If you're just now starting your journey into magic, chances are you only know a handful of tricks. Maybe 3. Maybe 10. But likely not many more.
I've been actively practicing card magic for 4 years now, but I've thought about magic for closer to 30 years. For our purpose here today, let's ignore the 30 and focus on the 4.
In these 4 years I've read easily over a thousand card tricks and have practiced hundreds of them. If it reads good to me, or if on video the performance looks great, I add it to my list of "keepers". These are tricks that I want to know, or think would be good in my repertoire. Or, perhaps, I liked the handling of something in them and think it could benefit me elsewhere. Plenty of reasons, but the point is that I've added them to "my list".
As the time goes on, the list grows. If you've seen my book or video collection (which is barely entered in yet), there's a lot of material. Even if I stopped buying books, I have magazine subscriptions that keep the tricks coming in monthly! My oh my, how on earth will I ever keep track of everything?!
How to Practice?
What a question! When I ask this, I don't mean how to practice an individual routine; I mean how to practice all of them so that I remember them all. Or, at least, remember the ones I want to remember.
Right now, I can probably recall how to perform around 100 routines just by their name. Maybe more, maybe less, but I think it's an accurate estimate. This doesn't mean I'm good at performing them, no. It means if you said Vernon's Triumph, or Perfectly Oiled, or Oil & Queens I could explain the steps to perform them. Can I perform them? Well, those three yes but I'd probably need to practice Perfectly Oiled a time or two before showing anyone.
And that's the point -- I have to practice before being able to show the routine. Now, let's expand that list and instead of only three routines, let's call it 100. 100 routines that I want to be able to perform at a moment's notice...
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, starting in March I'm going to try to practice a handful of routines per day, every day. Not all day, but just until I can "do" the routine and then move on to the next. The routines for the day will be round robin selected from the entire list of "keepers" and once I've reached the end the list is shuffled and I'll do it again.
Well, it's March and I haven't exactly started yet. Why not? Because my organization method sucks.
Keeping Track of Routines
You can't build a house without the right tools so it makes sense that I wouldn't be able to do some fancy list magic without a fancy list.
Right now, my list of "keepers" is stored in a page in One Note and written on a few pages in a real notebook. I've liked the app for years and use it for many things, but I've come to realize that my use-case for magic trick recording has outgrown the capabilities of the app.
A small snippet of "keepers" from my One Note page.
Herein lies the dilemma. I was thinking that I could migrate to a spreadsheet app, something simple like Google Sheets so that it would sync between my computers and phone. However, I already know that I'll want to track other info about the routines like if they require a setup or gaffs. How long the trick takes and if it has one or multiple selections. And probably most importantly, what kind of sleights are used in it and what other references there are for it.
That's a lot of potential info for a single trick and while I wouldn't need all of it for my practice regimen, I would love it for a lot of other things -- including as a helpful tool here on the site. So, a spreadsheet is out.
I've heard a lot about Notion, a few people I work with use it regularly and I've seen it online a bit too, but I've never tried it yet. It looks like it might accomplish what I need but I would need to learn it first. I've nothing against that, I learn new tools all the time. However, the big question is whether I'd be able to integrate the data into the site or not. Reliance on an external service isn't my favorite idea, but it does look like it has an API which would allow me to bring data in... maybe. No idea what it really offers.
Alternatively, I can build it myself. This would likely be faster than learning Notion and would allow me all of the customization I'd want. The only problem is, I'd have to build it.
Because it's quicker and more extensible, I do think I'll build it myself. I want to learn Notion for other purposes, and it does look like it may help me with my goal here, but since we're talking about flexing the brain, I might as well flex the brain!
I'm really interested in hearing about how others keep track of routines in their repertoire. If you have a method that works for you, or any that you know of (even if you don't practice it yourself), send it my way!
I can't wait to get this setup and start the regimen I've come up with. For now, I'm still "stuck" practicing random things that pop into my head but soon I'll put a little structure to my work!
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!
First up, with pure excitement: Genii's 1000th Issue! It arrived a day or two after the first of the month which is kind of odd, normally it gets here the week prior but hey, no complaints (I wasn't finished with the previous one yet anyways).
