Before moving elaborately into intense card magic, I think an important step is handling the cards. I wanted to learn a little bit more about shuffling and ways to play with the deck to set up tricks. I turned to YouTube for this and started to do looking. I stumbled across a couple of videos that I thought were perfect to work on some basic card skills.
I first looked at showed three different shuffles, the Charli Air Cut, the Ribbon Spread, and the Table Shuffle. All three are perfect to use while incorporating magic. The Charli Air Cut was a shuffling method to cut the deck in half using one hand. This will be useful when trying to distract the viewer while doing magic. The next was the Ribbon Spread this is perfect when showing that you are using a full deck and all the cards are different. An important thing to remember for this method is the surface you are putting the cards on as you will need something that allows the cards to glide easy to make it the most effective. Lastly, was the Table Shuffle, this method is great way when you need to shuffle the deck in a manner to attract the viewer. It is a fancier shuffle that displays the cards intertwining with one another.
the other video I found showed some basic shuffling. The first was the Hindu Shuffle, this was a basic way of shoveling pulling cards from the top and bottom of the deck simultaneously. The next was the overhand shuffle, this was one that I have some prior experience with so I was able to pick it up quickly. Lastly was the riffle shuffle which was a play of the table riffle shuffle. This shuffle I am able to do using a table but in the air was difficult.
A funny thing I found while doing this research and looking at different videos is they are always trying to get you to watch by putting “easy” or “fast” in the tittle. More often than not these tutorials are more confusing than easy.
During this I found I became a lot more comfortable with a deck of cards in my hand which I would say is pretty important when I am wanting to do card magic. I thought this was important to learn some new shuffling techniques and skills as it can be used to help engage the viewers while performing different tricks. One thing I always remembered when watching great card magicians is their skills with the cards and what they could do when setting up different tricks. I would say my favourite one I learned was the ribbon spread as it is a great way to show the deck of cards you are using and has so many different variations to it. The easiest one to learn was the overhand shuffle as it was one had experience with and was the most comfortable with. I had the most trouble doing the riffle shuffle as I was so used to using a table or surface when performing this shuffle. One thing I have learned already is it is important to have multiple decks and work with different cards because some are very different than others and feel differently.
I always find doing something helps me learn easier and being able to follow along YouTube videos has been a really effective way for me to learn. Doing it this way has allowed for me to try what I am seeing at the same time. I am able to find the mistakes I am making simply from looking at my hands and comparing them to what I am watching on the screen. Working into next week I want to incorporate some of these shuffles with a trick that I am going to learn. I hope to be able to put it all together and have one trick prepared for next week.
