Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: Magic and AI; Minor and Major Magic; On the False Swing Cut (and Bobby Bernard)
These are The Magic Memories 191, gone online Sunday, August 25, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
Magic an AI
For an upcoming project I am experimenting with AI, specifically with ChatGPT, to see how useful it could be.
It occurred to me to ask the following question: What answers would you suggest if you were a magician and were asked by a spectator, “May I shuffle the cards?” Give ten answers.
Answers from ChatGPT: Here are ten potential responses a magician could use when asked, “May I shuffle the cards?”:
- “I’ll tell you what—I’ll shuffle them in a way you’ve never seen before. Watch closely!”
- “In this trick, the cards have already been shuffled by fate itself!” (proceed with the trick)
- “I would, but these cards are a little camera-shy when someone else handles them.” (with a playful smile)
- “These cards are in a very delicate balance right now, but I promise, it’s worth it!”
- “Actually, I’ve trained these cards to only respond to me. Let’s see if they behave!”
- “How about this: you cut the deck instead? Your influence is just as powerful!”
- “This deck is in a specific order that will blow your mind in just a second!”
- “If I let you shuffle, these cards might give away all their secrets!”
- “I would, but these cards are already under a spell—shuffling might break it!”
- “Trust me, the magic works best when these cards stay just as they are.”
Some of the answers are good, don’t you think?
And some others make you think… All in all, this is not such a bad yield.
Minor and Major Magic
Last week’s memories of Gabi Pareras and “simple” tricks brought in several positive comments, so I sense there is an interest in this topic.
It reminded me of a short article I wrote in my own book Confidences (2012) as an introduction to a trick I called “Guaranteed!”. Since the book has been out of print for almost ten years now, and there is no sign of reprinting it, and also because it is a short text, I will reproduce it below for your edification.
It touches on the subject of simplicity and what Ascanio called “works of minor art,” a term he applied to all those tricks that are not blockbusters, but still have a good effect and a charming presentation, and which might serve well to introduce a more complex routine, connect two major pieces, or simply make for a pleasant interlude.
Here is the original text from Confidences, reproduced with the permission of the author (me!):
A magic performance, whether formal or impromptu, when it is looked back on by you and your audience, is a complete experience. Although a detailed discussion of this issue would require a book in itself, the essence can be explained in a few sentences, with a succulent analogy:
A gourmet meal has several courses, maybe five to seven, even more if the portions are small. Of these, only two or three are major courses, such as one important starter, a main dish, and a featured dessert. The remaining courses are conceived as appetizing transitions between the others and act as delicious “marriage brokers”. Such courses are the amuse-bouches, which tickle the palate at the beginning of the sensual journey: the soup, say, that allows the patron to move effortlessly from the fish and seafood to the plat de résistance, as the French colorfully call the main course. Then there is the sorbet, sometimes called un trou (a “hole”) by the French, a very small course, served after the main course or cheese board, which gives the mind and body a little rest, and seduces the customer to explore the dessert. And finally we come to the petits fours or friandises, fireworks of tiny sweets that accompany coffee and liquor, maybe even a cigar.
A magic performance—similar to a gourmet meal as an act of seduction and sharing—has a similar construction, although arguably with a greater artistic intention. There is a captivating opener, a smashing middle effect, and a memorable finale. Between them are smaller pieces that consolidate the major effects, pieces that allow the performer and his audience to become acquainted and get personally closer. This makes the whole experience rich and pleasurable, a complete happening.
Neither in gastronomy nor in magic are these connective “minor works” treated as less important or done with less passion and talent than the “major works”. They are just not as complex, prominent and loud, but they are equally conducive to the magic atmosphere and experience. They require the same discriminate attention from the performer as do his other works. As Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), the famous Portuguese poet, said, “The full moon is reflected in the large ocean, but also in the smallest puddle.”
Nothing more to add.
On the False Swing Cut
Again, I come back to Card College Volume 1, chapter on False Cuts, and would like to make a few comments on what has become the most popular False Cut of that chapter after its publication, the False Swing Cut.
To save you the time of having to look it up, just in case you are not sure what I am talking about, CLICK HERE to see the one-page description from the first edition.
