REINVENTING THE REAL BY TYLER WILSON
REVIEW: Tyler Wilson is one of my favourite magicians… he’s skilled, creative, hilarious, and very genuine. I met him about 4 years ago at magic camp, but we really hit it off and started chatting last year in my second year returning to camp. I eagerly purchased his first book at the time, Dominatricks, a thrillingly refreshing book of practical, workable close up magic. Back at that time, he mentioned a new book in progress… the book I’m about to review.
Now, Dominatricks is an excellent book and more than a great introduction into Tyler Wilson’s creative work… I was looking forward to seeing if Reinventing The Real would surpass it. Well, good news! It does. In almost every aspect.
The material this time around still has that familiar touch of Tyler, but this time around I’ve found much more material of personal value. As great as I think his first book was, I’ve only used two or three of the routines in it. Upon reading through Reinventing The Real, I’ve found a full seven items I’m very eager to work on.
The book itself is gorgeous… the interior and exterior are classy and sophisticated yet fresh and modern. The bottom corners of about 50 or so pages feature a flip-book style walk through of the design of one of the effects contained within. The book is divided into a section of Sleights, Principles, Impromptu Card Magic, Non-Card Effects, Memorized Deck Work, and Prepared Deck Effects. As you can see, this book is primarily geared toward the card enthusiast. Let’s get down and dirty and look at the material itself!
Shoplift: A method for a clean looking double lift that begins in looking as though you use your right fingertips to push the top card of the deck forward… the card pushed forward is, of course, a double. This is a clever and clean use for a well known and notoriously difficult card sleight… a sleight I will not reveal the name of, but I can say I cannot do at all. However, if you CAN do the move required, I’m sure you’ll start working on this puppy.
Strip Joint: An outjogged card is removed from the deck, at which point the card is switched. This is a useful and versatile sleight that makes for a very practical card force… when mastered, it looks very clean and, while not angle proof, is quite burnable from the front. Also, the move itself is so casual that no spectator will have anything to suspect.
Ground Control: This is a control from the center of the deck to the top as the magician casually peels blocks and groups of cards on top of a selection, apparently burying it in the middle. This move is downright burnable and isn’t at all difficult to do… making it look as casual as possible will, of course, take practice. Very versatile.
iPod Shuffle: An in-the-hands Triumph shuffle that very convincingly appears to mix face up cards into face down. This is a rather inelegant solution to an in-the-hands false shuffle for Triumph… but it’s so darn convincing and the illusion, if done properly, is perfect. Like Ground Control, this really isn’t all that difficult to do. I will definitely be using this and I can see a lot of others too. Finally something to replace that old overused Slop Shuffle.
Occam’s Edge: An exciting new principle in card magic to really get the wheels in your head turning. This principle uses an idea of blackening the long edge of a playing card using a Sharpie to create beautiful vanishes, appearances, changes, shrinkages, and more. I played with this principle a year ago after learning it in Tyler’s lecture notes, and I still think it’s an extremely clever idea with a multitude of possibilities.
Inspected Gadget: An excellent method of loading a folded card into a sealed and fully examined envelope. This I also learned in Tyler’s lecture notes, and having seen it performed live, I consider this a very exciting new principle with a method that’ll just make people giddy.
Schlorange: A deck is shuffled, and upon doing so the magician removes a single card from the deck and sticks it between the buttons on the front of his shirt for later on. Afterwards, he asks a spectator to name their favourite four-of-a-kind, and asks another to freely select a card from the deck. Neither is forced. The card is fairly inserted into the center of the deck. However, with a wave, the selection magically materializes face up on top of the deck! Another wave, and the selection morphs into four cards… the four-of-a-kind the other spectator named! But the appearance of these four cards begs the question: Where is the selection? With that, the magician removes the card from his shirt buttons from the beginning and reveals it to be the selection! WOW… this is one of my favourite routines from the book. It may sound long and convoluted but is in fact quite magical, surprising, and engaging, especially if performed and presented properly. That said, it is VERY sleight heavy and will definitely appeal to move monkeys. This is the first routine I started working on… at first I didn’t like it, but it grew on me and now I’m very excited to be working on it.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: Don’t let the title throw you off… this is a wonderful item. A hilarious, and actually engaging spelling routine that leads to the discovery of a previous selection and a blind-siding kicker ending that the spectators just won’t see coming. I’m having too much fun with this… it’s inherently funny, and one of the most entertaining and impactful spelling routines you may ever learn.
Sweeotch: A transposition routine using an orfice in which cards should never enter… your mouth (What, what did you think I was gonna say?). Folded cards transpose among the teeth and tongue in this fun, funny routine. Will I ever use this? Probably not, it’s not up my alley. And I question its inclusion in the chapter of impromptu card magic as it utilizes gaffs. All the same, people can, will, and do make great use of this.
SloMoFo: A super visual sandwich routine in which the two Jokers slowly and visually melt through cards in the deck before finally uniting in the middle, surrounding one card only… the selection. My hands are a bit too small for this, but if you’re a card guy with huge mitts, this is right up your alley. The moves aren’t terribly difficult, but the small handed guys with struggle with this one. That doesn’t mean it’s not good… it’s great. But I personally will not use it simply because the smaller size of my hands means less consistency of effectiveness. Check this out, work on it, and see if it’s right for you.
Slacker: The magician and spectator each select a card, and each find each other’s card. I’ve honestly not studied this routine totally yet, but I can say it looks like a simple, solid, direct piece. When I have had a chance to delve further in I will post more thoughts.
Running Man: A gaffless Anniversary Waltz! Yippee! Two selected cards, one signed on the face, the other on the back, magically jump together from two separate sections of the pack before finally fusing together into a single card with a signature on either side. I feel this plays just as well as the gaffed Running Man and is perfect for those who love the routine but don’t like wasting a gaffed card for each performance. Impromptu, baby!
The Winona Ryder Trick: Hoo boy, here we go. This is a long one… a multiple selection routine where 8 or so selected random cards are lost in the deck and found one by one in varying and impressive ways… and, as a kicker, the cards transform into a single suited sequence of cards… for instance, if the last selection found was the Eight of Hearts, the other 7 found selections are seen to have changed into the Ace through Seven of Hearts! This is a long one, but a good one, and better for a more formal setting as opposed to strolling. Sure, it will work in strolling, but due to it’s length I’d say this has more potential in a formal close-up scenario. I like the routine, and it flows quite nicely.
REVIEW: Tyler Wilson is one of my favourite magicians… he’s skilled, creative, hilarious, and very genuine. I met him about 4 years ago at magic camp, but we really hit it off and started chatting last year in my second year returning to camp. I eagerly purchased his first book at the time, Dominatricks, a thrillingly refreshing book of practical, workable close up magic. Back at that time, he mentioned a new book in progress… the book I’m about to review.
Now, Dominatricks is an excellent book and more than a great introduction into Tyler Wilson’s creative work… I was looking forward to seeing if Reinventing The Real would surpass it. Well, good news! It does. In almost every aspect.
The material this time around still has that familiar touch of Tyler, but this time around I’ve found much more material of personal value. As great as I think his first book was, I’ve only used two or three of the routines in it. Upon reading through Reinventing The Real, I’ve found a full seven items I’m very eager to work on.
The book itself is gorgeous… the interior and exterior are classy and sophisticated yet fresh and modern. The bottom corners of about 50 or so pages feature a flip-book style walk through of the design of one of the effects contained within. The book is divided into a section of Sleights, Principles, Impromptu Card Magic, Non-Card Effects, Memorized Deck Work, and Prepared Deck Effects. As you can see, this book is primarily geared toward the card enthusiast. Let’s get down and dirty and look at the material itself!
Shoplift: A method for a clean looking double lift that begins in looking as though you use your right fingertips to push the top card of the deck forward… the card pushed forward is, of course, a double. This is a clever and clean use for a well known and notoriously difficult card sleight… a sleight I will not reveal the name of, but I can say I cannot do at all. However, if you CAN do the move required, I’m sure you’ll start working on this puppy.
Strip Joint: An outjogged card is removed from the deck, at which point the card is switched. This is a useful and versatile sleight that makes for a very practical card force… when mastered, it looks very clean and, while not angle proof, is quite burnable from the front. Also, the move itself is so casual that no spectator will have anything to suspect.
