I can't believe the end of the year is upon us already. I feel like this year's gone by faster than most others. It's all relative and personal perception though, so maybe I was just having more fun this year.
One thing I do know is that the amount of magic I learned this year was less than previous, even though I had access to far more resources. I already had over 100 books on card magic at the beginning of 2022 and I added easily 20 more throughout the year, not including monthly magazine issues. Add to that the online tutorials, both free from YouTube and other sources, and paid for via merchants like Vanishing Inc., Ellusionist, Theory11, Penguin Magic, etc. Yeesh!
It's not quite the opposite of "supply and demand" as the demand was definitely there. There was no lack of interest on my part, simply a lack of time and over-exposure. A pre-New Year's Resolution on my part will be to fully dedicate time to focusing and learning magic. This will, of course, be difficult given the planned volume increases I have for the blog, my new YouTube channel, Instagram, and other endeavors, but I think planning everything out will make it more doable.
Speaking of the plan, when I come up with it, I'll let you know all about it. Hopefully I'll have it solidified early-January and can kick off 2023 with it.
Oh yeah, speaking of letting you know about things, look out for my next post -- coming out of schedule -- as I'm unboxing all my Art of Play Mystery Decks! It'll be great =]
Howdy y'all! Yeah, that's my "sick" voice talking -- I've been out with the flu for a few days (and ended up missing Monday's post because of it too).
I'm not going to write much today as I'm still not feeling well, and I'll be taking next Monday off too. I'll be back before the end of the year though =]
One thing I did want to chat about briefly was the Frixion pen though. Or, is it FriXion? Either way, this pen has been on my mind lately.
If you're not familiar with the Frixion pen and it's application in magic, it's fairly straightforward. These pens use ink that is sensitive to heat. They're just like normal gel pens and they work perfectly fine, however, when the paper is heated, the ink "disappears"! An easy magic trick to perform is to write a secret message (like a selected card's value such as "3♦️"") in a regular pen and then draw over top of it with the Frixion pen to make it look like "8♥️". Force the 3 of diamonds and show your prediction ... when it's "wrong" just use a lighter, or wave the paper over a lit candle, and magically it turns into the 3!
But yeah, that's the only kind of routine I really know of using the pen right now -- writing something and making a hidden message appear. I've been trying to think of other magical applications because I just know there's something cool that could be possible. I'll keep thinking on my side and will hopefully have something neat to share in the new year. If you know of any magic-related uses of a Frixion pen -- good or bad -- definitely let me know!
I hope that the holidays are pleasant on your side of the screen!
With this tutorial, you'll learn how to perform a really easy, but very fooling, mind-reading trick. With a fun Christmas theme, this holiday season is a perfect time to give it a try.
Trick Description
The performer is seated at a table with a group of spectators seated around him. On the table, in front of the performer is a small brown envelope.
Pointing to the envelope, the magician says that there is an amazing Christmas story right there, and he proceeds to take out a small packet of cards from the envelope.
As he's removing the cards, he begins telling the story of how Christmas was almost ruined just a few years ago when someone ate all of Santa's cookies. Nobody knew what had happened, but there was a list of suspects that an investigative team -- made up of Mrs. Claus, Cindy Lou Who, and the rest of Whoville -- put together.
They suspected that the cookie bandit was one of six possible characters, each that had a chance at nabbing the sweets.
The first name that came up on most lists was the Grinch. Though, some people thought it couldn't have been him. It could have been Scrooge, or maybe he's just not into cookies. Marv, from Home Alone, is known for taking things this time of the year... but cookies? Would anyone suspect one of Santa's elves? They do work pretty hard and need a snack every now and then. Ah, but we can't forget Rudolph. Perhaps we've caught him red-nosed? And finally, it's the big man himself, Santa. Did he simply have too much eggnog before hopping on his sleigh that he didn't remember eating the cookies?
For each character named, the magician shows a card that has a picture drawn on it. There are 6 cards in all.
"Now, you're the lead investigator." the magician says to one of the spectators. "You're going to be able to figure out who it was, so we'll start with you narrowing it down."
The magician then tells the spectator that they should say "odd" or "even" and whichever they pick, one of those characters stole the cookies and the others didn't. The spectator, err... investigator, says "even" and the magician then spreads the cards and begins counting, 1 (Santa), 2 (Rudolph), 3 (Elf), 4 (Marv), 5 (Scrooge), 6 (Grinch) and removes the odd cards as they did not steal the cookies.
"We have three remaining suspects now. Please, tell us which one of these did not steal the cookies?" the magician asks the spectator.
The spectator says "I don't think Marv stole the cookies." And so, Marv is removed.
"Two remaining suspects, the Grinch and Rudolph." the Magician says. "Which of these characters stole the cookies?"
The spectator says with a laugh, "it was Rudolph!"
Smiling, the magician says, "remember when I started and said that there was an amazing story right here," pointing to the envelope that's still on the table. He opens the envelope and shows that there is one card inside. Pulling it out and turning it over shows writing on the face: "IT WAS RUDOLPH"
Background
I learned this trick from Spidey's YouTube channel, @SpideyHypnosis. The version outlined here is the same as his, the only difference is the card designs and story that's being told. A big "thank you" goes out to Spidey for allowing me to print this!
After reading the performance instructions below, be sure to check out Spidey's video to see his live performance and other hands-on tips!
Tip: I recommend using permanent markers for this. I tried using regular Crayola markers and they smear during the performance.
What was great for me when I learned this trick was that I had recently ordered blank cards and card envelopes for a separate routine I was working on. I've used both items in several effects since then too, so they're quite versatile. Highly recommended, even if you're not going to perform this specific routine!
Card Preparation
You will need to draw the characters for your story on the cards. I came up with common characters that most folks should know: Grinch, Scrooge, Marv, Elf, Rudolph, and Santa. You can use these, or anything else really. Here's what mine look like:
Six seasonal characters from everyone's favorite holiday stories.
Secret Preparation
This routine uses multiple outs. This puts you ahead of the audience and gives them greater freedom in their choices, but you'll have to do a little prep work ahead of time:
On the back of the Marv card, using a red Sharpie, write the word "GUILTY"
I added cookies to mine for extra flare.
On a blank card, write the phrase "IT WAS RUDOLPH". This card will stay in the envelope throughout the performance.
Simple, and to the point.
On the front of the envelope near the center-bottom, with a regular pen (or pencil) write "IT WAS THE GRINCH"
Don't use a Sharpie to write on the envelope because it can bleed through.
Envelope Preparation
The stack of 6-character cards should be in the following order from top-to-bottom, faces up: Grinch, Scrooge, Marv, Elf, Rudolph, Santa
With the envelope face-down on the table, place the "IT WAS RUDOLPH" reveal card face-down inside the envelope.
Finally, wrap the 6-character cards with a rubber band and place them in the envelope. The rubber band will help removing the 6 cards and secretly keeping the extra reveal card behind.
The envelope should stay face-down for the entire performance.
Performance
There are two tricks involved in this routine. One is a subtle, spectator's-free-choice magician's choice. The other is multiple outs. Let's see how these two work together to create such a fooling routine!
After saying "there's an amazing story here" while pointing to the envelope, open it towards yourself and pull out the 6-character cards. The envelope should remain face-down throughout, careful not to flash the writing on the front of it or the card inside. Nobody knows what you're doing or what's going to happen so they won't be looking for anything - just keep it casual and let the story flow smoothly and all eyes will be on the cards you pulled out.
Take the rubber band off the card packet and, during the patter described above, thumb the cards one-by-one into the other hand, reversing their order.
Now, the spectator's first choice: odd or even. This is a version of magician's choice, but it feels extremely fair because you tell the spectator they get to choose any 3 cards -- odd or even -- and those are the ones we keep. Normally, with magician's choice, you would just say "pick odd or even" and after they choose you (the magician) decide whether to keep or remove. Not very fair. This version though, we keep exactly what the spectator says... kind of.
So how does it work? In Spidey's handling, he says "I'm going to spread the cards from my left to my right and we're going to keep what you want." And then, he has the spectator say odd or even. Up until now, the cards are not spread, they are held in a pile in his left hand. After hearing "odd" or "even", the trick comes into play.
If the spectator says "even", that means we will keep cards in positions 2, 4, and 6. If we perform a natural spread between our hands, from left to right, we would naturally push the top card (Santa) over first, followed by Rudolph, etc. Counting from right to left, the order is: Santa (1), Rudolph (2), Elf (3), Marv (4), Scrooge (5), Grinch (6). Removing the odd cards leaves us with our 3 force cards!
When spreading the cards over, count them out loud to help keep the pace.
