Tag: cards across

Getting More Applause…

The last week I’ve been performing my version of cards across in my preshow. My version is different from most stage versions as it’s just me onstage, I don’t have people hold the cards. There are seven red cards and ten blue cards. The two piles switch place, so the seven red cards turn into … Continue reading “Getting More Applause…”

The last week I’ve been performing my version of cards across in my preshow. My version is different from most stage versions as it’s just me onstage, I don’t have people hold the cards. There are seven red cards and ten blue cards. The two piles switch place, so the seven red cards turn into ten blue cards and the ten blue cards turn into seven red cards.


The end of the trick always gets applause. The reason for that I think is that the audience gets to catch up with the trick. I have to count the two piles and that let’s the audience’s brains catch up. When the second pile of cards is being counted, the audience is up to speed as they know what to expect, and have fully processed the trick, and are ready to applaud!


This is the opposite of problem I’m having with the silk through coat hanger. The first time it goes through, it’s very fast and unexpected. It’s great to watch the audiences faces when I do it, they react, but are clearly momentarily stunned as they process what they’ve just seen. After the first penetration, I have to stand there and wait for what feels like an eternity onstage.


This maybe one of those tricks where initially it doesn’t get a reaction and I just have to deal with that.

Know More Than Seven Tricks…

There’s been advice that you only need to learn a few tricks and you can do those the rest of your life. Sure that may have been good advice in 1910, but now TV, and streaming video eat up material. Every famous magician in the world has done more than a dozen different tricks. Having … Continue reading “Know More Than Seven Tricks…”

There’s been advice that you only need to learn a few tricks and you can do those the rest of your life. Sure that may have been good advice in 1910, but now TV, and streaming video eat up material. Every famous magician in the world has done more than a dozen different tricks.


Having a background in magic and sleight of hand bailed me out of a situation last week. I went to do a trick in my show and the deck of cards I use for that trick wasn’t there. It was there when I did the early show, it was gone, and I never found it later. I was already into the trick with three people onstage. I freaked out, but then knowing tricks saved me!


How I bailed myself out was I had another deck that which I rip in half later in the show and I used that deck to do “cards across”. The method was pretty crude, just palm three cards and add them to the other stack. I then forced a three and used that for the number of cards to be moved.


The trick played well, but had I not been a magic nerd, it wouldn’t have turned out very well. That background in magic and sleight of hand is “insurance” for when things don’t go well.