talkmagic.co.uk

Although I like to vary close-up effects, cards are a great tool as there as so many possibilities with them. I try to not do all card tricks as I think that would get repetitive, but a friend of mine loves my card stuff best and always wants to see something each time I see him.
I think the fact that are a 'normal' item and, if you are using SOH, can be inspected, is what makes the best effects even more unbelievable.

I enjoy all aspects of magic, thanks to my study of the Tarbell course, but with a pack of cards in your pocket you are ready to do strong magic any time, any where.

Cards? Hate the things

I have some appreciation for those who perform solely with cards, and do it well and make a good living; however such performers are few and far between.

I think part of the problem of card dependency is that they allow the performer to feel like a magician whilst avoiding a lot of the sleight of hand which can terrify a beginner: the concealments, swtiches, transfers. With card magic they're less of a problem, you don't have to worry about getting caught out.

Which is a shame, because not only does that set-up a wrong perspective of magic, it also limits what you can do severely. A whole set of card magic just doesn't feel real, and I'm always reminded of the following quote from Man To Man With Dean Learner:

"I am the hand of Orion... I have travelled through space and time to touch you. For I touched the caveman and he knew fire; I touched Newton and he knew gravity; and now I am touching you and you will know how to bend keys by rubbing them lightly between thumb and forefinger."

the other shame is that some sleights, moves, set ups can easily be applied to other things too...

dunninger used seed packets for one effect!

photos/maps/cds/dvds/paintings...the world's yer oyster...

look at all the trick decks on the market, just take that thinking and apply it to other objects...

i like fiddling about with cards, its relaxing...but give me a swami, a pencil and some paper and I'm away...

Exactly, if people put more time applying card principles to other objects there'd be even more fantastic effects out there. Cards are probably the best place to start with magic for the reasons pointed out above but as you say Cardza, they can lead to a bit of a twisted perspective on things. After all, you can pick up a deck and with a week's practice and some common sense you'll be able to do at least a couple of really stunning effects. The same is definitely not true of coins but could easily translate to ropes or sponges, for example.

I have a friend who does a bit of magic and at one time was very into it. Unfortunately he started with ETMCM and rather quickly learned some awesome tricks which he could present very well. After a while he gave up learning anything remotely difficult because he didn't see the point if he could blow people away with Red Hot Mama. He tried coins momentarily but gave up because they were 'too hard', a point of view that really annoys me because coins aren't that hard they just require a slightly more rounded approach to your whole body language (amongst other things) and perhaps a while longer initially to grasp but once you get through the first couple of months you shoud be fine.

bronz wrote:Exactly, if people put more time applying card principles to other objects there'd be even more fantastic effects out there. Cards are probably the best place to start with magic for the reasons pointed out above but as you say Cardza, they can lead to a bit of a twisted perspective on things. After all, you can pick up a deck and with a week's practice and some common sense you'll be able to do at least a couple of really stunning effects. The same is definitely not true of coins but could easily translate to ropes or sponges, for example.
.

I am not sure I understand the statement. I agree that with some practice and common sense you can do some really stunning effects. But the same is true for coin magic. A vanish and some sort of palming ability, (could be as simple as a finger palm) and using the same common sense and you have quite the arsenal at your finger tips.

I enjoy both forms and I have one lead into the other. I also use 'everyday' objects. For me it comes down too how little I have to carry around. Hey let me borrow a ring and somebody's shoelace and I can go for awhile. And again it comes down to a precious few moves, lots of common sense and a heck of a lot of patter and fun with the spectators.

I too am no card fan, but keep a repetoir in order to satisfy the general public.

In answer to the original question I think has three reasons.
1) As said before cards are simple and everybody knows from about 8 years on what you can and connot do with them. For example you cannot tear one and have it become whole again. You cannot put on in a pack and make it appear in your hand .Thus you have a simple thing, ie just 52 cards that do things that they should not.
2) They are complex in that they have many combinations that lend themselves to storys, ie the have jokers, jacks and queens and kings. They have red/black cards, hearts for love etc etc etc. They have differing backs so you can choose not only a card but the only card with a red back. All the cards can turn blank except for your card, or the card can dissapear and appear in wallet, their hand etc etc etc. there are many differing storys and types of tricks ie transformation, dissapearence, reapearence, mentalism, torn and restored, etc etc. To get all this from a simple thing that is just 52 peices of cards is extream to a spec.
3) There is danger and imanignation. The spec is james bond. He wishes to be a card shark, a gunslinger type gambler, there is romance that has been promoted by the movies again and again pushed into our subconcious, fear of the unknown with tarot etc.....And when it happens live in his hand then he is there in the film in his mind.

