Award-winning magician and Inside Magic Favorite Joshua Jay is on the Forbes website today discussing . . . economics. The article is an enlightening look at what to do to prepare for the next recession. Mr. Jay would know as a businessman and magician. He and Andi Gladwin began the very popular online magic store, Vanishing Inc. in 2009 and has done well. According to Forbes, it is one of the largest such stores in the United States.
He doesn’t need magic powers to see that a recession may be on the way, “The things I observe happening now are things that happened before the last recession.”
Mr. Jay says you get a feeling for a tightening economy by how event planners work with you. “Now the company event planners have to tell me as a magician, ‘I’m sorry we can’t have you this year,’ or, ‘Last year we had you do two shows and walk-around magic. This year, we only need you to do walk-around magic.'”
But also magic hobbyists and amateurs are slowing their spending.
“Secondly, we have seen a slowdown in magic sales because, for most of the amateurs and hobbyists that make up a large portion of the magic community, magic is purchased with disposable income. So we aren’t seeing a total overall slowdown in numbers, but we’re seeing ramped-up marketing efforts result in the same sales numbers. And to me, that spells, not doom, but certainly a potential slowdown.”
But Mr. Jay survived the 2008 recession by diversifying and exploring new avenues for his business.
“I had outlets that were under my control,” Mr. Jay said. “The guys that really suffered in the last recession were the guys that relied on calls from clients. They relied on work to come into their phone and their inbox, and those people really suffered because those things dried up.”
Check out the full article to get some very helpful hints and advice from someone of our ilk who has survived downturns and came out even better on the other side by visiting the Forbes site here.
If you were not a magician familiar with the two business entities, the title to this post would seem strange. Vanishing Inc. is an Inside Magic favorite and recipient of our weekly paycheck for the past decade it seems. The Art of Magic previously owned by Dan and Dave Buck is a fantastic company led by two of the true innovators in our craft. We have tried their shuffles, fans and cuts for years and their products have been top-notch.
We were surprised to learn that Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin purchased Art of Magic lock, stock and barrel from the Buck twins yesterday. Here is the announcement from Jay and Andi:
Effective immediately, Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin (on behalf of Vanishing Inc) are pleased to announce the purchase of Art of Magic and all its content from Dan and Dave Buck. For years we have admired their work ethic and output, and we’re excited to take over the wonderful enterprise they have created.
We have grown up alongside Dan and Dave Buck and have a tremendous appreciation for both their artistry and the beautiful brand they have built with Art of Magic.
What we admire most from Dan and Dave is their attention to detail. The spirit in which they work is all passion: that’s why everything they release exudes quality and perfection. Their videos are—without question—the finest produced in all of magic. The people they work with are among our favorite magicians and the content they offer is top, top quality magic worthy of careful study.
We have promised Dan and Dave the same promise we will make to you: that we will continue in this same spirit, and honor the brand and impact they have forged. You can look to www.artofmagic.com in the coming months for new magic that we believe will excite and delight. We will continue relationships with the artists you love, and we’ll continue to deliver the high quality of service you have come to expect from Art of Magic.
You can also expect some exciting brand synergy, incorporating artists and elements from Vanishing Inc into Art of Magic, and introducing the Art of Magic library to our Vanishing Inc community.
It’s an honor to continue to work with Dan and Dave on Art of Magic, and to serve the magicians who love the brand.
We do not know the details of the deal and, to be honest, to a magician and a fan of both companies, the purchase price and business arrangements are not as important as the fact that Art of Magic will be run by Vanishing Inc. Vanishing Inc. has proven to be a reliable source of new magic and combines great customer service with a keen eye for what magic is worth one’s time and prides itself in bringing only the tried and tested effects to its consumers. We see this as a win-win for magicians.
We readily admit we are the lowest of the low. We are a hypocrite of the first order. That’s generally true but most painfully evident in our behavior last week.
It started out innocently. We were catching up on our TiVo of Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. We enjoy that show and are happy to hear they have been signed for a second season with the CW here in the US. The show makes us smile and as our little reward back to the producers, writers, directors and stars of the show, we do not fast forward through the advertisements. We are gracious in that way.
Like most viewers of the show, we take delight not only in seeing great magic but the interesting way Penn attempts to describe what he and Teller believe was the secret at work. They use vague code words and make reference to great magicians from history to convey the message that they know the know-how. There is no exposure but for those of us in on the craft, we know whether a magician has been foiled in his or her attempt to fool Penn & Teller.
Joshua Jay is a great magician. We feel like we have watched him grow over the years; likely because we have. He began performing in utero and has ascended the lofty limbs of the magic forest with aplomb. (Sorry for the last sentence. We farm out parts of our articles to off-shore content creator mills and they a great at maximizing word count – that’s how they’re paid – but struggle with metaphors in our language).
Mr. Jay performed an effect that blew us – and Penn & Teller – away. We could describe the effect in great detail but won’t because that is evidence of our hypocrisy. Our father always said, “there’s no sin in beating yourself up, but always know your safe word.” We’re not sure he intended that sage advice for revealing one’s foibles on the internet but it fits and thus we happily appropriate it for our writing herein. (Another off-shore sentence beginning at the word “that”).
