Sarah writes: ‘Could Merchant of Magic give me some advice on how to palm playing cards and improve my top palm.’

‘I do have quite small hands, and I’m using a poker deck, but I don’t think small hands are the problem. I’m reluctant to use a bridge deck as all the decks I use are poker sized…

With the right misdirection, I can get away with my top palm, but not consistently. I’ve tried the method outlined in the Royal Road to card magic, and Dai Vernon’s method, but I still feel that it looks obvious that I’m palming a card and more often than not, I don’t get it into quite the right position and end up with edges showing! I feel I must be doing something wrong!

I understand that misdirection can make all the difference, but can you recommend any resources or suggest any ways that I can improve the technique itself? Thanks very much!’ – Sarah

How to palm playing cards without mistakes

Hi Sarah,

Of course, we can help, there is a tonne of different places to study palming playing cards, I will list a few great DVDs at the bottom of this page.

Firstly, let’s see if there is any advice that may be useful to you…

With regards to the top palm, it’s a bit like a pass, at first it is impossible to do, then it becomes something you can carry out under misdirection, then it becomes something that is invisible. I am glad that you have taken the time to lay a playing card on your hand to see if it is physically big enough to hide a playing card, not many people do this and swear it is the size of their hands and they cannot hide the card. However, usually it just needs an alteration to the position of the cards, or how they hold them that solves the issue, not stretching your hands!

The real secret of how to palm playing cards

First of all, practice as much as you can. When it comes to a sleight that can be helped by misdirection, it usually means that it can be harder to execute and potentially risky (which the top palm certainly is!). It is important to get the muscle memory down so that your hands can do the move without your brain thinking. Unfortunately, this only comes with time and repetition. The key is to be able to perform the move without thinking and whilst being able to do other things, it should become an automatic process like turning on an indicator whilst driving, or moving the mouse for your computer.

How I palm playing cards using the top palm

I don’t have an outstanding palm, but I do know when to misdirect, or I can easily orchestrate the misdirection needed. This is how I get into the moment where I can create some misdirection. Firstly, I top palm with two hands. I can one handed top palm but it is only 75% and I have never drilled it to 100% so I do not do it on gigs usually. I perform this top palm by getting ready into position, so that I am ready to palm. When I am ready with my hands in position I simply ask if they would be impressed if I had predicted what their card would be. The moment their eyes come up to me, I perform the top palm. It happens the moment their eyes move up to me, not once they have locked on me. You can wait until their eyes have ‘arrived’, but you run the risk of being too late and letting them catch up with you and spot the palm. As mentioned, my palming technique is not the best technique in the world as the thumb is a tell tale sign so I use misdirection rather than when being burned, but it is practical.

Spectators that don’t look away

Here is how to deal with an awkward spectator who just won’t look away. If anyone is burning my hands too much, I will tell them to watch harder! This is purely beneficial to me, not them. As they watch closely they will be focused intensely on your hands, I simply wait and make them wait for something… And I do nothing! I then break their concentration swiftly by saying sharply, ‘of course, I won’t do anything if you are looking!’ This is a joke, but it serves a purpose, the first sentence tells them to pull focus (on beat), the more a spectator focuses, the more they relax when their concentration is broken (off beat), this is a very basic explanation of the on beat and off beat. The stronger the On Beat, the stronger the Off Beat.

How to palm playing cards and make it look invisible

If you wish it to be invisible, then I am afraid, this will only happen over time as your fingers and muscles finesse the move. My advice for practicing would be to practice very slowly at first, analyze each move individually and try to see where the pressure in your hands causes an effect to the playing cards. If you can understand why sleights work, it is much better than simply understanding how they work. Again the goal is to have these sleights become an automatic process, which can only happen if it is drilled again and again and again.

Here are a couple of great sources to learn palming:

Practical Card Palming
Sleight of Hand Secrets With Cards
Encyclopedia of Card Sleights Volume 6 by Daryl – Download Now

Here is also a free eBook all about Misdirection Techniques should you wish to learn more about this area of magic.

Running out of Magic Tricks

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

By Dominic Reyes

Running out of magic tricks? What should you do if you burn through your material at a gig?

Okay, this is something that happens to every magician. It doesn't matter how carefully you build your magic act, construct your sets, or time the length of your magic tricks, sometimes you find you are running out of magic tricks and need to come up with something new FAST.

This can happen several reasons:

The event only has a few guests.
You're feeling very energetic and moved through your material too fast.
It's a repeat booking, and the guests have seen you perform before.
The layout of the tables means that all the guests are sat together.
The room is very small; so you are performing to the whole group.
You have been booked for an extended period of time.

When this happens, you need an action plan. Spending a few moments thinking about what you going to do in that situation will save you a lot of headache on the night.

Multi purpose magic tricks

There are many magic props that can be used for several different tricks. Here's 5 magic tricks that have a huge range of uses when you are running out of magic tricks:

DO THIS: Go over the props you already use and see if there are alternative tricks you can practice as backup.

If you use these items in your core act, take a moment to research alternative presentations you can do with those props. They may not be your staple material, but if you are running out of magic tricks to perform, you can go back to the items later and recycle them.

False Shuffles and Cuts

A deck of playing cards is a wonderful thing. There are more magic tricks you can do with your playing cards than you could learn in several lifetimes. Go back to the beginning and strip everything down to it's basics. A simple card location trick, a card force, or a colour change can be perfect for those moments when you are running out of magic tricks to perform. Learn how to do false cuts and shuffles. These simple techniques will allow you to demonstrate that you can locate any card in a deck. Quick to learn, and great material you can use as impromptu magic when you need more material.

Teaching people magic tricks

Every magician has been asked if they can teach a simple magic trick. Most magicians prefer not to do this, but it can work well if you choose something that is entertaining whilst not exposing the secrets of magic. Magicians never reveal their secrets and I don't suggest you should teach them professional magic tricks. There are lots of public domain simple puzzles that are fine to teach. Simple proposition tricks and bets work well. Choose tricks that naturally teach the method to the spectator as part of the presentation. A trick with matchsticks, where the matches are placed in a square and need to be moved to a new position with just a few moves is a typical example. It's more of a puzzle than a magic trick, but your presentation can make it appear to be something special. Never expose REAL magic secrets. Present a puzzle as a magic trick and you should be fine. The spectators don't need to know that you arn't really teaching them a magic secret, they just want something cool to show their friends and family.

Bar Bets

Many simple bar bets can be dressed up as magicial effects. You probably already know 5 or 6 bar bets you have picked up over the years. Take a moment to create a list of them and work out a way to give them a touch of magic.

DO THIS: Make a cheat sheet of 5 bar bets and keep it in your close up case or wallet.

If you get a mental block when you find you are running out of magic tricks to perform, you can take a quick look at the cheat sheet and all will be well with the world.

Give a short talk about magic

How many times have you been asked this question, 'How did you become a magician?' It's on the tip of every spectators tongue. Create a short, entertaining story about the history of magic in your country, and how you discovered your magical powers. Talk about good magic on TV for spectators what would like to see more. Pepper the story with a couple of short magic effects. You can present this to the whole group if you are performing to a small crowd, or you can revisit responsive groups that would be interested. Clients love after dinner speakers, so offering to present a short talk on magic, goes down very well at the right type of event. It can kill quite a few minutes and really sets you apart from ofther close up magicians.

Build in more magic

Even a simple bar bet or puzzle can become magic. The perception of the trick is in the presentation that you fame the trick within. It's likely that one or two of your core effects have techniques within them that could be performed in isolation as their own trick. If you perform The Ambitious Card, could you take a single phase and present it as a stand alone effect with alternative props? Maybe your business cards could be used instead of playing cards? Perhaps the playing card levitation you showed everyone, could be repeated with an object from the spectators table?

Look Ma! No Playing Cards!

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

By Ben Williams

What would you do if you forgot your playing cards?

So, the worst thing imaginable happens. You turn up to your gig and you open your case only to find the two crisp sealed decks of playing cards you thought were in there are nowhere to be found! You search your car for a spare deck, no luck, you are literally about to perform and you have not got your cards with you. What do you do, apart from crying!

The first thing to do is RELAX!

Take a deep breath and realise that everything will be ok, you know a huge range of magic if you just stop yourself from panicking and think about it. There are tonnes of great impromptu magic tricks that you can perform.

Get a piece of paper and a pen and start to list ideas. Here are a few options that immediately come to my mind:

IMPROMPTU MAGIC

Salt shaker or glass through table.
Coin magic such as coin under watch, coin on shoulder, vanishes and reproductions.
Coin in Pen Cap utilising the striking vanish.
Mentalism with your magicians business cards – Think centre tear or peek.
Out to lunch principle
Metal bending with cutlery

See, already with only a few moments thought you should be able to go through our own personal history of learning magic and pull out a few gems that you had forgotten about. These are all great effects that you could perform in place of your card magic set. Your list may be different from mine, but every professional gigging will have a huge list of magic tricks like this that are never performed, but are sitting there in your head waiting to be dusted off and given a try again.

There is also another option that is available to you. You can look around you and see how you can adapt some of your routines to be performed with the items around you. How about doing some of your card magic routines with items that are available to you?

TAILORED MAGIC

Perform any number of signed card tricks with your business cards.
Make a packet trick up with magicians business cards or compliment slips from the venue.
Use a spectator’s business card to your wallet routine where their business card ends up in your wallet.

You may also find that you have a plethora of magic in your case that you never use. Look for utility props like Thumb Tips, Loops, PK Rings, Peek Devices or Rubber Bands. If you have any of these props in your case then you are good to do so much cool magic with only a little bit of thought. With these few props you can make water and salt vanish and reappear, make money and small objects vanish and reappear, perform countless rubber band tricks, levitate banknotes, move common items like glasses or cutlery, read minds, stop watches and perform coin in glass or bottle

So if you ever find yourself in this position do not panic! Remember no guts no glory, you could go up to the booker and make excuses, drive off somewhere to buy a deck of cards and come back and have probably the worst gig ever, or you could keep calm, draw on your wealth of knowledge and experience and calmly put together a set list that will blow people away!

What the MoM Facebook magicians think:

Sean Mccarthy Depends on how much time I have before the show starts. If I have a few minutes Il try buy a few packs at a petrol station (most sell them). If I dont have time then I can still do a show with coins, a pen and a few pieces of paper.

Carl Chamberlain Use my invisible deck and convince them it really is there!

Col Balddaniels Daiper I have at least 2 sets without a single card in them . And guess what ? Nobody died.

Zak Millscray I don't go anywhere with out a deck! I would be more surprised than the audience!

Brian McCormack I would do coins / mentalism and hypnosis.

Kev Bee I'd be thinking if it was the right career for me…especially if card magic was a part of my routines…I always have cards on me or in the car.

Chris Wild Ask someone for a pack or go home. Can't imagine I would forget to pack my act, but you never know.

Tom Drudge Unfortunately, not yet comfortable enough to do a gig without cards. A few tricks, sure, but not a whole gig.