Bank Night Debate
Usually when I'm working on an effect I will dig into the books and find multiple ideas and methods by which to accomplish the effect, and choose the one which suits me best. With this Bank Night effect I'm really struggling to pick one which has a strong advantage over the other.
The first effect I present is exactly as described in The Mark Wilson Course in Magic (1975) as The Envelope Stand at the tail end of the Mental Magic chapter. (pg 334 in my copy)
The second effect makes use of something similar to Norm Houghton's Kismet envelope, and is such a generic application I wouldn't know where to begin crediting.
One thing I don't touch on in the video is an advantage of the first version; the envelopes can be opened by your spectators. However, that strength comes with its own weakness, in that the visibility and clarity of your presentation will drop when you have amatuers fumbling to show the contents. It would be a poor choice on stage, especially. Again, I'm left with a tied race.
For more on this questioning of methods, I encourage you to take a look at my video on The Madness of the Method which attempts to contrast multiple versions of a Red Hot Mama / Chicago Opener effect.
Comments
The problem with bank night is not in the method
The effect is the same regardless of the method. The problem with traditional bank night presentations is that the audience members are losers, and the magician is a winner. This is an antagonism we don't need in our performances. When we can make our audience the winners then we have something show worthy.
Agreed!
Very true. If you don't want to turn it around on yourself, then you could use the same method for a force... like picking the right key for a padlock.
Where's the entertainment value?
For me, it's in reading the slips. The slips can be tailored to the event—serious or comedy. Great T&T Ryan!
It can be entertaing
Richard Osterlind's presentation shows it can be a win/win with entertainment value. However, John Archer's bank night hits all the right notes. Ryan thanks for the question and again it is in the presentation not necessarily the method.
ABCs
I find the handling of the second method much cleaner, as you have to handle the final envelope of method one a bit differently, which drew suspicion from me. I appreciate David's comment above too, I often leave another spectator as the recipient of the final unchosen envelope (it's not money inside) so it's more about an experiment in instinct than a competition between audience and performer. Thanks for the video, Ry.
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