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secondbaseman Loyal user Amsterdam 225 Posts |
Hey guys I am almost ready with a nice AC routine. I practiced it a lot and showed it to my friend, he thought it was great. But what kind of patter do you guys use when doing your AC and are 4 effects enough in the routine?
Thanks in advance Niels |
Ivan Hamaric New user Croatia 94 Posts |
About the Ambitious Card patter. The original patter goes (I might be wrong)something like this: "There is one interesting thing with this deck, with all decks of cards really. You see, cards are much like human beings, and there are always individuals who like to be the on the top. So, let's see who is ambitious in this deck."
Daryl, for example, uses the "I'll show you how magicians control the cards.", constantly bringing the card to the top.
"Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated, as to cheat..." Samuel "Hudibras" Butler (1612-1680) |
Tilt Veteran user L.A. 387 Posts |
Please don't ever suggest that cards are like human beings. It is my opinion that this is an insult to your spectator's intelligence. Cards are never like people, or bank robbers or anything of the sort. The only exception to this is Bro. Hammons Twins. And even with this I just use the cards to illustrate a story, not that these cards went out on a date, etc.
Tilt |
brownitus Loyal user 237 Posts |
I just tell 'em the card will rise to the top via my control. Simple, straightforward and they dig.
Take care, Bobby.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, US Commissioner of Patents, 1899
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Ivan Hamaric New user Croatia 94 Posts |
Tilt, don't you think you got my post just a little too literally?
"Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated, as to cheat..." Samuel "Hudibras" Butler (1612-1680) |
Tilt Veteran user L.A. 387 Posts |
No, I understand that you were quoting the original patter. I was just pointing out that this is horrible patter. My post was not directly referring to your post.
Tilt |
Peter Marucci Inner circle 5389 Posts |
I agree with Tilt 110 per cent!
The quickest way to turn an audience off is to used the words "I want you to imagine . . ." or "Let's pretend that . . ." One "name" performer is lauded by others, who should know better, for a dreadful performance of the Professor's Nightmare that involves saying that the ropes are three bears! Barf! Ropes are ropes; or maybe snakes; or something else that looks like ropes (vines, spaghetti, extra-thick dental floss, whatever) but NOT bears, fairies, stockbrokers, or anything else nonsensicial like that. As for the AC -- which started this thread, after all -- in table hopping I use a story about my mythical Uncle Linguini who joined a circus as a "card tamer"; that's like a lion tamer only safer -- he gets a deck of cards to do tricks (ambitious card and the story about Uncle Linguini continues). |
0pus Inner circle New Jersey 1739 Posts |
Boy, Peter, your Uncle Linguini sure got around! How may jobs DID he have?
I think patter is REALLY important to magic as an entertainment, and I dislike lame patter. I too have a particular distaste for the "representational" story. ("Here are three silks. The two blue ones on the ends are policemen and the red one in the middle is Harry Houdini." Please! ) For the AC, I would suggest patter to the effect that every manufacturing process does produce some defective products. Rather than eliminating the defect in the process, card manufacturers simply mark the defective card. It's the Joker -- that is the reason why serious card players always remove the Joker. It's defective. It can't be shuffled. (Show them with the AC routine.) 0pus |
ScottSullivan Regular user 103 Posts |
But don't you think that "card tamers" and "defective Jokers" (both of which are great ideas, by the way) are every bit as "insulting to your spectator's intelligence" as "representational" stories. Specators know that cards can't be tamed and jokers aren't so defective that they can't be shuffled just as they know that those three ropes aren't bears. I agree that most "represenational" patter you hear is pretty awful but a high precentage of all patter you hear is pretty awful. The right personality can make the right representational patter work. It's all about they guy doing the trick. It all comes back to that.
By the way, I don't think for a second your audiences are insulted by the card taming and the shuffle-proof Joker. I (again) think those are great ideas and I'm sure they play very, very well. I only mean to point out that the audience is just playing along with the fun you're creating and it's not impossible to create that same fun for them to play along with by using a "representational" story. |
Alexander the Magician New user 77 Posts |
I have nothing against representational patter when used properly. But for something like AC I do think it is better to speak along the lines of demonstration of either skill, or something someone else fooled you with. Something like that.
As for how many times... it depends on your patter, but also on experience. I like it to be flexible so I can gauge how it plays per preformance, and never go to long. Each one should be a bit different though. 4 is good, 8 is probably max. |
MisterE21 Elite user Salt Lake City, UT 426 Posts |
I stick with the a simple play-by-play and/or demonstrational patter for my AC. However, David Regal did a quick AC during his lecture here and used the patter of the card being trained like a dog. Instead of having the spectator sign the card, he had her draw a dog. I, personally, like the idea a lot.
Your EFFECT is only as good as its AFFECT.
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truellusionist New user Philadelphia PA 36 Posts |
I like that idea too MisterE21. A friend of mine uses it and includes 'Instant replay' to make it do a trick and also makes the card pant by bending it just to get some smiles It's pretty cute.
