Question about how to ask for advice on here

[ksevile]

Hello,

I wanted to ask this community’s advice on a move I’ve been working on for a while now. Can I post a link to YouTube of the performance and have advice given that way? I just wanted to follow the protocol.

[Richard Kaufman]

We have no protocol--so do as you like! Post a link to the video. You should be able to embed videos here, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it.

[ksevile]

We have no protocol--so do as you like! Post a link to the video. You should be able to embed videos here, but I've never been able to figure out how to do it.

Thank you sir.

https://youtu.be/w7p4mik2oV8

This is the D’amico second deal. For some reason I wanted to learn it for the sake of learning it I just thought it looked cool. I just can’t seem to get it to seamlessly snap out of there like Marlo did. I also don’t think I have the wrist movement down pat either.

[Richard Kaufman]

The first comment I would make is about the back-and-forth wrist jerking movement when you do the D'Amico Double Lift. I've seen other people do the lift without that movement (no wrist movement at all). There is nothing remotely natural about the move in the first place, but what you're doing makes it more unnatural in that the jerking movement of the hand attracts attention because, well, "what the hell is that about?" I can see a spectator saying that.

[MagicbyAlfred]

I agree with Richard's critique. That being said, it's not bad at all. Stick with it. But I would recommend using it inside of a trick or routine, as opposed to just learning the move in a vacuum. Bear in mind that Marlo probably did the move several thousand more times than you have so far. But it is very important to get it looking as natural as possible, and practice it that way, than to have it look suspicious or unnatural and practice it a million times, thus only ingraining and getting good at a bad habit.

[Brad Henderson]

Riffling At the outer end of the pack is open and visible. We can see you are riffling down more than one card - which directly points to the method.

A pinky count would be better hidden If you could avoid the sudden onset paralysis which often seems to accompany performances of that move.

[Richard Kaufman]

Brad, this specific sleight demands that the thumb do the counting at the outer left corner.
HOWEVER, it is possible to learn to pick up two cards with the thumb at once, rather than riffling down one at a time, and that would be the better option.

[Brad Jeffers]

The first comment I would make is about the back-and-forth wrist jerking movement when you do the D'Amico Double Lift. I've seen other people do the lift without that movement (no wrist movement at all)

He's not doing the D'Amico Double Lift.
He's doing the D'Amico Second Deal, so wrist movement is natural.

[Richard Kaufman]

Looks unnatural. Maybe a way to minimize it?

[Paco Nagata]

The movement is very cool. However, for card magic, in my humble opinion, looks too unnatural. It looks like a "suspicious" flourish to me.

Talking about D'amico, I once needed to get a double lift with one hand, simply because my other hand was supposed to be covering something. So, at first I thought that it wasn't possible to carry out that procedure, however, thanks to my cultural knowledge of card magic I thought about the (one hand) D'amico's double lift. So, I practised a lot that technique specially for that trick.
What I want to say is that, if you are a card magician, don't forget that the techniques are good when useful. Probably, the Damico's second deal doesn't look so unnatural if done perfectly, as Richard said, and in a proper routine, as MagicbyAlfred said.

[performer]

I am not concerned so much by the deceptiveness of the move (which seems OK) but the fact that it is a move within a flourish. I have always been against that and I think it is asking for trouble. You are emphasizing your skill at the precise time you should be hiding it. Flourishes should be a separate event and even then you should be careful not to overdo things. I have no idea whether it is supposed to be a double lift or a second deal and neither do I care. Whatever the hell it is find a different way of doing it that hides your skill rather than emphasising it.

[Pete McCabe]

I wonder what an audience would think you are doing.

Would they think you were displaying the top card and dealing it to the table? I doubt that very much. I suspect they would be confused, and not know what you are doing. I suspect that would be true for that move no matter how many repetitions you practice.

Time spent learning is never wasted, but I can't see what you're going to do with that move when you learn it.

[ksevile]

My motivation for learning it is not for any utility or usage. I just love it for the way Marlo did it, and wanted to try to learn it to his level. You can see him doing it in the cardician film but in my opinion it looked best in the Art Weygandt film that can be found on YouTube. Just seemed to come out of nowhere and with no effort.

After carefully reading the description in RCT and comparing it to how he did it in the Cardician, it looked like he was doing it slightly different than as described in the text. The text noted that the thumb comes approximately to “the center of a three spot but in the film his thumb appears to be only going along the outer extreme left corner. How he managed such control with it from such a leverage point is I guess divested in the time he spent with the move to learn it at that level.