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Here's another annoying complaint from my amateur self that I'd like to ask advice on. I've totally set my mind on learning card tricks but my hands are small. I can manage with a standard playing card size but I've just bought my first deck of Bicycles and I find them simply too large. I've been practising and practising but many sleights are simply unfeasible. I'm looking for tips from anyone. Are there any cards which have the quality of Bicycles but are of the smaller variety?

I gave up on playing the piano when I was younger because of my hands and I'm not going to do it with magic. I don't even want to compromise. I have discovered a couple of different techniques to perform the same sleight but I'm still frustrated. Any advice?

I've got small hands and found a similar thing to you when I first starfted out. But the more I practiced the better I was able to pull of the sleights.

What sleights are you having trouble with? I can't hold a card completely hidden in the palm, there's always an edge sticking out. but I make sure that the edge sticks out of the little finger side of my hand and if I tilt the hand downwards slightly towards the spec, the card is hidden. I've never been spotted with it.

Good advice from lommy there. I also have small hands with boney fingers that leave large holes between them.

A lot of it's down to confidence and getting used to how you handle the audience and when you do the necessary.

vaguely small hands myself..we should start a club...

anyway, its all in the confidence old bean, you're aware of what you're doing, so therefore you're looking at it differently, physically and mentally..

mirror, practice, patter, practice, be natural, practice...

i cant top palm properly, but dont get caught at all...a natural positioning of hands, misdirection...voila...or viola...thats a good form of misdirection...play the viola half way through an effect..

next time you're out, watch how people place their hands, take note of how you place your hands normally on a table or sitting...go from there...

Every time this issue is brought up, I refer to Jay Sankey. Jay has ridiculously tiny hands.

Also, see the Dan & Dave stuff... their hands aren't so big.

ANGLES are what's important. For instance, I cannot conceivably cover a CD in classic palm, but I can certainly hide one from audience view.

Size isn't everything... this is definately where your resourcefulness and skill comes in... learning to adapt to your own physique. Just because you see someone perform a sleight with ease doesn't mean you'll be able to do the same.

Practice in front of a mirror... look for weaknesses, and adapt.

I also have odd hands, with lots of windows.
They are normally wide but quite stubby. It's a nightmare getting gloves.

I also had the same problem as you, Tempest.
I found that just by practising I naturally found ways around most of the sleights. Over time it became less and less of a problem. I would even go so far to say that it has benefitted me. I mean, imagine a cardsharp with colosssal, Lurch-like shovel-hands? You would never trust anything he dealt, he could be hiding six or seven decks in there.

Little dinky hands arouse less suspicion I think.

Now I know that's not going to counter any of your frustration, but it's something to bear in mind. It does get easier, there have been no sleights that my hand size has prevented me from doing.

In the meantime however, try learning a few sleights at once: One which is unaffected by hand size and one which is. This way you'll have a new and ready working sleight to use in tricks and another sleight to keep practising in your idle moments. I've found that this helps with a bit of the frustration.

On the subject of using smaller cards, this has been discussed at length on the forum before. Here's just one example:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic18622.php&highlight=


So I'm not going to rant on. But in a word, no.


Mark

I also have small hands(do i see a pattern emerging here)hand basicly with palming and stuff its all about confidence, patter and misdirection.
I cant palm all of the card ,one edge sticks out but i was only caught once
and i palm usually a lot in tricks

practice the patter,create some misdirection and just act naturally...

Andy Nyman talks about this on his DVD his hand are child size... go look..

Despite the current popularity of poker and poker sized cards being slightly more popular amongst the general public on average when someone gives you a deck of cards in their home and asks you to show them a card trick it will be a bridge sized deck they'll be giving you. The bridge sized deck will instantly be recognised by the laymen and they wont be thinking, hold on, that decks a bit small, whats going on here.
I have no problem with using a bridge deck and find it somewhat perverse that so many magicians insist on making things harder for themselves by using a larger deck.
Personally I practice with a poker deck and depending on what I'm doing will at times use a bridge deck for performance to make my life a little easier. I saw elsewhere that someone recomended practicing with bridge cards and working with poker cards, this makes no sense at all and will cause you endless problems. In practice you should make your life as difficult as possible, deal with every difficulty that may arise so you're prepared for anything in performance.
The only problem with becoming too comfortable with bridge decks is that nearly all gaffed cards are poker sized
The answer to this and everything in magic, is do and use what ever you are most comfortable with.
I should mention that I too am a card carrying member of the small hand club (like a pre teen child) but at least they make another part of my body look big.
Oh, and I do remember reading that Dai Vernon would at times practice with Poker cards and perform with Bridge cards and I believe he knew a thing or two about card tricks

If your having trouble try Bridge sized decks instead of Poker sized. You can buy them in the Bicycle brand. Try www.cards4magic.co.uk

Lots of good advice there, not much more for me to add (yes, I have small hands, too). To reiterate - watch your angles (practice in front of a mirror), adapt sleights if necessary and consider experimenting with alternative sleights if, as an example, you're finding it difficult to palm a card effectively. My hands are very dry as well as small so I don't often palm cards; I just use alternative sleights to accomplish the same effect and coupled with a bit of audience management and misdirection, I have achieved my objective (successfully, most of the time!)

For me, magic is a hobby and I am nowhere near as adept or dextrous as some of the guys and gals on this forum, who earn money performing. Just practice loads and be prepared to adapt sleights to suit you or, if necessary, find other methods of achieving the same result. It's all part of the fun!

A lot of people who have trouble with normal cards, like to work up to poker-sized cards. Like it's been said before, start out by using bridge-sized bicycles, you'll find it's much easier to perform sleights. Then once you're comfortable with the bridge cards, move up to poker-sized cards. It will be a small effort to make the change, but I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run.

P.S. I have big hands, but they are mostly palm with smaller fingers.

watch this, and all your problems ahll be solved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THyZ-ynSzDA

Piatnik have a good range of gaffs in bridge size ("Magic Christian" brand).

Barry

Yep.
Very small hands here and can't hide a card fully in the palm.

At first most things seem impossible. But they just need adapting to suit.
Angles are more important for small hands. Don't mind if you can't palm with exactly the same technique as is taught. If you're hiding the card, then so what?

Bridge size cards aren't going to help much either. They're still the same length and they're harder to control because of the lack of width.