The Pass in practice

[the_dude42]

Special notice to those wonderful people who happen to start with the letter "steer" and end with "pike": this is simply a practice video. The sound and overall quality is poor, which is a reflection of my income status right now. I simply want feedback from you folks. As soon as I am able to get something that isn't a webcam, I will probably be deleting this, and any other quick videos I decide to do.

With that disclaimer out of the way, how does my pass look?

A few different passes shown here:

Earick's Turnover is the first, followed by a riffle pass, followed by a classic pass. Then I a do a couple hermann passes. I finish things off with a couple delayed classic passes.

What do you all think? What should i work on?

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=E647lVsNpNk

Thank you all in advance. If it sucks... don't you hesitate to tell me.

 

[yyyyyyy]

Really nice performances, there wasn't any hesitation and it looked very natural. Nice job!

 

[TylerRouss]

On your turnover pass don't make the forward tilt action so dramatic, as that draws attention to the top card, which is not good psychologically for the pass. You want attention on the deck as an object, not on specific places or positions. Also really focus on aligning the two packets during the turnover action. There is a very brief flash of split packets. Very, very workable pass, but theres some little things that people might say "he did something funny there..." later on (the reason I hardly ever use the pass aside from deep misdirection, no matter how perfect, something always "seems a little funny" to someone paying close enough attention).

Your classics and riffles are damn clean, but I would still try to minimize the motions as much as possible. Remember, ideally, it shouldn't cover the hidden action, it should hide the fact that anything is taking place at all. Any big get readies, or movements to provide cover, contribute to psychologically offputting your audience.

My only other piece of advice would be to always, always do a delayed pass. Regardless of whether you choose to misdirect, even just separating the actions of losing the card and any sort of cover required for the pass will give you a huge timing benefit, as the audience should care about the deck significantly less once your no longer manipulating it. Once they stop caring as much, its a lot easier for "habits" such as a deck riffle or tilting actions to go unnoticed.

 

[the_dude42]

What's interesting is for the longest time I have been deciding if I should use Earick's version of the Turnover Pass, or the more classic version. I like the classic version more, as to me, it really feels like you are turning the cards over. My style isn't gaudy, I don't care for exaggerated motion, which I feel is that moves downfall. Who knows, maybe I'm not doing it correctly.

I've been having that same debate for a while now.Why does my dribble pass go completely unnoticed, yet people suspect something afowl as soon I classic? I think the answer is the Paper Engine, honestly. 95 percent of the passes I have seen (including my own) show in incredible amount of tension in the lower arms, as well with the "squeezing" of the hands. It just gives off this unnatural feel. Now, when I riffle pass, I don't have that same tension. I think it maybe because I'm relieving that tension through the riffle, or maybe it's that my hands look naturally tense WHEN I riffle. I do believe that it's my best "burnable" pass. Deep misdirection only gets me out of so much, you know? As Ascanio said:

Practice your sleights until they are undetectable.

Practice your misdirection so that you could get away with the worst sleights ever.

With those two combined, you will perfect magic.

I believe that tension also takes away from that misdirection element. I've found, you can't just look where you want them to look. It's not that easy. I really have to feel like I need to look there at that moment exactly. Losing tension I believe will help that.

The only problem with the delayed pass is that it's angles can be very bad. Similar to the shift that larry Jennings uses in "The Bonus Trick" from The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings, it looks really good when done from the front, and at a 25 degree angle from that front. After that, it can get dodgy. Now I know, you will say "But Malini said 'Wait. Wait a week if you have to.'". And I honestly wish it worked like that for me. But, the people I perform for would find suspicion with me waiting. I'm not a talker, with a long, Rubensteinesque patter for every effect I do. Usually, most of the patter I do isn't even patter, it's conversation. Sure, I may tell an interesting story, but most of the story is done before I ever even begin the effect. I guess this is the benefit of only doing intimate shows, but it really works.

Probably the best setting for me to do the delayed classic would be if I got back into restaurant gigs. That really would be the perfect setting for such a pass.

To end this rambling post, I want to thank you for that excellent and well thought out critique of my work. You've given me a lot to think about, and I thank you!