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JoeMTurner.com Corporate Magic Update |  |
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Greetings! November already -- where has the time gone? It has been a momentous year for me and next year is already shaping up to be even better. I've already received invitations to return to the Magic Castle, Houdini's Close-Up Theatre at the Atlantic City Tropicana, and a new invitation to perform at Monday Night Magic in NYC. As always, thanks for your support! Please take 5 seconds to share my name with a friend or colleague -- your recommendations keep my business running, and I appreciate it!  Joe M. Turner
Those of you who recently subscribed may not be aware that my new one man show, Shenanigans, premiered at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead on November 10. Over 80 people attended the first night of shows and reviews have been consistently enthusiastic! (Click the logo graphic to access the Zerve site, where the reviews are posted.) I am working with the hotel on a schedule for future presentations. Keep an eye on www.joemturner.com for future dates and times. In the meantime, you can either relive the experience or console yourself for missing it by visiting the Shenanigans store for t-shirts, coffee mugs, and mouse-pads. (Now honestly, who wouldn't be thrilled to become a member of the marketing team for the show?)
Just prior to the opening of Shenanigans, I was featured in a short interview in Creative Loafing, which is Atlanta's best known weekly alternative newspaper covering the arts, entertainment, culture, news, music, and politics.
Please note -- this graphic is just a snapshot of my interview for their arts section -- and it is safe for viewing at work. While Creative Loafing is a clever and creative publication with a lot of excellent content, those of you in Atlanta know that it also routinely carries stories, columns, and other items that are of a more... ummm... alternative nature. If you choose to explore their site, simply be forewarned that their content ranges from "Joe M. Turner" to "Pushing the envelope" to "Rather shocking" to "They can actually print that in a newspaper?"
If you've visited my web site, you may be aware of the seminar I offer on mnemonic memory enhancement techniques for students and businesspeople. Some of these techniques are very old, dating back at least to ancient Greece. Others have been developed and refined over the last hundred years. One of the items I include in the presentation is a technique for 'memorizing' an entire calendar year... so that you can know within seconds what day of the week November 23 falls on in 2006. (It's Thanksgiving Thursday next year -- and it's my birthday every year!) The technique for memorizing the calendar is a bit too involved to describe in a short newsletter, but this easy stunt will give your audience a similar impression! Mental Calendar Stunt Ask your spectator to turn to any page on any calendar and draw a box around any four dates that create a square... that is, two consecutive days in one week and the same days in the following week. Ask them to total the four numbers and tell you the result. You can immediately name the four dates that were selected. (And if you've taken my memory seminar, you can name the days of the week!) How is it done? Let's consider an example. This month, November 2005, one possible square would be around the 10th, 11th, 17th, and 18th. The total of these numbers is 56. In your head, all you have to do is divide by four and subtract four. This will give you the number of the lowest date selected. (In this case, 56/4 = 14; 14-4=10, which is the lowest of the four dates we chose.) It is trivial to determine the other three dates by adding 1, 7, and 8 to your result. Let's try another example. What if you are given the total 104? You immediately divide by 4. 104 divided by 4 is 26; 26 minus 4 is 22. That's the lowest date selected. The other three dates are the 23rd, the 29th, and the 30th. In my seminar, you learn to determine which day of the week any given date falls on. Ask a person to tell you the month of their birthday, and then do the stunt with that month's calendar. Armed with that knowledge, you can add details to your presentation of this stunt, telling your spectator(s) the dates AND the days of the week of the four dates they chose. When might such a presentation be appropriate? This could be a great introduction -- or wrap-up -- for a presentation on time management or valuing other people's time. While this trick is based on work from an early 20th century magician/mentalist named Theodore Annemann, the presentation as given was published by my friend George Schindler, who was recently named the Dean of American Magicians by the Society of American Magicians. It's in his excellent book Magic with Everyday Objects, which you can purchase in paperback from Amazon by clicking on the title! He gave me permission to share it with you all -- thanks, George!
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Since the online
version only lasts a week, I've put
a screenshot of the article online for permanent
viewing.
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