The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

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DennisLisi
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 14th, 2022, 8:28 pm

This might be slightly off-topic, but I insist that every trick I do MAKE SENSE. I abhor routines that are simply absurd--such as oh, let's say smashing a housefly and transmuting its corpse into a daisy.

Such tricks are obviously designed to accommodate some peculiar device or "move". There can be no other explanation for the juxtaposition of unrelated objects or sequence of eccentric behaviour on the part of the magician.

And that's mainly why I believe that a reasonable sounding hypothesis ought to be a part of every routine.

"It could happen" is good for Magic. Because you want to be credible. Which means realistic. Without credibility, there is only the wonder of "Why did he do that?", not "How did he do that?".

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Denis Behr » June 15th, 2022, 3:26 am

DennisLisi wrote:Thinking of Magic as a business (or a career) it would be wise to use what people believe, especially as a supposed means of achieving an effect.

Astrology, telepathy--whatever.

Much better than trying to demonstrate "The Impossible". Take advantage of the fact that Science has yet to disprove most forms of "supernatural phenomena". And Science itself is always discovering things that were once considered impossible.

People believe that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. This is a universal concept. If they see you do it, it is demonstrably possible. The only question is "How?'. It is vain to try to persuade an audience that you have done The Impossible.

I think magicians who aspire to this are ironically, attempting The Impossible, and failing.

I'm quite surprised that your profile lists Fred Kaps as your favorite magician.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 15th, 2022, 3:51 am

Ah, but Fred Kaps always seemed perplexed by the "impossibility" of his own routines. My point is that a magician ought to strive to attain a sensible (though ambitious) goal. Like turning lead into gold.

The premise should be rational. When something "unpredictable" happens, he ought to be as taken aback as the audience.

I'm questioning the idea of vaunting to be an Impossiblist.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby BarryAllen » June 15th, 2022, 8:11 am

Chris Aguilar wrote:
Tarotist wrote:Oddly enough there are TONS of people who believe in palmistry!

And astrology... Reflexology... plus a host of other stupid nonsense.

The Palm Reading that I do is the fun variety; just basically character analysis really.

However, coupled with 'think a card', this is the most powerful combination I've ever known during my lifetime within Magic

Only yesterday, I must have read around 35 palms at a women's golf day event; the oldest being an unbelievably healthy-looking 90yo.

I'd dearly love you to be able to ask those women whether they consider that their readings were stupid nonsense.

I'm not a gambling man in any way - but I'd make one little wager with you. Go to work with your very best magic tricks.....and if you are working with a palm reader, I know who I'd back to draw the biggest crowd!

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 15th, 2022, 10:46 am

Palm reading is nonsense entertainment at best. Any further discussion of it and any mention will be edited.
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby MagicbyAlfred » June 15th, 2022, 10:47 am

BARRY ALLEN WROTE: "I'm not a gambling man in any way - but I'd make one little wager with you. Go to work with your very best magic tricks.....and if you are working with a palm reader, I know who I'd back to draw the biggest crowd!"

The palm reader hands down (no pun intended). Let me be quick to add - mainly with women.

I once worked close-up at a Super Bowl Party at a private home in Admiral's Cove, Jupiter, Florida. There were many guests. At halftime, most of the male guests were engaged in spirited commentary over the events of the first half and prognosticating what would happen in the second. I'm sure palm reading was the furthest thing from their mind and that they would not have been receptive, to say the least, if a palm reader sought to engage them - especially at that point.

Meanwhile, in a sitting room down the hall, I performed a new effect involving cold reading. Each of 4 "indifferent" cards was taken from the deck and placed face down in a certain woman's hand one at a time with a correspondent "reading" for each card. At the end the 4 cards were turned face-up in her hand and they were the 4 aces. A truly great magical effect. But it wasn't the magic that accounted for what happened next. Within a few minutes I was flabbergasted to see that there was a line of women going out the door and down the hallway excitedly waiting for me to "read their fortunes."

