Card Magic: My Story

Changing Faces

Learning Card Magic has most definitely changed me as a person. Before I started learning, I could never walk up to somebody and just strike up a conversation, but now I could. For the first 6 months, I had a normal pack of cards and learnt basic shuffles, riffles and flourishes. I wasn't really doing anything too special with the cards, it just looked kinda cool. Soon after this though, I decided to start learning some basic tricks. It was my families job to be the ones who had to endure all the tricks, and all my subsequent failures at them.

It took me a good few months to learn a small set of tricks that I could do pretty well to anybody, at any time and still amaze people. It was about this time that I started looking for people to perform the tricks on who I didn't know. This is the turning point. Because it was here that I had to simply walk up to people, deck of cards in hand and ask politely, "Would you like to see a card trick?"

Rethinking my Position

The first few times I performed my tricks to who were essentially strangers were probably the most important performances for me. I found that I had to quickly come up with a proper routine, and to not just know a subset of card tricks that I could perform. It was after about 10 performances that I begun to take it all pretty seriously, and invested in some sleek cards.

I bought 5 decks. 3 were normal everyday decks, 52 cards, 13 per suit, 4 suits, 2 jokers. The other two were gaff decks. Please consult Google accordingly. It was these gaff decks which made me realise, I had to step up my game.

Of course before I learnt any new tricks I had to absolutely nail the ones I already knew fairly well, whilst also creating a routine or two that I could easily flow into. I probably spent about a week mulling over the tricks I could do, thinking of the best way to put them into a routine.

The Routine

Finding a routine was a headache for me. I could have easily thrown together a couple of sleights, passes and tilts; but it would have looked shoddy and boring. I was creating my own version of the ambitious card routine. The ACR is where a spectator chooses a card, the card goes into the deck and continually rises to the top. This is where the problem arises.

The Problem

The ACR can look great when done properly, but can also look pretty shitty. I had to find the balance between the boring repetitive, card in deck, card on top, card in deck, card on top, card in deck, card on top and the amazing card in deck, card on top, card in deck face up, card on top face down, card in deck, card in pocket. The routine should simply be putting the card into the deck, and showing that it is on top of the deck with no apparent movement or sleight. I just had to use different methods of putting it in the deck, face up/face down/bent and different ways of getting it to the top – no, I am not telling you how to do it ;)

The Solution

What I needed to do was start off small, have it pop up to the top; this plants the seed. Then work my way up to either pulling it out of my pocket or visually plucking it out of the air. I decided to do none of these finales.

Instead, I decided the best way for me to end this trick was to bend the card so there is a fairly large crease in the middle of it. Then place it into the deck and simply make it pop off the top of the deck. I had seen this done on a few Youtube videos and had to learn it for myself.

The Pub

I took my routine to my local pub, and quickly gained the nickname Magic Boy.

There were mixed reactions. I found that a group of women were more likely to enjoy the trick; and a group of men were more likely to go against the trick. I think this is a feeling of power, men generally feel powerless against another man with a skill that they don't know about. Of course some of the guys I have shown the routine to loved it, a few even bought me drinks.

The best audience I had though, was a mix of both men and women. There were about 20 of them, all gathered around me waiting for some amazing show. What I gave them was my routine, which they enjoyed. But they were after something more.

Surprises are more fun when nobody knows what's coming next

I had a secret weapon.

I am purposefully being very vague in this section. I pulled out a separate, white deck of cards. All set up and ready to knock these people's socks off.

I pulled the pips of a 4 of diamonds into the corner of the card one by one, then flipped them back in the blink of an eye.

I had two spectators pick a card each, and place them back into the deck. They picked then 10 and 3 of diamonds. I shuffled the cards and riffled down to a spot where I thought their cards were. I showed them the two cards. One was blank. Another was a 13 of diamonds. Their cards had seemingly fused onto one card. The 10 and 3 were underneath each of their respective glasses. :)

I took the four kings. I turned each over one by one, without actually doing anything. I turned them back over and they had become the 4 aces.

After each trick, I let the spectators inspect the cards, to ensure they were legitimate. In fact, they spent longer inspecting the cards than I spent doing the tricks.

Needless to say, I didn't buy myself any drinks that night.

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