Need advice please

Feb 11, 2014
52
0
Hey guys....I am looking for a Magic DVD That has some mind blowing tricks on it that you can do with a normal deck with very little if any set up. I love purchasing tricks that envolve gaffs and big endings that blow people away completely, but I feel like I need a DVD that can give me more tricks to do just with a normal deck at anytime. Any ideas? Thanks guys
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Yep! Level is an important factor! If you are a beginner, check out How to do Miracle card tricks on ellusionist! If you are more of an intermediate I suggest a trick like shin split by shin lim! Its impromptu and can be done with a borrowed deck! Check out his shinaningens DVD, if u want things that are a little easier, check out Patrick Kun's stuff, his patrifed DVD is filled with impromptu tricks that really aren't all that hard! Hope that helped!
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Not at all bad magic man! Do not listen to him! Shin Lim has won FISM twice! IBM, and WMS! All in a matter of less than 7 years! Ellusionist is a great source to learn from! Classics are okay, but visual magic is amazing, trust me!
 
Shin Lim is amazing, but theres virtually nothing useful on Shinanigans, most of the tricks on it require a fair bit of set up and have pretty bad angles.

Ellusionist is wayyyyy over priced. you'll burn through tons of money real fast and get very little out of it. Old books are the way to go to build a repertoire of sleights and afterward you can move on to more "amazing" magic.

As for "visual" magic, yes it's stunning more often then not, but if every single thing you do is amazing, nothing is.
Also why do you assume the classics aren't visual? many of them are.
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Thats opinion completely, I use many of the things on shinanigens in my professional act, its all in how you put it to use. Not everything has alot of setup either. Angles to me are fine on it, you can adapt the move otherwise.

Ellusionist is expensive indeed, but you get your money's worth. I learned all of my sleights from all the ellusionist DVD's and im fine, they're teaching is spectacular!

I do not assume classics aren't visual, but to me, I would like to see what I buy in a visual aspect rather than trust a book. I hate books as a resource, I prefer learning visually and there is nothing wrong with that.
 
Ellusionist is expensive indeed, but you get your money's worth. I learned all of my sleights from all the ellusionist DVD's and im fine, they're teaching is spectacular!

I disagree, you can learn the same moves only in more abundance and cheaper in books. And while i actually do prefer dvds, most books just have more in them.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
While I'm certainly one that promotes books over video I'll also point out that some of us do learn better with using a combination of both tools; books being the first go to for me followed by video IF I'm having trouble learning a given routine. . . then again, I sometimes go straight to the source for clarification when possible (god knows I've worn Peter Turner to a frazel).

More to the point of the OP "hard hitting magic" that's "Mind Blowing" is not based on the effect as much as it is the performer; YOU are the real magic behind the trick and ONLY YOU can transform any effect into something that fits this desired goal. A great example is the Hindu Cups & Balls, a routine that literally takes years (up to a decade) to become even halfway proficient at. It's an awesome routine but it requires the performer to master a series of moves, most of which are quite elementary while some are totally foreign to Western performers. It's a "Mind Blowing" effect/routine but it only becomes such when we, as the performer, invest ourselves into learning it and developing our own course of presentation -- we're talking about the believed oldest version of the Cups & Balls that's still around.

On a more conventional level we could look at Sponge Balls and how, in the hands of some, it's Bla while in the hands of a truly studied performer it is "Mind Blowing". . .

The examples are limitless but the message is always the same; you must first learn the mechanics of our craft and then learn how to assemble those foundation tools into acts & routines. Thirdly, you must take an effect, any effect, and make it your own. It doesn't matter what trick you choose, just focus on one or two until your work is smooth as silk and your peers are patting you on the back for a job well done.
 
Jul 13, 2014
176
27
Not at all bad magic man! Do not listen to him! Shin Lim has won FISM twice! IBM, and WMS! All in a matter of less than 7 years! Ellusionist is a great source to learn from! Classics are okay, but visual magic is amazing, trust me!
Shin lim won those competitions with original material that impressed the judges. Also classics are amazing too. Often better than modern approaches. Triumph and out of this world are the best card tricks out there. Period. Anyway most of shin lims stuff is moves, not tricks. And you could spend 5-10$ on a single effect at ellusionist or theory11, or you could spend 20-80$ on a good book and get far more stuff. Red mirror by helder guimeraes is supposed to be very good(although quite challenging) but if you really want good impromptu card magic as single downloads Dan and Dave's site is the best for that. But as has been said before you'd be much better off getting the royal road, card college, etc... Jason England has a post somewhere called what to read and when to read it. Find it and do as he says.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Shin lim won those competitions with original material that impressed the judges. Also classics are amazing too. Often better than modern approaches. Triumph and out of this world are the best card tricks out there. Period. Anyway most of shin lims stuff is moves, not tricks. And you could spend 5-10$ on a single effect at ellusionist or theory11, or you could spend 20-80$ on a good book and get far more stuff. Red mirror by helder guimeraes is supposed to be very good(although quite challenging) but if you really want good impromptu card magic as single downloads Dan and Dave's site is the best for that. But as has been said before you'd be much better off getting the royal road, card college, etc... Jason England has a post somewhere called what to read and when to read it. Find it and do as he says.

