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Me and Joshua Jay

Joshua Jay is probably best known as the editor of “Talk About Tricks” in Magic Magazine.  He had that post when I picked up my first Magic magazine around 2001, when he was still in college.  He’s only 28 now, so he’s obviously a prodigy.

As he mentioned at the start, his lecture focused on card tricks using gaffs that end clean.  Since this was a San Francisco lecture and I live about 45 minutes away, I only attended the first half of the lecture, up to the break.  It was fairly short – only about an hour, compared to the usual 1.5 hours.  Here’s what he covered:

The MacGuffin – the magician tears up a card into quarters without showing its face.  Four spectators each choose a card and replace it in the deck.  The four selections are found inverted in the deck, each missing a corner.  The missing corners are found to be the original tabled quarters.  Click here for an explanation of the title.

Charming Chinese Challenge – Jay’s version of Troy Hooser’s routine, in which 3 Chinese coins strung on a ribbon penetrate off the ribbon, one at a time.  One coin returns onto the ribbon.  Finally, a coin vanishes and joins the 2 in a spectator’s hand.

(Bill to impossible location) – I don’t think Jay named this effect.  The magician borrows a bill from spectator A.  He tears off a corner and hands it to spectator B, then vanishes the rest of the bill.  The rest of the bill is found in an impossible location, such as spectator A’s wallet, and matches the corner held by spectator B.  Here, Jay introduced his new method of carrying out this old effect.

Transporter – one of Jay’s marketed effects.  This is a very cool concept for a no-palm card to wallet, and I was tempted to buy it just because of the method and cool gaffs.  The magician introduces his magic membership card, which obligates him to perform a trick for the spectator.  The spectator signs a selected card.  The selection in the deck and the membership card in the wallet are found to have switched places.

Overlap – another one of Jay’s marketed effects.  Click the link to see what it is.  I’m not sure if Jay invented the gaff, but he focused on it enough to write 19 routines in a book, which also comes with a performance DVD and several versions of the gimmick, including jumbo card versions.  Very clever.

MakDaw #2 - Dawson & Makishi

This is an improved version of the original Pagoda puzzle box entered into the IPP 29 design contest.  It is designed by Matthew Dawson and Makishi, and produced by Makishi.  Apparently the original version had a design flaw that allowed it to be more easily solved than intended.  Fellow puzzle blogger Brian Pletcher was kind enough to lend this to me.  Thanks Brian!  Click here to see his post on the puzzle.

The pagoda roof pieces are manipulated to navigate through a hidden internal maze.  When solved, the door opens.  Unfortunately I couldn’t remember how much I had rotated each of the roof pieces.  I got to sticking small pieces of Post-It notes on to try and orient myself, but I still managed to forget where I was.  Then I more or less solved it by accident and shipped it back to Brian.

I’m not a big fan of hidden internal maze puzzles because I lose orientation and get frustrated.  The reason why the top piece is askew is because I didn’t manage to return it to its starting configuration.  Actually, I wouldn’t even know if I got it back to its starting configuration.

If you enjoy this type of puzzle, check Puzzle Paradise.  At the time of this writing, there are a few for sale at $121.  There is also a more difficult version, MakDaw #3, available for $135.

Petit Four #5 - Perry McDaniel

For IPP 30 in Japan, Perry McDaniel came out with this fifth box to add to the four Petit Fours he introduced in IPP 29.  They are all small with a very similar appearance.  This one has a traditional puzzle box design.

I wasn’t able to make IPP 30 in Japan this year (read all about IPP 30 in Brian Pletcher’s blog), so I contacted McDaniel and the Sandfield brothers (the latter via their craftswoman Kathleen Malcolmson) ahead of time to reserve some of their IPP puzzles.  All agreed very graciously.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get hold of the Sandfield puzzles yet.  Robert only had enough puzzles for the exchange, but is having more made.  Norman is busy with his new book, so he did not release a puzzle this IPP.

Impossible Bottle

I got the above at a recent magic auction for a mere $15.  This is the classic impossible object – a deck of playing cards inside of a bottle.  The bottle and cards are normal, and the bottle is not tampered with (i.e., no hole cut into it that was later re-sealed).  I don’t know who invented the cards in the bottle or who made this one, but impossible bottles were popularized by the late Harry Eng.  Magician Jeff Scanlan mastered the art and sells a variety of different bottles.  The purpose is to make the viewer think about how it was made.  For this reason, impossible bottle methods are generally held more secretly than most magic tricks or puzzle solutions.

Eng’s method for this particular object, though, is described in Paul Harris’ “Art of Astonishment” book series (volume 2).

Getting this bottle reminded me I have a few other “imossible” objects.  I blogged a while ago about Saul Bobroff’s Imppossible Street Elbows.

Impossible Bills - Robert Sandfield

Here are two interwoven dollar bills.  Each bill has slits in the middle that do not extend all the way to the edges of the bills.  There is no tape or glue used to re-join the bills parts.  It looks impossible, but is probably fairly basic if you know a lot about braiding.  I don’t know who invented this, but I got mine for free from Robert Sandfield during IPP 29 after I bought a bunch of his puzzles.

Conjunction - Joshua Quinn

This is a magic trick invented by Joshua Quinn.  In addition to the manuscript, this trick was also featured on Paul Harris’ “True Astonishment” magic DVD set as one of the hidden “cookies” on DVD #2.  The magician borrows a spectator’s business card and create two interlinked rings with it.  There are no cuts used to link the two rings.

