Boys, Power, and Card Tricks

"Do you like card tricks?"

"No, I hate card tricks," I answered.

"Well, I`ll just show you this one."

He showed me three.

(W. Somerset Maugham, Mr. Know All)


There are a number of very real problems with card tricks and young people but these problems are quite revealing.

Boys who like them like them almost too much. Girls seldom like them.

Many boys like them as a way of collecting. They often collect other cards such as Top Trumps or Pokémon cards. In this case they collect secrets. This gives them the impression that magic is simply a matter of knowing how its done. Once they are in this mode of thought it is difficult to work on any other approach to magic which might involve performance, communication, context, humor, or fun.

Of course this is how much of the teaching they have been exposed to teaches them to regard the acquisition of a skill. They are often tested more on how they remember things than how they use the things they know.

Once they remember a card trick they perform it as a test for the spectator. If the spectator fails they have won. That's it.

The appeal of card tricks is obvious when you think about it. They spend so much of their time under the control of others and being tested on things they want some revenge. This is why they relish building and sorting large collections of Pokémon cards. They have the knowledge. They are in control. And they only get tested by their peers. If you have ever had a kid testing you on what Dusclops' special power is you'll remember how much they enjoy turning the tables in this way.

I suggest teaching card tricks to young boys as a swapping game. If they show you a card trick and reveal how it is done then return the favor. Obviously you want them to move beyond this trickster phase and get them to see that performing magic can be more than a test but its a good way to begin really communiciating. If you stick to simple puzzle type card effects you wont be revealing much and the value will be more in the gifting behavior than in the puzzles.

Note: Dusclops' special power is that it can hypnotize his opponent by "waving its hands in a macabre manner and bringing its single eye to bear." Sounds like a magician to me.

Hip Hop Pencil/Coin Vanish

This is another classic that's great to teach some of the fundamentals of magic and which works as a good rhythmical game.

Hold a coin in your left hand and a pencil in your right. tap the coin with the pencil and say that you are going to make the coin vanish. This will make everyone pay attention to the coin.

Raise the pencil behind your right ear and bring it down to tap the coin and say "one".

Do it again and say, "two"

Again lift the pencil behind you ear but this time leave it stuck behind your ear as you bring your hand down and say "three".

You can now act surprised that the pencil has vanished.

You can continue if you like by turning until every can see the pencil is behind your ear. As you reach up to get it everyone will watch your right hand. You can ditch the coin into you pocket and then close your left hand in a fist. Bring the pencil down onto the fist then open your hand to show that the coin has vanished.

This is actually a very bold trick and any nerves can put you off the rhythm which is the essential thing. Its very like a dance movement and I found myself with two dancers who were working with young people on the same day as me in Cowlersley doing the count. 1, 2, 3 - 1,2,3 and turning it into part of a hip-hop dance routine.

The trick is a great lesson in directing attention. I avoid talking about misdirection because that's too easily heard as distraction and interpreted as making people look away when the magic happens which is the last thing you want to do. People should see the magic.

Mathemagic: Shopping Spree

There are many mathematical effects but the majority of them fail to be of broad interest because they are presented as puzzles. I'm not against puzzles per se but for many young people they are annoying and symbolise the bad things about school - confusing things that have no relevance to my life.

This effect is an old one that is describes in many early 20th century magic books. The presentation here is what is important. Its based on an emotional hook that everyone can get into and is adapted from a version shown to me by Jeff McBride which he calls The Object of Desire.

You place a wallet, purse, or envelope (I use a back pocket cut off some jeans) on the table before beginning, ask everyone to close their eyes (optional but fun), then read the following aloud.

Shopping Spree

Imagine that you are shopping, looking at all the new things in the windows of the shops.

Something catches your eye. Something you really, really, really, want. You'd like to buy it so you look in your pocket, You have only pound coins and one or a few notes. You add them up.

Now remember how much you have.

Unfortunately the thing you want to buy is too expensive so you head for home to see if you have any more money there.

On the way you meet a friend and tell them about the thing you want to buy. They lend you the same amount of money that you have in your pocket.

Add them together and remember how much you now have.

You go back to the shop but the thing you wanted has been sold.

You go home feeling a little bit fed up. At home you find a letter saying that you have won a competition and with the letter there is a £10 note.

Add this to the money in your pocket and remember how much you now have.

Your friend calls and tells you that they have seen the thing you are looking for in a different shop so you dash out to get it. It costs half the amount of money you have in your pocket.

