Tyche’s Fiddle

Tyche (tragically overshadowed by Rome’s Fortuna) was the Greek goddess of fortune, chance, providence, and fate. Tyche’s Fiddle is a utility device designed to intervene strategically – if perhaps unpredictably – in the affairs of the modern magician and mentalist, rationalizing, foretelling, and influencing events that could not otherwise have been anticipated.

  • The perfect incidental prop for “jazzing.”

  • A hat rack for personal creativity and ingenuity.

  • A prop that isn’t… until it needs to be.

In short, Tyche’s Fiddle powers a “Swiss Army Knife” of methods and effects to suit a multitude of performing environments and social circumstances. This inaugural Gnominal Production consists of a 40-page user guide and a purpose-designed 208-page softcover novel (digest size), each of which may be purchased separately.*

The meticulously crafted novel (which shall not be named, so as to prevent inquisitive audience members from Googling this page) is modeled after typical early-to-mid 1960s pulp crime. The user guide explains roughly a dozen uses, including a few full-blown routines. These exploits include…

  • Outs for, and/or “coincidental references” to, all 52 playing cards.

  • Prominent “influencers” for five cards aligned with the classic Vernon Mental Force.

  • A multi-tactical book test – one for which three distinct methods may be utilized to identify selected words (and, optionally, page numbers on which they were viewed!!) with no contrived riffling or “flashback.” For the advanced mentalist.

  • An incorporated graphic designed for a streamlined version of “Top Twenty,” originally published in Percolations by the Reed Swans Collective. (Full instructions included.)

  • Various features allowing for…

    • The magical migration of four words from a selected page to four blank playing cards (ala Max Maven’s “Prints Re: Gent,” J.C. Wagner’s “Factory Misprints,” etc.).

    • Shaking(!) the book to partially dislodge words spelling a selected card.

    • The predictive component of a back-in-time / time machine presentation, wherein a prediction scrawled on a random page vanishes.

    • Vanishing a selected word from a volunteer’s memory, leaving only its mental image intact.

    • Predictions for “The Trick that Fooled Einstein” and Bob Farmer’s modern classic “Scam to the Future…” both of which have been slyly worked into the book’s text. (Bob’s bit of flim flam is not explained.)

  • A bonus routine closely tied to the now-obligatory Pegasus plot. This is an expansion on previous work by Paul Harris and Derek Dingle.

*Click on each link to grab the set. Bet-hedgers and odd birds may indeed purchase the user guide or novel alone, but the Gnominal Gnomes suggest going for the gold.

Click HERE for a little video tip. Password = the last name of the magician who conjured up the five-card mental force (all lower-case).

Click HERE for Magic Orthodoxy’s review.