Three stages of magic
 

Hey guys I know the movie's been out for a while, but I'd like to know your thoughts on the three stages of magic from the movie "The Prestige"?

There are many effects the 'Prestige' doesn't apply to, at least not in the way as explained in the movie.

For instance, whenever I perform 'The Flash', the best reactions I could possibly get is if I don't do any 'Prestige', simply because a 'Prestige' would turn a jaw-dropping reaction into a theory about how and where I hid the object in question. So it definitely doesn't apply to every piece of magic. At least.. according to the movie.

But.. this is where the 'Prestige' is often misunderstood (I actually wrote about this in my 'L-RoMA' so I will try to sum up what I wrote in there): the 'Prestige' doesn't just apply to vanishes, transpos and such. Much more often, it is just the phase in which everything makes sense again, after the 'Pledge' (in which everything made sense to begin with) and the 'Turn' (in which something extraordinary happened). It leaves everything just normal, ordinary, just they way it was or the way it should have been, no more funny business going on.

That being said, the three phases are extremely important and valid for every piece of magic. But yeah, the way it is described in the movie is incomplete (however, it is complete for the main effects that were performed in the movie). Without any of the three phases there just is no such thing as magic though.

i see.. so i guess if the 'turn' is something visual, like a color change, the 'prestige' would just be showing that there is only a single card, or that the previous card is not on the top or bottom of the deck

Indeed. It's not that you have to bring back the card you changed. ;)

Right! I'm gonna watch it again, dammit!

Im gonna watch it a first time!

say Mark, what is your L-RoMA?

The 'Latest Revolution of Magic Art', a book about the art which could be used as a guide on being a magician in the current world, including all the essential changes from 1950-2000 and possible changes we may face in the next 50-100 years or so.

The book was originally written for the offline DarkSleightZ team but we sold a few copies to a select few magicians some years ago. Reason it hasn't been in reprint is that it includes some huge secrets of mine which were used to clear a lot of things up throughout the book, and because I feel like it's somewhat dangerous to sell such a book to just random people these days.

That being said, the most essential things from the book will be shared at one moment or another. My videos on hecklers and free magic tutorials are basically based on it, just like what I wrote above about the three stages. Also, I hope to film and release the 'Line Theory' in detail soon, which may as well be the most useful piece of theory for magic performers that could be found in the book too.

Oh neat! i guess it's too much to ask for a copy then, huh? :P