SMC - How to create your own trick
An underrated post from last season
Hello and welcome to Social Magic Club 2024 edition!
In the past few weeks, I have been working on a new utility device (coming soon) and thought that it would be great to revisit this post of mine from 2021 about my creative process. Here it is!
Let's create a trick together
Grab a coffee, a piece of paper, and a pen. Today we are going to create a new trick!
JOIN A CREATIVITY SESSION WITH ME:
Recently I was brainstorming about tricks I could do in the scenario of a plane flight. I find that starting with the situation I am performing in, lets me create tricks more easily. This post shows my process and is intertwined with prompts for you to follow along. If you want to join this creative session with me, just grab a cup of coffee, a piece of paper, and a pen.
Think about your next flight, who will be there with you, and imagine saying to them: “I wanted to show you something that would be perfect for this situation”.
What would you show them? Allow your mind to wander, you don’t need to think of a complete trick. Just let ideas come to you. Write down the ideas or images you get.
If you want to do this creative exercise, stop reading and do it now, give yourself 5-10 minutes. If not, continue reading.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that the trick should start at the departure location and end at the arrival. That structure just makes sense. So maybe an object to impossible location? in that case for the location to be impossible, it must be somewhere they can access before I can. If not, they’d think I had done something sneaky.
I like that there are clear temporal and spatial beginnings and ends, and that they are very separate between each other. (Notice what you like about your ideas). Maybe there could be some process during the flight. And during a flight people get bored, so you aren’t stealing some quality time.
The spectator could select an object, destroy it during the flight, and then it could reappear in their hotel room. You would just need to send a duplicate beforehand to the hotel staff. It would work great with a card, as it fits in an envelope.
Ok, something concrete is starting to form.
[During this session I also came up with other ideas which I think are bad. I am not going to write them here.]
Try to explore your ideas and think of how they would play out in first person. And notice what you like, and don’t like about them. You will also come up with ideas that are bad, them down anyway but don’t explore them further.
I like how the trick ends at the hotel. I like it because there is way less stress there than at the airport, and the method is full of potential. I want to explore it more.
Do the same about the ideas that you like, and if they have aspects you don’t like, try to remove them or minimize them.
I like the idea of sending something to the hotel beforehand that the staff could leave in the room. (It could work for predictions, not only for impossible locations). I like the image of arriving somewhere and a surprise is waiting. If you arrived both in the same room, you would have to make sure that they noticed it as soon as you arrive. You wouldn’t want them to think you set it when you arrived.
Wait, this would be better if you weren’t there. So different rooms? Or maybe you are not traveling with them at all, you see them for their departure and start the trick. Which will end when they arrive at their hotel.
This is a great time to think of possible variations. Then ask yourself: what is the phenomenon that causes the trick? Is the trick a demonstration of something else?
Is it just a pure impossible moment or is it the demonstration of something else? In this case, I cannot think about a good impetus. But I feel like there is the potential to expand the trick in other directions. Maybe you could say that you know a magician in that city who will help you with the trick. For example, you start the trick and he ends it.
The effect:
To sum up, the trick could look like this.
You are at the airport, and your friend Jane is leaving. You tell her that you want to show her a trick.
Jane selects a card and rips the corner off. She keeps the two pieces safe in her purse. When on the plane, she rips off the corner in very small pieces (to not clog the toilet) and flushes them. She arrives in Paris, goes to her hotel, and there she finds an envelope. It contains the corner of the card. The corner and the rest of the card match!
Method:
You are going to start ripping the card corner and let the spectator finish the rip. While they take it off, you are going to top-change the card with the duplicate. [Note: keep the torn corner on the bottom left, so that it cannot be seen].
You will then give them immediately the card and tell them to keep it somewhere safe so that no one else can access it.
After you think of a good method, think about applying it in other scenarios.
Here is an idea that comes to mind:
We are in a tall building and it’s a windy night. She blows on the ripped corner towards our hotel room letting it fly around. When we get back we find the corner outside the room window.
What about using other objects? I can see it working with a business card, and instead of using a top change, you could switch it with a duplicate you hold underneath your wallet.
That was the 2021 post. Hope you enjoyed it. I still use this creativity technique of thinking about the scenario before thinking about props, effect, or method. For example I ask myself: what would I do on a first date? What about when someone asks me to show them a trick at a big party? What about at a coffee shop?
Can I ask you for a favor?
I am looking for more tricks using multiple outs as part of the method. If you know any good ones, or have any ideas related to multiple outs, please reply to this email.
Thanks,
Antonio