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CreativityTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:18 Ladies and gentlemen, Simon Lovell!
00:22 [Applause]
00:26 Alrighty.
00:27 You da man!
00:28 Who da man?
00:29 You da man!
00:30 No, you da woman!
00:31 I like that!
00:32 Sorry, it's an upper mammalian thing going on there.
00:35 Alright, Joan, just do this for Margaret.
00:41 Go so far, Margaret.
00:43 Don't treat me as a god.
00:46 I only use my powers for good.
00:50 Joan!
00:52 Did you...
00:55 Little Disney Wicked Witch of the West going on over there.
00:58 That's rather good.
00:59 Throw water on her.
01:00 I'm melting!
01:01 I'm melting!
01:02 A little surreal moment for all of us.
01:06 Joan, did your mother ever warn you about playing cards with strangers?
01:09 No.
01:10 Did she ever warn you about playing cards with strangers who wore purple and yellow
01:15 striped fluorescent under trousers with a llama in their back pocket?
01:19 [Laughter]
01:25 So your mother, unlike mine, wasn't reliving Woodstock.
01:28 Alrighty.
01:29 Did she ever warn you about the very cards themselves?
01:34 Yeah, why do magic when you can make a...
01:39 No more Indian curry for me.
01:45 You see, Joan, in each and every deck of cards there's one ruthless, vicious and heartless card.
01:49 And you get it.
01:50 Can you handle the awesome responsibility, Joan?
01:53 It's that one.
01:54 Check it out.
01:55 Have a little looky-see.
01:57 You see too.
01:58 Ah, yes, the King of Gloves.
02:00 Look at those steely eyes.
02:03 The steely eyes of a serial killer.
02:07 Look after your honey-cut bran flakes.
02:13 Is there such a thing?
02:14 There should be.
02:17 Well, stick your card in the center of the deck.
02:19 Give a little magic squiggle, Joan, and someone like a yelpie kicking its way along a street
02:23 row of fetid tramps, dozing in their cardboard boxes,
02:29 glitz back to the top of the deck.
02:31 Now, do you know what you forgot to say at that point?
02:33 What?
02:34 You forgot to say, "Wow, gasp, I don't believe it."
02:35 So let's do it again.
02:37 Pull it into the middle, a little squiggly-wiggly on the top,
02:41 and someone like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, row of boxes,
02:44 it jumps back to the top, and you say, "Wow, gasp, I don't believe it!"
02:50 Does it work?
02:53 Do you know how fricking patronizing that is?
02:57 Of course it's going to work.
02:58 I'm the magician.
02:59 What did you expect, the wrong one?
03:01 I mean, when you go to a gynecologist and say, "Examine me," and he looks at your throat,
03:05 do you go back to the gynecologist?
03:07 I think not.
03:12 Having found it on top of the deck twice, we'll now go for the awe-inspiring good of
03:15 finally getting in the middle.
03:17 Oops, lost my break.
03:18 I'm going to need for a backup breather, correct?
03:20 You have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's funny for me.
03:24 There we go.
03:25 It's that one, right?
03:26 Did we get it?
03:28 Don't worry about this sensation, seekers.
03:31 Each and every king in this deck of cards is ruthless, vicious, and heartless.
03:35 Yours went undercover just for a second.
03:38 Ooh.
03:40 I can get it back whenever I like.
03:42 And now for an awe-inspiring finale, we go for all four kings,
03:45 making it a four-king good trick.
03:50 Hey, we gave you the language.
03:51 It's up to you what you did with it.
03:53 Here we go.
03:55 A little shovey-pushy from the middle, that's the king of spades.
03:58 There's the king of clubs.
03:59 There's the king of hearts.
04:00 And ooh, about 17th from the top, the king of diamonds.
04:04 That's four ruthless, vicious, and heartless kings.
04:06 But, Jen, that's not enough for a woman of danger like yourself.
04:11 You want to know about the characters of the rest of the cards, right?
04:14 Check this out.
04:15 These guys are ruthless, vicious, and heartless.
04:17 The rest of the deck, just heartless.
04:20 Oh.
04:23 You know, the first time I saw that, I was so impressed, I forgot to applaud.
04:27 [laughter]
04:31 Well, that's a deck you can't do anything with,
04:33 so we're going to go for a backup deck of cards.
04:35 Luckily, I am a man with two decks.
04:38 All righty.
04:40 We're going to need this for this trick, Margaret.
04:43 Now Margaret smiles.
04:44 We need this for this effect, Margaret.
04:48 It's not drugs.
04:49 Don't worry, it's just a small little--
04:51 It looks like a big pinal on.
04:54 Nice save there.
04:57 Take that from either end.
04:58 You'd be high for a week.
04:59 All right.
05:02 Joe, we need a little card of mystery here for the end of the effect,
05:05 otherwise it wouldn't be a mystery.
05:07 It would be more of a misery.
05:08 Ha ha tee hee ho ho.
05:09 Such jest, such joy in one so young and free.
05:13 I think it's this one.
05:16 I'd like you to just kind of hold your hand over that card if you would,
05:18 but don't lift up your hand unless my jacket's covering it,
05:22 and then only if I'm whispering, "Lift up your hand."
05:27 It's a magic thing.
05:29 Margaret, what I'm going to do,
05:30 I'm going to scaddle my thumb down the deck like this,
05:33 and I want you to pull out stop whenever you like.
05:35 It's a little scaddle-y action.
05:38 Okay, we're going to flip out three cards here.
05:41 These three cards need to be remembered,
05:43 or the end of the trick will mean nothing.
05:45 Like it's going to mean something anyway.
05:48 So what's your name young fellow?
05:50 Andrew.
05:51 Andrew, good.
05:52 A little short-term memory loss thing going on there.
05:56 Just think back to when somebody in a black suit threw water over your head.
05:59 It's a good thing.
06:00 [Laughter]
06:03 Andrew, do you remember the Queen of Spades?
06:05 Do not forget it, or I will kill you.
06:08 [Laughter]
06:10 And who have we got here?
06:11 We've got Rocco.
06:12 Rocco, would you remember?
06:13 Rocco!
06:14 [Laughter]
06:17 Do not forget it, or I will kill Andrew.
06:20 [Laughter]
06:22 You've got that funny little squinty stare.
