I’ve written a coupletimes about how changes in the design of currency impose costs on magicians by making it harder to use gaffs and putting existing gaffs out of date. There’s a similar dynamic at work with playing cards. Without getting into specifics, it’s no secret that trick cards exist. If a magician wants to incorporate gaffed cards into his act he’s going to want to buy them with a consistent design. For example, I decided many years ago to purchase red-backed gaffs whenever possible. If I want to be able to use them during a performance it’s best to have them all be one color; switching from a red deck to a blue deck and back again would arouse suspicion.
Similarly, all magicians benefit from defaulting to a common back design. If there were multiple, equally popular designs, different gaffs would be sold with different backs, making them incompatible with each other. We’re better off sticking with one design as the default. It’s a classic network externality: the more magicians who use a single design, the higher the value of that design to all of them. It’s even better if the design is also popular with laymen. That way the cards appear innocent and ungaffed decks can be purchased easily and cheaply.
Up until recently that was exactly how the magic card market worked. Due to some changes in the industry things are shifting a little. It will be interesting to watch how it plays out.
Mr. Gardner also wrote fiction, poetry, literary and film criticism, as well as puzzle books. He was a leading voice in refuting pseudoscientific theories, from ESP to flying saucers. He was so prolific and wide-ranging in his interests that critics speculated that there just had to be more than one of him.
His mathematical writings intrigued a generation of mathematicians, but he never took a college math course. If it seemed the only thing this polymath could not do was play music on a saw, rest assured that he could, and quite well.
“Martin Gardner is one of the great intellects produced in this country in the 20th century,” said Douglas Hofstadter, the cognitive scientist.
Gardner was a magician too. He wrote the Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic; I knew him from his contributions to Magic magazine. Reading the above makes me curious about more of his work.
A few years ago I wrote about an optical illusion created in his honor by fellow magician and skeptic Jerry Andrus. It’s a papercraft dragon that produces an eerie effect by cleverly fooling our perception of shape. Experience it by downloading the file here. There’s also a video, but it’s worth taking a few minutes to make one for yourself.
Apologies for the light posting last week, I’ve been hard at work with my new job and preparing for a few fun events coming up in Portland. First up is tonight’s Taste of the Nation event benefiting Share Our Strength. I’ll be there not as a mixologist but as a magician. This will be my first public performance since moving to Portland. Tickets are still available and there are lot of great restaurants involved, so there are plenty of reasons to come aside from watching me drop cards all over the floor trying to do tricks I haven’t done in years.
Then on Wednesday we’re celebrating Bols Genever’s Oregon launch with a punch party at Clyde Common with Jeffrey Morgenthaler. We’ll have two giant bowls of Bols punches out from 4-6 pm. Come join us for what’s sure to be a fun evening!
The Treasury has unveiled the new $100 bill. The redesign includes lots of new anti-counterfeiting measures, though as Megan McArdle notes this may not be a worthwhile effort:
In theory, currency counterfeiting causes mild inflation. In practice, the amount of currency that gets used in the United States is too small for counterfeiting to have any realistic impact on prices; these days, money is created not with the printing press, but in the electronic accounts of banks and the Federal Reserve. [...]
What it actually does is transfer a small amount of seignorage revenues from the federal government to the counterfeiters. An anarchocapitalist might argue that this is as it should be–that the federal government’s monopoly on currency is illegal. I won’t go that far; the counterfeiters are, after all, free-riding on the full faith and trust of the US government. What I will suggest is that the trivial damage done by counterfeiters might not be worth making our national currency a laughingstock.
Regardless, counterfeiters aren’t the only victims here. Anything that makes life hard on counterfeiters tends also to make trouble for magicians. Gaffed props or effects that depend on a $100 bill blending in with smaller currency units will be rendered obsolete. They may be adaptable to new circumstances, but there’s a short-term cost. The situation is already pretty complicated for coins, as I wrote in 2008:
Perhaps that’s because we’re a secretive lot, but the truth is that these new designs can be a real pain for us magic guys. We’re sometimes inclined to use — you didn’t hear this from me, mind you — coins that have been altered and gaffed to fit our nefarious ends. To do this it helps to know what the coins in our audience’s pockets are going to look like. This used to be easy; they all looked the same. Now we’ve got 52 different possible quarters, 3 nickels, and 5 pennies that could show up. Paper currency could be old style or new. The Kennedy half-dollar has remained mercifully unchanged and is the size most suitable for sleight of hand manipulation, but no one carries it anymore. The dime alone remains reliable. Thanks, government, for giving us only the tiniest of American coins to work with.
