Three Cards Short

Apologies and Clearing Up a LOT of things...

2005-04-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

First things first...it would appear the jig is up, so to speak, and so yes, I am Zach Allen. I had a fun time being an anonymous person starting a new blog, but then I got both carried away and careless and then other things happened as well. I apologize to everyone for the deceiving nature, but I wanted to have the experience of writing a blog anonymously, and then I was going to try writing a blog under my own name. I never meant to divulge my identity, as I didn't want to either confuse people who were used to dealing with Tanner Wilson, or have people upset that I purposely deceived them. I suppose an excellent hint would have been the removal of my blog from MagicRants, since Steve removed the anonymous blogs and I had given my full and last name...Steve was the only one who knew that I was both, and could possibly be the spy mentioned over at the Magic Square.

Second of all, I owe apologies to a lot of people for not getting things out to them. I just got out of the hospital a few days ago, and I've slowly been recovering, and this is the first time that I have been lucid enough to make a post. I'm still on painkillers, so I have no idea how lucid this post will actually be, but I'm going to make an attempt.

I had my appendix removed the day after Easter, right before it burst. Due to having a minor cold at the moment, and the fact that I'm not a heavily built person, my recovery time was slower than normal. If anyone doubts that, which is perfectly reasonable considering all of this, I will be more than happy to email you a scanned copy of some of the hospital forms confirming this.

The second complication that results in my not shipping either any of my products or the books that I sold on the Magic Cafe a few weeks back is that I did ship them, and upon returning back from spring break (that same Monday, a few hours before I went into the hospital) I found all the packages sitting at my door because the person in the mailroom screwed up with the machine and put the incorrect postage on them. Thus, they sat there all during my break. I apologize for this, and take full responsibility for it.

Here's what I'm going to do - If you have a current order or problem with me, email me at

zachallenmagic@gmail.com

and let me know whether you want a refund or whether you would like me to ship out the items to you. I realize that with the delay some people might just want their money back, and I will fully comply with that. Now that I'm fully out in the open, I have nothing to hide, and will do whatever people want me to do. As a way of compensation for those who still want to order through me, I will send you any or all of my e-books that I have available for compensation. If all you want is a refund, I will send you the e-books as well, so that you will receive something in return for your money having been tied up for a period of time.

As far as myself setting up an new identity so I could set up business again, that is not true as well. If you look on the Magic Cafe, you will see instances where I was having difficulty either shipping products or providing refunds to people. I take full responsibility for these as well, but I never meant any ill will or was out to cheat people.

On the few occasions that I had to offer refunds, a severe problem occurred with my PayPal account. Suffice it to say that my wonderful college roommates decided to play around with my laptop one night, and thought it would be fun to sign me up for an Estonian money scam via eBay. Basically, a large amount of money was put into my PayPal account and then I was supposed to send it via wire transfer to the country of Estonia. Once I learned what my roommates had done, I quickly realized it was a scam and got out of it, but unfortunately it sent up all sorts of warning flags on my account and my access to it was severely restricted. It took a hell of time to sort of and fix things so I wouldn't have to pay charges, but I finally ended up doing that and just closing the account.

Once I had the Healing Touch routine, I decided to sell it under another name - not because I couldn't sell anything under my own name anymore, but so that I could see actually how good the routine was. While it wasn't all that many people, I did have a number of people who would buy products from the Zach Allen name simply because I was the one that released it. They had liked my thinking previously, and so would often buy things from me sight unseen, and often not give reviews on it, so I wouldn't know exactly what they thought of it. I wanted to see how sales would be with no name attachment, and see what happened. It was an interesting experiment.

The fact that I was selling my other PDF files through this site came about because I figured that I could use a little publicity on some of my older items, since they weren't in any dealer stores anywhere and sales had lagged on them for a while. It was a simple matter of business, one that I probably shouldn't have done if I wanted to preserve my identity.

Anyway, I'm completely rambling here, due to the wonderful miracle drug Demerol, so I'll wrap things up.

I apologize wholeheartedly and sincerely for this whole mess. I'm going to do what I can to resolve any business current business conflicts. I'm sure there are people who are upset with me. They have a right to be, and again, I'm sorry. I'll post again when I'm more clearheaded.

Best,

Zach Allen

Payment

2005-03-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

If you can't use PayPal and want to use a money order to purchase, email me at

threecards@hotmail.com

and we'll work it out.

T.

Other items for sale...

2005-03-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

Not to go off into selling mania here, but if you take a look at The Magic of Zach Allen you'll find many things of interest here...I bought his Ignis Fatuus e-book over a year ago, and still perform two of the items to this day, a Collector's routine and a charming effect with the new (well, not as new anymore) state quarters. In return for Zach allowing me to package his HEAL routine with my Healing Touch, I've taken over the business aspect of his website, and wanted to give all of you a heads up on some really creative magic. The deal for all of his e-books is pretty good, considering I paid half of that for one a year ago.

In other news, thanks for purchasing the Healing Touch routine, and stay tuned for the results of the contest I posted awhile back.

T.

The Healing Touch / HEAL - On Sale Now!

2005-03-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone, I have figured out how I'm going to release this at first, and lucky for you guys this is a whole package deal. Zach Allen has been in contact with me and he and I have decided to release not only my routine, the Healing Touch, but also Zach's excellent routine, HEAL. This is how it will work. For fifteen dollars, you will receive the following items, with free shipping as well.

1) Tanner Wilson's Healing Touch routine on a CD. This CD will contain both a movie file with a 45 minute instructional video and a PDF file. The movie contains additional footage not in the beta version and has also been re-shot for clarity. The PDF file contains several other ideas and additional handlings for the Healing Touch Routine.

2) Zach Allen's HEAL routine in PDF format. This file will be delivered as an email attachment after receipt of your payment.

3) A coupon for purchase of the Healing Touch DVD - Release Date to be announced. This DVD will contain the Healing Touch, as well as 3 other solid T+R effects, and countless ideas for the torn and restored plot. This coupon will be for 50% off the retail price of the DVD.

All you have to do to order is click on the PayPal link below to send a payment of 15 dollars. If for some reason you just want the Healing Touch CD and not the HEAL routine, or vice versa, you can click on the buttons below to order each respective one. Below the payment buttons are links to some threads where you can find some reviews for both of these effects.

Purchase The Healing Touch and HEAL

Purchase just The Healing Touch

Purchase just HEAL

Reviews for Healing Touch

Reviews for HEAL

Emailed

2005-03-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

The files have been emailed out to everyone...let the reviews come in.

T.

Beta Testers Wanted

2005-03-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

These past few days have been quite an adventure...I've been having a lot of fun with this project, and now I'm almost ready to start sharing the enjoyment.

Hopefully at some point in the future the file will be uploaded to a website so that I can provide some beta testers the link to view the tutorial.

I am going to have ten beta testers, in addition to a few other people whom I promised to send the file to. If you would like to become a beta tester, there are two ways to go about it.

I will be accepting 5 beta testers through this blog, and five beta testers over at the Magic Cafe, in a thread in the "Pick a Card" forum. The first five people to post a comment to this thread stating that they wish to become a beta tester will at some point receive a link to the tutorial. Please make sure your email address is included in the comment, so that I will have a way to send the download link and password to you.

Here are the stipulations for becoming a beta tester.

First of all, you need to be able to download a 150 MB .rar file. Next, the movie inside the .rar file is a .mov file, so you need to be able to play that. I have it in WMV format, but you cannot go to any point in the video - you must watch it straight through, which would be extremely annoying if one wanted to watch a certain part of the tutorial over again. So, the movie will be in a .mov format. Now, the teaching tutorial is approx. 42 minutes long. You need to be able to take the time to fully watch the video, and then to formulate a review for the effect.

If you can do all that, then you are more than welcome to watch the video, and I sincerely thank you for doing so.

Again, the first five comments here and the first five to post in the thread at the MC, become beta testers.

T.

The Healing Touch - Demo Video

2005-03-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

So I finally have a demo video for the Healing Touch up - it's pretty much just eye candy, no real substance to it at all. Some of the footage got lost in the transfer to the computer, so not all the tears and the restores are shown to their fullest extent. I suppose now that I'm directing people to this site as well, I might as well make an official update on the routine.

The Healing Touch

Effect: A card is selected by the spectator and signed on the face - all across the face, if you so desire. The card is fairly ripped into four quarters and then restored, one piece at a time. So far, nothing really new.

