Been a while, new tricks and gig

It's been a while since I blogged magic, but trust me I've been doing plenty. I've worked through the second crash course as well as a few books and this is what I've picked up.

Weighted Aces - Nick Dakin. Nick is a mate from Nottingham who is an amazing magician. I can perform a few slights now but he is far far more fluid than I am (so I'll be practising for a long time before I'm in his league). Weighted Aces is a nice quick trick. performed with only 4 cards, the aces. The spectator believes an ace of spades is placed in his hand and an ace of clubs placed under it, a wave f the hand reveals the clubs have floated through the spade. Th trick is performed again, only this time, both aces have floated up into the magicians hand and been replaced with the red aces.

Reaction- Whilst a quick little trick this is a nice little head scratcher and a nice opener.

Cataclysm -Brian Caswell. Shown to me by Nick. A deck of cards is shown to the spectator. The magician shows on the back of each card that there is a number. These numbers are random and range from 1 to 52. The spectator is asked to name a card, then another then another. The cards are placed on the table and the magician revels a photograph of three cards, face down with the numbers on the back showing. The cards are each turned over to reveal they match the photograph perfectly.

Reaction- I built this trick up a little and talked about how I found the deck and am not sure what it means or how it works. I talk about combination locks and how one day we may find a combination that unlocks time itself. I show the photograph first and make sure that the table is set up JUST like my photo with my hat in it and my glasses, pill bx and the unused bit of the deck (with he right card on the top) in the top right corner. I'm very proud of that little addition because it can throw people off the scent of of the method. The reaction ranges from bafflement and applause right through to "this is scary, your messing with stuff you don't know about, you may end up losing your soul"

Ambitious card - Eluionist Crash Course 2. Not so much a trick unto it'self, more a series of slights used so that a signed card can be placed into the pack and bounce to the top in a variety of ways. Some of these slights can work in the spectators hand. You can either learn a whole routine OR free style using the techniques available to you

Reaction- I approached this trick with a view of zen. It's a way of combining what you know and then just going with what feels good at the time. In karate there is a kata which the head of the biggest federation of the art says if you perform daily then you are a karate master. Ambitious card is simuler, It incorporates so many different slights as well as readying the audience and adjusting what your doing on the fly so much if you do a solid routine every day then your a card magician. I lovely trick that lets the spectator keep the card as a souvenir and one that you can perform with different people in the same group using a series of different reveals (from colour changes to snap changes, simple double lifts to the pop off). Reactions were very positive to each bit of the trick and it was fun to perform, but you have to have your grove on and your wits about you.

Out of this world - Paul Zennon's Street magic. A quite long trick but highly effective. The magician places a red card and a black card on the table face up. He then places 8 cards face down in two piles one in front of each of the cards. He states the purpose of the exercise is to see if you can sort out the cards into red and black. He reveals his cards, often completely wrong. Then he shuffles the cards back into the deck hands it to the specator and invites them to try. The cards are placed face down in the two piles ans when finally revealed it is discovered they have sorted the pack perfectly.

Reaction- I tend to weave a little history lesson into this trick. famously this trick was performed for Winston Churchill during the war. HE insisted on seeing the trick again and again (normally we shouldn't do the same trick for the same audience twice, but come on, it's Winston Churchill, the man with an answer for the question "You and what army"). Reactions are again positive and range from "how do you do that' Right through to 'We did that, with the power of our minds, together, oh my god this is amazing, lets try levitating something". If you THINK someone is going to cause trouble, keep hold of the deck and just put them where they say. Also you can do the same witha group of people.