Bound And Gagged!

.:39/365: Torn And Restored:.

I hope you like that one…

There are a lot of “torn and restored” routines out there, but this one is suitable for the month of hearts, because what do you know, it focuses on tearing a piece of red paper up and then restoring it in the shape of a heart.

I don’t really have much to say about this effect, as it’s really that simple, and after watching the video, what else do you need to know about it, right? David Goldrake’s take on a fundamental magic effect is nothing out of the ordinary, but it does serve its purpose, and on this month of hearts (Bah, humbug. LOL.), you’d definitely want to have any weapon at your disposal.

.:Today Was Quiet, But…:.

Swung by Reedley after the DK this morning. It was a bit interesting because Logan started doing jokes I heard on Yes FM. Heh. What’s worse is he role-plays with us, making the joke sound more realistic and just… insanely funny and corny.

Outside of that, not much. Let’s just say today was an incredibly boring day, albeit a few good conversations with Inka and My Beloved have definitely given me a turning point in my life heading into this crazy week.

Personal Commentary, Project 365 disenchanted kingdom, love, magic, magikel, My Beloved, radio

.:38/365: Love And Misdirection:.

Sometimes, being a magician has its perks…

Project 365 love, magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:37/365: On Signed Cards And The Sandwich Effect:.

Watch it performed up close. Now think of how you could use this to your advantage.

One of the first effects I used with cards that sorta required me to have a spectator sign their name on the card is a sandwich effect. Essentially, a sandwich effect is about using two cards to magically materialize a selected card in between them just by waving them around the deck, or cutting them in the middle of the deck, if that’s what it took.

Now, the reason why I’m talking about this effect should be pretty obvious: most card effects involving a signed card is the perfect opportunity for the romantic magician to wiggle some personal details from their spectator. If they actually give you their number, it means one of two things: either they’re interested, or because they’re taken, they think you’re safe. This also means that you’d have to figure out which one they are over the course of your routine, and the sandwich effect, with its limitless variations, will allow you to do just that.

The nice thing about this routine is it requires very minimal sleights, but has a very powerful impact. For some reason, a signed card enhances the performance as it assures the volunteer that there are no duplicate cards or special gimmicks involved to make the effect happen. It may cost a pretty penny to constantly have to replace decks because of cards being signed and given away, but it’s not such a bad investment if you’re doing this for a living.

There are many other effects that use signed cards, chief amongst them, the ambitious card routine. However, since this is the month of “Love and Magic” and not the month of “Card Magic”, I’d like to save certain routines to discuss for that month, and the sandwich effect is one of those effective routines that I can’t quite imagine being done without signing the card first, lest people assume a duplicate.

Project 365 love, magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:36/365: The Queen Of Hearts:.

This card is the second most popular card in a standard deck of playing cards, next only to the Ace of Spades.

Ask any magician out there who has worked for a long time. When asked to think of a card without any restrictions, the most common card people think of would be the Ace of Spades. When women are asked, a significant number of them think about the Queen Of Hearts.

The first thing most card readers learn when learning how to predict the future by using cards is how to seek out four cards in the deck: the Ace of Hearts, the Ace of Spades, the King of Spades, and the Queen of Hearts. For some reason, out of all the face cards, the Queen of Hearts really commands the most recognition. She supposedly represents Judith from an apocryphal book of the Bible.

The fact remains that one of the most potent weapons in a magician’s arsenal is a deck of cards, and the Queen of Hearts appears to be a favourite card for magicians who want to hint at anything romantic with the girl. Why go for a five of diamonds when you can go for something latently symbolic like the Queen of Hearts?

Anyways, I digress. Out of the many symbols of love available in the lore of magic, I suppose this card in particular is one of the most recognizable ones out there.

Project 365 love, magic, magikel, project 365 2010

.:35/365: Mystery:.

You may scoff, but he’s had more tail than Naruto. And if you get that joke, you should really rethink your life.

And now, we enter the realm of Pickup Artists. I’ll probably talk about them at some other point this month, but it’s safe to say that Mystery is one of the first people who’d come to mind whenever the three letters P, U, and A are put together.

As the alter-ego of Erik Von Markovik, Mystery is a persona that has captured the fancy and interest of a lot of attractive women in bars and clubs, thanks to a very systematic method developed over the years by Mystery with the help of his wingman, Neil Strauss. The “secrets” of this system are revealed to a large extent in the book entitled “The Game,” often hailed as a bible by most pickup artists.

