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”.