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Is my sleight-of-hand any good? Would appreciate all comments.

Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVHOrWdMkU

To be honest, it's not bad, but it needs some work. One major issue I see is in your communication--verbal and non-verbal.

First, your speech has some nervous tension about it. Your sentances end more like questions than statements, like you're seeking the audience's approval and asking if they like what they're seeing. Your presentation must absolutely exude confidence.

Second, your body language communicates the same tension as your voice. You move rapidly, like you're trying to get the trick over with. Your first load flashed pretty badly.

Your first vanish is a little too quick and your hand far too cramped. After you do the "move" (though, in performance, it shouldn't look like a move), relax the dirty hand and pause a beat. "Place" the ball in your hand, then gesture with your left hand. Do your wave, then reveal that it has vanished. Don't go straight to the pocket yet. It's an amazing feat in itself that the ball has vanished. Let it sink in. Look confused. Where did the ball go? You might even be frustrated. You're just trying to hold onto a ball and the little bu**er keeps running off on you.

Once it's disappeared, you've got to find it. You're shocked to find it in your pocket. Pull it out. Be curious.

Finally, your body language betrays your actions--you're saying one thing and doing another.

A beautiful example of how your actions aren't matching up with what you're communicating to your audience comes right about the one-minute mark. You supposedly have the ball in your left hand and you're going to put it in your pocket. When you tell the audience you're going to do so, you gesture with your right hand (the supposedly empty hand) to the right pocket. A big no-no, mon ami.

On the whole, you're getting there. Slow it down--with a little polish and a little relaxation (relaxing physically will help relax the voice), you'll have a class act on your hands.

Ciao,
Rob

P.S. Is that an Ellusionist bracelet? If so, I'm going to have to hunt you down and beat you up

RobLaughter wrote:To be honest, it's not bad, but it needs some work. One major issue I see is in your communication--verbal and non-verbal.

First, your speech has some nervous tension about it. Your sentances end more like questions than statements, like you're seeking the audience's approval and asking if they like what they're seeing. Your presentation must absolutely exude confidence.

Second, your body language communicates the same tension as your voice. You move rapidly, like you're trying to get the trick over with. Your first load flashed pretty badly.

Your first vanish is a little too quick and your hand far too cramped. After you do the "move" (though, in performance, it shouldn't look like a move), relax the dirty hand and pause a beat. "Place" the ball in your hand, then gesture with your left hand. Do your wave, then reveal that it has vanished. Don't go straight to the pocket yet. It's an amazing feat in itself that the ball has vanished. Let it sink in. Look confused. Where did the ball go? You might even be frustrated. You're just trying to hold onto a ball and the little bu**er keeps running off on you.

Once it's disappeared, you've got to find it. You're shocked to find it in your pocket. Pull it out. Be curious.

Finally, your body language betrays your actions--you're saying one thing and doing another.

A beautiful example of how your actions aren't matching up with what you're communicating to your audience comes right about the one-minute mark. You supposedly have the ball in your left hand and you're going to put it in your pocket. When you tell the audience you're going to do so, you gesture with your right hand (the supposedly empty hand) to the right pocket. A big no-no, mon ami.

On the whole, you're getting there. Slow it down--with a little polish and a little relaxation (relaxing physically will help relax the voice), you'll have a class act on your hands.

Ciao,
Rob

P.S. Is that an Ellusionist bracelet? If so, I'm going to have to hunt you down and beat you up

Thank you for your feedback. Honestly, this is hard to take in. I've been doing sponge balls for years and I guess I suck at it. I was surprised by your post. But its constructive feedback none the less. I just watched the video again and admit it was definitely a bit rushed.

I will have to work on my communication. How was my rentention vanish?

i agree with bob, but its not your sleights thats need work its your acting.
working to a fixed camera on a computer is a bad idea it forces you to do the sleights in a forced fashion, to that end i looked with the sound off.

with your retention vanish once its done gesture to your closed hand by pointing at the base of the hand near the wrist, with one outstreached finger this will force your hand into a more open and natural state with the ball being retained by the midle fingers practicly in classic palm position.

were posible don't swap pockets and don't pull the ball through your pocket, do it from your shirt.
there were a few poin'ts were you seemed to bring a ball into play that didn't belong, if you wan't to bring a new ball into play its much better to rip one ball into two, its more logical.

real world confidence I'm afraid can only be gained by, well real world exposure, your friends can only take you so far so get out there and get some.

ps try to have a surprise ending, a colour change, shape change or my favourate a sponge ball vanish to coin production, hint all you need is some elbow room.

magicdiscoman wrote:I agree with bob, but its not your sleights thats need work its your acting.
working to a fixed camera on a computer is a bad idea it forces you to do the sleights in a forced fashion, to that end I looked with the sound off.

with your retention vanish once its done gesture to your closed hand by pointing at the base of the hand near the wrist, with one outstreached finger this will force your hand into a more open and natural state with the ball being retained by the midle fingers practicly in classic palm position.

were posible don't swap pockets and don't pull the ball through your pocket, do it from your shirt.
there were a few poin'ts were you seemed to bring a ball into play that didn't belong, if you wan't to bring a new ball into play its much better to rip one ball into two, its more logical.

real world confidence I'm afraid can only be gained by, well real world exposure, your friends can only take you so far so get out there and get some.

ps try to have a surprise ending, a colour change, shape change or my favourate a sponge ball vanish to coin production, hint all you need is some elbow room.

