![]() You see what just happened? You know that the top card of the top half of the deck is the King of Spades, and it remains exposed as the top card below the split deck. Your mark cuts the deck into two piles, laid parallel to each other. You take the pile of cards that comprise the former bottom half and place it perpendicularly atop the former top half. Now you have two side-by-side piles of face down cards: the top half of the deck is in one pile, and the bottom half is in the other. Ask a member of your audience to split the deck roughly in half, setting the top half of the deck face down next to the bottom half. Let’s say it’s the King of Spades.Īfter you’ve shown the deck, flip it back over, square the sides, and place it on the table. In fact, all you care about is spotting the top card in the deck. You’re ostensibly showing that the deck is legitimate and well-mixed. ![]() Shuffle the deck as you’d like, and then flip the cards face up, so that you and your audience can see them. You want your mark to pick the card of your choosing. There are many dozens of forces, but you only need to master one to perform hundreds of card tricks. The technical term for such a maneuver is a force. But it’s much easier for the magician to work his magic if you’re taking a card that the conjurer knows in advance. The big lie for card magicians is the well-worn phrase “pick a card - any card.” The phrase’s built-in repetition implies that you’re choosing your own card. I’m going to pretend to shoot the fake gun in a moment.” If magicians told the truth, their tricks would suck: “Now we’ve put your signed bullet into this trick gun. You know that magic is mostly about lying. ![]() And for the beginning magician, the real magic is that you can perform hundreds of card tricks after learning only one significant move. Sure, there are all sorts of trick decks ( stripper decks, Svengali decks, invisible decks, and so on), but a traditional, unmarked, gimmick-free deck of cards offers a near-infinite number of tricks for the well-prepared magician. The deception and maneuvers involved in stage magic may well be more difficult, but close-up magic can often be performed without any special investment beyond time to practice. ![]() But close-up magic is right in your face with everyday objects. When even my favorite magicians (Penn & Teller) perform large-scale tricks onstage, they use props they made themselves, standing on their own stage it feels more like theater or special effects to me. HOCUS FOCUS PHOTO CLUB FREEI like tricks that involve objects we see every day - items that spectators are free to inspect. Okay, that last accomplishment happened when I was five and called up as a volunteer, but the point remains: I love magic. My father calls me for insight into the dark arts because I became obsessed with magic at a young age, attended a summer camp for years where magic was part of the curriculum, and even appeared onstage with David Copperfield. I’m my dad’s go-to explainer when an illusion leaves him perplexed. But that’s how it felt - which means the magician did his job. When my father sees an amazing trick performed live, what he describes is impossible: “He never touched the cards! My card appeared inside my jacket pocket, and the magician never touched me and never touched the cards!” Of course, that’s not how it happened. You think you’re watching yourself getting fooled, but the fooling happened before you even thought to look. ![]() Whether it’s the French Drop, the Zarrow Shuffle, or some other maneuver, the magician’s goal is to perform the actual trickery long before they make you look in the wrong place at the right time. But the prestidigitation distracts from where the hard work takes place, such as practicing card tricks endlessly, privately, in front of a mirror, until the moves become deeply ingrained and subconscious. Of course it plays a key role in close-up magic without it, most tricks won’t work. When many non-magicians picture magic tricks, they focus on sleight of hand: some fancy fingerwork alongside misdirection that allows the trickster to get away with monkey business that wouldn’t play if looked at directly.įor magicians, sleight of hand is the (relatively) easy part. The real trick that magicians perform happens long before you’re amazed. ![]()
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