The past few issues of Genii have felt like they're a little more ad-packed than usual, though I haven't actually compared older issues to confirm. Just a feeling I'm getting. March's issue though has two main features: When Houdini Comes Back and Me and Jerry's Nugget Cards. I'm not sure which I want to read more, both sound like they're pretty fun =P
Speaking of fun, that brings us to my second package! A little background first, but a few weeks ago I saw one of the coolest "cut to the aces" routines on Instagram. It seemed impossible, but still, there it was. The author credited the book Less is More by Ben Earl and after a little research, it was added to my collection! I tried to find that post but sadly it's lost in the ether.
I dove into the book as soon as I received it, spending a few hours that night reading through. I'm about half-way into the book already, helped by the fact that it's formatted to read front-to-back. I have a few first impressions about the content that are rather mixed. On one hand, the routines are great. On the other, Ben's coming off a little extra smug in his words. This book will definitely deserve a proper review once I'm through it though, so check back in the future for that!
Last, but not least, the March edition of The Hermit Magic Magazine! This e-zine launched this year and is delivered straight to my inbox. Personally, I'm not a fan of eBooks. I very much prefer the physical, but I understand that sometimes it's easier and more cost-efficient to go the electronic route. I don't have a tablet either, so I have to read these on the computer as the content's way too small to read on a phone. From my experience so far, it's actually better to read on the computer anyways.
This magazine's packed with quality content so far, and tons of references (which being on the computer lets me easily open up additional tabs). I haven't had the time to scroll through any of the March issue yet, which is a consequence of having "too much to read," but I'll get to it in time. I was planning to do a review of each issue, but I think that since it's a new magazine I'll do a kind of "up-to-now" overview to see if it's reaching its potential.
You may have noticed, but I didn't receive any decks last week! I feel the void, but I do think one or two are on their way -- both from subscriptions, and from Kickstarter campaigns. I don't have any tracking info so who knows when they'll arrive but, in the meantime, I have plenty to read to keep me busy =]
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.
Spoiler Alert I reveal who fooled Penn & Teller below. If you don't want to know, don't scroll down!
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
Two performances of the night were team performances, which is always fun. Paranormal activity, acrobatics, a throwback card trick, and a street-magic trick brought to the stage -- what an action-packed episode of magic! I certainly had fun watching this one, but the real question is: who fooled Penn & Teller?
The fooler of the night's episode was... wait for it... wait for it.... nobody! There hasn't been a season that's gone by without at least one episode where nobody fooled the comedy duo and this episode happened to be one of them. There were definitely parts of some of these acts that fooled me, that's for certain -- but they didn't seem to get anything by Penn & Teller. Check out the performance descriptions below to see if you'd be able to figure them out!
Sean-Paul & Juliana Fay
Sean-Paul & Juliana Fay performed a paranormal style duo routine where they were ridding the Penn & Teller theater of Fool-dini's ghost, the spirit that's been haunting it since the 1800's! The episode's name, Ghostbusters, came from this act and I can see why; it was by-far the most entertaining of the night. That's not saying the other's weren't, it's just this one was all over the place!
You can find more about Sean-Paul & Juliana Fay at Intrigue Theater.
It started with the introduction of Fool-dini, the spirit that's been haunting the theater -- which is built on an ancient magician burial ground. To have him pass, they have to channel his thoughts. Alyson first heard Fool-dini's thoughts and selected a word from a notebook. Then it was Teller's turn to "hear" a year, and then Penn's to select a magical murder weapon.
Fool-dini's magic cereal -- apparently, he was a real magician!
All three choices appeared to be quite fair and yet, Sean-Paul & Juliana Fay were able to discern all three!
There were more sprinklings of magic throughout the act, like a table shaking on its own, Juliana levitating above a stool, and a very beautiful red paper turning to ash, then repairing to paper again -- with the written word on it! My favorite one was just a gag at the end though where they made a candle flip by itself! Each of these extras weren't focused on, they were just part of the routine which made them extra special in my mind.
I have my own ideas on how they were able to discern the word selection, written number, and "weapon choice," but that candle flip... how on earth?! It's the little things that make stuff extra magical, you know?
Disguido
Disguido is actually a duo too; husband and wife, no less! The magic-comedy pair, Isabella and Guido, are full time professional entertainers and you can find them on Instagram at @disguidomagic (they have other social's available, but I can't do all of the work for you =P).
