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There is no one definite reliable source, which, to my mind, is one of the exciting things about magic history. People champion their own stories, things get hidden in the mists of time or in a dusty old book that no-one's read for years. For example, Erdnase's Two-Hand Transformation Number 1...

Here's my approach. Glimpse the bottom card while you're talking to them, force it on them and make a really big deal about squaring the deck carefully, as if you're really trying to hold a break or identify the location of the card in some way. The heckler will love this and think they've...

As I understand it, both Blaine and Angel were professional magicians already before they appeared on TV. In order to get on TV you have to either find a producer who's already looking to make a magic show, or come up with a format yourself and pitch it to a production company. In general, its...

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I would say "underground" is a term that has been used so much it's lost its meaning. No disrespect or offence intended, but I can't see how Theory 11 could seriously be described as "underground". The artists are extremely well known within magic, and their work has even impacted on the general...

OK... :-) I'll rephrase what I said. What I really meant was, if someone suspects a palm and they burn your hands you can't hide it. Which is true...you can always see the tension in the tendons on the back of the hand.

It depends on "the moment" as Erdnase would say. Basically, it depends on what you find more comfortable in the particular instance that you need to do the move. If the spectator is looking right at your hands when then card needs to be controlled, then a cull is more covered. Hovever, if you...

I think an interesting point for debate would be deception in performance. For example, in a standard theatrical performance, although the audience are invited to suspend their disbelief and involve themselves in the emotions of the piece, at no point would anyone accuse the actors of "lying"...

I think the key thing to get over with palming cards is the idea that they have to be completely hidden in the hand for a palm to be effective. If you get your timing and misdirection right then the spectator just won't be looking at the hand that's holding out. However skilled you are at...

That's just a typical style of the day. For some reason it was just how authors referred to themselves in their writing. Even Marlo does it right up to the 1960s. However, there is a school of thought that says Erdnase was written by more than one person, either as a collaboration of a...

No-one really knows for sure Erdnase's story, but if your interested in finding out about him I'd recommend reading this thread on the Genii magazine forum: http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=175167&fpart=1 They have contributions from some of the top...

I think you can kind of see the evolution of this move in Erdnase. If you look at the Two-Hand Transformation, Second Method, similar mechanics are used in the Longitudinal Shift, except the latter move shifts a whole packet rather than just one card. The SWE Shift just turns the Longitudinal...

Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear enough. "Easy" isn't a synonym for "wrong". "Carney on Palming" is an excellent source and he goes into more detail on the move than Erdnase. Therefore, not only is it easier to learn from, but you're more likely to learn it properly. As I mentioned in...

I would disagree with this. Take the easy way, and get John Carney's "Carney on Palming". He does the move perfectly and goes into a lot of depth on it, substantially more than Erdnase. However, make sure you return to Erdnase afterwards to see what he has to say on the matter.

The top three most important card books are The Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert at the Card Table, and Expert Card Technique, which I suggest should be studied in that order. Then, I'd go for some classics like Dai Vernon's Inner Card Trilogy and Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic, and maybe some...

Yes, you're quite right, I think maybe "amateur" and "professional" were the wrong choice of words, but you get the idea.

I said that the discrepancy registers unconsciously. In other words, it's not something that they are aware of, so no, they may not "think twice about it", because they aren't even conscious of having noticed it. I would refer you to Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink" for a good overview of how our...

I will admit, a strike double works. It gets the two cards turned over as one, and it's not often that a layman will call you on it if you do it well. If that is the only consideration in choosing your technique then fine, that's no problem. However, I think a genuinely natural double turnover...

You're absolutely right FadedTemp. DnD perform the Revolution differently to Daniel Madison or Brian Tudor. I learned it from a Brian Tudor video, so I perform it in the same way as he and Daniel Madison do. I think it's beneficial to learn DnD's way though if you want to get maximum card...

I think that's the problem with the strike double. It doesn't look like a natural turnover, and if you change your method of turning over singles to match it, in my opinion that would make every turnover suspicious. Sometimes this could be useful, for example if you want to do a fake move to...