I watch this card magician Jeremy Tan on Insta. Holy shit! How does he DO that!?
Yeah, I know, that’s how you’re supposed to react when you’re 6, and certainly not when you’re old and jaded. But this dude has restored the wonder in me — his signature close to a trick is “WHAT!?”, which is what we’re doing.
My friend Steve — student’s dad (heaven help me, I can’t remember the kid’s name) — showed me a card trick. Wow, I said, sincerely but not most enthusiastically.
Later, his son wanted to show me the same trick. I said: “Wait, you can’t show the audience a trick twice.” I knew that much.
It’s OK, Steve said. He’s learning.
Halfway through, he hesitated, and I saw behind the curtain. “OH. That’s how…”, I said, pointing to the important things.
Right, said Steve, who filled in the details of how the audience tricks themselves. I’ve long sought a chess lesson to which I could apply that magic.
I think of that story every time I watch Jeremy Tan, because 1) the same mechanics don’t apply, and 2) the dude is an Internet performer — he’s daring you to watch his videos frame by frame to figure it out, and you just can’t.
Most highly recommended. I bet he’s on every video channel.