Classic Routines | Aces for Connoisseurs

Cy Endfield was my hero.

As my very first mentor in card magic.

Every Saturday after closing his shop, Alan Alan would take me to visit Cy at Valerie’s Patisserie in Old Compton Street.

I got his book Entertaining Card Magic when I was 14 years Old – this book is full of great ideas, routines and techniques.

Cy’s card magic was and still is pure, direct and magical. The stand out routine was his Aces for Connoisseurs.

I love this routine.

It is a masterpiece of construction, design and my contribution was to combine it with another wonderful effect – The Henry Christ Fabulous Four Ace Routine.

Let’s enjoy a performance before proceeding further with this conversation.

This video comes from my dvd Set The Classic Magic of Michael Vincent. This footage is the copyright of Alakazam Magic. The performance and material is the copyright of Michael Vincent Magic. I would like to thank Peter Nardi and Alakazam Magic for allowing me permission to share this footage with you and compliment this blog post.

Many year ago, I performed this routine for a fellow magician. He thought I was performing Mcdonald Aces. I mention this because this routine looks like trick photography.

Cy Endfield built his reputation with this and many other routines. Lewis Ganson was full of praise for Cy’s handling and presentation.

The Henry Christ Fabulous Four Ace Routine was published in Cliff Greens Professional Card Magic.

I was amazed at this routine when I first learnt it. So much magic with very little technical effort involved.

I had the idea of combining both routines together.

What I like about my interpretation is the combination, the synergistic blend of Cy’s routine and how my handling sets up a seamless segue straight into The Henry Christ revelation with no additional handling.

This was my goal; to make these two effects work well together and support each other.

The technical handling in the first phase sets up everything and what we have here is perfect integration.

The finish; the three to one transposition is the jewel in the crown. It is the final piece that brings it all home in a most satisfying way.

The original idea for this belongs to Tom Mullica.

I began working on my handling as soon as I read it Best of Friends Volume 2.

Independently, Darwin Ortiz created his handling which he published in CARDSHARK. Darwin’s handling and presentation is excellent which he called “FOUR TO ONE” and it is a stand alone miracle.

So, there you have it, another example of Synergy at work in my Magic.

Now, the most important thing to consider in this conversation is how can you make your magic stronger, direct and even more entertaining?

I asked myself this question regarding Aces for Connoisseurs.

I enjoyed the vanishes and yet the production of the Aces did not live up to the magic in the first phase of the routine.

It was the creative effort of Simon Aronson who inspired me to think in terms of combining the revelations of Henry Christ from his Fabulous Four Ace Routine. Simon published his version in his book The Aronson Approach and called it “Active Aces”.

It took a bit of intellectual effort to work out the details for my routine and clean up the handling. I hope you can see from the video how magical it all looks and feels.

I would like to add further some more details about Cy Endfield and why he was a very important part of my life.

He lived in London near Putney, not far from The Hurlingham Club.

During the time we spent together, he always stressed the importance of communication and being authentic with an audience. Don’t forget, he was a movie director so he fully understood the importance of character, script, story and delivery. When Cy performed, many times his presentations were far more interesting than the tricks because he weaved a great spell with his story telling.

His golden lesson to me was to fully understand my personality, character and share that authentically with my audience. Chose the right routines that allow me the possibility to honestly express myself.

He also stressed to, become the kind of man they would feel comfortable inviting to their homes.

This is all out of the Nate Leipzig Play Book

Thanks for reading.

Please share your thoughts about this post, I look forward to hearing from you.

Mike x

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