amuse-bouche.002

8/24 - illusion of the year

While doing some research for a potential project, I came across this website: illusionoftheyear.com

Pretty cool resource for optical illusions. This is their highest rated illusion: Autokinetic Illusion

Gianni A. Sarcone, Courtney Smith, Marie-Jo Waeber
Archimedes Laboratory™ Project, Italy

Two other ones I’m digging and haven’t seen before are Mask of Love and Healing grid from their top rate list.

8/22 - hidden talent

I think hidden content is cool, even though I don’t have the best instincts when it comes to detecting them. This commercial starring Zach Mueller has some hidden magic in it. You’ll see a magician at 1:17 levitating the card and changing it into tickets. But he makes a couple other appearances as well. See if you can spot him. If not, I’ve left the timecodes below the video.

0:31, screen left, guy does Dresscode.
0:58, back ground center screen, guy produces a dove.

8/19 - scrambled cards

In the 8/13 entry, I shared the 22 levels of cardistry collaboration between D&D and Wired. Here’s another great resource for cardistry: ScrambledCards.com

The site allows you to generates random moves and their tutorials. You can even make your own combos and filter by difficulty level, one handed, two handed, and aerials. It’s pretty cool.

8/17 - shower notes

I don’t have a habit of jotting down notes. I have to really work at it to write down my ideas. I tend to think I’ll remember them, but of course end up always forgetting. I’ve gotten better at it, but it’s still something I have to remind myself to do. Sometimes I have ideas in the shower so I thought I’d share this this AquaNotes thing that lets you scribble in the shower. Maybe it’ll help me write more.

8/13 - 22 lvls of cardistry

I mess around with cardistry a little bit. I think it’s a fun way to work on dexterity and creativity without needing to do too much thinking. You can get really deep with it, but I just try to learn random things that I vibe with.

Dan & Dave recently did a video for wired.com that walks through 22 levels of cardistry. I think it’s a great foundational video. Even though there are some difficult stuff, it’s all pretty basic level concepts. If you have a deck of cards in your hand at least a couple times a day and don’t do any cardistry, I highly recommend picking up a thing or two to play around with.

8/10 - accidentally on purpose

In How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Jim Carrey was suppose to pull the sheet off the table, so that every dish would fall, but he accidentally did the trick correctly and it ended up in the final cut.

This reminds me of Bob Sheet’s card stab story. He does it blinded folded and with his arm wrapped around his back, and knocks a bunch of cards off the table, which really looks like he had lost track of the four aces. But he always gets them. One time, on the last ace (which is signed), he removes his blindfold to see that he accidentally got two cards. He simply lifts the knife to look at the faces and takes obviously the one without the signature and tosses it aside before turning it around to show the last signed ace. It got a better reaction than finding the first three, and made finding the last one way more fun. He’s since kept that last part in and purposely stabs two cards at the end.

I think these types of moments make you more relatable and gets everyone on the same level. It doesn’t have to be some planned “mistake” that’s spun into an epic kicker ending. Just being human will go a lot farther than we’d think.

8/4 - evil cat converter

Saw this on reddit.. but instead of a phone, make a small gimmick wizard hat with a hidden flashlight at the bottom. Use hat to turn a friend’s cat or any borrowed cat evil.