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Matthew Jones Loyal user 224 Posts |
So I'm planning on peforming Richard Osterlind's Digital Feedback Extraordinaire effect, for those of you who don't know what that is it's basically a forcing calculator effect done with a normal calculator, but because I'm going to be performing for a room filled with magicians and assistants some of them are the biggest names in magic atm:
Shawn Farquhar Bill Abbott Robert Baxt Daniel Garcia and many more that have been performing magic for a lot longer than I have. But what I'm thinking of doing is to ramp things up a little bit is to do this: If I can I'll have my prediction inside a big envelope and on an easel in the room that I'll be performing in the night before the competition and I'll have the people sign it with a Sharpie so they know that I'm not switching the prediction at all. When it comes time for me to perform it, if I'm on a stage I'll go up on it and choose 2 random people from the audience to come up on stage with me and I'll have the audience choose which person is going to stay on the stage with me by a round of applause for each person. That person will choose 5 random people and then that person will get off the stage and I'll have one of the people choose any calculator out of a box of about 10 calculators and then I'll go into the routine after that. When they get to their number I have another person in that group toss out my prediction into the audience and have the person read out the number and it'll be the same number that they got on the calculator the person freely selected. I'd like to know if that would be pushing it a little or not, I want them to know that I'm being as fair as I can be and I couldn't even plan this ahead of time. Let me know what all of you think. Hope to hear from somebody soon. Sincerely, Matthew |
Red Shadow Inner circle 1788 Posts |
Good on you for entering and I'm sure it will be lots of fun for you.
Since you've genuinely asked a question, I'm going to give you my honest response. Its not going to be what you want to hear, but its the truth. Your in a magic convention competition... Have you won at your local magic club first? You should really have placed in a smaller competition before you work your way up to the big ones for experience and practice. Your doing a trick which You have not done 1000 times before in a competition? Competition magic should be practiced, practised and practiced at hundreds of shows before you get there. It doesn't sound like you've really worked this routine in yet. This whole act is just one trick? You'll be going up against master manipulators and sleight of hand artiste, performing 3 routines and perhaps 50 effects. Mentalism is perhaps the least appreciated area of magic in competitions as everyone knows that your just doing a force. You might be masking it well, but that's it. That's the entire act just there. You force something. Its not really a trick that impresses magicians. What is the marking criteria? Are you being marked for skill, card sleights, presentation and originality? If so, youve already lost on those criteria. In a magic competition of this level, you really shouldn't be doing somebody else's tricks verbatim. You should either be doing something totally originally, or so beyond its original source that you cannot tell who it came from. Either way, this trick is so well known, it will not help you. Your trick involves volunteers... Are they accessible or are you performing on a stage with a pit, which means you have no way of getting helpers to you? Or will it take them 2 minutes to walk onto the stage, which will eat into your performing time and what do you have planned to fill in that 'dead time' while they get top the stage? Using too many volunteers will draw out the act and make it slow and boring. You need to use a maximum of 2 helps in a competition act otherwise your just burning performing time where you could be getting marks. Please don't let the above stop you from entering, but you definitely need a better act than the one you have proposed. You also need to have won somewhere else before going in at convention level. Steve |
Matthew Jones Loyal user 224 Posts |
Thanks for the reply Steve and the guidelines for the competition is you can only perform 1 effect and it has to be a minimum of 5 minutes but under 8 minutes so the whole thing about people performing 3 routines and 50 effects is not going to happen and it requires for me to have a minimum of 5 people on the stage with me, it's not that big of a stage, it'll take the people no more than 1 minute to get on the stage with me, it's just a 12'x8' stage.
I've actually performed this before for a lot of people already and it's played off very well and people have been greatly fooled by it, and most of the people that I've talked to from the Rings that are coming not many of them perform mentalism, they're more into cards and coin magic, and some general magic. The people that do perform mentalism there are actually more into Banachek's style of mentalism more than Richard's, so there's a good chance a fair number of people don't know this effect at all. No I haven't performed in any competitions before for the IBM but I have actually performed for a large audience before and I heard from Bruce (IBM Ring 92 President) that the judges are looking for presentation and entertainment, so it's not like a formal competition, it's just a competition showcasing the various magicians talents and skills. I've already entered into the competition and I'm not allowed to back out now so I might as well perform my routine, I do have another routine but the only problem is that it's not the right one to perform. I only have a total of 3 effects that are longer than 5 minutes, the only problem is that 2 of them are more like 10 minutes in length so those one's aren't that good to perform because of the criteria of the guidelines. Thanks for your reply and I'll let you know how it goes. |
Payne Inner circle Seattle 4571 Posts |
Don't clutter up the effect. Good mentalism is direct and to the point. Simply choose the five people from the audience. Or have the first choose the second the second choose the third and so on. But even this later method can severely slow the pace of the show. Ask if anyone has a calculator on them. If you get lucky someone will. If not you get a good opportunity for a laugh line. Simply hand the calculator that your going to use to the person to examine. Having them make a choice of one out of ten will simply slow things down. Don't toss the prediction out to the audience. This diverts the attention from the stage and will cause the audience to lose focus.
But above all concentrate on the entertainment aspect of the effect, not the mystery. The mystery will take care of itself. To stick out from the competition you have to be creative, interesting and above all original. You also left my name off the list of famous magicians that will be in the audience
"America's Foremost Satirical Magician" -- Jeff McBride.
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Excaliber New user 71 Posts |
Matthew
Listen to those who have given you guidence. Magic competions are brutal but fun , and no matter how many times you have practice in a competion your heart rate goes through the roof and you tend to speed up everything 1 because of nerves and 2 because your in front of magicians . Bringing guest on stage takes up more time than you think and w/ 5 people watch out. Time will run out on you quickly, also trying to get audience members from stage has a tendancy to make the rest of the audience stir crazy , I have entered many contest and won many major ones , I have also lost a bunch as well , due to mistakes and bieng to over confident . Good luck , magic competions are great and you will never forget ANY of them , good , bad and ugly |
Matthew Jones Loyal user 224 Posts |
Thanks for the reply Excaliber, like I said in an above post this isn't a serious competition, it's just one of those friendly competitions and I can't do this effect without having at least 5 people because it would be completely pointless to do this by myself and I've already entered in it so there's nothing I can do now unfortunately so I migth as well have some fun while I'm performing it, and I have actually performed for magicians before so it's not really that big of a deal and I've always liked being in front of a large audience.
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Chrystal Inner circle Canada/France 1552 Posts |
Hi Matthew,
Entering a magic competition is nerve wracking but also gives you such an adrenaline rush, I'm sure it won't be your last. Win or lose it's all about gaining experience and obtaining feedback regarding your act. The only thing I'm not comfortable with that you mentioned: is having the audience members choose your helper based on audience applause. I have to be honest with you and feel that would alienate the audience as it's putting someone in an awkward position in front of all their peers. At least that is my personal thoughts and perhaps others may disagree. You may just want to announce you need five audience members from the audience and if it's like most of the magic conventions I've been to - people always step up and help out fellow magicians. Good luck and let us know how it went! Chrystal |
Matthew Jones Loyal user 224 Posts |
I didn't get a chance to see your comment until now Chrystal and I've already performed it, I decided to opt that part out that you mentioned and basically chose 1 person and then had that person pick another person and to do that until I got 5 volunteers and then I just went on with the routine, unfortunately because my cameraman accidentally pressed the picture button and not the video button I have no idea what I did wrong or right, it went over well and they were genuinely fooled by it but they couldn't get past what I wore which is completely ridiculous, they thought I was wearing street clothes and that is far from being true, because I'm fat (trust me, I make Master Payne look anorexic compared to me) the only place I can shop at is the big & tall store and those items were not cheap, here's a detailed list of the stuff I wore:
http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng/men/shoe......inton/18 those are the US prices and I ended up paying $125 for those shoes can't find the designer jeans anywhere but I paid $175 for them, I'm not kidding you with that number. Can't find the dress shirt either but it's a 2 tone navy blue and white shirt that's similar to a bowling shirt which I paid $70 for and this desinger fleece jacket as well which I paid $90 for. If you went to a normal shop (other than Aldo's) and got the same things you'd need to buy most of the stuff from a formal dress shop like Pinstripe or whatever is in the US. Sorry to go on a rant but it's such a trivial technicality that I'm not dressed up in a glittery silver suit which would cost me about $2000 to get custom tailered for me and would make me look like an idiot, I can't get good dress suits because the only colors you can get for a big guy like me are black or really black. |
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