magic box – card trick
I am not thrilled with this effect. But I think I want to be nice. Because the song brought tears to my eyes. I wanna save the world. I want to go to Wal-Mart and just start hugging random people. I want to dance!
Okay, if you have justification for why you magically rub the selected card before cutting it into the center and then shuffling the deck, it is lost on me. Maybe you have a reason, and it’s in your script. Unfortunately, it’s set to music, so your lack of a script makes things confusing. Any time there is a lack of reason, a lack of purpose, what comes in to take it’s place is confusion.
Another thing that really bothers me about this is that you select a card, get it lost in the deck,shuffle it, and then look through the frigging deck for the jokers. I know that there is a secret, magical reason you did this, but think about this from the perspective of an audience member. What the hell is the point of losing the card in the deck, and then looking through the spread deck for anything??? Ridiculous. I don’t care what it takes…Get those dang jokers out FIRST. Then select the card. Then lose it in the deck.
What the heck are you doing at 1:19? You need to work on that. You “prove” to me that you are only holding two cards. Fine. I believe you. But how hard is it to put on card on top of the other? You make it look very difficult. You completely destroy any credibility that there are only two cards, because what you are doing looks unnatural.
Find a mirror. Take any two cards. Put one on top of the other. Do it a hundred or so times. That’s what it should look like. Now go back to your “sleight” and make it look like THAT. Seriously…watch your video again, and then tell me that it looks natural the way you are doing it…
Now take a look at 1:28 (which is in my opinion far too soon for another unnatural move) – If a layperson watches this, the only thing that they could be thinking is that you just taped both cards together. Am I missing something? Do you want to look like you are taping cards together? Show me two cards, put them together, rub the back, and then hold up what looks like now a single card, before placing it in the box??? Seriously?
One small thing that you might want to change as well, provided you fix everything else I’m talking about: If the “work” is already done, and everything you need for the effect is in that card box, then the less you do the better. In other words, the farther you separate yourself from the place the magic happens, the more stunning the effect. So your setup is in that card box, ready to show. Don’t spray the cards at the box. Don’t cover that box up. Some “magical move” is necessary, but what you do here is far from necessary, and it takes away from the effect.
That being said, I’m not sure exactly what the effect is. Did a joker disappear? Only to be replaced by the selected card? Did the joker turn into the selected card? Did the selected card penetrate through the box in one direction, while the joker penetrated through the box in the other? There is no clarity of effect. I would have accepted a sandwich. (really, I’m hungry.) I would also have accepted only the selected card. I cannot accept what I saw, however, because it doesn’t make any sense. I’m confused, and as our buddy DV says, “Confusion is not magic.” Clarity of effect is crucial.
Make this perfect. Make it make sense. Justify EVERYTHING. Because I like your song selection. Yeesh. I still need to go hug someone.
Rating: Two Milks and a Symbol of Peace.
(Rating system is arbitrarily ridiculous, and it’s worse since I haven’t got my hug.)
Comments are closed.