Since then there has been a revised second edition and twenty reprints (state of 2024), with a total of ca. 30’000 copies, that is for volume 1 alone… Not so bad for a book which I had simply intended for the German-speaking magicians who at that time did not have any introductory works to card magic. The rest sort of just happened…
Anyway, at that time (I started writing volume 1 in 1990, it then appeared in 1992) Internet was not available, let alone the archives we have today, so neither I nor Stephen Minch, my publisher, nor anyone consulted knew where this False Cut came from. We later found out it was Bobby Bernard’s idea. British magician, actor and coach to many magicians was quite a character, and I had the great pleasure of getting together with him on several occasions over the years I visited England quite often. In spite of his gentlemanly reserve, a trait he shared with most of his fellow countrymen, he took to me and gave me many useful pieces of advice. I really enjoyed reading Val Andrew’s book on Bernard, titled The Coin and Card Magic of Bobby Bernard (Magico Magazine, USA 1982), because it brought back many memories.
Arghh, I am digressing again… that’s what happens if you don’t edit a text… but that’s the deal with this blog as the habitués know 🙂
So, back to our False Swing Cut…
Those who follow my publications will remember that after a few years, and motivated by a comment by my Parisian friend Yves Carbonnier made, I stopped using Bernard’s “tap thing” (fig . 2 of the Card College description), and now simply cut the packets onto the table in two straight movements, which looks much more natural. Later I made it into The Acts Interruptus False Cut, but that’s another conversation.
Looking over my notes on this move, I came across the following comment, which I have copied and pasted into my notebook, however, I apologize for not being able to give a credit (if someone knows, please write in to let me know). Here is the original note (with a few edits of mine for clarification):
The False Swing cut to the table from Card College Volume 1 might be the best false cut from the hands to the table.
But it might not.
If you are holding the deck in Dealing Position and do this cut, it looks wrong.
The problem is, if you were to do a regular cut with the deck held in Dealing Position to the table, the right hand takes the top half to the table, then comes back and takes the bottom half.
In the False Swing Cut, you grab the deck, swing it, and then cut. That’s a little too much movement at that moment for my taste.
But, suppose you are holding the deck in your right hand, and you want to do a real cut to the table. The most natural, direct way is to put it in your left hand, and take away the top half to the table, then complete the cut.
The False Swing Cut to the table simulates this action perfectly, and the extra swing cut action disappears in the larger, motivated action of placing the deck in the left hand.
So, if you can motivate the deck into your right hand first, this is a great False Cut to the table. Move something on the left side of the table with your left hand, which motivates taking the deck in your right hand. Then false swing cut to that spot, and make a bit of a hands-off gesture when you are done.
Makes sense, agree?
Obviously, as mentioned earlier, in this handling you do not use the “tap,” but carry the packets straight onto the table.
Also, the swing-cut action is minimal, not pronounced as it would be in a regular Swing Cut, it is microscopic, just enough for the right hand to grab the lower packet; for this reason the name I gave this False Cut, “The False Swing Cut,” is not a good name for this particular handling… But then again, as Vernon liked to say, you have to “use your head” at all times… especially before elections…
I agree, however, that if you do the False Swing Cut as is in Card College, then – and only then – the Swing Cut may be executed as a Swing Cut.
Which reminds me of yet another lovely handling Berlin’s Axel Hecklau did for me when we discussed the sleight over dinner at the Hintertuxer Zaubertage (21st JUL, 2019): Swing cut the top packet into your left hand, where it falls into Dealing Position. Immediately square the packet, which you are still holding in your right hand in End Grip, at the fingertips in a pronounced way, looking at it, and saying, “We’ll cut the cards… but very neatly…” Now drop the right hand’s packet onto the table, then take the packet from your left hand and drop it onto the one already on the table in an unsquared condition, complying with the theory of the Actions of Recall (Sharing Secrets, p. 118); finally carefully square the deck… that’s were I may add, “… Swiss precision.” You may have to check with the Chamber of Commerce of your country…
I hope this clears it all up 🙂
Lest I forget… Just realized that I possibly have already written (partially) about this problem before, somewhere in my old Secret Newsletters, and that Mike Maxwell, in The Cardwright (1988), page 137, published a handling by Larry Jennings that comes very close to what you just read. Not sure if great minds think alike, or if one is just a bit more forgetful than the other. But as long as there is no evil intention behind it, all is good, right 🙂
Today is possibly the last “hot day” of the month (I hope!), with ca. 35 degrees centigrade in the shade, time for a large Gin Tonic, and time to…
… wish you all a successful and happy week,
Roberto Giobbi
