Transition

So I’m standing in line speed-solving, or finger-flicking; now what? I’d say that better than 90% of the time I do this, someone will start asking questions or making statements (e.g., “wow you’ve got fast hands”, “you’re good with cards”, “how fast can you solve that”, etc.).

With the flourishes, it’s obviously easy to transition to “I’m a magician” or “I’m a magician; do you wanna see something cool?” With the cube, I tell them the true story that I’ve spent the last year trying to master the speed technique so that I could get my speed down around 30 seconds for a magic effect I’m working on. Of course that leads to, “Oh? Are you a magician?”

So What?

What’s the point of doing all this? Remember that the No Stoned Left Unturned column is meant to help you improve the business side of magic: get more gigs, retain clients, marketing tips, etc. I’ve found that fiddling with my cards and/or cube in public usually leads to a conversation about magic, which often leads to a discussion about “do you do shows?”

Be prepared to answer questions and possibly get some phone numbers and/or give out business cards. This is a simple way to turn a 30 minute wait in Apple Genius Store into a few hundred bucks in your pocket (depending on your show fee) by getting potential and actual clients.

Learn a coin roll, or fancy Zippo lighter moves. Learn to solve the cube or some fancy XCM moves. Learn how to get the attention of those around you without taking on the attitude of “look at how awesome I am.”

Often when people ask what I’m doing, I let them know that I’m “keeping my fingers warmed up.” This will, of course, lead to questions. I lead them to believe that solving the cube is just meant to keep my mind and fingers nimble which is true. This can/will lead to you showing them nimble fingers (card/coin effect) or nimble mind (mentalism effect).

So get out there and start finger flicking, coin rolling and cube solving.

Until Next Month . . .

Effect:

The mysterious bank-line-stander-inner is nimbly rolling his last silver dollar (about to be deposited) from knuckle to knuckle, hand to hand when suddenly he is accosted by a nearby observer. “You must be magic . . . show me something,” she says. Mr. Mystery quickly yet smoothly hands a lighter to Ms. Curious as he also removes a balled up piece of paper from his pocket. Mr. asks Ms. to light the paper on fire while Mr. pinches it between his left thumb and finger.

The paper bursts into flames! As the flash of fire appears, Mystery risks it all and plunges his right index finger into the fireball. The flame is gone, and nothing but a cut little origami hat on the tip of his right finger remains.

Ms. Curious faints but not before she coughs out one last statement . . . “you made magical origami with fire.” You nod knowingly and step over her limp body getting you once step closer to the bank teller and one step farther from your last silver dollar.

Method:

I guess I could have just said, “a piece of tissue paper magically origami’s itself in a flash of fire.” But where’s the fun in that. I’m guessing you’ve already figured out the method. You just need some tissue paper, flash paper, a lighter and the ability to make an origami hat. There’s a link at the end of this article to an excellent site that teaches various origami folds.

Other than that, the prep is simple. Make a small origami hat from a piece of tissue paper that’s roughly the size of the piece of flash paper you’ll be using. You want it to fit nicely on top of your index finger. Have a lighter and a balled up piece of flash paper in your pocket.

When the moment’s right, hand the lighter to the spectator. Reach into your pocket and secretly palm the hat as you bring out the balled up paper. Place the balled up flash paper on your open left palm to display it while secretly hiding the hat in your left hand (finger palm-ish). Reposition it at the finger and thumb tips of your left hand. Make sure the ball of paper has a little tail that you can hold like the image below.

Ask the spectator to strike and hold the lighter. As you warn her that you’re about to burn the paper at your finger tips, your right hand relaxes and maneuvers its hat into position. Then bring the balled up flash paper near the flame (making sure she extends her arm far from her body – the flame may panic her) to the lighter. As it burst into flames, plunge your right index finger in a pointing gesture right into the flame. Let the moment sink in.

Afterthoughts:

Obviously, a bank may not be the best place to create a fireball, so use good judgement. Also, if you think you’ll be in a position to do this a few times, simply have a bunch of balled up wads of flash paper in one pocket. Then have the lighter in another pocket that is full of mini hats (in case you want to give them away). You’ll have to change the handling slightly since the flash paper and hats are in two different pockets, but it’s easy enough to steal the hat when getting the lighter.

Further, keep in mind that this is simply a way to be ready to “show me something” on command in a setting where you’re out in public not really planning to do a show. Again, read this month’s article, K.I.S.S. for a better understanding of the situation you might use this. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do this in other settings and in other ways, so take a peek at the variations to follow.

Variation 1 – Phoenix

Rather than have the hat appear on your finger, it can be at your finger tips so that it looks like you reached into the flame and plucked out an origami creature. Keep in mind that you don’t have to do a hat. It could be anything. Consider making a bird. Then you’ve got some presentational possibilities centering around the “phoenix rising again.”

Start with an origami bird made from flash paper and introduce it as a Phoenix. Most people are familiar with the “Phoenix rising from the ashes” concept. If you’re not, Google it. Next, Squish the bird; crumple it up. Then as you burn it, you say that the Phoenix always rises from the ashes. You then pluck the revived bird from the ball of fire.

Further, you don’t have to pluck it from the flame. You could have one regular bird hidden behind the one your crumpled up. Then as you light it, the flash paper one vanishes leaving only the bird.

Finally, another option related to this would be closer to the original effect above. Have a pre-folded origami beast at the ready. Then rather than crumpling up a ball of flash paper, have one that you’ve previously crumbled up really tight, but then reopened. This allows you to have a piece of flash paper that’s basically opened flat (with a lot of crinkles in it). This helps the flash paper burn a little faster so you don’t burn yourself. An open piece of flash paper that has not been pre-crinkled might burn to slowly and/or burn you. You can then hide your secret origami beast behind the flash paper.

Holding the secret beast behind the paper, you appear to be holding a the corner of a piece of wrinkly tissue paper with your pinched index and thumb. Of course also pinched in the index and thumb is the secret beast. Thus when you light the paper, the flash paper vanishes, and the beast remains. It’s much more visual than some of the other techniques.

Variation 2 – Flash and Bones

When I ran this idea by Jay Sankey, he offered this fun idea. Keep in mind that this would not be for those “show me something” standing in line at the bank moments. This would be more of a show piece. It’s a combination of mentalism and magic.

You have prepared 10 or 12 flash cards with different origami animals on them. The spectator then thinks of one of the shapes, and you magically create it using any of the previously mentioned methods.

Obviously, you can simply force the shape you want. However if you want to allow a free choice, you could have a small origami index in your pocket to cover the outs. I highly recommend the INDEX-terity system by George Parker. You can purchase it at The Theory and Art of Magic Website.

Finally, if you’re going to have them think of one, you’ll have to secretly gain the information. There are many ways (CT, Peek, Fishing, Progressive Anagrams, etc.). That solution is for you to decide and certainly beyond the scope here.

Variation 3 – Cold Climate Birdies

This one involves one of my favorite things in the world, a Frixion Pen. Basically, you draw a picture of a bird on the back of your business card. You tell your spectator that this bird is different from most. He doesn’t fly south for the winter. He prefers the colder climates.

As you say this, place a balled up piece of flash paper on top of the drawing of the bird. You then light the flash paper and reach into the flame producing a real origami bird. You do this as you deliver a script along this line: “if the bird gets too hot, he comes out of hibernation and flies away.” The heat from the flash paper is enough to make the Frixion drawing vanish, so you’re left with a blank business card and a paper origami bird.

Here’s the best part, however. You tell the spectator to take the business card home and that if they put it in their freezer (a cooler climate), the bird will find it’s way home. Of course, the cold of the freezer causes the Frixion drawing to reappear. Beautiful. To take it a little bit further, start by writing a message like “Thank you for helping me find my way home” or something along those lines. Before you leave your house, write this message on your business card. Make sure you leave enough room to draw the bird.

Now vanish the ink with hit or the eraser that comes with the pen. Then draw the bird on the card with the Frixion pen, making sure to draw it so that it is not covering the place where the vanished message was written. Now you’re left with a secretly hidden message on the card and a bird drawn on the card. This is all done before you leave the house.

Once you’re ready to perform, do the routine as described earlier. However, when they put the business card in their freezer, not only will the bird reappear, but the previously hidden message will also appear. As you hand them the card explaining that the bird will come back if the card is placed in a cooler climate, leave them with this statement, “Call me if he comes back.” They will.

Finally, in this particular variation, you don’t actually have to use origami at all. You can use a very small toy bird. If it’s small enough, you can secretly wrap it in the flash paper ahead of time. Then when you place the wad of flash paper on top of the drawing of the bird and light it, the flash paper will vanish, and the little birdie will be standing there on the blank business card.

You then hand out the business card explaining the whole “colder climate” thing. You then put the bird in your pocket and tell them not to wait too long to put the card in the freezer because the bird will get too hot in my pocket. Once you put the card in the freezer, he’ll vanish from my pocket and reappear on the card and go back to hibernating.

