What is the Best Card Trick

Jan 26, 2015
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1
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India
So guys the legendary question emerges again. Lets End it today. Lets look for a card trick that blows the audience (Including Magicians) and the type of trick that you think could never happen that was impossible. Let us collect as many tricks as we can so that the lot of us at theory 11 have a solid handle that when anyone hands us a deck of card and tells us to perform a trick they wont know what hit them.

I basically created this thread so that card magicians can have a place where the can look up the cards tricks that are like by the majority of the audience . Tricks that are very effective and are performed by the pros out there. And please no gimmick card tricks. We want impromptu tricks. In this thread i want people to post magic that genuinely blows peoples mind.

Thank You
 

Dean Magic

Elite Member
Jun 13, 2013
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480
Florida
In my opinion, French Kiss by Wayne Houchin is the number one trick (at least that I perform). I performed this for a classmate last year and a year later they still mention it and ask me to perform it again. It isn't a trick to fool magicians but to laymen it is absolutely insane. I think most tricks that involve something happening in the spectators hands (or mouth) is always very powerful because in their mind there is no way you could have ever manipulated the card they have. This makes the trick all the more impossible and magical.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
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Texa$, with a dollar sign
In all honesty, some of the simplest tricks can be the most amazing tricks in the right hands and with mindfulness to presentation. So your answers in this thread are going to wildly vary.

For example, I have a huge fascination with difficult one handed tricks. I think Mechanics Pass/Shift and Raise Rise are amazing impromptu card tricks that I'm trying to add to my repertoire.
 
Feb 7, 2015
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1- These tricks where magician throw the deck in a glass or a window and the card appears in the other side.

2- Tricks like Blaine makes to Harrison Ford where Ford say a random card and it leaves the deck and appears inside an orange (I dont know how the f*ck he makes that...I just want to believe that they are not acting for the show).

Talking about more "normal" tricks... I like Strange Travellers and Phantom card is really cool with a good perfomance.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
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I'm really fond of "Having a personality" and "Engaging the audience"

If the trick is getting the reaction, and not you, you're doing it wrong.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
French Kiss uses "gimmicks"

Most versions of card through window also require a set up or gimmicks.

You really can't do a card to orange when someone just hands you a deck either.

I think that card to mouth is very powerful.
The Biddle trick is one of my all time favorite go to tricks.
Almost any version of Out of This World kills.
Jay Sankey has a TNR called Cardboard contortionist that uses 2 un-gimmicked signed cards which I think is very powerful.
I perform a gambling routine from Royal Road that always plays strong to laymen and magicians.
Dr. Daley's last trick is great
"Tell me the truth what is it" Refered to by most as the 2 card monte that David Blaine made famous is also great.
 
Feb 7, 2015
26
6
Okay, you have the point ^^"

Anyway; what are and what aren't gimmicks for you? For example, an extra card in the deck or a double backer? Loops?

Well, if we are talking about a normal deck of 52 cards no more no less the David Blaine' s color order (dont know the name, he perform it in Real Or magic to Olivia Wilde) is a very very good trick.
As goatears said the Double Monte is easy and good for non-magicians viewers.


And...I dont know how Strange Travellers is done but if you only need a normal deck, is simply brutal.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
2,435
2,030
Texa$, with a dollar sign
Okay, you have the point ^^"

Anyway; what are and what aren't gimmicks for you? For example, an extra card in the deck or a double backer? Loops?

Well, if we are talking about a normal deck of 52 cards no more no less the David Blaine' s color order (dont know the name, he perform it in Real Or magic to Olivia Wilde) is a very very good trick.
As goatears said the Double Monte is easy and good for non-magicians viewers.


And...I dont know how Strange Travellers is done but if you only need a normal deck, is simply brutal.

I would say that criteria here would either be skill with a regular deck or a deck that you have already 'placed cards into position.
But gimmicked cards for something like a packet trick? That's a slippery slope. I would say that because IT IS a card and nothing else to it would classify it as not gimmicked.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Well, if we are talking about a normal deck of 52 cards no more no less the David Blaine' s color order (dont know the name, he perform it in Real Or magic to Olivia Wilde) is a very very good trick.

