Month: June 2022

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The Phantom, The Witch and The Crushing Weight of the Modern Media Oligopoly
or Simon Says

Where to begin?

In 2019 the winner of Britain’s got talent was a mentalist called X. It was unlike other winners because throughout the competition, the true identity of the magician behind the mask was only revealed at the very end of the show. It was Marc Spellman¹.

What’s interesting about this story is that I heard from a good friend of his that before the final, the makers of the show tried to convince him not to reveal his identity at all. Ultimately the decision was his, clearly, but they really didn’t want him to.

And to understand why, we have to take a little step behind the curtain of television talent shows, into the twisted contracting of television talent shows.

Continue reading “The Phantom, The Witch and The Crushing Weight of the Modern Media Oligopoly
or Simon Says”

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The Universal Theory of Mind, Perception and Ketchup
or Magic Mustard

I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who may well be the only other human being who reads or is even aware of this blog, when the topic turned to what makes a good magic trick. I’d been rolling around an idea for a while that we should start a podcast, but wasn’t sure what theme to use. My latest idea was “Magic Fixers” where we would take old rubbish tricks we don’t like and see if we could spice them up to make them work in a modern world.
Sort of like a weekly instalment of This post on the Linking Rings

I have some killer ideas for the Hotrod trick.

But the problem was that in discussing the kinds of things we could fix I made a startling revelation about magic, magicians, perception, reality and barbecue sauce.

Or mustard.

Or spaghetti sauce.

But not ketchup.

Continue reading “The Universal Theory of Mind, Perception and Ketchup
or Magic Mustard”

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Chain Gang
or How to Sell Nothing

In my last post I mentioned Babylon Band and I dearly wanted to find a video of Jay Sankey performing it. Sadly I couldn’t find one, but while searching i found some drama posts from 3 years ago featuring Daniel Madison doing one of his usual personality cult character pieces and a dark thought entered my consciousness.

At some point, one of the magicians who has made a brand around themselves is going to very openly and loudly shit themselves in public.

Sorry, I said that wrong. What I mean is it’s only a matter of time until one of them mints an NFT.

Continue reading “Chain Gang
or How to Sell Nothing”