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Cameron Francis V.I.P. 7025 Posts |
How about you do what works for you and let other people do what works for them?
MOMENT'S NOTICE LIVE 3 - Six impromptu card tricks! Out now! http://cameronfrancismagic.com/moments-notice-live-3.html
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chichi711 Inner circle 5810 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-10-24 11:59, cfrancis wrote: Go for it. This is just a fun thread. It will be okay I promise. Do you use 50 things to cover your eyes though? |
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themindreader Loyal user 254 Posts |
Semantically 'partially free' may be considered a tautology, however you can have a partially free choice. If I were to hand you a die and you were to choose a number on it your choice of number would be partially free. It would not be entirely free as I have limited it to a number between 1 and 6.
Whats wrong with the word patter? Would plural soliloquy be better suited? The reason that blindfold acts put multiple blindfolds on if to emphasise to the audience that they are unable to see. If Salem did his, remarkable, blindfold act whist just wearing sunglasses or having 1 blindfold over his eyes many audience members would suspect that he was able to see through it. I think that most blindfold acts involve the performer knocking something over, Luke Jermay, Marc Salem and John Archer come to mind. Quote:
On 2006-10-24 11:50, Dannydoyle wrote: |
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the fritz Special user 647 Posts |
Hello all,
Good thread and good points, everyone. I'm trying to answer the original question "What do people in our field do that I think they shouldn't?" and I'm finding that two theoretical points in particular are helpful to me-- 1: the old "don't run when you're not being chased" overproving maxim; and 2: Michael Ammar's (among several others) exhortation that we assume our audiences are intelligent. This leads me to the conclusion that subtlety is best (for me anyway), or in other words "less is more." For example, Blindfolds... one is enough. Emphasis on a choice being "free" ... once is enough and perhaps maybe too much (For a comedy routine however, I do see the humor in offering one the opportunity to change their mind a half-dozen times). Showing the hands empty after a CT... not necessary. Though we may attempt to guard against overproving it is sometimes difficult to resist, isn't it? Probably because we're more excited than anyone else about the impossibility of what we just purportedly did. Perhaps we take ourselves a little too seriously sometimes. Just my two cents... |
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
In speaking with a well known magician -- I realized something that almost all of us do...
we use this sort of sentence structure when outlining an effect... "what I want you to do, what we are going to do, now we are going to, etc..." providing a "shot for shot" commentary on the activity that is going on. I have noticed scores of pro's doing this -- leading to borring wording and patter. Each and every word we use should be meaningful -- particularly when we are speaking of mentalism...
xxx
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Jim-Callahan V.I.P. 5018 Posts |
Boring mentalists?
C'mon Icy they are just missunderstood. J ack
“I can make Satan’s devils dance like fine gentlemen across the stage of reality”.
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
Nope...they're boring Jack! ;-)
xxx
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chichi711 Inner circle 5810 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-10-24 13:11, icy_rabbit wrote: boring to all? |
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
Maybe not to all -- but to most. I love all forms of magic/mentalism, love to watch performances ( even bad ones ) I have been bored to tears by some guys though. I have a deep rooted interest in what is going on on stage -- (lay public does as well, but not to the same degree)so if I was bored, they were INCREDIBLY bored...
xxx
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the fritz Special user 647 Posts |
Icy_Rabbit,
I agree with you that it can get boring when a performer gives what you call a "shot-for-shot" commentary during the trick. It is simply, in my opinion, very unengaging. I remember watching Larry Jennings (most would agree he was an amazing magician) doing his "Impossible" card trick from an old A-1 video and it seemed to me just about as dull as anything I've ever seen. I think it was because he used the "This is what we're going to do... now do this... now this is going to happen" style of presentation. |
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
Top pros in the biz do it all the time... Criss Angel is THE WORST for this -- watch him and you'll see what I mean...
xxx
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the fritz Special user 647 Posts |
Yes, I've seen him and he does it quite a bit. This isn't to say he isn't a skilled performer, however. I'm constantly amazed at how professionals in Magic, Genii and the like will write an article or do an interview stating their opinion that this is a bad idea--that a performer really needs to connect with his or her audience--and yet I see them on T.V., video, etc. doing the very thing they admonish performers not to do!
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Lamberto New user The Netherlands 99 Posts |
Free choice?
I don't need to say it because when I want someone to take a card, for instance, I shuffle the cards first and during the shuffle I'll drop some on the floor or table by accident, pick them up and add them to the stack. Everyone is confinced there nothing special with the cards. No words needed. |
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davybabybrazil Regular user Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 169 Posts |
Ok guys, I am glad I started the thread but the "Free choice" thing isn't as big a deal as calling yourself a mentalist or refering to effects as their real names. FOr instance I would never refer to a Magic Square as a Magic Square since method can so easily be sidcovered
It is hard to believe a man is telling you the truth if you know that if you were in his situation you would be lying.
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
I think that goes without saying...
xxx
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Carlos the Great Inner circle California 1234 Posts |
Point taken but names can add to the trick. Think of Stewart James' "Further than That". The way I have garned maximum response is to say the name, reinforce the name, then utilize the name in the effect.
-Carlos
Cognite tute
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tboehnlein Inner circle ohio 1787 Posts |
Only rule should be is that there are no rules
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Jay Are Inner circle 4186 Posts |
"we're going to place the paper into my stealth assasin wallet..."
makes you sound a little bit like James Bond ( or a crazy man ) ...
xxx
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Carlos the Great Inner circle California 1234 Posts |
Identifying the methodology is much the same as identifying the trick. Luke Jermay talks about the use of "false explanations" in his lecture. I noticed them during his performance in San Francisco last week and was instantly thinking about their implications in my own routines. Think of the idea of "invisible palming" and how that plays.
-Carlos
Cognite tute
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mike stevenson Loyal user 276 Posts |
Great thread. I would also add STOP saying nail writer.
I always state "Look, I do not have a piece of lead shoved into my thumb" and point to my thumb at this point. What they don't know is that it's actually attached to my other thumb (the pointing hand) Hehe, fools. |
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