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Joshua Quinn Inner circle with an outer triangle 2054 Posts |
I'm not sure which was more brilliant: Eric telling the Aristocrats joke as a story deck routine, or the guy who did it in mime. But yes, his book is on my must-get list.
Every problem contains the seeds of its own solution. Unfortunately every problem also contains the seeds of an infinite number of non-solutions, so that first part really isn't super helpful.
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Kimura Special user 519 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-11-06 16:53, Greg Arce wrote: You've got me interested now, care to share the story? Then again, if the Aristocrats routine is based on true events in any way, I'm not sure I want to know |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-11-06 17:46, Kimura wrote: Well, I'd be paraphrasing Eric, but it had to do with the fact that a couple of magicians like Jamy Ian Swiss had been approach to come up with an idea with cards and Eric was brought on for brainstorming. They ended up not needing that segment so it was not shot. Suddenly, Eric gets a call from Penn that a segment was cut and he needed the trick in, but it had to be done under certain rules: under a minute and in one take. So Eric used those restrictions to come up with the best jokes and did do it in one take. Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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Kimura Special user 519 Posts |
Nice story, thanks for sharing!
I am looking forward to this book even more now. |
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anticoin Regular user 194 Posts |
For those who owns Eric's previous lecture notes, what is the level of difficulty involved?
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myoungbauer New user Minneapolis, Minnesota 92 Posts |
Hi anticoin!
I think it's hard to classify the materials difficulty, because it covered such a wide range of topics. For instance, he had a cool Necktie Prediction that relied on verbal suberfuge and such. On the other extreme, he had an ace cutting routine which relied heavily on Zarrow Shiuffles. So a little bit of hard core sleight of hand, mixed in with mentalism involving more spectator management skills. I guess I would classify the material as intermediate, but agian, it depends on what your interests and speicalties are Matt |
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Iain Moran Special user Manchester, England 693 Posts |
I have Eric's three sets of Lecture Notes which are amongst my favourites.
Apart from the sections on Memorized Deck and Vernon's Trick that can't be explained are there any other routines in there? Iain. |
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Silly Walter the Polar Bear Special user 506 Posts |
Quote:
Well, I'd be paraphrasing Eric, but it had to do with the fact that a couple of magicians like Jamy Ian Swiss had been approach to come up with an idea with cards and Eric was brought on for brainstorming. Bringing Jamy Swiss in for brainstorming would be like asking Michael Jackson to babysit your kids. Nothing good can come from it. |
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Markymark Inner circle 1686 Posts |
Don't be so silly! Go to his website and read those brilliant essays...go on!
http://www.jamyianswiss.com
''In memory of a once fluid man,crammed and distorted by the classical mess'' -Bruce Lee
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Peo Olsson Inner circle Stockholm, Sweden 3260 Posts |
Steve Bryant's Little Egypt Magic has a nice review of Tangled Web: http://littleegyptmagic.com/magic.html
Pictured to the left my hero and me during FISM 2006 in Stockholm.
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mushi New user Japan 52 Posts |
I received mine yesterday. I am looking forward to reading about the trick cannot be explained.
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algebraic Inner circle 1008 Posts |
This is now available at Viking and Denny and Lee.
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BrandonWilliams Loyal user 246 Posts |
I'm going to pick up my copy tomorrow, can't wait!
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aussiemagic Special user 937 Posts |
I got mine today!
It is good...but I need more time to take everything in.
How to become a professional magician:
Click here |
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tuffnavyrn Inner circle San Diego, CA 1238 Posts |
Awaiting mine in the mail anxiously.
Brian-
"That smart thing that somebody else said". |
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aussiemagic Special user 937 Posts |
I am really happy with this book. I particularly like the stand up routines. I am definitely going to try some of these routines out.
The essays are great too.
How to become a professional magician:
Click here |
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Jeff Corn Inner circle Las Vegas 1190 Posts |
I just picked up the book yesterday. Very regrettably, I had never really heard of Eric before the hype for this book. I only got to read through the first effect in the book, a very well done Copper Silver, and it definitely caught my attention. Based on the first effect alone, this has the potential to be on of the best books of the year. He uses psychology in magic that you don't see very often. He doesn't have to tell long, convoluted stories to make the magic entertaining and he explains the timing to the smallest detail.
