Michael Boden - Up Levitation 3.0
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00 Whenever a magician removes his deck of cards from his close-up case, nine times out of ten, he's going to have you select a card and then he's going to try to find it in some way.
00:13 Usually he spreads the cards, has you select one, it gets lost back in the pack, and then he finds it using his magical powers.
00:24 Well in this case I'm going to have you select a card from a shuffled pack, and I will try to find your card using a very specific magic power called Sensitivity of Touch, where I will actually try to cut to your card.
00:38 So the spectator selects one, in this case you're not here so we'll use this one here up on the table.
00:44 It doesn't matter what card you would have chosen. Please remember the Ten of Diamonds.
00:54 The ten is replaced back into the pack. One last look at your card.
01:02 And now to try to find your card after it's been lost back into the pack, by using Sensitivity of Touch I'll be able to cut to your card in slow motion. Watch.
01:21 I can't move any slower than this.
01:32 With a simple cut of the cards, one card has been found.
01:40 Was your card a red card? A diamond? I think I've got it, the Ten of Diamonds.
01:47 Very difficult to do. Sometimes I'm one or two cards off, but I did get it directly on this time.
01:56 Now I'm going to try to find a card by using Sensitivity of Touch, but a different method.
02:02 Everyone loves to be able to cut to an ace, so name any ace that you want and I'll cut to it, just like magic.
02:11 Let's say you name the ace of diamonds. It doesn't matter which one. I'll cut to it no matter which one they name.
02:18 Using a different approach this time, I won't cut the cards. The cards will cut themselves.
02:26 Just like magic.
02:31 So the cards have cut themselves into two packets.
02:46 If I lay the four cards down where the deck cut itself, you said the ace of diamonds?
02:52 Well, I have four chances at it. There's the ace of spades, there's your ace of diamonds. The ace of hearts, I cut to all four aces.
03:05 At this point, it's a simple matter to clean up the deck of cards so that you can perform any other magical routine you wish.
03:14 You simply want to go through and locate the jokers. Take them out.
03:22 Put the jokers away back into the card box.
03:26 Very open procedure. Take out one joker, take out the other joker.
03:34 And that's it. You place the jokers back into the box.
03:39 And now the deck of cards is completely clean to be examined or to perform any other routine of your choice.
03:46 [silence]
04:11 First of all, you have two playing cards that have been taped together.
04:16 One of the playing cards has a slit, two slits, within the center of the joker.
04:23 So that if you were to run a butter knife underneath it, that would puff it up a little bit, making it easy for the plastic slide, the plastic piece to slide right through it.
04:37 So first you create two little slits through the joker. The plastic gets inserted through like that.
04:50 To control the gimmick, you use your second and third finger to push it in and out as needed throughout the routine. So that it doesn't get seen upon the left edge.
05:07 Use your fingers underneath to pull it back and forth.
05:11 The setup for this is, you take two aces, lay them on top of the joker.
05:22 Take an indifferent card, the other two aces, another indifferent card, and that's it.
05:31 Everything goes on the bottom of the deck.
05:35 You want to be sure that the gimmick doesn't show on the left side, so you want to pull it out with your fingers a little bit before putting the deck of cards in the card case.
05:48 Now the card case has a slit. Simply take an exacto knife, a pair of scissors, and slit the card case on one side. So that when you place the cards with the gimmick into the case, the gimmick will not get in the way.
06:12 Plus it's easily concealed with your fingers when you take the cards out of the card box.
06:21 Pivot the cards so that the gimmick is towards the palm of your hand. Get rid of the card box. Place them in your left hand.
06:30 This is where you want to be sure that the gimmick is pulled out a little bit before you ribbon spread the cards upon the table.
06:41 You emphasize within the routine. You're going to have a card selected, placed back in the pack, and you're going to find it.
06:51 You spread the cards. You show the cards to the audience. Your left fingers are hiding that gimmick, which is right there.
07:03 Place the right hand cards back on top and shuffle the top half of the pack.
07:12 You then spread the cards to have a card selected. It doesn't matter which one they choose, but you protect the cards near the bottom by keeping your finger over top of them.
07:22 The card is selected, laid upon the table, given to the spectator.
07:26 At this point you need to cut the deck in half, but keep that plastic tab hidden.
