April 9th, 2010

Laymen View

"Almost every live video I had was filmed by a magician - so I decided to have this filmed by a layperson. As you can tell by the reactions, the minor flashes that WE as magicians might see in this video - are not seen and slide right by the audience."

popchris3

15 Comments

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Ola16 years ago

I think this was great, fooled me more than once on the first viewing. I really like your pulley-system:) I think the rushed performance was kinda nice, it felt like a rush-performance-setting, if there's such a thing.. Felt like the girls was on their way to leave, but the constant effects kept them there. top change was very visible, but timing was great. I liked this a lot.

popchris316 years ago

Thank you so much for the kind words! Means a lot!

WilliamMckeehan16 years ago

the one thing that i always notice as a Magician about other performers are double lifts.. i am a little obsessed with this move and am perfecting it WAY too much. but just keep working on making it smooth and relaxed you were a little tense ... which is natural anyway but just keep working on being relaxed with that move and just keep performing that was a good job :D btw i liked your timing for the top change... im TERRIBLE with this move and have trouble timing it but that was pretty good !

popchris316 years ago

Thanks man! I need to work on the double lifts; I do however to a degree subscribe to the Harry Lorayne theory that double lifts are the MOST pointless sleight to put thought into. Haha. I have been working on it recently a lot; after that performance. Oh, and thanks man! I have gotten a lot of crap from magicians about that top change. I don't know if it is "good" or not, but it fooled the laypeople, so... Haha. Thanks again man!

ReadMoreMagicBooks16 years ago

@popchris3.. I am giving you constructive criticism. To be honest, you flashed on nearly EVERY move. From a technical standpoint, this was horrible, and from an entertaining standpoint, it sucked. period. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of bad magic. I know that I am entitled to my own opinion, but you have to take in all of the criticism and not just the good... It's like posting a video and deleting all of the bad comments about it.

popchris316 years ago

Thank you so much for the kind words, Jon! @ReadMoreMagicBooks, when I was asking for constructive criticism, I meant things that would help make my performance better. A good example was D ICE R above; he stated that my doubles needed work and I needed to slow it down; helpful things that I can work on! However, saying that I flashed on "every" move and that my "entertaining" sucked isn't helpful in the least. It allows me to know your opinion on it but nothing that I could do to fix it. Thank you for the feedback, but if it was constructive, that would be appreciated! Thanks!

jonraiker16 years ago

I think Chris has taken the feedback here in stride. Everyone's entitled to express their opinion, so long as it's articulated in a manner that is constructive to the performer. Our goal should be to advance the art of magic by offering practical criticism and insight - not to bring others down.

D ICE R16 years ago

Well the biggest thing you need to work on is your double lift. I mean you had this crazy spinning thing which is fin but when you turned the single over why did you not do the same thing that you did with the DL. Also slow down and give the performance a real context.

popchris316 years ago

Yeah; my doubles weren't very good here.... And yeah, I do need to slow this down. Will work on those two things! Thank you VERY much for the feedback!

dempseymagic16 years ago

not to bad,i think this was a smart idea having a passerby film this,although u couldve touched up the video a bit,it was pretty good,um,u should slow down with the 2 card monte,u performed it well,but use a little patter,slow down,let the magic sink in,and youll get much better reactions,besides tht i thought it was pretty good

popchris316 years ago

Thank you very much and thank you for the feedback! Too many people nowadays go on videos and go, "That sucked" without giving a reason or ways to make it suck less. I will definitely work on some patter for that and take it slowly. Thanks man!

popchris316 years ago

Uh... Thanks for the feedback, but if you could please offer some constructive critisism (like the guy before you) and actually be helpful?

ReadMoreMagicBooks16 years ago

I must s ay that the presentation was horrible. There was no motivation for the effect or the climax, and in my opinion, this was just not a very good performance.

Blindside46216 years ago

Kudos. Just some minor constructive criticism. The Top Change by David Williamson. IT will make your Top Change more invisible and smooooth. You need to slow down your 2 card monte. If you have Born to Perform or Kard Klub you'll see that it is drawn out just a bit more in performance as a memory test.. And that really gets them.. Instead of which one is on the bottom?...turn it over. I thought that it was very cool you could just do a trick when someone pulls out a card and says..do something with this :D

popchris316 years ago

Thanks man! You are one of the helpful people who actually GIVES feedback and critisism! Will work on those!