talkmagic.co.uk

No, I am not one of those religious fanatics you hide behind the sofa from and run away from in the street but who are, bizzarely, given whole TV networks in America. I have, however, just had an experience which almost made me question my devout Atheism.

I was doing an hour of closeup before the Corby Lions annual dinner, and everything was going fine. I took out my cards, had someone pick one, dropped the remaining half on top of it when it was returned, and lost my break. I had no clue where the card was, it was gone. I tried a couple out of desperation in case I had kept the right one by pure luck but I hadn't, so I had to come clean, said I had lost the card could we try again? I got a look of almost complete disgust but the guy did pick a card and again showed it to his friends, whereupon he told me how good I was. I was confused, but didn't show it, as he said something about completely free choice. At a probability of 1 in 2916 (I had jokers in for any mathematicians) he had picked the same card again!!

I then got chatting with the guy about mentalism, and Derren Brown, and thought this would be the perfect oppertunity to try his imaginary card routine from Devils Picturebook (get this it's great) for the first time, and it worked!!

So, if any of you need to be blessed this is the place to come, I am obviously being smiled upon by someone!

Nick

its that old stripper deck again

if you use a stripper deck as well as your slights you have a backup.

if you loose your place try saying now think of the card, no thats your wife try agian, its a picture card right no im not getting it.
maybey that ones to heard for you try another card.

cut this one to the bottom and have a crafty peek when you square up the deck then your set to do the mind reading gag over again and no ones the wiser, just a thought

The whole point was that the trick turned out far more impressive because I got it wrong to start with. It is not something that regularly happens, and I don't know what caused it this time but I just messed up dropping half the deck on top and getting an injog, it moved a lot of cards out of place and confused me.

Ahh... that devious little jog...

Almost totally digressing from the subject (that's most unlike me ) I would recommend manipulation hand cream for the pinky.

In fact, I'll write a 'tips' article on Jogs in the MO section...

some people use an emery board on the tip to make it more sensitive (sounds like i just posted on an s&m forum ooh err).

mistakes happen sometimes you recover great sometimes not, you wont loose bookings for a failed trick, your only human.

i probably make two or three mistakes in every show, if im pulled up i just say im cheeting that what i get paid for, i'll give you an example when a magician says this tube is empty (shows empty tube puts down on table), we all know its actualy full of silks.
pulls out sting of silks from empty tube

I'm referring less to the sensitivity - more to the 'tackiness'.

I find jogs, especially using an overhand shuffle, can slip off my pinky.
Getting the finger tacky helps keep the job during the shuffle.

When transferring the jog to a break, it also helps if the thumb is a little tacky.

I personally suffer from really dry hands, and I really used to have difficulty until I found the answer. It assists with all things - the least of which, for me, is fanning. It's basically like moisturiser cream - but leaves the fingers soft and very slightly tacky.

Brilliant for glides, second deals etc.

I usually have exactly the opposite problem and cards stick to my hands!

In this case neither would have helped as I was using a subtle variation of the method where you throw the top half forwards onto the bottom and automatically get an injog, but in this variation you have to just drop the cards at an angle, it leaves a less obvious jog, but is more likely to mess up.

I am not going to rely on the 2916 to one chance again though, and will use a mre relioable method in future.

I can remeber doing a trick whereby a spectator , after I had shuffled the cards, cut them into two piles. I took my pile and selected a card, she took hers and selected one. She put her face down card on my pile and I did the same with her pile. We each took out a card and layed it down face down. She told me her card and I was right and vice versa. She said that was amazing especially the coloured thing. I was confussed and then she told me all the cards in her pile were red , except from the one I picked and when I looked at my pile, all mine were black except her card. I took the credit for it . It all just adds to your rep