Fortune Sticks
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:05 am
I looked at Fortune Sticks and came up with some short comings.
1. It is very hard to see the gimmick even in a lit room. Angles are important, but in a entirely different way.
2. The symbol are not cohesive. What does an egg, tree, fire, heart, bird, night sky, goblet and eye have in common? Nothing.
3. Two of the symbols (night sky and egg) can easily be held in the wrong direction which will have you make a wrong prediction.
4. The fire symbol can be improperly identified as red.
5. The symbols were painted on the trick and since the audience member is supposed to rub them together, eventually the symbols would wear off.
Of course the method and the mnemonic device that Toru Suzuki created is amazing, but the trick was just not completed as well as it could have been IMO.
When Jenzo Harmonics posted his beautiful Fortune Sticks it inspired me to work on my own set.
I decided to use drinks as my subject matter and call the trick Think A Drink Sticks. Think A Drink is a famous magic routine from the 50's and I loved that connection.
I spent 5 hours creating the perfect icons. They are a balanced and matched set of icons with three hard drinks, three soft drinks and coffee and milk.
The same color combinations are applied and they are even easier to remember and more fitting.
I decided that I would have the icons laser etched (like Jenzo did) into transparent acrylic colored bars. The raw material exists but I was having a hard time finding it in small amounts.
Then last night I was on the phone with John B. and he said the same thing can be done with cards. He is a very smart man and he understood how the trick worked mathematically and explained it to me. It was over my head and I went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and started working on the cards. They are done and perfect in my eyes. Since paper is my material of choice I can start making these immediately. I will still try and have the actual sticks made as well.
I will make these available to Tenyo Magic Forum members very soon at a very special price but you need to make sure you are compliant with your Display Name (see the post on Joining the Tenyo Magic Forum) and you have posted a profile of yourself as well.
1. It is very hard to see the gimmick even in a lit room. Angles are important, but in a entirely different way.
2. The symbol are not cohesive. What does an egg, tree, fire, heart, bird, night sky, goblet and eye have in common? Nothing.
3. Two of the symbols (night sky and egg) can easily be held in the wrong direction which will have you make a wrong prediction.
4. The fire symbol can be improperly identified as red.
5. The symbols were painted on the trick and since the audience member is supposed to rub them together, eventually the symbols would wear off.
Of course the method and the mnemonic device that Toru Suzuki created is amazing, but the trick was just not completed as well as it could have been IMO.
When Jenzo Harmonics posted his beautiful Fortune Sticks it inspired me to work on my own set.
I decided to use drinks as my subject matter and call the trick Think A Drink Sticks. Think A Drink is a famous magic routine from the 50's and I loved that connection.
I spent 5 hours creating the perfect icons. They are a balanced and matched set of icons with three hard drinks, three soft drinks and coffee and milk.
The same color combinations are applied and they are even easier to remember and more fitting.
I decided that I would have the icons laser etched (like Jenzo did) into transparent acrylic colored bars. The raw material exists but I was having a hard time finding it in small amounts.
Then last night I was on the phone with John B. and he said the same thing can be done with cards. He is a very smart man and he understood how the trick worked mathematically and explained it to me. It was over my head and I went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and started working on the cards. They are done and perfect in my eyes. Since paper is my material of choice I can start making these immediately. I will still try and have the actual sticks made as well.
I will make these available to Tenyo Magic Forum members very soon at a very special price but you need to make sure you are compliant with your Display Name (see the post on Joining the Tenyo Magic Forum) and you have posted a profile of yourself as well.