It just goes right past laymen

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This is certainly not a new theme with me. Just because your audience refrains from telling you that you are a bumbling Bozo and fooling no one, it doesn’t mean you’ve fooled anybody! It just means you’ve either got a polite audience or they don’t really care enough to comment.

It seems that many magicians totally misunderstand the be entertaining mantra. Be entertaining with magic that actually fools someone. Lame jokes and ridiculous story lines do nothing for the magic experience if you are not mystifying.

I’ve begun a list of moves that look like exactly what they are:

  • The Striking Vanish – Looks Like – Throwing an object from hand to hand 
  • Flushtration Count – Looks Like – Showing the same card over and over 
  • Criss Cross Force – Looks Like – Putting the top and bottom card next to each other 
  • Prediction Tricks – Looks Like – Magician will force what he wrote down
  • Magician In Trouble – Looks Like – Lame actor pretending something went wrong
  • The Brush Change – Looks Like – Holding 2 cards as 1 and leaving 1 when you cover the face card

There are more – many more and I’m talking about those moves that are obvious, even when well done. Of course, any move fumbled by an ill prepared magician is totally transparent.

Any other nominees?

 

Take care……… 
 

Im21 

QuoteSm

Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar. But then, without nepotism, W. would be pumping gas in Midland.
 
 

2 thoughts on “It just goes right past laymen”

  1. Nice topic. I dislike the Flushtration count as well, although John Carney has some nice touches on it. Angle the packet between flashes so that they don’t get a good view of the backs or faces (edges pointing towards their eyes). Also, table the cards after you remove them. Don’t know if either of this make it better than the diminishing lift sequence, but it’s still interesting…

    Personally I loathe the Han Ping Chen move.

    Reply
  2. I labored about adding the Han Ping Chen move when I wrote the list. It is quite obvious most of the time, but I guess it CAN be a fooler in the right hands, although that is terribly rare.

    At its best it falls into the “something happened” category.

    Thanks for the input…..
    i/m

    Reply

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