I've joined my local magic club, and for the first time I'm socializing with other magicians. The urge to fool them has reared its head.

However, all my digging into "magician foolers" is turning up exclusively card tricks. I don't really do card tricks -- I don't enjoy performing them, or even watching them for the most part. Nonetheless, I have a repertoire of card tricks that can fool magicians.

Now I want to ask -- is there anything else out there? Ideally something I would actually enjoy performing, with more inherent interest than "and voila, I have located your selected card in a convincing and fair manner."

When I'm actually performing magic, I do mostly coins, organic magic, and mentalism, as well as some bizarre type effects. Any ideas for effects that could fool my newfound magician friends which are closer to my own preferred wheelhouse? Much appreciated

What is it still level at performance? ADHD at mechanical proficiency?

Because if you believe card tricks are what you just described it is no winner you don’t like them.

There are great card magicians in this world who make card tricks into amazing feats of wonder. But in my mind, that's only a tiny, tiny sliver of them. My own personal opinion is that the majority of card effects performed worldwide are contrived, irrelevant, and are only done because they are easy and accessible, and because we have blindly accepted over the past 200 years that magicians are supposed to use playing cards.

Compared to most magicians on this forum, my own card skills are probably nothing to write home about. Coming from more of a coin magic background, I did card magic because it was so incredibly "easy" compared to coins -- you have 52 different things to hide behind, and they all look the same...it was incredibly easy to learn 90% of card effects in an hour or two, while some simple coin routines would take months of practice to look convincing.

Even with just a cursory amount of effort, I've learned to stun audiences with card magic. I have a handful of go-to effects that get the job done, and I've also had plenty of success bringing down the house with just a cross-cut f**ce and some acting chops. The reason I learned cards is because there's no other magic format that's as easy to do and accessible, where you can sit down and easily perform hours of material without thinking.

None of this stuff would impress magicians, but for lay people it's fine. As magicians, I think we overestimate how much people appreciate the newest phase of our ambitious routine, or the latest and greatest ACAAN. If I wanted to perform jaw-dropping card magic, I'd just carry around an ID and a OWF deck. There's all the impossibility one needs for a lifetime, just play it up with an interesting performance.

But in the end, I just can't generate genuine interest while performing card effects, because the idea of locating a chosen card, or dealing with cards at all, has always bored me. Ever since I was a kid, I'd get so excited to see a magic trick, and so disappointed when it turned out to be a card trick. "What a jip," I'd think. "He's just going to shuffle the cards in a special way and then pull out four aces, or pretend to show you an indifferent card before switching it out for the chosen card." Unfortunately, you'll be right almost every time if you make that guess.

This is a long-winded explanation, but it's one that I have to make. I have to make it because magicians and especially those on this forum will often become FURIOUS if you tell them you don't personally enjoy card magic. They often take it as a huge insult or as something that challenges their whole belief system and self-worth as a magician. That's not what I'm trying to do. I've just explained how card magic feels to me and me alone. I know that nonetheless, there will still probably be a flood of angry comments demanding that I "go watch better card magic like X who is far better than amazingadan" or "practice more" or "change how I'm thinking about cards".

It would be awesome if I liked card magic more, and I'm open to developing that passion. Maybe someday I will appreciate cards more. But that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to discuss magician fooling effects or approaches which do NOT use cards. So although I know this will be an uphill battle for some, let's all do our best to stay on topic, and not lose our cool over the fact that I don't love card magic. I'm writing this pre-emptively because we've all seen how those conversations can go on. Cheers all.

You can have any preference you like. Why would anyone be furious about that? You don’t like card tricks and do not have the ability to pull them off effectively. You also have even LESS desire to do so. If that desire existed, the ability would be attained.

I think you drastically OVER estimate how easy it is to fool magicians. It use painfully easy to fool them.

The one thing I do wish you would do is quit making excuses for your preferences. You make a LOT of very incorrect assumptions in your admittedly long winded post. Don’t like cards and be proud of it. But putting those shortcomings of the genre on others is kind of unfair.

I am not a huge fan of any of the things you describe. It occurred to me you may simply be watching the wrong people work or you let your own preconceived notions get in the way of what you watch.

Again this has nothing to do with you not liking card tricks. I’m just saying it is not the cards at fault but those doing them that are the problem. I submit for your consideration that watching those self same performers do most ANY magic might be just as boring.

An alternative view. Where did "fooling anyone" become a prime focus of performance magic? Creating astonishment or awe&wonder is not a matter of :"fooling people."

Card issues aside, any "urge to fool them" seems in conflict to "creating an authentic experience of magic."

If you look "magician foolers" as a source - don't complain about what you find. GIGO.

So to summarize then, the response so far has been "no, I don't know any."

Danny, I can't quite understand your statement. You say I "OVER estimate how easy it is to fool magicians" and then "it use [sic] painfully easy to fool magicians." Which is it?

If person A asks an open question "how about magician foolers that don't use cards?", this is a pretty open and reasonable ask. To respond by immediately questioning a stranger's skill level, and the nature of the question itself, all while providing absolutely nothing constructive...let's be real, that's pretty lame.

Like I said, I don't care much for card magic. Now if anyone has any actual responses to the question at hand, I'd love to hear them!

One thought that comes to mind of course is in routining, and setting up sequences that resemble classic sequences, but which actually do something different. In this clip, Teller explains an awesome experience along these lines watching cups and balls in Egypt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP4_MuBugFo

Another answer could be in disguising classic principles in new clothes, or in setting up decoys. Max Maven's story about doing a "hot read" disguised as a new peek when meeting David Berglas is a great example of the latter!

Dude get over yourself.

I said you overestimate how hard it is to fool magicians. This statement is followed by the logical conclusion that therefore it is easy to do so. Why is this hard to understand exactly?

I pointed out that there is nothing wrong with not liking cards tricks. I agree as they do little for me.

I also pointed out that maybe it is the magician who is the problem and not the tools they are using.

So out of this you chose to come at me all hot and angry. Why exactly? Maybe you have some preconceived notions?

I questioned your skill level so I could make a proper recommendation! Why waste time giving a beginner advanced suggestions? But no, you want to get all offended because someone wants to make sure you get the correct advice and actually backs up how you feel. This seems much more constructive.

So maybe take a step back and be less auto offended and move forward. Then I do have suggestions.

Here’s a live, unedited performance - yes it uses cards, but is a bit different… Hope you like it

I’ve shared this clip in another thread too, which always gets strong reactions from magicians at my lectures….

You actually didn't say that. You said the opposite -- that I "OVER estimate how easy it is", not that I overestimate how difficult it is. It's a forgivable mistake to make, but you should at least check to see that you understand your own writing before you double down with "why is this hard to understand," etc.

If you have relevant suggestions, feel free to toss them into the mix.

Sean, thanks for the suggestions. Always appreciate the live performance footage you share.

Oh lord.

Magicians are easy to fool. I think you overestimate how difficult that is. I really am sorry I made that absolutely HUGE mistake. I read it more than once and would have bet money it made sense. It doesn’t. I’m sorry.