Sean Oulashin

Capstone
3/9/2015 (Rewrite)
I’ve Spent The Last Nine Years Of My Life Lying To People

The stage is dark. The audience simmers down and gets into their seats.
The final “shh’s” from several students quiets up themselves, and the show
begins.
A spotlight fades up to Sean seated at a table in the middle of the room.
He is shuffling a deck of cards. A spectator is sitting with him. He performs a
simple trick in which a card is selected, and returned to the deck. It is revealed in
a visual way, where a spectator holds on to supposedly a different card, when in
fact it is his card.
Standing up, Sean walks to the left of the stage where he is illuminated
by spotlight.
For the last nine years, my life has been heavily dedicated to the art of
creatively lying to people. I’m not talking about things like saying “hey dad this
cucumber salad is really great” but not actually thinking it’s great. I’m talking
about manipulating people’s perception of reality, and bending the rules of
physics so audiences like you can have a good time and be entertained. There’s a
lot of names for it - wizard, prestidigitator, enchanter, genie, illusionist, but I like
the title of magician the best.
My interest in magic was peaked one sunny afternoon in the third grade
when my dad showed me a card trick in our livingroom. I took a card,
remembered it, and put it back into the middle of the deck. He then put the cards
behind his back and said he’s flipping over one in the center without even
looking. When the cards came back, he spread through them and there was in
fact one card facing the opposite direction, with the back design contrasting
against the numbers and letters of the other card. I flipped it over, and
proceeded to flip out, because he’d found my card as if by magic.
Right then, that’s when everything was changed for me. That one instant
that I turned the card over.
There’s a magician by the name of Paul Harris, David Blaine’s mentor,
who describes the feeling of magic thusly: Astonishment or the experience of
astonishment is the experience of a clear, primal state of mind that is similar
to a child’s state of mind. This quote can not only apply to watching some kid
do card tricks for his capstone, but for trying something new. Though it could be
extremely scary, it’s probably worth trying, just because you’re scared of it. You
can’t be afraid of being judged for doing something you know you enjoy. Do it
for yourself first, then think about how you can affect others.
Speaking of something new, I tried something new in 2008. This new
website called YouTube had gone online, and I immediately decided I wanted to
try it out after watching a video by Smosh - Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. It
was a skit called “Left-Handed.” I looked at the amount of views they were
getting, and noticed they were in the hundreds of thousands. Here are a few films
that capture just what I was going for, in the young days of Sean Oulashin.
The stage darkens, and the projector slides down. It is illuminated with
a summer-of-sixth-grade Sean; dancing and lip syncing to the 2008 hit “Don’t
Trust Me” by the group 3OH!3.
After the conclusion of the video and also the conclusion of people’s pity
laughter, Sean continues.
 At this point, many of you may be thinking : What does this have to do
with magic? And the answer is absolutely nothing at all. I specifically remember
wanting the same kind of recognition that Smosh and other YouTubers at the
time were getting. But, little did seventh-grade me know, getting recognized on
YouTube was much harder than just throwing together some shots over a
copyrighted song. On the contrary, what I did know was that I loved the feedback
and reactions that I was getting from the video. I don’t mean the ones saying “r
u gay? you definitely look gay.” or “wow my ears are burning.” The
encouragement I felt from my parents and close family that my mom immediately
sent the video to was amazing, and I knew I wanted to keep going with YouTube.
A short time after my first staggering one-thousand views on the music
video, I decided I wanted to take my video endeavours into a different field.
Music videos just wasn’t my thing if you couldn’t tell. But magic was! With the
help of my dad, I started “teaching” some simple card tricks on YouTube under
the alias of “PickACardAnyCard.” After a few awkward edits on Adobe Premier
Elements on my dad’s clunky keyboard, I uploaded my first video and
immediately got great reception.
This was another pinnacle point in my life. Looking back on it, I may not
have known it then, but YouTube was (and still is) one of my most valued social
networks. It was something that completely took priority and completely filled my
mind every single day. To me, it was an easy way of “getting famous.” It was
like being on tv. People could share their thoughts in the comment section, and
give your video a rating out of five.
Let’s think about it. What is a social network, and what does it do? What
purpose does it serve? During my research on the topic of social media and
privacy, a professor by the name of Jerry Kane stated that the whole Internet
was one big social network. When we think of social networks, we automatically
think things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. But what do those all have in
common? They are all based around sharing events, knowledge, and information
about people, places and things. Though it is on a larger scale, the whole
Internet is made for that. Any webpage will give you information on anything,
similar to how sites like Facebook give you information, on a smaller scale.
