Unworking Wallets

If you have the mental disorder known as keeping an entire drawer of leather goods you never touch, this post is for you. I’ve sold most of my magic wallets off now, because I’ve realized something. I don’t need them. I’ll elaborate.

You might think “heck, if I’m going to carry around a wallet everyday anyway, it might as well be a magic wallet so I have extra material with me at all times”. Well, you’re wrong.

You are sacrificing the structure of your trick for convenience. Think about it, 99% of tricks done with wallets do not have wallets as an intrinsic part of the trick. Unless you’re clever with presentations, the wallet often makes little sense. Cards are already a contrived prop to bring out, now you’re adding a wallet into the mix?

Say you’re doing mentalism, you’ve asked them to write something down and now you’re placing the billet in your wallet. Why? Yes, you can find ways to justify the use of the wallet in each context, but why subject yourself to that work? There is almost always a superior solution to the method of any trick in question. Let’s get back to that mentalism routine. Instead of the peek wallet, say you are using the Acidus Novus peek for example. You have them write something down, fold up the billet and in seconds you’ve peeked it. It’s all self-contained, easy, almost angle proof and requires no extra props/space in your pockets. Again, just one example of many that come to mind.

Thinking of all the tricks these wallets can do, I’ve found I prefer versions that don’t require the wallet. You could do card to wallet, but Daniel Madison’s Angle Z gets stronger reactions for me, and it’s easier to get into. I’ve got a twist on that which makes it really killer, but I’ll write about that later.

What’s more, as an amateur magician, I think your belongings need some sort of congruence. Your friends seeing you with a new wallet every month doing new tricks with it aren’t dumb. Wallets are normally a big expense for people. If you are going to have a magic wallet for a specific trick, then try and keep it for a while and let people see you with it and using it as a wallet.

Now, maybe a shogun-style wallet that switches bills might be an intrinsically wallet-based trick. But, are you really going to borrow a bill, place it in your wallet, then take it out again?

On the topic of outs, I’ll concede that there are decent everyday solutions in the form of wallets. I’d probably recommend a quiver purse because it is not a wallet but rather a fancy looking leather pouch. Also, half the time they can open the pouch themselves and remove the prediction leaving everything examinable. I think that is a significant advantage one must consider when weighing it against other solutions like Himbers or envelopes.

Just get a nice, classy, regular wallet and store a few tricks. Things that are relatively normal. Pulling out a color monte just screams artificial. I personally carry a leather wallet, and within it a billet folded up and two envelopes.

Don’t take the shortcuts trick wallets offer, and challenge yourself to use your foundations. Save your money.

One final note: If you are going to have a magic wallet, make it a peek wallet, and actually use it as your primary wallet. For thoughts on how a peek wallet can be used and justified, I highly recommend this blog post from the inestimably intelligent Andy of The Jerx. Cheers!

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