If I ever run for president one of my campaign planks will be installing a magician to the Treasury. It would seal up the magic vote and with his advice we could secretly build all sorts of cool tricks right into the nation’s currency.
Jason Zengerle’s New Republicprofile of Tucker Carlson is worth reading in full, but it’s this paragraph that stood out for me:
More than three years later, Carlson is still defending his “Dancing With the Stars” turn, if not his dancing ability. “Oh, I loved it,” he insists, professing that his recent trajectory has not bothered him in the slightest. “I never take the long view on my own career. I don’t even know that I have a career or have ever had one–and I’m not sure I would ever want one.”
This reminds me of an anecdote from Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up. Martin, whose interests had meandered from learning magic to playing the banjo to performing stand-up comedy, was finally earning his first appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson as host:
I was able to maintain a personal relationship with Johnny over the next thirty years, at least as personal as he or I could make it, and I was flattered that he came to respect my comedy. On one of my appearances, after he had done a solid impression of Goofy the cartoon dog, he leaned over to me during a commercial and whispered prophetically, “You’ll use everything you ever knew.” He was right; twenty years later I did my teenage rope tricks in the movie ¡Three Amigos!.
Perhaps this is just rationalization — my income this week: a few bucks in Google ads — but I think there’s something to be said for doing whatever one finds most interesting at the time and accumulating a diverse set of skills. At least twice I’ve thought about settling into more stable careers and looking back I think I’d be missing out terribly if I had. As for whether I can make this erratic approach work long-term, well, that remains to be seen.
Ortlieb office bag — Early this year my trusty backpack finally wore out and I replaced it with a pannier bag. Taking my laptop off of my back and onto my bike has made cycling much more enjoyable. The bag is waterproof, which is a must in Portland. The weight isn’t much of an issue while riding, though it does make the bike a little unwieldy while walking it. The bag itself isn’t cheap and I needed to buy a rack and laptop sleeve too (with corduroy lining!), but the added time I’ve spent biking has been well worth it.
Rice cooker — I’m not one to stock up on excessive kitchen appliances, but when even Fuschia Dunlop wrote, “If I could have only one modern gadget in my kitchen, it would have to be an electric rice cooker” I thought it might be a tool worth having. And it has been, mainly for the benefits of consistency and not having to coordinate rice preparation too closely with the rest of a meal. Most of my cooking interests lean Asian anyway, so the ease of this tool has me in the kitchen more than I otherwise would be.
An unnamed magic pamphlet — I’ve spent thousands of dollars on magic books and videos over the past decade, but very few of those sources have been as useful as one $10 dollar pamphlet detailing a single card sleight that I came across this year. No, I’m not going to link to it. That would defeat the purpose.
Many years ago when I was a wee lad just getting into magic one of the first sleight-of-hand tricks I taught myself was the Multiplying Billiard Balls. Given the size of my hands and the cheap, smooth-finished balls I was using, it was a difficult task, but I kept practicing and eventually I could control them all in the standard grip seen at left. Little did I know that this forgotten skill would find practical application in the drinking of whiskey:
The only difference is that in the Multiplying Billiard Balls the objects appear one after the other, while in the Disappearing Shots of Whiskey they vanish in rapid succession. This is usually followed by my most famous trick, the legendary Drunk Magician Fails Spectacularly to Find Your Selected Card.
After more than 10 years in magic I’ve accumulated a lot of playing cards. And I mean a lot. They’re under my bed, stacked on my dining table, scattered on book shelves, in my wallet, and of course there’s always one working deck in a steel case in my pocket. Whenever I need something offbeat I can usually find it. Last week though I had a need for cards that I couldn’t find in my collection. I needed four cards with visually different backs, similar face designs, good finish, poker sized, and with white borders. I was surprised that I couldn’t put it together, at least not without breaking up some sets of cards.
This got me looking online for cards that would fit the bill. One deck that came to mind is the one in the image at left. I owned a couple of these cards but had no idea what they were called or where to buy more of them. The design is enigmatic: A menacing Moon in the sky, two dogs named Squeezer and Trip struggling against their chains to attack each other, and at bottom the phrase “There is a tie that binds us to our Homes”. What did it all mean?
