Jinx Navigator

The Jinx is packed with brilliant ideas for mystery performers—but finding what still works (and how to use it today) takes time.The Jinx Navigator Podcast does that work for you.Each episode explores a classic issue or source from magic and mentalism, uncovering standout effects, theory, and creative thinking—and then reimagining them for modern performers and audiences. This isn’t about preserving history for nostalgia’s sake; it’s about extracting usable ideas and turning them into practical, contemporary presentations.If you care about strong material, thoughtful performance, and making classic magic feel alive again, this podcast is for you.

10 episodes

1mo ago latest

weekly cadence

English language

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Episodes 23

Jinx Navigator Podcast - Issue #23; Daley's Death Divination, and More
6d ago · 10:56
Issue #23 delivers calendar math, a complete pocket act built around a pencil, a 25-minute mentalism program assembled from earlier Jinx effects, an odd-backed card that keeps switching decks without anyone claiming to do a trick, and a touch-based divination that's been sitting in Annemann's notebook since 1928 with no author attached. Effects Covered [1:13] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann sketches a complete impromptu pocket act built around a single pencil, goes after a dealer whose second encyclopedia is more up to date in its plagiarism than the first, and closes with a verdict on
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Issue #22, The Card Phenomenon, and More
1mo ago · 10:32
Issue #22 opens fresh from the IBM convention, where a Toledo burglar declined the key to the city on professional grounds and proceeded to pick everyone's locks anyway. Annemann makes a career-defining argument about signature effects, surfaces a federal model for stopping piracy, and delivers a number total that spells the helper's name, a joker that keeps returning, and a coin routine where the half dollar quietly becomes loose change. Effects Covered [1:12] Editorial — Theodore Annemann One good trick can make a career, and it's almost never a new one — Annemann runs through a list of work
Episode 021: Issue #21, Money Mentalism, and More
1mo ago · 11:09
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 21: Issue #21 Issue #21 opens with an obituary for a coin legend, scatters into a long stream of trivia and dispatches including a notable visitor list that ends with Mike the Educated Rooster, and then delivers a two-phase ace routine, a triple prediction, a clamp-coded denomination divination, and a name that appears to sew itself onto a handkerchief in colored thread. The Think It Over column returns with more items than usual and a quote about knowing five tricks worth repeating. Effects Covered [0:58] Editorial and Trivia — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens
Episode 020: Issue #20, Silver or Copper, and More
1mo ago · 9:42
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 20: Issue #20 Issue #20 arrives with a dedication: no card tricks whatsoever. Annemann is busy going after plagiarists, weighing in on the SAM's long-awaited exposure charges against Harlan Tarbell, and delivering a column of performance advice that holds up just as well today as it did in 1936. The effects include a dollar-and-five transposition that works itself, a free-choice coin through a handkerchief, a ten-cent substitute for a three-dollar switching tray, and an effect Annemann had been sitting on for years and finally decided to just give away. Effects
Episode 019: Issue #19, Three Billet Trick, and More
1mo ago · 9:43
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 19: Issue #19 Issue #19 finds Annemann 14 weeks into his nightclub tour, mid-dispute with Frank Lane, and with strong opinions about dealers writing in the margins of subscribers' copies. The effects this issue include a rapid calculation piece that fools people who already know the original, a thought-of card found without a single question asked, a behind-the-back stop trick dressed up as muscle reading, and Annemann's most personal contribution to the Jinx so far — a billet routine 15 years in the making. Effects Covered [0:55] Editorial — Theodore Annemann
Episode 018: Issue #18, Death Flight, and More
2mo ago · 10:52
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 18: Issue #18 Issue #18 finds Annemann fresh off nine weeks touring 117 nightclubs, mid-argument with a Boston magician who called him a cock-eyed liar, and with enough opinions about magic publishing ethics to fill half an editorial. The issue also delivers the Jinx's first collected improvements column, a pantomime cigarette production, a card spelling effect built around the performer's own name, and a press piece involving a named dead person that Jay is pretty sure would still get into a newspaper. Effects Covered [0:49] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annem
Episode 017: Issue #17, A Novel Glass Through Hat, and More
3mo ago · 11:07
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 17: Issue #17 Issue #17 opens with a sharp warning about cameras and sleight of hand, delivers a blindfolded cigarette identification built on a coat dropper, a deceptively clean two-card prediction with a Magician's Choice structure, and closes with a historical essay on the torn deck from the SAM's national president. The Burling Hull situation also resurfaces — this time with attorneys and Post Office complaints. Effects Covered [1:00] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann leads with a warning: don't do sleight of hand in front of cameras. Two performers he
Episode 016: Issue #16, The ACME Thought Card Pass, and More
3mo ago · 9:24
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 16: Issue #16 Issue #16 rings in 1936 with Annemann reporting from a turbulent SAM club night, closing the Burling Hull matter with two words, and delivering a book test built on a pocket index, a magic square from a birthday, a comedy coin-to-candy-cone switch, and a thought-of card transposition that Annemann couldn't crack until Dr. Jacob Daly figured out the core method in about five minutes of conversation. Effects Covered [0:58] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann skips the standard SAM club night recap in favor of what other reporters missed — includi
Episode 015: Issue #15, Diabolical Influence, and More
3mo ago · 10:08
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 15: Issue #15 Issue #15 is a compact but well-stocked issue — a three-way out envelope used for real election-night publicity, a self-working spelling effect updated for American audiences, a coat-mounted ball retriever that takes Jay on a nostalgic tour of his heavily rigged performing jackets, and a parlor effect that Annemann calls the best drawing-room conception he knows. The editorial is sharp, covering glowing promotional eyes, a handwriting expert working a crystal ball act, and Annemann's blunt thoughts on how the magic community handles exposers. Effe
Episode 014: Issue #14, Coins En Route, and More
3mo ago · 11:05
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 14: Issue #14 Issue #14 is a busy one — Annemann makes the case for learning fortune telling, prints a point-by-point rebuttal from a critic in full, and delivers a card on a window, a coin transposition for platform use, and the two-person mentalism piece he's been using in real-world conditions. There's also a dime passing through a handkerchief, which Jay notes would be perfect EDC material if anyone still carried handkerchiefs. Effects Covered [1:00] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a practical case for learning fortune telling — nothing ta
Episode 013: Issue #13, Higher Magic and More
3mo ago · 10:44
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 13: Issue #13 Issue #13 arrives with two black cats overhead and Annemann unbothered — he notes the cat should be the worried one. The issue delivers practical stagecraft from a Viennese theater veteran, a publicity stunt involving a postage stamp and a ceiling, a newspaper prediction with mentalism flair, and a self-working eight-ace routine that Manning insists should be performed as one unbroken sequence. Effects Covered [0:56] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a genuine pet theory: magicians do too many things in threes, and the third repeti
Episode 012: Issue #12, Four Aces on the Stage and More
4mo ago · 8:11
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 12: Issue #12 Issue #12 is an all-Annemann affair — editorial, notebook column, a stacked-deck solitaire hustle, and a stage four-aces routine built for maximum fairness. He's also bottle-feeding a puppy, which explains a few things about the issue's more notebook-jottings character. Effects Covered [0:48] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann blames August heat and an eight-day-old bird dog for a lighter-than-usual issue, then pivots to a genuinely frustrated observation about magicians who ignore published effects until someone else does something brilliant
Episode 011: Issue #11, The Card Unharmed and More
4mo ago · 13:34
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 11: Issue #11 Issue #11 is a card-heavy issue with a few pleasant surprises — a clever cigarette gag, a matchbook divination that requires nothing more than a book of matches and one quick calculation, and a borrowed business card that survives being cut in half. Annemann's editorial is in a reflective mood, anchored by a story about a fireman with an excellent memory for shoes. Effects Covered [0:56] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann opens with a summer complaint about slow mail, recommends a Liberty magazine article on university telepathy experiments, a
Episode 010: Issue #10, Extra-Sensory Perception and More
4mo ago · 12:53
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 10: Issue #10 Issue #10 of The Jinx opens with Annemann on his soapbox about impromptu magic — and Jay gets on one of his own — before delivering a signed card on a ribbon, a startling deck production, a masterclass in cigarette vanish presentation, and a one-person picture-duplication effect that Annemann vouches for with characteristic honesty. A strong issue from start to finish. Effects Covered [0:52] Editorial — Theodore Annemann Annemann makes the case that working professionals who can't perform on the spot are failing at showmanship, pointing to Harry B
Episode 009: Issue #9, The Modernized Reading and More
4mo ago · 10:59
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 9: Issue #9 Issue #9 of The Jinx features one of the most widely used envelope techniques in mentalism, a mathematically driven counting effect dressed up in Depression-era politics, and the effect Annemann himself called one of the greatest one-man psychic pieces available — and it's hard to argue with him. The editorial is lively too, with convention news, a rare unprompted book recommendation, and a very satisfying mathematical footnote. Effects Covered [0:51] The Modernized Reading — Theodore Annemann A method for secretly reading the contents of a sealed e
Episode 008: Issue #8, The Five Foot Shelf of Magic and More
5mo ago · 13:01
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 8: Issue #8 Issue #8 of The Jinx is a varied one — a mathematically clever card effect, two contributions from Dr. Duncanson, a borrowed bill in nested envelopes, and Annemann's own opinionated reading list for magicians. The editorial is packed: a victory lap, a moving tribute, and Annemann publicly setting the record straight on not one but two separate grievances. Effects Covered [1:07] An Improvement à la Carte — Theodore Annemann A helper names any card, then makes a series of apparently free choices as the deck is dealt and sorted — and somehow lands on t
Episode 007: Issue #7, A Practical Card Code and More
5mo ago · 9:47
Jinx Navigator Podcast — Episode 7: Issue #7 Issue #7 of The Jinx is a strong one — a clean card transposition, a clever two-person code system, a prediction that disappears from the deck, and a classic bill-in-lemon with some real teeth to it. Annemann also pays tribute to a giant of the magic world and goes on a rant that's just as relevant today as it was in 1935. Effects Covered [0:57] The ELM Card Change — E. Leslie May A chosen card and a card initialed by the performer swap places — the helper's card ends up in the performer's pocket, the performer's card turns up in the middle of the d
Episode 006: Issue #6, The Astral Shirt and More
5mo ago · 8:55
In this episode, Jay browses Issue #6 of The Jinx (1934–1941), the legendary newsletter for magicians and mentalists. This issue is heavy on Theodore Annemann, with contributions from Russell T. Wise and a peek at the editorial page. Effects Covered [0:00] Intro Jay introduces the show and the episode's focus: Issue #6 of The Jinx. [0:45] Impromptu Frame Ups — Theodore Annemann Annemann explores using "instant stooges" — audience members who don't know they're confederates until the moment they're needed. Includes a card-calling effect, a watch-setting routine, and slate work. Jay notes the te
Episode 005, Issue #5: The Lie Detective and More
6mo ago · 10:37
In this issue Jay talks about Annemann’s “Red and Blue Back Color Change,” a two-card back-swap, discusses L. E. Duncanson’s “With Sight Unseen,” a hands-tied, blindfolded identification routine requiring a homemade gimmick that Jay doubts can accomplish all claimed feats. He covers two solutions to a prior issue’s “lie calling” challenge: Charles Nyquist’s stacked-deck approach dependent on a clean dovetail shuffle and Stuart Robson’s “The Lie Detective” with constraints on when the lie occurs. Annemann’s “A Question and the Answer” uses slips, a switch, and a gimmick for answering written qu
Episode 004: The Jinx #4 — The Master of the Message, and More
6mo ago · 12:51
In this issue we review Annemann’s “The Master of the Message,” an impromptu thought-reading effect. We summarize Martin Sunshine’s “Cigarette Perception,” where a blindfolded performer identifies cigarette brands, and suggests the method could be repurposed beyond smoking. Jay discusses Orville Wayne Meyer’s “Card Box Sympathy,” which uses a P&L Metal Card Box, but says the written handling seems inconsistent and asks listeners with the prop to test it. Jay explains Calvin Cole’s “One of Those Things,” a calculator-age-and-change revelation based on a simple math principle, with Annemann’s no
Issue #3 (A Card in Transit, A Real Psychic Card Test, Dead or Alive, and the Bending Swizzle Stick)
6mo ago · 13:30
Jinx Navigator Podcast: Jay Jennings reviews issue number three of The Jinx, a roughly 90-year-old newsletter for magicians and mentalists, to see which ideas still hold up and how they might be tweaked for modern use. Aside from the editorial, Jay covers four items from the issue: Les Gilbert’s “A Card in Transit,” where a spectator-initialed card vanishes from the deck and appears in the performer’s pocket using sleight of hand and a gimmick card; Annemann’s “A Real Psychic Card Test,” a simple thought-transmission drawing match using chalkboards (or business cards) and misdirection through
Episode 2: Aces, Finders, and Book Tests from The Jinx #2
6mo ago · 11:23
Join Jay as he dives into the second issue of The Jinx (1934-1941), the legendary magic newsletter that shaped modern mystery performance. This episode breaks down five effects from Issue #2, exploring which tricks still work today. In This Episode: We explore five effects from The Jinx #2, including Ted Annemann's "The Devil's Four Aces" (a visual four-ace assembly), Orville Wayne Meyer's "The Finders" (a behind-the-back card location with a killer kicker ending), and "Your Card" (a clever effect using Si Stebbin's technique that's been fooling people since 1898). Jay admits defeat trying to
Exploring The Jinx: Issue #1 – Classic Magic Revisited
6mo ago · 8:03
In this episode of the Jinx Navigator Podcast, Jay takes listeners through the significant highlights of the first issue of The Jinx, a historic magic newsletter by Theodore Annemann. He discusses the first magic effect, 'Hallucination' by Eddie Clever, the 'Supreme East Indian Needle feat' by Ted Annemann, 'Two Papers and a Spectator' by Ted Annemann, and 'The Mystery of the Blackboard' by Paul Rosini. Jay provides insights on the relevance and adaptability of these tricks for modern performers, and offers resources for those interested in learning more. Tune in to discover the timeless art o

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Episodes 23

Jinx Navigator Podcast - Issue #23; Daley's Death Divination, and More

Jinx Navigator Podcast — Issue #22, The Card Phenomenon, and More

Episode 021: Issue #21, Money Mentalism, and More

Episode 020: Issue #20, Silver or Copper, and More

Episode 019: Issue #19, Three Billet Trick, and More

Episode 018: Issue #18, Death Flight, and More

Episode 017: Issue #17, A Novel Glass Through Hat, and More

Episode 016: Issue #16, The ACME Thought Card Pass, and More

Episode 015: Issue #15, Diabolical Influence, and More

Episode 014: Issue #14, Coins En Route, and More

Episode 013: Issue #13, Higher Magic and More

Episode 012: Issue #12, Four Aces on the Stage and More

Episode 011: Issue #11, The Card Unharmed and More

Episode 010: Issue #10, Extra-Sensory Perception and More

Episode 009: Issue #9, The Modernized Reading and More

Episode 008: Issue #8, The Five Foot Shelf of Magic and More

Episode 007: Issue #7, A Practical Card Code and More

Episode 006: Issue #6, The Astral Shirt and More

Episode 005, Issue #5: The Lie Detective and More

Episode 004: The Jinx #4 — The Master of the Message, and More

Issue #3 (A Card in Transit, A Real Psychic Card Test, Dead or Alive, and the Bending Swizzle Stick)

Episode 2: Aces, Finders, and Book Tests from The Jinx #2

Exploring The Jinx: Issue #1 – Classic Magic Revisited

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Episodes 23

Jinx Navigator Podcast - Issue #23; Daley's Death Divination, and More

Jinx Navigator Podcast — Issue #22, The Card Phenomenon, and More

Episode 021: Issue #21, Money Mentalism, and More

Episode 020: Issue #20, Silver or Copper, and More

Episode 019: Issue #19, Three Billet Trick, and More

Episode 018: Issue #18, Death Flight, and More

Episode 017: Issue #17, A Novel Glass Through Hat, and More

Episode 016: Issue #16, The ACME Thought Card Pass, and More

Episode 015: Issue #15, Diabolical Influence, and More

Episode 014: Issue #14, Coins En Route, and More

Episode 013: Issue #13, Higher Magic and More

Episode 012: Issue #12, Four Aces on the Stage and More

Episode 011: Issue #11, The Card Unharmed and More

Episode 010: Issue #10, Extra-Sensory Perception and More

Episode 009: Issue #9, The Modernized Reading and More

Episode 008: Issue #8, The Five Foot Shelf of Magic and More

Episode 007: Issue #7, A Practical Card Code and More

Episode 006: Issue #6, The Astral Shirt and More

Episode 005, Issue #5: The Lie Detective and More

Episode 004: The Jinx #4 — The Master of the Message, and More

Issue #3 (A Card in Transit, A Real Psychic Card Test, Dead or Alive, and the Bending Swizzle Stick)

Episode 2: Aces, Finders, and Book Tests from The Jinx #2

Exploring The Jinx: Issue #1 – Classic Magic Revisited