Search results

If anyone can see the AIDA formula without thinking of Glengarry Glen Ross then I feel sad for them.

I've only just got round to reading this, so sorry I'm late everyone! While Steerpike has made an excellent introduction to copywriting, I think I can add a couple of points. First off, however long or short your advertising copy is, whether it's written on a single business card, delivered...

I think magic creators who have no aspiration towards performance have just as much right to be called magicians as anyone else. In some cases, more so. The John Gaughans and Jim Steinmeyers of this world are probably more qualified to hold the title of "magician" (even though their reputation...

I actually don't think that we "decieve" our audiences, under the most useful definition of the term. We create interactive works of fiction for them to enjoy. Elements might be true, elements might be untrue, elements might be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but the ultimate aim is to convey...

Sorry Dylan, but to echo KonTW, this is not original. I think everyone who's wielded a deck in anger has independently discovered this. It's a rite of passage we all have to go through, though, so congratulations on achieving it. Rest assured that at one time or another all the greats have gone...

This is a fascinating subject. I think one question that has to be addressed is how you got your powers. Were you born with them? Have you studied under some spiritual guru? Have you discovered an ancient book of magick? Have you sold your soul to the devil? The answer needs to be consistent...

While you're there Lyle, I've had a similar issue which I'd pretty much given up on. Any chance of looking into that for me?

Cool! Feel free to post any questions you have in this thread.

Probably the most famous messed up trick is David Williamson getting caught out by the kid on TV, which we've all seen. To refresh your memory, though, it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R78x7LmUk9w Did this mean the end of David's career? No. Did this even mean anyone thought any less...

It's clearly eighteen.

There are drawings (like in Erdnase or Royal Road) but, I'll be honest, there is a lot of text. It's well worth the effort, though, a lot of text means a lot of information which means a lot of moves and routines that you might not have seen before! If you have trouble understanding anything...

Excellent! A first response! Thanks SebaMan. To maintain this near-breakneck momentum, here's a titbit of Modern Magic trivia. On the Revelations DVDs, Dai Vernon claims that the first published record of displaying two cards as one is in Erdnase's description of the Palm Change. He even...

It's a version of "Just Chance", which became known as "Bank Night" when marketed in the US. There are many different variations on this, in many different mentalism texts and videos so you've got a lot of resources if you want to start working on this. Have fun!

Some of you might remember that, a few weeks ago, I posted a "Book of the Month Thread Proposal". Well, ladies, gentlemen and those with a non-conventional gender identity (it's 2013, you're all welcome), the time for such a thread is nigh. In fact it's so nigh that it's already here. And that's...

Thanks for your kind words! I'm just a student doing my best like we all do!

I think that it's important to have an understanding of the rules of the art before you think about breaking them. They were written down and accepted as rules for a reason so if you're going to break them, they should at least be intelligently considered rather than just abandoned. In my...

It looks alright. As a stand-alone trick I think, as Christopher says, it feels incomplete, so it would have to be incorporated into a longer routine. Either that, or maybe just performed as a quick offbeat moment, almost like a flourish, and not presented as a "trick". Given that, I think its...

If you think that ECT is better than EATCT then, for you, it is! It's impossible to be wrong on this. ECT teaches some great stuff and if, for you, those lessons are more important than those of EATCT then ECT is a better book for you. That's part of what I meant by writing our own Bible, and...

I'm don't think there really is a Bible of sleight-of-hand. To get figurative on yo' ass, I think we all write our own personal Bible. By that pretentious phrase, I mean that we all pick up bits of information and experience from different sources and then combine them into our own unique...

In my opinion, when you're analysing a performance character, you have to consider their internal processes as opposed to their external expression. In other words, Penn's character may talk a lot, but talking a lot isn't his character, it's just something his character does. External...