Thoughts on Impossible Card Magic by Ray Kosby

[Ben Long]

I recently got this and I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

Note: If you thought the clipshift was difficult, you might as well give up. This DVD is not for the meek. I highly recommend you learn and master (and I mean master) the Ambitious Riser move because it will make things dramatically easier for you.

I finished watching this DVD and I wanted to cry. So I did. I have basically sold my soul to Ray Kosby for the next five or so years. These tricks are quite literally insane. I think they were conceived by a mentally unstable person. For anyone to think that they can master these in five lifetimes would be folly. There are two categories of magic trick: very difficult and more difficult.

The Quality is fine, no real complaints. It's an older quality video, but everything is clear. The teaching isn't as good as it could be, but Ray goes through everything and at least makes comprehension of these tricks possible.

Let me just be as clear as possible here. The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was known for composing the most difficult piano pieces period. There are records of pianists who were institutionalized trying to play his pieces. They went clinically insane.

Ray Kosby is the Sergei Rachmaninoff of card magic. Get it?

 

[magicmaster]

Good review! However, not all of the effects are extremely difficult. Jack in the Box and Oil and Water are two really easy effects.

 

[Ben Long]

Good review! However, not all of the effects are extremely difficult. Jack in the Box and Oil and Water are two really easy effects.

This is true, but the vast majority of effects will give you carpal tunnel syndrome. They will.

 

[JCwebs09]

It seems like magicians are trying to scare beginners.
I have been doing "Raise Rise" for about two years and can do it pretty good i think. Yes the ambitious riser move is difficult, but i think the word for it would be time consuming. Similar quotes come with the book "by forces unseen", everyone says the tricks are really hard, i don't think thats the best definition, i just think they are time consuming to learn. (knacky as well haha)

alot of younger magicians think that if you dont master a trick in a month its too hard to do.

The only thing i think is "hard" is the anti-faro haha.

I really don't want to upset anyone, i just want kids that have not done magic very long to know that nothing is too hard to do, it will just take years and not hours to get down.

Thanks for reading and God bless!

 

[Ben Long]

It seems like magicians are trying to scare beginners.
I have been doing "Raise Rise" for about two years and can do it pretty good i think. Yes the ambitious riser move is difficult, but i think the word for it would be time consuming. Similar quotes come with the book "by forces unseen", everyone says the tricks are really hard, i don't think thats the best definition, i just think they are time consuming to learn. (knacky as well haha)

alot of younger magicians think that if you dont master a trick in a month its too hard to do.

The only thing i think is "hard" is the anti-faro haha.

I really don't want to upset anyone, i just want kids that have not done magic very long to know that nothing is too hard to do, it will just take years and not hours to get down.

Thanks for reading and God bless!

Well, first of all, please thank your deity for blessing me. That's very kind of it.

Second, I'm perfectly aware that these tricks will take years. I say so in the review. And the fact it, it is very difficult to train one's hands to do these things.

I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that these tricks are that tough, I'm just saying that they're tough. I'm really excited for the next few years of my life to be able to work on these sleights and see the progress.

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[Cardz9863]

That was a pretty interesting post, and kind of creepy. I can't believe people went clinically insane trying to play pieces of music ....

 

[Creeper]

Can you link me to that insane piano people story, because I searched and couldn't find it.

 

[Ben Long]

Can you link me to that insane piano people story, because I searched and couldn't find it.

Just search Sergei Rachmaninoff. I'm sure you'll find it.

 

[Creeper]

Searched quite a bit...haven't seen anything.


its not that I don't beleive you, I'm just interested in the story.

 

[Ben Long]

Searched quite a bit...haven't seen anything.


its not that I don't beleive you, I'm just interested in the story.

Well, I did hear is secondhand...

Actually, if you check out the movie Shine with Geoffry Rush, I think he has a nervous breakdown trying to play a Rachmaninoff piece. It's based on a true story...

 

[krazykards]

I agree with all that that the ambitious riser is a move that makes my pinky want to break off and run away screaming, but I have found that even when a move seems insanely hard, if you keep playing with it, one day you will just somehow do it. I guess that is the idea behind "knacky"....

I played with the diving board DL from lee asher and just couldnt get that sucker up into the air. Then one day, i tilted my hand a little bit over and BOOM that double went 2 feet up in the air. Not that it is a hard move, its just an example of "knacky"