EDIT: PRIOR TO POSTING THIS, IN WHAT I BELIEVE IS GOOD FAITH, RICHARD APPARENTLY WROTE HIS ABOVE POST WHICH I HADN'T SEEN. SO IF I'VE SOMEHOW CROSSED A LINE AND THIS GETS DELETED, I'LL KNOW WHY

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Jonathan Townsend » June 15th, 2022, 12:35 pm

I don't see Too Perfect Theory as helpful in routine design beyond pointing out weaknesses in method construction. I think of Too Perfect Theory as test of ad copy claims against the method for a trick - with the goal of finding a suitable match between a method the magician wishes to use and a magical effect. The article is about keeping the methods but changing the effect.

For example; consider the bluff vanish; Do you feel the vanish method is sufficiently deceptive to use it in a routine where the heat is on that part of the effect? Johnsson's suggestion of using that method for a penetration rather than a vanish makes sense.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 15th, 2022, 12:38 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Palm reading is nonsense entertainment at best. Any further discussion of it and any mention will be edited.


I don't particularly want to discuss it any more and I promise not to. However, in my capacity as a psychic reverend and and unholy man of the cloth I really must reprimand you for saying palmistry is nonsense. However, I suppose that in my spiritual capacity I shall have to forgive you and implore you to sin no more.

As for the too perfect theory I shall give you a concrete example of it. Oddly enough it was given to me by a magic shop owner. He demonstrates in his shop the pen through bill thing. He says he never borrows the bill because if he does then the lender will realise that it cannot be a fake bill that makes the trick work but then his attention shifts to the pen which is of course the correct solution (or at least I think it is---I don't know how the bloody trick works anyway). By using his own pen and bill it provides enough options to confuse the mind somewhat. I use the same psychology for the Malini weeping coin thing. I don't borrow the coin. I let them think there is something fishy about it and when they examine it later they find there is nothing wrong with it. However, if I were to borrow it then they will know already that it can't be the coin that is doing it and their attention will be centred elsewhere and I don't want that "elsewhere" to be the correct solution. And of course borrowing a coin takes up too much time when a good showman should be getting on with things instead of faffling about.

(I did read that Malini borrowed the coin but what the hell did Malini know about magic?)

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 15th, 2022, 3:56 pm

It's true, Mark. There aren't too many tricks that are "too perfect". But they are amongst the most common.

The ones I cringe at are those in which a borrowed object is apparently destroyed and ultimately returned to its owner in one piece.

Any idiot will immediately realise that the destruction was fake, that the real object was palmed off or whatever.

The sad part is how elated the performer seems to be, thinking he has demonstrated that this unique item was burnt to ashes and restored, when in fact, he is showing that it could not have been.

Such tricks should be used only as "bits of business" within the course of a routine, never presented as a stand-alone effect.

So if they fail to impress, no disgrace to the performer.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 15th, 2022, 6:04 pm

I have never heard of Dennis before but I must say he impresses me. He knows what he is talking about.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Paco Nagata » June 16th, 2022, 10:37 am

Probably, all the confusion about The Too Perfect Theory is about its own name (given by Rick Johnsson).
As Mark Lewis pointed out it would be easier to understand this concept by giving it a more specific name like "Red Herring Theory" or the "Too Obvious Theory" (this last is the one I personally prefer).

First of all, I think that many magicians have come up with this concept by their own just thinking about magic as an art, like Dai Vernon himself. It has quite a lot of common sense, as Mark said too.

Many magicians hate this concept because its premise or fundamentals is the fact that "magic does not exist." 
Paradoxicaly, magic does not exist for magicians, but may exist for spectators.

We all magicians have the same problem:
we can't do magic, but tricks.
No better than magicians know they don't do magic but tricks, so there's always a solution, a method, a way, and if it happens to be too obvious to the spectators' mind, no matter how great the magic effect is, it may not be considered as magic by them.

I think magicians should strieve to keep away from any obviousness regarding a magical effect... Actually they do it all the time!:
* The one that hands a deck of cards to be shuffled by the audience is creating the false solution of a possible stack.
* The one that uses a big ring on the floating woman is creating the false solution of wires.
* Any magician that hand props to be examined, show empty hands, etc... is doing nothing but creating false solutions.

