Holy smokes, The Babbit's Grimoire is a year old today!

A Look Back

It's been really fun for me, writing on this blog. Writing has made me question a lot of different things, which has been great. By questioning things, like during a book review or a new trick that has been released, I learn more about the origin of things and even practice more outside of my general comfort area. So, by writing here I have learned a lot more than I would have if I, well, wasn't writing here.

However, I did expect to put out more tutorials but I really only wrote the one so far. I have had many planned, and notebooks full of them, but it just never really came to be. Same with reviews, for that matter. I expected to do a lot more book and deck reviews but ended up writing reviews of videos (re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us) more than anything.

I've also had a few folks write in about things on the site! Which reminds me, if you ever want to chat about a topic I've written about, if you have questions about magic or books or decks or whatever, or if you have ideas for the site, please feel free to contact me here =]

Content Statistics

Including this post, I've made 88 blog posts so far. In addition to those, I've made 19 product review posts split between books, decks, and videos! If you count product reviews as blog posts, that means I have been able to successfully publish 2 posts per week, every week for a whole year =]

I've entered in full details for 46 of the books in my library here as well. If you've had a chance to look at any of them, you'll know that some can be quite verbose (I'm looking at you Talk About Tricks). There are 90 more books that I've created an entry for as well, and about 50 or so more than that that are still on the shelf, just waiting.

As for decks of playing cards, I've published details on 64 of them. I have hundreds of unique decks, though my kids would say thousands, and entering these in takes a lot of time too because of the pictures I try to include.

I have really slacked when we talk about tricks and kits though. I've written details about 2 of them when I have closer to 20. Yeah, 20 isn't a huge number, but remember, I'm still new at this whole magic thing =P

Videos though, I've published details on 14 of them -- which includes a few full online courses -- and I have 15 more entries drafted and likely 30 or more than that just waiting to be entered in.

Looking Forward

I spoke above about learning while writing for the blog. I want to expand that a little by writing more in-depth articles, not blog posts, about certain topics. Perhaps general things like "the history of playing cards" or "the size + weight illusion". Yes, I'll definitely continue my standard blog posts. But, maybe throughout the next year I'll publish something more educational once or twice too.

As for reviews, that's going to be an interesting one. I finally created a YouTube channel! It's pretty empty right now, only a couple of YouTube Shorts on it. However, I'm going to start doing deck reviews there and, eventually, book reviews too. I will still write book reviews here on the site, but putting up a video in tandem with the blog review will be a lot better because it will allow me to perform a routine or two from whatever book I'm reviewing. I think that that would be more beneficial for you, the reader. For decks though, while I'll keep putting info about them on the site here, I don't think written deck reviews are very good -- people want to see the decks in action. Making a video is also much faster than writing about them, so it's a win-win!

Publishing two blog posts a week was hard at times. Juggling work, family, and the pseudo-pressure of regularly posting to Instagram was challenging some weeks, and a breeze others. Add in to the mix the data-entry for all of the things in my library, jeez. I still have a lot of data to enter, and I'm starting a YouTube channel, so time will be even more in-demand. However, I'm going to continue the regular blog posts. The data entry, however, will shift a little. I think that, rather than queueing up as much as I can, if I just do one thing at a time as I'm posting about it -- like, enter in the data for the deck or book that I'm reviewing that week -- it will make things a lot more manageable. We'll see =]

Another thing is that I've written this website 100% from the ground-up. I'm not using any fancy framework (other than the one I created), and third-party code is at an extreme minimum. Luckily, the foundation of the website is done. Now I just work on additions and whatnot. I've been working on some fun expansions here and there and I hope to release them throughout the coming year.

So yeah... I guess that's about it for today. Happy Birthday to me!

Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a TV talent show that is filmed in front of a live audience (or, virtual audience during the pandemic). Oh, and we can't forget to mention that Penn and Teller are there too -- they're the judges!

During each episode, four magicians perform a magic act for Penn & Teller which, at the end of each act the magician-comedian duo try to deduce how the trick was done. In very articulate speech, Penn -- as Teller remains characteristically silent -- commends the magician on a job well done. If the magic act fooled Penn & Teller, they win a sweet Fool Us trophy and a trip to Vegas to be the opening act for Penn & Teller's show!

I want my opinions below to reflect those of a spectator who just saw a performance live. To achieve this, I've only watched this episode once. In real time - no pausing. No slow motion. Once through, with commercials and with my kids enjoying it with me too. Did I remember everything I saw? Did I see everything that happened? Do I remember the exact words that were said? Maybe, but likely not -- which means if I over-portray an effect below then it was just that great of a trick. If I under-portray it, well, yeah. So let's see what this episode's got in store for us!

Episode Recap

Danger magic, money money money, cards, and impossible light bulb action! Holy smokes, this episode had a bit of everything. And then, there was a dummy doing sponge ball magic! Whoa. If you don't like danger magic, like I don't, just a heads up that the first performance is of that variety -- while he tries to dull down the danger by using a tiny "blade", the whole vibe is really ick. My description below will help make it a bit more family friendly though.

The fooler of the night's episode was Kolos. A multi-phase card routine that progresses to more and more impossible sleights. It was a really engaging routine that was not only fun to watch but will be fun to try to perform too.

Apollo Riego

Apollo is a New York City based magician who, by looking at his Instagram (@apolloriego), always has a serious game face on. His intro showed off a lot of different types of magic from cards to coins to bills, but he gave an upfront warning that his routine was of the danger-magic kind.

The performance started off with Alyson all decked out in safety gear, the most apparent were the knife gloves. Uh oh!

Apollo sold everything right at the beginning, this was dangerous. It was deadly. It was life threatening! It was, a tiny metal washer and a few envelopes! =P

But for real, this "tiny metal washer" is said to be really sharp. He had Alyson place it in a small envelope and then mix it up with 5 others. He had Alyson put on a pair of safety goggles and then one-by-one clapped his hands on the envelopes, each time running the risk of smashing the blade into his palms. Narrowed down to the final 2, he clapped an envelope and blood went all over his hands! Oh snap, it was just a joke -- it was strawberry jelly!

The last envelope remaining was opened, it was the tiny metal washer. Phew.

I'm not, and never have been, a fan of danger magic. Apollo's routine was only really made "dangerous" by his words, and by the last envelope he crushed with the jelly. My kids are also not fans of danger magic, so much so that my youngest turned away from the TV scared when Apollo was going to clap the envelopes. To help reassure him that there was no real danger involved, I explained to him how to do the trick. I was careful enough not to explain "magician's choice," but I did tell him that the blade wasn't actually sharp (which may or may not be true) and that the envelopes were marked.

When Penn gave his break-down of how it was done and all of the coded messaging, my kids were super excited because they understood everything he was saying. So that's fun =]

My big remaining question is, did the super reflective googles that Alyson wore play a role in the marking system?

Rachel Wax

Rachel is also a New York City based magician but according to her website (rachelwax.com) she isn't locked down to just performing in The Big Apple. She performs all over, and if her Instagram (@rwaxx) has any merit, she loves her some pugs too!

Rachel came out on stage with nothing but a purse. A large purse, mind you. Inside of it was filled with several things, including a money gun!

Armed with a money gun and a stack of bills, she had Alyson provide one more bill and sign it. Rachel then signed the back of it and they put it into the middle of the stack of bills. Loading the stack into the money gun, Rachel was blindfolded and Alyson sprayed money everywhere! On no, the bill is lost...

Digging through her purse, Rachel brought out a wrapped piece of candy. When opened and the candy split, the signed bill was right in the middle of it!

She owned the stage, I'm just going to put that out there. She stole it, if I were to use Penn's words. I do kind of disagree with that being the coded message though; it was less of a steal and more of a ditch, but hey, same end result right? Right at the beginning of the routine when she asked Alyson for a bill, my first jump was "she's going to make the dollar appear inside something in the purse, probably that candy." Great minds think alike, right? =P

Kolos

Kolos, a Hungarian magician who, per his performance's intro, has quite the list of references! His Instagram (@kolosmagic) shows him traveling all over and performing magic in all sorts of places, and if you look hard enough you'll even find him fanning decks of cards! I say this because one thing that stuck out to me was how many times he fanned cards in his intro, and then during the performance. Everyone has their "thing" I guess =P

This routine... where do I start? Well, let's start at the beginning and go from there. I recommend you watch the routine itself though to really see it in action (a link to the video is down below).

Kolos explained how this magic trick was passed down through his family for generations. His grandfather performed it one way, then his father, and now him. He started by demonstrating his grandfather's version of the trick using a very old looking deck of cards. The box was old and used. The deck was dirty and worn. It has seen some action!

Side note, if you're interested in this deck it's the Ellusionist Bicycle 1900 Vintage Series Playing Cards =]

He spread the cards face down, then face up and had Alyson name any card. The 7 of Diamonds was chosen and signed by Alyson. He then threw the card into the deck, fanned the deck, and then magically pulled the back of the card box off, revealing the signed card!

Taking things to the next level, he began showing his father's version of the trick. He cleaned up the table and placed the card back into the deck where Alyson said to stop. Again, fanning the cards in both hands he lifted the card box with the fans and began passing it back and forth from one fan to the other. And then, magically, the box turned into the signed card! But, being a completionist (or perfectionist), he made the box reappear from in between the cards as they dribbled from his hand to the table.

But then, continuing his father's rendition, he took the box and opened it to pull out the signed card, yet again. In almost rapid fire succession, he moved on to his own personal performance where he doesn't want to perform with an old deck and bam, the box changes into a new box. The deck then changes it into a new deck of Bicycle cards! From the box he pulls out a brand new looking card with, you guessed it, Alyson's signature on the front of that new 7 of Diamonds!

Penn's breakdown of the routine honestly matched my breakdown almost exactly. The grandfather's version, pretty straightforward. The father's version, yeah, we could do that too. And then the deck changed and the signed card changed? Whoa!

Unfortunately, or "however", this one didn't fool me overall. I say that Penn's breakdown matched mine not because I was fooled with the deck switch but because I was distracted by the signature on the card in the last portion of his father's trick where he brings the card out from the box that reappeared. It looked very different than the way it looked previously and that was a huge turn-off. The problem is not so much with the alignment of the signature (which was off), but it was that it was clearly signed with a thick Sharpie whereas Alyson's signature was done with a fine-point Sharpie.

I've been learning the finer points of faking or duplicating a spectator's signature off-and-on and it's a fun topic. Deck switches, yeah I know a few. Card forces, not a problem. The problem is combining all of them here. He clearly, very clearly, forged 2 signatures onto two separate 7 of Diamonds. Given that Alyson would be the one assisting him, he could have pre-signed the cards, sure. Whether that's allowed on Fool Us is up for debate though. However, Alyson's selection was very fair, in my opinion. That spread at the beginning, even I picked a different card. The risk would have been too great to rely on a force to pre-sign a specific card and I highly doubt he created an index with 104 cards.

My guess is that the cards were forged during the performance. From what I can tell, there were a lot of cuts away from the performance itself so it's really difficult, or impossible, to say for certain how it was done. I would like to think that he's just really good at thumb-writing but there didn't appear to be enough time for it for a single signature, let alone two. This, and I kind of hope this isn't the case, but this feels to me that there may have been a hidden assistant. That, or his savant does in fact have a 104 card index!

Peter Wood

Peter Wood, collector of the impossible! I've always thought it would be neat to collect obscure and "impossible" things, but Peter here, this guy actually does! I thought that by scrolling through his feed (@theimpossiblepw), I would be able to figure out if he builds any of these impossible contraptions himself or just collects them, but I think that the two kind of go hand-in-hand.

Peter started his routine by introducing a really neat looking wooden box. Inside the box was an "impossible thing." Revealing it to us, it was an interesting looking light display with four vintage style lightbulbs.

Atop the box were four cards that corresponded to each of the four distinct lightbulbs. Whichever switch the card was above was the bulb that would turn on, when switched. He moved the cards around, the switches followed. Alyson moved them around, they followed still. Then, Alyson mixed the cards and placed them in a box. Pulling them out one-by-one and flipping the switches in order yielded the corresponding bulb to light up!

