|
|
Go to page 1~2~3~4~5~6 [Next] | ||||||||||
James F Inner circle Atlanta 1096 Posts |
So this is obviously just my opinion. I know a lot of people love the kinds of effects I am about to say I hate. Take this thread in jest. I'm just curious to hear what kind of effects other people really don't care for, or even hate.
As for me, I cannot stand 4 ace tricks. Man, I hate them so bad. As soon as I see an effect is a 4 ace trick, I skip it. The effect has absolutely zero appeal to me whatsoever. This also goes for cutting to the aces routines. Speaking of cutting to the aces, I loathe gambling effects to the very core of my being. Especially bridge deal effects. Really? Who under the age of 70 even knows how to play bridge? Just kidding, I'm sure some people do. But definitely not spectators in my age range that I perform for. Gambling effects just hold no appeal to me at all. It's not magical and it's boring. I also tend to not like packet tricks, but I do use a few of them. I used to hate oil and water routines, but I have recently gotten into them, so obviously these opinions can change. One more type of effect I hate is spelling tricks. Not all spelling tricks mind you, but just cheesy ones. An example of one I like would be "spelling bees" in Simon Aronson's book Try The Impossible. But the kinds of spelling tricks where you deal cards to spell words to find selections, those are the worst. "I want you to deal down cards one at a time, first spelling "the," and then drop the remainder one top. Now spell the cards value, you can lie or tell the truth by the way, then drop the cards on top. Now spell "of"" etc etc. Yeah, because that makes sense. These types of effects just scream self-working to me. Not that I have anything against self working tricks, they are actually my favorite types of card routines. But if the spectator can tell that you simply need to go through these steps and the trick will just work on its own, it comes off lame. So, what kind of effects do nothing for you personally? |
|||||||||
thesmilingmule New user 12 Posts |
Ace Assemblies - Everyone except Doc Easons presentation (which is the only one that makes sense)
Elevator Cards - Who cares? Pseudo "Cheating" routines - "We're going to play a game of poker... but I'm going to arbitrarily change the rules to fit this magic trick and ignore even the most basic of procedure" Oil and Water - Zzzzzzz Invisible Palm - Has anyone ever come up with a variation where it doesn't look like you're spreading cards on a table? SPELLING TRICKS |
|||||||||
SimonCard Special user 601 Posts |
I'm not a fan of ace assemble and oil water either.
|
|||||||||
Waterloophai Inner circle Belgium 1368 Posts |
Every card trick where the spectator is the sucker.
Every trick where the spectator has to choose a card, a cup etc. and he is wrong. Every trick where the magician wins the $100 and the spectator has a blank or a business card. |
|||||||||
0pus Inner circle New Jersey 1739 Posts |
Anything with incessant dealing (including 'spelling' tricks)
Any trick where a chosen card's 'mate' is found/used. I have to confess that magicians are the only people I know who call two cards of the same value and the same color 'mates.' I think that these tricks play very weakly. |
|||||||||
Tim Cavendish Inner circle 1404 Posts |
Six. Card. Repeat.
|
|||||||||
Harry Lorayne 1926 - 2023 New York City 8558 Posts |
I make "jaws drop" with some spelling tricks and certainly with some ace assemblies. Have been for decades. Taught most of them in my books - and, can you believe this? - literally thousands, for decades, from all over the world, have told me that some of those effects/routines of mine have become permanent parts of their repertoires.
Can it be? Possibly? That you hate certain things BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DO OR PRESENT THEM RIGHT/PROPERLY/ENTERTAININGLY? Or that the people you've seen do them can't/don't present them right/properly/entertainingly? Just askin'. smilingmule: Don't buy JAW DROPPERS TWO(not that I expect you to anyway) because my Miraculous Oil & Water will put you to sleep. And you'll hate A-M-A-Z-I-N-G PLUS because there is - Oh My Lord - some spelling involved. Interesting thread.
[email]harrylorayne@earthlink.net[/email]
http://www.harrylorayne.com http://www.harryloraynemagic.com |
|||||||||
warren Inner circle uk 4138 Posts |
James F Out of interest when you say you hate 4 ace tricks does that mean that you never perform effects using the 4 aces for the paying public as most lay audiences really enjoy 4 ace effects from my experience ?
Personally I don't think there is a particular plot that I don't enjoy if it's performed well from an entertainment point of view, there are however some plots that I don't perform because I haven't found the right presentation. |
|||||||||
SimonCard Special user 601 Posts |
Magicians are also audiences. They don't like some effects not because they can't perform them, just because they don't find it interesting. Just like some people don't like certain types of music, not because they can't play those kinds of music, simple because they don't find them beautiful.
