Just in case you missed Ivan's point. It is worth repeating.
"it is ALL about presentation, it is ALL about presentation"
Taking an acting class it is far more important than the number of sleights you can perform.
..............Jesse

If you want to talk about small hands.. let's talk about Max Malini. He has some really small hands. When he palmed a card it was as if he was holding the cards a long way in his hand. But he still accomplished it due to great misdirection. So use misdirection to your advantage and try it out on your friends to see what works and what doesn't.

I have small hands too, and in the beginning II also thought that I couldn´t make some sleight (i.e. one-hand palming). But face your fears and practice a lot, you will master almost any technique if you want to, meanwhile MISDIRECTION.
Don´t feel bad if someone make a sleight in a few minutes and you can´t. it's not your hands. It is your mind and maybe in a few hours (months or even years) you will be able to do it too.

Build your skill level by learning easy sleights, after your confortable and confident with your ability move on to something else...and learn sleight that your going to use in a real setting or what ever the case is...hope I helped
Best wishes...

Jess

I think using a lot of gaffs can get some good reactions but, to me, there is something different about performing effects that are clean and require some sleights, regardless of the difficulty. I like the feeling of knowing I worked for something and that not anyone can just pick it up and perform it...that it takes more practice than the average person is willing to put in.

I think too many up and coming magicians forget that magic was performed on the street long before the David Blaine Specials. He did a lot of great card tricks. Some of them involved tough sleights while others did not.

Don't believe that unless you do some fancy finger flinging you can't be a credible performer. That is just distorted thinking.

If you like sleight-of-hand with cards, keep working at it. Small hands or not you will discover things you can do that will be rewarding to learn and astounding to see.

Meanwhile, do the best magic you can do. Getting a crowd is only half the job. Keeping them is the other and that is done through a solid and entertaining performance.

In the end, the crowd won't care if your like the street magic they saw on T.V. - most of them won't have seen it anyway. They will be interested in a great performance.

May the tips come heavy.

But you know what? mostly when you screwed a trick, one of your only outs usually is basic sleight-of-hand, ex: you had a screwy spectator who insisted on shuffling the deck,(hey you can palm off the chosen card)or many things!

You can improvise more if you know a wide arsenal of sleight-of-hand! So if you are not willing to put your time and comfort into practicing and rehearsing your material, maybe you should try stamp collecting!

Place your magic above comfort and rewards!

I would have to go with using self-working card tricks .

Try holding a deck in your hand every time you have your hands empty , and you have time to do it .

Im a barber and there are days were we sit all day long. I just bust out the cards and
mess with them in my down time

Ammar stated in one of his books, I believe The magic of Michael Ammar, "...a couple of controls, a good top and bottom palm, a sure fire double lift." Not exactly quoted but after I read that I started concentrating on my most powerful sleights with cards. And stopped trying to learn every single sleight out there. Just my .02 cents.

I agree, the only thing you need to know is a good dl, and only one dl that you do well, a top palm, at least 3 ways to contol a card to the top, just in case of suspicion, and I'd throw in a top change too. I think with these simple sleights you can do miracles.

My problem lately is a problem with nervousness. I don't perform professionally neither do I consider myself a well rounded magician. But I do have a lot of knowledge.

I find tricks that require some semi difficult sleights are hard to pull off especially when you become shaky or nervous.

How do I break this fear of performing for a group of people? It has always been a problem for me.

My hands are small and for the longest time I avoided cards.I would even tell people that I didn't do card tricks because my hands were too small.

I learned rope and coin sleight-of-hand. One day I decided to conquer my fear of card sleight-of-hand and I bought The Royal Road to Card Magic. I practiced daily and didn't worry about even showing card tricks to anybody for the longest time.

It took several months but by sticking with it I learned how to easily force a card several ways. I can also do a one-handed cut which I never thought I would be able to do. Palming too even though I have to watch the angles since a corner tends to poke out.

First of all thanks to all the people that posted, your advice was greatly appreciated.

To MagicMaker, I suggest that after you have practiced your effects in private, until you have them perfected, you show them to family and friends. I find that the better I am at something the less nervous I get about doing it and I feel more relaxed performing for family and friends as they are not too harsh in their criticisms.

I am a professional. I get scared! Here's what I do.

Find those people that you feel comfortable with and work for them. I find young ladies, and I impress them. Why? I am a young guy who, well, likes to show off.

But this isn't fool proof. I get really nervous still, often shake. I just calm down look the spectator in the face, and run away (JUST KIDDING), take a deep breath, and remember I am in control. I am the performer, the professional, and I am in charge.

Then I try to interact with the audience, this elevates them to guests and friends, not just audience members.

It doesn't matter if you cant do too many sleights.
Try mentalism or certain street magic or mathematical close-up.
Whatever you do as long as you do it well it will get a good reaction. Trust me, I'm into just about every type of magic. Just be sure to get the tricks down good. And you should also try a bridge deck if your hands are small.