talkmagic.co.uk

Lenoir wrote:
It's one of the least important things in the book though.

Yes, I'm sure.

David is clearly a genius. He knows what makes a great performance.

A part of me, however, is still very obsessed with the effect.
It may sound silly, but I really am.

Jake. I accept and have already stated that this is a reasonably good trick. But I have also stated that there are THOUSANDS of good card tricks. Laymen will like the trick but they will like other tricks equally as well. So what is the big deal? It is only magicians who go on and on and on and on and on and on and on about it. Probably because they couldn't figure out how it was done. Now that they do know the secret the interest will probably die down.

Not only did I not know how it was done I didn't CARE how it was done. And neither do I care how ANY trick is done. I am way beyond the stage of getting excited over puzzles. At any rate I eventually realised that the trick was one of those "make it up as you go along" kind of thing.

I should also point out that at one time I idolised David Berglas and thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. In fact he spent an evening coaching me when I was 16 years old.

It was when he went from magic to mentalism that I got a bit jaded with him. Some of his mentalism was brilliant and some of it was brutal. Too complicated, convoluted and boring. His charisma and impressive aura was still intact but there were times he bored me to death.

Still the two times I saw him on stage, once with a magic act and once with a mentalism show, his brilliance on those occasions was such a piece of artistic perfection that I forgave him the other times when he wasn't so wonderful. His intellect was so strong that I think he took it for granted that others would have the same intelligence to follow what was going on. But they couldn't. And they didn't.

I wasn't arguing against your feeling about the effect, Mark. I was just sharing my own. I hope I didn't come off as being against you.

I feel like so many magicians in the UK get a chance to meet each other. Perhaps this is incorrect. I have wished for a long time to even meet Berglas.

Perhaps some day...

EDIT: Well, not really. It would never happen. It just seems strange to end a post with "I have wished for a long time to even meet Berglas."


-Ben

Ian, please keep me updated if you find out any more on the Kaufman book. Thank you.



-Ben

JakeThePerformer wrote:
A part of me, however, is still very obsessed with the effect.
It may sound silly, but I really am.

I suspect that, even after reading the upcoming tome, you may still be obsessed by the effect.... but still in no position to perform it!! However... after a little more digging on the web, I found an e-book by Stuart Cassells on Jonathan Royle's website - http://www.magicalguru.com/acaan.html. Now, I can't vouch for it's validity, but I've seen a clip of Royle performing the effect on youtube and it looks like the real deal... and the e-book is considerably cheaper than the Berglas book.

If you decide to go for the e-book, be sure to write a review here! (if there isn't one already.. I've not checked!)

Sean

Jake. You can relax. I didn't think you were against me.
As for meeting Berglas he is one of the most charismatic people you will ever meet. And I mean offstage as well as onstage. He has quite an aura about him. You will feel that you are in the presence of a REAL magician.

Ben

If you want to really meet David Berglas then you can this January at The Session Convention. He should be around for most of the weekend before his event.

http://www.sessionconvention.com

Cheers

JakeThePerformer wrote:

Randy wrote:Are you talking about Steve Martin the comedian/actor or some other Steve Martin.

Steve Martin the comedian/actor is a card magician.

Steve Martin the comedian/actor is a magician. I would not be so quick to pigeon hole him as a card magician. He entertains magicwise with a lot more than cards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJCtOz32dnw

Steve,

Thank you for mentioning The Session Convention. I haven't been on the forum much as of recently. I am in the US and would have been unable to attend, but thank you very much for the information.

-Benjamin

Klangster1971 wrote:But I approach it the same way as I approach ACR - after seeing Tommy Wonder perform it, I never wanted to perform it again (and I haven't!). It's just something that is so perfect that it would be pointless for me to try and replicate it because I wouldn't be able to.

I realise this is an old thread that's been bumped up but I just looked up the Tommy Wonder ACR on YouTube and it is truly amazing. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrApPgoWZqE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thank you Zack.
I believe I saw that before.

I have seen Jonathan Royle doing Stuart Cassell's ACAAN live, and it is a sure and certain method, simple and direct. No uncertaintly. And not difficult to do. I won't say more, but if you like the effect, I recommend his method.

Personally I prefer the ID and Cards Across - far more entertaining to a lay audience. They don't care about impossibility. They care about laughs.