Penn & Teller were fooled by the trick. After all, how could anyone have a spectator think of a card and then produce the card as the only printed one in an otherwise blank deck. Penn & Teller offered their solution but Mr. Jay denied what we assumed had to be the secret. Granted, we did not see him perform the sleight but figured there could be no other explanation. We, and Penn & Teller, took him at his word. If he said he did not use the sleight, he did not.
That left us to engage in behavior that we find contemptible and boorish.
We replayed the video of his routine more than two or three times.
We live alone here in West Hollywood while we await our family’s move to California. We have fully paid-up subscriptions to the prominent magic magazines, surf the web for news and tricks, sometimes go for walks along Santa Monica Boulevard and visit The Magic Castle. Those activities can be accomplished in a few hours each and so that leaves us with roughly 14 hours times 7 days a week times 30 or 31 days each month to sit, stand or lie down while eating or sleeping.
We watched the video incessantly for a solid 24 hour period. We used the slow motion button to analyze every move, every nuance of Mr. Jay’s performance. We were frustrated by some of the camera angles and cuts but those were not Mr. Jay’s doing.
The proof of a bad motive is often the corrupt results, said the inventor of the modern day Capri Pants. Once again, lessons from the world of fashion instructs the world of professional magic. (Other examples include the cape, pockets and the classic pop-up tie).
Precisely one day after beginning our analysis of the Jay Tape, we came to the conclusion that Mr. Jay did not perform the accused sleight. We also concluded he must have accomplished the miracle by some other method. We have no idea how he performed the effect. We love that feeling.
Yes, we are embarrassed to say we used our access to modern technology to discern the secret but we failed. It was a wonderful lesson learned. The feeling of being truly amazed was the reason we got into magic. The attempt to figure out the trick only diminished that sense of wonder. Congratulations to Mr. Jay for fooling Penn & Teller and us so completely. It was fantastic.
The Session is billed as the UK’s only close-up magic convention; it is “a conference for serious close-up magicians.” This year the two-day fete was held in Cheltenham.
We have never been to Cheltenham but it sounds wonderful. According to the internet, the town “has no fewer than five festivals, devoted to Literature, Music, Science, Jazz and, perhaps most famously, National Hunt racing.”
We are not sure what category close-up magic would occupy although probably not “National Hunt racing.”
The town was made famous by its spas or the ‘waters.’ Visitors to the waters have included Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington, Jane Austen and Lord Byron. We have heard of each of these people and therefore are very impressed.
We were even more impressed by the line-up of magicians in Cheltenham this weekend. Promoters listed Juan Tamariz, Asi Wind, Michael Weber, Peter Clifford, Luke Jermay, Andi Gladwin, Joshua Jay, Boris Wild, Roberto Giobbi and Daniel Madison.
But we have it on good authority – YouTube and Twitter – that David Blaine and Dynamo were also in the area.
According to the social media authorities, Derren Brown, Dynamo and Mr. Blaine went to Kukui, a nightclub on Bath Road. Danny Valentine is the manager of that establishment and told local media that the “punters” were stunned by Mr. Blaine’s magic. “He was really great and did tricks for people in his private booth. He was really nice and polite and let one of the customers play with his pack of cards.”
Just below the article about these icons of magic descending on this historic town was a link to an article that may or may not have been related to this weekend’s celebration: “Walter the dog is confused by his squeaky toy – VIDEO.”
It sounds like there was a lot of surprise and fun confusion happening. We wish we could have been there.
The magical principle of Rough and Smooth occupies a special place in the litany of things that matter to the world. Granted, it is very low on the list and even among magicians, it is still down there with the consistency of Magician’s Wax and the tensile strength of threads.
But, for some reason, likely attributable to the amount of time we have to think of such things, it has become of paramount importance to us.
In the old days, before Twitter, we would do our own roughing and smoothing using a fine liquid we purchased by mail from Tannen’s in New York. It came in a small bottle and had a very special aroma that likely led to our demonstrable brain damage in later life. We would use cotton balls to dab, never wipe the special liquid on to our decks. Wiping would lead to ink smearing and would ruin the deck forever. We had piles of otherwise perfect decks of cards throughout our room that had been marred by improper dabbing.
Sure, we could have bought decks already treated with the special liquid but that cost money – likely less than what we were paying for new decks and the special liquid – and we thought it inhibited our creativity. And what creativity we had!
We made several otherwise commercially available decks and thousands of unworthy packet tricks over the years. In fact, we are pretty sure we never used a deck we prepared in an actual performance, anywhere.
Perhaps, we thought, we were wasting our time. Perhaps we just liked mastering the artistic technique of dabbing. Perhaps we were addicted to the fumes. There is, a wise man once said, a fine line between aroma therapy and huffing.
