Royal Road Effect
- Thread starter towtox
- Start date
I apologize about saying the 3 of clubs is never shown because after re-watching the video I see that it is chosen. When I was typing out the original post I was watching through the video many times but never started it over from the beginning to see the card chosen. I fixed my original post accordingly.
Every thing else I said in my original post is truth. Everything I said you need to work on needs worked on.
I am sorry if you feel like I was running you down. I was not. Even though the feedback I gave was bad it was indented to be constructive criticism.
I also feel as though you owe me an apology for swearing at me multiple times. Regardless of how you took my original post, I was helping. If you are going to react like that to everyone that gives you bad feedback to your effects then don't post videos. You will not always get the good feedback you want to get from other magicians.
I actually create magic. I show my creations to pros all the time. I get good and bad feedback from pro magicians all the time. You have to take it and build from both the good and bad. You can't over react the way you did. Take what I said, re-watch your video and learn from it.
Every thing else I said in my original post is truth. Everything I said you need to work on needs worked on.
I am sorry if you feel like I was running you down. I was not. Even though the feedback I gave was bad it was indented to be constructive criticism.
I also feel as though you owe me an apology for swearing at me multiple times. Regardless of how you took my original post, I was helping. If you are going to react like that to everyone that gives you bad feedback to your effects then don't post videos. You will not always get the good feedback you want to get from other magicians.
I actually create magic. I show my creations to pros all the time. I get good and bad feedback from pro magicians all the time. You have to take it and build from both the good and bad. You can't over react the way you did. Take what I said, re-watch your video and learn from it.
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oh k well sorry but i did say we will riffle and say stop so i said stop sorry for over reacting but when you say stuff thats not true like i never showed the card and yes im sorry but i can take critisizm but when its a video ITS totally different than real life cause as i said no misdirection but aneway thanks for the tips i will work on my get set for the d lift anytips?
Alright, let's have a look... Having watched the new video, I think there are five fundamental things you can improve on, and I'll go through step by step. They are:
-Awkward handling
-Double Lift
-Failing
-Patter
-Motivation
-Awkward handling
Ok. The first thing is thing - it doesn't look like you feel comfortable with a deck of cards in your hand. A magician should be able to cut a deck, turn a deck over, pirouette a card out of the deck, and so forth, without fumbling. A magician should be able to do this without thinking, and it should look smooth. However, at many points during the trick, for example at 0:25-0:30, you fumble slightly and don't execute really basic non-sleight moves very well. This is something that will naturally improve over time, of course. However, I would recommend looking over card fundamentals, such as ways in which you should grip the deck, to fast track this, because it really is important.
-Double Lift
The double lift here is... Well, it's not much better than the first video, to be completely honest, and I'll say why. Firstly, the getready was bad - especially the first one, which I think was the Ace of Hearts, from memory (but I could be wrong). It was bad because it took you a long time, because the cover was bad, and because it was simply a clumsy way of getting a break.
The turnover is not good either.. If you take one sleight of hand message from this post, I would recommend that you learn to use another double lift - a proper one. You must learn to turn over a double with one hand - not with two. At the moment, you are grasping the ends and using your thumb to rotate. Big no-no, because it's a clumsy double lift that tends only to be used by laymen who know one magic trick. You need to be better than that. As for the getready... There are many ways to get the break for the double lift. One easy way is simply to spread the cards out to display them, and as you square up the deck, get a break then, it's very easy and relatively natural. However, you should ultimately look to perfect the pinky count, which is arguably the best way to get a break beneath a double, or simply learn to use a double lift that doesn't use a break at all, like a push-off double lift.
In summary, truthfully, I know you might think your DL is fine... I'm sorry, but it really isn't, it's quite bad. It's nothing you can't improve on - but there is a lot of room for improvement, and it's better to tell you that now than to say otherwise. The two things wrong are the get ready, and the turnover. You need to learn a better way to get the break, or use a breakless double, and also learn to turn the card over in a different way.
-Failing
Failing is a fantastic technique, and much underutilised. I'm glad to see that you're using here. This was probably one of the slightly better aspects of the trick - but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Failing is really great because, provided you have established rapport with your audience, they empathise with you and want you to succeed. Failing creates awkwardness and tension (of the good variety). So you've done really well there. The key to being able to pull this off successfully though, is to convince them that you've actually failed. And here is where I think you can still improve.
I'll quote here a passage from what I consider one of the best discourses on failing I've ever read: "Truly allow yourself to fall. Make it as believable as you can. The harder and more convincingly you fall, the bigger the payoff will be when you succeed." Basically, I think you can do a little bit better on believability. You may want to consider drama or acting classes if you're serious. Either way, I think you can work on that, but you're already doing a decent job. One thing you're doing very well is that you're taking a lot of time after you fail - you fumble with the deck. What you should focus on is working on your voice. Be very specific about what you say - the line about posting the video up at T11 failure killed the moment - because we all know you can just re-shoot the thing if you mess up. You're obviously not going to post a failed trick in a battle.
-Patter
What patter? In this trick, you are basically dictating what you're doing. "Now we're going to cut the deck." "Now I'm going to show you the top card." This is, in some ways, an insult to your audience's intelligence, and in every way, simply redundant. It is obvious what you're doing. We don't need you to tell us that. What we need you to tell us is WHY - but I'll get to that point in a moment. Simply put, a trick without patter is a trick. A trick with a proper presentation is magic. Presentation is used to give magic meaning, and without meaning, there simply is no magic because the audience has no reason to care. Sure, they might be surprised, they might react, they might even react well. But if your magic has no presentation and no meaning, then you're only performing at 10% of your potential, and the reactions could be a LOT better. Look up Tony Chang's ACR routine with his presentation. He takes a simple trick and makes it beautiful.
-Motivation, a.k.a. WHY
Why are you doing this? This is very heavily linked to the above. Why are you cutting the deck? Why are you showing us the bottom card? I mean, in reality, it's because you need to to get a break for a double, or something like that. But otherwise, there is absolutely no reason for doing it. You need to trim the fat from this trick - all the unnecessary motions need to go, because it doesn't help the trick. I'm just seeing you doing a series of unmotivated actions - "I'm cutting the deck. I'm showing you the bottom card." And because there's no MOTIVATION for you doing any of these things, the only conclusion I can come to is that you need it for the method. As soon as the audience starts thinking about method, you are no longer performing magic, because magic has no method. Tricks have a method. And tricks are not magic. I know this is a pretty theoretical concept to take in, but it's a really fundamental point in performance.
Ok, so they're the five things. I apologise if this comes across as all negative. It's all intended in the spirit of constructive criticism, and I've tried to point out not only what's wrong, but also how you can improve it. I don't want you to think that everything you did was wrong, so let me point out a few things you did do right:
-Using failure in the trick was a good idea
-Although your voice gave you away, your physical actions adequately sold disappointment when you failed
-Your reveal for the final card was good - slow it down
-You had really GOOD motivation for spreading through the deck at the end ("I give up, tell me what your card was"). That's what you need!
One final thing I want to mention. About cameras. Yes, it's true, it's difficult to misdirect a camera. Therefore, your sleights will always be under scrutiny. There are some things I simply would not perform on camera. A top change for example, which relies completely on misdirection, could not be done easily one on one to a camera. Having said that, using a camera should not be an excuse or an issue in this case. You're performing very basic sleights - sleights that should be invisible even when using a camera. Misdirection or not, you shouldn't be making those sorts of errors - and when you do, that's not the camera's fault. When you made a mistake, they weren't tiny ones that only a camera would have spotted. They were, mostly, really glaring, obvious ones. It wasn't a lack of misdirection - I found very little misdirection built into the trick. I don't know why the people you performed for haven't spotted it. Maybe you performed it better live. Maybe they were just being nice. Maybe you didn't realise they spotted it - it's all possible. But in this case, you're not getting criticism because the camera revealed your sleights - you're getting criticised because the sleights were genuinely in need of improvement. So please resist the urge to defend yourself with the camera - these are all genuine things you should try and improve in real life performance situations.
-Awkward handling
-Double Lift
-Failing
-Patter
-Motivation
-Awkward handling
Ok. The first thing is thing - it doesn't look like you feel comfortable with a deck of cards in your hand. A magician should be able to cut a deck, turn a deck over, pirouette a card out of the deck, and so forth, without fumbling. A magician should be able to do this without thinking, and it should look smooth. However, at many points during the trick, for example at 0:25-0:30, you fumble slightly and don't execute really basic non-sleight moves very well. This is something that will naturally improve over time, of course. However, I would recommend looking over card fundamentals, such as ways in which you should grip the deck, to fast track this, because it really is important.
-Double Lift
The double lift here is... Well, it's not much better than the first video, to be completely honest, and I'll say why. Firstly, the getready was bad - especially the first one, which I think was the Ace of Hearts, from memory (but I could be wrong). It was bad because it took you a long time, because the cover was bad, and because it was simply a clumsy way of getting a break.
The turnover is not good either.. If you take one sleight of hand message from this post, I would recommend that you learn to use another double lift - a proper one. You must learn to turn over a double with one hand - not with two. At the moment, you are grasping the ends and using your thumb to rotate. Big no-no, because it's a clumsy double lift that tends only to be used by laymen who know one magic trick. You need to be better than that. As for the getready... There are many ways to get the break for the double lift. One easy way is simply to spread the cards out to display them, and as you square up the deck, get a break then, it's very easy and relatively natural. However, you should ultimately look to perfect the pinky count, which is arguably the best way to get a break beneath a double, or simply learn to use a double lift that doesn't use a break at all, like a push-off double lift.
