You're not going to believe this, but I just woke up from a coma! I rushed right on to post this and as soon as I'm done I'll watch the tapes I have of the World Series (can't wait to see the Indians win!) and the Super Bowl (I don't know who's even in it, but as long as the Patriots don't win I'll be happy!) because I sure missed sports. Then I've gotta get my phone back so I can hop in the group chat with my close, personal friends John Glenn, Carrie Fisher, George Michael, Alan Thicke, and Florence Henderson so we can talk about what President Clinton's been up to!
I did see the first episode of America's Got Talent yesterday. I rarely have time to watch TV anymore, but I'm still trying to keep up with AGT the best I can. It becomes more bearable when you can skip through all the commercials and talking and just get to the acts.
In the first episode there were two magic acts and even though they both got through (I think, I know one did for sure and I remember them being very positive towards the other) I honestly didn't like either of them.
The first one was Will Tsai doing a coin matrix routine. It looked really cool and "set the internet on fire" according to some emails I got, but is there anybody that doesn't realize the table is doing the work? I think it was the perfect example of a trick being too perfect. I think having the coins appear and disappear with no cover, while being visually awesome, weakens the effect. If you're obviously not doing anything, you don't have magical powers, you're just a guy standing behind a table triggering special effects.
There was an escape artist who did my biggest pet peeve of turning an escape into a magic trick by teleporting at the end of it. He did a buried alive "escape" that I really liked the visual of. He had sand streaming down on top of him in a chamber and it reminded me a lot of old movies where someone would be trapped in an hourglass and it would slowly fill up. But then of course, "something went wrong" and they had to "rush in to save him" and of course he ended up being one of the stage hands the whole time! I was shocked and amazed!
I feel like I've talked about this before but I really hate when escapes end in a magical way. If you're going to do an escape, do the escape. If you want to do a magic trick, do the trick. Don't combine the two.
- Andster
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Pre-outs
I figure I should just write about this now while I'm here and thinking of it. This is probably going to be a rambling mess so bear with me and try to make sense of all this.
I think we're all familiar with an "out" where when something backfires you can make it seem like you meant to do that the entire time. A classic example is using the Invisible Deck for when you lose control of a selected card or a spectator lies about what their card is. Instead of just being stuck, you use your out to bring things to a successful conclusion.
I'm going to tangent for a moment to say that I feel like the ID is always put up to use as an out but it seems, to me, to be a really shitty out. It seems so contrived that I wonder if anyone is actually using it as an out and, if they do, are people actually being fooled by it? Like, "Here, take any card. I'll shuffle it back into the deck, and when I wave these two red Aces over the top, you'll notice one card pop up between them! Your chosen card, in fact, the six of clubs! ...That wasn't your card? What was your card? The five of diamonds? How strange, because earlier in the day, in this totally different deck of cards I haven't mentioned until now, I reversed one card for no particular reason, the five of diamonds! Oh that stuff with the Aces? Don't worry about that. I was just messing around to bring things around to the real trick, this facedown card in the deck. Ta-dah!"
So we have outs and there are also "ins" or "openers" or bringing something in play to use in another trick. I think a common example of this is making something appear to get into another trick. This could be making a deck of cards appear instead of removing them from your pocket, or doing a particular trick to get yourself set up for another.
Then there's something I've been thinking about which I've dubbed "pre-outs" because I don't know if they've been talked about before. It's not quite getting into a trick and if you end up needing an out, the out would be a whole different thing that I think would be too big to call an out. It's like if the throwaway action of the out is put at the beginning of another trick and sometimes you don't even need the other trick. The pre-out.
I'll explain.
You do the trick I described the other day, ARCAANE. Your spectator says "Hey, lemme see those cards." You say, "Why, do you think they're all the same? Because they are. But these aren't, check them out. All different, right?" and you proceed to do your other ACAAN routine.
You're holding a deck of cards and ask someone to name one. You snap your fingers and say "And your card, the three of clubs, jumps to the top of the deck..." as you turn the top card to show that it's the Queen of hearts "...and turns into the Queen of hearts. Ta-dah! No, let's see. Where's the three?" and you launch into your ambitious card.
