I figure I should just write about this now while I'm here and thinking of it. This is probably going to be a rambling mess so bear with me and try to make sense of all this.
I think we're all familiar with an "out" where when something backfires you can make it seem like you meant to do that the entire time. A classic example is using the Invisible Deck for when you lose control of a selected card or a spectator lies about what their card is. Instead of just being stuck, you use your out to bring things to a successful conclusion.
I'm going to tangent for a moment to say that I feel like the ID is always put up to use as an out but it seems, to me, to be a really shitty out. It seems so contrived that I wonder if anyone is actually using it as an out and, if they do, are people actually being fooled by it? Like, "Here, take any card. I'll shuffle it back into the deck, and when I wave these two red Aces over the top, you'll notice one card pop up between them! Your chosen card, in fact, the six of clubs! ...That wasn't your card? What was your card? The five of diamonds? How strange, because earlier in the day, in this totally different deck of cards I haven't mentioned until now, I reversed one card for no particular reason, the five of diamonds! Oh that stuff with the Aces? Don't worry about that. I was just messing around to bring things around to the real trick, this facedown card in the deck. Ta-dah!"
So we have outs and there are also "ins" or "openers" or bringing something in play to use in another trick. I think a common example of this is making something appear to get into another trick. This could be making a deck of cards appear instead of removing them from your pocket, or doing a particular trick to get yourself set up for another.
Then there's something I've been thinking about which I've dubbed "pre-outs" because I don't know if they've been talked about before. It's not quite getting into a trick and if you end up needing an out, the out would be a whole different thing that I think would be too big to call an out. It's like if the throwaway action of the out is put at the beginning of another trick and sometimes you don't even need the other trick. The pre-out.
I'll explain.
You do the trick I described the other day, ARCAANE. Your spectator says "Hey, lemme see those cards." You say, "Why, do you think they're all the same? Because they are. But these aren't, check them out. All different, right?" and you proceed to do your other ACAAN routine.
You're holding a deck of cards and ask someone to name one. You snap your fingers and say "And your card, the three of clubs, jumps to the top of the deck..." as you turn the top card to show that it's the Queen of hearts "...and turns into the Queen of hearts. Ta-dah! No, let's see. Where's the three?" and you launch into your ambitious card.
Every so often things will go right for you and you can stop at the beginning. They don't want to see the deck, and you've performed an awesome trick. The card they named is actually on top, and it looks too good to be true. Those are the times that you're hoping for, but since they won't happen that often you have the "real" effect that you're planning to perform anyway. I wouldn't consider them outs because to me an out is if you mess up. With a pre-out, you're expecting it to not work the bulk of the time. When you get lucky, you shut up and take credit for the stronger miracle than the one you were going to perform.
These are just two (probably shitty) examples of pre-outs. I wouldn't consider them ins because you're not doing one thing to do another (in the minds of the audience) it's all just part of the same thing. The pre-out is considered part of the procedure of the bigger trick. I wouldn't consider it an out, because you're not expecting it to work in the first place. (I should probably stop saying ARCAANE won't work, because it has for me. But I would still treat it as a throw away if I got busted on it and move on to another ACAAN.)
Pre-outs.
Thoughts?
- Andster
