Another day, another Inject 2 outage! We’re just over 3 weeks into 2025 and this is the 3rd time that Inject 2 has stopped working. The first two times it was down about a week each.
Once again, this highlights the problems with internet based apps and sort of apps in general. If a magic app stops working, there’s not much you can do. It’s also hard to run a backup method with an app. You can’t have someone type into Google AND write it on a piece of paper at the same time.
The now frequent outages can affect performances:
I’m appalled that Greg doesn’t immediately let the major magic shops know when Inject 2 is down so they can pause sales. It’s still available at Penguin and Vanishing Inc AND Greg is at MagiFest, where both companies are right now!
Finally, Greg Rostami has talked about this “back up plan” for Inject 2 for almost a month now, but hasn’t started to implement it. He says it will take a month to do, well guess what, if he started it the first time, it’d almost be up and running.
Here’s my theory: If Greg switches Inject 2 to another server or whatever the backup plan is, he’ll have to relist it as a new app. That means current users will have to rebuy it, and he’ll have to deal with refunds from people who just bought it.
I hope that the app does get back up and reliably running as many magicians like it, but it teaches magicians that you can’t rely on technology that’s out of your control.
Last week I was at an entertainment showcase. These are where performers do a bit of their show for people who book acts/shows. When watching bands, my number one note for them is to not talk! The amount of banter they do is ridiculous, it’s not a show, you’ve got 15 minute to wow a booker and when they waste 3-5 mins on uninteresting talking on the mic, their show doesn’t look tight.
I love it when I see an act come in to get booked. A good example is Patrick, he came in did a high energy 15 minute set with no wasted time!
I was there showcasing my crank organ as a “roving act”. This is different from stage showcase, you can connect with people differently and have more time. My roving showcase had 45 minutes.
With that time I try my best to connect with people and educate them on how they can use this act at their event. Trying to sell something like the crank organ for events is a bit harder because most people have never seen one and don’t know how they’d use it for their event.
If you’re not using showcases to sell your show, you should look into them, virtually every market has some sort of showcase!
When I travel I hand carry my audio/electronic stuff box. I’m paranoid about losing this, so I put an Apple AirTag in it. I set this AirTag to alert me if I leave it somewhere. So if I walk away from the audio case, my phone will let me know!
While I’m mentioning travel tips, I don’t use luggage tags on my bags. Instead I write my name and phone number on my luggage with a marker!
Now there’s no luggage tag to get ripped off, my info is on my luggage permanently!
When you perform and there’s a stage, use it! It took me a while to learn this, and I’m glad I figured it out a long time ago. Before I go further, there are times and reasons to be in front of the stage, or in the audience, so this isn’t a hard rule.
Here’s an example, I was watching a performer do the cups and balls and they’re performing on the floor in front of the stage. Here’s what I could see sitting in the back:
The lady standing was moving to the back to where she could stand to see. Don’t worry about her, she’s not what this is about. It’s about the cups and balls on the table and about waist height to the performer.
What does this picture tell you?
It tells me that if I’m on the same level as the audience (the floor), anything held below my shoulders can’t be seen six rows back.
So how do you do the cups and balls onstage?
That’s the challenge because if your tabletop is flat, then the people in the front rows can’t see as the bottom of the table is blocking their view.
You could move the table further upstage and that will help a bit. What I did when I used to do cups and balls was put a “rake” to my table, so the front end was lower than the back end. My table also had a small lip that would stop the balls from rolling off. It was a workable solution and an option.
One thing that’s helpful is to watch magic shows from different seats in the audience and pay attention to when you can’t see things. Not just when they’re performing, but if a magician walks into the audience, how much of them can you see? You can use this information to help you decide to go into the audience and if you do, how to do it so that things can be seen.
I was looking at my magic tables and they’re getting beat up. Two of them it’s just the the top fabric was getting worn out, but the third one was straight up beat to crap!
This is my stage table, and things sit on the top of it, so you don’t see the surface of it. As long as I was recovering my two tables that I work on, I might as well do this one.
Here’s all three tables with their new surfaces. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, it only took about 30 is mins to do all three of them and it’s not hard. I have a self adhesive surface I use.
Sometimes it’s hard to know when your props are getting worn out as it happens slowly and gradually. Every now and then you really need to give your stuff a good once over !
When I do kid shows, there’s one card trick in the show. The cards aren’t really cards in the sense that one is a king of hearts and one is two of spades, they are just a stack of objects. When I kid picks a card, I draw a picture of their favorite animal on it, and we name that animal.
By creating an image with the kids it makes the card more memorable than just a two of hearts with their name one it. I will also frequently use a blank face or double blank deck of cards. That takes it a step away from a card trick and it’s a trick with a drawing.
A couple of weeks ago I performed at the All American Magic Theater in Portland, OR. One of the nice things is that the backstage TV that shows what’s happening onstage has a show run order.
This is nice with a show with multiple performers. You don’t have to remember who you are following, you just look up! It also shows how long the show is running and how much time is left during intermission!
