a three.

What did you get?

If they say One.

Okay, so that’s a total of…?

Four.

And do you want to start on the left or right side?

If they say Two

Okay, now you have a few options. You can stick with the number you rolled. Or, if you want to throw me off, you can switch for my number. Which do you want to use?

Okay, and do you want to start on the left side or the right side?

If they say Three

Oh, so you got the same thing as me? Okay. That going to limit your options, but I want you to keep your number, so I’ll roll again. This time I got a…uhm… Four, I guess.

So you have some options here. We can use your number. Or we can use my number. Or we can add our numbers together and count back and forth along the stick.

Okay, final decision, should our starting position be on the left end or the right end?

If they say they want to use their number (3) or your number (4) you know what to do.

If they say, add them together, then you will need to count 7.

To do this, you’ll start at the end furthest away from your force stone and count the number of moves (as we did when we were counting to the number two).

So, if the red stone was the force stone, you’d count.

If they say Four

The same as the last one. You offer them the choice of using your number or their number or adding them together.

If they say Five

Giving us a total of…?

Eight

Okay, final decision. Do you want to start from the left or the right side?

To count Eight, you will count back and forth, starting on the end furthest from the force stone.

If they say Six

Giving us a total of…?

Nine

Okay, final decision. Do you want to start from the left or the right side?

To count Nine, you will count back and forth, starting on the end closest to the force stone.

No matter which number you end up counting, you always point out how if they had rolled a different number it would have led you to a different stone.

And there you have it. No spelling. You always use the number the spectator names (except for when they don’t want you to). And you always name your number first, so it doesn’t seem like you could be controlling anything that way.

You may realize that you could just do Phase Two and leave out Phase One altogether. That may be the better way to go. I haven’t decided yet. I sort of prefer just to have it as a failsafe.

If it reads as complex, it’s really not. There’s certainly more to it than “I’m going to spell your number.” But it’s not that there’s much more process here, there’s just more apparent free choices for the spectator. And that’s never a bad thing in a trick that relies on a force.

Mailbag #99

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[I received an email from a supporter describing his first time performing an all-day effect. The effect had a time-travel presentation and involved driving around to various spots throughout the day and opening a series of numbered envelopes, supposedly sent from his future self. At the end of the email he wrote…]

This is one of my first long immersive tricks I have tried. I have to say, the techniques and misdirection you have in the arc of a [day-long] story is HUGE, it feels like child’s play. It’s amazing. And you have a ton of fun during the day. The hard part must be getting interesting stories to play out.

How often do you do things like this? I can imagine it loses magic if you do it too often. But I can see the strength of it.—JFC

When it comes to a magic trick where they are devoting a significant portion of their day to experience it, that’s the sort of thing I would probably only perform for someone once a year or so. To ask for that much time from someone, you have to be showing them something really special. And if you start rattling off something like that once every few weeks, that suggests that it’s not all that special.

More frequently, I’ll perform tricks that last a long time, but really only a small portion of that time is devoted to the trick itself. So, I may set something up with them in the afternoon, and it only pays off later that night. It may take 6 hours for the trick to come to fruition, but only 10 minutes of their time is focused on the trick itself. I like this structure a lot because you get the benefits of a trick that takes time to unfold, but you’re not demanding they pay attention to a magic trick for hours and hours. These types of tricks I’m fine with performing a few times a year for people.

As far as a “normal” length trick (normal for me is 5-20 minutes), that’s the sort of thing I’ll show someone one a month or so.

I try not to deny people who ask to see something more frequently, but at the same time, it’s hard to give them powerful, distinct memories of each effect if they’re seeing something from you every couple of days.

In order to try and keep the magical encounters feeling rare and special, if someone is asking to see something a little too frequently, I put them off by laying the groundwork for the next trick I’m going to show them. So if they’re like, “Show me something else,” and I think we’re not on a good pace, then I’ll say something like, “Hmm… let me think. There’s nothing else I’ve been playing around with recently but…

  • My friend, who’s a great magician, is sending me something in the mail soon.

  • I’m going to a swap-meet next week that’s devoted to unusual objects. I should be able to pick up something there that might interest you.

  • I’m looking into [some unusual topic] and there’s something I want to try regarding that soon. I should be ready to test it out in another week or so.

  • In a couple of weeks I’m going to this convention where people share arcane knowledge, I bet I’ll learn something there that will be interesting.

You get the idea. I’m setting up something that’s happening in the future, after which, I’ll have something interesting to show them. I’m creating anticipation and setting the stage for something to come.

I saw this updated version of the silver ball routine…

And in trying to approach the presentation in a more jersey way, my first thought was that you could use that old joke about men cumming in socks and how stiff they get to lead into using this cloth to pick up the drink.

