Comments On Comments 46: Pickpocketing, Light Year, Giveaway Results!

Hello, welcome to Real Magic Review. Should I do it all down here? I'm going to do the whole thing from down here and it's going to be a three hour long review. Maybe, maybe if I sit on the chair properly. Right there. Is that a good, is that a good artistically, does that work with video? Does it? It's better than that, isn't it? Playing by the rules, isn't it? Um, all right, uh, how you doing? I'm good. Now I'm here, everything's working. We're well, I've got my moody light lighting on. I think I'm going to put, I want to color, I want to color back there and that poster keeps falling off. So one day in the middle of it, it's all going to fall off, but that's all right. I want to put a little bit of color behind there, but I think this is the base layer. I think this is what we're going for. But tell me, let me know if you think it's off putting, it's a bit dark and moody. Um, I just want to do the whole thing from here. I don't know why that tickles me. Don't know why it does. Probably my state of mind at the moment. Uh, but there you go. So today I'm just going to answer some comments of some of the things I've, uh, I've been speaking about recently, pickpocket in being the main one. There's been a few comments, a lot of things, but, um, uh, I'm going to do that and they're going to play my cards at the same time. Did a little up the ladder cut there and I'm going to, what was the other? Oh, the giveaway, which I probably forget. We've got a giveaway result. I know the result. I've done the little software thing where it picks up the result. And listen, if you think about the giveaways, hardly anybody goes for them. So you've got such a good chance of winning. Uh, this week it's Orbit by Jonathan Fox. Uh, it's brilliant. I'm not giving it away for the rubbish, but I love it. I think it's great. It's just, I'm probably not going to use it and it seems a shame just for it to be sitting there. So there it is. I could sell it, but I'm that committed to the channel. Uh, right, let's do ask any questions. First of all, hi Tom. Hi Gary. Tom, have you got the link to, to, Oh yeah, let's do that. To, uh, onlinemagic.co's live session tonight. Onlinemagic.co happens to be my, uh, online resource course program live sessions every week. Most weeks might not be one next week. So I'm away. Um, but you've got loads of 700 videos plus live sessions uploaded every week. So you've got hours worth of footage every single month being uploaded and we haven't, no, we have guests. I haven't had a guest for a while. It's meant to be every month, but I haven't had a guest for a bit cause life's been a bit hectic. So there should be live, um, uh, guest live appearances every month, but it's been about six weeks now. So it's been a bit rubbish, but that's all right. And it still get loads for your money. 999 bargain coffee a week for all that. God, blimey. And, uh, it's a very cost effective way to be learning magic and spending your money in my opinion. But I would say that I'm biased. I have a look at the Trust Pilots review on onlinemagic.co. Anyway, enough of that. Let's have a look. Um, Oh, by the way, live sessions tonight, we're going to be looking at impromptu miracles part one, and I'm going to be doing the old knife and paper thing. Uh, so that'll be up on there for you, for you to peruse afterwards. All right. Where's my comments? Where's my comments? That's not it. That's it. Oh no, don't do that. No. Oh my gosh. I'm going to have to Where's it gone? Oh there. I couldn't find it. I couldn't find the right one. So first of all, right. There's loads of stuff. Coinception I reviewed. Have a look at that by the way, even if it's not your sort of thing, have a look at that review. It's an interesting one. Coinception is just kind of, um, appearance of a coin, uh, in, in quarters, you kind of show half a coin. No, it's not in quarters. Cause if it was in quarters, you'd show quarter of a coin, wouldn't you? First of all. So I just put that to rest already, but then you show another quarter and then quarters. So three quarters of a coin. Let's not get, let's not get caught up in that. Um, that's not because it's irrelevant really, but it appears gradually. That's the thing. And it's lovely. And I love it. I mean, it's great. Um, Ronnie does it better than me. It looks incredible when he does it. It looks all right when I do it. Uh, but it does get good reactions. I've done it a few people now and they do really like it. Uh, there's only a couple of comments on that. It's strange, isn't it? Cause I thought it was really interesting, but the amount of views on the, on the reviews weren't massive. So do have a look. Uh, let's just open that up. Right. It looks really good and I'm really not good enough, Gary, your lack of self-belief there. Um, it's not that hard actually. It's, it is, it's kind of, you need to be able to handle coins, but yeah, I know what you mean. If it's not, if you like it and if you don't think it's worth putting the effort to the slight hand in, that's completely fine. And actually, you know, I spend a lot of time with coins and there's some coin effects that I really like, but I go, you know, I'm kind of happy with what I've got there. So I totally, um, totally empathize with that. Showing about the odd cut. Yeah. There's this question, Chris, um, says there's this odd cut in the ad in the, in the ad for the effect and the cut isn't there for a reason because I've seen Rodney do it. It's not, it's, you know, I've seen videos of him uncut doing it really nicely. So I don't know why it's, I think it's just one of those things where you have those jump cuts to make it look more dynamic, which I think works, but when you have them in the wrong place for a magic thing, you kind of think, Oh, and yeah, I can assure you it's not there to cover anything. Um, I flipped over productions. I don't like the aesthetic of a coin in pieces. You can rip a card. So piece by piece restoration makes more sense. Somehow I went, uh, I want metal to men, uh, meld or bend. Yeah. Yeah. But, but a coin in pieces seems like too alien an object to me. Maybe if the edge is on the incomplete corner straight or something that way the edge just looks fake to me. Well, it raises an interesting point. And I think it's one of the, cause I remember when I first saw the ad of this, I didn't think that, but when I got it and played with it and looked at it more and more, even looked at the ad more and more, I can see where you come from. I think we some, and I'm not disagreeing with you at all. I just think this is my take on that sort of thing. Cause I've had this with quite a lot of effects. It's that thing. And once I kind of look at it a few times, I go, Oh, actually that's a bit too, it doesn't look like a tear. It looks like, and I think that maybe it's one of those things that if you've never seen it, you don't know what's coming up. You may not process those details. You know, for, for a lay person, I think with this kind of effect, you're going to see a coin and then a quarter of a coin. I don't think you'll see that. And it's like some torn and restored card routines when you know they're done and you look at them and especially the gimmicked ones, it kind of looks really fake. But again, in the moment, the first time you see it, I don't think you process that sort of stuff. You may do on a kind of subliminal level level maybe, but I've definitely thought that with so many things, tricks that even, even with, with a non-gimmick version with torn and restored card, you know that thing where you, you rip a card and you're not actually ripping it. And when you know, you kind of think, Oh, it's obvious. But when you don't know what's coming, you can't backtrack. And also incidentally, I think that's similar with palming. When you've got something held out, it's like when you know someone's palming, even when you look at people like Leonard Green, who's, who palms beautifully, you know, he might be holding out on a table like there. And you know, when you know it's there, he might have a card, something like that, you know, for a long time, when you know, it's there, you know, the method, it seems so obvious, but that's because you're looking where you wouldn't even be considering looking. So I'm not saying it's necessarily the same thing, but as you know, I like to use these questions to kind of springboard off into other magical things that may help or may not in the long run, but really good point. And, and you know what, when you think that it's important that you can't unsee it, it might, might affect the way you perform as well. So I think if you think that you're actually right, probably not to go for it. Any plans on reviewing diamond cutter? I saw it. I watched the ad. I think it's lovely. I think it's a really fun little thing. I haven't got one. If I get one, I'll, I'll review it. If I think penguin, isn't it? Yeah. I think it's a really fun thing actually. And it's something that I can imagine playing really, really nicely. It, you know, it has this thing where you show the five of heart, five of diamonds and they've chosen the three and you rip it in half for a gag and say, look, there's three. They can be ripped to the diamonds off, but then you actually change the number. I think it's a really nice idea. Actually. It's one of those things that seems so simple, but I think probably a really, really nice effect. We used to seeing that kind of magician in trouble thing, but I think if it's done well, that is, um, even though it's not only that number that changes, I think that subtlety in that, that kind of less is more applies to that effect. Uh, and Randy says little door. Absolutely. Little doors. Incredible. Uh, right. So that was coinception by Roddy McGee, you know, check out the review of coinception and, uh, and you can get the links are all there, but I think it's great. And it's, I'm really surprised and not a lot more people have seen, you know, watch that review. So have a look at it. Well, yeah. Um, and you can watch go to, uh, at Steve Faulkner, my Instagram account and see me performing. I'm not, I'm practicing it. I'm doing one of those things, you know, when some things you sort of perform something to a camera and the other time you're kind of looking at, you just look, looking at the phone. You're clearly not performing it, seeing if it looks all right. Yeah. That's kind of what I do, but that's all right in it. Um, okay. So