"Salvador Dali is dead to most... but to me he's very much alive"
Tobias drew on his experience as a materials artist to repeatedly blow our minds with his unique brand of eccentric magic. From bending glass bottles to having his eye stalk peek out of his cupped hands, every moment of his session was 100% authentically him - an underlying message he delivered beautifully.
"If you discover 'why' you like things, it's so much easier to find your direction"
Tobias has an innate ability to see everyday objects through an illusory filter, that when coupled with almost pantomime movement take on new lives; a small white stick and a literal tongue-in-cheek movement becomes a two minute Chupa-Chup routine. Through convincing actions an acrylic puddle seems to flow from a bottle, polystyrene becomes tic-tacs that jump from hand to hand - and absolutely no one will be forgetting that liquid-into-ring thing.
“I wanted to do the same thing I did with the cards… but with my face.”
"Magic is a strong enough art to support a weak performer, and it's sad how often it does."
'A Hero's Journey in Three Hands' Through his performance of the phases of a ten card poker deal, Weber discussed managing the spectator's feelings of pressure, and the inevitability of loss, as well as the use of sincerity to make an impact. Weber urges us not to focus on his patter and performance and to this end he has chosen not to show the performance video again. Instead, he has graciously supplied a PDF to discuss the mechanics - the story however, must be your own.
"The only thing each of us has that makes us worthy performers of the art is the degree to which we are willing to invest what is unique and individual about us in the performance and interaction. Otherwise, it's fucking cookie-cutter - and I promise you, there are better cookie-cutters out there than you are."
During his talk, Weber threw down a gauntlet of sorts, challenging us to take the Invisible Deck back from the common zeitgeist and to protect its secrets once more. Letting it be out there means that sadly those who expose it or make it available to laypeople simply do not understand its value. "It's like them wiping dog crap off their shoe with a hundred dollar bill. You know, you could have used that to buy lots of other things... You could have just bought another shoe."
"The painter doesn't need to stand next to the painting. It's not easy to do magic that matters, but - there's nothing else like it."
Like Tobias before him, Chris delivered punch after punch of effects you can immediately put to use - provided you make them your own.
"I think anyone who makes content for a living would agree - I'm so thankful for all the support and I'm so thankful for everything else, but tomorrow if I had nobody watching I would still be doing what I'm doing - I do it for myself and I do it because I love it. If I did it for the money of I did it for anyone else - I just wouldn't do this anymore. I've got to be true to me."
Of all the tricks he taught - the ring production, Klepto (top card to gamblers cop in opposite hand), the tattoo trick, the Sharpie double, Sticky Hand (with Danny Garcia), Double Barrel (the Faro Fan), the 'Voodoo' trick (Chris's handling was inspired by Hollingworth's from Drawing Room Deceptions with help from Xavior Spade and Tomas Blomberg) the tattoo trick makes him most proud - and is his closer. A description of the setup and the performance video is listed below.
On negativity he says "I don't listen to it. I have a vision for what I'm doing, and if I paid attention to the negatives - or the praise - I would react to it - you can't not - and that would deviate me away from my vision. For anyone out there performing or creating content, my advice would be - keep doing what you set out to do. Don't let the opinions of other deviate you from your path. It's yours, only you can walk it.
Chris credits Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz with starting him off with Stack work, though it was the book Moonwalking with Einstein and working with five-time US memory champion, Nelson Dellis (both links below) that really cemented his memory recall.
Take the cards Ace - Nine out of the deck, ignoring the suits. With the cards facedown in the hand, Ace on top, explain that you will have the spectator mix them by deciding whether the card goes straight down on the table - 'Go' - or is switched with the next card before placing on the table - 'Switch'.
As you demonstrate this, place the first two cards FACE UP on the table, saying 'Go', 'Go'. The third card off the deck - 'Switch' - gets placed under the fourth card face down, before they're both placed FACE UP on the table. Continue placing cards on the table in the same manner. The order Chris demonstrates is 'Go', 'Go', 'Switch', 'Go', 'Switch', 'Go', 'Go'.
Pick the cards up and tell the spectator that they need to be fast - their first instinct, quickly placing three cards down, again demonstrating in the same manner, - 'Go, 'Switch' from the top of the face down packet, face up on the table.
Pick these cards up and place on the face of the deck. The order of the cards in the hand is now, 3 - 5 - 7 - 6 - 8 - 9 - A - 4 - 2. Now it's the spectator's turn. As they call out 'Go' or 'Switch' - take from the top of the facedown packet, and place FACEDOWN on the table, so 'neither of you know the final order'.
Run through all 9 cards TWICE to get you back into the set order. From here, it's a matter of forcing the 9 as the selection. With the spectator on the right side of him, Chris pulls the spectator's right arm across their body to about 4 inches off the table, and about 5 cards past the end of the spread - to a point where he feels 'elastic band' tension.
When he releases and they slowly drop their hand onto a card - 95% of the time, it will be the 9. Chris advises the use of equivoque in the rare occasion it is not. Having watched Chris's explanation during TEN, combined with these brief instructions and the performance video below, you will have on your hands something of a miracle.
"I’m here to argue the hack side of the equation, we have a lot of people talking about art and magic as an artform and elevating magic. I’m here to advocate that, screw that…lets just do friggin’ card tricks."
Though he would no doubt deny it, Dave's session delved similar deep thinking discussed by Weber, in taking genuine moments from your life and integrating them into your storytelling, connecting your magic to you as an individual and allowing that to resonate with your audience.
"They ask, 'Well, you're very experienced, you must know the answer to this' and I say 'No, but I don’t care! I give us both permission to think about it in new ways.'"
