Should we work to simplify magic tricks?

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs

be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count

half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.” – Henry David Thoreau

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

This is a quote that fits the magic world perfectly!

Sometimes routines can be too over complicated and have far too much going on for a spectator to fully and truly appreciate what they are seeing.

Dai Vernon once famously said, “A great magic trick should be able to be explained in one or two sentences.” Which also ties in nicely with these thoughts on performance.

Here are my five top tips to simplify magic tricks, and streamlining them to make them not only more enjoyable and magical, but also more memorable for your spectators.

Try to explain what your effect is in one sentence

If this is impossible then you should remove some phases from your routine. This doesn’t mean your routines have to be short, they can be long routines, they just need clarity. Let me explain further.

For example, if you have a signed card that turned face up in the deck and then was found in your pocket, the back colour of the card changed and then it was found to be inside a block of ice; that is a LOT going on that cannot be explained in one sentence. In this example, it would be better to simply have the signed card vanish and reappear

Remove unnecessary patter

If you were to film yourself performing magic to an audience how much of your patter do you think that you could remove and still achieve the same effect? How many umms and errrrs are there? I think if you were honest with yourself then you would realise there is actually a lot of words that performers say that are not necessary at all.

Eliminate sentences like, ‘If I just take the cards out of the box..' ‘if I turn over the top card..’ or even sentences like ‘As you can see my hands are empty.' These sentences do not add anything to your performance and are easily understood by the spectator as they can clearly see what you are doing. Think about it, what is better, if something were to vanish and the magician stands there turning his hands up and down whilst saying, ‘and as you can see my hands are totally empty’ or if something were to vanish, watching the magician slows down and simply holds his hands out in the open slowly turning them back and forth without saying a word. The latter is by far the more theatrical and magical of the two presentations.

Go Slowly

Try to slow everything down, performing at speed is usually linked to insecurity and guilt in the magic world. If you feel like something you are about to do might be figured out or they may catch something then the tendency is to speed up your performance. This is very natural and you must fight it. You know how these effects work, but trust me, when your spectators are seeing magic for the first time they are miles away from the method. They have a billion confusing thoughts occupying their brain when you are performing. When you speed up you are actually doing more harm than good, you are telegraphing to the spectators that there is something dodgy going on. They will subconsciously pick up on this and will not necessarily know where to look and pay attention, but they do know when and this alone increases the odds of them catching you out. Do not let the guilt of deceiving people overcome you, stay calm and composed.

Another reason for speeding up is insecurity, you may feel like you should have got a great reaction for something and instead of getting ‘WOWs’ and ‘what the’s’ you may get a more deadpan reaction, this can make you feel like you have to go quickly into another phase or effect to get that big WOW you are looking for to let you know your magic is good! People react in many different ways, I cannot tell you how many times I have felt at a gig that someone has not reacted well and I have looked at how I performed only to be contacted by them the day after or a couple of days later wanting to book me because they were so impressed. Sometimes just pausing after an effect can give the spectator time to process what has happened and let their brain catch up so they can react. Try it out.

Focus your spectator on just the key points in your routine.

This will begin to happen naturally as you eliminate the filler in your performances. As you remove unnecessary patter and sleights, you are concentrating the magic down to make it more potent. The less they have to misdirect them and concentrate on the better the magic will be received. Another way to make spectators focus on the key points is to recap briefly before a reveal. Sometimes this is really not needed, but other times it can totally enhance the moment of magic and inflate the reaction you receive. For example, if you had a word selected from a book and you read their mind and said, ‘concentrate, ok, now the word I am getting is… Tree, is that right?’ You will get a strong reaction but if instead you said, ‘Please concentrate, ok, I think I have it. Now, just think about this for a moment, you freely chose any page in that book, all the pages are different and there are about 300 words to each page. There are 225 pages in the book so that is an average of 67,500 words in that book correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Of all these possibilities I am certain that the word you are thinking of is… Tree.’

Briefly recapping, you are elevating the impossible nature of the effect and making them focus on key points, the free selection of page and the fact that there are an enormous amount of words in the book. Even though they may have been instructed to look at the first word on the page and not ANY word, this sort of reprogramming can really help elevate the impossibility factor and prevent backtracking when a spectator tries to remember what happened.

Leave your spectators with a clear memory of the magic you performed.

There are many ways to do this, one way is to leave them with an impossible souvenir that they can keep and tell their friends about. This could also be a business card with a word reveal or drawing duplication you performed for them. Something they can take away and show when they tell the tale of the conjuror who captured their heart!

