Occasionally my friend Eirian and I discuss unsalvageable magic tricks¹. Often such tricks are brought to our attention by an unsuccessful attempt to rehabilitate them, such as this A for effort example by Alakazam
Before continuing, I should probably explain what I mean by unsalvageable.
Continue reading “Pom Pom
or Sticks, chinese and other”
Pom Pom
A Shining Light
or A Beacon In These Troubling Times
I saw this a little while ago but for reasons of health, both mental and physical I didn’t actually post it here yet.
This may be the best magic trick I have ever seen.
Continue reading “A Shining Light
or A Beacon In These Troubling Times”
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.
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”
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.
Competition Time
or I’ll Be The Judge Of That
As I write this there is a local magic competition tonight, which I would have participated in were it not for my recent hospital stay. It’s a magic competition I have had an interesting history with, as a participant, organiser and rule setter. My disappointment with its fairness in the early days also nearly got me ejected from the club.
The thing about magic competitions is that as a performing art, appreciation of any given entry is entirely subjective. Generally a small number of judges are appointed and the rules set out criteria to them judge the competitors on. These judges will have different ideas of what counts as suitable attire for a performer, what is entertaining, what is mystifying etc.
Skill should be an objective measure, as is seen in gymnastics competitions, except when Simone Biles does a backward double-twisting double tucked salto dismount (thanks Wikipedia), everyone sees it. If a magician does a multiple diagonal palm shift and everyone sees it it wasn’t very good. One year the organisers had to tell the judges that a particular routine was entirely self working, because having seen no sleights at all the judges were under the impression that they were in the presence of an absolute master of prestidigitation. This disclosure got back to the competitor and caused no end of problems as it was seen as the organisers introducing bias to the judges.
Is there a way to fix all this?
Continue reading “Competition Time
or I’ll Be The Judge Of That”
Oddfellows
or Cumulative Conceits
The thing about diary tricks is that they are predicated on a rather strange idea; that the performer has a pocket diary for the year, in which they have written a playing card for each day. The natural instinct is to give a reason for this. These reasons are often convoluted out of necessity, as there is no normal reason for a person to do such a thing. The only reason to put things in a diary is to act as a reminder, and the only reason you’d have to remember a playing card for each day is for a magic trick.
But… How many other tricks have these conceits?
Continue reading “Oddfellows
or Cumulative Conceits”
Pip Pip
or A Date To Remember
I’ve seen a few people open a diary trick by likening the calendar to a deck of cards. The line usually goes:
A calendar is like a deck of cards.
There are 4 suits and 4 seasons.
52 cards in a deck for 52 weeks in a year.
And if you add up all the pips on the cards they add up to 365.
Do they though?
Problems That Solve Each Other
or In and Of Itself
Sometimes I set myself challenges. Occasionally personal, occasionally universal.
Personal ones include:
- How to perform a borrowed ring routine without a borrowed ring?
- How to perform a matrix on stage?
- How to perform a show using nothing but paper?
The universal ones are things like:
Often, usually in fact, I dont solve them. I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to assume that no one else has ever encountered the same problems as me, particularly the universal ones, and thus my inability to fix them doesnt trouble me too much. After all, some magicians spend their whole lives trying to solve just one such universal problem in a new way, let alone two or three…
This post contains enormous spoilers for Derek DelGaudio’s show In And Of Itself.
I never got a chance to see it live but it has now been made available to stream on Disney+ so no one with an interest in magic has any excuse. One month of Disney+ costs way less than a ticket to the show, plus you can invite all your friends around and watch Thor Ragnarok after.
So do that, then come back to read me talking about how clever it was.
Continue reading “Problems That Solve Each Other
or In and Of Itself”
The Existentially Terrifying Scale of the Global Supply Chain
or Mamma’s Got a Brand New Bag
I think about plastic a lot.
As you may know from my last post, I have a 3D printer. This troubles me sometimes in an ecological sense, because even though the PLA¹ filament I use is bioplastic, realistically it is neither recyclable or biodegradable, so the wastage and sprews and support material is going to landfill, where the best case scenario is that it will remain there for a hundred thousand years, and the worst case is that it somehow ends up in the food chain.
Did you know there are now tiny particles of plastic amongst the sands of the furthest uninhabited reaches of the Sahara desert, as well as flowing through the bloodstream of every living human being.
The thought that I was adding to that worried me… And then I needed a bag.