Monthly Update #39 (March, 2026)

🐖 Hello from Piggly Falls: Lessons from Blaine, Burger, and Beyond!

Welcome to the March monthly update for Marty’s Magic Ruseletter—and for once, it’s bang on time! In this edition, I’ve been reflecting on my admiration for David Blaine’s style of card magic. I also share a fun version of Any Card At Any Number—a plot I usually find desperately boring—and explore the mysteries of Piggly Falls. 🐖

The update closes with my plans for the next (expanded) edition of Corrupting the Classics. It’s going to be a good one!

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New on MBOT: Hay’s Paradox

Reading time: 10 minutes

I finally managed to write a more robust article on Hay’s Paradox and its connection to Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). You can read the article on Marty’s Bag of Tricks (if you haven’t done so already):

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Do You Like David Blaine’s Style of Magic?

It’s certainly undeniable that David Blaine transformed the public perception of magic—and magicians—in the late 1990s. In short, he made magic cool again. Like many amateur magicians my age, I was profoundly influenced by his first few TV specials—an influence that led to a deep love of close-up magic that persists to this day.

However, whenever his name comes up online, at magic clubs, or at conventions, his style tends to divide the room. It’s a classic Marmite situation—people either love him or hate him. I’m not entirely sure why this happens. Perhaps it’s driven by professional jealousy, or maybe some magicians simply dislike his monosyllabic, deadpan delivery (though, make no mistake, this performance persona is entirely intentional and thoroughly disarming).

Personally, I’ve always appreciated Blainesian close-up magic—his straightforward, no-nonsense style of conjuring. Most magicians talk far too much—and far too quickly—when performing card tricks. They speak a lot, but often say very little. Blaine’s minimal dialogue does something critical: it allows his audience the time and space needed to respond. This approach places the attention entirely on the spectators and their reactions to the magical moment. It’s a far less egocentric way to present magic. While I don’t love everything he does (especially the squirm-inducing stunts with frogs and needles), his minimalist method acting is a remarkably generous way to share magic with people.

Blaine Meets the Golden Knights

Blaine’s signature style was on full display earlier this month when he performed for the Vegas Golden Knights, a professional ice hockey team based in Las Vegas.

I really enjoyed the performances in this video; it brought back memories of old-school David Blaine. Those early TV specials—the ones I recorded on VHS and watched repeatedly until I could reconstruct some of the methods. Those were the days! 📼

A few things stood out to me as a magician: I love how he casually blocks the Top Change from the camera’s view when performing for Braeden Bowman. You rarely see this level of situational awareness when magicians perform on live TV or for social media. (He did the same thing recently when filmed by fellow passengers while doing impromptu magic on a plane—see Monthly Update #36).

Using Bowman’s jersey number (42) as the reveal for his interpretation of Eddie Fechter’s “Be Honest, What Is It?” was a brilliant touch. It made the magic feel personally connected to Bowman and the Golden Knights. Notice how Blaine doesn’t point out the number himself. He simply hands the card over and lets Bowman discover that the two cards match his jersey number. By remaining silent, he amplifies the impact of the effect tenfold.

So, what can we learn from Blaine’s performance for the Vegas Golden Knights? We should probably all speak less when performing our tricks.

Do you like Blainesian card magic? Let me know by replying or posting your thoughts in the comments on Substack.

Editor’s Note: Given last month’s essay on making magic a safer space for women, I cannot feature David Blaine today without acknowledging the deeply troubling nature of his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. The unsealed files reveal Blaine actively maintained a relationship with Epstein for years after his conviction as a sex trafficker—a choice I find deeply disappointing, even if it doesn’t prove any wrongdoing on David Blaine’s part. It seems Epstein had a bizarre fascination with magic and maintained close ties with many prominent magicians, including David Blaine and David Copperfield. No matter how much I love magic, my thoughts and support will always remain firmly with the victims of these horrific and misogynistic crimes.

Whispering Jokers 🃏🃏

In the video above, Blaine starts with a version of Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN). I’m not entirely sure which method he’s using, but I like the hands-off nature of the trick and the way he builds up the effect once everything is in place. This trick reminded me that I had written an unusual variation of ACAAN based on Craig Petty’s “Destiny Deal” and Ladson Butler’s “The Whispering Queen”. I put this together a few months ago and had completely forgotten about it, so I thought this would be a good time to share it. I hope you have fun with this one.

