I am considering trying my hand at card manipulations. My goal is to be able to preform some effect/routine that is not exceedingly flashy, but magical enough to warrant a double-take. At this point all I am working on is producing multiple cards from a back palm, so I am very much a beginner at this kind of magic, and (of course) have a few questions.

1)I would like to achieve ambidexterity, should I master one sleight/production/etc... with my dominant hand and then practice in my off-hand, or should I practice both at the same time?

2)What books (no DVDs please) do you all recommend?

3)What cards do you all recommend and where can I get them? At the moment I am practicing with regular bicycles.
3a)Bridge size vs poker size? I think I have slightly larger than normal hands. I have been told that I should play the piano because my fingers are long and slender. To be more specific, the distance between the tip of my pinky and thumb when they are fully extended away from each other is about 8.5 inches and the distance from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger is about 7.5 inches

4)How much scripting is required? For example I can go out with a deck of cards and a spool of invisible thread(Fearson's thread bullet to be specific); if I end up preforming I can occupy about 30 minutes with card magic and then end with a haunted deck. If the IT breaks I have numerous ways of not looking like a fool. Apply this to manipulations: can I go out with a manipulation deck (or two) perhaps one just in my pocket and another clipped to the inside of my shirt, and preform on the spot?

5)Can I preform regular card magic with a manipulation deck?

6)How well do sleights in card manipulations translate to other manipulations (billiard balls, silks, etc..) and card magic?

Thank you for reading my wall of text,
-E

1. Preferably with the dominant hand. Because some card production eg. Cardini Single requires more strength.

2. I will leave someone else to answer this

3. From you dealers? It really depends on what you feel comfortable with and what sleights you are executing.

4. You can surely compose an act with cards solely, but it isn't a bad idea to introduce other objects. Steals aren't necessary but it is effective when applied correctly.

5. Not recommended. You get all sorts of dents and buckles on the deck with manipulation, which isn't feasible for close up card magic.

6. They can up to a certain extent. Try not to mix up stage and close up though. Choose the right moves depends on the conditions.

Eriyg

Welcome to the Magic Café. I hope you experience on this forum will give you the tools to be a great magician. There are some great folks on the Magic Café that can guide you on your journey with sleight of hand magic. I will try to answer your questions in the order listed.

The way I started card manipulations was learning the sleight with my dominate hand which is my right. When I was confortable with my right hand, I switch to my left having already went through the trail and error with the hand I was most comfortable with. To this day I still am working with my left hand to get it as good as the right.

Books;

Now You See It, Now You Don't, Bill Tarr. Great book for a beginner.
The Tarbell Course in Magic, Vol. 1 -9 Harlan Tarbell. More magic than you will ever imagine.
Routined Manipulations, Vol. 1 and 2, Lewis Ganson.
Magic Without Apparatus Camille Gaultier

Cards. Since you have large hands, you can probably go with poker size cards but I would try different types of cards including manipulation cards. Everyone's hands are different; what may work well for me may not work so well for you. I use Bee Brand Red Back Cards made by US Playing Card. I also use Norm Nielson's Manipulation cards. I use the Bees when I am doing things like split fans because I am pretty hard on the cards and the Bees hold up well. I use the Nielson cards for single card productions. Cost is also a factor. Bees are around $3 - $4 per deck and Nielson cards are around $7.50 per deck. You can spend a lot of money on manipulation decks but I do recommend you buy as many different types of deck and see what you like. You will need to break in the Bees and powder both the Bees and the Nielson decks. Some manipulation decks do not need breaking in or powdering so you can use them right out of the pack.

I do recommend you script your act including your card manipulation routines. If you want to do card manipulation routines in a close up or walk around situation angles will be a problem with some of the techniques. Doing card manipulations in a close up or semi surrounded situation is not impossible but you do have to watch your angles. I just don't take the chance so I do my card manipulation routine in a stage or theatre situation.

You can do regular card magic with a manipulation. However you will beat up a manipulation because of use.

Learning card sleights for manipulation will help you translate to other types of manipulations such as balls, thimbles, cds, etc.

You did say you were not interested in DVDs. There are some great DVDs out there on card manipulation; Jeff McBride and Jeff Sheridan just to name a couple. The Asian manipulators are excellent and bringing some new wrinkles to card manipulation.

Hope that helps,

David Williams

The book I recommend is Routined Manipulation by Lewis Ganson. Ed Marlo published a small booklet on card productions.

No you cannot use manipulation cards or fanning cards with regular close-up card tricks, because the usually have a one way image on the backs of the cards, thus they will say you only turned their card around to locate it.

When I visited the Magic Castle once, I met a man who did some manipulation while sitting at the bar. I was sitting right next to him.

If you want to learn from printed material, then sign up for the Chavez School of Magic. They do in person lessons and a mail order course.

That is what is so cool about manipulation magic. You can have a deck of cards, some thimbles, Coins, Billiard Balls, and put on a complete act for several minutes. It can be expanded to Wands, CDs, and oriental hand fans as well.

You can do a search in this section on learning material, this has been asked several time over the years.

ERYIG: Where do you live? If near Las Vegas contact Jeff McBride for lessons. or fly there.

And see if there is a magic club near you
There are two main clubs;
International Brotherhood of magicians http://www.magician.org/portal/en/ibm_localrings
Society of American Magicians http://magicsam.com/s-a-m-contacts/regional-v-pres/

Eriyg, I recommend Expert manipulation of playing cards by Lewis Ganson, Routined manipulation 1,2 and 3 by Lewis Ganson. The moves beginner needs to learn before starting more advanced stuff are: Cardini single production with both hands, Perfect production with both hands, backpalms with both hands and couple of cad vanishes (Backpalm, tenkai, frontpalm) and few handwashes (Showing your hand empty). I hope this helped.

RJH

Some of the best manipulation sleights are sometimes published in books that are not aimed exclusively at card manipulators. For instance, in Ganson's book _Dai Vernon's More Inner Secrets of Card Magic_, which has a lot of close-up magic like "Twisting the Aces," you'll also find Allen Shaw's Card Production and Cardini's Card Production. The latter sleight is worth mastering if you want to produce single cards in both hands simultaneously.

I have never been particularly impressed with backpalm productions from both hands. It's better, I think, to use the backpalm production for one hand and something like the Cardini Production mentioned above in the other hand, which is what Johnny Hart does in this videoclip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzXUBA3dWZ4
at around :50 seconds into the clip.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez