London Collection and Devel's Picture book.

There are many genuiuses when it comes to card magic. Eugine Burger bounds to mind and Daryl is a walking compendium of the sum of card magic. However, when it comes to perfoming with style I think Guy Hollyworth and Derren Brown leave all others standing in the dust. Derren Browns 'The Devil's Picture Book' was made just after he began appearing as a psychological illusionist on our televisions. He explains in the video how he has moved on to pure psychological effects now but still enjoys card magic. His skill is breath taking, but his presentation is something to be truly admired. The way he takes a very old classic trick 'Out of this World' and adds his own elements of mis direction really shows us the benefit of working on a effect over and over again adding and subtracting until it feels right. As with other instructional video files it follows the classic 'Show a trick explain a trick' format. The explanations often punctured with conversations with a fellow magician where they occasional talk of their own philosophy of magic.
Guy Hollingworth's 'The London Collection' follows a different format. It follows Guy through the streets of London at night where he performs tricks for the camera (no spectators insight). For 30 minutes the viewer is treated to delightful magic with a charming presentation against a the wonderful backdrop of London at night with a quite subtle piano playing in the background. When the camera follows Guy into his home he explains each trick in great detail. The benifit of this different format of all the tricks displayed first means that if You just want to relax whilst watching the definition of perfect card magic you don't have to watch the explanations on fast forward whilst feeling guilty for not wanting to learn everything at once.

So why have I mentioned these now. Both videos have been in my collection for a long time. I bought 'The Devils Picture book' long before I bought Mark Wilson's Course (putting the horse before the carriage maybe). It's to do with inspiration. Both videos can really stir a sense of inspiration in us, however they both can show how far we have to go as well. I highly recommend watching them, but do so knowing you are watching two masters at the top of their profession.

An interesting issue

I've been practising ready for a Wedding party in April. Now many magicians have said it's not always a great idea to perform amazing flourishes. These can either alienate an audience, or make the magician look like a show off or even just make an audience assume all tricks come down to slight of hand. That said there are few basics of card handling that appear useful. Springing the cards from hand to hand is according to Jay Sankey a superb way of letting it be known that there is a magician present when approaching a group of people. Like wise being able to perfom a basic ribon spread and turn over does not appear to be showing off and is the level of handling you'd expect from anyone who professionally uses cards for any reason. My Ribbon spread was appalling. After a few nights of practice it's much better, and on a velvet mat it looks quite eligant avery time i spread the cards. But after an hour pracitse I leaned back and started iddly double lifting. I sudenly noticed that every 3rd or 4 attempted ended in a treble lift. this is not good. Apparently all the pressure used to perform fans and spreads makes the card stick together and this a few dribbles are in order to separate out the cards. So there's the top tip for the day. After a few spreads take a moment to dribble or spring the cards. these are all useful flourishes but also will help any follow up slights out by separating the cards out for you.

In the Wild

This weekend our local Goth club held their 'Valentines Day Massacre'. It was basically a gangster and molls fancy dress party. I decided to forgo the pinstripe suit look and instead made a waistcoat covered in hearts and took along any tricks that I deemed 'hustle like' (thinking of Titanic Thompson the con man)

The Three Card Monte went down very well with no-one working the method and showing genuine surprise and astonishment. there was none of the dreaded 'That's clever' and just more of 'that's amazing/cool' and so on. I broke in my new Invisible Deck (in BLUE!) and the decided to experiment a little. I could have switched into the 'Poker cheating' routines such as Aces High, Big Deal, Four Sight, my Card Reading/Mind Reading and so on. However I found a pair of participants who seamed to be deeply into magic. When outside the club I started talking to them about how some tricks can build up a rapport between a group of people, and how this can form a sort of gestalt consciousness that enable a group to do things one person along could not. I opened with Do as I Do (a trick where the participant takes half the cards and mirrors the magicians movements of selecting and returning cards into the pack before placing one packet of cards within the other, revealing all the facer up apart from 2 face down, theirs and the magicians. Normally the trick is finished with the deck face up HOWEVER I'd already decided I was going to finish on the very strong Out of this World as such I dare not show the deck face up, so instead I reversed the finish so the deck was face down and the revealed cards were face up, not quit as strong finish but in my mind worth the trade off as it will re-enforce the idea of all things being fair and above board later as they'd held onto the deck. Next I went for the classic Direct Mind Reading which involes using facial expressisn to 'read;' a selected card, this was again to build on the idea of working together and of psychological effects. I then pulled out the invisible deck. I did my normal "thick of a card, oh here it is upside down I've been making you think of it". As you may have gathered from my tone I now belive this was a mistake. It would have been better to say "I've been thinking of a card, I'm sure YOU can divine it, subconsciously, clear your mind then look at me, your mind will remember us talking all evening it will pick up on what card was on my mind." That would have enforced the gestalt ideas much better than the line I'd used. I used to use the second line all the time as I said I didn't like magicians showing they were smarter then the participant, I liked the participant realising they were smarter than they thought they were. Somewhere on my magical journey I'd gotten lazy, or even maybe a little bit of a show off. This is why it is so important to review yourself, to perform in the wild and take note of what can be better. As it happened the young lady was still impressed, even though I miscounted and as a result pulled out the same suit but off by two cards. I didn't realise the missed opportunity to incite a little more wonder until the next day. I am reminded of Derren brown's Absolute Magic.In this amazing work on the presentation of magic he talks about how being a God like figure who can just make miracles occur can alienate you from your audience, making you devoid of meaning and substance. however, becoming the hero like figure taking the audience on a journey through a magical world helps the audience connect with your trick. This series of tricks were chosen to try and build to a strong finish by building on the ideas of the trick the came before. However I should also have been taking the participants further down the magic rabbit hole, showing them the world I choose to inhabit from time to time. Much like I locationally do when I take a friend to London, we may go to places they've been many times before, but I try to let them see the city anew, through my eyes, and to feel like they are not just in a crowded over priced metropolis, but the strange ethereal world that I see when I visit the great city.

I finished on Out Of This World. At least here I managed to put into practise some higher thought. A quick overhand shuffle gave the impression of the cards being well mixed (taken from Derren Brown's Devil's Picture book). they did not know what was to follow so the impression was strong enough for them. I talked of Masqline trying to use magic at war (this part was true). I then bastardised history but saying HE showed Churchill this DEMONSTRATION of learning to trust instinct after the mind has been properly prepared to work on a different level (the level we magicians inhabit). The trick WAS performed for Churchill, but by an American Magician named Paul Curry. I then let them take it in turns saying if they believe a card to be red or black. A new touch here was to ask the lady to chose twice now and then, and to leave her boyfriend to miss a turn once in a while. this took this as either a sign of her having greater powers of perception or because I'd stacked the deck and could tell what each person was going to say next, and knew that he would say something wrong. They were completely blown away and It felt good to have touched them so deeply. But now, through performing this series of tricks I can make it even more powerful next time.

A final note, I was asked to repeat a trick shown a few months before. I know that's meant to be a bad idea but it was Out Of This World and the chap who requested id had spent months thinking of the trick. He decided the lady I performed it with was a confederate. Again I performed it with the new added convincer of a shuffle. He left dumbfounded declaring me a witch. I've been doing Wee Wee Mentalist a lot latly, and it felt good to conect with my preferred style of magic. Maybe that's the final lesson of the weekend, a holiday from some effects is really good to help you fall back in love with them.