Hello!

Here is footage of the close-up competition I competed in on Friday April 18th, 2008... I was the youngest, and here is the full, live act. My apologies for the occasional inability to hear what I am saying.. it was a very loud room.

By the way, I won Second Place! Enjoy!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye1IunMRelo

Michael Kras

Hi Mike. Congratulations on the 2nd place win.

As you said, I could not hear hardly much of what was going on due to the ambient noise.

I see the concept you tried to maintain through out the routine...the cards fronts and backs magically changing or printing. The magic itself was visual and very good.

The only constructive criticism I can offer is...figure out a way to use less decks. Switch them in on the off beat. Finishing the routine with 6 decks of cards on the table leads the audience to the most probable method...the cards.

I know you won't be able to perform every trick in the routine...but if you can have the audience believe that it all happens with one deck...and finish with a switched in un-gaffed deck...it would be much stronger.

Rich B.

Thank you for the kind advice! I did intend on doing some deck switches but I do not work in a jacket anymore and the conditions were not right for a deck switch. Glad you liked it!

I gotta say I am glad someone beat me to the punch. I could not think of a nice way to tell you that in the real world one trick per deck, is NOT going to really work at all.

Congrats on your second place finish.

Congratulations for your second place,
Thanks,
Hansel!

Thank you Dannydoyle... I do wish I had done a deck switch or two or had some more patter to justify changing decks constantly... example, the freshly printed one couldn't be used because the ink isn't fully dry yet, and the blank one... self-explanatory.

Thank you all! Any more advice is greatly appreciated!

Carefull with cutsey explinations.

The blank ones fine, but the freshly printed ones? Don't forget you printed them by magic, not ink!

Pretty good. I liked it. The only thing I definately did not like were all the decks. You used way too many. Using gaffed decks is fine, but too much is just...well, not good in my opinion because as stated before, it just leads to "It's a special deck!". You do not need gaffed decks to show people mindblowing magic. I do cards a lot, and I have tricks (using one regular deck of cards) that probably get a much greater response than if I were using a gaffed deck. Gaffed cards are not necessary to get a great response. If I were you, I would avoid ever using that many decks and having them laying down on the table. If you just NEED to use that many decks, just use same colored decks, get a chair, and lap deck by deck that way people will suspect the cards a little less. Anyway, these are just my thoughts on this. Great job though.

Art

Thank you Art! I honestly almost never use gaff decks but I wanted some very visual stuff for the competition... it also took a load off my mind considering the only sleights I had to use were the Gravity Half Pass, Erdnase Change, Double Lift, Hindu Shuffle, Classic Pass, and Ribbon Spread.

Good job.

Thanks for sharing.

Good job. Congratulations on the second place.
A small piece of advice would be to talk only when necessary, this will make what you say so important, that you be find yourself being forced subconciously to speak loud and clear. (I could understand Paul Richards from Elmwood Magic-demonstrating the Heirloom trick- better.)

Thanks for posting. Congrats again.
Alex

Thank you for the tip Alex! That is a very good piece of advice!

Michael I thought you did great! Yes, there’s the whole thing of changing decks for each routine. That’s a valid criticism. But I think you did very well under the circumstances.

Sometimes I think you come off as imitating an adult instead of behaving like a teenager but there’s no crime against being precocious and it’s nice to hear someone your age speak so articulately and respectfully.

So yes the criticisms are valid but overall I thought you performed exceptionally well.


Holly

Thank you Holly, very nice to hear! Glad you enjoyed it!

Well, I think anytime someone wants to routine cards into a presentation, it's best to use the same cards throughout. Like if you printed them, then use them, then erase them, or what-have-you, but, you ultimately are subconsciously saying "Look I'm using one deck to do this, and another to do this." You don't do your own magic any justice with a structure like that.