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February 18th, 2007 Issue# 65 Rick Carruth / editor (C) 2007 All rights reserved worldwide Street Magic's #1 free newsletter for magicians, street performers, restaurant workers, close-up artists, and mentalists, with subscribers in over seventy countries worldwide. Learn free magic tricks online and via video. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Hello All..
First, a sincere 'Welcome' to all the new subscribers who have joined our mailing list in the past two weeks. I hope you find something truly useful in each issue of the Roadshow. Don't forget to download your copy of 'Expert at the Card Table', using the link near the end of this issue. I think I've put together a pretty good issue this week. Of course.. I'm biased. Let me know what YOU think.. EMAIL ME I want to thank all of you who emailed me after the last issue. You thought's and contributions are very important to the direction of the Magic Roadshow. I'm not happy if you aren't happy.. The next issue will probably be a couple of days late, or early, depending on how fast I work. March the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd I'll be at the Winter Carnival of Magic in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge Tennessee, and it may throw a slight monkey wrench in my schedule. At any rate, look for it either on the 1st or the 5th. ------------- In This Issue ------------- (01) CHAMELEON - Card Effect (02) Expert Village - Magic Effects on Video (03) A Bunch of Stuff - Video Secrets and Legal Hacks (04) Faro Shuffle - Video Instructions (05) Classic Magic on YouTube - Magic's Top Performers (06) The Amazing Joe Joe - Blog and DVD (07) Master the Rubik Cube - PDF Download (08) How to Levitate - Video instructions (09) The 5 Steps to Creating Tricks to Sell - Carson Kahn (10) Hypnotism in Poker - 3 Part Article (11) Expert at the Card Table - Download _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ CHAMELEON - Magic Effect It's nice to have your own, personal magic guru. I have one, and her name is Carolyn. Most people know her as my wife, but few know that she does double duty as both my life partner and my 'backboard'. For those of you who don't know what a backboard is - in the tennis world it's a solid wall you relentlessly hit balls against - and the backboard (wall) constantly bounces them back to you. In other words, you can't get anything passed it, and that pretty well describes my wife.. Penn and Teller.. they frequently expose a magic trick to make yet another magic trick work. True, most of what they expose could easily be gleaned from library books, but there's just a little 'something' about exposure that makes the audience feel as if they're being allowed to 'look inside' the magician's mind. This effect utilizes that principle, and should be added to your repertoire only IF you're comfortable with the idea of a minor exposure. Thursday, January 11th, started like any other day in paradise. My feet hit the floor about 11:45 AM. I'd been up till 5 AM working on business reports, then a couple of hours working on the Magic Roadshow. After a quick lunch, I took to the road to pick up a few medical specimens, put them on dry ice, and mail them to sunny Minnesota. I went to an adjoining county to visit with the personnel at one of the pharmacies I service. Four delivery contractors met me there at 5:30 PM and we discussed typical problems, not actually solving anything, but venting our problems and earning a little sympathy from one another. I was back home by seven, having stopped at my favorite barbeque joint and picked up two plates of barbecue and chicken. Carolyn and I ate, very well I might add, and settled in for the evening. An hour or so later Carolyn remarked that I seemed a little 'on edge', and I bristled at the thought that I could be read so easily. Still.. I WAS paceing the floor, like an athlete trying to psyche himself before a big game.. Sometimes I go a couple of weeks between showing her one of my effects. As I said, I can't get anything pass Carolyn. I NEVER show her an effect until I'm confident I can withstand the gut-wretching experience of being 'exposed'. No, it's not the same as being publicly exposed, but it hurts non-the-less, and the pain doesn't help my fragile ego. Imagine a chameleon, sitting on a tree branch, confident in his surrounding and his natural ability to hide himself from his prey. Imagine the chameleon, turning to move from one limb to another, and realizing that he's sharing the limb with a hawk. The hawk's not fooled. The hawk see's the movement and quickly recognizes the chameleon for what it is... Lunch... That's me... I picked up my current working deck, a pack of Bee's World Poker Tour, from the