It's Memorial Day today, in the United States at least. Among other things, that means kids are off school and most adults don't have work today. Grills will be lit, and gatherings will be had. In fact, we're scheduled to attend a pool party this afternoon and we've already pre-invited around 10 families back to our place for the after-party.

Oh boy...

Why is any of this noteworthy? Because all of these families are used to me, at one point or another, bringing out a deck of cards and entertaining the crowd for a few minutes!

Ah, but therein lies the problem. The old adage comes to mind:

I've gotten away with performing the same trick multiple times for these folks, but that's only because I've performed them in smaller groups or with years in-between... and let's not also forgot to include sobriety levels in the calculation. However, it's time for new tricks tonight and I'm honestly getting stuck on what I should perform.

For the past week, I've been practicing Prism Plus by Joshua Jay. It's an amazing routine that is jam-packed with tricks and has a finale of a deck color change. In the tutorial himself, and maybe later in it he teaches it too, but he mentions that he ends the Prism Plus trick with Phantom Deck (also by Joshua Jay) -- if you're not familiar, the tldr is that every card turns clear. I feel like Prism Plus is already such a magic-packed trick and the ending is top-notch, I'm not sure if I need to add that "extra" level too. I own Phantom Deck, but I think I want to get a performance or two under my belt before branching out.

Unfortunately, Prism Plus's "deluxe" performance, the one that's jam-packed with magic, is a long routine with several tricks. I haven't practiced the full thing from beginning to end yet, so there's no way I'll be confident enough to perform that tonight.

I know I'll perform Double Cross by MagicSmith, which will be the first non-card trick I've performed for any of them. Ultra Lucky Coin is also going to be in my pocket, I've had huge success with that trick every time I've ever performed it!

But what else?!

I've been dying to perform Socks (by Michel Huot), but this won't be the right time. Then again, when is the right time for a trick like that?

Bringing things back to Prism Plus's deck color change idea, I've practiced John Guastaferro's trick Wonder Aces lately too. Not only is Wonder Aces a beautiful four-Ace production, but it has a surprise ending where the entire deck changes color -- including the Aces! Unlike Prism Plus, the new deck color is a single deck color, so I could actually use this one as an opener and use the "new deck" for the remainder.

Maybe that's what I'll do... how does this sound as a set for tonight:

• Open with Wonder Aces.
• Have the spectator select a card while I pull out a Sharpie and my lucky poker chip. They sign their selection, and I proceed with Ultra Lucky Coin.
• End with Double Cross, having switched out the Sharpies

These aren't the only tricks I'll have ready for tonight, I'll also be ready to perform LIT, and a handful of other regular card tricks, but I think that this is a decent set of tricks to perform together. It's a house party, where a lot of people will attend, so I don't think I can spontaneously hold all of their attention for too long -- and I don't want to try to. That's also why I'll bring both of the coins for Ultra Lucky Coin, in case I need to perform it again for a smaller group ‎😅

Then again, all of this is also dependent on someone prompting me to show a trick...

Just a quick note that I'll be stepping away from the keyboard for a week or so, taking a little vacation to get away from the rain (and house chores... let's be honest, it's mostly the chores).

Nothing really noteworthy came in this past week either, so this'll be a short post today too! But, here's my latest deck review on YouTube, if you're interested:

Well I'll be a card monkey's uncle, Dan & Dave just announced that all of their published works are now within the public domain:

This is a pretty bold, and in my opinion awesome, move from their side. I'm very familiar with licensing as I deal with them in my normal day-to-day, and their short and concise explanation is spot-on.

What does this declaration cover?

While this bit here is fairly self explanatory, clarity is useful:

In essence, any of their printed or filmed original works are now public domain, as long as they relate to sleight of hand, magic, and cardistry. It's key to emphasize "original works" in this statement as they own a publishing company, Dan and Dave Industries, Inc., and without that statement it would also mean they'd give up rights to any other publications they've helped publish, which is not their intent.

Dan and Dave have a handful of booklets, books, and videos that count as their original work, however, not all of it actually becomes public domain with this statement. Essentially, what they're saying is that they're giving up their rights to their original works -- but in the case when another publisher printed a book, or released a trick, that publisher also maintains copyright of the material.

With books, there's an easy indicator if there's another owner as their name is on the Written By line, or the book has a separate publisher. And what makes it a little tricky here is that even if the author is someone else, the actual copyright ownership depends on a few factors (which I'll omit here for brevity).

Here's a list of works -- both printed and video -- of Dan & Dave that I've been able to piece together. This list is not complete, and doesn't include individual contributions to magazines (like Genii or MAGIC); I've included a few individual tricks, but definitely not all.

• Artifice, Ruse, and Subterfuge in the Hands
• Card Men
  • This was written by Ricky Smith, and also includes contributions by others.
• City of the Angles
  • While there is some text in the book, the majority of it is photographs by Brad Fulton.
• If An Octopus Could Palm
• Nursery Rhymes, Volumes 1, 2, and 3
  • Volume 3 also has Randy Campbell as an author.
• Organic
• Pandora
• Portal
• Sleightly Magical
• Splay
• The Trilogy (Tricks, Flourishes, Everythingelse, Andthensome)
  • Each video volume contains a slew of tricks and whatnot, originally released by Art of Play / The Buck Twins.
• Twinsplit Remix
• Twothousandandten
• Uzumaki

Items in bold are ones that look to be fully covered by this declaration. In the case of books though, it's important to remember that if the contribution in the book is from another magician or cardist, it's not covered.

