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whateverisisright Regular user Savannah, Georgia 132 Posts |
Hindsight
Effect By: Justin Miller Website: http://www.closeupjm.com Hind·sight (hînd'sît'): n. The perception of the significance and nature of events after they have occurred. The Effect: As with all of his effects, a preview can be seen at his website, this one on the Hindsight page ( http://www.closeupjm.com/hindsight.htm ). The following is the description per the back of the DVD: "Here is the basic effect. A blue-backed card is shown and set aside. The magician brings out a red-back deck of cards and in a floursh proceeds to produce four of a kind. Wait, there's more. An audience member selects and signs the face of the card. The signed card is placed face-up in the middle of the 4 four of a kind produced earlier. Instantly and visually the signed card disapperars and only the 4 cards remain. Each card is counted one by one to show that the signed card is indeed gone! The Blue card is flipped over on the table and it is seen to have THE SPECTATORS SIGNATURE ON IT. They keep it as a souvenir in magic land. No rough and smooth! ALL the backs are "seen" on each card throughout the effect! NO tell-tell moves at any point in this routine! Included is an instructional dvd with quality sound and crisp picture and the necessary "thing" needed to get you seeing in Hindsight!" Purchasing/Shipping: Justin's on top of his game when it comes to customer service. He's friendly to deal with and willing to help. The item was shipped on a Monday and arrived on a Thursday. Nothing more to say here. The DVD: The DVD comes in a standard plastic DVD case with the cover being the same as the picture seen on the Hindsight page of his website ( http://www.closeupjm.com/hindsight.htm ). The DVD is 28 minutes long of Justin teaching the effect step-by-step.. It's a "home-grown" effect, so you get a very personal feel, and the quality of both the sound and video is good. It also comes with the extra item needed to perform the effect. Replacements for that item when it gets worn after a good bit of use (or gets lost) are easily found for very cheap at most magic supply stores. Teaching: Justin's as good as he always is. He starts by going over the pros and cons of classic mystery plot effects and discusses his take on it. He covers all the bases starting with the set-up for the effect, how to get into it, and discusses the psychology behind the opening patter he uses. He then goes into the effect and goes over each move of the effect itself individually. There's one sleight he doesn't go into that he expects you to know or look elsewhere to find, but its a very basic sleight that any mid-beginner card worker should be familiar with. Difficulty: It's not a difficult card routine, but I recommend having a basic understanding of card handling before trying this effect for 3 reasons: 1) As said above, there's a very common sleight Justin doesn't teach; he assumes you know it and refers you to another reference if you're not familiar with it 2) Justin gives you the opening line to his patter and tells you how to end the effect, but he doesn't discuss patter mid-routine, leaving it open for you to use your creativity to develop your own 3) the biggest selling point of this routine is performing it with smooth natural motions that can be difficult for beginners. Justin goes into a good bit of detail making sure that the back of the DVD is accurate when it says "NO tell-tell moves" by going over nuances and small moves that make the routine flow. Part of the greatness of this routine is getting to see what it looks like for a true professional to fly through these moves with the smoothness and effectiveness of Justin Miller...and by studying his teaching, the same smoothness isn't far out of reach. It IS worth the effort. Overall, it's not a card routine beginners will be doing on Day 1, but for anyone more comfortable with cards, the routine will start becoming second nature after a few run-throughs. Where to put it: I'm not sure why this question jumped to mind with this particular effect more-so than others, but it did. There are some effects that are so strong that there's no doubt they'll be used as closers. There are other effects that are "fun," but not all THAT powerful that make good openers. Hindsight seemed to hide somewhere in between the two extremes. It's almost too strong to be an opener, but at the same time, not as visually amazing as something like X-Marks The Spot (see review here: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=109 ) for closing. I think it would best suit a performance if placed midroutine. I e-mailed Justin about it considering he's probably experimented with it more than any of the rest of us ever will, and he responded with the following: "Your right on Hindsight. I would use it in the middle of a set. It really can stand alone but if you use it in a set with a theme of "premenitions" or using Hindsight to help see the future then it plays very strong." Overall Pros: - The problem with most mystery-card plots, even the one