Monday, May 13, 2013

Episode 6 "Stolen Cards"



More Review

Table Hopping: I've done it so many times. And I will probably do it many times as well. And as mentioned in the video Stolen Cards by Lennart Green is not suitable for that particular kind of magic.

However it is good for any other close up setting. I can imagine that this plays well in a bar with a few of your friends. Did I say "imagine"... let me correct myself. I know for a fact that it play well in a bar. Because I tried. My core group (the people I'm hanging out with on a regular basis) loved that trick. They even loved the look of a deck consisting of many different back designs. It is different enough to endure yet another card trick.

The second group was the "stranger" group. All see me doing magic for the first time and only this trick. The reactions were different. I had not built up enough credit for this to be the strong. Somebody actually mentioned that it's probably some mathematical thing that works automatically. And he was not far away from the truth here. My conclusion is that as a stand alone piece this is weak.

And the third group was not a normal formal booking. It was done in my theater. Which is the perfect setting for this. I did enough magic to have established credits as a accomplished performer that does not have to rely on self working things, so this got the best reactions.

Watch the demo which is cut in the middle:



Even More Review

So you see this has lots of potential in the presentational field. Lennart tells the story of him having stolen those cards. And considering his age and skill this really is a believable thing. However I bet that most magicians would fall flat with that story. So here is an idea:

You collect autographs from different magicians. You show the backs of the cards and show signatures that are on the back of the cards. David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel... But also Fred Kaps and Tommy Wonder. You can tell stories about them. The cards chosen later on have Penn written on one card and Teller on the other card (or Siegfried and Roy). Then the marker cards are turned over and reveal the same signatures. "I've been there twice."

You also have your one way deck finish. And you can have fun counterfeiting all the signatures.

But what I particularly like about this is the fact that you are bringing out a new deck in a motivated way. This allows for a very natural deck switch of the main deck. Not that this matters for most magicians, as they simply do magic with one deck the whole time. But if you want to get the most out of you card act a complete deck switch for either a stacked or gimmicked deck for the big finish is strong weapon.

1 comment:

  1. I bought this exact trick by a guy called Alan Duncan about 20 years ago in AnnaCadabara's Magic shop in Glasgow. I still have the deck kicking about somewhere.

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