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My long-term project is mastering estimation centre dealing and high-speed deck memorisation. There's still some work to be done to get these techniques to performance standard, but I've been steadily improving, so I'm confident that they are acheivable goals. I'm looking forward to the day when...

Backpalming multiple cards is hard at first, there's no getting away from it. It takes time and practice to build up the necessary muscles. Breaking-in your cards makes it a lot easier, although I have seen experienced manipulators pick up about half a brand-new deck, give it a little bend and...

As with most sleight-of-hand, a lot depends on the shape and size of your own hands. I found that once I'd built up the muscle at the base of my thumb by classic palming and muscle passing large coins, I was able to work my way down to smaller coins, and can now get a bit of distance with a UK...

Does anyone know if this book is available anywhere? Given how old it is, I would have thought it would be out of copyright and be available in loads of different versions, like Erdnase, but I can't find it at all.

In my experience, the only thing you have to do to convince someone a deck isn't gimmicked is spread them haphazardly between your hands and say "Look, just so you know, they're not all the same or any nonsense like that." Being overly careful and making a nice neat fan or spread at this point...

I started flourishing in the days before XB, and I learnt all my basic moves from Capaso Casino's Back to Basics 1 & 2 DVDs. I really don't get why no-one else ever recommends these. If what you're after is a grounding in the fundamental card flourishes, then these will do the job perfectly.

Paul Wilson has a trick using the Anti-Faro, but as far as I know he doesn't actually teach the move iteself.

Christian Engblom also teaches his version of it on the Que Raro DVD (also the only source, as far as I know, for the Anti-Faro).

If he didn't write Tricks of the Mind then the ghost-writer did a pretty good job of imitating his style. From what I know of Mr Brown, I don't think he would have had it written for him. Anyway, more on-topic, if you're interested in NLP/hypnosis/suggestion type stuff, then a lot of Kenton...

It depends how much you're into the history and subtle touches in magic. If you're just looking to learn sleights and tricks to impress laymen then I don't think Royal Road would give you much extra benefit. If you want to go deeper into magic and really become creative with it, I think these...

I don't think the one-handed deal is visible enough to identify exactly what move it is. It could be Lennart Green's "Thumb Shot" from Green Magic Volume 1 DVD, Paul Le Paul's Rapid One-Handed Deal (aka "Bullet Deal") from The Card Magic of Le Paul, or the "Shooting Single Handed Deal" that Dai...

Simon Lovell's Oil and Water routine's pretty good. It's on one of his "The Madness Behind the Methods" DVDs, which are worth picking up anyway, if only for the novelty value of a good Magic Makers product.

Max, I would dispute that "subliminal influence", or presumably what I would call suggestion, doesn't always work. Obviously it doesn't work if you do it wrong, but if you follow the steps that are required to acheive compliance with any given suggestion, and make sure at each stage that your...

Professionally, I'm a salesman, so I'm really interested in the whole persuasion and influence thing. As far as I've found, the best sources for ideas on suggestion and "subliminal" influence that could be applied to magic are Richard Bandler & John Grinder's "Trance-formations" & their...

There's a difference between a fridge and a freezer in this regard. A freezer may very well cause moisture on the cards, whereas the air in a fridge is dry, so it will draw out any moisture in the cards and, after a few hours will restore their hardness. They may then need some time in a Porper...

I've been doing sleight-of-hand stuff for a couple of years now, but I've only recently realised the importance of developing an individual style. On this basis, rather than taking other people's routines and performing them move-for-move in the same way, I've been adapting the handling to suit...

It's taught on Jeff McBride's Art of Card Manipulation Volume 3 DVD if you want to see it in action.

My personal challenge is mastering the estimation centre deal. If this could be performed with 100% accuracy there are a whole spectrum of amazing effects that could be acheived.

Kostya Kimlat's version of Triumph is the best I've ever seen. I don't remember what the notes are called where he teaches it to be honest, so this post may well be useless to you, but it's worth searching out. If you haven't seen it, the spectator gets to turn cards face up and face down and...