The answer is always. Perhaps not for every trick you perform, but certainly in every performance. Especially if you’re a working pro with assistants nearby or a passionate hobbyist with friends nearby — so, basically, everyone should work with an accomplice forever and always.
There used to be a time when the magic community dismissed all trick releases that required accomplices. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, tricks with the option to use accomplices are reasonably embraced.
It still needs to be an option for a product release to be welcomed by magicians. I don’t understand the consensus. We all have friends (I hope), many of whom would love to help us with our magic.
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Imagine how many incredible magic tricks the industry misses out on because we generally put down new releases involving accomplices.
If you go and watch your favourite performers live, you’ll be amazed by how often the stage managers are solely responsible for the tricks’ secret workings.
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The best and rarely performed card trick at a house party is the card through window effect. The magician gets a card selected, gets it signed, shuffles it into the pack and then throws the entire deck at the window, and one card (their card) impossibly penetrates the glass and is stuck on the outside.
It’s a goddam miracle! And so many magicians will dismiss it because the best way to accomplish it involves an assistant. Heck — there was a super expensive product release recently that would remotely trigger a giant bionic arm to add a card to a window. Just ask a mate to do it already.
