INVISIBLE PRACTICE

Repuzzled

A Small Booklet on unusual magic theory

RICO WEELAND
Introduction
In the recent years I've produced a booklet titled "The Puzzle
notes", it was a relatively small run and it focused on unusual
magic theory.

With unusual I mean very unusual, this is the kind of booklet that
focused on breath work during magic, visualisation and different
ways of creating a magical gesture.

It is very likely that the old puzzle notes will never be reproduced,
if you are interested in an ebook version of this book though, then
let me know.

This booklet will keep the same spirit as the original puzzle notes
and in some way it can be seen as part 2 of a peculiar small
booklet.

In this booklet we will be discussing some crossovers between

magic and music., more specifically the crossover between
jamming in music and performing magic.

There will be a chapter on breath and breathing in your magic.

Finally there will be a chapter on the visualisation of magic while

you are performing it.

So take a cup of coffee or tea (or whiskey) and enjoy the talk.

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 Musician
Ooh the classic magician musician joke, it is something that actually
happened to me once, but that is beside the point.
 
I’m not here to make this Joke today. Today we are here to learn about a
crossover between music and magic.
 
When I left university, I had some left-over time and I decided to start
playing an instrument, I picked up the ukulele because it was small and
easy to travel with. About 1,5 years after that I started to play guitar and 2
months after that I started to play the bass guitar. Bass guitar left me with
an interesting insight for magic, but this insight is actually applicable to
any instrument and magic trick.

When one plays a bass line there is usually a standard bass-line for the
different sections of the music, so for the Intro is a set bass line, for the
verses, for the chorus and for the outro.

The interesting thing is that even though there is a set bassline there are
different variations that can be played which gives a different undertone
to the music and a different sound while it still feels coherent and the
same.
 

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 Musician
For playing those bass lines there are two schools of thought.
One of them says that you should first play variation 1 then 2, then 3, then
4[1], etc. Another school however, says that you should play the standard
bassline and play whatever variation you want to play whenever it feels
right to play that variation, whenever that variation fits into your feeling
and your groove in that moment[2].

Now this is an interesting idea that also applies to magic!

The bassist has a standard bass line, a standard line that works and then
he made up multiple different variations on that line which are all steady,
they are all good, yet different. Why don’t we apply this to magic as well?
 
We take a method for an effect that we like, let’s pick the Erdnase
Colour[3] change for this example:
In the Erdnase colour change there are multiple different ways of
changing the card. Of course the method that we use is the same, that is
what makes it the Erdnase change, however, I’m talking about the
aesthetics of the change itself.

[1] Unkown, (N.D.). If you want me to

stay (The Real Way!) Bass tab. Accesed on: 02-08-2020, Retrieved from:
https://www.bigbasstabs.com/red_hot_chili_peppers_bass_tabs/if_you_wa
nt_me_to_stay_the_real_way.html

[2] Wooten, V, L. 2008. The Music lesson.

[3] Erdnase, S.W. 1904. Transformations. Two hands. First Method. P,151.
The Expert at the Card Table.

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 Musician
For example:
 
We can wave our hand over the cards very slowly in a wavy motion, we
can squeeze the card, we can slap it, we can lift the hand or we can rub
the hand back.

These are just a few examples of ways that the change can look different.
Now many magicians, my past self-included, will start a discussion over
what way of moving would be the best and most magical for achieving the
change. Should we rub or squeeze the card?
 
In my personal experience, sometimes the rub, sometimes the squeeze
and sometimes a slow lift feels more magical and organic. It is about my
feeling in the moment and what I feel like doing. So, this is where we apply
the theory for music.
 
When we are at home we are going to experiment with different
aesthetics for the effect, in our case the change. We are going to look at
different ways that fit us in which this change is possible and we play with
them, we practice them and we make them our own. Then we are
practicing the routine in its entirety we practice it multiple times each time
executing a different way of doing the change.

Doing this will integrate the different ways into our system and we can do
them without thinking about them. (how horrible would to be to have to
think about the change you are going to do right before the moment of
doing it.)

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 Musician
Now with the changes all up in our system we go out to perform and when
we do we just wing it. We are performing and we don’t think too much
about it. We are just going to perform the routine and do whatever change
feels right in that moment. What is your gut telling you?
 
Doing it in this way will make the magic more organic and it should make it
more fun for you to perform, even you don’t know what is going to happen
and how you are going to do it.
 
We can take this concept even further and apply it to an entire routine.
However, when we do this we have to keep in mind that we need a clear
start and end point and a clear method for doing the routine. We don’t
want to get lost in performing jazz magic as this is usually weaker and less
perfect than the rigid and good routine.
 
To apply it to an entire routine we can take Mac Donald’s aces as an
example (I like to do this with my version of the Mac Donald’s aces
published in my “circle Notes”).
 
