Matrix

Apr 27, 2010
229
0
baller08.blogspot.com
Film yourself doing the coin matrix without actually stealing the coin....watch how your hands hold the cards and compare the difference with the video you just posted. The way you hold the cards when you're not stealing the coin should look the same as when you do.

Hold the cards with your only your thumb and middle finger or thumb and index finger loosely. Don't draw tension and attention to an area that no one would otherwise be looking at anyway...the only time they would is if your uncomfortableness draws their attention to it.

Also slow down...slow way down. Really slow down on the last coin reveal, don't be in such a hurry to do the last phase. Even though you're doing this for the camera, I imagine you would do it this way even if you were showing someone. Get them involved in the last phase, ie; let them lift the card, have them put their hand over their card, etc. Don't be in a hurry to get to the punch line, that's not where the magic is, the magic is the slow journey in a spectator's mind, let them have that journy and don't rush them through it.
 
Oct 17, 2010
29
0
Newport
thanks for the tips. Now that you point it out when i do steal the coin it does look different compared to the rest. Ive never really noticed or changed that because i'm still getting good reactions from it. When i do perform this though i do actually get the spectator to turn the last card over but in the vid it was awkward for the guy holding the camera so i did it and rushed it a little.
 
Apr 27, 2010
229
0
baller08.blogspot.com
Here is the thing about human beings that is hardly ever talked about; Everyone has a subconscious that picks up things that are not obvious or apparent. The difference between, "Oh my god, that was a great trick!!" and "He is really smooth, I love watching him" depends on the tiny little nuiances that many magicians fail to work on. The trick itself can be done identical but it's the hand movements, facial expressions, eye contacts, the fluidity of motion that makes the magician. Spectators pick up these small nuiances even if they know nothing about performing or magic. That's one of the many things that set David Copperfield apart - his attention to every single little detail was unmatched.

Take every trick you know well and really work on these tiny little nuiances and you'll see that your spectators love you and not just the tricks. And if you can get your spectators to love you, then everything that you do will seem much more amazing because they're already programmed now to think you're highly skilled and entertaining.

I've used this example before; it's the difference between you standing in the middle of Time Square and doing an ACR or David Blaine doing it. It doesn't matter if you do it technically just as good as him, the audience member will swear that he is MUCH better because they're programmed to believe he is much higher in skill....therefore in their mind what he does will be more amazing. That's the position in the spectator's mind that we should all strive for.
 
Aug 17, 2010
411
4
The pace could be taken down a notch or two. A blur of great magic is still a blur.

At the very beginning, the first card is turned over using all your fingers; the remaining ones with the thumb and index finger only. Is there a way to get all the actions looking similar?

About 0:06, there was the double-clutch on the second card, but hey, these things happen.

Around 0:10 - 0:11, the right hand looks a little awkward reaching across to cover the coin.

Around 0:15, the right hand is using the thumb and index finger to adjust the cards, the left hand uses all the fingers - try to have the hands mirror each other. Maybe use the index finger and thumb of the left hand as well as the right. It's this kind of thing that might lead someone to think that you're holding out. If the hands look the same, it takes some of the heat off of them.

I realize that this isn't a real performance - no patter, we can't see you at all, no spectators, etc. And some of this may seem kind of nit-picky, and that most people won't pick up on this, but it will take just a little more polish to get it past even the sharpest ones in the room. Details make for perfection, but perfection is not detail.
 
Apr 27, 2010
229
0
baller08.blogspot.com
The last time I heard that I was watching the history channel. Also, the programming of people is a little much. Cool out bro.

You think so, eh? We all run on programs. People think that each of us are so different, but we're not. Everyone falls in a handful of buckets. We're programmed first and foremost based on things that are primal and passed down from generations..natural selection. Then we are programmed by what is considered valuable in the society we live in. If you want to be in a profession or hobby where your main objective is to invoke people's emotions in a positive way, you'll have to understand this.

You don't see this do you? Not surprised.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oct 17, 2010
29
0
Newport
thanks for the feedback guys some really great tips. yea i kinda see what you mean with the turning over being all the same. i will work on it and re post some new footage and see what you think. :)
 
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