In order to buy myself some much needed trick research and practice time, I've decided to post a bunch of my Magic Friday's from previous Street Magic (now MAGICIAN) issues. Hope you like them and check back next week!

March/April 2007
#3

What The Audience Sees:

"This week was pretty sweet! Jamie walked into our office and asked to borrow a pen. "Hey cool!" he said. "These are those pens that come with a free twenty-five cents!" and we all began to wonder what he was talking about. He then took the cap off the pen and poured out two dimes and a freakin' nickel!"

How It Went:

Well, I was wrong. I think that's happened once before (back in '82 I was pretty sure that North meant straight up into the sky, but I digress.) Since I never give bad reviews, I do sometimes perform effects that I think are good, but aren't crazy fantastic. Well, what can I say? If you saw the reactions this simple trick got, you'd think it was pretty crazy fantastic all right.

It also goes to show that you can never be 100% sure what's going to strike an audience on a particular day. Maybe on Friday everyone just really wanted to see twenty-five cents come out of a pen cap. And that's what they got, courtesy of the amazing David Williamson. Just as I mentioned before that magic that can be performed Anytime and Anywhere is some of the most sought after, I should also add, magic with everyday objects, to that list. Or, to be more specific, magic with everyday objects that have been borrowed. A lot of times spectators, in a desperate attempt to maintain their sanity, will immediately demand to see the object that we just performed magic with.

That's why so much money is spent on making tricks examinable and, even though with good audience management it shouldn't be your number one goal, as in "Hey, did you like that one!? Well, LOOK AT IT! I's completely examinable!", it does make sense. But when you start doing magic with objects that your audience brings, things just go up to another level as I'm sure you know.

Best Lines:

"Give me that!" - what makes this funny is that they were referring to the cap and not the money...

"Did anyone just see what I just saw?" - try saying that ten times fast. Actually, it's not that hard.

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done.. A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

"Hunh. Hold out your hands." - We'll say 1/5...It did take him a second, though. And even though Angry Bob knew what the dealio was, I didn't have a single spectator make that request.

My Rating:

I'm going to have to say 8/10 for this one. It just really hit home and it's the perfect miracle for a lot of situations. It's hard to find someone that doesn't have a pen around somewhere and besides, who doesn't like to see money appear from impossible places? It's also what I call a 'fun' effect. Not all magic I perform has to make people go running around pulling their hair, gnashing their teeth, and wanting me to autograph their kneecaps (True story). No, some magic has to be fun for me and for the spectators. I think that's important- the ability to distinguish when life-changing miracles should be performed and magic that simply says that something special just happened.

The JDG Tip

What really sells this trick is the sound aspect of it. They can hear the money in the cap before you dump it out so really milk this moment. I would put it beside their ear and shake it. The look on their faces, when they've just seen your hands empty and they know there was nothing in that cap a second ago, is priceless.

Closing Thoughts:

David Williamson has also created what I consider to be the greatest card effect (aside from Eddie's) of all time: Torn and Restored Transpo (found on his Sleight of Dave DVD). If you get a chance, check it out. You won't regret it.

JDG note from the present...

I'm not sure what I was trying to say when I was talking about magic being fun for me to perform as I truly have fun performing any sort of magic. Well, I know what I was trying to get at, which was, not all magic has to be super technical or involved as you never know what's going to play to someone until you do it.