A lady walked into my shop today. Pretty lady in my eyes, not sure about how everyone else sees her. I mean she took herself oh so serious with face petrified in a scowl. But behind it I can see she wasn't all rock, she had a bit of fluff. She sat down at my table and I gave her my schtick, yadda yadda I'm a magician yadda yadda check out these card tricks yadda yadda and these magic trinkets. I've done this everyday for quite some time now and I've had my fair share of happy and disappointed customers but I have to say this one was new. I feel like she looked straight through my BS and saw that what I put on was all an act, that what I had for show was just that, for show. She didn't buy a magic kit she just observed me and paid for a trick.
The guy the woman came in with only paid $5, oh yea there was a guy there I forgot, anyways, he paid $5 so I gave them a simple card illusion: having her guess a card and then I would just magically swap the top card so it matched her prediction because I actually sucked at fake magic. The guy, I think the woman called him Raymond or something, was amused like a giddy school boy and kept bragging about my prowess. He was a regular customer at my shop, always buying kits and whatnot for his son. The woman wasn't so amused. She actually looked worried as all hell after the trick, she studied my hands as I shuffled the deck and watched carefully as if she was trying to catch me cheating.
"Another card trick." She demanded.
Raymond paid another $5 and I gave them another $5 trick and she studied the cards again. When I pulled the same trick she got even more worried and narrowed her eyes even further. Another and another still I pulled the same trick and made $30 free revenue as the woman frustratingly studied my shuffling a deck of cards. Poor woman. She was obviously trying her hardest to not believe in magic but I just kept getting her.
But then she got me and good. See she asked for one last trick but Ray had said that he was out of money for the day. I offered a deal I wouldn't ever do: a refund. I made the deal that the trick was free and if I got this next card prediction wrong I'd give him all his money back. It was honestly so he'd feel like a good sport and come back next week to buy something else. So I shuffled the cards and shuffled them. The woman asked me to shuffle them slower, so I did. She asked for a reshuffle, so I did. While I did this she put her watch onto the table, that's it, just laid it down randomly. It was an odd thing to do but I didn't mind it at first. When I got done shuffling I asked her for a card prediction.
"I'll do it." She said. "Put the deck on the table and I'll take the top card off."
Ray got quite a kick out of that and so did I. I guess she thought I was using sleight of hand or something and she wanted to expose me and that was fine. I laid down the deck like I just won a game of dominoes and glided it to her. She repositioned it close to her watch and called out a card.
"Queen of the black club thing."
I changed the card so it was the Queen of clubs like she said. And she slowly lifted the card by the corner but then she changed her mind.
"Spade, that's what it's called. Queen of spades I'm sorry my mind went blank there for a second."
Dammit, my money was on the line here. I noticed the woman held half of the card bent upward away from her vision so I swapped the card to the Queen of spades before she got to the other side. But that's when I caught her eye and where it was aimed. The woman was looking at the watch not the deck. The fish-eyed reflection on the glass gave a distorted but nonetheless readable view of the underneath of the cards. She saw me change the card! Her face went from scowl to impressed the second she flipped it.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." She said with a nod.
"See? I told you, Tonya, this guy is great. You oughta come here more often it'll help you blow off some of that steam you build up. Magic is real."
Tonya's face wasn't the same as she was when she came in, she looked as though she had a mind blowing revelation about life revealed and was satisfied. She left moments later with Ray still going on about me like he was my personal billboard and I went back to my back room to think about what just happened.
I just made a big mistake. I probably just made another future magic obsessed nerd and or psychopath, no bother. More than likely I'm probably gonna have to rectify this sooner or later, hopefully not soon.
Magic is like God. People should only think it exist in many different ways and or forms but they should never truly know. That would take all of the enjoyment out of the concept itself and the possibility of being wrong enough to learn what could be right about it. I was one of the lucky ones I guess to stumble upon the realms of magic at a young age but as I grew up doing magic tricks here and there for friends and relatives I learned that people don't want to know, they want to always live by belief not knowledge. Beliefs can change, beliefs can do so many numerous, wonderful things, but knowledge... well just ask Adam and Eve what knowledge can do.
The guy the woman came in with only paid $5, oh yea there was a guy there I forgot, anyways, he paid $5 so I gave them a simple card illusion: having her guess a card and then I would just magically swap the top card so it matched her prediction because I actually sucked at fake magic. The guy, I think the woman called him Raymond or something, was amused like a giddy school boy and kept bragging about my prowess. He was a regular customer at my shop, always buying kits and whatnot for his son. The woman wasn't so amused. She actually looked worried as all hell after the trick, she studied my hands as I shuffled the deck and watched carefully as if she was trying to catch me cheating.
"Another card trick." She demanded.
Raymond paid another $5 and I gave them another $5 trick and she studied the cards again. When I pulled the same trick she got even more worried and narrowed her eyes even further. Another and another still I pulled the same trick and made $30 free revenue as the woman frustratingly studied my shuffling a deck of cards. Poor woman. She was obviously trying her hardest to not believe in magic but I just kept getting her.
But then she got me and good. See she asked for one last trick but Ray had said that he was out of money for the day. I offered a deal I wouldn't ever do: a refund. I made the deal that the trick was free and if I got this next card prediction wrong I'd give him all his money back. It was honestly so he'd feel like a good sport and come back next week to buy something else. So I shuffled the cards and shuffled them. The woman asked me to shuffle them slower, so I did. She asked for a reshuffle, so I did. While I did this she put her watch onto the table, that's it, just laid it down randomly. It was an odd thing to do but I didn't mind it at first. When I got done shuffling I asked her for a card prediction.
"I'll do it." She said. "Put the deck on the table and I'll take the top card off."
Ray got quite a kick out of that and so did I. I guess she thought I was using sleight of hand or something and she wanted to expose me and that was fine. I laid down the deck like I just won a game of dominoes and glided it to her. She repositioned it close to her watch and called out a card.
"Queen of the black club thing."
I changed the card so it was the Queen of clubs like she said. And she slowly lifted the card by the corner but then she changed her mind.
"Spade, that's what it's called. Queen of spades I'm sorry my mind went blank there for a second."
Dammit, my money was on the line here. I noticed the woman held half of the card bent upward away from her vision so I swapped the card to the Queen of spades before she got to the other side. But that's when I caught her eye and where it was aimed. The woman was looking at the watch not the deck. The fish-eyed reflection on the glass gave a distorted but nonetheless readable view of the underneath of the cards. She saw me change the card! Her face went from scowl to impressed the second she flipped it.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." She said with a nod.
"See? I told you, Tonya, this guy is great. You oughta come here more often it'll help you blow off some of that steam you build up. Magic is real."
Tonya's face wasn't the same as she was when she came in, she looked as though she had a mind blowing revelation about life revealed and was satisfied. She left moments later with Ray still going on about me like he was my personal billboard and I went back to my back room to think about what just happened.
I just made a big mistake. I probably just made another future magic obsessed nerd and or psychopath, no bother. More than likely I'm probably gonna have to rectify this sooner or later, hopefully not soon.
Magic is like God. People should only think it exist in many different ways and or forms but they should never truly know. That would take all of the enjoyment out of the concept itself and the possibility of being wrong enough to learn what could be right about it. I was one of the lucky ones I guess to stumble upon the realms of magic at a young age but as I grew up doing magic tricks here and there for friends and relatives I learned that people don't want to know, they want to always live by belief not knowledge. Beliefs can change, beliefs can do so many numerous, wonderful things, but knowledge... well just ask Adam and Eve what knowledge can do.
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