My Magic

[Theory]

Hey,

Check out my video and tell me what you think. It is a trick I base off Dr Daly Last Trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xq6mbJ7Pt0

[ChristopherT]

Since I've gotten flak for my tendency toward brutal honesty in the recent past, I'm going to go ahead and ask if you want an honest opinion on the video/trick or if you're just looking for people to say "Good job"?

[Theory]

always honest

[ChristopherT]

Ok. The first thing I noticed is that you're clumsy with the cards. You fumbled around getting them out of the box which leads me to think you're trying to do something sneaky there. The way you handle the Aces is completely unnatural, it looks like you're trying to remember what you're supposed to be doing at every moment and/or you're trying not to mess up gimmicks. The way you turn cards over looks suspicious as you're slow and fumbling about it each time. The reveals aren't timed for maximum effect and the transformation of Aces into Jokers makes no sense, nor does it make any sense for the black Aces to end up in the box.

So, basically, you need to work on this a lot more before showing it to an audience (And YouTube is an audience). Take a normal packet of cards and do what you're supposedly doing during the trick to see what natural handling of cards should look like. Or hand them to someone else and ask them to do these actions. I understand why your lifts are the way they are in the video, so you'll probably end up having to cover that with scripting. A script will also help justify the illogical transformations and locations of the cards.

So I think you've got potential here, it just needs polishing.

[ArmanMagic]

The first thing I noticed is that you handling the cards in a way that looks very unnatural. It looks like your trying to make your sure your not messing up the cards in some way. Also your fumbling around sometimes which makes me think that you haven't practiced this a lot. I would suggest that you should practice this a little bit more.

[RickEverhart]

It takes you practically 30 seconds to get the cards out of the box and show it empty. That needs to be cut in half or you are already losing interest from half your spectators. If you were doing this at a restaurant or wedding reception with dancing going on and music you've already missed your opportunity to "hook" them.

That being said, you handling of the cards is a bit unpolished, however, I do like the outcome of the effect. With work this could be very nice....

[Toby]

I'll try not to repeat what others have said, although I may just a little bit.
First of all, I didn't see the ending coming (aka. two black aces out of the box), that caught me off guard, so well done for that. However, if you just change the grip on the box, you can slide all the cards out in a second, instead of 15 seconds. Also, trick doesn't make any sense at all, so try to make it logical. Thirdly, if you could make two spectators signed cards appear instead of the jokers it would have a lot more power to it. Also, it takes ages for something magical to actually happen. You have to have a balance. The longer you wait for something magical to happen, the greater the magic moment needs to be (does that makes sense?).

[William Draven]

There's some good constructive advice in here allready so it's kind of hard to jump in with some new insight, but I'm going to give it a try.

The problem is that youtube as a whole is stocked full of visual magic video's done silent to some music selection that has no relevance to the act what so ever. I tuned out about 8 seconds in, and would have turned it off had I not followed the link from this forum.

Here's why... I personally want to be entertained first, not watch someone perform for what may be lacking for better words magical masturbation with their deck.

Now before everyone jumps me let me please say that there is nothing wrong with a silent act when it's done properly. Right music selection, well timed choreography, theme, theatrics, all the bells and whistles but the problem that I have with most magic to music videos on youtube is that they give me (the viewer) next to no idea at just how well a person's presentation skills are. Sure you maybe able to double lift, but can you entertain me while doing it? That's the question, and magic to music videos I feel offer too much of an easy crutch to aspiring talent to lean on. Knowing how to execute a few sleights does not a magician make.

I think I would be more forgiving on a youtube account had they other videos showcasing their performance skills. I think once you've shown that you can handle yourself in front of an audience then you've earned the right to create magic to music videos. But these kinds of videos I just don't feel should be your lead in introduction to a magic community.