What Does a Good Double Lift Look Like – How to do Card Magic Tricks

Zoby writes:

What makes a good double lift, and how do I perform it?

That's a good question which has an annoying answer. The reason it's annoying is because the answer is different for each person.

Everyone develops their own style of technique, so each move performed should blend into your existing styleof card magic. If you tend to handle playing cards in a way that looks like you don't have any card skills (See the card magic of Lennart Green as an example of this), it will look very odd to suddenly perform a complex flourish as you turn a playing card over. Each move you perform should be invisible. Making every action look natural, and in keeping with all your previous actions with the playing cards, helps achieve this overall impression.

What to do:

Pick up a deck of cards and turn a single playing card over. Don't think about how you will turn the card over, just do it.

A good double lift should look EXACTLY like that.

Anything you add to the action, weakens your technique. Film yourself performing the simple action of turning over a playing card. You want to record your natural method, before you start playing with that action. Refer back to it as you learn the double lift. The closer you can get the sleight to resemble your natural action, the better your double lift will become.

How to learn the double lift:

If you are looking for expert tuition on a double lift, including a range of magic tricks that use the move as their core technique, these sources may be ideal for you:

Double Take By Gregory Wilson

Advanced Card Control Series

It's important that you choose a source of instruction that gives you some card magic tricks that use the double lift. Once you drill the technique in isolation, you need to be able to rehearse the move within the context of a full magic trick or routine, This will help you to develop the timing and flow of the move.

Inexplicable by Steve Shufton – Questions and Answers

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT

INEXPLICABLE BY STEVE SHUFTON

We are getting a lot of questions being sent in from magicians that are excited about the release of the no sleight of hand card trick: ‘Inexplicable‘. Here are some of the most common questions asked. If you have a question that hasn’t been mentioned, just ask it in the comments section below, and we will try to answer it for you, either in the comments section or we will build it into this blog post as we update it.

Is removing sleight of hand from professional card magic a form of ‘dumbing down’?

We don’t think so. Technical ability with playing cards has very little to do with being a good magician. In the same way that being able to read sheet music doesn’t make you a fabulous musician. Reducing the need for sleight of hand brings this magic trick into the reach of magicians who may be amazing entertainers, but have no time or inclination to focus on mechanics.

Are you trying to pitch a magic trick for professionals to hobbyists instead?

Steve Shufton has a truly good take on this. He teaches that often the most experienced magicians ARE the hobbyists!

Professional magicians do a few tricks very well, over and over again. It’s not uncommon for a working magician to use the same magic tricks over his or her entire career. In contrast, an amateur magician has a limited audience. Hobbyists perform for their family and friends, so have a constant drive to learn new material. Over time, it’s likely that they will know much more technique than a professional magician who focuses on his core acts. Some of the most famous magicians in the world were amateurs: (Steve gives examples of Dr. Daley, Ramsey to name a few).

Inexplicable doesn’t need sleight of hand and is suitable for complete beginners, but that’s not to say it’s automatic. Every magic trick needs practice. Good magic is about the presentation and the style of the performer. Like many magic tricks, you could open the trick, read the instructions and start performing it right away, but that would be selling yourself and the magic trick short.

If you love magic like we do, here at The Merchant of Magic, take the time to rehearse and master Inexplicable, even though it is simple to do.

Can the deck of cards be used in other tricks before performing ‘Inexplicable’.

Wow, that last question was a long one, so lets keep this one short and sweet: Yes you can! No need for deck switches etc.

If it’s so good, why is it so cheap?

Steve makes these himself and has handpicked the magic shops in each country that he feels would be best to supply Inexplicable. Because this card magic trick is extremely close to Steve’s heart, it’s important that magicians that use it get only the best support and customer service. As a by-product of this, there are super low distribution costs getting ‘Inexplicable’ to you. No middle men taking a cut and shipping is low as only a few dealers are ordering in VERY large quantities.