Every so often things will go right for you and you can stop at the beginning. They don't want to see the deck, and you've performed an awesome trick. The card they named is actually on top, and it looks too good to be true. Those are the times that you're hoping for, but since they won't happen that often you have the "real" effect that you're planning to perform anyway. I wouldn't consider them outs because to me an out is if you mess up. With a pre-out, you're expecting it to not work the bulk of the time. When you get lucky, you shut up and take credit for the stronger miracle than the one you were going to perform.
These are just two (probably shitty) examples of pre-outs. I wouldn't consider them ins because you're not doing one thing to do another (in the minds of the audience) it's all just part of the same thing. The pre-out is considered part of the procedure of the bigger trick. I wouldn't consider it an out, because you're not expecting it to work in the first place. (I should probably stop saying ARCAANE won't work, because it has for me. But I would still treat it as a throw away if I got busted on it and move on to another ACAAN.)
Pre-outs.
Thoughts?
- Andster
I think we're all familiar with an "out" where when something backfires you can make it seem like you meant to do that the entire time. A classic example is using the Invisible Deck for when you lose control of a selected card or a spectator lies about what their card is. Instead of just being stuck, you use your out to bring things to a successful conclusion.
I'm going to tangent for a moment to say that I feel like the ID is always put up to use as an out but it seems, to me, to be a really shitty out. It seems so contrived that I wonder if anyone is actually using it as an out and, if they do, are people actually being fooled by it? Like, "Here, take any card. I'll shuffle it back into the deck, and when I wave these two red Aces over the top, you'll notice one card pop up between them! Your chosen card, in fact, the six of clubs! ...That wasn't your card? What was your card? The five of diamonds? How strange, because earlier in the day, in this totally different deck of cards I haven't mentioned until now, I reversed one card for no particular reason, the five of diamonds! Oh that stuff with the Aces? Don't worry about that. I was just messing around to bring things around to the real trick, this facedown card in the deck. Ta-dah!"
So we have outs and there are also "ins" or "openers" or bringing something in play to use in another trick. I think a common example of this is making something appear to get into another trick. This could be making a deck of cards appear instead of removing them from your pocket, or doing a particular trick to get yourself set up for another.
Then there's something I've been thinking about which I've dubbed "pre-outs" because I don't know if they've been talked about before. It's not quite getting into a trick and if you end up needing an out, the out would be a whole different thing that I think would be too big to call an out. It's like if the throwaway action of the out is put at the beginning of another trick and sometimes you don't even need the other trick. The pre-out.
I'll explain.
You do the trick I described the other day, ARCAANE. Your spectator says "Hey, lemme see those cards." You say, "Why, do you think they're all the same? Because they are. But these aren't, check them out. All different, right?" and you proceed to do your other ACAAN routine.
You're holding a deck of cards and ask someone to name one. You snap your fingers and say "And your card, the three of clubs, jumps to the top of the deck..." as you turn the top card to show that it's the Queen of hearts "...and turns into the Queen of hearts. Ta-dah! No, let's see. Where's the three?" and you launch into your ambitious card.
Every so often things will go right for you and you can stop at the beginning. They don't want to see the deck, and you've performed an awesome trick. The card they named is actually on top, and it looks too good to be true. Those are the times that you're hoping for, but since they won't happen that often you have the "real" effect that you're planning to perform anyway. I wouldn't consider them outs because to me an out is if you mess up. With a pre-out, you're expecting it to not work the bulk of the time. When you get lucky, you shut up and take credit for the stronger miracle than the one you were going to perform.
These are just two (probably shitty) examples of pre-outs. I wouldn't consider them ins because you're not doing one thing to do another (in the minds of the audience) it's all just part of the same thing. The pre-out is considered part of the procedure of the bigger trick. I wouldn't consider it an out, because you're not expecting it to work in the first place. (I should probably stop saying ARCAANE won't work, because it has for me. But I would still treat it as a throw away if I got busted on it and move on to another ACAAN.)
Pre-outs.
Thoughts?
- Andster
Monday, October 31, 2016
A.R.C.A.A.N.E
I was trying to come up with a name so that I could call this trick S.H.I.T.C.A.A.N but I couldn't think of something that fits. So 'A Random Card At Any Number, Easy' it is, although I reserve the right to change this because I'm still not in love with the name. I've only performed this twice but I got great reactions both times. I'm sure I'm not the only person to do this, in fact I would be shocked if I was. Still, I feel like this is something that could be overlooked. Give it a shot.
If you were buying this trick, the ad copy might look something like this:
A performance for my wife went pretty much exactly as described above. I shuffled, she touched any card and I gave her the chance to change her mind. I shuffled again, had her name a number and dealt down (I believe it was 17) cards to find her selection. She was very impressed,
A performance for a friend who's always asking if I'm working on anything new went the same way. If anything, he was more impressed.
The secret is exactly what you think it is. A one-way forcing deck. As I said, I know I'm not the first person to do this because it's probably the first thing someone does when they pick up one of these. It works (or at least worked in two isolated cases) though so it might be worth messing around with. If anything else, it could work as an opener (or what I'm going to call a "pre-out" because I have a specific scenario in mind that I'll write about in the future and I don't know if there's already a term for it) for a real ACAAN.
Let me know what you think if you give this a shot. Whoever's reading this. I'm just screaming into the abyss at this point.
- Andster
If you were buying this trick, the ad copy might look something like this:
A deck of cards is shuffled. The spectator can shuffle if they choose. The spectator selects a card, changing their mind several times if they wish. The card is returned to the deck and shuffled again. A number is named between 1 and 52 and the cards are slowly dealt to the chosen number, where the spectator's selection is found! No memory work, no forces, no complicated sleights, no instant stooges, or assistants! Perform this in minutes!
A performance for my wife went pretty much exactly as described above. I shuffled, she touched any card and I gave her the chance to change her mind. I shuffled again, had her name a number and dealt down (I believe it was 17) cards to find her selection. She was very impressed,
A performance for a friend who's always asking if I'm working on anything new went the same way. If anything, he was more impressed.
The secret is exactly what you think it is. A one-way forcing deck. As I said, I know I'm not the first person to do this because it's probably the first thing someone does when they pick up one of these. It works (or at least worked in two isolated cases) though so it might be worth messing around with. If anything else, it could work as an opener (or what I'm going to call a "pre-out" because I have a specific scenario in mind that I'll write about in the future and I don't know if there's already a term for it) for a real ACAAN.
Let me know what you think if you give this a shot. Whoever's reading this. I'm just screaming into the abyss at this point.
- Andster
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Field Test: Hallmark
Recently, my wife celebrated her birthday and because I'm broke I showed her a magic trick instead of getting her a real gift. Luckily she loves me and this blatant display of cheap-assery didn't end in divorce. The trick that I used is one that Andy from The Jerx posted last year called Hallmark. It's also featured in his book which I intend to write about one day here.
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Andy's work. His MCJ blog is what got me started in blogging ten years ago, and when he came back with The Jerx it inspired me to pull the trigger and get my blog going again. He is incredibly creative and I liked the concept behind this trick from the moment I saw it.
Instead of mailing the birthday card, I gave it to her in the morning and told her to hold on to it as the day went on. We had a bunch of things to do during the day, some fun some not, but I planned on performing the trick over dinner. I did a version of his Reverse Psychology Force but I don't think it went well, Honestly, being my wife, she's familiar with the idea of forces in general. It's not so much that I bungled the force, it's that I think there's very little I can do to make her think she's getting a free choice. I do think the RPF is a great idea and would work well for a lay audience, but for this particular performance I probably should have done something else.
In reading the description of the trick, I thought "There's no way in hell this torn-corner handling is going to work." I was wrong, and I think that's my favorite part of the trick. Getting your spectator to ring in your duplicate while vanishing the pieces feels so weird, but it works. Granted, I have an incredibly small sample size of one but I can see this working in the real world for sure. Really though, Andy puts out magic that works so if he says he uses it, it's not just a pipe dream. Being seated made this part incredibly easy too because I was able to just drop the pieces on the seat next to me instead of trying to get into my pocket casually.
Overall my wife really liked the trick. I asked her about it later, wanting to get her thoughts on it but also not wanting to destroy the whole thing for her. She said, "Well, I'm pretty sure you forced the card on me so I'm also pretty sure the card in the envelope wasn't the same physical card I picked. But I don't know where the other card went, either." So for someone who knows a bit about magic just from being associated with me, I think that's pretty good. I definitely think this would work quite well for someone with no magic background.
A couple thoughts I've had:
I could see this working well for the professional magician as a closer or an encore type trick. Give a card to the birthday kid or host of the event and have them hold it the whole time. At the end of the show bring them up and do the trick. Inside the envelope is a custom printed greeting card saying "Thanks for having me" or "Have a magical birthday" or some other crap. Have your contact info printed on the back of the greeting card. Put a couple strips of double sided tape on the inside of the greeting card so that after you show the playing card is healed and the corner matches, you can quickly tape the playing card inside the greeting card leaving them with a reminder of the magic that also has your contact info on it.
I don't remember if I wrote about this before (I think I did, but I'm going to say it again so it's all together), Hallmark would go well with The Envelope Concept. You're losing the signed card aspect, but I think the torn corner works well enough. I love the idea of creating a long-lasting piece of wonder with the spectator and this handling would make it more accessible.
I might be overthinking this, but I feel like taking a piece of the card that's not the index corner could make this slightly stronger. I haven't tested this beyond seeing if it was easy enough to tear out a middle section of card (it is), but I think it's worth exploration. I feel like if you were to tear a card into eight pieces and have someone pick one, you only have a 25% chance of getting an index corner while you have a 75% chance of getting something else. Again, I'm probably overthinking this and running without being chased and all that jazz, but it's something to consider.
I think that's all I wanted to say. I don't know; I've been writing this off and on for about a week now. Having a kid is a pain in the ass sometimes. But definitely check out Hallmark and if you like it and the other things on the blog, consider picking up the book.
- Andster
It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Andy's work. His MCJ blog is what got me started in blogging ten years ago, and when he came back with The Jerx it inspired me to pull the trigger and get my blog going again. He is incredibly creative and I liked the concept behind this trick from the moment I saw it.
Instead of mailing the birthday card, I gave it to her in the morning and told her to hold on to it as the day went on. We had a bunch of things to do during the day, some fun some not, but I planned on performing the trick over dinner. I did a version of his Reverse Psychology Force but I don't think it went well, Honestly, being my wife, she's familiar with the idea of forces in general. It's not so much that I bungled the force, it's that I think there's very little I can do to make her think she's getting a free choice. I do think the RPF is a great idea and would work well for a lay audience, but for this particular performance I probably should have done something else.
In reading the description of the trick, I thought "There's no way in hell this torn-corner handling is going to work." I was wrong, and I think that's my favorite part of the trick. Getting your spectator to ring in your duplicate while vanishing the pieces feels so weird, but it works. Granted, I have an incredibly small sample size of one but I can see this working in the real world for sure. Really though, Andy puts out magic that works so if he says he uses it, it's not just a pipe dream. Being seated made this part incredibly easy too because I was able to just drop the pieces on the seat next to me instead of trying to get into my pocket casually.
Overall my wife really liked the trick. I asked her about it later, wanting to get her thoughts on it but also not wanting to destroy the whole thing for her. She said, "Well, I'm pretty sure you forced the card on me so I'm also pretty sure the card in the envelope wasn't the same physical card I picked. But I don't know where the other card went, either." So for someone who knows a bit about magic just from being associated with me, I think that's pretty good. I definitely think this would work quite well for someone with no magic background.
A couple thoughts I've had:
I could see this working well for the professional magician as a closer or an encore type trick. Give a card to the birthday kid or host of the event and have them hold it the whole time. At the end of the show bring them up and do the trick. Inside the envelope is a custom printed greeting card saying "Thanks for having me" or "Have a magical birthday" or some other crap. Have your contact info printed on the back of the greeting card. Put a couple strips of double sided tape on the inside of the greeting card so that after you show the playing card is healed and the corner matches, you can quickly tape the playing card inside the greeting card leaving them with a reminder of the magic that also has your contact info on it.
I don't remember if I wrote about this before (I think I did, but I'm going to say it again so it's all together), Hallmark would go well with The Envelope Concept. You're losing the signed card aspect, but I think the torn corner works well enough. I love the idea of creating a long-lasting piece of wonder with the spectator and this handling would make it more accessible.