The current book that I’m reading is Professional Secrets by Geoffrey Durham. This book has been mentioned a lot in online magic forums, and I’m glad to have finally gotten a copy of it at a reasonable price!
I’m about 50 pages into the book and one of the things that I like about it is that it’s more than just the tricks. It’s his thinking on performing. One of the tricks he explains is his opener that is really just a handflash device. However he goes on for several pages about his thoughts on opening tricks and opening your show before he gets into the handflash device.
I like that!
Here’s one of my favorite quotes in the book so far:
I 100% agree with this! Those three adjectives; interesting, attractive and unique are very important. I always tell people that it takes work to be interesting onstage. It also takes work to be unique in a relatable way!
So far I’m liking this book and if you can track down this book you’ll probably like it as well!
For the second time in about two weeks the magic app Inject 2 was taken down by Google.
This really highlights why apps are bad methods, they can be taken away for no reason, and unlike a folding quarter that even if everyone stopped making them they can easily be sourced on the secondary market. With a magic app like Inject 2, you can’t just buy a used one that someone has in a drawer, or have a second one as a backup.
Before I get to Greg’s post about the outage, he’s not doing a great job communication. Sure he’s posting in the Inject 2 Facebook Group and probably on The Magic Cafe, but he should all of our email addresses from when we got the app, so why not send out a bulk email? Right now you really have to find out it’s not working by trying to use the app, then when it doesn’t work, going to the Inject 2 Facebook Group.
Anyway, here’s his post and my thought will follow:
Dear Inject family,
As of 10:22PM Los Angeles time, Google has once again suspended Inject.
Just when I was SO happy with the new ReaList Peek feature …
This time, there was no warning AT ALL.
I have started the appeal process with them.
This is really frustrating, but as I’ve said in my previous posts, Matt and I already have a plan to move Inject away from Google’s App Engine.
I am SO sorry about this.
I’m glued to my computer waiting for a response from a human at Google to resolve this issue.
Thank you again for your patience.
In that post he says, “This time, there was no warning AT ALL.” That implies that that the first time he had warning, but didn’t give it to the users! That’s kinda messes up. If a hotel and knew that power would be out at a certain time and didn’t mention it to me when I checked in, I’d be pissed!
Sure, this Inject 2 is a magic app and no one is going to physically die if it doesn’t work, but there are people who may have been about to use it in a big gig and had it fail, and can affect their income!
Another problem with how Greg has decided to market Inject 2 via physical download cards is that he can’t pull it from the market. The cards are out there and are available for sale RIGHT NOW as Inject 2 is not working. So if someone buys the download card, and it doesn’t work it’s now the magic shop’s problem to deal with the customer service issue. Does the magic shop refund, then try to get a refund from Murphy’s Magic or Greg, ask the customer to be patient, or whatever. It puts the magic shop in a strange position, and if Greg ever discontinues Inject 2, what does a shop do if they have a download card on their shelf? Can they get a refund? It’s also interesting that Murphy’s hasn’t sent out an email about how to deal with customer service around Inject 2 not working. If a customer got it for Christmas and it’s only worked half the time they owned it, I think they should be entitled to a refund. I personally have no idea how that would be handled, because once the app is up and running, there’s nothing to stop that person (that I’m aware of) from using the app.
A few months ago I picked up Henry Harrius’s Refilled vanishing bottle (Corona version). It’s sat on my desk for a while and recently I read Wayne Dobson‘s vanishing bottle routine and kinda liked the idea. So I sat down and wrote out a routine for it.
The effect is: You have a bag and two bottle caps. One is selected and you remove the matching bottle from the bag! You tell the audience you’ll show them how you did the trick, you have two bottles. You take out the second bottle, then put it back into the bag and you crumple up the bag.
Here’s what I wrote:
Two bottle caps, a red coke one and a blue corona one. You’re going to pick one like this is a low budget remake of the matrix
The red cap, everything is revealed, the blue cap and I and you’ll learn nothing, just like high school.
Hold them in your hands and shake them like you’re playing craps, or the baby won’t stop crying. …clearly you don’t have a baby
Now blow on them for luck like you’re in vegas or a kid in the 1980’s who just wants to play super mario brothers
Toss me one.
Red, the coke bottle cap. Inside the bag I have a Coke BOTTLE!
Since you picked the red cap, that means you get to see inside the illusion. you can never go back, your life will be forever changed like going thru puberty or committing murder.
That turned dark
inside the bag I have a second bottle, so it doesn’t matter which you picked, just like voting.
However if you picked the other cap and we needed to keep the illusion, then we would have done it with only one bottle!
It’s not the best script ever, but it’s something to get it onstage and in front of an audience.
One thing I noticed is that I think the trick will play better if the vanishing bottle is the Coke bottle. It makes more sense to have that one disappear in the context of explaining the routine. So I just ordered one of those.
I think this routine could be a good lead into my Signed Coin in Bottle. This was published in Vanish Magazine a few years ago.
