Hi Guys:
I have had inquiries on what are the tricks that are presented in the Routines Video by Guy Hollingworth - which is one of the items that I am selling. I came across this review and I think it would perhaps gives us more understanding about this video.
Link:
http://www.magictalk.com/cgi-bin/reviews.cgiRoutines (Guy Hollingworth)
Posted By: Craig Matsuoka <craigzemail@juno.com>
Date: Wednesday, 10 May 2000, at 4:33 p.m.
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Routines is essentially a video of selected routines from his best selling book "Drawing Room Deceptions". If you haven't read it yet, it's an awful, awful book. Don't ever read it or perform any of the material in my neighborhood okay?
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the video. There's little in "Routines" you won't find in the book. However, you'll see a lot of the material performed "live", making each move and effect much easier to appreciate and learn. In this regard, it serves as an excellent companion to the written explanations.
Guy has a penchant for coming up with beautifully difficult "monstrosities" as he likes to call them. But most of these routines, I'm happy to say, are well within the skill set of us mortals (e.g. "card at any number"). Only two can be considered challenging ("travelers" and the gambling routine). All six reveal his ingenious flair for devising imponderable mysteries.
Interspersed with nostalgic reflections of his "early" years, Mr. Hollingworth takes us on a tour of various sites about London which were responsible for nurturing and, at times, inspiring his phenomenal creativity and talent. As this somewhat adds to the charm of the program, I won't spoil it for you by giving you more detail than that.
The tape opens with a short advertising trailer for his previous video "The London Collection", followed by a sudden burst of…COLOR!!! Unlike his artsy black & white release, "Routines" adopts the more modern style of videography most of us MTV heathens have grown accustomed to. I was quite impressed by the professional quality of its production, as will you. My hat's off to Anthony Davis. I particularly enjoyed the flashy opening credits featuring tight shots of Hollingworth's hands flawlessly executing various card sleights. There's a second deal, classic pass (?), and a rather startling Erdnase/Vernonesque color change where the card transforms from a jack to a seven and then immediately to a 10…very pretty indeed.
The first routine begins in Guy's home, where he takes a break from illustrating his new book and retreats to the garden to perform and explain his version of Vernon's Travelers (a cards to pockets routine). Four aces are lost in the pack and placed back into the box, whereupon they vanish from inside the box and reappear in different pockets all about his "personage". How they eventually get there is quite elegant and shows his capacity for lateral thought. There's much to like about his effective employment of bluff and mime, as well as the intelligent use of his jacket for covering the different loads and steals during the routine. I liked his handling so much, that I plan to add this to my repertoire of close-up material. Yes, I said close-up. You see, although it's not as visual, you'll definitely find it much easier and less angle prone than his "ambidextrous interchange" - another inspired "monstrosity". One requisite though. You must possess a confident and natural looking top palm. The aces may be signed if you so desire. You'll also learn a D'amico style multiple shift and an interesting control which looks like a series of undercuts, but is actually a clever form of strip-out meant to be used in place of a multiple shift. This is the routine on pages 62-65 of the book.
Next, he performs the seated gambling routine on pages 181-191 for a private audience of about 4 or 5 people. After shuffling the deck, he begins cutting to the four aces. He succeeds with three of them, but "fails" on the fourth. Counting down from the "indicator" card, he finds the fourth ace. He then goes through a demonstration of how the cheat can easily deal those aces to himself by cutting them back into the deck and giving it a series of suspicious looking overhand shuffles. Upon dealing five hands of cards, the cheat, of course, ends up with the aces. He points out that the shuffle looked too suspicious so he tries again, losing the aces in the deck. Instantly, the aces reappear in his hand and are then placed beneath the deck in preparation for "exposures" of the bottom deal and center deal. For the kicker finale, he "controls" the final shuffle so the deck ends up in perfect numerical suit order.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of gambling routines. They generally bore me to death for some strange reason. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I don't gamble. With the exception of guys like Steve Forte, Richard Turner, and Martin Nash, all that dealing and shuffling doesn't excite me. So don't take offense when I say that I found the moves used in the routine more interesting than the routine itself. For those of you who care, a nice feature is that the deck resets itself at the end. If you had trouble with the explanation of the false waterfall shuffle on pages 169-177, you'll be pleased to know that the video explanation will fill in any gaps to your understanding of this deceptive move. I've found it helpful to apply pressure mostly on the diagonally opposite corners as the cards fall (left rear corner, right forward corner). A version of Martin Nash's center deal (pages 163-67) is also explained in detail here.
