Marc DeSouza, has won more close-up magic competitions than probably anyone. On this video he performs and teaches some of his favorite formal close-up routines. The routines on this video are right out of his act... They are not just tricks, but full performance pieces incorporating multiple phases and great story lines.

Routines Performed and Explained:
►Magicash: A four phase coin routine with an ATM cash machine and banking theme where four coins appear under four playing cards, they jump across -- gathering under one card, magically jump back under their original cards and for the finale they vanish one at a time to appear in a glass that is covered by a scarf.
►Morphing: A morphing and special effects presentation, based on a David Harkey routine is used to change a coin into a metal container used to make soap bubbles. One of the soap bubbles is caused to solidify into glass. The glass ball is blown into a test-tube. Salt is poured into the tube. The tube is magically sealed and visibly twisted into a small hourglass.
►The Thing: A visual handling of the classic Universal Card plot with a science-fiction theme, that reenacts the story of The Thing, a classic scifi movie from the 1950s. The alien card assumes the identity of three different selected cards and finally ends up losing its own identity and turns blank.
►Quad-Ringle Plus: A multiphase ring and string routine where a borrowed finger ring repeatedly escapes, seemingly penetrating the center of the rope. For the finale the ring vanishes and appears inside a card case, which is in full view.
►Curse Of The Rasta: A gambling themed wild card routine, based on the work of Peter Kane and Fred Kaps. Eight fours and a queen change into eight queens and a four... and everything is examinable.
►Alice Through The Window Pane: The classic story of Alice Through The Looking Glass is used as a presentation with a deck of cards and a mirror. A selected card shrinks to a quarter of its size and grows back, it then grows to twice its length and returns to normal. It finally vanishes and appears inside the mirror. The deck is spread and now all the cards are all mirrored.

Sleights explained and demonstrated within routines:
Classic Palm, Finger Palm, Bertram Turnover, Dingle/Schneider Pick Up Move, Retention Vanish, French Drop, Bertram Coin Slide, Spellbound Change, Cigarette Palm, Pinch Palm, Crossing The Look, Pivot Vanish, Top of Pocket Dodge, Riffle Force, Buckle, Thumb Break, Double Turnover, Back Spread, Curl Palm, Hunter Bow Knot, Shuttle Pass, Hamman Count, Ascanio Spread, Gambler’s Cop, Marlo’s Visual Retention Change, Carlyle Turnover, Vernon/Christ/Annemann Alignment Move, and much more.

A Meir Yedid Magic Product. Produced by MVN. Original release date: 1995. Running time: Approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes.