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As seen on

ew principle that will no doubt leave countless audiences seriously in doubt of their
senses. It will also delight those of us in the dark, deceptive arts with a fondness for
effects so deceptive they border on mental cruelty. After all, it is clearly insane to
suppose that a single, unfaked business card can be torn into two inter-linked
squares. Or that this can be done in real-time, while the audience watch, with
nothing to hide or steal away. Or that the resulting linked squares of card can bc
given away to bc studied and examined (and they will be!), since there is nothing to
find. That's the good thing about Joshua: he keeps having these insane ideas and
then finds a way to make them into practical pieces of delightful magic. Conjunction
represents a significant leap forward in the art and science of "impossible" linkage.
It is 100% practical, albeit some diligent study will be required by those wishing to
master this particular miracle. It should also become one of the most performed,
and most talked-about pieces of modern close-up magic (given how often we tend
to hand out business cards). Quite simply, magic doesn't get more impossible than
this. EFFECT Before handing out your business card to someone with whom you'd
like to leave a strong impression, you give the card a series of folds and tears, in the
process transfiguring it into an impossible object: two unbroken paper rings which
end up linked through one another. So what's the difference between this and the
profusion of other effects that have cards linking together? Simple: You do it for real.
The rings are given away in their genuinely linked state, from which they can't be
unlinked without ripping them. They can be examined indefinitely with no danger of
anyone finding any seams, joins or tears, because there aren't any. Furthermore, no
glue, tape, or adhesive of any kind is used. Only one card is involved, with no gaffs,
gimmicks or extra pieces, and nothing to ring in, linked squares of card can bc given

away to bc studied and examined (and they will be!), since there is nothing to find.
That's the good thing about Joshua: he keeps having these insane ideas and then
finds a way to make them into practical pieces of delightful magic. Conjunction
represents a significant but 1 just didn't like it as well. I mention this only so you
won't read through the whole thing expecting to get to the point where you tear the
pieces into circle shapes, only to be will be in familiar territory here.) Don't close
your eyes, because you'll never want to do that in real life; instead, practice looking
up away from your hands, at the spot where a spectator's eyes would be if there
were one there. Being able to look someone in the eye rather than constantly sta
elaborate than this, provided you bear in mind which parts will be peeled off and
you plan the placement of your text and graphics accordingly. 41 Also note that it's
okay to have graphic elements that end up getting peeled off completely, provided
they won't be obviously missed and call attention to the method through their
absence. The only problem is if you have something that gets only partway peeled,
thus giving away what you did: That's bad. Don't do that. MATERIAL CONCERNS If
you're going to get custom cards to use for this effect, there are basically two ways
to go about it: have them printed, or do it yourself. If you decide to have them
printed, all you yourself, besides a desktop printer, you'll also probably want to
make one other investment: an odd but extremely handy piece of office equipment
known as a "business card cutter.'" It's basically a plastic, loaf-of-bread-sized
thingamabob that lakes an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and cuts it into ten business
cards. You feed a piece of paper into it, turn the handle, and it comes out the other
end sliced into two long strips. Then you turn those strips 90 degrees, feed them
into a different slot, turn the handle again, and they come out the other end sliced
into business cards. I love the thing because I'm constantly fiddling with different
card designs and types of paper, and it lets me try them out without ordering a
thousand at a time. If you too like to tinker with such things, you may well find it to
be a worthwhile investment. For me it's been an absolute godsend. I found mine on
eBay for about sixty dollars, and since then there have always been a few up for
auction at any given time. A search for the phrase "business card cutter'" or
"business card slitter" will turn them up. There are also electric ones available that
don't require you to turn a handle, but they're considerably more 4? expensive, and
for me the added cost wasn't worth the minimal added convenience. Of course both
options have their advantages and disadvantages. Having cards printed
professionally is more convenient, and the print quality may be better than what
you can get at home (though inkjets have come a long way). On the other hand,
doing them yourself allows for more experimentation and doesn't stick you with a
whole bunch of cards that you then have to either use or waste. And now for
something that many people have told me I'm a fool for tipping: the Rolls Royce of
card stock paper and how to get it. Numerous friends have opined that rather than
revealing the origin of this stuff, I should just buy a crop. They hide the work well,
they practically peel themselves, and they make great looking cards. The samples
you got with this booklet are made from one of those. IMPORTANT: Whatever kind
you get, you'll have to specify the weight you want it in (which, in paper biz terms,