O'keito |
Curtis Kam V.I.P. same as you, plus 3 and enough to make 3498 Posts |
It's easy to overscript this effect. I think the most successful presentations involve emphasizing the magical events, not by re-interpreting them in terms of one story or another.
Magical events that occur just once may be placed into contexts that touch the emotions. Magical events that must be repeated to be effective also benefit from being interperted through the context of a story. (i.e. "Six Card Repeat") However, the AC is different. For full effectiveness, the AC must not only be repeated, but each repetition must build on the ones before. This requirement already places enough demands on your presentation. The addition of an emotional context may just be too much for one little card trick to bear. This does not mean that you should simply narrate the proceedings as if you were pitching "Ginzu knives". I'll cite as examples presentations that stay within the moment, drawing meaning from the magic itself, rather than layering it on with a story: Gary Kurtz: A presentation involving moving forward and backward in time. The card is chosen, signed, and placed in the center of the deck. It returns to the top, a couple of times, then loses the signature, and ends up even futher in the past. The event (the card returning to the top) is evidence of event greater magic, i.e. the entire audience moving staggering forward and backward through time. Rene Levand: Not with reference to his AC routine, (I'm not familiar with that) but consider his presentation "The Cards are Ancient Mysteries" or "I can't do it any slower") By telling the audience less (i.e. only that the cards are "mysterious") he cuts to the heart of the event, without anthropomorphism) Gary Kurtz/Slydini: Gary in particular, in the AC routine described in "Using Your Head" and Syldini in general, routined effects to emphasize ever-increasing "openness". In other words, the magician presents the efect over and over, each time more openly and fairly, until the spectators are convinced they have seen a miracle. Gary's routine starts with a clean ambitious sequence, then one where the audience is given the "backstage" view, then one in which they handle the cards a little, then more, and then the final phase, in which the spectator holds the deck in his hands, and does everything himself. Again, the script is written to include the audience and the card trick as characters. These presentations put the spotlight on the magical events without narrating the obvious. If you think this is a good idea, here's one minimalist approach to try: "The trick that never gets started." I've presented AC this way: The card is apparently placed into the middle of the deck. Then, implying that one of the spectators had not been paying attention, I'd say "Did you see what I did? I had his card, and I put it into the deck." and match actions to those words. The next phase: "Okay, so we're clear--Oh, did I mention that he signed his card? (showing card on top again) and then I put it right into the middle of the deck..." Hopefully you get the idea. no matter how lengthy, it's IMHO.
Is THAT a PALMS OF STEEL 5 Banner I see? YARRRRGH! Please visit The Magic Bakery
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rickmagic1 Inner circle MIddle Tennessee area 1544 Posts |
I can tell you, having seen him perform it before his video came out, Tommy Wonder's AC routine is one of the most magical. No story, just pure magic.
Rick
Richard Green
The Modern Conjurer Coming soon: Victorian Secrets: An Evening With The Spirits! |
houdini Loyal user N.E. Kansas 203 Posts |
If you are doing AC for relatives, you cant make up stories of uncles and grandparents because they will know you never had a Uncle Linquini.
Jim. Thats me on the left,Everyone should know the other guy!
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RC4MAG Special user 563 Posts |
Quote:
On 2003-06-23 06:30, One "name" performer is lauded by others, who should know better, for a dreadful performance of the Professor's Nightmare that involves saying that the ropes are three bears! You are so-o-o right Peter. Maybe a group of three year old would go for this three bear patter, but people want you to make magic out of something realistic to them. |
LobowolfXXX Inner circle La Famiglia 1196 Posts |
Quote:
On 2003-06-23 06:30, Peter Marucci wrote: It may be "nonsensical," but I think your approach is way too dogmatic. If it works for you, then cool, but I've seen way too many lay-audiences knocked on the collective kiester by, for instance, Bill Goodwin pretending that the cards are something as "nonsensical" as cannibals. Just because as magi we've seen something a million times doesn't mean the audience has, and if such a presentation is done well and consistent with your persona, it will KILL. "Kannibal Kards" is just the most obvious example of an absolutely AWESOME trick that would have to be discarded if we accepted this view as dogma. Re: Ambitious Card in general -- I absolutely LOVE using a 1-way force deck for this effect, forcing the odd card, and sheepishly saying after a few rises, "You've probably figured out how this is done, right?" (At this point, someone often will say, 'They're all the same!' which is GREAT for the kicker.) I continue: "After I learned this trick, somebody told me it would be much easier if all the cards were the same, so that's what I do now." There's a 1/2-beat of release of tension (laughs or groans) as they now "get it" (or think they do), then I say, "Of course, they're not all (spectator's chosen card); they're all (one-way force card)" and spread the deck face up to prove it with their card sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of the deck. For some reason, bringing the 5H to the top in a deck full of kings of spades is more magical than doing it in a regular deck. As I gather up the cards, I say sort of puzzled, "The weird thing it, it doesn't seem to make it easier...it sort of makes it harder."
"Torture doesn't work" lol
Guess they forgot to tell Bill Buckley. "...as we reason and love, we are able to hope. And hope enables us to resist those things that would enslave us." |
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