Patter cake, patter cake,
Magic man,
do me a trick,
as fast as you can!

The one I have to count to ten on are the tricks that begin "This is an experiment".

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

How do you all feel about "This is the first time I've tried this" as a set up for magician in trouble type stuff?

I've heard it about a gazillion times recently.

First, just to set the historical record straight, the political slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too". Tippecanoe was the location of a famous battle between William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh which Tecumseh lost.

My two personal pet peeves are "billet" for the use of a slip of paper and "experiment" when you already have the results rigged well in advance of the "test".

As for the use of the word "trick", while it is somewhat distasteful, at least it's honest. Most adults know there is some kind of "funny business" involved. While some may want to find out what it is, most don't really want to know, as it would spoil the fun.

My list:

1) Chop
2) Stock
3) Silk
4) Billet
5) Color change
... and the list goes on and on

PATTER would be my choice.

Oh, I almost forgot:

abracadabra
alchemy
allurement
astrology
augury
bewitchment
black art
conjuring
conjury also: devilry, diabolism, divination, enchantment, exorcism, fascination, foreboding, fortune-telling, hocus-pocus, horoscopy, illusion, incantation, legerdemain, magnetism, necromancy, occultism, power, prediction, presage, prestidigitation, prophecy, rune, soothsaying, sorcery, sortilege, spell, superstition, taboo, thaumaturgy, trickery, voodoo, voodooism, witchcraft, wizardry


I also dislike the word Magic

I do like the word "Trick" now.

I need to get my feke ready to use with my gaffe. First I'll set up my tumbler and I tell you, it's the Real Work. Not a pipe dream. Anyone have a houlette I can borrow?

Ladies and gentlemen, I will now take these perfectly ordinary cards and place them in my houlette. Sir, would you please note the pips? Madame, watch as I place my foulard over the houlette. Walloo-walee, hey-bim-bom-presto!

Interesting note concerning a Mom whose "little darling" was a participant in a youth Magic Club a few years ago: She made it known that she objected to the term SUCKER TRICK... We acknowledged she had a point and corrected the reference (with an explanation of Magician Speak) at our next meeting.

Julie

That story makes me dislike the terms "Mom" and "Little Darling".

"You, too, are psychic."

When a performer is entertaining, it's OK that they've made us temporarily suspend our disbelief, making us believe that they are, for example, Hamlet or psychic. But after the final curtain goes down, that's when I'm more leery. If the performer tries to convince the audience members that they, too, are really Hamlet or psychic, then methinks that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Pick a card - any card . . .

now sign it . . . there is only one card like this in the world . . .

Cool! I've got to use that one.

(Thus proving that de gustibus non disputandum est)

Sorry, but I don't know latin very well. My guess would be that it means that the statement is not in dispute. Am I close?

I, too, would have to add the word "patter" to my list. Personally, I prefer the word "story".

More along the lines of there is not arguing taste, I think.

Well there is arguing taste, however futile it may be.

I on the other hand will take the high road once again and say everyone but myself is wrong.

Clynim, Jim's right, and Josh is right, too - anything can be argued about. That doesn't, however, mean it's necessarily rational to do so. If my audience has never heard the "only card in the world" line, then it's a good line, in my opinion.

///ark

Mark, I was simply trying to take a stab at translating "de gustibus non disputandum est". I don't know what the word gustibus translates to in english, but I too "non disputandum est" to literally come out "not disputed is" or "is not disputed".

I can see now where gustibus might be related to gusto or taste and another word for dispute is argument. So Jim's translation of "there is no arguing taste" makes perfect sense.

You are absolutely right about old lines and new audiences. If they've never seen or heard it, the trick is, in a sense, reborn through fresh minds. That's why even the oldest magic tricks still impress today.

Abracadabra
Presto

Clynim, I should have just written "Clynim, Jim's right." That was the only part of that post I was directing to you. Jim's translation is indeed correct, and your attempt at parsing was pretty close, too. Sorry for my lack of clarity.

///ark