Please tell me how advanced I am

Struggling with an effect? Any tips (without giving too much away!) you'd like to share?

Moderators: nickj, Lady of Mystery, Mandrake, bananafish, support

Please tell me how advanced I am

Postby SpongeBallSlight-of-hand » Jan 31st, '06, 23:02



Well, I live in the US. I don't live in the UK, like you mates.

Unfortunately, this was the only forum I could find, (only found UK magic forums).

Also, I've waited 2 days and only gotten 1 response. I'm kinda anxious, hehe.

I've been praticing slight of hand since I was 9. I'm 17.

I can do sponge ball tricks really good. I can take them with a pertition vanish, then convert it to a thumb palm,then to a finger palm, then back.

I found that that converting it to the thumb clip on any slight with sponge balls fools most people.

It took me alot of pratice. I would pratice for hours in front of a mirror. I've been doing it for years. I've heard you can do it and master sponge balls in only 10 minnutes. This kinda strikes me as odd, because everyone I let try to do (and tell how) can't. They aren't even close!

I searched around and found a website that listed sponge balls as "Intermediate" slights.

I want to be a professional magician at parties, etc. This one trick was with a quarter, converting it to a large quarter. I don't have a texudo. I can't do many of the tricks.

I've decided I will probably do sponge tricks for termilly ill people to make them happy, or elderly people. Alot of old people it really doesn't interest them, they say an unethusiatisc "Wow..".

Women especially seem alot more baffled.

One thing I can't do...I can't palm a quarter without my hand lookin nature. This takes some SERIOUS practice. I heard one way is to tape a quarter to your hand for months. I Try it, but my hand NEVER looks natural, even when I barely hold it. Its extremely difficlut.


I was able to do the finger rolling slight, (move a quarter between each finger, as it falls from one to another, and back again) much easier and mastered it than doing the quarter palm.

So what is the 'next step' for sponge tricks?

It's really not a challenge. I can fool anyone now (with my 6 years of pratice) with no effort.

I want to do close up magic, please.

I Still can't do the 'quarter melt through hand' trick, its too hard.

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand
Preferred Member
 
Posts: 151
Joined: Jan 31st, '06, 03:58

Postby moonbeam » Jan 31st, '06, 23:08

Best advice I can offer atm is to post a video of yourself performing a selection of tricks, etc - then people can judge for themselves how good/bad you really are and offer u genuine tips and advice.
Just my two-penneth :)

QUESTION:
If we can sue McDonalds for making us fat and cigarette companies for giving us cancer; why can't we sue Smirnoff for all the ugly gits we've sh*gged ??
User avatar
moonbeam
Elite Member
 
Posts: 2472
Joined: Oct 22nd, '05, 10:59
Location: Burnley (56:AH)

Postby ace of kev » Jan 31st, '06, 23:10

I will give you some advice here.

DO NOT STICK TO JUST ONE TYPE OF MAGIC

Go out and buy Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, The Royal Road to Card Magic and Modern Coin Magic.

These are 3 brilliant books (Although I only own 2, I need to get Modern Coin Magic, but I know it is brilliant), and if you study these then you will find that your magic will be more enjoyable, and not so repetitive like a sponge ball vanishing and re-appearing.

PS. try and find out if you have a local magic shop, and if you do VISIT IT AS SOON AS YOU CAN :D. Ask the man/woman behind the counter for what you want and I am sure they will not have a problem helping you out choosing some stuff :D

Hope that helps

Kev

User avatar
ace of kev
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 1835
Joined: Sep 20th, '05, 20:52
Location: Dundee/Glasgow (AH:20)

Postby SpongeBallSlight-of-hand » Feb 1st, '06, 04:06

moonbeam wrote:Best advice I can offer atm is to post a video of yourself performing a selection of tricks, etc - then people can judge for themselves how good/bad you really are and offer u genuine tips and advice.
Just my two-penneth :)


How? I Don't have a video camera, and I don't have a phone that can take video, that seems very difficult to do.

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand
Preferred Member
 
Posts: 151
Joined: Jan 31st, '06, 03:58

Postby SpongeBallSlight-of-hand » Feb 1st, '06, 04:07

ace of kev wrote:I will give you some advice here.

DO NOT STICK TO JUST ONE TYPE OF MAGIC

Go out and buy Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, The Royal Road to Card Magic and Modern Coin Magic.

These are 3 brilliant books (Although I only own 2, I need to get Modern Coin Magic, but I know it is brilliant), and if you study these then you will find that your magic will be more enjoyable, and not so repetitive like a sponge ball vanishing and re-appearing.

