Idiosyncratic legerdemain blog.

  • An Actual Hello From the New Girl

    Lisbeth
    Category:

    Oops! I started posting shit on the blog (The “Creativity” Discourse) without saying anything first, didn’t I? Oh well.

    Anyway, I should introduce myself. I’m Lisbeth (she/her), the new writer for the Oval. I’ve been involved in magic to varying degrees for 15+ years, but made it a central part of my output about 3-4 years ago. Outside of magic, I make a lot of art in different media (seriously, I have too many projects going on right now, someone stop me), and generally bounce around doing what I can locally.

    I was scouted for the Oval at a convention by the Editor, whom I initially brushed off as another ill-fated suitor trying to woo the hot, smart woman in a sea of magicians who embody none of those descriptors. But once I understood that what I was being offered was not a ring, but a chance to write for the most prestigious publication in the history of magic, I joined immediately. I’ve been here at the compound office for a little bit now, and it’s starting to feel cozy. I’m even starting to like the off-brand instant noodles we get fed every day. (Anne’s note: The ramen I mentioned in The Annual Company Picnic (In Lieu of Bonuses) declined in quality severely after the two Mystify sponsorships. Oh, was I not supposed to mention we’re sponsoring Mystify again? If we had some Shin Ramyun up in here again maybe I would’ve held my tongue.)

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  • The “Creativity” Discourse

    Lisbeth
    Category:

    Editor’s note: This isn’t about saying “fuck beginners”; rather it’s about saying “stop pretending intermediate and advanced magicians can only handle beginner talk.” So if you’re on page one of your magic journey, relax: this is about how bad we are at page ten and onward.

    I’m the kind of magician that most would call “creative”. I create constantly to a fault. I rarely perform material that isn’t mine or that I haven’t put my spin on. I create heavily scripted theatrical pieces about dense subject matter, etc. For better or worse, my work is violently original. And so, naturally, when people hear of this or see my work, they ask me about creativity or the creative process. Sometimes these discussions are lovely and productive, and I’m happy to engage in them. But, much of the time, both in conversations I’m in and, especially, in popular magic media, the questions are… severely lacking.

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  • Commenting Works Again!

    Editor-in-chief
    Category:

    Update: It seems that all comments ever made have disappeared. We’re hoping to be able to restore them. We also don’t know why the hell that happened. The comments have been saved in their entirety by the marvelous Franklin.

    It seems that for some arcane reason, comments were disabled for the following posts:

    Please feel free to leave a comment. To encourage engagement, the first meaningful comment on each of these posts with a valid email address will be sent a five dollar gift card from a magic store of the commenter’s choice that is not Ellusionist. Name your choice in your comment if you wish to save us the trouble of asking you.

  • The Glossary, or ‘We cannot eliminate the root causes of codes by magicians, but Oval can.’

    Jerry
    Category: ,

    It’s time for the Grandiose Glossary of Thaumaturgical Terminology. But first, an explanation of the title. I’m coming out as a Jehovah’s Witness, you see. The title is based upon a line I found in the pamphlet that convinced me to convert for the sake of world peace.

    (I’m told there are still plenty of slots left in the 144,000 because nobody wants to come. Hurry up and secure your place in Heaven!)

    Okay, so now that I’ve outed my true faith as a JW and you all understand the all-important yet contradictorily sacrilegious title reference, we can move on.

    What’s the Grandiose Glossary of Thaumaturgical Terminology, you ask? Why, it’s a resource aimed primarily at pissing off the Green Latrine posters who think the newbies shouldn’t get even a taste of what any of their discussions are supposed to mean, but secondarily it’s intended to be a valuable resource for new and old magicians alike. The new ones will need it because they won’t know, and the old ones will need it because they forgot. It’s a perfect business model. We’re working on capturing the intermediate/middle-aged market currently.

    In essence, the GGoTT explains what a 3CM is, that a turtle just means any shell, and that DL can mean down-low OR double lift; depending on whether or not you’re hanging with Copperfield or Blaine. Altogether it’s just over fifty entries currently.

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  • Support the Heck Out of Craig Petty

    Editor-in-chief
    Category:

    Donate Here
    Yes, we’re serious. We’re even refraining from profanity in the title and opening for the sake of SEO this time, that’s how fudging serious we are.

    As you might have heard, Craig Petty is being sued in a frivolous manner by the vampiric snake Yigal Mesika to try and shut Craig up after his absolutely outstanding exposé that Yigal unsuccessfully removed for a short while.

    The long and short of it is that Yigal has been allegedly stealing IP for ages, and definitely bullying others for supposedly doing it to him. (They allegedly didn’t.) Craig allegedly proved this with incredible research.

    Steve Sheraton has an excellent article on the subject if you want to know more (that we’ve copied the text of down for you at the end of this post), but we thought we’d cover three less obvious questions you might have. Starting with…

    Don’t you hate Craig?

    As a bit, dummy. Content creation is admirable, and investigative journalism is too. We have a shizload of disagreements with him and think his products are mostly untested junk but that doesn’t mean we really think he should be fed to wolves.

    Why is he using GiveSendGo? Isn’t that the platform for alleged literal terrorists?

