Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: MOVE YOUR AUDIENCE! Stop with the mindless droning on about what prop your holding and what you’re going to do with it, and where you’re gonna stick it. I’ll tell you where to stick it! Your audience members are not morons. You don’t need to say, “I have here a deck of cards.” Are you serious!?

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: MOVE YOUR AUDIENCE! For the next 30 days, I want you to take one effect in your current repertoire, and stop . . . and think . . . Think about what you’re saying, when you’re saying it, why you’re saying it. Make sure that your words have meaning and aren’t simply stating the obvious. As many of you may know, this is the final issue of Stone Cold Magic Magazine. So I thought I’d go out with a bang. I may ruffle some feathers, but this subject is near and dear to my heart. Why can’t our magic be moving and beautiful and emotional and meaningful? The answer is: it can!
This is why I wrote 793.8. My mission for that book is to solve this problem: too much of magic has no meaning. I’m not even opposed to “adventures of the props” as a way to present. What I’m opposing is a flurry of narration of every move and every breath you take. I’m opposing statements that are so obvious that by making them, you’re calling your audience members idiots/fools/etc.
What’s the point of saying, “I have here a pen. Take this pen and sign this card.” Why!? How ’bout saying something like: “Would you mind signing your name on the card” as you simply hand them the pen. Find these problems in your presentation and eliminate them.

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

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: You are on the same team as your audience. When I was actively marketing myself as a performer, the above letter was sent out to my mailing list of potential clients. It was part of a bigger effort to keep the magical moments of life at the top of the mind of my potential clients. This particular letter is very much about teaching the audience to properly play their role.

Spectators don’t necessarily know this. We’ve all met the spectator who narrates the entire trick as he tells us how everything is done. It’s not entirely his fault. He believes that his job is that of debunker. He wants to disprove any claims (outrageous or otherwise) that we as magicians make. He’s just playing the wrong role and doesn’t know it.

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: Educate your audience. For the next 30 days, focus on making very clear what your audience’s job is. Do this politely, of course. You can do this by openly saying this directly, or you can show them by your actions, or a combination of both. I want you to stop and figure it out on your own, but your job is to make sure that the audience knows that their job is let the feeling of astonishment happen, and then after it happens, let it wash over themselves until they’re buried neck-deep, yet comfortably. Teach your audience and your world as a performer will change.

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

Effect:

The magician, while performing for a small seated crowd, gives ten cards to someone on the far left side of the room. He then gives ten cards to someone else on the far right side of the room.

Magically 3 cards vanish from the “left” person’s pile and reappear in the “right” person’s pile. However, when the person on the right counts her cards, she only has 12, not 13. The magician then “senses” that someone in the middle of the crowd between “left” and “right” should stand up. When she does, she is found to be sitting on the missing card.

Method:

If you do cards across, you probably have already figured out a method to perform the above effect. I’m not going to go into any depth regarding the cards across method. There are so many methods in print that it’s best if you do the research and find one that fits you. I personally use Paul Harris’s Las Vegas Leaper. It’s my all time favorite method for this effect.

With that behind us, let’s focus on getting the missing card under the unsuspecting spectator. It’s simple . . . just put it there when nobody’s looking. This is the kind of thing that you set up well in advance of the effect happening. Use the other spectator for an effect where you need to come out to her and stand near her. It’s a simple matter to stand beside her and place your hand (holding the deck) on the back of her chair and thumb a card off the deck and between her back and the chair’s back.

This can be done to someone between your the two people that you’re going to use for the cards across effect later, or it can be done with someone sitting next to the person who will be “receiving” the cards. It’s up to you. If you’re performing for a group of people at a table, it can be anyone else (other than the two cards across people) sitting at the table.

Also, you don’t have to load it under a person you’ve used in a previous effect. Instead, while using someone for an earlier effect, slip the card onto someone else’s chair who happens to be sitting next to or near the person you’re using in the current effect.

Further, you can just do it casually early on in the show as you’re walking out amongst the audience and not using any particular spectator for an effect. Your goal is to have the card loaded well in advance . . . long before you perform the actual cards across routine. Also keep in mind that not all venues and set ups are appropriately laid out for this to work. You’ll have to kind of get a sense, based on the venue, as to whether or not it will work in that particular staging.

