two mostly unrelated plurks have reminded me: i'm a ruiner. i can tell you how most magic tricks work, because i spent a lot of sundays growing up at the magic castle. (it's a "bar"/"nightclub" so over 21 all but sunday brunch)

i don't consider knowing how it works to actually be a problem, or to make watching magic any less enjoyable, but i've known how it works almost as long as i've ever seen the trick in the first place, so i don't have that expectation gap.

That is fascinating as hell.

for those who don't know (or don't know it all): the magic castle is a fairly large victorian house tucked away in hollywood, that is a members only club for magicians. you don't have to be a magician, there are 2 types of membership (you have to audition if you want to be a magician member, even if you are a practicing stage magician- and you don't have

My little brother went there on a vacation once and came back and told us he went to the “magic club” and we all laughed and thought he was confused lolol later he showed us it was that place

He had some group field trip there

access to the library if you aren't, but there are classes to learn you can take. if it wasn't such a slog to get there, it's 45 minutes to an hour plus with traffic and not a "fun" drive, my father and i both would have taken at least slight of hand classes. i may still do it some day, but you know, scheduling and time and all), and my parents have been

non magician members for decades, they have lifetime memberships. and it was a thing we went to on the weekends sometimes, sometimes just me, sometimes with other people, we'd eat brunch and go to the shows. there are 3 show rooms always scheduled (there are another couple of rooms in the basement, but they usually aren't open)- there's the "big stage"

which is a pretty small theater, the stage itself is a reasonable size but the audience area doesn't seat a huge number; a second stage that's narrower and has the seating up a raised incline; and the third "close up gallery" that's even smaller and seats even less. you can't always get into that one, it fills up pretty quick, but the front seat has you

within touching distance of the performer. the performers are members- and they are showing off for fellow magicians, the whole point of the place was a place for magicians to hang out with each other for fun (it was founded by 2 brothers whose father was also a magician, in his honor because he always wanted a place like that).

but as these are all quite intimate stages, and i was there as a kid- they always put me in the front row because it was fun to inspire the next generation, and i was always into it. so i got to see things from WAY closer than intended, and from different angles than intended, so while some of them were still good enough i couldn't see where they pulled

that bird from or how they were holding that card behind their hand...i often could. AND being a club filled with magicians just hanging out, they would also just sit down and do card tricks at random tables and show off even when they weren't booked to perform on any of the stages, and in some cases, entirely show me the trick.

i can still be impressed by how well they pull it off, and there are a few tricks that i don't know entirely how they do it, but i have a working knowledge of the basics that get you most of the way there (pushes are the thing that i find the weirdest for people to count on, but yeah, it turns out people really ARE that predictable). and it's still

just plain FUN to watch even when you know how it all works. but as a result: i AM a ruiner. i know how ouija boards work. and dousing rods. and most "ghost encounters." and if there is a magician's assistant- THAT is who is doing all the work, making the trick happen, the magician is there as stage dressing.

I know a guy who's a member

i also got invited up to the stage a few times- that one guy did NOT expect how enthusiastically i tore up that newspaper that he was going to put back together. confetti, immediately.

"i'm going to put the pieces into my hand and...ok, uh, i'm going to sweep all these pieces up, give me a minute"

Allegory : omg did you ruin his newspaper trick? lol

wait, how do Ouija boards work? i just assume it's always someone moving the planchette

tormentedcorpse : he still pulled it off AND said something to the effect of "i'm going to marry this girl" but at least not in a super creepy way.

tormentedcorpse : no one has to be moving it INTENTIONALLY though. micro movements and whatnot, like the pendulum thing. you can fool even yourself. you think about it going to a certain place because that's the answer and you will move it that way without meaning to.

lol! poor newspaper guy

give me a task and i will do the FUCK out of that task. now i try to do it the way that's expected, but yeah, i used to just GO for it.

(dousing rods work under a similar principle, you don't think you're doing it)

I can't take you anywhere!

Chicken noises : you are so very correct

You're a wealth of knowledge! It just so happens that this rains on people's magic parades!

The magic castle brunches sound amazing. Sometime someone will have to explain to me how the person who's upper body is in box A manages to get into box C before the scene is up.

There used to be that guys didn't there that revealed the secrets behind magic tricks

Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secret...

Maudeline : the assistants are often contortionists, and sometimes also twins- plus false bottoms/compartments and occasionally some mirrors (not for the people, but for the "empty" space). those are a case in which the magician is entirely stage dressing to get you paying attention to the wrong thing, it's all the assistant(s)

Honey Bunny : yeah, we did watch those too!

Oh I didn't even think about twins (or even people who look just enough similar for when it's the feet in the second box).

When I was small, I got really upset with a magician who invited my mother on stage and then sawed her in half during a show. Then I saw she was ok afterwards.

I really want to go to a magic show with Allegory, who is allowed to whisper secrets in my ear all night long. Goals

^this

Maudeline : "entertainer" used to be even more of a family business than it is now, so siblings/cousins who looked enough alike was pretty common when they were designing the tricks.

Milt Larsen, the remaining founding brother, passed away yesterday at age 92. the castle will probably continue, his niece has been running it, and the current owner (as of last year- they never owned the property, they were renting from someone else) is a video game guy who is also into magic