The clog

With the exception of FREAK (oh yes, that was a sneaky plug), I don’t really perform much impromptu body magic. But for years I’ve played around with the old blister effect where you appear to magically heal a blister on your finger.

I used to use the hole in a key to create the blister, but I thought I’d share a better way that I’ve been using recently. In the grand scheme of things, it’s absolutely nothing worth publishing, but I think one or two more people out there might actually start using the effect when they have a quick and easy way of creating the blister too.

It’s simply this: the headphone socket of an iPhone or iPod is the perfect shape and size to create the blister on your finger. So with your iPhone in your pocket, simply push down on the headphone socket for about a second and you’ve got the blister. That’s so much easier than carrying around a key that isn’t attached to a keyring, or only doing it when you’ve got the right button on your jacket. This way, it’s always ready to go because if you’re like me, your phone is always in your pocket.

Of course, the important thing is knowing when to create the blister. I’ve often placed a blister on my finger, casually mentioned it to someone and then later in the day reapplied the blister in the same place and using some weird ritual to heal it. That way, I’ve apparently been blistered for an entire day; not just a few seconds before I’m about to heal myself.

P.S - Andrew Mayne and Justin Robert Young of iTricks.com will be all over this. The fact that I’ve combined an Apple product and magic will get them so excited that they’ll dedicate an entire Magic Week in Review podcast to me. Beat that Tyler Wilson.