I don’t have to be a magician to tell you that 99.3% of you in this room
at this moment have a smartphone either on your person, or in your bag. How
crazy is that? To have unlimited amounts of knowledge and entertainment and
even distraction in the palm of your hand?
With that, Sean walks back over to the table and selects a spectator.
Sean performs the Ambitious Card Routine, as well as Jumping Gemini.
After the magic, Sean screens “Playtime” and gives a brief explanation.
In 2011, I started another YouTube channel, this time under the alias of
“Punchwater.” I had no idea where that name came from, but some say it has a
certain ring to it, and I guess I’ve believed them ever since. The channel was a
way for me to start fresh with my “magical” presence on the Internet. I had a
clean slate to draw whatever I wanted on it. I began uploading videos of card
magic and magic trick tutorials, and got more recognition than I had ever
expected. I specifically remember overnighting 25 subscribers on my first day of
production.
I’d like to take a moment here and do my best to explain the purpose of
social networks (the real ones, like Facebook, Twitter, etc.). It sounds obvious,
but I think it goes unbeknownst to most of us when using them - social networks
serve the purpose of giving us a voice where the whole purpose of giving that
voice to someone is for it to be heard.. What’s the point of Twitter? Or even
Instagram? Facebook? To make posts from a personal point of view about
yourself or other things, and for people to give feedback if the so choose.
During my research, I also found a similar viewpoint. Sherry Turkle, a
professor at MIT, said that in her TED talk, social networks are so attractive to
people, especially the younger generation because they’re built for people to
actually see and hear what you have to share. She proposes that in the confusing
world of adolescence where it seems like no one is listening to you, social
networks become a fallback for teens to be able to post and be “heard.”
For me, at the time, YouTube was my first experience with social
networking. Down the road, I realized that there was a community for
everything, and I was a part of one without even realizing it. The card
community. That’s right, theres more people like me that have a strange
obsession with cards and flipping them around. It’s a subculture that is amplified
through the Internet. Through commenting, sharing, and rating other people’s
videos, people eventually rose to the top, and in a way, became “famous.”
I slowly realized that getting “famous” for flicking cards around wasn’t
as easy as I thought. I began to lose that goal of gaining that 1,000,000
subscriber kind of fame. What I did realize, was that YouTube was an amazing
platform to learn new things. Pretty much anything you could think of - how to
juggle, how to unlock a car with a toothpick, how to “zombie-proof your car,”
how to open a beer bottle with just paper. The list goes on. YouTube is the
second most used search engine. It’s not limited to just one kind of learning. It’s
contributed to by billions of users worldwide. What I wanted to do was post
things to hopefully inspire people to start or even try magic out. It may sound
like a geeky thing, but it latched onto me one day and hasn’t let go since. Social
networks have the power to not only give a voice to people, but to also let that
voice be heard, and inspire people to try new things.
Sean walks over to the table and performs John Bannon’s Quantum
Kings - an effect where all four kings interact with a spectator in a fun way.
Punchwater began gaining more recognition than I had ever hoped for.
On June 5th, 2014, I reached the 5,000 subscriber mark. I specifically remember
looking up to other cardists on YouTube that had even 3,000 subscribers and
thinking I’d never last that long.
Going back to my research, I’d like to talk about something that Sherry
Turkle, the MIT professor said. She actually wrote a book called “Alone
Together.” The book details modern society and the use of technology,
specifically in the teenage to young adult demographic. In her Ted talk
“Connected But Alone” given in 2012, she talks about how people “want to be
together, but also elsewhere” referring to their online presence. Let’s face it -
the Internet is a pretty freaking sweet place! You can literally do pretty much
anything you want on it. It’s addictive. She says, “The reason social media is so
attractive to users is because everybody wants to customize their life.” referring
to how on social media, we can become whoever we want, making posts in a
certain style or with a certain “voice” behind them.
Think about that. Though you’re online on a site like Facebook, you’re
offline to the rest of the world. Your friends, coworkers, and family in the real
world happen so much faster than you could ever move your thumbs. Facebook
and Twitter and Instagram are just a URL away, or the tap of an app away.
Those sites, those status updates, tweets, pictures, and even snapchats, always be
there, while the connections you can make with people in real time, face-to-face
might not be. Savor the moments you get with others, with places, with
experiences, because you never know when those moments could be your last.
I don’t mean to make it out to seem like social media is the devil’s child,
or you should go throw your smartphones into a high-powered cuisinart, but
what I am hopefully shedding light on is how engrossed in a seven-inch screen
we’ve become. There’s obvious benefits to smartphones and social media - it’s a
great way to quickly and instantaneously get in contact with someone, or
organize an event. Something the size of an average sized potato can unlock
whole new worlds with just a few taps. But, on the flip side, it’s disheartening to
hear about younger kids having developmental problems regarding face-to-face
contact. They’re beginning to lack the social skills to have the interactions that
actually make us human.