When we get to the point where the entire effect is set-up and the
audience has the pile where all the aces will travel to under their hands,
we have a situation where we have 3 piles in front of us each one with an
ace (DF) on top, which is about to be vanished.

There are a lot of great different ways of vanishing the ace, some ways
are described in the fine are of magic by Kaplan[4], some other great
ways by Vernon[5] and yet some other ways by Merlin[6].

[4] Kaplan, G. (1948). Rex Card Mystery.

The Fine Art of Magic. P,79.

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 Musician
In most of the methods which I mentioned here above, the same way to
vanish the card is used 3 times in a row. This is possible of course since
we are only repeating the “transposition/vanish” 3 times and not more.
However, what if we do a different vanish at each ace? Or if we do all 3
the same time which one is the best?
 
The starting position for all 3 the vanishes are the same, so this
technically means that we could do any vanish that we want at any time
that we want, since we don’t have to change the set-up. This means that
we don’t have to distinguish which one is the best and which one is the
worst and become rigid in this position, actually all the methods for
vanishing the cards described above are good. So, in that case it makes it
even harder to choose. If there was a definite good and bad method the
choice would be easy, but at the moment they are all good it all comes
down to preference and feeling.
 
Because of this I want to suggest to you the same thing I suggested at the
Erdnase Change. Learn every method for the vanishes that you like and
apply them to the routine while performing depending on your mood,
feeling and the flow of the performance. It might be that one day you
execute the same method 3 times and another day you execute a
different method at each ace.   Doing this should make your magic more
organic and fun.

[5] Ganson, L. (1960). Mac Donald’s $100

Routine. More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. P, 26.

[6] Merlin, J. (1927). My Favorite Four

Ace Trick. And a Pack of Cards. P,12.

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 Visualisation
I find visualisation an interesting concept for the main reason that there
are multiple uses for it.

One way one can look at visualisation is to visualise the act of doing
something. With this I mean to visualise the act of performing and
practicing magic[7].

 
Using visualisation in the way described above has been useful for me in
many occasions, it is one way in which I practice my stage show and it has
shown remarkable results.

However, this is not the type of visualisation I’m here to talk about, if it
were it wouldn’t be an unusual magic theory, now would it?
 
This is actually something that I haven’t shared with a lot of magicians
because I feel like it is my little secret, however, It is finally time to release
it to the world and help the magical world a little bit forward with it.
 
In magic we very often talk about the presentation of magic, what we do,
what we say and the method that we use for it. Everything that we look at
is “external”. However, we very rarely look at the internal world of a
person in magic. Juan Tamariz mentions something about the internal
world in his 7 veils of magic[8].

[7] Magic is a word here that can be

replaced with any activity such as: Piano, Guitar, skateboarding, etc.

[8] Tamariz, J. (2019). Seven Veils of Magic. The Magic Rainbow.

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 Visualisation
about the person being an interesting person with an interesting internal
world and that if a person possess that he will be more interesting for an
audience to watch. This is a very important concept and I feel that many
magicians should search for inspiration outside of magic, they should
discover different arts and play with new concepts. But again, this is not
the concept I’m talking about here.
 
The Internal concept I want to talk about is something I call “an internal
script”. We always talk about scripting in the way where we look at what a
person says and does, however, we rarely look at their intention behind it,
what is going on inside of the person at that time?

I believe that one can create a beautiful magic act with complete silence
and presence. It is all about the internal script, what is your intention
behind sharing the piece of magic?
 
If one looks at this, we can make the actual effect and internal script
stronger and a big part of this is visualisation.
 
When we perform magic, we very often use cover, one of the reasons why
cover is such a beautiful concept is because the audience can fill in the
blanks with actual magic!
 
They can imagine to themselves what mysterious forces made the magic
happen, this is a quality which visual magic doesn’t have as much and
because of this contrary to popular believe, this actually makes the magic
stronger.

Thinking about this gave me a wonderful idea, if the spectator is imaging

what is happening under the cover than why don’t we?

Let’s take a transposition effect as an example:

The magician shows the ace of spades which goes face-down on the
table. Next the place the 2 of hearths face-down 2 meters to the left of it.
The magician stares at the 2 of hearths and then turn it over again, the 2
has changed into the ace of spades and the ace in the 2. They have
changed places.

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 Visualisation
The cover in the above example is that moment when both cards are
face-down on the table, since they are both face-down on the table the
identity of the card disappears from vision for just a little moment, but
since there is no action around it and nothing is visibly switched from the
moments the cards go down the mind fixes the place of the cards in your
memory. Then the moment when the 2 has changed into an ace your mind
becomes blank because all of a sudden reality doesn’t match-up to
memory anymore.
 
The part where both are face-down is the beautiful part since the
audience can imagine what happened to make those cards change place,
they have an image to create in their minds, very similar as to reading a
book.
 
