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boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
So, here I am. Still at the children's table...
Anyways, I had a question about a trick called Face Value. (That's what my book calls it). Where you make a prediction by pulling out a card, blah blah blah, then at the end you have two cards face up... Blah blah blah (How much do I put on here? I don't want to get in trouble) Anyways, I was practicing it and it hit me... What the heck am I gonna say to make it all cool, and not just, "Hey, look. Here's two cards. Oh, look, the card I pulled earlier matches. What a coincidence, huh?" I seem to have this problem a lot. Is it just a self-confidence "It comes with time" sort of thing?
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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Robert Apodaca Special user 504 Posts |
Why don't you till them that last night you had a dream about the card so you take out the matching card to prove it. At the end you prove it.
Or you can claim that there are no coincidences and everything has a reaction. You can tell them that you forced them to pick the matching card. Or whatever you want. |
C-Taylor Loyal user 261 Posts |
After you do it for awhile you will find a way to patter. Just play with it and see how it would fit into your style. Or video taper yourself and watch it and see if you can come with something.
2 cents
"theres a lot of good card magic in that book, unfortunately you have to have skill to do most of it."
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rgranville Elite user Boston area 463 Posts |
Think about the impression you're trying to leave with your audience, whether that be one or one hundred. How is it that you're able to perform these miracles (cards or otherwise)? I don't mean the sleights, I mean what you appear to do. Do you have magical abilities? How did you get them? Do you alter your audience's perception? How? Are you an incredible card cheat? Are you as confused as everyone else about what's going on?
Once you figure out what you want to be, what you should say will be pretty obvious. :banana: |
Hideo Kato Inner circle Tokyo 5649 Posts |
When you ask about a trick in a certain book, it is desirable that you tell us the name of the book. I am sure I have read the trick, but can't remember where it is.
Hideo Kato |
Jlowhy Regular user 158 Posts |
If you want to know what you're going to say, you're going to have to think of it and script it beforehand. I would suggest that you actually jot down a patter, either word for word or in point form and work on it. Rehearse it together with your trick and see if it's smooth or not. Then make changes to parts you think is lacking.
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JamesTong Eternal Order Malaysia 11213 Posts |
Understanding the character you are playing would help you script your patter. Whether you are just performing a card trick or anything else, you are already in a character - what the audience perceive you as.
What do you want your audience to perceive you as? A magician? A person with extraordinary powers? A mentalist. From there you develop a story, script, etc on your actions. Then you need to rehearse using the story you have developed. You will also find that, eventhough you have rehearse and memorise your patter, you would still need to change things here and there. This is because of the different variables you will be facing - cultural differences, academic differences, etc. The key is to be flexible. Hope this helps. |
The Amazing Noobini Inner circle Oslo, Norway 1658 Posts |
I too have trouble with self confidence. I'm at the children's table too, having never performed card tricks.
But I have thought about maybe taking a jokingly modest stance which would be more natural to me than trying to act flashy and confident. By modest I mean to for instance pretend that I have no idea how it all works, it just happens. With a prediction trick like that, maybe you can force the prediction card on the spectator, making him or her the one who has the powers to do predictions? Of course, they really know that you are the one making it all happen, but applauding them for it and placing them in the role as someone talented is sort of a cute thing to do. In a way all card tricks are self-working when we simply get them readymade in a book. Some of them just happen to involve advanced physical handling aspects in addition to simple things like merely counting cards. But these required sleights are also just tools given us as a starting point. It all needs to be adapted. A published magic trick is like a coloring book. Etc. Insert whichever other profound metaphores that may be required here. I think it's great that you are looking for a logic to why YOU should do these strange things that are in the book. Myself I find many or most magic tricks as they are presented so wrong for my personality that I almost fear that people would react to them in the same way as if I suddenly stood up and started singing opera. It is a difficult obstacle to tackle. I improvise fairly well in ordinary conversation. My funny bits mostly happen by themselves because the situation dictates it somehow. Punchlines are just there to be plucked out of the air. SOmeone says something funny all of a sudden and you hear yourself deliver a comeback. I then find that if something funny or a deep well phrased point worked really well once, I automatically work them into a later conversation the same day if the subject comes up again. Using largely the same words even. Yet it is natural because it happened by itself and you are just repressing play. Recycling. So I think I will let my patter evolve that way. Performing a few times for friends without hardly any idea what to say and then listen to the madness that comes out. Edit. Rework. Reuse. Discard if needed.
"Talk about melodrama... and being born in the wrong part of the world." (Raf Robert)
"You, my friend, have a lot to learn." (S. Youell) "Nonsensical Raving of a lunatic mind..." (Larry) |
Andy the cardician Inner circle A street named after my dad 3362 Posts |
One good way is to give a deck to the audience and let them try out their luck of getting a "match". You then can talk about the odds of achieving the result.
You then say that you got an intution, yet you are not sure if it will work. perform the miracle and smile.
Cards never lie
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boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
I totally checked the thing to notify me by e-mail... Why didn't it work?... OH! That was my OLD e-mail, no wonder... And I want to mystify people?
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
Well, you all make an excellent point. Thank you so much for helping out.
