Your obsessions.

Inspired by something I read in another thread, I though it might be interesting to find out what other peoples specific interests and ‘obsessions’ are.


Now, I'm not looking for the names of specific effects here, just broad themes, ideas, plots, or principles your find yourself constantly revisiting and playing with. It might even be a certain utility prop you just can't seem to stop playing with. What things have you learned and discovered whilst playing with these ‘things’? Anything you want to share?


I'll lead by way of example!


Oil & Water: I have a bit of an obsession with Oil and Water effects. I realise that as a plot it is much maligned by magicians and potentially boring to laymen but it fascinates me as an idea, possibly because I've always been into science so may it fits my mentality as far a presentation goes. I enjoy the challenge of constructing routines in different ways. How long should routines be? How do you give them a logical ending that still makes sense? My two favourite things I've come up with whilst exploring this plot are an almost self-working routine with a (semi)logical kicker ending and an adapted handling of Roy Walton's 'Oil and Queens' which doesn’t use the usual O&W patter, but is instead presented as a demonstration of card cheating, ending with two poker hands.


Packet Brainwave effects: AKA ‘B’Wave’, ‘8 Card Brainwave’ and the like. How do you make these effects play big? Using so few cards means the ‘predicted’ outcome is always going to be more likely, so how do you make the effect more impressive? My favourite thing I’ve come up with so far is a four card brainwave effect based around a game of ‘choice & chance’. It has multiple revelations which build nicely under the guise of a mock ‘exposure’ on how people can be influenced. I like it.


Four-of-a-Kind productions: I love the idea of producing a four of kind from a shuffled deck, whether it’s used as the main effect or as a kicker ending (oh, I also love kicker endings!). The grail for me is the spectator shuffling a borrowed deck and then finding the four Aces,with minimal handling from the magician. I’ve got close but the method means, if using a freshly borrowed deck, the four of a kind will not always be the Aces. Still seems to play well for layman though. Plus, when using my own deck it will ALWAYS be the Aces ;)


Svengali Deck: I love the Svengali deck. There, I said it! There used to be a magic shop two minutes from my house and I loved watching the owner demonstrate the Sven Deck. My personal highlight from playing with the deck: fooling a fellow magician with a card stab style effect. I drove him mad by refusing to reveal the method!


So those are mine! Care to share yours?


Rev
 

Gabriel Z.

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Apr 26, 2013
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I'm humbly guessing this thread was inspired by my Up The Ladder Cuts obsession :D

Anyway my three biggies are as follows:

1.Up The Ladder Cuts - I particularly use the method taught in Expert Card Technique. I absolutely adore this method as it is the cleanest in my opinion. I know the one taught in Card College, and occasionally I will revert to the similar cuts found in Erdnase.

2.Classic Pass- I love the fact that two packets can be transposed shifted what have you with one quick movement. I practice the Classic Pass on a daily basis. Occasionally I'll talk to myself as a spectator calling out Stop (yes im a very lonely person) Then make the pass voila the card has jumped to the top of the deck. I'm not the fastest when it comes to the Classic Pass but I generally go for speed.

3.Bottom Deal- I read in the Tarbell series that if you know this one you have a big trick up your sleeve. So in the mornings if you don't find me performing my Up The Ladder Cuts, or Riffle Shuffling , I'll probably be base dealing. Good stuff. Once again I use the method directly out of Erdnase. Classics never die.
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
I've got a lot of obsessions when it comes to magic:

Strippers - Standard, End, Belly and (although I don't have one) Negative and Short Cards - End, Corner and Side. Great resources include Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, The Stripper Deck, Greater Magic and Jinx.

R&S - OK, let's start with Invisible Deck, Brainwave and Mirage (especially Andy Nyman's Charade). Add to that Jim Steinmeyer's Khardova Deck, Andy Nyman's Kick in the Head, Nudist/Mental Photography, Adrian Gower's Erazer, Pop-Eyed Popper and McCombical. Great resources in Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, Greater Magic, Jinx, Hirophant, Secret Ways of Al Baker, R&S Possibilities and the Triumph effects in Apocalypse.

Full Deck Gaffs and Stacks - Craig Petty's Wipeout, Caleb Wiles' Holy Blank and Fully Automatic Card Trick, Mattieu Bich's Spreadwave, Jim Steinmeyer One Fortune, Wayne Dobson's Fluke and the Ultimate Marked Deck (along with Kirk Charles' Hidden in Plain Sight).

Gaffed Cards - I fell in love with the effects on Ellusionist's Army of 52 (I love the Stranger Card routine). Got in deeper with Simon Lovell's Packet Killer and Greg Wilson's Arcane Gaff DVD. I love using Double Backers, Double Facers and blanks. Encyclopedia of Card Tricks is great for this. I love Wildcard routines and Tommy Wonder's Tamed Card.

Travellers - From the moment I saw Wayne Houchin's performance of Invisible Palm Travelers on True Astonishments, I knew I had to research the effect. Started with Jennings '67, well, because that is where it started. I love John Bannon's World Class Travellers and Tom Stone's Trackng Mr. Fogg.

Classic Magic - Linking Rings, Billiard Balls, Sponge Balls, Cups & Balls, Zombie Ball and Miser's Dream. I love seeing innovative routines. Levent's DVDs on Linking Rings, Billard Balls and Miser's Dream are amazing.

Self Working Card Tricks - Anything by Karl Fulves, Steinmeyer's Impuzzabilities series, Martin Gardner's Impromptu, Robert Giobbi's Card College

Other plots - Just got Peter Tapppan's Impostress Princess (Princess Card Trick), Best of All Worlds (OOTW), Frank Garcia's Wildcard Miracles.

The Work of Certain Magicians - Slydini, John Bannon, Jim Steinmeyer, Roberto Giobbi (especially Secret Agenda and Confidences) Max Maven and pretty much anything written by Stephen Minch.

Books About Magicians - Secret Ways of Al Baker, Roy Benson By Starlight, The Magic of Alan Wakeling, WD40 (Wayne Dobson's autobiography and some great tricks), The Last Greatest Magician, Glorious Deception (Chung Ling Soo) and Hiding the Elephant.

Books on Presentation - Ken Webber's Maximum Entertainment, Peter McCabe's Scripting Magic, Henning Nelms' Magic and Showmanship, Dariel Fitzke's trilogy, Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic, Larry Haas' Transformations and anything by Robert Neale, Eugene Burger, Jeff McBride and David Parr. Oh, I can't forget Tamariz's Five Points in Magic, the Magic Way and Sonata and Tommy Wonder's Books of Wonder.

OK, books in general. Up to around 150 and have a bunch more on my list.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
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Me? I tend to enjoy false cuts. However... Brett = One Handed/Tenyo, just throwing out my prediction for the future.

Obsessed?! I can stop whenever I want--ANYWAY!


TENYO - the first trick I ever had was 'Crystal Cleaver' from Milton Bradley's: Magic Works. It would be 20 years later that I would find out that the 'Cleaver was actually a Tenyo Magic trick (MB had a license to rebrand some Tenyo items. The more you know). And this would be my gateway into the vast expanse of magic.
They are ingenious and diabolical designs made by some inventors whose sanity I question--but grateful that they put such madness to these ends. However, outside of Japan, you'd be hard pressed to see Tenyo performed outside of someone's home as they are more revered as collectors items. I find that some of them are absolutely perfect in performing for a show or close-up situations.
The challenge is that a lot of them are rather odd devices that bear no resemblance to anything relatable. I think with any prop magic, it's a fun challenge to construct and create a routine to draw in the audience and have them follow you along.

While I am practicing actual sleights and working very diligently to get my practice in, I believe that I will always have a fondness for prop magic and appreciate ingenious magic designs.

I am SLOWLY branching from Tenyo a bit, as I have my eye on 'Rubiks Rod'. Sure, it's a $50 'Hot Rod'. But there was so much R&D that one guy did with making it and the result is just amazing to me. I appreciate weird and unique stuff!


ONE-HANDED STUFF - This requires explaining. Last March, I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis, which then explained the 'irritating pain' my left wrist and thumb were having. Turns out my left wrist has been broken several times and I never knew they were broken--I thought I lifted something hard some day and I just wrote it off as just irritating pain, who knew. Because of this, I could, and still do, card work and coin work with my right hand only. I also feel that one-handed work has this origami-esque look to it. It's unique and provides its own set of unique challenges and strengths, as well as the ability to provide a more unique experience since one-handed stuff is not really looked at or done as much as tried and true two-handed work. And reasonably so, as one-handed stuff also has its own unique set of weaknesses between angles and difficulty.
 
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Dec 6, 2015
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I've been experimenting these past few months so my obsessions have changed pretty often, but currently I'm obsessed with stacked/memorized deck work. I never expected I'd be doing these kind of tricks or how natural it would feel to me, and the variety and quality of the effects you can do are amazing!
 
Nov 10, 2014
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When I first started doing it, I didn't have the 'calibration' correct to NOT ruin the cards. But you end up sort of 'rubbing' the corners together until they merge.
Yeah, I've been working on my Faro Shuffle (got my first perfect one with the Union Deck I won a few weeks ago) and when I was watching the Scam School youtube channel once I saw him do a Faro and he was rubbing them like that, that helped me get the feel for the way to do it, the issue I was talking about is lack of dexterity, I can't gets the packets lined up right, one is too high or too low.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

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Sep 27, 2014
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Yeah, I've been working on my Faro Shuffle (got my first perfect one with the Union Deck I won a few weeks ago) and when I was watching the Scam School youtube channel once I saw him do a Faro and he was rubbing them like that, that helped me get the feel for the way to do it, the issue I was talking about is lack of dexterity, I can't gets the packets lined up right, one is too high or too low.

Ah! I get what you're saying.

I haven't tried doing a perfect faro and up to this point, I was just happy doing it--regardless of how good the packet lining-up went. I can do it rather fast, but it lacks a nice touch to it like a wel done faro.

If you're shooting for a perfect faro with it. All I can say is: good luck! I've seen a few people in Instagram do it. It looks rather impressive, but watching the setup is a threat to ones patience. It's going to take a bit of practice.

Good luck in your endeavor!
 

DavidL11229

Elite Member
Jul 25, 2015
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Seattle
My current obsessionis returning a shuffled deck to original order (hopefully without putting the spectator to sleep while I do so) after doing some other effects . This has had the side effect of creating interest in ACAAN.

Currently being slowed down by a card related hand injury though and just practicing left handed coin sleights for now. Sigh. It also means that for cards I am spending more time thinking about method and not just practicing execution, but it's nice to be able to do both.
 
Mar 14, 2015
37
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Washington
I love short, quick packet cuts, mostly variations on the Sybil. I also have always liked the look of shooting a card from one hand to the other, hotshots and topshots especially. And I'mm always baffled by how visuals spongeballs are.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
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I love gutsy stuff and psychological forces. I love the thrill of knowing that something may go wrong as I perform and testing myself to fix any problems that arise.

I'm obsessed with subtle methods as well. The kind like Vernon's Trick That Cannot be Explained. I love magic that is tough to share with other magicians because the method is so off the wall.
 
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