I might be overthinking this, but I feel like taking a piece of the card that's not the index corner could make this slightly stronger. I haven't tested this beyond seeing if it was easy enough to tear out a middle section of card (it is), but I think it's worth exploration. I feel like if you were to tear a card into eight pieces and have someone pick one, you only have a 25% chance of getting an index corner while you have a 75% chance of getting something else. Again, I'm probably overthinking this and running without being chased and all that jazz, but it's something to consider.
I think that's all I wanted to say. I don't know; I've been writing this off and on for about a week now. Having a kid is a pain in the ass sometimes. But definitely check out Hallmark and if you like it and the other things on the blog, consider picking up the book.
- Andster
Friday, September 30, 2016
The Announcement!
It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm finally ready to spill the beans on something that's been in the works for a while now. As I said in my previous post, there's been hints in everything I've posted this calendar year. If you would like to figure out the news on your own, quit reading now.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Last month my wife and I welcomed our first child, a wonderful baby boy. He's sleeping in his swing as I write this and just looks absolutely adorable. I know I don't update this blog very often, and having a kid has really made it harder to find the effort to do anything. The first few weeks were really rough and I just wanted to do nothing but sleep. It's starting to get a little better so I hope I can get back into the swing of things soon. I do have a lot that I want to talk about.
As I said above, I've been dropping hints about it all year long. As you can imagine I've been really excited about it and have been dying to talk but my wife and I kept it pretty low-key. I think the blog was really the first place I announced it in public, albeit extremely cryptically.
I've always been a fan of the "everything's been in front of you the whole time if you only knew where to look" plot device. So naturally, I had to drop come clues in the blog. I went about it in probably the lamest way possible, but it was easy enough for me to stick to. If you look at the first letter of all the post titles in January, (in chronological order, not the order they are in on the page) you'll see that they spell out 'I'M A DAD'. Also, in the first post of the year I added at the end "I'll post next in August, alluding to the due date.
The couple posts I made in February and March had nothing to do with anything, but things picked back up with my only post in April. Sticking with the first letter theme, the first letter of each paragraph in that post spells out 'HINT TITLES' trying to point people towards reading the post titles. The weakest part of this whole thing in my opinion is the paragraph for the letter E. Although that's a genuine question I have, I shoehorned it in there like nobody's business. I needed something for the letter E and I couldn't come up with anything so I did that. I think it worked out in a way because (at least to me) it seems so out of place that it might hint that there's something more to be seen there.
The titles of the rest of the posts up until now, including the one in April, spell out 'IT'S A BOY' because I found out I was having a son and wanted to share that too. Then I quit writing because I got super busy and then the baby came and everything got even busier.
I'm going to try to get back into posting again. I've got a couple new magic products I would like to talk about. I also have no plans to hide messages in my blog posts again, at least not in the near future so feel free to take things at face value. I can't promise I won't do something cryptic again sometime but it'll have to be something big because, honestly, this whole thing was kind of a pain in the ass to set up.
- Dadster
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Last month my wife and I welcomed our first child, a wonderful baby boy. He's sleeping in his swing as I write this and just looks absolutely adorable. I know I don't update this blog very often, and having a kid has really made it harder to find the effort to do anything. The first few weeks were really rough and I just wanted to do nothing but sleep. It's starting to get a little better so I hope I can get back into the swing of things soon. I do have a lot that I want to talk about.
As I said above, I've been dropping hints about it all year long. As you can imagine I've been really excited about it and have been dying to talk but my wife and I kept it pretty low-key. I think the blog was really the first place I announced it in public, albeit extremely cryptically.
I've always been a fan of the "everything's been in front of you the whole time if you only knew where to look" plot device. So naturally, I had to drop come clues in the blog. I went about it in probably the lamest way possible, but it was easy enough for me to stick to. If you look at the first letter of all the post titles in January, (in chronological order, not the order they are in on the page) you'll see that they spell out 'I'M A DAD'. Also, in the first post of the year I added at the end "I'll post next in August, alluding to the due date.
