The Voodoo That You Do by Mark Zacharia

Effect: Novel effects are in short supply and commercial ones are rarer still. Mark Zacharia’s The Voodoo That You Do is a memorable interlude that, for the right audience, may even elicit a scream or two.

Here’s what the spectators see. The performer removes a small bag and a small packet of cards, which are displayed to the audience. Each face is adorned with a human shape, each with one red X emblazoned on it in various locations. Three additional cards are shown to have a picture of a pin. Basically what happens from here is that a spectator is asked to thrust the pin cards into the face-down packet and each time, the adjacent card is removed with the pin card. The three selected cards are turned over to see where the wound, denoted by the X, was inflicted. Finally, the bag is opened and a small, plush voodoo doll is extracted with three large X’s that match the locations on the selected cards.

Mark has taken some very powerful subtleties from the literature and has melded them together to create this effect. I knew this was a winner when he demonstrated it for me in its formative stages at a magic convention last year and I’m very happy to see that it’s finally available for other performers to use.

The props are very well made and while some may quibble with the fact that the cards are hand-drawn (one of the reasons that this isn’t mass-marketed; Mark puts each set together by hand), I feel that this makes it look more like something you created yourself and less like a magic store prop.

Also, while you’re ordering, be sure to ask Mark about his Mark My Words lecture notes. These are all proven ideas from an experienced worker and as such, deserve your serious consideration. You’ll thank me later.

(Jim Sisti – The Magic Menu, Autumn 2009)

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