So, you shoot a video, post it, and then ask for opinions and critiques. You then get critiques, and your most commonly used retort to those critiques is in the escape of, "it was a one and done shoot," and "of course I can do better, but it was a one take deal," bla bla bla.
You do realize that people only have that one and done video of yours to form an idea on your skill level and ability to handle a deck of cards. You set yourself up for this from the beginning.
TBH: As Prae said, I saw someone who was not smooth with a deck of cards, and therefore, based off of that performance, your chosen method (the braue addon), does not seem like the best fit. It is absolutely true what Darwin Ortiz says in his books about how different methods can give different perspectives. However, you the magician need to understand that those words do not apply for EVERYTHING. Just because you CAN, does not always mean you should. Some sleights were designed to do certain things under certain environments. The Braue addon is a GREAT move, but when utilized the right way. It is designed so that you the magician, can be as simple as possible with your placement of the "cards" or "selection of cards" into the deck (in a seemingly fair and simple way). However, when you use the sleight, you remove all credibility by butchering your shuffle (as other members have mentioned).
In a sense, you are doing an ACR with 4 selcections instead of 1. And, in an ACR, when you take their selection and put it into the middle, you want the card to come back to the top of the deck in the cleanest manner possible. If you were to shuffle the cards every time, it would become quite obvious that you are just controlling the shuffle to bring the card back to the top. SO, if you wouldn't do this in an ACR, then why do it in your 4 aces routine?
I am not questioning the use of the Braue addon, I am questioning the structuring of the routine and saying that as it is now, you are not properly utilizing it. For one, you turn over the first three aces onto the deck in a different manner that you do the last ace. All this does is add a hole to your routine, something that can be scrutinized. In addition, there is WAY too much time between doing the addon and when you actually place the cards into the middle of the deck. Again, if you are doing the addon, why keep the last ace to yourself? where is the justification in that? Why don't you just stick that "into the middle as well," but put it 4th from the top so it is loaded already.
Next, you mention, "I will give one riffle shuffle and one cut," and from this line it seems like you are going to give a performance on how to handle and control cards (like in a poker demonstration). However, right afterwards, you say, "hopefully something good will happen," indicating it is more of a "magical effect". And you will probably claim that again it was just a one shot deal, and that it wasn't scripted bla bla, but that is no excuse, as you are asking for critiques on how to make it better.
If you are going for more of a skill demonstration and your ability to control cards, then the Braue addon is not the way to go, as it is designed for simplicity or perhaps to be one step ahead (and btw, Darwin Ortiz uses it not just to control the four aces, he uses it to help him with his riffle stacking demonstration where he controls a 4 of a kind in ONE shuffle).
If you are going for a more magical demonstration, then the braue addon is definitely ok, but you have too much time between the addon, the insertion of the cards, and the reveal.
Lastly, I understand it is hard to get critiques when you put time and effort into a new routine, but you need to learn that just because you created it, doesn't mean it will always be good. You also like to give quotes from books, but you really need to understand those quotes before you spew them out.
Learning different techniques / sleights/ methods is a must and great practice when it comes to routining a set, but you have to learn to understand the sleights and what they were made for and what and why they accomplish certain things, before you defend yourself and their use.
For my final retort, don't spit out your years in magic. Some of the people on here trying to give you the advice and critiques that YOU asked for have been doing magic for way longer than you and know what we are talking about. 1 1/2 years is mediocre to people who have been doing this for 10 years and for people who get PAID to do this.
Put your *sighs* and arrogance away until you earn the right to dish it out.
