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There is a contrary, and equally valid school of thought though. Maybe you want your spectators to put your effects down to an almost supernatural dexterity. When you do an ambitious card routine, maybe you want them to think that you controlled the card to the top with an incredible and...

Apologies for going a bit off-topic here, but I thought it was interesting. I recently saw an old Michael Ammar lecture video from 1995, in which he teaches a torn and restored business card using an almost identical gimmick to Torn Too. It made me think that using a stack of business cards...

Whatever you think about Mr Madison, you have to agree he's a superb salesman, in that he's created a massive buzz about himself and his products, even without many people (as far as I know) seeing much of him as a performer. Even without any other evidence, this salesmanship would lead me to...

I would say that you need to think about the performance more, rather than the moves. If you watch, for example, the Virts original video, they featured a simple bridged riffle shuffle to great effect, simply because of the attitude and performance style. Your video seemed to be more about...

One technique for speeding up learning the muscle pass without hurting your hands is to switch hands every ten minutes. Not only do you end up being able to perform it in both hands, but it gives each hand time to rest and recuperate, and you won't end up with the damaged hands that some people...

I believe this is the move that Dai Vernon and Dr Daley came up with in New York to confuse magicians who used to spy on them to steal their material and claim it as their own. Doc Daley was sitting in a restaurant with Dai Vernon, knowing that his every move was being scrutinised from all...

In my head, I'd built the classic force up to be so much more difficult than it is. The reason for that was Paul Green's "Classic Force" DVD. He goes into so much detail about how to move the cards towards the participant's hand, what you need to look for in their motion etc., etc. Then I saw...

I agree with almost everything Dylan P says above, apart from his views on the watch waving thing. Doing something like waving a watch in front of someone's eyes can be an aid to inducing trance for two reasons. Firstly, it makes their eyes tired, so when you give a "sleep" suggestion, they...

Yes to both questions. I use the pinky (or "little finger" as I tend to call it, being British) count all the time to establish breaks, as a get-ready for a tilt, and as an aid to estimation. However, I will admit that a thumb count, although more visible and requiring more movement for some...

If you've got the confidence to do it, try this: Walk up to someone, tell them you're a hypnotist and get their permission to try something with them. Then just suddenly snap your fingers in front of their face and tell them to "SLEEP" in a commanding tone. Although it won't work every time...

I think the simplest way is to pull the rest of the deck down slightly, a la the start of a half-pass and use the tip of the left-hand third finger to push the card into position. The tiny movement required is pretty much imperceptible.

I've got to cast my vote for Past Midnight too. Whatever your style of card magic, I guarantee you'll find a plethora of ideas that you can use. Whether you're looking for new sleights, full routines, or some innovative thinking to inspire your own creations, you'll find it here.

I wasn't going to contribute to this thread, because OwnerM has pretty much said everything I was going to say...as he usually does on this subject. :-) I've got a couple of extra little points though. On the forgetting your name thing, I disagree that it takes a deep level of trance to...

He doesn't really teach any completely original moves. However, his handling of a huge amount of gambling sleights is a thing of beauty. His original "The Cheat" DVD, doesn't really go into a huge amount of depth teaching each individual move, in the way that he does on his other DVDs. However...

I play about with a few different decks - Wynns, various casino cards, standard Bees, "bumble-bee" Bees, Richard Turner's Gamblers, Absoluts, Studs etc., but my current favourites are Arrco US Regs. I find they don't need much in the way of breaking-in, and are in a condition to perform straight...

My advice would be to stop learning tricks for the moment. You know more than enough to impress a lay audience. I would say the two things to do are to work on the presentation of each effect and to work on individual moves. For example, in your repertoire, you have an Ambitious Card routine...

If you're trying to force one of four cards, one way is to tell the spectator, "Put your left hand on a card" (If it's the right one, effect over). If it's the wrong one, you instantly (and that's the key word, it has to sound like you were going to continue all along), say "Now put your right...

I think you're right on the money Dylan. People seem to confuse "making a living" with "making millions". I currently work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in sales, alongside doing some writing for a magic magazine and taking the odd magic gig. At my current rate of payment, I would only need to...

Just a suggestion, would it not be useful for people to give a source for learning the changes as well as just the name?

Umm....just to clarify, "KENT" isn't anything to do with hypnosis or subliminal messages, although you could potentially use it to fake these skills. Also, it isn't written by Kenton Knepper, he just bought the rights to it, it's by John Mahood. You may be thinking of "Kentonism", which is as...