06:25 He's dangerous. Rocco's dangerous.
06:27 [Laughter]
06:29 I'm also collecting signatures from beautiful women.
06:31 This has nothing to do with the trick.
06:33 I'm making a quilt.
06:34 [Laughter]
06:36 Would you mind signing your card, young Margaret?
06:39 That's great.
06:40 I'll put you right up near the headboard so it clatters a lot.
06:42 [Laughter]
06:43 Now I snort.
06:44 What am I doing?
06:45 You're signing your name upon the card.
06:48 Small biography perhaps.
06:50 Phone number.
06:51 [Laughter]
06:53 Oh, home phone number, no.
06:55 Not me.
06:57 Work phone number, yes.
06:59 [Laughter]
07:00 Okay, so we're going to find these three cards in ever increasing levels of difficulty.
07:04 So we've got your card, the Queen of Spades.
07:06 Just mix that little puppy back in the deck.
07:08 Mixy, mixy, mixy, mixy, mixy, mixy, mixy.
07:11 I'm so tidy.
07:13 Give him a little shuffly wuffly.
07:16 I don't know why I put the wuffly on.
07:18 [Laughter]
07:19 I guess from all those times in the youth when they were going,
07:21 "Oh, it's such a queedy, weedy, cutie, woody, goody, goody, woody, nooty, goody."
07:28 All right.
07:29 [Laughter]
07:30 Now you've got the Seven of Clubs.
07:32 Seven of Clubs, we give him a little gutty, gutty, gutty, gutty.
07:35 Gutty.
07:36 Mixy, mixy.
07:37 Oobly, doobly, woobly, doobly, goobly thing.
07:40 And finally, your card, the sign card, the Two of Hearts into the deck.
07:45 Three cards in ever increasing levels of difficulty.
07:47 I'm taking my life in my hands here, my friends, but I'm prepared to do that.
07:51 Just for you.
07:55 Getting serious now, John.
07:56 Don't be afraid.
08:00 I snap my finger against the deck, breaking my finger in the process.
08:04 [Laughter]
08:06 But I think it's worth it for magic, don't you, Margaret?
08:09 Get a life.
08:10 Just a card break.
08:11 [Laughter]
08:14 What we do in the process, find the Seven of Clubs.
08:16 That's a rock scar, that's one found.
08:18 Lift up your hand just a snitch, sneak that under your hand with the card of mystery.
08:22 Now we go for your card now, it's Andy, right?
08:24 Andy, Anagram of Danny, which is Irish for boy, hence the song.
08:28 Oh Danny boy.
08:29 Because otherwise it would have been, oh boy, boy, boy.
08:31 [Laughter]
08:34 I have no idea where that came from.
08:36 [Laughter]
08:38 Andy, the Queen of Clubs?
08:40 No, Queen of Spades.
08:42 Spades.
08:43 Peaky, peaky.
08:44 Check it out, my friend.
08:46 Ha!
08:47 I didn't say it was your card.
08:48 I just went, ha!
08:49 [Laughter]
08:52 I didn't, did I, Margaret?
08:54 I've never, never for a moment did the words your or card or is it cross my list.
08:58 [Laughter]
09:03 No?
09:04 Ha!
09:05 Oh, come on, it's the same signs.
09:07 [Laughter]
09:09 I know what you're thinking.
09:11 He can't do it, but he can.
09:12 He picks up the drugs, the pen.
09:14 He unscrews the pen.
09:20 Suddenly he remembers the pen doesn't unscrew.
09:22 [Laughter]
09:25 Opening up the pen you'll see inside a small folded up playing card, but not just any playing card.
09:30 Au contraire, mes amis.
09:32 I put on the stiletto heels, walk up and down my back.
09:37 [Laughter]
09:38 Bite me, bite me, make me bleed and call you,
09:41 I'm sorry, I drifted.
09:42 [Laughter]
09:45 It's actually your card, Andy, the Queen of Spades.
09:47 [Laughter]
09:49 [Applause]
09:54 That's the end of the trick.
09:56 Oh, well, apart from your card, Margaret.
09:57 But you see, I don't need to find your card.
09:59 I already found your card.
10:01 Do you remember, Joan, we put a card of mystery under your hand?
10:03 Lift up your hand.
10:04 You can move it away now.
10:06 A few moments ago, Andy, we found your card, the Queen of Spades, inside the funny little pen thing.
10:10 A few moments before that, Rob, we found your card, the Seven of Clubs on top of the deck.
10:15 Then there's the card you had your hand on right from the start.
10:17 Before any were taken or signed.
10:19 Now, if that turned out to be the signed card,
10:23 would you run from this bar on tippy toes with your eyes ablazing, screaming,
10:27 "Hallelujah, I have found my companion! Let's nail him to a tree!"
10:33 [Laughter]
10:36 You would, Joan?
10:38 If only the effects were possible.
10:40 But you know, if the stars are twinkling correctly,
10:43 Saturn is positioned in the right galaxy, and you know where Uranus is.
10:48 [Laughter]
10:50 It's a planet.
10:52 Planetoid.
10:53 It would be a pretty cool trick, wouldn't it?
10:55 Do you want to lift it up all by yourself?
10:56 Do you want to check it out?
10:57 [Cheering]
11:06 Hi, Margaret.
11:08 I don't know!
11:10 [Laughter]
11:12 Go white boy! Go skinny little white boy!
11:14 [Laughter]
11:16 All righty, Joan, you ready for one for you?
11:18 I want to show you something a little weird here.
11:20 Something a little vile and disgusting, if you can handle it, my darling.
11:23 Reach in, grab anyone you like.
11:25 Perfecto.
11:27 I think we have the old, uh, wobbly pen of death.
11:31 Sign your name big and bold.
11:33 Margaret, do you know how those first tricks we did were done?
11:35 Sleight of hand.
11:37 [Speaking in French]
11:41 I speak Spanish fluently.
11:43 [Laughter]
11:45 In other words, they were done by sleight of hand, nimble fingers.
11:48 That's not what I'm going to show you right now, my darling.
11:50 I'm going to show you something just a little different, a little weirder, a little wilder.
11:54 But for the benefit of our viewing audience, or the eye probably in this case,
12:00 could you give a technical definition of sleight of hand for me?
12:05 How do you perceive it to be?
12:09 Ladies and gentlemen, this is our technical definition of sleight of hand.
12:13 I'm sorry, did I override your line there?
12:16 The ability to create a manual motion.
12:19 Perfect. Succinct, understandable in any language. I like that.
12:22 That's not what I'm going to do for you, though.
12:24 I'm going to find you a card with sleight of tongue.
12:26 [Laughter]
12:28 Of course we need a nine-inch tongue. I have one.
12:32 Now you're welcome.
12:34 [Laughter]
12:36 Check this out. Don't try it at home.
12:39 Oh. Oh!
12:41 Now I know.
12:43 Is this your pub?
12:46 No!
12:49 Not your pub.
12:51 Is this your pub?
12:53 No!
12:55 Your pub is somewhere in the middle of the bed.
13:04 [Laughter]
13:23 Is this your pub?
13:28 [Laughter]
13:30 How cool will that be?
13:32 [Laughter]
13:34 [Cheering]
13:36 From the middle of the deck, my friend.
13:39 [Applause]
13:42 Souvenir?
13:44 All right.
13:46 [Laughter]
13:47 We'll make you a little souvenir just for joining in there.
13:50 You see, when I was a very, very young man, Joan,
13:53 I went to a very poor school in England called Eton,
13:56 which all Americans have heard of because it's always 23 down in the USA today, crossword.
14:01 [Laughter]
14:02 Ah! An intellectual in a bar in the South Bronx, very cool, fine.
14:07 Obviously researching for a PhD on screwed-up people.
14:11 Now, there at Eton, oh, that was a sinker, that guy, wasn't it?
14:16 Just kind of went, "Brrr, brr, brr."
14:19 We'll store it over in the corner there, see if we can add some more to it,
14:21 make it add up to a real joke later on.
14:23 There at Eton, we had a very posh Chinese teacher who taught us Japanese art, Mr. Funche.
14:29 Now, Mr. Funche taught us the Japanese art of arigatou.
14:33 [Audio cuts out]
14:36 Paper folding, and there's arigatou, which is group sex.
14:39 No! No, not group sex.
14:41 [Laughter]
14:43 Paper twisting.
14:45 Sorry, just had a little Hanoi flashback there.
14:48 [Laughter]
14:52 And as he made these for us, he would always quote from Ulysses, James Joyce.
14:56 James Joyce, a drunken Irish poet, like there are any other kind of Irish poets.
15:01 [Laughter]
15:04 And he'd do the quotes, an older man talking to a younger man.
15:07 "To lure a lady for lustful means, you should give her red roses.
15:13 To show respect and admiration for a beautiful lady,
15:16 you should search for the purest of all the roses in the garden, a perfect white rose."
15:20 So this is no longer just a little paper rose journey.
15:23 Oh, no, no.
15:25 These are the inspirational teachings of a Chinaman, teaching me Japanese art,
15:29 made for you by a man with an English accent,
15:31 inspired by the words of an Irish poet, using a humble New York cocktail napkin.
15:35 An international piece of art that were only smeared with crack
15:39 would be hanging in the Brooklyn Museum of Art today.
15:41 [Laughter]
15:44 Now, this rose, Joan, has no smell, but if you hold it next to your ear, you can hear the sea.
15:49 If you're really near the sea.
15:51 [Laughter]
15:53 It's like seashells, you know, you can hear the sea in them.
15:55 Where do you find them? By the sea.
15:57 It's like, put your head in my glove compartment, can you hear an engine?
16:00 [Laughter]
16:03 Joan, you get two things from this somewhat traumatic experience we've had.
16:07 You get a beautiful paper rose, you get all of the applause for helping along.
16:10 [Applause]
16:13 Simon Lovell!
16:15 [Applause]
16:20 [Music]
16:27 [Laughter]
16:31 Well, another tremulous set at the bar is over, and it's time for the explaining stuff.
16:36 First we opened with Heartless.
16:38 Now, Heartless is, it's got a fishy tail to this one.
16:42 [Laughter]
16:43 I titch.
16:44 [Poof]
16:45 Don't blame me, I just shot a shark.
16:51 Anyway, Heartless is a very cute effect.
16:56 It's a very simple effect to do.
16:58 You need a deck of cards, take out the four kings,
17:02 and you need to cut holes in the rest of the cards
17:05 from the centre of Angel's Face to centre of Angel's Face to centre of Angel's Face to centre of Angel's Face.
17:10 It's going to give you this huge hole in the deck at the end.
17:13 Now, the kings will act as thick cards here.
17:16 They're not actually thick cards, but they're just thicker than these.
17:19 Put a king of the same colour top and bottom,
17:22 two kings together in the centre, giving it an instant reset,
17:26 which is very important for walk-around magic.
17:28 So you bring out the deck, you casually flash it,
17:31 riffle up the back to the clunk-clunk point, I call it.
17:35 They act as thick cards. You cut the deck at that point.
17:38 This is not the best ambitious card routine in the world.
17:41 I know that because my other one is.
17:43 But somewhat like the Omega deck, for example, or Paul Harris' Solid Deception,
17:47 this is designed to show as many backs as possible before the final Dénouement.
17:51 Go to the clunk-clunk point again, and give them the top of the two middle cards.
17:57 You then set the deck for the Tilt move,
17:59 which is where you drop the deck down in your hand a little bit,
18:02 so that when you take their card and put it back,
18:04 it looks like it's kind of going in the middle,
18:06 but it's actually going seconds from the top of the deck.
18:09 Square up, take a break, snap your fingers or whatever you're going to do,
18:13 do a double lift to show their card has apparently leapt back to the top.
18:17 Now go to the clunk point in the middle.
18:20 If you try this with cards in hands, it's much easier, trust me.
18:23 Pull the top card of the deck into the middle,
18:25 do your little snap of the fingers, and their card has jumped back to the top again.
18:30 Now you claim you're going to try and find the card in the middle,
18:33 so you go to the clunk-clunk point, cut the deck.
18:36 Go to the clunk-clunk point, and cut the deck again.
18:39 Actually, their card is still on top of the deck,
18:41 but, tunningly, you're going to go to the clunk-clunk point,
18:45 and give them the wrong king.
18:48 Panic and destruction amongst the audience,
18:51 but you get yourself safely back by claiming all the kings in the deck
18:54 are ruthless, vicious, and heartless.
18:56 That's when you take a break on the top card of the deck.
18:59 Now again, I use Mark Basu's shape-shifter move
19:02 to say I can bring your king back to the top any time you like.
19:05 You could also, as we've said on the previous tape,
19:08 use an up-the-arm snap change here to change the king to the right king.
19:12 If you don't want to do any work at all at this point,
19:14 you can just claim that this is the king that they chose, it's the brother.
19:18 And he'll talk to him, "Come on up to the top of the deck, my little buddy."
19:22 Boom, and you can show it's there.
19:25 At this point, you have three kings on top of the deck and one in the middle.
19:28 So you go to the clunk point, you pull back and push forward
19:32 so as not to expose the hole too early.
19:35 Spin out, turn over.
19:37 Turn the next one over.
19:39 When you turn the next one over, you cover the deck and lift it up just a little bit.
19:44 Now you're going to do kind of like a reverse tilt move as you reach in and go,
19:47 "Ooh," and about 18th from the top of the deck is the last king.
19:51 That's four ruthless, vicious, heartless kings.
19:54 You push with your finger through just a little here so you can grab those kings
19:58 as you talk about the characters of the rest of the cards being just heartless.
20:04 It's a kick-ass moment.
20:07 So that's Heartless. Enjoy.
20:09 [music]
20:16 OK, the next effect I did on that tape--and you notice I did have a reason
20:19 for bringing out a new deck at that point--was the cards had holes in them.
20:22 We couldn't use them anymore.
20:24 It's called another Departed Point.
20:26 It's kind of a mixture of two of Alex Helmsley's tricks,
20:29 Point of Departure and Between Your Palms.
20:32 A very simple setup is required on top of the deck.
20:35 That is--I always use a Seven of Clubs and a Queen of Spades as my duplicates.
20:41 Seven of Clubs, an easy card for them to sign.
20:44 I always use a two or a four. You want the signature to be very visible.
20:48 Seven of Clubs, Queen of Spades.
20:50 You also need another Queen of Spades folded up somewhere.
20:53 Now I use this funny little pen thing simply because it amuses me.
20:57 You could have the card folded up in your wallet, in your pocket, or under a glass.
21:00 Or on one very memorable occasion when I did the effect down a barmaid's dress.
21:05 It took a mere three days to recover that second chosen card.
21:09 So you have this very simple setup.
21:12 You cut the deck, maintain a break, fan out the cards,
21:15 and fan force the card to yourself.
21:18 If you can't fan force to yourself, you're really in trouble.
21:20 You throw that card down on the table and ask them to cover it with their hand.
21:24 They're covering the Seven of Clubs.
21:26 You're already two cards ahead of them.
21:29 Three cards you're going to force are now on top of the deck
21:32 in preparation for the world's easiest riffle force
21:34 based around Harry Blackstone Senior's Revolving Pass.
21:37 You riffle down the deck. They say, "Stop."
21:40 You go flip, flip, and just flip out the top three cards of the deck.
21:45 It's a very simple, very nice force.
21:47 You just have to make it nice and smooth.
21:49 Don't make it a flip, flip action.
21:53 It literally has to be, they say, "Stop," and you say, "We'll flip out three cards."
21:57 It's a little bit of practice time there.
21:59 I have the first card remembered by a man.
22:02 I have the second card remembered by a man.
22:04 And then I always have a woman sign the third card.
22:06 I don't like just one card being signed.
22:08 I know this is the climax card, otherwise.
22:10 So I make a silly joke out of it, say, "Please sign your name on the card."
22:13 It's nothing to do with the trick. I'm making a quilt.
22:17 Which is stupid enough for them to kind of lose track.
22:21 It's just, "Oh, Simon's drifting again."
22:23 "Oh, and here's a drift for you. My impression of Carl Cloutier."
22:25 "Ah, you saw him on Top Heat." "Good. Moving on."
22:29 Now I'm going to gather the cards back up and control them to the top of the deck.
22:32 So we take the Queen of Spades first.
22:34 Again, just that simple little hold or break, cuddy-cuddy thing.
22:37 Little shuffle-up thing going on there.
22:39 Now we take the Seven of Clubs.
22:41 Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
22:43 All the time chatting to the audience.
22:45 Little mix again.
22:47 And finally the signed card goes in.
22:49 Maybe the last time you see this card alive, my friend.
22:52 Cut to the top.
22:54 Now I claim I'm going to find all three in ever-increasing levels of difficulty.
22:57 And as I'm chatting away with that, I take a break under the top two cards of the deck.
23:01 I snap my finger against the back of the deck.
23:04 And I do a double lip.
23:06 Finding the first chosen card.
23:08 Pop it down. Take the top card of the deck, which is the signed card.
23:12 And slide it across the surface.
23:14 Just lifting the hand up just a snatch.
23:16 Because if you lead with a corner here, it'll automatically go where you want it, underneath that first card.
23:22 Now you can relax. Everything is in place. The work is over.
23:26 You just have to sell the fact that you can't find the second card.
23:30 Now you can find it.
23:32 At this point I put the deck in my pocket with the backs in.
23:35 You'll see why in a second.
23:37 We open up the pen.
23:39 The folded up card.
23:41 It's their card.
23:43 For laypeople this is particularly strong.
23:45 Magicians scream, "Oh, it's just a duplicate."
23:48 Real people are like, "Oh my God!"
23:51 Lift the hand a little bit.
23:53 And you'll see when you fold a card how it's got kind of up bends on it.
23:56 You slide it under the hand and it automatically goes exactly where you want it.
24:00 Which is on top of the two cards there.
24:03 They lift up their hand. They see exactly what you've claimed to do.
24:05 You had a card under the hand. You put a card in on top of that.
24:08 And a folded card in on top of that.
24:10 The folded card really sells it.
24:12 So a few moments before we found your card in the funny little bend thing.
24:15 A few moments before that there was your card on top of the deck.
24:19 Then there was the card you had your hand on.
24:21 And if you watch back on the performance piece you'll see just how strongly I sell this.
24:26 As I'm selling that, I thumb off the top two cards in my pocket, which are the two duplicates.
24:32 And bring out my deck ready to go with my next effect.
24:35 Although when they turn over that same card, unless you've got a killer effect to follow it, you might not want to bother.
24:41 It's a very, very strong effect. That's called another departure.
24:44 OK, the next routine I did has become quite a signature piece of me, the card to mouth.
24:57 Because it's of inherent nuttiness and total insanity.
25:00 I'm not the only one to put the deck in my mouth.
25:02 Jep Hobson, for example, puts the deck in his mouth, as indeed did Frank Garcia many, many years ago.
25:07 But the most important part to me about this routine is my handling of the fold.
25:12 So many people use a mercury card fold.
25:14 I don't. I use one that's much more covered, in my opinion.
25:18 So let's not skip ahead of ourselves here.
25:20 A card is chosen.
25:21 The card is signed.
25:23 Socrates, I think we'll use for this one.
25:26 A fine philosophical fellow who would have adored card to mouth had he only been alive to see it.
25:31 It's a Greek tragedy.
25:33 The card is replaced back in the deck.
25:35 As I square it up onto the deck, I take a break underneath the card this time.
25:39 So that when the halves go together and I cut the deck a couple of times, the chosen card goes to the bottom of the deck.
25:46 I can even do my little shuffling action.
25:49 I've just turned the deck around.
25:50 The card stays on the bottom of the deck.
25:53 Now, the fold's going to be done under very strong cover of the lady giving her technical definition of sleight of hand, which, trust me, I've had some extremely amusing ones said.
26:03 "Oh, it's something that just happens so fast I can't feel it."
26:06 And I'd say, "No, that's how babies are made."
26:09 So you've got all this kind of nuttiness going on.
26:11 Now let's look at the fold in full detail here.
26:21 The deck is gripped from above by the right hand.
26:25 The left hand pushes the bottom card over about halfway.
26:30 The first finger goes onto about the center of the card as the other fingers curl around and pull in and just push in the middle of the card.
26:40 The deck is then flexed outwards and the fingers are back.
26:46 The first finger doing most of the work, as you see.
26:49 The card goes up against the deck, and as you squeeze the deck, the rest of the fold is completed.
26:55 It's absolutely invisible from the top.
26:58 And, again, you have this huge cover of the lady talking.
27:02 Now you claim, and you can do whatever you like with this, the nine-inch tongue thing, the whole bit, but you put the whole deck in your mouth, loading the card with the left thumb as you do so.
27:15 Now, this is going to be a killer thing to explain.
27:19 To unfold the card with your tongue will take a lot of tremulous tongue work.
27:25 Here's another advantage of my fold. You see how it kind of folds it off kilter.
27:29 So now I can get that bit open by forcing my tongue into the shorter end and shoving forwards.
27:41 Now I'm going to force my tongue under this leading egg, put it in there, that translates to get it in there, like this, and then flip the card open this way.
27:53 So I want it to open upside down.
27:58 If I can do it, anybody can do it.
28:00 You want to open it upside down because the climax of the trick would be spoiled by the whole unfolding thing.
28:06 It's so amusing to just look at a lady in the audience at that point and just go, big laugh.
28:11 Then you have your second laugh when you say, "It just turned out to be your showing card. How cool would that be?"
28:17 And then you flip it up just by putting your tongue under it and finish by offering it as a souvenir.
28:26 It's a rarely taken.
28:28 So that's my handling of cards in the mouth.
28:30 Whatever you do, please don't do it exactly as I do it, not because I care about that, but because you want to make the effect to you.
28:35 Make it you.
28:37 Card to mouth.
28:41 Oh yeah, the rose.
28:43 This is a ratty little napkin I've been using to damp my fetid brow throughout the taping.
28:49 I'm sure it'll make a pretty good rose for us.
28:51 The paper rose is the best giveaway you can give anybody.
28:53 Women keep these forever.
28:55 I've had somebody come up to me five years later and show me a rose I made for them.
28:59 Handling on the rose is very simple.
29:01 You fold in a third, then you just fold back.
29:06 Now you roll the whole thing towards you.
29:11 It's kind of like a little tube thing.
29:13 And tuck the corner down at the top, 45 degree angle.
29:17 Stick your finger in up to the second joint.
29:20 And now twist at the base.
29:23 It's very important you move your finger around inside to flatten the base of the head of the rose.
29:28 So you should end up with something a little like that.
29:33 Now you're going to twist as tight as you can.
29:35 The thinner the stem is, the better the rose is going to look.
29:38 So you twist as tightly as you possibly can until you're about halfway down.
29:42 Now you start to unfold the bottom, coming up, until you're in this position.
29:48 Now you see here how that's between my finger and thumb, the extra bit.
29:52 And the stem is between my first and second fingers.
29:55 That means my left hand can crunch around the base of the leaf there.
30:00 That's what gives the leaf that really pretty rose-like shape.
30:05 Once you've got the base locked in, you just carry on twisting down.
30:10 Finally, you come up to the top and twist the two halves against each other, locking it all out.
30:16 To make, even with a ratty napkin, a very pretty little rose indeed.
30:23 It's a romantic moment, my friend.
30:27 The rose.
30:30 [music]
30:38 All right, are you ready for some more questions?
30:40 We're going to do them now.
30:42 Heartless is one of those rare routines that I've seen you perform as both an opener, a closer, and as a centerpiece.
30:49 What's appropriate for all three locations, and how do you choose what position you'll use Heartless in?
30:56 That's a good question.
30:57 Actually, the other interesting thing about Heartless is, unlike so many effects,
31:00 it's also very good for both magicians and laypeople because of the huge surprise ending.
31:05 I think it works as an opener because it's very quick, it's very direct, and there's a lot of magic happening.
31:11 Strangely, it works as a middler for exactly the same reason, but if I'm using it as a middler,
31:15 I just tend to slow down a little bit and I do more patter lines with them, more interactive patter lines.
31:20 As a closer, it really speaks for itself because, again, the whole shock finish.
31:25 I'm not a great lover of multiple climaxes on tricks, but this one has kind of like two climaxes,
31:32 but one's a little climax and one's a big climax.
31:34 There's the whole ambitious card thing, the four kings appear, it's the end of the trick, wham,
31:39 there's the huge hole in the deck, and I may add, for a totally logical reason, the rest of the deck is just heartless.