we're not much on light. You can only put that out the other day, but what is interesting is someone on the forums on magician's forum, which is a good point asked about the size of it. So, you know, could you carry it around the different bits in a wallet? Uh, I haven't got it at the moment to show you. Um, have I, hang on, give me, there's going to be a bit of dead time. Hang on, hang on. I'm going off, off the screen. Don't go anywhere. I'm coming back and coming back and you go talk to Michael, talk amongst yourselves. I'm now going to look in a bag, which is so entertaining. I know it's second only to watching someone Google. So I have gone right. So let's have a look. So the size of these, the things that you hold up for light year, uh, pretty much the size of a playing card, give or take. Right. So as a kind of everyday carry thing, people, you know, um, I want to say the name just in case. Don't want me to trash it. I don't know. It's, it's kind of like a handle, but you know, if that's the kind of thing, it's kind of like not that much, much bigger or whatever substantial, excuse me, less substantial than a decade cards. Good things. It isn't going to bend. It isn't going to get hot. So you can put that in a bag, chuck it in your back pocket. And I think so in that way you can care. And I have, I've been walking around with this loads. I do tend to carry a backpack anyway, but I would happily put this in a coat pocket in my back pocket fits really nicely. If you want it to take it out and work it in and, and not worry about it being too big. It's, it's kind of big enough. I wouldn't, it doesn't need a wallet or anything like that. You could arguably by arguably, if you're going to argue about things like that, I don't know why I said arguably, maybe to make myself sound all clever and academic, but you you could have a, one of those card wallets, you know, and just put three in each, but I think it kind of almost looks nicer in a, in a bag, really not that bag. That's knackered. I don't even know where I got it, picked it up off my shelf, but yeah, so, so there's that, but I think, so I think it's a really nice trick. A couple of comments, not many, like I said, lots of nice things about the review, always looking for something different and interesting. I think it is, it's kind of neat idea, but I don't really like the resulting font of the reveal font in inverted commas, meaning the way it's revealed, it's revealed within the, the dots. And this is, this is, it's probably my STEM background. I don't know. I don't know what STEM is. I was going to Google that, but it looks like a solution to constraints, which I imagine it is now is, but I will say that, that, that idea of looking at in the stars or things being, I think it's more magical, you know, I think there is something more magical about it, not being quite perfect about it being revealed. It's like when, if you're a nail writer and the writing's not great, it could be quite spooky, or you could talk about a child writing, I think, or stuff like that. And I think with this, I mean, the constraints are in there because it's dots, so it's not going to be perfect. But I think if you talk about reading numbers in the stars and things like that, that's kind of how they would look. And again, totally not a disagreement. It's just another way of looking at it could be that. But again, if it doesn't feel right for you, then it's not for you. And I don't know why it isn't for me. It's certainly not for everybody. You know, I said about, I don't want to keep holding the bag up, that's not showing you anything, is it? But it's, like I said, about some of my favourite things aren't for everybody, and that's also not for me in certain situations. But if I really like them, that's okay too. I think there's nothing wrong in liking something because you like it and performing it because you like it. And maybe it doesn't go as strongly, but you really love doing it. And if you can find a presentation, maybe it's a trick that you just love the presentation of. So you're doing it for that reason, which can enhance a trick as well. But it's definitely one of them that isn't for everybody. Some people are going to just love it and do it all the time. Some people are not going to gel with it. And I find that with so many things. So again, now what's wrong with that? So a wondrous world of pickpocketing by Hector Mancha. As you would have guessed, I love this book. On this, I do have different playlists and one of them being Steve's Favourites. I think I did put it in there. I'm pretty picky about what goes in there, even if it's stuff I really like won't necessarily go in there. But it's something that really fires me up. I'll put it in the Steve's Favourites playlist. And also something I keep forgetting to mention is if you look down below in the information, there are some free courses. An Introduction to Card Magic and the Cull Course. Do have a look at that. Totally free. You've only got to put your email address in and you haven't got to pay for anything. So have a look at those courses as well. Right. Wondrous world of pickpocketing. There's some good ones. First one is from Michal, who did the design. In the review, I did say that he did