Next, there's some drawing room deception in the air as Guy performs his third routine "The Cassandra Quandary" for a table of two spectators. He explains how the mythological prophetess Cassandra was cursed in that she could foretell disasters but no one would ever believe her. He demonstrates this by making an open prediction and then has the spectator remove the predicted card from the deck and place it into an envelope. At this point, it's impossible to believe that the spectator could hereafter select the predicted card. Nevertheless, in true Cassandrine fashion, his prophecy turns out to be true. The card in the envelope vanishes and ends up being the card the spectator selects from the deck. You'll need a table for this.
In a magic world plagued as it is with horrendously punny trick titles (you know who you are), routine number four is refreshingly entitled "An Ace Assembly". It's MacDonald's Aces without the Elmsleys or any other false counts, and the only gaffed cards reside in the assembly packet. It's just as visual, but twice as convincing. You simply fan each packet displaying an ace sandwiched inside, square up, and immediately re-spread to reveal the ace has vanished! You can honestly squiggle flourish the cards to emphasize that you're not holding a double anywhere. Go ahead, show both sides of the cards…there's nothing to see!
This routine (pages 243-250) like his version of homing card, uses a simple gimmick to accomplish each vanish. Although I knew about this gimmick before I started watching the routine, it still caught me by surprise. It wasn't until an embarrassingly long time into the performance that I realized he was using this method. The ace vanishes really look that good! The kicker is a reverse assembly of the aces back into their original packets. You'll also learn Krenzel's "mechanical reverse" - a wonderfully useful method of reversing any number of cards under cover of turning the packet or deck over in your hands.
"Three Cards Under a Box" is mostly forgettable. Three selected cards magically appear under and inside a card box. There's a bold switch at the end you probably won't feel comfortable with, but the bluff shift he uses to return the three selections is nice.
The highlight of the video, in my opinion, is the sixth routine "A Card At Any Number". He does this for a large audience in a nightclub setting (or was it a parlor?). Just how good is this? Well, if laymen and magicians were chickens, you'd absolutely fry them with it! (har har) It takes quite a bit of preparation at first, but man is it worth it! You'll especially have fun doing this for math Brainiacs and memorized deck freaks. Be advised that this effect requires a table and is more deceptive when done for bigger groups of individuals who are largely strangers to one another. You'll also need to isolate the signer of the selection somewhat. This killer effect is found on pages 230-237 and applies the principle on pages 219-229 under the subheading "A Destroyed and Reproduced Card". Hollingworth's frighteningly clever approach to the impossible location problem involves duplicating someone's signature by NOT duplicating his/her signature…huh? Trust me friends, just watch and it will all make sense. Be afraid…be very afraid.
"Routines" concludes, appropriately enough, with a "performance only" of his now legendary torn and restored card effect "The Reformation". Its unusual setting makes me wonder if Guy intends to do any acting in the near future. He sure has the looks and charm for it. It's just unfortunate that the camera is too far away from his hands and rarely zooms in during the most magical moments of the routine. In fact, part of the scenery directly blocks an important part of the shot just as he sets up to restore the first piece, which he admits is the most difficult part of the trick to do well. So, if you want another model to analyze, I recommend viewing his performance in WGM for better close ups of each phase.
Overall, I found "Routines" very, very enjoyable to watch and learn from. I can actually DO some of the effects now. So, even if I can't drive a shiny black Audi or look as handsome as him, at least I can aspire to be as skillful…yeah right.
Highly recommended
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Please feel free to PM me if you are interested in this video - as of 16 July 2005 11.10 am, I still have it for sale.
Thanks! :lol: