SHOE'T by Mark Southworth and Mark Mason

~ Magic Friday by Jamie D. Grant ~

What The Audience Sees:

"Jamie walked in on Friday holding a pack of playing cards so we knew it was going to be good. Big Ted loves card tricks (as we all do) and he was almost crying in anticipation. Jamie asked Big Ted to select any card he liked and to write his name across the face. Good thing Jamie asked him to write his name. Anything else and we would have been scr*#^%d. So Big Ted does, and Jamie returned it back to the deck (the card, not Big Ted, ha ha). Nothing crazy. But then Jamie hands the deck to me and asks me to find the card. I can even do it face up! Well you won’t believe this but the card wasn’t in the deck anymore! I swear! And Jamie says, “Of course it’s not. It’s in my shoe.” BOOM! Big Ted faints! Jamie hasn’t even proved it yet and Big Ted drops like a #^^^%$&. Anyways, Jamie takes off his shoe and, sure enough, there’s a card inside. He shows the shoe all around and then slowly pulls the card out. AND IT WAS BIG TED’S CARD! Too bad he didn’t see it! It was amazing!”

How It Went:

One of the first card tricks I ever learned back in elementary school was the selection of a card, and the subsequent discovery of it in the card box. It basically consisted of a little kid making you do an extremely complicated series of tasks to select a card and then you returning it to the pack (the card, not the kid). The little kid would then search for about five minutes because half the time he couldn’t remember the card you were supposed to have selected. He would the pull out three random cards and lay them face down on the table and tell you that one of cards was yours. While you were looking at those, the little kid would pick out your real card and put it into the card box. No palming, no machine made hold outs. He would just grab it and stuff it in there. And it would kill you, lol. You would be shocked. Every time!

I still do that trick. Shoe’t is basically the same thing. A card is discovered somewhere crazy. But unlike the card box, everyone knows how even more impossible (can we have different levels of impossible, lol?) it would be to get a card into your shoe without anyone seeing. I mean, it pretty much is impossible. And it destroyed people all day. The fact tat you can slip off your shoe and show it, while it’s still on ground, is absolute craziness as well. Seriously. And the great thing is, is that no one wants to grab it out for you, lol. We all know how specs can sometime’s be super grabby. Not a single person reached for the shoe, obviously. And it was a clean shoe and sock (that’s an early JDG Tip for you, by the way, lol). There’s just something about the shoe.

Best Lines:

Let’s see your other one!!!!
-I guess they wanted to see what would show up in my other shoe, lol.

No way that’s my card...ACK!!!!!!
-It was.

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

”Do I look %^#^^ stupid to you??!...Don’t answer that!!! That’s just some other card you put in there before!! ...Wha?!? It’s signed!?!! Go f^$& yourself Grant!

5/5.

My Rating:

You know this is going to be pretty high. I would even say 9/10 simply because it costs you nothing. I’m not talking about price of the effect but rather set up, pocket management, etc. Here we have a trick where we can walk out the door and never have to worry about setting it up. As long as you have a deck of cards, you’re ready to go. That’s worth a lot to me. And, as a testament to the fact, I have Shoe’t on me right now. Now, is pulling as card out of your shoe always appropriate? Not always, but then just don’t do it at those times. That doesn’t mean you can’t be ready to rock it out when it is time, though. And there’s always a time, lol.

The JDG Tip:

1.) Make sure the card is signed. If you don't, then the trick is worthless (to an extent). If you prucahsed Shoe't, go the extra foot and have them sign the card.

2) When I remove the card, after showing the shoe, I tip the toe to the ground. I found that helped make sure everything worked perfectly.

Closing Thoughts:

It was w really good day and I’m happy about this effect. It brought me back to those first days of stuffing a card in the box but with much more stringent conditions. And any day I can blast Angry Bob is a good day, lol.

