Alvo Stockman's Coffee Shop Magic

Common Props

The more familiar people are with your props, the more amazed they will be with what you can do with them.

Here's a chart to illustrate some examples:

• Silver and Gold Dragon Box - This is a ridiculous (and imaginary prop) that you could pull a 15 foot palm tree out of and people wouldn't be blown away.  It's a prop, you're a magician, they can connect the dots.  Method doesn't matter.
• Coin Vanishing Drawer - This gem from kids magic kits has the same effect on everyone else as it did on your parents: That's cute, honey.  Prop.  Obviously.  Method doesn't matter, it's in there somewhere.
• Card tricks - a little more familiar.  While everyone has handled cards, they're not genuinely comfortable with them.  These tricks are probably more amazing for casino card dealers who play with them every day for hours on end.  Most folks are amazed by card tricks, no doubt, but they will never change someone's religion (which should always be your goal).
• I was kidding about the religion bit.  I hope you already knew that.
• Money tricks - People always have a little spare change around (whether or not they care to admit it to the man on the corner drinking out of a paper bag).  They are familiar with coins, how they feel what they are capable of (and not capable of).  Money tricks are knock-out amazing and have the added benefit of mattering in a financial / personal way.
• Borrowed ring (or any other borrowed object) - Always the most amazing since the item is absolutely personal and familiar.  You get both the amazement factor from it being SO impossible, to it mattering more than money often times.

Think about these relationships when you're choosing the magic you perform at your next get-together.

Peed in the Pool Prank

Here's a prank I created that I wanted to share with all of you so you can do it this summer!

Get some yellow food coloring POWDER and put it into those DIY empty pill capsules they sell at the drug-store.  Then slip one of the these into your friends swimsuit pocket before he/she gets into the pool.  Wait a few minutes and then watch as they have some explaining to do.. 

  +

Juvenile?  Yes.  Funny?  Definitely.

If you can submit video footage or a photo of yourself performing this prank, I will hook you up with a surprise gift.

What's Your Story?

1. Walk up
2. Introduce yourself
3. Perform trick
4. Walk away 

If this is your strategy, you may be forgotten sooner than you'd like.  Without a STORY, your spectator's have nothing to share with friends, nothing to spread.  Without affecting them personally, you may as well be a walking talking YouTube video.

Instead, if you have a story, or better yet together CREATE a story together, your name will be getting passed around all the time.  People love telling memorable, colorful stories.

"Oh my god, Jenny, this guy named 'Whisper' (how cool is that?) with a super powered sense of touch could read the ink on my driver's license!  He learned it from a blind violin maker from Italy, it was crazy!" 

You get the idea.

Jake and Amir do Magic

I've been a closet J&A fan for about a year and half now and they finally did a magic trick episode.  It turned out hilariously well.  And I love that they came up with their own method for the cups and balls.  Very creative.

http://www.jakeandamir.com/post/146203040/magic-trick

Magic Survivor Man #1

Here we are at the dawn of a new era in competition!  Announcing the Magic Survivor Man Competition (MSM)

The WINNER will receive a Penguin DVD of their choice and MAYBE.. just maybe get rescued and live to tell the tale!

If you were stuck on a tiny deserted island with NOTHING but

1. a broken-in deck of cards
2. a mostly-new sharpie marker
3. a spool of woolly nylon (~100m) 

What would you do to survive and be rescued?

The best, most MacGyver-like answer will win a free Penguin Magic DVD of your choice!

To enter:

Post your plan as a comment below by mid-night July 28th, 2009.

Drawings and/or pictures are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED! ;)

http://imageshack.us/ will happily host them for you.

Questions?  Post them in the comments as well.

Penn and Teller at TAM7 on Secrets in Magic

Watching the TAM7 livecast, I just overheard Penn Jillette saying that the secrets in magic don't ultimately matter.  And apparently, he will even straight-up tell people how P&T tricks work after the show if they ask.  While he said he isn't yet sure this is a good idea, it is an extreme end of the views we've discussed here before.

In fact, P&T have often showed how tricks work while they're performing them.

Ultimately, if people REALLY cared how magic tricks worked, they would (and can easily) look it up.  Before it was in libraries, today it's the internet, but... they don't.  There's too much information in the world.  If you haven't already, these blog posts may be of interest:

http://www.alvostockman.com/2009/05/the-freeconomy-and-the-professional-magician.html

http://www.alvostockman.com/blog/2009/05/signal-to-noise-ratio-and-its-relevance-to-professional-magicians.html