This is a way to ascertain the identity of a freely chosen playing card. What separates the Transport Peek from other methods is that the selection procedure is done entirely in the participant’s hands, and you do not need to look at the deck before, during, or after the procedure. That’s right. You never look at the deck.
What’s more is that they pocket their selection. They give you the deck, and you put it away while looking away the whole time.
I want to talk about the two events that led to the creation of this idea and, ultimately, this post. A couple of years ago, I was performing for my mentor; who was mentioned in the post Rubiked Mentor.
Alright, here’s one thing that isn’t like the old days when this place got started. Reader Mail on a Sunday when there’s supposed to be a big post, instead of on a Wednesday. Well, here’s something you may not have realized. The old schedule is as dead as Zed, baby. But we are trying to get you lots more content for now to make up for the Editor’s complete dropping of all slack for most of last year. Drew or Franklin or somebody will have some real magic content that isn’t so meta for you soon.
Anyway…
Over the past week, myself and Marty had an excellent conversation.
Yes, I know. I’m sucking Marty off again. It’s okay, he tastes great.
The point is, this conversation was enlightening even to me, so I can only imagine the depths it will bring to your shallow and feeble mind; crawling as it does up to the steps of this website and pleading weakly with its last gasps of air for a speck of insight to feast upon. So, here it is.
First, we had an exchange regarding a 25 dollar gift card for a non-Ellusionist store for a quality comment. This reply from the Editor to his thanks followed:
The first comment has been posted, and the first award has been issued; to Marty, the writer of Ruseletter and Marty’s Bag of Tricks (linked by the name on the comment), which are a couple of excellent Substacks.
He’s given us a great idea for a product too, and kindly granted his permission for us to develop and market it. So that’ll be coming soon.
But for now, you can go to the previous post to see his enriching (despite being appallingly misguided) comment, and be amazed that you could have had 25 dollars to spend anywhere other than Ellusionist if you had posted it instead.
Yeah, I’m serious, I went and sent him a 25 USD gift card to the online magic shop of his choice for that comment Drew doesn’t even agree with and will be replying to soon. Idon’t even agree with it.
Editor’s note: Obviously, this is a pretty old post from around August. We are putting it up anyway since it isn’t only useful for the Enigma Stick, and because that thing is still being sold as is in spite of itself. Stay tuned for another editor’s note.
A recent popular release from TCC called Enigma Stick has been capturing the attention of many in our community. Craig Petty named it his best trick from his FISM convention roundup and review video. It has a lot of praise. I get why. It’s cheap, elegantly made, and incredibly visual. Check out the trailer below.
There is only one teeny tiny problem with it. It makes no. Fucking. Sense. What even is that thing? Why is the stick penetrating through the cuffs? I’d even argue it’s a significant step down from doing the traditional linking cigarettes routine. With the linking cigarettes you’re using an everyday, organic, borrowed item to do magic with. With Enigma Stick, you’re using this strange wooden magic prop that is obviously purposely built for magic. I can safely say, no matter how much someone inspects that prop, they’ll walk away thinking “it must be that thing”.
Wow, a second post from the Editor in a row, and on a Wednesday! This is just like the first month of the site’s existence!
Don’t worry, we’ll get back to the magic soon. But I wanted to give you a little extra reassurance first that I really am back in action.
First off, comments have been turned on globally, under every post. The only reason we had them off was by preference of the old webmaster Smith, and that is of course no longer a relevant preference. So enjoy!
Some basic ground rules for making comments on the Magic Oval:
Your comment should be relevant to the post, the site, or something else regarding us. That, or a meaningful personal anecdote. Not just some random comment that would “fit” under any post.
Your comment should not self-censor for fear of offense, unless you’re using racial slurs or something. Then maybe censor them. Otherwise, we of course are not of the opinion that anyone should dampen their beliefs in our comment section.
Feel free to use a stage name or your real name or a random one-time name. We don’t care, obviously. We’re all pseudonymous.
An email is required to help avoid spam. It can be any email, and the only downside of putting an email you don’t actually use will be that you’ll miss any possible prizes we send you for an especially good comment. We will never add the email to our subscription list because of a comment. So go ahead, use a throwaway email to write that piece dissecting our greatest post and pointing out the fatal flaw in it. It’ll just save us money on gift cards.
Despite rule 2, we may refrain from publishing any comments that might cause pointless or overwrought debate or arguments with the writers. If so, we will send a cordial email explaining this to the provided address. Other than for this, and for distributing prizes, we will never use the comment form email address.
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. [sic (but if you actually needed this bracketed Latin adverb for clarity on the meaning of a 18th (and early 19th apparently) century spelling you are an uncultured heathen.)] Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Smith, Webmaster of The Magic Oval: Look on my works, ye [Justin] Miller, and despair!” No thing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.
We’ve all been in that dreaded situation where you’ve been asked to perform and you’re completely blanking out. It’s never a fun spot to be in. Despite knowing a countless number of effects and routines, you’re not able to produce any of them during the moment any of it actually matters.
