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davidpaul$ Inner circle Georgetown, South Carolina 3086 Posts |
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On Jan 26, 2022, padre rich wrote: I agree. Paul Gertner's marketed Great effect "UNSHUFFLED" gives you a very good reason to learn the Faro.
Guilt will betray you before technique betrays you!
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Andrew Zuber Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 3014 Posts |
I'm not sure what the "wrong" material is, but as I'm making my way through Mnemonica I'm finding a number of great uses for it. And the mere fact that I spent a decade avoiding it, only to be nailing it consistently in less than an afternoon, is worth the price of admission on its own for me.
A good lesson to try out new things, whether it be learning a shuffle, memorizing a stack or juggling with chainsaws. Okay, maybe not that last one. Maybe.
"I'm sorry - if you were right, I would agree with you." -Robin Williams, Awakenings
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Ray J Inner circle St. Louis, MO 1503 Posts |
There are always going to be outliers. Anyone complaining that they learned the Faro and wish they hadn't apparently hasn't been exposed to some of the incredible things it can accomplish.
It's never crowded on the extra mile....
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padre rich Special user 635 Posts |
I only need to do one card trick.Harry Lorayne taught me the faro shuffle but I just never had a chance to use it much.same thing with coins.only need to do two coin tricks.to each his own...the most important thing,and the most difficult thing is selecting the right material,not spending lots time on stuff that doesn't pan out and eventually gets cast aside...
God's grace rocks! It makes a good cups and balls routine look pretty boring in comparison.
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MattyMediocrity Regular user 169 Posts |
Hey Padre Rich! I absolutely PROMISE you it wasn't wasted time.
When I first found cards, the very first thing I learned was a revolution cut (which one could argue was a waste of time... but I don't regret it), and the very next thing I did was learn Faros. When I started on them, I liked the idea of getting back into NDO with shuffles, but I knew all sorts of other things would come from it... and that they did. From NDO, I can be in my stack in about a minute with smooth "natural" shuffles. That alone is worth it. The endless possibilities of customized Unshuffled reveals is more fun than I can expresses. I've got all sorts of themes... even a few with pictures! I'm just scratching the surface of what it can do and I already know it's the best card decision I could've made. Even the flourishes are great. The giant fan, the waterfalls, that quick gun and bullet trick (Peter Kane's Shooting Joker), endless poker hands...etc
Creator of Molly Mayhem's 25 Cent Tacos <ultra visual coin bend>
I try to treat others as if this were a small community where we're likely to be face to face one day |
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Ray J Inner circle St. Louis, MO 1503 Posts |
There is no reason to try to convince people to do what they don't want to do. If we all did the same things it would get pretty boring.
It's never crowded on the extra mile....
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FaroFaroFaro Regular user 110 Posts |
Love using the Faro shuffle. Some great magic with Memdecks. Don’t always use it but just find it therapeutic just doing a faros with my decks for my own satisfaction. Definitely don’t feel I wasted my time on this.
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Card man Greg Chapman's book, Faro Fundamentals, is an excellent way to learn how to faro. It will help you understand exactly what is happening, and includes some strong faro effects as well.
You can find it here: https://www.thedevilsstaircase.com/faro-fundamentals
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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padre rich Special user 635 Posts |
Doing magic for a living has little to do with the faro shuffle...
God's grace rocks! It makes a good cups and balls routine look pretty boring in comparison.
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Andrew Zuber Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 3014 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 4, 2022, padre rich wrote: Paul Gertner might disagree with you on that point, but it doesn't really matter either way. Some will use it, others won't, and that's fine either way. I personally found it remarkably easy to learn and look forward to the possibilities it's opened up for me.
"I'm sorry - if you were right, I would agree with you." -Robin Williams, Awakenings
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MattyMediocrity Regular user 169 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 4, 2022, Andrew Zuber wrote: I heard an awesome behind the scenes interview with Mike Close about Gertner's P&T act that made the "Unshuffled" trick a household name. If you remember during the "bust", Penn mentioned that the table being used was the size of an apartment. Interestingly, that was a last second addition that was brought out because Paul was having an issue with shaky hands and that was the only table immediately available that was the correct height to allow Paul to get hand stability while standing. I never noticed it the first time I watched, but after the interview I watched it again, and his hands were shaking badly. I'm impressed he was able to get it done. That silky smooth voice of Paul's did not match the nerves the hands were showing. What an absolute professional. I almost wish I never heard that interview. I scripted an act that has five Faros throughout. I Faro fine in front of a few people but in the back of my head I worried a tiny bit about getting the shakes in front of a larger audience. After hearing that it can even happen to a pro like Paul, it makes me more nervous about it. I guess I won't know until I try... but I'll be honest, the first time I'm doing this act for more than ten people, that interview is definitely going to be in my head for the first shuffle or two and I'll definitely have a bailout plan.
Creator of Molly Mayhem's 25 Cent Tacos <ultra visual coin bend>
I try to treat others as if this were a small community where we're likely to be face to face one day |
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padre rich Special user 635 Posts |
Roth also had a big problem with his hands shaking when he was under the gun,trying vainly to live up to the hype created by vernon...a lot of money is in kid shows.many guys shy away from that venue but the shows are never ending,kids keep coming along.walk around at banquets used to be another money venue.neither require intricate card skills(you can't sit down either).does Paul do birthday parties?kids scare most magicians because they are difficult to control.read silly billy's column this month in genii.those guys aren't doing faro shuffles.everything has its place...
God's grace rocks! It makes a good cups and balls routine look pretty boring in comparison.
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Andrew Zuber Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 3014 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 5, 2022, MattyMediocrity wrote: I watched a Facebook video that Michael posted where he talked about that as well. I primarily perform seated so I'll have to pay closer attention to whether or not relying on the table for steadiness makes a difference!
"I'm sorry - if you were right, I would agree with you." -Robin Williams, Awakenings
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Andrew Zuber Inner circle Los Angeles, CA 3014 Posts |
Quote:
On Feb 5, 2022, padre rich wrote: Definitely. I don't do many kid's parties...just not my venue, but I'm also not a full time performer. That said the stuff I'm working on now that incorporates the Faro will be a lot of fun for the audiences I primarily work for.
"I'm sorry - if you were right, I would agree with you." -Robin Williams, Awakenings
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padre rich Special user 635 Posts |
P.s. there are many who cling to the unrealistic goal of becoming professional magical entertainers.at the end of the day you are talking about,from an audience's standpoint,only a CARD TRICK.history may well prove that P&T's tv show has done more to damage magic than help it by flooding the airways with three minute wonders and given many false expectations as to the career opportunities in magic.the same thing happened in the '80's with comedians.we were inundated with people who could be funny for three minutes(where are they now?).comedy clubs sprang up that were little more than dens for the traffic of cocaine.only a few survive.what's to become of the scads of newby magicians,both men and now women?the faro shuffle here is meant to be a metaphor for material that has little practical use among those seeking to carve out a living(standing up) from magic doing shows for audiences of all ages.amateurs/hobbyists can continue to delight themselves in working on material that pleases their friends without having to worry about how to pay the rent.my initial statement was intended to convey my consternation at having spent so much time as a youth on discarded material instead of working on,say,a cups and balls routine or levand's crumb trick...jack gwynne used a one-way deck to force a card once at a local magic meeting and fooled the boys.after revealing his technique he stated,"i'm a professional.i don't have time to learn fancy moves." magicians get shunted down the bill below dog acts.a lack of camera time gives many the shakes.remember,IT'S ONLY A TV TALENT SHOW...
God's grace rocks! It makes a good cups and balls routine look pretty boring in comparison.
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AsL Special user 680 Posts |
For the people still struggling to learn the faro:
This thread has thousands of views, and it’s probably because some people are hoping to find the “holy grail” method of learning the faro. In reality, the “holy grail” has already been mentioned. Virtually all resources that’ve already been named is more than adequate to properly learn the faro. I’ve been using the faro for decades, and this was the game changer for me… Stop thinking about learning the faro as learning a sleight, and start thinking about learning it as a “knack.” But most people struggle to learn the faro because they’re accustomed to learning sleights that offer improvement once they sort finger positioning, hand movements, etc. This is also true for the faro shuffle, except it requires more of a “knacky” learning process. Albeit more technically demanding, “learning” the faro arguably has more similarities as learning John Cornelius’s “Spring Set” than learning a shuffle (in regards to the mentality and practice required). So, this is just a friendly reminder that many phenomenal resources have already been named. There’s a good chance you don’t need more resources than what’s already listed, and you must respect the knackiness of the practice required. AsL |
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lemon ice New user Memory Alpha on my PADD making 37 Posts |
Allow me to offer what helped me. I only learned to faro relatively recently.
The first thing is to make sure that you understand what is supposed to happen: first, you interlace or weave a few cards together, and then the rest should follow suit as you slide the edge of one half of the deck against the other. Also make sure that you know whether you are using "traditionally-cut" playing cards or not, and know what that means. I believe it has been explained elsewhere in this thread, but basically, "traditionally-cut" playing cards are cut front-to-back, that is to say, the blade starts from the face side of the uncut sheet and cuts through toward the back side. This means that there will be a subtle bevel around the face side's edge. The opposite is the case for cards that are cut the modern way, or in other words, back-to-front. If your cards are traditionally-cut, you should weave them together starting from the face side and finishing on the back side, the same way the blade cuts them. And of course, you should weave back-to-front for modern-cut playing cards. With that out of the way, I will describe the grip. This description assumes that you are right-handed, therefore, if you are left-handed, simply mirror my instructions. (If you have been learning magic for a while, you are probably used to that by now.) Let us assume that you are using cards that are cut back-to-front, the modern way. Most cards you own are probably cut this way. Hold the left-hand packet as follows: This half of the deck should be held face-down in your left hand, but held by the fingers, not in the palm, positioned between the tips of the fingers and the first knuckle of each finger. The first finger should be positioned at one of the short edges of the packet. The middle and ring fingers should be positioned at the adjacent long edge of the packet. The little finger should be positioned at the short edge that is opposite to the edge where your index finger now resides. (You will, however, have to move your little finger out of the way before you can push the two halves of the deck together completely.) The thumb should be positioned at the long edge that is opposite to the edge where your middle and ring fingers reside. The grip for the right-hand packet is essentially the same as the left-hand packet, with a few exceptions: this half of the deck should be held face-up in the right hand. The thumb, middle, and ring fingers should be positioned closer to the edge where the little finger resides. The tip of the index finger should be touching the back of the packet, not positioned along the short edge as with the left hand. If you are using Bicycle Rider Back playing cards, resting the tip of your right index finger against the wheel of the bicycle upon which the uppermost middle angel rides is a good position. Cut the deck in half such that the bottom half of the deck is in the left hand, and the top half is in the right hand. Hold the left-hand packet with the thumb side facing you. Hold the right-hand packet in the same manner. Square up each half of the deck by tapping the short edge of one half against the face or back of the other. Some people will instruct you to bevel each half of the deck in some manner or another but this is unnecessary in my experience. You will be weaving the two halves of the deck together at the short end where your left little finger is positioned. The easiest and most efficient method of doing this is by starting your weave with the indexed corners of each half, again assuming that you are using a modern-cut deck, and therefore are weaving the cards back-to-front. Start with the non-indexed corners if you are using a traditionally-cut deck and weaving front-to-back. This method eliminates the sliding back and forth motion to which many people may be accustomed. At this point, I will briefly explain "in-faros" and "out-faros." Out-faros will allow you to return to your original starting deck order in eight shuffles. Out-faros also retain the top and bottom cards of the deck with each shuffle. For an "in-faro" shuffle, the top card becomes second from the top, and the bottom card becomes second from the bottom, each moving toward the center of the deck with each successive shuffle. It takes 52 "in-faros" to return the deck to its original order. I would start with out-faro shuffles because eight shuffles is a good number to practice in short runs and it will give you the goal of returning your deck to its original order. Before you start weaving, angle the backs of each half of the deck slightly towards each other, assuming a modern-cut deck. It is probably best to go ahead and move your little finger out of the way at this point as well. For an out-faro, push the top card of the bottom half of the deck (the packet in your left hand) in between the top two cards of the top half of the deck (which is in your right hand). To continue, rotate your right hand away from yourself, sliding the corner of its half of the deck down along the edge of the left-hand packet. The cards should be woven together! Now, loosen your grip and push both halves together to complete the shuffle. Or, you can do a bridge if you want to look fancy and shorten the life of your cards. The only difference in method for an "in-faro" is that you would push the top card of the right-hand packet in between the top two cards of the left-hand packet to start. The final tip is this: start with twelve cards, or even eight if you have to. Do at least eight out-faros. (This will not return your cards to their original order at this point because of math that I am unable to explain. There are videos on YouTube that cover the mathematics of the faro shuffle in great detail should you wish to learn more.) Then add four more cards and do eight more shuffles. Keep adding cards as you become proficient at each level. When I was finally truly determined to learn this shuffle, I did it for ten hours straight, which is probably too much, but it worked. For what it's worth, I also spent about four or five hours writing this post. Good luck, and I hope that my advice and tips help anyone with enough time on their hands to read them thoroughly.
"Sometimes magic sounds like tape."
-The Amazing Johnathan |
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Rebis New user Verona, Italy 54 Posts |
A great thread full of recommendations.
I agree with those saying that the faro is a "knack" (hell, I have no idea what this word means in English, but I know what it means in magic!); To me, a little download named "don't fear the faro" by james went did the job. Truth be told, there's nothing in this video that I didn't see or read in other videos or books! Just be aware that everyone teaching a move will give you some little insight that no one else will, even if it's only that their hands are similar to yours. |
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
A point that might he helpful--pushing the packets towards each other should require less force than you might think at first. If you are encountering undue resistance, STOP. You'll only mess up the edges of the cards. Start again and see if you can set the initial alignment of the two packets more correctly, with the packets well squared, and apply upward pressure with your left pinky at the inner intersection corner.
And Greg Chapman's book mentioned above is very helpful.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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PoumKa New user 9 Posts |
I have to thumb up the video "Don't Fear the Faro" by James Went.
I learn the faro in the beginning of my "magical" life, almost 30 years ago. But I learn it bad, and I never was able to perform the faro correctly : always 1/2/3 errors. Recently, I wanted to do a new try. I purchased the "Don't Fear the Faro" by James Went, and now I can faro almost every time perfectly. And I train this new way of doing if for 1 day only. The teaching is very great, super quality video with good zoom (better for viewing the technique of waving for example) and some routines. I recommend a lot this material ! |
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