Justin teaches on Army of 52, Stranger Card (seen here: http://www.closeupjm.com/armyof52.htm ), is that at SOME POINT in the routine, the predicted card has to come back in contact with the deck. Not with this one. Once you move the card to the side (BEFORE the spectator signs their card), the prediction card never comes near the deck again. While a layperson may or may not notice it, this aspect makes it a partcularly good effect to do for other magicians. - It's fun to perform. This is a routine that requires little set up and can be versitile in the amount of time it takes to perform. You can do it as a quick card trick on its own, or tie it into a routine and use it to fill longer time spot and it'll remain just as intriguing. - The spectator gets to keep their signed card. Anytime you can hand off part of the magic to the spectator, its a good thing. It gives the audience something to hold on to. Overall Cons: The only one that comes it mind is that you end dirty. Clean up isn't difficult (it doesn't get much simpler than this), but is neccessary if you're going to put it mid-routine...kind of. If performing for friends/family, you could get away with continuing your card routine without doing anything, but if you want to be 100% clean, you will have to do a small clean-up move. Final Word: In Volume 1 of his Revelations Video Series, Dai Vernon discussed the different points of a "good trick." One point that he made was that from a spectator's point of view, "Details should be in there, but they're all lost. They see nothing but the effect." In Hindsight, there are several sleights and hidden movements taking place to keep the magician busy, but from the spectator's point of view, they don't see all the details; all they see is the effect. Vernon went on to say that a good trick is one that can be easily described. Again, Hindsight fits the description. It's simple: A card that was placed aside before the effect even begun emerges with there signature on it. I'll definatly fit this effect somewhere into the middle of my routine. For an effect as seemingly impossible as this is, it's definatly worth the $20.00. It's fun to watch the spectator's look of astonishment when the ONE card that's been sitting off to the side since BEFORE they signed a card has their signature on it. They won't be able to figure out how it was possible...not even in hindsight.
Jimmy Smith
smith_cj@med.mercer.edu |
PasteboardPlayer New user 70 Posts |
I'm sorry, but I am not of agreement that this is the "cleanest mystery card effect to date." To me, this method contains unnecessary moves to overprove and an unnecessary gaff(s). Also, I feel at the point of the final revelation, a sketchy move is happening. In the demo video, the move looked rushed in order to prevent flashing. A better example of a switch done under fire is the one used in Hamman's original "Your Signed Card." That switch just flows so nicely and also has a reason. For obvious reasons though, that switch cannot be done in this routine, but I am sure there are less suspicious methods to reach the final position.
A more straightforward routine that fits this plot quite well is Darwin Ortiz's "Psychotronic Card" from Cardshark. The effect is essentially the same, except the selected card does not change back colors. This was another aspect of "Hindsight" that I feel is very confusing. Exactly "why" does the selected card change back colors? As with "Psychotronic Card", the effect is a VERY clean vanish of a card from between an odd backed 4 of a kind. The prediction card, which has been reversed in the pack prior to the routine beginning, is turned over by the spectator to reveal the signed selection. The prediction and selection are of the same back color but the 4 of a kind is odd backed. This combination produces a wonderful vanishing moment where you can cleanly show 4 backs and 4 fronts, without really hiding anything. I feel this is much more straightforward. Maybe somewhere in the presentation for "Hindsight", an explanation as to "why" the back of the selected card changed could make this routine less confusing... not sure if that is outlined in the explanation on the DVD though. Just my thoughts... |
The Hitchhiker Regular user England 150 Posts |
Yes it would be interesting to hear presentation to get some sense of this effect, I'm sure there is some, somewhere.
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Review King Eternal Order 14446 Posts |
Justin Miller's webiste says about HINDSIGHT:
"Please note I have a little over 20 copies left. Once these are gone they will be gone for good off the magic market never to be released again". It must not have been well received.
"Of all words of tongue and pen,
the saddest are, "It might have been" ..........John Greenleaf Whittier |
Justin N. Miller Inner circle 2457 Posts |
It was project I did. I made 300 of them and all that is left is a few. I think it did quite well.
It is not a strong enough effect to be a one trick dvd shot pro and such. Justin N. Miller some are hits and some are misses |
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