False Shuffle Tips

[Scodischarge]

Hi Guys,
I'm having some trouble with my push-through shuffle and was wondering whether somebody could help me.
The concept is pretty straightforward and I'd say I'm able to do a decent push-through shuffle (good enough to fool most laymen). However, if you know how it works it's pretty obvious that I'm just pulling the interlaced halves out again.
As I've seen some pretty amazing and quite invisible false shuffles out there I was wondering whether there were things I should specifically focus on when practising or I should just keep on practising as I am -- the details'll take care of themselves.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

 

[Mr_ARPY]

If you can do the shuffle decently enough to fool laymen, try executing it faster and with as small a brief as you can get. Joey Moriarty (Johannes Maussner) has some beatiful execruions of the move in his channel. Also Jason England is a beast with the move. You can check out his tutorial here at t11.

 

[Scodischarge]

If I do faster it still doesn't look right. You may not really see what's going on, but it looks quite different from the fair shuffle, even if you can't quite put your finger on what's wrong. Thank you for pointing me towards Joey Moriarty; I've seen some of his work he posted on the forum and it's fantastic to see these beautiful executions.
I searched for Jason England's tutorial, but I only found the trailer, I can't access the page where it's actually sold. Do you know if it's still for sale?

 

[Mr_ARPY]

If I do faster it still doesn't look right. You may not really see what's going on, but it looks quite different from the fair shuffle, even if you can't quite put your finger on what's wrong. Thank you for pointing me towards Joey Moriarty; I've seen some of his work he posted on the forum and it's fantastic to see these beautiful executions.
I searched for Jason England's tutorial, but I only found the trailer, I can't access the page where it's actually sold. Do you know if it's still for sale?

https://store.theory11.com/products/push-through-shuffle-jason-england
Here you go. Totally worth it in my opinion. Daniel Madison has some work on the move as well, but his wont match Jason England.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Don't worry about speed. Slow is smooth, smooth is skill. Worry about structuring your performance so there's no reason to even suspect that you're doing something fishy.

Read The Magic of Ascanio Vol 1 - Structural Concept of Magic.

 

[obrienmagic]

Continuing on with what @ChristopherT has said, you should structure the performance in such a way that the audience ist burning your hands. The shuffles should be so natural that you are just talking and telling a story. The action of shuffling should be mundane to the audience. Avoid things like “ok lets go ahead and shuffle the cards now making sure they are in no particular order.” All this does is overprove.

Its like when magicians point out that the 4 aces both have faces and backs during a performamce. You may know one is a double facer, but the audience has no idea they even exist so why run when you are not being chased.

Honestly, I would just look a spectator in the eye and ask, “sir what is your name? Hello John smith nice to meet you. Do you happen to have a favorite card? The seven of spades? Ok lets try something with it.”

Just in those few questions you had a chance to shuffle roughly 3 times. The audience should have no reason to suspect anything has happened other than you wanted to know someones name, and you wanted a card chosen. Subconciously they will not question the cards are in order because they know they have been shuffled.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

To prove the point at my old magic club, I did a mini-lecture on misdirection, and the whole time I was shuffling a deck.

I used the "Gambler's False Shuffle" from Expert at the Card Table over and over and not one person in that room noticed.

If you're not familiar with that particular false shuffle, I'll give you a quick run down - you don't even weave the cards together. Split the deck, riffle up the backs, put the top of the deck back where it was. Total BBB move, and it worked a couple dozen times in a row in a room full of magicians. Because none of them were looking at my hands.

 

[Scodischarge]

https://store.theory11.com/products/push-through-shuffle-jason-england
Here you go. Totally worth it in my opinion. Daniel Madison has some work on the move as well, but his wont match Jason England.

Thanks a lot, but the page won't load. I tried it in a different browser as well and it didn't work there either. Do you know if the download is for sale anywhere else?

 

[Scodischarge]

Don't worry about speed. Slow is smooth, smooth is skill. Worry about structuring your performance so there's no reason to even suspect that you're doing something fishy.

Read The Magic of Ascanio Vol 1 - Structural Concept of Magic.

Continuing on with what @ChristopherT has said, you should structure the performance in such a way that the audience ist burning your hands. The shuffles should be so natural that you are just talking and telling a story. The action of shuffling should be mundane to the audience. Avoid things like “ok lets go ahead and shuffle the cards now making sure they are in no particular order.” All this does is overprove.

Its like when magicians point out that the 4 aces both have faces and backs during a performamce. You may know one is a double facer, but the audience has no idea they even exist so why run when you are not being chased.

Honestly, I would just look a spectator in the eye and ask, “sir what is your name? Hello John smith nice to meet you. Do you happen to have a favorite card? The seven of spades? Ok lets try something with it.”

Just in those few questions you had a chance to shuffle roughly 3 times. The audience should have no reason to suspect anything has happened other than you wanted to know someones name, and you wanted a card chosen. Subconciously they will not question the cards are in order because they know they have been shuffled.

I understand the importance of a well structured performance, but that's not something I'm worrying about yet, as I've only been doing this for 6 months. I know that I don't need to be able to do any move perfectly if I know how to misdirect the audience well enough. But this is more a thing about my personal pride (those who have discussed anything with me will start rolling there eyes now ).
I love doing these moves, and I want to get them down perfectly -- or at least as perfectly as possible.

What I've been doing so far is gambling moves. I want to get them down well enough to theoretically (!) be able to go to a card game and use them without anybody noticing. I won't ever need those skills: I don't plan on actually cheating anybody with those skills and as a magician I don't need to be able to do them perfectly.

I'm just kind of obsessed with doing this perfectly. I want to have them down so well that even other magicians won't be able to tell. (I guess I just spent too much time watching and listening to Richard Turner, a "poster boy for obsessive-compulsive disorder", as he himself says .)

So yeah, that's why I want to do it as good as can be. Thank you anyway, @obrienmagic and @ChristopherT , I really appreciate your thought on the matter.

 

[Mr_ARPY]

Thanks a lot, but the page won't load. I tried it in a different browser as well and it didn't work there either. Do you know if the download is for sale anywhere else?

Maybe the ISP is blocking it. In my country, the T11 shop and marketplace is blocked and can’t be opened unless by using a VPN.

 

[Scodischarge]

Maybe the ISP is blocking it. In my country, the T11 shop and marketplace is blocked and can’t be opened unless by using a VPN.

It's probably the same here. I just tried opening other T11 product pages and they don't work either. I'll see what I can do about that, thanks for the help!

 

[obrienmagic]

If your goal is to do the shuffle perfectly till it is invisible even with an audience burning you and you have only been in magic for 6 months then I think you have your answer. Haha you need to keep practicing it for a few years. Magic is one of those things that requires a ton of muscle memory to pull off something perfectly every time.

I don’t do the pull through shuffle or Id have more to say about it. I can say I have seen some nice convincers. But the more convincers and tricky flair you add, the less it will look like you are really shuffling if you wanna play poker lol.

Honestly, my response from the other day stands. In a poker game, you will shuffle and look around and talk “alright guys whose in? Whose big blind/little blind? Don’t let me catch you peaking at his cards again Larry lol” you need to be engaged and natural. And also DO NOT DO THIS TO PEOPLE YOU DO NOT KNOW FOR MONEY. I hang out with real life card sharks that use to run gambling rings and scam people professionally. They said it is not the life you want to get into.

If you are just looking to pull one over on your mates then honestly the above advice is going to be fine.

 

[Scodischarge]

If your goal is to do the shuffle perfectly till it is invisible even with an audience burning you and you have only been in magic for 6 months then I think you have your answer. Haha you need to keep practicing it for a few years. Magic is one of those things that requires a ton of muscle memory to pull off something perfectly every time.

