If you've never met or heard of me, my name is Christopher McKelvey. I'm a professional card magician. My main interest is in close up, table hopping magic. However, I also perform parlor and stage shows.
The reason for this blog is to raise awareness of what we as card magicians are actually doing.
I have from time to time seen too many magicians insisting on using using the same control for every trick they do simply because it is the easiest. The Jog Shuffle and Pass are great tools, but when they are used exclusively, they are not enough. In fact, when used exclusively, they hurt your card magic.
With so many sleights available to the card magician, one can only afford to use each in its ideal context. Aaron Fisher - The Paper Engine: Tension, Focus, & Design in Card Magic. P. 51 p.2
What I intend to do in this blog is to, over time, compile a list of controls, color changes, switches and other ruses used by the card magician. I will point out their inherent flaws. I will point out their inherent geniuses. And ultimately, I will have at my disposal, and yours, a list of the best sleights to use to perform any action, in any circumstance.
Different sleights give different impressions to the spectator. Consider the following.
A shift says the card is still right where you placed it. Anyone with eyes could point out its relative location. A skilled magician might even be able to get to it later.
A jog shuffle says the card is somewhere in the deck. It also says that the magician has had time to manipulate the card already.
A side steal to palm followed by a shuffle from the spectator creates the impression that nobody in the audience at this point knows where the selected card is.
Of the previous three examples, the third obviously leaves the best impression the card is lost in the deck. Why do we as card magicians not use it more often? I see passes and shuffles executed brilliantly all the time. But hardly a decent palm followed by a (even more rare) decent replacement.
The answer is simply that we are lazy. Shifts and shuffles are easy. They require only that we practice the one move. A Side Steal to palm is easy enough, but to hand the deck out and replace the card while the spectator is watching would require entirely too much... work, that most magicians are willing to put in. God forbid we would also have to practice with spectators to gain the confidence required to pull off this bold move.
Well, there you have it. That is the point of this blog. I hope that if you are one of those here from the beginning with me, you will fully consider your card handling, and over the course of time become a changed magician.
Yours in Magic.
-Christopher McKelvey.
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