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Make a Web Search Trick in 15 Minutes
Learn a simple method for a trick you can perform on your friends. Create a fake search site to perform simple forces and mind-reading tricks.
Rory Adams
December 24, 2020 • Read Time: 4 minutes
I was lucky enough to consult for theory11 and help write Neil Patrick Harris’ new game, BOXOne. It was a joy to help early days, and then to see the thing on my doorstep a year later was wild. I spent the week watching people play it on YouTube (Spoilers) and now related NPH videos are popping up. Like his performance on Carson—watching this inspired me to build a web search prediction and force in fifteen mins. Here’s how I did it and how you can too…
Prototyping Magic Tricks
Make it work before you make it beautiful
-Paul Kieve
Paul Kieve is the wonderful illusion designer behind award-winning musicals like Mathilda, Groundhog Day, Ghost and the Harry Potter films. Bloody hell Harry, there’s real magic in Harry Potter? Yep. Catch a glimpse of Pauls illusions in Ghost here. He also has a great domain name; stageillusion.com.
Paul Kieve and His Book
In the business startup world, the “make it work first” mantra is referred to as starting with an MVP (minimum viable product). It’s a strategy I was unknowingly applying to all my magic consultancy work, and one I am surprised to see magicians fail to do.
Watching NPH on Carson. I thought that now, 30 years later, someone at home might scan that barcode and wouldn’t it be cool if the price matched—a little kicker thirty years in the making. I also thought that NPH really hasn’t aged enough for thirty years.
Books have ISBNs—unique barcodes for every book ever published. Like a magical Jeff Bezos, I figured books would be the best bet to start in terms of simplicity and ease of execution.
I had a spare fifteen minutes, and I gave it a go…
The Spectator names any book, and the Magician reveals her prediction… it’s a barcode…
…when the Spectator scans the barcode, the result is the book title they freely named.
1. Outline The Dream
In a dream world, the spectator would scan the barcode, and it would take them to the exact product book they names, and there would be no covid.
2. Outline The MVP
So let’s strip it back and decide the parameters:
It only needs to be on mobile.
Instead of scanning, we can type in the digits.
I don’t mind if the website doesn’t look perfect, for now.
Custom domains and clearing browsing history can wait, I’ll test it on my phone.
No need to account for when spectators mistype numbers, I’ll do the typing.
An accomplice is fine for now.
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