Philip Brocoum's Home Page
Greetings! I'M BACK FROM VACATION!
Below are some descriptions of, and comments on, a couple of magic tricks. If you would like to see videos of me performing them, point your browser over to http://briefcase.yahoo.com/elder_ambrose and go to the magic folder. Right-click on the video you want to see and select "save as" to save it to your hard drive. Then you can watch the videos! On a side note, the yahoo! Briefcase has a transfer limit so if you can't download a video try again tomorrow hehe.
Green = video online
Grey = video coming soon
Red = video hopefully coming sometime in the future =P
Some of the tricks I reverse engineered by watching someone perform it either in person or on a video. This means I'm not entirely sure I have the correct method for doing the trick, but as far as I can tell it yields the same result.
MONTES
Color Monte (Philip Brocoum) - After reading some stuff on splitting cards I decided to find a use for all the gimmicked cards I was making lol.
Gypsy Monte (Tom Piccard) - In my humble opinion, the best three card monte around.
3 Card Monte (unknown) - basically the easiest and most gaffed 3 card monte ever invented. more for amateurs than anyone else (imho).
Color Monte (Jim Temple) reverse engineered - an ungimmicked version of the three card monte. fishy moves are covered with nice patter, but it still can't land a finger on the Gypsy Monte. No video yet.
WAVES & TWISTS
Asher Twist (Lee Asher) reverse engineered - granted, it looks amazing, but the angles are so horrendous that I would never even dream of actually performing it. It is also very difficult to avoid a tell-tale sound as the cards flip over. Best for extreme close-up when the spectator is looking over your shoulder.
McClintock Twist (Reed McClintock) reverse engineered - much easier than the Asher Twist the angles are also much better. You can choose to reveal the facedown card without completely squaring the cards making it look more visual (which is how I perform it) but also making it easier to see how it is done. If you square the cards completely it's very hard to see anything fishy. the twist is done at chest height making if perfect for standup.
McClintock False Count (Reed McClintock) reverse engineered - a very nice false count that apparently shows all the cards to be the same.
Twisting the Aces (unknown) - I got this off Magic2k. It is the most basic Twisting the Aces routine. Nothing amazing, but fun to do.
Hollingworth's Waving the Aces (Guy Hollingworth) - The best waving the aces routine I have seen, but also the hardest. There is no video right now because I can't do it yet =P Contrary to what Guy claims in Drawing Room Deceptions (he says it is "quite easy"), the routine is damn near impossible. It is not as "clean" as any of the other routines, but it seriously is astounding to watch. Believe it or not, it looks ten times better than either the Asher Twist or the McClintock Twist. The audience can see all four cards all the time, even when the cards flip over. It really looks like magic. I haven't managed to get the main sleight down yet (the "optical alignment"), but I think it's one of those sleights where you just have to acquire that "special touch" and suddenly it will work. I just haven't acquired the touch yet =P
MISC.
Card Warp (Roy Walton) - A classic effect. I love it =)
Misled (Timothy Wenk) - The effect which my friends and I have come to know only as...The Pencil.
Slither Sleight of Hand (Philip Brocoum) - I watched Slither on JBTV and to be quite honest I couldn't figure out how the gimmick worked. So, naturally, I started working on a way of performing the effect with no gimmick and this is what I came up with.
Club Sandwich reverse engineered - While the secret is obvious on video, it's not obvious when you perform it because you can tell the spectator to look through the deck for the second card and while they do that you can flip the cards (or any kind of misdirection will suffice). Anyways, I think it's a nice effect and it can even be done almost impromptu. Just carry around the jokers in your pocket.
A Coin and Card Routine (Philip Brocoum) - Recently I decided to try my hand at coin magic. Much to my dismay, coin magic is damn hard (at least for me). However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that when combined with cards those coins are more than willing to perform magic for me =) This is a routine I came up with after a couple of hours of ISketch. Essentially, it uses only one sleight, and that is to put a coin under a card in the process of turning the card over.
TORN & RESTORED
Completely Torn (Craig Alan) - A great torn and restored routine. Good for close-up and has a couple of advantages; 1) you can show your hands empty, 2) you can use any card and the spectator can put a bigass signature all over it. The obvious downside is that it isn't restored one piece at a time, but hey =P It's not all that difficult to do either. On a side note, I find that the trick works better with Hoyle's rather than Bicycles.
Reparation (John Lovick) - Very visual. I think it's even more visual than Hollingworth's routine because the 3rd and 4th restorations are so straightforward. However, while it is visual, it's not all that impressive when you think about it because thinking about it will lead you to figure out the secret (hence the spectators will think "hey, that looks awesome" rather than "hey, how did he do that?"). You also need pockets and stuff to hide the pieces in. It deals with the signature fairly well, but for the most part the signature doesn't matter anyways because you can't see it.
Reformation (Guy Hollingworth) - It is, as far as I know, the most impressive torn and restored card routine. It will more than likely baffle anyone who sees it and it looks good to boot. It is also ingenious. Yes, it's hard to do, but not impossible. And even if you screw up it won't ruin the effect because it takes a magician to comprehend how the trick is done. If you screw up the spectators will probably think "hey, he did something fishy!...but I have no idea what it was he did." What makes it hard is not performing it per se; the hard part is making it look smooth. I can't get it to look smooth yet, but I can still do it fairly well (I think). It is such a good routine that only the magicians in your audience will be able to appreciate it for what it is. The signature is somewhat of a problem in this routine but in Drawing Room Deceptions Guy gives plenty of ways to show the real signature nearly all the time...it just requires a lot of work.
just to recap the torn and restored routines: Reparation is easier to do, but it's not any more practical to do than the Refomation. What I mean is this: if you had two effects that were exactly the same except one used a gimmick and the other did not then the one without the gimmick would be more practical because, well, why bother carrying around a gimmick? Anyways, neither Reformation nor Reparation use a gimmick, neither requires any more preparation than the other...so they are both equally practical. So you might as well perform the Reparation until you are good enough to do the Reformation. Once you can do the Reformation well why bother performing anything other than the best? One thing: I don't think either routine should be performed close-up. Stand-up, yes, but not a one-on-one with the-spectator-is-one-inch-away-with-eyes-glued-on-your-fingers type of thing. If the spectator is too close they will easily see the folded cards. On the other hand, Craig Alan's Completely Torn would work as a close-up routine because its cleaner and with less funny moves. Of course, it's not as visual, but you can't have everything.
I had the most brilliant revelation ever the other day. If you are going to be doing T&R effects, buy Pinochle decks!!!!!!!! =) They have two of each card 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Absolutely perfect for T&R!
Improv Cut and Restored Rope (unknown) - I don't know much about magic with rope, but this is a killer effect. It is completely impromptu; all you need is a piece of string and some scissors.
