talkmagic.co.uk

Hi there,

I have just posted my video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9b28aTH2xo

and was looking for some constructive criticism. I would particularly like to improve the flourishes to revealing the aces. Also, I think that this is just merely showing off card manipulation to spectators. Does anyone use interesting patter whilst doing a four aces production ? Any pointers would be appreciated.

Regards,

Shane

It was a little hard to see everything as the hands were too far to the top of the screen and there was too much foreground but I thought that it was a good handling and the flourishes themselves didn't appear to need any improvement to me.

I don't use a four ace production myself other than when performing 'dream of aces' and I simply say that I should first find the four aces and proceed to do so.

Although impressive, I agree that an ace production is little more than a show-off unless it's used to find the aces to move onto another routine,

Nice work though!

I agree halfway with DAT. I think if you use a four ace production to get the aces for another trick, it's very effective. I also think if you use a bunch of four ace productions into a four ace routine it makes all the productions much better.

I enjoyed that.

No comments regarding the trick itself but one thing that would make your performance better is if you bridge the cards (I forget the technical name for it, but you bed them towards you allowing them to fall together with speed) together after the riffle shuffe instead of simply pushing them together as you do in your video. A very simple flourish that I find adds so much.

Personally, I love 4 ace productions - but I agree with Dat that they are usually better suited as part of an overall routine. Having said that, your work here was nice.

Your overhand shuffle needs work - especially to cover what you're doing. Even to an untrained eye, what your doing is somewhat obvious at times. I don't want to discuss things here, so if you have questions, pm me and I'll point out the sections where I feel you need to concentrate.

Ace productions are always nice as a segway into four ace tricks, as stated above, and this seems to have promise.

That said, I find that there are generally two types of ace productions which fall under the two respective magical theories. There's the "impossible" theory where aces pop out of nowhere, and there's the "How-did-he-do-that" productions, where the aces are extracted from a deck which seems to be shuffled over and over. I know that's just a sweeping generalization, but it's only made to prove a point.

Now since this would fall into the latter category, the cuts and shuffles which accomplish the goal need to be more fluid in my opinion. Not necessarily faster, but each motion should come one after the other. For instance, the entire shuffles should be completed without a break, and the swing swivel cut looks a little too stiff.

Good work, though. I'm sure that I'm just hyper critical as a fellow magician.