I reckon that Rick Johnsson simply claimed that, if you can't make false a too obvious solution, you will have to create some false ones to hide the too obviousness of the real one if you want to save a particular magic effect as magical.

To me, this theoretical concept is the most interesting in magic.
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 16th, 2022, 1:08 pm

Probably the title "Too Impossible Theory" would be the best one. I am tempted to rename it the "who cares theory" but I suppose I mustn't be cynical. The idea has been around in the past and it has always been mentioned by people who actively perform magic rather than theorise about it. It wasn't given a name until Rick Johnsson gave it one but it has been around way before he wrote about it. Monk Watson wrote about it and I think Roy Benson did too.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Dave Le Fevre » June 16th, 2022, 1:28 pm

Tarotist wrote:he never borrows the bill because if he does then the lender will realise that it cannot be a fake bill that makes the trick work but then his attention shifts to the pen which is of course the correct solution
That’s an excellent point. Thank you, Mark.

Something that I posted here in a TPT discussion a couple of years ago:

A year or two ago, someone performed an effect (that he'd created) for a group of us. It was jaw-dropping. Utterly impossible.

An hour or two later, I realised what the method was. Because it's what the method
had to be. The effect was so seemingly impossible that was the only way that it could have been achieved.

And that, to me, is a prime example of the Too Perfect Theory.


What one does with that realisation, of course, is then to show (casually or otherwise) that that isn’t the method after all. For example, the spec works out that it must be a one-way deck, and then the cards are shown to be a normal deck.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Diego » June 16th, 2022, 7:10 pm

I remember a close up magician who was beginning to include mentalism in his shows, told me he was appearing for a woman's birthday party, and found out (that few knew) that she had been in a bad car accident, but had walked away.
He was asking how to use this while performing, perhaps after revealing a card, saying, "You were in a serious car accident, weren't you."
I said she will then probably say, "who told you?" or "somebody told you". (what else?)

Instead I suggested the words of the master wordsmith, William Larsen, Sr., from his Mental Mysteries manuscripts on doing readings: "I see you feeling like you were standing at the very edge of the came of eternity...I can't tell if it was an illness or an accident, but you turned away from it and walked towards the light." "You learned something from that, and your life followed forward."
He saw the difference, and used it, to very good effect.

Less is more.
("Often, the more subtle phenomena is far more convincing" Anton LaVey)

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby MagicbyAlfred » June 16th, 2022, 9:31 pm

Good call Diego. Subtleties are exceedingly useful in magic, but psychological subtlety achieved by the use of words may be the most exquisite. In the example you cited, the obvious was eliminated and, simultaneously, the mystique was heightened.

I have never performed the cigarette, pencil, or rolled up bill through the coin, so I can't speak from experience about it. But it always struck me as an effect that would have only one possible solution in a spectator's mind (no matter how good the switch), and therefore fall within the realm (as Paco mentioned) of the "too obvious" theory. (The words "too perfect" falling far short of a perfect description). I'm happy to be proven wrong on my feeling about the coin penetration, or even to give it a try if there are magicians who can say they have consistently killed with the trick...

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Chris Aguilar » June 16th, 2022, 10:28 pm


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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 16th, 2022, 10:39 pm

The ironic thing is that years and years ago I read in some magazine Dingle moaning and groaning about the coin through cigarette trick. He was quite annoyed by it. I think some young amateur magician kid got more reaction from it than he got from his advanced card work. I remember thinking that if the kid got more reaction then he is the better magician. To me the reaction is king.

