It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

It's been a few months since my last Mail Call, but truth be told I've still been receiving things left-and-right. I just haven't had the time to write about everything. Today though, I figured it's time to highlight a few things I got in recently.

First up, two red books:

• Letters from Juan - Vol. 1, The Secrets of Juan Tamariz
• Jean-Pierre Vallarino

While I'll be posting full reviews on both, both on this blog and on YouTube, I wanted to briefly mention my progress into the books here. I've read Letters from Juan all the way through, and I'm about 1/3rd of the way through Jean-Pierre Vallarino. The former falls far below my expectations and the latter has blown them out of the water. Specifically, I'm rather upset at the material presented in the small Juan Tamariz booklet, and I am super excited with the vast amount of really useful material in Vallarino's. Stay tuned for more on both =]

Next up is a video, the Bluff Shift Bundle by Joshua Jay (err, by Vanishing Inc). This video's pretty old, I think Josh starts it by saying it's his first video for the site even -- it looks like the quality of an old VHS tape, but holy smokes is it great. I know what a Bluff Pass is, I've used it plenty ... but not like this. My biggest issue with the cover, something I haven't actually taken time to think about fixing, is knocked out of the park by this video.

I'll write a full thing about it (late to the party, but still worthwhile), however, I do want to highlight that the thing is pretty awesome so far (and I've only watched half of it). If you jump on it, it's currently 50% off; unfortunately for me, I bought it ~2 weeks ago and paid full price -- but it's well worth it. Here's a direct link to it if you're interested.

Last up, a couple of decks. Full disclosure, I received a lot of decks over the past few weeks, but I really only want to highlight 2 of them:

• Casino54 by MagicTricks101
• Coffee Playing Cards by Edo Huang

The first deck, Casino54, was sent to me as a prototype for their Kickstarter campaign. I really like the deck myself -- if you're reading this and the campaign's still active, go back it now (^_^). If you want to see more about the deck first, I have a review here:

The second deck, Coffee Playing Cards, has been on my wishlist for years. This deck was released back in 2019 and only 300 were made and they were mostly sold at speaking events; a limited number were sold online, but that sold out super fast. I always say that I'm not a deck collector, but when it comes to coffee-themed decks, I collect them. This one has eluded me... until now!

I was able to strike a trade for it; of of my unopened If an Octopus Could Palm v2 decks for it -- and I was more than happy to make that trade! One really awesome part is that the deck's signed by Edo, and it's still unopened! I legitimately thought that the deck was used (and I would have still been happy with it), but nope, the cards inside are still cellophane-wrapped and all! Well, not for long anyways =]

Everything I've mentioned above will have full write-ups on the site soon. When I can, I'll also include more photos and potentially video reviews as well. I'm just excited to dive into that coffee deck (^_^)

I have a few things that are coming in soon that I think will be worth highlighting too, so 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.

Is it just me, or is David Blaine getting hurt a lot in his current Vegas show?

Unrelated, I just added Death by Magic to my list on Netflix. If you haven't heard of it, the description is:

If it's anything good, I'll post a proper review after I check it out. It was released in 2018 though, so I'm pretty behind-the-times =P

I started a new job at the end of February! Between that and trying to ramp up my YouTube channel, I've been hella-busy.

However, I did have a chance to read all the way through The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel -- my second time doing so -- and I took way better notes this time around. I still don't think I'm advanced enough in my card handling or practice regime to do 1/4th of the stuff in the book (or more realistically, 1/2 of the stuff), but I understood it all a whole lot better this time around.

I'm actively practicing sleights and routines from it because I do think that they're pure gold! Keep an eye out for a full review on the book soon -- both here on the blog, and on YouTube!

Speaking of YouTube, I've been writing a few scripts recently for tutorials! I have always loved teaching (I've been an adjunct professor at colleges, held training seminars for decades, and many other examples) -- so there's no way I wouldn't extend that to magic as well. Heck, this blog is proof enough of it.

My current plan is to teach introductory magic. Beginner tricks, maybe some intermediate, and a touch of theory. The thing is, to teach even beginner tricks, I also need to teach beginner sleights -- like a double lift. I ran a poll on my channel and the consensus is that folks want to see tricks (and not sleights), which is actually the exact opposite of what my plan was 😂

The plan, for transparency, was (or still is) to have a few tricks planned. With them planned, I'll have a list of all of the sleights necessary for them. I would put up a tutorial for each sleight, and then the tricks. That way, while you're watching the tutorial for the trick and I mention to use a double lift, I won't need to go in-depth during the trick tutorial to explain a double lift, I can simply refer you to that tutorial.

"Another tutorial for double lifts?! I think we already have enough, no?" You're likely right. There are a bajillion tutorials on simple and basic sleights already. And I've watched most of them! Some are great. Some are pretty terrible. And others just leave me wanting more from it. My aim is to make only great ones -- even for simple sleights -- things that go in depth and explain not just how to do the thing, but common issues, alternate handlings, misdirection cues, and more! We'll see though, we all know how plans go.

