X-mas memory
It is christmas, so I wanted to share a story from several years ago, around christmas time. I’ve started you off on the question: How will you become a better magician. Here is a slightly different take on what that could mean. Maybe the question is “How could I use my magic better?”
A retelling of a story:
On many occasions, I have felt pressure to drink with friends or family. Personally I don’t like the taste of alcohol much, and so I frequently would prefer to not drink. At times I merely decline offers, and other times claim “I don’t drink,” but sometimes the peer (or elder) pressure is very strong. Being a magician has given me various skills including misdirection, deception, and the ability to create illusions. Using all of these I have learned to create the illusion of drinking.
The effect is this: I appear to drink reasonably large amounts of alcohol, yet never seem to be affected. The methods are varied, and cunning, if I can say so myself. It began by accident, and I continued experimenting, sometimes just to see how real an illusion I could make it, and sometimes because I really didn’t feel like dealing with the peer pressure.
At times I have thought about recording all of my methods for posterity, so that others may engage in the tricky art of not drinking. However, I have had some reservations. These fall mostly along the lines not wanting to encourage other people to drink more. The ability to apparently drink unlimited amounts of alcohol can set up competitive environments in which the less well informed can experience health risks, or at least really bad hang overs. Some of the methods actually result in other people drinking more without their realizing it. And in general, it reduces the visibility of people who choose not to drink and can create the illusion that “everyone drinks” adding to the peer pressure on others.
But just last Christmas, I experienced a use-case that made me change my mind and realize that these skills should be taught in school. At a birthday party in Mexico, I heard a commotion at the next table. Muñeca, a fourteen year old girl, had just been poured a shot of “medicine,” tequila and lime, to cure her cold. She was expressing reservations about drinking it while everyone else kept egging her on. “It will make you healthy!” “Just take it all in one shot!” “¿What are you waiting for?” I chimed in with “You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to,” but given the existing cultural and personal pressures, I knew my advice was merely rhetorical. As a compromise said she would sip it, and so began.
5 minutes later, she still hadn’t had a second sip, and was again being egged on. I took the opportunity to utilize my experience at avoiding consumption of alcohol and went on a reconnaissance mission. The first step was to find a similar shot glass, of which there remained one. Then I needed a lime to mimic the color and translucency of her existing drink. The only one left was the one that I had made “disappear” earlier in the evening. It made a reappearance from my pocket and into a shot of water. So armed, I made my way to where she was seated.
She handed it to me to sip, and the deed was done. She asked me to drink it all, to which I responded “I can’t stand tequila, thanks anyway,” and handed her back her drink. The shot had suddenly (and magically) become less alcoholic. At her next sip, I tried to assuage her look of surprise with a wink. Where only she could see, I poured the other shot glass down the drain. The next thing I heard was applause as she took her shot. She was smiling broadly.
The number of times she thanked me discreetly before the end of the night led me to believe that it had been a blessing. Unable to stand up the peer pressure herself, I had given her a free ticket out of the situation. I don’t know why she didn’t want to drink, but if she didn’t want to, she shouldn’t have to. Next time I doubt she will be as lucky, but maybe she will have the guts to turn it down, knowing that somewhere I would be supporting her. Maybe not.
At any rate I have realized that there are probably people who don’t want to drink, but are forced to by whatever circumstances they find themselves in. Maybe I can give them an option they hadn’t realized was available before. Perhaps I cannot give everyone the years of experience in misdirecting and misleading people, nor can I teach them how to act plastered (though they could probably figure it out), but I can share some of the tricks I have come up with over the years. At least that night it helped someone else.