¨¨1¨¨

The Overhand Shue

1.1 Introduction

Your rst foundational technique will involve the overhand shue. After
learning how to legitimately mix the cards in this fashion, you'll learn how
to cheat with it, either by moving cards around to a desired position, or
by maintaining cards at specic positions. The techniques taught here may
seem innocent enough, but they can be used for a wide range of eects.
Never mind just the standard you pick a card and I nd it trick. With the
overhand shue, you'll be able to make a card rise mysteriously from the
deck, psychically know the position of the card in the deck, produce the card
from the spectator's pocket merely by touch, and even produce an entire suit
of cards, and throw in the four aces to boot.
As you progress through the chapter, though, you'll need to be sensitive
to the dierences between the false and legitimate versions of your tech-
niques. The last thing you want is to have a false move ruined because it's
perceived dierently than fair actions. Don't limit practice to mere execution
of the move. Instead, work on consistency in appearance, rhythm and noise.
Overhand shues done by regular people are choppy, messy and chaotic. If
you're able to duplicate that feel, then the magical eects you pull o will
be the stronger for it.

1.2 Overhand Shuing Technique

The Royal Road to Card Magic
1.2.1 Position of the Pack in the Hands

It is essential that the cards be handled neatly and precisely, and the
rst requisite towards acquiring this neatness of execution is the position
of the pack in the hands.
Hold your left hand half closed, palm upwards, and place the pack in
it, face downwards, so that the third phalanx of the index nger is bent
against the outer left corner. The middle and ring ngers, slightly bent,

12
rest against the face of the bottom card; the little nger curls inwards so
that its side rests against the inner end, and the thumb rests on the top
card, its tip near the middle of the outer end.
The pack should slope down-
wards towards the left at an an-
gle of about forty-ve degrees, its
lower side resting along the palm
of the hand. In this position the

I. The Overhand Shue Grip pack can be gripped, as in a for-

ceps, between the index and the
little ngers by pressing them against the opposite ends (Fig. I).
This position of the pack gives one perfect control of the cards and
should be strictly adhered to. The grip should be rm but light; in fact,
the lightest touch possible, consistent with security, must be cultivated
from the outset.

1.2.2 Execution of the Overhand Shue

1. Holding the pack as described above, seize the lower half with the
right hand between the top phalanx of the thumb, at the middle of the
inner end, and the top phalanges of the middle and ring ngers at the
middle of the outer end. Bend the index nger lightly on the upper side
of the deck, letting the little nger remain free.
2. Lift this lower packet upwards to clear the other portion of the
pack, then bring it downwards over the other cards until its lower side
touches the left palm. Press the left thumb against the top card of this
packet and simultaneously lift the right hand so that the card, or cards,
pulled o by the left thumb fall on top of the packet retained in the left
hand.
3. Repeat this action until all the cards held by the right hand have
been shued o on to those held by the left hand. Pat the upper side
of the deck with the outstretched ngers of the right hand to square the
cards. Since the overhand shue is generally repeated, this action is
absolutely essential to a clean execution.
In making this shue do not look at your hands and the cards. Prac-
tise this from the outset and so form the habit, which is an essential
factor in the manoeuvres which follow and are done under cover of the
action of this shue.
The speed at which the shue is executed should be about the same

13
as that used by any card player, neither too fast nor too slow, and the
tempo should be an even one throughout.

1.2.3 Controlling the Top Card

1. Holding the deck as explained, lift it with the right hand, and with
the left thumb draw o the top card only in the rst movement of the
shue. Without the slightest pause or hesitation shue the other cards
onto this one until the shue has been completed. The top card is now
at the bottom of the pack.
2. Again lift the entire pack and repeat the shue you have just
made down to the last card, which we know was the card originally at
the top. Drop this card on top of all the others in the last movement of
the shue. After a few trials you will nd that this last card will cling
to the thumb and ngers without any conscious eort on your part.
In this sleight, as well as in the others to follow, the action must
become automatic so that you can look at, talk with, and give your
whole attention to your audience. Only in this way can you convince the
onlookers that the shue is genuine, and you should never forget that it
is at this very starting point that illusion begins or is destroyed. If you
stare xedly at your hands while shuing, Suspicion will inevitably be
aroused, and if a spectator suspects that you have done something the
illusion of your magic is gone. In practising this shue and those that
follow, it is a good plan to turn the top card face upwards so that at the
nish you can see at a glance if you have made it correctly.

1.2.4 Controlling the Bottom Card

1. Lift the lower half of the pack to begin the shue, and in so doing
press lightly on the bottom card with the tips of the left middle and ring
ngers, holding it back and thus adding it to the bottom of the packet
remaining in the left hand.
2. Shue o the cards remaining in the right hand, and repeat the
action if desired. Nothing could be simpler than this control, and the
sleight is valuable because of its ease and naturalness.

1.2.5 Retaining the Top and Bottom Cards in Position

1. Grip the entire pack with the right hand to start the shue, at the
same time pressing lightly on the top card with the left thumb and on

14
 the bottom card (Fig. II) with the left middle and ring ngers holding
them back so that all the cards except these two are lifted clear, the top
card falling upon the bottom card. Continue the shue, without pause,
until completed.
2. Pat the upper side of the deck square and
repeat the moves exactly as before by lifting out
all but the top and bottom cards, then shue o
to the last card of those held in the right hand,
the card originally at the top, and drop it back
again on the top.
Be careful not to pull the cards away sharply
in the rst movement of the shue, making
II. Retaining Top
the top and bottom cards come together with a
and Bottom Cards
click. Use a light touch. Note that by placing
two known cards at the bottom and a third at the
top, all three cards can be controlled by this valuable artice. Practise
the sleight in this way until you can do it with ease and certainty.

Everything to this point is relatively standard advice. It's well-written,

though, and should serve students well. Throughout the book we will refer
to the shue in 1.2.5 as a milk shue. It's incredibly useful.

1.2.6 The Run

In magical parlance, this term means the pulling o of cards one by

one from the right hand packet with the aid of the left thumb in the
course of the shue. To make the run, press the left thumb lightly on
the back of the top card of the right hand packet while holding this latter
packet just tightly enough to allow one card only to escape. It is very
important that the single cards be drawn o at the same tempo as the
rest of the shue, so that there will be no hesitation at the start of the
shue or its end.
A few minutes' practice with cards that are in good condition will
prove how easy the sleight is, yet it is one of the most useful in the card
man's arsenal.

15
1.2.7 The Injog

This term is applied to the subterfuge of causing a card to project

about one quarter of an inch from the inner end of the deck. It is one
of the oldest stratagems in magic, having been in use for three and a
half centuries. It was rst mentioned in Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft,
published in 1584.
The action of jogging a card is a sim-
ple one. In the course of the shue, when
a card is to be jogged, move the ght hand
slightly towards the body, draw o one
card with the left thumb, then move the
hand back to its former position and con-
tinue the shue in the usual way. The
card thus jogged should rest on the little
nger tip, which enables you to know, by
sense of touch alone, that the card is in
III. The Injog

the proper position (Fig. III).

It is advisable at the start to make the card protrude about half an
inch and, in shuing o the remaining cards from the right hand, to make
them lie irregularly so that the protruding card is covered and concealed.
With practice the jogging of the card can be reduced to approximately
a quarter of an inch. Here again it is most important that there shall
be no alteration in the tempo. The card must be jogged and the shue
continued without the least hesitation.

1.2.8 The Undercut

This sleight is used to bring the cards directly

under a jogged card to the top of the pack, in
the following manner: A card having been jogged
and the shue completed, bring the ght hand
upwards from a position a little below the left
hand so that the point of the thumb will strike
against the face of the jogged card, lifting it and
the cards above it slightly; then move the right
hand outwards with the lower packet, the thumb- IV. The Undercut
nail scraping against the face of the jogged card
while the middle and ring ngers close on the outer end of the packet.

16
Lift the packet clear and throw it on the top of the deck. This action
brings the jogged card to the bottom and the card directly below it to
the top of the pack.
To undercut to a jogged card is a very simple action if the right thumb
strikes upward, not inward (Fig. IV).

1.2.9 Overhand Shue Control

A large proportion of card tricks consist of having a card selected,

noted, and returned to the middle of the deck, which is then shued.
The chosen card is revealed by the magician in some startling way. To
do this the chosen card must be controlled, and one of the easiest, best,
and most natural methods is by using the overhand shue.
Here are the moves:
1. Let us suppose that a card has been freely chosen by a spectator.
While he notes what it is, you begin an overhand shue and, when you
have shued about half the cards into your left hand, move that hand
toward the spectator, tacitly inviting him to replace his card. He puts it
on the top of those in your left hand and you immediately resume your
shue by running three cards ush on top of the chosen card, jogging
the next card, and shuing o the remainder freely.
2. Undercut below the jogged card, as already explained, and throw
the packet on top. The chosen card will then be the fourth card from
the top of the pack and you can deal with it as you please. For example,
possibly in the course of the shue the chosen card may have arrived at
the top or bottom of the pack; therefore you take o three cards from
the top and spread them face outwards, asking the spectator if his card
is among them. Never say, You see your card is not there. You are not
supposed to know whether it is or not.
Throw the three cards casually on the table. Then show several cards
at the bottom. Finally gather up the three cards by placing the pack on
them and picking up all together.You have the chosen card on the top,
yet the onlookers will be convinced, if you have done your part simply
and naturally, that the chosen card is lost in the pack and beyond your
control. Thus you have succeeded in the most important part of the
trick, for whenever a chosen card is controlled in some abnormal fashion
your purpose is defeated. The real illusion of card magic begins with the
conviction on the part of the spectator that his card is lost among the
others. Without that conviction the trick has already failed.

17
1.2.10 Retaining Top Stock by the Overhand Shue Con-
trol

The overhand shue control is extremely useful in tricks where it is

necessary to retain a card or cards at the top of the pack while giving
the impression that you are shuing the cards.
To do this, undercut the lower half with the right hand, and, in the
rst movement of the shue, injog the rst card drawn o by the left
thumb. Upon it shue the rest of the cards held in the right hand. Un-
dercut below the injogged card and throw this packet on top. Although
you have seemingly mixed the cards, you have retained the desired cards
at the top.

1.2.11 Overhand Shue Practice Routine

The best method of practising the various overhand shues is to go

through them in sequence as follows:
1. Turn the top card face upward.
2. Shue it to the bottom and back to the top again.
3. Shue it to the bottom. Shue again, retaining it there, then
shue it back to the top.
4. Reverse the card now at the bottom. Shue, retaining the top
and bottom cards in position.
5. Shue the top card to the next to bottom and back to the top.
The two reversed cards should be at the top and bottom. Check your
work.
6. Control the top reversed card only by means of the overhand
shue control, which will give you facility in the run, the injog and the
undercut.
Again check your work. The original top card should now be the
fourth from the top of the pack. If that is the case and you have made
the shues smoothly, you have made excellent progress toward acquiring
this most useful of all card sleights. Practise until you can make the
shues without looking at your hands, and at the same time keep up an
easy ow of conversation.
With the simple principles explained in the preceding sections, which
can be learned in the course of a pleasant half-hour's toying with a pack
of cards, you have a golden key which will unlock the door to many of
the most entertaining card tricks it is possible to perform. Since the best

18
 way to learn to do magic is to do magic, in the next section several tricks
are explained in which the principles you have already learned are put
to use.

I highly recommend getting this drill down. The obvious reason why you
want to do this is so that you can accomplish the technique smoothly and
without focusing too much of your attention on it. However, the less obvious
reason is that if you do have this sort of drill down pat, then any mistake that
you might make will immediately jump out at you, and you'll know you need
to go into damage-control mode. Nine times out of ten such mistakes will be
your own fault, but every now and then you'll be working with a lousy deck
of cards that you borrowed from somebody and maybe clumps of cards will
stick together. How you get out of that problem is a more advanced subject,
one we'll touch on later in the section on the Glide. For right now, eat your
vegetables and do your drills.

1.3 A Pocket Discovery

The Royal Road to Card Magic
A card is selected (let's say it's the Three of Spades) and returned to the
deck, and the deck is shued. The performer shows that the card is nowhere
near the top nor the bottom, and the deck is put into the spectator's pocket.
The spectator is asked to pick a number between 10 and 20. Let's say they
choose 14. The magician reaches in and draws out 13 cards, one by one.
The magician stops before pulling out the 14th card and says, This feels
like the Three of Spades. Is that your card? The spectator answers yes, the
magician removes the card, and it's shown to be the Three of Spades.
To do the trick, have the card selected and shown to everybody, so others
can verify the chosen card later on in case the spectator is forgetful or a
trouble-maker.
When they're ready to give it back, ask them to say stop as you start
overhand shuing the cards. When they do, extend your left hand to have
them replace the card. To continue the shue, run three cards singly, run
and injog the fourth, then shue o the rest. Undercut below the injog and
throw on top. The chosen card is now fourth from the top.
Now, some magicians are so good at shuing that they can get it to
the top. Show the top three cards and toss them face up on the table. I
didn't get lucky, did I? When they say No, turn the deck face up and
thumb three cards into the right hand. Spread a few more cards with the left

19
thumb. As you do, use pressure to force the deck over just enough so that
the top (or rear) card is displayed (Fig. V). If you slightly tilt the spread
towards yourself, the audience should not be able to see anything.

Gesture with the

cards in the right
hand and say, It's
not one of these
near the bottom, is
it? They'll say
no. Toss your right
hand's packet face
up onto the tabled
cards, then turn the
whole pile face down.
Turn the cards in
V. The Secret Glimpse your left hand face
down and drop them
onto the tabled pile. The selection is now on top of the deck.

It should be noted that when choosing your spectator at the beginning

of the trick, make sure it's somebody with an available jacket pocket. Ask
your spectator if it's OK to use their pocket, and ask them to empty it. You
might be able to get some comedy from whatever items they pull out. Place
the deck inside, or have them do it. If they do it themselves, pay attention
to the deck's orientation. Ask for a number between 10 and 20.

When they tell you the number, say, Alright, let's see how we do. Reach
into the pocket and pull cards from the bottom of the deck. When you reach
their number, contact the card at the top of the deck and stop. Say that
you're getting a very strong sense that the card you're holding is the Three
of Spades (or whatever card you secretly glimpsed earlier). Ask if that's their
selection. After the armative response, slowly extract and show their card,
ending the trick.

1.4 Further Than That

Stewart James, The Jinx
The magician, shuing the cards, says the following...

Magic is a cut-throat world these days, with magicians always trying to

outdo each other. With this next mystery, I'm going to try to do a wee bit
more than the other guys.

20
 Now, the other guys will spread the cards out for you to take one, but
because you all are so wonderful, I think we can do a wee bit more.

Take this deck and name any number between... 10 and 20. 16? Very
well, count 16 cards onto the table. Put the deck away for the moment.

Now, we could stop here, but you guys are so amazing, so I think we
can do a wee bit more. Using those 16 cards, we're going to select another
card through random chance. 16 is a one and a six. Add those together and
we get seven. Count down seven cards and look at that seventh card, then
drop the rest of the cards on top. When you're done, put everything onto
the deck.

At this point, the other magicians would have to try to nd your card
in some impressive feat of dexterity, but you guys are just so darned nice,
I think we can do a wee bit more. I think I can actually use my psychic
powers. In holding the deck to my head, I can sense that your card... is the
Ace of Spades? It was? Thank you!

But wait... You know, you guys are just too swell to stop there, and
I think we can do a wee bit more. I will deal one card for each letter as I
spell A-C-E. In the next pile I will do the same, spelling S-P-A-D-E-S. At
this point, turning over the next card, I think we have the Ace of Spades...?
There it is!

But wait... You know, you guys are just capital, so I think we can do a
wee bit more. This pile, which we made by spelling `Spades,' might actually
have something interesting going on. If we turn them over, we see the Two
of Spades, the Three of Spades, the Four, the Five, the Six and the Seven.

But wait... because you guys are the most handsome and beautiful
audience that a magician could ask for, I think we can do a wee bit more.
This other pile, where we spelled `Ace', might also have something interesting
going on. If we turn them over, we see the Ace of Diamonds, the Ace of
Hearts, and the Ace of Clubs.

But wait... because even though at this point I've used up just amount
every bit of my magical power, you guys have been just so incredible that I
think we can do a wee bit more. Because if, say, we wanted a great poker
hand, we would just produce a few more Spades. So, if I ick the deck like
this and deal o a few more cards, we'll have the Eight and the Nine, and
then, to get a lovely royal ush, the Ten, Jack, Queen, and the King to go
with our Ace of Spades. And at this point, I think it's safe to say that we've
done a wee bit more.

Now, the original trick is called Further Than That specically because
that's what gets repeated over and over in the original script. The problem
is that if the trick does its job, then people are going to remember that line

21
to the point that they start saying it with you. In this day and age of easy
internet access, they could easily nd a video tutorial of the trick, destroying
the mystery you've worked so hard to create. So, the script here substitutes
a slightly dierent catchphrase. I highly encourage you to come up with a
line that ts your own performances.
The method is simple. Stack the deck as follows from the top: 2S, 3S, 4S,
5S, 6S, 7S, AH, AD, AC, AS, 8S, 9S, 10S, JS, QS, KS. Perform a false shue
that maintains the top stock of cards, and you're ready. From that point on
it's entirely automatic. The volunteer can name any number between 10 and
20. After dealing, add the two digits together and count back to your new
number. You'll arrive at the Ace of Spades.

1.5 I Think It Stopped...

The Royal Road to Card Magic
The idea in this trick has been bounced around the magic community for
a while, but its best form is Al Koran's The Lazy Magician Does A Card
Trick. After you learn it here, go hunting online for Koran's presentation.
It's got style.
The magician shues the cards and has any card selected. The card is
placed on top of the deck and the deck is cut. And then it's cut again. And
then it's cut again, and again once more.
The magician stops them and says, Wouldn't it be amazing if you ac-
tually cut to your own card? Slowly turn over the deck... Ah well, it was a
good try. Tell you what, since the point of this is for me to try to nd your
card, keep cutting the deck but don't tell me if you actually see your card.
Keep a poker face, alright?
The cards are cut a few more times, until the magician says, Alright, I
think it's pretty safe to say that your card is absolutely lost, correct? The
magician touches the top card and says, If I concentrate, I can determine
where the card is in the deck. I feel like your card is... 39th from the top.
But, let's try something. On the count of three, tell your card to `Jump'.
One, two, three...
The spectator says Jump and the magician is immediately dissatised.
Oh come on, you can do better than that. I mean, let me check, yeah,
it helped, your card is now at the 38th position. But really give it a try
this time. The spectator says Jump again and the magician is forlorn.
That was better, but come on, it's only moved up to the 35th spot. I want
you to really yell, alright? The spectator yells Jump! and the magician
looks startled. Oh my goodness, that was wonderful! Let me check... Your

22
card actually jumped up near the top, and I think it stopped... eight cards
from the top? I'd ask you to say `Jump' again but I think something might
explode. Here, count down eight cards and stop... What was your selection?
The spectator names their card, the next card is turned over, and it's theirs.

To perform the trick simply put the entire suit of clubs in order at the
top of the deck, from the Ace of Clubs at the top down to King. Spread
the cards face up casually as you look for any Jokers that might be there.
Turn it face down and run those cards singly down to the bottom, shuing
o when you're certain you've passed all the clubs. Have them select a card
and put it back on top and then cut, and then cut again, and then cut again.
The card could conceivably be anywhere at this point, so when you turn the
deck face up, if it's there, use that line of the script to make it seem like that
was the trick you were going for.

Assuming it's not there, here's the principle at work for the rest of the
trick. Any time a club shows up at the bottom of the deck, you know that
their selection lies exactly that many cards down from the top. So, you want
them to keep cutting the deck until a club appears. Of course, there's a
chance that they could cut to their own card, which the script handles by
asking them to keep a poker face. Let's say that after a few cuts the Nine of
Clubs appears. This puts the card ninth from the top.

At this point, ask the spectator if they believe the card is truly lost. Turn
the deck over and follow the script, pretending that the card has jumped up
high when they nally yelled to your satisfaction, only make sure to say that
it's eight cards down. When they deal o those eight cards, ask them their
card, then show the ninth. It'd be a bit tacky to say it's the ninth card down
when everybody just saw a nine a moment ago.

Again, this trick has a few dierent presentations out there. In the Royal
Road version, Think Stop, there is a tricky glimpse to see the bottom card,
you claim it's at position 29, you claim you will mentally count down from 29
until they say stop, and when they do you name the position of their card.
I honestly feel like Koran's original had better stu going on, and so this
version borrows a bit from that. Koran's approach, however, is wonderful,
and well worth seeking out.

1.6 Three Fancy Card Revelations

Let's say you want to do a fancy reveal of a card that's been selected and
returned. Here are three. For each of them, you will need to have a card
selected, returned, and then controlled to the top.

23
1.6.1 Pinkie Does It
Royal Road to Card Magic
Hold the deck upright, face towards the audience. ::Rub your right nger
over the top of the deck, secretly pushing down about a quarter of the cards.
::If you hold the deck a little higher up in the hand, the back of the hand
should obscure the injogged portion from the audience. ::You'll use this
stepped packet in a moment.
Rub your right nger on your sleeve, then press
it to the top edge of the deck and lift. Make sure
the rest of your ngers are curled.
Look confused when nothing happens after lift-
ing your nger. Say, Oh, you need to name the
card. They do. Repeat the action of rubbing the
nger on your sleeve and touching it to the deck.
This time, extend your pinkie so that it contacts
the top card. Raise your hand. The pinkie nger
secretly pushes the card up, creating the illusion
that the index nger is mysteriously drawing it out
of the deck (Fig. VI).
When their card clears the top of that step in
VI. Pinkie Does It the deck, use the pinkie to push its lower end against
the rear-most card of the outer packet. While this
happens, the left hand's pinkie can actually push up on the lower packet so
that it aligns with the upper packet. This way you can tilt the deck forward
to have the card removed, and if the move was well-executed, the card looks
like it came from the middle.
You will need to manage your angles on this last technique, but out of
the three in this section, this one actually oers a compelling image of the
card having risen from the middle of the deck.

1.6.2 A New Top Card Production

M. Jules D'Hotel, More Card Manipulations #2
Place the cards in the left hand, similar to Fig.
VII. Note the position of the ngers and thumb. It's
the index nger that pushes back the top card. The
tip of the nger pulls back the end of the top card
(the one nearest to the palm) at the lower corner,
VII. A New Top Card rst in and then up. The card turns between the
Production base of the thumb and the deck until it arrives at

24
the position in the gure. You can then secure it in position using the lower
part of the thumb as the index goes back to its original place. If you watch
your angles, and make a magical gesture with your right hand, the animation
should be startling.

1.6.3 A Rising Card Comedy

Card Manipulations #3
Hold the deck as shown in Fig. VIII. With your
right hand pretend to pluck a hair from your own
head (or, for comedic eect, from a spectator's).
Mime wrapping it around the deck, and as you pull
up with the right hand, use the left thumb to push
up the card at the same speed. Remove the card
(making sure your thumb is not seen) and show it
to the audience, asking if it's theirs.

General Thoughts

Hopefully you can see how even with a basic

overhand shue control, there's a wide range of
great magic open to you. Try to nd ways to
sweeten the presentations with your own touches.
Come up with a great catchphrase for Further
Than That. Work on your acting chops when seem- VIII. A Rising Card
ing surprised at the spectator yelling Jump! in I Comedy
Think It Stopped.... A Rising Card Comedy can
get laughs simply by the theatrics surrounding you getting a hair from a
spectator's head  just make sure to pretend to pluck it.
These tricks should help you get used to performing these shue tech-
niques under re. In I Think It Stopped... and Further Than That, the
false shues happen before the tricks have even started. That means all
your eorts can go towards the presentation. If nerves are an issue, choose
one of those tricks rst. Later, you'll be more comfortable doing everything
in this chapter. When you progress further into this book, you'll want to
employ the overhand shue in conjunction with other techniques. If you're
desperate for more tricks, look ahead to Chapter 12 for some self-working
feats, most of which will be within range of your current abilities.
One request, though. When I compiled this chapter, I wanted to skip a
lot of the usual beginners' tricks and include items that other books would

25
have left for later chapters. Now, don't get me wrong, Royal Road is a great
book, but both I Think It Stopped... and A New Top Card Production
are really far in considering the techniques needed to pull o the tricks are
taught right away. Magic is a secretive art, and part of that means that
there's a tradition of gate-keeping solid material. On the one hand, there
needs to be a buer to keep out the merely curious. On the other hand,
what that sometimes means is that books of this sort are front-loaded with
tricks that are, to be frank, weak. I've done my part to put material in here
that will impress people straight away if you perform the techniques well.
For the sake of the material, and magic itself, please pay it the respect it
deserves through diligent practice.

