talkmagic.co.uk

So I was performing at one of my residencies last night and having a pretty good time. One of the waiters always asks me to show him a trick and so last night I performed the standard ID on him.

Upon turning his 'merely thought of' card over he told me that was the best card trick I'd ever shown him.

I know how strong an effect the ID can be, but for some reason this comment irked me a little as I've spent so many years perfecting diabolical sleight of hand. Most of the tricks I've shown my waiter friend over the course have been some of my best sleight of hand tricks, yet the ID is the one he's going to remember.

I know this is only one man's opinion, but has anyway else ever experienced the same kind of scenerio? In the spectator's mind, how does the ID (for example) compare to sleight of hand effects such as ambitious card, triumph or torn and restored?

Sure, the spectator doesn't (and shouldn't) know whether you're using sleight of hand, gimmicks or whatever, but there was something pretty awakening for me to think that a trick costing around a fiver that can be performed well with a little bit of practice was more impressive than the tricks that have taken me years to learn.

I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth sometimes...

I always try to keep things as simple as possible, you can get some brilliant reactions from what are technically very simple effects. THe easier something is to perform then there's also less chance of something going wrong.

MagicBill wrote:this comment irked me a little as I've spent so many years perfecting diabolical sleight of hand.

Don't let it irk you - it's always about the effect and never about the method. Some ofthe best reactions I've ever had have been from really basic packet tricks... just accept the miracle!!


Sean

Reminds me on a meet up at a London meet and I performed a set with card on ceiling, coinvexed, card in sealed bottle from their jacket and some other closing miracle. They bought my drinks all afternoon but were more blown away with the ID performed by Beardy.

I was chatting away and asking them and they said it's because my tricks and presentation were amazing and blew them away but if they wanted to sit down and think of how it could be done they could probably work out some method to please themselves. With the ID they felt it was truely impossible to know the card they were thinking of.

Just accept it, pain in the backside that it is, it's just one of THOSE tricks

It's just the way it is. The first time someone sees a well performed OOTW they will be utterly blown away. If it is done right then OOTW is the best card trick of all time - and yet it's so simple to do and no real sleights required. The method is irrelevant - the impact is what matter and an ID packs a great punch.

If I need to worm my way in at a table with a strong opener I use the ID. If I have performed a good set and have had a good reaction without using as an opener, I use it as a closer.

This effect is so strong that nobody I have used it on has failed to be impressed. Nobody can work out how it is done or when you did it. The box sits on the table until the card is mnamed. You cannot have time to turn that c ard over it is just there face down.

But it is not just the effect, it is the performance tghat sells any trick. With something as easy to erpform as the ID you can concentrate on performance. Magicbill, your performance must have been damned good as well as the trick being very strong. Don't get irked about it, milk it!

why do you think dunninger paid hull so much money so he had the exclusivity for a few years?!

well, the brainwave deck...

Henry Hay comments in "Amateur Magician's Handbook" that you can make a reputation just as easily with a simple self-working trick like "The Whispering Queen" as with knuckle-busting sleights.

Barry

It just goes to show, the effect on the spectator is overwhelmingly the most important thing, not the method.

Welcome to my world!

Method is nothing, effect is everything; we are not jugglers.

Lawrence wrote:Method is nothing, effect is everything; we are not jugglers.

I often get exacerbated when I see a magician performing an effect using complicated and difficult sleights in order to make an effect seemingly more magical when you are not being chased in the first place.

For me personally the ideal would be to streamline an effect as much as possible to make it easy to perform. A whole routine of material you wish to perform happening to be self workers I would think should be the ideal? Obviously in practice this would be difficult to achieve if you wish to flow from one effect to the next "Excuse me while I put this deck away and retrieve another one of the 8 decks I have on me".

ID's work and work well. Nuff said

At my bro-in-law's 40th birthday I was asked by his brother to show him a card trick he could do at a dinner party the following night. I showed him Frenell's Aces from MacTier's Card Concepts, safe in the knowledge that even though it's a self-worker, it's so counter-intuitive that he'd never work it out. He got the working after a couple of goes, and I had him perform it for several guests to make sure he was OK with it. When people asked how he got the aces to the tops of the piles for the revelation he started by confessing that he didn't know, but after a while started to say "Ah, that's the magic!"

greedoniz wrote:["Excuse me while I put this deck away and retrieve another one of the 8 decks I have on me".

Ummmm, I actually haven't found that line to be much of a problem......

Pocket space would be my first concern, followed by reset and finally a spectator asking why you keep swapping decks or coins after each effect

I do use several decks. But I use a clean deck first. When I come to use the ID I leave the clean deck on the table so that when I put the ID away I can go back to it. I have a marked deck which I bring out to do You Do AS I Do, then use that for anpother effect, putting my clean deck away. So, with putting decks away and getting decks out that have a relevance to a specific trick I can do deck switches quite openly. And as I switch card work with sponge balls, some coin work and some TT work, decks are always going in and out of pockets.

I know that the purist magician will scorn this approach but it works for me.