The Adequate Blog

I’m rather proud of the Hammer Trick (aka the “Card Mallet”) because, in a way, it’s the first trick I’ve really put together “from scratch”, with an end result, a starting point, and then filling in the blanks as we go.

I knew I wanted to do something with the mallet -it’s a great prop and one I’ve used for a number of other things (a few theatrical shows, as a sight gag, and occasionally for malleting coworkers), and the idea of the spectacular nature of the Card Sword effect has always appealed.

This was also the first trick where, as I was putting it together, I was much more concerned with the trick from a visual rather than a mechanical standpoint.   Every other trick I do in my show started from the mechanics of doing the trick and ended with refining the visual aspects. In this case, I knew that the trick had to involve

• Going into the crowd to have a card selected
• Holding the card up so everyone can see it (Thanks to Jeff McBride for teaching me the card control I use)
• Bringing out the Mallet - this is an automatic laugh moment. It’s a big, silly prop
• Balancing the cards on the flat side of the mallet - this is harder than it looks
• “Pre-launch” - Magician standing with arms extended, mallet in hand. This is a very long a and “big” picture.
• Tossing the deck into the air - a flick of the wrist and I have this great long lever with the mallet… everyone’s eyes follow the deck up (especially mine)
• Contact - Cards meet hammer
• Followthrough - cards go everywhere
• … showing that, somehow, the selected card wound up stuck to the tape on the mallet
• And finally, the Big Applause Position, arms out, mallet in hand, tadaaa!

… whew. That’s a lot of pictures.

When I put the trick together, the mechanics of the effect took maybe 3 minutes to do in full. When I performed it, the trick took about five minutes. This is because with a live audience, I could use pauses to get more entertainment out of the trick.

Let’s face it, a man attempting to swat a selected card out of the air with a 3 foot long mallet is a preposterous idea! And every so often, a pause, a ‘take’ to the audience, can make people laugh just because of that.

Pauses also build dramatic (or perhaps comedic?) tension.

With a juggling show, there’s this balance of “something neat is going to happen” and “something could go horribly, horribly wrong” - especially when a juggler is using “dangerous” objects.

This is the tension, and the “vibe”, which I have been trying to create in my “magic” show for the past four years.

So standing there with a big mallet, proposing to achieve something which, when done, implies a delicate touch with a big stupid blunt object, has something could go horribly, horribly wrong written all over it.

So in a way, this is the first trick I’ve created moreor less “from scratch” which has had the “Tobias nature” pretty much from the get-go.