The Travelers

Great accidental discoveries in science don’t just happen by accident. They present themselves in the presence of intellectual curiosity, discipline, scientific integrity, joy and passion. Only then are the unexpected elements or dynamics recognized as something new. Something important and wonderful.
Around 1911 Ernest Rutherford “accidentally” discovered that the atom consisted of mostly empty space with a dense positively charged nucleus. He was shooting alpha particles at a thin sheet of foil to measure the angle through which they were deflected when they passed by an electron. At that time it was thought that the atom was a positively charged “gel” with negatively charged bits floating around in it. (J.J Thompson’s “plum pudding” model).
Rutherford and his colleagues were investigating the structure of the atom with intention and discipline. By measuring the deflection angle of the positively charged alpha particles as they passed through the atom they were hoping to catch a glimpse of matter’s fundamental building block. Then something amazing happened. On a fluke, Rutherford set up the equipment to measure a wider dispersion of alpha particles. At once Rutherford found alpha particles flying straight back at him. This did not make sense. In his own words…

“It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me
in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell
at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you”!

The only explanation for the observed event was that the atom must have a great deal of empty space and a dense, positively charged core, or nucleus. And with that our understanding of the universe made a leap of astronomical proportion. Nothing would ever be the same. The modern era with all its technology, hopes, dreams and fears was begun. The point is this; someone didn’t just walk into a lab and say “What’s this button do”? Rather, these were brilliant minds. They set up brilliant experiments with intention. The discovery may have been unexpected, but they were already hot on the trail of something big. And that was no accident.


So what has all this got to do with some old hack trying to become a competent magician? Being a science teacher I couldn’t resist the analogy because science and art are not so different as one might imagine. There is an art to science and a science to art. For example, Einstein is famous for saying…”Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Indeed, a scientist needs the creative power to imagine how things “might” be and devise ways to investigate them. Conversely, just ask any artist about the foundations of visual composition, the physics of light or color theory. An artist’s world is full of science. And how many books and essays have been written on psychology of magic? Before anyone thinks I am about to compare myself with the greats of science or magic, allow me to state for the record… On my best day I couldn’t muster half the intellect of Rutherford on his worst day. And all the creative powers I possess focused into one concentrated beam would be like a firefly against the white hot spotlight of Jeff McBride, Whit Hayden or Daryl. But something wonderful happened today for Magic Friday. And it was an accident. Sort of.




I have always wanted to learn and perform that Dai Vernon palm-fest known as “The Travelers”. I’ve had “Stars of Magic” for about 25 years and for a long time felt the effect was way over my head. Not only does it require a fair amount of mechanical skill, but the misdirection required necessitates a set of brass ones. So while I was working on the routine for the past few weeks I had what I thought to be a great idea. I decided to have the 4th card wind up in a sealed envelope in a wallet that had been sitting on the table. I altered the handling to facilitate this ending to the effect. I wrote a snappy script for it and justified all actions and movements. I was pretty excited to see how well I could pull this off.



The first performance was successful and went very well. The reaction was warm and enthusiastic. But on the second performance, I made a huge blunder. When it was time to pull the 2nd spectator’s card from a pocket, it wasn’t there! What was I to do? I said…”Hummm, I’ll get back to you later”. I continued with producing the 3rd card and of course the 4th one in the wallet. Everyone thought that was pretty cool but wondered what happened to the 2nd guy’s card. I was stumped. I knew I goofed and everyone was waiting. I decided to take the honest route. “Okay guys, I have no idea what happened to Brian’s card”. (Of course the audience assumed I was playing them). I picked up the pack and found the card on top and acted quickly. I took the indifferent card in the front right trouser pocket, held it up triumphantly and asked Brian to name his card. He did and I smugly flipped over the card to show its face. Of course it was not his signed card. I feigned resignation to failure, executed a T.C., handed the card to him and asked him to wave it over his neighbor’s head. With that he turned the card back over to look at it and held it up for all to see. He and the rest of the audience were visibly stunned. And so was I by the reaction. A roar of amazement and disbelief went up such as I have never heard. I never, ever would have expected such a reaction from such a simple revelation as a climax. It was a blunder gone right. (I later realized that I had completely forgotten to do a O.H.T.P). It was a careless and inexcusable error. But it turned out so well.