31:45 It's one of those tricks that just pops in anywhere.
31:48 I've used it as a stand-alone piece, and I've also used it as an opener, middler, and closer, as you said.
31:54 I've used it for both laypeople and magicians.
31:56 Perhaps its very power is its simplicity, that anybody can understand what's going on.
32:02 There's just that wham at the end that's so pretty.
32:07 Most people might find that the paper rose is not strong enough to be a closing routine,
32:15 yet you do close with it, and you also use it as your second to closing piece in your stand-up act.
32:22 Absolutely.
32:23 So, why do you feel it's a closer?
32:27 Oh, this opens up another nice little can of emotional worms in that it's not about the rose.
32:36 It's about how you're attached to the spectator.
32:40 It's about the interaction between you and the lady spectator.
32:43 If you look at the lady's face when you're making the rose,
32:46 you've taken a crappy piece of paper that normally has a bloody Mary on it,
32:49 and you're turning it into a piece of art for you.
32:52 It's something that's very special, very caring.
32:54 You're doing it especially just for her.
32:58 I have a kind of cute storyline when I make the rose.
33:01 I make the rose for her, and every time I'm looking at the lady,
33:05 she's going, "Oh, that's so cute."
33:09 It's a connection between just you and one member of the audience
33:12 that you're going to spread in just a second,
33:15 because right at the end of it, you've made the rose,
33:18 and you say to the lady, "You get two things from this experience between us.
33:22 This pretty white rose and all of this applause."
33:26 And that makes the lady feel so special.
33:30 I mean, as performers, we all know applause is like food and drink to us.
33:34 It's a very special feeling.
33:36 When you give that feeling to somebody else,
33:39 it's an extraordinary gift you're giving them.
33:41 It's something they're never likely to experience again.
33:44 So the rose, I feel, absolutely categorically is a wonderful, magical effect,
33:50 even though there's no magic happening there.
33:52 It's all emotional magic rather than visible magic,
33:55 which is why, for the love of God, my friends,
34:00 don't float the rose.
34:02 And even worse, don't change it into a real rose.
34:06 Anybody can go to a corner store and buy a rose for a couple of dollars.
34:10 Not many people can make a perfect rose for somebody.
34:14 The moment you float it, you've taken a magical effect and turned it into a trick.
34:18 The moment you turn it into a real rose, you've done even worse.
34:22 You've taken a magical effect, turned it into a magic trick,
34:25 and then lost the piece of art you made for them.
34:28 It's insane.
34:29 Make the rose, let her feel the emotion, and give her the audience reaction.
34:34 It's a beautiful thing.
34:36 How important is originality in performance style and in performance method?
34:45 A two-part question.
34:46 Part A, performance style is, I believe, of paramount importance to be original,
34:53 because if you're not original, you're doing somebody else's style.
34:56 And I repeat it to the point of insanity on these tapes,
35:00 to take magic and make it you.
35:02 Find your performance character.
35:04 So I think performance style, originality, 100%, paramount,
35:09 number one important thing you should look at.
35:12 Method is a slightly different thing.
35:15 I think it's important that you pick methods that fit your hands and your style.
35:20 There's no point trying to do an effect you can't do the moves for.
35:24 So is it important to have uniquely original methods for your effects?
35:28 I don't think so.
35:29 I don't think it's important at all.
35:31 If a piece works as written, then do it that way.
35:35 So that I don't think is important.
35:37 Performance character, absolutely important.
35:39 Methods, just make sure the methods fit the character.
35:42 And then the two-part question actually becomes a one-part question.
35:45 Methods fit character.
35:47 Character, very important.
35:50 A broad topic here, Simon, but how do you feel
35:55 magicians should go about routine their magic,
35:58 or perhaps more germane, how do you personally routine your magic?
36:03 How do you bring things together in a concise, simple manner?
36:06 Okay, that's a very tough question.
36:08 It's one that has a different answer for everybody, really.
36:10 Again, it's based around performance character.
36:12 You see, my character is so nutty and is always kind of jumping around from things to things.
36:16 It's actually easier for me to link two unrelated pieces together.
36:20 However, if you watch the sets, I think the pieces do flow together very seamlessly.
36:26 And here's the easy answer.
36:28 The easy answer is, so many magicians concentrate on the routine,
36:32 then the next routine, then the next routine.
36:35 Very few magicians concentrate about what goes on between the routines.
36:40 And that's a very critical time.
36:42 So I have so many openers, I have so many middlers, I have so many closers.
36:46 I have some, as we've seen, that will do triple duty.
36:49 I can pick from an opener, my opening pile, I can pick from the middling pile,
36:53 I can pick from the closing pile, and now I have a one, two, three set.
36:56 Then what I spend a lot of time doing is working out how to sew those pieces together,
37:01 putting the seams in the middle, how can I fit them and lock them together.
37:05 So the easy answer is, it's very important to spend as much time
37:10 on what happens between your routines as it is during your routines.
37:14 That way you'll become a much better magician and the whole set will focus together.
37:18 Also with some particular effects like the wobbly wombat, of course,
37:21 I'll do the card to wallet early on, and then do the wobbly wombat at the end.
37:25 And that ties everything in between it around into a nice neat package.
37:29 The most upset that you performed at the beginning of this tape,
37:33 which I'll refer to as the heartless set,
37:36 garnered a spectacular reaction.
37:40 And that's verified by looking at the performance itself.
37:45 Why do you think that was, and how can magicians try to achieve
37:52 that level of audience reaction, audience response, with every set they do?
37:57 Actually, it sounds like a tough question,
37:59 it's actually one of the easiest questions you've asked me.
38:01 I've partially answered it before.
38:04 First thing is to care about your audience.
38:06 You've got to truly care about your audience and care about their reaction.
38:10 If you don't care, why should they react?
38:12 You've got to be very giving to your audience.
38:15 Somebody once said that a true comedian or a true artist will bare his soul to an audience,
38:20 and every time they perform a smaller piece will be torn away from it,
38:23 making performance painful almost at times.
38:26 So that's very important.
38:28 Secondly, I think a lot of magicians work too quickly.
38:32 They're like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,
38:33 rushing to the end of the effect, rushing to the gag line.
38:36 If you notice, although it appears to be quite a frenetic pace,
38:39 I'm actually working quite slowly.
38:41 My routines actually do go quite long.
38:44 The other thing is to focus totally on the moment of the magic.
38:47 If you want a big reaction from a trick, make sure they understand what the trick is.
38:52 There's no point going, "Hey, your card's reversed in the middle of the deck.
38:56 Look, the decks have all changed colour.
38:57 Hey, they're blank faces. Moving on, what's the next trick?"
39:00 It's not the climax.
39:02 A very simple example to get a great effect out of something
39:05 is the simple turning of a playing card.
39:08 Playing card is on the table, and I go, "Look, that's your card.
39:11 Why should they care? It's a card."
39:13 If, on the other hand, I pick up the card and say,
39:17 "If this was your card, how cool would that be?"
39:22 You're setting a whole premise up there for them to be going,
39:26 "Okay, well, it shouldn't be my card, but what if it is my card?
39:29 That can't be my card. It wasn't my card a minute ago."
39:31 You're teasing them like this.
39:34 Then when you finally turn it, it's that moment.
39:40 There's a trend in magic today towards shorter and shorter effects,
39:46 a trend in almost every area of performance art.
39:50 Yet, several routines that you do are long routines time-wise.
39:58 You still use long routines. Why do you do that,
40:01 and why do you feel that you are successful with these,
40:05 by some standards, extremely long routines?
40:08 Why do I do it? That's just the way I perform.
40:12 My performance character is one who likes to talk and mess around
40:16 and joke with the audience and have fun with them.
40:18 So by necessity, the routines become long.
40:21 I find it very difficult to work concisely in short effects.
40:25 Why do I think I'm successful doing that?
40:27 I'd either have to be horribly egotistical here and say,
40:30 "I'm successful because I'm a funny guy and I can come up with great lines and improv bits."
40:35 I could also be much less than egotistical and say, "I'm successful at it."
40:39 And here comes another repeat, folks.
40:41 "I'm successful at it because I make people care about it."
40:44 By showing that I'm caring about them and having fun with them,
40:47 they care about the routine.
40:48 And once they care about the routine, it doesn't really matter how long the routine is.
40:51 You're all just having fun.
40:53 This whole thing of wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, magic may suit some people very well.
40:58 It just doesn't suit me. It's not my style.
41:00 So it's a very simple answer, really.
41:03 A lot of people talk about creativity, talent, and originality.
41:10 What's important about those three areas to you,
41:13 and what do you mean by creativity, talent, and originality?
41:18 Everybody has their own definition.
41:20 Well, let's get the easy one out of the way first. Talent.
41:23 Talent is something I believe you're born with,
41:25 and you can't buy off the shelf, nor can you learn it.
41:28 Absolute natural talent, being funny, being able to improv.
41:32 Sure, if you have it, you can improve it.
41:34 But I truly don't believe anyone that doesn't have that seed to start with can get great at it.
41:40 You might learn how to bluff it, but talent is something you're born with.
41:44 Creativity, I relate to both magical and the oral side of my performance.
41:50 I like to be creative in speech patterns and the way I write things.
41:54 I'm well known for talking about lemmings leaping off cliffs and so on.
41:57 When I try and create a magical effect, I always think of the end of the effect first,
42:02 and work backwards from it.
42:04 I like to get the end picture in my mind first.
42:06 So creativity, I believe, is something that can be learned, it can be honed,
42:10 and if you work at it, you can become extraordinarily creative.
42:15 What was the third one?
42:18 Short-term memory?
42:21 Cross?
42:22 Nine.
42:24 What was the third category?
42:26 Originality.
42:27 Originality, yes.
42:30 To be or not to be, I've forgotten the question.
42:34 Originality, well, we discussed that a little bit.
42:37 I think it's very important to be original in performance, character.
42:40 I don't think it's necessarily important to be particularly original in your effects.
42:44 After all, some of the great magicians, television magicians,
42:47 have designers working for them all the time,
42:49 but it is important that you choose effects that suit your character.
42:53 So originality, yeah.
42:55 Originality of performance, absolutely important.
42:57 Originality of effects and methods doesn't really matter so long as it suits your style.
43:03 There are some people that would discard card to mouth
43:09 because they feel that anything that's card to mouth directly is indelicate.
43:15 What are your thoughts on that?
43:17 Well, these are also the kind of people who tend to do church shows with their hippity-hop rabbits.
43:23 Let's be fair here, my friends.
43:25 Where do I work?
43:26 I work in comedy clubs, I work in bars.
43:28 Indelicate is not a word used very often in bars and places like that.
43:34 In fact, card to mouth in some of the bars I work would be considered
43:38 almost a poignant delicate piece compared to some of the other stuff that goes on in the bars.
43:43 However, I've also done card to mouth on television.
43:46 I've done card to mouth for CEOs of insurance companies.
43:50 Nobody's ever thought it indelicate or ghastly.
43:54 Do I do it while they're eating? No.
43:56 Would I do it to the Vickers Tea Party origami promotion bun party? No.
44:02 Of course, I'd choose what I'm going to do it, but this whole thing, magic, it's so indelicate.
44:07 Oh my God, you mustn't swear.
44:09 Ah, ah, ah, the children. What about the little children?
44:14 You know, magic lives in the 18th century.
44:17 There's no doubt about it.
44:18 There are a lot of people who just haven't grown up to the fact.
44:21 We are now living in the 21st century.
44:23 There are different speech patterns.
44:24 There are different acceptances.
44:25 There are whole changed aspects of how we look at things, some for the better, some for worse.
44:31 I just go along with the way society is.
44:33 I don't think card to mouth is indelicate at all, and I certainly don't think I present it indelicately,
44:38 even though I say right up front, this is a vile and disgusting effect.
44:43 You'd be very surprised how much closer a lot of people look at that point.
44:46 Oh, we like the pretty magic.
44:47 Oh, he's going to do something vile and disgusting now.
44:51 You've used the paper rose for a long time.
44:53 It was a closer in your close-up and a second to closing position in your stand-up.
45:00 Why does that effect play so well for you personally,
45:05 and what other effects do you feel are similar that can play as well for our friends at home?
45:12 Okay, well, the rose, it's not that it plays so well for me personally.
45:15 What makes the rose work is it plays so well for the woman I'm making the rose for,
45:18 and the audience feels that whole emotional thing.
