They Can See It, But They're Not Looking

In putting together a version of Annemann’s Extra-Sensory Perception, I decided to make a permanent crib right out in plain sight. My first try was writing on the frame of a little chalkboard (or slate, as they’re referred to in The Jinx) with a pen. It worked fine, but was ugly.

Then I remembered the “maker space” at my local library and reserved an evening session with the Glowforge laser machine. After turning my “artwork” digital and creating a JPG version of the crib, I poured it all into the Glowforge machine to see what would happen.

After some trial and error to figure out how strong the laser should be, how fast it should be traveling, etc., I figured out the setting I needed so that the crib was nice and readable, but didn’t really stand out and yell, “Look at me!”

It’s not only prettier than the writing, but less noticeable.

Then I got a deck of blank poker-sized cards and drew the thirty-two pictures I needed for the effect, and tried it out — wife first, then local magic club!

My initial plan was to hold the board with my right hand at the bottom right, then turn it around with my right hand moving forward and to the left, ending with me holding the back of the board against my self, and my right forearm across the bottom, obscuring the crib.

That works fine, but I’ve also decided that just turning the whole board toward the audience is fine. From a few feet away, if you even notice it, it looks like a decorative border. I was thinking I would decorate the entire border, but that feels like running when I’m not being chased. If I’m really close to people and feeling nervous, I’ll block the bottom with my arm.

While I’ve only done this effect a handful of times so far, I don’t have any qualms about continuing to do it with the crib in plain sight, and NOT blocking it when I turn it toward the audience. Nobody’s ever mentioned it, as the focus is on the design drawn on the chalkboard.

The next version I create will use cards that match the peg words for the numbers 1 through 32 (Harry Lorayne), so I won’t need a crib sheet since I already have those memorized, but I’ll probably engrave a slate anyway. Better safe than sorry!