Jim Bevan

As I mention in the video, the Magic Square is a routine I’ve wavered on doing. I finally got the inspiration to give it a shot after seeing Piff the Magic Dragon do a stellar rendition at a recent show on his tour, but still needed to find a good angle. I could never pull it off as well as him, and I didn’t want the piece to just come off as me going “look at how good I am at math” (which, spoilers, I am not.) The answer came in Max Maven’s “Rainbow Matrix”, which cuts out a lot of dead time and gives the participant more to do, making them more active in the final reveal. I was surprised it played out as well as it did.

As for the failed prediction at the end… yeah, that was my own dumb fault. I had two possible methods for that reveal, and I chose the one that’s harder to pull off under dim lighting. I think in the future I’ll just skip the kicker.

I perform “Punchline Prediction”

For a while I’ve wanted to do a take on a newspaper prediction effect, but standard headline predictions really don’t fit well in a time when every headline is depressing. So I reworked the idea with some inspiration from Penn and Teller’s “Psychic Comedian” bit, which admittedly I have never seen but have heard a description of. Given my love of comic strips it seemed like a natural fit, and it played well.

(Side note – I want to apologize for my absence as of recent. Been very busy with work, but things are easing up now so I’ll hopefully be able to contribute more frequently again)

Friday was my brother Eric’s birthday and he got to host the open mic that night. So I felt a little extra pressure to deliver a killer routine that would be deserving of his set list. I decided to do an effect with a balloon (they are festive, after all), and after some reading, felt Eric Samuels’ “Inflated Words” prediction would be a good fit. I’m actually surprised it went off as well as it did. I had some issues when rehearsing, but was able to find a change that made it flow much better. Hope you enjoyed the birthday magic, Eric.

I also really need to thank Joe the bartender for providing Jackson with the necessary lighting. Need to make sure I’m better prepared with future routines that require books in a dim setting. Was also pleasantly surprised that my balloon color prediction ended up being a match. I honestly forgot what Eric’s favorite color was and expected him to say something different. So my attempted joke there failed, but it was no big loss.

For my first performance of the year I decided to stray a bit out of my comfort zone. Didn’t really have time to prep anything major, but I figured as I hadn’t done any card tricks yet, it would provide for a fun little subversion of expectations. I don’t have anything against card tricks necessarily, though they do seem lackluster compared to the other mental feats that can be performed. Thankfully, with some advice from The Jerx blog, I found a great way to make a standard invisible deck/brainwave deck routine really shine.

To close out the year, I put a spin on the classic Q&A routine by divining peoples’ new year’s resolutions.

I’m incredibly happy I got so many opportunities to perform in 2021. The support, feedback, and critiques I’ve gotten from the other open mic regulars has helped me improve considerably, and I intend to continue this growth into 2022.

I perform Ken Dyne’s “Sensible Influence.”

This video is coming a week late. I initially didn’t want to post it as the effect was only partially successful. However, I’ve said before that I need to be honest and keep my ego in check, and that means sharing my failures along with my successes. This will serve as a reminder to more thoroughly practice the more elaborate routines before trying them in front of an audience, and as one other performer from that night suggested, maybe save advanced routines for a sober audience.