Reflecting back on TEN, it's amazing - though probably not surprising - that every speaker given the chance to talk about anything - talked about authenticity, in their own way. Dave begged us to look to the classics and update them to fit your personality, your performing style, your voice and your prefences. Find something you like and think, ‘What can I take out of this? What can I make of this?’
"This is part of my magical journey…when I started out as a young man doing magic, it was all about, do a trick, then do another trick, then do the next trick, aren’t I great, lets do a cool trick. That was the only criteria, it had to be cool. Then as I aged and got more comfortable in myself I realised, oh there is room in here for a bit more fun, a bit more storytelling and the presentations can mature a little bit and be a little bit more interesting."
When prodded about resources for TEN, Dave asked us to include a link to something called Sleight.School and remind you of the code 'TENMONTH' to get a free month of it, so we've included that link below. The explanations for the tricks he showed in his talk are available to watch there. But he probably produces the right cards in those videos, where he can do multiple takes.
"Congratulations David, you managed to eliminate one fingerpalm by doing two fingerpalms." - Michael Weber
If anything could sum up the sheer elegance that is Helder's card magic, it would be Gabi Pareras quoting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Helder used his session to introduce many of us to a magician who influenced and challenged him to find his own voice, Gabi Pareras. A man who exemplified the impact of magic through clarity of purpose.
More information on Gabi Pareras and the continued discussion and revelation of his work can be found at Cosas de Gabi.
Helder's discussion ventured heavily into the realm of the importance of understanding performance, where he referenced the work of Jerzy Grotowski as a starting point, en route to Gabi's 'Waiter Theory' (or Photo Finish). This theory was that the climax of the effect should present an image - a scene - that best represents the maximum information of the nature and conditions of the effect. In essence - the audience is left with a single frame that sums up the effect, enhancing clarity and impact.
"When you are deciding between options in card magic you are always faced with a trade off, it is all about finding what works for you."
By turning out his pockets and taking us through his everyday carry for performance, Madison pushed the importance of allowing the spectator to experience the magic themselves, distanced from the magician. The more tactile the spectator can be with the props you are using, the more powerful the magic can become.
"The more control you can remove from yourself, even if its just a visual deception, the tricks just become more astonishing."
Madison encouraged performance above all else. Getting out and trying new things, experimenting and gaining experience - but understanding that it's not all about moves and skill - it's about something the spectator will be amazed by.
"I have really got to go out of my way to put myself in the position where, not only can I be in complete performance mode, but it’s vital to our practices that we are always out there trying to perform and trying new things and experimenting."
"A magician is not the beam of light, and we're not the rainbow. We are the prism."
Possibly stealing the title of most memorable moment of TEN with his appearance and disappearance of a crystal ball, Garrett drove home the fact that it's the audience's experience that matters - and that experience happens through the filter of their own perception.
"There's a lot of beautiful things that can happen if you give the audience room to believe."
Garrett's performance of 'Torn Fromever' in which a torn card changes into the torn quarters of four other cards on display was a dizzying moment from a session filled with questions of reality. This souvenir has been awarded to Kyle Milne for his entry in the 'most memorable moment from TEN' competition.
Don't tell your spectators how to react to magic. That experience is theirs alone.
Between Garrett's phantasmagorical rollercoaster and the tecnician that is Steve Forte - Kenner admitted he would be crazy to pick up a deck of cards. Yet that's exactly what he did in discussing 'The Elephant in the Room' - and credit to him, he did not disappoint.
"We don't understand, as magicians, that the moves are supposed to be secret."
Although at first glance, this may seem ridiculous, as Chris pointed out through his disdain for double lifts, pinky breaks and palming - while a spectator might not know exactly what happened, it's clear that something did, and that moment instantly shatters the illusion.
"Be what you are. There is nothing wrong with being a normal close-up guy or a standard comedy magician, just be aware that is what you are. This is a very hard thing to admit to yourself, but if we can start right there then progressing becomes a much quicker process.
From the live chat during Steve's session as it was drawing to a close: "This is gold. Somebody tell Copperfield to take a lap."
Taking from his experience as a professional mechanic, Steve spoke of how his lifetime of not being a magician gives him an entirely different perspective that we should be incorporating ourselves. Nuance is everything. The smallest subtleties, timing changes and natural flow can elevate a move from the mundane to the truly special. Authenticity was echoed here as well.
"This was the stuff the best mechanics I had met were using. They don’t understand the magicians false cuts and - after I learned what they were doing - neither did I."
In the knowledge that written descriptions of technique can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways, Steve has been attempting to document the moves from 'Gambling Sleight of Hand' in a video archive. The five videos below are examples from Steve's talk.
“With gambling moves, to me it always starts with the default action, which is something your likely to see on the card table. Authentic, reasonable. But you have to start with a decent default action before you start to try and fake the move.”>
Finally, Steve referenced 'The Unexpected Gambler' as one of the best books he's read in a long time. Steve's own 'life-story' of sorts is laid bare in 'The Ultimate Cooler' a near 90 page interview published in 'Collapse: Vol VIII'.
"Will this session be like the other ones or is it more of an interview?"
"Yeah... I doubt Copperfield will perform his version of 'Oil & Water' tonight."
In his one-on-one interview with Ben Earl, Copperfield went into detail about detail. A constant perfectionist, the message here was very much 'Everything is Important. You've got to be prepared to take risks, and keep taking risks until you get it right'.
"You're only as good as you dare to be bad, and I've been bad a lot."
Humbling words from the world's most successful magician.
I'm not afraid of taking the wrong path. You ask if I wonder whether I'm going down the wrong road in trying to perfect a single detail, whether this is the right thing to be concentrating on at this time. I don't wonder. I go down the wrong road - and that becomes very apparent - not often, but sometimes. You can't be afraid of doing the wrong thing - because if you don't try it, you won't know. And if you keep at it - with that level of attention - you can find that perfection. Everything is important."