*The card is fairly ripped
*The pieces are held in full view in the mouth
*The card can be shown on both sides after each restoration
*The card is handed out at the end.
*No duplicates needed.
*10 second initial setup - after that, resets instantly.

Click here to see the demo, and incidentally to see what one can do with editing a video when that person has way too much time on their hands.

Thanks to DaveM (name on the Cafe) for hosting the video for me.

Wow

2005-03-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

Wow. I'll say it again. Wow. I just spent pretty much the last three days filming and editing the video for the torn and restored trick. I've eaten one meal today, and it's now two in the morning. The trick now has a working title of The Healing Touch. The name doesn't sound too bad, and it's getting harder to pick a somewhat relevant name for a T+R effect.

After all of this, I'm left with a minute and a half demo video, and a whopping 42 minutes of teaching footage. I'm not exactly sure what to do with this right now, as I have nowhere to host the file, and e-mailing out a 42 minute video is probably not the best way to go about doing it. I'm not sure how large the files are, as I haven't converted them from the actual video project to a movie file yet, but I'm fairly confidant they will be pretty massive. If one can host the file, I'd be more than willing to give you a free copy of the effect in exchange for the hosting.

Anyway, once I get this whole mess figured out sales will begin. At the very least, I should be able to get the demo video up somewhere. Something will work out somehow. I'm going to bed now.

T.

Random Stuff

2005-02-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Steve over at MagicRants.com for the plug - I haven't had time to add a BlogRoll yet, but if you haven't already, Steve has an excellent blogroll, and an excellent blog as well. I'd advise you to check it out.

As far as the torn and restored thing is going, I figure at this point it might just be a downloadable video of sorts. I'm looking into a few encryption programs, but I don't really think I'll head in that direction. Piracy is an all too real issue in this case. If I release it as an e-book, odds are it will be pirated. If I release it as a video, odds are it will be pirated. Not even that - I can say with certainty that it would and will be pirated.

My plan is probably just going to keep it to a limited release, at a relatively low price. I understand that in today's world it is very easy to self-produce a product, such as an e-book or video, much like I will be doing. Unless I feel the material is worth, say, 50 dollars, I can't justify charging 50 dollars for one item. To be honest, there really won't be too much in the way of costs for me to produce and sell this effect. Basically, I'll be charging you for all the time it takes to get it all together, and also for the initial idea and all the work that went into making it a finished product.

10 bucks sound about good?

Tanner

New trick...

2005-02-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

I'm still reviewing the submissions on the effect that I posted. If you still want to get your solution in, there's still plenty of time. I'll post a winner at the end of the week.

Now, I have a little bit of news for you. I have an effect that I am planning on selling. It is yet another version of the torn and restored card plot. I won't go into a lot of detail yet, but I can tell you that the routine and ideas included are original. There will be a demo video up before I start selling it.

Now, I have two options here. One is to write it up in PDF format. The other would be to shoot a video explanation of the effect, and have that available for download. W hat do you guys think?

Lastly, the main point is that one variation of this routine can be done from a shuffled deck in use, with no duplicates. The main routine only requires that you have a small gimmick with you, which you can easily carry with you all the time. I'll probably start selling it in the next few days or so.

Tanner

Writing

2005-02-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

Writing is, at least for me, an intrinsic part of my magic, and indeed my life. While it is harder and harder to find time to write anything besides term papers, when I do get the rare opportunity, I really enjoy myself.

On several occasions I have written up scripts for my magic, or at least brief outlines concerning what I want to say. I cannot for the life of me remember who said this, but briefly (and I'm paraphrasing) a good way to think of a script is like the trunk of a tree. You can branch out and ad lib, but you always have the main trunk to go back to.

I also have a lot of effects and ideas that I have come up with that I've also put down in writing. I'm only now just beginning the process of putting these words on the computer, as I'm going through old notebooks and finding various scribbles on different pages.

There are two joys for me that come from writing. One is the depicting of actual events with extreme clarity, so that it creates a photograph in the reader's mind. The second is creating a fictional world with fictional events, adhering also to the first joy that I mentioned. The former can stand on it's own, whereas the latter draws upon the former as well.

My writing style varies, but on occasion I write with a sense of grandiose, and so upon editing I have to tone it down from time to time, lest I appear to be completely full of myself.