Yes, that is my real name. Yes, I am a real person. No, you probably won't agree with me.
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boinko Elite user Illinois 427 Posts |
Eric's thoughts on the memorized deck are fantastic. The idea of "linked chains" -- fascinating. His ideas of handling the mem deck (any stack for the most part -- there's one specific section that's Aronson only, but all the other ideas can be used with any stack) are quite interesting.
One of the best magical *thinkers* I've read in a while. Fantastic book. |
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Dennis Loomis 1943 - 2013 2113 Posts |
I love this "little" book. I wish Eric has made it four times the size because I know he has the "material." Still, what he shared is just wonderful.
First, the thinking about magic generally is first rate. So many thoughts to really make you think about how and why you do your magic as you do. This is probably the most important thing about the book... at least for working performers. Second, the tricks and the thoughts behind them are just marvelous. I love the "neck-tie" trick, the trick with the dimes, his approach to the old 52 on one card, and so much more. Of particular interest to me was the section on memorized deck work, Jazzin, and his thoughts on Vernon's "The Trick That Can't Be Explained." Just brilliant is his method to cancel a regular riffle shuffle by a spectator and get your deck back to mem-deck order. This is not only diabolical, but eminently usable. In fact I've added this to my daily practice sessions. As a real plus, working with it is sharpening my ability to work with the stack "backwards." That's something I can do, but since I seldom had to use it, it could use some work. Meade's "cancellation" method is helping me to drill on it. This one item is worth way more than the cost of the book... at least to me. Dennis Loomis
Itinerant Montebank
<BR>http://www.loomismagic.com |
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alannasser Loyal user 213 Posts |
It's with great trepidation that I send this post to y'all. Eric Mead's book is to my mind an ambiguous achievement. In some respects it seemed to me eminently disappointing, and in others a sui generis masterpiece. Mead is perhaps one of the 3 or 4 most talented *performers* in the business. His personal style, wit, timing, tempo and sheer relaxed polish are *maybe* unequaled. I've always had trouble with the low-brow, hokey type of humor I've found in practically all performers. Perhaps this says more about me than about the "humor" itself; the fact is I feel embarrassed in the face of these performances, and they just don't seem funny to me. I am convinced that this has much to do with the class nature of our art's appeal. Professional and advanced-educated folks don't find magic as appealing as middle- and working-class people do. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard Copperfield's presentation described as "cheesy", I could afford a round trip to Paris. And there's no snobbery in claiming that humor that might be described as "intelligent" (I don't like the word either, but it's the only one that comes to mind) appeals to BOTH types of audiences, but is rarely heard from most magicians. Eric Mead,though, is the exception. He's never cheesy and his humor is bright without being pompous or condescending. He's zippy and alert, the kind of magician you could watch endlessly, as Greg Arce suggests he could, and still want more.
Mead's intelligence is one of the highlights of the book. It comes out in every one of the essays. His reflections about magic, i.e. about what the magician should think and say about the nature of his enterprise, are profound yet unpretentious and crystal clear in their expression. In fact, an especially insightful essay, on a dismissive attitude toward magicians found among the educated hipoisie (mentioned above), hugely expanded my own ****ysis of why so many of my occupational and social peers resist the attractions of our work. On the whole, I found the essays more satisfying than the routines, taken as a whole. So what's my beef with the latter? Perhaps my expectations were askew from the start. I'd have liked a healthy budget of knockout routines, with a few original sleights included among them. Instead I found wonderfully stunning and extended discussions of The Trick That Cannot Be Explained and memorized deck work. One or two others I found quite good, but there was to my mind a disproportionately large chunk of undistinguished stuff here. The kids' tricks were nothing special, and the mentalism section could as well have been omitted altogether. As I see it, three possibilities come to mind: maybe Mead simply held back on his best stuff. Or, and I hope more likely, the material I found unimpressive can't be done justice to on the printed page alone. That is, it might be that these effects' power can't be appreciated apart from their realization in Mead's polished and intensely amusing performances. Finally, the least likely of all explanations of my disappointment with this book: I'm just plain wrong; my judgement is, for as yet unrevealed reasons, skewed beyond repair. Nah... Best, Alan |
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