Dont argue for the sake or arguing. Read his post again. He did not say all Gaffs are bad and you shouldn't use them. He is saying don't sell yourself short as a magician and create an excuse to not work on your sleights, just because gaffs are available.

You make a good point. One thing that I tend to think about when on this topic is, are we talking about Magic as a performer, or Magic as an artist. Now, as a Performer, I can see various justification for throwing in a few gimmicks here and there. Now... I wouldn't go as far as using a 1 way force deck for my ACR, but an invisible deck has its purposes. Now, on the other hand, I have seen Justin Hanes of Beaverton do an entire Svengali deck routine... with a regular deck of cards. I guess my point is... sometimes Gimmicks = a lazy man's shortcut, and sometimes Gimmicks = plainly the best method to the effect (Invisible deck).

Some people do take it too far though... expecting magic to be a "you buy it, you open it, you perform it" type hobby. As you can see in a lot of the tivo 2.0 variations where the creator puts in the title "improved version... better handling..." and they totally cop out doing the simplist shit (horribly I might add) because they can't to the cardini snap change variation.

But yeah... to the person that says a slip force is better than a classic force... HAHA. Yeah, anyway.

There is nothing bad about talking about the cascade control. Maybe not all of us beat it to death "Months ago". And the post / video is not specifically about the cascade control... did you even read/ watch them? It is about "sleights" and over-prepping or finishing them unnaturally. Tony can use any sleight to accomplish this task in proving a point. Yes, there are NEWER, non "beaten-to-death" sleights he could have chosen, but the cascade control was a pretty good example of what he was trying to discuss.

ohh. Justin Hanes. I remember him! That guy was pretty cool. I wonder what he is up to now =(

Hehe, I think there is a tendency to rifle the cards a bit when you are doing a cascade, since the cascade itself puts a bend in the cards, we sub-concsiously wanna fix that bend.

And, lawl at your friend's loud mouth noises on camera.

For a real life performance, I would agree with Chris, that the cherry control adds unneeded difficulty to a routine that is based on simplicity and the act of "pure magic" happening at the end.

However, for this video, sit down performance, the cherry control is great. Of course us, as magicians, see the cherry control as what it is, "a control", but a laymen would have no idea from that presentation. It was flawless, the spectator would see only what he sees, the cards being fanned and closed.

When the angles are right, the cherry control is one of the most natural "to a layman" controls there is, where every move is warranted. Because of this, in certain situations, like this video presentation, it is absolutely perfect. In my opinion

I like your last idea Curtis. This is something that I started doing with my new 3 phase routine (I just did it for one of my classes actually and it floored them).

I simply turn over the top card and use it, because I have a premise in my routine of burning "the image of the top card being turned face up on the top of the deck," into their mind. This way, it is a performance, a story, instead of a spectator "pick a card" trick.

If I was going to the do the "pick a card" ACR, I would do a longer one, like tony's 5ACR.

Kamn has some decent points, but there seems to be a recurring them in the posts between him and tony.

Tony is not a worker. Tony does magic to perform magic. Now, workers do as well, but the paycheck definitely has some say over the routines and performance style.

What I like about Tony's performance style and routine, is that the patter, the story, the connection with the spectator, along side the technique, creates the magic. He is able to produce amazing reactions with a single effect.

I have seen him perform for people in Japan, with a language barrier, and he was able to still connect with his audience on a personal level. He would do a single effect, and get reactions that even I was not expecting.

"out with the magic, out with the tricks, come one trick monkey (to quote tony)" is not the only way to perform. True, it is a tested, solid way to perform when your living is dependent on it, and you will succeed with this style more than you will fail. But believe me, Tony is not one to perform the wrong style of magic for the wrong people. His style, his long stories, his intimate connection with his audience completely works for him, and to say it is flawed, well... is just plain stubborness and outright stupid.

I like this challenge. I never did a really long ACR to begin with, but it is true that I did sort of brush off certain phases wanting to get to the next. Since your original challenge, I have been experimenting with different 3 phase routines, and really started to think more about how to make each one as magical as the next.

I have shown the new routine to various classes I teach here, and the reactions have been great each time. I need to keep working on it, but I am definitely seeing what you are saying with the entire challenge/post.