What Makes a Trick an Impuzzibility?

A short article about the Impuzzibilities book series by Jim Steinmeyer.

Jim Steinmeyer, a well-respected author, inventor, and designer of magical illusions and theatrical special effects, has been publishing a series of booklets since 2002 called “Impuzzibilities”. The name is a portmanteau of “puzzle” and “impossibilities”. To date, there are a total of ten publications in the series (the links below will take you to the relevant product page on Jim’s website):

1. Impuzzibilities (2002)
2. Further Impuzzibilities (2006)
3. Subsequent Impuzzibilities (2010)
4. Ensuing Impuzzibilities (2013)
5. Treacherous Impuzzibilities (2014)
6. Devilish Impuzzibilities (2015)
7. Unexpected Impuzzibilities (2017)
8. Curious Impuzzibilities (2020)
9. Virtual Impuzzibilities (2020)
10. Bewildering Impuzzibilities (2021)

For a long time, I only owned the second volume in the series, Further Impuzzibilities. However, during the recent Black Friday sales, I decided to ignore the things that were being pushed by the dealers and buy up as many of the slim booklets as I could find. Luckily, I was able to purchase numbers four to ten, which should keep me busy for quite a while!

I’d like to collect the complete series of Impuzzibilities. Unfortunately, the first three booklets are no longer in print. This means that I might have some difficulty in finding copies of Impuzzibilities and Subsequent Impuzzibilities, the two volumes I need to complete my collection. Hopefully, Jim Steinmeyer will reprint them sometime soon.

Six of the books in the Impuzzibilities series by Jim Steinmeyer. Photo Credit: Pegani.

When I bought the books, I also received a deck of cards and some tricks as a free gift from Penguin Magic, which was a nice added bonus. Penguin Magic sells quality magic products, and although they offer frequent sales, they tend to use heavy upselling tactics, which can be off-putting for some magicians, myself included. As a consumer, I understand these tactics are used to boost their sales, and Penguin Magic needs to be profitable. However, I worry that some magicians with limited budgets may overspend on impulse buys during sales events, such as the ones seen during Black Friday.

I also don’t like the fact that Black Friday sales promote a culture of overconsumption. The additional production, packaging and transportation of physical products all contribute to greater ecological harm. It would be refreshing for a company like Penguin Magic to publish its green credentials and let its customers know what it will do in the future to be more environmentally friendly.

Despite this, I must say that Penguin Magic has impressive customer service, and they’re certainly not the worst offender when it comes to manipulative marketing tactics. Even so, I hope they consider adopting more ethical sales policies that prioritise the financial well-being of their customers with shallower pockets. Businesses embracing conscious capitalism¹ do better because this behaviour enhances long-term customer trust.

And, of course, the best approach to time-limited sales is to restrict your purchases to what you already planned to buy anyway, which is what I did in this situation. If you bag a bargain in the process, then all the better. However, you should avoid buying something just because it’s on sale or the company offers you free gifts in exchange for spending more. Remember, it’s 100% off if you don’t buy it!

Now that my yearly rant about the ethics of Black Friday is over, let’s move on to the actual topic of this blog post!

Characteristics of an Impuzzibility

Reading these books has prompted me to reflect on what makes a trick an “impuzzibility” in the first place. One of the most popular impuzzibilities is “The Nine Card Problem”, which is the first effect in the first book of the series. This is a classic example of an “impuzzibility” because it still feels impossible even when you know how it works. (I wrote a Ruseletter article in 2022 dedicated to this card plot called Tricks, Tricks and More Tricks: I Got 9 Card Problems, But a Trick Ain’t One!, in which I share five personal handlings of Jim Steinmeyer’s “The Nine Card Problem”.)

Last year, I had a short email exchange with Jim Steinmeyer regarding the topic of what makes a trick an “impuzzibility” worthy of being included in one of his books. Jim admitted that even he wasn’t sure of the criteria for selecting such tricks. He mentioned that the decision was a personal judgment on his part, but he did state that the trick must be simple, direct and enjoyable for both the performer and the audience.

After reading several of Jim’s books, I have identified four main characteristics of an impuzzibility:

1. The trick must be self-working² or, more correctly, sleight-free. In fact, it can often be performed through the description alone, e.g. over the phone, on the radio or via video chat. This requires that a strong script is developed for the effect.
2. The underlying mathematics of the method must be well concealed and subtly used. The best impuzzibilities first fool the magician and then fool the audience. When working through a routine for the first time, a magician will often get that “this-cannot-possibly-work” feeling about the trick.
3. The effect must be elegant. An elegant effect is direct, simple and clean.
4. The trick must be intriguing in its own right. In other words, it is stimulating on an intellectual level and, as Jim puts it, is entertaining “in both directions.” In other words, the trick is as enjoyable for the magician to perform as it is for the audience to experience.

I really enjoy reading Jim’s Impuzzibilities series of books, and I’m sure you will, too. They are packed full of high-quality material. Even if you don’t want to perform the tricks exactly as described, I’ve found that many of the clever principles behind them can be applied to other tricks and routines. For example, the first trick in Ensuing Impuzzibilities is called “Eight Cards Espial”. It can be used as an alternative method for Max Maven’s “Wagers of Sin” because the participant randomly selects the Four of Clubs, also known as The Devil’s Bedpost. This is an excellent trick because the cards are fairly and thoroughly shuffled by your participant, and the method is cleverly concealed by a logical procedure carried out by the participant (the performer doesn’t have to touch the cards). And because the cards are handled face up throughout, the Four of Clubs can have an odd back with something written on it. For “Wagers of Sin”, I’ll be writing “666” on the back of a red-backed card (the rest will be blue-backed). I’ve also worked out an additional phase with a procedure that matches the first phase and enables the participant to find the Ace of Clubs to win back their soul (if you’re unfamiliar with Max Maven’s classic routine and none of this makes sense, you might want to read my article Thoughts on Wagers of Sin).

Another thing I like about the Impuzzibilities booklets is that Jim returns to effect and concepts, developing them in different ways. “Eight Cards Espial” is clearly an outgrowth of a trick called “The King’s Coronation”, which appears in Further Impuzzibilities (see page 1). In fact, because the procedures used in both routines are similar, you can combine “The King’s Coronation”, using the four Kings, and “Eight Cards Espial”, using the Ace through Eight of Hearts, to force a suit (Clubs) and a value (Four) to apparently create a random card, in this case, the Four of Clubs. This would make a very puzzling, multilayered prediction effect.

While you can find similar self-working tricks scattered throughout the vast literature of magic, it’s still relatively rare to come across a series of books dedicated to this specific genre of magic. The only other one I can think of is the Semi-Automatic Card Tricks series by Steve Beam, and unlike Jim’s books, this series is limited to card tricks.

Verbal Magic by Juan Tamariz and Gema Navarro. Photo Credit: Penguin Magic.

Finally, if you like the Impuzzibilities series, you’ll also probably enjoy the tricks contained within Verbal Magic by Juan Tamariz and Gema Navarro.

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Footnotes

1. Conscious capitalism is an economic and political philosophy that promotes social responsibility. Or you can think of it as capitalism with a dash of conscience. The premise behind conscious capitalism is that businesses like Penguin Magic should operate ethically while they pursue profits.

2. Although there is no definitive definition for a "self-working" magic trick, I like Ryan Pilling's definition: a self-working trick is one where the deception is self-contained in the prop or actions. The performer does not need to provide any missing ingredients, verbally, physically, or otherwise, to make the trick work. See Is Self-Working Magic Working For You? for the full details from Ryan himself.