Penn's coded message included hints at a fifth switch and custom programming. As an engineer, the latter part was obvious to me. The "fifth switch" went over my head for a while when it dawned on me that he wasn't referring to a light switch, but a different kind!

Peter did not fool them but I think it was a really fun performance overall. I think that this is one of those cool gadgets you can have on display at your house and when asked about it, you can demonstrate the weird, or impossible, properties of it!

Penn & Teller ended the show with Teller performing a really nice ventriloquism act with a dummy and sponge balls. Actually, can it be called a ventriloquism act if neither of them talk? It was a fun performance regardless, I recommend watching it =]

Takeaways

I enjoyed this episode, save for the first act. No offense to Apollo, it's just not my genre of magic. If he ever comes back, hopefully he'll perform something a little more audience-friendly. But yeah, the other acts were very enjoyable and showed off so many different types of magic.

The episode flew by, time-wise for me and I'm already excited for the next round of magic!

You can watch this full episode on The CW.

Earlier this week I received a copy of Queen Spirit by John Bannon. It was advertised to me through typical email marketing and being a sucker for books I don't own, that actually sound like something I'm interested in, I ordered it =P

Here's the quote that really explained what the book is about to me the most:

Now, I'm not a huge card packet trick person. I prefer a full deck. I even went through a whole year to two year phase where I refused to even consider a packet trick as something I'd do. And then I learned Oil & Queens by Roy Walton and I realized that I was just being dumb and stubborn.

I've never performed any variation of Ace Assembly before, but I'm quite familiar and have practiced it a time or two. In Queen Spirit, I'm only through the first chapter (Girl Group Story) so far so I can't write a full review, but I'm rather impressed by the presentation.

There are a decent number of discrepancies in the handlings, but Bannon not only acknowledges them but he also goes as far to claim that they're not picked up on by the audience. I'm practicing all three of the routines in that chapter right now and will likely perform them tonight or later this week, so we'll see how much memory retention people actually have!

After I have a chance to read through the whole thing I'll write a proper review. I just wanted to share with you what's pulling my attention currently and it just so happens to be the four queens =]

If you're interested in grabbing a copy of your own, check it out here on Vanishing Inc.'s website.

Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a TV talent show that is filmed in front of a live audience (or, virtual audience during the pandemic). Oh, and we can't forget to mention that Penn and Teller are there too -- they're the judges!

During each episode, four magicians perform a magic act for Penn & Teller which, at the end of each act the magician-comedian duo try to deduce how the trick was done. In very articulate speech, Penn -- as Teller remains characteristically silent -- commends the magician on a job well done. If the magic act fooled Penn & Teller, they win a sweet Fool Us trophy and a trip to Vegas to be the opening act for Penn & Teller's show!

I want my opinions below to reflect those of a spectator who just saw a performance live. To achieve this, I've only watched this episode once. In real time - no pausing. No slow motion. Once through, with commercials and with my kids enjoying it with me too. Did I remember everything I saw? Did I see everything that happened? Do I remember the exact words that were said? Maybe, but likely not -- which means if I over-portray an effect below then it was just that great of a trick. If I under-portray it, well, yeah. So let's see what this episode's got in store for us!

Episode Recap

This episode of Fool Us was really entertaining. We had card magic, spiritualism, magic with fruit, and even some top-notch parlor magic! I was excited coming into it having seen the guest list about 2 minutes before starting the show, and it really didn't disappoint.

The fooler of the night's episode was Dani DaOrtiz. I told my kids, who have never seen him before, that he's one of my favorite magicians and they're going to love this episode. Unfortunately for me, now I have to elevate my own card magic game because after seeing him, they think I'm pretty mediocre =P

Dani DaOrtiz

Dani needs no introduction on this blog (but if you're curious, just check out my other posts about him). When I saw his name in the line-up, my first thought was "well, I know who the fooler tonight is!"

