than fascinating to perceive how a trick or sleight is improved by the many intelligences which leave their mark upon it, each mind shaping and improving the original concept. Always there is one goal: simplicity, which means ease of execution and increased deceptiveness. This simplicity is not easily achieved, although in retrospect a simple idea always seems absurdly easy of attainment; if the sleights of today are nearing perfection it should be remembered that this is only because of the thought of the preceding generations of magicians which passed along their efforts for the good of the fraternity.
In the following pages will be found the simplest methods of performing the sleights which play a part in the performance of feats with cards, as well as a number of tricks which have been found to be effective and entertaining. The sleights range from improved methods of performing the elementary and basic procedures, such as the pass, the change, the glide, the crimps and the palms, to the more pretentious and little known methods of the gambling fraternity, including the false deals, shuffles and cuts, and the perfect shuffle. The tricks include easy and surprising self-working feats as well as those dependent upon skill. All of these have been chosen with but one criterion in mind: They must be entertaining and mystifying to those who witness them.
As much as anything else, this book champions a style of card conjuring. The card expert commands the respect and admiration of those who watch him because apparently he does not manipulate the cards. His every effort is centered on presenting his feats with a minimum of handling of the cards. He attempts to present each trick exactly as though it were performed by true magical means. Under such conditions, the pack would be handled simply and naturally, without ostentation. The performer who constantly riffles the ends of the pack, who rushes through his feats as though Beelzebub were hard on his heels, whose movements are quick and jerky, is defeated before he starts, for his spectators always are conscious of the fact that he is employing sleight of hand; his every action betrays this fact.
The true expert is impressive because he achieves his results apparently without sleight of hand. It is as though the pack of cards in his hands had magical properties and the conjurer is simply the personality entrusted with the duty of showing these feats of which the pack is capable. It is this style of card conjuring which is offered in this volume; the sleights and tricks have been crafted with this end in view, that they may be performed wholly imperceptibly. As a case in point, although the simple crimping of a card may seem to be the easiest of all sleights, there still remains a right and a wrong method. The expert crimps the corner of the card in the natural action of picking it up for a moment; nothing could be more innocent of guile. The tyro makes of the crimp an arduous task in which the corner is bent almost at right angles to the card. Where the expert’s technique is that of the rapier, the tyro’s is that of the bludgeon.
Amongst card conjurers there is the belief that the expert achieves his results by means of prodigious skill, that his methods call for extraordinary application and tedious practice. The authors cannot stress too strongly that it requires no more practice to perform a sleight correctly than to perform it badly. Where the expert shines is that he has gone through the hard work of thinking out the correct method; he has experimented by the hour in searching for the easiest and best technique. For him it is a labor of love, rewarded by the inner glow which comes when at last he sees how to improve the sleight, or when he devises a clean-cut method of attaining a result required in a given trick. It is this secret knowledge which makes him the craftsman he is.
To prove this, let the reader study the chapter dealing with the false deals, supposedly the most difficult of all sleights. He will find that once he understands the correct method the various false deals may be had with a tenth the effort he may have expended in searching for a method that would work.
The reader will find on the following pages many methods which are new to him. He will find the perfect shuffle, the use of which will enable him to perform feats not possible by any other means. The rear palm, known and used by only a very few top-notch conjurers, is an excellent expedient when used as a coup de grace. The various gamblers’ false deals will be found to be invaluable and are well worth the effort required for mastery; they represent the finest handling yet conceived. These methods are amongst those in the higher flights of card magic; there will also be found improved methods for almost every other subterfuge employed by the card conjurer—changes, crimps, peeks, glimpses, jogs, reverses and flourishes.
Of particular interest are the methods given for the various lifts, the side slip, the pass and the palms; these sleights are the very backbone of modern conjuring. Although the pass, in which two packets of cards are transposed, has fallen into disuse amongst many present-day experts, it is still a requisite if many excellent feats are to be attempted.
Amongst the tricks will be found something for every taste. Many of these feats are favorites of ranking card men; all of them are effective in the sense that they will entertain audiences.
The authors deem it advisable to include a complete compendium of the shakedown sleights employed by gamblers and card sharkers. Erdnase in his excellent and unique book did this for another generation but it has never been brought up to date and simplified. Expert Card Technique presents the work of this gentry as of 1941, illustrated and diagrammed so that the novice at card games may be forearmed as well as forewarned. Most of these moves are now employed in card magic and here they become excellent accessories in the legitimate art of entertaining deception.
Finally, chapters on technique, presentation and misdirection have been included. The experienced card conjurer may find that these chapters contain little that he has not already learned in the school of experience; it is hoped, however, that the neophyte may obtain from these pages a knowledge which will make smooth the path he must follow.
NOMENCLATURE
The following technical terms have been used in the text throughout this book. Most of them were originated by S. W. Erdnase to describe the procedures given in The Expert at the Card Table and have become a part of the conjurer’s lexicon.
Break: A minute division held in the pack to mark the position of a number of cards or of a single card. In conjuring the break is usually employed when the pack is held in the left hand as for dealing. The flesh at the outermost phalange of the little finger is pressed against the division at the right side at the inner corner (the finger tip is not inserted between the packets) and the remaining fingers are held together at the same side, concealing the subterfuge.
This break is often taken by the ball of the right thumb at the inner end of the pack, prior to an overhand shuffle, the fingers being at the outer end. The cards are shuffled into the left hand until those above the break have dropped; the remaining cards are then thrown upon those in the left hand. This is an easy method much used to bring a desired card to the top of the pack.
Bridge: To press the sides or ends of half the pack together so that the packet is made convex, if it be the upper half, or concave if it be the lower half. This is done to mark the position of a card or a number of cards. If a bridged pack is cut, this cut almost invariably will be at the bridge.
Crimp: To bend a part of a card, usually a corner, upward or downward, so that its position in the pack may be determined by sight. It is used to locate a single card or a stock which may be above or below the crimped card. It is possible to cut to such a card without glancing at the pack.
Cull: To secure certain cards at the top or bottom in the act of mixing the cards with the overhand shuffle.
Jog: A card extending for a fraction of an inch from any part of the pack. It marks the position of a desired card or of a stock of cards. When it is at the inner end of the pack the right hand in taking the pack for an overhand shuffle applies pressure with the ball of the thumb, turning the jog into a break, after which the cards are shuffled to this break and thrown, bringing the desired card or cards to the top.
A jog at the right side of the pack, when it is held by the left hand as for dealing, may be turned into a break by pulling down on the protruding edge with the tip of the left little finger, after which the pass may be made, or the card may be shuffled to the top.
Injog: