TEASER: "The birth of the insertion steal" a treatise on the Diagonal Palm Shift

On Hidden Gems and where to find them

First of all, Excuse me for not being very active around here lately, it's just that I could not think of anything worth posting. In fact I am very peculiar and patient when it comes to seeking inspiration for doing something, I usually just sit and wait for an idea to knock the doors of my little brain and I roll with it. So far it has worked in a lovely way therefore I am not at all afraid to admit it.

There's a time in every cardician's life in which he comes across something very rare and unknown that is totally perfect. It is at that moment that one little dilema starts bumping in your brain like a giant mosquito. basically, You cannot decide wether to share it with the community or keep it to yourself. That time for me was when I got Jason Ladanye's book Confident Deception. 

Jason and I have been speaking via facebook for quite some time and when he asked my opinion on his  book I responded with a rather extensive and detailed review of the book that ended up all over Vanishing Inc. What can I say, that's my style.

Having said what I thought was necessary in order to give you some context, here's the full review of the book:

I’ve been studying confident deceptions ever since It first arrived at my doorstep and I’ve just finished my second reading of the book and I thought it would be great to write a review on what I think about the extraordinary card magic of Jason Ladanye. 

I’ve been speaking to Jason for quite some time now and we’ve had many great conversations about magic, probably because we are both students of the work of Mr. Darwin Ortiz. So when I found out Jason was about to put out a book I was really excited to finally see his own magic being put into the printed word.

Confident Deceptions is a rarity, every single effect in there (and I really mean every single one of them) is exquisitely designed to maximize audience impact. Jason’s got a kind of sixth sense for strong magic (something that Mr. Ortiz warns us about during the introduction of the book) and It really shines in every single presentation as well as in every method.

The book has a similar structure to any of the Ortiz titles in the sense that each effect is broken into several different subtitles in order to organize all of the information regarding said effect. You first find the title followed by a little quote that relates to the contents being discussed (Being an amateur writer myself, I was surprised to find several Robert Mckee references) then you’ve got the method, followed by a comments section and the credits and inspiration. Jason has been wise to actually include his script for every effect, something that Darwin Ortiz has occasionally done in some of the effects from his book “Scams And Fantasies with Cards” (2002).

The comments section is where the deviousness of Jason’s thinking is fully displayed and therefor appreciated by the connoisseur of strong magic. As a matter of fact, something that happens to me when reading any of the Ortiz books is that sometimes I may come up with an alternative method while reading the effect, only to find out that Darwin had already thought of it and discarded it for something that I had not thought of. I was delighted when the same thing happened with many of Jason’s effects from Confident Deceptions.

If asked to name a few of my favorites I would have to go for Through and Through, which is an excellent solution to a problem that Darwin Ortiz originated in his book Strong magic (1994). The method, once again is extremely clever and well-constructed.

However, my absolute favorite effect from there is Best for Last, an effect in which the magician demonstrates that he can cut to any poker hand called for, In fact he ends up cutting to each one of the hands from lowest to highest. 

I could go on and on listing the effects that I like the most because in fact I love them all.. Jason’s magic takes the Ortiz philosophy and breathes new air into them, or better said, it injects it with steroids.

Jason Ladanye is an individual who is talented, creative and clever, but most importantly He’s extremely humble and generous, that combination tells you that He’s is set for greatness.

Now go get the book:

http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic/card-magic/confident-deceptions/

                                                                                                                                                          xoxo.

My favorite routine, brought to you by the best of the best.

Here's Michael Vincent, whom I consider to be one of my mentors, presenting "Fourplay With Foursome", his personal twist on Andrew Wimhurst's "The Awesome Foursome" from Down Under Deals. Mike's routine can be found in his excellent “Elegant Deceptions: The Classic Magic of Michael Vincent, Volume 2"

"Fly On The Wall" A lovely chronicle from the mind of the great Pop Haydin

Did you ever wish you could be a "fly on the wall" when something very significant, perhaps very private, even magical was about to happen? Wouldn't it be special to witness history in the making? A rare event never to be repeated? An event that, save for you and perhaps a handful of other witnesses, would never be seen by anyone? Would become the stuff that legends are made of?

On September 4, 2006, I was that fly on the wall, blessed with the opportunity to survey a magical piece of history . . . a piece of magical history. As the 2006 Texas Association of Magicians convention drew to a close, two men met privately in the corner of the lounge at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dallas, Texas. One was an old master from a long way off. The other was younger. One had only a left arm . . . the right arm lost as a youth, the tragic result of an automobile accident. The other could not see . . . an equally tragic result of a childhood disease.

Both could handle playing cards in ways unimaginable to the mere mortals among us. On this day, it was the old master, the man with only one arm, who wished to savor the skills of the widely heralded younger man. They sat at a small round table, an interpreter between them, and the sharing of skills began. For thirty precious minutes, Richard Turner dealt seconds, bottoms, and centers; lost and found selected cards after allowing onlookers to shuffle, cut, and otherwise eliminate any chance of trickery; dealt winning poker and blackjack hands to himself or whichever other player the old master chose to be a winner. For those thirty precious minutes, Rene' Lavand, the man world-renowned for his skills and poetry in creating magical card miracles with one hand, sat thoroughly delighted at what he was seeing, repeatedly marveling at the skill on display. And for thirty precious minutes, Richard Turner relished this once-in-a-lifetime chance to share his abilities with the old master, his respect for Lavand obvious at the turn of every card.

As the session came to a close, Rene' softly confided, "Richard, you are fantastic. You see the cards with your soul. You are my other hand." Richard replied, "And you are my eyes," grasped the master by the hand, and kissed it reverently.