You don’t have to leave them with something though, you can create a moment with your spectators. If you watch Bill Malone he has a chant that he gets the spectators to do when he performs as part of the celebration and reaction, this can be very memorable. By framing your routines up near your face, for example, holding a signed card up near your face with a cheeky grin when you reveal it is actually their card. Small images like this can stick in people's minds and can increase the chances of them thinking of you next time they need a magician or are talking about a magician. Using techniques like this can help elevate areas of your routine without adding extra patter lines or actions that will cloud up the performance

So there you have it, these are my top 5 tips for simplifying your magic. Remember by doing this it not only helps you but it helps the spectators to appreciate your magic more and in turn your reactions and the general response to your magic will be more rewarding.

Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks – Free Instant Download

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks have a new DVD in the series. You can try it for free.

Great card magic tricks don't need to use sleight of hand. The Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks series has been one of the most popular magic DVD training series of all time, and now volume 3 has been released. We've been given permission to give you one of the magic tricks from the DVD free of charge.

'I'm a huge fan of the Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks series of DVD's. Many of the magicians that come to me for tuition have two common problems:

1) Lack of confidence in their sleight of hand ability

2) They have not worked on their performance style.

I use the self working card magic tricks in this series as course material to solve both these problems. Firstly I need to show the student that they don't need sleight of hand to become an entertaining card magician. Learning just a few very strong magic tricks that are self working can provide you with all the card magic tricks you need to entertain an audience for years. There's nothing wrong with learning sleight of hand, when you really want to perform a magic effect that HAS to use it. However, the mechanics are just the path to the final destination of any magic trick – THE EFFECT. If there is another path that gets you there, TAKE IT. Sleight of hand isn't always the best choice for magicians. Spending years developing sleight of hand techniques for no purpose can be a trap. It's a 'time vampire'. I recommend every magician learn a range of impressive self working card magic tricks, THEN work on building their sleight of hand IF AND WHEN they find a really valid reason to spend time on it's development.

I see so many magicians come to the Merchant of Magic with stunning technique, but no presentation skills. They spend years alone in their bedrooms practicing their shuffles, but spent little energy learning to communicate and entertain. When I work on showmanship or presentation with a magician, I insist that we use a self working card magic trick from the series. That way we can focus on presentation 100%. It's probably one of the most dramatic causes of improvement that I achieve from my magic tuition.' – Dominic Reyes

Want to learn more about Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks Vol 3? Here's the full details

How to Palm Playing Cards and Coins – Tips on Learning to Palm

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

By Dominic Reyes

Duncan writes:

‘One thing I am struggling with right now is palming playing cards. I know this is no doubt just down to practice, and I haven’t been able to devote much time to it at the moment, but any help/tips would be appreciated!’

Hi Duncan,

Good for you for wanting to develop some sleight of hand. It is possible to do a whole range of close-up magic tricks without having to learn any sleight of hand at all, but seriously, that’s no fun, and sooner or later you’re going to want to add some into the magic you perform. Your question shows me instantly the cause of the problem you’re facing. I’d like to give you some advice about how to fix this.

Before I do this, I should say that I’m not interested in describing the steps required to perform most palming sleights. There’s a huge range of different techniques, and countless books, and videos on the subject of palming playing cards. Just type in ‘how to palm a playing card’ into google or YouTube and you’ll get more tuition videos and step-by-step guides than you could ever need. However, these all tend to miss out a few important points about learning the techniques. They go through the moves of holding the playing cards, and how to position their fingers. But they all seem to miss out how to practice the technique correctly.

Your main problem.

You aren’t committed enough. You have to make a resolution to practice magic. Not just occasional practice when you feel like doing it. You need a consistent structured program of learning over a set period of time. It’s this resistance to practice that stops most people moving past performing only self working magic tricks.

‘Do or not do. There is no try.’ – Yoda

Learning a skill is about devoting your time and attention to improving your ability. There are no shortcuts. That being said, here are some tips which will help speed up the learning process:

I’m not sure from your question whether you are learning palming with playing cards or coins, so let’s look at both:

How to palm playing cards.

I recommend that you do a magic practice drill of 10 minutes each morning and 10 minutes each evening. You’ll need to do this in private to start with until your palm technique becomes subtle enough to perform around people.

Building a good close up magic mirror, and using it regularly in your practice sessions will help you identify any weak spots in the angles of your technique.

The key to mastering palming playing cards is to go unnaturally slow at first. You want to learn the process in a smooth and thoughtful manner. Forget about speed, and allow it to increase naturally by itself. Be aware of the positioning of your fingers. You need to eliminate any gaps and telltale signs that you’re holding a card. Over time, you’ll find that this becomes easier and smoother providing you learn at a slow and constant pace.

Small hands and the placement of the card.

As you go through the motions, stop and examine the placement of the playing card in your hand. Don’t worry if your hands feel too small. It’s very unlikely that the size of your hands will stop you being able to palm playing cards. Some of the most talented card magicians have very small hands. It’s all about placement. Work on getting the playing card ready on the top of the deck and take note of the exact position that allows the card to be easily palmed. Now concentrate on the position of the card in your hand. Working very slowly will allow you to examine whether you are placing the card in exactly the right position. If you go to quickly it will be hard for you to notice when you’re placing the card correctly, or if something needs to be adjusted.

Examine your hands.

Take a moment to relax in front of a mirror and notice how your hands look normally. The first thing you’ll notice is that your hands don’t tend to be extended completely flat. The natural resting position for your hands is with the fingers slightly bent. Now, lift up one arm whilst keeping your hand totally relaxed. Notice how your hand look. That’s the appearance your hand needs to imitate whilst palming a playing card. Don’t skip this exercise, it’s valuable to be able to notice what natural looks like.

Build the motion of palming into a larger gesture which looks normal.

A strange thing about palming is that you’re actually doing something whilst pretending not to be. Because of this, many magicians will hide the small motion of palming a playing card, behind a larger motion of moving their arms or body. This could be pivoting to either the left or right with your body as you make a comment, or address somebody not directly in front of you. Perhaps you could take the deck of cards with your other hand so that the hand that was holding the deck is free to make a gesture. As you practice you will find many larger motions that look natural to you, and the way you move. Think about how these movements can be used at the moment when a palm needs to take place.

Your eyes and body.

Your eyes are one of the most deceptive weapons you have as a magician. If you make eye contact with a spectator they will almost always return your gaze. People will look where you look. It’s very important that you’re not looking at the deck of cards at the moment that you palm a card. If you pay attention to that moment, your spectators will do the same.

Offbeat.

The best time to palm a playing card is on the offbeat. That’s the moment of relaxation between two events. Let’s say that you have had a card selected and returned to the deck. At that moment, all the spectator’s attention is focused on the deck of cards. You need to create an offbeat moment. You can do this by looking at the spectator for a second, and making a comment, asking a question, or making a light-hearted joke that requires some kind of reaction. At the moment of their reaction, you have misdirection that you need.

Practice card palming as much as possible, especially when it’s not required.

In the tuition that I run with magicians, one of the most requested techniques is the classic force. It’s a very simple method of allowing a spectator to apparently choose a playing card whilst influencing their selection. Just like palming a playing card, it requires timing to make it most effective. I often advise magicians to practice the technique when it doesn’t matter. Whenever a magician needs to have a card chosen, they can use that opportunity to try out the classic force. In just the same way, whenever you have the misdirection, you could try to palm a playing card, and then return it back to the deck. If it fails, it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t really part of the trick anyway. Over time, you’ll notice how easy it is to palm a playing card during the offbeat moments within a magic trick. This will give you a huge boost to your confidence in the technique.

Use your pocket.

One practice technique that gets good results is to use your pocket to palm playing card. After you have revealed a playing card at the end of a magic trick, you place it in your pocket. Once your hand is in your pocket, palm the playing card as you take your hand out. You could then reach into another pocket which might contain a card to wallet device, such as the 21 production wallet. This all happens in the offbeat as you’re making casual conversation with the spectators. Using a pocket to practice often allows magicians gain confidence in the appearance of their hand whilst holding a card, without having to worry about loading the card into their palm in full view. It also allows them to perform a card to wallet magic trick, without having to worry about palming the playing card off of a deck of cards in full view of the spectators.

How to palm coins.

The great things about coin magic is that the props that you use of available everywhere. In fact, you probably always carry a few in your pocket. I found that in the UK the best coins to practice palming tend to be the UK 50p and the UK 2p coins. Both these coins have good definition on their edges, which will make it easier to palm. Start carrying coins with you everywhere you go. Holding a coin at your fingertips and moving it in and out of palm continually. Practice this way for at least 10 minutes each morning and 10 minutes each evening. You can do this while you go about your normal business. Not only will this slowly build up muscle memory, it will also start to tone and condition your hand.

As you continue to practice, you will notice that you become less aware of the coin in your hand. It’ll become an automatic behavior. You’ll also start to notice that other people quickly become less aware of the fact that you’re playing with coins all the time.
I hope these quick tips will speed up your mastery of palming. There are lots of different ways to palm a playing card. Each magician should find a technique that they feel most comfortable with. The method you use isn’t that important. What makes a magician an expert at palming playing cards is the amount of care and attention they have put into their practice sessions. It’s about how much they really want to learn the technique and are prepared to swap their time and effort for the skill. Most people are not prepared to invest very much time in learning to master the move. They study the technique, but don’t put in the leg work to acquire skill in its performance.

If you really want to learn how to palm, start right away. Pick up a deck of playing cards. Commit to practicing the technique for 10 minutes right now. All you need to do is repeat that over and over again. Keep going in this way for 21 days, and I can guarantee you’ll be completely amazed by the results.

If you have any tips on practicing palming playing cards, or any questions you would like discussed, please leave a comment at the bottom of this page: