Most Influential Card Magician?

[Martineau]

Which card magicians do you think have influenced the art the most in the last 20 years?
Which card effects do you think are the strongest?
What card magic presentation do you think impacts the most on laymen ( not magicians) ?
Which card sleights do you think have the most applications?

 

[Tokyo]

I can't say I'm super knowledgeable about theory and history, but here's my two cents.

I'd say that some of the most influential card men are still the classics; vernon, marlo, scarne, lepaul, forte, etc. Even though they're long gone their tricks and techniques have influenced a vast majority of the card work done today.

The more recent card workers who I think are the most influential are probably Chris Kenner, Jason England, Paul Wilson, Gary Plant, Aaron Fisher, Dan&Dave, Bayme, and to an extent Daniel Madison (I only say to an extent because I expect ten years down the road he'll have become even more prominent). If ellusionist has their way, Bebel could get pretty big in the next few years as well. (although they may need to start subtitling his downloads) It also can't be ignored, of course, the amount of fledgling magicians who have found their way thanks to Brad Christian.

When performing for laymen, I prefer the classics. Acrobatic Aces, Here to There, The Biddle Trick, ACAAN, stuff like that. When I perform a trick for my magician friends I like more fooling stuff, like Never Fails by Gary Plant, LePaul's signed card to envelope, or pretty much anything from Wilson and England's Unreal Sessions. I'm a particular fan of Lance Pierce's contribution to the series.

I'd be really interested to see what magicians more knowledgeable than myself might have to say.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I can't really speak to card magic in general because I simply haven't studied enough of it. Hugard and Braue, Giobbi, Lepaul, Paul Curry, Erdnase ... these guys wrote the seminal texts. Ernest Earick, Derrick Dingle, Paul Wilson, Roy Walton, Hofzinzer, Ricky Jay, Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Charley Miller, Richard Turner, Lee Asher, Aaron Fisher ... Names and more names.

The effects that are the strongest are the ones that are most well presented. This is going to be different for everyone. For me, the best reactions still come from something like peeking or forcing a card and reading their mind. I get great reactions from Poker Player's Picnic or Chicago Opener (Both drastically altered by this point). The ACR is a classic for a reason. Asking which tricks get the best reaction is the same as asking, "What tricks do you like the most?"

I think the presentations which get the best reactions are those which resonate with the audience. If you can make it mean something to them, it will make them react more deeply. This may not be the screaming and running around you see on David Blaine and Criss Angel specials, but stunned silence is a profound reaction.

I think the second deal is largely overlooked by many magicians. I can honestly say that I am the only person I know personally who uses it regularly and I regularly fool magicians and laymen alike with it, because I use it in off-beat ways. Other than that, I use modified shifts, modified Cardini changes, modified this and modified that ... I take the mechanics of a sleight and try to use it in a completely different way to whatever I learned it in.

Almost everything is more versatile than most people think.

 

[KonTW]

If you are talking about magicians who are still alive, I will definitely say Dan and Dave.
The strongest card effects are those, who happen in the spectators hands, like Here and There and Stand up Monte by Garett Thomas, just to name a few of them...

I think the sleights with the most applications are Forces and Passes - and even though Crimped Cards are no sleight, I wanted to
name them, because they are really versatile!

- Konrad

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

If you are talking about magicians who are still alive, I will definitely say Dan and Dave.

What is it that Dan & Dave do that you think makes them 'most influential'?

 

[KonTW]

What is it that Dan & Dave do that you think makes them 'most influential'?

I think one big point is their unique style, but this is not the main reason I call them "most influential".

They came up with so many original card flourishes, tricks and techniques, and they are both ideals for hundreds or thousands of young and old magicians, so that there are so many people out there who listen to what they say think and do...

That's what I call most influential

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I suppose my counter point to that is that Dan & Dave are flourishers, not magicians. They are two separate disciplines. I grant that in the world of flourishing, they are collectively one of the biggest forces in getting it out there.

I just separate them from card magicians. This is largely due to the stuff I've heard from the older community who's watched D&D come up from kids at conventions and just watching them develop these flourishes and thinking, "Boy that stuff is neat but it gets old after a few minutes".

