Late last year I was working at a Democratic Fundraiser here in NYC with a group called "Democracy for New York". I do a lot of work with them during election seasons.

I came up with a great idea for a presentation. For those of you who don't know - Sefajalia is a small cabinet and the basic effect is that you place a small ball on one side of the cabinet and a shot glass on the other side. You cover it and when you uncover the ball has mysteriously arrived inside of the glass.

I set up a Sefajalia (sp?) cabinet to look like a voting booth with a small curtian in front.
I placed two glasses in the cabinet to represent the 2 canidates (Bush and Kerry) and announced that the ball would represent the vote. The curtian was drawn and everyone was told to focus on the "Vote" being moved to the canidate that they wanted to vote for. Because of the build-up everyone got really into it...

I removed the curtain... And the ball was right where I left it...Oops...

I immediately announced, " that's right it didn't move... You see, all the positive thinking in the world won't help if you don't get off your butts and do something about it!" as I slammed the ball into the Kerry Glass.

I got a standing ovation for a magic trick that didn't work and decided to cut the act short right there.

The lesson? I dunno. I guess maybe something about the power of a positive message or something. It bears some thinking about.

All I can say is that you should've been there

Looks like the trick worked out as well for you as the election did for Kerry. But, the ovation made it a success in the end. At least you didn't have to face the kind of public rejection that Kerry did. Way to keep on keepin'on!