Spread pass help

[RealityOne]

Again, I know all this. All I'm trying to do here is perfect my technique.

Ziad~

I think that @ChrisJGJ, @ChristopherT and I all said your basic technique is very good and made a couple of suggestions. Chris said to increase your speed, Christopher said not to cover the deck as much and I suggested a more open handling. We've all suggested comparing the spread pass to what you would do if you were just spreading the cards and closing the spread. So, what you are doing between the moment you spread the card and the moment you close the spread is very good. However, what Christopher and I have been trying to convey is that there is more to the performance of the move than the technical handling.

If you are trying to fool magicians (as well as lay folks), you will need to do more than perfect the technique. You will need to eliminate all "tells" - motions that indicate you are doing a "move" and eliminate all extra unnecessary movements. As Christopher said, most magicians can typically tell when someone does a pass, not because we see the movement of the pass, but by the unnecessary movements they make (especially the vertical rocking movement people do with an invisible pass), by the tension in their hands and arms and by the attention they pay to their hands. Knowledgable magicians can tell exactly what you are doing by the way the curved spread is closed straight on and the resulting position of the cards before you square them. Lay folks may not be able to tell what move you make, but sense that you did "something." Technical invisibility ensures that nobody knows what move you did, presentational invisibility (including the handling before and after the sleight) ensures that nobody knows you did a move.

Your response to everything we said is "I know that but I don't care." I get the sense you posted this expecting everyone to say "wow, your handling is amazing" and are a little perturbed that you are getting a different reaction. If all you care about is having a perfectly technical spread pass (defined as what you do after beginning the spread until you close the spread), then you are there. But I get the sense that you are filtering out our advice because that is not what you want to hear. I would suggest that what we are saying is what you need to hear.

What @ChristopherT and I are trying to do is to get you to think about magic in a different way. We see all the YouTube tutorials shot showing only the performer's hands. Magic is performed with the whole body (including your eyes, your voice and your mind), not just the hands. We see tutorials with (often incomplete) technical descriptions of the sleights without any discussion of how to execute the sleights in the context of a routine. We are trying to get you to think of the performance of the sleight in a larger context. Moves are meant to be used in magic and magic is meant to be performed for people.

You've pretty much perfected the technical move, we are encouraging you to now perfect the performance of the move.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

What he said.

 

[Justin.Morris]

If you are trying to fool magicians (as well as lay folks), you will need to do more than perfect the technique. You will need to eliminate all "tells" - motions that indicate you are doing a "move" and eliminate all extra unnecessary movements. As Christopher said, most magicians can typically tell when someone does a pass, not because we see the movement of the pass, but by the unnecessary movements they make (especially the vertical rocking movement people do with an invisible pass), by the tension in their hands and arms and by the attention they pay to their hands. Knowledgable magicians can tell exactly what you are doing by the way the curved spread is closed straight on and the resulting position of the cards before you square them. Lay folks may not be able to tell what move you make, but sense that you did "something." Technical invisibility ensures that nobody knows what move you did, presentational invisibility (including the handling before and after the sleight) ensures that nobody knows you did a move.

This. I was going to post this, but I couldn't have said it better. Just wanted to emphasize.

 

[CaseyRudd]

Hey Ziad,

I also wanted to echo David's points, but touch on a specific part of the technique you're using. There is no audio on the clip so I can't tell if there are any audio cues that would suggest you are doing a shift, so I can't comment on that. Perhaps a video with audio would help in that regard. However, I feel that they way you are closing the spread is unnaturally messy in the sense that it looks like you are purposefully making it messy in order to help cover the shift. You should close the spread like you would normally close your spread, and I don't get the feeling that you close every legitimate spread that way. If you're looking to refine your technique, I suggest starting there.

I also see a bit of a problem after closing your spread to prepare for the shift. I notice that your hand comes pretty high above the deck to square it up. Like I mentioned earlier, if this isn't how you naturally come over the deck with your hand to square it up, change it to how it naturally looks. This means your hand should be in closer proximity with the deck instead of unnaturally high up. Another minor detail, but that's what you are looking for. Refinement.

Here is a bonus idea to use for a spread pass that I have started to use to justify the "messy spread of cards" to square up. I have a spread of cards in my right hand and a pile of cards in my left. I ask the spectator to place their selection on the pile in my left hand. I come over with the spread of cards in my right hand and place them on top of the pile in my left hand, keeping the card above their selection (the bottom card of the right hand spread) slid over slightly to have the effect of a flat break. The cards on top of the selection should look slightly messy at this point. I pick up a few cards from the top and tilt my wrist down to show the faces of the cards to display that they could have selected any one of the cards in the deck. I place them back on top and then begin to shuffle the cards above the break, showing the faces of the cards to once again show they could have selected any one. At this point the cards really are messy because you are shuffling them nonchalantly in your hand. As you place the final spread of cards from your right hand on top, you execute the shift as you square it up. All of this should be done naturally and without any attention, very care-free. I included this if you are looking to use it in a performance setting in the future if you ever want to branch off into that territory.

Hope these tips were able to help get you started on the refinement process!

 

[Ziad Khayat]

@RealityOne I assure you I am not. I know all the subtleties you explained, but the first step is technical perfection(as close as can be reached anyway) and so I asked for help refining it, and so far, I have only received one helpful response(after that initial comment) the application of this technique within the framework of a routine will be the next step.

 

[Ziad Khayat]

@Casey Rudd thans for the feedback. I'll post a follow up video in a few days.