If the spectator says "odd", that means we will keep cards in positions 1, 3, and 5. If you bring your right hand under the packet and begin spreading from the bottom first, the bottom card (Grinch) will come first, followed by Scrooge, etc. Counting from right to left, the order is: Grinch (1), Scrooge (2), Marv (3), Elf (4), Rudolph (5), Santa (6). Removing the even cards leaves us with our 3 force cards!
Because you just counted the cards into your left hand and started with Grinch, spreading them and counting this way also has a natural "oh, that was the order" feel to it.
At this point, the trick is pretty much done. The three force cards: Rudolph, Marv, and Grinch, are the only remaining cards and the rest is presentation. So, let's see how this plays out.
The next step is having the spectator select any one card that is not the cookie thief. It doesn't matter which one they pick, you'll remove it. I do like to add an extra bit of drama here and reply in a surprised tone "You really don't think X did it??" (X being the name of the character they selected).
This leaves us with two final cards, and we ask the spectator to name which of the two committed the crime. Here's how any of the three selections will play:
Rudolph: If the spectator chooses Rudolph as the thief, place all the other cards, face-up, in a pile to the side. Slide the envelope back to the center in front of you and recall that you said at the beginning that there was something amazing there. Then, pull out the "IT WAS RUDOLPH" reveal card!
Be careful not to flash the writing on the front of the envelope in the performance. And all the character cards should remain face-up. I recommend, when piling them all back up, that the Marv card remains in the middle so it's reveal doesn't flash either.
Marv: If the spectator chooses Marv as the thief, I like to slide the Marv card to be right in front of me and pick up all the other cards, face-up. I then say: "Throughout this investigation, we've seen a number of suspects. You have cleared Santa of all charges." and then flip the Santa card face-down on the table, showing a clean white back. "The elf didn't do it, neither did Scrooge." Also flipping both face-down onto the table. "Rudolph wasn't the thief, and the Grinch has changed his ways." Flipping each, in turn, face-down. "However, Marv can't quite seem to shake his thieving ways." and flip his card over to reveal "GUILTY" written on the back.
When putting the cards away, be careful not to flash the extra card in the envelope or the writing on the front of the envelope.
Grinch: If the spectator chooses Grinch as the thief, I pile all the cards face-up and slide them into the envelope, leaving the Grinch on the table. Then I say, "Unfortunately, this story is in fact the sequel to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," and I turn the envelope over to reveal the "IT WAS THE GRINCH" writing. The vibe I try to give off is that of reading the end of a story and closing the back cover.
When putting the cards in the envelope, be careful not to flash the extra card in the envelope.
Notes
I really like this trick because it's simple, engaging, and fooling. It doesn't take long to perform, it's good with both adults and children, and it adds extra color to a performance set that otherwise only features regular playing cards.
What's also great about it is that it can be adapted for just about any situation that has at least 6 character choices. Spidey's version was Halloween themed about a paranormal mystery. I used his same character designs and changed the story to kids' candy being stolen and each character was a kid in a costume. Then, as you've seen in this tutorial, I adapted it further to fit the Christmas season! Both have received great reactions =]
Spidey mentioned in a comment thread about questions he's received regarding not "going referencing back to the envelope" in the case that the "GUILTY" card (Marv) is selected. In the beginning of the performance, we point to the envelope and say "there is an amazing Christmas story here" -- in the other 2 outs, we go back to the envelope. One is to pull another card out, the other is to show the face of the envelope. If Marv's selected, we don't. And that's perfectly ok! We don't start off by saying "the secret is in the envelope" or "the envelope has the ending." We simply said that there's a story here and we pulled out a packet of cards. If we can bring it back to the envelope at the end -- based on the spectator's selection -- awesome! If not, it's still a great trick and the audience won't even think back to the envelope because we never told them that it held any secrets, just a story ... and we just told them the story!
Thanks again to Spidey for allowing me to publish this! Go check him out on YouTube and Instagram!
It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!
Each Monday (give or take), I use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, and emails -- oh my!
Today's post is a little later than usual, and it's the first Mail Call I've done in a little while. The Penn & Teller: Fool Us reviews that I normally do, I have them scheduled to publish on Monday. Because I spend the weekend writing those, I haven't been writing these. Could I do both? Probably... but, family duties call too =]
As for mail, holy smokes have I gotten a lot of stuff in over the last few weeks. Or, months rather! The last Mail Call I did was in the beginning of October! Yikes!
