Journey To The Center Of The Deck

I never said I know /everything/ about magic, but I do know what I /hate/ about magic.

I agree that my comment about your dribble didn't help anyone. But in all seriousness your dribble looks like something a 'teen, noobie' magician would do. It may be harsh, but at least its me saying it, not someone trying to hire you.

ALL negative feedback is constructive. Just the fact that its negative says that you are not doing it right. Positive feedback is a joke, nothing is every perfect. How can something like 'Oh, that's good', or 'Nice work', constructive at all? Negative things must be said, negative things must not be ignored, negative things show the mistakes we made, not matter how minute they are.

J.
 
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Michael Kras

{dg} poet laureate / theory11
Sep 12, 2007
1,268
3
Canada
www.magicanada.myfastforum.org
I never said I know /everything/ about magic, but I do know what I /hate/ about magic.

I agree that my comment about your dribble didn't help anyone. But in all seriousness your dribble looks like something a 'teen, noobie' magician would do. It may be harsh, but at least its me saying it, not someone trying to hire you.

ALL negative feedback is constructive. Just the fact that its negative says that you are not doing it right. Positive feedback is a joke, nothing is every perfect. How can something like 'Oh, that's good', or 'Nice work', constructive at all? Negative things must be said, negative things must not be ignored, negative things show the mistakes we made, not matter how minute they are.

J.

I wish I knew what was wrong with it... it's not clumpy or messy. I'm very confused.
 
Jul 13, 2009
1,372
0
33
I never said I know /everything/ about magic, but I do know what I /hate/ about magic.

I agree that my comment about your dribble didn't help anyone. But in all seriousness your dribble looks like something a 'teen, noobie' magician would do. It may be harsh, but at least its me saying it, not someone trying to hire you.

I dribble like that and I am most definitely not a Teen noobie. What arrogant statement, a teen noobie. Not only is the slang noobie, which by the way is usually used as a derogatory term to mean someone who sucks at what they do, BUT you stereotype by saying Teen. I know plenty of teen magicians who are a metric **** ton better then you.
Your not trying to be harsh? Harsh isn't what I am getting from you posts. I only get the sense that you are a delusional young magician who thinks he is mightier then you.

Your last sentence doesn't make a lick of sense. Someone hiring me is not going to look at my dribble and have that be the deciding factor onto whether or not I am hired as a performer. STUPID STUPID Assumption Jaeden.

I got constructive criticism for you Jaeden. Since you obviously have things you Hate about magic, why don't you take off the "market" your ebook. Go back and rework it! It is ****. The excuse of, I just want to give you the outline of something so you can create for yourself, is bogus and to me as a reviewer comes across as laziness on the authors part. Even though I got the ebook for free as a review item I still feel bad, how are you going to give me back the fifteen minutes it took me to read through it? That is fifteen minutes I could of been spending making my dribble less sloppy so I can impress a client to perform at Carnegie Hall! Cause dribbling cards are definitely a deciding factor at a gig.

Anyway, *throws money at Jaeden* Go to the hospital you need stitches, for those whip marks.

Sincerely yours,

Silver
 
Oct 2, 2008
336
0
UK
Jinai.deviantart.com
You have asked the right question.

Firstly, lets talk about how you may seem to come across to people. The way you talk sounds like those still unseasoned performers would do - dictating EVERY SINGLE SLIGHT MOVEMENT you make (yes we can see the "king of spades" is by your left leg, and yes we can see the "three of clubs" is by your other leg). You're trying to sound like a Lore-Master (which is quite good), leading people through a journey/adventure with these cards, but curse my sixth soul, why does it sound like you're telling it to some kid? If you're doing this for mature people who actually have the capacity to think deeper into what you perform, then why go on a "dangerous journey" with a deck of cards? It is alright to "represent" a this danger with the cards, but we all know we or these cards aren't going on no dangerous adventure; "This Magician must be delusional." As someone has said, explain your claims.

Second, the hindered pause near the end of the effect. You may know whats coming next, and you may be doing your hardest to build up the finale. But it takes far too long. That effect diminishes as the card is face down for far too long.

Also, you said that this was "engaging". How is any of that engaging? It is you yelling at your audience a story about two cards. You do not involved the spectators in any way. You do not get them invested in anyway. You could as well simply just walk up to a group of spectators, and yell at them, "OHHHHH KAAAAY, now watch this amazing demonstration of my two index fingers, BOB AND KEVIN!!! It is dangerous for them to be together...! OH MY GOSH! WATCH." And do the ol' famous jumping fingers trick. That is how "engaging" your trick is.

By Tokyo.

If you are going to tell some kind of story with an effect then do it. dont just throw it in half way. at least try to induce the deck as a scary world. also one min the cards are card then they are people, let people know what the cards are before you start the effect.