Their act was straightforward and, altogether not the most magical albeit it was fun to watch. There was a wooden beam with several wine glasses, each filled with water, lined up in a row. They were each holding a glass of wine, which they just poured from a bottle and then Guido added these two glasses to the existing line.
Isabella explained that Guido will perform two miracles: walking on water and turning water into wine. And he did just that!
He acrobatically walked across the top of every glass in the row and as soon as he stepped on each glass of water, it miraculously turned into a glass of red wine!
My son's first reaction was "he must have red dye in his shoes, you can see the how it looks like something's dropped into the water and then it all changes." While there isn't dye in his shoes, the camera zooming in on the glasses really didn't help the effect appear magical because it did, in fact, show how something's changing the water. The best quote from my son was at the end of it though: "All of the water glasses are a different shade of red than the two wine glasses. They should have matched them to make it appear more realistic." Hmm... he might be on to something!
Dr. Scott Kahn
Dr. Scott Kahn, or the man with shaking hands as I now like to refer to him as, came out and presented a bullet from 1998. The bullet was actually from a Penn & Teller act, The Bullet Catch, that they had performed in one of their shows and Kahn's dad was the spectator that received it. Kahn's routine was built around that magic bullet -- how cool!
Dr. Kahn is an actual doctor, but also practices and performs magic which is even cooler. You can see more about him at Kahnjuring.
The trick itself was a card trick, using transparent plastic cards. Penn & Teller selected a card, and then Kahn selected a card. Each card was signed, and one was placed inside the transparent case -- and it was shown to be in there. The "magic bullet" was placed atop the case and the other card was rubbed on it's tip. Magically, both cards switched places... except, the signatures of the cards remained! So it was technically a double transposition effect, which was pretty awesome.
The deck that Kahn used in his routine.
I know of a way to do this routine with a regular deck of cards, but it's not as open and forgive the pun but transparent as this one was. As best as my memory serves me, I came up with my transposition variation on my own (it's not super difficult to figure out, if you're going after the effect), but Penn's clues at the end point to Scarne having a routine just like this. I quickly turned to Scarne on Card Tricks but having not read through it yet I was at a loss to find a routine that matched. I flipped through routines that had names that sounded like possible matches but none of them were. It could also be that this isn't the book with the trick. And I doubt Scarne used transparent cards so it might be that different.
The way the routine was performed, at least how my memory recollects it, it fooled me =]
Oh, and his hands were shaking like crazy the entire time. Purely nerves, I imagine. I feel for him because mine do the same thing, even when performing for family and friends. I wonder if that ever goes away?
Related / unrelated, I found the deck that he used in the routine. I've never heard of the brand, but you can find it here. Personally, I'm more a fan of the Transparent Playing Cards by MPC (available on Vanishing Inc.); they have a much cooler design and come in red or black.
Star Newman
Star Newman came out and I had high hopes that she'd be the fooler of the night, considering there wasn't one yet. I liked her hippie-ish intro, it was fun. If you want to see more from her, check her out on Instagram at @star_newman_magician.
Now, as for the routine itself. On the table, she had a single prop and it looked kind of small. "This is gonna be great, just watch!" I thought to myself.
She stuck her hand in and had Alyson twist the box around and around. Oh. It's over already?
But wait, there's more!
"Phew, okay, on to the real trick!" I thought to myself.
She put her hand on a piece of plexiglass and had Teller and Alyson twist it around and around. Oh. It's over already?
The Incredible Twisting Arm, a magic trick book available here on Amazon.
I've seen street performers do this routine, except instead of plexiglass they put their hand on the ground and twist it around. Honestly, in my opinion, that is a better way to do it because with the plexiglass, staring right at your arm and body it's extremely clear that there's nothing happening. How did this act make it on the show?!
Now, I want to take a step back and repeat that this is purely my opinion. I really think it was an extremely basic act that any magician would know and maybe would be used as a warm-up just to get the crowd ready to see some great stuff. But no, it was the entire thing and it really, really disappointed me.
And then, my kids. They were fooled beyond belief. "How is that possible?!" my youngest said. "There's no way she wouldn't have broken her arm with that, there has to be a trick or something. But we saw her arm the whole time!" my oldest said.
Wow! Okay... taking a further step back and looking at it from a magic point of view, this is the whole point of performing! To entertain the audience and get them to, for lack of better words at this exact moment, question reality. And Star accomplished this.