Coincidentally, Ellusionist's latest blog post is about Exposure in Magic. My aim for teaching on YouTube doesn't really align with "exposure" though, so I'm not too worried about that.

I do, however, agree that these folks on TikTok and Instagram who are taking just seconds to expose how visual tricks are done is pretty frustrating. I don't think it's a huge, huge issue though -- yes, I do get semi-angry whenever I see it -- but I also try to remember that people don't remember that kind of thing!

Mindless-scrolling and watching an exposure video that shows 5 different tricks in under 60 seconds isn't going to make that person an expert in magic, and they're likely not going to remember how any of the 5 tricks were done by the next day. Repeated exposure, on the other hand, yeah, that'll do it.

What's more likely is it'll make people more distrusting of magicians. More hecklers will arise and we'll have to up our game even further.

I feel like this whole "exposure in magic" sentiment is just a repeat from a few years back when the whole magic community started getting super upset that people were posting magic tutorials on YouTube. "Magic, for free?! That's unfathomable! They should have to pay $10 to learn that, otherwise it's against our magician's code!" Yeah, I never got behind that...

Now, teaching things that aren't yours to teach ... I think we're on the same page that that's where the line should be drawn.

While there are plenty of magic books that offer a vast amount of tricks in a single volume, very few of them can also include the label "advanced" and have so many worker tricks. The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel, however, is one of the latter.

I've read this book before. It was one of the first magic books I dove into and just about everything in it was beyond my skill set at the time. Heck, a lot of it is pretty advanced for me right now too -- but putting a few years between reading sessions has paid off immensely!

I'm still parsing through it though. I'm in the 2nd-to-last chapter and I've been taking notes the whole way through. I actually thought that I would be able to go through it faster; however, now that I understand a lot more about card magic I find myself stopping for many of the tricks to try them out. Some of them are 100% "keepers" right away. Others actually took me a trial or two to realize how amazing the effect was. There's one trick in there that's just downright impossible.

This book is the only book I have that's specific to Krenzel. I know there are others, I just don't own them yet. I think I have a few books with an entry or two by him, but Card Classics, whelp, it's all Ken!

I started reading through it at the beginning of February, I'd say almost exactly a month ago. And I'm still not finished. Almost every night I'm at the table with it, that's how much I've liked it so far. Once I've finished, I plan to do a full review of it and to demo a trick or two, but more importantly I hope to be able to decide which of the routines in it are worth adding to my repertoire and which I should modify first =]

Last week I was in New York City for work and decided to stop in to visit the local magic shops. I checked out Tannen's, of course, and I also swung by Don't Blink Magic Shop for a bit. I'll write a separate post about this experience, but today I want to discuss an epiphany I had after my second visit to Don't Blink.

It was the end of the week, work had ended early and I had a late flight, so what to do? Well, go chill at Don't Blink of course! And so, I did.

Up until this point in the week, I didn't get a chance to perform any magic for any of my colleagues, even though I was constantly prepared with at the very least, a deck of cards. What would I have performed if anyone asked? Well, that's what I'm getting to...

So, I'm at Don't Blink and hanging out with Magick Balay. Being the only customer in the store for a little while gave me a chance to really chat with him and we started talking about sleights with regular decks. I pulled mine out and he said words I'll never forget:

Why will I remember these words? Because I had nothing. I blanked. Or, rather, I had a thousand different tricks run through my mind -- all things I've worked on in the last few weeks -- and when it came to it, I explained just that. I've really been focusing on multi-spectator routines, it was quite literally my primary focus for days, and my deck was even set up to kick one off, and ugh.

Magick understood though, he said that that's a problem sometimes. You just have to get out there and perform more and more. It's a combination of that "stage fright" effect and also just not practicing a smaller set of routines. By performing, not just practicing, you gain confidence and also figure out what routines work and what don't. Then, when you start working on new material, it's not an entire book's worth -- it's either one or two new tricks, or a variation of something you're already doing. Easy peasy.

On my flight home later that night I was thinking about it and I really could have shown him just about anything. However, I started thinking about what I would've shown any of my coworkers if they had asked and then it dawned on me, I would've likely only had less than 10 routines to perform that could've really fit into the venue.

Only 10?! Didn't you just say you had a thousand?!

Why yes. Yes I did. And therein lies the problem... I read magic books routinely. I watch magic videos and tutorials quite frequently as well. I take notes. I practice. I practice. I practice. However, I'm only practicing the routines and sleights that I think are really strong and really good -- and it turns out, almost all of them are tricks for other magicians. They're sleight-heavy. They're using magician-knowledge as misdirection. They could be performed for lay audiences, definitely, but there are less-sleight-intense ways to perform the exact routines that I just haven't really practiced.

So, what then? Well, it all circled back to the question: why do I do magic?

My answer is, to make people experience magic. To make people happy. To learn, to teach, and everything in-between.

