talkmagic.co.uk

A technique I came up with while playing with the swing cut. It's probably been done before, if so I'd like to know what it's called.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAH0RHth_2c

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. My palming isn't great, and in the vid I'm trying to reach a compromise between teaching the method and showing how it looks. So I'm not showing a polished performance here, just something for you to think about.

In the video I make it sound a bit like I learned this from Born to Perform - I didn't, I learned the swing cut from that and then came up with this all by my little self

You needn't use it as a control, you could just use it to palm the card.

Things I like: The get-ready and palming is naturally covered by the swing cut.

Things I don't like: replacing the palmed card back on top is unnatural. You've just dropped the packet on top, why does your hand then need to move over the deck again?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Good little move, I could see myself trying something like that.

I agree with the hand coming over the pack again, it doesn't look natural. But if you squared the cards in the action, that would look natural.

Well done

user24 wrote:Things I don't like: replacing the palmed card back on top is unnatural. You've just dropped the packet on top, why does your hand then need to move over the deck again?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Maybe you could leave a pause for a couple of seconds before replacing the card, maybe to gesture with the deck towards somebody or something, and then return it so the action is a little removed from the swing cut. In the context of a routine along with some appropriately distracting patter, there's no reason for your audience to pay much attention to your hand going back to the pack again especially if you used the movement to do something else such as switch the pack from your left to your right hand.

So a basic side steal get ready?

Duplicity: Yes, that's exactly right. I wasn't familiar with the side steal (beginner!) but yes that's exactly it Using the swing cut to get-ready for a side steal. Thanks!

AJ Irving: Yeah I think passing the deck to the other hand is a good cover. If you have a reason to show the bottom card of the deck then it's a very natural thing to do.

Ace of Kev: Yep squaring the deck would work as a good cover too.

There's a reason why the side steal is normally performed by stealing the card from the underside of the top packet, rather than the top card of the under packet (so to speak)

When done the classic way, there is nothing to see, whatsoever. Your hand is covering any and all dirty work.
When done your way, there's this whacking great inconsistency in handling where you are visibly pushing a card into your hand as it comes across. You are just hoping that nobody is looking.