I'm having trouble, finding/locating a trick. Cannot locate on the Internet or the stores in my neighborhood. A couple of months ago, I was watching this TV Program of Amateur Magicians, and this one kid went up on stage, showed his palm, and out of nowhere cards came from behind his hand, he kept on pulling them out, can you help me find out the name of this trick? Thanks

It's not for sale! Card productions take many hours of practice to do well and if you really want to learn it you should look for books on card manipulation.

Paul.

You should check into the "Art Of Manipulation" videos by Jeff McBride, and Paul has a solid point, it will take MANY MANY hours of practice.

Dear Facts,

To quote from your post, "and out of nowhere cards came from behind his hand," That's not the idea. The basic sleight is called back palming and, if you do it correctly, the cards are supposed to appear to materialize out of thin air. The cards may be made to appear one at a time or in a series of fans.

There is a kind of a clip gimmick that can be used to hold cards behind your hand. If you get a chance to buy one, DON'T! The results will look exactly as you described.

Learn to do it without gimmicks and you will be well rewarded. The advice you've received from Paul and Magicman is good. Find a book or video and start practicing.

Good luck,

Sid

Yes, I agree Paul's advice is best.

Dolini

Yes I also agree that card manipulation is an art in itself and will take many many hours of hard work and determination. I also think that Jeff McBrides Art of Manipulation is a good start. It is well worth the time I promise you. And don't buy that funny clip, learn the manipulations without a gimmick. Gimmicks are good in their own respect, but you are not a true magician if you rely on gimmicks alone.


Hope my words have helped
Lance R. Wilson

What constitues a "true magician" is a matter of debate, but magiciandude has a good point. You may be a magician if you use gimmicks, but if that is all you have then you are a severly limited magician. By this I mean if someone comes up to you on the street and asks you to show them a trick and all your gimmicks are somewhere else you are sunk. It is great to sleight of hand with several small, common, objects so that you can perform any time, any place.

Facts,

I believe you are talking about the "expert card catcher sold at thetrickery. I own one of these and it's a waste of money. I mainly bought it to examine the gimmick. It is a cheap sheet metal painted flesh tone. Which is good if your skin is the same color as a childs doll. The edges are sharp and the entire unit must be bent and tweaked to make it work and there are no instructions on how to do this. I carefully placed it in the pile with the other under five dollar gimmicks that I buy just to see how they work.

Save your money and the skin on the back of your fingers and hand. (It's really sharp)

Learn the sleight. It took me all of 2 days to get it down. (2 weeks before it looked good) You will be happy you did.

I was going to buy one of the card-catchers because I have small hands, so exactly how bad are they??

Don't buy one, they restrict a performance, small hands shouldn't be a problem if the technique is good and if you're still worried use the money you save on the gimmick open a pack of manipulation cards, this should make it easier for your "small hands"

Magicboy1234567, hand size should not matter. There are people of small stature (Midgets) that can and do perform card manipulations.

If the Book is still available get a copy of "Routined Manipulations Finale" By Lewis Ganson. It has a complete section on fan productions, back/front palms even the use of gloves. There is also a section on the preparation of the cards themselves.

It will take work and some time but it is well worth the effort. Give it a go. I know you will like the results.

As for using a gimmick to assist with the manipulation. I have used a few and they can be just as hard to use as learning to do without the aid. Then you can really show your hands empty.


MagicRMA

Are y'all saying that it's possible to back palm an entire deck?

Hi Facts,

As stated by others in response to your question, proper performance of the back-palm is your ultimate goal.

A basic and well illustrated explanation can be found at many regular book stores in Bill Tarr's "Now you see it, now you don't!". This is a great book to have in your library.

It may also help to get a deck of cards that are made specifically for card manipulation.
These cards are thinner,smaller, and easier to bend than regular Bike's, so you can palm and produce more cards. Norm Nielsen produces excellent decks, and can be found at many shops, or from Norm's web-site.

You'll be picking up lots of cards from the floor, but practice is the only way to learn...

Good luck, and have fun!

Jeff

I also agree with Paul.

Get a reference on how to do the basic moves, and spend many hours practicing. I have spent many hours working on it and I can bring them out one by one, or in split fans. Also I have pretty big hands so I can backpalm about half the deck. Let me know how you do!

This is truly beautiful magic. I have been working on this for a while now, but have not had the funds (and living in NZ it is hard to find the resources) to get any books on the subject, so I am not too good yet. Practise these moves though as they are wonderfully magical!

Chris.

Moto42, yes it is possible to palm an entire deck of cards. In fact, Raymond (Ray Corbin a former or past president of the Society of American Magicians) could back palm three full decks of cards and perform what seemed like endless fans of cards. It is a given that Ray was unique in his skills and abilities.

Ray did not use special Palming decks. He could take a deck of regular playing cards and “soften” them to make them perfect palming cards. In fact this treatment of cards is written up in many of the older card flourish books. There was a time when the special palming deck was simply not easily available to the working performer.

The lesson here is not that Raymond could back palm multiple decks but that it is possible to do so. Don’t think of your limits but rather think of your possibilities!

I personally would not use a "palming/manipulation"deck due to the fact if you perform a lot 1) they are expensive and 2) if you dont have them whem asked to perform that trick(it may be an impromtu auddition) it would be nice to be able to do it . I learned with BIKES and it may be a little harder but well worth the effort..

my 2.5 cents

jeff

I believe in being a good card manipulator without any gimmicks. This is what sets you apart from a lot of beginners who just go to the store and by "tricks". Jeff McBrides videos go into great detail on card manipulation and also, thimbles, balls, and coins.

A good back palm is REALLY hard to do without major practice. Im the magician in the family, and my brother does it ten times better than me. I guess it's just talent. (we can only do one at a time, oh well)