It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!
Today I have two things to talk about:
- Single Handed
- Unliftable: The Light-Heavy Deck
Both of these were what I like to call pseudo-impulse-purchases. The impulse part is, I "had to have them right away", and so I bought them. The pseudo-part is, I didn't need a lot of convincing that these would be tricks I would use.
For Single Handed, this trick just vibes really well with my style and normal audience. The premise of the trick is that you're going to perform a card trick with only a single hand by keeping one of your hands behind your back for the duration of the trick. The spectator selects a card, signs it, shuffles the deck, and even after all of this fairness, their selected -- and signed -- card is found in the hand behind your back!
Before I continue too much, if you do want to buy this trick, it's on Ellusionist and you can save 10% using the code BABBITS10: Single Handed!
A gimmicked deck is used for Single Handed, but the selection and all that jazz is completely fair. I've thought of a way, after finding out how the trick is performed, to do it without a gimmicked deck, but it's more sleight-intensive and error-prone (but hey, how killer would it be to do it with a borrowed deck!). If you've bought the trick and want to chat about it, reach out and let's jam!
That said though, using the gimmicked deck -- which I'm 100% fine with in this case -- actually makes the trick extremely close to self-working. I've been practicing the movements during meetings while at work last week, and I think I'm ready to perform this one now!
Now... Unliftable: The Light-Heavy Deck.
I've always been in love with size-weight illusions -- also known as the "Charpentier illusion", according to Wikipedia. And... also known as "De Moor's illusion". Regardless of what it's called, it's the idea that something that is perceived as a certain weight ends up being radically different. Either it's really large and unnaturally light, or it's small and unreasonably heavy. In magic, my favorite application of this is making a small object impossible to lift.
When Vanishing Inc shared the product info out for Unliftable, available on VanishingIncMagic.com, I was a little skeptical at first thinking that maybe it is just a little heavier and it shocks folks. According to the trailer for it though, and comments on the page, folks really just can't lift the deck off the table!
I haven't received my order for it yet and the instructions for it "come in the box", so I don't really know anything about how it works yet. From what I've gathered, based on Vanishing Inc's comment replies, the gimmick itself is attached to the outside of the box, but is fairly examinable. I could see this being a trick done later in a set, even after something like "card to box".
One immediate dislike I have of Unliftable, already... even though I don't have it yet, is that it's very clear that there is something fishy going on -- from a spectator's viewpoint. In the trailer, when you see people trying to lift the box off the table, it slides around. If the thing was really "that heavy", it wouldn't budge. In this case though, it almost looks like they're just pulling it around the table like a toy truck. We'll see what's up when I receive it in the mail though!
One week and two new tricks! Well, I have one and the other's still in the mail, so I guess it's really two weeks and two tricks... but you get the point. It did give me time to focus on practicing one of them though, so I think it all worked out in the end.
Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!
Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.