Free Magic (+ Networking)

My secret plan to wiggle into the magic creator community...

Unretouched photo of mystery performers giving away magic effects…

Note! The event talked about below is over, but it turned out so well we’re going to do it again in December 2025. You can sign up for it now and get a free monthly magic gift leading up to the new event next December!

TL;DR - I created a new site to build my email list and to meet new magicians who are into creating original magic. It offers free magic every day for the first 24 days of December to every mystery performer. https://mysteryarts.christmas

I’ve been a programmer nerd for about 40 years now, and it’s what took my focus off magic in my mid-20s. For most of my life whenever I’d get a new interest, I’d dive into that new thing exclusive of everything else. Programming took me away from magic, although creating something (new apps) from nothing was still a kind of magic…

But a few years ago when I switched from being self-employed (okay, most days it seemed like unemployed) to being a guy with a job, I decided to get back into magic as a hobby. That’s normal for most people, but for me it was a revelation — I could do two things at once! ;)

Fast-forward to now and I’m performing again (not full-time, still with a day job), creating my own routines, and hobnobbing with local magicians. But there aren’t a lot of magician/creators in the area and with instant access to everywhere on earth in my pocket, I came up with the idea of doing an “advent calendar” to meet them.

“Nobody knows what an advent calendar is, Jay.”

I heard that from quite a few of my friends — I guess they didn’t grow up the son/brother/nephew of a preacher. But since not many people did, I took the word advent out of the name and called it the Mystery Arts Holiday Calendar.

Here’s what it is: Every day during the first 24 days of December, magicians get to unlock a new free magic gift on the web site’s calendar.

Those gifts are donated by mystery performers such as…well, if I start naming any of them, I’ll feel like I have to name all of them. Rest assured, I think most of them are names you’ll recognize, but even if you’ve never heard of them, I know you’ll love the free magic they’re giving away. :)

Full disclosure: In most cases they’re asking you to join their email list in exchange for the goodies, but zero cash changes hands.

We’re just finishing up the first week as I write this, and while it’s been a learning experience, it’s going pretty good. I had 241 people download my gift on the 4th, so my email list is now bigger. And contacting people to ask them to give something away has helped me meet some great magicians/mentalists. So my two goals were met!

That my goals were met by giving hundreds of magicians some cool stuff is icing on the cake, baby! :) (Zig Ziglar may have been right!)

While the first week is almost over, there are a lot of gifts left to give (and receive)! Go to https://mysteryarts.christmas and sign up and I’ll give you the codes to unlock the days you missed so you’ll get everything.

If you end up getting something you really like, feel free to mention it below in the comments.

And Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Rock on!