The Good Samaritan Magician

Yesterday I was in IQs studying for an exam and I saw a very peculiar fellow walk into the establishment. He was about 5’6”, wearing an all black outfit, a badge type insignia of an ace of spades pinned on his shirt and a tall black hat with an Ace of Spades stuck in the trim of the hat.

Me being of incredible perception, I assumed that this was young man was a magician. Contrary to his outfit, which obviously drew attention to himself, he seemed very shy and awkward. So, I approached this young man and acquired that indeed he was a magician, so I asked to see a trick. He showed me a few tricks, which were all gimmicked. (A gimmicked trick is a trick that involves very little actual skill on the part of the magician. The trick involves a “trick deck” or a “trick coin”, etc.) Most close up illusionists would concur that a person who claims to be a magician but operates only with gimmicked props is no magician indeed.

So, I showed him a few tricks and he was quite impressed. I gave him my card and said that if he ever wanted to talk about magic that he was welcome to call me or drop me an email.

I went to my class and afterwards returned to IQs for some green tea. I sat down to study and I could see that this inhibited fellow was still sitting at the same table, only this time he was easy prey to a group of young women. He was trying to do his tricks for these girls, but they were not having it. He was left defending himself like a deer defending himself against a sniper with a rifle.

Now, I have been in this situation with a gimmicked deck before. It sucks! The girls were hassling him to see the deck, but of course he cannot allow anyone else to see it or the rouse would be up. However, his patter was to be desired, so he evidently was being made a fool of.

So, I walked over and requested to see a trick. He preceded with a trick with a Mirage deck (which is similar to a Svengali deck. You can fan the deck out). He asked me to take a card, and I double lifted a card (took two cards at the same time) and pocketed the one that I showed everyone, and replaced the double.

So when he went to show everyone the card that I had chosen, he was evidently wrong… But I worked it into the trick, and kind of directed the trick. So said, “show me that it’s still in the deck”

While he looked through the deck, I took the card and placed it in one of the obnoxious girl’s jacket pockets…

So, when we found that it wasn’t there, everyone was, “where the hell is it?” So, I said, “Is it in my pockets?” So, as I checked so did everyone else and this chick found it and lost her mind! Everyone was so thrilled with him and I just let him have his moment of glory. For those of you who know me, you know how hard it would be for me not to take the credit.

But that guy needed the boost. All that I could think of was all of the times that I had an asshole ripping me apart because I couldn’t get myself out of the trick. I was hooped, and when you get someone adamant to make you look like a dope, there are two things you can do. Let him make you look stupid, or make him look stupid. I prefer the latter.

I hope that he gives me a call so that I can work on some actual moves to get him out of those types of situations. Gimmicked tricks are great, but you have to have a repertoire of other things that involve technique so that you can actually hand out the medium of which you use…