45:21 That's why it works.
45:23 I'm just a performer.
45:24 I'm just the vehicle to give people entertainment.
45:26 You're not on stage to entertain yourself.
45:28 You're on stage to entertain or emotionally affect others.
45:31 There are very, very few effects that can do that magically,
45:35 that can absolutely positively emotionally affect an audience.
45:39 And I'll tell you, one of them, and a lot of the magicians don't like it,
45:42 is if you bend a fork for somebody at a party and they're holding it,
45:45 and that fork bends in their hand, it's a very powerful emotional moment.
45:50 The other effects that can create very strong emotional moments for an audience are simple mind-reading effects.
45:55 If you do a center tear for somebody and you tell them the name of their dead cat after that piece of paper's burned,
46:00 oh, man, that's just like a freakoid moment.
46:04 I don't think there's any card trick that's going to really do it.
46:07 I don't think there's any coin trick that can do it.
46:09 I think it has to be these unusual things happening in their hands
46:12 that can totally emotionally affect somebody.
46:15 And by definition, they all have to create some kind of reality of magic.
46:19 The rose creates an emotional, magical moment.
46:22 Bending a fork creates this whole spooky moment.
46:26 The mind-reading thing is like you're looking into their soul.
46:29 They're the only kinds of effects that can truly, truly grab at somebody's heartstrings like that, in my opinion.
46:36 Hypothetical situation.
46:38 I'm new to magic. I know I love magic.
46:41 I know I want to perform magic.
46:43 But I am just getting in the game.
46:47 There's a huge amount of books out there, marketed tricks, and videotapes, as we know.
46:54 How can one make sense of all this material as a newcomer?
46:58 Where do you start?
47:00 What are some common-sense tips to reel it all in and make sure that our time is spent in the wisest manner possible?
47:08 Well, of course, the opening part of the question is easy to answer.
47:11 There is no way to make sense of it all.
47:13 There is so much stuff out there. Nobody could hope to possibly go through a tenth of it.
47:19 I think for a young guy starting, the best bet is to get a couple, two or three very good beginner's books.
47:24 Magic for Dummies sounds nutty.
47:27 It's easily, I believe, the best beginner's book on the market.
47:30 There's stuff in it that I use to this day.
47:34 I think once you've got parts of it, then the Mark Wilson course, a very good generalized course in magic for a beginner to learn basics from.
47:42 I'd also suggest a couple of other kinds of books that most beginners don't read.
47:45 A good book on body language so you can understand the interactivity between yourself and others.
47:49 I'd also suggest a good book on acting techniques so that you can learn how to start to create your character properly.
47:55 So now you've got a few little simple tricks from your Dummies book or your Wilson course.
47:59 You've learned a bit about body language.
48:01 You've learned a little bit about acting.
48:02 And I tell you, if you've done that, you're probably ahead of 50 to 60 percent of the magicians today.
48:08 Then I'd suggest you have to read. I think if you want to be a great magician, you have to specialize.
48:13 I specialized in cards. David Roth specialized in coins.
48:19 And I believe it was Vernon that said, "If you want to be a truly great magician, learn three or four things better than anybody else."
48:24 So I think you have to get a good grounding, and then you have to build from the grounding.
48:28 But it's important to get as broad a groundwork as you can so you can understand where the magic's coming from.
48:36 Regarding videotapes and magic, there are, of course, performance-only tapes.
48:41 There are teaching tapes.
48:43 What do you think that audiovisual mediums are good for as far as teaching magic?
48:50 What do you think that they're not good for?
48:52 Okay, well, by far my favorite tapes are performance-only tapes.
48:56 The "You Asked for It" tapes, the "Don Allen Magic" runs tapes, the tapes I watch over and over again and always have a complete hoot watching them.
49:04 Isn't that ridiculous?
49:08 I think what videotapes--seriously, I think what they are good for is to show technical work very clearly.
49:17 A second deal is very hard to learn from a book.
49:20 Trust me, I know. That's how I did it.
49:23 But I think it's important that you don't just have video standalone.
49:26 I think you have to have book and video.
49:29 You have to have the book to get the depth, and then the video, I think, can help show you how the trick is done.
49:35 What's bad about the video market is 89 million tapes a day coming out from people who have nothing to say.
49:42 Hey, I've got something very cool to show you. Check this out.
49:51 Mark's cards.
49:53 You know those cards where you put the special glasses on, and you can see what they are?
49:58 I mean, you can't see the marks on those cards, right?
50:01 You can't see them?
50:03 Finger hearts.
50:07 Imagine if you had these in a game.
50:09 Joker.
50:11 Seven of Spades. It's unbelievable, isn't it?
50:13 Check them out. Put the glasses on.
50:16 Can you see the marks now?
50:19 What do you think it is?
50:21 Two of Spades. Isn't that amazing?
50:24 Isn't it clear through those glasses?
50:27 What's this one?
50:29 You know, normally you only have to go through two or three cards before you get the idea.
50:33 It's seven.
50:35 So you can do a trick on me. Ask me to take a card.
50:40 Ask me to take one.
50:42 Just spread them out.
50:44 Yeah, OK.
50:45 I take a card. You immediately know what it is.
50:48 Isn't that amazing?
50:50 I'll just take the glasses back off.
50:54 You can keep the deck for fun.
50:56 Oh, man. OK, let's do this little thing. Let's get everybody involved here.
51:02 I'll show you how strong your fingers have to be to be a magician.
51:05 You take a napkin.
51:06 You take a napkin.
51:08 You take a napkin.
51:11 I'll take a napkin.
51:13 You take a napkin. I take a napkin.
51:16 We take a napkin. That's going nowhere. Move on, Simon.
51:19 OK, I will.
51:20 Roll up your napkin a little bit like this.
51:24 So it's kind of sticking out of the top of your hand and out of the bottom.
51:28 And then gently...
51:30 Oh, you're just having way too much fun.
51:34 Gently tuck the napkin into the bottom of your hand like this.
51:40 Squishing it in really tight.
51:42 Then turn your head.
51:44 And then pull the little corner in like this.
51:48 And then squeeze it really tight.
51:50 When you've got fingers as strong as mine,
51:53 one day you'll get it that small.
51:57 Needs work.
52:04 OK.
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