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Covernton Regular user Vancouver 124 Posts |
Hello all! I come bearing a problem!
I've been reinvestigating card manipulation since I've decided to focus largely on platform work as my central interest. Firstly, how should I go about making a card routine? I don't really know where to start. I have a couple of really interesting "themes" in mind but I want to get the moves together and then work from that as a basis. So what is it I want to do? I want to make a card routine based around as few cards as possible. Rather than presenting a multitude of fans and repeat singles, I'd like to start with a sequence utilizing a single card, and from there move on to something with maybe four cards, ending with a fan production. I've studied the McBride series and most of the manipulations cater towards moves where many cards are produced either in fans or single one after another. Can anyone suggest some ways to accomplish what I'm looking ro create? Thanks for anything you can suggest. -Covernton |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Covernton:
Before you get strated on all the moves and sequences, you really need to sit back and figure out what your character will be on stage during this act? What is the theme or storyline your trying to convey to the audience with this act? What is the overall style of the act? You will also want to start figuring out transition moves and ways that you can break up the card manipulation sequences. Too much card manipulation, back to back, gets boring very fast for an audience. A good transition from one effect into another, helps break this up and makes it more visually pleasing for an audience to watch.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
Covernton Regular user Vancouver 124 Posts |
Thanks for the reply!
In terms of the character it's something that I've thought a great deal about. Actually I'd say it's something I've thought too much about. I've focused far too much on the kind of magician I want to be, rather than being that magician. So the routine I would like to work out would be something that would fit any of the four or so characters I've decided would be feasible. All of them generally revolve around themes of magick. Images of mythology and legend are dominant, but only as subtext rather than prominent storytelling. For example, I wanted to do a sequence with a wooden branch/wand and a silver acorn which would, in a way, illustrate the Celtic theory of creationism. I've never worked this out to any degree since I never got over the idea that nobody would recognize a silver acorn from any significant distance. So... in terms of transient moves and moves in general, I have a fair grasp of card manipulation, e.g. back palming, producing via standard methods and so on. What I want to avoid with this routine is anything that would be considered "razzle dazzle". Slow and mysterious would be the order of the day on this one. I look at scripting this almost like a fight scene. Not literally. But... I'm going to launch into a Star Wars analogy here. In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul fights Anakin and Obiwan. The swordplay is magnificent and fast paced and very beautiful to watch (ignore the rest of the movie). Now compare that to the Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker battle in Return of the Jedi. All the strikes are broad and clear, even slow, but it is no less beautiful. Just more powerful. I want the card manipulation to be the latter. Slow, deliberate and with purpose. The less cards used the better. Thanks for any advice you can throw my way. -Covernton |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Covernton:
Thanks for this information but you really have not answered some of the main questions here that must be focused upon before you begin this act or routine. I feel you're too "all over the place". Let me ask it in this fashion. When the audience sits and watches the routine, what do you want them to see on the stage? What impression do you want them to walk away with when the act is over? You have stated that you want to do card manipulations that are slow and deliberate and with purpose. That is fine, but that is not enough by itself to create a sense of entertainment value in the minds of the audiences watching. I feel there needs to be more your adding to the act. Who is your character on stage? This really needs to be defined well and it can be one of 4. It must be defined and focused upon and clearly stated so that the audience really understands this character and can connect with him/her. Does this make better sense to you? I hope I am explaining myself a little better.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
Covernton Regular user Vancouver 124 Posts |
Ok, so let's pick one of the characters I'm considering. The character is that of a wandering traveller. There is no specific time period this is to be modelled after, but in general the character might have a slight hint of fantasy about him. He is a man who has gone far and wide, finding enchantment in his journeys. I'm going to PM wyou with a decription of my "fountain" routine which I'm working out the broad details of to give you an idea of how this character acts on stage.