Later on I was greatly amused to find out that he started doing the trick himself!
Incidentally a friend of mine came across a woman who did handwriting analysis on the Blackpool Pleasure Beach. She claimed that she was Derek Dingle's mother in law! I have often wondered if there was any truth in this! I do know she was a terrific graphologist.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 16th, 2022, 11:36 pm

The Cigarette Through Coin does not fall victim to the Too Perfect Theory precisely because it visually cancels the only possible solution when the cigarette is removed from the quarter--the coin is seen to be whole before the cigarette is moved away if you do it properly. There is no possible answer to how this trick was done because of that moment. Thank you Pressley Guitar!
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 17th, 2022, 2:19 am

I don't think it matters much, whether an audience knows exactly how a trick is done. The impact is compromised if they see clearly that it must be a trick.

At best, they are impressed by the peculiarity of the illusion. You are showing them a clever toy you bought, and they might envy that--but they are not likely to admire your skill, any more than they would your driving ability if you paraded past them in your new Jaguar at 5mph.


You might get "oohs" and "ahhs", but are spectators awed by you or by the mechanism?

A lot of you are talking about the magic of doing "The Impossible", as if that's what it's all about. I try to render an impossible illusion improbable, because that's what makes the difference to their minds (regardless of how they word it) between "How was it done?" and "How did YOU do that?".

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Jack Shalom » June 17th, 2022, 9:03 am

In every art, performers can choose to show their skill overtly or not. It's an aesthetic choice. Or not.
Personally, I dislike watching an actor "act," a writer "write," or a director "direct." Nor do I like magicians overtly "magishing."
I understand that it is often a necessary business choice, etc., and brings certain rewards with it.
But as an audience member I more appreciate art that conceals art, and would rather leave judgement as to the skill of the artist to a different level of appreciation.
Again, back to the subject of what is a magician? If a juggler, then sure, show off your gambling sleight skills. OTOH, if a storyteller of a special kind, then I'd rather not be taken out of the story by the storyteller.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby katterfelt0 » June 17th, 2022, 9:48 am

Well said, Jack.
Effect and method are inextricably linked.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 17th, 2022, 10:12 am

Mystifying and baffling people is important and I suppose that dreadful and disrespectful word "fooling" is too. However, it is of SECONDARY importance. Creating "wonder" and "magic" doesn't matter a single jot unless you can ENTERTAIN with your magic! The entertainment always comes first. I do know there are some daft magicians who think entertainment skills are not necessary and the effect of the trick is entertainment enough. However anyone that says that is merely exhibiting their lack of entertainment skills.

By all means pontificate about whether the too perfect theory is valid or not. And the wonder (or in most cases the not wonder) of magic. However, a good magician has to be a good entertainer. It is not a separate requirement. It is part and parcel of being a good magician. The bare truth is that if you cannot entertain people you are not a good magician no matter how knowledgeable, creative or technically competent you are. Of course that probably rules out 75% of people in magic.

And if you are a good entertaining magician you will know instinctively when to use the too perfect theory or not. Or even whether it is valid or not. You won't have to think or analyse it. You will know what to do automatically without thinking.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Dave Le Fevre » June 17th, 2022, 11:22 am

I think that when spectators see a conjuring performance, the TPT can be summarised according to their reaction/analysis/thoughts as follows:

1 There is no way that that could have happened
2 There is only one way in which that could have happened, and so that must be the method that was used
3 There are several ways in which that could have happened
4 I don’t care how it happened because it was so entertaining
5 I don’t care how it happened because I found it uninteresting

The TPT comes into play in category 2. And only in category 2.

Obviously, a combination of categories 1 and 4 is the ideal outcome.

I’ve sat through far too many category 5 performances.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Chris Aguilar » June 17th, 2022, 12:01 pm

I've never viewed the concepts of full mystery ("OMG that was impossible") and entertainment as mutually exclusive.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 17th, 2022, 12:23 pm

I suspect I'm annoying most of you by posting so much, but it's because I'm annoyed. I don't think there is such a thing as an insoluble trick. It's an unattainable ideal.

I just watched a vid in which David Blaine astonished Harrison Ford with his Card In Orange trick.

Impossible? Harrison Ford seemed to think so, and maybe a high percentage of viewers agree. I've never performed any version of this trick, but in under five minutes I deduced logically that if Ford had a truly free choice of the card (granted), Blaine could not have inserted it into the fruit until after the thought-of card had been announced. From there, it's just a matter of determining how he inserted it into the orange prior to making the final cut with the knife.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time....

