Can a trick have too many booms?

Jan 27, 2008
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ok so ive been thinking... if you perform Simply Divine by Jay SAnkey (an effect where you peek a card, touchs several of them and in this small pack of touched cards you name a number and that is your card) but you predict in a notepad their card and then perform What If, also by jay sankey... would that be too much in the same routine/effect??
 
Nov 18, 2008
1,604
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CA
I think I know what you are saying: that a trick can have too many climaxes and it takes away from the overall effect. I agree with you to a level. If an effect has multiple kickers and they are not increasingly impressive, I think it would actually take away from the effect. It would be great if each reveal/kicker was increasingly amazing than the one before it.
This would obviously not be the case if there were so many endings that it took longer to reveal them than to perform the stuff leading up to it. :p
 
May 3, 2008
618
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What about Derren Brown's 3 card routine? ;)

His routine is a well thought out marathon of magic. I can absolutely agree with a trick with way too many climaxes. One example is Spun by Morgan Strebler. Although only 2 things happened, the coin bend in midair in my opinion totally kills the levitation and makes it less impressive.
 
Jan 1, 2009
2,241
3
Back in Time
It becomes lame when effects have too many climaxes or kickers. Because the end result is usually confusion and people will end up expecting it. Then it's no longer a kicker ending or anything. Tho there are a few effects that properly build off of like 2-3 kickers. Rollover Aces is one of them.
 
ok so ive been thinking... if you perform Simply Divine by Jay SAnkey (an effect where you peek a card, touchs several of them and in this small pack of touched cards you name a number and that is your card) but you predict in a notepad their card and then perform What If, also by jay sankey... would that be too much in the same routine/effect??

I certainly think it is possible. I'm going to quote a book called Maximum Entertainment by Ken Webber. "Laypeople want direct plots. Anything else is magical masturbation, done because it makes you feel good, and no one else."

I think the plot of any effect should be boiled down and strained for the simplest and most direct plots. The more you toss into it, the more conveluted(sp?) the effect becomes. If you aren't careful you'll leave the realm of entertainment and enter the realm of showing off.
 
Sep 2, 2007
1,186
16
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London
I think a distinction should be made between a routine and an effect. A routine can have a single plot, but contain several effects. A problem arises when the effect is complicated, but that doesn't mean the full routine can't have twists and turns. Dai Vernon had a maxim that a good effect can be described in one sentence, but that doesn't preclude a longer, more complex routine. In fact, such routining adds to the impact of each effect, if they logically follow from the last one.
 
Jan 18, 2009
146
1
The farthest I would really go with kickers is Alpha Deck, my favorite gimmick next to Tarantula.

In case you don't know what alpha deck is, spectator cuts and you take one half and they take one half. You both pull out one card and turn it over and they are both the red aces. Do the exact same and then they are the black aces, when you both turn over the packets and every single card is blank.

Great trick but anything after that would be overkill, so just try and make sure that if you want to combine any routines you may have to eliminate certain parts or slightly rush them so it doesn't overdue it.
 
Mar 29, 2008
882
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Guys - how about Larry Jennings classic OVERKILL - the entire point of the effect is that the revelation is made in progressive ways a total of 4 or 5 ways.

To no surprise, I don't completely agree with Draven - I think that quote is being used incorrectly. You can have a direct plot, but still have multiple climaxes - this exists in much magic - and in other forms of art - like film. Lord of the Rings had multiple climaxes, as did Scorsese's, "The Departed"., both Oscar winners. I think that magic can do the same as long as the effects serve to enhance the plot.

Tyler Wilson said some interesting things on this subject - he hated the concept of, "a good plot for a card trick can fit into one sentence" - the card changes colour or the card comes to the top - but people can absorb much information, if you are good at tranlating the effect.

Can you name a really good movie that can be described in one sentence...hell, food critics take up paragraphs describing thier experience at a restaurant...imagine the critice that wrote - It was very good. Would you go?

I don't think having various endings that enhance the plot is magic masterbation - if they are all kickers - then perhaps, because they are effects that don't enhance the plot - but Johnny Palmer made a winner from his act that featured unrelated magic.

I just think that magic can have mulitple moments of magic in them, if constructed to build. Odd that Draven would think the opposite, when in another thread he said that "anything can be done...should it be, probably not...but can it be. The answer is yes." - not trying to be a jerk...okay maybe a little - but I just never get your logic - and I usually disagree with your posts. Sorry.
 
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Jan 1, 2009
2,241
3
Back in Time
I think it depends on the effect. Sam The Bellhop is a great effect. Yet I doubt you can fit the whole thing into one sentence. Also the entire effect is nothing but reveals.

I think it really depends on the reveals tho. Darwin Ortiz mentioned that if you have an effect with many of them, then each one better be a lot more surprising than the other. Tho if it has too many, they can end up expected like a M. Nightshamalayalala movie.
 
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