What makes Mystery very interesting is he is actually a magician, and if you exclude the recent influx of “cool” street magicians like David Blaine or Criss Angel, magic is hardly regarded as “cool” by people in general. If anything, most people find magicians very dorky, or downright weird. Mystery didn’t exactly try to become the next Blaine or Angel when he did what he did. In fact, he used these perceptions to his advantage because it doesn’t really matter what people might think of him, the point was, they were guaranteed to think about him.

I realize I’m merely painting in broad strokes as I talk about Mystery, but his achievements cannot be denied, and his techniques as a mentalist and as a magician have certainly allowed him to translate his skill into success with seducing women who feel inexplicably attracted to a guy they barely know. It seems everything falls into place for them, but for Mystery, this is all according to plan, in fact.

Purists may not approve of Mystery and his usage of magic and mentalism as a tool to get closer to women, but few can deny that it is effective. If someone like Jay Sankey can do it, I don’t see why anyone else with ample skill and charisma can’t. Mystery realized this, and has made a name for himself because of it.

Project 365 love, magic, magikel, mentalism, project 365 2010

.:34/365: Glen Falkenstein and Frances Willard:.

Ah, love. Soft as an easy chair.

It’s not everyday you run into a mentalism duo, and these two performers epitomize precisely that. Glen Falkenstein and his wife, Frances Willard, have performed for decades, and are certainly well-known in the magic industry as great entertainers who have perfected a tandem act that only they could possibly do.

I recently mentioned Falkenstein’s blindfold act in passing in a previous entry, but it bears repeating that the main advantage Glen and Frances have when performing this act is that they are so in tune with each other, that they have devised the perfect way to just make the seemingly impossible happen. Their signature blindfold act is a sight to behold, and it’s filled with great moments of brilliance and comedy.

It’s also interesting to note that the great Michael Ammar is actually married to one of Frances’s daughters (She had a first husband before Glen.). That’s just magic royalty right there, and I must say, out of all the many magician relationships over the history of the industry, it’s this one in particular that tickles my fancy, more than anything else. I know some people love Paul Daniels and his lovely wife more, but as a mentalist, I can’t help but be biased towards Glen and Frances, especially since I also like using their infamous “Gypsy Myster”, even though that’s more of an escapology act when Jay and I perform it.

Call me cheesy, but I think the fact that these two have been in a loving relationship for so long has allowed them a connection so strong that their act has simply been enhanced by it. It’s also a genuine tandem act at that. I personally don’t feel that Frances is merely an assistant to Glen, but truly a partner onstage.

Project 365 love, magic, magikel, mentalism, project 365 2010

33/365: Firestarters:.

Meet Jay Sankey. I don’t like him much, but he has his uses.

Firestarters is one of the few things Jay Sankey ever came up with that I would unequivocally say I like. I’ve been very clear about my disdain for the inconsistent quality Sankey usually comes out with, but it’s not necessarily the quality of the routines in this particular video that caught my attention, but the very intent he has placed in coming out with this video in the first place.

Now, I may not be an advocate of PUA, but if any magicians ever thought that they have a gold mine in dates waiting for them if they exploited their ability to do the impossible, then more power to them, so long as they’re good at it. If they’re poor magicians and use it solely as an excuse to pick up girls, well, if the girl does pick them on that basis, there’s just no accounting for taste.

Anyways, this video series teaches a lot of different effects geared towards testing the waters with a female volunteer, to see if she’s willing to flirt or play along with your not-so-subtle advances. Some of the routines are rather lacklustre and really just fall into reworkings of older effects, but if you don’t appreciate the actual routines Sankey presents, the way he teaches his material and the thought process involved in all of them would allow you to adapt a lot of common routines you’re more comfortable with and make Firestarters out of them.

For me, this is a nice way to diversify the magician’s portfolio, even if you’re not really out to score some dates, but just so you could test out a different onstage persona altogether. I remember a few weeks ago, during his birthday party, Marf (and Cleo) were shocked at how different I was when I was performing some of my signature routines for the party. Normally, I’m very serious when I do my metal bending while at the Disenchanted Kingdom, but that night, I showed them a side of me that surprised them. As an onstage persona, I took on a completely different persona, and I was just “on” that night.

For the average magician who’s just starting out, look for videos like these to help you develop a persona all your own. I’d like to say that I have an original style all to myself, but my style is really just a “best-of” amalgam of Derren Brown, Richard Osterlind, Penn Jilette, and David Copperfield. There’s no shame in that. My style was certainly influenced, but it’s not a result of me copying these people over the years, I just did what came natural to me while I was learning stuff.

So yes, Jay Sankey, I’m giving props where props are due. This is a good video, albeit perhaps not for the reasons you’d assume.

Project 365 magic, magikel, mentalism, project 365 2010

.:32/365: The Illusionist:.

Films about magicians are rather few and far in between. This is one of the better ones.

Welcome to the month of hearts, and with a new month, we welcome a new theme for our project 365. This month, we will be talking about love and magic, and what better way to start things off than by talking about one of the best films about magic ever, “The Illusionist”?

This is a film starring the ever-versatile Edward Norton as Eisenheim, a magician in Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. As an illusionist embroiled in the middle of a love triangle involving himself, the Dutchess Sophie, and the crown prince Leopold, his social standing appears to have him in over his head, but somehow, like the crafty magician that he really is, he manages to concoct not just a dazzling act, but a master plan to pull one over everybody else.

This is truly an engaging story with intrigue, conspiracy, and thrills, but at its very heart, the Illusionist is a love story. The timeless tale of a man and a woman facing off against the odds for the sake of their love is a story we all know of and could understand. I don’t want to spoil the movie too much, so just give it a watch. I promise you wouldn’t regret it.

Project 365 film, magic, magikel, mentalism, project 365 2010

.:31/365: The Russian Roulette:.

Hi, Angela. It’s been a while.

One of the most dangerous routines of all time is the Russian Roulette. It’s a mentalism act that forces one to rely on his ability to determine if a person is lying or not. I strongly suggest that any mentalist who is just starting out steer clear of this routine until they are both very good at doing the lie detector test, and insured. Even the best professionals get this routine wrong, with often disastrous results.

Like any other mentalism act, the script is rather simple: there are several discs on a table. One of them will have a sharp knife attached to its end. Then, all discs are covered with cups or a cylinder to conceal the location of the knife, and the performer will crush each cylinder by hand one at a time, all with the hopes that none of them actually contains the knife. At each point, the mentalist will be asking the person who mixed up the discs if the spike is there, and the person is indeed required to lie.

I don’t always use this routine simply because it’s a very dangerous one, and will often require me to sign a waiver if I have intentions of performing it. Any organizer who books me would naturally be terrified of the prospect of having their main event impale himself on (in my case) a sharp spike, and knowing my work ethic, finish the show while bleeding like a stuck pig. It conjures very visceral images in the minds of the audience, and you can sense the sheer terror in the air.

I think that out of all the routines I perform, this one gets the strongest reactions because of the tension it creates for everyone. Most magic and mentalism routines produce a certain amount of drama, but the danger often found in acts can seem quite distant to the audience, since many have seen people escape from straightjackets and the like before, or disappear and reappear from one place to another. However, the stakes are insanely high in this act, and anyone can clearly see how terrifying it would be if one got it wrong. Some people think that it might be a case of accomplices, but I can assure you that it’s not. I even offer to pay the guy who manages to fool me into impaling myself. That way, they are motivated to lie better, what with the promise of not only getting me possibly lethally injured, but even compensated for it.

This is one of the best routines in a mentalist’s arsenal, ever. However, I would almost never want to end the show with such a performance because let’s face it, it does create a lot of tension and ends the show on a very agitating note.

Anyone else uses this routine? Let me know how you like it!

Project 365 magic, magikel, mentalism, project 365 2010

Bringing Down The House (Of Runes):.

Friday night was the start of a new era, hot off the heels after our swan song in Ditzy Diner the previous week. After having risked life and limb in doing Russian Roulette last Friday (and finding myself the receiving end of Dramagician jokes because of it), we took our act to unchartered territories courtesy of fellow mentalist Nomer Lasala: The House Of Runes in West Avenue.

It was quite a challenge, to say the least. We were in a crowd that didn’t seem like our target market, and we didn’t know if we were going to get through them with our comedy style. Despite that, we went ahead and gave them our best shot, and we quickly found out that we could really get them to laugh if we just gave them enough time to warm up to us.

For once, I headlined the night, and I did two of my favourite magic and comedy acts to much success from the audience. At the same time, I tried out some new material and my classic jokes about my misadventures as a magician on TV. All in all, we really caught the attention of everyone there that night, and it’s something to look forward to for next week, to be sure.

We’re gonna be there again next Friday, guys! Catch some magic and standup comedy only at The House Of Runes, Westlife, West Avenue, QC. It’s very near EDSA, so you can’t miss it.

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