The next two performances I played it straight and again, like the first performance of the day the response was strongly positive. But it was not over the top like the 2nd performance was. The “accident” performance. Now I was curious. So for the last performance I got rid of the wallet, slightly altered the handling and intentionally recreated the accident from the 2nd performance. I also included one of my bad-ass students. Nothing phases this guy. He is tough, brash, uninterested in educational success and cynical. Sometimes he’s downright disrespectful, but his home life really sucks so it’s easy to forgive him. Anyway, I recreated the blunder from earlier in the day. Only this time it was controlled. When that final card was turned over the reaction was just as powerful as the 2nd performance. Even Joe Badboy threw his hands over his reddened face and exclaimed “Holy s____”. I decided not to write him up for language. I also decided that this was the way for me to perform this effect.

So now it seems I am in possession of my own personal handling of Dai Vernon’s “The Travelers”. It’s uniquely scripted and has a powerful and surprising sucker punch as a climax. No wallet needed and instantly reset. This newly acquired routine fits my personality like a glove and may be the strongest effect I’ve presented this year. And all thanks to a careless mistake. An accident. But like the unexpected discovery in Rutherford’s laboratory, it didn’t “just happen”. Because I have been working my chops I was able to recover an effect that was headed toward failure. Because I have been on my manipulative toes while keeping my nose buried in the classic books, I converted a potential disaster into an unquestionable success. In the old days I dreamt about magic more than putting in the hard work to make those dreams a reality. It takes more than passion and creativity. But now I have a healthy mix of discipline and artistic integrity to join with the joy and passion I already had. I’m a little wiser now than I was back then too. I feel encouraged. I feel I may be getting closer to the day when I can drop the word “hack” and replace it with “competent”.

Cups & Balls

For anyone not familiar with it, there is an online community and magic forum called The Magic Café. It is a place for magicians: professional, amateur or beginner to ask questions and share thoughts. With 43,459 members it is a resource like no other.

I have found the people there to be friendly and generous. I read a post in one of the forums where an individual was asking about the Cups and Balls. He wanted to know whether or not it was worthwhile to learn and perform the venerable effect. One of the respondents on the thread urged the poster to keep working on the trick. The reason, he said, was that a good Cups and Balls routine by its very nature requires all of a magician’s best skills. Misdirection, pacing, timing, presentation, and
quality sleight-of-hand. Lots of sleight-of-hand. I agree completely. It’s been said that the measure of a magician’s ability can be gauged by how well he performs the Cups and Balls. More chops are brought to bear in this one effect than anything else I can think of. So this week’s Magic Friday sampling is the ancient Cups and Balls.
25 years ago I purchased a beautiful set of copper cups from the great Ross Bertram.
These cups sing beautifully when they contact one another. They also have a wide top so the Charlie Miller bit of business (with multiple penetrations) works as well on the top of a cup as it does on the table. The only drawback is the balls used must have a diameter less than an inch for the cups to nest properly. And a smaller ball can look a little less impressive sitting on a large cup. But I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
I choose not to polish my cups very often. I prefer them to be tarnished for two reasons. The first reason is because it makes them look antique. If it’s antique, it couldn’t have come from a magic shop. Right? Even though the cups are not tricky or gimmicked in any way, a shiny pristine copper cup seems too well cared for (If that makes any sense). The other reason is more practical. I took the small crocheted balls and covered them with foil a la Cellini. After a few layers I got the balls to be as large as possible while remaining less than the critical 1 inch diameter restriction. Because the cups are a bit dull with tarnish the foil balls show up brilliantly in contrast to them.

This also serves to make them look bigger canceling out the size restriction stated above. Retention of vision is nice too.
So 25 years ago I worked on Dai Vernon’s Cups and Balls routine. I don’t remember how long it took me to work it out, but eventually I had it down. The problem was, I was either too chicken to perform it for a real audience or the venue wasn’t right for it. And when I went back to college 20 years ago, my beautiful Ross Bertrum cups (along with all other things magical) got packed up into a trunk and remained there until last August.

