Insider Outlook

I recently indulged in a DVD set I have been eyeing for a while. Tony Giorgio is a legend, and he has the gambling table experience to backup his reputation. In The Ultimate Work, he shares the practical methods for table artifice that a magician can use. While the art and approaches he shares is quite specific to certain card games and circumstances, the techniques are widely applicable to much broader card effects.

I have a common complaint that DVDs are not organized properly, and often lack a sense of progression. This complaint has been voiced in plenty of my opinions before, but this is a uniquely poor packaging of exceptional knowledge. It really just feels like they sat in a studio and worked off of a quick outline and threw in more stuff whenever it was obvious they forgot something. Fortunately, the stuff got included.

The menus are a good place to start. The top menus are named Index, Index Two, Index Three, and so on. Needless to say, these are really helpful in finding something I am looking for. Inside each index, the menus list the content, but a topic is spread across a couple of indexes. They just basically put six topics per index without any thought to the broader organization of what was being taught.

In a similar manner, the presentations are somewhat low on continuity and context. Tony expertly presents his techniques and methods in a clear and easy to follow way, with lots of repetition to make it easy to follow. The material was recorded in modular pieces, so I would think it would be easy to organize the lessons in post production, but some important lessons are in an illogical place toward the end. Additionally, the material is spread across two DVDs, with no insert to list what is where.

Let’s just say that my hopes for expert material were met, but the packaging makes it hard to access. It was a little like trying to get a shiny new electronic gadget out of it’s welded nest of plastic and cardboard. With a little bit more direction, and some table demo’s of the work in action, I think this could have been much better. I was really hoping to see him at “work” in a game, but maybe that will come on a future DVD.

As everyone knows, Allan Ackerman has the technical ability to make a deck of cards perform symphonic masterpieces of magic without breaking a sweat. His recent DVD work on Erdnase has been well received and has met accolades from tough customers. While he has a considerable video legacy, his book offerings are somewhat more modest. I think he realized early on how important seeing the performances can be. I also have Las Vegas Kardma, and I was impressed with the variety and scope of skills demonstrated in that compilation.

I recently picked up this little book gem and flipped through it when it arrived. It wasn’t until I started really reading it that I started to realize how well the material is presented. The ideas are sound, the techniques are achievable with practice, and the effects are direct. He has sessioned and developed ideas with all the best, so a good number of his effects are alternate handlings and original approaches to ideas from the likes of Dingle, Marlo, Jennings and others card masters. His original ideas and utilities are well constructed and accomplish their ends cleanly and smoothly.

As always, I want to keep a variety of material at my fingertips. Simple or mystical, standing or tabled, presentational or visual, skillful or suble. I like this book because it has a sampling of them all.

I recently started gathering up Marlo’s Magazines, and I just have a couple more to go. Certainly I have been flipping the pages and taking an inventory of the techniques and utilities they contain. The breadth is tremendous. The interesting thing about these tomes from the 70s and 80s is that the material is evergreen. It is as presentable today as it was back then, and the underlying principles can be reapplied to modern plots and demonstrations. As is usually the case, the prose could use some updating and the figures could be better drawn using modern tools. Aside from the cosmetic aspects, the meat of the effects and utility moves are golden.

Unfortunately, the modern card table is vastly different from the five-card stud tables of the 70s. The blackjack ideas still apply, but I would love to read Marlo’s ideas on Texas Hold’em, Pai Gow, and Caribbean Stud. The good thing about the stacking, marking, and other game table treatments is that they are still applicable to any modern table. Many people still play five-card poker at home among friends. Tipping your abilities with riffle stacking or a table pass will ensure no money is ever wagered in your home, or you get relegated to bartending and dip duty. Either way, the best advice I can give is to only “play” with games not on the table for the evening.

As far as magical effects go, Marlo had a keen sense of effect development, suprise, and magical appearance. He understood well how the progression of the effect could be carried and amplified without becoming “too good” to be real. He left effects right at the point of magical suprise without going for a “blockbusting, impossible kicker that leaves everyone speechless.” In my estimation, this was his greatest skill. For one trick drive-by magicians, this material is useless. For real workers that use a series of effects and a carefully developed storyline, they can be a captivating climax without needing to have the deck change color.

Granted, he does go to some trouble to develop six or seven related methods of an effect. For some, this is not needed and really just a waste of time to read. Actually, I find the multiple methods key to understanding how far an effect can be flexed before it loses it’s impact. There are plenty of multiple methods in his magazines.

Enough about the magazines. These are truly what I consider the cream of the considerable crop from this fertile genius. Marlo left great ideas and techniques in all manner of magazines and newletters, but the material in these tomes clearly came from years of development, re-development, and further development. I am glad I have them.