Monday, September 10, 2007

Springing the Cards

Show:
Ever seen a magician spring cards from hand to hand? Sure you have! They did it on Friends (but Rachel was using a trick deck). And you always see pictures of magicians doing this. But when you try, they all seem to fall to the ground. There are some subtle secrets to doing this right. Ready to learn?
Here's how you can impress your friends.


Secret:
Hold the deck in your right hand and bend the cards so that they bow inward to your hand. Let them slide and spring off your thumb. It will sound like you flipped through the deck really quick. Your hand will go from the shape of a "c" to the shape of a swan (if you are making shadow puppets on the wall) by the time you are done.

This trick does take a lot of practice, but here's how you need to learn it:

Start off by just springing the cards. Try to keep it nice and even. Just work on this for awhile until you can kind of control where the cards are going.
Next, spring them into your left hand. But do this really close together. Practice with your left hand up against your chest as a backdrop as the cards shoot into it.
Now this is the cool part that most people don't know. Use your pinky of your left hand as a stopper. Your left hand will look like you are waving to someone, but the pinky will be pointing straight toward the cards. This works great! No one really even notices this when you do it, and it just works perfectly.
Now slowly move away from your chest with the cards.
As you get better, bring your hand further and further apart.
When you are springing the cards, start with your hands close together, move them apart, and then at the end bring them back together.


This is a fun trick, but the sound WILL get annoying while you practice to any family members, roommates, co-workers, or cellmates. This shouldn't be too much of a problem, but if you really DO have cellmates, I wouldn't suggest doing this trick.

No comments: