talkmagic.co.uk

Hello!

Fell upon this site yesterday, having searched for "magician palm exercises" in google. Site looks great.

I have been trying to become accomplished in some close up work, having become interesting in magic from buying my nephew some magic 2 years ago.

I also, saw some close up work a year ago and thought I must learn how to do that. The three tricks that bowlled me over were:

1 - pushing a cigarette into a shirt and vanishing it
2 - swapping your signed card with the an audience members card
3 - moving a card to the top of the deck the audience having placed it in the deck

Over the last 12 months I am pleased to say I have found how to do the first 2, still practicing them mind. The third I have still to discover. I saw a trick called the elevator card which it appears to be a version of it but I'm still looking. Anyone have any ideas?

Only tricks I can do well so far is a TT sillk vanish and a rope and ring trick. I had perfected the french drop but need to master the palm so I can make this into a routine.

So far I have sought inspiration from visiting Davenports and asking for them to recommend stuff.

But now I guess I can ask you guy's and gal's!

Can anyone recommend any good close up tricks I can practice? Any tips?

Keep practicing and have fun,

Cigarman

Cigarman wrote:3 - moving a card to the top of the deck the audience having placed it in the deck

If you're holding the deck, then there are a multitude of shuffling skills that can be used to get this result. Try the Royal Road to Card Magic, Amazon sell it here, or any basic card skills DVDs/videos... I'm sure others can recommend DVDs or Videos... I don't own any myself.

Anyway, welcome to the boards and we'll see you around!

Hi and welcome.

Yes this effect is often refered to as the ambitious card and as Zack say's there are many way's of achieving it. The very easiest way is with a Svengali deck but I suggest you get any decent card sleight book or DVD and it will be covered.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated, the deck was not shuffled.

Happy Toad I have the Royal Road to Card Magic which I am about half the way through, I'll keep reading.....the author advised not jumping ahead so I'll have to work faster....

You mention the Svengali deck I also saw mention on the boards of bicycle deck?? I am just using an ordinary bridge deck, should I change, can I be enlightened?

Cheers
Cigarman

You mention the Svengali deck I also saw mention on the boards of bicycle deck?? I am just using an ordinary bridge deck, should I change, can I be enlightened?

The Svengali Deck is just a special deck which can be produced using almost any brand and style of cards. Bridge and Poker are the two common card sizes - Bridge being just slightly narrower than Poker. Bicycle, also referred to as 'Bikes', is just the brand of the most commonly used cards in magic and possibly the largest range of special or gaffed cards and decks are made on Bicycle card Poker size stock so will bend in with normal cards from the same range.

You can get Bicycle cards in bridge size but not many special cards seem to be available in that format yet.

For a taster of what's available, check out any on-line magic store and see the style and designs on the cards they offer especially the special cards. You can also do a Google search for The US Playing Card Co who make Bikes plus a lot of other types of card. Cards4magic.co.uk have a very large choice of different brands and styles of cards and you could spend hours just checking out the many variations!

thank you Mandrake

Hello Cigarman and welcome.

The Svengali deck was infact my first deck and I remember being given it after my grandfather died and his house was cleared. That was some 30 years ago and it was printed on Waddington's stock (bridge size) for those who remember these cards. I suppose they were the Bikes of their time and I practised and practised until I knew how to handle them inside out. I always amazed my friends with them. Happy memories. I then lost them and found another but new set about 15 years ago on a market, surprisingly still Waddington's stock and after re-mastering them for the second time I was hooked on magic.

You should find a large number of posts on this deck alone, along with suggested routines and I can thoroughly recommend it as a deck to start off with, but DON'T stop using the normal deck of cards as learning tricks with an 'un-gimmicked' deck is where the real magic lies!

I still use the Svengali deck (Bicycle Poker size now) occasionally for performances and it's still a crowd pleaser. I suppose that you could call it a classic!