07:33 If you want to, you can swivel cut the top half off and place the bottom half on top. Or if you're not comfortable with the swivel cut, you can simply push half of the pack forward, kick them sideways, and place the bottom half on top.
07:50 Make sure that the gimmick is pulled out so that it doesn't show on the left hand side.
07:57 The cards are spread upon the table. The spectator looks at their card.
08:04 For the replacement of the card, you simply pick up the deck and use your third finger to simply make contact with that plastic tab.
08:15 The third finger makes contact and lifts up, and that's where you have the card replaced, right there.
08:22 This is what it looks like from underneath. The third finger pressed up on the plastic tab, lifting up.
08:29 The spectator replaces their card at that point.
08:33 You can then dribble the cards sideways, covering up that plastic tab, showing the innocence of the cards being dribbled upon the table.
08:46 You can ribbon spread.
08:48 And now you're ready for the slow motion production.
08:52 You go into the fact that you're going to be doing this in slow motion.
08:56 You simply pick up the cards.
09:01 When you get to the end, you square them up a little bit.
09:05 Your third finger is going to lift up, press upon that plastic tab, as you lift up. That will lift up the gimmick with it.
09:19 As you set these cards down, you slide them sideways to the right.
09:23 That will cover up that plastic tab sticking out.
09:27 You've cut the cards at this point, and this is where the spectator's card is going to be.
09:32 You say, "Look, I found it!" just by using sensitivity of touch.
09:37 Sometimes, I'm pretty close. I'm one or two cards off.
09:40 At this point, you're getting a three-card break underneath that third card.
09:45 So to do this very easily, instead of thumb counting or pinky counting, I simply say, "I got it this time."
09:51 Every once in a while, I'm one or two cards off, and using that as a ploy to get my three-card break.
09:58 I pick up the pile on the table, place them on top.
10:02 I'm going to add these three cards to the bottom of this half.
10:06 Then I simply cut the cards in half and square them up.
10:13 Cards can be spread upon the table at this time, if you wish.
10:18 If you don't wish to spread the cards again, when you have completed the cut,
10:24 simply rotate the pack all the way around, but this tab is going to be hidden.
10:31 The tab is going to be hidden in the crotch of your thumb, right here.
10:39 Their card gets placed back into the pack.
10:43 Now, if you don't wish to do it this way, let's go back to where we were.
10:48 The cards were spread upon the table.
10:50 You can simply take their card, place it back into the pack, and then as you square them up,
10:56 do the rotation, keeping that tab hidden by the crotch of your thumb.
11:00 You then emphasize that you're going to cut to an ace.
11:03 Aces are the most popular cards in the deck, and it's very difficult to cut to them.
11:08 What you need to do now is to cut one-third, maybe one-third of the top portion of the deck, and lay them down.
11:18 You then cut two-thirds deep.
11:21 You lay them down in a stepped fashion, and the last portion you flash as you lay it down.
11:31 Let me go back to where we were before.
11:34 You cut off a small portion from the top, you show it, emphasizing how difficult it is to cut to an ace.
11:42 You simply keep that little tab hidden with your fingers as you lay that down,
11:48 and you're going to cut this first packet to the top of the deck, just like that, and you're finished.
11:57 Now, what that did was that put the gimmick joker with the plastic tab right in the center of the deck.
12:06 It positions everything so that the tab is in the center of the deck, ready for the levitation.
12:12 When you're ready to levitate, the fingers underneath push that tab to the left a little bit.
12:19 It's covered by your hand on top.
12:22 You then set the plastic tab near the base of your thumb, deep near the base of your thumb, right about there,
12:29 and the first phalange of the third finger, that crease, is where I grip the plastic tab.
12:37 Now, you'll notice the second finger and the fourth finger sort of protect the edges and the line site from the right,
12:50 and the base of your thumb protects the line site from the left.
12:54 So as you press down upon the tab, it will levitate, and when you levitate it,
13:01 be sure that it doesn't go any higher than your three fingers, which sort of guard the viewpoint from the right.
13:12 At this point, you reach underneath, pull the bottom section out, fan them if you wish,
13:18 and you go down, down, down, down, down, and you catch them at that point.
13:23 You square these up against your wrist.
13:26 You now have divided the pack into two packets, two portions.
13:30 The layout for the four ace revelation is this.
13:34 You emphasize two packets where the deck cut itself.
13:38 You lay the entire portion of the right hand to the left, but remove the top card.
13:45 The top card of the left hand goes over there, the right hand card goes up above,
13:53 the top card of the left hand goes there, and you simply square these up in your left hand.
14:03 You then emphasize that not only did you cut to their ace,
14:09 you cut to the cards in the right hand on top, picking them up, but you've cut to all four aces.
14:16 You can then spread, ribbon spread the cards down the center, and show your hands clean.
14:24 Now for the cleanup.
14:26 The plastic tab is running sideways underneath,
14:30 so all you have to do is grab it with your index finger as you spread these cards,
14:40 and you pull it out.
14:41 You simply pull it out as you spread, and it comes away from the joker.
14:48 Now it's riding underneath the fan of cards,
14:53 and the plastic strip gets placed into the left hand in a palm position.
15:00 Very easy to do.
15:02 Cut the cards on the table.
15:04 Go to your close-up case to get the deck of the card box for the cards.
15:10 Getting rid of the plastic tab, bring the card box out, remove the jokers.
15:18 This is the joker with the slit in it, so it can be covered with your thumb.
15:22 Lay it face down.
15:24 The other joker is removed.
15:29 Lay it face down.
15:31 These two jokers go into the card box.
15:34 The card box gets put away,
15:36 and now you're 100% clean to perform any other effect you wish.
15:43 Once again, when you're ready for the levitation,
15:46 the gimmick right now is in the center of the deck.
15:49 When you square up the cards, you want to leave them unsquared.
15:54 You don't want to really square the entire pack up to make it nice and square,
15:58 because there's going to be a little bit of a break in the center of the deck
16:03 because of the thickness of the plastic.
16:05 By leaving the cards unsquared, it helps to conceal that.
16:10 Now the plastic tab is over here to my right-hand side.
16:13 It's covered up by my right hand.
16:16 My left hand is going to come underneath and push that plastic tab through
16:21 to the other side a little bit, until it sticks out there.
16:25 The condition would be the plastic tab a little bit on the left,
16:29 a little bit on the right.
16:32 The deck then gets set into the--
16:35 Now this is all accomplished, by the way,
16:38 as I'm setting the deck into my hand.
16:41 I push it with my fingers underneath out the other side.
16:47 The plastic tab, once again, gets positioned deep near the base of your left thumb.
16:55 Now every hand is different, so you're going to have to find the sweet spot
16:59 for your particular hand.
17:02 On the right side of the pack, my third finger touches the plastic gimmick,
17:10 and the gimmick is guarded by my second and pinky.
17:16 All I need to do now is to press down lightly upon the gimmick,
17:22 and the deck will begin to rise.
17:25 Now you'll notice that the fingers are covering--
17:29 My fingers are just touching the edge of the deck.
17:33 In other words, I want to be able to turn this in almost any position,
17:37 and that levitation looks good.
17:39 You don't see the plastic gimmick because the fingers are lightly touching
17:44 the edge of the deck.
17:46 You never want the top half to rise above those fingers.
17:50 You then very carefully reach underneath and pull back the deck a little bit,
17:54 the bottom half, pulling it out one more time,
17:58 which leaves the deck in a beautiful position for this levitation,
18:02 and it's covered from almost every single angle.
18:05 Very difficult to see,
18:08 but that's what you're looking for.
18:10 You then motion with the cards in your right hand down, down, down, down, down,
18:14 and when the deck sinks, that's when you gesture a little bit as if you caught it.
18:19 You align these cards in your right hand against the base of your left thumb,
18:23 and now you're in the position for laying the aces out.
18:28 When I remove the top section, I don't want this plastic piece to be seen,
18:34 so I push the cards over a little bit,
18:38 emphasizing two halves where the deck has cut itself.
18:41 I then lay down this section as I instructed you before to do.
18:49 I lay them out just like that, covering the plastic gimmick.
18:53 At this point, the gimmick needs to be pulled outward a little bit
18:57 towards the right under the cover of my hand,
19:01 so I pull it out just a little bit.
19:03 I then show the four aces.
19:05 The deck was not set up for the four ace production at this point,
19:08 but these would have been the four aces.
19:10 The cards get squared,
19:13 and now all you have to do is clean up.