talkmagic.co.uk

I know theres a similar thread on this but that one doesnt focus on the question I am going to ask. How important of being able to do the same trick in both hands in magic? Say will you actually practice the same trick over but using a different hand? I am left-handed but I could write with my right hand as well and I do some racket sports (and bowling!) with my right hand too. But it certainly takes some times to learn a new trick using right hand. What I have been thinking is that perhaps it's worth it to use right hand to do magic tricks since so many videos and books assumed that you are right handed! (excpet Rene Lavand probably!)

It's important at all in my opinion.

How many times have you seen at the end of a performance a magician say "and now for the same trick in my other hand"? The only exception I would say to being able to use both hands proficiently is when working with coins so that you can palm and false transfer using both hands but this is about it, and is also dependant on the routine.

All magic tricks can be reversed to use the other hand if you study them.

I would agree with dat8962 in that I don't think it's important at all. Being a leftie, I sometimes find it tricky to reverse instructions in books (it can be more difficult than it may seem when the instruction is detailed), but I get by just fine. The only instance I can think of where it might be of benefit to have equal proficiency with both hands, is card flourishes. I guess some flourishes would just look nicer when done with both hands. I am like you in that I have slight ambidexterity; I have a right-handed golf swing and I use scissors with my right hand. I can also write - to an extent - right-handed. But it has never occurred to me to learn to perform card tricks right-handed as I think it's unnecessary.

Interesting discussion I feel like its good to be proficient to a certain degree with both hands. Coins and cards are good obejects to be proficient with. More so some sleights such as being able to do the loads for cups and balls with both hands, the monte toss there are lots of things in magic that I believe can beneift from your ability to do them proficiently with both hands. Though I'm right hand dominanat most of my card work starts from the left hand which as others stated can make it a bit difficult to translate some card effect instructions.

its good to be able to do a coin roll with both hands. It looks a lot prettier to have your fingers curled the whole time by having your right hand roll it than it continues onto the left hand so its a continuous motion.

I have been practicing a lot of coin magic lately and have found myself switching hands so that both of my hands can do the trick. I think this helps a lot because it does not limit you to one side, and it gives your more options in sleights.

I think that what people generally forget is that we usually have TWO hands and that most of our hand co-ordination happens naturally based on our sight.

How many people hold their knife and fork in the same hand? How many people generally shuffle a deck of cards using only one hand?

What you need to remember is that the being left or right handed is only a bias towards one - not a disability. I write with my left hand, throw with my right arm, prefer to flouish from left to right instead of right to left but at the end of the day, none of this effects my presentation of a magic trick. You simply learn to adapt to suit yourself.

You waste time learning to do everything twice when there is not a need and this was the question posed in the original post.

dat8962 wrote:How many people generally shuffle a deck of cards using only one hand?

I do

Good Point

two hit c-c-commbbbooo! ^^

I'm very right handed, and have been doing magic for awhile, and i've decided that I should learn all the basic sleights with both hands, but not a whole trick, would a spectator care if you handed the deck to your other hand?...
thats my two cents

ya i know most of the time you need to use two hands doing a magic trick. but this is different from being ambidextrous because say for example, you perform a hiddu shuffle. You always use one hand to hold the deck the other do the shuffling. This never changes. Just like you always write with one hand, not the other. What I wonder is that whether it is worth it to learn and be able to do the same trick in both hands?

mathsgeek wrote:What I wonder is that whether it is worth it to learn and be able to do the same trick in both hands?

Almost comparable in redundancy to "Should I learn to drive in a left-hand drive car as well as a right-hand drive car, so I know how to do both..."

Except for losing your dominant hand in a freak accident, I can't think of a single reason that you'd need to change your bias for magic.

Ambidexterity could prove fun for coin rolls, etc. but frankly, you can easily train your 'lazy' hand to do anything you want—even handwriting. If you WANT TO.

The hard part about doing a trick on either side of your body is that you need to put in about 1.75 times the effort in learning the trick. And besides, I don't think anyone will ask you to do the same trick again but this time with the other hand. I mean, we never repeat a trick twice, do we?

I think it depends what you're talking about learning. Anything you do with two hands (like shuffling as a very simple example) is always going to be done with two hands, so there is little point learning the mirror image of every trick.

However, in my opinion certain sleights that are done in one hand are worth learning with both (say, for example, if there was some magical way of concealing a card in the palm of your hand...) This means that should you find yourself in a situation where, whilst performing magic to an enthralled audience member, someone approaches to watch mid-trick, only to stand at the worst possible angle for whatever sleight is needed to complete the effect. If you are able to simply execute the move with the other hand, giving complete cover, then you are in no danger of ruining the magic of the moment.