All this week I have been feverishly relearning Vernon’s routine. Although there are 1 or 2 minor changes I would like to make to fit my own style better, but I decided to play the routine straight from the manuscript. There will be time enough for variation later. Right now what I needed was solidity. By Thursday night I felt I had it ready. There were only 2 minor parts I was a little squirrely about. But when I showed the routine to my lovely wife she was blown away. She did manage to recognize one of the mildly rough spots. So I stayed up a little later and smoothed out the 2 points that were bothering me. Now I was set.
The last two weeks I was a little discouraged because “Silk and Silver” and “3 Ball Transposition” did not play as well as I had hoped. This was going to be a test for me. I really needed a boost. Well, I got it. And then some!
All 5 performances today went very well. Not flawless but good and solid. I had two slip ups during the 4th performance. The fumble was during the very first move. Unfortunately it was not well recovered. I was forced to restack the cups, put the balls back in my pocket and start again. Once I hit my rhythm all was forgotten and forgiven. The other slip was easily recovered and looked like part of the routine. By the time I got to the end and final revelation, they were amazed and responded by
breaking into applause. My only worry at this point was I feared that my earlier error would get inside my head and interfere with the final performance. I have been paying very close attention to my performances and what can be improved and how. Indeed, that is why this blog exists in the first place. This is only a personal journal of my return to magic. The fact that it is online gives me a sense of a deadline. I know myself. If I tried to do this in a bedside notebook I’d have only 3 entries. At any rate, for the final performance of the day I stayed focused and hyperaware. All went well. A few spectators held up their hands with fingers wide apart indicating an enthusiastic “10”. I worked hard on the routine and it payed off. It was just the sort of encouragement I needed. It was a great day.

Silk & Silver

I have been working on Dai Vernon’s “Silk and Silver” for over 8 months now. The routine appears in The “Vernon Chronicles: Lost Inner Secrets Volume I”. I have never seen this routine performed before.
Although I did see a video of Fred Kaps performing his own version of it on YouTube. Just by the description of the effect one could tell that this was a beauty. Not easy by any stretch, but well worth the effort if mastered.

After many months I felt I had the effect ready to perform. I have some beautiful 1923 “Peace Morgan” silver dollars and a nicely contrasting silk handkerchief. I never thought I'd be able to produce silver coins from Downs position. The hard work really seems to be paying off. So it was “Silk and Silver” for Magic Friday today.
The 1st performance was adequate. I did not feel comfortable enough with the angles in my classroom to produce the coins from downs palm with the palm facing the audience. So I produced them from Downs with the back of my hand facing the audience. (After showing both hands empty). I also did the routine in pantomime to music. I think this was a mistake. Music for a stage would be fine. But in the intimate atmosphere of the classroom I just felt goofy. I Scored a 7 on the “Magiscale”.
For the second performance I dumped the music, took off the jacket and rolled up my sleeves. I just pattered off the cuff about what I thought were insects buzzing around my head but turned out to be coins. I didn’t want to lose the coins so I wrapped them in a handkerchief…etc. The response was much stronger than the 1st performance. An “8”. One person said it would have been even better if I used 4 coins instead of 3.
So for the 3rd performance I added a fourth coin. I used the “Cervon Opening” described in the book. (I already practiced it both ways). The result was somewhat successful but not outstanding. I still scored a “7” on the prestometer.
On the 4th performance I went back to 3 coins. I felt something was “off” as I was performing. But as it turned out, according to my audience I did better than I thought. Another “8”. Still not where I wanted it to be.
The last performance was just different. I had a hard time getting everyone corralled into the “Cone Of Safety”. This is a kinetic group and difficult to settle down. As I performed, some people moved. I tried to alter my body angles to accommodate but was not entirely successful. The extreme right side of the room (about 3 or 4 people) saw where the coins were coming from. And as a result the routine was a dismal failure. On the other hand, the left to middle portion of the room had the perfect angle said it was one of the best tricks ever. (All “9”’s and “10”’s).


So my performance of Dai Vernon’s “Silk and Silver” had an average rating of roughly “7.5” to “8”. I must admit I’m a little disappointed and discouraged. Last week’s “Three Ball Transposition” played out about the same. It is frustrating to work so hard on a true classic for 8 or 9 months only to have it play out about as well as an average store bought packet trick. Of course I understand the responsibility of the audience response is all on me. Especially since the above mentioned effects are tried and true classics. The shortcoming must be in my delivery, timing and presence. I wonder how much of the problem can be attributed to inexperience in performing the effect and how much of it is due to lack of skill or readiness. Just as there is a learning curve for acquiring sleights and arranging routines, there must also be a similar curve for learning how to time and pace a routine for maximum effectiveness. A magical presentation is not a predestined metronome of action, pause, reaction etc. That may be alright for the mirror or videotape, but audiences are not machines. It should be an unpredictable flow. Even the most practiced and well rehearsed routines must take on an impromptu nature. No two performances should be the same. The performer must lead, but at the same time follow the audience willingly toward its own aesthetic satisfaction. I’m just wondering out loud here. I guess the only way to improve the effect and make it the perfect "10" it was born to be is to perform it as often as possible for anyone that will watch.