Thursday, October 21, 2010

Contact Juggling

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So this is an awesome contact juggling video that I saw a few years ago and just rediscovered.

http://www.break.com/index/contact-juggling.html

Check it out!

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Diversify

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One thing that is true in almost all aspects of life is the need to diversify. Your investment portfolios, your education, your life experiences, and yes, even your magic.

How many magicians do you know who only do cards or only do coins? BORING! To be a great magician, you need to diversify your skills. How do you go about doing that? Well, let me show you.

STEP ONE

The first step to diversifying is to identify what it is that you do already and what you'd like to move on to. For a large majority of us, cards is what we rely on. They are safe, easy, and have about ten million different things you can do with them, but hand us a coin and we're doing a David Blaine style shuttle pass. 

So what type of magic do you do now? For me, it's mainly cards.

So what type of magic do you move on to? That's a more difficult question. I'm moving in the direction of coins, because there is a feel that there is a coin/card dichotomy in magic, but the real reason I'm moving that way is to learn a new skill set that is completely different. 

So if you only do coins, move to cards; cards to coins. Mainly do mentalism? Try moving on to some card stuff. Impromptu magic your specialty? try coins. And everyone should try the cups.

STEP TWO

The next step is the hardest. You will be starting over almost as a complete beginner. Yes, you may know how something is done, but your fingers are going to be stupid and fumbly (yes I did just make that word up). Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, try to remember the hard work and wonder that you had when you first started learning magic. 

Try finding that one really impressive routine you've always wished you could perform and go at it!

STEP THREE

Now that you have a basis in your new area of magic, try finding ways to incorporate it into your old magic. Cards and coins make a wonderful matrix; mentalism and cards makes for some strange and eerie effects.

Now get out there and show off your new skills.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

You're covered in Beeeeeeeees!

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http Check it out. Just a fun little clip from Penn and Teller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gysIuQRK7eA

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Impromptu magic

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Something that I've always felt strongly about (though I haven't ever really pursued it to any extent) is that a magician is someone who can, at any moment, perform for someone.

Now when I say that, I don't mean that you should always have a deck of cards and a coin on you (you should though). No. What I'm saying is that at any point you should be able to take something that is laying around or that someone has given you and be able to perform with it. Not only that, but you should be setting up situations where you can perform impromptu effects.

One example is from Michael Ammar. He said that he used to go out with nothing but a pocket full of rubber bands. He'd drop them on the floor at the places that he and his group would be and wait until someone asks to see some magic. He would protest, saying that he didn't have anything on him, and then he would feign spontaneity and pick up the rubber bands and start performing.

Another example is from myself. One of my favorite impromptu effects is the paperclip bend. To make sure I can perform it, I'll sometimes carry a few paperclips and leave them laying around places. This ensures that there's always one available.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that not only should you be able to do something with anything someone hands you, but start setting yourself up for incredible moments of magic that seem completely un-prepped.

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Charlie Caper

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Check out this guy! One of the most entertaining performers I've seen in a long while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4R_ub_cAGw

Daniel Chesterfield

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It looks like Blogger won't let me embed YouTube videos, so here's the link to one of the best David Copperfield spoofs ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqiNL4Hn04A

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Card Collections

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One thing that many magicians do is start collecting cards. I know that I have and while it's not an extensive collection by any strech of the imagination, I love getting interesting playing cards.

So I figured that I'd go through and find a bunch of cool/interesting/odd playing cards that you could add to your collection and links to where to find them.

United States Playing Card Company on trick decks

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The United States Playing Card Company produces some of the best playing cards in the world. From Bicycle and Bee to Aviator and KEM, the one thing that everyone who knows anything about cards knows is that the USPCC produces great quality cards that are easily recognizable and are perfectly normal.

Now, it used to be (and has been on and off for a while) that you could order trick decks of cards from the USPCC, but most of the time nowadays, you can't. It seems that being the top card company in the world and selling gimmicked decks doesn't really mesh with corporate, and I can understand that. You don't want people thinking that the cards you provide to casino's could be marked.

But apparently, the USPCC is teaming up with David Blaine and are releasing three specialty decks on October 31st.