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Hi all (I'm baaaack from yet anoth er long univerisity work-induced absence!!) Recently, I decided to search youtube for some old footage of Ed Marlo and in the process I came accross some video of a teenager performing his 'completley invisible squeaky clean amzing from all angles' pass.... this lead to about 200+ such videos, all of people of a similar age demonstrating their 'skillz' My question is.. How did this obsession with having an amazingly quick, invisible super duper pass come about? I mean, I have been using the pass as my favoured control for years and have never been 'caught' once.. and my pass is never going to be invisible but heyy.. IT WORKS veryyy well Also, most of the 'covers' demonstrated in these videos are so completley impractical that they would arouse suspicion immediately with ANY lay audience. What happened to having a smooth, natural pass executed on an off-beat or suchlike instead of these weird hybrid super quick completley impractical ones? Do I think the pass should be learnt by any serious cardman/ woman.. yes I do 110% but do i think you should devise some huge flamboyant cover so that it can only be viewed by a webcam at birdseye view.. dear me no..
So in summary, how did this obsession with the pass come about? Why did it suddenly become a 'must have, bragging rights major skillz' move to be able to perform instead of the extremely useful smooth card control that is was meant to be. Discuss and greetings once again to you all

It's very simple.
The pass has been banded about as being one of the more difficult sleights to perform correctly. So, the little kids thought this meant that if they can do one well, than by proxy that must mean that they are a fantastic magician, and better than anyone who can't do one fast and invisibly, etc.

Ignoring the concept of showmanship, entertainment and any other sleight of hand, they believe that as long as they can focus just on that, if anyone asks them to show them some magic, they can do a pass and that is all they will need to convince anybody of their superiority.

I don't do the pass. Never bothered to learn it with any fervour and probably never will. I get by without it. Michael Ammar Said he stopped using it ages ago because you can get by without it. It is not necessary to know it IMO.

Raz

I gave up trying to learn the pass a long time ago, I can get by with my pass but it's far from perfect and to be honest there are much simpler ways to do the same thing.

It's a great move, but not needed, I use a variation of controls when I work and no one ever questions it either way.

It can be a very useful move. But is not something you need to learn.


I know and work with some of the best magicians in the UK and less than half of them use this move.

But it is good tho

I'm probably completely wrong here, but i think the Youtube obsession with the pass stems from web cams that don't stream footage in real time. As such, they're not very quick at keeping up with what's going on. Therefore, when the pass is executed, it's easy to miss the actions of the executer. Ergo, their pass looks invisible.

MEANING.....they're awesome.

My pass is fine. Misdirection does the rest.

My pass sucks, but I am yet to be caught out using it.



Because I don't.

its well worth learning "a pass" though...dont forget, the control is making it look like the deck has not altered/been moved in any way shape or form...and NOT to be confused with what a double undercut does, or rather, looks like...

do what works for you, then forget about everyone else...as with everything else - its all about the context...

I learned how to do it in ten minutes. But then I have always been a genius beyond compare. I had read that it takes months and even years of practice so I was rather astonished to find that I had it off in about ten minutes.
I think the reason for my rapid progress was a very good description in a very, very, very. old book by Charles Roberts called "Tricks with Cards"

I could learn it in ten seconds if I really wanted to but then I am a bit of a big head



Raz

Well at risk of bringing up another discussion, I think it is as simple as trying your best, with both misdirection and the sleights. I have found in pretty much everything, that euquilibrium is the ideal state; or at the very least expect reciprocity. Misdirection is to be used to aid the sleights, not compensate for them.

But I do understand what people are saying. I know someone who was spawned from the hideous: 'dvds rather than books, new rather than old, instant gimmick rather than effort, youtube, visual learners... ad nauseum' generation. He had never read RRTCM. To me anyway, that is like driving without a liscence. But anyhow, despite my reverence he claimed that he knew everything in it (Off Youtube, presumably) apart from the pass. Of course, for the sake of retaining my aimiability I did not say 'If you have not read it... HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT'S IN IT??!!' but I did try and persaude him that wanting to learn the pass was a suitable pretext for reading the rest of the book. Of course though, he was a visual learner: so a book is no use. Anyhow, ever the advocate, I demonstrated the pass he was asking me about. Of course it was just mostly a modified ACR but he was mildly impressed by the potency of books, and then left telling me that he would try and get a dvd on the pass. I smiled in a way that Duchenne de Boulonge would have laughed at, and all hope died inside me. I suppose the love of the pass fostered by Youtubian.. ahem* 'magicians' is an inability to perform to real people, without a blurry camera.

Fortunatley, Several weeks ago, I suspect he had been converted by another evangelical bibliophile and he was asking me about Tarbell, RRTCM, ECT and Bobo. I smiled properly this time and helped him out as much as I could.

I suppose it just goes to show. Ghandi once said 'When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always'.

Well I paraphrase him: 'When I despair, I remember all throughout history the ways of Braue and Hugard have always won. There have been corporate sell-outs, and youtube exposers, and for a time they can seem attractive, but in the end they always get exposed as retards. Think of it. Always.'

P.s. I take it Charles Roberts is Mark's pseudonym?

While there will always be people who don't use the pass and get by without it, the fact remains that it is one of the most efficient methods for controlling while maintaining the pretence that nothing has happened.

I wrote about this in my MUM column, and again in my eBook on the pass - when a spectator replaces a card somewhere near the centre of the deck they do not know where it is (apart from near the centre). Once _something_ happens to the deck, be it a cut or a shuffle, then all bets are off. If you want to maintain the conviction in the mind of the spectator, then don't do anything with the deck.

The pass can be hard to learn, but if it is broken down into its steps correctly then it is no harder than many other sleights. Most magicians have a fear of not being able to cover the move, but that has much more to do with their understanding of misdirection than the mechanics of the pass, and this will affect all other sleights they use.

There may be several workable alternatives to the classic pass, and I am proficient with many of them, but I will use a classic pass 90% of the time. For me it is easily the most efficient method.

For those that are interested, you can read about my ebook on the subject here

Take care, Ian

I must inform the Gurney child that Charles Roberts is NOT my pseudonym. Even I am not that old. The book was written either in the late nineteenth century or perhaps the early twentieth century. It has tbe best description of the standard pass I have ever read.

I must also inform the Razzo personage that he really must try and learn the art of modesty. I will be happy to act as a role model for him in this regard.

I also learned the pass in ten seconds. I did use a slight variation though. Since I had the break anyway I simply cut the deck at the breakd and did a riffle shuffle leaving the selected card on top.

mark lewis wrote:I must inform the Gurney child that Charles Roberts is NOT my pseudonym. Even I am not that old. The book was written either in the late nineteenth century or perhaps the early twentieth century. It has tbe best description of the standard pass I have ever read.

I must also inform the Razzo personage that he really must try and learn the art of modesty. I will be happy to act as a role model for him in this regard.

I also learned the pass in ten seconds. I did use a slight variation though. Since I had the break anyway I simply cut the deck at the breakd and did a riffle shuffle leaving the selected card on top.

The superlativley modest Mark Lewis
I must confess, a much better variation than the infamous 'Lets just give the deck a cut, to loose your card there' *shudder*.

I must also inform the Razzo personage that he really must try and learn the art of modesty. I will be happy to act as a role model for him in this regard.

I would love to be as modest as you Mr Lewis. I mean you absolutely ooze modesty. Much like my good self. There aren't many of us about these days. Still one can only hope for people like you. I mean, I do so love a challenge hey.