To help you all help me... The title of the book: "The Practical Encyclopedia of MAGIC" by Nicholas Einhorn. The write up: "The magician removes a card from the deck and places it to one side as a prediction later on. A random number of cards are dealt on to the table by a spectator and two piles are made. The top of each pile is turned over and the suit of one together with the value of the other are combined and found to match the earlier prediction..." Now for my persona on stage... I... Well, even in real life, I'm stuck in some kind of a universal sitcom. I couldn't be cool or suave if I tried. I suck up bad luck from the surrounding area and it turns into an episode of Three's Company. I DID like this one guy's thing he had going... He was the human cartoon, or Chester the Jester or something... He blew his own head up on time. But I won't go that far....yet. (I want to be known for looking like Phyllis Diller, Liberace, and Fran Drescher had their wardrobes melted down and I rolled around in the giant, brightly colored, flashy puddle and then rolled in a pile of powdered clothes a clown refused to wear. It's basically just more of real life... True story, a girl said she'd call me Crayola from then on because she said I looked like a box of crayons exploded. And I liked it.) Sorry, off topis, but, yeah... Like, I just have no idea what to say still... I have only rehearsed it maybe five times yet, because I don't think at this rate I will ever find a way to get it into a routine for next spring without it being awkward. Well, bad awkward. like, not funny. It doesn't make sense how I will be able to make it seem like it was coincidence and not me just trying to be cool. But I can't be all Mr. Mysterious Romance Cover Model. The folks I've done tricks for (They aren't illusions at this point), and even in classes I've taken, they think it works for me when I get flustered and mess something up. So I guess a bumbling little brother type at the edge of some un-known fad? I don't know... I am SOOOO confused...
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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rgranville Elite user Boston area 463 Posts |
That you're even thinking about presentation puts you so far ahead of so many others. And realizing you have to essentially be yourself is another HUGE step. (I love the name Crayola!)
Now a hard lesson. Not every effect is going to work for you. I don't mean you won't be able to get the sleights down or anything like that. I mean it just won't fit who you are. There will be effects you just love that you'll never do because they don't fit you. That being said, a way to see if you can make an effect fit you is to turn it and twist it every way you can think of to try to make it work for you. For the effect Face Value that you're talking about, how about making yourself passive rather than the active force? You're not doing the magic, it's happening around you and you don't understand it any more than the spectators. Tell your audience that you saw this guy in a bar who bet you he could predict your actions. He tossed a card face down on the table and had you... and here you've tossed a card down on the table - but it's not YOUR prediction - and you give the deck to a spectator and have him replicate your actions when you were with that OTHER guy. At the end when the spectator selected cards match the original card, you're as flustered as everyone else. Another possible variation is to tell the audience you're the unluckiest person at cards that has ever been born. We'll all play a game that's a million to one that you'd lose - and you'll lose anyway. You pick a card, the spectator goes through the steps, and he wins by matching your card. Again you're flustered. How did he do that?!? The common idea here is that you're not "Mr. Mysterious" causing magical things to happen. You're just Joe Average (or even less than average if you like) falling victim to mysterious forces beyond your control or understanding. :carrot: |
The Amazing Noobini Inner circle Oslo, Norway 1658 Posts |
Many interesting ideas here. The ultimate passive role would be to have one person doing the actual work for another. I guess that would be a bit like some Penn & Teller numbers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qQX-jayixQ
You could have someone else do the talking and sort of be the "real" magician. But this person would be too suave and cool to bother to handle the cards him-/herself. And you would be the silent nervously fumbling (and badly color coordinated ) assistant who actually, obvious to everyone, do all the real work while getting no respect for it from the arrogant magician. Magic's answer to Remington Steele. The magic would happen in your hands, not the magicians. The audience will know that it is you doing it and still enjoy the act where you are as puzzled as them that the magician's instructions actually work. He, on the other hand, will act as if this is obvious. Just brainstorming.
"Talk about melodrama... and being born in the wrong part of the world." (Raf Robert)
"You, my friend, have a lot to learn." (S. Youell) "Nonsensical Raving of a lunatic mind..." (Larry) |
boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
That's very important what you told me about not using EVERY trick I would like to.
And for some reason, it didn't click before, but I should make it look like I'm pulling out a random card instead of fishing for it out of the deck! THAT is what makes it seem so fishy to me! hahahahaha... *Pulls hair* AH! It still seems like the trick went wrong and the whole mathcing one card's suit and the other's value is me trying to be all, "No, I didn't mess up, this is how it's supposed to be! Really!" Does anyone know anybody that uses this trick? Now I want a trick using one of those giant, novelty crayons...
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
I just noticed the answer from The Amazing Noobini. I loved Remington Steele! And I love the idea!!! AH! It's FNATASTIC!
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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Andy the cardician Inner circle A street named after my dad 3362 Posts |
First of all, you need to practice a trick over and over again, until you can do it almost automatically. This allows you to focus on the audience.
I would not recommend to perform without a proper "patter preparation". Create a script. You might be a master of improvisation, but even a master sometimes has a bad day. Andy
Cards never lie
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Mark Wilden Veteran user San Francisco 375 Posts |
My standard advice: First script the effect. Then, video the effect, study the video, tweak the script, and repeat until it's ready for real people.
///ark |
boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
I just can't think of a way to script it.
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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boynextdoor Regular user Lancaster 129 Posts |
I want an old timey photo now...
Trapeze above the Grand Canyon. Be impressed.
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