coffee table and sat next to Carolyn on the sofa. She knew what was coming, and with a slightly annoyed look, she put down her hand-held Tetris. Just for the record, she's cleared over six hundred lines, which I think is some kind of record. I looked through the deck and removed five cards: a six of spades, three of clubs, ace of hearts, three of diamonds, and eight of diamonds. I wasn't 'locked in' to these five cards, but these five have worked well for me in practice. I mixed them a little and spread them face-up into a fan so she could see the faces. Asked to mentally pick one of the five, Carolyn said she had, and I asked her which one she'd picked. She grudgefully admitted she'd picked the ace of hearts... I removed the ace and handed it to her, asking her to 'check it out' and make sure it was a perfectly normal card. As she was looking at the card I got a little opening between the second and third cards so when I was handed the ace back, I could effortlessly slide it into the number three position, in the exact center of the small packet. Still holding the packet in my left hand, I turned the packet over with my right hand to a face-down position. " Watch as I magically remove the ace of hearts from the pack.." as I performed a little make-believe move and pretended to take a card from the top of the pack. I 'showed' her the imaginary ace, and then pretended to put it in one of my pockets for safe keeping. With the packet still face down in the left hand, I reached over with my right thumb and middle finger and grasp the top card by the LEFT top and bottom corner and turned the top card over with much the same motion as opening the back cover of a book. I moved the card off the stack, still holding it between the thumb and middle finger, and showed it to Carolyn. "As you can see, this is NOT your card.." and I layed it face-up on the coffee table. She agreed and the effect continued.. I took the second card and turned it over with the same motion used to turn the first card, and commented on it not being her card either. It was also layed on the coffee table, face-up on top of the first card. I then took both the third and fourth cards and turned them as one, showing them to my nemesis and laying them on top of the other two. So far, so good. She didn't notice the double lift or her ace under the bottom of the card she just saw. Lastly, I flipped the last card in my hand for her to confirm that it wasn't hers, and I used that card to slide UNDER the stack on the table and flip all the cards over.. face-down. The last card she saw is now the top card on the face down packet. "OK.. where's the ace?" she murmurred. "It's in my pocket, sweetie.." I picked up the face-down packet and put it back into the left hand.. Now was the perfect opportunity for me to use my favorite David Blaine phrase.. "Waaatch.." I flipped the top card again, just as I had done before, except this time I let the card slide back onto the top of the packet. Carolyn was looking at four face down cards with a face up card on top of the packet. "Again, this is not your ace, correct..?" to which she agreed. I removed the card from the top of the packet and dropped it onto the coffee table. I performed the same move again with the second card and Carolyn again agreed that it was not her card. I lifted the third card and flipped it over onto the top of the packet. " Not your card, right? " " No, it's not my card.." I pointed to the pocket supposedly containing the ace and reminded her once again that it couldn't possibly be her card, as we both knew her card was in my pocket. In that instant, as she involuntarily cut her eyes toward the pocket, I used my thumb to slightly pull down on the bottom card so I could lift the top card, and the card under it, as one, and drop it onto the other two on the coffee table. Because the card under the third card is the face-down ace, I need cards with a white border, just in case these two card separate as I lay them down. I don't want to give away that I'm lifting a face-up and a face-down card simultaneously. I flipped the last card in my hand, showing her that it wasn't hers, and put it face-up on top of the other four. Checking for a reaction, I saw a very foreign look; one that seemed a little bemused and restrained, but still slightly curious.. " So, where's the ace really? " " It's right here..", as I reached into my shirt/pants pocket and removed the ace of hearts. Although it may have appeared to a stranger that I was on the cusp of achieving the holy grail of my measly card career, what I was about to reveal next would probably confound even a neophyte.. " Sweetie.. You know I can't keep a secret from you - the ace was in my pocket before I began the trick." I could see her take a deep breath and