Then came the revolution wrought by the aerosol spray technology. It worked for processed cheese and string so it made sense that roughing fluid would be the next application. We purchased special cans of roughing fluid and made our own decks and learned that the fumes could now fill a house, a porch (when we were forced out of the house because of the fumes) and finally a garage.
The spray worked wonderfully. We could do entire decks at a time and never worried about smearing the ink. Now we had perfectly produced decks that we still never used in real-world performances.
At a convention, we learned that one could buy commercial products for the lay consumer that did what the roughing spray did and at a tenth of the cost. We bought cans of the product from our hobby store and went to work. Same quality, less cost but we still never used a single deck or packet in real performance.
Recently, the magic world learned of a new substance from Card Shark called Science Friction. It was a roughing fluid applied by aerosol technology. It got rave reviews from critics and chemists weighed in on its likely composition and less expensive alternatives. We almost bought it but balked given our new living situation in a small apartment in West Hollywood next to a bakery for dog treats. We did not want to be evicted because of the odors – the dog treat bakery actually smells wonderful – and had no desire to buy a special, portable spraying booth just for roughing and smoothing.
We just received a nice note from the amazing Joshua Jay. He is about to launch his new tour of the US!
I am embarking on my first lecture in years, all across the US. And I’m bringing along Anna, my longtime girlfriend who many of you have met at various shows and conventions. She and I have never seen some of the national parks, museums, and great cities this nation has to offer, and so we’re hitting the road to do 25 lectures and a healthy dose of sightseeing. If you are within driving distance of any of these cities, please JOIN US! It will be great fun. Carpool with friends and make the journey. I promise it will be memorable and meaningful.
I’ll be doing LOTS of new material, much of it unpublished. So even if you’re very familiar with my material, there will be many surprises. If you have never seen me perform or lecture, I hope you’ll share an evening with me and experience the original magic I have dedicated my life to developing.
The list of cities I’m visiting is below, along with contact emails in case you have questions about venue and timing in a particular city. You can always reach out to me by email at joshua@joshuajay.com. I’ll be updating www.joshuajay.com with the latest in tour info.
March 11 – Harrisburg March 12 – Baltimore March 13 – Va, Beach March 15 – Richmond March 17 – Charlotte March 18 – Raleigh March 19 – Atlanta March 22 – Orlando March 24 – W. Palm Beach March 27 – Ft. Lauderdale March 28 – Ft. Myers March 30 – Huntsville, AL April 1 – Nashville April 3 – Chattanooga April 4 – Birmingham April 7 – Memphis April 8 – Little Rock April 10 – Albuquerque April 14 – Tucson April 15 – Las Vegas April 17 – Los Angeles April 21 – Sacramento April 22 – San Francisco April 25 – Boise May 7 – Salt Lake City May 13 – Denver May 15 – St. Louis May 16 – Indianapolis
I would LOVE to meet you, talk to you about what’s fun to do in your area, and show you some of my very favorite and newest routines. See you very soon!
The interview is a great read and gives an insight into Mr. Jay’s creative background and passion for magic.
He credits his study abroad whilst at Ohio State for helping him to see, think and develop magic to be seen and thought about in a different way.
I also spent a year at the Sorbonne studying medieval art and architecture. Twice a week we met at the Louvre and every weekend visited chateaux and churches. It gets you thinking in a different way.
You realize that architects and artists had magic on their minds and they wanted to inspire people and amaze them and give them a sense of awe.
In some indirect, subconscious way, it has inspired the direction my magic has taken.
Mr. Jay describes how he was incurably infected by the magic bug early in life.
There are few things in life we enjoy more than attending the South Carolina Association of Magicians convention in beautiful Columbia, South Carolina.
We promised publication of this article/review several weeks ago but for some reason, we could not find ability to finish the project. This piece is a subset of several lengthy volumes summarizing, reviewing, and praising the weekend in Columbia.
We live by two doctrines in our writing: 1) lack of inhibition is not the same as talent; 2) the perfect is the enemy of the good and the good is a foe of the adequate.
So while this article is not as long as it has been, it is at least done. If you are bored, very bored, you can read the following to see how many different styles and approaches we tried and how poorly we have edited the various attempts into this final draft.
You can also take a big virtual marker and circle how many times the word “charm” or “charisma” is used.
We’re thinking of converting this article into a kid’s meal place mat for a chain of family restaurants and what better way to distract a hungry, sugar-crashing youngster than a good game of find the thematic inconsistencies?
SCAM is Special – But in a Good Way
When we left Mystic Hollow, Michigan, there was snow everywhere, the skies were gray and foreboding, ice made driving tricky, and we had just lost our glass eye in a crooked on-line poker game.
We looked forward to (albeit with lousy depth perception) South Carolina.
Our foster-grandmother used to tell us, “to make a tasty cake, you need to use tasty ingredients.” Her statement resonates in our horribly damaged soul as an example of her innate wisdom.
While the saying was also used to help prove up her marijuana smuggling conviction, it never took on the serious second meaning suggested by the prosecutor. To us kids, it was just a truism.