When the character is on stage, there is no audience. He exists in a situation and in that situation, magic occurs. Hopefully the audience goes away with the same feeling that comes with being drawn into a world of fantasy. Like they are coming back through the wardrobe as it were. Leaving the fantastic behind for the moment, but knowing it exists, and being comforted by the fact. I hope this answers the question better. I do have a habit of missing the mark =) -Covernton |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Sean:
I read your PM and replied back to it. NOW we are talking and getting some where. this is great and creative thinking and I like what you have started here. You have created a wonderful character and a style and a theme for which the rest of the act can be "anchored" on to. This is so critical of any act of this type. If you present the act well enough, you can certainly have the audience be drawn into the story of this wanderer and feel the emotions and conflicts that he himself faces. It works great of you can play on the emotions of the audience. What I mean is that you give the audience something in their own lives that they can relate to. They then sympathize with the character you present and then connect with that character. I love your fountain idea and I think it is a very strong one. You now need to start working up those sequences and defining some of the magic that will happen.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
maylor Loyal user england 231 Posts |
Covernton, Good luck with this. Keep us posted as to how it develops. I'd be interested to see.
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Brad Jeffers Veteran user 377 Posts |
Covernton, That's an interesting idea you have. There are many possible things that you could do with a single card. You begin by producing the card of course. You could cause the card to levitate. You can pass the card from one hand to the other (prehaps through your knees, ala Thurston). You could do a diminishing card sequence. Then there is the 1 to 4 multiplying cards (one between each finger as with the multiplying billiard balls). I know of a couple of methods for this, one by Magic Christian and one by Alex Elmsley. In fact, Elmsley does a sequence of interesting moves with a single card which preceed the multiplication. You can see these on one of his L&L videos. Then with the 4 cards you can do Thurston's five card vanish and reproduction sequence (1 card short of course). This is in Thurston's Card Tricks, a book you should have no trouble finding. It's also on the McBride tapes.
I like your idea of ending with a production of a single fan. You should be able to master that a lot sooner that you will be able to master split fans, although I am sure that you will want to work on those also. Researching and practicing these things is in itself a great deal of fun. I believe that a very good thing in any manipulative card routine, is a variety of effects. In just the ones I mentioned above, you have productions & vanishes, transpositon, penetration, levitation, changes of form and multiplication. A long series of just card productions can get tedious. Even if you use a half dozen different methods, you still are just repeating the one effect. Keep practicing and keep thinking! |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
The problem with this idea is to keep interest with the audience. One single card would require a lot of good thinking and transitions to make it entertaining. A vanishing and floating and appearance of the same card would get really boring fast to an audience watching the act.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
RiffClown Inner circle Yorktown, Virginia (Previously Germany) 1579 Posts |
Why not do some production work in reverse. If you keep vanishing the same packet of cards over and over only to emerge from an entirely illogical location. You could swap out 2 or 3 packets and do your whole routine with less than a half of a deck.
Cards across also come to mind with amybe Aces vanishing from one hand to appear with their friends in your other hand.
Rob "Riff, the Magical Clown" Eubank aka RiffClown
<BR>http://www.riffclown.com <BR>Magic is not the method, but the presentation. |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
My question for this minimalist approach to the act is.. what do you want the audience to see and walk away from your act thinking and having experienced? You really need to figure out the central theme for the act and the character on stage and then start to develop the act around that idea. Otherwise the act could very well fall flat of where you want it to be.
An audience is not always so keen on just an act of skill or slieght of hand alone. I think you can give more to your audience.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
Covernton Regular user Vancouver 124 Posts |
I am very keen on finding a thematic aspect to the act, but I feel I want a better grasp on the building blocks I can use that might contribute to the story, whatever it might end up being. For instance, the card levitation idea might lead me down a whole different path than what I had intended. And I might not have thought of that offhand by just throwing it around in my brain.
Thanks all for your suggestions. I'll keep you posted as this developes. And suggestions or ideas are of course welcome. Thanks again! -Covernton |
zombieboy Special user Connecticut, USA 889 Posts |
My current card act is like this. I produce four cards, one in between each of my fingers, then multiply them instantly to eight. I then discard four, and vanish the other four, a la thurston. I then reproduce them in an original sequence, and then produce two more roll outs of cards.
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Zombie that is a nice routine but I am not sure that is where Covernton wants to go with his act. I am still trying to get a better understanding of what he is after and what he wants the audience to walk away with.
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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