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Absolutely. It's the same with many of Erdnase's moves. I believe he didn't originally create them for publication, just for his own use and, in some cases, as technical exercises for himself. So, the descriptions are often tailored for his own idiosyncracies and subtleties of handling (good...

I think one of the things that people miss with this shift is that Erdnase specifically describes the grip as "open and natural". Therefore, it's a bit odd that the main criticism of it is its unnaturalness. Erdnase tends to know what he's talking about, so I think it's likely that we're missing...

Have you read the book? From my reading of it, it seems less a "myth" and more a "joke".

Really? Did Dai Vernon use all the shifts from Modern Magic in performance? Did Ed Marlo use every one of his tabled palm variations in performance? Does Richard Turner use all of his myriad stacking techniques in performance? Does Steve Forte use all the dice moves he knows in performance?

I learn loads of sleights and flourishes I'll probably never show to another living person, let alone use in a proper performance. And not only learn to execute them but really work hard at perfecting them. I think people can get a bit too pompous about everything having to be a "real world...

It also has a flavour of Ollie Mealing's Barrier Shift (the first move demo'd on this trailer): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Jfq4UgHqY

It depends who you are, how you perform, and what type of material you perform. If I force a card on someone and then instantly reveal its identity, that's a slightly puzzling trick. Using a gaffed deck to achieve that force is, in my opinion, counter-productive because the spectator will...

There are quite a few tricks you can use to "cheat" a gambling demo. Some ideas: 1. Begin with the four aces on top of the deck. Shuffle one card on top of them using a table riffle. Perform a slip cut and deal the four aces face-up onto the table. This gives the impression that you've located...

This should help start off your research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Banks_Rhine

I think they're lovely moves and I'd want to learn them. Can you just clarify why you want to release them as a large-scale DVD project, as opposed to, say, releasing one at a time on The Wire (or the video retail platform of your choice)? Releasing two or three separate tutorials would give you...

Throughout my childhood, there'd always been a few beginner magic books around the house. My older brother had had a brief flirtation with magic and so I'd seen a few card tricks "performed" and had a vague sense of some of the principles involved. To me, though, they'd always seemed like a...

I think we can take some comfort in the knowledge that this isn't just a magicians' trait. If you go on any forum about any subject you can think of (plumbing, coding, reggae soundclashes...whatever), you'll find people desperate to define themselves in opposition to the "laymen" in that...

If it's one riffle-shuffle and a cut, then yes, I do know of techniques that can do that (adaptations of things like the Stevens Control), although they're so difficult they're pretty much just pipe-dreams at the moment. If it's literally just one riffle shuffle then no, I don't know of any...

To my mind, there are two separate issues here. As Pav says, by "the professional", Erdnase meant a cheat. Of course, if you're working as a professional advantage player then you don't want to start showing off how well you can manipulate a deck of cards before you use similar techniques to...

One of the reasons the standard "pop-up" closer to an Ambitious Card routine is so impressive to a lay audience is, in my opinion, because it delivers on the promise of the card "jumping" to the top. Therefore, a couple of previous phases in which this process was invisible become justified. If...

I'd highly recommend getting the Royal Road book to supplement what you're learning from the DVDs. That way, you'll begin to get used to learning magic from books (a skill you'll definitely want to develop as you progress in magic) with the safety-net of the DVDs in case you feel that you need...

I tend to agree with Steerpike on this. People say "jump" just because everyone else does and they haven't considered how best to serve their own character and percieved abilities with their script. I always think that with Ambitious Card. If the card "jumped up" to the top of the deck, then...

It's always rings alarm-bells when someone asks to see another magician's patter. Consider this. As even the most mind-numbingly banal amongst us will tell you, in the performance of magic, we're striving to "be ourselves". The aim is to invest our performances with individuality and the unique...

Your best guide to these kind of basic card-handling issues will be watching the way other card-workers handle the deck. Find a few people who handle cards in the way you would like to and study their performances. Work out for yourself why they have chosen to handle the cards in the way they...

It depends what you want to achieve. If you want to look like you might know your way around a high-stakes game then you'll probably want to get used to the "low-wristed" shuffle that casino dealers use. If you want to give a slightly more open look then you'll probably choose the Erdnase-style...