The Culprit: Monarch's Quartette, the version by Larry Jennings and Roberto Giobbi. And this is how two cards are switched for two other cards. The cards to be switched are on the table. The cards to be switched in are on top of the deck. A break is held by the right thumb between the two cards and the rest of deck. The left hand takes the two cards on the table and turns both cards face down, so they are in dealing position of the left hand.
Now as attention is directed towards a third card on the table. The right hand places the deck on the two cards held in the left hand, while the cards on top remain in the right hand.
The whole switch is supposed to be unnoticed. Really? This is a bit too much of a discrepancy I think. I cannot imagine being able to create a misdirecting aura big enough so that switch goes undetected.
And I am certainly not a sissy when it comes to dangerous techniques.
"The better you are, the closer they watch" from Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz comes to mind. Conversely: The more boring you are, the better you get away with a technique such as this.
At least that is the impression I get.
So here are my questions. Do you use that switch? Do you actually get away with it? Are you boring? Or are you so damn funny like David Williamson, that the audience has a hard time to actually notice that there is magic going on?
Have I become so disconnected from the "commercial" view on magic that I don't see the genius in that technique?
1st EDIT: It is called the "Jinx Switch" which I should have know, but I am a walking libary of magic. Thanks to Denis for clearing it up for me that the switch acutally is workable. Which somehow makes the titel of this post fit. I guess I am missing the point. Nevermind, go on with your magic lives.
2nd EDIT: I actually couldn't believe that this switch actually fools people. So I went out and tried it. I just returned. To all of you who said it works... it does. Damn, damn, damn.
I think the flowchart is wrong. If you reject a hypothesis you need to make observations and ask questions on why your experiment didn't prove the hypothesis before forming a new one.
ReplyDelete(I should know. This sort of thing is my job)
Damn, even there I fail.
ReplyDeleteThis weeks WMF.....ROLAND!! Only joking :-)
ReplyDeleteI watched your video, and I could see why it would seem too bold to work. It's got a lot going for it that's similar to the top change... There's actually very little that's safe about that routine.
ReplyDeleteI disagree 100 percent. It's bold but VERY safe.
ReplyDeleteAnd no offense to Roland but he performed it very incorrectly.
"The better you are, The closer you watch" igives you the power to direct that attention on some focused spot.
ReplyDeleteIf you magic wasn't worth paying attention to, you wouldn't be able to focus the attention (as there is none), and you have no control over where they watch.
In other words; "the better you are, the easier you can direct their attention"
Just my two cents.
Daniel