Ground Control: This is a control from the center of the deck to the top as the magician casually peels blocks and groups of cards on top of a selection, apparently burying it in the middle. This move is downright burnable and isn’t at all difficult to do… making it look as casual as possible will, of course, take practice. Very versatile.
iPod Shuffle: An in-the-hands Triumph shuffle that very convincingly appears to mix face up cards into face down. This is a rather inelegant solution to an in-the-hands false shuffle for Triumph… but it’s so darn convincing and the illusion, if done properly, is perfect. Like Ground Control, this really isn’t all that difficult to do. I will definitely be using this and I can see a lot of others too. Finally something to replace that old overused Slop Shuffle.
Occam’s Edge: An exciting new principle in card magic to really get the wheels in your head turning. This principle uses an idea of blackening the long edge of a playing card using a Sharpie to create beautiful vanishes, appearances, changes, shrinkages, and more. I played with this principle a year ago after learning it in Tyler’s lecture notes, and I still think it’s an extremely clever idea with a multitude of possibilities.
Inspected Gadget: An excellent method of loading a folded card into a sealed and fully examined envelope. This I also learned in Tyler’s lecture notes, and having seen it performed live, I consider this a very exciting new principle with a method that’ll just make people giddy.
Schlorange: A deck is shuffled, and upon doing so the magician removes a single card from the deck and sticks it between the buttons on the front of his shirt for later on. Afterwards, he asks a spectator to name their favourite four-of-a-kind, and asks another to freely select a card from the deck. Neither is forced. The card is fairly inserted into the center of the deck. However, with a wave, the selection magically materializes face up on top of the deck! Another wave, and the selection morphs into four cards… the four-of-a-kind the other spectator named! But the appearance of these four cards begs the question: Where is the selection? With that, the magician removes the card from his shirt buttons from the beginning and reveals it to be the selection! WOW… this is one of my favourite routines from the book. It may sound long and convoluted but is in fact quite magical, surprising, and engaging, especially if performed and presented properly. That said, it is VERY sleight heavy and will definitely appeal to move monkeys. This is the first routine I started working on… at first I didn’t like it, but it grew on me and now I’m very excited to be working on it.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: Don’t let the title throw you off… this is a wonderful item. A hilarious, and actually engaging spelling routine that leads to the discovery of a previous selection and a blind-siding kicker ending that the spectators just won’t see coming. I’m having too much fun with this… it’s inherently funny, and one of the most entertaining and impactful spelling routines you may ever learn.
Sweeotch: A transposition routine using an orfice in which cards should never enter… your mouth (What, what did you think I was gonna say?). Folded cards transpose among the teeth and tongue in this fun, funny routine. Will I ever use this? Probably not, it’s not up my alley. And I question its inclusion in the chapter of impromptu card magic as it utilizes gaffs. All the same, people can, will, and do make great use of this.
SloMoFo: A super visual sandwich routine in which the two Jokers slowly and visually melt through cards in the deck before finally uniting in the middle, surrounding one card only… the selection. My hands are a bit too small for this, but if you’re a card guy with huge mitts, this is right up your alley. The moves aren’t terribly difficult, but the small handed guys with struggle with this one. That doesn’t mean it’s not good… it’s great. But I personally will not use it simply because the smaller size of my hands means less consistency of effectiveness. Check this out, work on it, and see if it’s right for you.
Slacker: The magician and spectator each select a card, and each find each other’s card. I’ve honestly not studied this routine totally yet, but I can say it looks like a simple, solid, direct piece. When I have had a chance to delve further in I will post more thoughts.
Running Man: A gaffless Anniversary Waltz! Yippee! Two selected cards, one signed on the face, the other on the back, magically jump together from two separate sections of the pack before finally fusing together into a single card with a signature on either side. I feel this plays just as well as the gaffed Running Man and is perfect for those who love the routine but don’t like wasting a gaffed card for each performance. Impromptu, baby!
The Winona Ryder Trick: Hoo boy, here we go. This is a long one… a multiple selection routine where 8 or so selected random cards are lost in the deck and found one by one in varying and impressive ways… and, as a kicker, the cards transform into a single suited sequence of cards… for instance, if the last selection found was the Eight of Hearts, the other 7 found selections are seen to have changed into the Ace through Seven of Hearts! This is a long one, but a good one, and better for a more formal setting as opposed to strolling. Sure, it will work in strolling, but due to it’s length I’d say this has more potential in a formal close-up scenario. I like the routine, and it flows quite nicely.