Obviously somebody's going to be smart enough to figure it out. I want the ambiguity of multiple possibilities, largely to frustrate that person's attempt to explain the secret to anyone else.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Diego » June 17th, 2022, 12:25 pm

Diego wrote:I remember a close up magician who was beginning to include mentalism in his shows, told me he was appearing for a woman's birthday party, and found out (that few knew) that she had been in a bad car accident, but had walked away.
He was asking how to use this while performing, perhaps after revealing a card, saying, "You were in a serious car accident, weren't you."
I said she will then probably say, "who told you?" or "somebody told you". (what else?)

Instead I suggested the words of the master wordsmith, William Larsen, Sr., from his Mental Mysteries manuscripts on doing readings: "I see you feeling like you were standing at the very edge of the cave of eternity...I can't tell if it was an illness or an accident, but you turned away from it and walked towards the light." "You learned something from that, and your life followed forward."
He saw the difference, and used it, to very good effect.

Less is more.
("Often, the more subtle phenomena is far more convincing" Anton LaVey)


I was trying to correct "came" to "cave of eternity" but ended up as a quote.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 17th, 2022, 12:33 pm

Magicians have been doing "item to impossible location" for centuries. It first appears in English in Scot in 1584. If item to impossible location was a lousy trick, or easily figured out, magicians would have stopped doing it! Card or bill to orange or lemon KILLS. It always has. Torn corner required.
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 17th, 2022, 1:04 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Magicians have been doing "item to impossible location" for centuries. It first appears in English in Scot in 1584. If item to impossible location was a lousy trick, or easily figured out, magicians would have stopped doing it! Card or bill to orange or lemon KILLS. It always has. Torn corner required.



Yes it's a mind-bender, Richard. But my point is, it can be OVERDONE. Blaine not only allows the volunteer to "think a card" but to choose which fruit to cut open.

This may astound some folks, but to me, it's a dead give-away.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 17th, 2022, 1:44 pm

I bet the secret can be found on You Tube anyway. I daren't look but I probably will.........................

Actually I remember Steve Brooks exposed the method for the entire world to see on the Magic Cafe.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Tarotist » June 17th, 2022, 1:53 pm

I did look and there are a TON of expose videos of this trick! I refuse to put a link to any of them. It isn't the bloody too perfect theory we should be worrying about. It is the "Too many You Tube videos theory" You are all fussing about the wrong thing. The secret may well have lasted since 1584. I have a strong suspicion it will not last until 2024 the way things are going. THAT is what you should all be worrying about.........

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby DennisLisi » June 17th, 2022, 2:08 pm

Tarotist wrote:I did look and there are a TON of expose videos of this trick! I refuse to put a link to any of them. It isn't the bloody too perfect theory we should be worrying about. It is the "Too many You Tube videos theory" You are all fussing about the wrong thing. The secret may well have lasted since 1584. I have a strong suspicion it will not last until 2024 the way things are going. THAT is what you should all be worrying about.........


I think it's a good thing that there are several different methods for the trick. The problem as I see it, is when your version is clearly not like the others.

If in the course of your performance, you eliminate the possibility of a forced card, a card already in the fruit, etc ., what you are doing is helping the audience to make logical deductions.

Ideally, at least one of those deductions ought to be false. And leave it to the viewer to work out which one it was.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Jonathan Townsend » June 17th, 2022, 2:30 pm

Tarotist wrote:...[snip]... The bare truth is that if you cannot entertain people you are not a good magician no matter how knowledgeable, creative or technically competent ....


If by magician you mean "entertainer who does magic tricks" - the statement above is a tautology. But if the trick does not deceive well enough to serve in routine and performance... it's not our magic. Johnsson could have directly addressed places where method fails to establish or maintain audience conviction as regards the "before" or "after" of an effect as a springboard for finding more suitable methods.
Last edited by Jonathan Townsend on June 17th, 2022, 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby MagicbyAlfred » June 17th, 2022, 2:31 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Magicians have been doing "item to impossible location" for centuries. It first appears in English in Scot in 1584. If item to impossible location was a lousy trick, or easily figured out, magicians would have stopped doing it! Card or bill to orange or lemon KILLS. It always has. Torn corner required.


