theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

Favourite Control?

THIS BELONGS IN THE "CARD MAGIC" FORUM.

And since I suppose I shouldn't waste a post:
Side steal, classic pass, or standard riffle shuffle.

Edit: Oh, geez, I forgot the cull. I was thinking more of a "insert your card in the middle", and then controlling it to the top thing.

Culling is an absolutely amazing way to control a card to the top (or the bottom).
 
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I use certain controls in certain situations.

I probably use a side steal or the move taught on one of the Ninja disks taught as "the one handed pass", the most. As well as the Cherry control or Hermann Pass. Depends on the trick, and what I feel like doing to be quite honest.

However, if the situation called for a spectator to shuffle the cards and mix them I use the Fan Control, Joel Paschals (sp? sorry Joel) method to be exact.

-RA69
 
Ryan F. said:
i think controls r useless just use a pass

when u do to much movement it just makes the audience suspicious
Click to expand...

That's a really ignorant statement, you can't make sweeping generalisations like that, especially not without anything to back up your statement and with pitiful spelling and grammar. Different situations may call for a different move. E.g. if I want to control a single card to the top without disturbing the order of the deck a side steal would be a better choice, a pass would require cutting the deck before the replacement which would be unjustified. If you had dribbled the cards and asked the spectator to call stop it would be nearly impossible to justify the actions needed to pass the card to the top, in this situation the clip shift may be a better choice. Another situation would be when you want 3 spectators to each select a card while leaving the selections out jogged, a pass is useless here, a multiple shift would clearly be a better option. Think before you make stupid comments.

My most frequently used controls are the side steal, the clip shift, double undercut, spread pass, bluff pass and the convincing control.
 
My favorite control is one I came up with called the swing cut control. Which looks just like a swing cut incase you couldn't tell ;)


-Michael
 
Herman pass is probably what I use the most, but the Clip Shift is also great, but not in all situations. I'm also a really big fan of the bluff pass, but you can't use it everywhere.

With those three, I think you're pretty well off in most situations... though I'm trying to add the cherry control into my bag. Fan Control is good too, but for me personally, I only like to use it in certain situations, but it really is a great method.
 
RebelAce69 said:
I use certain controls in certain situations.

I probably use a side steal or the move taught on one of the Ninja disks taught as "the one handed pass", the most. As well as the Cherry control or Hermann Pass. Depends on the trick, and what I feel like doing to be quite honest.

However, if the situation called for a spectator to shuffle the cards and mix them I use the Fan Control, Joel Paschals (sp? sorry Joel) method to be exact.

-RA69
Click to expand...

I'm with you there, I use Fan Control often.
 
Recently I've been playing with the Concealed Allerton Control. It's a variation of Bert Allerton's control written up in Card Conspiracy Vol 1 by Peter Duffie and Robin Robertson.

I like this control because it's easy to position a selection under x number of cards.

To specifically control to the top I use a side steal.
 
I've gotten lazy.

Although I have a lot of fun playing with the Miller Cascade Control and other fun moves, I never do any of them in performance.

I always choose one of two methods: If i want the audience to see the cards get mixed, I use the Blackstone shift that I learned from Tom Mullica's book. However, if I want the audience to believe the card is right where they put it with no opportunity for a clever move, I use a classic pass and set the deck down.

I do think it's important that we choose a control that leaves the audience with right state of mind for the effect to follow. If you do a cut or a shuffle and the card appears on top, it's not as impossible as if they'd seen the card go in the middle and, with no other moves, it ends up on top. On the other hand, if the put the card in the middle and you don't bother to mix things up but simply look through and find the card, that's not impossible since you saw where the card went.

I know those aren't the best examples but you should understand what I mean. I get annoyed when someone uses a control that leaves the audience feeling like the effect isn't really impossible and, consequently, isn't really magic.

Dave
 
Sometimes I use the Top Shift, a creation of my own. Basically you start like in a herman pass, then when the packets are perpendicular you let the top packet fall into your palm except for the top card, which covers everything. However, this requires a double lift at the end to reveal the card and angles are very tricky. If I am performing for more people I use the Riffle pass or the Double Undercut, which is easy and laymen don't know it ;)
 
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PullusGallinaceus said:
Sometimes I use the Top Shift, a creation of my own. Basically you start like in a herman pass, then when the packets are perpendicular you let the top packet fall into your palm except for the top card, which covers everything. However, this requires a double lift at the end to reveal the card and angles are very tricky. If I am performing for more people I use the Riffle pass or the Double Undercut, which is easy and laymen don't know it ;)
Click to expand...

I believe you are referring to a Top Card Cover Pass there.
 
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