October 2006 Newsletter

A quick word from our admin!

Hi Everybody,

We have been experimenting with new forum skins. In the end we want a fresh look but at the same time we want to make sure everything is easy to read and easy on the eyes. We also plan on making updates to the video matrix section and the home page.

Enjoy the newsletter and don't be shy about posting in the forums. We want to make sure the forums stay active even between different contests. Each forum now has a lead moderator so be sure to notify a lead moderator if there is anything we can do to make improvements.

Be sure to check out the Contests forum, the chip videos are in and we'll be discussing them. Thanks to everyone for participating in our recent contests!

Eric

Asher and the Coin Snatch

Demonstrate skill to build your reputation
This month, my friend Kip allows me to offer an excerpt from his new book Coin Snatching: The Reputation Builder. This snippet was taken from chapter 10 – Just for Magicians.
 
You probably already have quite a repertoire of coin tricks. And you probably have some other truly baffling close-up miracles. So, why would you want to pull a reflex stunt like coin snatching?

The answer is simple. It’s a reputation builder. Done correctly people will talk about you (positively), years after the demonstration.

By switching one coin for another, you have shown you possess superior reflexes from the very beginning. Not only did you steal it, but you had time to leave another in its place.

We have had people dying to get us months later at seminars, just to ask about the coin snatch. They had told everyone they knew about us. People have also requested Kip for magic shows after seeing this one little demonstration.

So, let’s learn how to present it correctly…

When you snatch a coin, you really are showing off. If you want to build your reputation, present this feat subtly. Creep up on the idea. Don’t shove it in the spectators’ faces.

Part of the reason for the possibility of coming across as an obnoxious boor is that you are invading the participant’s body space.

Take our word for it. If you present this as a challenge, you are missing the benefit of a reputation builder. If you succeed, you were supposed to. Fail, and the audience wins – one of their own defeated Goliath. See the negative connotation?

It’s much better to work a presentation into your conversation, rather than halting the discussion for a challenge. Do you see the positive presentation points?

So, how do you use this stunt to become famous?

Be Careful How and When You Perform the Demonstration
Let’s deal with the how of performing this effect first. Even though you are challenging the participant to have faster reflexes, you won’t present it as such.

Again, by switching one coin for another, you have shown to possess superior reflexes from the very beginning. Not only did you steal it, but you ad time to eave another in its place. So, it never was a challenge, that’s why it is just a demonstration.

Don’t make the participant look bad – even if you are snatching from a jerk. You don’t want the audience to side with a poor, mistreated participant who was just having a little fun at the performer’s expense.

It’s better if the audience think of you as a 100% class act for handling the heckler with such polished, kind finesse. Nobody feels bad when you are performing!

“The audience has to feel that a gentleman has fooled them.” Nate Leipzig, Dai Vernon’s Tribute to Nate Leipzig, (1963).

So, no challenges. Not even to jerks.
It’s always been a demonstration….of something you were already talking about.

When to Perform a Coin Snatch
Don’t suddenly bring up the subject and ask if someone would like to see you grab a coin out of an outstretched hand faster than the eye can see. You need a lean in. Now, here’s where it gets a little tricky. You will have a stronger presentation, if someone else brings up the subject which leads into the coin snatch.

They mention a related subject. Everyone talks about it for a minute. You let everyone have his or her say, and then you offer a little demonstration, to make a point…. Or to show something of interest on the related topic.

Kevin Mitnick, author of The Art of Deception (2002), and the forefather of the modern-day computer hacker, uses what he calls Social Engineering to glean useful, and sometimes secret, information from unsuspecting individuals.

Here, we use Social Engineering, not to obtain information, but to plan seeds – allowing others to steer the conversation right where you want it to head and grow your reputation.

To lean into the coin snatch, comments about the hand being quicker than the eye, or questions about a magician’s reflexes are perfect. We also like some off-hand remark where someone says something like,” I bet with hand like those, you’re good with the ladies. You’re fast.”

Those are my cues to gently lead the conversation in the direction of a coin snatching presentation. The key, in Coin Snatching: The Reputation Builder is to get someone to bring up one of your subjects and have this person think it was his or her own idea. Now, that’s our brand of Social Engineering…[Coin Snatching  pages 111 to 115]

The rest of chapter 10 helps you to discover ways to steer the conversation, so others bring up the topic and prove a subtle lead in to your demonstration. This chapter even proved advice on what to do if no one offers a hook for you to direct the conversation.

The suggestions from this excerpt and the rest of the chapter were written for the many coin-snatching variations taught in the book. And of course, coin snatching and switching are natural effects to use for a “demonstration of skill.” Be sure to go beyond coin snatching – generalize this advice to any trick where you showcase the practice involved or the skill required to be a magician.

