Hi John,

i'm one of your big fans from germany (who's got ALL of your DVD, books, lecture notes,....)!!!!! I absolutely love your material but I have a question here:
How do you structure your routines? What effects are your favorite openers, middles and finishers? And how do you choose?

Thank you in advance and PLEASE keep going

Best regards,

Zedd

Hi Zedd.

Firstly, thank you for your kind words and support. I have no hard and fast rules re openers, middle and closing effects. One thing I never do is have a card selected at the start of a set. I might do a quick two card transposition or something of that ilk that establishes that I might just be worth watching! The middle section of a card set is an interesting one as this is where you can really establish an empathy with your spectators. But the finish of the set must always be the peak of the session, which draws a definitive line under the performance.

John

Hi John,

thank you for the reply! Could you please name some tricks of yours?

Best regards,

Zedd

I've been doing this set since your dvd Handle with Carey come out and plays very well.

- Mr E Takes a Stroll ( from your friend 😉) what a great routine!
- Searching For a Sanduich

- 3 Chances

In terms of presentation, at the end of Mr E , I'm with the aces on table and a selected card , they choose 2 of the aces, the selection is lost in the deck and I say that this time the aces will find their card, not me. 😉 At the end of Searching for a Sanduich I say that now I will not find their card, neither the aces, they will find their own card but because they don't do this everyday like me, they have 3 Chances. Et voilá! They do everything!

In terms of handling 2 minor touches. After the aces disappear from top and bottom I spread the cards like you do and ask " how many cards do you think are between the aces? More or less? " And they say a number. I think this helps convince them that the aces are separated and helps put that image in their heads. After this I don't square the deck well, I close the spread but I let the pile in a mess and I say " I don't want touch the cards, please, square them." They do,now I give time to the magic happen, something I learn from Skinner and spread the deck, fin 😉

Very cool!

Yes - really cool! Thank you!!

Best,

Zedd