On 2011-06-24 10:49, BarryFernelius wrote:
I love the title of this post. Truer words were never spoken. I've never actually seen a self-working effect. Every one of them has required a performer!

With that said, a magician who can do different types of effects at different levels of difficulty is analogous to a pitcher in baseball. The effect that requires crazy difficult sleight of hand skills might be your fast ball. The effect that uses moderate sleights and a psychological twist could be your curve ball. Performing a self working effect is like throwing a change up or knuckle ball. They were expecting a fast ball, and you completely bamboozle them with an off speed pitch.

Once you've smoked 'em with dazzling sleight of hand, a well constructed self worker has a much stronger impact than it would all by itself.

On 2011-06-24 14:43, BarryFernelius wrote:
The answer to the question posed by panlives is simple: In theory, sleight of hand tricks should be indistinguishable from self working effects, but in practice they are not--most of the time.

Watch ordinary people when they play cards. A few experienced people handle cards efficiently, but most folks mangle cards in ways that could never be called graceful. They strain to shuffle, cut, and deal. They bend the cards. Most folks are like a bull in a china shop when it comes to handling cards.

When the novice magician tries to do a self working effect, he is handling cards like a beginner. The people watching the trick know subconsciously that the magician doesn't have any real skill. Worse yet, the novice has no confidence in his work, and probably hasn't given adequate thought to the presentation. The performance of the card trick is usually ineffective.

Then, the same novice decides to learn a trick that uses sleight of hand. Now, the magician can no longer try the trick on an audience immediately. Practice is required. The novice gains a basic mastery of the necessary effect, and he's ready to perform it for an audience. Not surprisingly, he gets a better reaction.

Many years later, the novice magician has become transformed into a sleight of hand expert. He has studied theater, worked with professional magicians as his mentors, and devised effective presentations for his work. He’s logged thousands of hours of flight time in front of paying audiences. Just for fun, this same magician tries out that same self working effect that didn't impress his audience many years ago. This time, performing for the same people, the magician gets that shock and awe response that so many of us admire.

What's different? It isn't just a matter of presentation. The late 19th/early 20th century term that comes to mind is 'address.’ The magician has 'address,' a confidence, skillfulness and style that comes from years of study and experience. The audience can sense his competence, even when he isn't doing any sleight of hand work at all. At this high level of expertise, the audience has no way to distinguish a self worker from a trick requiring sleight of hand.

The other factor in this discussion is the character that you play when you’re performing. If you always handle your props in a way that’s consistent with your character, the sleight of hand aspect of the magic disappears. Think of Lennart Green. He handles cards roughly, apparently with no skill at all. But crazy impossible things happen, nonetheless. He couldn’t possibly be using sleight of hand, right?

What I just described is an ideal state for a perfect card expert. Because I haven't reached this level, my audiences can still sense that I'm using sleight of hand at times. A self worker makes them look for clever sleight of hand work, and I fool them when they can't discern what was done. As a result, I sometimes get credit for sleight of hand skills that I don't have.

On 2011-06-25 00:01, Steven Keyl wrote:
An excellent post, Barry. Well-expressed truth is increasingly hard to come by. And this is coming from someone that disagrees with a lot of what Barry posts.

On 2011-08-24 14:00, BarryFernelius wrote:
Consider a couple of concrete examples.

First, the Darwin Ortiz effect "Time Piece" from his book Cardshark. There are no technically demanding card sleights required. There is one switch that is required, but Darwin teaches it so well that nearly anyone can learn it. This is a powerful effect for real audiences, and Darwin has great solutions to all of the problems involved. I know that the effect requires a prop that might be a little bit hard to find, but why else haven't I seen anyone else perform it?

Second, consider the Juan Tamariz effect "Total Coincidence" from Sonata. In Juan's description of the effect, he states that it's easy enough to learn in one afternoon. (Maybe it really requires two afternoons.) Juan has devastated audiences with this effect for years. No one (with the notable exception of Steve Cohen, who does it beautifully) seems to perform this effect. Why is this the case?

I'll suggest that one of the reasons that you rarely see these effect performed is that both of them are difficult from a presentational point of view. The harsh reality is this: these effects aren't often seen because most magicians don't script their work and most don't rehearse.