{"id":26499,"date":"2016-04-18T02:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=26499"},"modified":"2016-04-18T10:40:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T17:40:52","slug":"rick-lax-magician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/rick-lax-magician\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Lax, Magician"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ricklax.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rick Lax<\/a> created the TV show \u201cWizard Wars\u201d and has written several books on deception. He\u2019s a non-practicing lawyer, a former MENSA member, and now spends his time creating tricks for other magicians and for Penguin Magic, the biggest magic retailer in the world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/259304295&#038;color=ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cool-tools-show-and-tell\/id605920446?mt=2\">Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/feedpress.me\/cooltoolsshow\">RSS<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1mPG-EdkXqktn5GhNsa3KHDZcEgNaZIBZpoCCdB5makk\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\">Transcript<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tracking.feedpress.it\/link\/7810\/3093654\/259304295-cool-tools-50-rick-lax.mp3\">Download MP3<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/tag\/cool-tools-show\/\">See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Show Notes:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-26505\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/facebook-300x300.png\" alt=\"facebook\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/facebook-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/facebook-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/facebook-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/facebook.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> (as a marketing tool)<br \/>\n&#8220;I became a mayor of Facebook overnight and I\u2019m still trying to process exactly how it happened \u2026 I\u2019ve treated Facebook marketing like an experiment \u2026 If you google, \u201cHow to make a good Facebook video? How to make a viral video?\u201d 12 different people are going to tell you 12 different things, so I just put enough videos up where I can experiment and I can see for myself what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not working \u2026 What I found out is that is not actually a factor in the video\u2019s success, and I do this because I look at my most popular videos. I see what days are they posted, what time are they posted, and that has not been a factor \u2026 All the content creators who are doing so well on YouTube, they say, \u201cWell, why should I go over to Facebook if I\u2019m not going to get paid for it?\u201d That\u2019s really left a window in Facebook for new content creators like me, so I was able to just sneak in there and have a tremendous success as everyone else is boycotting.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B006JH8T3S\/cooltools-20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-26504\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/Webcam-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"Webcam\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/Webcam-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/Webcam-1024x853.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/Webcam.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B006JH8T3S\/cooltools-20\" target=\"_blank\">Webcam<\/a><br \/>\n&#8220;Everyone says everything is fake \u2026 It\u2019s frustrating because I\u2019m not actually doing camera tricks. I\u2019m accomplishing this with sleight of hand, but I can\u2019t tell people how I\u2019m doing it, but I want to be like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not fake. I usually put it in this hand,\u201d but you can\u2019t say to them how to do the trick, so I\u2019m just left with telling people, \u201cNo.\u201d \u2026 It\u2019s true that some people who perform on their webcam cannot perform live. They don\u2019t have good rapport, but that doesn\u2019t mean that this is an invalid medium for sharing the art form. This is an incredible medium \u2026 I\u2019ve performed magic for more people than anyone else in the world the past 3 or 4 months because of this. \u2026 I get bothered by people who attack \u201cwebcam magic\u201d or \u201cwebcam magicians.\u201d I think this is a valid, great new form of sharing magic.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B010F6BAES\/cooltools-20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-26503\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/cards-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"cards\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/cards-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/cards-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/cards-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/cards.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B010F6BAES\/cooltools-20\" target=\"_blank\">Deck of Cards<\/a><br \/>\n&#8220;So much of magic is card magic, and what I\u2019ve been doing with my channel and with sharing my magic is figuring out ways to take the principles behind card tricks and apply them to things that aren\u2019t cards. &#8230; I had 1 video a couple weeks ago. Again, it got 10,000,000 views where it was this old card trick from Jim Steinmeyer called \u201cThe 9-Card Card Trick.\u201d Other people have tried to do videos with it, which is great, and it\u2019s an interactive trick, which means the person watching it needs to have cards in their hands. What I figured out to do is instead of the cards \u2014 everyone else would do videos online, \u201cGo get 9 cards,\u201d and then their videos wouldn\u2019t do well \u2014 so I told people, \u201cGo get a piece of paper and a pen. Draw a tic-tac-toe board. Draw a different symbol in each quadrant or in each ninth of the tic-tac-toe board a different symbol. Rip it up.\u201d Now, it\u2019s like everyone had 9 cards in their hand.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0804136726\/cooltools-20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-26506\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/performing1.jpg\" alt=\"performing\" width=\"300\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/performing1.jpg 331w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2016\/04\/performing1-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0804136726\/cooltools-20\" target=\"_blank\">Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most<\/a><br \/>\n&#8220;It helped me out. I wrote the authors to thank them. It was a new book. It was just a coincidence thing where it came out as I was like, \u201cOh, crap. I\u2019m a guy that goes on TV and does this.\u201d I went through it, and I liked the book just because they had a ton of strategies for combating performance anxiety. About 10 of them were good for me, so I would go through them in my head every day, and that, plus a couple shots of alcohol before I went on stage did the trick.&#8221;<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cool Tools Show 050: Rick Lax<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1559],"tags":[1555],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26499"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26542,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26499\/revisions\/26542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}