Science or Magic – Oil and water routine

September 30, 2009

by Matthew Bennett

Before I do this review, in the interest of fairness, here is what he had to say in the comments about his video :

“My oil and water routine I have been playing with few days. It is based heavily on the routine by Anthony Owen. My contribution really was just the ending with full deck. I hate to perform for camera and in foreign language but many friends asked me to do my videos in english so they could understand as well, so friends, this is to you =)”

The presentation of this effect was boring. And you seemed bored performing it as well, which may have had something to do with the overall lack of entertainment. Your handling of the first two phases is miraculously beautiful. The movements in the third phase however, are clumsy, and need some work to make them seamless.

I have never been a fan of magic that starts of with the words “I would like to do an experiment” (or, “Haluaisin tehdä kokeen”). Aside from that, when you write the script for a magic trick, the entire script needs to make sense, from the beginning to the end. And the biggest RED FLAG I saw in your performance was this:

If you are telling me the truth, and out-of-order red and black cards automatically separate themselves given enough time, then why, oh why, is the deck that has been sitting there for the length of the trick still out of order? Shouldn’t it have had enough time to separate while you were doing your little experiments with the three reds and three blacks. What changed when you picked up the deck at the end, showed us it was out of order, then gave it “a little time”? Nothing. If what you were telling me was the truth, then that deck should have been separated already. Still with me?

You’ve still got a shot at making this a killer routine. You can even start with the Albert Einstein quote. That’s a cool premise…maybe. Drop the whole “experiment” sentence. For the love of AISHA don’t count three cards out for me. I’m not an idiot. ONE…TWO…THREE black cards and ONE….TWO….THREE red cards. Yeeesh!!! You sound like you are trying to prove that there is only three of each. And for this trick, over proving something is the first mistake - leading to the method. Don’t do that. And put a little enthusiasm behind your voice. I’m not saying you can’t be laid back, but you sound like you don’t even care. I would be interested in seeing you do this in your native language. I wouldn’t understand a word of it, but I could potentially hear more in your voice than boredom.

The only time you show any spark of life is the beginning when you are talking about Einstein. Do you do your oil and water routine so you have an excuse to quote Albert?

In your YouTube profile, you say “I hate magicians that settle on ok and mediocre things instead of trying to perfect their work.” I adore this statement. So let’s test your mettle.