I don’t do the pull through shuffle or Id have more to say about it. I can say I have seen some nice convincers. But the more convincers and tricky flair you add, the less it will look like you are really shuffling if you wanna play poker lol.

Honestly, my response from the other day stands. In a poker game, you will shuffle and look around and talk “alright guys whose in? Whose big blind/little blind? Don’t let me catch you peaking at his cards again Larry lol” you need to be engaged and natural. And also DO NOT DO THIS TO PEOPLE YOU DO NOT KNOW FOR MONEY. I hang out with real life card sharks that use to run gambling rings and scam people professionally. They said it is not the life you want to get into.

If you are just looking to pull one over on your mates then honestly the above advice is going to be fine.

Don't worry, I'm not delusional enough to think 6 months are enough to master any move But, as Richard Turner says: "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." So I just wanted to know if there are some fine points I should know to make it more convincing.
Of course, until I have got it down that well - and even if I have, one day - your advice is very good as well, if only because nothing works 100% percent of the time as perfectly as possible.

And as I said before, I don't plan on doing any of what I learn in a real game, especially for money, especially with people I don't know. Maybe occasionally when playing with my friends and without money, but even then I'd tell them immediately, give them back there chips, and continue the game. I just wouldn't feel comfortable cheating anyone like that, beside all else it would ruin the fun for them.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

The thing you're missing is that the misdirection is part of the method.

You're not doing it perfectly if you focus 100% on technique.

Here's what happens when you focus 100% on technique - you spend months or years getting the move down to the point where you've got tiny briefs and it looks flawless in the mirror or on video. Then you do it in front of a person and they notice that something happened, but they're not able to see what exactly it was. The move is visually invisible, but psychologically you might as well have a neon sign saying, "THERE IS WHERE THE THING HAPPENED". Then you start integrating the misdirection and psychological aspects, and months or years later, you have a 'perfect' execution.

Or you could start learning the psychological parts now, while you're also developing the physical skill.

 

[Scodischarge]

Hi, sorry for replying only now, I didn't get to doing it earlier.

Wow, your post made it clear to me how much I've underappreciated the aspect of psychology until now. You're right, until now I've been obsessed with the technical details, not realizing how important psychology really is. I guess that's partly because I've been watching so much of Richard Turner, whose sheer skill makes his performance so amazing. But that's something that probably only works if you're among the best in the world.
So I'll conclude with: Thank you so much for your post! It wasn't really a direct answer to my question, but I daresay it will prove even better than an answer would have!

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Richard Turner's displays are incredible, but even his stuff is visible if you know what you're looking for. He does have the "benefit" of having an incredible source of natural misdirection. Once people figure out he's blind it's very distracting.

I'll also repeat - Read The Magic of Ascanio Vol 1 - Structural Concept of Magic.

 

[Scodischarge]

Richard Turner's displays are incredible, but even his stuff is visible if you know what you're looking for. He does have the "benefit" of having an incredible source of natural misdirection. Once people figure out he's blind it's very distracting.

I'll also repeat - Read The Magic of Ascanio Vol 1 - Structural Concept of Magic.

Really? I can see hardly anything he does. His false shuffles are a big exception to that rule, they are pretty well visible. But if I don't watch the video on .25 speed I see almost nothing else. But you're right with the rest.

Right now sadly I don't have the money to spend on every great book that comes my way, but I had a look at The Magic of Ascanio and it really looks worth the read, so I'll definitely keep an eye on it. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Mr_ARPY]

Really? I can see hardly anything he does. His false shuffles are a big exception to that rule, they are pretty well visible. But if I don't watch the video on .25 speed I see almost nothing else. But you're right with the rest.

Right now sadly I don't have the money to spend on every great book that comes my way, but I had a look at The Magic of Ascanio and it really looks worth the read, so I'll definitely keep an eye on it. Thanks for the recommendation!

If you know where to look, you’ll see that even HIS technique isnt completely invisible