But then I was thinking you could use it to move covered drinks around without people knowing. Perhaps something like the poisoner's stand off in the Princess Bride? Any thoughts? —FM

Ha, I don’t know what it means to use this in a “more jersey” way, but I have thoughts on both of your ideas.

I’ll start with your second idea first—using this gimmick to secretly move the glass. I don’t own the gimmick, so I can’t comment directly on it. But knowing the general idea behind these types of gimmicks, I find it unlikely that you could do this quickly and quietly, which is what you’d need to do for this to be effective. So I think it might be off the table.

The problem with your first idea is that it’s trying to be a “funny” premise, but it’s too far away from what actually happens in the effect. Trying to somehow correlate cum stiffened socks with a floating wine glass is too much of a stretch.

A funny premise needs to be directly related to what happens, otherwise it’s detrimental to the effect. It feels like you’re apologizing for this thing you’re showing them by slapping on a tangentially-at-best related premise.

It may feel too earnest to you to just levitate someone’s champagne glass without coming up with a “bit” to attach to it, but any comedy in that situation will likely take away from the effect. If you were really showing them something genuinely interesting, would you need to force a joke onto it? Probably not.

That’s not to say I never do “jokey” material, but I try to only do so when the humor is engrained in the effect and not laid on top of the effect.

Dustings #95

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Thanks to those of you who wrote in complimenting the new book cover. I didn’t respond individually, but that’s only because I really, had nothing to do it with it other than coming up with the idea, so I feel weird taking any credit for it.

But regardless, here’s a blanket …

Most magic book covers look like they took 40 seconds of thought and even less time in execution. So I take pride in the fact that people have asked me to release some of my covers as limited edition prints

Or that they’d wear them on a t-shirt.

All credit goes to my immensely talented collaborator, Stasia Burrington.

Here’s an early draft of the final image for book 6.

Never has there been so much Hot Rod talk in my email. A few people asked me which type I recommend. I’m not a Hot Rod expert, by any means, thank god. But I recommend the clear plastic ones with one side that’s flatter than the other. I find this easier to do the paddle move with.

Don’t get the opaque ones. They weaken the effect. You want people to be able to see through them and realize there’s nothing inside. I think this is a listing for the type I’m talking about, but they don’t really show a picture of the clear version, so I’m not 100% sure.

I pretty much dislike everyone in this story.

I don’t like the hacky magician who was absolutely dumb for performing this at a college orientation. With enough charm, and the right relationship with your spectators, you can pull off some good-natured smutty magic. But not with 5 random female volunteers.

I don’t love the reaction of the student body. “I am disappointed, frustrated, and ashamed to be a University of Ottawa student,” one said. The student union said his act, “played into harmful dynamics of sexualization of women, sexual violence and the perpetuation of rape culture.” Unless they are leaving out something incredibly significant from the story, these reactions seem a little over-the-top. It sounds like he did a presentation that involved guessing the color of their underwear, likely with some inappropriate jokes. I understand that may have come off creepy or uncomfortable, but associating this with “sexual violence and rape culture” feels ghoulish to me and a little absurd. “Oh, you were violently raped? I know how you feel. A magician once guessed the color of my underwear.”

I’m not trying to downplay the event. I just think we can say things are shitty, lame, inappropriate or whatever, without piggybacking on the emotional trauma of the worst thing that ever happened to someone.

And it’s wildly disempowering, too. This could have been a teaching moment. If you really think a performer is being inappropriate, boo him off the stage. Or at least walk out. If you’re a volunteer and feel offended by a performer (and to be fair, it doesn’t seem like anyone complaining was one of the volunteers) tell him to fuck-off. If a magician tells you he wants to guess the color of your underwear, grab the mic and say, “Me first. My powers are telling me your underwear has a yellowish hue with brown streaks.”

And finally, I dislike this magician’s friends and other people who have seen his show and haven’t tried hard enough to convince him this bit doesn’t go over well. And why hasn’t anyone told him that hat looks terrible on him? It’s not a hat for a fat-headed man.

I once said the Magic Café reminded me of a mall that had once been popular but was now mostly empty and dilapidated, with just a handful of weird stores, few customers, maybe an empty fountain, and some old signage.

I was reminded of that today when I scrolled the Magic Cafe and saw this…

Genii magazine’s 80th anniversary was in 2017. We’re just a few years from its 90th anniversary.

Believe It Or Not I Have Thoughts On the Hot Rod: Part One

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The first trick I ever saw at a magic shop when I was a kid was the hot rod. The owner showed me a little plastic stick with 6 different colored jewels on each side and he asked me to name a number between 1 and 6.

I thought a while. What should I say? I bet everyone just says one. Because it’s the first number. So obvious. Or maybe six because it’s the last thing he said. I’ll really mess him up and go for something he’d never expect.

“Three,” I said, and gave him a “bet you’re fucked now” devilish grin.