First, thanks for saying my sleights don't need work. I put ALOT of practice into my sleights for years now. I've forgotten how to do a sponge to coin change I'll have to find that out again. I think that is just a spellbound move.

I'll make another video later and post it.
Thanks again.

one way would be to get the coin when your doing a sponge to pocket then when you do your toss vanish for the sponges simply toss the coin into your hand as the first sponge, hope this is still suitably vague for the open forum section.

a spellbound change would work, sponge going into thumb palm, remember to snap coin up into finger and thumb position to give you time to make any needed ditches.

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand wrote:

magicdiscoman wrote:I agree with bob, but its not your sleights thats need work its your acting.
working to a fixed camera on a computer is a bad idea it forces you to do the sleights in a forced fashion, to that end I looked with the sound off.

with your retention vanish once its done gesture to your closed hand by pointing at the base of the hand near the wrist, with one outstreached finger this will force your hand into a more open and natural state with the ball being retained by the midle fingers practicly in classic palm position.

were posible don't swap pockets and don't pull the ball through your pocket, do it from your shirt.
there were a few poin'ts were you seemed to bring a ball into play that didn't belong, if you wan't to bring a new ball into play its much better to rip one ball into two, its more logical.

real world confidence I'm afraid can only be gained by, well real world exposure, your friends can only take you so far so get out there and get some.

ps try to have a surprise ending, a colour change, shape change or my favourate a sponge ball vanish to coin production, hint all you need is some elbow room.

First, thanks for saying my sleights don't need work. I put ALOT of practice into my sleights for years now. I've forgotten how to do a sponge to coin change I'll have to find that out again. I think that is just a spellbound move.

I'll make another video later and post it.
Thanks again.

Just made this video. Tried my best to make my communication better. Hope it's better!

I'll learn that spellbound move later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8pQVrXRjM

And yes, that's an ellusionist band on my wrist. Heh. I don't order from them anymore, even though I've bought a few effects from them. Got my thread deleted. So please don't come and kill me

routine makes a lot more sense but you don't need to point your finger out all the time its just to indicate that your hand is empty when you gesture to your closed hand, when on the table it can be curled in a natural position, but you have the general idea on that and nice use of the split move.

you need to pause a beat before introducing the third sponge ball, it come from your pocket to quickly, people will not understand why you need a third ball if you don't explain that maybey they need a third ball to follow whats going on.

magicdiscoman wrote:routine makes a lot more sense but you don't need to point your finger out all the time its just to indicate that your hand is empty when you gesture to your closed hand, when on the table it can be curled in a natural position, but you have the general idea on that and nice use of the split move.

you need to pause a beat before introducing the third sponge ball, it come from your pocket to quickly, people will not understand why you need a third ball if you don't explain that maybey they need a third ball to follow whats going on.

Great, thanks!

I don't think this is blatant exposure, but I believe it will help a lot for people who could use it. I sent this to our sponge ball magician, but it's applicable to everyone.

http://media.putfile.com/Sponge-Ball-explanation

The video I reference is a Fred Kaps video where he uses scripted chaos. You can watch it here: http://itricks.com/magicvideos/?p=1658

Enjoy.

I would also like to add a few helpful criticisms:

Are you enjoying doing this? Because you sound completely bored. There's no enthusiasm. This was common in eager magicians during the 'Blaine' years, where zero emotion seemed cool—which is absolutely FINE if the routine you're doing has a wow factor.

However, your sponge routine has nothing 'wow' about it. In fact, it's quite a typical routine. It lacks energy, surprise and excitement.

The sleights are reasonable enough, but they appear awkward and unnaturally rehearsed.

And your vocal accompaniment is literally an explanation of what is happening... the whole thing can be done without it, as all you're doing is describing—verbatim—what is being seen.

Far more excitement can be gained by practicing not only the routine and sleights, but also how to add a little fizz. Yes—I know that it's hard to post something on a magician's forum, as magician's are going to criticise from their own point of view... when in fact, the layperson would see it different etc. etc.

Well, my counter for that is that yes—perhaps you COULD wow some laypeople with this, as to them it will seem impossible. But there is so much more you could be giving here with a little more effort.

For instance, as part of the finale, why not change the colour of the balls from 3 reds to 3 yellow before the vanish? Something a little different.

And the patter... why not try to weave an interesting little story, or anything other than your 'Here is a ball. Now it is two balls. Now it is three balls. Watch, I put one in my pocket, how many do I have?"

It's boring, to be blunt.

Perhaps talk about "Something weird I learned in biology class today was cell division... here, take a look at this ball... it acts like a cell... nothing unusual, right? But if I just give it darkness, it divides. This can be great, because no matter how many times I remove a cell, nature fills its place by dividing another cell."

Or something like that.

Gain the attention of the audience.

Like people have already said, your sleights are OK—but still need work to be perfect—and you also need some work on making it all look natural.

