Something old and forgotten

[spinnerdude]

So, I've been following Theory11 for a while now. They definitely exposed me to the style of magic that I would go on to emulate, and the community here has always led me to find stuff I might never have found on my own.

So today at work a colleague at my new job heard I do tricks, and I prefer to keep my performances scarce (I appreciate the study more than the act of performing), and he asked if I could tell him how this one guy on youtube did a trick. I wouldn't know how to find the video, but the performance was... less than amazing. It reminded me of this separate old video I had seen on here a LONG time ago (the comments would suggest 8 years ago), and I remember that I felt that it was a little underrated at the time I had seen it, and with the new and younger crowd that Theory11 has probably gathered since my first viewing, I imagine many people have long forgotten such a video. The video kind of makes a commentary on what the magician shown to me by my my colleague needs to learn.

I'll wrap up this post with the link to the video. I won't dare and try and tell you that you should learn from it, but the point is well presented, the video unique, and their skill top notch. From the vault of 8 years ago: https://www.theory11.com/media/2253-unnatural

 

[RealityOne]

I guess we can all draw our own lessons from the video, but what was apparant to me the first time through is that SOMETHING happened even though it appears from looking at the cards that NOTHING happened. The second time through I could tell what was being done. I suspect that if you look at most card magic performances, especially recently "invented" sleights, the audience can tell SOMETHING happened. I subscribe to the Madrid School of Magic that emphasizes naturalness in sleights so that the audience doesn't know ANYTHING out of the ordinary happened until they see the result.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Agree with David. Unnatural is an apt title. There's a lot of unnatural, unnecessary movements going on here that indicate that sleight of hand is being done. A lot of telltale hand positions, strange ways of displaying things, so on. I like the concept of the routine, and I think it has a ton of potential, but as is - it's designed to show off these specific moves that the person is still learning.