talkmagic.co.uk

ID.

Sorry everyone, this great trick is now in the public domain.

This week a street magician approached me and a few friends outside of a bar in Leicester Sqaure. He was alright and at one point he did the ID. It went down a treat, obviously. Such a great trick. One of my friends though, he was sort of impressed but then when the magic guy left, my (lay) friend said to us all "he was very good, but that one where you thought of the card and it was upside down. Thats just a trick you can buy".


Today I'm in Covent Garden and I went to that little magic shop stall. Front of the row of tricks is The ID. The sales man recommended sponge balls, the Linking Rings and The ID as the best of the bunch.

Personally I feel like if I do ID now, theres an increasing chance it's going to be noticed. Not worked out. But seen as a trick you can "just buy". If you can "just buy" something its not really very good is it. Or at least that's what I believe most spectators would think and I'd agree with them.

We all appreciate how different performances of a trick can make it more powerful, but I don't think this is enough to make someone think a trick they know about is something else.

What do you think?

The ID and sv*****i have been in the public domain as a "trick you can buy" for a fair while.
For me it is all about the performance, I like the ID as a gaff deck but I use it as an out or in the context of other prediction effects.
People know how you do sponge balls, doesn't stop the effects making people smile- as long as you show amazement and enjoyment yourself.

Ok, I.D. = ID, right?

(I'm not good on all this short hand stuff). . . Regardless, you should not worry about such things it us up to YOU and how YOU present an effect. Not only will you find multiple ways of pulling off the ID, there are many different modes of approach when it comes to presentation. Just your personality can and most likely will shift public perception, even how you're feeling that day will affect such things.

Many around here complain because I emphasize the difference in doing "tricks" vs. creating "magic". . . the latter happens when you learn how to take that "stock" bit of business and give the audience an "experience" that is unlike the more typical mode in which a thing is done. My favorite example of this is the little Bird Cage of Blackstone fame; for generations everyone that did this effect replicated the Blackstone handling in which the thing vanishes in an instant. But then we come into the 1980's and Billy McComb presenting the same little cage with a novel storyline. Rather than the instant vanish we are used to seeing he makes the thing dissolve beneath a translucent silk hank -- it's still one of the most enchanting effects I've ever witnessed, the presentation of a popular commercial prop that I've own at least a half-dozen of through the years (they do break when used @ high volume).

Look at the Cups & Balls, one of the oldest known effects in magic and yet, no two performers present them in the same way. This is one of those effects that can be found in nearly every child's magic kit sat on a department store's shelf during the Christmas season and so, it is "known", yet those of us that really get vested into the deeper mechanics of the piece not only make the method vanish and seem improbably, we are able to bewilder even the most educated amongst us.

Don't fear the idea that just anyone can go out and buy a trick you do in your act, very few will and out of that group, fewer yet will ever learn how to actually perform it in a manner that's entertaining and thus, a challenge to you. But at the same time understand that your challenge is to develop a mode of demonstration, perhaps even using a different method, so that you stand out as the exception. For an example, if you have a magic shop pushing that particular gaff, you could present Eddie Joseph's PREMONITION or one of its variants instead. You're still dealing with a called out card though the effect is slightly different (if you go with the standard bit).

Yes, it means footwork and research and yes, it may mean having to buy or borrow books that will give you insight to such alternatives. At the end of the day however, you will find yourself more competent, better educated and thus, better able to counter such situations in a creative and "professional" manner.

I perform the ID and the Sven usually, but they are two of the first things i learned.

Originally i was worried about people knowing how they worked or calling me on a "trick you can buy" but it turns out my presentation (which i still work on improving on a daily basis) threw people off the scent completely!

I even performed my Sven routine for some family members (2 of which have a Sven deck that i bought them to play with!) and they didn't even clock that it was a Sven deck!

So i think as Soveda and Craig have said, it is all about the performance, use them, make it your own and most of all don't worry too much about the method, focus on performing it to the best of your ability.

Much love

Aza

I was thinking of posting much the same as Mahoney has here...

I love my I.D. It's a wonderful deck and I use it loads, but I just see it for sale so often and so cheaply that I'm wondering if it's time is running out!

To me it seems different from a Sven deck, because although a Sven deck is probably more well known, it has more uses. (Or even a Stripper deck) Where as, once you know what an I.D. does, that's it, no matter how much you wrap it up.

Which leads me to my main point... Yes, the performance is of utmost importance, but...

I have two routines that I use with the I.D. One I've been using for ages which is my own and is a visualization type thing, and the other I'm pretty new to, but after mailing the extremely helpful Mr Voodini, I've been using his Through A Garden Darkly routine whenever I have a bit more time. It's a truly lovely piece of magic, and I'm rather proud of the reactions I've had from it! But here's the thing with the I.D. I can spend ages setting scene and atmosphere, running this Garden routine and it all goes perfectly... until someone who's somehow stumbled across an I.D. recognizes it and then, no matter how good my performance is, all the magic is shattered.

This argument applies to the I.D. more than any other deck, because it's only capable of one reveal, and it is so striking. And this lack of versatility would be what separates it from other traditional gimmicked decks.

That said, I have yet to have this happen to me, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. And for now, I still consider an I.D. an essential piece of kit!

(And if you have an I.D. I can't recommend this routine of Pauls highly enough! It's beautiful!)

My friends, fret not! While the ID is available widely to the general public, the same can be said of such things are the TT, sponge balls, svengali deck along with many others. Not once can I recall ever being challenged over any of them. I think that the folly of many magicians is to think that everyone is as interested in those magic stalls as we. The cold truth is that the vast majority of the people that we're performing for would simply walk on past these stalls and never take a glance at what's being sold there. People just don't care.

A quick tip for ID users:

When doing the reveal at the end, remove the face down card and place it face-down on the table. Put the ID back in the box and place the box in a pocket. Then, and only then, reveal the face-down card. This means that at the point of revelation, the ID is out of sight (and hopefully out of mind). Also, this means you can bring the 'deck' out of the pocket and ring in a cooler for the ID deck and continue on with your other miracles using a deck that can be fully examined.

"What do I do with the spare ID card?" I hear you ask. PM me for details.