The idea is that we also start to visualise the cards changing places, this
can be visualised by any mysterious force. Maybe you see the cards
burning up and reburning in their new place, maybe you see them getting
beamed by a space ship, maybe you see reality slip away where the cards
fall into a wormhole and they are transported. It doesn’t really matter what
you see as long as you create something.

Strangely enough when this is done the reaction of the audience will be
different and it will change the way they react to the magic.
 
Play with it and compare the results.

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12
 Breath Motherfucker!
Breath is life.

Breath is life is a statement which is very well known and comes from the
Orient. it is something which is used in yoga a lot, something that I’ve
been stumbling upon recently.
 
Breathing exercises are a part of yoga, a part of Chinese medicine and of
a lot of martial arts.

Breath is life is what they say. Breath transfers your life force and with
breath you can balance out your energy.
 
In the west we would more say it like this “breath is performance”, which
is very true actually. Breath is the source of athletic performance, sexual
performance, speech and projection. Breath also starts to differ when
different emotions are experienced. When a person is angry you find a
shallower breath and when a person is relaxed you find a deeper breath.
 
This is nice and all but how do we apply this to magic?
To use this for magic there are multiple uses, the first one is to become
present.

In meditation they often work with “a meditation object”, this is an object

to focus on in order to become present. and to train one’s concentration.
Very often the meditation object is the breath.
 
We can use the breath to become more present!
Why is this useful you might ask?

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 Breath Motherfucker!
Being present changes the entire performance, one thing that is essential
for connection is to be present, that is what a lot of people want, for
someone to be 100% present with them in that moment. Utilising the
breath, we can become more present, we can focus on the breath, breath
consciously and feel our feet making contact with the ground (grounding).
When you do this, you will start to experience that colors become a little
bit more vibrant and you will become more present, this is a very powerful
state to perform magic from.
You can perform magic in complete silence this way, as long as you are
completely present with your audience.
 
You don’t have to say anything while performing magic, we very often get
into this idea because we believe that we lose our audience from the
moment we become silent. This is not true; you actually only lose the
audience when you start to zone-out. This means that you only lose them
when you start to focus just on what you are doing and you get stuck in
your own world of executing the trick properly. If you however do the
same trick in silence with complete presence you will start to experience
that this silence can build suspense, it can make the magic even more
magical and people will start to tell themselves a story about the magic,
nothing is more powerful than the lie that people tell themselves[9].
Bro Hamman also used to say that sometimes we have to shut up and let
the magic do the talking. Bro Hamman has this beautiful card to pocket
routine [10], in this routine not a single palm is used and putting the deck
in the pocket while the card is believed to be on the table is a big part of
the method.

Using this method some spectators will interpret the effect as the card
flying from the packet on the table to the pocket, others will interpret It as
the card vanishing from the tabled packet and appearing back on the
deck in the pocket.

[9] Similar to a quote which teller used

in an interview

[10] Kaufman, R. (1989). The Double-Deal

Card to Pocket. The Secrets of Brother John Hamman. P, 18

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 Breath Motherfucker!
The point is that some people think a bit more linear and can understand
that you sneaked the card back onto the deck, but they don’t exactly
understand how you did that. In both cases it’s a phenomenal effect, one
person can appreciate the pure magic of the effect while the other person
can appreciate the cleverness and skill needed to acquire such an
effect[11].
 
Language in this case can really screw you over, if you tell the audience
“and now the card will disappear from here and fly to my pocket!”, some
people that think more linear will speak up and explain their theory since
their image doesn’t match their thoughts, whereas if you let them tell the
effect to themselves you won’t have this problem. Another reason to imply
silence more is because we tent to tell people everything we do; we are
very straight forward where we should be more suggestive. People only
want to hear the 2+2 they don’t want to hear the……..

Becoming more comfortable with silence will help you to achieve a more
powerful and meaningful effect with your magic. Breath will help you with
this, it will help you to become more present and comfortable in that
moment, if you happen to become very uncomfortable tough, just
remember that its just a sensation in your body, you’ve overcome much
worse sensations such as a broken arm or a headache.
 
Becoming more present is one wat to utilize the breath, however, there is
another way which I like to use it for. I like to use the breath to add more
drama to an effect, If you have a certain effect with multiple reveals I like
to play the first reveal as the “final effect” and exhale all of my air in that
moment as I bow my head down, then after a few seconds breath in
deeply, look at the audience and reveal the other reveals. Breath can be
used as a point behind an effect and to signal that something is the end of
the routine without actually saying it.

[11] Kaufman, R. (1989). The Double-Deal Card to Pocket. The Secrets of

Brother John Hamman. P, 19

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 Final Words
This ebook was purely written with the intention of giving you some
different thoughts about magic than the common thoughts.
 
This is a free ebook written for our Instagram and mailing list audience.
I want to thank all of you for participating in our little journey and for all
your support.
 
If you have any questions or if you want to discuss any of the theories and
concepts described above feel free to send me a message on Instagram
or to send me an email at: [email protected]

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FIN