Shuffle speed and variant control speeds.

[Jimmy88]

Shuffle speed and variant control speeds.


I have a question about shuffle speeds and I wouldn't mind some enlightenment and discussion on this subject and what @Jason England thinks.

I've noticed that people have different speeds interms of the shuffles, regular and fake.
Ricky jay had an almost casual, slow, smooth appearance to his table shuffles, regular and fake, aswell as Richard Turner.
While Jason England and Steve Forte, they have a very fast, smooth shuffle.

So is this just taste and preference?

Can some shuffle techniques be done slowly but then certain shuffle have to be executed at speed to hide discrepancies?

Or is the aim to develop all shuffles to a very fast tempo.

Thank you.
Jimmy

 

[byronblaq]

Can some shuffle techniques be done slowly but then certain shuffle have to be executed at speed to hide discrepancies?

Great question,

I think a part of it is just the nature of the educator. My learning path came through Forte, England and others like them that have the speedier approach and others take a slower approach.

I personally think the faster approach takes a certain level of skill above the slower performances to achieve, so I reach for that.

But, I have seen instances of slow false shuffles that are designed to look as fair as possible that have caught me off guard and they have their place. My goal is to be as pure to the genuine sleight as I can be and speed tends to be a natural component of the genuine shuffle or strip that I have to align with.

The beauty is, you can align to anything you like...

BB

 

[kthrzne]

It really just depends on how much time you want to devote to false shuffles. The important thing is that it looks consistent and natural.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

To paraphrase Ricky Jay, "I would want to shuffle the cards in a way that I would not appear more clever, or less clever, than the other players."

In other words - the way you handle the cards should seem natural to the environment. Congruence is far more important than achieving specific speeds. You want the false shuffles to have the same pacing as the legit shuffles. Same with false deals and everything else. Make the deceptive actions look like legit actions, and make the legit actions look like the deceptive actions. That way it all looks the same.

 

[Scodischarge]

Can some shuffle techniques be done slowly but then certain shuffle have to be executed at speed to hide discrepancies?

Yes, there are some of those shuffles. In his new book, Mr Forte describes a false shuffle to carry slugs of up to 20 cards. Here, speed is of the utmost importance.
But keep in mind two things: 1. You rarely need to control such large slugs in magic, and 2. a shuffle with such speed among otherwise casual and slow card handling will probably stand out even more than a 20 card slug.

These kinds of shuffles are rather the exception. For the rule, byronblaq and Christopher have already provided excellent advice.