Sinogeek: Which of your own effects are you most proud of and why? Following on...Which effect of yours took the longest time from conception to polished article?
Shaun Robinson: Just a quick side note: Lickety Split is pure genius, you can make it look so smooth with the Harris flick back onto the deck. Thanks for that contribution David, I use it a lot.
David Acer: I’m not so much proud of my better tricks as “grateful for,” but I’ll try to make a list of what I consider to be my 5 “best” published effects. I should warn you, though, that this kind of list can really change with your mood. Right now, I’m hungry, tired and slightly itchy.
NOMEN OMEN: Originally released by The Camirand Academy in 1990, Nomen Omen encompasses all the features I look for in an A-list card trick. The effect is clear, the method is impenetrable, and the presentation is limited only by your imagination.
HYPERVENTILATE (Natural Selections, 1996/Mac King’s Tricks with Your Head, 2002): A very cool effect in which smoke you inhale from a cigarette vanishes from your lungs and appears inside a balloon that was previously inflated.
CHEAP LABOUR (Natural Selections, 1996): This wonderful packet trick was published in a few places before finally appearing in my first book, Natural Selections, starting with my 1987 lecture notes (The Plots Thicken), then an issue of the M.U.M., then later in the September/October 1991 issue of The Magic Menu. Indeed, when Jim Sisti was preparing to include it in the latter, I told him it had already been published in M.U.M., but he liked the trick so much he ran it anyway. (somehow I doubt he would have been so cavalier if I had said Richard’s Almanac)
TIME FLIES (Natural Selections II, 1999): A terrific “back-in-time” effect wherein the magician drops a borrowed quarter into his pocket, then removes his watch from his left wrist. With his right hand, he waves the watch counterclockwise over his left hand, whereupon the quarter suddenly reappears on his left palm. Moreover, the watch has now vanished and is back on the magician’s wrist!
CHANGES (Random Acts of Magic, 2004): I’ve used this to open every big close-up show I’ve done in the past ten years, including performances at The Magic Castle and F.I.S.M. It’s just about as visually engaging a card trick as you’re likely to see.
PARTY OF SIX (Random Acts of Magic, 2004): A platform effect you can do with a regular pack of cards that allows you to bring six people on stage. It’s an amazing opportunity to improvise, and the effect itself is great.
Yeah, I know. That’s six tricks, not five, but I don’t know which one to delete. AND WHY THE HELL AM I SO ITCHY?!?
Tielie: Cheap Laybor is a great trick, one of the very few I really like in the magic menu! Thanks for that.
Robby5000: I’m well into coin sleights because I feel that everyone carries a coin around with them and if I wanted to impress someone by doing some sleights I could.
I've practised hours and hours in front of a mirror although when I do a trick with someone’s 50p they are like "that’s clever" instead of "WOW, GOSH, OMG" type thing. I don't expect it all the time but I am just wondering are people getting fed up with appearing and disappearing coin tricks?
Any suggestion/views?
David Acer: I don't think the people of Earth have suddenly decided they're tired of coin tricks. Generally, when someone responds to an effect by saying, "That's clever," it's because he was fooled, but he doesn't care. For whatever reason, he was not emotionally invested in the trick.
Try building a little presentation around your coin vanish and reappearance, even a simple one like, "Here's something I do with my dog all the time, except instead of a coin, I use a piece of his dry dog food." Now, in addition to the spectator watching a coin vanish, he's imagining how your dog would feel seeing his food disappear, then reappear, then disappear, etc. Just a suggestion of course, but any kind of presentational through-line that will give the trick a little depth would likely improve the response.
In passing, I recently read the most entertaining presentation I've ever seen for David Roth's "Hanging Coins" in Bill Duncan's book, Tubthumping. It's the perfect example of what we're discussing here, and it turns what usually plays as a dry, technical piece into an extremely fun and engaging coin trick.
Jason Waskett: Hi there I've nosed through you book recently, picking at it, but then decided to start at page one and go through it. I've printed out the corrections and crediting updates from your site. Thanks for that I'm sure that will prevent many a furrowed brow. But am still misunderstanding something.
I've gone through it quite a few times and understand the proposed outcome but not the way it reads, I can achieve it but not like this. Am I missing something? (This is with the page 19 correction.)
Page 19 the second "repeat steps 2 to 4 once more............" ends with "you now have four face-down cards in your left hand. In your right hand, you should have three face down cards, followed by three face up ones.”
Which (when I did maths) makes ten, earlier you mention stripping out nine. If you've got nine cards the first card to go to the left hand needs to be flipped over, that and the subsequent three being stolen back under cover of a card leaving four face down in the left, four up on the right covered by the chosen one, ah aaaaaahhh! (non verbally that really doesn't come off very well.)
I don't mean to be facetious (although I'd like to spell that word correctly) but I thought you might like the feedback (I.e. from pupil back to teacher). It's a great book and I'm sure I'll get a lot of enjoyment from it.
David Acer: You're absolutely right - there are nine cards, not ten. I don't know what the hell happened with the description of that trick. I went through it a bunch of times and never noticed either of the two major discrepancies, and three other knowledgeable magicians also read the manuscript from start to finish without spotting them.
On the plus side, there do not seem to be any other major technical issues with the book. On the minus side, the one trick with two big descriptive flaws is the first trick in the book. It's extremely frustrating, and worse, I have no one to blame but myself.
However, it's that very routine that prompted me to put a RANDOM ACTS OF MAGIC page up on my website that includes, among other things, Corrections & Updates, and everything that goes up there will be included in the second edition of the book.
With regards to "Over Easy," just ignore any situation checks or comments about what cards should be in which hand. Follow the instructions as written and you'll get there with no trouble.
Jason Waskett: Right oh! Sorry for that to be the question you went out on. Quick!!! somebody ask another.
David Acer: Yeah. Anyone want to ask me about my big nose, or my loss of hair?
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