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I'm on the verge of giving up sleight of hand because

a) I'm no good at it really
b) I just don't see a need for it in so many tricks

In the past week, instead of palming 5 cards to replace on the top of the deck after the spec has shuffled them, I just tell them I'm taking the jokers off and put them on the table, then after the spec has shuffled and removed a card, I just pop the 8K stack back on top and nobody has noticed. Yet when I try to be tricky, they notice.

I've even taken back a clipboard after they have the paper off it then fold over the top "wooden" sheet right in front of them. As long as I don't glance down at that moment I get away with it.

Even doing DB's OOTW routine where instead of marker cards he just separates each stack right in front of the spec, I've only be caught by another spec, not the person I was doing it for.

It actually seems that the more I take the mick, the less I get caught.

I remember that when I was a prison officer I'd catch people doing bad stuff by how they walked into a cell etc. People hiding stuff just look dodgy. But people who do things right in front of you don't.

You know the DB routine on TOTM2 with the card maker? Where he predicts the card when the deck's in his hands then again when the deck is in the spec's hands? How much more blatant can you get? Yet the guy sees nothing.

Anyway, just some thoughts from a cack-handed amateur

And of course, you're right.

Possibly the best example of this 'open blatantness' is taking out a gaffed deck and mentioning that the deck is gaffed.

Many effects rely on perception. One of the earliest effects I remember learning which relies on blatant and ballsey performance is the '1-2-3 it's gone' napkin vanish—learned from my grandad—where you simply tap a rolled up napkin 3 times on the speccy's head... however, on the 3rd go, you simply throw it OVER their head.

But, it seems they will ALWAYS think it's disappeared.

Simple, effective, and proves the point.

There's really no point in being a magician if you don't get that buzz... the buzz which says "I am fooling these people with *skill* right under their noses..."

Whether that skill is deftness, sleight of hand, or simple misdirection, it's the reaction and end product which counts at the end of the day.

i remember laughing at the cheekiness of Mr. Brown and the Cardmaker too...

yes, i've done similar, when i tried a small coin routine (im pretty awful with coins), i blatantly grabbed a sugar cube off someone's plate and "crushed" my coin into pieces...all infront of six people round a tiny table...

strange isn't it..i think people tend to "delete" the obvious in alot of respects...

I think we all get guilty at times of looking for the most complex routine...rather than simply stepping back and seeing what the spec sees. If you can perform handly without all the sleights, then all the power to you for doing it!

Magic is all about practise dont give in bc you think your no good i once thought this bc i couldnt do this one trick but then i mastered it and made it my own and know i think its more exiting to to try and get a a trick wrong so you can keep and keep doing and then when the time is right and you master its an even more joy.

"Its not the magic itself that does it - Its the person doing it"

So alls you have to do is believe in your self that you can do it and the magic will work for you - but thats just my person advice dont know if any other ppl think it let me know!!!

Yup. It's all about the effect and its presentation, never the cause - which is hidden anyway.

MrMagic06 wrote:Magic is all about practise dont give in bc you think your no good i once thought this bc i couldnt do this one trick but then i mastered it and made it my own and know i think its more exiting to to try and get a a trick wrong so you can keep and keep doing and then when the time is right and you master its an even more joy.

"Its not the magic itself that does it - Its the person doing it"

So alls you have to do is believe in your self that you can do it and the magic will work for you - but thats just my person advice dont know if any other ppl think it let me know!!!

Thanks all for your input.

MrMagic - my point is that the more I practice, the less I need to hide stuff. I'm not suggestion less misdirection, but less of it is physical.

Yes being 'blatant' is certainly great fun! Something I sometimes like to do, is when doing ambitious card I have them select a card face up. They are so used to the idea of the magician telling them what their card is that they forget that it was never hidden in the first place. So they take it face up then i look away just as they remove it form the deck. Easiest 'peek' in the world!

I'm finding that the more confidant that I get, the more I'm able to get away with things. Recently I had a technically terrible performance, not helped by a very anoying heckler. I flashed pretty badly on an invisible palm and a colour change. But I just ignored the flashes and carried on with the tricks. Not one person noticed not even Mr I Know Every Trick There Is Heckler. Don't try too hard to cover things up, that's when people start to suspect things, act natural and look people in the eyes when talking and it's amazing what you can get away with.

I also find that Sleight of Hand is a bit over rated, but I do think that it is a fantastic art when you perform it it as a routine (such as Lance Burton). I have almost abolished the need for complex sleights in my rounds and I feel that the performances as a whole are much cleaner and smoother. Yet I feel that there are three slieghts that are key for an aspiring practioner in - Classic Force, Classic Pass, and Classic Change. If you master these three techniques you can do anthing in the world of Card Magic.

for me, skill drives my urge to continue, the urge to become better at something by practicing. thats why i've always been leaning toward XCM then slight of hand. but i do both anyways

I too am rather clumsy in my sleight of hand. When working with cards I tend to go for self-workers but give them a big "psychic" build up. My Do As I Do is a legendary demonstration of a psychic link being established between me and my spec.

It's been said many times before, but the real magic is in the mind of the spec and the delivery you give your routine.

Zero000 wrote:for me, skill drives my urge to continue, the urge to become better at something by practicing. thats why i've always been leaning toward XCM then slight of hand. but i do both anyways

What pushes me onwards is not to improve my slieght of hand, but the desire to improve my presentations, my story-telling, my cold reading, and my people skills. The cards are almost incidental to the magic that's going on in the heads of the specs.

Hope that makes some kind of sense?!

I have to agree about sleight of hand being unneccesary at some point.

During one card routine, trying a very Derren Brown-esque move, I just asked a man if he had a pen in his inside pocket as I reached in with his card. It wasn't palmed or concealed, just put straight in there. Later on when I made it "disappear" he was genuinely amazed to find it in his pocket!

Has anyone watched banachek's PSI Series DVDs?

The first time I watched them, I was amazed by the effects, but doubly amazed during the explanations - purely because of the blatant way in which he performs. Of particular interest is his metal bending disc - done right under people's noses!

It really brought home to me the fact that you can be too secretive. Sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight.

And also, though I fully empathise with anyone who thinks they're no good with sleight of hand, it's something that I'm personallt very keen to improve on. Think about it - with a decent knowledge of coin and card sleights, you'll never be caught without a magic trick again!

Cheers,

Pete