talkmagic.co.uk

Once again guys I ask for you hallowed help. The bane of my fanning has been my pressure fan. I've followed instructions from almost everywhere i could think of, but to no avail. My normal thumb fan looks passable along with my spring which is not too shabby. The picture below is my thumb fan (abeit a rather old picture of it).

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9167/dsc00336sd8.jpg

The problem with my pressure fan is that it doesn't seem to want to go all the way around to form that nice almost full circle look. Instead I'm left with this ugly thing and a thorn in my magic that has stuck with me for the last year or so (or however long I've been doing this!).

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3724/pict0437qr7.jpg

From the looks of it, it seems my thumb as a pivot is in the wrong place/is moving somehow...eugh.

Any help greatly appreciated![/img]

It took me about 3 weeks to get the pressure fan down and even now I'm not great at it, my advice to you is to play around with various pivot points as everyones hands are different, is there a certain place your learning the pressure fan from or are you just watching what other people do?

I've been trying to learn from Mark Wilsons and anything I can find in RRTCM. However I still couldn't get the hang of it. My friend has Xtreme beginnerz (why Z's replacing S's is cool I do not know) and I watched an extensive part on fanning, including pressure fanning, from there.

Well i think your on the right lines i would ask if you could borrow this dvd maybe and just sit down and practice, the pressure fan takes ages to learn for some people and others it just comes naturally, just keep at it.

took me ages to get it down!

about 4 years, i think?

i tried it, failed, left a few months, tried it, failed, left a few months, tried it, failed, left a few months...

then eventually tried it, and it worked!

Getting over that awkward part of the circle used to drive me nuts too. You are bringing back memories of 45 years ago when I first tried to learn it. Don't give up. I must have gotten over the hump somehow since I have been pressure fanning for about 45 years without even thinking about it.

The two best sources for card fanning in my youth were two books one of which has recently been reprinted. "Expert manipulation of playing cards" which was the very first book that Lewis Ganson ever wrote. This is the one that has been reprinted recently with the welcome addition of another book incorporated into the text by C. Goodlette Dodson called Exhibition Card Fans.

Another great book which has disappeared from sight was by an old time member of the London Society of Magicians called Edward Love. I forget the bloody name of it. It had all sorts of wonderful photographs and descriptions of flourishes and fans. However I was quite disappointed when I met Mr Love (who must be extremely dead by now) and asked him to show me some of the wonderful one hand cuts in his book. He couldn't do them and produced in me only youthful disillusionment. Of course he was a lawyer rather than a professional magician and we all know you can't trust lawyers.

I well remember in my youth as a starving entertainer having to get a temporary job in the Law Courts washing dishes. To my horror Edward Love walked by and I hid behind a pillar so he wouldn't see me.

I have just remembered the title of the book. It was called "Card Fantasies" God knows where you will get it.

I think I learned the pressure fan from another book which has gone well out of print and I haven't seen it for around 50 years or so. It was called "magic made easy" by an unknown author. I remember that it would tell you how much practice each trick was going to take at the beginning of each description.

First of all, get out a really worn deck. This'll make it far easier at first.

Right then. It looks like your pivot point is wrong. It looks as if it's too close to the left, too close to the heel of your thumb. This is a tendency with the pressure fan: this grip allows for the strongest grip but compromises on range.

To show you what I mean, try this little experiment:
Take two cards and hold them in your normal, pre-fan position. I'm assuming from your pictures that you are fannng in your left hand. If not, just reverse the 'lefts' and 'rights':

Firstly, place you thumb in the leftmost position, so that the pivot point is tucked up against the heel of your thumb.
Try and rotate the top card around 180 degrees so that it is pointing the opposite direction. Notice how much range of movement you get between the two cards.
I get about 100 degrees before the card jams agains my hand. Certainly less than the 180 degrees minimum that you really need.

Now then. Start this again with the two cards, but move the thumb to rightmost edge, so that your pivot point is as far away from the heel of your thumb as possible. Rotate the top card downwards.

You should be able to get more range of movement. I get about 200 degrees.
Can you see how the range of the fan is limited by the pivot point?

The problem with this second pivot point is that it is too far away from the heel of the thumb, and this tends to make the grip weaker. For a good pressure fan, you need a strong grip.

Your ideal pivot point should therefore be somewhere between the two. A compromise, really. I have mine almost bang in the middle. There is a test for the pivot point being bang in the middle: When you rotate the top of the two cards 180 degrees, they should be bang in line - not jogged to the left or right.

If you play with your pivot point, you will find a good compromise. I would start by moving it outwards in little increments.

Don't be afraid to use a fair amount pressure! That is of course why you need a strong grip. Like I say, try using a really tired and worn deck... They'll be easier to bend backwards.

Oh aye, your thumb fan looks spot on. It shouldn't take too long to get your pressure fan right.

Hope this helps!
Mark.

Wonderful information guys, very helpful indeed! Mr Lewis shame to hear about your early disillusionment, however the story was rather nice . I haven't met many magicians in my (short) time so tis rather nice to hear stories about the olden ones, do keep them comming!
Mark, thanks for the brilliant advice, very clear and informative. I think my major flaw is my poor grip with my left hand, making the cards and the pivot point "slip", so thats something I ought to work at-although the process is knackering my hand!