You'll notice that my answer isn't "to perform for magicians." If it were, I would've knocked out some routines at the counter at Don't Blink for Magick, and later for some of the other guys that were in there. Instead, I was in a mindset to perform for lay audiences while only prepped for performing for magicians, so when the time came, I performed for nobody!

And so, the epiphany came through in full force. To perform magic, to make people experience magic, I need to actually do magic. Do it for them, not for me. Sure I can still practice the sleight-heavy routines, and I most definitely will. But, let's throw some workers in there. Something that is usable in an environment where I would typically show something off -- like in a walk-around situation. Perhaps it's in the kitchen at the office. Maybe it's in a bar after work. In both examples, I'm standing... coincidentally, I've almost always performed standing -- and I'd wager more than 90% of what I practice is sitting. Yikes!

Luckily, my repertoire is actually extensive already. Am I well-practiced at most of the routines? No. But, I have them there and can practice with them. What I need to do now is to re-review everything and perhaps come up with a better labeling system. Maybe a simple "worker" tag or "good at a table with friends" tag, and maybe one that reads "magician fooler". Yay, more work! =P

It's been a while since I wrote a random freestyle post. Most have been themed or centered around a single topic. Well not today folks!

Below, you'll find a general life update, stats about my first YouTube book review, my experience -- so far -- with TIES, and a design update for The Magic Café 🤫. Keep reading for all of the details!

I'm currently sitting in the café at my local Barnes & Noble, just unwinding from the normal day-to-day. They don't have power outlets here, likely to stop people from camping out all day; so, I'm limited to however long my laptop's battery lasts -- which is anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours, pending how aggressively I type and/or if I dare open up a website like YouTube or Instagram.

On my mind lately has been how many post ideas I've had, and how little I've actually posted. Some have been time-sensitive and I didn't get to them. Other "to come" posts are ones that I've wanted to post for a while, but others keep bumping them down my queue. While I could post more frequently, it would monopolize my time so for now, the current schedule's what we'll stick with. I might write an extra post every now and then if I get a free minute, but no promises.

I recently posted my first video book review on YouTube! The review is of Simon Aronson's Try the Impossible, a book that I read twice throughout the month of January.

I've posted a handful of deck reviews already, and those have been pretty fun to do. They don't take terribly long to produce either. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes to record, another 20 minutes of editing, and then going through the whole upload-and-post dance. Effectively, under an hour for a single deck review -- unless I want to include any B-Roll type of stuff, like cardistry or other flourishes. Then, the time increases.

Conversely, this book review... wow. So the idea for the book reviews that I film is to not only discuss the book, but also to demonstrate one or two of the routines from it (if it has any, of course). Well, this review took me around an hour to film. Then, somewhere between one to two hours to edit. What was the end product? A 23 minute video!

It's my longest video to-date and honestly, it came out much longer than I expected. I'm happy with the video overall though, but I have plenty of notes to make improvements for the next one I do. Hopefully they won't all take as long.

As a little sneak peak, my next book review will be on The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel. I read it a few years ago and have skimmed it again since then, but I'm rereading it cover-to-cover right now and taking much more detailed notes. My original impression of it has changed, stay tuned to see how!

When I was at MagiFest a few weeks ago, I wore an elastic (re: TIES) everyday. It never really came into use while I was at the convention, but I did get a chance to use it when I was out to eat. I had a used napkin on the table randomly move on its own, without interaction from me!

I know at least once when a couple saw it and started whispering together, so that was fun. All of the other random times, I don't know if anyone actually noticed or not. Nobody ever approached me though, so maybe not, or maybe they just didn't believe what they saw.

My recent Nashville trip, I did the same -- except I used it to knock over an empty plastic cup. Unfortunately, all of the people around that actually saw it were rather intoxicated and didn't notice that my hands were nowhere near the cup, they simply thought I was clumsy (or drunk myself) and knocked the cup over by accident. Go figure =P

All of that said, I broke -- and lost -- 5 elastics during those two trips. One snapped the one time I was preparing to actually show it in a trick (in Nashville) and I wasn't wearing a backup. The others, well, let's just say that I never once remembered that they were on my wrist when I took off my jacket... and I never saw them again.

I recently started browsing The Magic Cafe again. I created an account a few years back and thought I'd be there a lot more than I was... and, well, I wasn't.

The past few days, I've been on there daily -- even interacting a bit. I know, I know... that's not really newsworthy.

However, I bring it up because the website itself is just horrible. The content is great, and the people are people (I don't actually know them and haven't been around long enough to know them, so they're just people). The website though, it's outdated even by 1998's standards. It functions, and as a forum it's straight to the point, but I'm missing a lot.

As such, and as you may or may not know, but I'm an engineer so writing code is something my day-job requires. I decided to work on some front-end changes to the site and using an extension in my browser, I've been effectively upgrading my experience on the site. I'm going to keep tackling it and once it's a bit more modern, I'll share. I think you'll dig it =]