I bought the Stand Up Monte and DVD set a while back now and I thought the routine was very clever and even though I practiced it to within an inch of its life, I never performed professionally. The main reason for this was that I felt guilty about the main move in the routine, I worried that it might not fly in the real world. I have performed this twice for family members and they were blown away, but you know how family can tend to be bias at times.

Anyway, I had a big corporate gig on tonight and I had a lot of people to get around in only an hour, so I decided to give the Stand Up Monte a whirl. I figured I try it on the first group and if it crashed I'd just forget about it after that. Let me tell you this thing absolutely blew people away, they'd be standing there literally slack jawed in amazement. So I did it over and over and every time it just floored people. I'm SO glad I decided to give it a go, it is a killer. From now on this is in, in, IN, my repertoire and it's a closer.

Good news! I'm working on a 3 Card Monte routine for a Close-up competition.

Dunno why you were so afraid of doing it!
I know 'the move' and yet was completely fooled when I saw the video the first time! I thought he was using a completely different method (something like 'Skinner Monte').

I bought it recently, but still haven't worked on it. When I'm ready I will certainly not be afraid of it. ANd you have just confirmed my thoughts!

mlippo

This is one of those effects like Blizzard, when you think
it would never fly, but it does perfecly. ...

I have this and have never used it, hmm, time to take another look I think.

This routine is a killer and the climax comes as one hell of a huge surprise. I agree with Joseph that it is similar to Blizzard in that one would think it would never fly; it not only flies, it soars. George, you wrote that you have it. Give it a try amigo; I think you'll love it!

Stand up monte is for sure in my top 5 of tricks I do. it's great! all you need is a few cards and you're good to go.

but I've changed a few of the phases, so that I'm not doing "the move" every time.

for example, when you change the queen into the third 4 of clubs... you can do a DL instead of "the move". A DL here looks really clean because you spread to show two fours and a queen.... do a DL... spread to show a face down card and two fours... and that face down card is a third four. you can do the same thing for the ending too.

for the ending, there are lots of options that can make the final changes into all queens look like a fluorish. to turn the first one into a queen, do a shake change. then place it on the bottom of the other two cards. do a DL... shake the face down card... and it turns into the 3rd queen. for patter, you can joke around by telling them to keep their eye on the queen and to not let the shaking 4 distract them. but then the 4 turns into a queen.

there's also a move that I learned for the "entourage" card trick (my second favourite packet trick) that works for stand up monte. you basically use the top card in a pack of three to hit the "middle" card and turn it over. looks good espeically if it's outjogged a little bit.

but just play around with the cards and you'll find other cool things you can do with this routine.

garrett's routine is obviously amazing in it's current form, and you'll do well just going with what he teaches... but there is lots of other stuff that you can do to make the routine your own and find a routine you like doing and you're comfortable with.

for example, in one phase I do, I say "let's only use two cards" and I put the 3rd card in my mouth... then obviously the queen jumps to my mouth. it's good because I do a signed card to mouth as an ambtious phase.

I also like to use two jokers as the indifferent cards... cause then you can pull them all out from a regular deck and it seems more organic and realistic rather than using two identical spot cards.

Hi everyone , was thinking of getting stand up monte it looks great but I think dia monte looks good to has anyone got both the can compare in real life tests which is best

Thanks
Robbie

dia monte looks very good. I don't have it, but I'm pretty sure I know what's going on.

the main advantage of stand up monte is that the magic happens in the spectator's hand. so for that reason alone, I think stand up monte wins.

dia monte seems very similar to 3 by steve valentine. both of those looks great, and I'd like to learn both one day, but I'm very happy with stand up monte

Stand up I agree anything that happens in spec hands has to be bril but apar the diamonte is examinable at the end which I'm not sure stand up is that's why I'm on the fence at the min

I don't own the trick, so I'm not sure how much "dirty work" is required to end clean at the end of diamonte... but my guess is that there's some.

