Thoughts, ramblings and ridiculousness of Daryl Ducharme
Daryl Ducharme is an entertainer by nature, a tech muse by trade, and a walking dad joke. He's got lots of ideas that he'd like to share and he wants to hear yours.
This JAMM post takes us to Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde with an awesome display of card manipulation by An Ha. The routine starts off pretty standard for card manipulation routines but then moves on. He adds color and rhythm in such a jaw dropping way. By the end he gets a well deserved standing ovation. Many fellow magicians look on with childish grins on their faces.
Before I got into magic there were a lot of magicians I had never heard of but should have. I still have many more to learn about. Of course, with magic there are so many types of magic that this fact is not that surprising.
Many of my past Just Another Magic Monday posts have shown off card manipulators as I learned about some of them. However, recently I posted about Go Magic Go and the Royal Road to Card Magic. I did this because I've decided to make 2010 a magical year for me and those are the tools I am using myself to gain some magical confidence. The Royal Road to Card Magic isn't a book about card manipulation even if it does have some utility flourishes. Instead, it is a book about good old fashioned card magic.
For many people, card magic is the reason they think they don't like magic. Since card magic is so easy for people to get started at, many people learn the tricks but don't learn how to really perform them. Without the performance a trick is just a trick and rarely, if ever, entertains. Thank goodness for my pro wrestling background, I already understand this fact.
Card magic can be extremely entertaining though. In the hands of the right performer, a simple deck of cards can be all someone needs to entertain any group of people. In the magical world many would say that Bill Malone is one of the best card magic entertainers there is. I only learned about him while talking with an old friend about my new journey into magic. In the following video Bill Malone does a lot of magic, but you may not even notice it because the routine is so entertaining.
Enjoy Bill Malone's - Sam the Bellhop
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GErpOl3KG_w&w=480&h=385] [ad#Ellusionist] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.
As a magician, I can't in good conscious tip any methods on my blog because there is no way to tell if my reader is a magician or not. However, I am still a novice myself and I know how hard it is to find good methods to learn magic. So, I will gladly share some of the better ways I find to learn some magic if you too are wanting to learn the arcane arts ;) My JAMM posts are the perfect place to do this on occasion.
Today's JAMM post, as you have probably already figured out, is me recommending the book The Royal Road to Card Magic. But that is not all. I didn't start making my way through this book until I came across an podcast series called Go Magic Go. Unfortunately, this podcast isn't still being created so you have to do a little, technical, leg work in order to find it. I've done the work for you so just point your RSS reader to http://thetrapdoor.libsyn.com/rss.
If you don't know what an RSS reader is, a great online tool is Google Reader. Just click the "Add A Subscription" button and add the URL above. While your at it, do the same with http://ducharme.cc to follow the blog you are currently reading.
Back to the topic at hand. The Royal Road To Card Magic is the book they work through in a special series of podcasts Go Magic Go did for beginners. Even though the book is written well and you can get a lot out of it on your own, what you get from the beginner series podcasts is almost like a virtual magic mentor. You get tips for practicing, things to watch out for and other information that you would only get from making mistakes yourself. I still haven't gotten through the book because I'm going quite slow ( as recommended by the Go Magic Go podcast ) and still was learning some very powerful techniques and tricks almost immediately.
Here is the first lesson to get you started:
For less than $10, this book is a gold mine of magical technique. It goes well with the fact that card magic is a nice inexpensive way to start learning magic theory. The Go Magic Go podcasts are free and come with a wealth of information for anyone serious about magic. So I highly recommend listening to more than just the Beginner Series podcasts. [ad#Ellusionist] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.
I found Ekaterina( Kate ) from some advertisement videos for the Ellusionist Arcane decks. The end of her video had her website which brought me the video I am showing here. By far my favorite type of magic to watch is sleight of hand. Usually, this causes me to show a ton of card manipulation routines. Kate definitely has some extreme examples of card manipulation but this routine is an awesome display. She does a great job of misdirecting and making you think you've caught her when really she is doing something else.
Read More[ad#Ellusionist]I don't watch The Daily Show live. I usually watch it the next day on Hulu. However, last Tuesday they had a bit of magic on the show. I didn't catch it on Hulu, instead I caught it during the 3 minutes it takes to heat up a lean pocket( 2 minutes to cook, 1 minute to cool ). As usual during work meal breaks, I turned on the microwave then turned on the TV to see what's funny on Comedy Central. I've been working so much with cards lately that when I saw Larry do a thumb fan I was so excited. In the end I think I let the lean pocket cool for 2 or more minutes. Serious Issue + Humor is good but magic makes it better :)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Playing the Race Card | ||||
| www.thedailyshow.com | ||||
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In order to not bore you with more card manipulation magic I found yet another card manipulation routine that will knock your socks off. I can't get enough of this stuff. This guy makes does an amazing routine that includes a ton ( possibly literally ) of Extra - Jumbo cards. Truly amazing. ...