Today is Mother's day. That means you go back to your roots and thank your mother for all the trouble she endured turning you into a human being, or a magician. Same for this blog. Let's go back to the roots of WMF. Let's go back to Steven Youell:
If you remember, Steven Youell was the very first magic failure and he was the sole reason for this blog's existence. Things have changed a bit, but Steven Youell still proclaims himself as a magic authority.
Reader "Ultimagic" said:
Be sure to take a look at "The twist palm" demo. This has got to be one of the most obvious, terrible looking palms I've ever seen. The only thing I can't figure out is how he manages to palm a card at all with that claw like stiff as a board grip.
Here it is: The Twist Palm This is Steven Youell demonstrating what the Twist Palm looks like. This is horrible.
His hand palming the card is stiff and shouts "Look at me I got something hidden there!"
I talked to Steven Youell before and I assume he would argue and say that this video shows the sleight out of context, therefore it is no possible to judge it. Well, I beg to differ. If you put out samples and I don't even like the samples, how can I still assume that the whole thing might be good.
And in true Mother's Day spirit: Thank you Steven Youell for sucking and still claiming the opposite. You are entertaining.
3 comments:
Yeah well. That's the thing with the internet these days "Everyone is an expert". Even in blogs like ours people will assume we are playing the same role.
What I find interesting is how Steven and others are ragged on a fair basis in the background, but rarely for the "public" to see. That's a shame I think, so people can understand that even though the Cafe etc., will go on about "genius", they are not seeing the majority that find the guy to be a joke.
Thus is the WMF. Also interestingly is over the past year I think I've only disagreed with about one WMF. I'd assume most people are in the same boat. It's just odd you and a few others finally stepped up just to state harmless opinion.
It's a tough job. But someone has to do it I guess.
I personally can ignore a card that's not being held in palm well. If you know how to palm then you know how to avoid duplicating that kind of technique. Usually, the real key to these sorts of resources is a good steal.
Now, if we're going to evaluate steals, then, that's another story. One of the dumbest things you can do is cover a palm steal by some unmotivated eye-catching action. Anything that brings attention to the hands and/or deck at the moment of the sleight is bad. The key is to minimize all action so that it doesn't get noticed on the visual periphery at the moment of execution, or else motivate the action so that your reason for handling the deck acts as psychological cover for the palm (ie: "He's just squaring the cards.").
But, it's the Magic Cafe. You know how that's going to go...
"If you know how to palm then you know how to avoid duplicating that kind of technique."
Well thats just the point isn't it. Youell tries to convince people that his technique is correct. For the experienced guys, its no big deal because anyone with any kind of experience should be able to tell right off the bat that what hes showing you is bad technique from start to finish. So those people should know to avoid this self proclaimed "Expert".
But what about the ones who don't know any better. Those who are just starting out and get suckered by the B.S. that hes allowed to write on the cafe without moderation or fear of reprisal?
The dude sits at home in his jockeys all day dreaming up crap to put on his next DVD and posting on the cafe about how much he thinks he knows.
I feel sorry for the one who are going to have to unlearn poor techniques because of this clown.
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