It’s not a matter of not knowing enough, it’s a matter of insufficient organization. Are you actively doing something to organize the effects that you know? If not, it’s something I urge you to prioritize. Organization is scarcely spoken about in the magic community. The only place I recall reading about it in recent memory is over at The Jerx (I recommend you check out the posts “100 Trick Repertoire Redux” [part one and two] , and “Minitoire and Shadow“). I enjoyed reading his organization tools and systems. Ultimately, I wanted to create a system specific to the social situations I find myself in, and for the effects that I usually perform. I hope you will be inspired to do the same by these ideas.
At first, I’d write down the strongest tricks that came to mind in my notes app on my phone, and when I found myself in a situation where I knew I’d be performing, I’d peruse that list. It was a short term remedy. The problem with this solution is that many excellent effects fall through the proverbial cracks, mostly due to forgetting them. Also, it was hard to pick appropriate effects for the given context. I took the time investment to create a much more thorough list, see below.
I sat down and slowly tried to recall all my favorite effects over the years. I also only chose effects that I am completely comfortable doing. This recalling process might take place over some days, weeks or months as some effects won’t come to mind immediately. The list was made on the IOS native notes app. As you can see, there are a few categorical organizations happening all at once.
Let’s be real for a second here. False shuffles don’t really work. I’ve always loved false shuffles ever since my first foray into the magical arts. There are two specific shuffles I’ve always loved, the Truffle shuffle & and the Zarrow shuffle. I’ve practiced both continuously for over a decade. Over time though, I realized something that all card magicians realize at one point or another. It’s always better to let the participant shuffle the deck, if you truly want to convince them that it’s in a randomized state. Consequently, false shuffles become this weird moment where you’re halfway committed to convincing them you’re mixing the deck, but you can’t truly go all the way and give them the deck. I usually throw some in before I do my ACAAN (the effect I do the most that requires a stack) because I feel like it can’t hurt. However, I want to move the shuffles from the “it can’t hurt to do” category and move them into a “this is a highly deceptive aspect of the effect” category.
I feel a little silly putting all that practice into the shuffles, when I arguably should have been practicing/studying deck switching techniques (if convincing the participant of the deck being shuffled was my goal). Yes, it’s less convenient to carry around another deck and choreograph a deck switch than it is to do a false shuffle on the spot. However, I’d rather sacrifice convenience for strength of effect.
What follows is my attempt to get the most out of our treasured, well practiced, and beloved false shuffle techniques. The idea is essentially asking the participant if they want to shuffle the cards and through some sneaky strategy, increase their chances of replying with a no. What follows are two gambits that accomplish this with significant accuracy.
This is a story of a performance that I will never forget.
I was nineteen years old, and on a road trip with my at-the-time girlfriend and her family. We were heading to a family reunion of theirs that they hold every 5 years. It was sort of a big deal that she brought me along, it would mean I could meet every single family member. At that point in our relationship, we had been dating for a few years already, so they figured I was serious enough of a boyfriend to come along. In the middle of our 7 hour road trip, we stopped at her cousin’s house to spend the night. When we eventually pulled up, we were greeted warmly by the 5 member family. A husband and wife, with 3 children of all different ages. Despite being a stranger to them, they welcomed me into their home without any hesitation.
When I got into the house, I could see into the kitchen and the back garden. I was told we were going to have a barbeque outside for dinner. As we were walking through the kitchen talking, I noticed a deck of cards on the windowsill in front of the sink. I tried not to overtly look at it or pay any attention to it. Though I was aware people in her family were told in advance that I did magic, and I knew there was a big expectation for me to perform. As people went outside and started mingling, I snatched the cased deck and pocketed it. I made sure no one saw, and was confident that no one would notice that it was gone.
Some minutes went by, and I excused myself to the bathroom. I sat on the porcelain throne and began to stack the deck. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I started placing it in my memorized stack. No, I wasn’t actually shitting while doing this. Once I was finished, I left the washroom and planted the stacked deck back atop the windowsill when no one was looking.
Hi guys! We’re back. I had to hijack control of the blog from the editor so that I could post my stuff, he’s dead for all I know. I would comment on how Anagram “Month” went, but I have no access to the statistics. The damned editor does.
Now you guys are in for a treat, this is something that I consider as a little secret weapon of mine. A lot of my ideas for posts have come from self reflection after performances. There are a lot of subtleties and concepts I use unconsciously, and sometimes it takes me time to even realize that these ideas are worth sharing. The following idea is also one from the unconscious.
The Concept
The idea is to carry a singular prediction (of anything you plan to get your spectators to name). The prediction you use needs to be psychologically appealing enough for it to be chosen in performances, but not appealing enough that it’s just plainly obvious. Let’s use a playing card for ease of example. The 7 of Diamonds would be a decent choice because it gets chosen a fair amount, but it is not as obvious of a choice as the Queen of Hearts or the Ace of Spades. Once you prepare the prediction, you’ll want to place it somewhere that is easy to access, but hidden, like in a breast pocket. Then, you’ll want to do effects where you have people name their selections. Then, you simply wait until someone names your hidden prediction. The best part about this principle is that you have absolutely nothing to lose by doing this. You simply either get a perfect hit, or they never knew your prediction existed. Below are two recent performance stories to help explain how I’d use this.
