Put on Your Thinking Cap

[Craig]

I was recently reading Harry Lorayne's "Close Up Card Magic" and stumbled across a four ace trick. As I'm pursuing mentalism, I almost skipped over it, but after reading it I was instantly inspired to alter the effect and presentation to make it an experiment in coincidence. I tell this almost "non-story" for what I believe to be an important reason. Many times we look at effects at face value, determining whether they work for us or not. Instead, our goal should be to look for inspiration wherever it may be, and make the effect our own.


Unless you strike gold when purchasing a suit, it will need to be tailored to fit you. The same should be said of the effects we perform.  I'm pretty sure I stole this insight from Max Maven, so credit his wisdom for the metaphor. 

I hope this helps, and feel free to share stories in this thread bragging about presentational points or ways you've tailored an effect to your personal style and character.

Cheers,

Craig

[Ben Blau]

I have this experience frequently. There is so much in the literature of magic that can be adapted in such a way as to make it suitable to mentalism.

[Craig]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure whose quote this is, but I heard someone say you could make any card effect a mental effect with the right presentation. George Tait/ Patrick Redford's work on the ambitious card is a perfect example of this. Great stuff.

[Ben Blau]

Indeed. He does an ACR worthy of a mentalist.