I recently have been trying to perfect this trick as it is my favorite, I have a routine of about 4 flips and then I do the bent card to the top of the deck, Does anyone have this routine down and how many different flips do you? Like I said earlier I am just now getting back into card magic as it is my favorite type of magic. Any help with this would be outstanding!

-Keith

Hi Keith,
I usually do 4 phases, but it's really a question of how you frame the effect. For some people 2 - 3 phases are enough, while others have developed much longer routines. You can get a few more opinions in this thread: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......&forum=2 In particular, you should take a look at the response by Paul Chosse at the bottom of the first page.

Grant

You might even want to check out my routine in CLOSE-UP CARD MAGIC (1962) - re-written, up-dated, etc., in LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Volume 1 (2001, or thereabouts). But - I don't use the "bent card to top."

Hi Keith,

welcome to the forums! The Ambitious Card is one of my favorites as well - but I honestly cant say how many phases I do O.o I keep it with Daryl who said something alike handling the routine like a Jazz-Player: I know how to start, and I know how to end (also the Baue pop-up move) - but in the middle I like to improvise. Just avoid boring your audience to death

As a sidenote: In the workers section here on the forums you can find a thread linking to almost endless discussions about the Ambitious Card: http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......rum=2&75

Hope this helps, have fun!

All the best,
Sven ^^

Hey guys thanks for the help. I will check out the other forums, and Harry I will check that out. Thanks for all your input!

I use an Ambitious Card routine which is pretty much as you describe which culminates in the spectators card being bent and inserted into the deck in a highly visable way which then pops to the top of the deck. It never fails to completely kill and since the card is now bent it's a good point at which to end the routine - definately saving the best until last. However, I do go through around 6 iterations of producing the signed card in different ways. My penultimate move (and to break it up a bit) I control the card to SFB position and do an Erdnase which is also pretty strong, after that I end with the bent card.

I've now forgotten more ways to get the card on top than I currently use, but from my own limited experience I frame the whole AC routine within a demonstration of how gambling cheats are able to manipulate cards and focus in on one single signed card for the purposes of demonstration. Since I'm effectively saying "how many ways can I cheat?" it gives me a lot more scope to carry on, whereas I feel that being more explicit and saying "I can get your card on the top" kinda limits how far you can go, as it looses it's intrigue. I prefer to make my spectators focus on me rather than the effect itself, as once you've done the effect a couple of times then you're effectively done and on borrowed time as concentration spans start to diminish - let them enjoy a demonstration of how naughty you are rather than just making them sit through a predictable and repeated outcome, plus give the effect some context.

Most of what I use is from Ed Marlo, Daryl, Jerry Sadowitz, et al and it's all taught really well on 'Crash Course 2' from ellusionist.com - if you want to develop your AC routine then it's definately a good place to go. As for how long you want the routine to last without boring your spectators then I would suggest that it's really down to you and how you frame the whole routine.

Hey Dirtytrix thanks for the input, Yeah I have crash Course 2. I really like ellusionist.com. I have pretty much got all my stuff from there. I am def going to start coming up with a routine about cheating instead of the same ol crap of telling them that I can get there card to the top, sounds a little more interesting. Well thank you so much for your input on everything and I truly do appriciate the time you took to write me and I will keep some of your ideas in mind. Thanks DirtyTrix!

-Keith

Jay Sankey's Extremely Ambitious is a really great collection of different options for ways the card can rise to the top. I like his and Aaron Fisher's views on card magic. They both make sure that misdirection is involved as much as sleights, and they are also very encouraging in their teaching. Extremely Ambitious discusses the reasoning behind why the card does what it does or goes where it goes which some magicians forget to include in his or her performances.

I wrote/published my Ambitious Card Routine in Close-Up Card Magic in 1962. I still do exactly the same routine! HL

Learn as many as you can. Know how to begin, how to end, and how to tie certain combinations together fluidly. Some need good "setups" to be pulled off...as in a certain way to hold the cards and such...not as in a setup before the trick.

I think 4 is a good number of flips to keep the audience interested. I like Eric Jones version of card in mouth, but in his upper jacket pocket, as an ender. I’m not a big fan of having card in mouths.

i was doing the card in mouth for a while and I got a few smiles ond "what the" but have changed it to card under my beer and have had far better reactions.

Check out card to mouth by dan and dave and encorporate the classic pass with the card face down in the middle raising to the top then put it face up in the middle so the face is facing towards you whiich then rises to the top great effect and very visual however it requires your pass to be very smooth and fast.

Hi Harry, I'd be really interested in understanding why you choose not to include something like that? No reason other than to say I'm really intrigued to understand why someone like yourself includes some things and not others. Are there criteria you use in order weed out the stuff that you don't want in your routines?

Personally, the move we're discussing I've found almost impossible to leave out of my own ACR simply because I get people that have seen the routine before say "do that one where the bent card comes to the top, it's my favourite" plus it's nice to know that staples like that continue to go under the radar of folk that have seen the whole thing before but still enjoy it as much as the first time. When sleights are that effective it's hard to not include them. Of course I understand that everyone is different.

Excuse me if I've over stepped the mark, I wouldn't want you to give too much away ;-)

My ending was to show that after a while people are hypnotized and think that every card is the 7S (or whatever) - and I'd show that to be so. Then, "But really, that seven of spades was never in the deck at all..." And I'd produce it from a pocket. That ending worked "strongly" for me all those decades ago - never felt like changing it. HL.

That sounds really amazing I might have to re-write my Ambitious Card Routine haha

Thanks, Ozzy

You can see the performance (not under the best of circumstances)and that ending if you go to http://www.youtube.com/harrylorayneonvideo . (I think that's the link.) HL.

I watched that routine and it's far, far, far too busy. Much of the handling lacks clarity. And the palm at 2:27 and insertion at 2:31 are way, way, way too uncovered. And the ending is not so much an astonishing surprise as an illogical anti-climax.

By comparison, see this truly professional, great, well-structured routine (full of magical elegance, wonder and humour, with a well-worked ending, and worthy of the standing ovation it receives): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrApPgoWZqE

Oh, gee, gthanks, Mr. Adrain - to think that I've been performing it just that way for over FIFTY YEARS. Geez.

Too uncovered for who exactly? Viewers of a DVD rather than a misdirected live audience, that's who. I'm but a humble amateur but even I know that moves can often be spotted when one has the luxury of examining a recording. I also know that I have performed exactly this routine (albeit not as smoothly as HL) several times myself in the past year and never, ever has that last move been spotted and always, always my spectators have been blown away to see the card come out of my pocket.

I suppose the next thing you 'll be telling us is that Pop Haydn's card in wax-sealed envelope in wallet is an illogical anti-climax to his ACR. Well excuse me if I continue to pay more attention to the likes of Harry Lorayne and Pop Haydn (and indeed, Tommy Wonder).