Mini-Review - Greg Wilson's Double Take

[LingLing]

WOW WOW WOW! I need to calm down

Appetizer- 3/5
At first I thought I was accidentally sent a 1980's porno... totally 80's porn groove, and Greg is barely recognizable, with a totally porn-star 'stache. Which would've been cool, I guess... j/k. But it looks like it was mastered from a pretty old VHS or some other old format to the DVD. So I've taken off points for video and audio quality

Meant and Potatoes- 8/5
WOW. A freakin' goldmine of DL information. I never knew that there was such a wealth of info to be had regarding the DL. Greg teaches so many DL's, and he teaches them so incredibly well. This is amazing. I'm basically obsessed with practicing the Strike DL (Doc Daley's DL.) It's so natural looking- just like a layman would turn over a single card.

Dessert- 4/5
Greg teaches a pretty big variety of routines, many of which are very usable, and obviously impromptu. He's a great performer, and if you follow his advice, you will be too. Great stuff here.

Overall Meal- 5/5
I would never, ever give a single trick dvd/gimmick a 5/5 unless they were real magic. However, this is a DVD that will teach you an invaluable sleight that EVERY performer uses, and it teaches them extremely well, with some great routines to boot. The verdict? BUY IT. I don't care how good you are at the DL, you will not regret it.

PS- Yes, I love food.

 

[Medifro]

You just gave me good memories, back when I first watched the DVD ....

Greg Wilson is the man.

 

[senchi]

Ling Ling: Hit style double lift is hardely the most natural double lift and definately not the way a lay person would turn a card. Give the deck to somebody and you will see that in 99% av the cases they will push off the top card and turn it over. This would mean that push-off double lift would be the one to mimic natural action;P

Hit style double lift have one advantage and that is not needing a break to execute it.

 

[LingLing]

Ling Ling: Hit style double lift is hardely the most natural double lift and definately not the way a lay person would turn a card. Give the deck to somebody and you will see that in 99% av the cases they will push off the top card and turn it over. This would mean that push-off double lift would be the one to mimic natural action;P

Hit style double lift have one advantage and that is not needing a break to execute it.

In 99% of my cases they grab the card from the back and flip it vertically, which looks straight-up retarded in any performance situation. The strike double is great for me because it doesn't break tempo and looks smooth. Even if it doesn't look "natural", it doesn't look suspicious- it looks very casual.

 

[Medifro]

This would mean that push-off double lift would be the one to mimic natural action;P

And how many people do this kind of push offs?

I love push offs doubles ( which comes as a bonus for practicing push offs seconds! I recommend Simon Lovell's method). However, I've seen laymen turn the top card using a strike-DL action, and many other actions as well!

I personally firmly believe "natural" is dependent in the context the thing is done. Running is not natural in a lecture hall, but natural in an open field.

Yes, XCM cuts can be extremely natural in some contexts, but thats another story

A food for thought

Cheers,

 

[Avatar603]

Honestly guys, is a dvd on DL's THAT good? Really, how great could it be? And would it really be worth it for any magician except a begginner?

Avatar

 

[LingLing]

Honestly guys, is a dvd on DL's THAT good? Really, how great could it be? And would it really be worth it for any magician except a begginner?

Avatar

You have much to learn, padawan.

EDIT: Not to say that I don't but jeeze...

 

[Guardian452]

Honestly guys, is a dvd on DL's THAT good? Really, how great could it be? And would it really be worth it for any magician except a begginner?

Avatar

the dvd is amazing

its obvisous you are new at magic
you DO have a lot to learn

and yes, it is VERY much worth it no matter what skill level

 

[senchi]

And how many people do this kind of push offs?

I love push offs doubles ( which comes as a bonus for practicing push offs seconds! I recommend Simon Lovell's method). However, I've seen laymen turn the top card using a strike-DL action, and many other actions as well!

I personally firmly believe "natural" is dependent in the context the thing is done. Running is not natural in a lecture hall, but natural in an open field.

Yes, XCM cuts can be extremely natural in some contexts, but thats another story

A food for thought

Cheers,

You just can´t help yourself can you?
"Natural action" would mean one that most efficiently brings about desired effect and one that would be spontaneously used by a majority of people.

