Saturday Night Contest - In Control

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Congrats Justin and the Honorable mentions. Asking for learning purpose how can I improve my control and based on the video if anyone saw mine what things I can further improve on?

Thanks

To be honest, contests are not the best way to judge effectiveness because there can only be one person chosen. Realistically, many of these would easily pass by most laymen if done smoothly, with confidence, and a touch of misdirection. You choose a great control. When I look at sleights, I look for anything that looks 'fishy'. Especially on video that can be watched over and over. We can't always do that, and with proper misdirection we can get away with a lot, but we try our best to mitigate it. My goal when I shot this video was to try and make the fishy apart as unnoticeable as possible and to make it look as fair as I could. I put the card in, do nothing, and it's on top was my goal. Jason England pointed out to me that there is a difference to a spectator between putting a card in, cutting or shuffling the cards, and the card is on top versus putting the card in, doing nothing, and the card is on top. Both can work well, but one looks like the magician did something and the other is a bit more magical. Both are impressive and both work in various circumstances.

The control you used is a fantastic way to control multiple cards. It is a deceptive control for spectators. The only direct feedback that I could give is that a spectator needs to be convinced the cards are lost before the move. That could just be as simple as a pause after things are 'squared up', or letting go of the deck with your left hand to gesture - which would act as a bit of a convincer that you don't have a break or something. Then a reason to cut (like 'okay, now I will cut to the first Ace...' or a shuffle to 'lose them even more'). You may have to add patter to help convince. I originally didn't talk in my first dozen takes, but I needed a reason to have my hands come together to do the move, so I tried the pointing and counting. Because without words I couldn't justify the move. It wasn't perfect, but it looked super fishy without me talking.
 

Furrukh

Elite Member
Jul 24, 2010
780
679
Karachi,Pakistan
Thanks

To be honest, contests are not the best way to judge effectiveness because there can only be one person chosen. Realistically, many of these would easily pass by most laymen if done smoothly, with confidence, and a touch of misdirection. You choose a great control. When I look at sleights, I look for anything that looks 'fishy'. Especially on video that can be watched over and over. We can't always do that, and with proper misdirection we can get away with a lot, but we try our best to mitigate it. My goal when I shot this video was to try and make the fishy apart as unnoticeable as possible and to make it look as fair as I could. I put the card in, do nothing, and it's on top was my goal. Jason England pointed out to me that there is a difference to a spectator between putting a card in, cutting or shuffling the cards, and the card is on top versus putting the card in, doing nothing, and the card is on top. Both can work well, but one looks like the magician did something and the other is a bit more magical. Both are impressive and both work in various circumstances.

The control you used is a fantastic way to control multiple cards. It is a deceptive control for spectators. The only direct feedback that I could give is that a spectator needs to be convinced the cards are lost before the move. That could just be as simple as a pause after things are 'squared up', or letting go of the deck with your left hand to gesture - which would act as a bit of a convincer that you don't have a break or something. Then a reason to cut (like 'okay, now I will cut to the first Ace...' or a shuffle to 'lose them even more'). You may have to add patter to help convince. I originally didn't talk in my first dozen takes, but I needed a reason to have my hands come together to do the move, so I tried the pointing and counting. Because without words I couldn't justify the move. It wasn't perfect, but it looked super fishy without me talking.

Thanks a lot Justin for this detailed analysis. I would certainly try to remember these points and improve upon it, especially the patter related point. Very helpful
 
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