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Jeff McBride, renowned performer and one of the finest card manipulators today, teaches you the inside secrets of professional card manipulation. Routines, sleights, productions and flourishes are taught and demonstrated, along with sample routines and the sound advice that only a seasoned working professional can give. Many of these sleights and techniques have been closely guarded secrets for years- never published, but only passed on from one professional to another. With the help of Jeff McBride, you'll see exactly how these moves should look and how they are timed. You'll learn the baffling and sophisticated card manipulations you've only dreamed of performing!
(about 210 minutes)
This video was added to our catalog on March 26, 2005 in Hobbies::Stage Magic & Juggling.
Product availability: available now, ships immediately!
The Art of Card Manipulation series I found very informative and instructive. Jeff McBride clearly shows how to execute amazing card flourishes, tricks, and techniques in a clear way. If you are looking for a set of complete card tricks and flourishes I would get this! (There is a much more in the series then what is listed.) Although if you are a beginner (like me) I am not sure if this is the place to start since most of the tricks and techniques on Volumes 2 and 3 are quite hard and advanced. If you just want to get some basic cool card flourishes and tricks down I would suggest renting Volume 1. (On Volume 3 though he shows some really cool shuffles and other card tricks, like a One-Handed Shuffle.) I do have this set though and it’s really much better just to have it to watch over and over again. Overall it’s great set and I would definitely recommend it!
Excellent DVD - showing basic manipulations / shuffles & card tricks. Highly recommend.
First you loosen them up with drinks, then propose going in on some Florida real estate? No: it’s the art of doing interesting things with cards that fool and amaze the ordinary person. Of course, the ordinary person doesn’t believe there’s any magic at work here; the performer is just good at handling cards. That’s a useful skill, if you’re, say, a magician. In the workaday world you’d be surprised how seldom the subject comes up in a job interview. But if you’re one of those people who wants to be magician, and you already have the shiny satin vest and the long hair and stage name picked out – I’m going with Thumbus, The Amazing Dropper – this is for you. Let’s begin.
First we see scenes from other Jeff McBride performances; apparently he performs in Kabuki makeup. With all due respect – he is a famous Vegas-based magician who appears all over the world - he looks like a member of KISS auditioning for Riverdance, Houdini Style! Not Paul Stanley KISS, either. Peter Criss KISS. The intro is brief, though, and soon we’re learning tricks with Jeff.
The first trick: changing the color of the top card. In order to do this, you must first have another card hiding in the hand not holding the deck. Then you pass your hand over the deck, transferring the hidden card, and voila: magic. A new card, out of nowhere! It’s a basic trick. Very basic. The Dick and Jane of card manipulation. But if I tried it, I can imagine the response:
“Thank you, and for my next –“
“You had the card in your other hand.”
“What?”
“You had the other card palmed already.”
“I did not.”
“I saw it. When you picked up the deck. You cupped it. I mean, it stands to reason that even if I had no direct observation of the concealed card, that would be the obvious means by which the trick was accomplished. Unless you’re telling me that the dark necromantic arts have so much free time on their hands they assist you in pulling laminated rectangle out of the ether whenever you request.”
“Thank you. And for my next trick –“
“Trick is right; it’s just card manipulation.”
“SHUT UP! I – oh, look, you made me drop the entire deck.”
“Nice trick.”
“SHUT UP!”
Next: thumb fans. They’re an attractive way to display the cards if you’re asking a mark to make a selection. It seems easy enough. You give it a try. You learn the worst part about practicing card manipulation: 52 cards on the floor. It’s like practicing the piano, and every time you make a mistake, 88 keys fall off the instrument. And then you have to put them back together. Again.
Six tricks into this one, you might just sit back and enjoy seeing something you’ll probably never figure out how to do. Oh, he gives clear and concise instructions; you can play them over and over and over and slo-mo the tricky parts, but unless you have great manual dexterity – as well as nimble skinny fingers that make spider-legs look like bratwurst - this might be frustrating.
Then again, who cares? It’s fun to watch. After half an hour, you’re thinking: There’s no reason we have to play tricks with, but we do. Humans are cool. Can’t say whether this will give you the skills to impress the gang at parties, but it does suggest a new genre of Vegas-style entertainment: the fellow who explains baffling card tricks very slowly. No magic implied, just straight-forward instruction.
Engineers and accountants would eat it up.