the illustrations. What I meant to say is he did the main design, the sort of, well, I'll read what he says. The great book, Hector did the illustrations, which he did. I did the cover and the endpapers illustration. Yeah, which I think I don't know what endpapers are, but they're probably bits. Yeah, they are. In the beginning and end as you open it, I think, which looked wonderful. And I think they're important. You know, when you open a book, that's the first impression and it gives you a feeling. It creates an emotional response, no matter how subtle. So I think it's so important, that stuff. Ollie says, oh, and Magic UK, check out his site, his channel. I was at Gregory Wilson lecture last week and his pickpocket routine was unreal. I'm going to check out this book. Yeah, I mean, Greg, I love everything that Greg Wilson does. He's great in it, most things. So I haven't seen his pickpocketing routine, but I'm sure it's great. Stephen Cohen McQueen, who's been doing pickpocket a while, so he's looking forward to seeing the book. I just turned down a Christmas party today. They wanted close-up magic and pickpocketing by Darren. You know, good on you, Darren, because, you know, I used to do the horrible thing of kind of taking gigs where I couldn't do it and just pretending I was doing it years ago. Not years ago, I'm talking years ago, not in the last 20 years, but, you know, I used to take stilt-walking gigs, rubbish at stilt-walking and pretend my stilts had got nicked on the tube and stuff like that. So, yeah, I think, you know, stay in what you know and, you know, if you want to learn it, I'm the same. I wouldn't take a gig as a pickpocket. I wouldn't, because I'm not, I have to do this kind of part of it if it feels right for me. I'm not good enough yet, but yeah, I think that if you're inspired to do that, it's something that you can really add. If you can put that on your business card, it's a big deal, right? It's not just, you're then not just one out of hundreds of magicians like me, or than I am, you know, I'm just as magician, but if you can add that pickpocket and all that mentalism or something like that to it, I think it opens up a lot. This is a good question by Mr. Martin, M-A-R-T-E-N. So, hey, Steve, thanks for a great review. Love your sense of humor. Thank you very much. That's all very lovely. I have one question, and thank you for that, Martin, saying that stuff. What does the audience experience when they watch the fake pickpocketing? Can you describe the routines? I can find no info on this. I'm looking for stuff relatively easy. My micro movements aren't great, and let me just open that up, etc. So, he wants it, and I said, thanks so much. Can you clarify fake pickpocketing? I didn't know what it meant, and he says, from the blurb, it says, this is the quote, you will also discover techniques that can be best described as pseudo pickpocketing, audience-tested routines that will convince your audience that you're a master pickpocket without you actually needing to be one. There are many complete routines included, and very few of them actually rely on real skills to work. There's room to add in real pickpocketing once you're comfortable, but it's not needed to perform many of the routines. I think, and please, an audience will still be left with the impression that you're a master thief. So what I think is meant by this is that there is, so if you look at pickpocketing in its purest form, no tricks, nothing. You're talking to people, and you've nicked all this stuff. That's the pure kind of pickpocketing thing. And then there's a continuum, isn't there? There's kind of pickpocketing, saying, oh, what's in there, putting it back in and stealing it back. There's all that stuff where they know you've been in their pockets, so that's kind of another level. And then there's another level where they kind of, there's so much cover that they know you're going in their pockets, they know you're doing all this stuff, but you're not having to be that light finger, because the routine itself is allowing you to go into pockets, to out of pockets, and you don't have to worry too much about that misdirection. I think, without going through all the routines again, because I read them all that day, and that was fresh in my mind, that's kind of what it means. There are routines in there where every move to the pocket is justified, so you haven't got to do that thing of, I've got to get in this pocket while I'm doing that. They know you're going in that pocket, and you can justify everything, and they know something, like a wallet's going in their pocket, but it might not be the wallet they think it is, and everything is physically covered, so you're not having to really worry about that thing of micro-movements, because the movements don't have to be hidden. It's the kind of psychology behind the movements, them thinking you're doing something for one reason, but you're doing it for another. I think that's what it is, and because the jacket might be open, there's kind of nothing to see at all. That doesn't mean it doesn't create, doesn't need rehearsal, but it gives you that kind of safety net, which I think is great. It's so good, and then you can start doing real stills with it as well, so it's brilliant. Would you agree that a lot of theatrical pickpocketing on stage of large items is just a spectator playing along due to peer pressure, and they really do notice their items being taken. I've seen Bob Arno and Apollo Robbins steal the glasses of someone's face. I can't believe they don't notice. They suddenly can't see properly. Okay, so the glasses thing does work. I know that people are doing it, and it's based on around that people don't have to, well, depending on what their eyesight is like, obviously, if they're completely blind, but they're so caught up in the moment that their mind is on stuff, and they don't really have to see stuff. They're just kind of thinking, and they're looking around, and it's that thing of everything's happening so quickly, and I don't mean in a rushed way, but they don't register. Also, it's like, I wear glasses. I need to do certain things and so I know that you can steal glasses, and I know that you, and there's different ways of doing it, but you can take them off of someone's face. Now, I've seen belt steals and things like that when I've kind of gone, I've seen them looked at. I kind of know they've clocked it, and actually, I have done that. I've pickpocketed stuff or done things like the coin under the watch where I've kind of really fluffed it, especially when I was starting out, and I kind of know they're playing along. So obviously, it happens, which is great, and you can use that, but there are definitely ways of doing it, and if you imagine, I always think, depending on size of audience, if you're a layperson, you're pulled up on stage in front of a thousand people, or let's say, let's be ridiculous, 80,000 people, Wembley Stadium, right? Someone's picked, you're going to be so nervous and overwhelmed. All right, and you could get, you could take the trousers off, I'm not saying you could, but the experience is going to be so odd and so all-consuming that you can get away with more. So I think, you know, you can use that. So it's not surprising to me that someone, you know, wouldn't feel a belt. Now, a lot of belt steals are, they know that you've been to that belt first of all, so you're not going in cold. There's kind of been a reason why you've talked about it. So I think that that's an issue as well, but I don't think there's any, something goes wrong and, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing on that and just kind of giving up the clock, because it's your show and that's what you do. But definitely people that are really great at this can, I think, do that. Of course, I've never done that, I'll let you know, but I know definitely with ties and things like that, that's, you know, you can see the responses of people when they find out, it's so brilliant. So I think that sometimes that happens, but I think a lot of the time it's genuine and, yeah, that I said and there, and I didn't have anything to add, nothing at all, just wanted to fluff my way through the rest of it. Right, go away, right, not you, that. So just have a look. Happy Thursday, Alan, how you doing? Looking forward to the live session. Good, Stefan, I am too and I hope you're great. With Quiver, Steve. Yeah, I've got Quiver. I've got one. Lovely Mexie from People's Palace of Prestidigitation sent me one. I still don't know how it works. I got it and I couldn't see the, I was just like, that's good, isn't it? I don't know, I tried to work it out, couldn't, so I'm going to have to look at the instructions, but, you know, Robert Ball, how you doing? Have a look at Robert's lovely, lovely channel, where we'll do some tricks for you, a review on POV pad. Oh, what was that? Terrible, aren't I? Don't, loads of stuff I don't know. Does Lightyear not scream gimmicks, Steve? Well, yeah, well, it kind of, you've got, you've got, you've got to justify these things, you've got to justify them. What I was thinking, right, let's say, so you get the number, you get a number off someone, you peak it, whatever you want to do, right, you get, and it goes through that on it. So let's say you don't know their two-digit number, you do this, you show it them, and then you put these together, and it shows a two-digit number. Let's say you say to them, I was thinking this today, can you do it without the peak? Well, just say, name one, name a two-digit number, right? Now, you might argue that's not as strong, but what it does do, it takes, it makes the effect of these, and I'm looking at these to, I don't know why I'm, to get them in order, but, so I think there's a, kind of, effect in this, where you, and there's a reason I'm saying this in regards to that question. This is the effect. Name any two-digit number, and I want to know that you've named any, I cannot influence this at all, obviously don't make it 10, 20, 30, 40, make it a different, you know, a random one, it doesn't have to be different digits, but just so you know it's random, if you want to change your mind and go for another one, so you know there's no way I could know, and in a minute when you've done this, and not yet, I'm going to hold these up to you one at a time, I'm not going to do anything else, I'm just going to hold them up to you, and that's really important, there's no shuffling the cards, there's