Put the cards down...

[visualartist]

We are magicians.
To our audiences eyes we can do anything.Read minds,levitate..pull bunnies out of hats.
And the majority of the magic im seeing performed are card tricks.And not much else.
Now,dont get me wrong. I have always had an admiration for cards and feel some sort of dark romanticism associated with them. And some card effects can be quite beautiful. But very few. Its only with D+M that I have started purchasing card effects recently.

There is so much more magic that can be done.
For example I produce ice at will whenever I feel like.Or even once when I was hungry I told my friends to take me out to eat.when they refused I simply said "fine" cupped my hands over an empty spot on a table and produced a McDonalds burger.(fully wrapped of course).
And these arent tricks that you buy,or learn on a DVD.But just ideas and inspirations on watching other magicians perform.
This type of thing turns your magic into miracles.
I urge people to go back and read on Max Malini. His devotion to performing miracles is truly inspiring. And I understand that alot of people might not have the same passion,devotion or patience to try and perform this type of magic.But I hope for the most part ya'll do.

And for those who just love to do card effects constantly.Dont make it seem like a card trick. Give the effect more meaning instead of just a 'look what I can do' sort of thing.(I know this wont work for every card trick one does.I refrain from doing those.One can give it more intrigue by saying "heres something a Vegas loungejack once showed me"Not magic,but makes it more interesting I think)
I say things about vodoo,our perception of time,explain a little history of magic,but I dont drown them with a script though.
And its also little things that make a big difference. Most of the time I give the deck to the spectators to hold while im pulling something out to aid in the effect or just if im telling a story.
I dont flourish.

So there it is.
You can either choose to start creating miracles.(even with cards)

Or just be the guy that does card tricks all the time.

 

[Aquaman]

haha funny you mention. Im making a new extreme burn gimik now. (decided to go from 10's to 20's.

im sick of the card magic too. people KNOW that cards are made to be tampered with. even if you use such amazing sleights, people have still seen trick decks and gaff cards. A hamburger on the other hand, its hard to make a gimiked burger.

not everyone plays cards or is familiar with them at all. the more familiar the object the stronger the effect.

btw first

 

[demon5magic]

I agree, I mainly do card tricks, but am trying to expand into other things. And I deffenetly think that you are right, we claim to be magicians, and magic is supposed to be fresh, something someone has never seen before, and these days EVERYONE knows a card trick or two.



p.s. the thing with the burger sounds really cool...

 

[visualartist]

I agree, I mainly do card tricks, but am trying to expand into other things. And I deffenetly think that you are right, we claim to be magicians, and magic is supposed to be fresh, something someone has never seen before, and these days EVERYONE knows a card trick or two.



p.s. the thing with the burger sounds really cool...

Glad to hear it.
And something that also makes a card trick look even more like just a card trick is that I see most magicians rush through the thing.(not saying thats what you do,of course)
They say "your card goes here,i do this and blah blah blah".
They're just saying what happens and not really intruguing the audience.

Something that I also notice is that the magician looks down at the cards way to much when doing something. Make the deck seem unimportant.

 

[jok3r]

I love cards, im not theirs no reason for me to do anything else.

I card tricks because i love too, not to impress anyone else.

If you think doing just cards means you just some guy with cards, your poorly mistaken my friend.

 

[visualartist]

I card tricks because i love too, not to impress anyone else.

Then your just a guy that does card tricks.Nothing more.

Not to impress anyone else?
So you dont even care what your spectators think?

 

[Randy]

You're just not trying hard enough. There are a TON of awesome card effects out there. I mean if guys like Jami Ian Swiss can make a living out of card magic and so can Mike Ammar and a ton of others. Then you must be doing something wrong if you are getting tired of them.

What kind of effects are you doing? "new" street magic card effects. Or things like Thought of Card tricks or other things.

 

[toyrobot]

I love cards, im not theirs no reason for me to do anything else.

I card tricks because i love too, not to impress anyone else.

If you think doing just cards means you just some guy with cards, your poorly mistaken my friend.

I'm genuinely confused by what you wrote, as in I don't understand the bulk of it, so if I'm off-base with what I'm saying here, my apologies in advance.

There IS a reason to do something else, and part of advancing in magic is figuring that out. Even someone dedicated to a particular field of magic needs some variety to what they do. You're confusing a magical prop for an actual field of performance.

And see, you might say, "But couldn't you say the same thing about mentalism, then? That's a type of effect, and it's also a field of performance!" But then look at Derren Brown. He reads minds, does card tricks, walks on glass, hammers spikes up his nose, hypnotizes people, predicts the future, and uses funky psychological stuff to create an eerie mind-control like effect. He doesn't just use a swami writer over and over in different ways.

If you think doing just cards means you just some guy with cards, your poorly mistaken my friend.

You know how doing just mental magic makes you a mentalist? Or how walking around outside and doing tricks for strangers makes you a street magician? Or how, if you just did stuff with coins, that makes you a coin guy? Do you see the pattern?

I mean, what would you call it?

You're just not trying hard enough. There are a TON of awesome card effects out there. I mean if guys like Jami Ian Swiss can make a living out of card magic and so can Mike Ammar and a ton of others. Then you must be doing something wrong if you are getting tired of them.

What kind of effects are you doing? "new" street magic card effects. Or things like Thought of Card tricks or other things.

The good card effects are being choked to death in a sea of mediocrity. Also, you don't have to be "doing something wrong" to be getting tired of card tricks, because, frankly, that's all ANYONE talks about anymore, and that's all you see anyone doing. The market is 80% card magic, and it's all really sub-par. There's no real variety anymore. No one knows to take a random prop and do something weird and cool with it. Look at the 1-on-1's here - there's Cookie Cutter, which is a unique and wicked twist on a standard Russian Roulette routine, and then, choking it to death, are a thousand boring card tricks and unnecessary sleights.

When you ask what type of card tricks he's doing, new street magic stuff, or old classics, that's the point he's making. We're honest to god actually running out of ideas, but we're still trying to milk this for money because it's all teenagers know how to do.

 

[Tarvi]

He didn't say he didn't care about his spectators.

There's a difference between learning and practicing effects to gain respect and friends, to doing them and performing them for the shear love of the art, and the buzz of performance.
If your spectators see your fire and love for what you do, they'll be engaged.

-David

 

[stanhimself]

Card tricks are still cool and that, I mix it up, I do sinful heaps and also burn by D+m, Its easy and effective.

 

[visualartist]

You're just not trying hard enough. There are a TON of awesome card effects out there. I mean if guys like Jami Ian Swiss can make a living out of card magic and so can Mike Ammar and a ton of others. Then you must be doing something wrong if you are getting tired of them.

What kind of effects are you doing? "new" street magic card effects. Or things like Thought of Card tricks or other things.

Toyrobot put it alot better than I could've.

 

[Randy]

Eh if you are running out of ideas.. Then you must not be looking hard enough. I could go on forever naming guys who make a living out of taking the classics and turning them into something new and amazing.

I suggest you learn Mnomica by Juan Tamariz and then try to come up with your own types of routines and effects with it.

 

[visualartist]

Haha you just dont get it do you?

 

[MagicShadow9]

Yea, i realized this problem early on so i expanded to other things. Now i can do a lot of common close-up stuff like coins, spongeballs, metal bending, etc. As well as some stage routine like Fiber Optics, Linking Rings, etc.

When i do card tricks i don't like to do card magic, i like to do magic with cards. This means that the tricks must be direct and not confusing. Which is why I never use a lot of the complicated tricks that i know cuz it just seems like a card trick.

 

[Randy]

Haha you just dont get it do you?

Who exactly are you performing for? Because if it's lay people, I don't see how you can have a problem performing classic effects. Sense they have never heard of or seen the effects before.

Also it seems to be that you keep looking for new things to come out on the market. Maybe you need to be more creative with your card magic and come up with your own effects.

 

[emagician]

I flourish almst constantly and love the art. I mostly perform card tricks because I usually have a deck of cards with me. But I get what you are saying and I do do more then just card tricks because people think of cards when they think of tricks, so I have been trying to change that.

 

[Randy]

Let me you tell the story my English Professor told me.

A women traveled 8 days on horse back to meet Gandhi, she went to him so he could tell her daughter that eating sweets was bad and to stop. He told her to come back in 8 days. So she left, and returned 8 days later. She asked why he told her that. He said that if he was going to tell her to stop doing something. he had to stop doing that thing himself.

Moral of the story. If you want to make a change, you have to start with yourself first. Sense you seem tired off all the old card tricks. Why not use the sleights you have learned, and come up with your own effects and routines.

 

[bd]

A prime example of the deteriorating state of the majority of users on these boards.

An absolute truth is posted, only to be turned around and maliciously bashed by idiocy and disillusionment by one's own "skill".

If you want to truly be a Magician, one of the distributors and performers of our Art, then you need to expand your very insignificant range of techniques to reach the audience. Card tricks are cool, but get boring after a while. Imagine being rehired by the same person - would you just do card tricks again? Maybe you get the point, maybe not.

Think without the card box.

Let me you tell the story my English Professor told me.

A women traveled 8 days on horse back to meet Gandhi, she went to him so he could tell her daughter that eating sweets was bad and to stop. He told her to come back in 8 days. So she left, and returned 8 days later. She asked why he told her that. He said that if he was going to tell her to stop doing something. he had to stop doing that thing himself.

Moral of the story. If you want to make a change, you have to start with yourself first. Sense you seem tired off all the old card tricks. Why not use the sleights you have learned, and come up with your own effects and routines.

I don't see how that story applies to this thread in any way, shape, or form. He's not telling people to work on their sleights, nor is he telling people to create new tricks. Plus, your story makes no sense - It took her eight days to reach Gandhi; yet she left and returned in the same amount of time? It would have to be 16 days.

 

[Randy]

You're right they are lame. I mean they are so lame, that people still enjoy when David Blaine or any other magician does a card trick. Those people must be thinking "man that guy was just lame.. I don't know why I freaked out." Bill Malone's clients must think "Bill just lame, Why do we pay top dollar for him!"

 

[MagicShadow9]

Randy, the point he's trying to make is that magicians shouldn't limit themselves to only cards. They should be able to do magic with anything in the room. Cards tricks are good, and they are useful, but it's not good to only do cards. What do you do when someone says "Hey, can you do anything besides cards? I mean, come on!" Then you're stuck aren't ya?