Steve Shufton has given a huge amount of time and skill into a relatively low price card trick. In a sense, he hasn’t built the time it took to invent the trick, the hours of performing and tweaking the trick, or the magic secret. Steve often talks about the old days of magic. He remembers only Magic SECRETS changing hands for hundreds of pounds. If he had taken our advice, we would have sold this to few magicians and charged a LOT more for it, but that’s his call to make, and your gain.

Miracle Premonition Vs. Inexplicable.

Miracle Premonition is another magic trick created by Steve Shufton. The concept of the ‘open prediction is the same’ but Miracle Premonition is much more expensive. The price reflects the huge quantity of work and time to manufacture the props. Although are quite a few differences in the performance conditions, presentations, methods, it isn’t wise to do them together. Inexplicable has a much more direct and uncomplicated plot, which suits many more close- up, street, or walk-around magicians. Both Miracle Premonition and Inexplicable will create a similar effect for the audience, but the difference in price makes, Inexplicable a clear winner in our opinion.

Is ‘Inexplicable’ mass produced or made directly by Steve Shufton?

Steve makes his items himself. He wouldn’t have it any other way as it allows the quality of each item to be carefully controlled. With Inexplicable, you are getting something that Steve Shufton has personally followed through the stages of creation. It’s one of the reasons that his magic tricks have such a great reputation with professional magicians.

Can ‘Inexplicable’ be repeated?

Yep. You can do it several times at each gig or venue you attend. As with every magic trick, it’s not wise to repeat a magic trick to the same group twice: ‘Once a trick, twice a lesson’.

Inexplicable By Steve Shufton – Most Annoying Card Tricks – Reviews

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

Inexplicable by Steve Shufton - UK Reviews - Ratings

Inexplicable by Steve Shufton is arriving to the UK on the 1st July and this is one of those ‘no sleight of hand’ card tricks that cause quite a stir prior to release. We wanted to give you our opinion of the trick.

Why card tricks like inexlpicable are so annoying to magicians:

Here’s why:

A spectator is given a SINGLE playing card inside an UNGIMMICKED envelope, to hold.
The spectator deals playing cards FACE UP from a regular normal deck of cards.
He or she can stop WHENEVER they want.
The prediction MATCHES!

Seriously, don’t even try to figure out how card tricks like this can be done. When Steve Shufton came to us about Inexplicable, the team had some ideas. This is what we DO know about the card tricks conditions:

There’s No Sleight of Hand
Only One Single Envelope in Play
Just One Prediction Playing Card is Used.
You Don’t Switch the Playing Cards.
You Just Use a Normal Deck of Playing Cards.
It is Instantly Reset for Walk-Around Magicians.

Let’s face it, part of the fun of magic is trying to work out how new card tricks could possibly be done. When you are confronted with card tricks that are DESIGNED to mess with that, it can cause a lot of stress 🙂

What The Merchant of Magic Team Think:
Many of the professional magicians at the magic shop got really excited when they learned all about Inexplicable by Steve Shufton. ‘Open prediction’ card tricks have been worked on for many years, but they all have an Achilles Heel in one form or another.

We all have experienced the horrors of ’21 cards’ card tricks, a long procedure, that uses a combination of extreme boredom, missed with confusion, to squeeze a drop of amazement from it’s victim spectator.

The real magic secret great card tricks for close up magicians, is simplicity. Cutting out all the dead wood, the odd process which fools nobody that it’s just a cover for something sneaky. Finding card tricks that strip that away, to produce the ‘effect’ as directly as possible is gold to a working magician.

Inexplicable by Steve Shufton messes with magicians minds. It’s premise is so simple, it almost screams at you:

‘Come on, you M%$£*& $%$&*. Call yourself a magician…? Admit it, you have no F%^&*$£ idea!

Seriously, the more you try to reverse engineer it, the more likely it is to give you a headache. Steve Shufton actually builds card tricks this way. If you perform for family and friends, you need magic that can withstand full on ‘interrogation’ by your friends. The best part of all is how easy and simple the card tricks secret really is.

Learn much more about Inexplicable by Steve Shufton HERE

(But remember.. We did warn you! )