Have a great week everyone!

jamie d. grant
http://www.whatizit.net/
(click to see a deck of cards inside a bottle)
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ENLIGHTENMENT by Ben Harris

~ Magic Friday by Jamie D. Grant ~

What The Audience Sees:

"This Jamie cat needs his own T.V show man! C'mon people, I'm serious! This guy does stuff that can only be done in movies! And he's doin' it for real! Take this Friday, the dude walked into our space and said he was going to show us a simple card trick. Simple, my !##! These two cards switched places before our eyes. Then he says, in a low whisper, that he wants to show us something he's never shown anyone before...something really crazy. And @^%@^ @$%@$ was it ever! He levitated a card right off the top of the deck. Are you listening to me? He can make objects move with his mind, I'm tellin' you! This card just floated up off the top and came back down! And I took it dude, and it was normal! Unlike this Jamie character... Caaaaraaaaaaazy!"

How It Went:

You know, thank goodness for Magic Friday. I'm a real lucky guy. Not only do I have an active (and potentially huge) weekly audience, but I'm forced to try things I might not otherwise. And I'll be honest- If I didn't have to perform Magic Friday, I might have passed on Enlightenment. And that would have been a real shame.

First of all, I have the Enlightenment Deck, which is awesome, and I have the Paradigm Shifter, so I basically have the Enlightenment set. That made it a lot easier for me to go out and start trying it out. If I didn't, I might not have taken the trouble to make the deck which, I think, is brilliant. If you have Enlightenment sitting on a shelf, do yourself a huge favour and give yourself a night off and make the deck. It's worth it, trust me.

Okay, so my set up for the day was to start off with a simple two card transpo and hope they said the words "That's incredible!" which surprisingly happened more times than I thought it would. I would then say, "Thanks! Hey, are you old enough to remember that show called "That's Incredible!"? Because they had this guy on this one time that could move objects with his mind. No kidding. He would dress up in this Karate outfit and use his energy to move phone book pages and things. And here's something I've never told anyone. I can do it too... Watch."

And away we would go. And make no mistake, it was powerful. You would think I was knocking spectators over with my energy, this played so well. I don't know what to say about it, really. It just killed. They would look at it floating up and have no reaction whatsoever, and then you'd see their faces melt like the first Indiana Jones movie ending. It was just shocking.

My other premise, if I didn't play out the James Hydrick story, was about how in the olden days, all magicians wanted to be able to float a lady. And I would use the Queen and go from there...

To be honest, though, the Hydrick (sorry, that's the name of the guy from "That's Incredible!" show) premise was the best. Probably because I'm giving this sort of Realty TV power to myself for a moment. I'm telling them that I, too, can do something that made someone famous. It's almost like, if someone asks you if you can float like David Blaine and you say, "Sure" and then fly around the room. For the people that remembered Hydrick, and there was a couple, it was a moment they'll never forget.

Best Lines:

"That's Incredible!!!
-Bing! Thank you, you win a prize!

"Nunh unh. Nunh unh. That did not just happen. Nope. It did not."
-Lol, it sure did.

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

Lol, the thing about Angry Bob is that he has a magician's "Second Sight". Laypeople only have "One Sight" (I'm making this up as I write this, by the way). Let's see if I can explain what I mean...

A layperson will think up an explanation immediately (sometimes a few explanations simultaneously). I.e. He put the card in his wallet when I wasn't looking. Until they realize (if you've done your job properly) that you eliminated that possibility. I.e. No, wait, I was looking the entire time.. They then, hopefully, believe that you did it magically. They've used up their One Sight.

Magicians, however, or someone with a knowledge of magic (and as a side note, I find that computer programmers fall into this category) will immediately go through their One Sight (I saw the wallet the entire time) and go through to their Second Sight which enables them to brainstorm ridiculous ideas that, occasionally, are right. I.e. There was that flock of birds flying overhead and one of them did land near him. Now, if that bird had some thread attached to his left wing, and that was going to his wallet. Then, maybe...

Normally, for those people, we have all sorts of weapons at our disposal (time, reason, etc.) to eliminate their Second Sight as well. But, if you know someone long enough, then they can get the jump on you.