In summary, truthfully, I know you might think your DL is fine... I'm sorry, but it really isn't, it's quite bad. It's nothing you can't improve on - but there is a lot of room for improvement, and it's better to tell you that now than to say otherwise. The two things wrong are the get ready, and the turnover. You need to learn a better way to get the break, or use a breakless double, and also learn to turn the card over in a different way.
-Failing
Failing is a fantastic technique, and much underutilised. I'm glad to see that you're using here. This was probably one of the slightly better aspects of the trick - but that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Failing is really great because, provided you have established rapport with your audience, they empathise with you and want you to succeed. Failing creates awkwardness and tension (of the good variety). So you've done really well there. The key to being able to pull this off successfully though, is to convince them that you've actually failed. And here is where I think you can still improve.
I'll quote here a passage from what I consider one of the best discourses on failing I've ever read: "Truly allow yourself to fall. Make it as believable as you can. The harder and more convincingly you fall, the bigger the payoff will be when you succeed." Basically, I think you can do a little bit better on believability. You may want to consider drama or acting classes if you're serious. Either way, I think you can work on that, but you're already doing a decent job. One thing you're doing very well is that you're taking a lot of time after you fail - you fumble with the deck. What you should focus on is working on your voice. Be very specific about what you say - the line about posting the video up at T11 failure killed the moment - because we all know you can just re-shoot the thing if you mess up. You're obviously not going to post a failed trick in a battle.
-Patter
What patter? In this trick, you are basically dictating what you're doing. "Now we're going to cut the deck." "Now I'm going to show you the top card." This is, in some ways, an insult to your audience's intelligence, and in every way, simply redundant. It is obvious what you're doing. We don't need you to tell us that. What we need you to tell us is WHY - but I'll get to that point in a moment. Simply put, a trick without patter is a trick. A trick with a proper presentation is magic. Presentation is used to give magic meaning, and without meaning, there simply is no magic because the audience has no reason to care. Sure, they might be surprised, they might react, they might even react well. But if your magic has no presentation and no meaning, then you're only performing at 10% of your potential, and the reactions could be a LOT better. Look up Tony Chang's ACR routine with his presentation. He takes a simple trick and makes it beautiful.
-Motivation, a.k.a. WHY
Why are you doing this? This is very heavily linked to the above. Why are you cutting the deck? Why are you showing us the bottom card? I mean, in reality, it's because you need to to get a break for a double, or something like that. But otherwise, there is absolutely no reason for doing it. You need to trim the fat from this trick - all the unnecessary motions need to go, because it doesn't help the trick. I'm just seeing you doing a series of unmotivated actions - "I'm cutting the deck. I'm showing you the bottom card." And because there's no MOTIVATION for you doing any of these things, the only conclusion I can come to is that you need it for the method. As soon as the audience starts thinking about method, you are no longer performing magic, because magic has no method. Tricks have a method. And tricks are not magic. I know this is a pretty theoretical concept to take in, but it's a really fundamental point in performance.
Ok, so they're the five things. I apologise if this comes across as all negative. It's all intended in the spirit of constructive criticism, and I've tried to point out not only what's wrong, but also how you can improve it. I don't want you to think that everything you did was wrong, so let me point out a few things you did do right:
-Using failure in the trick was a good idea
-Although your voice gave you away, your physical actions adequately sold disappointment when you failed
-Your reveal for the final card was good - slow it down
-You had really GOOD motivation for spreading through the deck at the end ("I give up, tell me what your card was"). That's what you need!
One final thing I want to mention. About cameras. Yes, it's true, it's difficult to misdirect a camera. Therefore, your sleights will always be under scrutiny. There are some things I simply would not perform on camera. A top change for example, which relies completely on misdirection, could not be done easily one on one to a camera. Having said that, using a camera should not be an excuse or an issue in this case. You're performing very basic sleights - sleights that should be invisible even when using a camera. Misdirection or not, you shouldn't be making those sorts of errors - and when you do, that's not the camera's fault. When you made a mistake, they weren't tiny ones that only a camera would have spotted. They were, mostly, really glaring, obvious ones. It wasn't a lack of misdirection - I found very little misdirection built into the trick. I don't know why the people you performed for haven't spotted it. Maybe you performed it better live. Maybe they were just being nice. Maybe you didn't realise they spotted it - it's all possible. But in this case, you're not getting criticism because the camera revealed your sleights - you're getting criticised because the sleights were genuinely in need of improvement. So please resist the urge to defend yourself with the camera - these are all genuine things you should try and improve in real life performance situations.