"that particular technique is one of the weaker ones in the book"
said with such authority, yet wrong again.
Just watch Freeman do it on Revelations. Erdnase's blind shuffle for retaining the entire deck is not only one of the best techniques in the book, but it is one of the most convincing false shuffles ever conceived, period.
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Ha ha. Ok, I'll take the bait.
Setting aside that the criticism was meant to be relative to the better quality stuff elsewhere in the book...
Seriously, even when I watched Freeman do it, it looked a little belaboured and studied. Compare it to the various chop shuffles out there, where the action remains uniform throughout, or the fourth method, which nicely simulates a proper weave of two packets (Lennart Green's work on this one represents, I'd argue, some of the nicest and happily underused stuff out there in the category).
This first method, though, has straight-tossing, tossing-while-packet-seizing, cards sometimes being dumped from top, sometimes from the bottom. It's tough to gain uniformity when all that stuff is going on. The flipping-back-and-forth is also problematic to me, because it flashes faces of the cards upwards towards the magician, something I personally believe should almost never happen during a shuffle. Yeah, it does come close to simulating an action that gets done from time-to-time by non-magicians, but there are better techniques to emulate.
It could be that I've not seen it done well. It could also be that the technique is flawed.
What am I missing?
The back and forth swing simulates perfectly the way a lot of "normal" people will shuffle cards. The fact that one of the packets falls from the back is not noticed, when done well.
It is mostly magicians who do an overhand shuffle in the tidy controlled manner of sliding off small packets with the left thumb. Magicians and accomplished card players.
This is why the "thumb drag" shuffle is in the card table artifice section and the looser method of dropping packets back and forth appears in the legerdemain section.
In terms of deceptiveness, I have never seen a more convincing shuffle. And I've seen (and done) a few.
Can assure you that far from being flawed, the technique is near perfect.
Just Glenn Bishop's opinion, of course.
"The fact that one of the packets falls from the back is not noticed, when done well."
I guess that's the thing. I've not really seen it done well. Since they don't get to see the packet that's coming off the bottom, you might as well do the bluff action that you see in things like the Optical Shuffle, since at least there you don't need to change grip or risk losing rhythm. That method in Erdnase more risk with no gain.
The stealback is problematic as well. At least you can do it with the overhand lift shuffle so that it's at the beginning of a sequence, so it doesn't stand out. Sandwiching it between tosses? You're asking for rhythm to get broken.
And this is with a technique that's got a glass ceiling on it in terms of how good it's going to look. Again, the 4th method in Erdnase is soooo much better when it comes to giving the appearance of chaos. It doesn't have the tidiness that you're alluding to, and neither some of the great chop shuffles that have come out.
However, we all know you've got mad skills. If, oh, say, a video were to go up that shows its merits, I'd be more than happy to eat my words.
It's not about not seeing the packet that comes off the bottom. It registers. It maintains the swaying back and forth action.The shuffling action is visually, audibly and subconsciously as close to perfect as I could imagine.
There is no change of grip, hesitation or loss of rhythm and the shuffle appears wonderfully natural and unstudied.
Done in a casual manner, whilst talking and not looking at the hands (though this IS a "burnable" technique), it is impossible to differentiate between the genuine and the blind shuffles.
I do have something in the works that might raise a few eyebrows concerning the practicality of a lot of the techniques... though it's disappointing to see the comments concerning this particular one... it's not exactly one of the more elusive or esoteric techniques... it is easy to do and looks absolutely perfect.
Well, it's just an opinion and I don't see anybody sharing it, so no need to be disappointed. I'm incorrect more times before breakfast than most people are all day.
Incidentally, I'm away from my library so I wasn't able to verify this myself, but I checked (via chat) with somebody who does have it. Their opinion: the tosses after the steal-back look good, but there's a pause at the point of the steal-back (even when Freeman does it). It didn't bother the guy I was chatting with, it does bother me, the world keeps spinning...
I can only reiterate my previous point that there is no pause or hesitation.
This will be confirmed in due course...
Perhaps Freeman didn't do it so well on the Revelations videos, but my memory is of a pretty favorable execution. This I must check as I haven't seen it for quite some time.
Looking forward to it.
Incidentally, the whole sounding-authoritative thing was something trained into us early in debate class at the school I was at. Phrases like "It's just my opinion but..." or "I honestly believe that..." were to be weeded out mercilessly in favour of just getting to the point. That frequently leads to the impression of opinions coming across as fact, and it's accepted since the rebutting opinion also ends up coming across as fact. It can sound pompous at times, I admit, if everybody present isn't playing by the same lack of social grace.
Meaning, if you want to bitchslap me in public over there, give 'er. I won't take it personally, and the folks at the Cafe eat that shit up.
You're preaching to the choir regarding the whole "just my opinion" thing...
I think that shuffle is worth the price of the book, even a first edition at today's prices. Freeman's demonstration may not be entirely smooth, but it's nevertheless utterly convincing. By doing the Bob King variation from The Annotated Erdnase you can extend the duration of it, which I find helps me get into more of a uniform rhythm.
Erdnase specifically calls attention to the 5 up and down movements... personally I find this to be perfect and the King variation not only unnecessary, but inferior.
Just my opinion!!!!
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