Kip Pascal is the leading expert on Coin Snatching. For more excellent information, please visit http://www.coinsnatching.com You will find other articles, tips, and tricks to build your reputation.

Lee Asher

Paul David One-Handed Overhand Shuffle

• Starting Position. The pinkie and index finger are at the centre of the short ends of the deck, while the middle and ring finger are positioned along the bottom (the long end of the deck), and are supporting the weight of the deck. The thumb is resting on the other long side of the deck, or the top.

• Now position your thumb as shown. Peel off about 80% of the deck using only your thumb. No other fingers are going to move.

• Using your index finger as the pivot point, rotate the bottom half of the deck as shown.

• Continue to rotate this packet until you have cleared the top half of the deck. Once that has been achieved, let the top half fall onto your palm.

• Now rotate the packet back to starting position so that the larger packet is positioned on top of the smaller packet. Keep pressure on the deck with your thumb.

• Now, just repeat the process. Using your thumb again, release another small amount of cards and rotate the rest of the packet, using your index finger as the pivot point. Try to repeat this process at least 4 or 5 times.

• Finished position.

DeadPeopleAllOver

Interview with Baz

1. What’s your name?
Barry William Rodick

2. What’s your D.O.B?
27th of June 1983 which makes me 23

3. What’s your City/Country of birth?
I was born in merry old England in fair city of Liverpool, (no I have never met the Beatles)

4. Where do you currently live? (city)
After graduating University in Preston I have just got a new job up in Leeds, so I am working on online games as my real job.

5. What is your first language?
English is my only language and it really does shame me, I do intend to learn others

6. Do you have pets?
Don’t have any pets, I used to have a Dog named Brin, it looked just like lassie and attract loads of women, but after him I took up magic to try and get them instead.

7. I believe you’ve recently taken a break from cards, is that true? Why?
In my last year of Uni, I really didn’t have time to practice with studies then after uni I vowed to get back into it, next minute I got a job across the other side of the country and had to move house all the way there, within 2 weeks. So didn’t leave much time for hobbies.

8. Was it hard to get back into it? Are you back to your best?
It is hard, I’m not fully settled in my new place yet, and if I didn’t have a reason to get back into I doubt I would have.

When you are “into it” you know what you’re practicing and what you’re aiming for. When you have left it, you don’t know what you want to achieve or what to aim for. So I don’t know how people get back into it, unless they have something to spark their interest again. (A show to prepare for, a project a new trick they really want to do) After that I assume its easier I really hope it is.

9. What types of magic do you enjoy performing? Just cards?
At the moment my biggest repertoire is cards, but I do have a range of material I perform and love it all. I won’t do it unless I like it.

In my working repertoire, I do cards, sponge balls (just a story about 2 people brother and sister who end up in bed together). Coin vanish then appears under watch. Couple of mentalism pieces, but all kept in the theme in trickery. I’m not a mind reader, I am not David Blaine or any other well known performer, and I’m just a trickster so I have kept it like that.

I also have a bit of hypnotism I could do, but very rarely do.

10. What is your view point on gaffs? Do you use them?
Gaffs have their place in magic no doubt about.

I use a trick by Jay Sankey, he calls it YES NO, and while it is very nice piece I had to change it to match my style.

So I fan the cards out face up and have a girl (only works on a girl for me) pick one. When she does on the back it says “BLOWJOB” and then I turn the other cards over it says “SLAP” now the patter usually changes depending on reaction, I either tell the girl she has agreed to it, I say how lucky I am or invite the girl to slap me. It’s a fun trick uses a little gaff.

I generally don’t like them, but if I like the trick and its not a pain in the arse to carry about and a lot of gaffs are. I am more than happy to use it.

11. Do you come up with much of your own material?
I generally don’t come up with new moves or inventions, I think its very difficult to come up with original stuff, mist stuff today can be found in many old books, just remarketed for the new generation who like everything XTREAM!

I do however come up with my own patter; it’s the only way to make sure you are happy performing material. While the method is the same just in a different order I change the words and make sure I’m happy with them. I usually just had filthy remarks and turn it into sex jokes but it works for me, I can call some one a c**t and they still love me.

It has yet to get me into trouble I’m sure it will and I will learn from that experience.

12. Are you at all interested in flourishing?
No. I can’t do it

Any time I would invest into Id rather spend in magic or planning some thing else. I guess it’s just not for me. Yet when I watch one of those vids the 21ace community produces I really do watch with envy for their skills.

Very talented people out there.

13. Are you a collector of decks?
I was going to at one time, but decided I Just don’t want to have expensive things hanging around that I might just cut up for an idea I had.