Every once in a while I'm going to post some random fictional writing of mine, and from time to time I'll post an effect or idea of mine as well. While at the moment I aim to keep this a mainly magic oriented website from time to time, I feel that people enjoy reading other writing, and even if they don't, well, tough. It's my blog.

So, to start this off, I'm going to be posting a short story that was published in my high school literary magazine, and also in a more mainstream format in a small national literary publication. So, without further ado, I present to you, Moonlight.

Moonlight

A young boy once asked me how old you have to be to die. I thought about it for a while, and then told him that I didn't think that anyone was ever old enough to die. My answer satisfied him, as he was new to the world and still had an understanding as to what forever truly was. He ran off and joined his friends in the sandbox, where they were the creators and destroyers of their own little universe. I envied him. I was innocent once, too.

I forgot about that boy. The years passed, time moved onward. I moved away, to a small rural area in Vermont. There were no parks there, no sandboxes made to contain the universe, to hold all that is right with the world, and all that is so terribly wrong. No, there was no such thing. I did have a river, though, flowing quietly through my backyard. A river that could divide the world, a river that I could call my own.

Good and Evil. Yin and Yang. Life and Death. Like so many things in this world, one cannot exist without the other. My river was a neutral boundary, or so it seemed to me. It was like time, always moving forward, never looking back. Sometimes you can't have enough, and sometimes there is too much. It equals out. Neutral.

My river traversed along several acres of land, before coming to a pond nestled deep in the Vermont woods. Between those two elements of water there was a waterfall. Not all that large of a drop, only about 25 feet or so, and one could've easily dropped down into the sparkling cool relief below, if not for the jagged boulders sticking ominously out of the glassy surface. A subtle warning. Good and Evil. Yin and Yang. Life and Death.

I swam that river countless times. I ventured to the pond several times as well, but preferred the river. The river was my own, my secret. I never dreamed that something that could appear to be so calm, so peaceful, so exquisitely wonderful, could turn into an instrument of He who walks with the Dark Scythe.

The night was clear, the stars sparkling. You could even make out one of the planets. Venus, or Jupiter, or...one of them, anyways. It's not important. It was warm that July night, and I decided to take a swim. If you had asked me the next day whether or not I would've gone in if I had known what was to occur, my answer would've been a vehement "no". But now, I'm not so sure.

I went outside to the river, and took off my shirt. I placed it in the grass, next o my towel, and without further ado jumped in. The liquid smoothness cooled the heat. I always let the current of the river pull me down to just below the waterfall, and then I would swim back against the current. It was a nice, moderately paced workout.

As I got down to the waterfall, and began to swim back, I felt a scant few drops of rain fall upon my face. The loud boom of thunder crackled ominously in the distance. Uh-oh, I thought to myself. I'd better hurry back.
I made it halfway. The heavens opened up, and the intensity of the Hoover Dam was laid out in full force against me. It was Mother Nature at her worst. Yin and Yang. My first thought was one of those crazy nonsensical ones that people often draw on for courage in the face of death. Well, I thought, I guess the towel won't help me now. and began to laugh hysterically.

Now, I was a fairly strong swimmer, but I was no match for the onrushing rage of water that faced me. I tried, futilely, to gain some small measure of control. My arms ached, worse than that time when I had bet the neighborhood bully, known to all as "Jimbo", that I could hold him up for ten minutes. I suffered a beating for that one. The pain in my arms now was brutal agony. I felt the current wash me away, down towards the rocks, away from the sanctuary of my home. As I came to the edge, I screamed, threw my hands out, desperately seeking for anything that might slow my ascent as the scythe loomed closer, and closer still...and then I stopped.

Miraculously, I had grabbed hold of the largest branch of the smallest tree that lined the river bank. Yes! I thought, I'm saved. I'm going to make it. This is great, wonderful! I'm not going to die! The crack brought me back to my sense. The branch was slowly ripping itself loose of the tree. I called upon the strength of every muscle in my body, and began to work my way hand over hand to the bank. Inch by inch, minute by minute. It seemed to me that it took several hours to make it to the shore. I reached out, grabbed a rock on the side of the land - the sweet, sweet land - and pulled myself onto the side as the branch let go with one last, final sickening crack. I saw without really seeing the branch (of life) plummet over the falls, shattered into pieces below. If things had happened differently, the moon's reflection would've shone red - blood red. Ying and Yang. Life and Death.

