Learn the pass?

[fridoliina]

Hello everyone

I was thinking about getting a dvd on the pass, wich one should i get? i have no experience with the pass at all. How is On the pass with richard kaufman and Ellusionist ninja dvd?

 

[Toby]

I dont know about the Kaufman, but i learned my pass from Ninja 1 and Ninja 2, and those are really good source's to learn the pass from. But you want to learn the pass from different source's. For exapmle. get the Ninja series and get some book that has pass in it (books are more detailed on finger positions)...

I love the pass, and i love doing it

 

[StormShadow]

I learned the basic concept from Ninja 1 but I learned it much better when I purchased Pass With Care by Peter Cassford. This dvd also has a special practice video loop so you can practice step by step with the video. I would highly recommend this dvd.

 

[MikeGoyke]

I learned it much better when I purchased Pass With Care by Peter Cassford. This dvd also has a special practice video loop so you can practice step by step with the video. I would highly recommend this dvd.

I have heard a TON of great things about this dvd....I dont own it so i cant really say for sure how good it is, but again i have heard some fantastic things about this dvd

 

[Fropez87]

Pass With Care is a great DVD to learn the classic pass. Cassford shows alternate methods of the pass such as the dribble and riffle as well. Kaufman's DVD is more of an encyclopedia style video with less detail on the each individual pass, but shows more types.

I would go with Pass With Care. Cassford explains how to misdirect the audience, as well as how to time the move so that it looks natural. For someone who has no experience with the pass, Pass With Care is a great resource. Its main focus was to teach a workable pass in real life situations and it does that very well.

Don't even consider Ninja, the section on the pass is pitiful.

 

[JimmyP]

If you want to learn it from a true master... search Ken Krenzel on the pass

 

[fridoliina]

So does the On the pass dvd have bad teachin?

Do you know any magic site that ships outside the U.S that sells it? The pass with care dvd.

 

[Sam Hardy]

I hated learning the pass from Ninja 2. Nowhere near enough detail. I'd avoid the Ninja series if I were you.

 

[Sean_Raf]

With regards to the 'Ninja' series, as TheEmomagician has said, there's not really enough detail for a beginner to learn it from. It does expect you to know the pass already and is more about applications for the pass and how you can routine certain things.

That said, it's not impossible to learn it from the Ninja series but, it's not the easiest or most recommended thing to do.

- Sean

 

[fridoliina]

Does anyone know How the teachin is On the On the pass dvd with richard kaufman?

 

[awimagic]

Any good beginners book on card magic has ALL the MECHANICS of the pass in them. For example the Royal Road to Card Magic ( RRTCM ) describes the MECHANICS of the classic pass.
However as everybody will tell you learning the mechanics is not even close to learning it forget learning it well.

The REAL hurdle in mastering the pass is to make it invisible and seemless with whatever other action you might be using at the moment. Probably invisible is not the proper adjective perhaps "unnoticeable" is a better word.

In my case I knew the mechanics of the pass ever since I read the RRTCM. However the real work started after I saw Magicnik and John Kamm at MVD amaze every body else. Then I saw Peter Duffie's pass in the demo accompanying Move Mastery Vol. 1 and I immediately set about working on my pass.

As I have already said the things you must work on is
1) making it effortless
2) help it blend with the overt action accompanying the pass
3) unnoticeable


Remember doing a FAST pass and hoping that the spectators won't notice anything is very very naive.

Now go practice !!!

 

[Mike S]

I think most expert passers will tell you that the description of the "Two handed Shift" in Erdnase is where you should start, and after a few years of searching for better methods, most likely where you'll end up.
Even though this suggestion will probably be overlooked, and spammed with cries of "Erdnase is too difficult", the description of the two handed shift is one of the more eloquently worded passages in the book.

In all seriousness, it's one of the best descriptions of the basic two handed pass in print.

 

[conjure_pitch]

Truth be told I learned the Hermann Pass by accident. I need a way to get a card from anywhere to the top and thats what came out.

I heard good things about a DVD called the Passmaster.

 

[Medifro]

Remember doing a FAST pass and hoping that the spectators won't notice anything is very very naive.

Now go practice !!!

Larry Jennings was darn naive then!
He did a riffle pass, and the spectator wasnt watching. He cut the deck, told her to look, and did the riffle pass again ( this story is taken from R. Paul Wilson's ebook West Caost Pass ).

