Cannibal Cards

[Elite Prestidigitation]

The trick I always use to describe the lame Old School Magician style of card magic....Will anyone seriously perform the pattered routine in this times?...Essentially the patter is outdated and the modern audience will not want to sit and listen to you insulting their intelligence by claiming that you have "Cannibal Cards"....

4 cards are displayed and one card is inserted into the packet....They do not "burp"...but with a twist the card disappears..

What do you prefer.... Insulting the audience's intelligence or Just showing them the effect.

 

[saborfang17]

The trick I always use to describe the lame Old School Magician style of card magic....Will anyone seriously perform the pattered routine in this times?...Essentially the patter is outdated and the modern audience will not want to sit and listen to you insulting their intelligence by claiming that you have "Cannibal Cards"....

4 cards are displayed and one card is inserted into the packet....They do not "burp"...but with a twist the card disappears..

What do you prefer.... Insulting the audience's intelligence or Just showing them the effect.

It's fun and entertaining. And people enjoy it.

^Shame neither of those apply to you.

 

[Elite Prestidigitation]

Maybe back in the 70's....People want to see action now...for reference go to the cinema

 

[RediSpades]

Elite, to criticize someone on putting their own style into a trick is not a good thing. If you have followed most of Mike Hankins tricks and videos you would see that it is very much his persona, and by the looks of it, he gets good results from it.

 

[Toby]

Elite, to criticize someone on putting their own style into a trick is not a good thing. If you have followed most of Mike Hankins tricks and videos you would see that it is very much his persona, and by the looks of it, he gets good results from it.

Now this is interesting. How come when one of us ("ordinary" magicians) copy a presentation, he get's bashed from everybody how he needs to have his own patter in order to advance in the magic community, and be original; but when a "professional" (someone who is known to everyone, or have a DVD, etc) does the same thing, it just fly's by.
The Kanibal Kings patter has been around for as long as the trick itself, and with pretty much the same patter (even "burp" is used by Michael Ammar in his ETMCM series).

Now, I'm not saying that Elite Prestidigitation is neither right nor wrong, nor is it something personal towards RediSpades, it is just something that has happened quite a lot on these (and other forums), I'm just curious why?

To stay a little bit on topic. I don't think that the audience is so much "modern" these days than they were before, I think that magicians are the ones who are "modernizing" everything. I would agree that it is a fun challenge to make a different presentation for Kanibal Kings, but there is nothing wrong with the original one either, as long as it fit's your persona, and as long as audience enjoys it.

 

[Luis Vega]

I am gonna have to agree with EP...

I HATE stupid patter...when a magician usually uses a patter that no only doesn´t makes sense, but it´s insulting the people inteligence is really stupid..

When I see this trick and uses the patter of canibals...I just walk away...of course is imposible to have canibal cards but I think there is a difference when you say..."this cards are canibals" and "this cards are kind of canibals" do you see the diference? I see it...

Try to look at the trick without magician eyes....that usually helps defining your patter better..

 

[SebaMan]

It depends in your character. If you actually portray that you do "real" magic or not.

 

[RediSpades]

Now this is interesting. How come when one of us ("ordinary" magicians) copy a presentation, he get's bashed from everybody how he needs to have his own patter in order to advance in the magic community, and be original; but when a "professional" (someone who is known to everyone, or have a DVD, etc) does the same thing, it just fly's by.
The Kanibal Kings patter has been around for as long as the trick itself, and with pretty much the same patter (even "burp" is used by Michael Ammar in his ETMCM series).

Now, I'm not saying that Elite Prestidigitation is neither right nor wrong, nor is it something personal towards RediSpades, it is just something that has happened quite a lot on these (and other forums), I'm just curious why?

To stay a little bit on topic. I don't think that the audience is so much "modern" these days than they were before, I think that magicians are the ones who are "modernizing" everything. I would agree that it is a fun challenge to make a different presentation for Kanibal Kings, but there is nothing wrong with the original one either, as long as it fit's your persona, and as long as audience enjoys it.

I know that Mike Hankins took some parts of his presentation from others. But in the end, it was very much his own presentation style toward everything. He by no mean copied word for word the patter that was going on. But he took the basic story line and added twists of his own. This is a new release on the market, it is just a couple of added ideas for something that has already existed.

I am also amazed at how fast a lot of you are to criticize someone for their patter in front of a camera. Truth be told, it is harder to create that connection when filming, and I bet that if Hankins were able to perform this for you in person it would be a different story.

As a side note, why are you all so worried about his patter when you could go out and make your own patter to it. The effect is there, you have the tools, now create your own pieces of art.

 

[Toby]

I know that Mike Hankins took some parts of his presentation from others. But in the end, it was very much his own presentation style toward everything. He by no mean copied word for word the patter that was going on. But he took the basic story line and added twists of his own. This is a new release on the market, it is just a couple of added ideas for something that has already existed.

I am also amazed at how fast a lot of you are to criticize someone for their patter in front of a camera. Truth be told, it is harder to create that connection when filming, and I bet that if Hankins were able to perform this for you in person it would be a different story.

As a side note, why are you all so worried about his patter when you could go out and make your own patter to it. The effect is there, you have the tools, now create your own pieces of art.

Yes, he has his own twist, but he is still using the same presentation idea (kanibal kings that eat cards, and burps). And there is nothing wrong with it, I support it, that's the whole point. It would be incredibly challenging to come up with your own, completely different and completely original presentation of the same effect. And people get constantly bashed because of that, and even that would not be half as bad if they were bashing the professionals at the same time for the same thing.

You and I are on the same page here

 

[TheatreHead]

I do have problems with tricks like these. I've not met many magicians who can make these tricks congruent with their persona.

But that's looking pretty deep into it, and we could probably save discussion about that for another time.

 

[RediSpades]

Yes, he has his own twist, but he is still using the same presentation idea (kanibal kings that eat cards, and burps). And there is nothing wrong with it, I support it, that's the whole point. It would be incredibly challenging to come up with your own, completely different and completely original presentation of the same effect. And people get constantly bashed because of that, and even that would not be half as bad if they were bashing the professionals at the same time for the same thing.

You and I are on the same page here

Oh, I completely agree that we are on the same page. There are a lot of people who get bashed on this website needlessly. And from a couple of the posts I have been reading recently, it looks like Theory11 is taking a lot of action against said people. We can take certain good things from the collective styles that we have seen and use them in our own ways. I am constantly trying to improve my presentation of a certain effect and add my own little twist to it. It is what makes this art so difficult yet amazing at the same time.

 

[saborfang17]

Here's the difference between said "ordinary magicians" and said "professional magicians". When "ordinary magicians" copy patter, they steal the style and personality with it. When "professional magicians" copy patter, you nearly always see their style in it. I can assure you Michael Ammar and Mike Hankins aren't robots who copy each other. And their persona is reflected in their patter and presentation.

 

[tokyoUW]

You can present "stupid patter" in a stupid way, or in an entertaining way. When done in an entertaining way, it can level an audience (in a good way). Take Tony Chang for example. A lot of his patter is made up on the spot and pretty ridiculous, however, when he does it, it is pure comedy and his spectators love it. It is in the presentation of the patter, not the patter itself.

Now however, I would agree with Elite (can't believe I said that), the majority of the magicians who follow word for word the patter they hear from a trick do not know how to present it and end up sounding corny as all h3ll. But, it doesn't mean a good presentation is impossible with that patter.

 

[Randy]

It really depends, the problem isn't that they copy each other, it's that a lot of current magicians don't want to take the time to think about it, and would rather focus on how good their handling is or whatever. What's funny, is that coming up with a compelling script/presentation should ideally only take a person about 10-15 min at the max to think up and write down.