Your story needs to be introduced properly. Don't just smack them with it expecting they'd understand.

Another look over the video leads me to believe that you really don't have to do the cuts when you put the king into the center of the deck. If that is true, trim the fat! Cut the king to the center and be done with it.

Correct.
 
May 15, 2010
493
3
28
With Gerard Way
Heya, Kras. Very nice video and trick. I see you have put a lot into it and I think that is great. I don't make my own tricks generally so when I see someone make their own tricks they deserve to be congratulated for being awesome.

The one thing I believe you should Really improve on is the performance. The patter was great. It was a good story and that is what I believe magic should be. A story. The one thing that took away from the performance was the way you spoke. In one of the youtube comments they said that you sounded like a preacher. I agree. I had to watch the performance twice to figure out what was fully going on because when I saw the video for the first time your tone of speech was weird (in my head) and I feel it took away from the trick. I don't know what you sound like in real life but I'm sure you don't sound like this. Speaking slow and clearly is very important for a performer however that doesn't mean that you have to sound different at all. You can sound like a normal guy while being clear in the way you speak.

I have talked with magicians and they are speaking fine until they show magic and they become completely different people.

Just something to think about. Again, great trick. Good job.

–Anna
 
Well I'm not sure why everyone's complaining. The trick's not bad, and it was performed well. Saying Michael needs to change his performance style is liking asking someone to change their personality. I've seen many magicians who have a similar style to Michael here, and I find them to be funny and engaging :)
Geez, I've seen less bashing on a Towtox thread.
 

Michael Kras

{dg} poet laureate / theory11
Sep 12, 2007
1,268
3
Canada
www.magicanada.myfastforum.org
Thank you sir! I'm not saying the effect and presentation don't need work, they need a lot of work. I'm just bothered by the people that merely bash my personality and technique. I'm an actor so I'm naturally dramatic, and I find that it's great in terms of holding an audiences. I would never change it. It's what makes my magic theatrical and that's my goal with my work. I just need to bulk up the scripting for this one.
 
May 15, 2010
493
3
28
With Gerard Way
Thank you sir! I'm not saying the effect and presentation don't need work, they need a lot of work. I'm just bothered by the people that merely bash my personality and technique. I'm an actor so I'm naturally dramatic, and I find that it's great in terms of holding an audiences. I would never change it. It's what makes my magic theatrical and that's my goal with my work. I just need to bulk up the scripting for this one.

***I do not want to make this post seem too harsh. This is just merely my opinion. If I offended, I apologize now.

I completely understand however this type of performance is what I believe to make the magic of today so called laughable. So many magicians stride to NOT make magic look like this. I am one of them.

I believe that you are probably an actor if you say you are but I don't see actors talking in the tone that you did.

Yes, it might keep the audience engaged however I'm sure they will be engaged without the voice too. The reason why I think they are engaged when you talk like that is because they think you are trying to do a cheese comedy show. Not even that, it is the comedy that was from the olden days of magic and compared to the other serious magicians of today it may seem what you are doing is not serious but a joke.
 

Michael Kras

{dg} poet laureate / theory11
Sep 12, 2007
1,268
3
Canada
www.magicanada.myfastforum.org
I must repeat myself. I'm not putting on a voice. That's actually how I talk. Meet me in real life, I sound no different.

Like I said, I'm reworking the routine so it's less "laughable" (although I legitimately do not see how it is) I know how my persona works onstagevand it came across in the wrong way in the video. For that I apologize. But just watch my other videos and see how my style really does work. I just didn't use it well in this video.
 
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May 15, 2010
493
3
28
With Gerard Way
I must repeat myself. I'm not putting on a voice. That's actually how I talk. Meet me in real life, I sound no different.

Like I said, I'm reworking the routine so it's less "laughable". I know how my persona works onstagevand it came across in the wrong way in the video. For that I apologize.

I honestly don't believe you talk like that. NO ONE talks like that. Go back and listen to it.

Maybe re-shoot the video and talk as normal as you can. Your personality might like talking like that however that doesn't mean you really do talk like that.
 
May 15, 2010
493
3
28
With Gerard Way
You don't need to speak monotonously either. No one does in real life. No magician but Kyle Eschen does that. You said, that is how you speak then you change your statement by saying you embellished it for the video.

Speak NORMALLY.
 
May 15, 2010
493
3
28
With Gerard Way
It is speaking normally.... Just using a louder voice, which I usually do in performance and probably shouldn't do for camera in close range.

I looked up the definition of monotone. Monotone: A single unvaried tone of speech or a sound; having a single unvaried pitch. When we talk normally our sound is varied. Monotone is unvaried speech. Speak normally. Just because you raise your voice doesn't mean it becomes a different vernacular. I can speak the exact same way with my one on one voice as I can when I am performing to 50 people I am just louder.
 
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