Project 365 (40/365): Love In Magic

.:40/365: Love In Magic:.

As a patron of Korean films, I actually am happy that there is some attention to magic in South Korea, mostly thanks to Cyril Takayama. In 2005, this romantic comedy came out, and while it wasn’t anywhere as popular as “My Sassy Girl”, “Love In Magic” still had its moments.

This follows the story of Ji-hoon Woo, a professional magician who is also a notorious womanizer. One day, he discovers that a video of him and a former girlfriend, Hee-won Koo, was hosted on the internet. Afraid that this sex scandal might ruin his career, he seeks out Hee-won, who is now a teacher at a local school. As she is also concerned about her career, they go through past motels to investigate in figure out who to ask to take the video down.

As they do this, things start happening, and perhaps, just perhaps, love could be sweeter the second time around.

Personally, I’m of the belief that if you really want something, you’ll make it happen, and if you don’t, you’ll find excuses. This movie is a very heart-warming take on the romantic comedy genre, but the fact that it features magic, albeit only tangentially, does add to its appeal. This film is something you can watch and appreciate if you actually don’t mind reading through subtitles, or if you can understand Korean.

Don’t expect stellar acting. This isn’t a movie meant to gun for acting awards, but a film that capitalized on the romantic comedy craze in South Korea. This is not to say this is a bad movie, though. It’s just that it didn’t light up the world when it first came out, and if you think that nothing could ever beat “My Sassy Girl”, you’d probably be right if this film were your only other bet.

Well, for the magician who wants a Korean movie to watch on Single Awareness Day, “Love in Magic” is the movie for you.

Project 365 (39/365), And The Quiet Start To My Week...

.:39/365: Torn And Restored:.

I hope you like that one...

There are a lot of “torn and restored” routines out there, but this one is suitable for the month of hearts, because what do you know, it focuses on tearing a piece of red paper up and then restoring it in the shape of a heart.

I don’t really have much to say about this effect, as it’s really that simple, and after watching the video, what else do you need to know about it, right? David Goldrake’s take on a fundamental magic effect is nothing out of the ordinary, but it does serve its purpose, and on this month of hearts (Bah, humbug. LOL.), you’d definitely want to have any weapon at your disposal.

.:Today Was Quiet, But...:.

Swung by Reedley after the DK this morning. It was a bit interesting because Logan started doing jokes I heard on Yes FM. Heh. What’s worse is he role-plays with us, making the joke sound more realistic and just... insanely funny and corny.

Outside of that, not much. Let’s just say today was an incredibly boring day, albeit a few good conversations with Inka and My Beloved have definitely given me a turning point in my life heading into this crazy week.

Project 365 (38/365): Love And Misdirection

.:38/365: Love And Misdirection:.

Sometimes, being a magician has its perks...

Happy 42nd Birthday, RICK ASTLEY!

.:Ish Your Birthday!:.

Happy birthday to the master of the Rickroll, Rick Astley! Do I need to say anything else at all? :P

Project 365 (37/365): On Signed Cards And The Sandwich Effect

.:37/365: On Signed Cards And The Sandwich Effect:.

Watch it performed up close. Now think of how you could use this to your advantage.

One of the first effects I used with cards that sorta required me to have a spectator sign their name on the card is a sandwich effect. Essentially, a sandwich effect is about using two cards to magically materialize a selected card in between them just by waving them around the deck, or cutting them in the middle of the deck, if that’s what it took.

Now, the reason why I’m talking about this effect should be pretty obvious: most card effects involving a signed card is the perfect opportunity for the romantic magician to wiggle some personal details from their spectator. If they actually give you their number, it means one of two things: either they’re interested, or because they’re taken, they think you’re safe. This also means that you’d have to figure out which one they are over the course of your routine, and the sandwich effect, with its limitless variations, will allow you to do just that.

The nice thing about this routine is it requires very minimal sleights, but has a very powerful impact. For some reason, a signed card enhances the performance as it assures the volunteer that there are no duplicate cards or special gimmicks involved to make the effect happen. It may cost a pretty penny to constantly have to replace decks because of cards being signed and given away, but it’s not such a bad investment if you’re doing this for a living.

There are many other effects that use signed cards, chief amongst them, the ambitious card routine. However, since this is the month of “Love and Magic” and not the month of “Card Magic”, I’d like to save certain routines to discuss for that month, and the sandwich effect is one of those effective routines that I can’t quite imagine being done without signing the card first, lest people assume a duplicate.

Project 365 (36/365): The Queen Of Hearts

.:36/365: The Queen Of Hearts:.

This card is the second most popular card in a standard deck of playing cards, next only to the Ace of Spades.

Ask any magician out there who has worked for a long time. When asked to think of a card without any restrictions, the most common card people think of would be the Ace of Spades. When women are asked, a significant number of them think about the Queen Of Hearts.

The first thing most card readers learn when learning how to predict the future by using cards is how to seek out four cards in the deck: the Ace of Hearts, the Ace of Spades, the King of Spades, and the Queen of Hearts. For some reason, out of all the face cards, the Queen of Hearts really commands the most recognition. She supposedly represents Judith from an apocryphal book of the Bible.

The fact remains that one of the most potent weapons in a magician’s arsenal is a deck of cards, and the Queen of Hearts appears to be a favourite card for magicians who want to hint at anything romantic with the girl. Why go for a five of diamonds when you can go for something latently symbolic like the Queen of Hearts?

