This is Doug BrewerвЂ™s excellent routine from his DVD Redlight. Secondly, I wanted to set up something in a couple of tricks by having a deck of cards face down off to the side, then setting four (apparent) face up aces on top of that. First, Dan Harlan recommends in вЂњMore Than Meets the EyeвЂќ that the 3rd trick of a longer routine is good to be brief, visual, and to the point. I wanted to perform this trick for two reasons. ItвЂ™s not very challenging and is a nice quick and visual packet trick. No Joke is Rick LaxвЂ™s handling where three of the jokers turn into aces underВ the spectators hands. If youвЂ™re not familiar with this great packet trick, NFW is a trick where four jokers turn into four aces. I think from my audienceвЂ™s perspective they wouldnвЂ™t be able to reverse engineer how the trick works based on my mistakes, it just temporarily ruined the subconscious suspension of disbelief I was trying to achieve.ДЇortunately, KamвЂ™s routine has a kicker ending where the four kings suddenly vanish and while my technique wasnвЂ™t flawless, the misdirection built into the routine went perfectly and it was a fun surprise. Both happened right at the beginning, one after the other, so I simply apologized and started from the very beginning. There are two sleights in the routine that I felt at the time confident on performing well (put a lot of thought into misdirection in those moments), but still had moments go terribly wrong here. IвЂ™ve put in a lot of time practicing the easy handling (Kam has a more challenging version that is designed to fool magicians).

At the end of KamвЂ™s routine each of the three cards are shown to have reappeared safe, because the kings have mysteriously disappeared. For those of you who arenвЂ™t familiar with KamвЂ™s trick (or the classic plot), the four kings вЂњeatвЂќ three other cards, which completely disappear among the packet of kings one at a time. IвЂ™ve always liked this basic plot and my favorite routines is by Curtis Kam.

I donвЂ™t recall the issue off hand, but will look it up on request. I learned this routine from my Reel Magic Magazine subscription. Like many other magicians, thereвЂ™s something about sponge ball magic that seems a little cheesy to me, but it really is an audience pleaser and that makes it both fun to perform and a good opener. This trick went well for me and was well received. I added a phase that I got from Jay NoblezadaвЂ™s sponge ball magic video (donвЂ™t remember what it is called or the original source of it is now). This is Bill MaloneвЂ™s sponge balls routine and can be done sitting at a table or stand up. IвЂ™ll start with my self-critiques on each trick in order and then my overall thoughts. My father also video recorded it, so IвЂ™ve finally gotten around to watching it to see what I can learn. That said, I was having enough fun that it was easy to simply forget about the mistakes and did very well on some tricks that I find challenging to perform. In fact, there were a couple of moments where it was pretty blatant that something had gone horribly wrong. I set my sights high in order to challenge myself to get better, knowing that this performance would be a friendly audience. It was fun to perform for them again, but in a semi-formal sit-down-at-the-table style.ДЄs a personal project, I had been putting together a sit-down show for fun while expecting that I might get the chance to actually perform it. Since then IвЂ™d gotten out of practice and then rekindled my interest and started learning again. I was very interested in magic as a kid through my 20s, so my family had seen me perform, but mostly over 20 years ago. I hadnвЂ™t seen most of the folks there in a long time and met some new family at the same time. I got to do a вЂњformalвЂќ performance for family while traveling a couple of months ago.

Al schneider magic magic cafe