The only oil/water that seriously fooled was a video posted on magicvideodepot.com many many years ago. It baffled me for years, and then it was published in Blomberg Laboratories. It turned out that the video posted on magicvideodepot.com was made by Tomas Blomberg himself. |
|||||||||
Gerald Deutsch Special user 526 Posts |
I posted this on the Perverse Magic thread of the Genii Forum on May 1, 2004:
Cutting The Aces Cutting the Aces is a show of skill. How can this be presented as "Perverse Magic"? What I do is remove the aces from the deck and then insert them in different parts and shuffle the deck and say I will cut to the four aces. The first cut reveals a five of clubs. I say I will try again and the second cut reveals the five of hearts. Frustrated, I try again and cut the five of spades and finally a fancy cut reveals the five of diamonds and with disgust I say "I quit!" There are several additions "Perverse" 4 ace tricks that I posted on that thread - see September 1, 2015 - October 1, 2015 etc |
|||||||||
DaveGripenwaldt Elite user 487 Posts |
Interesting thread!
With all the caveats firmly in mind about personal opinion, taking the thread in jest, a different presentation can change everything, one man's meat is another man's poison, etc.... Spelling tricks drive me screaming from the room. Which, I admit, can be distracting for the audience. Good opportunity for creating an off-beat, though... |
|||||||||
cfirwin3 Loyal user Rochester, New York 233 Posts |
"Okay... think of any number... now divide it by two... now add 3 (for no reason)... now deal off that number of cards and then cut the deck... etc."
I HATE tricks like this. They have no magical effect for me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE self-working tricks. Self working tricks can fry brains and keep the tension off the performer and allow them to perform. BUT... I just can't stand the ones that are so blatantly self-working! Mathematical equation based card tricks are the absolute crud at the bottom of the fish tank for me. As an aside: Gerald Deutsch, that 4 ace take is AWESOME! I'm going to try that first chance that I get. You could call it "Murphy's Aces". Just send me the royalties for the title. |
|||||||||
Gerald Deutsch Special user 526 Posts |
Quote:
On Aug 24, 2017, DaveGripenwaldt wrote: |
|||||||||
Gerald Deutsch Special user 526 Posts |
Quote:
On Aug 24, 2017, DaveGripenwaldt wrote: I posted this (with explanations) on the Perverse Magic thread of the Genii Forum on April 1, 2017: Spelling Tricks Background Spelling to a selected card – that is – dealing one card for each letter – as for example “f-o-u-r—o-f—c-l-u-b-s’ and finding the 4C at that spot is a popular effect of card magic and can be presented as Perverse Magic in the 6th category of Perverse Magic – the performer explains something that will happen but he doesn’t understand why it happens (see above November 1, 2011 under “Cigarettes”). (I posted some effects using spelling on this thread above. Note for example “First Perverse Ambitious Card Above” January 1, 2015.) I use three different presentations of spelling effects, two of which originated with effects in “The Royal Road To Card Magic”, the first, “Double Speller” on page 163 and the second “Gray’s Spelling Trick” on page 63. I’ll describe my handling of all: (Also – as with most effects – I don’t perform them as suggested but use my own style and handling. So, for example, I don’t believe it’s necessary to use The Pass to control the card in Double Speller and I don’t trust the spectator to correctly mentally spell the card in Gray’s Spelling trick. Effect – Double Speller A card is selected, say the AD, and put back in the deck and the deck is shuffled. “I don’t understand why this works but let me try it. Here, hold the deck,” says the magician as he gives the spectator the deck to hold. “Your card was the 5S now watch,” say the magician as he pulls one card for each letter of the 5S from the deck the spectator is holding and when he’s done shows that the last card remaining on the spectator’s hand is the 5S. “I really don’t understand how that works,” he says. “But that wasn’t my card,” says the spectator. The magician is confused. “What was your card?” “It was the AD.” The magician scratches his head. “Let me try that again,” and again he pulls one card from the packet the spectator is holding for each letter of AD and this time when he’s done the AS is face up on top of the pile in the spectator’s hand. “I really don’t know how that works,” says the magician looking confused. Effect – Gray Spelling Trick I prefer the Double Speller BUT – sometimes the audience will sort of feel sorry for you when you name the wrong card and successfully spell it and NOT say it’s the wrong card. If I feel the spectator may do that I will use this version. Here the card is selected and shuffled back and the deck is given to the spectator to shuffle. When the magician gets the deck back he runs spreads the deck face up telling the spectator to make sure the card is still there. Then he gives the deck to the spectator and asks the spectator for the name of the card and again, as in the Double Speller version above, pulls off one card for each letter and at the end shows the selected card, confused as to how it works. Effect – Where the Heck Is That Card Here again the card is selected and shuffled back and the deck is given to the spectator to shuffle. When the magician gets the deck back he asks for the name of the card and pulls off one card for each letter and at the end shows – an indifferent card! He is confused and looks through the deck but can’t find the card and gives the deck to a spectator while the magician reaches into his pockets with empty hands and then finds the selected card and he is puzzled as to how the selected card left the deck and wound up in his pocket. |