means how thick it the paper is). The weight you want is "80- pound cover." Note
that both parts of that phrase - the "80-pound" part and the "cover" part - are
important. You don't want 80-pound text, which is regular writing paper, and you
don't want 65-pound cover, which is flimsier, tougher-to-work-with card stock. Now
that you know what to get, the tricky part is finding it. The only place I've found that
carries both brands, and will sell them in quantities from individual sheets to
cartons, is a company called Glodan, reachable on the web at wvvw.glodan.com.
You can also order Sundance paper direct from the manufacturer at:
www.gilbertpaper.com/fox/papers/ don't say 1 never gave you nothin'. IF YOU'D
RATHER FIGHT THAN SWITCH 1 realize that many of you reading this will not want to
have new cards made up for this effect, either because you're attached to the
design of your current card, and/or because designing a new one to meet the
requirements of the effect seems like too much trouble. And that's fine. I'm not hurt.
No, really. I mean, I only put three years of sweat and toil into developing this effect,
tenderly nurturing it from its promising but problematic conceptual infancy, onward
through a long, clumsy, awkward adolescence fraught with impractical handlings,
elaborate preparations, imperfect method concealment, and draconian design
requirements, before finally seeing it through to its maturation into the elegant
piece of mystery so lovingly presented to you here. So there's absolutely no reason
for me to be upset if people get this far only to decide not to use it because they
can't be bothered to spend a pleasant evening's work making up a new business
card. Really, it's no problem at all. I'll just be in the corner wailing and gnashing my
teeth. But seriously, there arc a number of options that don't require changing your
current card, for those of you who are unwaveringly intent on riding roughshod over
the creative efforts of one of your fellow [Stop it. - ed.] Right, sorry. Basically, if the
piece of paper you use for the effect is not your business card at all, but rather a
completely separate card that you utilize to demonstrate something interesting and
impossible, then a whole world of choices opens up to you. The easiest and most
obvious one is to use a blank card. Why blank? Well, maybe something about a
blank piece of paper representing infinite possibilities, and/or impossibilities, and
even the gray areas where the two intersect... but that will be for you to work out.
Or the card could bear a pre-printed message that tics in with your presentation something like, "I am impossible," "I can't exist," '"Impossible is only a word," etc.
Another option is to start with a blank card but write something on it that lends
itself to the circumstances. If you're performing for a couple, a nice idea is to have
them write their names in the appropriate spots, and end with them ''joined
together." Or if you're working a corporate event or trade show. I"m sure you can
come up with some word or phrase that would be beneficial to make ''intrinsically
linked" to the company or product you're representing. (Ah, I can smell the
corporate cheese already: "Some people will tell you it's impossible to make 100%
customer satisfaction an integral part of a company's identity, but here at
SchmuckTech, we do the impossible..." I confess I look forward to my effect being
used for such purposes with the same anticipation with which one looks forward to
one's daughter becoming a whore.) Yet another possibility is to have a diagram of

two linked rings printed on the card, and use that picture as a starting point for
discussion. I hope the above provides enough alternative ideas that those of you
who were expecting to use your current card can now be persuaded to put down the
pitchforks and torches. 44 WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION? I'll be the first to admit that as
effects go. Conjunction is an odd bird. It doesn't fit within any of the standard
categories of magic plots - vanishes, appearances, transformations, transpositions,
penetrations, levitations, etc. When I've described the effect to magicians, many of
them have said, "Oh, so you mean it's a one-card link." Well... no. Though the
similarity is obvious, there's a subtle but important difference. In a one-card link, the
rings start out separate and then link together, so the impossible act is the passing
of solid objects through one another - a standard and easily defined plot. That never
happens with Conjunction, as the rings are linked from the moment they come into
existence. So the impossible act becomes the very creation of an object that should
be uncreatable - not exactly a soundbyte-friendly premise. So, you may ask
yourself, what's it good for then? As with many things in our field, the answer is,
"whatever you choose to make of it." With the right framing it can be a fine piece to
use as an effect within a close-up performance, be it formal or impromptu or
anywhere in between. Personally I tend to use it more as a thought- and
conversation-provoking promotional and marketing tool - a way to make myself and
my business card more memorable and more likely to be talked about after I'm
gone. I've found it's an effective thing to do for someone whom you're trying to
convince to hire you, as it leaves them with a tangible piece of impossibility that
serves as a constant, hard-to-ignore reminder of you. And in a field where the word
"puzzle" has become one of the most derogatory terms in the lexicon, it can make
for a fine one in the best sense of the word; not something to be solved and
defeated, but something with which to challenge people to think about what is and
isn't possible. Truth be told, it's also a great way to win free drinks from engineers
and topologists. Note also that this doesn't have to be performed as an Effect with a
capital E, with all attention focused on it. In a casual environment you can just grab
a card and start fiddling with it, without calling attention to what you're doing until
the appropriate time. It's worth pointing out that when I perform, I do so as a
mentalist, with no "straight" magic included; I deal solely with abilities of the mind,
and I don't ever make things vanish, appear, transpose, levitate, or jump to the top
of the deck. But I do use Conjunction, because although it has nothing to do with
what we think of as the standard mentalism feats (demonstrations of telepathy,
precognition, telekinesis, etc.), it is a fine example of the power of the human mind
to overcome accepted limitations and accomplish things that are considered
impossible. And it helps that unlike most premises and justifications in mentalism,
that happens to be an accurate characterization rather than a line of unmitigated
bullshit. Similar ground has been explored by such mentalists

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