Absolutely, and it is the seeming impossibility of it that makes those effects kill. One of the very strongest tricks (based on spectator reaction) that I have performed for countless years is the chop cup with a 2 or 3 lemon production ending. Yes, it is great -- no doubt. But after i acquired Carneycopia and read about his masterpiece, "Fruit Cup," I quickly realized that as strong as the lemon ending is, it is just a beginning compared to production of "their" dollar from one of the lemons (with, of course, as Richard mentioned, the ability to prove it with the torn corner receipt they are given at the beginning of the routine).

The continuity of balling up their dollar, using it as a ball, and then when it ultimately vanishes and a lemon is produced from the cup, and "their" dollar found inside the lemon is incredibly brilliant. But if a chop (or one) cup routine with lemon(s) final load is a "10", then continuing on to produce their dollar from one of the lemons makes the routine at least a "20." Don't take my word for it; try it and see for yourself. We can debate the too perfect theory until kingdom come, but it, and any of its spinoffs, will always be just that: a theory. In the final analysis, it is always the spectators' reactions that truly tell the story in practice.

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Fruit ball

Postby Jonathan Townsend » June 17th, 2022, 2:41 pm

MagicbyAlfred wrote:The continuity of balling up their dollar, using it as a ball, and then when it ultimately vanishes and a lemon is produced from the cup, and "their" dollar found inside the lemon is incredibly brilliant.
Doing a trick with their bill and a cup is great. The lemon appearing under the cup is a surprise. Finding their bill in the lemon works beautifully to complete the routine. :)

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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Paco Nagata » June 17th, 2022, 4:56 pm

Couldn't agree more, Alfred, Jonathan; it seems a great routine! I would try it one day with a card instead a bill as a crazy card magic obsessed I am.

Every time I've performed a "card in impossible location" effect for my friends and relatives, I've got some "funny" guy joking with the question:

"Hey, Paco, when did you put that card inside that?"

You see. Sometimes the "Too Perfect Theory" is a real pain in the arse :-[
But, actually, it makes you stronger, since it makes you think carefully about how to improve a magic trick to look like more and more impossible, like, for example, how to get a SIGNED card in an impossible location.

That "funny" question used to be so frecuently that I got a funny response prepared for it:

"I thought it was you the one who put the card inside that... After all is your card!"
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 17th, 2022, 5:31 pm

There are some good handlings of Signed Bill to Cigar by Kurtz and Steinmeyer. The Kurtz method uses the 100 Bill Switch since the bill comes out of the cigar in the proper position to be reopened during the switch.
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby Paco Nagata » June 18th, 2022, 6:15 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:There are some good handlings of Signed Bill to Cigar by Kurtz and Steinmeyer. The Kurtz method uses the 100 Bill Switch since the bill comes out of the cigar in the proper position to be reopened during the switch.

Thanks for the heads-up! ^_^
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Re: The "Too Perfect" Theory -- Investigated

Postby MagicbyAlfred » June 18th, 2022, 8:56 am

I think when we're talking about cards or other objects to seemingly impossible locations, IMHO, the classic signed card to zippered wallet ranks high up on the top of the list with any of'em. I cannot count the number of times a layman has reported to me, "I once saw this magician at a party and he had me pick a card and sign it, and then somehow, the card appeared in the zippered compartment of his wallet. Do you know that trick?" (or words to that effect).

I used to have and use the Mullica Wallet(s), a no-palming-required version where the signed card appeared in a wallet that was inside another wallet. It was favorite of the late great Eugene Burger. Pretty dang strong. However, when I started doing the version where the signed card is produced from the zippered compartment, the reactions increased exponentially -- dwarfing those I was getting with the Mullica. The zipper makes all the difference in the world.


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