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The Mystery of Piggly Falls 🐖🏞️

This month, I’ve been re-reading some of Eugene Burger’s thought-provoking essays on the art and theory of magic. Eugene’s teachings have been a major influence on me as a magician, particularly the way I approach presentation and performance. One of my favourite pieces written by him is “Creating Interest”, which can be found on page 115 of Magic in Mind, a free collection of essential essays for magicians from Vanishing Inc. Magic. (The essay originally appeared in Eugene’s 1983 booklet, Intimate Power, and is also included in his anthology Mastering the Art of Magic.)

I’ve read the essay several times, but on my most recent reading, I noticed that Eugene mentions a place—presumably in America—with the curious name of “Piggly Falls”. Here’s the opening paragraph of the essay:

Every exploration begins somewhere. If I want to visit Los Angeles, for example, I must begin from somewhere else, from someplace concrete—Chicago or New York or Piggly Falls. In much the same way, every exploration of an area of thought and action, such as conjuring, begins with the assumptions and preconceptions of the explorer.

Now, colour me naïve, but I assumed Piggly Falls was a real place. Naturally, I searched the web for this mysterious location. I found “Pixley Falls” in New York, but no sign of Eugene’s “Piggly Falls”.

A postcard from Piggly Falls. Image Credit: Marty’s Magic Ruseletter.

Then it hit me: it was a classic “Burger-ism”! Eugene was a master of using wit and whimsy to make his deep philosophical insights more interesting and accessible. The “folksy” name of Piggly Falls—an intentionally silly, rural-sounding fiction—serves as a rhetorical device: the “podunk” starting point, the Everyman’s hometown.

And for most of us, our “Piggly Falls” is the comfortable delusion that magic is inherently interesting.

Burger thought the opposite was true: that magic tricks really are not very entertaining in and of themselves. He believed that to a stranger in an informal setting, a card trick is often an “unwelcome intrusion”—and even when the magic is warmly received, the spectator’s likely response is that it’s all “a bit trivial”. By starting from this “place” of assumed boredom, Burger argued, the magician is forced to do something vital: actually create interest in his words and actions.

Not everyone agrees with Burger’s starting assumption. Darwin Ortiz calls it “Fitzkee’s Fallacy”, arguing that strong magic is inherently entertaining. Joshua Jay’s own experience, as expressed in the editorial introduction to the essay, is that the premise is “entirely conditional”. But I think the point holds for most of us who perform informally: we cannot rely solely on our tricks to do the work for us.

Burger didn’t just theorise about this. He spent years crafting compelling hooks and opening lines. One of his best was a direct question: “Would you like to see the greatest card trick of the 20th century?” It’s designed to do one thing: create interest before a single card is touched. As Burger notes, the number of people who said “No” was surprisingly small. If you read nothing else in Magic in Mind, read the passage where he describes watching two strangers in a restaurant lounge, timing his approach, and delivering that line. It’s a masterclass in what “creating interest” looks like in practice.

The lesson of Piggly Falls isn’t just that we all start somewhere; it’s that we must recognise the biases we carry from our starting point. If we assume the tricks are enough on their own, we remain stuck in Piggly Falls. But if we accept that it’s our duty to make the audience care, we might finally leave our small-town thinking behind us.

Sure, I felt like a complete idiot for searching for a fictional town, but I’m glad I did. It reminded me that in magic, we all start in Piggly Falls. The question is whether we’re willing to leave.

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Not familiar with Eugene Burger and his magic? I strongly recommend you watch the video below of him performing on Paul Daniels: Live at Halloween in 1987.

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Twist and Transpose

I’m currently working on the next instalment of Corrupting the Classics. I’ve decided to make this a bumper edition and showcase two of my favourite small-packet card effects: Dai Vernon’s “Twisting the Aces” and Dr Daley’s Last Trick. The reason I’ve chosen to pair them is that I usually perform these two tricks together; I’ve always felt that “Twisting the Aces” works better as a prelude to the two-by-two transposition. In fact, I don’t think Vernon’s most famous packet trick makes a good stand-alone trick or opening effect. For me, it functions much better as a “transition piece” between, say, a four-Ace production and Dr Daley’s Last Trick. I think this has something to do with the unusual nature of the effect from a layperson’s point of view. If they’re expecting to pick a card for you to find, having cards mysteriously turn face up and face down can be quite disorientating because they have no frame of reference for the magic taking place.

The article will include an in-depth discussion of both tricks, along with various ways to perform and present them within the context of a three-trick set. In total, I’ll be sharing ten previously unpublished tricks! (The first five will be available to both free and paid subscribers—hopefully, this will keep all my valued readers happy.)

For a long time, I’ve been trying to group my card tricks into “triplets”: short, three-trick card sets. This approach is often attributed to the late, great Michael Skinner, who famously held court as the resident close-up magician at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas for over two decades. He had one of the largest working repertoires in the history of magic. To manage hundreds of effects without ever drawing a blank, he relied heavily on this “sets of three” philosophy.

