Sleight of hand card tricks

Struggling with an effect? Any tips (without giving too much away!) you'd like to share?

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Postby ace of kev » Jul 25th, '11, 13:39



Buy the Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue, and Born to Perform DVD by Oz Pearlman. Born To Perform is not needed if you put the time and effort into RRTCM though.

Devil's Picturebook is advanced card stuff. It will be a waste of money for you until you have some basic card knowlege.

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Postby kartoffelngeist » Jul 25th, '11, 14:53

ace of kev wrote:Buy the Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue, and Born to Perform DVD by Oz Pearlman. Born To Perform is not needed if you put the time and effort into RRTCM though.

Devil's Picturebook is advanced card stuff. It will be a waste of money for you until you have some basic card knowlege.


Word. Royal Road is the way forward. If you've got the spare cash, Paul Wilson's DVD set of the same name is pretty good.

If you want something flashier and modern looking, try Jay Sankey's Sleight of Hand with Cards, it covers the basics by teaching tricks, rather than the sleights on their own. I'd spend a few quid for RRTCM too, you can pick it up for next to nothing at the right time.

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Postby bmat » Jul 25th, '11, 17:44

judging from your video, and that is all I have to judge on I have to disagree with everyone here when they tell you to pick up and read Royal Road To Card Magic. And I will tell you why, (because that is just the type of person I am)

It is my experience, (and I've a lot) that most people of your experience level, (and your experience shows in your 'performance' pick up a book or dvd like Royal Road and flip through the discriptions and pick the effects that look 'cool' or much worse go straight to the different flourishes of sleights. And you really don't learn much about magic as a performing art. If you do pick up Royal Road, then first start at the introduction, then flip through the book.

However based soley on that video I would check out Mark Wilsons Course In Magic. Or anything by Bill Tarr, because I find that learning about presentation is inherent in the effects they show and the way the describe the presentation of effects.

Believe it or not I think your presentation of that flourish/sleight was not great. Good enough for people to go 'that was really cool' but one can clearly see that something is going on even if one doesn't know exactly what it is, which misses the point of entertaining with magic.

What I do see is great potential, learn the craft as well as the method and I think you will do extrememly well in the field.

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Postby hds02115 » Jul 25th, '11, 19:16

I'm not even sure is you're still viewing this as there's not been much in the way of responses from you, but, just a question. When did you start taking an interest in magic, and why?

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Postby willogrady » Jul 25th, '11, 19:46

hds02115 wrote:I'm not even sure is you're still viewing this as there's not been much in the way of responses from you, but, just a question. When did you start taking an interest in magic, and why?

K I'm back. I have been out all day which is why I wasn't replying. I have always like magic but mainly card magic and up close magic. I'm not really a massive fan of big magic shows performed on stage such as the ones in Las Vegas where quite a lot of the time the trick is to do with the prop such as a box. I can't really remember which magicians I first started liking but Michael Vincent is what really got me into card magic.

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Postby hds02115 » Jul 25th, '11, 19:55

So when did you start practicing magic, and where did you first see Michael Vincent perform?

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Postby willogrady » Jul 25th, '11, 20:12

hds02115 wrote:So when did you start practicing magic, and where did you first see Michael Vincent perform?

I first started about 6 months ago but had a lot of exams so didn't have much time for it but now I'm on holiday I have a lot more time for it now. I first saw him on the first series of a show called Penn and Teller Fool us and then I watched a lot of his stuff online.

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Postby hds02115 » Jul 25th, '11, 20:18

Right, I had thought as much. Well, good luck. If you aspire to be as smoothly skilled as him, you have a lot of work cut out. Although his card magic is largly classic, he performes it perfectly. You will need to practice very hard. I will stick by what I said before though, please, don't go learning a new slight and then instantly videoing it for youtube, it really isn't a good image to send out about yourself.

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Postby willogrady » Jul 25th, '11, 20:24

hds02115 wrote:Right, I had thought as much. Well, good luck. If you aspire to be as smoothly skilled as him, you have a lot of work cut out. Although his card magic is largly classic, he performes it perfectly. You will need to practice very hard. I will stick by what I said before though, please, don't go learning a new slight and then instantly videoing it for youtube, it really isn't a good image to send out about yourself.

Lol ok but everyone seems to have missed the part where I said I am uploading routines in the future and not single sleights. This was a one off and it won't happen again please if anyone else is going to comment on this post then don't talk about how I uploaded a single sleight.

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Postby Arkesus » Jul 25th, '11, 22:56

Then by all means may I point out to you that whilst you consider yourself "advanced" in card magic, you really need to understand that you are by a very long way, not even close to being considered advanced. You are 6 months in, you will still be considered a beginner for the next two and a half years or so. It is a very long road ahead of you.
Sleight of hand is not something that will just "appear" overnight. It takes an incredible amount of dedication, practice and on the performing side of things, rehearsal as well.

When performing sleigh ot hand, or magic in general, what you are actually doing is creating a small piece of theater. Useing numerous tools, (not just the hands) to take an audience out of their everyday situation, into a situation that they aren't normally put into, in an entertaining way.

If all you do is "look at the cool thing I can do with a deck of cards" nobody is going to find that entertaining, in fact quite the opposite.

Time Magazines Person Of The Year 2006.
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Postby jim ferguson » Jul 26th, '11, 00:37

Hi again Will. Nice to see you have been inspired by Michael Vincent, you have exellent taste :) He is also one of my favourite performers.
    As Arkesus pointed out learning to do sleight of hand deceptively will take a while. Dont let that put you off though.
    Michaels effects are all classics and can be found in many old books. Start off with Royal Road to Card Magic and Mark Wilsons. This is where most of us started and it will give you a good grounding. Be sure to study properly though. A bonus for you is that you will find a couple of effects that Michael uses in these (or a version at least).
You may find the Classic Magic of Michael Vincent DVDs to your liking. While the effects are not really for the beginner there is a section which is, where he teaches some sleights and his practice drill for them. The effects on the discs are something you can keep going back to as your ability improves. It will also let you see the kind of level you will need to be at to perform these effects, its not as easy as Michael makes it look.
    jim


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    Postby Magical_Trevor » Jul 26th, '11, 01:07

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Road-Card ... 544&sr=8-1

    This is the place you wanna be heading - to be honest, I do agree with most of these threads, HOWEVER, I've seen people go from not even be able to hold a deck of cards to what I'd class as a pro in less than 6 months - if you are willing to put in as much effort as is humanly possible, read the book (in detail) and regiment yourself to get the moves NAILED then the real skill will come in your performance and your patter when dealing with the public. My pov is that THAT is where the real skill is - I know a lot of people who can out "technically" do me with a deck of cards, but cannot perform for buggery - take the book, go through, show sets of new tricks to friends and family as you go and you'll be well on your way to being the type of magician that YOU want to be.

    The worry is that everyone may sound like they are against you ... trust me, I've been there, I thought I could do it all and that what I was doing was the best it could be, but the book (above) will strip you right back and you'll be so glad of its work; the same can be said for this forum, you're looking at 100's of years worth of experience and expertise, all thrown into a library of knowledge where people are literally throwing information at you - its great :D

    Cant wait to see some of your future routines, even if they are some of the starting chapter tricks, with your own little twists and patter added :D

    Dan

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    Postby willogrady » Jul 26th, '11, 13:51

    jim ferguson wrote:Hi again Will. Nice to see you have been inspired by Michael Vincent, you have exellent taste :) He is also one of my favourite performers.
      As Arkesus pointed out learning to do sleight of hand deceptively will take a while. Dont let that put you off though.
      Michaels effects are all classics and can be found in many old books. Start off with Royal Road to Card Magic and Mark Wilsons. This is where most of us started and it will give you a good grounding. Be sure to study properly though. A bonus for you is that you will find a couple of effects that Michael uses in these (or a version at least).
    You may find the Classic Magic of Michael Vincent DVDs to your liking. While the effects are not really for the beginner there is a section which is, where he teaches some sleights and his practice drill for them. The effects on the discs are something you can keep going back to as your ability improves. It will also let you see the kind of level you will need to be at to perform these effects, its not as easy as Michael makes it look.
      jim

      The royal road to card magic is one I will be definitely getting as everyone has said how amazing it is. I haven't studied a magic book before but have seen magic dvd's. How do the books work because I imagine it would be difficult to understand what the book is saying to do. Is it like this or is it really detailed and informative? Yeah Michael Vincent is definitely a favourite of mine. I love his classic style and even his classic look a lot of the time because I see he wears suits and tuxedos a lot in his performances. Also he is really friendly and it's hard not to like him.

      Last edited by willogrady on Jul 26th, '11, 13:57, edited 1 time in total.
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      Postby willogrady » Jul 26th, '11, 13:54

      Magical_Trevor wrote:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Road-Card-Magic/dp/0572029187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311638544&sr=8-1

      This is the place you wanna be heading - to be honest, I do agree with most of these threads, HOWEVER, I've seen people go from not even be able to hold a deck of cards to what I'd class as a pro in less than 6 months - if you are willing to put in as much effort as is humanly possible, read the book (in detail) and regiment yourself to get the moves NAILED then the real skill will come in your performance and your patter when dealing with the public. My pov is that THAT is where the real skill is - I know a lot of people who can out "technically" do me with a deck of cards, but cannot perform for buggery - take the book, go through, show sets of new tricks to friends and family as you go and you'll be well on your way to being the type of magician that YOU want to be.
      The worry is that everyone may sound like they are against you ... trust me, I've been there, I thought I could do it all and that what I was doing was the best it could be, but the book (above) will strip you right back and you'll be so glad of its work; the same can be said for this forum, you're looking at 100's of years worth of experience and expertise, all thrown into a library of knowledge where people are literally throwing information at you - its great :D

      Cant wait to see some of your future routines, even if they are some of the starting chapter tricks, with your own little twists and patter added :D

      Dan

      Ok I'll be sure to read the book in detail as this book sounds like an essential. Everyone has mentioned it and it sounds like it is a classic book that everyone reads before they launch into magic.

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      Postby jim ferguson » Jul 26th, '11, 15:28

      I found the book easy to learn from (i was only 8 or 9 when i started learning from it), but thats just me. Others, mostly the younger guys, seem to prefer DVDs. The Royal Road is now also available in DVD format, taught by Paul Wilson (you may know him from The Real Hustle). If you would rather use the DVD id still recommend the book aswell, as from what i understand the DVDs dont cover everything in the book.
        I dont know if this is a generation thing or something, but i absolutely love studying from books, it is how ive always learned - i do have a couple of DVDs but its mainly books. You'll also find most books will offer great value for money.
      jim

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