The scene started with everyone sitting at the table. Penn, Teller, Alyson, Dani, and... Donny Osmond?! Yup, Donny Osmond was a guest star for the trick! He actually started the whole thing off too by taking the deck of cards and his trick was to verify that it was a real deck =P

Dani took the deck and, if you're familiar with his style, just went crazy with it. He had cards picked by dropping random piles on the table, cards picked by name, cards just cards just cards. It was impossible to follow all of the fun times and magic moments he brought to the table, but if you've read Freedom of Expression, you'll be able to see all of the awesome things that that book has to offer -- performed right there at the table!

All of these random and fast tricks were just the warmup though. Dani setup the stage for his final trick. He had Donny think of a number and Alyson think of a card. You see where this is going, right?

Splitting the deck into four packets, the four participants shuffled each. After some more crazy shuffling antics, he spread the deck across the table and counting to the thought-of number was, sure enough, Alyson's card!

Penn & Teller didn't even bother conversing, they just slapped that Fool Us trophy in Dani's hands so fast if you blinked you would've missed it! 

Knight & Gayle

Becca Knight & Caroline Gayle are two friends who said that this was their first time performing together! Galye is a professional magician for 13 years now. Knight, on the other hand, has worked as more of an assistant and manager for her husband (who's a professional magician).. However, the two women are really good friends and are both into spooky and spiritual stuff, so it just clicked!

Their act contained a giant spiritual cabinet, but they had no intentions of conversing with dead friends or relatives. Oh no, they wanted to revive their dead cat, Buster! Things flew around, bells were rung, wrists were tied. At one point, Gayle was floating out of and above the spiritual cabinet!

The finale of the act had Alyson hop into the chair. She felt something touch the back of her neck, a bowl of kibble jumped next to her, and even the bell rang by itself before the cord burst into flames. Spooky, indeed.

Penn, who's a very outspoken opponent of spiritualism, was pretty kind towards this act. He enjoyed it because it was portrayed as a joke and directed towards an animal. The duo didn't fool the duo, but they did entertain them so that counts for something =]

Jonah Babins & Ben Train

Jonah Babins (@jonahbabinsmagic) and Ben Train (@train.ben) are two magician friends who have been hanging out together for years. During the pandemic, they started creating magic left and right and they came up with the routine they're performing for Penn & Teller then. However, they started things off with:

I tried (minimally) to find their YouTube channel and was unsuccessful. I found Jonah's (older? one), and a bunch of people performing Ben's tricks, but not a shared channel for the duo. If you know what it is, send it my way please!

Anywho, back to the act! They set the stage with the idea that everyone's been trying to pass a solid object through another. The trick is finding an object that's both solid and liquid, and they've done just that. A watermelon!

To summarize everything really quickly, Alyson held the watermelon and they tied a ribbon to a large needle and passed it  straight through the middle of the melon. Then, they tied two ends of the ribbon around Alyson's hands on the outside of the melon. On the count of three they pulled both ends and it passed not only through the melon but also through Alyson's fingers!

Full disclosure, I'm writing this a day after watching the episode so I've had a little time to think about how they did it. And I'm still stumped. This just isn't my genre of magic so even with all of Penn's clues, which I'm pretty sure I understood, I don't think I could replicate this one myself. Penn and Teller, unfortunately for Jonah and Ben, weren't fooled with this one primarily because they spent a decent amount of time recently trying to make the same kind of trick! Penn did say that they failed, whereas Jonah and Ben succeeded, so to me that's kind of a win -- you didn't fool them, but you were able to do something that they couldn't!

Jason Fields

Jason Fields, or Jason Jafo Fields (Facebook: getjafo), is a magician who's been on Fool Us once before. Back in Season 4 (2017), he performed under the name "Jafo"; this time, however, he performed as simply "Jason Fields." I'm not sure why, I don't recall his introduction mentioning this. Unless there's another Jason Fields that looks identical to him and also performs magic... (while there may be, it's definitely the same guy -- check out his Facebook page above =P).

Jason came out and performed a little parlor magic for us. Err, for Penn & Teller. He had a miniature pool table tablet that had a single hole in the middle of it. Through the hole he continued to pull billiard balls, make them disappear back through the hole and finally dropped each of them onto a table to show they were quite solid. Following three billiard balls came, out he pulled a piece of chalk. The real finale was when a full-sized pool stick came out!

