Card Maniples??
Hey guys, glad the videos are taking off...aaaand glad you like the fact that I can make my nipples move. Maybe I'll release my impromptu version...maybe...if you guys all send me pictures of cat's wrapped in celophane.
A few things to remember...
This is a type of magic that is for stage. The camera was literally 5 feet from me and shot in HD, I ran into this same problem when I was filming for The World Magic Awards and my several segments for Master's of Illusion - which will air this spring.
Just because you learned a trick from one teacher doesn't mean you know it. I was first self-taught from books. But that didn't stop me from buying videos on how to do magic, which also didn't stop me from going to Chavez or hiring other professionals to teach me, which also didn't stop me from to this day paying others to teach me things or to help me grow and develop as a performer. This is an artform, and an artist's work is never finished. I really believe in soaking up as much knowledge from everywhere as you can. I can guarantee you that my reasoning, structuring, and thinking and theories is different from somebody ele's. You are never an expert, I know I certainly don't claim to be.
Don't get stuck in a rut or put too much time into one thing. I know several people and friends of mine who are amazing at the pass. They've developed so much work on the pass it is incredible! But they can't do anything else. I wanted to do the opposite. Honstly when I learned as much with manipulation as I wanted to in my late teens, I moved onto other things. I still do a card and ball manip piece. It used to be part of my bird act, but you have to learn to kill your babies, so I took it out of the bird act to make the bird act stronger and now do the card and ball act as a secondary act. The cards and balls is more like a "ballad"- for lack of a better word. But, like I said, I felt I had learned and concoured enough of that kind of manipulation to where I can comfortably move onto other things to help become a more well-rounded performer.
I see so many magicians and acts who are amazing at card manipulations, ball manipulations, or mentalism, or card tricks, or coin tricks but the minute they have to fill a 30 min show they totally bomb. I NEVER wanted to be one of those guys. I'm a magician, I should be able to carry a show as a magician. Not carry 10 minutes and say "well sorry that's all I have". So there comes a point where you have to just let go and stop and be happy where you are and move onto other things. In a laymen's eyes I get just as strong of a reaction off my card and ball routine as I do my bird act...why??? Because I'm doing magic. Sometimes you have to force yourself to stop thinking like a magician and think more like a laymen if you want to make it. The whole reason T11 and I joined forces was to introduce you guys to other venues and genres of magic in order to help you become more well rounded performers and be able to -if you want- grow as a performer and in your career. Audiences don't care about if I use manip cards or Bee brand cards. They don't care if I do the interlock production or a Cardini single production. Please don't forget that.
Lastly thanks for your support. This web site is a great resource, something I never had growing up in magic. JB and his team have put together something revolutionary and they are awesome to work with...that is when we did get work done. I can't imagine how much footage they had to edit because of my out of control innapropriate comments or long-winded BS. I'm not sure if these videos should have been on manipulation or on how much random BS can come out of my mouth in the least amount of time. If you guys don't learn anything from these videos on technique hopefully I'll open your mind to different thinking or even make you laugh at least a little bit. If I've done that my job is done here. I really hope you guys enjoy what I have to bring to this family.
Danny Boi