No, naturalness of action is not context sensitive. There is nothing natural with XCM. Giving a deck a cut by splitting it into dozen spinning packet is not a logical procedure.... It is aesthetically pleasing one though

Runing is perfectly natural action if you are in hurry. Runing on your toe tips is totaly unantural...... so your comparison fails.

Dai Vernons double push off from a break is the most natural double lift you can do

 

[Medifro]

You just can´t help yourself can you?
"Natural action" would mean one that most efficiently brings about desired effect and one that would be spontaneously used by a majority of people.

How many laymen can do a double undercut

As a card handler you are expected to handle cards well. Now before you misunderstand me, I don't go for all flourishy Buck Tudor Devo stuff, but here is something that explains it.

You're doing an elevator routine, pattering about a circus. The first card goes inside, do a couple of flips and turns, then finally goes to the top. With this, which is in your opinion, a better option for doing a double lift:

A Lee Asher Acrobatic Double, or a Vernon push off double?

Both ARE deceptive, but which one of them will have the effect on the spectator here? A Vernon will show the top card, an Asher will show the card shooting out, making the effect for laymen more clear and more effective.

Now, not to go off topic, but here is a patter idea for XCM.

pattering about how you then say that you went to a bar with your friend. You showed your friend a trick, *have a card selected*, your friend drank some more beer, and asked if he can shuffle the deck. You handed him the deck, and he began to shuffle the deck normally *do overhand shuffle*, then he actually got more and more drunk, this happened. *do any multi-packet crazy cut, And you cut with a drunken appearance* .......... continue the effect, you get the idea

No one in his right mind will doubt that you are actually controlling the selection, not only that, but the cuts became part of the entertaiment, part of the theme, this is actually remmebered by the spectator. I had people coming to me and telling me to do the "drunken cut" again, and once in a brief visit to Italy, someone wanted to get drunk and try out to cut the deck!

Mind you, a friend of mine was in a mall in Dubai, and met a card guy doing XCM. My friend returned the card, the magi did 5 minutes of cuts, then showed the card in his mouth. My friend actually thought the performance was extremely bad ( even though, according to him, the cuts were done perfectly!)

I hope I explained my points clearly. I still go by natural is context dependant.

Cheers,

 

[senchi]

Medifro:

You are in a bad habit of pushing everything into a state of metaphysics.. Your discussion is pointless and you always leave the subject and drift away.

Naturalness and deceptiveness do not have to go hand in hand with each other. DBD by Lee Asher is a deceptive double lift, I would not argue against it so I don´t understand why you would take it as example. However the action of turnover is a unnatural one.
Remember this discussion started from me commenting the post about hit double being the one closest to how a lay person would turn over a card. It is not about natural vs. unnatural!

Medifro: you might think that your constant philosophizing makes you smart but to me you come across as a person who always need to prove somebody wrong. I question your motives for writing comments.

"natural action" in magic is generally considered a action that resembles how a non- magician person would execute it. It is about generalizing!












I

 

[Shodan]

Greg Wilson's Double Take is a valuable resource for any magician, beginner or otherwise.

Everything can always be improved upon, and with a technique as fundamental as the double lift you want to study it as much as possible, all the time.

Basics...fundamentals...foundations aren't the "easy" stuff - their the important stuff that everything else is built upon and true mastery starts and finishes with mastery of the basics.

Plus, I like the pornstar moustache!

 

[Medifro]

Medifro: you might think that your constant philosophizing makes you smart but to me you come across as a person who always need to prove somebody wrong. I question your motives for writing comments.

"natural action" in magic is generally considered a action that resembles how a non- magician person would execute it. It is about generalizing!

! >__< .....

I don't need to show off man ( if I needed, then I picked the wrong way to do so ).

I don't think I said pure philosophy, because I put real world examples of effects I actually perform. Anyways,

My motive is to discuss .. Thats all. You have my sincere apologies if I offended you in any way.

I would advise to read the section on naturalness in Card College 2 ( its somewhere in the Technique chapter I think ).

Virtual coffee and pie?

Cheers,