I was doing my daily doomscrolling on the toilet, and I came across this video.

The performance itself was not as horrible as it could have been, considering the French Kiss is a horrible trick. I mean no disrespect to the person performing. It’s always easy to criticize the person in the limelight when you’ve never had that experience yourself. Obviously the guy must’ve been accomplished enough to have performed for one of the most famous athletes in history. 

That being said, what I have to say here will not require any significant change in method, practice or practicality.

Messi looked uncomfortable. He obviously didn’t want to put that filthy piece of card in his mouth. Especially considering the magician was a complete stranger to him! The cherry on top of this awkward interaction is the lackluster reaction that Messi gave.

This could easily be remedied. Instead of folding up the cards and shoving them in people’s mouths, why not just have them hold it? Or place it in their pocket. Or… step on it. 

In fact, placing the card on the ground inviting them to step on it is all the more thematically relevant in this context. Messi is a football player. Imagine he had drawn a football on the card instead. You could then have Messi sign the ball drawing, and do your standard handling with the double lifts. Then, you could place it on the ground and invite Messi to put his foot on it. You do the same: drawing a football on the card and self-signing it. You put your foot on the card.

Explain you were watching his games and how he would almost magically steal the football from underneath the player’s feet. You could say this inspired you as a magician, and that you wanted to combine magic psychology with football physiology. You might say your goal is to switch balls with Messi. Now there’s a sentence that I never could’ve imagined writing before this blog.

Say you’ll attempt to do something similar. You might do a cheesy magical gesture with your foot and show that your balls (cards) have switched. It might be a shallow connection to football, and maybe a bit facetious to compare what is obviously a magic trick to his actual skill, but it’s a sight better than making him bite a card.

The point is, try not to jam a trick in its original state, especially one as bad as the French Kiss, into a context that obviously doesn’t welcome it. Be creative and willing to change it to fit the context you’re in. All of this reads long, but in reality this presentation might be a few sentences at most after drawing the footballs on the cards.