doublefacers

So, last night at a bar I started doing magic for friends of friends.  As we all do when we have too much to drink, but something interesting happened in the set.

I started doing more mind reading and risky magic.  If you guys haven’t seen my lecture on TMC, you should check it out.  I always end up doing this mind reading effect that is super easy but packs strong.  It’s basically a simple riffle force of a card and reveal it in a special way.  So after I did that, the natural thing the spectators wanted was me to do it again.  So I did.  I instant stooged one of his friends and had him read the person’s mind.  They wanted more.

I was in a risky mood, since failure now would not be a nice way to end.  I had the person think of a card and fanned the cards in front of his friends.  I literally made them guess what card he was holding.  Although now I was thinking that a 1 in 52 chance was basically 100% for some reason, the trick failed.  I looked puzzled and started to think what the hell I can do as an out but still keep it in the mind reading context.  I palmed out the card and asked one of their friends to see if his card was in the deck.  Acting confused why they couldn’t guess the card.  I kept asking what the card was (10 of clubs) and kept saying that I didn’t see it in the deck as the 2 were pulling out the card.  The friends agreed.  Having the named card palmed out, I just decided to put it into my wallet since I had a Card to Wallet in my back pocket.  So the problem was to reveal it not in the context of magic.  For example your card transported into my wallet.

So I kept acting confused and then in a moment of clarity, I told them that I think it’s not in the deck because I used it for a trick yesterday.  Then realizing it, I tell them I left it in my wallet!  Being excited (acting) I slowly pulled the wallet out and took the card out of the zippered compartment.

They freaked.

When we use “outs” or trying to come up with a good ending from something that went wrong, we always go to tried and true methods.  This is totally fine, but sometimes they can be out of context.  If I just pulled the card out of the wallet without the acting bit, it would seem as a magic trick.  Where the card transported to the wallet.  But in this case, they didn’t even think I used sleight of hand because in the context it seemed to make sense that I left a card in the wallet before.  The acting sells the fact that it was a coincidence.  It was also a great bit that the friends confirmed with my story of not seeing the 10 of clubs in the deck before.

It’s amazing what jazzing can end up.

My current obsession is the cover pass.  I am torn about doing a “diary” type of video updates on my attempts to clean up and make the actions of the cover pass better.  Maybe a count of hands from the readers will give me a better understanding of who actually wants this.

Note, while I will talk about techniques of the pass, I will not teach the pass in full.  I feel that giving you guys my train of thought as to how I go about learning a sleight would be beneficial.

Or we can make fun of shitty Youtube magicians.

Or we can do both…  Eggcellent….

There is a perception that hard sleights are just hard for no reason. You always hear from magicians, “That’s too hard. I’ll just do a double undercut.” or “That’s too hard, I am not a man so therefore I will do only girl stuff.” Okay, maybe not the first quote. While this kind of thinking is wrong in many ways, I do understand where they are coming from.

I would agree that the current trend of creating “original” sleights are becoming to the point where one creates something harder for the sake of variation.
In the old days, sleights were created to accomplish things.  To make things efficient. Now?  We see many kids making sleights different and “harder” so they can claim it as their own while they don’t add improvements.  Either its a lateral movement or even a step down.

From the above thinking,  hard sleight of hand makes you a “move monkey” or that you are “masturbating” for the audience now.

Bullshit.

Sleight of hand is all about making a certain effect come across clearer and more direct. The method being hard or not doesn’t matter. If you use a easy sleight that takes many steps to get to the same place as a hard sleight in less, then it’s a no reason not to learn the harder sleight.

Saying that a move is too hard is saying you are fucking lazy.  Magic is a Craft.

I always try to make sleights that are more efficient.  Usually they do come across as hard moves.  But if you take a look at the sandwiches I just recently put out, I personally feel that the moves in the trick are justified.  They aren’t just in there to make it harder for my own personal satisfaction.

We need to stop thinking in terms of a move being hard or easy, but instead think in terms of does this sleight make my effect come better?  Cleaner?  Less Suspicious?  If so, it doesn’t matter how fucking hard or easy it is.

the more and more you perform magic, the less and less you are in reality. You become trapped.

So this will be my updates on all the wonderful Facebook chat messages I get from magicians. The magicians are in red, and I’m normal.  PUN.

Chat 1:
how will i know if the jason brumbalow that emailed me was the true vp of E?
how the hell would I know
im doubting because he said that hes going to produce a video tutorial about my *CENSORED* change
stop for a second
why do you think I would know anything about this
or can help you?

Chat 2: (Mind you, he is 14 years old)
I am creating my own DVD project, just don’t know exactly, how to sell it
uhmmm
what?
well… if its good you can just contact magic websites
and see if they buy it. that’s basically it
I am making sure it is very good, quality, DVD, teaching
I compare it to really good videos
but is the content good? is it original? is it worthy of publishing?
honestly it’s a flourishing project
but what do I do, like send the menus to them or what?
uhh
the same but different content

Chat 3:
sup Tony! thanx for the add
np
by the way im lazy when it comes to research..who invented the doble lift?
ive always wondered
old as the hills
There isn’t a direct person they can attach the credit to.
someday ill invent an awesome move like that !! im gonna name it with my name so im not forgotten like the doble lift guy

Is it true? Maybe. I’m going to start posting again. Let’s make a goal here. 2 posts a week. Starting next week.

1 post will be serious and the other will be fun. Something about murdering ducks or something. Because everyone knows ducks are expendable. Right guys?

Stay tuned ladies.

-T