Well, this past weekend I went camping, and it was an average of about 20 degrees F, and we pitched the tents on about 3 inches of solid snow and ice. Fun. But, surprisingly, it was. Got there Friday night, set up camp, made some Hot Chocolate, and off to bed. Wake up, can't feel the toes, make some more hot chocolate, and make pita pockets for breakfast. After KP is finished, we're off to the Baltimore Aquarium. That place is sooo cool, but I was disappointed with the dolphin show, it has been much better in the past. Anyway, we were done walking through it about 1 1/2 hours before the time we had to meet back up, so my group sat down in the big cafeteria-ish room and played cards for the remainder of the time. We started with Capitalism for about an hour, then moved on to Egyptian Rat Screw. Got back and made some of the best Chicken I've ever had, great private recipe called Coke Chicken, contact me if you wasn't more info or how to make it. fire building contest, my group kicked ASS! We came in first with 1 math, 3. min 18 sec. to burn a rope 3 feet above the ground, second place group had 5 matches and over 18 min.. Sleep, wake up, breakfast and homemade doughnuts (yum.)
OK, now, onto cards. I'll start with a brief introduction about my background. I've been into magic for about 3-4 years now, with my primary focus on sleight of hand card magic, and secondary on coin sleights. I consider myself fairly-well versed in card sleights, although not nearly as so as those who have been doing this before I was born (as is to be expected). Around August 2005 I became deeply involved in flourishing and took a hiatus from magic to focus completely on card manipulations. During this time I had ALOT of practice and I already knew many of the basics, so I think I progressed rather quickly. Within the past 2 months, I've been introducing magic back into my repertoire, and the difference flourishing makes is astonishing. You develop a sense of familiarity with the deck that is inexplicable. I've completely changed my performances as well, now, instead of trying to present it as magic, I TELL them that I am performing incredibly difficult sleight-of-hand (even if it's not), and the flourishes only complement this statement, in my opinion.
Where I'm at with with flourishes. Some of my favorite flourishes to perform are as follows:
Sybils: Many different varieties, one universal joy.
ARMSPREADS!!!!!
All types of fans, I currently have decent (or better) standard thumb and finger fans, smear fan, twin fans, pressure fan, flipback fan, sanada fan and giant thumb fans.
Any One-handed cut that I can get my hands on.
Hotshot cut: This I think I have pretty much mastered, along with several variations (no, I don't mean using a different cut to get the card out.)
Card Flicks: Such as Snap Shot, Long Distance Spinner, Lonnie's card flicks, and I'm working on juggling cards .
One-handed shuffle: I love this thing.
Cobra: Yes, I do perform this, alot, along with several variations, about half of which are original (haha, an original variation. If that isn't an oxymoron, then I don't know what is.
) I'm working on:
Tornado cut
Ciappi's Palm Back Fan (the thing simply looks awesome)
L-cuts
Kryptonite
That's all for now, I try to work on just a few things at a time, to keep it more manageable and realistic.
-Michael