The items that aren't in bold may not, or may!, be covered. These are either books with a different author (but Dan & Dave's original work), or they're trick videos that were published on a third-party platform, like Vanishing Inc. In the case of the latter, I'm not sure what those magic vendors' claim is, but it's likely similar to a book publisher in that they own the rights... unless there was some type of contract agreement.

Also, Art of Play and The Buck Twins released things in the past that they no longer have available, but other platforms do. Resellers don't usually have claims to the content, so it would fall back to Dan & Dave. One of those "check your sources" things. So some of the non-bold items above really may be public domain now -- which is actually why I stopped adding in the individual tricks I found =P

Ultimately, given that the Buck Twins have released so much content over the years, it would be a whole lot easier if they made it clear what's now public domain and what isn't because for those who aren't "in the know", well, this declaration may have just created a lot of legal problems...

What's next?

I am extremely excited about this. If you've been reading the blog, you'll know that I recently started teaching card magic tutorials on YouTube. I use the plural here when I've only posted one to-date, but there will be a lot more soon.

Well, with Dan & Dave's material now in the public domain under CC0, this means that I can use the explanations of their tricks in my videos too! In fact, anyone can!

I've already pulled out my copy of If an Octopus Could Palm, Nursery Rhymes (Volume 2), and City of the Angles to get some ideas, and loaded up the handful of video tutorials I've purchased over the years. The only caveat is, their material hasn't ever really been the easiest to pull off, so other than "ideas", I don't know if I'll be able to actually help teach any of their tricks. But, we'll see!

From their side though, it would be helpful if they did in fact put out a reference list for what's public and what's not. It would be respectful for others who own the copyright to "a thing" that Dan and Dave's name's on too.

Oh, oh, I forgot to mention... just because this is all public domain doesn't mean it's now free. While it would be awesome for them to give away their books (heck, even a PDF), there is nothing about that in CC0 -- they're still completely able to charge cash-money for their books and tricks.

So yeah. What an awesome move Dan & Dave. Thank you so much for this, I hope it pays dividends and the magic community (... and cardistry too) become even more enriched!

I used DALL-E to create the header image for this post. I asked it to draw a blue book with a red octopus on the cover and have the book shattering a steel chain. I have to say, I didn't expect the image it came up with, but I really like it =]

Not a huge update today, only that I'm moving the room in my house in which my office resides and am currently in a temporary location. This may not come as big news to most, but if you're a magician, you may like -- or loathe -- my temporary book situation:

That's... yeah.

Speaking of books, One Ahead's latest post talks about a book test that will work with any book. I was pretty skeptical, but reading the "how it's done," well, they're right -- it can work with any book! Even a borrowed book at someone else's house -- so that's pretty cool.

They've named the trick Steno. I say "they", but it might just be Rory Adams who created and named it, I'm not entirely sure. He didn't credit anyone else in the post so I'm assuming it's his, or it's just one of those things that can't be credited.

Anyways, yeah. Steno. I wouldn't use it for the stacks of magic books you saw above, but it really can work with any book, and although it does require a little investment (of time), it might pay off pretty well. To those who know how it's done already, anyone else's mind immediately say "This sounds like the perfect job for Fiverr!"?

If book tests are your thing, check out This Book Test Works With ANY Book: Learn it now! by One Ahead.

If you're not a member of One Ahead, go to oneahead.com and click "Subscribe"!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the main picture for this blog post is not my past, current / temporary, or new office space. Though, it would offer ample room for my books...

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

Last week I had mentioned that I was getting in one of the latest tricks from Vanishing Inc (err, from Inaki) called Unliftable and, well, it arrived. I've played with it a little and having still not watched the tutorial, I have no idea how it works -- but it does! It's honestly quite surprising when out of nowhere, this little card box feels like it's stuck to the table. Though, if you pull hard enough it will in fact pop off of the table, and it can still slide around. The latter is a rather decent con because if it were really "heavy", sliding also wouldn't be a thing. I'll be watching the tutorial soon, I'm sure "audience management" plays a factor.

I haven't received in any other tricks or books recently, but I did get two emails worth mentioning.

How to do Cardistry: Beginner's Video Course

Joker and the Thief recently released a comprehensive course to teach a lot of basic cardistry moves and flourishes. Right now, it's at a discount and sitting right below the $10 mark.

When I saw the email initially, I thought it was a free collection. If you follow them on Instagram, they've been doing tutorials for cardistry (and magic) in their Instagram Reels lately, so it was a little surprising to see a price tag attached to this.

I haven't bought the video myself, and honestly I won't be buying it, but I'm sharing it here in case you're interested. If you're really interested, but don't want to shell out $10, check out the Curated Cardistry Tutorial Collection I put out a little while back -- it should get you started =]

Vanishing Inc.'s 15th Birthday

That's right folks, Vanishing Inc's almost old enough to drive! To celebrate, they're giving everyone a chance to send them money all week long 🥳🎉

But for real, they're doing a handful of special releases all week to celebrate. Today's release, for example, is The Nth Degree by John Guastaferro. I picked up a copy at Magifest and if you're into card magic, I think you'll love it. I think that part of the "celebration" is that if you buy it and One Degree, you get 20% off. So maybe a double-whammy of "hey, a book's available and bonus discount." Luckily, I paid full price for both back in January.

Tuesday, another book's supposed to be re-released, then a new download collection on Wednesday, etc. You can read all about their upcoming events on their blog post here.

In any event, Happy Birthday Vanishing Inc!

Cardistry and an online store's birthday, what a week! Who knows though, next week I might be talking about what I ended up buying from Vanishing's birthday event =P

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.