A thought just came into my mind today and I just wanted to know what you guys thought about this. So here it is:
Does sleight of hand beat out gimmicks everytime? Now here me out and just think about this. Generally, tricks performed with gimmicks usually allow for a more miraculous effect, such as Distortion, the former Panic and tricks done with gaffed cards. Now I'm pretty sure I speak for most people when I say that we normally go around town with a Distortion gimmick in our pockets. So during cases that we don't have any gimmicks on us and someone wants to see a trick, wouldn't we want to be prepared with something impromptu or involving only sleight of hand that is just as equally mind-blowing to laymen? Doesn't it seem, and this is just my opinion, that a great magician can do a trick with just about anything at any given notice? It seems like laymen seem to respond greater to performers who can make something out of nothing. Not only that, but I'm sure that we've all ran into audience members that want to inspect everything first, haven't we all? With purely sleight of hand at your disposal, you can easily just hand out everything prior to the trick and after the miracle has occured. In that way we start clean, end clean, and give the impression that we really can make the impossible happen. However, on the same coin, think of the effects that are out there that are impromptu in comparison to those with gimmicks. Let's take two of Wayne Houchin's effects: Sinful and Distortion. Both are great, but in my opinion, Distortion blows Sinful out of the water with how visual it is and the fact that you are seeing a card change before your very eyes. But the downside is carrying a gimmick around all the time-which isn't exactly a bad thing but still...- and losing the ability to hand everything out in the beginning and the end. Just imagine getting caught with a gimmick... ouch. But this is all just my opinion. I'm not going to completely remove gimmicks from my repertoire, but it's becoming somewhat appealing when I think about it. What do you guys think?
Does sleight of hand beat out gimmicks everytime? Now here me out and just think about this. Generally, tricks performed with gimmicks usually allow for a more miraculous effect, such as Distortion, the former Panic and tricks done with gaffed cards. Now I'm pretty sure I speak for most people when I say that we normally go around town with a Distortion gimmick in our pockets. So during cases that we don't have any gimmicks on us and someone wants to see a trick, wouldn't we want to be prepared with something impromptu or involving only sleight of hand that is just as equally mind-blowing to laymen? Doesn't it seem, and this is just my opinion, that a great magician can do a trick with just about anything at any given notice? It seems like laymen seem to respond greater to performers who can make something out of nothing. Not only that, but I'm sure that we've all ran into audience members that want to inspect everything first, haven't we all? With purely sleight of hand at your disposal, you can easily just hand out everything prior to the trick and after the miracle has occured. In that way we start clean, end clean, and give the impression that we really can make the impossible happen. However, on the same coin, think of the effects that are out there that are impromptu in comparison to those with gimmicks. Let's take two of Wayne Houchin's effects: Sinful and Distortion. Both are great, but in my opinion, Distortion blows Sinful out of the water with how visual it is and the fact that you are seeing a card change before your very eyes. But the downside is carrying a gimmick around all the time-which isn't exactly a bad thing but still...- and losing the ability to hand everything out in the beginning and the end. Just imagine getting caught with a gimmick... ouch. But this is all just my opinion. I'm not going to completely remove gimmicks from my repertoire, but it's becoming somewhat appealing when I think about it. What do you guys think?