with stand up monte, there is a handling on the dvd that allows you to end sorta clean (it leaves the spectators holding 3 examinable cards). and you can end clean if you get a himber wallet or anything like that.

another way I like to "end clean" at the end of stand up monte: If you're holding two spot cards and a queen in preparation to do the ending - you hand them one of the spot cards. you put away the queen. they turn over their card and it turned to a queen. you hand them the other spot card, you put away the queen. they turn their card over, and they're holding one examinable queen. all the other cards are in your pocket at this point. the cool thing too about this ending is that they never see more than one queen throughout the entire performance. and this ending makes it seem like the queen keeps jumping from your pocket into their hand.

Here, you have some options... you can just put their single card away and go onto the next trick. Or you can bring out two examinable spot cards (because they never actually see more than one queen).

Or, if you want to keep it going, you bring out a normal spot card, and a "color monte" card. Then you go into your color monte routine and you end clean with that.

Garrett Thomas also has a nice handling for this on one of his DVDs... so if you combine Stand Up Monte with his Color Monte Handling.... then you've got a pretty deceptive trick with a real kicker ending where everything is examinable.

Thanks a mil Adam I'm sold stand up it is

Sound out

Robbie

You can see from the performance video exactly what you're getting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Ct3Dm8Boc

You'll be able to perform that routine, pretty much as well as Garrett does it, with a reasonable amount of practice. Garrett's teaching is great.

Dia Monte looks great too, and it's something I'd like to get as well... but as you can see from the performance video, Stand Up Monte works great when it comes to interacting with the spectator and getting them involved.

Hi adam
ya tis true specs seems to enjoy and anything that happens as you said in there hands makes all the difference better reactions I'm just logging in to order it now ,garrets handling is down to a t and looks impressive


thanks again
robbie

Ive used, and continue to use this at least 700 times... it's a killer for many many reasons and very hard to beat.

Hi
I'm an amateur and usually only perform for friends round the dinner table. However, our magic society put on an evening of entertainment which included 5 of us doing 10 minutes close up at each of 5 tables in turn. I included StandUp monte in my set and it went down extremely well. Each stage got great reactions and the killer ending was so well received. The moves were done on the off beat. It always surprises me how, when you get to some apparently dubious move, most of the audience are looking elsewhere and even asking the others about what just happened - it seems to fly past them. I highly recommend this effect.
Brian

Spectators in general, don't know how it's done I find.

I've heard some really funny rationalizations for how it's done. One being that I'm using some sort of magnet cards that I can make change whenever I want.

the most common explaination I get is that I'm using more than 3 cards at any given time and I'm just switching them quickly.

I almost feel guilty sometimes because people will comment afterwords on how amazing my slight of hand is... I don't want to tell them that they could do the same routine if they got the dvd and practiced a few hours every day for a week.

also, when I do the color monte ending to stand up monte... my speical card is a bicycle card with the word "NO" printed on it. so at the end, you show your money card and your indifferent card... and you ask them if they know what the third card is. if they say "no" ... you say "you're right! it says no". if they guess something else, you say "no" and turn the card over. it's kind of a funny ending, but it works well. everyone can examine all 3 card after.

I never really did the ending where all three indifferent cards are under their hands... I use to just end after producing 3 queens. but now I'm ending where all the cards are in my pocket except for one examinable money card in their hand... then I take out my indifferent card and my "no" card and do a quick color monte routine to close. though more than half the time, I just skip the color monte phase and leave them holding one normal money card and call it quits at that point.

Saw this for sale at the Daytona convention this weekend, wanted to buy it, BUT the included cards were larger Parlor size cards. Is this the way it normally comes? Seems by using a card that isn't normally used telegraphs to the spectator that trick cards are being used. I wonder why this was put out like that. I passed on the purchase.

The ones I have are standard Bicycle stock and are available here:

http://www.kozmomagic.com

Finally got this down!
Great trick