Magical Monday --- Watch Out!

Back in 2002 I decided I wanted to learn how to steal someone's watch. A good magician friend of mine used it as a regular part of his act and suggested a video by "Chappy Brazil" (pictured above). So I ordered the video and learned how to steal watches (for entertainment purposes of course...unless it's REALLY nice).

The video is very good and teaches how to steal every type of watch from steel clasps, to velcro, to a regular buckle. It taught a difficult way of stealing watches (just randomly taking one) and an easy way of taking watches (by holding someone's wrists as part of another magic routine). Well, believe me, the "easy" method is still FAR from easy. But I do have a rubber band trick in which I can hold someone's wrist as part of the routine...so that was my plan.

My roommate Steve used to laugh at my practice method...I had an old golf club with a pair of shorts taped to the handle to simulate someone's wrist and a watch band strapped around it. I got really good at stealing a watch from my golf club (in under a second!), but I had no clue if I was applying the right amount of pressure to actually fool someone (since my golf club didn't give me much feedback!), so I started practicing on some friends. I got to the point where they couldn't feel me taking the watch, so it was time to try this thing out!

I didn't want to press my luck with a stranger so I thought I would try it on a friend. Our Bible study group went on a Gateway Clipper Cruise together. I started showing some magic and did the rubber band trick with a girl in our group named Heidi --- and as I grabbed her wrists as part of a different trick, her watch came off just as I had practiced and I slipped it into my pocket without her noticing.

So here I was thinking I had just pulled off one of my best tricks and was ready to stun everyone that I had stolen someone's watch. I thought a funny way to produce the watch would be to ask Heidi if she knew what time it was...then she would notice her watch was gone! So I asked and Heidi looks at her wrist and says, "Oh, I guess I didn't wear my watch today". She forgot she had it on!!! So when the watch was produced from my pocket people weren't sure if I stole it off her dresser at home or what. I even had to convince Heidi that she was in fact wearing a watch that day. Oh well, so it wasn't as successful the first time as I would have liked it...but it went much better than some of my other "first attempt" tricks that I will tell you about in the future.