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Ripping Routine Part IV

Today we’ll start writing the meat of the deck tearing routine. Basically I’m going to write a narrative script. This is going to be the essential things that I need to say for the trick to work, or to make sense. I’m also going to write the accompanying action with the trick.

There are essentially two tricks in the routine. The first is where they both pick and card and it’s the same card. The second is where you rip the deck, they both pick an card and they don’t match, but do match your half and half prediction

Here’s the bare bones script:

EFFECT 1:
“Take a card, and don’t let me see it.”
Have a card selected and returned to the deck.

“And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.”
Have a second person select a card and return it to the deck.

“On the count of three say your card out loud. One, Two Three.”
They both say the same card.

EFFECT 2:

“We’re going to make it a little bit harder. We’re going to cut the cards”
Rip the deck in half

“You’re going to take a card and you’re going to take a card. Hopefully your cards will match each other and my card.”
Set your prediction card on the table and have a card selected from each half of the torn deck.

“The cards match perfectly on the back…”
Line up the tear on the face down selected cards.

“On the front…”
Flip the cards face up to show they don’t match, and react.

“Oh, wait. I put my card here, hopefully it matches one of your cards.”
Flip the card over to show it matches the halves they picked and react.

Currently we’ve got three things done. We have a presentation hook, we have a few random jokes and we have a bare bones script. Tomorrow we’ll start working on putting those together and punching it up.

Split Deck…

In a post a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was learning to rip a deck of cards in half. I’m up to consistently being able to rip about half a deck of bicycle cards, but and able to rip a whole deck of cheap cards about 95% of the time. Every now and then I’ll hit a pack that for whatever reason just gives me a hell of a time ripping.

Last night in Seattle we had a magic jam and I threw a few decks of cheap cards in my bag. My routine is basically the “Split Deck” but without any gimmicked cards (aside from the cheap deck). It played well for the magicians, and then later we ended up doing some magic for the table next to us it played for them as well.

In between the two times I did the trick, a little bit more framework had developed in my head. The trick started with two people each looking at a card and they end up having picked the same card. Next I put out a prediction card, and I rip the deck in half. I say that they both will pick a card that matches my prediction and they both take a card (from different halves of the deck). They compare their cards and they aren’t the same card…but then we look at my prediction and the front is two ripped cards glued together and they halves match the selection.

This played pretty well, and I think it’s going to be something that I start to explore as a routine bit more in the future.

Plan B Set List…

Yesterday’s blog post had a back up show set list that I would easily fit in my carry on luggage on an airplane. The next step is going to be to put those tricks into a set list for the show. There are a couple of tricks that are similar in effect, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t put those back to back.

Here’s the list of the tricks from yesterday:

-ACAAN
-Card to Pocket
-Card Memorization
-Blindfold drawing duplication
-Book Test
-Cue Card Confabulation
-Coin Under Watch
-Mismade bill
-Color Changing Hank
-Rubik’s Cube trick
-Torn and Restored Newspaper

Right now I know by looking at this list, I’m going to open with ACAAN and close with Torn and Restored Newspaper. ACAAN is an amazing trick, and there’s a decent amount of action right out of the gate, and it uses person, but they don’t have to be on stage…they could be, but don’t have to. I’ve used the Torn and Restored Newspaper as a closer in the past, so I know it will work there.

Right after ACAAN I’m going to do the Book Test, followed by the Rubik’s Cube Trick. These are both tricks I’ve done in that order in the past as warm up for my show at Fairs, and they are a great combo back to back.

Next I’m going to do Coin Under Watch. It uses a person from the audience, and while I coin trick, I can make it play big. After that I’ll do a solo piece, which will be the Color Changing Hank. This has a lot of action, and a lot of jokes.

Now we’re going to get into a mentalism block. I’m going to do the Blindfold followed by my Cue Card Confabulation. The Blindfold routine I do let’s me play with the person from the audience and it’s a longer piece that hits hard! The Cue Card Confabulation is my own creation and it’s just me on stage talking to people in the audience, and it’s joke will build off the strength of the Blindfold routine. The confabulation routine ends with a great surprise!

Next up I’ll do Card to Pocket, the set up to the Card Memorization, the Mismade Bill and then the final part of the Card Memorization. I’m going to use the time during the Mismade Bill for the two people who will help me with the Card Memorization to sort the cards. That will eliminate some dead time.

I’ll play the Card Memorization as the end of the show, and do the Torn and Restored Newspaper as the forced encore with a, “you want to see one more” line. Here’s the set list:

ACAAN
Book Test
Rubik’s Cube
Coin Under Watch
Color Changing Handkerchief
Blindfold
Cue Card Confabulation
Card To Pocket
Card Memorization part 1
Mismade Bill
Card Memorization part 2
Torn and Restored Newspaper

It’s a decent show, not the show I want to do, but it does look solid for an emergency show.

Solid Background Helps…

The other night I did a corporate gig and before the stage show I did some roving during the cocktail hour. Personally I prefer to do this than not do it at a corporate event, as it basically lets me be my own “opening act”. People start to warm up to me before the show.

When doing roving magic, I’m always looking for miracles to make happen. Things that aren’t part of my normal close up set. Typically these use things that are in the performing environment. The round tables in this room had a table cloth with a square cloth napkin in the middle. I’m assuming a center piece was on the napkin at some point. That led to a miracle!

I was performing for a group. I asked a guy to name any card. He said 10 of Diamonds. I handed him the deck, he shuffled them tossed them in the air so they landed on the table, and his named card ended up under the middle of the napkin!

How did I do it? I remember watching Eugene Burger’s video on Matt Schulien’s Fabulous Card Discoveries.

On that VHS tape he did Matt’s Card Under Tablecloth and that’s basically what I did. I did have to adjust it a little bit for the situation. That’s where having a solid background in different tricks and sleight of hand moves comes in very handy! This trick was the talk of my roving set and was totally worth the risk of trying something I’d never done before.

Making a Trick My Own…

A few years ago Bicycle Playing Cards changed how they make their playing cards. While they are still the standard, they are crap compared to how they used to be. A deck of cards will last me about 45 mins to an hour when roving, where before they’d last all day.

As a result of this, I ended up having a ton of cards kicking around that I can’t use after a gig. I wanted to figure out how something to do with all of these cards, so I’m learning to rip a deck of cards in half. This isn’t easy. After about a month I can do 22 cards, with best being 28 cards. I’ve got a long way to go to fifty two!

Now that I’m working on this skill, I’m starting to think of what to do with it. Yesterday in the car I thought of a trick. Why not do the split deck, but instead of the stupid patter line, “I asked someone to cut the cards and they did” when you introduce the cards, I can just rip them in half.

This creates a unique trick that very few people can copy. It adds some texture to the trick as well, because I can talk about learning to rip the deck. Also it’s going to be a harder trick for anyone to copy because of the time it takes to learn to rip a deck of cards in half.

All it takes to make a trick better is taking an extra step forward and adding one thing, plus new scripting and you’ve got something unique!

Not Everything Is Easy…

Every time I hear magicians complain that tricks are too hard, it drives me nuts. Why wouldn’t you try to learn something difficult? If you are an artist, you should be pushing yourself to learn to do difficult techniques. Here’s what Kennedy thinks about it: A great example is I’ve been working on a false … Continue reading “Not Everything Is Easy…”

A great example is I’ve been working on a false shuffle for about a year now. It’s not quite right, and I’m still practicing it. Should I give up?

No, and here’s why: It’s the best looking false shuffle I have ever seen. Sure I could stick to something that looks good enough, and that’s fine, but why wouldn’t I go all the way, make my art the best it can be? I do it because that’s what separates me from 80% of other magicians, and I do it because I take pride in my work.

Go out and learn to do something difficult!

The Value of a Magic Jam…

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like … Continue reading “The Value of a Magic Jam…”

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like not wanting their material stolen. I’ve found that 90% of the people who are worried about their material being stolen, are the people who really shouldn’t worry about it.

When you get together with other magicians there is a lot of learning that can happen. It’s the “jamming” aspect of it that’s the greatest value. You see someone do something and you play off of it. Will the majority of stuff that comes out of these every see a real audience? Probably not. Flexing your creative muscles will help you out!

Here’s some video from last night:

Some interesting things happened, and most of all you are building a community of magicians!

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…”

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!

An Ending to a Gag…

If you’ve ever seen my magic lecture, there are a couple of main points to it. First is to take what you are doing a step further. The second is to put endings to things. This blog post covers both of them. I’ve always liked the Fifty Two on One gag card. If you don’t … Continue reading “An Ending to a Gag…”

I’ve always liked the Fifty Two on One gag card. If you don’t know what this is, it’s a card with all the cards on its face.

How you use it, is you set it face down as your prediction. You ask someone to say any card, let’s say they name the King of Diamonds. You say, “your card is right here” as you turn over the card and point to the king of diamonds.

Funny gag, but it really needs a punch to it. How can we turn the gag into a trick? We could glue a king of diamonds onto the back of the card, and put our prediction in an envelope and force the king of diamonds. Now we get the gag, followed by turning the card over to show you knew their card.

That’s a good trick. It’s been done, but still a decent card revelation. Let’s take it up a notch:

By using a flap card we’ve added a magic trick to the revelation. Honestly I don’t know if this is better than just turning the card over, but it’s certainly a lot more magical!

Also by using the flap card for the change, we’ve added an ending to the trick AND taken it a step further. This is actually something I’ve wanted to make for a long time and just finally making one. I’ll try it out sometime soon and see how it plays.

Louie

Magic Clubs and Newer Magicians…

I love magic, and I love supporting magic. I support magic wherever I go, by going to see shows, visiting magic clubs, visiting with magicians, and doing good magic. One thing that gets me about magic clubs is a lot of the “old guard” are so set in their ways they can’t see past their … Continue reading “Magic Clubs and Newer Magicians…”

I love magic, and I love supporting magic. I support magic wherever I go, by going to see shows, visiting magic clubs, visiting with magicians, and doing good magic.

One thing that gets me about magic clubs is a lot of the “old guard” are so set in their ways they can’t see past their own biases. This isn’t good for people newer into magic. Frequently at one of the magic clubs in my area (there are three) when someone does a card trick an older magician will say “oh god, another card trick…” outloud for every one to hear.

This isn’t good for magic. People get into magic for a lot of reasons, and to tell them their reason is wrong hurts magic. It makes it less welcoming for new people.

Also, the advice that is given to newer magicians is horrible. One of the worst pieces of advice when someone tries something new is, “stick to the classics, they are classics for a reason…” Whenever I hear that I want to ask them to take out their phone and tell me what kind of music is on it…is it classical? Do they use a Acomputer…or stone a chisel (the classic method)?

Jim Steinmeyer wrote an awesome book called, Allow Me To Give You Some Really Awful Advice.

This book should be required reading for all leadership and pretty much anyone giving advice about magic at a magic club. They should also read Joshua Jay’s article from Magic Magazine called What Do Audiences Really Think.

Jim and Joshua’s writings confirm and back up with data why 90% of advice given at most magic clubs is wrong. Magicians need to be out there doing what they love, and innovating, not living in the 1970’s. We also need to be positive to newer magicians and tell them what they are doing right, not what we like or don’t like.