Skinner didn’t just group tricks into triplets as an aide-mémoire; he did it to guarantee a professional performance every time he approached a table. Grouping your repertoire in this way provides three important benefits:

• A Built-in Narrative Arc: A set of three naturally creates a beginning, a middle and an end. (The same three-act structure used in cinema and theatre.) A three-trick set usually consists of a quick, highly visual opener to grab attention, an interactive middle routine to get the spectators involved, and a hard-hitting closer to leave a lasting impression.

• Banishing “Magician’s Panic”: When you know exactly what trick follows the one you are currently performing, you can eliminate that awkward “what should I do next?” pause.

• Playing “Magic Jazz”: Once you have several three-trick sets memorised, you can dynamically mix and match them. If you sense someone wants to see more magic after your first set, you simply launch into another pre-planned set of three. While the three tricks are linked, you can choose which specific triplets to perform in the moment, giving your overall performance a strong sense of spontaneity. 🎷🃏✨

With all this in mind, I’ll be sharing a card set I call “Only Aces”. As the name implies, this is a set of three tricks that use nothing more than four regular Aces. It begins with a fast-paced routine called “Imitation Aces”, in which three “imitation” Aces of Spades visually transform into the Ace of Diamonds, Hearts and Clubs. Next, you transition into “Traditional Twist”, a classic handling of Vernon’s “Twisting the Aces”, before finishing with a witty presentation of “The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley” called “Death and Taxes”.

I’ll also use this article as an excuse to revisit some of the ideas I shared in my blog article Twisting the Aces Three Ways. I’ll be publishing two alternative presentations for “Twisting the Aces”: the first is “Pasteboard Puppies”, using the four Fours; the second is “Crazy Eights”, using the four Eights (read the blog post for a preview).

For paid subscribers, I’ll also return to a three-trick set from my regular Ruseletter column, Vernonesque. It begins with a rendition of “Underambitious”, a minimalist take on the Ambitious Card. Next comes “Twisting the Numbers”, a version of “Twisting the Aces” that uses the Ace, Two, Three and Four of Diamonds. The set concludes with “Stolen”, my favourite way to present Dr Daley’s Last Trick.

To round things off, I’ll also share five extended routines inspired by these two classic plots:

• “Twist and Snap”—A version of “Twisting the Aces” with a kicker ending involving the entire deck.

• “Twisted Logic”—Another handling that sees each Ace turn face up and then face down again.

• “Pasteboard Puppies Plus”—A version of “Pasteboard Puppies” in which the four “dogs” find a chosen card lost in the deck. 🐕🐕🐕🐕

• “A Tale in the Twist”—A tribute to The Professor that includes a colour-changing-back kicker.

• “A Ghostless Tale in the Twist”—An alternative handling of “A Tale in the Twist” that avoids the Elmsley Count entirely. 🚫👻

Wish me luck on this epic writing adventure—I hope to have all of these written up by the end of April.

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Three Videos Worth Watching 👀

As usual, here are three videos that I watched this month. I think you should watch them, too.

Stamper by Alexis De La Fuente

This new printing packet trick from Alexis De La Fuente and Alakazam Magic is exactly the type of small-packet effect that I love. 💖

I particularly appreciate that this can be performed in the hands without a table, making it practical for mix-and-mingle or strolling-style performances.

While this is the newest card trick from Peter Nardi and the Alakafam, this is technically a rerelease. “Stamper” was first released by Alexis three years ago (watch the original release video).

I’ve long enjoyed the video reviews created by Alexis. He releases them in both his native language of French and in English:

🇫🇷 French Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LesavisdAlexis
🇬🇧 English Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexisReviews

“Stamper” is available from Alakazam Magic for $25 or £22.

Very Wild and Charge It

You may have noticed that the trailer for “Stamper” was filmed at this year’s Blackpool Magic Convention. Here’s another demonstration from the Dealer’s Hall. This time, it’s Christian Schenk of Card-Shark performing Charge It - Next Generation and Very Wild.

The video neatly highlights how you can combine two gaffed packet tricks to cancel out the inherent weaknesses of both effects. Yes, I know the switch using the wallet was rushed, but this was a “dealer dem” where speed was of the essence.

Sh*t Magic Shows

Finally, here’s another fun video from Singapore magician Jeremy Tan. As someone who’s never been to Vegas, I found this a very helpful overview of the current magic scene in Sin City.

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Well, that’s another monthly update done and dusted. I can’t quite believe we’re already a quarter of the way through the new year. Oh, well.

Yours Magically,

Marty