Presentation:

What makes this work is how you “sell” it. During the presentation where you are making your magical gestures that represent the magical traveling of the cards, you can glance at your “middle” spectator and say something like, “did you feel the card make its way past you over to her?” Anything like that can be used to set up the ending.

Then at the end when the “right” person only has 12 cards instead of 13, you can give the “middle” person a “look.” The hope is that the audience will catch on and get ahead of you. Either way, you simply say, “you really did feel the card, didn’t you? In fact, I think it didn’t make it past you.” Then ask her to stand up to discover the card.

If you’re performing it where the “middle” person isn’t really in the middle, but next to the “right” person or just somewhere else at the table, then you can use a different “line.” This time when you’re gesturing to make the cards travel, don’t say anything to the “middle” person about feeling the card. Rather, you can act as if you stumbled or mis-fired when you make your gesture. Look at the “middle” person and say, “I almost sent the card to you.” It’ll get a laugh, and everyone will assume you’re kidding. In fact, even if you weren’t going to have the card appear there and you were just doing a standard cards across routine, this line totally works.

At the end when the 13th card is missing, act as if you maybe screwed up. Then as a joking way to get out of your mistake, look to the “middle” person and jokingly say, “maybe I did send it to you.” Let that “sit there” for a minute as an awkward I-screwed-up moment. Then politely ask her to stand up.

Another line that works at the end when the 13th card is missing is simply, “I missed. Sometimes I miss.” Then look to the “middle” person and say “maybe I ‘hit’ you?” At this point, rather than looking at the “middle” person, you can look around the room at multiple people (or everyone, depending on the size of the group) and say “did any of you end up with the missing card?” Then have someone stand up. Then another. After each sits down have another stand up until you “find” the card.

Finally, a nice touch is to be aware of what card you slipped under your “middle” victim earlier. Let’s say it’s the Two of Spades. During the presentation, later, when you are making the cards travel, on the last card, say something like ” . . . and the final card I will send you is the Two of Spades.” Then when she (the person on the right) counts the cards and finds only 12, ask her if the Two made it. When she says “no” you can start looking around the room suspiciously. As you ask people if they have the Two of Spades, the effect becomes slightly more powerful when the “middle” person shows that not only did she end up with the card, but it was the Two of Spades.

Extras:

Rather than having only one card get stuck, you can have all three get stuck. The beauty of this is that during the procedure where you are counting out the ten cards for the “right” person, you can be extra super fair because you’re not hiding any extra cards. You can really milk this and build it up that you are only giving her ten cards.

Then at the end when she still has only ten cards, you can make a joke about “maybe I shouldn’t have been so fair about how I gave you those ten cards.” Then proceed as before to find the missing cards.

Lastly, the above joke can be used as cover for a standard (non “middle” person) cards across. When everyone is laughing about the fact that there are still only ten cards you can easily load on three more if needed.

Final Thoughts:

I know that it has become “the thing to say” in magic to say “don’t overlook this just because it’s simple,” but it’s so true in this case. This is the kind of stuff that will set you apart from other performers. You’re taking a simple idea that adds a little “something” to an effect, and it becomes something more. It becomes more memorable and unique. Give it a shot. You won’t regret it.

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: Study the Mavens. A maven is an expert in any particular industry. Max Maven is certainly that in our art, but he’s not the only one. He’s one who “speaks” to me. Who speaks to you? If you don’t know, it’s because you haven’t studied enough. It is the quintessential purpose of this column to tell you to study the masters of our craft.

That is why this column exists. Over the years, I’ve come up with several creative (hopefully) ways to say this, but the message is nearly always the same: find a root in magic and grow it to branch out on your own and make it your own.

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: Find someone in the history of magic or in the current world of magic who “speaks” to you, someone who inspires you, someone who influences you to be a better performer, creator, thinking, etc.

Who this person is only matters to you and nobody else. Once you find him/her, devour their work. Read their books; watch their DVDs; watch their shows. Remember the world we live in; you can watch their shows (likely) online. Do not “become” your inspiration, but rather let them create the best you by understanding pieces of them. Let them be seen in you, but don’t be them.

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

793.8 The Paperback Edition

I finally finished the paperback edition of 793.8. This book is starting make some waves and has had nothing but positive praise from everyone who has read it. You can now get a print copy of it. If you’ve already purchased the PDF, you’ll be able to get the paperback edition at a discount equal to what you paid for the PDF. The details are on the website: 793.8: Where is The Magic?

793.8 is one of the freshest and most powerful books about presentation for magicians that I have read in a very long time. Your thoughts on connecting with an audience are so powerful that they literally woke me up to being a better performer. Thank you so much for this fantastic work.
— Richard Sanders

Jeff Stone has quietly published a series of excellent magic books that are well-worth your time and money. His latest one, 793.8, is all that again, but raised to another level. His deepest interest is to help you tap into the magic in your magic—those moments of deep, true astonishment. Between Jeff’s thoughtful essays and excellent routines, you will find yourself inspired to create more magical magic. Highly recommended.
— Lawrence Hass, Associate Dean of McBride’s Magic & Mystery School and author of Transformations: Creating Magic Out of Tricks.

My Lovely Assistant

At this point, this one’s somewhat old news, but just in case you haven’t heard, I’ve officially taken over the daily operations of My Lovely Assistant. I approve the reviews, products and reviewers. So if you’d like to become an official reviewer and get free product, I’m the gatekeeper. The process is simple:

1. Go to My Lovely Assistant
2. Create an account
3. Start writing reviews of products you already own
4. After you’ve written 5 or 6 reviews, email me (jeff@magicreviewed.com) expressing interest in becoming an official reviewer
5. We review your account, and approve (or not) you.

That’s it. We’re just looking for quality reviews and regularly posted reviews. Good luck!

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: Experimentation. Are you a card guy? Do you only do funny stuff? Is all of your stuff deep and serious and mysterious? Do you perform mostly coin stuff? Have you ever considered doing something totally serious right in the middle of your comedic performance? What about performing something completely silly and ridiculous during your serious and dramatic mind reading show?

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. Your challenge: Get out of your comfort zone. The only way to grow as a performer is to experiment. Your challenge is simple. Figure out what is the exact opposite of your character, persona, performance style, repertoire, etc., then do that. Yes, I want all you silly folks to do something totally serious and dramatic. You folks who take yourself too seriously, lighten up and slip in an effect that’s silly and out of character.

You might find that you’ll get a great reaction from your audience, if for no other reason than the fact that it was something totally unexpected. So what are you waiting for? You just might find your true self as you experiment with your opposite self . . . Superman did.

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

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: Not everyone likes the same stuff.

This particular Bon Jovi tune is not one of their most popular. It never reached the fame of Runaway, You Give Love a Bad Name or Livin’ on a Prayer. But in my opinion, this song blows those out of the water.

Take the Young Guns II soundtrack. It’s 100% Jon Bon Jovi, and it’s incredible. It could be one of the most under appreciated albums of all time . . . certainly the most under appreciated Bon Jovi album.

However, many of my friends do not like My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms or the Young Guns II soundtrack. Yet they’re both in my top ten for sure. My friend and fellow magi Jay Sankey is another perfect example of this. Over the years he’s released over 1300 effects. They range from ok to miracle status, but which ones are ok and which ones are miracles? It depends on who you ask. One of my all time favorites, Ear Plugs, is my friend Dan Paulus’s least favorite effect.

To each his own as they say. My point here isn’t to review Bon Jovi or Jay Sankey. It is however, to point out the fact that when performing for your various audiences, you’ll have a variety of people who like and hate a broad range of your effects, personality facets, performances, etc. How do you cater to them all? In short, you can’t.

Should you perform the effects that are most likely to appeal to the most people? It depends on who you ask. Some say yes. While others say you should have variety and texture in your show. I tend to lean toward the latter. In my close up set, I have a really creepy tarot card effect, but I also have poker-based demonstrations of sleight of hand. I have comedy, drama, silliness, etc.

I certainly can’t take credit for this concept. It was Eugene Burger who first turned me on to this concept. Rather than focus on the lowest common denominator, I say “take a risk.” Try something that’s different. Try stuff that you enjoy doing.

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. Your challenge: Take a leap of faith. Take a look at your repertoire; then take a look at the stuff you that you enjoy. Find an effect that you’ve decided not to do because you think people won’t like it. There’s someone out there who’ll like it. Go find him/her. Take the time to dust off an effect that you’ve abandoned for the above reasons, and try to make it relevant. Gauge your audience. See how they react and try to get feedback from them, particularly if you’re a close up performer. Look for those who like it and learn from it.

You’ll also find those who don’t like it. Find out why. It may be a simple thing that you could tweak to give it a broader appeal. Or you may not want to tweak it. You may want to leave it in just the way it is allowing it to appeal to only those few who appreciate it. The call is yours; my goal here is to simply get you thinking about your magic. That’s it.

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

Thank you for indulging me. I promise it will pay off.So you’ve listened to the song . . . First of all, I hope you liked it. Second of all, how many instruments did it sound like to you? Go back and listen to it for a few seconds if you need to. But do not move on until you’ve taken a guess at the number of instruments. Got your guess? Ok . . . you may now proceed to step 2. Click on the “watch the video” link below.

WARNING: Do not click the link below until you’ve followed ALL of the instructions above first!

Ok . . . if you’ve followed all the instructions above and you have a number of instruments in mind, click the link:

Hopefully you’ve now watched the video and have been blown away. The first time I saw that, I was truly astonished. It was a beautifully moving moment. It’s all about team work. My guess it that you, likely, would never have suspected that it was possible to do that. Yet it was/is. Can people truly work that well together with that much harmony (not in the musical sense) and that much rhythm and timing. It’s beautiful.

What the heck does this have to do with magic? Simple. Although, we often work alone doing it all (i.e., actor, director, producer, marketer, etc.), we still don’t truly work alone. We work with event planners, clients who hire us, restaurant managers, spectators, etc., etc. Watching that video, you’ll notice how tightly crammed in they were, yet they still gave each other space and respect. You can sense the respect they have for one another. Do you have that kind of respect for your event planner? The servers at your restaurant? Your audience? The video you just watched was created by a band called Walk Off The Earth. They’re an amazingly talented group of people. In every video I’ve watched from them I’m able to sense that compassion, love and teamwork mentality they have for/with each other.

I know a lot of you work restaurants or close up in general. I could do a whole dissertation on getting along with and working with the wait staff . . . but instead I’m going after an even more common denominator . . . audience members. The melodic dance and pace that was demonstrated by Walk Off The Earth is a lesson in the rhythm we must have with our spectators. Don’t use magic as a weapon. Don’t make jokes (no matter how light-hearted) at the audience member’s expense. Don’t make them feel awkward. Make them feel welcome and glad that they met a magician today.

Don’t try to “Freak” their mind, or “Fry” them or “Destroy” them. Don’t “make” them anything . . . “help” them, “share” with them. Dance with them so to speak. Work in harmony with them to create and share a wonderful moment. But Jeff, this is the No Stone Left Unturned column. It’s supposed to be all about getting gigs, and being more marketable and the business side of magic. Yep. This subject (team work with the audience) is critical to the feeling left behind when you leave the gig, the next day at the office when they’re talking about the show last night . . . you’re trying to leave behind a feeling of joy and pleasure. You want people to enjoy the experience, not be destroyed by it. You want that positive feeling to permeate the event, the company, the restaurant, the [insert venue here].

Other than the obvious respect that this shows for your audience and the obvious fact that this makes for a better show for the audience, you’ve also got the goodwill left behind that should increase your ability to get rehired, increase your bonus and/or tips (depending on the type of gig). The testimonials you’ll get will be better; everything about this leaves behind a better “something.” This sets you above the rest. Most magicians come across as the court jester who isn’t even trying to entertain the king . . . just himself. No connection, no team work, just a bunch of stupid, hackneyed insulting one liners that have no meaning and no purpose other than to entertain the so called magician or insult the audience . . . or both.

Don’t be that guy/gal. Be the person who loves the audience and shows it . . . nay, proves it. Be the one who is talked about as the magician who “made me feel good.” You’ll grow as a performer and you’ll dang sure get more gigs instead of ending up as Somebody That They Used To Know.

Until Next Month . . .

Win a $100 Worth of Magic!

Take a moment to comment on this thread and you could win a Jon Armstrong DVD three pack ($100 value) just by posting a comment. All comments of substance (in other words, a simple “good point” or “I agree” doesn’t cut it) will be entered into a drawing on the last day of April 2013. The winner will be announced May 1st, 2013

Dead!

By Orville Meyer

Originally Published in Issue 38 of The Jinx – November 1937

Here is the original content as printed in The Jinx:

A Living and Dead test should concentrate upon the wallop of the effect rather than the method. This is impromptu, and while the presentation idea involved belongs to Eddie Clever, the method of handling and using billets instead of envelopes and cards is mine. In this form the billets can be torn out of borrowed paper without preparation or notice.

Use 5 or six billets about 2×3 Inches. These are folded three times, or to a manipulation size. One is secretly dotted on the outside, or given an extra bend or kink. The slips are passed out, and the person getting the marked one is asked to write a dead name. The others write living names. Writers refold and drop into a hat, the collecting being done by a spectator.

The performer picks out a slip, making sure it isn’t the dead one, and announces it as a living name. He opens to verify, nods, refolds and gives to man who collected slips. As an afterthought he has this man read name on slip aloud so writer can claim it. Now reach in and take dead slip, finger palming a live one. Slip is held to forehead and you announce it to be another LIVE one. Open for verification as before, [SECRETLY] READ THE DEAD NAME, nod, refold, switch slips in handing to assistant, and he reads the LIVE name and it is claimed by owner.

Take out third slip, dropping DEAD name back in hat. Repeat same procedure with this live slip [that was used on the first slip]. You have accustomed audience to your way of handling papers, and twice, first and third times, your hands are actually empty. For fourth time take out DEAD name [this time openly]. Build this up. Announce it to be [the] dead name and ask for owner. Return paper to him and ask him to keep it closed. Then reveal the name, letter for letter. Everything can be examined and returned to owners, which is a point too many tricks cannot boast about.

The Force

Many of you will see my addition as trivial and maybe even a step in the wrong direction, and you may be right. However, it fits for a little mini-project I’m working on. I’m currently working on two close up acts. One that has no card tricks, and one that is only card tricks . . . no other props, no gimmicks, no duplicates. Each show will start with me cracking the seal of the deck and leaving the deck (mostly destroyed) behind when I’m done.

When I came across this effect (again), I happened to be searching for effects I could do with a deck of cards. This one is so good and I wanted to do it, so my brain made some weird connections. Basically, the idea is this: use playing cards as billets. That’s pretty much it. However, here’s the sneaky benefit: get a glimpse of the top or bottom card of the deck and force it on the person who will be writing the dead name. As a side note, this is a good place to practice your classic force. If you’re doing the effect for several people, keep trying for the classic force until it hits. Whoever gets the force card is the person you ask to write a dead name.

Once the name are written, have them folded into quarters and dropped into your receptacle. You can then reach in and grab a couple and peak the card easily as shown in the photo above. Once you know which one is the dead one, you can put it back in the receptacle watching where you put it so you can grab it again in a moment. From there, you can proceed as outlined above. Just make sure when you open the card to apparently read the living name (but secretly read the dead name) that you don’t let the face of the card be seen.

As I said, this is nothing revolutionary, but it fit my need to add a bit of a different effect that I could do with a deck of cards for my “cards only” act. I haven’t tested this, and so I can’t speak to its value in a live performance, but I do like the casual nature of how it feels. As I’m working out the details on my “cards only” act, I’m liking this for a closer. Throughout the show, cards are torn and restored, bent, signed, burned and so forth. So by the time I get to the end, the deck is thinner. I like that this kills another 5 or six cards.

Further, I like the line I’ll be using which I haven’t yet fleshed out, but basically it’ll be something like this: “I’d like to show you one last thing with this deck, that goes beyond mere card tricks or even mere card miracles. . . we’re going to actually use the cards to bridge the gap between the living and the dead . . .” Something like that. This line will make a bit more sense in the context of some of the history of playing cards and their supposed mystical properties that I discuss throughout the show.

That’s it folks. Let me know what you think, and don’t be afraid to tell me I’m an idiot!

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root is don’t trap yourself in boxes. Let’s take a peak at David’s sign off. First of all, what makes it funny is the fact that we’ve all seen the default sign off that comes with an iPhone or Blackberry or Droid, etc.: Sent from my Blackberry.

Without the existence of smart phones that send email, there never would have been a sign of that said “Sent from my iPhone 5.” Without the sign off, David’s sign off would never have existed and even if it somehow existed it wouldn’t have any context and thus would be not funny.

The simple point is this: 20 years ago there would have been no foundation for the joke because smart phones didn’t exist . . . email barely was well known. Go back another 40 or so year before that and the Oral-B toothbrush didn’t exist, and go back another 80 years and no telephone either.

David’s joke is a new joke – a new thing under the sun. New technology (phone, Oral-B, smart phone) had to be created over the course of 120 year for the doorway for this new comedic material. Imagine a court Jester in the 1500’s attempting to entertain the king-folk by saying . . . “Sent from my Oral-B toothbrush.” It was impossible for that “joke” to even exist until just a decade (ish) ago.

It’s an incredible cycle. It’s almost like the unobtainable perpetual motion machine. New ideas spawn newer ideas which spawn further ideas. If it weren’t for the invention of the toothbrush, an electric one might never have existed. Better said, if electricity was never harnessed, it would have been impossible to create an electric toothbrush, and further, nobody would have thought of it because electricity – harnessed electricity – didn’t exist.

Once those things exist, then someone else can come along and say “hey . . . what if we put them together?” Once that happened someone else had to have a similar thought after the invention of email and the invention of phones, followed by the invention of cellular phones: “hey . . . what if we put them (email and phones) together?” Oh did I mention that the smart phone wouldn’t exist without someone first creating a computer. Hey . . . maybe we could combine a computer with a cell phone . . .

All these various doorways opened other doors which opened other doors and more doors, and so on . . . all leading up to everything needed for David Acer to make me laugh hysterically for ten minutes after reading “Sent from my Oral-B toothbrush.”

Sure, you could say that a cell phone isn’t new because it’s a phone which already existed . . . here’s my argument against that: between every two whole numbers (say 4 and 5), there is an infinite amount of fractions. There is 4.1, 4.2, 4.1232, 4.123098092, etc. . . . an infinite amount of possibilities just in the small space between two whole numbers. If you want to be absolutely “technical” about “nothing new under the sun” then sure . . . the fact that every single thing we’ve ever made, invented, thought of, etc. is all part of this Earth and is nothing new . . . then fine . . . there’s nothing new.

However, that’s like saying that the wheel wasn’t a new thing because it was just a rock that had been chiseled into a round shape . . . of course it was new. Something old was modified to create a new something else that led to billions of other new “something elses.” Like the infinite possibilities between two digits, there are infinite ways of combining our existing “stuff.” With every combination we create, we discover that there are other combinations we hadn’t thought of before.

This point/root I’m attempting to make has rambled on ad naseaum . . . so I’ll make the branch short:

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. This month, I want you to truly believe that you can come up with “something new under the sun.” Even if it’s not magic related; even if it’s something you don’t have the resources to create. Think of things you know about (or find things you don’t know about) and ask yourself how you could combine those two (or more) things into something else. This is a creative exercise that will help you grow as a performer and entertainer. It will get you thinking outside of the box as they say.

Maybe when you’re done, you’ll have the combination that turns two poisons (e.g., Sodium and Chloride) into something delicious and amazing (e.g., table salt).

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

P.S. Watch the video below which is the ultimate in combining “stuff” to make something new . . . if you haven’t seen this before, prepare to have your mind blown!