I remembered things while laying there, breathing in the sweet ambrosia of life. I remembered a hat of mine - a red one, that I had as a boy but never particularly liked it until I lost it. I remembered the crickets chirping in the distance as I asked my wife - ex-wife - to marry me. I had once promised her the moon and the stars. Now I promised (ha-ha) monthly payments of alimony. I remembered my second car (not my first, which wasn't really a car, more scrap metal on wheels) and how upset I was when my sister scratched in with her bicycle by mistake, and how ludicrous it seems now for me to have been so infatuated with mere physical superfluities. And I remembered the boy.

The boy. The one who by knowing so little knew so much more. He who could see all that was right with the world, and all that was so terribly wrong. He that has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and can determine the fate of us all.

The haunting refrain of a song long ago forgotten popped into my head.
"Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms, and open eyes, yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there..."

I gazed up at the stars, and posed a simple question. "Am I old enough?" I whispered. The wind slowly rustled the trees, and the stars twinkled, and that was good enough for me.

Hangover Havoc

2005-02-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing like spending a good part of a Saturday hungover...gotta love college. It's funny, because everytime I wake up hungover I think to myself, "Wow...I'm never drinking that much again", and then without fail the same thing happens the next weekend or the one after that. Mindless stupidity, but at least I'm having a good time with friends.

What does this have to do with magic, you ask? Pretty much nothing. I suppose I could make a comparison about how magicians never learn from their mistakes, such as believing dealer hype, but I just don't really feel like it.

So, for my magic post of the day, I'm going to pose a challenge, and then in a few days I'll post my solution for the effect. However, I'm going to hold a little competition. Submit your own solutions to the effect via email, and if I deem your submission to be the best, you win a prize. The only catch is that your effect then becomes published here for all to see. So have fun and good luck.

Effect: This is sort of an OOTW kind of effect, except without dealing. Basically, you hand a deck of cards to the spectator, and then have them shuffle the cards face down. Taking the deck back from them, you spread the cards in your hands and show that during the course of the shuffle the cards were separated into two groups, red and black.

Restrictions:
1. No deck switches.
2. The cards must be ungimmicked.

Other than that, it's full steam ahead. I'm curious to see what solutions people will come up with. Best of luck!

A Brief Update and a trick...

2005-02-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated in several days. I've had quite a few things going on, one of them being a breakup with my girlfriend of two years and the other being dealing with the first round of major exams at school.

Anyway, I'm just going to type up a card routine that I came up with the other day. It's sort of a Cannibal Cards meets Collectors routine, and I'm not sure whether or not it is original, or whether or not it has been done before. Probably has. If anyone could email me credits and comments on the routine after reading it, I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks!

Cannibal Collectors

Effect: Three cards are selected and "fed" (placed into a packet) to the four kings one at a time, whereupon they are shown to have vanished, or have been eaten by the kings. The last card, however, is not eaten, and upon showing the cards again the three selected cards are interwoven in-between the four kings.

Method: Probably fairly obvious, but it works rather nicely. I will assume that the reader has a basic understanding of magic, including the Elmsley count, double lift, and Ascanio spread, in explaining the routine.

To begin, have three cards selected, and have the spectators hold onto their cards. Run through the deck and upjog the four kings. Remove them from the deck, and place them onto the face of the deck. Make sure the order of the cards from the face is black, red, black, red. Holding the cards from above with the right hand, use the left thumb to draw the first king off of the deck into the left hand grip. Repeat with the second king, but this time keep a break in-between the two cards in the left hand. When coming back to repeat the procedure for the third king, deposit the 2nd king underneath the deck at the same time the left thumb draws the card into the left hand. Draw the last king into the left hand, and place the deck face down on the table to begin.

Take back all three selected cards and place them face up on top of the face down deck. When doing this, slightly sidejog the top card of the deck (the king). This will make it easier later on.

Pick up the first card, and slide it face down second from the bottom in the packet of face down kings. Give the packet a little snap, and pull the cards together in the following manner. The right hand draws the top and third cards to the right, and the left hand takes the 2nd and fourth cards to the left. Each hand wiggles the cards a bit, and then reassembles the packet, placing the right hand cards on top of the cards in the left hand. This moves the selected card to second from the top.

Next, turn the cards face up and perform a brief Elmsely count, showing four kings. Turn the cards face down again.

