that isn't David Roth's version, it's more like Dean Dill's version No Extras only styled more like Roth's version
KingOfNynex2003 1 year ago

@KingOfNynex2003: No trust me it's Roth's version. I just show my hands empty before I start and in the middle.
Thanks for watching and commenting.

Tim
tfeher11 1 year ago


@tfeher11 ok, but in Roth's version he doesn't use gaffs, I know because I learned it from his DVD Set.
KingOfNynex2003 1 year ago


@KingOfNynex2003 ethier did I. No gaffs ! I did it just like Roth teaches except with showing my hands empty before and during the routine.
tfeher11 1 year ago

On 2012-01-04 09:48, warren wrote:
Johnathon just because I used the term screams gimmick doesn't mean I don't admire the performer, Perhaps I give audiences the credit of having a brain. If that offends you then I'm sorry.

On 2012-01-06 13:19, Mark_Chandaue wrote:
Technique is only a part of it and attitude is only a part. Probably the biggest stumbling block for the beginner performing any move (and even some experienced guys is Magicians Guilt. It is the guilt and the resultant fear of being caught that causes you to tense up when performing the move. Even if the spectator doesn't see what you did he knows you did something and often "you did a move" is enough for a kill the effect for the spectator.

Overcome magicians guilt and your technique becomes far less important (this is not a reason to not strive for perfect technique). One of my favourite false cuts is simply undercutting the bottom half to the table, tapping the top half square with the heel of my hand and dropping it on top of the bottom half. Bold, bare faced and blatantly obvious, but for the complete lack of guilt and the casual and relaxed handling. In over 30 years I've never been called on it. The slightest guilt during the move and I'd be caught in an instant. This could be called attitude but it is more than that, it is the absence of guilt.

So how do you overcome magicians guilt? The first step is honing your technique to the point where it is second nature. This reduces the fear of getting caught but does not remove the guilt. That part is more of a challenge and different things work for different people. One option is to not only get the move to look like a normal turnover, get it to FEEL like a normal turnover, believe in the effect and don't think of the method (again this only comes with enough practice to make the method second nature). Once you are living in the effect rather than the method your hands may be turning over 2 cards but your mind is only turning over the top card and you are completely free of guilt.

Another thing that can help to remove the guilt is understanding and accepting that a move/sleight is not a cheat or a con it is a gift. You do not perform the sleight to outwit or demean your spectator but to give them the gift of a magical moment. Every sleight you perform is done with the motivation to bring joy and happiness to your audience, why would you feel guilty?

If you are free of guilt you will earn the trust of your audience. As long as you feel that guilt it will be telegraphed and an audience finds it hard to trust a guilty person.

On to the subject of should the move look exactly like the non move? I guess that depends on whether you want to be remembered as skillfull or magical. For me they should be the same in both look and feel, almost to the point where even you don't know if you did the move or not . Many moons ago when I was active on the magic scene I was constantly being asked at conventions to do a retention vanish, Michael Ammar commented that it was the best he'd ever seen (and I suspect that even back then he'd seen a few). Sure I practiced the retention vanish a lot, but I practiced not vanishing the coin more. My routine was to really place the coin into my hand 100 times, then do one vanish, then really place the coin in my hand 100 more times, then one more vanish. Rinse and repeat until even I was fooled by the vanish.

For me if it looks like you did something different it's skill not magic. Magic should look effortless, as if you did nothing. It's ironic that we work long and hard so that we can look like we didn't work at all. Every invisible hour you spent working on the move, all the effort you put in to make the effect look effortless is your gift to your spectators. Never feel guilty ... because you have nothing to feel guilty for.

Mark

On 2012-01-07 23:44, Mark_Chandaue wrote:

At the risk of making an already long post stupidly long. David talked about guilt. In the last day or so I made a post in the workers forum about magicians guilt. If you already read it stop reading here. I wanted to just link the post but I didn't know how to link a single post so I'll quote the post here. It talks about card sleights but it applies equally to gaffs.

On 2012-01-10 03:03, Atom3339 wrote:
Please explain "occams razor." Thanks!