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yin_howe Special user Malaysia 981 Posts |
Dear Shawn,
You have performed mostly commercially and for laymen, and also competed in as well as judged magic competitions. What are your thoughts on magic for magicians vs say a sponge ball routIne? Do magic for magician's appeal to laymen
"Talent without passion is talent wasted.."
https://www.youtube.com/user/yinhowe80/ |
Shawn Farquhar V.I.P. Canada 760 Posts |
Yin Howe,
I think it;s funny you would ask this question and then cite sponge balls as an example and a the same time I was responding to a question by writing: I have always believed that the strongest effects in magic take place in the spectators hands and minds. That's the appeal to me of such things as the effect I did on Penn and Teller and my variation on the Andrus/Korem Omni deck which I titled the Ultimate Invisible Deck. For this reason I think that sponge balls is a perfect trick. I have been able to find many way to explain the odd sponge ball, from Nerf® to microphone cover and the reaction when two appear in the spectators hands is always spectacular. The plot is easy to follow and there are hundreds of great variations. Just look to the magic of Goshman or Stephen Bargatze. I believe that some magic created for magicians can translate well to the lay public. I didn't design my version of the cups and balls to fool just magicians. In fact the whole idea was to be able to present and effect that illustrated a point in the selling of a multilayered software system. I did the effect hundreds of times a day for ORMED Information Systems. On several occasions I had magicians from other booth repeated return to watch the routine. It's an effect that got huge reactions from the lay audience and even stronger from magicians. With all that said, I do think a lot of the magic that is created for magicians will bore the crap out of real folks. These are the effects heavy in technique, confusing plots, multiple phases and sometime use items unrecognizable in the real world. We often tend to fool ourselves into believing that the lay audience is not smart or will play along with ludicrous pl plots that wouldn't make a good B movie... Oh Speaking of B Movies I watched Shaun of the Dead today for the first and last time... -shawn "not of the dead" farquhar |
yin_howe Special user Malaysia 981 Posts |
Many time the magic geek in me is drawn to the technique or clever method behind and effect. However, time and time again, seeing a real master like you do the classics such as egg bag, walking knot etc, reminds me how it's the 'simple' effects, presented well, that generates the best reactions.
"Talent without passion is talent wasted.."
https://www.youtube.com/user/yinhowe80/ |
Magic MarkR New user 13 Posts |
Shawn. I'm glad your not the dead kind. I love how you answer your questions. It seems as if you are able to do both understand how simple tricks and complicated ones can be both for the magician and the general public. Thank you so much for sharing. I know as for myself I can be memorized with a well executed sponge ball routine where I know all the moves as well as watching a performance where I can only guess how the effect was accomplished. And I agree 100% the best reactions one gets when performing is when the magic becomes personal to the audience. That is when the trick and the art truly come together.
Mark Randolph
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Shawn Farquhar V.I.P. Canada 760 Posts |
Mark,
That was very well said. You really understand the idea of what make real magic... -shawn |
yin_howe Special user Malaysia 981 Posts |
I recall seeing a comment (i'm assuming by a magician) on your youtube video of Extended stay where you used the prophecy move, saying something like for a world champion that move is too 'basic'.
However, the effect kills lay people. Yeah.. Sponge balls/rabbits ROCK!
"Talent without passion is talent wasted.."
https://www.youtube.com/user/yinhowe80/ |
Shawn Farquhar V.I.P. Canada 760 Posts |
Yes there are some great comments on YouTube video's. I really like the prophecy move and it really is deceptive to the layman. Repeated views on YouTube will reveal it pretty fast, but that's the disadvantage of YouTube...
-shawn |
barts185 Inner circle Can you believe I've been wrong on 1355 Posts |
Maybe this belongs in the beginner's section, sorry if it's not appropriate, asking here since you are talking about it - is the prophecy move basically a cross-cut force done a different way? I think I know the YT video referred to by yin_howe (and if it's the one I think I responded to the comment), just trying to learn the language.
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Shawn Farquhar V.I.P. Canada 760 Posts |
Hi Barts185,
Any question is fine, we all come here to learn. The YouTube video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7puIFgsYo and at 1:42 I execute a variation of the Prophecy move that was shown to me by Rafael Benatar. The original move can be found in Scarne on Card Tricks and is called Double Prediction by Bill Simon. ( Effect #49, pg 105) Bill Simon later published it himself as "Business Card Prophecy" in "Effective Card Magic" and "Card Magic for Amateurs and Professionals". Simon Aronson has some great work on it too and calls it the Mark A Place move in an effect titled the Mark A Place Mates in The Aronson Approach. That should give you a few places to search out various versions... Thanks for the question, -shawn |
barts185 Inner circle Can you believe I've been wrong on 1355 Posts |
Shawn,
Thanks - I appreciate the additional references as well as the answer. Bart |
Shawn Farquhar V.I.P. Canada 760 Posts |
Bart,
You're welcome. This is the reason I agreed to be one of the Café's special guest's... to help. -shawn |
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