I do think they are influential, I just don't place them in the magic category. This is a personal classification.

 

[WyattSB]

Which card magicians do you think have influenced the art the most in the last 20 years?

David Blaine definitely had a very major influence on modern magic, while close up stuff existed before, street magic shifted things away from the parlor side, and now street style magic dominates the close up category.

Which card effects do you think are the strongest?

Usually those that are presented as 'real' rather than tricks, ie, fake hypnosis, 'reading', suggestion etc. OOTW is a good example, there are many ways to apply it.

What card magic presentation do you think impacts the most on laymen ( not magicians) ?

The same answer to the above question.

Which card sleights do you think have the most applications?

Any move where its core intention is to switch two cards I think is the best answer, because when a switch takes place, that usually opens up the possibility of a force, a control, a peek, a palm, and anything else directly applicable with just changing the card. So with all that in consideration, the double lift and its many, many variations.

 

[KonTW]

I suppose my counter point to that is that Dan & Dave are flourishers, not magicians.

I understand your point, and I guess you are right - but I still find, that they are influential, even in the
"magic world".

- Konrad

 

[JokerZingo]

Which card magicians do you think have influenced the art the most in the last 20 years?

I think David Blaine has been a big influence he brought back the whole gimmicked decks into magic and made street magic really big. I also think Dai Vernon had a great impact on the magic community.

Which card effects do you think are the strongest?

I like card tricks with a twist ending, I love to sit in the "akward" situation when I as magician has failed a trick and than I find the card in a twisted way. One of my strongest effects is when their signed card is coming out of my mouth foolded up. I also like the card sandwich in the hand. I think that is a really strong effect cause it happends in the specators hand and to quote Shawn Franquer "I think magic that happends in someone elses hand is much stronger"

I also have a card sandwich effect were the spectator can see kind of a card growing in between the cards in a shaking motion which a lot of people think is so amazing because it's a good illusion and it happends right before their eyes.

What card magic presentation do you think impacts the most on laymen ( not magicians) ?

Answered on the last question.

Which card sleights do you think have the most applications?

I think double lift has a good vairty of applications you can do a double lift and almost do whatever after that.

I also love the classic force that's my favorite card sleight. You can let the specator shuffel how much they want you can do a mind reading effect, you can do a sandwich effect almost eveything you want.

Also I like the vairty of palms, palming is a great application in my opinon you can do so much with a card palmed. Palming is something I practice a lot and really hard to master.

Thanks for reading - Markus/JokerZingo

 

[AlfaMagic]

Where do I start?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Where do you start what?

 

[yyyyyyy]

Where do you start what?

I think he's trying to say the list of "Most Influential Magicians" is just too long for him to focus on single artists. Something along those lines.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I think he's trying to say the list of "Most Influential Magicians" is just too long for him to focus on single artists. Something along those lines.

Actually I think he's just trying to get his post count up so we'll look at the terrible site in his signature.

 

[yyyyyyy]

Actually I think he's just trying to get his post count up so we'll look at the terrible site in his signature.

Well, that would be a reasonable explanation for replying to nearly every single thread with a minimal comment almost every time. I don't know, I just ignore.

 

[ChrisWiens]

Which card magicians do you think have influenced the art the most in the last 20 years?

Hmm, impossible to answer. Influenced the art in what ways? Making it more popular ? I also think there are magicians who have inflenced the art.... in a bad way.
In Europe, the most influencal magician (in a good way), without a doubt, is Juan Tamariz.

Which card effects do you think are the strongest?

Again, impossible to answer. Highly subjective. My favorite effect is Tamariz "Total Coincidence".

What card magic presentation do you think impacts the most on laymen (not magicians) ?

Depends on your target audience. Children ?, women? , old people? etc.

Which card sleights do you think have the most applications?

I would say the most used sleight?! is a break. I don`t know whether this even counts as a sleight, but most sleight of hand-effects require a (pinky)break of some kind. The applications are endless.
Other than that, the Cull, Palm, Second Deal and Half-Passes are underused and very versatile.

 

[krab]

Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, Ricky Jay, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon, Max Malini, Charlie Miller, Slydini. Walton, Paul LePaul. then again I'm old school.