I practiced the technique and was able to get it down to a few minutes.  It’s an odd trick, though, since it takes so long to do.

Wow Card - Ian Rowland

This is one of magician Ian Rowland’s “Wow” cards.  These topological curiosities are made by cutting inside the borders and folding only, with no tape or glue.  Some are considered to be impossible objects.  Rowland used to sell them on his site.  It seems like they are temporarily unavailable as Rowland updates his site.

Bolt - CMC Puzzles

This is the Bolt, by CMC Puzzles.  The object is to separate the metal rod from the wood block.  I figured out the basic mechanism pretty quickly, but there was a twist to its implementation that eventually forced me to look at its solution.

Mini Crate - CMC Puzzles

This is another puzzle box from CMC Puzzles.  It’s a small but clever puzzle.  I thought it may have the same mechanism as another puzzle box I have (click here for spoilers; 2nd item), and I was right.

I wonder what the ethics of this are.  I think the other puzzle box I have came first because CMC Puzzles lists the Mini Crate as a new item.  I don’t know if the other puzzle box has any predecessors with the same design, but I think it probably served as inspiration for this one.  I doubt there are patents on the design so it’s not illegal.

Magic has a similar issue.  Tricks have been copied and sold under a different name, which is highly frowned upon.  It doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue to market a variation of a trick, as long as the original version is given credit.  It’s a little different with puzzle boxes, since to indicate that a puzzle is similar to another would be to give away its solution.

Maple Chest - CMC Puzzles

This is the Maple Chest from CMC Puzzles.  It has a unique solution.  Actually, I don’t know if I have the correct solution, since they don’t include instructions, but I can open it.  The mechanism is not visible even when the box is open.

You may have noticed that I’ve reviewed a lot of items from CMC Puzzles recently.  I try to place large international orders in order to make the shipping cost worthwhile.  I don’t have to do that with the Karakuri Creation Group, since they don’t charge extra for shipping.

Me & Tom Ogden

I attended Tom Ogden’s 6/9/10 lecture at the San Jose IBM.  Here’s what he covered:

The Five and One Dollar Bills: Ogden’s handling of the Marvo Money Miracles, in which a folded $1 and $5 penetrate.  Ogden expanded the basic effect into a multi-phase routine with 2 penetrations, 2 transposition and ending with two $5 bills.

A version of Out of This World: I don’t recall what Ogden called it.  The original Out of This World by Paul Curry involves the spectator randomly dealing the deck into 2 piles, only to find one pile is all red and one all black.  I don’t recall the details of Ogden’s version.

Ogden’s handling of the Zarrow Shuffle: the Zarrow shuffle is a tabled completely false shuffle, in which the deck order is not disturbed.

Ogden’s handling of Terry Lynn’s 7 Penny Trick: the original trick from Bobo’s New Modern involved counting seven pennies into a spectator’s hand, only to magically remove one.  Ogden expands this into a multi-phase routine by repeating the procedure.  He removes a penny each time, until he gets down to 2 pennies, at which point he changes techniques.

Ogden’s version of 2 in the Hand, 1 in the Pocket: Ogden performs this with 3 miniature doll shoes, switching techniques along the way and ending with a child’s shoe final load which was quite startling.

Ogden’s version of Mike Zen’s Cards Across

Card Warp with business cards

A business card trick in which the magician and spectator’s signatures transpose

An egg bag routine for kids: Ogden used this to demonstrate comedy for kid’s shows

All the tricks and routines used were from Ogden’s working repertoire.  While they were all very solid, there was nothing particularly unique.  The value of this lecture comes from Ogden’s decades of experience in all types of performing situations.  As you can see above, he’s expanded several quick tricks into full routines, and fine-tuned his routines over years.  There is a reason for every move and every line of patter, and he explains it all.  He also explained quite a bit about kid’s shows and booking shows, and had some interesting anecdotes (including one in which he inadvertently performed in a part of the world where they still take magic very seriously).

Beziehungskiste - Stewart Coffin

This is another box from CMC Puzzles in Germany.  Its name means “Relationship Crate”, according to Goggle Translate.  Stewart Coffin, its designer, is legendary for his many interlocking puzzles designs.  The mechanism is practically identical to Allan Boardman’s “Aha Box”, which my brother bought from Boardman at IPP 29.  I’m suspicious that the description confused these two famous designers and it’s actually a commercial version of the “Aha Box.”  The looser fit of this much less expensive box allowed me to a feature of its design and open it without using the official solution.

This is the Bee Box.  I got it from CMC puzzles in Germany.  I’m not sure who the designer and manufacturer are.  I wouldn’t be surprised if CMC puzzles makes them, since they do make some puzzles and it’s the only place I could find this.  They have a number of puzzle boxes made out of laser cut wood with box joints.  I think it’s a fantastic way to make puzzle boxes cheaply: it was only 19 Euros (not including shipping).

Unfortunately, the box came to me solved.  Another weakness of the solution is that is that many users will be reluctant to try it.  In this way, it’s similar to Carta Blanca.  I can’t say any more without spoiling the solution.  If you want to be spoiled, click here for a video from Grand Illusions explaining it completely.