I thought that it was a really nice performance. You can see during it where he's "grabbing something" from behind the board, or moving his hand differently when putting it back. However, what you don't see is where things are coming from or going. The distance between his hands is far, even if stretched. Penn's clues included the phrase "juggling", which just sounds crazy to me that he would've risked tossing things behind the board but hey, if he's performed this thousands of times then maybe he's just that good! What I really liked was that pool stick -- I've seen canes and wands appear, but a pool stick, now that's pretty cool.

Ah, right, Penn also mentioned that this was based on Jerry Andrus's trick named Zone Zero. I tend to dislike when Penn's clues involve giving the direct name of another magician's trick, at least when it's not subtle. Naming another magician, or slipping in the name of the trick it's based on in a sentence, could easily pass right by the audience. Saying something like "Jerry Andrus's Zone Zero, the trick that this is based on," is going to cause at least half of the viewers to hop onto the internet and look it up. They're likely to do it anyways, but make them work for it a little =P

Penn & Teller ended the show with a card trick! Penn was on stage with Alyson as a guest while Teller stayed behind for this one. During the break, Alyson was prepped to put two pieces of tape on her butt... you see where this is going, right?

Penn shuffled the deck and shuffled some more, then handed the deck to Alyson to put behind her back. She gave it a cut and took a card and stuck it to the left side, and another card stuck to the right side.

Penn then calls out that one of the cards that is on one of Alyson's sides is a 3 of Diamonds and another is the Queen of Diamonds. Penn then asked Alyson to name which is which. She guessed that the 3 of Diamonds was on the left, which by process of elimination meant the Queen was on the right.

She reached back pulled out the left card and wouldn't you believe it, the 3 of Diamonds! The right, the Queen of Diamonds!

Forcing a card is one thing. Forcing a card behind a spectator's back, in their hands, ok we can do that. Forcing two cards after a spectator cuts the deck behind their back ups the game to a whole new level. However, getting the same spectator to be able to guess which is which is pretty amazing.

This is one routine I would love to add to my repertoire. Perhaps without the tape on the butt part, but maybe something more simple like sticking the card in your left back pocket, then the right. Taking a quick peek (hint, hint), divining the selections would be doable. Getting them to guess properly may take a bit of equivoque though, so that's the part I'll need to work out.

Speaking of which, did you notice Penn's voice was much lower and less excited than usual?

Takeaways

All of the acts in this episode were good. I'm a little surprised that they started the show with Dani DaOrtiz though, given that his act was many tricks back-to-back-to-back. It kind of setup the impression that each performance would be more towards the energetic side of things, and possibly multiple foolers for the night, but the other three were a lot more relaxed than Dani. It does make me wonder if we'll see an episode with multiple foolers this year though. Hopefully we do!

Either way, I'm excited for the next round of magic!

It's currently Tuesday night as I write this. Earlier, I saw a post from Vanishing Inc. (@vanishingincmagic):

This upset me on several levels, as I think most people are upset when someone they look up to leaves the world.

I didn't know Max, not personally. In fact, I only knew him as a figurehead in magic and mentalism. Today is when I learned that he also went by another name, Phil Goldstein. That was his birth name, though he later legally changed it to Max Maven and still kept Phil as his pen name for publishing. Today, to me, I lost two greats.

I had always hoped that I would have a chance to meet him one day, especially now that I'm starting to go to conventions. I don't know if he would have been in attendance of any, but I've seen that he's appeared at plenty so I figured the odds would be good. At the very least, maybe I could have attended one of his shows or seminars.

His memory will live on with magicians from the performances he's given and in the plethora of work he leaves behind. A quick search on Conjuring Archive shows over 1500 entries related to his work, which is just astonishing. His earliest publishing, per the archive, is from 1974, and the latest is 2021. Now that is a lot to sift through!

Cause and Time of Death

Publicly, we don't know what the cause of death was yet. Based on an older post from The Magic Cafe and Max's Facebook page, he has been battling brain cancer for some time though.

Richard Kaufman posted on Facebook earlier today that alludes to this as well. Dustin Stinett also posted on the Genii Forum that around 9:30pm on November 1st, Max left us.

A sad time indeed.

Rest in peace Max.