With all this going for them why oh why do people do them to death and/or make them unentertaining . Thats a real skill I don't wish to have

it's easy to do something difficult with practice, but to reduce that difficulty down to something simple is very difficult!

What I find interesting is that it seems that it is mostly magicians that hate card tricks. And yes I have seen the look of horror from a spectator when I pull out the cards and when I see that I go into the 5 faces of Sybil cut and the look turns into something else, mostly (okay this guy isn't uncle Joe who is going to cut the deck into 3 rows) and then they are very eager to see more. And it is also interesting that the moment somebody finds out I'm a magician the first question often asked is, 'can you show me a card trick?'

Yet it seems we as magicians are bound and determined to dislike the card trick and recal the poor experiences.

On the lucky side I never get, 'hey can you show me the trick with the big metal hoops? or the one with the floating ball that bounces on the handkerchief? Admittedly I do get the, hey can you float like that guy did, the one that encased himself in a block of ice? But more often then not I get asked for card tricks. I do keep with me a card case that has a rope in it. Because the card effects do tend to get a little...

For the first 10 year of my obsession I was cards cards cards! (i did one or two other things, just not very often)
The reason was most of my audience was improptu at parties and gatherings, and i didn`t even have to think about what i was doing after a while.

This was why i fell out with magic. I got as bored as my audience and gave up on magic for 5 years.

When i did fall in love with magic again it was with a greater understanding of myself and my audience. I still use cards, but to a lesser extent, and I very quickly move to another "branch" of my routine if i feel that my audience is becoming disinterested. With this new approach, i now get "real" bookings, and not just "mate" performances (not that there is anything wrong with these! )

I guess what im trying to say (through my christmas eve beer haze) is magicians "need" cards, but dont forget there is more to magic that oblong bits of paper.

Cards have a certain elegance about them that isn't found in other props. Think James Bond or other powerful figure. This is often lessened by a playing card tie and some awful presentation. I just this evening did an impromptu half an hour or purely card effects and it went over a treat (yay xmas in Newport) no yawns or sighs. This is probably because the effects were presented well, without wanting to sound egotistical. Everyone relates to a deck of cards and once they realize they are seeing some pro stuff rather than the uncle charlie at the family party nonsense, they tend to respond.

However, secretly there is a part of me that wants to attack every time I see a magician get out a length of rope. By far the most boring over used prop in the magi's repertoire. Ahhhhhh.

Btw I am a little tipsy whilst typing this so I'm allowed to retract this post should I not agree with it in the morning.

While cards fascinate me a lot, considering the great amount of effect that can be done with them, all based on the same principle: there are 52 (54) cards and none of them is the same as the other (besides sometimes the jokers). That is why on coins, for example, some tricks cannot be performed, because coins run on a different principle: they are all the same. But rarely do other objects have these properties, that's why magic is harder to do with them.

So while I believe that every magician should have an arsenal of card tricks, the most accomplished magician would be one who could apply effects to any object, i.e. do magic with anything, in any situation. The problem is that cards are over-used and people expect magic with them, as well as know a certain amount of magic with them as well. But they don't expect magic with something very unusual.

I started off with cards, up to about a year ago almost all my routines were card routines. I think that the main reason people do lots of card magic is because that's what they started off doing. Any why? Well I guess decks of cards are easy and cheep to get hold of and the basics are very easy to learn. Pop into any book shop and you'll find hald a dozen books on card tricks.

This year I've been moving away from cards and have added sponge, coin, PK and all sorts of other things to my routines. I'd say I'm now probabaly no more than about 30% cards and yup the specs do seem to like the non card magic much more. Everyone's seen the guy down the pub doing card tricks but other types of magic are somthing different to them.