Concerning an Audience of One




I've been diligently practicing (more or less).  I make sure a deck of cards is always in reach (well, nearly always).  Still, I hadn't done a trick for anyone but my mirror... at least, until 2 days ago.

It's not that performing scares me, I was a Theater major and a radio D.J., Lord knows I'm a ham at heart.  But when it comes to magic... I don't know.  My heroes in the art all come off so polished and natural; even when appearing to stumble, they never fall.  I know that all comes from practice, practice and practice.  But I also know that there comes a time when you have to take the show to the people and see if all that practice is paying off.  So when I saw a chance to give something a try, I finally decided to give it a go.  However, it was one of those times when that deck of cards wasn't within reach.  On the other hand, I might not have gone for it if they were.

I was having a meeting with my friend Steve at work.  Steve is a smart guy, great sense of humor, but doesn't suffer fools (although for some reason, I am an exception).   We were talking shop and his world of Digital Marketing & Analytics when it occurred to me that our conversation could lead into a "not card trick" I had been fooling with.  I was torn... I've seen him work through some pretty sticky issues in the office and it was possible he'd see right through what I was thinking of doing.   But then, he was at least a friendly audience... he might bust my chops, but I wouldn't feel stupid about flopping in front of him.  It was time...

"You know, I'm jealous of how you are with numbers," I said.  "I wish I could pick your brain and see numbers the way you do."  He laughed and told me I was full of... well, you know.  "Yeah, I am," I admitted. "But what if I could?"  I grabbed a sheet of paper, wrote something on it, then folded it and laid it on the desk.  "Let's try something.  Think of a number... how about, oh, how old is your sister?  No, don't tell me, just think of her age."   I won't bore you with the entire trick, but in the end, I had him open the paper, to find that the number in his head was written on the paper.

He smiled. It was an "I got you" smile.  "Damn you," he said.  "I know you did... something.  It's got to be..." and from there he went through a whole bunch of mathematical possibilities (none of which had anything to do with what I did), then argued with himself that his theories wouldn't work, then shook his head and said, "DAMN YOU!"

It's not a fancy trick, nor a very good one. It had nothing to do with all the card moves I've been trying to learn, and the whole set-up was pretty ad-lib.  But, I did it.  I performed a trick, I fooled and entertained my friend.

It occurs to me that it's not the size of the audience, it's the act of opening the curtain.

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