Introductory post with Charlier Cut question

Aug 7, 2018
2
0
Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and to card magic. Well, not really. When I was my a kid, my Dad was in the German magic circle and magic was a small part of my early life. When I was a young teenager I learned some card magic, but that only lasted for a few month until I experienced girls and sport. Funny enough, I never used my modest magic skills with girls, even so I think it could have helped a lot. LOL

Anyway, I'm about 30 years older now, and my son is slowly getting to the age that I was when my Dad started to amaze me with magic. I always enjoyed that as a kid. And I want to give my son the same experience that I had as a kid. So, I decided to pick up magic again and build on the few skills I acquired decades ago. I always loved card magic, so I want to start with this. I have no professional magic ambitions, but I like serious challenges. And card magic pretty challenging. Currently, I'm working through "The Royal Road to Card Magic" and I just started tackling the top palm.

The slights that I learned as a teenager are:
- Overhand Shuffle (with some card control, injog, false shuffle)
- In air waterfall riffle shuffle
- Glide (which I can do perfect, and all good trick I ever did basically based on the glide)
- Charlier Cut

And here we come finally to my questions. What the heck is the Charlier Cut for. I learned it a long time ago and I can do it very good. But I really don't know why I spent days as a teenager to learn it. I guess it looked cool when my Dad did it. But up to today I am still trying to figure out any real "magic" life applications. As a slight to cut a deck unnoticed it is much too obvious. You have to have a bomb to go off in another part of the room for misdirection to do it secretly. So my question: What are you using the Charlier Cut for and what are your applications for it??

Thanks!
 
Jun 18, 2017
104
77
Welcome!

I wouldn't say it's necessarily a sleight that's meant to be done discreetly, rather being a simple way of cutting the deck with one hand.

That said, I often use it for cleanup when doing a reveal. When they finally turn over their card for the big final moment of a trick, a quick charlier (works especially well if the card they're looking at is around chest height and in your other hand) will bury any duplicates, gimmicks or other evidence into the middle of the deck just in case you'd like to show the top few cards afterwards.

I use it in one trick for this. It's also the basis for a few other useful sleights, I do an unusual reverse which uses a lot of the same move where I need the bottom packet to reverse but the top to remain the same.

Now if you asked me about the usefulness of learning the classic pass, with all the practice I put into that, there's a tougher question. Although, again, I do use it during a reveal for an important cleanup, albeit with just the top few cards.
 
Aug 7, 2018
2
0
I use the Charlier cut for a few different reasons:
-Because it looks cool
-To force a card
-To secretly and discretely cut the deck at my side.

Thanks for the answers. I agree with "it looks cool". The "secretly and discretely cut the deck" needs real good misdirection because I feel it is kinda a blunt move that people can see out of the corner of the eye. But how do you force a card using the Charlier cut?

Recently, I found the Acrobatic Aces trick in TRRTCM, which is using the Charlier cut. I am not quite sure how this trick is perceived by the audience but the Charlier cut is done openly as part as the trick.
 

obrienmagic

Elite Member
Nov 4, 2014
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Orange County, Ca
www.obrienmagic.com
Thanks for the answers. I agree with "it looks cool". The "secretly and discretely cut the deck" needs real good misdirection because I feel it is kinda a blunt move that people can see out of the corner of the eye. But how do you force a card using the Charlier cut?

Recently, I found the Acrobatic Aces trick in TRRTCM, which is using the Charlier cut. I am not quite sure how this trick is perceived by the audience but the Charlier cut is done openly as part as the trick.

Glad you asked! ;) check this video out:
https://www.theory11.com/marketplace/michael-obrien/sonic-mindreading
 
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Jan 21, 2018
23
10
The Charlier cut is a "one handed cut" you cut the deck once one handed. Its a basic form of Cardistry that most magicians and Cardists use. With that in mind it has become a way of forcing or getting to a card throughout the years. Once you learn it you can get into scissors cuts, Revolutionary cuts, etc. More than anything its a way to show skill in a nonchalant way.
 
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