This is a relatively short post to mention a new MageTool on my other website.
This one is called The Narcissism Calculator and it’s my way of prepping for a routine called The Test in White Wand Chronicles Volume 3,the new book from The Jerx¹.
Narcissus
Outies
or The Severed Floor
It was pointed out to me that the effect presented in my previous post bore a striking resemblence to an effect from The Jerx.
I mean the fact that the effect is Jerx inspired should be obvious by the fact that the password for Nulanima is Jerxian but bizarrely I was actually thinking of a totally different Jerx routine at the time of writing as well as two non Jerx effects.
The differences are so important I think it’s worth revisiting briefly.
Innies
or The Overtime Contingency
I said in a previous post that I am not a fan of hypnotism. It’s probably the only kind of magic I don’t like.
Maybe also troublewit.
But there’s one kind of magic I love and that’s faux hypnotism.
The kind of trick where regular magic techniques leave you with a sense of missing time or involuntary compliance without the coercive act of actually performing hypnosis.
Of course if you don’t know the difference it might feel similarly violating, which is why I love the premise behind the TV show Severence.
Umm… Spoilers for series 1 of Severence I guess.
The Time Machine
or How Long Has This Been Going On
I know a bunch of my recent posts have been about that competition, and I promise this is the last one, but what you need to remember is that I don’t really do much because of the state of my physical health. Annual magic club competitions with 6 amateur contestants are basically all I have. That and this here website.
In the scope of my life, The Pentacle Club is Hollywood, the close-up competition is The Oscars and this blog is Variety magazine.
Which means this article youre reading right now, as far as I’m concerned, is the scandal of the century. Maybe your club has suffered the same issue and you didn’t even know. I guess you’d better keep reading…
Continue reading “The Time Machine
or How Long Has This Been Going On”
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”
Inside
or Outside
This isn’t going to be one of those clever high theory meta contextual posts I’m known for by my one reader. This is about a prop which most magicians know, very few use, and many have simply forgotten about. This post is about the Gozinta Box.
The Gozinta box, in case you don’t know is a pair of boxes, each of which consists of an inner box and a lid which fits snugly over the top. The boxes are different colours to highlight the interesting property that gives the boxes their unusual name: the fact that either box can fit inside the other.
That is to say you can open a red box, take out a blue box, open the blue box, close the red box, put it inside the blue box and then close the blue box.
By itself, a fun effect, but it has a much more interesting application.
Continue reading “Inside
or Outside”