Remember how much you now have left.

Your friend meets you at the shop to admire your new purchase. You give them back the money you borrowed.

Remember how much you now have left.


This is all imagination but here is reality. Open your eyes. Here is the pocket. How much money do you have left in your imaginary wallet?

£5?

Look in the pocket and you will find a £5 note

maths: x + x + 10/2 - x = 5

What is fun is how the emotional focus of thinking about something you really want to buy stops you thinking about the calculations. We all understand that your ability to think logically can vanish when you want to buy something and this provides an good story to wrap the maths in.

Lets be clear however, that I don't see this just a way sugar coating some maths in order to sneak it in. This is an exercise in imagination and memory as much as in mathematics.

Coin magic: Inner script - Karel Fox double-sided sticky tape

I believe that it was Karel Fox the great trade show magician who published the idea of using a strip of double-sided sticky tape to stick a coin to your thumb. This lets you make a coin appear at your fingertips and dissapear again quite easily. It is only good acting that will make it a believable illusion however.

I use this gimmick to introduce the idea of an inner script. I show the effect by doing a quick misers dream routine then demonstrate how it works. After making a gimmick and familiarising themselves with it I have the student place it aside. I then hold out a coin at just above eye level and just with their reach and ask them to take it from my hand. I have them do this a few time while observing what it is they do when they take a coin but it is important that the first couple of times they do not know they should be observing. They are more likely to do it naturally when they are not observing.

I then have them imaginge that I am not there and that when I hold the coin up it is as though it has appeared in mid air. They are to notice it then reach out and take it.

After doing this a few times they are to repeat the action with no coin at all.

Only after we have done this do I reintroduce the gimmick. They should now have a good inner script and physical script of what they are trying to mimic.

The One O'Clock Trick

There are a number of effects involving time whil I have used and will discuss but this one in particular has been very sucessful.

Jim Steinmeyer describes this trick but I believe it may be older than his description. I initially decided to do it as a physical activity with 6year olds. The clock is layed out on the floor and the kids all choose a time. It has spelling, counting, running around, and a surprise ending. There is also a variation using 10 numbers.

The schoool involved uses a lot of circle time activities and this presentation was designed with that in mind.

Laying 12 cards on the floor makes a large clock. The hour is written on the cards both as a number and a word. Everyone thinks of an hour then stands at 12 o’clock. They then spell out the name of the hour they have chosen moving around the clock with each letter. This is done to a handclap so everyone moves together. This brings them to a second hour and they then spell the name of that hour in the same way. Doing this 3 times will bring everyone to one o’clock no matter what the original hour they thought of.

The activity is repeated several times with the same result.

In this activity you are learning the hours and how they are spelt while moving around. The activity has been designed to involve as many learning styles as possible.

- plays with words (Vernal/Linguistic)
- plays with questions and numbers (Logical/Mathematical)
- plays with pictures (Visual/Spatial)
- plays with music (Music/Rhythmic)
- plays with moving (Body/Kinesthetic)

There are a lot of counting effects that can be made into physical activities with participants playing the parts that are usually played by cards.

Bowl-a-rama

The performer walks out carrying a thin sketch pad. Flipping back the front cover he writes bowling ball and sketches a picture of one. The performer closes the pad and holds it out in front of him. From within the pages of the pad falls a giant bowling ball that crashes on the stage, proving its real. When the performer opens up the pad, the picture of the ball has vanished, leaving only the words "Bowling Ball."

This is a fantastic effect by Kevin James that I've used to open talks on creativity for teenagers and talks on pitching for digital industry professionals.

Not only is it a stunning effect in its own right but the meaning of the effect - something on a drawing board becomes real - is great for starting any discussion based on creativity.

The real secret to the effect is in the animation. By this I mean the handling of the props in a natural manner. It is also best done in silence.

On the TV show Monkey Magic they did a version when a live duck was produced. Very nice.

This effect should never be revealed of course because it is a commercial effect. If one were to teach it it would be under a strict code of silence.

Illusions

In the magic business a large-scale stage magic effect with apparatus is generally referred to as an illusion.

Most projects with young people cannot physically accommodate such work or support the cost and investment that must be put into making such illusions effective. It is counterproductive both educationally and in terms of the appreciation of magic to attempt complex illusions that will be poorly built and unconvincing. Such attempts run the risk of revealing a technique of magic to no good effect.