I had those tiger, and other decks that have been put out, and ended up gluing a deck together for an idea because I didn’t have a normal deck about.

14. Do you have a favourite deck to perform/practice with?
Red bikes, writing shows up better on the back with a sharpie. Kinda of a slut when it comes to cards I'll use any.

15. Do you get to perform live much?
About 2 years ago I did, weddings, product launches, Stage work (open mic nights) and came on stage during a set of my mates band.

But lately It basically when I’m introduced and a person knows me from awhile ago and asks for something, and as I generally don’t carry stuff on me the same couple of tricks get hammered. But that may change.

16. What do you prefer; performing on the street or in a restaurant type gig? Why?
I like “walk around” and everyone is standing up. You wouldn’t want me performing while you are eating, as I move about a lot and say things that should be kept to the bedroom or at least to pissed people in bars. So I prefer a friendly atmosphere. The street can be difficult at times and you need a good group otherwise it just don’t work.

17. Would you consider taking magic up as a full time career?
I dreamed about all the way though uni.

But when it came to crunch, I didn’t put the effort into pursuing it. I don’t have any regrets, as I still perform magic and I think keeping it as a hobby is enough for me. I would like to continue my work in magic perhaps even move into the business world of magic

18. I hear you’ve got a special project in the works, can you tell us about it?
Yep I certainly do, NetMagicShow is currently under development and is already shaping up better than I imagined.

NetMagicShow is going to be a series of Webisodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webisode

Every magic show I’ve seen on telly magicians always bitched about it, its what magicians do.

Instead of creating a show just for the public, I wanted to create an entertaining show for the public but include points for magicians to talk about.

For example our first show is a look at what the public think about magicians, we interview them straight off the street and speak to them. Then we do a bit of magic then ask again if they think the same or has it changed slightly. It gives magicians a chance to see from the other side of the spread of cards.

We also hope to include a section where our magicians perform a review of a trick and test it out in the real world and give their honest opinions about it. These reviews and stuff are placed in a magician only section of the website which we hope to have other resources for magicians to use, like links to supportive forums (21ace is sure to be amongst them.)

I’m incredibly lucky with the team I managed to get together, each love magic and are all very creative, I hope we can produce a show.

19. Lastly, is there anything you would like to share with the 21ace community?
21ace is where I started, from Learning from BlaZEs first tutorial to becoming a magician. The help and support from the community is there and I hope it still will be there to help the young and stupid. While the whole site and stuff has changed 21ace is still a great place to visit.

Keep it going and keep it alive and most of all keep it friendly.

Baz

Pokerfanatic’s words of wisdom

Deciding whether to move up limits or to stay put where you are can be a lot harder than it sounds. I have seen many players move up because they had the Bankroll (BR) for the next level however they weren't ready to move up and they got crushed because of it. BR shouldn't be your main deciding factor, however it is a big part of the decision because you must remain disciplined in bank roll management if you want to get anywhere in this game. You should take into consideration how well you are winning at your current level of play and how often you have winning sessions. If you are totally beating a game you will probably be break even on your crappiest of crappy days.

If you find yourself struggling at all in winning regularly and you're more break even at your current level, but you have been making some money over a long period of time then you SHOULDN'T move up to the next level. Stay where you are until you can beat the game regularly. If you however fit into the first details I was describing (eg. You beat game reg, break even on your worst days, etc) and you have the BR then move up!!! I have no idea what you are waiting for.

Some simple BR management rules have been discussed on our board before, so i won't go into details here about that aspect of your thought process when trying to figure out if you're ready for higher stakes, but it's extremely important part. My main goal is to get players thinking about their own game before stepping up to a bigger level, if you can be honest with yourself and remain disciplined in these tactics you will do extremely well for yourself.

I can go into more detail about questions to ask yourself when thinking about moving up a level if there is a request, just leave a thread in The Poker Table topic on your message board. Leave a thread titled “PokerFanatic's Newsletter Article” or something along those lines and ask me questions. The link for this forum (where I am the lead mod) is provided here: http://www.21ace.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=9

until next time.

Regards,
PokerFanatic

Members Welcome

Without members a forum would be pretty boring. Without new members a forum would not improve thus adding to its boringness. So this is just the little piece of the newsletter that allows us, the members of 21ace, to extend a heart felt welcome to all those that have joined the 21ace community this month.
 
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CREDITS

The people that contributed to the making of this newsletter include:

Eric and Shadow – Technical Support.

Fattyonadiet – Editor.

DeadPeopleAllOver, Pokerfanatic, Lee Asher– Authors.

Also; a big thanks goes to Baz for allowing us to interview him.