I recently saw some of Ammar's card magic videos. I was surprised how entertaining he was. He also made some great choices in the routines.
He seems to exude an enthusiasm that is rare. What do you think?

I welcome all responses.

I have seen him working the W.C. Fields Bar at the Castle. He is superb.

Gold Medalist, World Sleight-of-Hand Competition, FISM, 1982

The Academy of Magical Arts Parlour Magician of the Year (1985, 1990)

The Academy of Magical Arts Close-Up Magician of the Year (1981, 1983)

I think there is something just wonderful about Ammar. He is interesting, enthusiastic, and a great communicator. He is underrated as a performer and teacher IMHO.

Saw him lecture a number of years ago. Excellent magician, entertainer and teacher.

Not sure he is underrated. He is held in the highest esteem by the top professionals on the planet as a performer and as a teacher.
His Lecturer of the Year Awards from the AMA are well deserved.
Winning the Gold at FISM ain't to shabby neither.
And he has been delighting audiences and satisfying the most prestigious clients for decades

I have had the pleasure of seeing Michael perform in person twice, and he is just as charming in person as he is on his teaching videos. He is also MUCH FUNNIER in person than he is on the videos, but in a thoroughly gentlemanly way.

A class act all around. (And fantastic chops....)

Yes, Joe, that is what I wanted perhaps to say " a class act all around." He is not entertaining himself; he is entertaining others who are happy to be drawn in to his showmanship. Just excellent.

I have a few magician friends that don't like Ammar's performance style. Each to their own. I think Ammar is great. And the Easy to Master Card Miracles series is superb.

I love him! I feel that he is my personal magic teacher. Dai vernon’s tradition is inside him.

Jaschris, I am surprised to hear some don't like his style. It is hard not to like. I can faintly understand a small part of it might seem '80's but not really. There is so much to be learned from Ammar. You could easily change the style a little. But I think his card magic is underrated.

He has a knack for choosing great magic in a great way.

I can’t believe someone would not like Ammar’s Magic. I would compare him to Chopin music. Classical material of the highest order.

I especially love his light touch and elegance in every movement.

In terms of presentational styles, the performers I enjoy the most are not the ones that help me improve the most. It is far too easy to say “I want to do that trick exactly like he does.” I love Ammar’s teaching and I like his presentation (at least on those videos I’ve seen), but I don’t love his presentation in a way that I would want to emulate. This is good. It forces me to find my own approach. I learned Card Through Handkerchief from one of the ETMCM videos, but I don’t do it anything like Ammar, except for basic method. I’ve actually started to prefer recordings where the trick gets my attention but the performance is sort of “meh.”

That said, I like Ammar and I love his ability to explain things.

Patrick

Excellent magician, entertainer and teacher.

When he performs, Ammar tends to have an understated, regular guy character, like a man who is sharing something without ego or an intention to challenge his audience. He also doesn’t try to be particularly funny, or even to adopt an obvious character at all. Which, I’d imagine, makes his skill and strong magic somewhat of a stealth surprise for people new to his work.

The man is a magical legend who has influences millions of magicians the world over his work and his teaching is superb, I've had the pleasure of attending a couple of his lectures over the years and he is also one of the nicest men you could meet he has no ego or anything like that.

He's a great magician, great entertainer, and even more important, he's a great person.

At a lecture he gave, when prompted with a leading question aimed to disparage another magician, Michael Ammar refused to do that, and instead gave a positive response.

He's also one of the best teachers of magic.

And, his card magic is great. Somewhere on YouTube there's a video of him doing a card trick at some social event where people are sitting at tables. I don't recall what it was now, but most people here would know the trick. Someone posted in the comments that it was done with camera tricks! They were wrong.

Ammar is one of the few that can give a direct narrative of a routine while doing it and make it work.

The clarity with which he performs should be a standard.

Michael Ammar apparently spent a lot of time with the great professor Dai Vernon; and he seems to be channeling him at times. I use Ammar's LandL tapes as studying guides (his book is excellent as well); including very importantly "the real secrets" sections. He's teaching you how to be a performer and not just a sleight of hand expert. As far as 'underrated" goes, he's certainly not underrated as a teacher. And among magicians, he is not underrated as a performer. But I can understand the OP's question in that close-up magic does not get the attention to a large audience nearly as much as the huge stage effects. Hopefully, this will change... just look at Shin Lim's winning AGT, eg. Ammar's card magic might not have all the smoke and fire audiences might like, but his card performance deserves to be seen by those large audiences. Lynn

I like how he performs his tricks slowly so you can follow what is going on then the surprise hits you.

I've seen many card magicians go so fast so the trick is more confusing than magical. I think the magic really happens when you follow it step by step then and everything makes sense then "bam", you get the totally illogical conclusion and the surprise.

Kevin

Agree, Kevin! I think this might also come from Dai Vernon, who was known to be opposed to the act of confusing the spectator. If they can't follow, then it ends up "what happened?" instead of "Wow!". Lynn