Are you referring to Out Of This World? If so - you need to get some books.
 
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Feb 7, 2015
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Those videos should be ok only for teaching tricks to kids... in a minimalist way.

Times change. Ways to learn do it too. Personally I love books, but if you want to learn in a non-professional way (as I do) videos are the best source so far right now.

I honestly cannot tell if you're being serious.

Sorry, I didn't understand your comment at all, thought you were saying that I should get books to learn it. My apologies.
 
Aug 4, 2014
42
1
In my opinion, French Kiss by Wayne Houchin is the number one trick (at least that I perform). I performed this for a classmate last year and a year later they still mention it and ask me to perform it again. It isn't a trick to fool magicians but to laymen it is absolutely insane. I think most tricks that involve something happening in the spectators hands (or mouth) is always very powerful because in their mind there is no way you could have ever manipulated the card they have. This makes the trick all the more impossible and magical.

I'll second that, although I usually do the Here then There version.
 
Aug 4, 2014
42
1
I think the coolest impromptu trick is Double Exposure by Asi Wind. The guy's a genius. And when you ask a spectator for a phone, they become really curious. After I'm done, I walk away like a boss whle they're still looking at the picture. XD
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
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That is exactly what I'm saying. That trick was published by Paul Curry in like 1942 and his handling is still one of the best out there. The only ones I put anywhere near it are Paul Harris' (Art of Astonishment) and Jon Armstrong's. I don't know if Armstrong has published his version in a book or anything, but I learned it in Season 1 of Reel Magic Magazine.

There are other versions and some of them very good - these are simply the ones I prefer.

You said:
but if you want to learn in a non-professional way (as I do) videos are the best source so far right now.

Which is just wrong. Video is not the best source, it is simply a source. Furthermore, it's a source that tends to perpetuate a lack of originality in magic performance. I remember an interview with Daniel Garcia where he commented on how often people tended to copy his performances on the DVD word-for-word, even when he was making up the words on the fly. But people who are learning by watching tend to mimic. The good ones then go beyond that and develop the presentation themselves, but most magicians are, I'm sorry to say, not good.

Books have the tendency for someone to understand the trick on a deeper level than video. This is because you have to understand how the trick works before you can even start practicing it, rather than just mimicking the guy on the screen. They also tend to be pretty scant on the presentation, so the performer is more or less forced to come up with one.

They both have their place. Videos do help clarify certain things, like finger positions and actions which can be lengthy to describe in text but executed in seconds. But to say videos are the best place to learn is just wrong.

Furthermore - You mentioned YouTube. YouTube is a cesspool of terrible magicians. There are gems to be found, but for the most part, the overwhelming majority of the videos on YouTube are perfect examples of how NOT to perform magic. Yes, you may actually learn the moves but in all likelihood that is the best you can expect from YouTube. You will get no theory - because these people don't think about theory. You will get no tips from experience - because these people have no experience. They are just repeating what some other exposer showed them, they haven't refined the techniques in live performance. If they were out doing live performances they wouldn't be resorting to YouTube. If they were any good at performing, they wouldn't have to expose other people's tricks to get attention.

And even further, when you learn tricks from YouTube, excluding public domain stuff and stuff that is legitimately given away by the creators, you are aiding in the theft of intellectual property. Ever wanted a magic product but it was just too expensive so you found an exposure of it on YouTube? Congrats, you're part of the reason it's so expensive in the first place. Creators are increasingly refusing to share their good material in a mass market way. I've stumbled upon more and more people who will only sell directly. They print small runs of their products and they vet their customers before selling the product. This is specifically to cut down on the exposure. People don't give away things they actually value, and if they have to work for it, or sacrifice their time, or if it gives them some level of prestige to own it, they value it and they won't give it away.

So to recap, because the YouTube generation has a very short attention span - YouTube is a place to learn bad magic. If you want to learn good magic - read books.
 
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