I found the answer in an informative column from magician Mike Rogers. It turns out that the design commemorates what might now be an illegal anti-competitive agreement between merged card manufacturers:
The pack is a replica of a deck made in 1877 when two major card companies worked out a neat, but currently illegal, sales agreement. The deck was designed to commemorate the merger of the New York Consolidated Card Company and the A. Dougherty Company, to be known as Consolidated Dougherty. Card magicians will know this name from the Tally-Ho decks popularized by the New York magicians of the 40s, specifically Dai Vernon. With the merger came the nice agreement to split up sales territory with each staying on his own home ground. The design pictures two ferocious bulldogs straining toward each other at the chains that bind them to their dog houses. One dog’s collar says “Squeezer” and the other says “Trips” for the companies’ respective brands.
New York Consolidated made a brand called Squeezers with numbers in the corners like we use today. If you have ever cupped cards in your hand and sort of squeezed them into a fan to see the corner values you’ll quickly understand the name Squeezers. Poker players will almost always squeeze the hand into a fan so only the smallest part of the corners come into view. A. Dougherty had his own system. He reproduced the original card in the corners and called the brand Triplicate or Trips. Triplicates could be read three ways. Twice in the two corners and once by counting the center pips. Thus the name Triplicates, or what has become known as Trips. Hence, the names on the dogs’ collars. The dogs are chained to their houses to point up the agreement to remain on home turf for sales territories. Thus, “There is a tie that binds us to our homes.”
So now you know. The decks, known as “Bulldog Squeezers,” are reportedly still popular in Cajun parts of Louisiana, so if you live there you might be able to find them at retail. Otherwise you can do as I did and buy them online — assuming you have a use for strange cards with a story behind them, that is.
Obama’s giving a major speech on health care tonight. But can Obama do this?
That’s Kostya Kimlat, one of the most talented card guys in magic. He’s giving a lecture in Portland this evening, so that’s what I’ll be attending instead of taking in the health care wonkery.
This happens to be a great month for magicians in Portland. At the end of month the first Portland Magic Jam is taking place, featuring a fantastic line-up that includes one of my personal favorite magicians, David Regal. Get the rest of the details here.
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. And since I took the “currently reading” list off the sidebar I should really do them more often. One complication: I’ve had less time for reading since leaving DC, where I could do my online news reading as part of my job and enjoy books each way on my Metro commute. It’s been harder to work reading into my Portland lifestyle. The ideal solution would be to spend more time reading on planes while flying to exotic destinations, but unfortunately I can’t afford this. In any case, here are a few recommendations:
The Prestige, Christopher Priest — The best novel about magicians I’ve read recently. Also the only one, but still a very good book. If you’ve seen the movie then you already know the two major plot revelations, but this doesn’t detract from the enjoyment at all; in fact, it lets one appreciate writing in the early parts of the book that would otherwise be mysterious or confusing. The dueling magicians are less violent and much more sympathetic here than in Christopher Nolan’s take.
This Earth of Mankind, Pramoedya Ananta Toer — The best novel about the Dutch colonization of Indonesia I’ve read recently. And it’s not the only one, because I read the entire series of four, known as the Buru Quartet. This and its sequel are the most character-driven and accessible. The third is dense with history, while the fourth changes perspective to that of a native collaborator. All highly recommended. (Incidentally, the name for my Ontosoroh cocktail, which uses the Dutch-Indonesian spirit Batavia-Arrack, comes from this book.)
Pets in America, Katherine Grier — As with most people named Grier, no relation. A fascinating exploration of how American attitudes toward pets evolved, with numerous historical accounts and illuminating photos and illustrations.
The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross — My lack of familiarity with the music discussed didn’t prevent from enjoying and learning a great deal from this history of twentieth century composition.
Born Standing Up, Steve Martin — I’ll read just about anything from Steve Martin. This, his self-account of developing as a comedian, was particularly fascinating to me for the ways his early training in magic helped him pull off his ecstatic physicality. A bonus treat for Vanderbilt alumni is his description of how a performance at the university accidentally birthed an ending to his act that he used for years. (Though interestingly, my father was there for it and remembers the details differently. Highlight from his recollection: Martin telling security officers that his name was Carmichael Towers!)
German police said on Monday that they have arrested one of two British men suspected of selling bags that they said held laptops and mobile phones but which in reality contained potatoes.
Authorities believe the pair tricked around 40 people in two German states driving around in a car with British number plates, convincing them to hand over cash for the electronic hardware but giving them spuds instead.