Angry Bob: "Give me that top card, m*&^%^&* *&*&!*& !" (First Sight)

Me: "Knock yourself out dude."

Angry Bob: "Give me the deck then." This is his Second Sight coming into play. Often times, Second Sights are simply lucky guesses. You have to, occasionally, call their bluff.

Me: ( I move my hand forward with the deck while, intentionally, putting the box into my pocket.)

Angry Bob: The box, too ^%#^@^ @&@!!!!

Me: "Now you're being too demanding." (And I take everything back, except the queen he was actually holding, lol.)

So, after all that, did Angry Bob know how it worked? Not a chance! 5/5. But, did he know that I can't make think things float with my mind? Uh, yeah. But, and here's why we're in business- most people want to believe. And, lucky for us, they will.

My Rating:

Is this something that I would recommend? Absolutely. Is it, however, something that people will use? If they're smart, they will. But I think some people won't take into the world. I think you need the place for it. You need the guts. And by that, I mean, the courage to take something out that you normally wouldn't. If someone told me to take a deck and accessories like this to a gig, I'd probably say they're crazy- I can do a lot of other magic with a regular deck. But I'd have missed something really special. Something... incredible. 9.5/10.

The JDG Tip:

This was thought up by my good friend Dave Moses:

Put a bottle cap into your rear pants pocket. It works like a charm! Brilliant- and that's exactly how I got in and out.

Closing Thoughts:

Don't be afraid to show people only one thing. Change their lives and move on!

Have a great week!

~jamie d. grant
http://www.whatizit.net/
(click to see an unaltered deck of cards inside a bottle!)
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Mark Mason's FUTURE ZONE

~ Magic Friday by Jamie D. Grant ~

And we're back! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

What The Audience Sees:

"Jamie did it again! The guy's a %#$%# mindreader! Check it out, he came into our office and showed us a wallet that only had one thing in it- an envelope. He told us that this morning he had placed a single card in the envelope that was in the wallet. Then he pulls out a deck of cards and starts dealing them onto the table and asks me to say the word Stop. I did. He asked me if I was sure. I was. Well, he took the card out of the envelope and it matched the card I stopped at. It was amazing!"

How It Went:

I've been sorting through a lot of Mark Mason stuff over the last couple of months and I decided on performing Future Zone this Friday for a couple of reasons:

1) It can be real quick (if you want) or longer, depending on how you want to present.

and,

2) It has instant reset.

Combine those two with a real fooler and you have the perfect Magic Friday piece. And it went over really well. Over and over again, it blew people's minds and I don't think I had a bad reaction once. It was super consistent and was easy to follow which is also key. The wallet is nice and it's pretty obvious that there in only one card in it.

Best Lines:

"What else do you know, lol!!!!
-Some people might have read into this as flirting.

"Let me look in that envelope! There must be a whole deck in there somehow, lol!"
-Not exactly...

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

"I want the first card m%^#%^ #^#%^#.
-I'm still not sure if that was Angry Bob just being Angry Bob or if he had an idea of what was going on. I brushed it off (as always) and said that it was too late as we had already dealt through the first couple. Still, I'm not sure...2.5/5?

My Rating:

I really like this trick and it played super strong. I loved the directness and the resetability but I'm not a huge fan of needing to carry another deck of cards around. Even though it might be worth it. Let's say 8/10. I think that Mark should put out a small booklet of other effects that can be done with the same deck, or the wallet for that matter. I'd buy a Future Zone companion in a heartbeat.

The JDG Tip:

Use a pencil with your envelope~ you'll know what I mean. Also, do a different card trick first. Then bring out the wallet as an afterthought and rebring (is that word?) out the deck of cards. It worked brilliantly.

Closing Thoughts:

I'm really liking a lot of Mark's stuff. If I could just start linking the tricks together that need special somethings, I think I would be onto something. Definitely an idea to play around with...
Have a great week everyone!

Jamie D. Grant
Vancouver Magician
ww.jamiedgrant.com
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