Royal road to card magic has a very simple method of doing a similar trick. Please read it up (it is in volume one) and unless this is an easier method, do not publish it.
Royal Road To Card Magic is only one volume ... why did you specify?
I was unaware of that, I thought there were more volumes that I had not yet read.
Card College is a 5 volume set - you may be thinking of that. But RRTCM is just one book. The follow up to that is generally considered to be Expert Card Technique by the same authors.
I don't see this as convoluted at all just not presented to maximum effect. That's fine, he's not asking for performance advice, he's not asking if there is a different way to do the same trick and he's not asking for whether of not you think its a good trick, he's asking whether or not it is original.
It looks good to me. It reminds me of a popular effect originally created by Dan Paulus and recreated by Eric Ross and Daniel Madison. Theirs used a gaffed deck. I like the trick a lot.
I don't see this as convoluted at all
Take half the deck, take any card out of that half. Put that card face down on top of your half. I'm going to put my half on top of your half. I'll "mix" up the cards. Put all the cards behind your back, then put the top card face up on my hand. Put the next card face up anywhere in the middle of the deck. Now bring the cards back out and I'll go through them. We'll add these two cards together (Ace and 3 in the video) and that means your card is four down from here! And look, it's your card!
Ok. Step out of the magician mind set and then explain to me why ANY of that is being done, other than "to accomplish the trick". There isn't a reason, because none of it makes sense.
Just need to run it by Derren Brown and he will bring a "Psychological" premise to justify everything.
Derren Brown uses "Nlp" to justify almost all his effects like Deepak Chopra uses "Quantum Physics" to justify all of his 'spiritual' stuff.
Anyways, point being even the most ridiculous plots can be justified however it needs a seasoned creator to think up of the right premise and story.
Actually, Derren Brown doesn't really claim to use NLP. Mostly that's other people claiming that he's using NLP to back up their claims that NLP is amazing and can do anything.
I personally just don't like having to come up with a reason to justify illogical proceedings. I'd rather stick to simple methods that I can use so I can focus on presentation and not which of the 17 steps I'm on.
Actually Derren claims to use NLP, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and trickery and then does not specify which part of the effect is done by which leaving it to imagination. Most of it, as Simon Singh wrote, is tricks. Plain simple tricks.
When does he claim to use NLP? Cite specific episodes or stage shows, please. I have them all (Except the most recent stage show), so I'll be happy to double check for you.
The opening of most of his shows is (paraphrased) "This show fuses magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. I achieve the results you'll see using a varied mixture of those techniques. At no point during the show are stooges used." No mention of NLP. In his book - I believe it was either Tricks of the Mind or Confessions of a Conjurer - he talks about how he went to an NLP seminar and decided most of it was either rehashed principles that have been around forever, or trumped up claims which don't hold water. He got his certificate for the seminar and forgot about it. A year later they ended up renewing it even though he never paid the fee or even responded to their solicitations for such.
There's an episode of Tricks of the Mind with Simon Pegg which is frequently called NLP but the explanation is conversational hypnosis - which I don't entirely buy, personally. I can't say how he did it for sure, but I can say that usually if he explains how he did it, that's not how he actually did it.
However, there's lots of people who practice NLP who claim he's using it. They do this to bolster their own belief that NLP is the ultimate solution to every problem ever. It has its uses, but it largely is just a way of gathering existing models of communication and thought reframing into one system.
That is what I find so hipstery, NLP and conversational hypnosis are the same thing. No conversational hypnotist claims that NLP is different. Yet Derren did a whole episode on indirect influence with conversation (which is exactly what NLP is) and then he claims he never uses nlp.
I still do not believe nlp is handy for any mentalist including Derren Brown. But the indirect influence episode is him basically claiming to use the same concept.
In his blog he explicitly says he does not claim to use it.
Emphasis added by me.
So now you're agreeing with me, correct? He doesn't use NLP - only people who want others to adopt the label of NLP for existing techniques are claiming he uses it.
I will admit I am not an expert on NLP but I don't feel that "indirect influence with conversation" is actually accurate. It's a communications model, and a way of reframing one's thought processes to achieve certain states which are helpful to the subject. Most of what's on YouTube is just people taking it too far, not really understanding it.
Of course, this now has nothing to do with the original post of this thread.
Emphasis added by me.
So now you're agreeing with me, correct? He doesn't use NLP - only people who want others to adopt the label of NLP for existing techniques are claiming he uses it.
I will admit I am not an expert on NLP but I don't feel that "indirect influence with conversation" is actually accurate. It's a communications model, and a way of reframing one's thought processes to achieve certain states which are helpful to the subject. Most of what's on YouTube is just people taking it too far, not really understanding it.
Of course, this now has nothing to do with the original post of this thread.