Yes Shaun, first loves have eternal charms…

IMHO, Shaun is spot on!

Being able to take provide a truly entertaining experience for 15...20...even 30 minutes with nothing but a plain deck and marker is the goal to strive for.
There's lots of incredible gaffs, one-shot wonders, etc.....but being able to sit/stand anywhere, anytime and rock'em....that's the holy grail IMHO.

For me.. the Holy Grail would be something so simplistic.. there would be nothing to figure out. The magician looks through a pack of cards, removes one, holds it up with back toward the spectator, and ask the spectator to name a card. The spectator names a card.. and the magician turns the card to reveal the match. No sleights.. no possibility of sleights or other manipulations. Hope the following isn't too much info, but after going for the Holy Grail I do this..keeping in mind men usually pick obscure cards like 3, 6 or 9 of Clubs or Spades. Women, of course, love to pick Queen of Hearts or Diamonds and sometimes 2 of Heart or Diamonds.. I stick the card back in the deck, shrug my shoulders and say..'Oh well..' ... and we laugh. I tell them that little trick usually works about once every 52 times.. they get the reference.. and we laugh again. While we're laughing, I glance through the deck, find the card they named, and bring it to the top. I create packets and do a magicians c----e about five or six layers deep.. let them discover their card is the last one remaining.. ask them again 'what was the card you named earlier".. and show them the last card remaining is the card they picked. This is simplistic stuff.. but it really works on a lay audience. And when the card they name IS the card I'm holding up at first.. about once every 12 times of so.. it leaves them speechless. That's MY Holy Grail.

My thought is it is getting more than a bit old.

We've been inundated by these ACAAN routines and it is time to move on. That's the explanation.
BTW, is it only me or has a certain someone's posts been removed from this thread? That may explain why this is starting up again.

Thank you for the encouragement.

The holy grail has to be the mastery of the Altman Trap. It's all downhill after that.......

You know, you are so right. Allan Ackerman makes it look sooooo easy!

Allan makes all the most difficult sleights look so easy, it’s almost annoying ! 😂

But the Altman Trap *is* easy, isn't it? Or does the natural pudginess at the base of my left thumb make it easier *for me*? Or do the cards separate for you after you do the trap, when you are pushing the card(s) over to turn them face down? Doesn't the trap make that easier too? These comments confuse me. I can barely do any sleight of hand any more but I can do that. What I have trouble with is the *glide.* What planet am I on?

Everybody has his own weaknesses and strengths, difficult things appear simple to others and vice versa. The extremely difficult stuff is hard for everybody…

For me the Holy Grail would look like this, spectator thinks of a card (he never says it out loud), and then in the fairer way he finds it.
I think that would be my Holy Grail if we were talking about effects, but if we were talking about the way your magic is felt I strongly think that if your magic is felt like real magic, at least for an instance, then that would be my Holy Grail.

Sorry if I made any mistakes by my poor english,
Cristobal

One that has to be high on the list of "grail" effects has to be "Given the Slip" as performed by Dai Vernon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpXLUoDcy6M

Those who saw it before the mods took it down, you have been blessed.