    Technically, allegedly yes, but that’s only because it’s also the free speech platform. As a result, it’s the smartest choice here; especially with Craig being a Christian who doesn’t talk politics. Loads of easily grifted non-terrorist people will pour in with money assuming he’s a victim of Woke™. Little do they know Mesika is allegedly one of their favorite ethnicities, the fools!

    It’s allegedly a damn good plan and this woke nut supports it.

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  • Tips for a Bigger Clock

    Franklin
    Category: ,

    Editor’s note: Damn, that last post set a new record for reader mail in the first 24 hours! Don’t be afraid to email us; even if we enabled comments, we always appreciate emails. We’ll be featuring two in a long overdue Reader Mail followup if they agree to it. Anyway, now you should enjoy this followup from Franklin. I consider it an improvement over Drew’s already great idea (at least if you prefer to clock the whole deck), and it is a lot easier to do than most of his ideas that don’t involve app development. I might even get it down by next week, and that’s impressive for someone with my level of mental incapacity.

    Drew showed you his little clock, but take a look at mine!

    Following Drew sharing some rare footage (that you will never see!) of him performing the Burger clocking routine as faithfully as possible I was, of course, enticed to give it a shot myself. But I had no intention to limiting myself to one color and no court cards. Sure, it’s fast, but what if I could get fast without those limitations? I looked into the history of clocking techniques and found some interesting ideas recorded by Karl Fulves. By adapting them, within an hour I was clocking a full deck, unrestricted, in as little as 40 seconds. With steady practice, I could probably cut that down to 30.

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  • Clockwork Apple

    Drew
    Category: ,

    Happy New Year guys! It’s your boy, Drew. My first post of 2026! I know, there’s been other posts by me that have come out this year. I wrote those 2-3 years ago, it’s the punk-ass bitch Editor who is only getting them out now.

    I’m trying out a new writer’s voice. How do you like me now?

    Okay, yeah, let’s stop that.

    The creation of this post is due to young Erika Tsai at Magifest blowing my (and everyone else’s) mind with a simple card trick. Using a borrowed shuffled deck, she had someone freely take any card out of the deck. Then, she quickly searched through the deck to take out a card, the perfect mate to the freely selected card. She did this at astonishing speed! She gave no inclination of any calculation, clocking, or thinking being done. I thought it had to be lightning fast clocking. That’s right, the intricate art of assembling tiny metal gears and springs to create a symphony of machinery tha- I’m dicking you around. Clocking is the much more impressive skill of adding the values of playing cards together, to figure out which one is missing from the deck! I had a friend of mine ask her what method of clocking she was using, and what calculations she was going through in her mind. Apparently, she simply shrugged and said “I don’t do any calculations… I just look at the spread and notice what card isn’t there.”

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  • Odds and Ends #10: The Perfect 10/10 Trick

    Jerry
    Category: ,

    Alright, it’s time for a Jerry Odds and Ends again like the old days. It’s time for me also to poke my head out from under the rock I’ve been hiding under ever since my colossal fuckup the day before Magifest, but enough about that for now. (Sorry we keep dragging it out, but accountability is important to us.)

    The Castle Wallet, by Simon Lipkin coming from the 1914, just might be the exception to Unworking Wallets.

    Sure, you may have an EDC peek wallet already. But is it an RFID-blocking pop-up style card holder wallet?

    And most importantly… does it double as an impression device?

    Oh dear, is that a no I hear? You may want this as a sidekick to your Jax or Passenger or whatever the hell then.

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  • Air Remixed

    Drew
    Category:

    With the help of my fellow Ovalites, I came up with a variation on a very old Daniel Madison trick. Before I get into that, I thought it’d be fun to share what led up to the conception of the effect. If you don’t care, skip along to “The New Method” below.

    The other day, the perfect scenario happened. I had an inkling that the chance to perform would occur, so I put the Advocate by Daniel Madison in my pocket. I went to practice at my local martial arts club, and after class, some of my fellow classmates were talking about my magic. Despite being a part of the club for just over a year now, no one knows I do magic apart from one person, and he was telling someone next to me about the card effect he saw me do. She asked me to show her something the next time I bring a deck of cards with me. I told her that I did have a deck of cards, but it was an invisible one (try not to roll your eyes). I asked her to take out a card from the invisible deck, whilst miming spreading the cards. She took one, and I asked her what card it was.

    “The 8 of Hearts.”

    “Wow, you see that so clearly. The thing is—if I clasp my hands together like this, and concentrate, I can get it to materialize.”

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  • Odds and Ends #9… …#9… …#9…

    Editor-in-chief
    Category:

    Take this, [friend]. May it serve you well.

    ~The Beatles, Revolution 9

    Johannes Mengel is re-releasing his Breakthrough system for penetration through a soda can’s bottom, which is awesome! There’s a lot more to the project now than when he released it over a decade ago and it immediately proved to be the greatest method for the plot ever.

    Meanwhile, everyone apparently has selective amnesia. Even people who should really know better are acting as if this is totally new and fresh and wasn’t released in 2014 already. It’s to the point where I’m fearing Mark Elsdon doesn’t even know. (This is a joke, I would be extremely surprised if he was unaware.)

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