How are these card tricks done ??
 

I remember going to see Russ Stevens shows years ago and was always impressed.

He did this card trick and i've always wanted to know how it was done. Watching the vids on Youtube real closely and i still can't guess. You can see him move his arm sometimes as if he's releasing the cards, but the way he does it, still baffles me.

Skip the vid to 1min 35secs:




Now, at one of his shows when he did this, we were at the table right down the front, and i picked up some of the cards he used and took them home with me.

They were just standard playing cards...

:arcadefre

dude is awesome

no fucking clue

Held behind the hand in between the fingers then flipped into view. You mean that one? Lots of tricks with cards and coins use that one. He places them there when he reaches his hand out of view I would say. Not easy, but old school I think.

Or, just put it this way.. there's good reason why his fingers are ALWAYS close tightly together on that hand.

paging damien

One card, i could understand. And i've watched vid of people showing you how that's done. I can do it, rather poorly, but i can do it to an extent anyway. But multiple cards ??

Magic:winkwink:

something like that

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bikRB-aBLBE

Mad skillzzzzz.

Still seems fucking impossible though... :1orglaugh

I bet that Damian Jennings is able to do it to.

Watching it again, have a look at 2mins 10secs.

Hands open, and still produces cards. And even tho that vid above shows how it's done with a few cards, there's no way with the amount of cards in the original vid that that could be done. It's all too quick and easy to have so many cards stored between the fingers...

This may rank as the nerdiest thing I've ever said on GFY...but here goes.

I actually studied magic for several years and was even a member and performer of the Magic Castle for few years. I know how this trick is done and most of you have the right idea, however the amount of skill it takes to perform this card trick at that level is pretty major. There are very few people who can do it as well as Russ Stevens or Jeff McBride.

Ok, please feel free to make fun of me...I've asked for it :)

Nah its cool. Were used to Damian Jennings and his fancy fingers. Theres no nerdier!

I still can't get my head around the fact that he shows you the other side of his hand (Russ Stevens) a few times then reveals more cards.

So you know how that is done aswell ?

It's done exactly as you assume it is. He moves the cards from behind his hand and back there again. It's very hard to do and I know Mr Stevens quite well, lovely bloke he is.

Here's some very old footage of Cardini, who many consider one of the best at this kind of act.

Tee hee!

:D

His hand is almost fully open at some points. I guess the trick is even more impressive than I originally thought all things considered then.

So his other hand which seems to look suspicious where it is but is apparently doing nothing, is indeed doing nothing then ??

It sure is!

If you want to see where that kind of act is today, check out this dude

The dexterity of magicians / slight of hand masters is really mind boggling. "the hand is quicker than the eye" is a literal thing too. Some people are just very very very uncommonly good with this stuff and knowing what can be seen etc. Crazy magic.

It's not. They eye works around 50 times faster than the hand.

It's all really centred around misdirection. Making you look at a certain place/thing at a certain time.


Here's my Uncle performing a famous trick that relies totally on misdirection:

This guy has a nice twist on the same kind of act

Yeah, Koreans always really kick ass on manipulation stuff, no idea why they take to it so well...

The Slydini trick is based on the table. He slides the coin below the table and has another one in his hand. He has multiple coins. At one point he lifts a coin with the finger under the table up into his hand which is casually near the edge. It's just easier to remember that the eye will NOT catch everything that the hands are doing. Never going to be able to see everything, no chance. Else the magic all falls apart.



At 14 seconds you think he's picking up coin 2, but he's tossing it into his other hand below the table, you can even hear it clink which is a mistake but .. shit happens.

I learned some Magic Tricks while a was bar tending a couple decades ago. I love card tricks and hate trick decks. It's not the big tricks I like, it's the small card tricks right in front of you that are the best.

Although David Copperfield is known mostly for his 'big scale' illusions, i actually love many of his smaller tricks more.

Most of his Vegas show when i saw him was more comedy than anything. Still a good show though...

He doesn't. It's called The One Coin Trick and does really use one coin. I have the book downstairs explaining the routine.