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Clouds and Kingdoms
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FOUR MIRACLES. TWO ESSAYS.
DOLLAR
Nate’s reconstruction of the Bill-to-Impossible-Location plot. Under test conditions a bill is borrowed, initialed, serial number memorized, and then burned to ashes only to reappear—not at the end of the routine in an impossible location as usual but rather at the beginning of the routine as a kind of impossible object that somehow exists before it should. Unbelievably, there are no switches and no pre-show. Dollar introduces a new utility move that allows this routine an unprecedented level of clarity and cleanliness and will invariably be used for countless other plots and routines in the years to come.
PHONE CALL
Nate’s version of the classic Wizard illusion and the closer to his stage act for two years. An onstage prank call turns into a miracle when the stranger on the other end of the line of a randomly selected phone number accidentally reveals a piece of secret information known only to the people in the theater at the show.
LOTTERY REVISITED
In 2012 Nate released his signature lottery prediction in The Lottery Ticket, a one-time limited edition printing that sold out in two months. To be clear, Nate’s original work on the lottery prediction plot will never be released again, but in this essay he breaks down his thinking on the performance and structure of lottery prediction effects. As Nate writes in the introduction, “In the years since the book’s publication a handful of other systems and methods for my trick have come out from other magicians and I’d like to offer a few thoughts on the performance of lottery prediction effects in general. Think of these as platform-agnostic performance notes from someone who has spent a great deal of time thinking about how to present this kind of material to maximum effect.”
CONSTELLATION
A handful of matches randomly scattered on the ground somehow spells out the name of a spectator’s friend. Constellation is presented alongside an essay about the use of chance, observation, and opportunism in magic and mentalism to create a kind of Trick That Cannot Be Explained without playing cards.
TWO CARD TRANSPOSITION
A card trick for 800 people. Two spectators stand on opposite sides of the stage. Each signs a playing card and holds it folded between their hands. Then, under test conditions— the audience will swear the magician never did anything—the cards switch places. Nate used this on The Today Show and The Next Great Magician and as a feature in his live shows for over a decade.
CONCLUSION: CLOUDS AND KINGDOMS
Clouds and Kingdoms is a brief essay on fiction, deception, and telling the truth with a magic trick.