“Okay, three,” he said and counted to the third gem, a red-ish thing. “So we’ll use the ruby.” Even my barely-pubescent brain knew there was no chance that was a “ruby.”

He gave the stick a jolt and all the gems on both friggin’ sides turned to the stone I selected!

The Hot Rod is a joke of a trick, with the worst force in the history of magic. “What number did you choose? Six? Okay, so we spell S-I-X.” There are certain times you can maybe get away with spelling instead of counting, but not when you’ve asked for a number from 1-6, and you have a row of six objects.

But I’ve always had a soft spot for the trick. Maybe because it was the first one I saw at a magic shop. Maybe because it was the first trick I saw in real life that wasn’t a card trick or a coin trick.

I recently picked a Hot Rod back up for the first time in 20 years and started playing around with it.

Now, I’m not going to say it’s a good trick. Because it’s not. But there’s something fun about it, and it’s kind of “pretty,” even if it’s just cheap plastic jewels. It’s pretty in a way most close-up tricks aren’t. It’s great for kids. And not bad for adults that like a little visual treat. And it’s fun to mess around with.

I don’t really have anything to add to this presentationally. I don’t yet have a rationale for this resin stick with jewels on it. But I have come up with some ideas that have made this a much greater fooler for the people I’ve shown it to. And I’m going to share three of those ideas with you on the site. Two today and one next week.

Intro

Typically, people will introduce the Hot Rod by saying something like, “This little plastic rod has six colored jewels on this side. And six on the other side as well.”

There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s pretty straightforward. But I believe you can cement the condition of the “rod” in their head better by saying this.

“This plastic stick has six colored jewels on this side: purple, green, blue, red, white, and yellow. And they’re in the same order on the other side: purple, green, blue, red, white, and yellow.”

Here’s why I think this works well. Often when people watch a magician, they are more than ready to disbelieve whatever the magician says.

If I say, “This stick has different colored jewels on each side.” Then their inclination is to disbelieve that.

So instead, I’m saying, “The jewels on this side are in the same order as the jewels on the other side.” Now, whether they believe that or don’t believe that, they’re still reinforcing in their head that there are different colored jewels on each side. The suspicious ones are thinking, “Ah, I bet they’re in a different order.” Because that’s what I dangled in front of them. But that won’t get them any closer to figuring out the trick. In fact, considering the order they’re in only fools them more.

This is a technique I’ve been considering in other effects as well. One where I use their own suspicion to cement in a condition I want them to believe. In this instance, the condition that there are different colored jewels on each side.

Choices - The Either Side Ploy

If you do what I do and leave them with the Hot Rod at the end to look at (or even keep, in rare circumstances) then you have to do it where you transform it from different jewels on each side, to all the same jewel on each side. And then you “pause the transformation” halfway, so it’s different jewels on one side and all the same on the other, and then hand it out.

This is good because you’ve supposedly “magically” put it in a state that just so happens to be examinable. But if they hold onto it too long, or think about it too much, it’s not difficult to conceive that maybe you showed them the same side twice. In that case, the power of the routine can only rely on how free and fair their selection seemed. It’s one thing if you showed them the same side twice, but since it still ended up the color they chose, that’s still a decent mystery.

As in all the forces I look at, my goal is to slow things down and give them a greater sense of choice.

So while a number is being determined, I put the hot rod in my fist like this. (Assume the spectator is opposite me.)

Then I explain that we’re going to count along to the number they chose, and whatever stone is there will be the one we use.

Before we do, I give them a final choice. “Do you want to start counting from the left side or the right side?” And I make it clear so they don’t think I’m trying to be sneaky. “From your left or your right, I mean.”

For the sake of explanation, let’s assume they chose the number three and the force stone is the blue stone and the hot rod is in my hand like so (blue stone third from the left)…

If they say they want to start counting from the left side, I do the most natural thing in the world and open my hand so we can count the stones. The blue stone is now third from their left.

If they say they want to start counting from the right side, I point to the thumb side of my fist, to confirm we’re talking about their right, and then I pull out the Hot Rod revealing stone by stone and showing that the third from their right is the blue stone.

Both of these actions come off as 100% innocent and don’t require you to do anything shady. It’s just that one final moment of free choice before the ending. And you can make that clear, “If we had counted from the left instead, we would have ended up on _____.”

Yeah, but Andy, why bother polishing this turd? As you said, it has the worst force in the history of magic. Who cares about giving them the choice of which side to start from if you still have to spell to four out of the six numbers?

Oh, sweet child, don’t worry. I fixed the force. Free choice of 1-6, no spelling, and nothing required other than a standard Hot Rod.

I’ll write that up in next Tuesday’s post. (If you want to email me with a guess at how this might be accomplished, I’d be interested in hearing your ideas.)