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Best of Magic Roadshow # 4 July 29th, 2007 Issue# 75 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
Welcome to Best of Magic Roadshow #4. It's been awhile since I published a 'best of' issue, and I thought it was about time.. The resources in this issue were resurrected from issues 40 through 56. Look for a second issue, containing some of my favorite resources from issues 57 through 74 in about a week. Although these are not necessarily the 'very best' of these issues, I have not included articles and only one effect, I do think these are some of the best of the many resources. If you are a new subscriber and this is your first issue of the Magic Roadshow, then I want to take a moment and welcome you to the Roadshow. I hope you find something in every issue to improve your magic.. If you have any comments, rants, raves, or requests... EMAIL ME Well, the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy for me. I have so many irons in the fire that it's hard to keep up with all the demands. I feel like one of those guys who puts plates on top of those little poles, spins them, and then runs around and around trying to keep all the plates spinning. I actually have the next 'regular' issue almost complete, but really wanted to get the Best Of issues published before any more time passed. Sometimes, the assembly of an issue is the easy part. It's the writing of an issue, taking all the resources and giving them their descriptions, that is time consuming. Not to mention taking each issue and converting it into it's own web page. Then, there's the 'research' stage, where I try to make sure I'm not publishing anything that's copyrighted. Let's face it.. there's video's on YouTube that discloses material that's not their's to publish. I try to make sure the Roadshow doesn't get tossed in that garbage bin.. Enough for now.. On with the Roadshow.. -------------------------------- Best Of Magic Roadshow #4 -------------------------------- - David Forrest's Holey Ambition - Free PDF file - Three Card Monte Tutorial - Classic Magic - TikiMagic - Free Magic Videos - How to Make and Sell a Magic eBook - Save Yourself a Ton - The Magical Mayhem of Mike Giusti - Professional Card Effects - Brainwave for Dummies - Simple, but Strong, Card Magic - How to Construct a Forcing Matrix - Force a Number with Flair - Buskers Central - Ton's of info for Street Magic workers - SpamGourmet - great non-magic utility - Memories are Made of This - Simon Aronson's Stack - David Blaine Secrets - Revisited one last time.. - Card Tricks Now - Many of Card Magic's essential sleights - La Magie Cabaret - Floating Note and Folding Note video's - Submit YOUR Magic - Our New Web Form for Readers - Erdnase Expert at the Card Table - Free download _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Holey Ambition David Forrest. Effect: A signed card continually rises to the top of the deck. For a finale, the card is left outjogged in a small packet and the rest of the deck is placed inside the card case. The case is placed on top of the small packet and the performer draws attention to a hole cut in the front of the case. With a snap of the fingers the signed card appears on top of the deck, everyon*e gets to see it arrive through the hole in the case! A very visual final phase for any ambitious card routine! The zip file includes two detailed PDF's with instruction on how to make the simple gimmicks and teaches the required handling. David gives this valuable info away to draw attention to his other magic available through 'Full52 Productions'. Visit the url below to both download the magic and watch a video performance of 'Holey Ambition..' (Thanks to Carson Kahn for the file) http://www.streetmagicsecrets.info/Holey.zip ================ Three Card Monte Tutorial Issue 36 featured a great free online tutorial of the three card monte, complete with pictures. Very few moves impress an audience more than the monte. Everyone likes to pick the correct card, and cannot understand how you can be so skilled as to fool them every time. The three card monte always has been, and always will be, the sign of a true card sharp. Master this technique and impress anyone.. http://www.goodtricks.net/three-card-monte.html ================ TikiMagic - Free Magic Videos Here's four really nice video's detailing four different card tricks you can watch without downloading anything. You will need a utility like the free Windows Movie Player to view the videos. (link provided).. Where Dit Go, Mind Merge, Don't Do It, and Conscientious Objector are each nice effects that don't require conplicated sleights. Watch the performances by clicking on the images, then, learn the secret by clicking the links to the right of the images.. If you folks are anything like me, you watch an effect, tell yourself you're going to learn it... and then you either forget about it or forget where you saw it. I usually bookmark sites with useful info. Unfortunately, I have hundreds of sites bookmarked. Even when I bookmark a site I have tons of trouble finding it again. A little bit of inside info... if you check the nav bar to the left on the StreetMagic.info homepage you'll see a link titled 'Search Site'. Clicking this link and entering a keyword, like 'tikimagic', will bring forth every reference to that keyword from both the Magic Roadshow and our blog, Magic Bullets.. http://www.tikimagic.com/free.html ======================= How