Anyways, I digress. Out of the many symbols of love available in the lore of magic, I suppose this card in particular is one of the most recognizable ones out there.

Before The Weekend...

.:Yet Another Article Published:.

I’m on a roll lately, so my article entitled “On Choo-Choo Trains and Loco Motives” has been published on The POC. Pretty cool, and I have another column I’m drawing up come Monday...

.:Spicy Monday:.

I opened again for Spicy Fingers last Monday night, and it was quite a fun experience as I performed magic to get the crowd going, what with the Shackles just really getting them all pumped for the rest of the comics that night. That was a pretty good way to really open as it kept the audience at a high energy level throughout the entire show. GB was a revelation that night, as he brought his A-game to slay the audience right then and there. With Tim Tayag as the headliner last Monday, it was a very solid bookend to a very solid night of comedy all around.

.:Alchemy Night:.

It was the eighth time I did standup for the year (Yes, I insist on keeping count.), and I’ve had a lot of success tonight, tweaking my set more and more to my liking, as well as trying out a lot of new material. GB was the main event of the night, and I must say, he really took the stage by storm that night. It was rather amusing that I ended up singing “S2pid Luv” that night, though, and I had it recorded.

.:Foot In Mouth Disease!:.

Apparently, I put two highschool batchmates and one college batchmate on blast on the air last Wednesday on the Disenchanted Kingdom. It was a pretty crazy show, really. The Disenchanted Kingdom featured only myself, Marf, and Logan, and Ms. Topacio cancelled, but we still held our own and had a pretty interesting show regardless.

It was really funny when they asked me about being in an all-boys school, though. Apparently, Logan and Marf both came from co-ed schools in high school, and they found the concept so weird and interesting at the same time. They were trying to figure out what the social cliques were in our school, how we got along without having cute girls to inspire us, and how hard a time our more attractive teachers must have had, being the object of everyone’s attention (and lust).

I even told them a story about two classmates of mine who ran off with each other for a week. For all intents and purposes, they unofficially eloped. And one of them is married to a girl now, so I guess that has to be a weird phase in his life or something. Haha.

Considering how Monday was all about conspiracy theories, last Wednesday was quite a long way off, to say the least. I had to sit out of Thursday and Friday as I wasn’t prepared to talk about Multilevel Marketing. I was just gonna weigh the whole show down if I were there.

Project 365 (35/365): Mystery

.:35/365: Mystery:.

You may scoff, but he’s had more tail than Naruto. And if you get that joke, you should really rethink your life.

And now, we enter the realm of Pickup Artists. I’ll probably talk about them at some other point this month, but it’s safe to say that Mystery is one of the first people who’d come to mind whenever the three letters P, U, and A are put together.

As the alter-ego of Erik Von Markovik, Mystery is a persona that has captured the fancy and interest of a lot of attractive women in bars and clubs, thanks to a very systematic method developed over the years by Mystery with the help of his wingman, Neil Strauss. The “secrets” of this system are revealed to a large extent in the book entitled “The Game,” often hailed as a bible by most pickup artists.

What makes Mystery very interesting is he is actually a magician, and if you exclude the recent influx of “cool” street magicians like David Blaine or Criss Angel, magic is hardly regarded as “cool” by people in general. If anything, most people find magicians very dorky, or downright weird. Mystery didn’t exactly try to become the next Blaine or Angel when he did what he did. In fact, he used these perceptions to his advantage because it doesn’t really matter what people might think of him, the point was, they were guaranteed to think about him.

I realize I’m merely painting in broad strokes as I talk about Mystery, but his achievements cannot be denied, and his techniques as a mentalist and as a magician have certainly allowed him to translate his skill into success with seducing women who feel inexplicably attracted to a guy they barely know. It seems everything falls into place for them, but for Mystery, this is all according to plan, in fact.

Purists may not approve of Mystery and his usage of magic and mentalism as a tool to get closer to women, but few can deny that it is effective. If someone like Jay Sankey can do it, I don’t see why anyone else with ample skill and charisma can’t. Mystery realized this, and has made a name for himself because of it.

Project 365 (34/365): The Falkensteins

.:34/365: Glen Falkenstein and Frances Willard:.

Ah, love. Soft as an easy chair.

It’s not everyday you run into a mentalism duo, and these two performers epitomize precisely that. Glen Falkenstein and his wife, Frances Willard, have performed for decades, and are certainly well-known in the magic industry as great entertainers who have perfected a tandem act that only they could possibly do.

I recently mentioned Falkenstein’s blindfold act in passing in a previous entry, but it bears repeating that the main advantage Glen and Frances have when performing this act is that they are so in tune with each other, that they have devised the perfect way to just make the seemingly impossible happen. Their signature blindfold act is a sight to behold, and it’s filled with great moments of brilliance and comedy.

It’s also interesting to note that the great Michael Ammar is actually married to one of Frances’s daughters (She had a first husband before Glen.). That’s just magic royalty right there, and I must say, out of all the many magician relationships over the history of the industry, it’s this one in particular that tickles my fancy, more than anything else. I know some people love Paul Daniels and his lovely wife more, but as a mentalist, I can’t help but be biased towards Glen and Frances, especially since I also like using their infamous “Gypsy Myster”, even though that’s more of an escapology act when Jay and I perform it.

Call me cheesy, but I think the fact that these two have been in a loving relationship for so long has allowed them a connection so strong that their act has simply been enhanced by it. It’s also a genuine tandem act at that. I personally don’t feel that Frances is merely an assistant to Glen, but truly a partner onstage.