I think there's actually a free video download for that Jason England thing. I know I have one floating around and it had to come from here.

Every major site I regularly deal with (E, D&D, T11, VanishingInc) has stuff that's over priced, stuff that's under priced, and stuff that's right on the nose. Miracle Card Magic is $35 and covers a lot of material. With that video and some creativity you could buy nothing else and have a very successful card magic career. But no one stops at the amount of information they need - they keep buying more because the hot new trick excites them, or a technique piques their interest, or they're just bored with what they already have and they want something new. We (magicians) horde information. I will probably never perform 80% of what's on my book shelf, let alone the videos and one-shot-tricks I've gotten. That's not even getting into the fact that I get every download from Ellusionist due to my work. I'd be willing to bet that most of you will not perform most of what's on your shelves either. Card College is an excellent source and is another thing that fits the criteria of "The only resource you actually need".

Personally I prefer books but I also use videos. I learn from every source I can because I enjoy learning. Books tend to have the information I'm after though - personal thoughts, theory, and philosophies of the creators. I get annoyed if a book I buy has only tricks in it.

What it really comes down to is what you're after with magic. If you just want to learn some card tricks to do for your mates at the pub, then MCM will do you just fine. Card College will definitely be all you need. Heck, a creative person could get away with only learning the material in RRTCM. But if you want to go professional then you need to build up that library and study a lot of resources. You need to learn stage craft, story telling, audience management, etc. But the casual guys are just as legit as the professional ones - they just have different needs.
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Im not trying to start a war here, all I am saying is I recommended what works for me. Is that not what we all do? I am not saying I do not read books, nor am I saying that they do not provide a lot of information. Yes, I know books have a lot more material then DVD's, im completely aware of that. I just prefer DVD's, because I found it much easier to learn from than reading through books. On top of that, I want to be able to see an example (demo) of the move I am going to learn, and books do not provide that. Example- Learn the Diagonal Palm Shift: I would like to see the demo of a move first. I just find it confusing and overall boring. I really have no interest in trying to read a move for a long period of time. Rather, I would like a voice over and visual instructional as that helps me. Please do not mis-understand, I am not bashing on books, I am simply saying I do not like them as much as I like video.

Classics I do believe are great and some are better than modern approaches I agree! But you can't just jump to the conclusion that triumph and ootw are the best card tricks in the world. Let's take a look at triumph. The original classic is based on a zarrow shuffle and you really cant spread through all the cards ( KEY WORD- SPREAD) and show that they are mixed up, you can only cut and show. This is not exposure, Im sure everyone knows this. So now, there is a gaffed deck that allows you to show them mixed up that looks even better than the classic! There is even an impromptu one like Asi Wind's Double Exposure! I think that is much better than the classic Triumph we all know yes?

These are all my opinions, I am not stating anything like saying MODERN IS BETTER THAN CLASSIC PERIOD! Or VIDEOS>BOOKS! DONE!
 
Jul 13, 2014
176
27
Classics I do believe are great and some are better than modern approaches I agree! But you can't just jump to the conclusion that triumph and ootw are the best card tricks in the world. Let's take a look at triumph. The original classic is based on a zarrow shuffle and you really cant spread through all the cards ( KEY WORD- SPREAD) and show that they are mixed up, you can only cut and show. This is not exposure, Im sure everyone knows this. So now, there is a gaffed deck that allows you to show them mixed up that looks even better than the classic! There is even an impromptu one like Asi Wind's Double Exposure! I think that is much better than the classic Triumph we all know yes?

These are all my opinions, I am not stating anything like saying MODERN IS BETTER THAN CLASSIC PERIOD! Or VIDEOS>BOOKS! DONE!

Thing is you're thinking like a magician. Spectators don't think like that. And the original triumph was based either on a multiple block shuffle, or a strip out type shuffle and the cards could be spread before being gathered up and pushed together. And modern versions of classics don't really count. Anyway doing triumph with a gaffed deck is kind of ridiculous.
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Thing is you're thinking like a magician. Spectators don't think like that. And the original triumph was based either on a multiple block shuffle, or a strip out type shuffle and the cards could be spread before being gathered up and pushed together. And modern versions of classics don't really count. Anyway doing triumph with a gaffed deck is kind of ridiculous.

Modern versions in my opinion do count. Doing anything with a gaffed deck is fantastic! Would you rather do an impromptu invisible deck, or the one with the gaffed deck? To me, spectators can tell the difference! I think if you did an effect like CAAN with you dealing vs them dealing, obviously if they did it it is much more powerful! ALWAYS WILL BE! Again my opinion...
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results