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leeasher.com // asher's playground / articles / how i created thunderbird |
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How I created Thunderbird: The Modern Ace Production
In 1995, while living in the freshman dormitory at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, I stumbled upon a handling for Cliff Green’s Phoenix Aces that would change my feelings about card productions forever.
My motivation for a bare-handed ace appearance was to launch right into the Asher Twist after producing four aces. Not satisfied with all the conventional methods, I toiled tirelessly to invent and design a production that would fit specific needs.
Work began on Thunderbird. In the back of my mind, I also wanted to create a card piece specifically designed as an opener for the competition at the Olympics of Magic – Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques, (F.I.S.M.) Dresden, Germany 1997.
During the creation process, Thunderbird: The Modern Ace Production took on various faces and shapes, needing two-plus years to perfect.
As time passed, I felt compelled to perform the routine as much as possible.
Along with Catch 33 (my Three Card Monte routine), Thunderbird was performed extensively at Caesar’s Magical Empire. One evening, a famous New York magician, Anthony ‘Chappy’ Brazil, commented on how it was a ‘modern version’ of Cliff Green’s classic effect, Phoenix Aces. He came up with a very fitting title – Thunderbird: The Modern Ace Production.
Directly after graduating from University, Thunderbird made its debut on the Five Card Stud video.
You may ask how I placed at F.I.S.M. in 1997.
The truth is, once perfected, this routine never saw any type of competition in Dresden, Germany. With the two years of development just for Thunderbird, there was no time to work out the rest of the act!
As a final note, you cannot win F.I.S.M. with thirty seconds of magic, even if those moments are tremendous. Ah, but what an opening!
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02.03.12 Keith Pascal will walk you step by step through methods of stealing a coin from a participant’s hand and leaving another in its place. The participant won’t even know a switch was made.