Hey guys, i was wondering what your favorite tricks were in the book Royal Road to Card Magic. What are your favorite tricks that you get great reactions from?
thanks,
thanks,
Fav tricks in Royal Road?
- Thread starter shadowlion63
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It has been forever since I have done anything out of Royal Road, but it was my very first book I owned on card magic. That being said a couple of my favorites were Design for Laughter which can be found in the chapter "The Glide" on pg 54 and Topsy-Turvy Cards found in the first chapter, "The Overhand Shuffle" on pg 13. With a little modernizing of the patter and presentation both of these routines can hit pretty hard for being so basic.
Also, as far as learning the glide goes I also recommend learning the kelly bottom placement. It is a great set up for the glide.
You can find the kelly bottom placement on Encyclopedia of Card Sleights by Daryl disc 4
One last thing, if you are just starting magic (I suppose you are seeing as though you are asking about Royal Road) don't overlook the overhand shuffle chapters. The overhand shuffle and all of its controls are the most useful sleights in Royal Road if done properly. I know a lot of people might have a problem with what I just said, but in my opinion the overhand shuffle and its controls are more useful than any pass. The overhand shuffle is the most natural looking control you can ever use.
Also, as far as learning the glide goes I also recommend learning the kelly bottom placement. It is a great set up for the glide.
You can find the kelly bottom placement on Encyclopedia of Card Sleights by Daryl disc 4
One last thing, if you are just starting magic (I suppose you are seeing as though you are asking about Royal Road) don't overlook the overhand shuffle chapters. The overhand shuffle and all of its controls are the most useful sleights in Royal Road if done properly. I know a lot of people might have a problem with what I just said, but in my opinion the overhand shuffle and its controls are more useful than any pass. The overhand shuffle is the most natural looking control you can ever use.
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I agree that a good looking shuffle control is something immensely useful. But the pass and shuffle control create a different illusion for spectators, despite accomplishing the same thing for the magician, so it's kind of apples & oranges.
EDIT: I don't have RRTCM with me, but "Everywhere and Nowhere" is from it, isn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY-358UFxxQ
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I personally think that nothing beats a good pass. There is something beautiful about the apparent nothingness that is a perfect pass. Whilst the overhand shuffle control is a very very deceptive move something is still happening. Audiences are aware of the ability to control cards if you do nothing in the spectators mind it must be real.
thanks for the suggestions! um im not new to magic though. I havent been performing much though and am starting to. I do alot of card flourishing.
I apologize then. I just figured that a person asking about Royal Road must be a beginner, because that's where I started and I asked the same questions.
As far as the pass goes. A good pass does a remarkable thing, but the pass and an overhand shuffle control are both done on an off beat. They both accomplish the same thing. If you performed the same trick for 2 different groups of people and used the pass for one and the overhand shuffle control for the other, performing the control on the same off beat, with the same patter and misdirection I guarantee you will get the same reaction from both groups. Reason being, if you use the right patter and perform the control on the right off beat and the ending hits hard enough they will not remember you doing an overhand shuffle.
One last thing, the over hand shuffle control is 100% angle proof. Unless of course you are performing for someone laying on the ground. The pass is an iffy subject when it comes to angles.
As far as the pass goes. A good pass does a remarkable thing, but the pass and an overhand shuffle control are both done on an off beat. They both accomplish the same thing. If you performed the same trick for 2 different groups of people and used the pass for one and the overhand shuffle control for the other, performing the control on the same off beat, with the same patter and misdirection I guarantee you will get the same reaction from both groups. Reason being, if you use the right patter and perform the control on the right off beat and the ending hits hard enough they will not remember you doing an overhand shuffle.
One last thing, the over hand shuffle control is 100% angle proof. Unless of course you are performing for someone laying on the ground. The pass is an iffy subject when it comes to angles.
Thanks for explaining to me about these 2 types of controls! You are really helping me out alot. thanks,
Not to spectators! To them, one puts the card at a specific location, one loses it in a random place in the deck. That's an important difference.
If I push the card into the centre of the deck in preparation for a pass, I couldn't say the card is lost in the deck. Someone would point out it's about halfway down the deck.
If I do a shuffle control and say that the card is in the centre of the deck, someone would ask how I knew that - how do I know it's not at the top or the bottom?
A shuffle control is a poor choice for an ambitious card routine - the effect there is that the card goes from a specific point in the deck to the top. A pass is a poor choice if you want to give the impression that the card is hopelessly lost.
You have to use the right tool for the job, and script tricks from the audience's point of view. While these two moves both put the card where we want it, they do different things for the audience.
On the Essential Magic Conference Gazzo performed a 14 step ACR and if I remember right never used a pass once. A shuffle control might be a poor choice for a acr but how many times have you seen someone try to use any kind of shuffle control on an acr? Might I add in my opinion, a pass is not the best control for an acr either, because the attention is brought to the deck throughout the entire acr. Unless you use a pass for the very first leg of the acr then it is hopeless to use a pass at all because after the first leg of the acr all attention is brought to the deck until the end of the acr.
And, if you are going to bring Brad Christians acr into the conversation (which uses a pass a LOT) I am done with this conversation because in his vegas gambling routine (which is a lot like an acr) he tells the specs what a pass is and shows it to them in slow motion from all angles. Last time I checked that is illegal according to the Magicians Book of Morality (I just made that up).
Personally I don't think either control is good for an acr. Unless of course you use the pass for the very first part of the acr.
And, if you are going to bring Brad Christians acr into the conversation (which uses a pass a LOT) I am done with this conversation because in his vegas gambling routine (which is a lot like an acr) he tells the specs what a pass is and shows it to them in slow motion from all angles. Last time I checked that is illegal according to the Magicians Book of Morality (I just made that up).
Personally I don't think either control is good for an acr. Unless of course you use the pass for the very first part of the acr.
Well, my point was on the "outer reality" you want to create for the spectators, and to highlight that a shuffle control and a pass aren't interchangeable. That's what I was trying to say. Didn't want to derail this into an acr thread (and for what it's worth, I agree - I use one pass, it's right at the start, and that's it).
I may have misinterpreted your earlier post - to me, it seemed to say that you could substitute one control for the other. ACR was only the first example that jumped to mind, but the point is, one looks like the card is lost somewhere, and one looks like the card is in a specific place. Depending on which effect you want to create for the spectators, that's what you should use.
If you haven't yet, read "Designing Miracles" by Darwin Ortiz - this is discussed far more eloquently. That book will make every single trick you do better. No kidding.
I would never bring BC into any conversation, except as an example of what not to do. He's a joke.
I'm from the old school. My heroes and teachers wrote books and made their livings performing, not running websites.
I may have misinterpreted your earlier post - to me, it seemed to say that you could substitute one control for the other. ACR was only the first example that jumped to mind, but the point is, one looks like the card is lost somewhere, and one looks like the card is in a specific place. Depending on which effect you want to create for the spectators, that's what you should use.
If you haven't yet, read "Designing Miracles" by Darwin Ortiz - this is discussed far more eloquently. That book will make every single trick you do better. No kidding.
I would never bring BC into any conversation, except as an example of what not to do. He's a joke.
I'm from the old school. My heroes and teachers wrote books and made their livings performing, not running websites.
As a matter of fact I just recently bought Designing Miracles but have not had a chance to start it because as of right now I am reading Strong Magic and Psychological Subtleties 1 as well as other books of effects like Full Metal Jacket. But I do plan on starting Designing Miracles soon.
There's a trick in RRTCM called 'A Tipsy Trick' which is the trick that is sold on this site as 'Sloppy Shuffle Triumph'
I learned it from Royal Road about twelve years ago and have been doing ever since. Love that trick. So simple yet so deceptive when you get the knack of displaying the 'mixed' cards right.
Also, I will also reiterate what has been said above. DO NOT SKIP OVER THE OVERHAND SHUFFLE SECTION JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO THE SHUFFLE! Was one of the biggest mistakes I made. I only recently (in the last year or so) bothered to learn the Jog Shuffle and really wish I had learnt it sooner. There is no better way of subtly convincing your audience that your deck is not set up in anyway than a good, casual jog shuffle.
Rev
I learned it from Royal Road about twelve years ago and have been doing ever since. Love that trick. So simple yet so deceptive when you get the knack of displaying the 'mixed' cards right.
Also, I will also reiterate what has been said above. DO NOT SKIP OVER THE OVERHAND SHUFFLE SECTION JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO THE SHUFFLE! Was one of the biggest mistakes I made. I only recently (in the last year or so) bothered to learn the Jog Shuffle and really wish I had learnt it sooner. There is no better way of subtly convincing your audience that your deck is not set up in anyway than a good, casual jog shuffle.
Rev
Design for Laughter is definitely my favorite from Royal Road, but then again, most tricks in there could be just as strong if done right. Magic for me is about entertainment and presentation first, then mechanics. I still work on my presentations of tricks that I've been doing for years. This is probably no surprise though. For instance, today I was doing Design for Laughter and made an off-hand gesture (scratching my chin) with the selected card in my hand in such a way that I showed them their card while I was asking them what it was. I did this entirely without thinking, but it created such a great reaction that I'm actually going to start doing it intentionally.