Hello to the community here at TalkMagic!
I am what could be described as an amateur magician, looking for suggestions of where and how to hone my skills and learn new and interesting tricks.
I currently perform small-scale, simplistic tricks in bar situations; and am continually amazed at how relatively 'easy' tricks can have such a significant impact upon a crowd.
The mould that I seem to have settled with involves a combination of misdirection, confusion and sleight of hand.
An example of the tricks I use are described below:
Cross-cut:
Riffle Shuffle the cards. This usually draws their attention away while you can easily take note of the bottom card. Place the riffled cards on the table, and ask the volunteer to cut the pack into two piles, roughly equal and side by side. Following this, place the bottom half horizontally on top of the top, vertical cards.
This forms the shape of a cross. Usually I try to make the participant focus upon the cut itself, telling them it is called the 'cross cut'. I then show them the card underneath the horizontally placed pack, which they believe is the card they have just 'cut' when it is really simply the bottom card.
Once they know the card, I usually give the deck to the participant, let them shuffle to feel like they have control. The flair of finally revealing their card depends on the situation, for example I sometimes like to stretch it out a bit to draw less attention to the 'cut' itself.
'Stop':
Another riffle shuffle, taking note of the bottom card. I begin drawing cards off the pack face down, telling them to tell me to stop whenever they like. When they say 'stop', bottomdeal the card straight to them. Get them to slip it back into the deck, flair ensues.
Three card Monte:
Simple game, an ace, deux and three. Reveal each, tell them to follow the ace. Slight of hand switch at the beginning so they are following the wrong card from the beginning.
Now, thats my introduction over. I know I probably should have used the other forum this, but I would like to link it in with my original question. Any suggestions on where to go from here? I have an avid interest in improving my selection as my 'range' of tricks are primarily cards. I guess adding in some mentalist and coin displays would help?
Its just that as the simplistic tricks that I can do at the moment seem to work a charm; I look forward to the impact that even more advanced 'tricks' would create!
Thank you very much for reading my post
PS Apologies for my poor explanation of the cross-cut, it is a really simple concept but difficult to explain verbally!