With all this talk about smartphones, let’s do some magic with them.
Sean walks over to the table. Two spectators join him on either side.
One spectator chooses a card, and shows it to the audience. It is returned to
the deck. Next, the second spectator give Sean his or her smartphone on the
calculator app. After several questions about multiplying things together, we
are arrived at a very long number.
The reveal is in an envelope given to an audience member at the
beginning of the show. The numbers on the paper in the millions, so Sean
divides the paper into three sections and asks the spectator to select one of
the groups of three numbers. When those numbers are added up, the total is
then cut off the top of the deck, using the “finger-flicking” method. The
spectator verifies that Sean did just cut off the exact amount of cards
arrived at.
The next card is flipped over, and as if by magic, it is the same card
chosen at the beginning of the effect. What’s more, it is also correctly
predicted on the opposite side of the envelope.
To this day, I’ve continued the upkeep of my channel, and just recently
passed the 12,000 subscriber mark, which is crazy to me. If it’s taught me one
thing, besides all the other things like how to peel an orange with your feet, or
how to survive a 40 foot fall, it’s taught me to keep pushing. I know it sounds
stereotypical, but to keep working towards your goal, with your own style.
You’re not going to get anywhere from copying someone elses work. YOU
yourself have to work to create something great or do something in a way that no
one else has done it before. Dr. Seuss said “you have to be odd to be number
one” and that statement can definitely apply to more than just YouTube.
Through the Internet, I’ve been able to make connections with thousands
of people all over the world. I have friends in different countries that I consider
to be very close to me, and I haven’t even met them yet. The Internet is a very
powerful medium, and when used correctly, can catapult a user into so many
different directions of learning and knowledge.
Like most things, there is ways that things like the Internet can be
mistreated. I’m not talking about illegally downloading movies, I’m talking
about things that affect social situations. According to a study conducted in
March of 2013 by Muhammad Sarwar and the Department of Information
Technology, “communication addiction” is a disorder that deals with the
constant yearn for communication even when none might not be needed. How
many of you in this room right now check your phone more than once in under
10 minutes? The same study shows that 60% of teens admit to being “addicted”
to using their smartphone.” 65% of teens say “they use their smartphone when
socializing with friends” or rather, trying to socialize with friends. Smartphones
are making it harder and harder to have real, “tangible” conversations and
connections with people face to face in the real world. What’s more, they are
also making it harder to find peace - to just be by one’s self, without any contact,
and not have the constant need for receiving a text or getting a notification.
Phones have the potential, and for some are quickly becoming addictive, almost
like a drug.
I’ve noticed over the years that it is a universal feeling, the initial
reaction to a magic trick.
There’s a certain feeling that all people get when seeing a good magic
trick, or experiencing anything new that they’re excited by for that matter. Your
heart rate goes up, your palms are a little sweaty, and your eyes don’t know
what to focus on. When the climax is reached, there’s nothing much you can do
but laugh.
Sean performs the Dr. Daley’s Last Trick
PLAYS THE FILM ROOKIE AFTER A BRIEF EXPLANATION
If you are to take away anything at all from this capstone, it is this.
Those devices in our pocket are so great. They’re so great that everywhere you
go, you’ll see people with their heads turned downwards, thumbs tapping away
on the screen. Most places today have wifi. Heck, they’re even manufacturing
cars with wifi, so you don’t have to enjoy the scenery around you while you’re on
a road trip.
My thoughts are that the whole social media - smartphone usage is
fantastic in moderation. There’s a time and place for everything. Having real life
human to human face to face interactions is part of what makes us what we are.
Human beings. Without that, we’re reduced to those people whizzing around the
spaceship in the movie Wall-E. There’s things to double tap to “like” in real life,
and things that you can’t really click share on to show other people. Social
media should be used in moderation, and as a tool to efficiently connect with
others when convenient. In moderation, smartphones can help society reach full
potential. I’ve always found it interesting - the prefix “de” means “to remove.”
The word “vice” is used to describe something that is corrupted or something
that holds a grip on something. With iPhones being smart DEVICES, it doesn’t
remove any vices unless you are the catalyst for change.
Sean continues sitting at the table. He pulls out his little red balls,
and does a routine with the same spectator. His infamous sponge-ball
routine, that may or may not end where all the balls come from the
spectator’s hand.
Thank you very much. It’s not an April fool’s joke when I say that this
capstone is over.