One thing I would like to ask is this. Why is there so many posts on this site about stupid things. Like "Are my hands the right size for palming." "Who is your favorite magician" and many, many more. Does that really matter to the spectator? People are always showing other people new tricks and other people are saying their opinions and whatever, but they have very limited experience in magic. We are not doing tricks for each other we are doing them for layman who don't know sleight of hand or who many don't even care about it. We get wrapped up in our magic and forget that the rest of the world doesn't. Most of the time they think it is cool but that's it. They KNOW you are not doing magic. Just entertain people. These are just some of my thoughts. Feel free to reply with anything you wish. Thanx
Dumb Questions
- Thread starter jbear574
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Personally the two questions you asked are not stupid. "Are my hands the right size for palming" question is a decent one. Lets say someone said they have small hands for palming, others could recommend palming techniques to them for smaller hands. "Who is your favorite magician" is a great question. I always love it when this question comes up because a lot of the times a person will come up and you don't know who it is. You do a little research on the person and find out he is very good. Especially if the magician is a past (dead) magician that is even better because then you can find out about someone that helped the art of magic progress. Therefore those 2 questions were not stupid at all. When you look at them they might appear so but when a question comes up look at it on the better side and think about what could really come from the question.
Well as for the question of why hand size is not important is because it does not matter how you palm the cards. If the spectator is looking directly at your hands they will see ANY palm you use. It is your job as a magician to misdirect them from the palm in the first place. If I said "Hey look it's a meteor shower in the sky." I could palm in any way I wish and the misdirection will have covered the whole thing. MISDIRECTION is the key. Not sleights. As for the second question about why it does not matter who your favorite magician is. How many tricks do you do from that magician? Your tricks are based on various magicians. Everyone's are. Mine are. So EVERY magican is your favorite. They all have contributed different things. Thanx for the honest feedback. Everyone's opinion counts in my book. This thread is not meant to be hateful in any way. Please do not take it that way.
It is so true about the palming though. I agree with this thread. Midirection is the key. Back when I couldn't palm a card to save my life, I would just casually put my hands under the table for a second while talking. Once I even left them above the table, not thinking, and nobody looked, and nobody saw. This is a great thread in my opinion.
Finally, someone spoke up!
I agree with everything said. You also forgot about the "is it okay to pick up chicks with magic?" question.
I agree with everything said. You also forgot about the "is it okay to pick up chicks with magic?" question.
I think we should be talking more about how to misdirect. Showmanship. How to make a trick original for us. A trick done by one person may not be right for another person. Find a trick that is right for you and make it original for you. I have found that I can find a trick online and do it in about 1 day. (Most tricks), but it takes me about a week or more to figure out original patter for it. The showmanship and the misdirection are your own not the trick. There is alot more to talk about. How to start a business in magic, how to control the audience, etc.. These are just some ideas. Feel free to add your own. Again thanx for the feedback guys.
I honestly think that magic is a mixture of every tool ever used or exposed.
Just think. An audience member knows about the DL. You can do a dozen or so different things that aren't a double lift...but all of them could be a double lift. So they think they have you figured out, but can never catch you because you keep showing one card to be one card.
Using a magicians knowledge against him is also something I've been intrigued by. Search youtube(I may edit it in) for Teller in Egypt (should be first video). He talks about a magician pretending to do moves and actually ends up fooling him. (it's quite insightful).
Also-when palming, you should have both technique and misdirection. To say the sleights don't matter is to say you only do self-working tricks that rely on math or setups or something like that. Sleights make it possible to do the impossible. Misdirection just makes it smooth, unexpected and down right magical.
-Rik
Just think. An audience member knows about the DL. You can do a dozen or so different things that aren't a double lift...but all of them could be a double lift. So they think they have you figured out, but can never catch you because you keep showing one card to be one card.
Using a magicians knowledge against him is also something I've been intrigued by. Search youtube(I may edit it in) for Teller in Egypt (should be first video). He talks about a magician pretending to do moves and actually ends up fooling him. (it's quite insightful).
Also-when palming, you should have both technique and misdirection. To say the sleights don't matter is to say you only do self-working tricks that rely on math or setups or something like that. Sleights make it possible to do the impossible. Misdirection just makes it smooth, unexpected and down right magical.
-Rik
You are very correct. The sleights do matter, but the misdirection is 90% of it. If I misdirected you with the meteor shower comment, would I have to use a sleight? I could glue the card to your backside take my clothes off and turn into an elephant without any sleight at all. There is more talk about in these forums of sleights, than of misdirection. We need more misdirection and business related questions than sleight questions. See what I'm trying to say?
I just think we are spending too much time trying to make the sleights invisible and posting them saying "can you see that"(Me too) and not ENOUGH time spent on misdirecting from the sleight. Some good questions could be,"How do I misdirect", "How do I get my business card to clients", "Where do I go to perform or promote my magic." Feel free to add your own questions. You know why Katie is good. We aren't watching her hands.
I don't really know if this has much to do with the entire topic, but I saw a portion about why people perform for other magicians instead of laymen.
This is how I do it...
I learn a trick - I practice
I perform it for a friend of mine (magician) he tells me his thoughts
I polish and continue to practice
perform for him again and repeat the process until he thinks it's awesome.
Then I perform for laymen.
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Asking who your favorite magician is a good question, at least I think so. I say this because I feel that everyone needs insperation and by knowing who others look up to you can find new sources for your magic. From that thread I learned about several magicians I had never heard of and realized that people hold Bill Malone in higher praise then I would have assumed.
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I've been told that anyone can palm regardless of hand size (some exceptions) because if your misdirection is good enough then you should be fine. That's my thoughts on it tho
This is how I do it...
I learn a trick - I practice
I perform it for a friend of mine (magician) he tells me his thoughts
I polish and continue to practice
perform for him again and repeat the process until he thinks it's awesome.
Then I perform for laymen.
---
Asking who your favorite magician is a good question, at least I think so. I say this because I feel that everyone needs insperation and by knowing who others look up to you can find new sources for your magic. From that thread I learned about several magicians I had never heard of and realized that people hold Bill Malone in higher praise then I would have assumed.
---
I've been told that anyone can palm regardless of hand size (some exceptions) because if your misdirection is good enough then you should be fine. That's my thoughts on it tho
Well that was a pointless post and here's another one, the original post is a dumb question.
I wouldn't say misdirection is 90% of what I do.
I would say that Penn and Tellers cigarette act explaining sleight of hand is probably the best example of exactly how things play into it.
Youtube it. It's entertaining and informative.
No segue here...just jump into it...
I don't have invisible sleights (not all of them are invisible I mean) but I can do them, even with brief flashes, without arising suspicion if I'm talking or not watching my hands because there is no unnatural movements.
I can do top changes, passes, packet changes, palms and more without doing anything strange or awkward to draw attention to my hands.
My palms aren't always perfect.
Corners stick out, I can feel them sticking out, but I just ignore the hand and hand the deck to be shuffled, readjusting the palm by my side if needed while I wait for the deck.
And I agree that there are a lot of completely useless threads, and posts, but that should be the motivation behind staying and starting new threads, making meaningful posts...and giving advice that actually helps people.
Just a few thoughts.
-Rik
I would say that Penn and Tellers cigarette act explaining sleight of hand is probably the best example of exactly how things play into it.
Youtube it. It's entertaining and informative.
No segue here...just jump into it...
I don't have invisible sleights (not all of them are invisible I mean) but I can do them, even with brief flashes, without arising suspicion if I'm talking or not watching my hands because there is no unnatural movements.
I can do top changes, passes, packet changes, palms and more without doing anything strange or awkward to draw attention to my hands.
My palms aren't always perfect.
Corners stick out, I can feel them sticking out, but I just ignore the hand and hand the deck to be shuffled, readjusting the palm by my side if needed while I wait for the deck.
And I agree that there are a lot of completely useless threads, and posts, but that should be the motivation behind staying and starting new threads, making meaningful posts...and giving advice that actually helps people.
Just a few thoughts.
-Rik
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TECHINICALLY if you have good misdirection you do not even need a palm. Like I said on the previous page. If I used the meteor shower comment I could easily take the card of the pack in plain sight and slip it into my pocket and no one would ever see it. NO SLEIGHT AT ALL JUST MISDIRECTION.