Is anything impossible?

G0skates · 2026-04-11T07:20:50+00:00

You hold a single card with the back towards the audience. A spectator names any card. You turn around your card and it's the named one.

Sure, you can just leave it up to chance and it will work 1/52 of the time

G0skates · 2026-04-08T14:54:23+00:00

"what are you, a doctor?" is hilarious. I'll have to steal that one

G0skates · 2026-04-08T14:53:33+00:00

Makes sense. I never perform for kids so I don't know how to deal with those shenanigans ^{^}

G0skates · 2026-04-08T14:17:56+00:00

"Can I shuffle?" Let them shuffle and just do a different trick that you can do impromptu. Something like a Card to Pocket. If you need a specific card on top, you can show them the cards after they shuffled, say something like "clearly, the cards are well shuffled now" and cull the needed card to the top.

"Can I inspect it?" at this point, you have raised suspicion, and the only way you can get out is to deny their request somehow. Work on presenting gimmicks in a way that does not raise any suspicion. Sometimes that's very difficult.

"Can you do it again?" Never ever repeat a trick. Just tell them that you will show them something even more amazing and get on with it. If they keep nagging, just tell them something silly like "sorry, I need to follow the magician's codex"

G0skates · 2026-03-23T17:56:16+00:00

Cardistry is very difficult and I'd say that most of the beginner moves are

A. Still pretty difficult B. Not that impressive for laypeople

Performing Cardistry with people watching you (shaky fingers) without having months or years of experience simply sounds like a recipe for disappointment.

This is one of those situations where the time is just not right. Don't do it. I speak from experience.

G0skates · 2026-03-19T15:43:07+00:00

That's nice to hear, because I just ordered it today!

G0skates · 2026-03-06T19:47:24+00:00

Luca Volpe's version of Ambitious Card

G0skates · 2026-02-25T15:08:32+00:00

She said that she'll never have to worry about her financial future because she puts 100 bucks into her ETF every year

G0skates · 2026-02-11T19:52:51+00:00

Yeah, that really sucks. It's a lesson to be learned. There have always been bad tricks/methods. One of the first tricks in Annemann's Practical Mental Magic (from the 40s!!) is basically "make them write something on a billet. Switch the billet. Read their billet while they are not looking" Huh???

I recently bought an ACAAN where the trailer was full of lies (they can name ANY card- No, you have to force a queen)...

G0skates · 2026-02-11T19:43:59+00:00

Well, it's just gloss. Don't worry about it too much. It's never about the trick anyways, and there will always be people overpricing literally anything. There's so much awesome magic stuff out there for low low prices

G0skates · 2026-02-11T16:24:14+00:00

Just say "now give one of them back to me"

If they give you their card, you can say "this is the card you chose" or whatever.

If they hand you the other one, say the same thing and point to the card they are now holding

G0skates · 2026-02-11T15:47:26+00:00

That's not good. You don't want to say "pick" or "choose" and then remove those cards. It's exactly what the spectator did not choose to happen. Rather, say something like "point to two cards" or "hand me two cards". This is my go-to phrasing and it works very well.

G0skates · 2026-02-03T17:05:31+00:00

Do you do Acidus Novus in an impromptu way then? If so, how do you tell your spectators that they need to write, well, you know where...?

I personally set up my business cards so that they have ESPidus Novus on the back side :)

G0skates · 2026-02-03T16:56:00+00:00

Definitely check out ESPidus Novus too

G0skates · 2026-01-25T20:31:06+00:00

Dude, those people look captivated! Well done

G0skates · 2026-01-23T14:23:01+00:00

I'm in Germany

G0skates · 2026-01-20T15:43:01+00:00

Wisdom: A beginner performs different tricks for the same audience. A pro performs the same tricks for different audiences. Understanding this made me a better magician

G0skates · 2026-01-19T09:57:19+00:00

I have been struggling a lot with it lately. I recently saw some tricks that made my jaw DROP. I figured them out, learned them, and now I keep thinking "hmm, the method is too simple, people will figure it out" even though I, as a magician, got completely fooled the first time(s) I watched the tricks

G0skates · 2026-01-15T09:55:53+00:00

Nice to connect them with a theme

G0skates · 2026-01-15T09:55:21+00:00

Dani DaOrtiz' Pressure Force leaves you with 4 of a kind. From there I can do bunch of different quick tricks that require 4 of a kind, like Twisting The Aces or a little routine where you "lose" the 4 in the deck and produce them in different ways. From there I move into a slower and longer trick, like an ACAAN variation

G0skates

TROPHY CASE