1119 – Indie Magic by Mail | Magic Unboxing

Notable Language:

• What in the Seymour!
• CWO (Chief Wizard Officer)
• A Whole Lotta Monte

Notable Culture:

• Rick Moranis
• LEGO
• Godzilla

Notable Talking Points:

• Scooter, the Relationship Mascot
• In praise of the Indie Magic Community
• Man, these are some really 90s gimmick cards

Episode 1119 – Indie Magic by Mail | Magic Unboxing

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    Friends beyond the binary, ladies and joy…joynlemen, boys and girls…joynlemen; where did that…I don’t even know where that came from. Joynlemen…I think maybe somebody in my life, my personal life, was singing for the role of…one of the roles in…what’s that…? They were singing Suddenly Seymour. My brain has totally gone blank. You say, my brain’s going blank ‘cause I don’t know what in the Rick Moranis you’re…are you…and I say you’re right, I don’t know what in the Rick Moranis I’m talking about, because this feels…you say, I thought I was tuning into a sleep podcast, not a little shop of meanders. I’d say oh no, this is a little shop of meanders and pointless, superfluous tangents. This shop is here to keep you company and ease you into bedtime, take your mind off of stuff so you could fall asleep. It’s very different, so give it a few tries, see how it goes. I’m so glad you’re here. We’re gonna do some support for the show, then we’ll have an intro and a nice little story after that, because you deserve a good night’s sleep. It’s time for Sleep With…what in the Seymour…whatever…what I said; journal…it’s time for Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. Thanks for making it possible, my patron peeps.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing? Trouble getting to sleep? Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press Play. I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts on your mind, stuff you’re thinking about…so thoughts, think…the past, present, future, baffling thoughts, figuring stuff out. Whatever it is. If it’s thoughts, it could be emotions or feelings coming up for you. That happens sometimes for my thoughts, sometimes my feelings. It is…which comes first, the feelings or the thoughts? Sometimes both.

 

You know what I love, is when I’m trying to get in bed and hand-in-hand, my feelings and thoughts come to me, and they’re holding hands, but it doesn’t seem like they’re interested in holding my hand. They’re kinda swinging their hand…holy cow, I just realized I’m a third wheel to my thoughts and feelings. I’m a expert at being a third wheel. Well, I don’t know. Well so…okay, we’ll come back to that. But it could be thoughts or feelings, physical sensations, changes in time or temperature or routine. Also, I don’t know what third wheel really means, ‘cause most vehicles that I’m familiar with have…it doesn’t make any sense. I mean, I’m sure it did in the…its original context, but I’m…I say well, I’m just a wheelbarrow. I’m doing fine on my own. I carry my stuff around. I’m not a third wheel; I’m a wheelbarrow.

 

But I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m here. Oh, let me get to the…let me start the podcast. The third wheels and wheelbarrow’s on my brain. But whatever’s keeping you awake, I’d like to take your mind off of it and keep you company. Just in case you’re having any strong feelings about being a third wheel, don’t worry; I’m gonna cover…I’m gonna give you some relatable stuff to put you at ease before…ideally, ‘cause I’ve had those feelings. But whatever’s keeping you awake, I’m gonna try to take your mind off of it eventually, and…so you can fall asleep, and the way I do that is I try to create a safe place where even terms like that are kinda safe, to have our feelings about it. But eventually what you’ll do is I’ll take your mind off of that by…I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.

 

I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents. You’ve kinda seen the pointless meander and a superfluous tangent already, and you’re hearing my voice, which is not traditionally soothing. It’s more a voice that takes your mind off of stuff that’s good for background noise or barely listening to. A couple things about the show if you’re new; this show is not for everybody, but for most people it is for, it does take two or three tries to listen to. That is the consensus among listeners. Like, over a million times I’ve probably heard it took two or three try…first I disliked the show, then I felt neutral, then I loved it because I stopped list…paying attention to you. I say, what a great compliment. Also, thanks for giving a few tries. So if you’re new, see how it goes.

 

If you’re already at the point where you don’t like the show, check out sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou, because there’s a lot of other shows on there, like other podcasts and sleep audio you could check out. Because the reason I make the show and the reason sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou exists is because I want to help you fall asleep, but if I can’t, maybe one of those other things will, because the…I make the show because one, I know how it feels in the deep, dark night, I know how it feels to dread going to bed, to…the strong feelings you might have before bed, after…in the morning, and while you’re trying…while it’s…the rigmarole of the deep, dark night is going on.

 

All the listeners…or not all the listeners, but the majority of people listening, they can relate to that pain too, and we all experience it in a little bit different ways, but we can relate to how it feels. That’s why I call it the deep, dark night. But as you become a regular listener, I hope you can also relate to this fact, is the fact that you do deserve a good night’s sleep and you deserve a place of respite where you can unwind and drift off to sleep, where you get the rest you need and your life is more manageable. That’s really the most important thing about the show or leading you to another sleep podcast or something else, is the fact that you deserve a more manageable life via rest so that you can flourish. In some sense, you say well, you don’t know me.

 

I say well, I know what it feels like, one, and I know if your life is better, then the world you are in is gonna be better, and that has a positive impact on everybody in the universe, really, and that’s the truth, to me. So, it is important. So that’s why I make the show. Another couple things about the show; this is a podcast you don’t really listen to. You may have already figured that out. You just kinda barely pay attention and just kinda see how it goes. Some people use it as background noise, some people listen and then fall asleep, some people turn me down to a muffle, so just kinda see how it goes. But if you can’t sleep, I’m here to keep you company. So whether you’re awake or asleep, you don’t…you can kinda listen to me, but you don’t have to. This podcast keeps you company instead of fall…putting you to sleep.

 

You kinda just drift off. I take your mind off of stuff and you drift off. I’m here to be your companion in the deep, dark night, your audio assistant, I guess would be one way…and just to be your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-cuz, your bore-bestie, your bore-bruh, your bore-friend. So, that’s what I’m here to do, is keep you company and take your mind off of stuff so you could fall asleep. Now, the structure of the show also throws people off at first. So, I just want to run through why the show is structured the way it is, and then you could kind of adjust. But most people find the structure works well for them. So, the show starts off with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, then I say something witty, maybe, or funny, or partially funny.

 

That way, the goal of that is that you feel welcome and seen, that…and that you get the tone of the show is not so serious. Then there’s support; there’s support for the podcast via listener support and sponsor support so the show could come out twice a week for free on any free podcast app. So, paying for the show is optional and supporting the show is optional so that anyone who wants to listen has access to it, and that comes through the listener support and the sponsors. Then there’s support for listeners if you’re having a tough time right now, and then there’s support for communities around the show and communities where you are so we can take positive action to be a part of positive change. Then there’s the intro, which is separate from that stuff, but when people don’t like the…that part of the show, they tend to carry it on to the intro.

 

But the intro is…it’s…it is important. It’s not important to everybody and I’ll explain that too, but it is an important part of the podcast. It’s a show within a show and it’s about ten to fifteen minutes long, where…already we’re like, five minutes in. I try to explain what the podcast is to a new listener, but my regular listeners…what up, regular listeners? A lot of them really enjoy the intro, and it’s different how each regular listener uses it, but there’s a couple different use cases that are popular. The most popular one is just to listen to the intro as you’re getting ready for bed or as you’re doing your wind down activity, because the intro…it’s not like a book…like one of those…what are those things called that hold up books? I don’t know. I guess the intro isn’t a third wheel, but it’s the wheel on the wheelbarrow, right? It’s rolling.

 

No, I guess that’s not…I’ll have to find another metaphor for it. But it’s…it eases you into bedtime. It’s the transition period between your evening and going to sleep. So, the intro serves as a fifteen to twenty-minute interlude where I’m rambling and trying to explain stuff unsuccessfully, but hopefully in a way that makes you feel like you’re a part of something. Like, you’re…you say okay, there’s other people listening, but this is here for me to keep me company, and this man is somewhat interesting and hopefully we’ll get to the third wheel stuff that he promised. So, it eases you into bedtime. Some people are in bed listening, some people are doing knitting or hooking or drawing or stretching, and then there’s about 2% of people that start the show at twenty or thirty minutes, there’s a few thousand people that listen to story-only episodes and pay extra for that.

 

But yeah, for the most part, it’s a landing strip. So that’s the intro, then there’s more support for the show between the intro and the story, again so it could come out twice a week for free, and then there’s thank-yous at the end of the podcast. So, that’s the structure of the show. That’s why I make the show. Yeah, I’m not comfortable…I guess thinking about it, I’m not comfortable with the term third wheel. One, ‘cause I don’t know what it means…why it’s a metaphor. A third wheel means…and I’ve been in this situation my whole life…majority of the time with someone…I’m the…a third wheel means when one or two of your friends are dating, but you hang around with them a lot. But it’s talked about like it’s a negative, which it could be.

 

Now, normally for me it’s a negative because I’m actually…would have a crush on one of the friends and it was unrequited, and usually it was unrequited…most of the time I was…at least it was…we remained friends, but I said hey, this is not…and I say okay, I understand. I’m a niche person, so I have a niche level of attraction that you’re not…but so, you’re interested in my friend who’s a little more mainstream. But you say, but we’re all still friends, which part of you…maybe now as an adult I might say well, let me think about it. But at the time I say well, okay, let’s…so you hang around with your friends that are dating, and I guess the third wheel part could be one, what…am I looking at my boundaries properly or not? Do I just want to be friends with them? I think most of the time the answer’s yeah, probably.

 

Maybe the other side of it is well, we want to do some light kissing, like the people do in Europe where they kiss each other on the cheeks. We do like to do that. You say oh, okay, well, I’ll just sit over here on the…like, that happens to me in the movies. I say oh boy, yeah, it’s my middle name. There’s probably a better term for it, but I would say no, I’m the wheelbarrow. You two hop in and I’ll roll around. I never had a car, so also I…well, I wasn’t a third wheel driver, luckily. But they say well, you bring us comp…I say well, great, so I…my purpose…so, I have a crush on you and you found a purpose for me, both of you together in your new relationship. So, I’m…it’s more of a…I think here’s a empowering term, and then you could decide if the role fits. It’s like I was their relationship mascot.

 

They say yeah, we like having you around or a side…sidekick’s a little too diminutive. Mascot feels empowering because you have to put on a suit, at least imaginarily. You could say, you know what? I’m not interested in being your relationship mascot. ‘Cause they say well, it’s fun having a person dressed as a giant eagle, except when we’re trying to kiss each other on the cheeks. We prefer to do that in private. You say okay, I can just put my bird head on backwards and I can’t hear anything anyway, and I’ll go lie down. I fall asleep pretty fast in this bird suit. But you could…that makes it a easy role to set. Am I gonna be cheering along your relationship and I’m there as a extra fun?

 

Which is kinda good; sometimes I’ve had people…I’ve been in relationships and then had a third person actually a few different times, and it was fun. It was like a mutual friend whose presence we both enjoyed. So, I guess you could also use that; a mutual friend whose presence we both enjoy. So you could decide…I don’t know if that mascot, though…mutual other ascot. So yeah, see how it goes, I guess. My advice; think about what you’re comfortable with. ‘Cause you could be…you say well, for the time being, I’ll cheer along your relationship. I’ll be your mascot. You say well, no, I’d prefer to just be…I’m not sure how I feel. I need some time.

 

But for me as a introvert and a person who practices a lot of avoidance, the nice thing about either being the extra wheel…which you say it’s great if you get…I mean, I guess that would be…I never fell into that one thinking well, if you get a flat…if he gets a flat tire, I could…he could change it out and put me in there. Most of my delusions had been already corrected with reality already in my third wheel situations, so I never thought I was a spare tire. I mean, I’ve been in that position in a different way. But so, oh boy, this is getting deep. But this is supposed to be a sleep podcast. But I promised you I’d talk about it and try to empower you to say yeah, no, I’d prefer…I prefer…I’d prefer to be friends with…I’ll just think about what my preferences are.

 

Sure I could do that, but in your head you say I’m gonna be your relationship mascot for the time being. I’m gonna cheer, cheer, cheer for…and maybe I’ll get some pom-poms, imaginary ones, and do a roll and I’ll cheer, cheer, cheer for you as a couple. It doesn’t sound so great as…the more I talk about it, but it could be. It could be. Trying to think of anything…I can’t think of any ex…it could be fun for a time. That’s the thing; things evolve and change, and then your friend…one of them might say you could get a…you could take that suit off. The relationship’s over. We don’t need a mascot. You did good, though, as our mascot. It wasn’t your fault; it was…we were incompatible. Or you say yeah, I prefer…if we all enjoy one another’s company, I’m comfortable with that boundary. So, I don’t know.

 

From experience, I’m gonna go with…I’ll live in my…say well, okay, so I tried to live in my imagination with the crush; didn’t work out. Now I’ll live in my imagination in the mascot. So, I don’t know. This is like…I’m digging so deep in the past ‘cause I don’t have any current context for it, but…and I hope I don’t. So anyway, I’m glad you’re here. If that’s the kinda stuff you could relate to, I’m here to help. Tonight…oh, so the structure of the show…oh, the story tonight will be some unboxing of some magic, and that’s part of our ongoing partnership to start making hygiene kits for the Midnight Mission, so if you haven’t checked out sleepwithmepodcast.com/midnightmission yet, please do. But I’m glad you’re here. I really work hard, I really yearn and I strive, and I really hope I can help you fall asleep. Thanks again for coming by, and here’s a couple of ways I’m able to do it for you for free twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, Scoots here. This is another episode of our series Unboxing Magic, I guess it’s called. I’ve been trying to pick up magic sets. Now, I won't be doing any magic. I don’t know…that’s what’s interesting; I…if there’s ever a time where…yeah, I’m not gonna do any magic. I’m trying to figure that part out. But I don’t know, maybe I could figure something out for it. But this is about unboxing magic, so I got another magic set. This one is a open box, but the box is sealed. You know what I’m saying? So I don’t know what’s actually in there. It’s a really big box, so I’m gonna grab it and we’ll start going and seeing what’s in there. Oh boy, is it heavy.

 

The reason I’m excited…this isn’t the same one I got as a kid that started out my interest in trying to find used magic sets, but it is one of these kits and I know maybe magicians…and we won't know what quality the stuff is to…’til we unbox it, but this one’s called Fantasy…I’m changing the names around, but Fantasy Magic. It has 300+ tricks, plus a down…instructable video…instructional video download. Okay, so at least it was made in the last ten years, I’m guessing. Amazing magic, easy to do. You can impress…it comes with a performance table and you can make stuff appear in it. It’s officially endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Magicians, so that’s…might be good. It’s ages 7+.

 

It is big, the size of a large Lego kit, like a large one, so you’re talking maybe…I don’t even know, my forearm…it’s longer than my…from my elbow to the tip of my finger, and then it’s about my forearm wide and my entire hand thick, if you want…to get specific. It doesn’t…it just has what kinda comes in there. It comes with a poster, Legends of Magic. But yeah, let’s…let me open it and then we’ll go from there. Of course I don’t have any…I didn’t plan this out. I mean, I…yeah, so give me a second. Okay, so it took a lot of work to get it in here just because I work in a climb-in closet, and this is a pretty big set. It does have some of the trappings of a slightly-used magic kit. There’s even fingerprints I’m just seeing on a couple things that are shiny.

 

I’m not sure everything is here, but that’s the kinda thing…the magic of a magic set is that…of a used magic set. There is magic in that old used magic set Scoots found, for when he placed it in his lap, he began to meander around. So, let’s go over what could be missing first. There’s a couple things that do look like they’re missing. Oh wait, so this is where the rings go, and maybe that goes there. So maybe nothing is missing. So, I’m looking at it from a top view. It’s arranged for packaging and shipping. On the top-right is a deck of cards, then there’s some sort of clear plastic tube with fake money in there. Then there’s a purple cup. Looks like a upside-down…oh, there’s…it’s…there’s things…there’s another cup nested inside it. Looks like a upside-down…it looks like…a little bit like a…what do you call that?

 

A pot you’d put a plant in. There’s some red rope, and it actually looks like high-quality rope for magic. I mean, ‘cause I’ve seen a lot of magic sets. Then there’s a magic wand that’s loose in there that’s long and thin, about the thickness of a pencil, but twice or three times as long. There’s also two other magic wands with red tassels attached to them. There’s one, two, three-and-a-half red balls, so hopefully…and I remember this from the other magic set I had, was that that also happened when I bought the other one as a kid, that I didn’t have all my red balls, my red, hollow balls that…I just didn’t. I don’t have all my marbles either, but…so, I don’t know if that’ll impact my ability to impress the audience. ‘Cause that was one of the things; I was like oh, one day I’ll be able to make balls disappear.

 

Say yeah, well, out of…anyway, there’s a crushed plastic cup that looks like a standard solo cup, but it’s got a bunch of…it’s got…maybe these are fake…what are those things called? Handkerchiefs. They’re not very good quality compared to the rope. Red, green, and blue. They look like they’re flag material, but low-quality. But maybe they’re not handkerchiefs. Then there’s a…oh, interesting; this is something for…something for some kind of magic. There’s a red circle, and on one side it’s flat. On the other side there’s pie pieces and at least one of them opens up. Oh, maybe like where I could hide money in there? It looks like there’s a cutout for something about the size of a quarter, like a trapdoor. Then we have three silver cups. They again look like you could put little plants in them.

 

Imagine that; you say, what kind of shop did Scoots end up opening? Oh, he sells flowering magic sets. I’m sorry, what? Yeah, it’s a bespoke…one of his bespoke things. It won't last, but yeah, he sells…he puts…he plants things in magic sets, like red ball…half-balls, half-spheres with air plants or whatever, or silver cups; he makes them into mini pots. I wouldn’t do that ‘cause that would take too much research, but…but yeah, there’s three silver cups. Then there’s a thumb, extra…a thumb…if you wanted your thumb to be long…if you’ve ever fantasized about having a longer thumb, your days of dreaming are over. It’s here. Then there’s something that says it’s the money machine, and there’s a hundred dollar…oh, let’s look at the money. I think I definitely had some of these. This is…might be standard stuff.

 

Then we have a hundred-dollar bill with Houdini on it. Fantastic Magic, or whatever. Their website…not legal tender. Then we have another bill that’s like…looks like something happened to it, and then the fake bills. So, I don’t know how that works. Then we have three metal rings that are in a…they’re kinda interlaced. You can barely hear them; I apologize, but that’s the magic audio. You’ll hear a tiny bit of clinking. Oh no, you know what? I’m sorry, there’s four rings. There’s one in the bottom. Then we have…let’s see, I’m gonna skip to the bottom-right. Bottom-right is…huh, interesting. Oh boy, there’s a mirror. There’s a flat piece of mirror and a cup. I don’t know, I just felt something when I picked this up. I mean, emotionally. So, I don’t know. I’m maybe having some sort of magic flashback, man.

 

There’s a clear cup inside a cup that has some sort of ridges on it and a red thing, and then there’s a mirror inside which probably is part of the illusion. Oh yeah, maybe…I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know. Then there’s a small paddle. It looks a bit like a religious artifact. It’s red, it has a cross at the top but also circles, and then three small poofy balls that I would put at the top…like, if I was dealing with a C-L…like, if I was making…if I had a baby and I was making it a Halloween outfit where it was gonna be a C-L-O-W-N, these balls are the kind of poofy balls I would make for fake buttons. Or if I was making hats for elven buddies, that’s what I would use. Then there’s a couple black boxes. The first black box is 100% empty. Oh no, there’s a penny in there, a real penny, I think. I don’t know if it’s a magic penny.

 

When a ha'penny will do. I don’t know if this is for the cards or for something else, but it’s just a box that closes and opens. Then there’s another box…oh, that’s a little bit deeper and probably for some…it has some magic properties. Oh, it’s like a drawer. It has a drawer in it that opens and closes. That’s it in here. Oh, here’s another fake quarter. Here’s a fake quarter. I bet you that goes with that other thing. A lot of instructions here. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna put the box…I’m gonna take the box out of the studio. If I have to go get it again I will, just ‘cause it…otherwise it’s gonna make a big mess. I’ll tell you what; as soon as I hit Pause, a lot of this…oh wait, you’re right, let’s look at the cards first.

 

Okay, so no offense to the magic kit, but the cards are…they are…they do have a plastic coating, but you can tell that they’re not exactly the highest quality. But let’s take a look and see. There’s one blank card, and it’s one of these decks I think that’s like 50/50. Oh, it has different things for different…it has a Joker, it has a two-and-a-half of hearts, it has one…so it is half some cards and then half of a repetitive card, which is kinda standard I’ve seen in a lot of these decks, and maybe it’s…maybe they’re kinda cut in a way…my daughter figured out how to do it. I have not been able to do it where you can kinda…they’re different…if you mix them all together, you can kind shuffle them one way or the other. But that’s a bit beyond my pay grade. Well, ‘cause I have no pay grade.

 

But I’m gonna put those back in here and I’m gonna look at the instructions. Don’t worry, I have plenty of other magic and we’ll talk about it, but let’s see what the…I like to not reveal how the tricks are done but what the tricks…you could expect what the illusion…you know. Not like where the…you know what I mean. Okay, so we have the Fantastic Magic instruction manual. There’s also downloads. Now, I guess I’ll talk about this now. I mean, this isn’t…I don’t…I feel like this is somewhere between big magic and indie magic, and I don’t…again, I don’t…have no idea what I’m talking about, so I haven’t done any research, but from getting these magic sets over the past couple months…and when you’re hearing this, it’ll be over a span of years between probably 2021 and 2023.

 

I did notice at some point with the internet…and some of the stuff is pre-Google, even, like the eras when Yahoo and other search engines kinda dominated, or even those stores, online stores, that there was a big and probably still is a big indie magic community where you could just buy one specific magic thing. But this one is kind of professionally made, but it’s…it doesn’t seem like it’s made by some giant corporation. So, somewhere in-between. Now, the…so, it looks like…and another thing I like about this…now, I haven’t found any handwritten notes, really, in any of this magic stuff, but it just reminds me of things that are never completely followed through on, and that’s probably good.

 

That’s why a large number of people that perform magic tend to be very good at it, or perform illusions, because just like anything else, like making a boring podcast, believe it or not, takes a lot of work and dedication and repetition to get it down, and you have to find the thing that you’re gonna get through. So, this one, the instruction manual, it looks…it seems like somebody might have been carrying it around in their back pocket, but it’s not super well-worn. But it was either carried around for a little while or improperly stored. But it does look like somebody looked through it a little bit, and…oh, there’s 180. This is where I want to start. But let’s see how many…this is…they’re all pretty short instructions. I’m just trying to see how many…oh, didn’t it say 300 magic tricks? Yeah. So, it does have 301, though.

 

But this first one I just noticed…this is number…oh, this is billiard balls, but it’s not; it’s the red ones. Oh, so it was on a video tape or DVD. Oh, so a lot of these you gotta look up and watch on the thing? Amazing multiplying billiard balls. You must have been astonished by Buckingham producing all those billiard balls on your videotape. They’ll explain how to do it on…so you can do it. But it’s basically how you can start with one…this is amazing, you know, this kinda stuff. So, you start with one ball…and I mean, the amazing…the amount of work.

 

So, you would start with…the person would be…you’d see one ball between their index finger and their thumb, and then another ball, by magic, would appear between their index finger and their middle finger, and then they could make another one appear between their middle finger and their ring finger, and then they can make yet another one appear between their…what is that? Pinky and their…yeah, and ring finger. So, that’s pretty impressive. What else we got on this page? Flying coin. You make a neat little routine vanishing a coin, and then you say it’s now invisible. To get it back, I need a coin trap. You make one using a coaster and a glass. Then you can produce your coin right under the glass and finish by saying I don’t like to have too much invisible money ‘cause the shops won't take it.

 

That’s what I like. Number…this one is your setup. Oh, is this for 180? Huh. Start with one solid ball in your left-hand pocket. Maybe this is the…but yeah, let’s see. Incredible coin coaster…have a look at your coin coaster and turn it upside-down. You’ll see a flap that we saw. Huh, okay. That one’s…The Cost of Travel. Oh, here’s the penny; put a one-cent coin in an envelope and seal in. On the envelope, write ‘arrival station’. Borrow a dollar. Put it into your tube. Put it in my tube, man. Wrap the tube up and have the ball travel to the arrival station. The bill will vanish from the tube, and then you open the envelope and show the penny. Did I mention the cost of the ticket was ninety-nine cents? Oh, okay, so I guess I gave away…I didn’t give away how it’s done, but…so, you make…you turn a dollar into a penny.

 

That’s cool. Silkworm…oh, the…so, I guess these are progressive tricks. Let me start further along. Oh, and this is…Roger is the CWO, the Chief Wizard Officer of this company, so that’s cool. Okay, so it starts with the illusion box. That’s how you can make the lid. I don’t know, I guess by the time you hear this, maybe I’ll do this. This could be good for live shows if I did magic but it was in the production…like, it was in the style of the podcast where there was never…it’s like oh, I just went to a magic show. Oh, how many tricks did they perform? Zero. He started to perform one and then talked about delivering newspapers as a child and getting a perm, and it was over. Oh, interesting. Okay, so the Amazing Illusion Box…that’s kinda how to put it together.

 

There’s secret things in there, and you can make a bunny appear, or usually a stuffed animal, they say. Okay, this one is called That’s All, Folks. As you finish each of your tricks during a show, put your props into a box. A tidy magician is a good magician. If you say this every time, it’ll become like a catchphrase and you may even find your audience joining in. At the end of the show, you close the door of your box, snap your fingers, and all the props will have vanished. You can even use a paper plate and a paper…they’ll be on the paper plate, but they’ll have vanished, which is even more baffling. Switcheroo; your illusion box can also be used to magically change one object to another. You can apparently make knots magically appear in a handkerchief, for example, and yeah, make…do other things. You can also reverse it.

 

You could take knots out of something and you could even tell a story while you do it. Change a toy frog into a prince, if you like. Time to Switch; here’s another switching idea. Two pieces of string and they’re different lengths. You make one appear in the box or cut it. You could do diff…oh, so this is a lot of different tricks you could do with this. Long piece of string to four pieces of short string, you could…later on in this amazing box of magic, you’ll learn how to make a friend pick the five of hearts from a ordinary deck. You can also use your box for this. You could write a prediction; you’re gonna pick the five of hearts and put it in a box, make it appear. So then…I’ve seen that, kinda…that’s like the kinda thing with the truck driving by or whatever with David Blaine. Then you could also…what else?

 

Stinky Socks; two pairs of socks, dirty and clean. You could switch them around for your…for amusement…make them appear. Super Soda…and make one…take one can of soda, pour it in a glass. I don’t understand that one. Bananas; refill a banana. Oh, so it’s like, somehow you’re refilling it with magic. I don’t understand how the illusion works, though. Okay, so this is a magic wand, now we’re getting into. So, you can use the wand to point at objects, wave the wand, and you could watch the video where you learn how to pluck money from mid air. But you could also make the wand wobble like it’s made of rubber. My wobbly magic wand. You could make the wand appear, produce the wand…you just take a small box like a card case and you can make it come out of the box somehow.

 

You could also make the wand cling to your hand and you could make it professionally cling to your hand. So, that’s cool. So you could really up the trick. Rolling wand; you can make it magically roll across the table like you have magnetic powers or power of mind force. Wow, that’s cool. Numbered wand; you could discover a number that’s being thought of, and you tap…you need a clock. You tap a…on the number. I don’t understand that one, but that’s me. You can lift it out of a bottle, you can somehow hold the wand and put a ring on it and make the ring move up and down the wand. You can use it for different things. You could produce your wand from anywhere. Okay, then they have a purple Mystery Box. Oh, I think mine is black, but you can put a object inside and make it disappear. That’s always cool, man.

 

I don’t know how they do that, even though I have the magic kit. Backwards Mystery Box…finish…great finish for your show. Really get the audience at the end of the show. Fill your box with candy and show them your empty box, then make a magical gesture to open the box and show the appearance of the candy and share it with the audience. So maybe this is a different box than the one we’re seeing. You can always use more than one of your props together to create even more magic…and could reappear by using duplicates of your cards, you could make two cards appear in special boxes. To make your card reappear or appear even more spectacular, you’ll need two identical cards.

 

You can make a magical message appear, boxy production and prediction…you could take a stage effect further by making a real object appear…be produced from the box, like a watch or a hanky. Show the empty box and then make something appear for real there. You could always use it for covert information to have a message for something you couldn’t even know and show them that you’re half-mind-reader or half-spy. So yeah, somehow you put that…and then there’s the Amazing Money Paddle. This is a simple piece of sleight of hand. So you have a paddle and you move it around. You can show both sides that there’s nothing in there. You can really create a…you can make a coin appear, you can multiply coins, you can make real money, you can make money vanish.

 

You could also have a coin produced and…rebounding coin. You can make unlimited money appear, you could change money, you could do a full changing routine. Okay, then we have the Magic Coin Base. I was looking at that earlier. It’s another apparatus that is more than it first appears to be. So, it’s like a three-piece thing. You place a coin…I’m gonna try to take the coin without you seeing me, and you could just make the coin disappear. You could also duplicate the coin, you can make it go from your Mystery Box there to the thing. You could also switch coins, you could use the Mystery Box and this thing for candy, change heads or tails, you could use your paddle with this. Then there’s something called Cups and Balls.

 

I said, I thought that was sport…a sporting analogy, but before your show, you have these cups…oh, and the sponge balls. Those are the ones I was like oh, I put them on a baby clown outfit. You can make…I don’t know, you make the sponge balls appear and disappear and move from cup to cup. That’s always cool. Oh, they could appear on the top, you can make them multiply, you could even have the audience help with that. Okay, then there’s something called a French Drop, which I guess is a big magic thing. You could make the wand go through the cup, which is interesting, or go deeper than you thought possible…super depth illusion, crazy depth illusion, vanishing milk…so, this comes with…oh, maybe I had this one, where you can make an entire glass of milk vanish. So, that was one of the things.

 

Then you can do vanishing milk and cookie, chocolate milk, suspending milk, hanky from milk. You have a special card box; that was the one I was looking at. Oh, you can even use magic…I didn’t see a way to use that for magic, but apparently there is a way to use that for…vanishing cards, confusing cards, restoring cards, writing from the other world, cards leaping or getting away, make money appear. Wow, photos, silly photos. I guess this is all there, ‘cause it says you could search for jobs from the newspaper. Forcing a card…so then we get into the card tricks. So yeah, a lot in here, but yeah, we’ll stop here and then I got more indie tricks we’ll go through here in a second. Alright everybody, Scoots back here with some more magic. Now, this is…we’re gonna get into some indie magic right now. So, fun stuff.

 

I’m gonna reach down, I’m gonna tell you what I found, and we’ll go from there. Okay, so these are all things you could probably get on the internet, and some of them are still wrap…this one is called the Pantom…pronounced with an F…Rising Card. An image of a deck of cards magically appears on a picture of an empty glass tumbler, then a freely-selected card rises out of the picture of the card deck, and you could use any deck of cards. It comes with the apparatus and instructions. This is a novel rising card effect. You display an ordinary deck of cards which can be examined and shuffled. A card can freely be selected from the deck and may be signed if you wish. The performer now explains that the normal rising card routines involves placing the deck in a glass tumbler and commanding the card to rise.

 

But with all the broken tumblers in your bag of props…modified the trick. Performer now displays a large card with a piece of glass…with a picture of a glass tumbler, stating he now uses a tumbler, which is easier to pack and guaranteed not to break. The deck of cards is placed on a large card depicting the tumbler, and the performer attempts to capture the image of the deck in the tumbler. The deck is tipped off the card and there is now an image of the cards inside the tumbler. Now you name your card and command it to rise from the deck. Alls the spectator does…the card rises from the picture of the deck in the tumbler and as it rises, it can clearly be seen to be the selected card, complete with the signature. The card can be pulled out of the deck and can be given for examination. So, cool. Sounds fun.

 

That one sounds like magic. This one sounds up my alley. I’ll probably…’cause you can use a regular deck, I guess. Okay, this one is a trademark or copyrighted from 1974. One, two, three, change, from…comes from Virginia. Magic by mail, way back then. Oh, and it looks like it has more than one trick in here. There’s also another one called Interference. Interference; the performer shows two cards, one which folds lengthways and the other folds sideways. After the cards are folded, it is seen that each of the cards has a small, round hole going through them. The long folded card is placed inside the sideways-folded car and the holes are aligned. The cigarette or pencil is inserted into the hole, thus securing the cards together. Suddenly, the long card is pulled back and forth, penetrating the cigarette.

 

The cigarette is removed and the cards are shown to be intact. Cool. I mean, that’s two tricks I probably could do. Then this one is the One, Two, Three, Change. Oh, there’s two tricks, actually, here. So let’s do One, Two, Three, Change first. Okay, One, Two, Three, Change; three cards are shown face-up and the audience is asked to remember the middle one. The cards are turned face-down and the middle one is removed. The remaining cards are turned over to show the middle one has been removed. The middle card is named and turned over to reveal it is now completely changed. Cool. So, that one…One, Two, Three, Change. That’s a pretty simple trick. This last one is called Two-Card Monty. Two-Card Monty; each…two different cards are shown to someone. One is face-up, the other face-down.

 

Both cards are shown front and back, and one card is placed behind the performer’s back. Quicker than the blink of an eye, the two cards change places. You don’t even have to do…this can be repeated over and over again. Cool. So, one card face-up, one card face-down. You show them front and back, then you place one behind your back, and then the cards somehow change places. Very exciting. This next one is…has effects on it. It is called Andrus Floating Card. It shows someone that looks like a higher power from another universe against a spiraling background holding two cards, and one seems to be floating. It has the two cards…also it has other things you can buy. Zone Zero, Jerry’s Classic Effect…vanish items behind…into a hole in the center of the board. Gemini Ring…ring and string magic in the Ellis Ring Principle.

 

Precision machined ring, easy handling, can flip…they don’t have any prices. Card control…two volumes that contain scenes of different card things. You won't find false cuts, shuffles, et cetera, only sleights that’ll give you new horizons. The Miracle; Jerry’s routine where he produces four silver dollars from two cards and then smaller and smaller torn pieces. The Gordon Diary; a card is selected from a borrowed, shuffled deck…names any date, looks up, and the card is in the performer’s pocket diary. The selected card is printed on their date. Okay, Andrus Floating Card; a king and queen are removed from a deck of cards and freely shown. The queen is laid on top of the king and begins to levitate. The king is lifted and waved beneath the floating queen.

 

Finally, the queen floats down to the king and both cards are freely shown. So, you can make a card float. One thing I’m learning with…I’ll have to label these…is red deck or blue deck, ‘cause some are red-decked cards and some are blue-decked cards. Okay, this one originally cost $7.99 at a magic store. Repeat Me, it’s called. Ten cards are mixed…displayed mixed face-down. Five are given to the performer and the spectator. Okay, so two…ten cards are displayed face-down. Five are given to the performer, five to the spectator. The packets are placed behind their backs and one card is selected and placed on the table face-down. Okay, so each put them behind their backs, then one play…one card is selected. Face-down cards are exchanged and placed in opposite packets face-up from behind the back.

 

The remaining face-downs are revealing…I don’t understand this one. So, yeah, I don’t know. This one’s a dyslexia one. Packets are both tabled and spread to reveal the same identical card face-up. The remaining face-down cards are turned face-up, revealing identical value and suit of every card…of a totally different card? Let me see. So, it comes with cards, red deck…so, these are…a lot of these are red deck cards. So I guess it’s something about the cards is a trick? I don’t know. If you have this much magic, you gotta be pretty organized. Okay, we got another bag full of tricks. I’m gonna hold on, though. I also have envelopes that people bought…ordered them in. I wonder if it’s the same person. This one is who I was talking about. Okay, so these were…so this is good; we’re investigating.

 

I’m not gonna reveal anybody’s names, but some of these were bought and sent from different places. This one was 2001, August 20th is when it was shipped from one magic place. This one is from another magic place from 2001, November 2nd. This last one, 2002, July. The person was in the same place…with three different companies and then one unlabeled. So, this first one just has a bunch of rubber bands and then…and the rubber bands are twenty years old, so they didn’t…they say dear buyer, I’m no longer including the link to gimmick bands. People were getting upset and asked to have their money back because they would break. Okay. What they failed to realize was the link bands were homemade and eventually throughout time and constant use, they will break.

 

I’ve taken out the responsibility and blame for them in this matter by not including the link bands and ask that you make the gimmicks yourself. Break the band in half, superglue it back together. Unfortunately on this one, it doesn’t include the instructions. It’s just a envelope with a bunch of old rubber bands. Okay, this next one is called the Amazing Floating Glass. The effect is the magician picks up a frosted glass and a bottle of wine or champagne, but pours the liquid from the bottle into the glass. As the magician is…let’s go, the glass remains there floating as it’s being filled. Then the magician takes the glass, finishes pouring, puts the bottle down, and drinks from the glass. This, I think, is a design-your-own, ‘cause there’s nothing…no…nothing in here.

 

I don’t know, the bag that the stuff came in is pretty full, though. Okay, this is one called Over and Over. You show cards appearing from nowhere over and over again. Some of these are just too…I just don’t know anything about magic, you know? Okay, this one looks funny; controlled thoughts. You have your spectator pick your thoughts. You prove to your spectator that you did, in fact, control their thoughts. You have a small envelope containing four collector cards. Show it with the flap side up and the top three cards sticking out. Don’t let the spectator see the fourth…oh, this is the performance. Oh, this one’s pretty funny ‘cause it has…so, I like this one. It says you’re thinking of the troll card, and it has a troll card with one of those trolls from the movies before they were movies, when they were just toys.

 

Connie Francis American Bandstand card and a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers card. I don’t know how it works, though. Okay, we got one more pretty packed envelope here. So, I think this has a lot of just tricks…instructions on paper? Okay, this one’s Three-Card Monty, which we did before, then another one; Two-Card Monty, but none of the cards are in this envelope. But that’s fine, ‘cause we have so many tricks. Then some invisible thread. That could be handy one day. Okay, we got another bag here. There’s one for conjuring…the busker conjurer. Then there’s a bunch of other stuff in here, little tricks. Two-Dollar Monty, or Dollar Monty. Again, this comes with the cards…the equipment…I want to know the…I don’t want to know the gimmick, though; I want to know the performance. Here we go.

 

I’m gonna show you how I lost money playing Three-Card Monty in New York. You’ve heard of the game, haven’t you? Many versions, but they all involve money and cards. Take out some cards, hold the money with your right hand while your left hand pivots the cards down. I don’t know, you…so you show something. Then there’s one Four-Card Monty, four, four, four. Four cards alike, three different…three…oh no, five different…you’re gonna turn over the cards face-down. Okay, I don’t want to reveal those ones. Then I got another one here. A lot of Monty, you know? This one’s just called Card Trick. It’s from Austria, from Vienna Magic. Four kings are transformed into four point cards, which may be examined by the audience. That one does look pretty cool. It’s a sleight of hand one.

 

Okay, this one’s called Wild Thing. Double climax wildcard effect with blank cards from 1989. It actually has 8-bit Zilla of gods, back when 8-bit…like, this was printed with Print Shop or something. Okay, this has also Bicycle-style cards, red deck…okay, setup, performance…oh, you gotta do some stuff that I can’t do, force decks and stuff. So, that’s beyond my means right now. Magic…I don’t perform it; I just use it to…I just open magic tricks. Okay, this one’s called The Touch. Typewritten…secret…I don’t see the…oh, the effect. Nine face-down cards are shown and cut. The spectator removes one card, places it face-down to the side. You divide the remaining piles into two…remaining cards into two piles of four. By touching the backs of the card, you find the pair that matches.

 

Not only does the pair match; it matches the card removed by the spectator. Okay, I don’t understand that one. Then this is the busker. This is a lecture. So, huh, this is more of a storytelling. So, I’ll have to…I might have…I’ll check this out, but I can’t read anything that…I can open stuff and kinda read instructions, but I don’t want to read a story somebody wrote. I’m not sure where we’re at with time, so I’ll open up a couple more. Okay, this one is Boomerang Card Change. A card is shown front and back, flipped into the air, and changes into another card that be…can be shown front and back. But the card isn’t in the thing, so maybe I’ll find it in the bag. But probably you could do this anyway. Okay, this one’s a quarter in a envelope. Pencil through the quarter trick. Show the quarter or half-dollar on both sides.

 

Hold the coin on both edges between the thumb and finger and face the audience. Push the pencil through the coin and then show them that it’s still solid. There’s even a way to fix it, I guess. Okay, Fantastic Presto. Six colors to one color. It’s a stick with six colors on one side and one color on the other. Effect; the magician shows a rod with six different colors on both sides. The spectator is asked to choose a number from one to six. The performer then shows a color which responds to the chosen number, flips it over, and the entire thing is the selected color. Oh, but I don’t know how you do that to make them pick a color. So, that one’s beyond me. Anything forced dealing I just not…oh, this one’s interesting. It has a giant mirror and a couple other things in here.

 

Domino…congratulations, you purchased one of the best and most clever pieces of close-up mentalism either. Domino Divination. It’s devastating on an audience and simple. A large, flat domino is shown. Unlike an ordinary domino, this one has dots. You explain that you made a prediction…hopefully will come true. Oh, so they…a spectator can move the dots. They’re moveable to form any one of the standard domino patterns. Then you hold the mirror next to the domino. See? There’s my prediction in the mirror. This will get a laugh. This is a prelude to what’s to follow. Now your actual prediction is revealed and it’s 100% correct every time. So, hm, I don’t know. Then this last one is some sort of ring on a string trick, or maybe more than one trick is in there.

 

The Ring Thing is a very clever coin on card effect that is certain to amaze your audience. English penny with a hole in it resting in his fingers, a silken cord threaded through the hole. Two spectators make an overhand knot in the cord and tighten it, securing the coin in place. Once the coin is secure and the spectators hold the end of the cards, the hand holding the coin is covered with a hanky. The magician makes a magical gesture over the hanky. It’s removed and the coin has vanished and there’s a wedding band inside the knot. That is the trick. This bag was sixty bucks, actually…that I just went through the final one. Six tricks for sixty dollars. So pretty cool. So yeah, that’s a little more sleepy magic for you all. Goodnight.

 

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