And the fly on the wall cried.

Darwin Ortiz Would have made for an exceptional Graphic Designer, wouldn't he?

"Details make for perfection, but perfection is no detail"

Leonardo

Evening readers, however few I may have, if any. My Internet has been down for the last couple of days thus making it very hard for me to keep this blog up and running. For that I present this apology, directed once again to anyone who has been keeping up with my posts.

I did manage to post that lovely Enfield quote from the introduction of Dai Vernon's Inner Secrets of Card Magic. Because of the internet problem I was not quite sure if the post made it to the blog or not. I also published that lovely photo of The Professor, photoshoped by yours truly. I love Design, particularly Graphic Design. Last year I took a graphic Designing course at school with one of the greatest, if not the greatest teachers I have ever had the pleasure to learn from. Her name's Silvia Perez and She also teaches Design at UBA (University of Buenos Aires, one of the best public universities in the world)

What stroke me the most about her class was how much it taught me about attention to detail, composition and perhaps the most valuable thing of all, communication

If you consider yourself to be a Vernon/Erdnase Student, I am sure that you realised how much those things apply to the construction, presentation and overall study of card artifice.

I see the pieces of the puzzle start to come together for it's not by mere chance that I decided to speak about Dai Vernon and Silvia's wonderful class in the same entry. In fact it was around June last year that I had to sit down for her test on communicational situations, design and its construction. Silvia's test was and in fact still is the talk of the town. It's regarded as one of the more complex tests a student has ever had the displeasure to sit down and write... However, that's not my point, since I did well on the test. However I remember walking away that day with a single thing in mind, an epiphany if you will. It could be summarized shortly:

"The job of the graphic designer is to create a communicational situation in which the relationship between the spectator and the design produces only one outcome, the right one. Basically, it all serves to that final effect the design has on the person who it is intended for. Let's clarify things with a little example: When you see a green sign that says exit right above a door, that is meant to tell you one thing and one thing only, and that's the place in which you're supposed to exit the venue you're in. It serves only one purpose, in this case, civil indication, I guess you could say."

Now what if you were to do the same thing but replace the design for a magical effect? To my mind I think we may arrive at something that is quite like Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic philosphy, which I happen to be a student of. So, just for the sake of it

"The job of the magician is to create a communicational situation in which the relationship between the spectator and the effect produces only one outcome, the strongest one possible."

I'd like to leave you with a final axiom which I consider to be about the most important thing when looking for new material

"The thing that matters the most is how strong the effect is, since that is directly proportional to how memorable that effect will be on those who witness it"

Please grab a copy of both strong magic and designing miracles and make a point of reading them at least once every year

"Do not fear a man who has practiced 10.000 kicks once, Fear he who has practiced one kick then thousand times"

Bruce Lee

                                                                        

The Professor

"...Modernity in the great human

skills and understandings often spring from, or is mostly inspired by

at least, a single individual of unsurpassing insight and creativity: the

twentieth century character of physics comes from Einstein, biological

thought from Darwin, modern fiddle playing from Pagannini . . . well,

we in conjuring, particularly in the poetry department called "close-up

card magic", have our one and only Dai Vernon..."

Cy Enfield, Intro to Inner Secrets of Card Magic

Genesis

"We are what we repetedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit"

Aristotle

Evening friends, Thomas Moriarty here. As I listen to the words of "I Believe in a thing called love" I inagurate this Blog. I consider it to be appropiate for me to therefore redact a brief introduction of my persona.

I am Thomas, I am 17 years of age and I am originally from Buenos Aires. I am a sleight of hand artist, a card magic aficionado and a student of the many methods of cheating at cards. I've been studying sleight of hand for as long as I can remember and I consider it to be the reason of my existance, honestly. Card magic has helped me in so many ways which we may get into later.

I am also a student of Gastronomy, an obvious foodie, a male fashion enthusiast and an amateur writer. Dedication and perfect technique are the two things that I hold as a motto in every single field of interest I may have or any subject I may study. I'm obsessed with the working of the human mind, intelligence and intelect. I've always done excellent at school, partly because of that obsession of mine and partly because I guess I didn't want anybody bothering me when I decided to spend 8 hours a day training my chops with a pack of cards, right?

I am a romatic and I am deeply head over heels for a girl that does not feel the same for me, that's another topic I may address if we shall go down the tubes with this blog.

I love TV series and sitcoms and I watch practically every single show on tv. My favorites (Past and present) are BBC's Sherlock, Breaking Bad, Dexter (I loved the ending to death) and House of Cards. Although I shall also adress some of my not so guilty pleasures, such as Gossip Girl, Glee, and so many other.

Another one of the many topics I may address while using this plataform is the analysis of my favorite book on artifice, ruse and subterfuge at the card table and that is the fantastic book written in 1902 by S.W. ERDNASE, "The expert at the card table" commonly reffered by cardicians as Erdnase.

Finally, and to avoid any controversy, I did not choose to write in english in order to appear big on the bills or anything, It is just that I feel that many of the things I want to share here I will be able to express better in english than spanish, although I may post in spanish too.

 I began this when listening to Adam Lambert and his wonderful cover of "I believe in a thing called love" and I now may leave you with another quote which I find appropiate and also very cute

And Because deep down she knows that it goes out for her.

Love can be inconvenient, perhaps inappropriate. It can be dangerous. Make us do things we wouldn't dream of doing. But wrong? That just depends on where we end up, doesn't it? 

Isaac Sirko