I may not have liked the routine, but credit should be given where credit is due and she managed to entertain and fool the (non-magic) audience. I applaud that =]
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller ended the show with a virtual card trick. The remote spectators chose a card and Penn named a number. They counted down that many cards and sure enough, the card was at that number.
So far, so good. A straightforward trick, albeit the semi-hands-off approach did add a level of difficulty to it. And then, the real doozy came.
The spectator chose a second card. Teller shuffled the deck and spread it across the table. Then, the spectator named a number. They counted down that many cards and ... the card was there.
I want to say that this is a classic "A Card at Any Number" (ACAAN) routine, but I don't know if I've ever seen one that clean. Where the spectator named a number after the deck has been spread and the card is there. No forced numbers, no funny business moving cards around. It was just there.
At least a dozen possible ways have sped through my head since watching this, but none of them are as clean as this was. Multiple outs, trick decks, extra handling -- everything that this presentation didn't have. I have to say, it was the routine that fooled me the most!
Takeaways
According to the "info" screen on the TV last night, this episode was the season finale. 14 episodes this season, but hey, at least it's one more than the normal 13! I know that we do typically get to see at least one episode per season where there's more than one fooler, but I'd really like to see more. This episode, having no foolers though, could have been better. Not because there weren't foolers, don't get me wrong. It's perfectly fine if nobody gets past Penn & Teller -- but it's more entertaining when the acts are strong, and it really lets Penn go crazy with his talking. They didn't really seem too enthusiastic about any of the routines, which made it less entertaining for me (e.g., the audience).
I saw online that the show has been renewed for another season, so I'm excited to pick back up next year! Can't wait to see some more magic try to fool Penn & Teller!!!
Last night I was scrolling Instagram, as you do, and I came across a post by Ellusionist (@ellusionist) that struck me as rather odd, it being from a company and all. It was screenshots of an email sent to a now ex-employee of Ellusionist and made for an interesting distraction for the night. At least for 10 minutes or so, I'd say.
The ex-employee is none other than Calen Morelli, known on Instagram as @thenothingexperiment. I didn't know this, though I expected it. You see, I saw Ellusionist's post first and had no idea what kind of drama was going on and they only said "Calen," who knew who they were talking about. Apparently, everyone but me =P
What Started It All?
Tuesday night, @thenothingexperiment went on a rant via his IG Story. A few screens of text, I almost thought it was a poem at first but then I realized nothing rhymed and the spelling was, well, not that of a poet.
As mentioned above, I saw his side of it after seeing Ellusionist's response. I didn't grab a screenshot fast enough and the rant itself disappeared from his story shortly after seeing it. However, I can summarize it fairly well:
Calen felt repressed. He has brought his creative genius to Ellusionist and offered them so much and they shut him down on every avenue. They are over-demanding, purely focused on view counts and sales and the pressure of having a restrictive timeline while not being able to express his thoughts to their fullest is just too much.
You know, if this was true holy crap that'd be a bad place to work for.
My favorite part of his rant was the last screen of text where he called for the community to do one thing and one thing only:
Go to Ellusionist's account and add "Let Calen do new shit" on their latest posts.
Calen Morelli - @thenothingexperiment
And... the community listened. Blindly acting on the words of a single man against the oppressors of magicians everywhere because honestly, who in their right mind would spend a full minute typing a wall of text into an Instagram Story if they weren't wronged?!
Ellusionist's Response
Here's where it all started for me, the response from Ellusionist which was screenshots of an email, sent to Calen:
If you don't want to read all of that, please accept my summary in bullet-list format:
Ellusionist accepted all of Calen's ideas and didn't tell him "no" for anything
Ellusionist sent him a single email about creating downloads for them, as this is what he was hired to do
Ellusionist did not give him any deadlines
Calen's offer letter was "pretty much" his terms -- i.e., Ellusionist was paying him to be him
This was his first week as an employee
I'm sorry, I need a second, I'm laughing a lot right now. He worked there for a week, and went on a rant? I can't even 🤣
One quote from the email that I think is hiding something more is:
Clearly, you're a lone wolf, an uncompromising artist. We respected it... We gave you a platform when nobody else would.
Ellusionist, to Calen Morelli
"We gave you a platform when nobody else would." Hmm. There's definitely something more to that.
