Does anybody know any really useful top changes? It is an incredibly useful move and I know the paintbrush and standard top changes but I don't like how I have to misdirect them. Does anyone know a top change if someone is burning your hands?
Top Changes
- Thread starter therealcardini
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Well fact of the matter is, if you like misdirection or not it is a needed thing for many tricks but just a quick question do you have the Royal Road to Magic book?
I do not have the Royal Road to Card Magic. As far as misdirection I know I have to use it and I do but I feel like it is more authentic to my spectator if he or she watches the card without looking away. Plus, it is nice when I have a heckler who burns my hands.
You could do a second deal, but that's really, really, hard (I'm not at all saying I can do it either 
). Out of curiosity, is this for an Ambitious Card? .
). Out of curiosity, is this for an Ambitious Card? .Yes it is nice to have tricks that happen just like that but ya like most people would say to you that should be the first book you buy. When I started magic I learned off of youtube which is not the best way to learn magic so even though I've been in magic for several months I still lack a lot of basic skill. I actually just ordered the book today and in the write up it states that one of the moves that it teaches is top changes so a word of advice if you don't want to fall back as much, order the book you can find it cheap on amazon .
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Stop using the word misdirection its a bit of a misleading word. What you should be doing and what it should be called is directing attention. When this is done properly your audience should be left with the sense they didn't miss a thing, that they never took their eyes off what was important, even though they did and you do this by directing their attention to what you want to make out as important. Im not going to go into techniques here there are two many, but read/watch works by Slydini, Tom Stone, Tommy Wonder and you will get a good understanding of what I'm talking about and how to use it properly. There isn't a successful magician alive today who doesn't use some form of (and i know im about to use the word i said you shouldn't
) misdirection.Rather than "misdirection", perhaps a more useful concept in this context is "offbeat". It's surprising, but with a well-constructed offbeat, it doesn't matter if people are looking right at the deck because they still won't see anything. They won't be expecting to see anything, so they don't. We're conditioned to expect actions to take place at a moment of high tension: a runner "gets set" before sprinting, a fist is drawn back before a punch is delivered, etc. It's what you could call "the coiled spring effect". I would bet good money that, at the moment, you're building tension at the moment of your top change, which is why people are spotting it. If you learn to time your move at a moment of relaxation, you can be confident that no-one will see it or, having seen it, won't place any importance on it. A good way to practice in front of the mirror is to drop your shoulders, look at your reflection in the eyes and smile. On the smile, perform the top change. This will train you to associate a relaxed state with the performance of the move. In performance, maybe rather than just smiling, you might want to say something ("Well, I suppose that just proves I'm human after all!" if you're changing a wrong card for the right card, for example). I hope that makes sense.
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These are all great ideas. To answer strudles' question I use it mostly for a variation I do on Hand Sandwich although I am thinking of using it in my ACR.
To answer your question - the standard top change is the one I use the most but Earl Nelson has a great top change in his book Variations that I use in a stand up situation/crowd.
Variations Revisited is $40 and includes a ton of magic/moves/ideas that you may find useful - it's the same material as the original (supposedly, I only own the original) with updated pictures and descriptions.
As far as the discussion of misdirection and it's actual implications (directing attention, using the off beat...etc) no matter how you think about it or what you want to call it the effect and moment you use a move like the top change should be designed into your routine in such a way that nobody will suspect a move could have been done. I'm re-reading Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz and restructuring an effect - maybe substituting the top change is your answer instead of finding a better top change. Even if it means learning a more difficult method your trick may be stronger in the long run.
Variations Revisited is $40 and includes a ton of magic/moves/ideas that you may find useful - it's the same material as the original (supposedly, I only own the original) with updated pictures and descriptions.
As far as the discussion of misdirection and it's actual implications (directing attention, using the off beat...etc) no matter how you think about it or what you want to call it the effect and moment you use a move like the top change should be designed into your routine in such a way that nobody will suspect a move could have been done. I'm re-reading Designing Miracles by Darwin Ortiz and restructuring an effect - maybe substituting the top change is your answer instead of finding a better top change. Even if it means learning a more difficult method your trick may be stronger in the long run.
I refer to Tommy Wonder and John Carney who both said that direction/misdirection/attention control is NOT something you should only use when it is absolutely necessary (for example a sleight which requires misdirection to be deceptive, e.g. top change), it is something that should be used ALL THE TIME and become second nature.
This is what separates the men from the boys and the magician from the trick-guy.
This is what separates the men from the boys and the magician from the trick-guy.
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