Learn smoothness, then strive for speed. Speed is important for a pass, simply covering it with a misdirection is good, but still not good enough, because you don't want to worry about people catching you everytime you do the pass.

Kaufman's DVD is good, especially for classic passes and their versions. Pass with Care is said to be good. Ken Krenzel's video is intended for those who already fimilar with the pass. Randy Wakeman has a pass DVD as well, which I dont have. For books, Card College is the way to start.

I had the chance to check Ninja one. Brad looks like a nice guy, and I keep alot of respect for him because of his forums, but with that skill with the pass, he has no right to teach this sleight. Look at his riffle pass, I'm suprised it flies by people. The teaching is way inferior. Here is the instructions: "You go from here, to here, to here, to there". Yes, its possible to learn from it by watching again and again, but you will miss alot of details because no one told you about them, and you wont see them because Brad doesnt show them. A beginner in the pass will have hard time with it, and an advanced "passer" will be looking for more info, and the only new one here is a version of the classic pass Brad's teaches, where you go waay up, then done. Its good, but will look natural in some hands, and very unnatural in other hands.


If you want to learn the pass, learn it from someone who do it well, especially if you want a video medium, where you want to see how the sleight should look like. I'm not bashing Brad, as I don't have the DVD, I'm purely judging his skill from the passes seen in the preview.

 

[Brad Henderson]

I posted this on another thread. Will copy it, and add to it.

When you have seen people who have mastered the pass, you will laugh outloud when you see Pass with Care. This may sound harsh, but I believe if you care enough to learn, you deserve the truth: Pass with Care would be the last source I would recommend to anyone for learning the pass. (I was going to review it for mylovelyassistant.com but was recruited by Magic Magazine for their reviews before I had the chance. Suffice it to say, it was going to get a very low rating.)

Ideally, to learn the pass, you would find someone who had truly mastered it and seek them out. But failing that, the Kaufman DVD is a good start.

There are so many things wrong with Pass with Care. Sadly, since most people have never seen someone who really has the pass flawless, they see something which may be better than average and assume its great. I won't even say that Cassford's pass is better than average, I will just say that his flaws are in different places.

Sorry to be negative, but I would hate for someone to pick up a bunch of bad habits that might take years to eventually correct.

Addition: I have seen the performance sections of Brad Christian's work. From that I can tell you that he does not know what you need to know do to a pass properly. If you want to pretend you know something about the pass, buy Christian's work. If you really want to learn a pass, start with Kaufmann. But if you are serious, find someone who really knows and try to spend time with them.

Brad Henderson

 

[awimagic]

... But if you are serious, find someone who really knows and try to spend time with them.

that is probably the BEST advice you would get and I too am of the same opinion. I have collected over the years some of the best performances of the pass and its variants and I keep watching them over and over again to learn from them. Ofcourse this is only second best to spending time with a genuine pass practitioner.

 

[Medifro]

find someone who really knows and try to spend time with them.

Brad Henderson

Problem is many people don't have any magician nearby.

I developed a good understanding on the pass, with no magician input on it. I'm not saying its not needed, in fact, if I had a magician input that would definatly decrease the learning curve.

I studied the sources, and tested the pass over 3 years on 2 of my best friends. Only lately I put it on video and got magicians input, it helped me quite a bit.

If you can find someone to spend time with, then this is amazing. I can see how sessioning with a good "passer" can improve your pass. If I know someone who does great passes, I'd go to him even if its 500 miles away. *sniff*

By the way, I never met a magician in life .. Online forums help quite a bit in this issue.

 

[Brad Henderson]

Medifro,

Where - generally speaking - do you live? Perhaps I can recommend someone.

 

[Medifro]

Brad, I just updated my profile, you can see where I live right above my post count.

As you can see, I'm kinda far from the magic scene.

Being a medical student, and since almost all magic's physicians are great magicians ( Daley, Bedwell, Krenzel .. etc ), I kinda have high hopes for myself

~ Feras

 

[Brad Henderson]

Andrew Wimhurst was either living or doing a lot of work in Saudi Arabia for a while - I think. I know he was in the region. Email Meir Yedid at mymagic.com and ask if he would forward an email, should you be interested. (Meir re-released his DVDs.)

But yes, you are a bit farther removed than I had expected!

Brad Henderson