no moving, I'm just going to hold them up, and that's not going to change. What's your number, right? And you emphasize the fact that you are just doing this, and you say, look, and you're saying, just look at them and imagine your number, and you're just doing this, and that's all they see, and you say, look, I haven't done anything, all I've done is shown you, I haven't moved my hands in any weird ways, I haven't chucked a ring around, it's been completely uniform. They look at the thing and it says their number. Now, arguably, I say that a lot, don't I? I'm not going to say not arguably, actually, down the line, that's a strong effect, I think, even if they know the number, because you've emphasized not that you're going to know the number, you've emphasized that the cards are going to know the number, because you're going to see the number in the stars or whatever it is. Now, you might be doing something, but I don't think they're going to see that you're doing something, even if they're looking at it, when they're not looking for it, because you're talking to them, and I think in the way it worked with Intentional Blindness and things like that, they're going to see something, you're doing exactly what you said, and the card, the number, the number is on the toes. Now, so, yes, it's a gimmick, and yes, they're seeing these, and they all, you know, they can even kind of have a really close look at them, but the number that they merely said is now on here, and isn't that the same as, you know, a lot of mentalism? Think of a number, you're revealing a number, and it doesn't matter that you, yes, you can do it if you don't know it, and that's a strong effect, but I think that maybe weakening the overall effect, but having it all about one thing may strengthen it in a way, theatrically and magically. I don't know, but I think it takes, it doesn't matter as much that it's a gimmick, because it's all about, yes, all right, let's say this is a gimmick, but I've just told you what I'm going to do, and you're going to name any number, and even though I've told you what I'm going to do before I do it, I've done it, but it says your number. That's still quite cool, I think. I think it's very cool. So, yes, but if you just do it without mentioning anything, I think it would totally scream gimmick. Hi Jim, how you doing? Bar magic, yes. If someone stole my belt, I think I'd notice my trousers fall down. Yeah, well, he does say that in Magic Magic Man, he kind of says make sure you don't do trousers that are baggy, make sure it's more of a belt that's worn, you know, because someone's wearing a suit rather than holding their trousers, even though that would be hilarious, I think, but it would be really entertaining for everybody, yeah. If you can make paper versions of Lightyear, you could say they're all computer punch cards. Well, I said, yeah, and that's one of the things I think that, and you can, once you've got these, obviously, you can just make new ones, because it's, you can use them as a template, which I think is great, and I think if you want to do a more rustic presentation, do them with paper, computer punch cards, do them with plastic, but age it, I don't know if you can do that, but you know what I mean, make it like these are old things that they used to use for all sorts of things, and Derren Brown, in his show, Showman, had a routine using this, almost looked like a Ouija board, I didn't know what it was, I've never seen what it is, it didn't bother me, it's still amazing when he did the routine, so he had a justification for what that board was, and it completely, everybody bought it. Right, so 27 minutes, that's a long time, isn't it? Thanks for watching, if you like this, please do share it, these live sessions are lovely, I think they're great fun, and I'm sure people that don't know about it might like it, so if you just want to tell your mates or share it on the forums or anything like that, they happen nearly every Thursday at five, some Thursdays they can't, that's why it's really important to subscribe and press the little bell icon, so you'll get my notifications when I can't do one next Thursday, I will be traveling back from Switzerland, so there will be no live, but I might try and do one from out there, even if it's on my phone and stuff like that, because we're doing the thing out there. So after this, please go and look at onlinemagic.co, if you're a member and you're on here, some of you are, I'll be there in half an hour, and have a great one, like and subscribe, take care, oh, giveaway, giveaway, remember I'm just going to do the giveaway now, giveaway, the giveaway, I know it is because I've already done it, the winner of Orbit by Jonathan Fox, which is brilliant, it's great fun, and you'll be able to do it straight away, well with a little bit of practice, but it's jjtheokay, I know that because I've already done the draw over there, so jjtheokay, who's here, might not still be here, but you have won, send me an email, steve at onlinemagic.co, steve at onlinemagic.co, and as I said, like, subscribe, follow me on Instagram at stevefalkner, or just if you want to review stuff, because that's all I put on there, is at real magic review, take care, see you later, bye.