How quick do your hands have to be to pull something off like this?

[ohgeetee]

There are times when the cig is in his mouth out of view, tucked behind his thumb, or behind the base of his hand.

in general, magic doesn't go over well with poker players. they don't like to be 'tricked,' so there will be plenty of "oh, its obvious where it was the whole time" replies, when in reality you might have an idea of where its at 2/3 of the time.

[Yads]

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't 0:45 like an obv cut? I am not sure.

I think sleight of hand is cool, but magic with cameratricks is teh ghey.

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It's not obvious to me if it is.

[metsandfinsfan]

i can do the cigarette trick fwiw

[metsandfinsfan]

the lance burton one is impressive though

[Blarg]

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How could you possibly practice this enough to be that good? Amazing though.

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I was really into magic as a kid. Tough sleight of hand is the kind of thing you practice relentlessly for years on end, every spare moment, while watching t.v., while reading, etc. The amount of hours per week over the years is staggering. A lot of it is incredibly hard to do without getting spotted, and then doing it smoothly is a huge step up, and then looking casual is another step up, and then being able to talk like you're doing nothing at all is another huge step up. I have huge respect for people who do sleight of hand.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]


Take a look at Lance Burton with candles.

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Seen him 2x live in Vegas. Some amazing stuff.

There is no 'cutaway' at 45 secs, no camera trick. I've sat in the 5th row. It's just the way they filmed this spot.

Ricky Jay is the alltime best at this, his Broadway show [in a small theatre] using a deck of cards was beyond ridiculous. You wouldn't believe the stuff he did.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How could you possibly practice this enough to be that good? Amazing though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was really into magic as a kid. Tough sleight of hand is the kind of thing you practice relentlessly for years on end, every spare moment, while watching t.v., while reading, etc. The amount of hours per week over the years is staggering. A lot of it is incredibly hard to do without getting spotted, and then doing it smoothly is a huge step up, and then looking casual is another step up, and then being able to talk like you're doing nothing at all is another huge step up. I have huge respect for people who do sleight of hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ricky Jay used to open with my favorite one.

Audience member opens a brand new deck of cards, hands him a random card.

Ricky J takes it in one hand, holds hands about shoulder width apart, and 'throws'/passes it back and forth through the air using only the tip of his index fingers. A playing card. It's totally sick. No strings, wires, weights, obvs.

They asked him about it in an interview one time and he said he saw someone else do it first, and was so impressed he had to learn it. How long the interviewer asked?

1 hour of practice a day, every day, for 10 years, Ricky Jay replied. But now I've mastered it and can perform it in front of a live audience.

Crazy.

[El Diablo]

OP: Um, yeah, so when his finger is bent, he has a cigarette behind it. When his hand is empty, he moved the cigarette to the other hand. This looked cool, but I was sorta whatever.

Stevie: OMG

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]

Seen him 2x live in Vegas. Some amazing stuff.

There is no 'cutaway' at 45 secs, no camera trick. I've sat in the 5th row. It's just the way they filmed this spot.


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I have only seen Lance Burton once, but the show was very good (he opened with the doves and candles), and I would see him again. We were in the second row and I only saw how one trick was done, and it was a stage piece (spoiler in white at end of paragraph). His close magic is flawless. <font color="white">There is a stage illusion where he makes a convertible disappear - when smoke went off I could see the car pull back on tracks and a false front drop down in front of the receding car. I had a very good viewing angle, and only caught a glimpse.</font>

It is also a pretty affordable ticket, at $72 for floor, $65 for balcony. You might be able to find discount tickets, too (unlike the popular Cirque shows).

[Duke]

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How could you possibly practice this enough to be that good? Amazing though.

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There was this trick that John Scarne used to do that involved shuffling a deck once and then cutting to the ace. Like, one riff then cut to the ace. They asked him how he did it, and he said that he watched the cards as they went by, got an index of the ace, and then cut down that many cards. The following is from a site that quoted the story from one of his books:

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They had me repeat this feat about twenty times and I finally said to Rothstein, "If you do the same thing for three or four hours a day you'll be able to do it too, in about twenty years." I wasn't trying to be smart but they had asked me a question and I was trying to give them an answer as best I could.

"And how old are you?" someone asked rather skeptically.

"I'm nineteen," I replied matter-of-factly.

His rejoinder was quick in coming as he said, "You're nineteen and you practiced twenty years!"

"No," I replied. "But I practice ten hours a day."


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