My Take
Ellusionist said they'll be deleting the post in 24 hours, so we can all move on. Honestly, we should. But let's be fair, we should move on and take action. You can't list a criticism against something and not offer suggestions on how to make it better.
Yes, in this case they "made it better" by firing Calen and posting a public response. There are a few comments on the post saying, "you didn't need to post this" and "y'all lost a great one." Did they though? Being an employee of companies that have faced unfair criticisms that were blatant mistruths, I honestly don't even think I'm that biased on this one -- Ellusionist needed to post a public response for this one and they did very well in my opinion.
Calen, again, posted a response via his IG Story letting the world know (if Ellusionist's post wasn't enough) that he had been let go and they're moving on. Really? I feel like that's a bit of a stretch. They flat out said that they feel betrayed by your actions, you flat out said that they're oppressing you and stifling your talent, and all's just water under the bridge?
Oh my...
okay let's get real. i need 200 backers minimum this month on patreon
Calen Morelli
This isn't the first time Calen's done something like this either. It was about a year ago or so that he publicly challenged Jeremy Griffith (@lost_angelus) to a sleight of hand challenge. Jeremy excitedly accepted, and then things started getting weird. This friendly sleight of hand challenge went from "hey, let's do a fun collab" to "Jeremy, you have to do it live and without camera edits". And then, for some reason, "Jeremy, you couldn't do anything magical without card lapping." Mind you, these quotes here are not verbatim but the topics are the same -- except Calen was extremely rude in them. He posted numerous callouts against Jeremy, completely unprovoked and, again, to his IG Story.
Jeremy took the high road and dropped out of the challenge stating that it went from a friendly collaboration to, honestly, who knows what it was supposed to be other than an attack against Jeremy. "You got your likes and new followers that you were after," was Jeremy's response -- and those words have been how I have viewed Calen since then.
What exactly is Decked Out March? It's a list of playing card post prompts for the community to use, but nobody asked for!
Back in 2020, actually in 2019 I think was the first round but let's say 2020, a friend on Instagram kicked off a several-month long "decked out" event. It started as one month, then the next, then it transformed into a "Decked Out 365". Post prompts for every day! Unfortunately, it didn't actually make it the full year but it was pretty great while it lasted.
The concept is straightforward. There's a playing card theme for each day and if you are stuck trying to think of something to post or you've been wanting to mix things up, you now have a list you can reference to help get those creative juices flowing.
It's not a "challenge" and there is no prize at the end of the journey. However, you do meet a decent number of new folks in the process so I guess you can call "building your community" as a prize =]
How to Participate
Instagram This event is on Instagram, so make sure you post your content there.
Follow the Theme of the Day Your post should be either a photo or a video matching the theme for the day. For example, if the theme is "Aces" you could post a photo that's showing off a really nice Ace of Spades, or all four Aces, or Aces from a deck series, etc. Or, maybe you'd prefer to make a video with an Ace Production, or Ace color changes. The sky's the limit!
Use the tag #DeckedOutMarch If you're participating in the event, don't forget the tag! This let's others easily find your content by searching for the tag, and if they're like me they're likely following it too.
Tag me, @gbabbits This is totally optional, but if you tag me I'll reshare your post to my story to help get extra eyes on it =]. That, and it's cool to have a story with all of the participants in it (^_^)
That's pretty much it! If you really want, follow the #DeckedOutMarch tag on Instagram too so you can keep up with the content and reshare some of your favorites as they come out. The community will love you for it <3
Post Prompts
Here are the daily post prompts for March, 2022:
Mardi Gras
Bicycle Branded Deck
Aces
#FanningFamFriday
Account Shoutout
Fancy Tuck
Custom Courts
International Women's Day
Cardistry Deck
Royal Flush
#FanningFamFriday
Kickstarter Shoutout
Broken Borders
Custom Pips
Every Day Carry (EDC)
Marked Deck
St. Patrick's Day
#FanningFamFriday
Designer Shoutout
Welcome, Spring
Completely Custom
Gilded / Foiled
One Way Back
Deck Review
#FanningFamFriday
Brand Shoutout
Favorite Tuck
Monday Mail Call
Themed Decks
Borderless Backs
Favorite Deck(s)
If you have any questions about what the prompts mean, and there's always at least a few questions, please reach out and I'll be happy to provide more info!