It does seem implausible, doesn’t it? My guess is that the reporter is leaving out a few details and that there were at least some phones or phone-like objects at the top of the bags to make them look real. This is a variation on the classic “selling bricks” scam. Magician and self-described former con man Simon Lovell explains the method and psychology that make it work:
Have you ever been stuck in traffic and seen a guy, carrying a box, walking through the cars? Have you ever seen him offer the contents to somebody and walk away with cash? If you have then you’ve seen somebody buy a brick.
The box is one for a top of the line video camera. A cursory look inside the box lets you see the camera. Well, you see the plastic and polystyrene around a camera shape, but you can see the lens and a few controls visible through the holes the manufacturer strategically places in the packaging to entice you to buy it in its more normal habitat of a store.
The price the guy is offering it for is less than a third of the retail price. Obviously it’s stolen but, what the hell, a bargain is a bargain isn’t it?
If you buy it, you larcenous little devil, you deserve the punishment. You bought a lens and a few cheap controls positioned around a brick to give the package weight. This scam is also done with video machines, CD players, televisions, and, in fact, just about anything that comes in a box.
When he offers it to you, you have only a few moments to make up your mind. The traffic will be moving in just a second and you don’t have time to examine the product. It’s a take it now or lose it forever deal. Enough people take it to make this quite a profitable little trade when the con man has nothing else to do for fun.
That’s from Simon’s informative and entertaining book How to Cheat at Everything. Originally published in the small-run, expensive magicians’ press, it’s made the leap to mass market paperback and covers in detail everything from bar bets and carny games to high-stakes card cheating. Highly recommended if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
If you’re in New York City you can also catch Simon’s live show at the Huron Club, where he demonstrates his cheating skills and off the wall sense of humor.
Via former card trick kind of guy Julian Sanchez, something completely different:
Scott Stein at C-Net wonders if this is the future of magic:
So, is this what magic kits will consist of in the year 2014–goggles, a camera, and a deck of coded cards? It certainly suggests that we’re about to enter a fascinating (and slightly terrifying) new age where nothing that you see–even live footage–will be able to be truly trusted.
If it is, I sure feel foolish for ordering the 500 page hardcover book of sleight of hand now sitting in my mailbox. Ultimately I don’t think that’s where we’re headed (though Marco Tempest’s demonstration above is very cool and certainly has its place). The modern ease of camera trickery and special effects make genuine demonstrations of skill and performance ability even more valued. This was part of the genius of David Blaine’s first specials. How do you make simple magic tricks play well on TV? By shifting focus to the dramatic reactions of real people on the street, who authenticate the reality of the illusions. This is part of what made him stand out from the staged, slickly edited magic shows of the time.
Below the break (bonus pun for the magicians in the audience), a couple other videos in the full-deck “story trick” genre. [click to continue…]
This is why Penn and Teller are quite possibly the best magicians working today:
It’s a fine line between exposure of methods that cheapens the art and exposure that increases the audience’s appreciation for it. Penn and Teller are masters of walking that line, revealing just enough of the work to show how much thought, practice, and attention to detail can go into the simplest acts of sleight of hand.
The video is from this fascinating Wired article about magicians’ contributions to neuroscience, which includes a simple yet devious secret to picking people’s pockets.
I can’t believe I’d forgotten about this classic video. From Greg Rutter’s Definitive List of Things You Should Have Already Experienced on the Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something, here’s how you can become a master of seduction using cheesy magic tricks:
On the other hand, Us magazine (what else am I supposed to read between issues Imbibe and Reason?) reports that Holly Madison has left Criss Angel, so maybe this magic thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Below the break, a look at some contemporary magicians who can perform a smooth pass and a rear palm faster than the eye can see… [click to continue…]
I’m going to be in Eugene, OR today to see Paul Gertner’s magic lecture. Paul’s a very creative magician, most famous for his cups and balls routine performed with loud, clanking steel balls. It’s not an effect that translates all that well to TV, but if you’d like to take a look here’s a clip from one of the old World’s Greatest Magic specials. The ending still looks pretty slick:
One of his effects is also at play in this bit of political propagandizing. While I hate to see good magic put in the service of political fanboyism, there’s no denying it’s a neat display. (The video might be from Paul himself. I’m not sure.)
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
This got me looking online for cards that would fit the bill. One deck that came to mind is the one in the image at left. I owned a couple of these cards but had no idea what they were called or where to buy more of them. The design is enigmatic: A menacing Moon in the sky, two dogs named Squeezer and Trip struggling against their chains to attack each other, and at bottom the phrase “There is a tie that binds us to our Homes”. What did it all mean?
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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