Hello everyone, I have some questions that I can't find answers to. I am reading the royal road of card magic and I have come to the chapter on palming. The questions are: 1) It seems to me that the authors have presented tricks that can be done in front of a single spectator. I would like to perform tricks in the street or in situations where I am surrounded by people, so how can I use the palming technique in this situation? The authors said that with this technique you should keep your hand on the deck after doing the palming for a while and then only then move your hand away to do what you want, but how is this applicable in the situation where I want to perform magic? The people standing to my left will see the card in my hand. 2) Assuming I need another technique for palming in this situation, what technique should I use ? More importantly, what is the purpose of teaching a technique that only works for one spectator? Maybe I'm missing something, because if palming is not possible to use with people around us, why was it invented?
Card Palming technique
- Thread starter scrich
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Good questions!
Palming is not angle proof, but has a very good range. Working restaurants or banquets, it easily decieves a table of people, but you must manage your audience. This applies to many effects.
When choosing magic for being surrounded, you must select from a pool of effects that meet that criteria - but don't discount effects that require different audience management - there's a lot of incredible stuff out there!
And like you mention, there are a number of different palms that have different angles. Choose whichever is best for the situation!
Keep it up!
Palming is not angle proof, but has a very good range. Working restaurants or banquets, it easily decieves a table of people, but you must manage your audience. This applies to many effects.
When choosing magic for being surrounded, you must select from a pool of effects that meet that criteria - but don't discount effects that require different audience management - there's a lot of incredible stuff out there!
And like you mention, there are a number of different palms that have different angles. Choose whichever is best for the situation!
Keep it up!
The thing about palming is that it's really a psychological technique as much or more than it's a physical technique.
What do I mean by that? Simple - if you don't want people to realize that you're palming something you have to make it psychologically invisible.
Some context - I have relatively small hands. A standard, poker sized playing card takes up my entire palm up to the first joint of my fingers. I remember doing a trick where I would palm a card and then with that same hand riffle through the deck at eye level with the spectator and not get caught with that palm. I used it as a peek. The reason I didn't get caught was that I had them laser focused on me and they never registered that they could have easily seen the palmed card if they were looking for it.
Juan Tamariz has a routine he does with coins where he is palming a coin and at one point, holds that palm towards the audience in a "just a moment" kind of gesture - with the coin palmed at the time - and no one sees it because they're all focused elsewhere.
So - to summarize - Make sure the audience is not looking at your hands and palming is a wonderfully effective technique.
What do I mean by that? Simple - if you don't want people to realize that you're palming something you have to make it psychologically invisible.
Some context - I have relatively small hands. A standard, poker sized playing card takes up my entire palm up to the first joint of my fingers. I remember doing a trick where I would palm a card and then with that same hand riffle through the deck at eye level with the spectator and not get caught with that palm. I used it as a peek. The reason I didn't get caught was that I had them laser focused on me and they never registered that they could have easily seen the palmed card if they were looking for it.
Juan Tamariz has a routine he does with coins where he is palming a coin and at one point, holds that palm towards the audience in a "just a moment" kind of gesture - with the coin palmed at the time - and no one sees it because they're all focused elsewhere.
So - to summarize - Make sure the audience is not looking at your hands and palming is a wonderfully effective technique.