Jim Cramer

Recently on the daily show, Jon Stewart attacked Jim Cramer for his recommendations on Bear Stearns. If you've not seen the clip, or if you don't watch Mad Money, here it is:


In several of the videotaped defenses I've seen, Jim Cramer seems off to me. I have not studied Facial Action Coding Systems well enough to say with confidence, "there's something fishy here", but hey, we're not in court, so I'm going to say it anyway: there's something fishy here. Check out the clip at 3:53. There's a number of things I find conspicuous:

"I'm asking people to buy Bear Stearns". First, it's one thing to recommend something. He does that all the time. He TELLS people to BUY BUY BUY. He rarely asks them to buy so sincerely. It's strange. Second, right after he says that, he looks down, and his eyebrows come together. I'm pretty sure this is a bad sign. What are his reasons for asking us to buy? The same guy who went to Harvard, who ran a fund, and who does rigorous research on EVERYTHING? His reason: intuition. And, as if that weren't bad enough, a moment later he justifies his intuition to us, saying, "I've had pretty good intuition over 29 years investing." Since when does he give his credentials like that?

More predictions--Jim Cramer will be brought up on charges for something pretty soon. I hate to say it. I like the guy. I enjoy his show. But I smell a rat.

NBA PREDICTION

In my last entry, I made a prediction. That's something we magicians do. We predict future events. In my show, my finale is a prediction effect: I show the audience the back of a playing card that I've mailed to myself, but I do not show them the face of the card. I keep that card in an envelope. Then, a woman selects a card, say the nine of spades, from a brand new deck, and signs it across the face. Then nine more spectators select cards that are lost in the shuffled deck. I find all nine of them, and when it comes to the first selection, the signed card, I'm at a loss. Suddenly I recall, I mailed myself a card. I ask the woman if she'd be amazed if the card I mailed myself was the same card. She usually says yes. Then i explain that, well, not only is the card i mailed myself the nine of spades, but that it's the exact same nine of spades, with herr signature across the face. Okay, so this is a bit more than a prediction, but hopefully I've caught your attention:)

So a few days ago, I predicted that Kevin Durant would win the scoring title in the NBA within five years. Today, I have another prediction to make: Adam Lambert will win American Idol. I myself am a bass, but i've sung with countless tenors over the past 13 years, and can say that this guy is truly a one in a million. If you haven't heard him sing, check out http://www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/ , where you can hear him. For you music buffs out there, he hits a high G. As a reference point for those of you that like belting, when Bono sings "blown by the wind, blown by the wind" in "Where the Streets have no Name", the word "blown" is a high A. But not the one above Lambert's G, the one that's nearly on octave below it. This guy is like a clean cut Axel Rose. So...you've heard it hear first.

Let's see if this prediction, not so magically, comes true.

More Predictions

In my last entry, I made a prediction. That's something we magicians do. We predict future events. In my show, my finale is a prediction effect: I show the audience the back of a playing card that I've mailed to myself, but I do not show them the face of the card. I keep that card in an envelope. Then, a woman selects a card, say the nine of spades, from a brand new deck, and signs it across the face. Then nine more spectators select cards that are lost in the shuffled deck. I find all nine of them, and when it comes to the first selection, the signed card, I'm at a loss. Suddenly I recall, I mailed myself a card. I ask the woman if she'd be amazed if the card I mailed myself was the same card. She usually says yes. Then i explain that, well, not only is the card i mailed myself the nine of spades, but that it's the exact same nine of spades, with herr signature across the face. Okay, so this is a bit more than a prediction, but hopefully I've caught your attention:)

So a few days ago, I predicted that Kevin Durant would win the scoring title in the NBA within five years. Today, I have another prediction to make: Adam Lambert will win American Idol. I myself am a bass, but i've sung with countless tenors over the past 13 years, and can say that this guy is truly a one in a million. If you haven't heard him sing, check out http://www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/ , where you can hear him. For you music buffs out there, he hits a high G. As a reference point for those of you that like belting, when Bono sings "blown by the wind, blown by the wind" in "Where the Streets have no Name", the word "blown" is a high A. But not the one above Lambert's G, the one that's nearly on octave below it. This guy is like a clean cut Axel Rose. So...you've heard it hear first.

Let's see if this prediction, not so magically, comes true.

ADD-LIGHTFUL, Afterthoughts...

When I was a kid, the first magic magazine i purchased was Harry Lorayne's "Apocolypse". After each trick, he had a section called 'After Thoughts", so given that my show paid homage to my childhood hero, I have titled this post accordingly.

A.D.D.-Lightful, my first ever one man show, finished its second run this past weekend. When I originally wrote the show, my intention was to use magic very artistically to answer an important question. That question, though, proved ellusive, not because I couldn't think of something to ask, but because the questions that mattered most to me were simply too large in scope to tackle in an hour. And, truth be told, I don't know how much headway i've made during my lifetime.

So instead, I used the show to answer a somewhat smaller questions? What am I? Who am I? How do I know? How can i be successful and true to myself simultaneously? What is the right career path, etc. And these questions, while illustrated in terms of my life, are meant to be universal. We all have an existential itch from time to time...

So how do we go about answering these questions? My overwhelming feeling is that we don't--instead, we simply act. We act. We do. In short, our preconceived notions, expectations, and plans matter much less than what has emerged. Again, this is what I aim to illustrate with A.D.D.-Lightful.

In my life, I have fallen in love with many subjects and pursuits. Magic, card cheating technique, psychology, business (sort of:)) basketball, Mixed Martial Arts, & A Cappella music, to name a few. Because of my passion for each subject, at various points I have contemplated careers in each (other than maybe basketball--that was more like dreaming than contemplation.)

So, in A.D.D.-Lightful, i explain my love of these subjects, and my hope is that, in seeing these endeavours through my eyes, you too will see what I see, and also understand why these disparate pursuits have often left me confused about the direction in which my life should be steered. But the happy ending is there. The happy ending, I hope, is a celebration of life itself, the good times and the bad. I conclude the story quoting John Lenon, who once said that, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." And I think that just about says it. In pursuing all of these disparate areas of interest, I did not become Michael Jordan, John Legend, Ricky Jay, or Randy Coutoure. Instead, I became Michael Howard Friedland, and that's good enough for me. My hope is that in telling my story, my audience will not only be entertained and thoroughly fooled, but come to understand that they too are unique, special, and powerful for being who they are. That would be my biggest reward.

I have no idea what the future holds in terms of A.D.D.-Lightful. It is a huge thrill for me to perform, and it's also fun to think of new routines, patter lines, and illusions. For now, I am happy to bask in its wake, and see what comes next. I hope you'll join me for the ride.