to Make and Sell a Magic E-book Making and selling magic ebooks is a big-time proposition at the moment. Every magician of note has something to sell, whether it be a lecture, effect, or series of effects. Believe me, there's absolutely nothing wrong with converting some of your hard-earned knowledge into stone-cold cash... The problem with most of us is that we're not sitting on top of the self-publishing bubble. Good, reliable information about publishing your own pdf files, without someone trying to sell you into a half dozen affiliate programs, is hard to come by. While skimming through the Cafe a few days ago I discovered that one of our forum friends, Ron Jaxon, who many of you know as MagicJax, had put together a tutorial devoted strictly to putting together your own ebook, for a minimum of cash, called " A short tutorial on the basics of creating and selling a PDF E-book" How convenient. Just when I was debating spending a few more of my limited brain cells putting this info together for you guys/gals, I discovered Ron had beat me to the punch. Thank goodness... ---------------- "So you have a trick or routine and you want to sell it on line as an instant download. How can you do this without spending hundreds of dollars? To be honest it would be very difficult to make a "good" E-book without spending a little money. If you want a quality product you'll want to invest a little into it. But this doesn't mean you can't do it with a low budget. That's what I had to do when I released my first E-book. So I decided to put together this little tutorial to share how to make a good E-book for very little money. I hope someone finds this helpful. What you'll need to make your E-book In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make an E-book for next to nothing. Actually you can make one absolutely free but to make a good one you'll need the following..." ---------------- Read Ron's tutorial at: http://www.magicjax.com/createpdf/ ===================== The Magical Mayhem of Mike Giusti Mike Giusti is not only an outstanding magician and funnyman supreme, but he has put together a website complete with over twenty select magic effects from some of the top names in magic. Mike has set up a web page to provide easy access to the tricks, but, you must answer the prompt correctly to gain entry. The questions not hard. Hey, I got in, didn't I? I enjoy Mike's selection of magic because most of the effects are.. I'm not going to call them difficult.. let's say 'sophisticated' card magic, or as some writers would say.. 'commercial effects'. And 'commercial effects generally cost money... right? 'Whatever it Takes' by Diamond Jim Tyler, Steve Beam's 'Killocation', 'Coin Wrap' by Aldo Columbini, and 'The Un-cut Rope' by Dan Garrett, are just a few of the effects highlighted on Mikes site... These effects are not for beginners. If you have a good, general working knowledge of card sleights and magic in general you will find yourself surrounded by a regular smorgasbord of some of the favorite effects of some of the top names in magic... Go to MagicalMayhem's homepage and then click the 'Magicians' link.. Thanks Mike.. http://www.magicalmayhem.com ======================= Brainwave for Dummies Can you pick up a deck of cards and perform a good magicians force? Good. I'm not going into how to perform it here, although you can go to: http://www.streetmagic.info/MagiciansChoice.html and read all about it.. This is a little effect I developed some while back. I do not have a clue as to whether or not it's an original effect. It's original to me, and I have not seen anyone else perform it. So.. if you developed this effect before 2002, my apologies.. I call this " Brainwave for Dummies " because it produces the same general effect as Brainwave without using a gaffed deck, and is virtually fool-proof if you follow the directions. Don't assume because it's 'almost' self-working that it's not a strong effect, because it is.. At the conclusion, the spectator is convinced that you could not have used sleight of hand, since all the choices were theirs... All you need to perform this effect is a deck of cards, one card with a different colored back, and a piece of paper and pencil. Oh, and the ability to perform a good magicians choice. If you have these tools, you're ready. Take the odd-backed card and replace the mate to it in the deck beforehand. Begin by taking the deck from the pack, FACE UP, and casually performing a few overhand shuffles. Ask the spectator if they would like to cut the deck a couple of times as you lay the deck on the table face up. Announce that you are about to make a startling prediction, using the powers you inherited from your grandmother-the-gypsy. Pick up the piece of paper, write on it, fold it up and lay it to one side. Begin to perform a magicians force by dividing the deck into four stacks. Again, everything is performed FACE UP, and the backs of the cards are kept from view. As you casually flip through the cards, look for the odd-backed card ( after all, you know the value and suit ) and keep track of which stack it's in. Don't be in a hurry to eliminate cards. Take your time and work your way down to the last few cards. When you're down to the last two cards, ask the spectator to gently place one finger on one card. As soon as you see where their headed, announce that you will discard/keep that card and that it was entirely their choice. If they put their finger on the 'correct' card, push the other card out of the way, but not out of play. If they put their finger on the other card, casually push that card to one side and pull the 'correct' card into the center of focus.. It's now time to reveal your prediction. Have the spectator reach for your prediction, open it, and read it aloud. " I'm sorry, but I don't have a clue what card you chose.. I do know, using my great skill, that your card has a blue back..". Take the card, and for the first time, show the audience that the card does, in fact, have a blue (or red) back. Announce that you were able to successfully predict this, despite the fact that you could not see the backs of the cards. The audience will think you're rather dull... "Of course, predicting that this card has a blue back is not really special. After all, they all have blue backs.... or do they? Pick up the other card and flip it over to show that it has a red back. Now, pick up the deck and turn over several other cards to show that they too have red backs. Pick up the pace as you rapidly turn over all the cards to show nothing but red backed cards. Turn to your spectator and graciously thank them for picking out the ONLY blue backed card in the deck... Of course, it helps to have entertainment value added to this, or any other effect. With humor and good timing, you can create a very nice, very puzzling effect. R.Carruth ====================== How to Construct a Forcing Matrix Many thanks to Doug Dyment for taking the time to put together a completely thorough web site detailing the construction of a forcing matrix. Just in case you don't know what a forcing matrix is.. it's a square of numbers, maybe five across and five down, that can be used to force a particular number on an unsuspecting spectator. As I've mentioned in past issues, there's a fine line amongst mathematical magic in my opinion. Some effects appear to be 'tricky' in that the spectator knows that a mathematical formula of some sort was used - they simply don't know it. And then there's the mathematical effects that actually play as if they are magically possessed. The spectator is left to assume your are either a wizard or a genius. I like the former. Doug teaches how to construct your own matrix to force any number that you need, or want, to force. What seems like it would take a mathematical genius to figure out is really quite simple -if- you know the secret. A forcing matrix is a very handy device for mentalists or someone performing a bit of mental magic. You can use it to force a particular card in a deck or a certain word on a given page. If you think about it, you could easily use two matrix squares to force two different numbers.. one a page number and another a word number. " To try it out, circle any number, and then cross out the remaining numbers in the same row (horizontally) and column (vertically). Then circle another number (one not already eliminated), and again strike out the numbers above, below, to the left, and to the right of same. Repeat until all numbers are either circled (there will eventually be five) or crossed out. Add the chosen (circled) numbers together. Now concentrate... I sense that the total will be... wait a second... fifty-seven!".. http://www.deceptionary.com/aboutmatrices.html ==================== Mindreading Exposed.. How can YOU look into someones eyes and reveal their PIN number? Click to Discover ====================== Buskers Central While we're talking about street magic, one of my favorite reference sites is Buskers Central. Not strictly for street magic performers, Buskers Central is devoted to helping anyone who works the streets, ( well, maybe not 'everyone' who works the streets..) whether they be magicians, baloon artists, musicians, or a long list of other performers. To quote from their web site... "Busker Central is one of the web's largest busker reference sites and a non-profit co-operative promoting busking around the globe. Made by and for street performers, the Busker Central photo gallery displays a large amount of images with hundreds of pictures. The Busker Central video gallery hosts over 100 street performer videos freely available to download for your viewing pleasure. Street performers new and old can benefit from the worldwide busker videos, photos, songs, comics, and community." In addition to the videos, there are dozens of links to different performing genre's, such as.. Gypsy, magicians, mimes, fortune tellers, buskers, contorts, clowns, musicians and on and on... You can spend lots of time exploring the corners of Buskers Central. Look for a link to the calendar of events with many of the very best busking events worldwide.. http://www.buskercentral.com ======================= SpamGourmet - free disposable email addresses Although they're not magic, I periodically run across web utilities that I feel are worth sharing with Roadshow readers.. SpamGourmet is a great example.. Hate to give your email address out for fear of getting spam? (like you aren't going to get spam anyway). I have a nearly perfect solution, it's called SpamGourmet. All you have to do to utilize it is sign up. It's really that simple. How does it work? You give them your email address and it becomes your 'protected address'. Now, when filling out an email form you use a user name you create that's associated with your email. Mine is 'carruth00'. If I fill out a form and use the name carruth00(at)spamgourmet.com, it will forward to my normal email address - but only ONCE. This is perfect when you want to sign up for that 'free report', but don't want to get an unending series of follow-up emails. You have the option of extending your email address to allow an exact number of emails to be forwarded to you, THEN they will stop. For example, I can use the email address freereport.5.carruth00(at)spamgourmet.com and I have an identifier at the front of my address, "free report", then .5. , which will allow me to receive five emails total from them. After that, anything they send will be bounce. This is a great little tool to help control what gets to your inbox - and what doesn't ... Go to their site and read their description.. it's much better than mine... http://www.spamgourmet.com/ ====================== Memories are Made of This Simon Aronson Here's a nice pdf, published by Simon, detailing his method of memorizing a deck of cards. Without going into the specifics, I will tell you that it is extremely do-able for the average magician. Despite the fact that many magicians protest memorizing a deck as being time consuming or too difficult, doing so can open a world of card magic, performing a variety of card tricks, unattainable via any other method. As the ebook is Simon's property, I'm not going to actually 'give' it to you, but instead point you to his web site where you can download the pdf file in his magicians section.. http://www.simonaronson.com ===================== David Blaine Secrets I know every magician in the world has a copy of David Blaine's Magic Secrets. Huh? YOU don't have a copy? Where you been the last three years? Do you believe they're STILL selling this on eBay? Every magician in the world knows all David's secrets. I don't actually have this ebook on my site anymore. At one time I had a little web site selling this ebook, and if you entered "David Blaine Secrets Revealed" in Google, I had one of the top three sites. I sold the dickens out of this book. Then, it bacame passe' to sell this ebook, so I took it down... Looking at it now, I actually see three effects that I have used regularly through the years.. The arm twisting routing, the two card monte, and Voodoo ash... You can download the pdf version freely at web sites around the world. But, just in case you've been in a darkened cave for the last three years.. here you go.. http://www.freeinfosociety.com/pdfs/misc/david_blaines_magic_revealed.pdf ====================== Card Tricks Now Everyone knows how I feel about sites that feature free stuff.. expecially if it's about cards, card tricks, and manipulations. Card-Tricks-Now features it all.. Their video section is primarily videos of performers like Criss Angel, but the remainder of the site has some really helpful information.. To quote from their site... "The site includes magic that needs no special skills at all, some that need a few pieces of simple equipment, such as a handkerchief or a pen and paper, and others that require mental conjuring skills such as false shuffles, glides, double lifts and palms, all of which are described in Learn the Basics." Although most of the tricks don't require sophisticated sleight of hand, there are a number of tricks that require the following: Overhand Shuffle, Overhand Shuffle, Contol The InJog, The Run, The UnderCut, The Glimpse, The Glide, A False Cut, Palming a card, The Elmsley Count, The BackSlip, and the Backslip Force. Detailed instructions guide you through the steps necessary to complete each move.. http://www.card-tricks-now.com ====================== La Magie Cabaret Carson K. loves bills that float and notes that fold. So much in fact that he has set up a web site with both video and written text instructions for the classic 'Self-Folding Bill' and the 'Floating Note'. Also included is a word doc. titled 'Mind Reading', and a link to my favorite book of magic, Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic.. Check it out. Many a magician have paid good money for this information in the past... http://www.lamagiecabaret.tk/ ====================== Submit YOUR Magic OK guys and gals.. I've made it SO SIMPLE to submit resources and articles to the Magic Roadshow that you no longer have an excuse. If you know of a great resource, or, have an article or effect you would like to share with readers around the world, I've put up a simple to use web form where you can enter a url, article, or effect and send it directly to the Roadshow. I ask for your first name and email address only so I can contact you with any questions. ( I already have your email address, if you're a subscriber ) Your personal info is NOT saved in any database. In the near future I'm going to provide a special 'room' for readers who share their resources with others. It will be password protected and will feature a number of magic resources not available in the newsletter. I will save the info of anyone submitting resources to a simple text file, so I can send you a password to the new area once it goes public.. Send in those resources, articles, and effects !! http://www.streetmagic.info/submit.html ===================== Erdnases' Expert at the Card Table - Download 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 .. ===================== Thanks for being a friend of the Magic Roadshow! I'll see you in about a week. Questions, comments, rants or raves... EMAIL ME ----------------- May my next issue find you well .. Rick Carruth / editor ========================= |
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