However, there are some illusions that are designed and built from very cheap materials in such a way that the very ordinariness of their appearance is an intentional part of their style. In particular, the illusions of Andrew Mayne are often constructed from cardboard boxes, paper bags, wire, photocopies, and clothing and are presented in a way that makes them almost impromptu.

Among these are a number that can work well with young people:

Facelifter
"Who needs thousands of dollars to perform incredible illusions? The magician asks his audience this question before he picks up a beat-up cardboard box. He places it upside-down over his head and then rips open a hole in the front so his face his visible. The magician then lifts the box a foot above his shoulders; stretching his neck in an impossible manner. Next he twists his head 360° and back. Finally he removes his head entirely and then puts it back."




This is a great stagecraft project for age 10-18 years. It involves making an illusion (each person makes their own) and then practicing the animation and acting to make it effective.

Voodoo Box
"The magician offers his audience a demonstration in the latest high-tech pseudoscientific technology: The Voodoo Box. Guaranteed to ward off bad luck and ill omens! His assistant steps inside and the box is closed shut. The magician unveils twenty-one umbrellas that have all been opened indoors. He proceeds to shove the umbrellas through all the sides of the box at various angles. All twenty-one umbrellas are shoved into the box, yet no screams are heard from within. The magician removes the umbrellas (and opens a few to show that they are real). The box is opened and his assistant steps out unharmed!"



Again a great stagecraft project for 10-18age if you can get hold of enough umbrellas! Sticks will do but umbrellas are much better in the way they add to the illusion. There is a good element of teamwork between the magician and the assistant in this illusion.

Bowling ball from bag
An illusion that is simple to do but hard to do convincingly. Great for acting skills and considering angles.

For younger age groups (7-10years) one of the best books for simple prop building is Magic for Kids by Fay Presto. It begins with an illusion called Anyone Home which involves building a house out of a large cardboard box. Very easy to do if the angles are ok.

Paddle Move

The Paddle Move is an excellent sleight for working with timing, body awareness, focus, mirrorwork, and collaboration.

The simplest idea is to have a paddle with one image (often a top hat) on one side and another image (often a rabbit) on the other side. Doing the Paddle Move allows you to appear to show both sides of the paddle while really only showing one. So you can make the rabbit appear from the hat and then vanish again.

There's a great description here of a more complex routine using two paddles and I've found this to be a great effect to teach for developing body awareness and focus.

Ring and Chain Drop

The Ring and Chain effect that I use appears to have a long history which I intend to fully research if I ever find the time. I thought I'd start this blog with a description of this effect because I've found it incredibly useful and fascinating when working with young people.

Simple described you have a loop of chain made from about a metre of chain and a solid metal ring of around 2 -3 inch diameter. You hold out your hand and hang the chain from it. Next you hold the ring horizontal and lower the chain through it. When you drop the ring it doesn't drop off the end of the chain as expected but is attached to the chain.

This is a knack kinda thing which takes a little while to get right but isn't too frustrating partly because of the fun of dropping the metal ring on the floor. You can also use the chain for doing a one-handed knot tie where you can make a number of knots appear in the chain and have them move up and down the chain.

This has been one of the more effective effects for working with young people who are finding it hard to concentrate or who are viewing every activity simply as a challenge. It requires no acting (which makes some young people nervous), collaboration, or mirrorwork.

Working with John (10 year old boy) on a GPS treasure hunt, GPS drawing, and game design day, this effect was particularly useful. He admitted himself that he did not have the focus to work on one activity for very long (I suspect he had been told this many times from the way he preemptively volunteered the information) and got very bored when asked to do an activity that required sitting still. He was happy for a while designing plasticine figures for a board game but squashed them when he lost interest.

To stop him distracting the others I showed him how to do the ring drop move that I had been entertaining them with at lunch. He spent a good 90 mins trying to master it and thoroughly enjoyed the process.

This activity was more than just a way of keeping him occupied however. Once he mastered the move he then went and taught it to one of the other boys and brought the boy to me to demonstrate when he had done so. In all he spent just over 2 hours with the ring and chain.

One of the youth workers who had known John since he was 6 was amazed and said that he had never seen him focus for so long on anything before or see him so happy to master something.

I've been using this effect ever since in situations where the temperature of the workshop or atmosphere needs reducing.

Its a little more popular with boys than girls but not nearly as gender split as most card effects. There's also the fun of putting it around your neck as bling, but that's sure to date. In fact if its introduced as a necklace to begin with girls will engage more and have fun mocking you for wearing it.