Pick up the next card and place it second from the top this time. Instead of counting the cards this time, you will perform a typical Ascanio spread. This leaves you with showing the backs of four cards. Adjust the cards so that you can hold them up in one hand, and you can briefly tilt the cards and show the faces, hiding the face of the lower card with your palm. This only shows 3 kings, but if done in an offhand manner is an excellent convincer.

The cards are reassembled, and the packet is turned face up. Under a small amount of misdirection by talking about the final card and motioning towards it, you will perform the following actions.

First, you must half pass the lower two cards (the selected cards) turning them face down.
Next, with the packet held from above with the right hand, you must draw off the top card into the left hand. Then, you must draw the next top and bottom card of the packet at the same time into the left hand. Then, the cards in the right hand are placed on top of the cards in the left hand.

All that is done in a brief instant, and it interweaves the selected cards face down with the kings.

All that remains now is to pick up the final card from the deck. However, you need to also pick up the card beneath it. If you sidejogged the card in the beginning, it should be a simple matter to pick up the two cards as one, squaring them up as you go.

To conclude the effect, turn the packet of cards face down onto the double, and then perform a thru the fist flourish, turning the packet over. Spread the packet on the table to reveal that the four kings have three cards face down in-between them. Turn the cards over to finish.

Hope you enjoy.

Tanner

Magic Review - Steve Fearson's GoodBye Vanish

2005-01-31T18:32:00.000-08:00

I originally thought that I was going to put up a posting reviewing multiple effects by Steve Fearson, but at the moment I have just enough time to write a review of Steve's latest offering, the GoodBye Vanish.

When I first heard about this, I was immediately excited. This was supposed to be the third of Steve's "big" illusions, the latter two being the Sawing in Half (known also as Copperfield's Laser illusion) and his Fantastic Flotation, the levitation effect. Familiar with both only through video, I looked forward to being able to purchase his vanish illusion at a relatively low price, as said by Steve. When Steve first said this, I figured he would be pricing it at maybe 20 dollars. That seemed very reasonable to me. Imagine my surprise when I checked my email this morning and found out that he was selling it for the unbelievable price of $6.95. At that price, unless the material was complete and utter drivel, there was absolutely no way that you could go wrong.

I downloaded the file and read it. I was familiar with most of the general principles involved, due to both having general magic knowledge and also Paul Harris' AOA series. Paul contributed to this particular project, as well as Angelo Carbone. Both of them added ideas that are very nice food for thought.

On to the actual vanish...I'll mention one thing up front. If you want to fool people, this vanish is most effective performed for one person. If you want to fool a group of people, there is one vanish at the back of the manuscript that is extremely effective.

The main vanish, the Goodbye vanish, is based on a reworking of an ancient principle that most, if not all of you, are probably familiar with. You can vanish for one person, and if done right, they really will not have a clue at all. The ideas included, by Steve, Paul, and Angelo, all combine to make this package e-book an excellent buy.

The Poltergeist illusion is the basis of the ancient principle mentioned above. Nothing more, nothing less.

The metamorphosis idea is an excellent one, and for the way I'm thinking of adapting it, will actually work better for me than just the vanish alone.

The last item in the e-book is the titled Monkey Vanish. If you are a stage worker, this is pure gold. If you are not a stage worker, you should look at it from a stage worker's point of view and realize just how strong and versatile this is. This, for me, ranks up there on the same level as his Fantastic Floating. I don't see myself using this at any point in the near future, as I'm not a stage worker, but I can appreciate the idea and see the practicality of it.

Bottom line...is it worth it? It's seven dollars, and in today's world of magic, getting two solid routines/ideas that work (four, if you count the Metamorphosis and the Poltergeist illusion) for that low of a price is a pretty good deal. I suppose you could argue that a book would give you more bang for your buck, but I think with the strength of the ideas found in this e-book (actually, a .exe file, so Mac users should be aware) the low price is justified, and at the minimum will give you some wonderful food for thought.

Recommended, from DownloadMagic.com, or by clicking here.

Piracy

2005-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

I have the file-sharing program Limewire installed on my computer. I rarely use it, and when I do, it is to download music from local or little-known bands - the kind of people who praise the file-sharing network as a way of expanding their fan base. It worked wonders for Dispatch...

