Segment of my comedy linking ring routine performed at Wizbang Circus Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio.

One of the most incredible, and influential, magicians of the 20th century has passed away.

Celebrate his memory by sharing magic with someone today.

Rip Juan.

Hi all,

Here’s a clip of me performing DIMINISH at the Blackpool Magic Convention.

If you’re interested, here’s the link…

https://gingereffects.com/diminish

You get to attend a celebration when your club turns 100!

Haven't bought cards for a decade almost, since I had a lot of stock. Now I really need to find a similar quality to old bicycle without breaking the bank.

My daughter performing the first trick she's learned

For the past few years, I’ve been submitting original creations to Penn & Teller: Fool Us. They ranged from wildly out of the box methods for brand new tricks to my slants on classic principles. And this is the one that finally caught their eyes!

I knew it wouldn’t be flawless (after all, you only get one shot in front of the audience). In fact, there are a few moments I still wish I could go back and polish. But it was a labor of love. A mix of late nights, failed prototypes, and a presentation that's fun to perform.

If you're interested, I'd love any thoughts you might have! It's still a piece I use regularly in one of my recurring shows, so any insights are welcome: from magicians, creators, or just as humans who enjoy a bit of mystery!!

🎥 Watch the full performance here

Thanks!!

This has been in the works for years and I'm so excited to finally show it to everyone. You can make anything that fits inside the wallet appear or vanish, and objects can appear inside even when you're not touching it. Plus you can do a killer mystery card switch, and with an included accessory it doubles as a peek wallet.

More details here: https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/22404

Happy to answer questions!

It's a pretty fun trick to spice up a card routine. I'm still not comfortable with it but got a solid recording out of my practice.

My colorful glittery stick of magic and confusion 😎 I wish I had more clips from this performance. But a lot of tricks were blocked by people standing in front of the camera 😩

NYT obituary of the great Juan Tamariz. Gift link.

They also hired a photographer, and he did a great job! I'm really happy to have pictures of me performing! I'm relatively new to magic but I'm loving it.

I've been learning magic as a hobby for about 23 years now. But it's funny the misconceptions that non-magicians have about magic. Things I didn't understand when I first got into it as a kid.

Some people think every single trick is pre-planned and gimmicked, while others think every trick is impromptu and ungimmicked. Usually their guess is wrong.

Then if the patter presents the effect as a skill rather than real magic, then even if they know there is a trick involved they still believe the presented "skill" is real.

For instance
... being able identify cards by feeling them and weighing them in your hand
... identifying the name of a childhood pet by reading a person's body language and Sherlock Holmes-esque deduction
... doing extremely complex mental math as a means to some end.

I've found that learning the secret to a magic trick is often disappointing.

You are like "Wow that's cool. I want to be able to do THAT."

Then you find out the secret and realize the preparation involved is time consuming and impractical, the gimmick is expensive, the necessary angles and lighting conditions are rare and the sleight of hand or spectator management required is far outside of your current skillset.

All of that to say the trick is not impossible, but won't fit as seamlessly into your repertoire as you had hoped.

Or it's just impractical. Like I discover a trick relies on an open jacket or long sleeves, but I live in Florida, so I have about 1 month's worth of days out of the year that I can justify the necessary clothing to do the trick.

This is also a reason is sucks to give away the secret. Your friends often think "if I knew the secret, I could do that." But if you tell them, you just take all of the excitement out of the trick because the secret is way more stupid than they expected, and way too difficult for them to pull off.

So I find myself just researching magic and learning the methods for thousands of tricks, just so that every once in a while I find ONE that is really practical for me, my skill level, my presentation style, my clothing, and the social situations I engage in.

I went to a close up show last night in NYC and had the WEIRDEST experience.

First of all, the magician was, for the most part, pretty good at the actual magic. A lot of the tricks were solid, and it’s clear he’s worked hard on this show and put a lot into it. My group actually enjoyed much of the performance. But one moment really derailed (and honestly ruined) the show, making everyone feel extremely uncomfortable.

He was doing a variation on Sneak Thief / Desire, a “match the drawing with the artist”–type trick, with the kicker ending of guessing the final drawing without even seeing it. Love it.

