Reverend Jamy Ian Swiss

[Dinsdale Piranha]

It appears that Jamy Ian Swiss has answered the Lord's call...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/fashion/weddings/02PLOT.html?ex=1145505600&en=2bc53f60c48e9bc6&ei=5070

http://geniimagazine.com/forum/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=002112

Forevermore thou shalt refer to him as... The Right Reverend Jamy Ian Swiss, Minister of the Pasteboards.

[Brown]

"Universal Life" minister? Isn't "universal life" a kind of insurance???

[Dinsdale Piranha]

A ministry and insurance. Reduced insurance rates with the purchase of a wedding ceremony. "I now pronounce you Policyholder and Beneficiary.'

[Brown]

I expect Jamy knows full well how to do the "insurance" card trick--using a policy issued by the Society of Conjurors and Magicians (SCAM). And I also expect that somebody has already tried to lay the "Hey, isn't universal life a kind of insurance?" joke on him.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I expect Jamy knows full well how to do the "insurance" card trick--using a policy issued by the Society of Conjurors and Magicians (SCAM).

Yes. IIRC he's not too keen on it.

[Brown]

Yes. IIRC he's not too keen on it.
With good reason! It's a lame trick!

[Dinsdale Piranha]

With good reason! It's a lame trick!

Exactly. I must admit in my earlier days of conjuring I used this trick quite often. Then I started reading about presentation, theory, etc., and learned the difference between "good" and "bad" magic.

Also, attending a lecture by Jamy or one of his Card Clinics will leave no doubt as to his views on the subject.

[ChristineR]

That's the religious equivalent of a diploma mill. A lot of atheists and non-religious people become Universal Life ministers so they can marry their friends.

[treble_head]

I am a Universal Life Church minister. You can become one too in about 5 minutes online. It's pretty sweet.


http://www.ulc.org/

[Jeff Wagg]

Rats. I guess I'll have to tear mine up.

[Bob Klase]

With good reason! It's a lame trick!
Exactly. I must admit in my earlier days of conjuring I used this trick quite often. Then I started reading about presentation, theory, etc., and learned the difference between "good" and "bad" magic.

Using presentation, theory, (handling, timing, etc), as the basis for determining good and bad magic, it's a little strange that you'd agree with designating something 'a lame trick' without knowing the presentation, theory, etc of any given performance of that trick.

There are very few lame tricks. There's an excess of lame presentations, handlings. and magicians.

I once sold a show for several hundred dollars based solely on performing the insurance policy for some life insurance executives and salesmen.

It probably helped that I print my own insurance policy's and include my contact information on them. They select a policy from a stack of 6-8 (all having different cards) and they shuffle the deck before starting. They also read the instructions printed on the policy which are designed to get laughs and involve them in the trick.

Nothing lame about it unless you just use the canned presentation and instructions sold with the trick- and if you're doing that you really don't understand presentation, theory, etc.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Using presentation, theory, (handling, timing, etc), as the basis for determining good and bad magic, it's a little strange that you'd agree with designating something 'a lame trick' without knowing the presentation, theory, etc of any given performance of that trick.

There are very few lame tricks. There's an excess of lame presentations, handlings. and magicians.

I once sold a show for several hundred dollars based solely on performing the insurance policy for some life insurance executives and salesmen.

It probably helped that I print my own insurance policy's and include my contact information on them. They select a policy from a stack of 6-8 (all having different cards) and they shuffle the deck before starting. They also read the instructions printed on the policy which are designed to get laughs and involve them in the trick.

Nothing lame about it unless you just use the canned presentation and instructions sold with the trick- and if you're doing that you really don't understand presentation, theory, etc.

If you can make it work, go ahead and do the trick. More power to you.

Perhaps "lame" isn't the word I should be using. When I first got back into performing magic, I would occasionally do the Insurance Policy for larger groups. It generally got a decent reaction. Over time, my repertoire changed and I gradually stopped doing it.

From time to time, I'll go back through some of my older stuff to see if there's anything I should go back to performing. The Insurance Policy never made it back. It was one that I decided no longer had a place in my *bag of tricks*.

There are some lame tricks out there. But, as you pointed out, more lame magicians and presentations. In hindsight, calling the Insurance Policy a "lame" trick was probably an unfair evaluation. It's simply one, for various reasons, I have chosen to exclude.

In your case, it sounds like you've put in the extra work and really made it a unique presentation. Something I never really did with that particular trick.

Rats. I guess I'll have to tear mine up.

I wouldn't go that far. Look at what Bob did with it.

You guys go ahead and do it. I'm sure you'll get more mileage out of it than I did.

[Bob Klase]

It's simply one, for various reasons, I have chosen to exclude.

In your case, it sounds like you've put in the extra work and really made it a unique presentation. Something I never really did with that particular trick..

Okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I've got tricks that have been sitting on the shelf for 20-30 years unused (not to the mention a couple thousand tricks in books I've readd. With the hundreds of thousands of tricks available you can't do them all.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I've got tricks that have been sitting on the shelf for 20-30 years unused (not to the mention a couple thousand tricks in books I've readd. With the hundreds of thousands of tricks available you can't do them all.

I finally decided to cut *way* back on my purchases. I rarely ever buy a packaged trick anymore. I buy a few books every year and maybe a couple DVD's.

I have enough in my current library to keep me busy for the rest of my life. The problem is deciding which tricks I want to learn, putting in the time to learn to present them correctly and constructing routines that flow.

I'm realizing my limits regarding the number of tricks I can learn to perform well in front of an audience.