Search results

Althought I'd played around with card tricks before, I was 21 when I started taking magic seriously. Although it would have been nice to have all the basic sleights mastered by that age, starting at that age meant I knew how to effectively practice, having spent twelve years playing the piano. I...

My whole performance character is built around demonstrating sleight-of-hand rather than performing something supernatural. I take great pains to take my effects away from "fooling" or "tricking" the audience, rather apparently giving them some insight into the possibilities of two hands and...

He is a very nice guy, and very good at what he does. Annoyingly, he's younger than me, and a much better magician :-). I have his Roadrunner Cull DVD, and it's an excellent investment. You can perform some absolute miracles if you have this technique mastered.

I always try to find a connection to gambling with any card effect I do, because a layman is more likely to have encountered, touched, felt, experienced cards in a gambling situation than any other. Therefore, I have created some resonant meaning for the prop other than "Look, here's something I...

Why would you say that? David Beyer owns the trademarks "Superhandz", "Handlordz" and "De'vo vom Schattenreich" in the US. He also used to own "Xtreme Card Manipulation" and "Cobra Cut", but they've lapsed. Here is the link to the US Patent and Trademark Office search for David Beyer: USPTO...

Well, to be fair, in the EoPCF, Jerry credits the flipback to Dave Beyer.

With card and coin magic, everyone knows it's either sleight-of-hand or some form of gimmickry. There's no getting away from that. However, the key to making your audience experience real magic is to make the moves merely incidental to the tricks, and the tricks merely incidental to a narrative...

In Apocalypse (in the early to mid-80s I think, I'll have to check on the actual date), the Ultimate Illogical Shuffle was credited to Gianni Mattiolo. This is a simple four packet cut where the second from the top gets taken in a "Sybil"-type motion and transposed to second from the bottom...

If you haven't got Expert at the Card Table, Royal Road and Expert Card Technique, then get those immediately. Personally, I love Vernon's work, so I would recommend the Inner Card Trilogy and Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic, and the Vernon Chronicles. I think if you study Vernon it gives you a...

Yeah, sorry, should have mentioned, "The Faro Shuffle" and "Faro Notes" are part of "Revolutionary Card Technique", chapters 6 and 7 respectively. They are available on their own, or in the compiled book.

To be honest, I don't know the name of the specific control, but to learn it, I would suggest having a look at Marlo's work on the faro shuffle ("Faro Controlled Miracles", "The Faro Shuffle", "Faro Notes" etc.). Or, if you can find it, get the much more exciting "Faro & Riffle Technique" by...

I think one useful psychological subtlety with the classic force is to say "Just take a card for me now.", rather than "Pick a card". "Pick" suggests they have some choice in the matter, and it invites them to take their time and actually make a selection. The word "Just" gets across the idea...

Sorry, I think there's a bit of misunderstanding on the term "blind". In Erdnase and contemporary texts, the word was used to describe any sleight or hidden move. So, any false shuffle, whether a full deck retention or not, was referred to as a "blind shuffle", any false cut would be a "blind...

Can I also recommend Jeff McBride's Art of Card Manipulation DVD series if you want to take this kind of "classic" manipulation further.

That's a really good idea and yes, I can think of two methods. Maybe not quite as clean as you're describing, but the spectators would certainly go away believing that they had seen a card appear in mid-air. PM me if you want the details of my suggestions.

I think one of the big problems with learning the classic force is over-thinking it. It's not complicated, and I found that Paul Green's DVD actually made it more difficult because it implied that there are about five things to think about at the same time while you're doing it. Watch Simon...

Personally, I think the simplest effects are the best. The ultimate mentalism trick is to get someone to think of anything, a word, a picture, a song, whatever, and then tell them what they're thinking of. I see most mind-reading effects as an approximation of this, maybe with a kicker at the...

I want to see someone do Erdnase's Open Shift. I don't even care if they go into it in detail...I just want to see someone perform it...

I would imagine these days he would be a consultant to Criss Angel, earning far more money than he would ever have done cheating at cards or publishing his book (or books if you believe some of the theories about his identity). He would have also made the biggest-selling three DVD set for...

I think that approach isn't inconsistent with acting like the magic is real. If you're going to perform a false transfer and make a coin vanish, it's absolutely essential that your attitude conveys that you genuinely believe the coin is in your hand, and let the audience feel the moment that it...