But you're not far off.

You are lacking the one thing that differentiates a good magician from a hobbyist, and that is performance...

Basically, we can all learn how to drive a car... but we're not all going to be formula one legends. We can all learn how to draw, but we're not all going to be famous artists.

And we can all learn sleights and routines, but we're not all going to be magicians.

What makes the difference is several factors, but mostly they are natural ability, dedication, goals and motivation. Currently, I would say you are motivated—but you don't demonstrate natural ability or dedication.

Your motivation is that I think you want people to think you are good (judging by your previous videos and comments). But if you really want to master this stuff, you need to start thinking about doing it naturally, without thinking. Sit and practice each and every move. THINK about what you are trying to achieve. THINK about how you WANT the effect/routine to be perceived.

Start at the finish: what do you WANT it to look like, and work backwards from there.

seige wrote:I would also like to add a few helpful criticisms:

Are you enjoying doing this? Because you sound completely bored. There's no enthusiasm. This was common in eager magicians during the 'Blaine' years, where zero emotion seemed cool—which is absolutely FINE if the routine you're doing has a wow factor.

However, your sponge routine has nothing 'wow' about it. In fact, it's quite a typical routine. It lacks energy, surprise and excitement.

The sleights are reasonable enough, but they appear awkward and unnaturally rehearsed.

And your vocal accompaniment is literally an explanation of what is happening... the whole thing can be done without it, as all you're doing is describing—verbatim—what is being seen.

Far more excitement can be gained by practicing not only the routine and sleights, but also how to add a little fizz. Yes—I know that it's hard to post something on a magician's forum, as magician's are going to criticise from their own point of view... when in fact, the layperson would see it different etc. etc.

Well, my counter for that is that yes—perhaps you COULD wow some laypeople with this, as to them it will seem impossible. But there is so much more you could be giving here with a little more effort.

For instance, as part of the finale, why not change the colour of the balls from 3 reds to 3 yellow before the vanish? Something a little different.

And the patter... why not try to weave an interesting little story, or anything other than your 'Here is a ball. Now it is two balls. Now it is three balls. Watch, I put one in my pocket, how many do I have?"

It's boring, to be blunt.

Perhaps talk about "Something weird I learned in biology class today was cell division... here, take a look at this ball... it acts like a cell... nothing unusual, right? But if I just give it darkness, it divides. This can be great, because no matter how many times I remove a cell, nature fills its place by dividing another cell."

Or something like that.

Gain the attention of the audience.

Like people have already said, your sleights are OK—but still need work to be perfect—and you also need some work on making it all look natural.

But you're not far off.

You are lacking the one thing that differentiates a good magician from a hobbyist, and that is performance...

Basically, we can all learn how to drive a car... but we're not all going to be formula one legends. We can all learn how to draw, but we're not all going to be famous artists.

And we can all learn sleights and routines, but we're not all going to be magicians.

What makes the difference is several factors, but mostly they are natural ability, dedication, goals and motivation. Currently, I would say you are motivated—but you don't demonstrate natural ability or dedication.

Your motivation is that I think you want people to think you are good (judging by your previous videos and comments). But if you really want to master this stuff, you need to start thinking about doing it naturally, without thinking. Sit and practice each and every move. THINK about what you are trying to achieve. THINK about how you WANT the effect/routine to be perceived.

Start at the finish: what do you WANT it to look like, and work backwards from there.

Thanks Seige.

OK, so you are saying my sleights with sponges are good/smooth but I need to work on how my hands SHOULD look with the ball in them, when they are'empty' (whenin fact they aren't empty).

I looked through the video again. I still cannot see how my sleights look unnatural. I noticed that the dirty hand rests on the table alot with one finger out. Is this unnatural? I thought this was a natural way of holding the hand, that you would do naturally if the hand was empty.

Thanks!

I thought your sleight of hand looked quite good ( but I'm only a beginner myself so I certainly wouldn't contradict the advice of the more experienced contributers here). The routine looks similar (if not the same?) as the routine in Mark Wilsons course in magic. I'm fortunate to be learning from a professional magician and one of the comments he made about the routine when I was practising it related to the 'ball through the pociket' section. He asked me why on earth I was rubbing the outside of my trousers - not a criticism of the action but simply pointing out that there has to be a logical reason in your patter to explain why the hand goes to the outside of the trousers and rubs the fabric otherwise it just looks weird!

Your second version was much better. Your retention vanish is good, but I think your routine could be much better!

The second ball should be introduced for example with by splitting a ball,
not as in the current version were you essentially just pick it out of the pocket (laypeople may be stupid, but they are not that stupid).

The most important point is to start build a routine where the magic happens in the spectators hand. This is the real strength with sponge balls.
Try to practice with spectators. This will also loosen you up, and because your retention vanish works so well you can already do miracles. The feedback you get from the spectators will give you more confidence!

A good way to practice magic is to do a bit of street magic. Try to take your sponge ball routine out to the street and you will get all the feedback you get from the spectators. Believe me, after some practice in interacting with people (strangers) your magic will already be on a different level.

Maybe you could do a recording with a spectator and sponge balls?