I haven't counted, but I'm pretty confident I've received at least 50 decks between then and now. I recently opened a full brick of mystery decks from Organic Playing Cards (OPC) -- I'll be posting an unboxing video to YouTube later this week too. My monthly deliveries from Kings Wild Project have been coming in steadily, as have plenty of Kickstarter campaign rewards and other miscellaneous orders. I think I may have enough decks to last quite a while =P
Speaking of "mystery decks", I ordered a bunch from Art of Play when they were released on December 5th; today's the 12th and my order still hasn't shipped. I've seen a decent number of other people opening theirs on Instagram already so I'm a touch curious as to why there's a delay with mine. I ordered pretty quickly too, so I know it's not because I waited or anything. Anyways, they'll come eventually and I'll do an unboxing of those too.
Uncommonly, I also ordered a trick. Inferno, by Joshua Jay, really caught my eye as something that would be awesome to perform. I have LIT, which has received amazing reactions, so I figured this would be a great extension of that, or perhaps an alternative that I could show if ever asked to repeat it. I have mixed opinions about the trick though, specifically because of the product description. It says, and this part is true, that "no cards are palmed in"; but then it says, and this part is false, that "there is no sleight of hand to speak of." Well, technically, card(s) are palmed out -- which is sleight of hand. However, the application of magician's choice in this routine is a really great method. I haven't performed the routine for anyone yet -- I'm still trying to figure out justification for having a box of matches, but we'll see.
Also, since the last issue of Mail Call, I've received a few monthly magazine subscription issues! Four issues total, two from The Hermit and Love Letters each. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to read any of them. It's been a really busy couple of months. Luckily, starting right about now, the holidays tend to slow everything down and I have time to play catch-up. My plan is to read through all of them this week, hopefully with some decent coffee. Personal note: I just made my very first homemade "coffee creamer" (an attempt at "French vanilla"), and it turned out not bad... I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Regarding the magazines though, after I go through them if there's anything that sticks out, I'll let you know =]
So much to do, so many packages, so little time! Thankfully, like I mentioned above, things are starting to slow down now so I'll finally be able to enjoy everything I've gotten in. And though I'll continue to enter in decks and books here on the site, also check out my YouTube channel for reviews! I'm still really new at that whole format -- which turns out is way, way different than a short Instagram clip -- so do expect the quality to improve over time.
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.
Even though I have enough card magic material to honestly last a lifetime, and I bought even more during the annual Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales this year, I haven't been practicing anything new lately, let alone reading. Not that I haven't been interested, I just haven't had the time.
I have, however, been tinkering with a new gizmo I picked up a little while ago: TIES!
I had seen an ad, I think on Instagram, for it and thought it looked neat, but figured it wasn't really my thing. However, I kept thinking about it later, more and more. I've never really liked seeing magicians on Instagram "levitate a playing card" because it's the only thing the video's about -- it's pretty clear that there's a thread there, even though we can't see it. But, nevertheless, I kept thinking about this special thread...
When I saw the ad again, I opened it in a tab in my phone's web browser and there is sat... for another month. In finally bit the bullet and went ahead and ordered the 10 pack. The 10 pack is just that, a 10 pack of invisible thread "ties", or circles. But wait, there's more! It also comes with 2 hours of instructional video... 2 hours of tutorials, for only $8?! It would be more than worth it just for that.
A year or two ago, I bought a rather large package full of invisible elastic thread for card gaffs (e.g., flap cards). Technically, I can make my own TIES with little effort. The instructional video acknowledges that right off the bat too; they do say that their thread is better because it's even smaller, but I think the one I have is about the same so who knows.
Anyways, yeah. I watched a little over an hour of the video and got to know the little threads fairly well. How to wear it, the basic ways to use it, etc. It's pretty neat and I already got to the point where I forget that it's on my wrist.
I've been trying simple things like balancing a card or paper between my hands, but I haven't been able to do it in a comfortable way. Whenever my hands get into a natural position, whatever's there falls. It seems like something that shouldn't require a ton of practice so I'm either wrong, or not very good =P
I will keep it up though, and will try to always have one on to try to do something "spontaneous" like knocking over a bottle or something small on a table. Maybe one day I'll be able to be one of those magicians on Instagram that floats a card in between my hands!
