Idiosyncratic legerdemain blog.

  • How We Generate The Best Anagrams Around

    Franklin
    Category:

    You may have noticed a bit of a gap in “Anagram Month”…to the extent that it no longer fits in a month. We have been waiting on Jerry to post an intro to our new anagram generator. Nothing much, just a few lines. The Editor should have known better than to trust Jerry with even a task that simple. But Jerry lost all his fingers in an accident trying to learn some of Blaise Serra’s sleight of hand techniques using a deck of cards made from thin sheet metal. After a month of poking individual letters with his nose for hours each day, he still hasn’t finished that post, so we’re going over his head and skipping it. I’ll summarize it what it was intended to contain here:

    • We have a brand spanking new anagram generator. (Where by “new” I mean “have been sitting on for months”.)
    • You can use it to automatically generate progressive anagrams, frontloaded progressive anagrams, two kinds of transgressive anagrams, and commutative anagrams.
    • You can even create them by hand (if you have fingers and an aversion to anything resembling AI).
    • For most anagram types, the longer you wait for a solution, the better the solution you’ll get.
    • Sometimes, immediately running the same search again can get you different results, which you might like better!
    • You can bookmark a direct link to a particular anagram you like to study it again later.
    • You can practice an anagram you’ve created/generated on our anagram trainer with a single click.
    • If you find any bugs or have any suggestions, shoot me an email.
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  • Making Your Anagrams Commute

    Franklin
    Category: ,

    Editor’s note: After introducing frontloaded progressive anagrams, which give your typical progressive anagram a couple of the perks of a perfect progressive anagram, Franklin announces the definition of a new category of branching anagram based off of perfect transgressive anagrams.

    This post assumes you are familiar with the concept of transgressive anagrams (TAs), perfect TAs, and how to construct them, so ideally you will have read those two posts from The Jerx before beginning this one. In particular, it assumes you are aware that, while progressive anagrams are constructed to minimize the number of misses (“no” answers), transgressive anagrams are constructed to minimize the total number of questions.

    Here is an example of a minimal transgressive anagram you can use to pin down one of the 13 official Disney princesses (up and right is No, down and right is Yes):

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  • Toward Better Progressive Anagrams

    Franklin
    Category: ,

    Editor’s note: This commences Anagram August with a superior type of progressive anagram. For an introduction and anagram trainer tool, see the previous post.

    For some reason, at some point, someone looked at the idea of fishing for a mentally selected word by asking whether it contained certain letters and said, “that’s an anagram!” despite the fact that that’s not what anagram means! But despite the fact that the principle of branching anagrams has been around for 87 years, we still think there are some innovations to be had. Better living through new technology.

    The original species of branching anagram we’re all most familiar with is the progressive anagram, in which the goal is to minimize the number of “no” answers you get, allowing you to pretend like you’re some kind of alphabet-obsessed mind-reader or something when you’re actually just fishing for information.

    The downsides of progressive anagrams are well-known: they may require a lot of questions, and they really force you to have make your presentation about guessing letters. But, at least in the case of perfect progressive anagrams—in which the first time you get a “no” response, you already know the word—the upsides are clear as well: they are easy to memorize, and they let you potentially milk a lot of additional hits out of a simple word guess while only involving one miss which can be easily spun into a hit.

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  • Announcing Anagram August (And Presenting A Trainer)

    Editor
    Category:

    I’m pretty excited about this. We’re finally getting around to publishing something that we’ve been working on for a year. I’ll admit, it’s likely not going to be limited to August at this point. But Announcing Anagram Month just wouldn’t sound as cool.

    I have to be candid with you, usually Franklin’s more advanced stuff kind of goes over my head. But this is cool. The next month is going to be full of honest-to-God improvements and invaluable insights on branching anagrams. You really shouldn’t miss it. However, because several posts in a row about anagrams is going to be alarming, I figured I should introduce what’s going to happen first.

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  • 21 Savant (Degaffing Petty and Barnes)

    Franklin
    Category:

    So, yeah, the Savant Deck. Murphy’s is now hawking a gaff deck from Craig and Lloyd whose core purpose is to make you look like a mathematical genius or a Grandmaster of Memory (as they call them in the competitive memory sports arena). And, you know what? I don’t mind it. It’s a plot that deserves a little more attention, given that there are a lot of fun things you can do with it presentationally if you choose not to go down the easy “human calculator” route. Plots where you are temporarily given the ability to think faster via some meditation or an experimental hypnosis technique involving perfectly timed flashes of perfectly colored light. Plots where you can discern the values of cards by the differing magnetic forces of the ink in them. There’s some room here for creativity, and a deck that does most of the work for you so you can just play in that space is worthwhile.

    On the other hand, it’ll run you 35 bucks, or else an hour or so making up the gaffs yourself if you don’t need the tutorial and want to customize it using your favorite deck. And either way, I lay even odds you’re just going to toss the deck in a drawer after only a couple of performances. So, in the spirit of offering alternatives, I’m offering you a way to perform an effect very similar to the basic Savant Deck trick using just a regular deck of cards.

    Of course, thanks to a four-month delay in posts being published here (Quoth the editor: “Shut up about publishing posts. My shoulders won’t massage themselves!”), I’ve been scooped by Andy over at the Jerx. Our methods are completely different, so right up front, before we even get into my method, I’ll give you a little chart comparing the pros and cons of all the Savants, with the best option for each category highlighted:

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  • Bits and Bobs #2: The SUMS Out

    Editor
    Category:

    This post is written by both the editor and Drew, but there is no way to indicate that on WordPress.

    Hello, my friends. It’s been quite a while, I know. I wish I could say that I had a good reason for my absence, but in truth I was overseas enjoying myself at a [redacted] before the crew hunted me down and dragged me back to the Oval HQ. As the editor of the wokest magic blog around, I understand that this is unacceptable behavior. Unfortunately for all of you, nobody else is willing to do this quixotic shit for free, so you’re stuck with me. To symbolize my punishment, the title of “editor” will no longer be capitalized.

    You’ll be pleased to hear that everyone else on the crew has been busy at work while I was busying myself with sinful extravagance. In fact, more than one post has been discarded due to no longer being timely, and some discarded due to being rancid screeds against yours truly for my appalling absence. As a result we have enough content built up to publish posts for some time to come.

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  • Let’s Talk to Invisible People

    Drew
    Category:

    I’ve been practicing Asi Wind’s ACAAN lately. If you’re not aware, you have to do some calculation and then execute a secret shift of the deck. As you can imagine, it can be a tricky thing to do in performance.

    I’ve developed a way (I’m sure I’m not the first, or the only person to do this) to practice this type of routine effectively. The benefit of this type of practice extends well beyond an ACAAN, and is applicable to nailwriting, clocking a deck, and plenty of other things. I think it’ll be of use to you.

    When I first practiced the ACAAN, I would go on Random.org and get a random card & number, then do my thing. I’d just repeat that over and over until I was done after an arbitrary amount of time or repetitions that I’d set for myself (this isn’t the special practice method, keep reading).

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  • In Defense of Lecture Patter

    Franklin
    Category: ,

    Hello from the land of surf and Spam musubi, where you tip the beach boys by day and Shoot Ogawa by night. That’s right, as I write this I’m absorbing the mana of Hawai’i. I’m not sipping a Mai Tai on the beach, unfortunately. I’m in an airport lounge punching keys on my laptop and thinking about magic.

    I came here for an 8-day cruise around the islands, and now that has come to an end. And as much as I would love to chat about the boat’s resident magician, that’s not the experience that stuck with me. Instead, I’m going to talk about trivia. What do you mean going to? Everything you’ve said so far is entirely trivial. Fine! I’ll get to the point. Soon.

    One morning, while docked on Kauai, most of the cruisers got off the boat to go on excursions to places I’ve already been, so I went to the morning trivia game alone. And I mean alone. I was the only one who showed up to play. It was just me and the host from the entertainment staff. We chatted about the life of working on a cruise ship for a while, and when the start time came and no one else walked in, he sat down at the table and said “I guess it can be an out-loud trivia then.” And then he did something strange.

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  • My Cheap Uncle: A Bank Night Presentation

    Drew
    Category:

    Here is my personal presentation for a close-up Bank Night effect, and some thoughts on a more widely applicable version. While my version is specific to a particular occasion, it will be made clear how something very similar can be done at any time of year.

    I’m hanging out with a friend at my place and they notice a bunch of Chinese red envelopes on the table.

    “Oh those? Yeah, it’s something I’m practicing actually. Growing up in Asia, my family took part in giving and receiving red envelopes filled with cash. Being the main youngster at most family gatherings, I was the one doing most of the receiving. The cash flow didn’t stop even after my move to America, as there were some family friends near where we moved that participated in such traditions.

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  • Further Notes on Halal Magic

    Jerry
    Category: ,

    The other day, I received a lovely and insightful email regarding the Halal Magic post from someone who shall be known as T. I wanted to share it, along with some thoughts on truthful patter for ACAANs, sponge balls, and one of the first tricks ever referenced on this blog.

    Great essay. Just wanted to note that Garrett Thomas, Ben Earl, and Derek Delgaudio all also frame their magic similarly.

    (more…)

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