Anyway, while thinking last night about possible subjects to deal with on this blog, I vaguely remembered hearing about the vast amount of magic that could be had - for free! - on the file sharing networks, with programs such as Kazaa or Limewire, the later incarnations of Napster.

So, for experimental purposes, I typed in "magic trick" into the search field, and awaited my responses. After a few moments, I received hundreds of search results. Many were PDF or HTML files on "How to do extreme street magic" or "Be the next David Blaine!" or similar results. However, I also saw a couple of PDF files for Steve Fearson's downloadable material, a PDF of Zach Allen's material, and several videos for Penguin Magic, which were the explanation videos.

The point of this is, that magic that is available on the internet is subject to piracy. While it is impossible to know just how many sales are lost, it is fair to assume that at least some sales are lost. While those of you with a deep hatred for Penguin Magic might say, "So what?", it is a pressing problem.

Some magicians, such as Kenton Knepper, has decided that the only way to stop people from pirating his work is to stop producing any new work. Kenton has actually fallen victim to people scanning hard copies of published works and creating a PDF file out of them, and then selling on eBay.

The Underground Collective and Magic-Notes.com, both run by the same people, have created a good system for tracking and deterring trading and piracy. Every copy has the email address of the purchaser permanently embedded at the bottom of each page of the document. If you sell this, or trade it, it would be easy to track the piracy back to the original owner. I'm not sure exactly what would happen when they did track it back, but at the very least I'm sure you would get a reputation for unethical abilities.

I'm not sure exactly what the next step to do is, because as in Kenton's case, even works that are not originally intended to be downloaded can be pirated. Now that the online magic world has seen a large advance in downloadable magic in the past year or two, additional steps need to be taken in order to provide better security.

This isn't just a magic problem, too. Want to read any of the current bestsellers on the New York Times list, or perhaps any of one of those author's work? Just log onto Limewire. Want to download a movie that is still in the movie theater? Just log onto Limewire. And of course, it goes without saying that all the music you could ever want is there for the taking.

This is what I think. Using the file sharing is fine for downloading things you already have. For example, if you own a CD with a song on it, and you want that song on your computer, go for it. If you at one point owned a book and can't find it anymore or want it on your computer, go for it. Same goes for the magic. If you owned a magic trick or PDF file, and inadvertently lost it, I think it's ok to download it. But if you download something that you don't own, decide for yourself what kind of person you want to be, and maybe even consider sending a check to the person whose work you just got for free.

Just my opinion.

Until we meet again...

The meaning of Three Cards Short

2005-01-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

What I forgot to do, in my initial post, was to explain the title of this blog.

Three cards short, in short(I hope you'll pardon the pun) was the first magic routine that I first came up with, entirely on my own efforts. I'll describe the rather sophomoric effect and method momentarily.

The title has actually come to take on another meaning for me as well. I'm not trying to read anything deep into it, as it may have just appeared so. If you think about it, a deck minus three cards is not considered "normal". I don't like to consider myself "normal" by any means, so it stands for that a little bit, for being different and thinking outside the box when a lot of magicians, and normal people as well, don't.

Perhaps I just won't make any more posts at 2 in the morning anymore, and thus these semi-coherent ramblings might take on a little more shape and form.

Anyway, on to the effect:

Three Cards Short

Effect: The magician has four cards selected and returned. The magician makes a magical gesture, and spreads the card out onto the table. One card is seen to have reversed itself; upon being turned over, it is the first selection. The magician gathers up the cards again and says to the spectators that he would like to try that again - if only he wasn't three cards short. Upon saying that, the magician pulls the other selected cards out of his pocket.

Method: Rather simplistic, and not even very good, I'm afraid. But I feel as though I should share it with you. Who knows? Perhaps someone might even like it.

Anyway, all you need is a deck of cards. Have four cards selected, and have the first three returned one at a time, in reverse order from how they were picked. I simply have the cards replaced into the middle of the pack and then execute a classic pass, controlling the cards to the top. Any method is fine by me. Act as though you are simply forgetting that you had four cards picked.

When the spectator says something about his card not being returned, act apologetic. During this moment of confusion, when no one is quite sure whether the card is supposed to be returned or not, obtain a break underneath the top three cards (the selections) and half-pass the cards below the break, reversing them.

Hold out the deck towards the spectator, and invite them to place their card anywhere in the middle. Because of the reversed position of the deck, their card is actually reversed in the deck.

