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Roger Kelly Inner circle Kent, England 3332 Posts |
Is riffling a deck a bad habit? A more technically gifted friend of mine uses it, not quite constantly, but enough for it to be accepted so his riffle pass goes undetected.
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
as soon as you pick up a deck of cards you always riffle them or spring them. What would you like to do instead?
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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Xaethia Regular user Australia 124 Posts |
@ Jonathan Townsend
"What would you like to do instead?" Just hold the deck still. That's everyone who gave some tips. Appreciate it. As for 'just stop it' - that is the same as someone asking you: 'what can I do to improve my bottom deal?' and your answer is 'improve it' or 'what does 2 x 2=?' and your answer is '2 x 2'. Thanks
"Technique beats skill. Psychology beats technique. Philosophy beats all. Think about it." CrdShk
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molsen Special user Copenhagen 552 Posts |
Sorry to say this, but with that attitude you will be riffling (if that is what you do, even that point is very vague) cards until you die.
Many extremely experienced people have offered advice that you deem obvious and thus useless. May I suggest that you have not taken the time to truly understand what this advice means? You have a tic. It is caused by poor management of your movements. Fix it. If you want to replace it with something else that at first sight seems less annoying, and be done with it, fine for me. I don't have to watch your performances. However, for other Café members that may have similar issues, I will offer my opinions on the matter. It may be a surprise, but learning the mechanics of an effect is far from enough to perform it as a convincing display of magic. You have to carefully craft every moment so that it adds to the effect. Everything, no matter how trivial it seems when isolated, that does NOT add to the effect will in essence SUBTRACT from it. Please read that again. Now, when stating that you should simply STOP IT, your thoughts should go to "why is that difficult FOR ME?". What are you NOT busy doing at the time where you let yourself run loose and riffle the cards? Here there are numerous possible answers. Some are: * You have not carefully decided what needs to be done and said at that moment, so your body is just freewheeling. * You feel uncomfortable with that part of the presentation and pause to wonder whether you should ad hoc something instead. * You do not remember what comes next in the execution of the effect and become absent minded. * You are nervous about executing the next sleight because you didn't practice as much as you should have. * You are being burned and hope the tension will dissipate in a few seconds, so you stall. * The attention of your audience is drifting and you hope it will return. * You have too much nervous energy, and this is the way your body burns it off. * You are rushing in adrenaline and let go of your physical control for a moment. * You have seen Jay Sankey do it, and thought it was cool for a while. * You need to fart, and could use some sound misdirection. * You have sweaty hands and try to wipe them off on the edges of the cards. This is obviously just scratching the surface. But understanding this point provides an understanding for HOW to replace it with nothing. It is human nature; we can not let go of something until we understand why we held on to it. You do not need to DO something, you need to UNDERSTAND something. Now, this is just my opinion. I am not telling you what to do. Michael |
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Hostile18 Loyal user London 231 Posts |
Wow, some incredibly unhelpful advice here for quite a straightforward question.
"Doctor, doctor, I keep biting my nails!" "Really? Have you tried not biting them?" I don't care how wise and experienced you think you are, or how profound a lesson you think you're imparting - if someone is asking for advice on changing behaviour they are generally looking for some kind of strategy rather than a reiteration of the problem. I think Tom Cutts' words were among the wise ones. It's often useful to use a bad habit to develop a good one - changing a pattern tends to be easier than stopping it. Maybe start by identifying the impulse to riffle or spring, and as soon as your hands twitch just drop your hands to your side and look up at your audience as if you've just remembered something important. Use the moment to change the pace of the routine, or to ask a question, or introduce a new concept. That's just an example obviously, it depends what you're doing and how you want to go about it. I guess it's the kind of thing where you need to have clear aims and a disciplined approach. |
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
If there were way fewer folks whose need to be right typing around here I might have followed up by asking something like:
Would you take a moment and pick up a pack of cards and keep them in your hands till you start to fidget. The goal here is to notice just what it is that you are thinking or feeling right before you start to riffle or spring the cards. Maybe take a few minutes to rehearse a trick you like to perform. Again the goal is to notice when you riffled the pack or spring the cards. And take the process from there. Anyway - keep up with the barrage of "all about you" righteous pronouncements of what you think is right and maybe that will distract the OP from his fidgeting for a little while. :( Jon
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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fmpilot Loyal user of a fence with 245 Posts |
Teach yourself new habits. Try picking the deck up with the opposite hand from what you normally use. If you transfer it to the other hand, force yourself to use another grip when receiving the deck. If you are an habitual springer, concentrate on only holding the deck in mechanic's grip.
Good luck. I hope you're not trying to quit smoking, too.
"You can observe a lot by just watching."
- Yogi Berra |
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Uli Weigel Inner circle Berlin, Germany 1478 Posts |
If nothing helps, quit magic.
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jstone Inner circle Someday I'll have 1473 Posts |
I had to start smoking to kick my gum chewing habit!
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evikshin Special user 893 Posts |
Closely examine yourself as a performer before proceeding with stopping "bad habits": is it REALLY a bad habit? Or a natural idiosyncratic movement? Also, does it reduce audience impact? Is it distracting? Does it ultimately detract from your performance?
If not, don't fix what ain't broke. Evikshin |
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puggo Inner circle 2022 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-04-06 14:49, Eric Woods wrote: I'll 'third' Ben's suggestion of filming, and expand on it somewhat. I have repeatedly filmed and viewed practice sessions to highlight the flashes / exposed breaks / bad habits etc. Far more effective than a mirror, and repeated sessions 'reinforces' the learning points that you want to address, compared to a one off. Good luck |
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