Tag: card magic

Why Not To Give Credit…

Recently someone in a magic group on the internet said that you should give credit during your shows for magic tricks you didn’t create AND for things that inspired the tricks.  This is an interesting concept and within magic it’s not really done, outside of a presentation angle.   The person thinks you should “live credit” … Continue reading “Why Not To Give Credit…”

Recently someone in a magic group on the internet said that you should give credit during your shows for magic tricks you didn’t create AND for things that inspired the tricks.  This is an interesting concept and within magic it’s not really done, outside of a presentation angle.  


The person thinks you should “live credit” your tricks to honor the people before you, not for a presentation angle.  They then posted a video of them performing, where they say the name of the person whose routine they are doing.  Then they say, “I’ll never be able to do it as well as them, but tonight I’m going to try…”    There’s a couple of things wrong with that. 


First you are telling the audience a story about a show that’s better than your show.  Why are we are your show, if there’s a better one?   Second is that by trying and succeeding, you are saying you are better than the person you are doing a tribute to.   Also in their credit they don’t give us any info on the person whose routine they are doing, and any background about them.  It’s simple a credit, not a tribute.  


Now here’s an example of it done well:


What makes Penn and Teller’s version good, is they don’t just say the name of the performer, they give a little bio.  They also don’t say they will do it better or worse, they let their performance be judged by their performance.   


My position on crediting during a show is that you don’t need to do it.  It’s stupid and would be an insane waste of time if you had to live credit every move, or bit.  You bought the book / DVD / media, the author has gotten compensated, that’s the end of the deal…Unless it’s specifically required by the creator of the trick or bit as a condition of you using it.  


Here’s a noteworthy example.  Ricky Jay did a trick from Expert at the Card Table, almost exactly as written in the book (moves and patter).  He never live credited it to Erdnase in his shows.  In fact he got upset when other people did the routine because he thought they wouldn’t have been doing it if they didn’t see him do it!  


TLDR:  Crediting during your show is a waste of time and dumb. 

 

I Practice With Good Tools…

A couple of nights ago I was hanging out with a couple of magicians and one of them asked if the rumor about Bicycle Cards that are sold are Costco was true.  If you don’t know,  the rumor is that the Bicycle Cards there are “seconds” and not as good as ones you’d buy elsewhere.  … Continue reading “I Practice With Good Tools…”

A couple of nights ago I was hanging out with a couple of magicians and one of them asked if the rumor about Bicycle Cards that are sold are Costco was true.  If you don’t know,  the rumor is that the Bicycle Cards there are “seconds” and not as good as ones you’d buy elsewhere. 

I think that the cards at Costco are the same ones you’d get elsewhere.  I also think that Bicycle’s standard card has become junk over the last 15 or so years. I use them, but I only use them at gigs because a deck of cards at a gig lasts me about an hour.  After an hour the deck is missing so many cards it’s not usable.  

After a Bicycle deck is broken in, I don’t think they handle well.  So personally I buy higher quality cards for my own non-show use.  I find that I practice more frequently using better decks of cards.   Here’s the current deck I’m using:

I know that 90% of the “higher quality” cards are printed at the USPCC, however I’m pretty sure they are not printed on the standard stock.  Having better tools that last longer gets me to practice more.  I’m learning moves I’ll never use, but it sure is fun!

Play Around…

When I’m out performing mingling magic (aka roving close up) I frequently throw something into my pocket that’s not part of my normal set.  It could be a full trick, gimmick, prop, or whatever.   A couple of nights ago I  put a pair of blank dice in my pocket.  Years ago I published a … Continue reading “Play Around…”

When I’m out performing mingling magic (aka roving close up) I frequently throw something into my pocket that’s not part of my normal set.  It could be a full trick, gimmick, prop, or whatever.

 

A couple of nights ago I  put a pair of blank dice in my pocket.  blank dice magic trickYears ago I published a trick with blank dice in the Linking Ring Magazine.  Basically the gist of it was someone selected a card.  They rolled the blank dice, told you the number they rolled, and you dealt down the number they rolled.  The selected card was at the number.   This is based on an Eddie Fields trick that uses a name.

 

Here’s video from the first table I did it at the other night…it’s been years since I did the trick:

After I did the trick in the video above, I realized it needed another phase.  For the next phase I added this trick that’s part of my normal card set, but using the “rolled” numbers instead of any number:

Now I’ve got a little routine…but it needed an ending.  So I’m ending it with a third phase where they shuffle the cards, roll again and deal down to that number. This time the card is not there.  It’s folded up in my wallet.

 

I like that in this routine, each time the card is found it’s in a different state.  First it’s face down, next it’s face up and finally it’s folded up.  By the end of the night it went from OK to pretty good!

 

So the moral of the story is don’t be afraid to play around!

 

Louie