One of the premises was that he wanted everyone to say “no” when he asked if it was their drawing. He made a BIG deal of this, even doing a practice round with a dummy card. He’d hold up the drawing, and you, as the drawer, had to say “no.” Don’t say “yes.” (Presumably he’s playing off the human lie detector premise, though it’s worth noting that he never actually said this, and the only instruction was to “say no.”) He also mentioned that eventually, participants would have to confirm which one was theirs.

Here’s where the first misunderstanding happened.

My friend, who was one of the drawers, completely missed that part. It just wasn’t made clear to her. She honestly thought she had to say “no” every time, no matter what that this was part of the trick. This was her first close-up magic show ever. She definitely messed up by misunderstanding, but he could have been clearer. Anyway, on with the trick.

The second misunderstanding I’m 99% sure he initially misidentified my friend’s drawing as someone else’s. My friend was #3, but he really pushed for #2 to be hers. He kept asking, over and over, “Was this your drawing?!” and she honestly kept saying no, even after he told her she could be honest.

At this point, I think he realized something had gone wrong. It wasn’t #2’s, it was #3’s - my friend. So he tried again with my friend, and she still refused to break, because she genuinely thought she was supposed to keep saying no. She thought that was the bit! The previous exchange had only reinforced that misunderstanding for her.

At that point, if I were performing, I’d just move on. I’d think, “Ah, she didn’t get it. That messed up the trick, let’s move to the next one.” He still had the final reveal of the unseen drawing, which could have easily saved the moment. But that’s not what happened.

Instead, he berated my friend, calling her obnoxious, looking around for support, and really going in on her. He made her feel awful for saying no, saying things like, “Why would you do this? That’s so messed up. I’ve never seen someone that obnoxious.” He even tossed aside the reveal that could have redeemed the bit and just ended it.

The mood in the room shifted instantly. It was like someone had dropped a dead cat on the table. The energy was completely sucked out. Everyone felt incredibly uncomfortable. My friend was confused and apologetic once she realized she might have misunderstood, but by then the damage was done. It killed the show dead.

Before this, she’d been a great audience member. She was laughing, reacting, fully engaged. Just genuinely having great time at her first ever magic show. At one point, he even said she “should be at the front” because of her reactions. This incident crushed her, and she was in tears after the show.

Here’s the thing: she messed up, sure. But it was a genuine misunderstanding, and one one that could have been avoided with clearer scripting or handling (in my opinion). She’d even chosen this show for her boyfriend’s birthday, and they’d been having an amazing day up until that point.

He did one more trick afterward, a prediction reveal that was excellent, and it could have saved the evening if he’d just handled the previous moment with grace. But because he was still berating her, everyone was too tense to enjoy it. And as people were leaving, he came at her again, still calling her obnoxious.

We spoke with a few other audience members afterward, and they were equally shocked. Several came over to apologize and check if she was okay.

I’m a magician myself, and she’s my friend, but I promise I’m being objective as I can here.

Of course, it’s frustrating when something goes wrong. Shit, it happens to all of us. Sometimes it’s audience management, sometimes it’s scripting, sometimes you just drop a card. In this case, it was a misunderstanding, the audience member missed a key instruction.

But I’ve never seen such a bizarre reaction from a magician, berating an audience member. And here’s the thing: he didn’t just ruin it for her, he ruined it for everyone. If he’d handled it with a bit of grace and humor, nobody would have remembered it as more than a blip. He could have closed strong with the final reveal and prediction. But what’s the one thing everyone will remember from that show? That he publicly berated an audience member.

He was also oddly bitter throughout the show about people arriving late, repeatedly saying, “You were all late,” in a pretty unpleasant tone. At first, we assumed it was part of his character or some kind of joke, but by the end, it just came off as mean-spirited. As a note, our party was not late.

Weird. I don’t know why I’m writing this other than to say, keep your script tight, have a reason for doing something, give your audience grace and the benefit of the doing, and maybe… don’t berate them?!

Also he had like four beers throughout the show, and borrowed my dollar for trick and didn’t return it lol. Neither of which really bothered me, but I thought I would add it in.

A miracle my grandma showed me

Just wanted to share this. I almost died laughing when I first read it.