Move your hands back towards yourself. You will execute the following actions simultaneously. With your right hand you need to top-palm the top three cards of the deck. This should be relatively easy due to the break where the cards are reversed. At the same time, your left hand should turn palm down and deposit the deck onto the table. This should be done without a break in the motion, so that the audience will not notice any discrepancies.

After this has been done, I usually cross my arms and take a step back. I have the spectator spread the cards on the table, where they discover the first selected card reversed in the spread. Using this as misdirection, you can easily deposit the cards into your right pants pocket.

After the effect has registered, gather up the cards again. From this point on, everything should be done slowly and fairly.

Claim that you would like to repeat the effect again - "If only I weren't three cards short" - and slowly spread the cards onto the table. This serves to build up the suspense slowly, and makes a nice little picture for the audience. At this point, the spectators have no idea what is going to happen. Slowly reach into your pocket and pull out the three cards, dropping them onto the table.

Comments: It has been several years since I first came up with that effect, and indeed quite a while since I last performed it. That being said, there may be minor details that I have forgotten. However, the main effect and method is just as I have written above. While I'm sure that there are far better and technical methods to achieve that effect, I still stick with what I have above.

Right now, this post having renewed my enthusiasm for this effect, I'm going to try and work out a method so that the 3 cards can each be removed from a different pocket. Easy enough with having the three cards in the pocket beforehand and simply forcing duplicates, but it would be vastly more interesting with signed cards, don't you think? However, as it stands now it is a nice, quick little mystery.

The opening post...

2005-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog.

I'm attempting to jump on the bandwagon, so to speak, and start my own sort of blog. I seem to recall in one post on another blog that it was said not to start a blog unless you have something to say. I cannot for the life of me say that I am starting this blog with any real plan in mind, only that it will provide me with an output for various things.

At this point in time, I am choosing to remain anonymous. While I respect and admire those who run blogs and don't hide behind a wall of anonymity, I feel that I'll remain anonymous for a short period of time

This website will contain various essays, comments, and thoughts on the world of magic. The topic will pretty much always contain magic, but I'm not completely adhering to that. I'll be openminded.

Also, from time to time I may have some free effects up for download. They may be just throwaway items, or perhaps some routines as well. Only time will tell what will see the light of day on this website.

I suppose I might as well tell you a little about myself. I've been performing magic for the last 8 years, and got into magic 9 years ago. I tend toward close-up magic, cards and coins and the like. At this point in time, I rely mainly on my own material, just because it gives me a great deal of satisfaction, but I enjoy studying the work of other magicians, simply because one is always learning.

So without ado, I'll leave you with a brief post, so this whole first post isn't merely an introductory waste. Until next time...

Magi-Spectators

I feel that a very valuable tool in the practicing arsenal of a magician is what I call a magi-spectator. Quite simply, these are generally close friends of yours that have either been:

a - shown the inner workings of magic tricks by you, simply because they are your close friends, after all -

or

b- have been subjected to enough magical performances by you to gain some knowledge of the workings of your magic -

I feel that these people are extremely important in helping you to perfect a trick.

I'll give you an example.

I have three people in my life that take on the role of a magi-spectator for me. The first is my ex-girlfriend Brooke, the second is my good friend Chris, and the last is my roommate, Rex.

Each of these have been exposed to a multitude of various performances by myself. As such, they have seen me do some of the same tricks over and over again, and thus the workings become a little less mysterious to them.

More specifically, they can often times catch me out on a false transfer, notice my pass, see when I have an obvious double lift, catch the invisible thread, and so on and so forth. Basically, they can tell me what looks good. But because they also have the layman's perspective as well, they are far more helpful than a magician could be.

Plus, I also have the added future of having multiple viewpoints, especially having a female opinion as well. They will each see and view things differently, and thus will provide me with different viewpoints on the effects. I also know they will all be honest with me because they are my friends.

An important point is that it is very easy for magicians to slip into "magician thinking", which is trying to improve and improve, even when such improvements tend to weaken the overall effect on the layperson.

Laypeople tend to think overall like laypeople.

Magi-Spectators have both viewpoints. They can pick up on things that seem unnatural to them, and will point those out to me so I can fix them. They will not keep on trying to improve the effect, however. When it reaches a level of astonishment that will amaze even the most jaded spectator, they tell me. And I know my effect is now the better for it.