The couple posts I made in February and March had nothing to do with anything, but things picked back up with my only post in April. Sticking with the first letter theme, the first letter of each paragraph in that post spells out 'HINT TITLES' trying to point people towards reading the post titles. The weakest part of this whole thing in my opinion is the paragraph for the letter E. Although that's a genuine question I have, I shoehorned it in there like nobody's business. I needed something for the letter E and I couldn't come up with anything so I did that. I think it worked out in a way because (at least to me) it seems so out of place that it might hint that there's something more to be seen there.
The titles of the rest of the posts up until now, including the one in April, spell out 'IT'S A BOY' because I found out I was having a son and wanted to share that too. Then I quit writing because I got super busy and then the baby came and everything got even busier.
I'm going to try to get back into posting again. I've got a couple new magic products I would like to talk about. I also have no plans to hide messages in my blog posts again, at least not in the near future so feel free to take things at face value. I can't promise I won't do something cryptic again sometime but it'll have to be something big because, honestly, this whole thing was kind of a pain in the ass to set up.
- Dadster
Monday, August 15, 2016
Yeah, it's a Clip Show Post
I feel like these posts where I just brain dump a bunch of random stuff I've been meaning to say but aren't worth a whole post are the blogging equivalent of a clip show. Although since clip shows are made up of things that happened in previous episodes, maybe the analogy doesn't quite fit. Maybe this is more like the clip show episode Community did where they referenced things that never actually happened and showed clips they made specially for that episode. Yeah, let's go with that one.
A while back I made a post about how I wished there could be more transparency in magic ads. Recently, Jeff Copeland released a trailer for Blackbird that did pretty much what I was hoping for. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about it my post, so I'm going to take full credit for giving him the idea. I've seen people giving him a lot of grief for doing that, saying exposing the gimmick to lay people is a mistake. I disagree. I think very few laymen will care enough to see and remember the video, but the benefit for magicians to see exactly what they're getting and how it works is high. I look forward to seeing more ads like this in the future.
I've been reading a lot of comics on Reddit lately, and this one really spoke to me. Just replace the word "draw" with "blog" or "perform" or "work on my act" or really, any phrase about being creative in a magical capacity. It's not always being tired, but it does always seem that I get creative and motivated when I'm busy with something else.
I also like this comic, both as a funny magic gag and a visualization of my existential dread.
About a year ago I wrote about a presentation I saw on Reddit that I really liked, The Envelope Concept. I've been thinking about it again the past couple days, and I really think that combining that with this trick from Andy at The Jerx would be an awesome way to go. You lose a bit with the card not being signed, but you gain it back somewhat with the torn corner. I think they're both very strong ideas on their own and combining them doesn't necessarily make it the best idea, but I think it becomes it's own cool thing. I'm going to work on this a bit and see how it works.
I'm about ready to make an announcement soon. It's not very magic related, but it's pretty neat. I think, anyway. I know nobody's reading this thing so I could probably just say it now and it wouldn't spoil the surprise before it's due, but I'm not gonna risk something so time sensitive that I've been working on for a year. You know what though? I have been dropping hints. There are major clues in the posts that I've put up this calendar year. Find them and you'll know exactly what I've been referencing. There's no clues in this post, though. Just take what I said at face value.
Until next time.
- Andster
A while back I made a post about how I wished there could be more transparency in magic ads. Recently, Jeff Copeland released a trailer for Blackbird that did pretty much what I was hoping for. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about it my post, so I'm going to take full credit for giving him the idea. I've seen people giving him a lot of grief for doing that, saying exposing the gimmick to lay people is a mistake. I disagree. I think very few laymen will care enough to see and remember the video, but the benefit for magicians to see exactly what they're getting and how it works is high. I look forward to seeing more ads like this in the future.
I've been reading a lot of comics on Reddit lately, and this one really spoke to me. Just replace the word "draw" with "blog" or "perform" or "work on my act" or really, any phrase about being creative in a magical capacity. It's not always being tired, but it does always seem that I get creative and motivated when I'm busy with something else.
I also like this comic, both as a funny magic gag and a visualization of my existential dread.