then exhale a relieving sigh as I layed the ace down on the coffee table, face-up and to the left of the original pack. "What would you have done if I had picked another card..? " " Well, if you had picked the three of clubs, I had it right here.." as I took the three from my shirt/pants pocket and put it, face-up, into the left hand. What Carolyn didn't see was.. as I reached with my right hand to take the three from my pocket, I plucked a small piece of double-stick tape from my belt with my left hand, a piece that had been very secretly, and very loosely, placed there before the effect began. With the three now in my left hand, I reached for another card in another pocket with the right hand. Sweetie was watching my right hand pull cards from my pockets, and didn't notice as I took the small piece of tape, stuck to my left index finger, and stuck it to the back of the three. " And if you had picked the six, I had it right here in my other pants pocket, and the eight was right here in my other shirt pocket, and the other three was here in my back pocket..". As I removed these cards from the pockets, I dropped each one into the left hand on top of the three of clubs with the tape on it's back. Then all four cards were dropped on top of the ace already on the table. I could see a slight knowing smile cross her lips. All was well on the homefront once again.. I reached down and gently picked up the five cards taken from my pockets. After squareing the five cards thoroughly, I gave the center of the cards a little squeeze to secure the three of clubs to the face of the ace and turned the packet face down. " Oh, one more little bit of magic..". I shook the small packet back and forth a couple of times with my left hand. I paused, then removed the top card with my right hand, turned it over for Carolyn to see, and dropped it face up onto the table. I repeated this with the second card, then the third card, and finally.. the fourth, and last, card... Her slight knowing smile was gone.. So was the Ace of Hearts.. I reached for the original packet of cards, still laying face-up on the coffee table, and with my index finger, pushed the cards apart. You could clearly see four face-up cards and one face-down card in the center of the pack. " Flip it over, sweetheart.." Carolyn reached for the face-down card, pulled it from the packet, and dropped it face-up onto the table. It was the Ace of Hearts. Somewhere in the wild, a chameleon sharing a limb with a hawk was spared as a sudden gust of wind from the north shook the limb the two were on and forced the hawk to spread her wings to maintain her balance. Tucking them back against her sides, ladyhawk was disappointed to see that the chameleon was gone. Had he changed colors and blended with the leaves, or had he fell from his perch? It didn't matter. For on THIS day at least, the chameleon would not be anyone's Lunch... ---------------- All that's required is five cards, generally three red and two black, a small piece of double-stick tape, and five duplicate cards to match the five picked from the deck. Aside from a couple of double lifts, this effect is basically self-working. Take the five duplicates and put one in each pocket. All that's necessary is that you remember which pocket contains which card. Loosely stick the double-stick tape on your belt, and you're set... Pretend to put the chosen card in the pocket that actually contains a duplicate of that card. You could create a quick, abbreviated version of this effect by pretending to put the selected card in a pocket, showing the selected card as vanished as described above, and producing the selection from the pocket. Then, put the 'selection' back in the pocket, patter, patter, patter, announce that you are going to make the selected card reappear in the packet on the table, and then spread the cards to show the selection back in the packet. Of course, the ace is upside down in the original packet from the moment you do the last double pick-up. And the ace disappears from the second packet the moment you apply pressure and stick it to the back of the second card out of your pockets. If you will set up the cards as suggested and then simply read the story and perform the tasks as you read, it will work beautifully for you, as it does for me.. You can easily master this effect in an hour or two, and have an effect that looks and plays like a minor miracle.. - Rick Carruth ___________________________________ Expert Village - Magic Effects on Video Expert Village advertises itself as the World's Largest How-To Web Site. Edited by Dave Foydel, the magic category of Expert Village currently features fourteen video's, covering a variety of different tricks. Rather than offer my descriptions, I'll paraphrase from the site.. "In this free video series you'll learn a variety of magic tricks and illusions from a professional magician. Coin and card tricks of varying degrees of difficulty will be demonstrated and explained on video.. Learn coin folding tricks, penetration illusions, reproduction illusions such as the "multiplying money" trick, and much more. The rules of magic are also included and explained." Dave has created all the following video's and posted them to the site..... Four Aces Illusion : Eight Card Brain Wave Illusion : Automatic Card Discovery Illusion : The Coin Fold Illusion : Escape From Ropes Illusion : Finger Palm Vanishing Illusion : The French Drop Illusion : The Jumping Rubber Band Illusion : Multiplying Money Illusion : The Penetrating Pinky Illusion : The Red & Black Trick : The Rubber Band Up the Nose Illusion : The Threading the Needle Illusion : The Rules of Magic : Illusions & Other Tricks for Beginners http://www.301url.com/expertvillage _____________________________ Don't EVER settle for second Best... Don't EVER settle for being an 'OK' Magician... Mark Twain in a serious moment said: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." Every year you're a year older, and another year removed from your dreams. Don't give up on magic one day and go the rest of your life wondering what "could have been.." if only you had your own personal magic guru.. http://www.301url.com/streetmagic ____________________________ A Bunch of Stuff.... Video's - Know how to balance one coin on top of another? - Build a mini air horn for the price of a balloon? - Win a Bar Bet? - Convert a one-time use camcorder or camera to multi-use? - Trace any email, and then bring it up on a map? Or any of dozens of other unusual task, legal hacks, and oddities.. Be sure to click the Archive link at the bottom of the page to access many other video's, including some of the above.. http://www.kipkay.com/ ____________ Faro Shuffle I am a diehard fan of the faro shuffle. I personally use a slight variation of the faro 95% of the time. Unlike the riffle shuffle, you can perform the faro without a surface. It's the perfect anywhere, anytime shuffle.. Although not the easiest of shuffles, once you get the 'knack' the cards will seemingly glide together. Show other magician's you're dead serious about YOUR magic, and learn this classic shuffle.. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, I'll make a video of my faro and share it with you, along with a few additional instructions. Watch this video, practice, and let me know how it goes.. http://www.d-videos.com/video/31603 _____________________________ Classic Performances - video My friend, Michael Martinez, researched great magic performances and came up with the following classic performances by several of magic's superstars... We've interviewed Michael Finney ( Issue# 23 ), hung out with Jeff McBride ( http://www.streetmagic.info/contactInfo.html ), watched tapes and DVD's of The Amazing Johnathan's kiltered performances. And, like Michael, long been inspired by the magic of Renee Lavand, the greatest one-armed magician of all time, and Jean-Pierre Vallarino's wonderful card magic. One of the really great things about sites like Google's YouTube is their ability to share magic and performances with anyone, anywhere in the world, without the need to download anything.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGpv7Kum2vc Michael Finney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlW3WcW0W6M Renee Lavand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNJtvAc_KAs The Amazing Johnathan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aFZWsbzzmg Jeff McBride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4zWFspuyj8 Jean-Pierre Vallarino ____________________________________ The Amazing Joe Joe - Blog and DVD JoeJoe is a 'true' street magic professional... one of those guys who actually makes a living performing on the streets. It's not a wish, or a sideline.. it's his vocation. Having traveled well over twenty thousands miles, literally from coast to coast, performing in towns and cities all along the way, JoeJoe is the consummate pro who works day in and day out, rain or shine. I'd never call JoeJoe a 'DeadHead', but he has performed at over one hundred Grateful Dead concerts through the years. I first met JoeJoe several years ago while he was working at one of the magic shops in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Since, I've met him at the SCAM convention in Columbia S.C., and again at the Barefoot Landing shopping complex in Myrtle Beach, a location he calls 'home'. Barefoot Landing is a wonderful complex of shops and restaurants literally built on a boardwalk type structure over a costal marsh. Made to resemble an old fashoned fishing village, thousands and thousand of visitors flock there daily for the combination of shopping, dining, and entertainment.. ( Dick's Last Resort, Crab House, Damon's, House of Blues.. among others) For the last four years JoeJoe has had his own 'spot' at Barefoot Landing and entertained visitors from around the country. Monday thru Friday at seven and eleven, JoeJoe performs a unique form of street magic that includes illusions, something that's VERY difficult to pull off up close. He has his own blog, which is one of the few magic blogs I read regularly, detailing the daily struggles and victories of performing both FOR the public and IN the public. JoeJoe has numerous photos and videos on his site to give you an idea of what street magic is all about.. JoeJoe recently completed a DVD, 'REALITY', which shows him hard at work, attracting a crowd and entertaining them with his highly personal style of street magic. I have my own copy of REALITY, and I treasure the blood, sweat, and tears that I know JoeJoe put into it, just to give readers like YOU a look at the real world of street performers.. Do yourself a favor and check out both JoeJoe's blog and DVD. http://www.joejoeonline.com/blogger http://www.301url.com/joejoedvd ____________________________ Master the Rubik Cube - PDF Download The 'lil cube's making a comeback! Will Smith plugged Rubik's Cube in his latest movie, 'In Pursuit of Happyness', and I've seen several popular magicians, including Keith Barry, utilize a Rubik Cube in a magic effect. New cubes have four, five, and even six lines, but it's the classic three-liner that still earns our interest. I've always felt that a performer, particularly mental magicians and mentalists, could benefit from being able to solve a cube in a minute or less. After all, the classic 'magic square', featured in the last issue, has been a part of many demonstrations intended on impressing the audience with the performers great 'mental abilities'. Jasmine Lee has created a nice PDF file with one method for solving the cube in about a minute. Heck, if it can teach me to solve it in two or three minutes I'd be REALLY impressed. I've not had the opportunity to check out this method, as I can't seem to find a good cube at the moment. I've checked eBay, but ten dollars shipping?.. I don't think so.. (editors note: I just picked one up at Toys-R-Us ) Anyway, this link will take you to another of my sites, where you can download the PDF. Simply right-click and then 'save-as' to your desktop. While there, take a look at Toby Mao of the USA, sitting the world record of just over ten seconds a few months ago... Wow. http://www.streetmagicsecrets.info/rubikscube.htm If you don't want to download and print the file, about seven pages, you can view the file as a web site at: http://www.301url.com/rubikcube __________________________________ How to Levitate - Video instructions There are many different levitations on the market - some are practical, some are not. This levitation is definitely one of the more 'do-able' effects out there. Although cover is required, you do not need any props or alterations to affect the levitation. Is this one perfect? No. I've yet to see one that is. Even the classic video of Criss Angel's levitation, as impressive as it looks on video, has serious flaws in real life. It is SO angle sensitive that it can only be performed for a very small group of folks, standing in a very small viewing area. This one can be performed easily with audience members standing anywhere in a ten-o-clock to two-o-clock range. You can actually let the audience examine you and your shoes after the performance as there's nothing to find.. If you're into levitations, and want to master an effect that will truly surprise a lot of folks, this one's for you.. http://www.301url.com/levitate ___________________________________________________ The 5 Steps to Creating Tricks to Sell - Carson Kahn 1. Think of your purpose (what are you trying to achieve? [i.e. vanish of coin,transposition of card, etc.]) 2. Create idea for and formulate method (how could your purpose be accomplished?) a. Think of other tricks like yours on the market, if you know how they work. b. Watch videos on YouTube.com or MetaCafe.com to see how other people present and/or do tricks like yours. c. Use your brain! We know you’re smart (or else you wouldn't be a magician)! d. Once you think you've come up with one, test your method. Chances are it won’t be perfect, so: 3. Test and retest method (build gimmick or transcribe trick, and then follow your own instructions). a. Speculate whether or not the average Joe could do your trick, that is, that you aren't the best card magician in your country and your skill level is required to do the trick. b. Make your method as simple but fooling as possible. Keep in mind-sometimes you will have to compromise one of the two. Who are your buyers? If they will be beginners, making a coin appear with a gimmick,but not as convincing to adults might be the way to go! If your costumers are professional magicians, or at least adults, you might consider compromising simplicity to cater to amazement! 4. Create a detailed manuscript and/or instructional video (and, if applicable,find a way to mass-produce, or at least produce on demand, your gimmick) 5. Once it is all figured out, contact some magic dealers! a. Good USA shops include PenguinMagic.com, MagicProShop.com, Ellusionist.com, MagicDreamLandMagic.com, and MagicTricks.com, among many others! b. Good UK shops include eMagicTricks.co.uk, MagicWorld.co.uk, TopSecretMagic.co.uk, and WorldMagicShop.co.uk, among others. c. Do not forget to call local non-web-based magic shops. Chances are, there's one in the nearest capital city. d. Price your trick: Remember - reasonability is the key. Don't price a coin-bend-that-works-by-a-little-metal-lever-that-shoots-up-your-sleeve $200, and don't price a self-levitation-with-no-ropes,-magnets,-or-visible-support-that’s-nearly-impromptu-and-can-carry-you-20-feet-into-the-air for $5! Your want to make a good profit, but you don’t want to earn bad reviews or enemies… More Tips… • Not all tricks have to have/come with gimmicks-your trick could be something that a customer makes on their own at home, or an instant download explaining an impromptu trick. • Price things reasonable. • Don't let your dealers rip you off. It'd be best, actually, for all of us: you--me-Rick Carruth-if you made your own shop! Setting up a website and creating your own shop is easy, just buy an "eCommerce" template! • Simplicity is the key… • No, amazement is the key… No, you're both wrong, your trick needs both… Please do invent tricks! Its good for all of us: You make money, us and others have more tricks to perform, magic retailers have something to sell, Rick has stuff to write about…It’s a win/win/big-win situation! • Contact CarsonKahn@gmail.com for more details and tips on how to create tricks. Feel free to distribute the PDF version to your friends and family and colleagues! All that's required is that you distribute it exactly as it's printed, without changing the text.. http://www.streetmagicsecrets.info/CreatingTricks.pdf Get more free magic at two of Carson's other sites: http://www.2ndNatureMagic.co.nr http://www.LaMagieCabaret.tk ___________________ Hypnotism in Poker Do you think you could play better poker if you were hypnotised and then subconsciously convinced you could play better? Barry Carter decided to have himself hypnotised to see if it would have an effect on his ability to play poker. He wrote a three part article for PokerNews, and revealed the 'results' of his self-administered test. Can you be a better magician, or better mentalist if you perform 'under the influence'? Read Barry's thoughts and see what you think.. http://www.301url.com/hypnotism1 http://www.301ur.com/hypnotism2 http://www.301url.com/hypnotism3 _____________________________________________ Erdnases' Expert at the Card Table - Download If you're a new subscriber, you can download your free version of Erdnases' classic ebook at this link.. http://www.301url.com/erdnase If you have a problem, let me know and I will send you the ebook as an attachment.. _____________ That's a wrap on another issue of the Magic Roadshow. Hey, I COULD give you a few more resources, but then you guys/gals would get SO spoiled... I wrote awhile back that I was going to cut down on the number of resources to make life a little easier on my end.. and yet, once I get going, it's hard to stop. I keep working, and writing, and researching.. thinking that I really need to give everyone their moneys worth, and then it occurs to me that all this is FREE.. Go figure.. If you enjoy the video's, I've posted a couple of different one's on the blog at.. http://www.streetmagic.info/blogger.html ____________ Interested in what Wikipedia has to say about the Magic Roadshow? http://www.301url.com/wikipedia-1 ____________ Questions, comments, rants or raves... EMAIL ME ____________ To watch high quality sample video's from our favorite teaching web site CardTricks1.. http://www.301url.com/cardsleights ____________ Remember to visit some of my other sites at: http://www.StreetMagic.info http://www.MagicRoadshow.com http://www.Mentalists.info http://www.StreetMagicSecrets.info http://www.StreetMagic.info/blogger.html http://www.MadMarketing101.com http://www.301url.com/ezymagic2 _____________ May my next issue find you well .. Rick Carruth / editor ============================= |
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