Alvo Stockman's Coffee Shop Magic

New Caption Contest - Winter Wonder

Announcing today's caption contest!  Look at the picture above and think of the funniest caption you can for it.  Write your entry in the "Comments" section below by MIDNIGHT.  The winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to the magical wonderland, PenguinMagic.com and MAD respect.

Dilemma - Winning Caption

A LOT of funny entries for this one.  A lot!  So a big congratulations to Fabio who won!

Now for a short list of honorable mentions!

sirbrad said...
 Angel: "Magic!"
 Devil: "Girls!"

MrDane said...
 Angel: You flashed
 Devil: Naw... that looks good, go ahead and post it on youtube.

Hybrid Hunter said...
  "Shave that thing!"
  "Nooo, keep it, it looks devilish!"

Hybrid Hunter said...
 "Self Working tricks!"
 "Sleight of hand tricks!"

David G said...
 Dave the Decent desperately wonders if this is the ideal audience to showcase his "Appearing Kid from Zipper" routine...

Luc said...
 The Devil: Use the gimmick! It shall please me...
 The Angel: No don't do it! You'll be rusty at sleight of hand and many shall criticize you!
 Our Man: For the love of god guys, there doesn't need to be a battle of good and evil, I'm just doing a double lift here.
 The Devil: I disliked the fact that you used "for the love of god."
 Our Man: *Disgruntled Face*

Jeffs Fisher said...
  "Shave the Soul Patch... Keep it..."

Awesome contest, everyone.  That was a funny one!

New Caption Contest - Dilemma

Announcing today's caption contest!  Look at the picture above and think of the funniest caption you can for it.  Write your entry in the "Comments" section below by MIDNIGHT.  The winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to the world of wonder, PenguinMagic.com and MAD respect.

Mail Order - Winning Caption

Congratulations Lenny M!  You are the winner of yesterday's caption contest!  Something about this one just cracked me up.

Honorable mentions!

Jeffs Fisher said...
"It's the campfire I ordered!"

Drew K said...
 Finally my "So Bright It Hurts" D'lites are here!

Los27 said...
 Ever since I joined the Dark Side,I keep getting all this junk mail!

Mark Tirone said...
 My Criss Angel Luxor Levitating Action Figure is finally here!

Dylan Gelinas said...
 Last time I order from Pandora.

New Caption Contest - Mail Order

Announcing today's caption contest!  Look at the picture above and think of the funniest caption you can for it.  Write your entry in the "Comments" below by MIDNIGHT.  The winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to the universe's first trans-planetary magic shop, PenguinMagic.com!

Roboticist's Nightmare - Winning Caption

Congratulations Mark Tirone!  You are the winner of yesterday's caption contest!  

And congrats to runner up Los27 with "Thank you for having the guts to volunteer for this next trick!"  Hilarious.

Have Tea with Alvo Stockman - Thursday Oct 1st at 6pm Pacific

This THURSDAY, October 1st at 6pm Pacific (9pm Eastern), join me, Alvo Stockman for tea!  I'll be on UStream to talk about creating magic, the magic business, and anything else you want to discuss.

So put the kettle on, and follow this URL: 

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/alvostockman

New Caption Contest - Roboticist's Nightmare

Announcing today's cartoon caption contest!  Look at the cartoon above and think of the funniest caption you can for it.  Post it in the "Comments" section below by MIDNIGHT.  The winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to the space ship of magic, PenguinMagic.com and maaaaad respect.

Height Difference - Winning Caption

Congratulations Jeffs Fisher!  You're the winner of yesterday's caption contest!

We should have a feature where people tell us what they got with their prize money.  I'm curious.  Right!?? Who's with me!

How to Win a Caption Contest

1. Make it funny.  

This goes without saying, I know, but make sure that your caption ADDS something to the cartoon.

2. Make it as concise as possible.  

This is important for writing in general, but when it all comes down to 1-10 words, each one counts. Useless words should be cut, and details not critical for the joke should be violently assaulted.

3. Tell a story. 

The funniest jokes suggest something deeper, more controversial, more "real-life" than the innocent drawing on the page. There are many great examples of innocent looking cartoons where the caption takes it to another level.  The interplay between those two concepts can also be very funny in itself.  Patrick House refers to this as the Theory of Mind approach - More details on this here: http://www.slate.com/id/2192564/

4. Make assumptions that others can GET.  

Get out of your head, and imagine reading your caption as someone who isn't "seeing" the animated cartoon playing in your mind.  Are you assuming too many levels deep into a story?

5. Try to avoid proper nouns.  

For the most number of people to get a joke, it should avoid using proper nouns (names of celebrities, brands, products etc).  Remember that not only are we getting more connected as a planet every day, but at the same time people aren't watching the same news we are.  You'd think it would have been impossible to find jurors who hadn't heard of the OJ Simpson case during his trial, but they found them.  Plenty of them in fact.