One last thing . . . you could also openly vanish the bird after you hand out the blank business card. Tell them that the bird flew away seeking a colder climate. Hopefully you (the spectator) will get the card in the freezer before he finds some other cold climate to settle down in.

Resources:

• Excellent site for learning simple origami
• Review of INDEX-terity
• Purchase INDEX-terity
• Everything You Need to Know About Frixion Pen Magic
• Related Article: K.I.S.S.

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root is . . . be prepared . . . you know, the Boy Scout motto. Let’s learn how to be Boy Scouts (even if you’re a girl) or at least live up to their motto. There are various ways to prepare yourself for this type of situation. First, just knowing some basic sleight of hand and simple magic principles (timing, misdirection, etc.), you can pick up just about any small object and do “something” with it . . . whether it’s a simple vanish or transposition or whatever.

That’s one way to prepare. Another way is less improvised than this, but is still effective. Maybe you know that a certain friend of yours subscribes to Time magazine. Go purchase a copy in advance and memorize a few key elements on a few pages. Then when you go to your friend’s house next Friday, if the opportunity presents itself, force a page on someone . . . another page on someone else . . . etc. You get the idea.

A third way to prepare is to just know a lot of tricks with a lot of ordinary items: keys, coins, rubber bands, silverware, salt shakers, pencils, dollar bills, straws, etc. There are plenty of great resources for this kind of stuff. Here are a few of my favorite options:

• Off The Cuff By Gregory Wilson
• On The Spot By Gregory Wilson
• Amazing Magic & Mentalism Anyone Can Do Vol. I By Jay Sankey
• Amazing Magic & Mentalism Anyone Can Do Vol. II By Jay Sankey

I’m not suggesting anything revolutionary here, but rather, just reminding you of some classic principles and ideas that you should be thinking about.

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. Here’s your assignment for the next few weeks . . . start right now. Look around you. What do you see. I just looked around and instantly saw my iPhone, a bunch of loose change, my Little Caesar’s rewards card, a binder clip, a straw . . . a bunch of other stuff, but not what I would consider things that you’ll likely find kickin’ around when someone asks to see some magic.

Next step, ask yourself what you can do with this stuff. I see four quarters. I can do a four coins across routine. Or I could just do a simple coin vanish. Maybe Miser’s Nightmare (from my DVD, Gemstones, and a ton of other things. I’m sure you can think of a bunch of easy coin effects. What about the straw, the iPhone, etc.? I’m not gonna give you all the answers. You need to figure this out yourself. Your goal is to be ready (without having to carry anything on you) to impact people with the simple props found in the environment. Next month we’ll talk about the other extreme.

Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root is . . . challenge yourself. I love other areas of magic but I’ve only performed just a few different types. Mostly I do mentalism effects and card effects with a small handful of “other” things. The problem is that I pretty much suck at coin work. I have a few effects in my repertoire that are coin effects I can do, but very few. Further, most of the card magic I do is not very visual. It’s good and powerful I think, but just not visual. Further, my mentalism repertoire is several different ways to accomplish the same thing . . . read a mind or predict the future.

So as you can see, my repertoire is very narrow. I’m not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing. However, I remember as a young budding magic enthusiast, there were effects that I loved that were much more visual (e.g., ball and vase, pencil through frame penetration, linking rings, et al.). Somewhere along the way, I lost my way. I’m not suggesting that we all need to perform the ball and vase. However, I am suggesting that we get back to our roots (hence the name of this monthly column). For me, one way to get back to your roots is to challenge yourself to learn a style or genre of magic that you don’t normally do.

This is where my non-card show comes from. I’m constantly debating the kind of material I want in this act. I’ve added some visual effects like a growing dollar bill, a dollar bill changing visually into a credit card, and lots of other things. I’m still working on finding the right mix of material. It’s been a challeng to find material that I feel I could learn and fit into my personality. The beauty of this is that it’s got me looking at effects I would never have done otherwise. This causes me to study and learn about these effects, how they work, why they work, etc.

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. I offer you the same challenge. For the next 30 days, look at your overall repertoire and find an effect or two that just doesn’t “fit in” with your current arsenal. Maybe you never use ropes . . . try adding a rope trick. Maybe you mostly a coin guy or a mentalist . . . try a card trick.

Maybe you’ve never done magic with keys . . . try that. The point is to find something that’s out of your comfort zone and go after it. Challenge yourself. You’ll find yourself learning more about our art and learning more about yourself. You’ll become a better magician overall.

Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

In my Gemstones DVD, I published a bonus effect called Epicenter. It is an effect where a dollar bill (or whatever) ends up inside of a sealed Twinkie that the spectator has been holding from the beginning. The spectator can open the Twinkie and remove the dollar bill himself.

The method requires you to preload a duplicate of the object before the show. You then perform your favorite Twinkie force to get them to pick one from the box. Vanish the dollar bill or playing card (using a torn corner ruse), and bam you’ve got a pretty darn solid bill in Twinkie.

Well since then, I’ve matured a bit, and have had some further thoughts that I think you’ll appreciate. First, rather than using a torn corner for proving, you could do the old bit where you (ahead of time) scratch of the last number of the serial number on two sequential bills. In that scenario you now have two identical bills with the same serial number.

Not bad, but what about this: Get a series of bills in order and find one that ends with 3 and another that ends with 8. Then scratch of enough of the 8 to make it look like a 3. Then you have two matching bills with the correct number of numbers and identical serial numbers. And you don’t have that awkward gap between the last number and the letter.

Further, using an idea from Danny Archer’s effect G.I. Bill, I thought it would be cool to use the Twinkie as the object that you toss out into the audience to select a member of the audience to help.

So pulling this all together, you get this:

Before the show starts, you go to the bank and get a set of sequential one dollar bills (or hundreds . . . whatever). Find the one that ends with a 3 and put it aside. Then find the one that ends with 8 and using a X-Acto blade, gently scrape away enough of the 8 to make it look like the three.

You now have two identical bills. Load the legitimate “3” bill into the Twinkie (per the Gemstones instructions). Place that in a box of Twinkies with its poor (i.e., no dollar bill loaded) brethren. Make sure you know which Twinkie it is.

During the show, it goes a little something like this:

Hold up the box of Twinkies.

Throw the loaded Twinkie out into the audience. When someone catches it, offer to let them keep it or throw it again. Ultimately when you’re done, someone will be holding the Twinkie. That person will be your volunteer.

If they don’t have a dollar, have them choose someone in the audience who does. As you get the dollar bill, using your favorite secret switch, swap it for the “8” bill that’s been converted to a “3” bill. Then have a volunteer chosen by the Twinkie person come up on stage and read aloud the serial number.

You may even want to have him write it on a white board or a large piece of poster board. You can get a couple of people to verify it, etc. When all is said and done, you hold up the bill and thank the person who gave it to you. You then vanish or (my favorite) change the bill into a receipt which turns out to be the receipt for the Twinkies.

They unwrap the Twinkie, break open the Twinkie and remove the dollar bill. You then have them read the serial number aloud.

Post Effect Palaver:

You’ll want to keep handy a small garbage can (or paper bag), a towel, and maybe even some wet wipes. Let the spectator quickly clean up and throw everything away. Then as a reward, give them another Twinkie that they can have after the show.

You could use this as a publicity piece. What I would do in that scenario is open a box of Twinkies and load up the entire box with dollar bills that have had the entire last number scratched off (not just part of the 8, but the whole last number).

This’ll give you a box where most of the Twinkies are loaded with the right kind of bill. Of course you have to keep one bill for yourself so that you can perform the effect. Next put all the Twinkies back in the box and seal it back up (when you open it, do so carefully and then re-glue the box shut. Make sure you know which Twinkies are the loaded ones.

Next, you’ll have to either sneak the box into a grocery store or get with a manager ahead of time and have him place it with the other Twinkies at the right time.

When the camera crew or newspaper (or whatever publicity venue) gets there, you grab a box of Twinkies (the box) off of the shelf and have someone open it. Hand out a couple of Twinkies (all of the ones that are NOT loaded) to a few people and have them open and eat the Twinkies. Then once you’ve done this, you’ve “proven” that the box is normal. Next, you have someone reach inside and pick out a Twinkie. Then perform the effect as described previously.

I’ve never tried the above publicity piece, but I think it’s worthy of consideration. One other thing you may want to do is switch out the remaining Twinkies. If you have the manager in on it, you can hand him the box after you’ve allowed one of the loaded Twinkies to be chosen. You just casually hand it to him in a gesture that says, “would you mind holding these.” While the focus is on the guy holding the loaded Twinkie, the manager can just set the Twinkies down on a table or near a bag or whatever you’re going to use to facilitate the switch.

Then at the end when the dollar bill appears inside the Twinkie, what’s left on the table is another box of Twinkies with the exact right amount of Twinkies missing but none of them are loaded with dollar bills thanks to your manager-friend-stooge.