Story 1
Some months ago, at a big work party, I was asked to perform for everyone. Word had gotten out that I was a magician, and the boss had asked me to do a mini-strolling gig for the evening. I accepted the challenge. It was a cool summer evening, so I just had a cotton button-up shirt and slacks on. I brought a singular deck of cards, a sharpie, and a sole 7 of Hearts in my shirt breast pocket.
The deck of cards was in a memorized deck order, so I was jazzing with whatever cards people said out loud. I was doing effects like card to box, Mnemonicosis, ACAAN, etc. When I got to the last table, I asked someone to name a card. A woman at the table named the 7 of Hearts. I said “now, what if instead of finding it in the deck you just shuffled, I had already found it? You see, I took one card from a completely different deck, and placed that card in my breast pocket. Let me empty out all my other pockets to show you that they are completely empty. I had a feeling you’d say that card, that’s why I put it there. It’s not like I could have taken it from the deck on the table because it has a completely different coloured back. Please, remove it.” I gestured for someone next to her to go into my breast pocket and remove the card. She turned it over to show everyone that it was the 7 of Hearts. Everyone went crazy.
Story 2
Two weeks ago, I sat down next to my coworker and asked her if she wanted to see a trick. She eagerly said yes. I asked her to name a playing card (the deck of cards I was going to use was still hidden in my pocket). She named the 7 of Diamonds. I asked her if she wondered why I didn’t have a deck with me. She said that she did. “You see, the reason why I’m not using a deck is that I knew you were going to say that. That’s why I wrote it down earlier. Seriously. Come with me.” I got her to get up and walk with me over to my desk. There was no one else in the office, so there was no way she could entertain the idea of an accomplice sneaking a billet onto my desk after she had named it. My desk was in view the whole time. We walked over and I pointed out a lone navy envelope on my desk. There was nothing else around it. I asked her to open it up and inside she found this:
After opening the envelope, she ransacked my desk and drawers, finding nothing. She went through every book, file, and folder. I insisted that she looked until she was satisfied.
It’s Halal!
The interesting thing is, I wasn’t lying at all during my little preambles before the revelation. This super clean, ultra hit is also a moment of Halal Magic (Jerry approved). What you are saying to them is true. You did specifically put the 7 of Hearts from another deck in that pocket (or write it down, or what have you). You do not have any other cards hidden on your person. You did have a feeling that the card in your pocket would be named.
Why I Don’t Have More Outs
Yes, you could carry around multiple outs and increase your odds of a hit, but I prefer not to do so for two reasons. The first reason is that I use this for convenience and as a “free hit”. I don’t want to be carrying around a lot of outs with me. The second and more important reason is that after the revelation, you can instantly say “now maybe you think I have a card in every pocket, or in my wallet, or in my phone case, or up my sleeves. Please pat me down, check every pocket, take my wallet and look inside of it. I only had one card with me this evening, the very card you simply thought of.” I think this is an important touch because it kills the most obvious method in their mind.
“Let’s Hear Some Non-Card Examples!”
What are some non-card versions of this I’ve used in the past? Well, thanks to this blog post by Marc Kerstein about Wikitest, I learned that “Dog” was the most searched for item by WikiTest participants. What I would do is have an envelope with a billet that had “Dog” written on it, and that would be inside of my phone case, waiting to be unleashed as a kicker ending.
In this post, I wrote about the high hit rate that eggplant gets, when you ask people to name a vegetable. I had that in my phone case (my main out was carrot, and that was in my wallet. In that case I had two outs, but this is a rare occurrence). When I asked the girlfriend of a magic friend to name a vegetable, she said “eggplant”. I asked her if I had my phone wallpaper as an eggplant, if she would be impressed. She said yes. I explained that perhaps it could be an app, or voice recognition. She hesitantly agreed. Then I said I had something even more impossible. An envelope inside of my phone case… Later that day, that magic friend said to me: “Drew, that eggplant thing earlier, how the fuck?”
Conclusion
I wanted to end this post with two more mentions of other posts where Loaded Lightning made an appearance, and why I decided to call it the Loaded Lightning Principle. If you read my post Jazz in Social Magic #5: Cloud Seven, you’ll see that this is just the Loaded Lightning principle but I made the prediction on the fly. In another one of my older posts, Jazz in Social Magic #2: Lightning Strikes Twice, I used a prediction printed on the box, I didn’t even need to have any extra items on me. In the post I wrote that I “realized” the revelation printed on the box but to tell the truth, I was waiting throughout each effect during that performance for the 4 of Diamonds to come up. In that situation, instead of someone naming the card, they had coincidentally shuffled it to the top. It was the title of that post that influenced this one.
The outcomes in the performances outlined in this post weren’t pure coincidences. I had allowed the outcome to be able to occur. Load that lightning on your person and you’ll find it striking way more often than you expect.
