Enter the strange and warped mind of Jeff Stone and attempt to view the world through his eyes... Good Luck, and Be Careful!
I spend a lot of time on the forums, mostly The Magic Cafe. Recently I got into a discussion about the classic effect “Card on Ceiling.” The original conversation was regarding which is more effective, “Letting the cards flutter to the ground” after the card sticks to the ceiling, or “Keeping the deck intact with a rubber band” after the cards hit the ceiling. So I thought I would post a poll to find out what you think.
You know what’s a bummer? Most creatures of my species are yellow, but no not me. I had to be red. Oh yeah, and I’m round to boot. You think I don’t get made fun of. Don’t bet on it. Being a round red-head is no picnic. The worst thing is when I’m abused by the hands of a well-meaning, yet unpracticed magician. The old false transfer. That’s great if you can do a false transfer, but if you can’t, then DON’T DO IT! Look I’m no pro, and often times my brain is mush (do to being squeezed into a ridiculously small wad). However, I know good sleight of hand when I experience it, and there is nothing uglier than a magician who thinks he can do a false transfer but really can’t.
Synchronicity, Coincidence, Harmony and subconscious influence; fact or fiction? Real or myth? I say real. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I believe it all began roughly in 1993. I was just beginning to understand the value of studying sleight of hand and the works of other magicians, so I got my hands on a couple of manuscripts by a wonderful Chicago card magician named Al Leech. One of those gems was a little booklet entitle For Card Men Only. Until a week ago, I hadn’t read this booklet since the early 1990′s.
I’ve heard it said that pain is a good thing because it lets you know you’re alive. I’ve also heard it said that there’s no such thing as negative publicity. Well I’m starting to see the impact of the latter. With the release of Jay Sankey‘s Underground Jam people are starting to post feedback on the forums, and I’m getting emails here and there. It’s funny how different people like different things. I’ve received very positive feedback about the DVD, but I’ve also seen some negative feedback.
In the world of technology we live in today, it is pretty easy to get your hands on a video recorder. You may be asking yourself why is a video recorded important to you. Well why do football coaches watch recordings of their games? They watch the winning games and the loosing games. They want to learn from their victories and mistakes.
As magicians, we often want to be perfectionists. We may spend hours perfecting the skills or moves needed to pull off the effect. We even spend time creating scripts, and we know what we’ll say when. That works great when nobody’s watching you. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with scripts, but remember that we are talking and interacting with other humans (those pesky humans). This is especially true for the close up workers.
Let me start by saying, I Love David Blaine. Is it because I think he’s the most amazing magician in the world? No. Not even close. Is it because I think he’s got a great performance style? No. Not even close. What about his character or patter? No, and No. So you may be thinking to yourself, “Self, why does Jeff Love David Blaine?”
In Late 2004, I began filming Stone Cold Magic the DVD, a project I’ve wanted to do for years. After technical difficulty on top of technical difficulty, the video was reshot 3 times. Finally it was finished shooting in August-ish 2005. a couple of months later, I was in Canada with Jay Sankey for the shooting of His video “Underground Jam” which releases on March 1, 2007.
There I was relaxing in the royal court when I felt the deck shake. Suddenly the box opens up and I (along with the other 51) am tossed out into some magicians sweaty hands. I had mixed emotions; part of me was irritated because I was yanked from a wonderful dream of the Queen of Hearts frolicking through a field of daisies. However, part of me was excited because I was about to be used as a tool in the hands of this greasy human, a tool to amaze another humanoid.
Man I’m having serious women problems. I’ve tried, I don’t know how many times, to get the Queen of Spades to look my way, but she’s always so busy with her little Queens Soiree. Darn that Vernon. Anyway, I digress. My point is that it has been very difficult here in Bicycle Village to find any women who find me a worthy caller. Maybe I’ll have to venture over to the Evil Neighboring village of Hoyletown. We’ll have to see. I’ve gotta go; the King of Diamonds is showing off his bling again. I need to stop him before he makes a complete Joker of himself.