|||||||||
MagicJuggler Inner circle Anchorage, AK 1161 Posts |
It's funny, for every type of trick I don't really like doing there are exceptions because the method or presentation is so good. Though I've come up with a routine that is partly combining existing tricks and a marketed trick where I introduce the trick as being my attempt at an original card trick. I first explain that 90 percent of all card tricks are pick a card tricks, and of the remaining 10 percent 90 percent of those are tricks with the four aces. So I declare I'm not going to do any of those and ironically the trick ends up being a four ace routine with four signed selections as well. I start out trying to do something original and the magic that happens is the very thing I'm trying not to do.
Matthew Olsen
I heard from a friend that anecdotal evidence is actually quite reliable. |
|||||||||
cfirwin3 Loyal user Rochester, New York 233 Posts |
Harry, I love you and your stuff. Wouldn't be here talking to all of these fine people without having read some of your stuff.
Truth be told... I wouldn't have passed my 6th grade spelling tests and my high school history exams all those years ago without having read your stuff. |
|||||||||
Steven Keyl Inner circle Washington, D.C. 2630 Posts |
I agree with most here that spelling tricks are not inherently entertaining. For it to be worthwhile you really have to connect it to something, whether the presentation or the reveal--it had better be worth it.
Having said that, the first trick I always do with a borrowed deck is a spelling trick! (although I never perform it with my own deck) It's Michael Vincent's Intuition Speller. I play it off as though I'm attuning myself to the deck, the way a violinist would tinker with a violin they hadn't played before. Another plot not mentioned yet are "All Backs" routines. I want to like them, but I just don't.
Steven Keyl - The Human Whisperer!
B2B Magazine Test! Best impromptu progressive Ace Assembly ever! "If you ever find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause, and reflect." --Mark Twain |
|||||||||
Ben Blau Inner circle 1475 Posts |
I personally dislike most packet tricks where card faces and backs disappear, reappear, change colors, etc. I remember when I was much younger, I thought I hated all card tricks, because it always seemed like essentially the same trick to me. I still feel this way, more or less, about these kinds of packet tricks. I think they're mostly interchangeable in the mind of the audience. Also, they're just about "The adventures of the cards in the magician's hands", as Eugene Burger used to say.
Don't get me wrong -- if you perform packet tricks and are getting the quality of attention and reaction you desire, my opinion is irrelevant. This response is just my personal impression of this kind of magic.
Ben Blau
http://www.benblaumentalism.com |
|||||||||
Mike Powers Inner circle Midwest 2983 Posts |
I have to admit that the trick that "got me into magic" was Ronay's Sympathetic Cards. At the end the backs of the cards are all different colors and the cards are examinable. A juggler friend took me into Tannen's in the late 1970's. The demonstrator sold me an Invisible deck and some flash paper. Then he did the Ronay item. It blew my mind that I could examine the cards. I bought it for something like $5.
Weeks later I tried to learn it. The Elmsley count and Jordan count were explained on the back of a bridge sized card with no illustrations. One on each side! I couldn't follow the handling and gave up. A few days later I was determined to learn the trick and finally saw the light on each of these counts. My eyes were opened. So this is what sleight of hand is. The audience sees something but that's not what's really happening. I found a teacher and practiced my ass off. A year later I was doing some good stuff. Mike
Mike Powers
http://www.mallofmagic.com |
|||||||||
mrehula Loyal user 209 Posts |
Magicians seem to believe that 'weighing the cards' is a big effect for audiences. I've yet to see a version that impressed me. Who even needs that skill? What practical purpose would it have?
|
|||||||||
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The workers » » What card plots can you not stand? (21 Likes) | ||||||||||
Go to page 1~2~3~4~5~6 [Next] |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.05 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |