Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 15: Issue #15 Issue #15 is a compact but well-stocked issue — a three-way out envelope used for real election-night publicity, a self-working spelling effect updated for American audiences, a coat-mounted ball retriever that takes Jay on a nostalgic tour of his heavily rigged performing jackets, and a parlor effect that Annemann calls the best drawing-room conception he knows. The editorial is sharp, covering glowing promotional eyes, a handwriting expert working a crystal ball act, and Annemann's blunt thoughts on how the magic community handles exposers. Effects Covered [0:52] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with…
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 14: Issue #14Issue #14 is a busy one — Annemann makes the case for learning fortune telling, prints a point-by-point rebuttal from a critic in full, and delivers a card on a window, a coin transposition for platform use, and the two-person mentalism piece he's been using in real-world conditions. There's also a dime passing through a handkerchief, which Jay notes would be perfect EDC material if anyone still carried handkerchiefs. Effects Covered[1:00] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a practical case for learning fortune telling — nothing takes over a party faster, he says,…
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 13: Issue #13 Issue #13 arrives with two black cats overhead and Annemann unbothered — he notes the cat should be the worried one. The issue delivers practical stagecraft from a Viennese theater veteran, a publicity stunt involving a postage stamp and a ceiling, a newspaper prediction with mentalism flair, and a self-working eight-ace routine that Manning insists should be performed as one unbroken sequence. Effects Covered [0:56] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a genuine pet theory: magicians do too many things in threes, and the third repetition risks nullifying the mystery entirely. Jay…
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 12: Issue #12 Issue #12 is an all-Annemann affair — editorial, notebook column, a stacked-deck solitaire hustle, and a stage four-aces routine built for maximum fairness. He's also bottle-feeding a puppy, which explains a few things about the issue's more notebook-jottings character. Effects Covered [0:48] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann blames August heat and an eight-day-old bird dog for a lighter-than-usual issue, then pivots to a genuinely frustrated observation about magicians who ignore published effects until someone else does something brilliant with them — at which point the whole community suddenly discovers it's great. He closes…
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 11: Issue #11Issue #11 is a card-heavy issue with a few pleasant surprises — a clever cigarette gag, a matchbook divination that requires nothing more than a book of matches and one quick calculation, and a borrowed business card that survives being cut in half. Annemann's editorial is in a reflective mood, anchored by a story about a fireman with an excellent memory for shoes. Effects Covered[0:56] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a summer complaint about slow mail, recommends a Liberty magazine article on university telepathy experiments, and highlights a magic newsletter disguised as…
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 10: Issue #10 Issue #10 of The Jinx opens with Annemann on his soapbox about impromptu magic — and Jay gets on one of his own — before delivering a signed card on a ribbon, a startling deck production, a masterclass in cigarette vanish presentation, and a one-person picture-duplication effect that Annemann vouches for with characteristic honesty. A strong issue from start to finish. Effects Covered [0:52] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann makes the case that working professionals who can't perform on the spot are failing at showmanship, pointing to Harry Blackstone and John Mulholland as performers who…
Jinx Navigator Podcast: Jay Jennings reviews issue number three of The Jinx, a roughly 90-year-old newsletter for magicians and mentalists, to see which ideas still hold up and how they might be tweaked for modern use. Aside from the editorial, Jay covers four items from the issue: Les Gilbert’s “A Card in Transit,” where a spectator-initialed card vanishes from the deck and appears in the performer’s pocket using sleight of hand and a gimmick card; Annemann’s “A Real Psychic Card Test,” a simple thought-transmission drawing match using chalkboards (or business cards) and misdirection through distance/time; Annemann’s “Dead or Alive,” a…
In this episode of the Jinx Navigator Podcast, Jay takes listeners through the significant highlights of the first issue of The Jinx, a historic magic newsletter by Theodore Annemann. He discusses the first magic effect, 'Hallucination' by Eddie Clever, the 'Supreme East Indian Needle feat' by Ted Annemann, 'Two Papers and a Spectator' by Ted Annemann, and 'The Mystery of the Blackboard' by Paul Rosini. Jay provides insights on the relevance and adaptability of these tricks for modern performers, and offers resources for those interested in learning more. Tune in to discover the timeless art of magic from the 1930s…
(Editor's note: This is the first time that we have featured an improvement on a previous Jinx trick. Heretofore any variations and improvements have been part of a page devoted to such. But, as we noted with Half and Half's original appearance, few would take advantage of the ingenious Stewart James idea. Now Voz Lyons has what we think is a set-up in the words and general working. I hope that the stunt won't go begging this time as much as it did the first.) In Jinx #134 there appeared a Stewart James' miracle of close-up effectiveness. Here is my…
(Note by Annemann: I thought that I exhausted the 14-15 deck stack principle long ago but Mr. Vosburgh has a decidedly new angle for its use in a book test. Besides this "break-down" of chances to a three-word possibility there is included a revelation via slates which, for the first time to our knowledge allows of the word being foretold (?) by the performer without the use of a definite force.) Remove two aces from a deck and arrange the remaining 50 cards by values so that each adjoining pair, when added together, total either 14 or 15. (7-8-6-9-5-10-4-J-3-Q-2-K-A-K-2-Q-3-J-4-10-5-9-6-8-7-7-7, etc.)…