About a year ago I wrote about a presentation I saw on Reddit that I really liked, The Envelope Concept. I've been thinking about it again the past couple days, and I really think that combining that with this trick from Andy at The Jerx would be an awesome way to go. You lose a bit with the card not being signed, but you gain it back somewhat with the torn corner. I think they're both very strong ideas on their own and combining them doesn't necessarily make it the best idea, but I think it becomes it's own cool thing. I'm going to work on this a bit and see how it works.
I'm about ready to make an announcement soon. It's not very magic related, but it's pretty neat. I think, anyway. I know nobody's reading this thing so I could probably just say it now and it wouldn't spoil the surprise before it's due, but I'm not gonna risk something so time sensitive that I've been working on for a year. You know what though? I have been dropping hints. There are major clues in the posts that I've put up this calendar year. Find them and you'll know exactly what I've been referencing. There's no clues in this post, though. Just take what I said at face value.
Until next time.
- Andster
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Okay, it's Tinfoil Hat Time
I've been watching this season of America's Got Talent, per usual, just not writing about it because last season I didn't have much to say besides "That was neat." I think it's no secret that I'm pretty biased towards the magic acts, though I do still love pretty much any act that's not a singer. So far I've been pretty happy with the acts that have been going through.
The other night, sideshow duo Ryan Stock and AmberLynn had a bit of a mishap during their live performance. The official AGT video cuts off the worst looking part, but this video on NBC's site shows the whole thing (skip ahead to about 1:45). Definitely some scary stuff and I'm very glad nobody was seriously hurt.
However.
What if they did that on purpose? Hear me out. I know it's infinitely more likely that they suffered mechanical issues and had an accident, especially considering how (rightfully) terrified Ryan looked when he got hit. But I think a case could be made that this is all just a well-crafted publicity stunt.
Even though I like their act, I think the smart bet is that they would never win the whole show. I think it's too shocking, gross, scary, whatever word you want to pick for mainstream America to vote for. I think it's amazing that they made it as far as they did, because in my limited memory of the show, acts like that usually get eliminated pretty early on. I think they might have realized that too and then made a decision.
Realizing that, in all likelihood, you're going home after this performance you can do one of two things. You can do your best, ramp it up, and hope that somehow you get the votes. Or you can accept the fact that you're going home and give the people something to talk about to keep your name in the news and really get a push in the press.
So maybe you swallow a couple swords and then get shot in the neck with a blunt arrow from a low-powered bow. Personally, I am more surprised that the legitimate stunt went wrong and just happened to not kill him than I would be to find out the guy who sticks drills and chainsaws in his face took one for the team.
So, again, it's much more likely that this is all just a legitimate accident that fortunately didn't leave anyone seriously hurt. But if somewhere down the line it turns out that they did it all on purpose, I would not be surprised in the least.
- Andster
The other night, sideshow duo Ryan Stock and AmberLynn had a bit of a mishap during their live performance. The official AGT video cuts off the worst looking part, but this video on NBC's site shows the whole thing (skip ahead to about 1:45). Definitely some scary stuff and I'm very glad nobody was seriously hurt.
However.
What if they did that on purpose? Hear me out. I know it's infinitely more likely that they suffered mechanical issues and had an accident, especially considering how (rightfully) terrified Ryan looked when he got hit. But I think a case could be made that this is all just a well-crafted publicity stunt.
Even though I like their act, I think the smart bet is that they would never win the whole show. I think it's too shocking, gross, scary, whatever word you want to pick for mainstream America to vote for. I think it's amazing that they made it as far as they did, because in my limited memory of the show, acts like that usually get eliminated pretty early on. I think they might have realized that too and then made a decision.
Realizing that, in all likelihood, you're going home after this performance you can do one of two things. You can do your best, ramp it up, and hope that somehow you get the votes. Or you can accept the fact that you're going home and give the people something to talk about to keep your name in the news and really get a push in the press.
So maybe you swallow a couple swords and then get shot in the neck with a blunt arrow from a low-powered bow. Personally, I am more surprised that the legitimate stunt went wrong and just happened to not kill him than I would be to find out the guy who sticks drills and chainsaws in his face took one for the team.
So, again, it's much more likely that this is all just a legitimate accident that fortunately didn't leave anyone seriously hurt. But if somewhere down the line it turns out that they did it all on purpose, I would not be surprised in the least.
- Andster
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