PS. try and find out if you have a local magic shop, and if you do VISIT IT AS SOON AS YOU CAN :D. Ask the man/woman behind the counter for what you want and I am sure they will not have a problem helping you out choosing some stuff :D

Hope that helps

Kev


Kevin, my name is Kevin too. Thanks for the tips.

By the way, I do have the "Complete course" of magic. That's how I learned my sponge ball rounte, I then modified it. I also learned the knuckle to knuckle coin florish.Still can't get the coin palm down. It is very difficult.

I don't know how to link up a video without a vdeo camera or video recorder.

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand
Preferred Member
 
Posts: 151
Joined: Jan 31st, '06, 03:58

Postby Zero000 » Feb 1st, '06, 06:10



ooh yay, i have all three. yeah i think 6 years of practicing of sponge ball magic is very impressive, but if you're wondering if you are not good after 6 years?! you got to have confidence, you have to have friends to tell you if it was good or not and the such. "magic buddy" i guess, they help out alot.

i agree with kev, explore differnt types of magic, it may suprise you about how much you like cards or coins or whatever

?!~

For crying out loud, the msn button under my name is to talk about magic with me, NOT A FREE MAGIC GIVEAWAY LINK. dont abuse it
Zero000
Senior Member
 
Posts: 742
Joined: Sep 6th, '05, 07:59
Location: Virginia, US (17:SH)

Postby FlipBack » Feb 6th, '06, 19:30

Are you advanced compered to what?

User avatar
FlipBack
Preferred Member
 
Posts: 132
Joined: Jul 18th, '05, 19:05
Location: Canada

Postby SpongeBallSlight-of-hand » Feb 6th, '06, 20:21

Sorry for calling you dude, it's a habit. Maybe it's a US thing. Some folks can take offence to it... Of course. They even say I'm extremely skilled. I'd say the hardest part of all of this was getting down the retentino vanish with a coin from my right to my left. He said I gotta do all the moves in A SECOND? Isn't it better to sometimes go slower and not so fast, as to not arouse suspicioun, I think 2-3 would be better, I can do it fludily.

What's great is this. Whenever I used to use misdirection, for example, with the classic palm, and I even looked at the left hand, my right hand must've looked ackwarfd, and they always spotted it. Almost always.


But lately, I've had a breakthrough. I figured out how to do a thumb clip with a coin (learned it from a spongeball), while pretending to put it in the left hand. From there, I saw clearly before I do , and show what I'm going to do, "Now, the great thing about silver coins. (It was real 90% silver half dollar, 1964 date) is that they are heavy, and if you watch carefully, you can see them vanish in thin air. As I raise my left hand up 3 times, at the apex of the top, it will vanish in thin air."

Yeah, I know the patter sucks, but at least it focuses their attention on the right hand. It kinda sucks I live in arizona, and if I'm not super careful a very very tiny flash will set off a castrophe of light, because I use bright silver coins.

Then, as I'm raising my left hand up, counting "1..2...3" at around 2, I quickly slip my coin in my pocket (and you gotta do it quickly), then bring my hand back, AWAY FROM MY POCKET. This seems so critical. When it's near the pocket, the children will always say, whether it's in the pocket or not "It's in your pocket!". So annoying.

So that way, they can't bug me. Since I'm holding it at my TT (finger tips, not the magical prop) (I can even hold iat tmy finger tips) and since I gotta do it so fast, and remember, I don't have a texuedo, I just have plain shorts.


So sometimes if I' not careful, the coin will fall to the ground instead, Oops! (When I miss the pocket)

Unfortunately, I don't know any complex sleights yet, like the heal clip. I Just ordered Bobo's Modern coin magic off amazon, so hopefully it will have some sleights that guy on google does. (He literally shows his hand empty, or does a dang good job of making it look empty).

When I get a webcam, (Maybe I'll get it for my birthday, in 7 days) or rather if, (They cost around 4o to 90 US dollars. I guess we're gonna buy off eBay)

Sometimes

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand
Preferred Member
 
Posts: 151
Joined: Jan 31st, '06, 03:58

Postby willy_master_magician » Feb 12th, '07, 04:18

Yea i live in the U.S too WOOT, although i live all the way in Florida, Cape Canaveral to be exact.

willy_master_magician
Full Member
 
Posts: 56
Joined: Feb 4th, '07, 21:02
Location: Cape Canaveral FLorida


Return to Support & Tips

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests