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TStone V.I.P. Stockholm, Sweden 769 Posts |
Dear Tyler,
When we met at the Session convention in 2008, you showed me a pretty awesome sandwich effect, where two cards became animated and sank down into the deck. ("Snatch", Magic from the Session #2, 2007) A big part of the method relied on having hands the size of tractor wheels - somewhat of a challenge for people of a more modest hand size like myself... ...It took me two years to get the hang of it. Stubborness pays off - since April this year, your "Snatch" is a regular part of my work. Gets wonderful reactions! Thanks! However, the final cover pass still feels very awkward - like it is done at the wrong time, when it's too much "heat". So, I wonder - have you continued to work on this piece? Explored other ways to end it? Any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated. -Tom |
Tyler Wilson V.I.P. Calgary 123 Posts |
Hey Tom!
Before going any further, I'd just like to tell everybody how utterly, and disgustingly amazing Tom's new book is. He and Stephen Minch have put together a true masterpiece. I had sky high expectations for it, but Vortex surpassed those expectations somethin' fierce. If you don't have it yet, please treat yourself (get it before picking up my book, if you have to). And don't forget about his Lodestones column in Genii; it's one of the only reasons to read that magazine. Now where were we? Ah yes... Snatch. (It's called SloMoFo in Reinventing The Real.) Out of all the things we sessioned with a couple of years ago, I don't even remember showing you this trick, or that you took a liking to it. So it means a lot to me that you dug it enough to add it to your repertoire. Thanks, Tom! I still use the cover pass to this day. I've never felt it to be awkward or the recipient of too much undue heat. It comes directly on the heels of a magical moment (a vanish), so I've found there to be a nice moment of release with which to perform the cover pass. That being said, there are certainly plenty of other options. All that's needed is for the sandwich to be centralized, so any type of pass, or gesture cut will work. I chose the cover pass because the top card means nothing in the effect, so I might as well keep it around for cover. One of my favorite ways to secretly cut a deck without using a pass (which works great in an Any Card at Any Number context), is to use a false cut as a real cut. In other words, swing cut the top half into the left hand as the right hand takes the bottom half to the table. Normally, you would then take the remaining half with the right hand and slap it on top (completing the false cut). The difference here is that JUST before the right hand releases its half on top, you "put the deck back the way it was." So you put the cards back in the left hand, then pick up the tabled half and put them back on top of the left hand's cards. It looks just like you undid whatever cutting action you were about to perform, but in reality, you've just performed a genuine cut. Now obviously context is everything. So you would perform the actions as a type of example while saying, "You've been watching me closely, so you know I haven't moved any cards around or cut the pack," just as you stop your actions, and "revert" them. This is something that really should be seen rather than written due to the timing and attitude, so in retrospect I'm not sure why I bothered typing it all out. I guess I could delete it, but I'm too lazy. The big hands thing is a blessing and a curse. I never notice what my hands can and cannot do until I see someone else try to do the same thing. They're the hands I've had all my life, so they're just normal to me. They're great for palming and finger painting, but they're absolutely HORRENDOUS for colour changes! (Plus, women will think you're well endowed, which just sets them up for disappointment.) Tiny hands are the best for colour changes, bar none. The entire point about a colour change is its aesthetics, otherwise we'd still be changing cards face down. So when you're trying to go after a beautiful looking change, but your ginormous mitts manhandle the cards, it leaves a lot to be desired in the visuals department. One last thought (in this post, at least) about SloMoFo. In the July issue of MAGIC magazine, Jeff Hinchliffe had a super cool sandwich routine with a memdeck. If you read it, you will see certain opportunities to apply his clever thoughts to SloMoFo, enabling you to do the trick with two thought-of cards, rather than one physical selection. I've been playing with the hybrid for a couple of weeks now, and am liking where it's going. It's probably not cool to discuss methods here, but hit me up on email if you'd like to discuss it further. Thanks, Tom! Tyler Wilson |
TStone V.I.P. Stockholm, Sweden 769 Posts |
Thanks for the kind words about my book.
Yes, Snatch (a.k.a. SloMoFo) plays really strong, surprisingly strong, for "normal" people. And it was the best trick I saw during the whole Session convention. What I've done to 'change the moment' is - when the second card has sunk down into the deck, I slowly turn the deck face up (rotating along the length-wise axis), saying "They didn't go all the way to the bottom...". And when I continue, "...so they must, somehow, stopped in the middle", I look up, facing the spectator squarely - at the same time doing a calm Turn-over Pass. I've found that delaying the move a few seconds like that, decrease the heat considerably. I'll check out Jeff Hinchliffe's trick in Magic. -Tom |
motown Inner circle Atlanta by way of Detroit 6127 Posts |
Tyler, I'll second that regarding Tom's new book.
"If you ever write anything about me after I'm gone, I will come back and haunt you."
– Karl Germain |
Tyler Wilson V.I.P. Calgary 123 Posts |
Hey Tom,
That's a nice ploy to cover the pass, and sounds like it would work wonderfully in the trick's context. I use a somewhat similar stratagem when executing the cover pass. My cover pass is a bit of a riffle/dribble style of action, so after the vanish, I look at the spectator as I begin the pass, and say, "Now that I've caused both cards to sink down somewhere into the deck..." I look down at the dribbling cards, continuing, "... let's see where they be." (In a pirate voice, of course.) I also forgot to mention in my last post that I discuss the small-hand issue for SloMoFo in the book. My friend, Ryan Pilling, has midget hands (I'm pretty sure he's not a midget, though), so I detail how he does the trick in his hands. Seriously, get Tom's book already, people! Tyler Wilson |
TStone V.I.P. Stockholm, Sweden 769 Posts |
Quote:
On 2010-07-17 14:18, Tyler Wilson wrote: I saw someone on YouTube who did the 'sinking' part with two hands. Looked like dɐɹɔ, unfortunately. The one-handed grip is the only way to go, I think, or the illusion will suffer. With small hands, it's possible to manage it if you move the deck a bit forward, press it tight against the left thumb and make a rather tight spread - then, with a lot of practice and stretching, one can do the dirty work with the third finger. |
TomasB Inner circle Sweden 1144 Posts |
Tom, Ryan's technique described in the book is one-handed and actually works nicely without the fingers having to reach the edge at all.
/Tomas |
TStone V.I.P. Stockholm, Sweden 769 Posts |
Quote:
On 2010-07-17 15:31, TomasB wrote: Hey, shouldn't you be working on your book, rather than butting in here? |
Benny Lau New user Sydney, Australia 10 Posts |
I think Tyler Wilson is a genius! Just when you thought Guy Hollingworth had exhausted all the applications for Jennings' Optical Toss, then comes along this part Sasquatch humanoid who uses the move to make a playing card sink down in a pack! Unsurprisingly, it was a Canadian who thought of such a crazy idea! Down under, some like to think of Tyler as an early Jay Sankey (that is a G, not a razz).
Regarding the cover pass moment: When I recall Tyler performing this routine, he executed the cover pass while spreading the cards on the table (to reveal the Jokers sandwiching a card in the middle of the deck). However, Tyler's post above seems to contradict what I remember (I have a bad memory). Anyway, I thought the bidirectional (diagonal) motion required to spread the cards provides relatively good cover for the move, despite the heat of the moment. |
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