26
 Interlude 1:
Uniformity of Action
S.W. Erdnase gave us the term Uniformity of Action in Expert at the
Card Table. While you can read his denition of the term in various places
for free online, here's the gist of it, at least insofar as it applies to where
you're at right now:
Make your fake actions look like your real actions.
That's it.
Now, you'd think that would be straightforward. If you're trying to get
away with a lie, do you change your posture from condent to shifty, or your
tone of voice from loud and booming to quiet and sly? Of course not. Yet
the magic world is lled with magicians whose false coin transfers are faster
and jerkier than their regular transfers, or whose shue controls look nothing
like their regular shues. Obviously, it's possible to get away with moves if
people don't know what you're up to. But what Erdnase is talking about is
making it dicult for spectators to know that you're doing moves at all.
Now, even if we understand this maxim at face value, the idea of making
your fake and real actions look the same is a bit more complicated than it
would seem at rst. Let's break this down further.
First, think about your trick and how it would look if you were capable
of doing magic for real. Leave out the actual moves. In other words, if the
trick is the Ambitious Card, turn over the top card, show it to the audience,
put it in the middle of the deck, do a magical gesture of some sort, and
then show the top card. If you leave out all the moves in the routine, then
the card on top is now a dierent card. That's OK  what we're trying to
establish is how the magic would look if you didn't have to do any moves at
all. This is sometimes referred to as Tommy Wonder's Mind Movie exercise,
and although the idea goes back much earlier than him, Wonder's is a good
model to study because of how well he employed the principle to create magic
that really felt quite moveless.
Once you've gone through the steps necessary to determine what the trick
should look like, you now have an ideal to strive towards. In other words,
as you start to introduce the sleights necessary to complete the trick, you
always want to be sure you're not adding visual noise that will undermine
your idealized presentation.
In the case of the rst chapter's routines, it's fairly straightforward  we're
talking about the overhand shue, so we want to make sure that our fake

27
overhand shues look like our genuine overhand shues. So, practice them
both. Study the rhythms and make them identical. Reduce the noise you
may get from running cards, since you won't hear that noise when you're
shuing normally. Analyze every technique you use through the lens of
how it would look if you were doing it for real, with no subterfuge. This
alone isn't enough to convince people that they just saw the impossible, but
it's an important rst step, and one that too many magicians don't take,
unfortunately.

There are some extra things to consider here. Every now and then you're
going to run into a method that has no normal real-life equivalent to compare
against. Depending on the method in question, it may still be salvageable,
usually using techniques discussed in theory chapters coming up (things like
conditioning, motivation, misdirection, etc.). For now, shuing is denitely
a thing outside the world of magic  anybody who has ever played a game
of cards has had to shue them  so we have visual models to draw from in
order to camouage our deceptions.

Another thing we need to think about is whether or not the consistency

we establish between our fake and real moves is still striking in its dierence
from the way regular people would do the same real moves. In other words,
consistency only goes so far as a virtue if we fail to do things the way normal
people might. This is an interpretation of Dai Vernon's mantra to be natu-
ral. (It's not the only interpretation, but it is one that we will be using for
the purposes of this book.)

This may suggest that the best way to handle the cards is to do so exactly
how regular people handle cards. This is not necessarily the direction you
want to go, because we all know people who can't handle cards worth a
damn. When they shue, they fumble and drop cards. If they were to fan
the cards towards you for a selection, it would involve a good minute or so
of awkwardness that would end with their wrists looking apparently stitched
together. But, in the case of these people, that's how they naturally handle
cards. So what are we talking about?

This will be one of your earliest artistic decisions. In some cases, magi-
cians opt for a handling of the cards that matches how regular people might
imagine they would handle cards if they themselves were comfortable with
them. In other cases, magicians use lots of ourishes in order to give the au-
dience eye candy, or to establish themselves as skillful. There are even some
performers who deliberately choose to handle cards clumsily and sloppily,
because it helps give the impression that sleight-of-hand couldn't possibly be
at work in what they do.

Finally, it's important to maintain a consistency of handling throughout

28
all of your tricks. It would be very confusing if you were to arbitrarily change
your style from one trick to the next. That can include the smallest details,
such as how you have somebody pick a card, or how you shue the deck once
the card is returned. Inconsistency can draw attention to details that you'd
rather they forget, especially when you're trying to get away with sneaky
moves.
There isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer at this point. It's mostly
about the illusion that the performer wishes to create, and to make sure all
choices contribute to strengthening that illusion. It's also worth saying that
the impression that you want to make may change over the course of your
magic career.

29