Card Magic 101: Basic Playing Card Technique
Introduction
"Pick a card, any card" are the most universally recognised words in magic, yet it often elicits an internal groan from spectators. It implies a trivial puzzle rather than a genuine mystery. But to judge card magic by this cliché misunderstands the art form entirely. A deck of cards is to a magician what a grand piano is to a musician. Just as a musician can evoke profound sorrow or joy using only a rhythmic sequence of notes, a master magician can evoke astonishment, laughter, or existential wonder using nothing more than a sequence of shuffles and sleights.
This series of lecture notes introduces the basic concepts of using playing cards to perform theatrical magic and consists of three lectures.
- Basic card technique
- Shuffling and cutting cards
- The fundamental plot of card magic
Learning Objectives
This first lecture discusses the history and uses of playing cards and basic techniques to handle cards. Before we venture into doing tricks, we need to master the basics, just like a pianist learns scales. After this lecture, you will be able to:
- Summarise the use cases, history and cultural relevance of playing cards
- Explain the three styles of handling cards
- Perform basic card handling techniques
Materials and required reading
- A pack of playing cards, such as the Bicycle brand from the US Playing Card Company (USPC)
- Close-up mat or a soft table surface
- Lessons 1 to 4, 7 and 8 of Introduction to Card Magic by Roberto Giobbi Giobbi (2019), available as PDF from lybrary.com. Supplement this ebook with the freely available Fundamental Techniques video by the author.
Suggested reading and viewing
- Read the relevant Wikipedia page about playing cards.
- Chapter 4 and 6 of the Introduction to Card Magic.
- Chapter 1 of Card College volume 1 (Giobbi, 1996).
History and Cultural Relevance of Playing Cards
Playing Cards originated in ninth century Tang Dynasty China alongside the development of woodblock printing technology. By the twelfth century, cards spread to Egypt, establishing a system with four suits (polo sticks, coins, swords, cups) and court cards. Playing cards entered Europe through Mediterranean trade routes during the Renaissance. European regional adaptations of the design quickly emerged:
- Latin suits adapted Egyptian symbols into batons, coins, swords, and cups
- Germanic suits introduced hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns
- French cards simplified designs into hearts, tiles (diamonds), clovers (clubs), and pikes (spades)
Unfortunately, the cultural diversity in designs is almost lost. The English 52-card deck with the four French suits, numbered pip cards, and three court figures (King, Queen, Jack) is now the dominant global standard. Tarot cards are a welcome exception to the uniformity of playing card design. They
The basic purpose of playing cards is, as the name suggests, to play games or to gamble. But any games that involve money will invite nefarious characters to gain unfair advantage. The cardsharp (sometimes called a card shark) is somebody who uses skill and deception to increase the chances of winning. The famous book on cheating and conjuring with cards Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase, refers to cheating with cards as "the art of advantage playing" (Erdnase, 1902). However, cheating at cards is a very different 'craft' than performing magic tricks. The punishment for a failed card trick is merely temporary embarrassment, while for a cardsharp, getting caught can have much more severe consequences (Livingston, 1973).
Besides gambling and other games, playing cards are also used for divination, mathematical education, building card castles or even as weapons. But our concern here is how to use playing cards to create the illusion of magic (Bossi, 2008; Jay, 1977). All these use cases of playing cards are possible options for scripting a magic trick and provide context to otherwise the abstract proceedings of the "pick a card" genre of magic.
Basic Card Handling
To get started, grab a pack of playing cards, your copy of Introduction to Card Magic and read lessons 1, 2, 3, and 5. These chapters introduce the tools of the trade (cards, working surface and the hands), basic shuffles and cuts and a card trick. Read the book with cards in your hand and follow the instructions.
Styles of Handeling Cards
Giobbi provides detailed instructions on how to handle and shuffle cards. But within these prescribed actions, there is a lot of room for personal style. Developing a theatrical magic act requires making some decisions about style. Three basic styles are possible for performing card magic:
- Natural
- Sloppy
- Virtuosic
Most card magic literature advocates the natural style. In this context, natural means handling the cards the way a normal player would. This preference stems from the fact that a lot of card magic originates from card cheats, whose lives could rely on remaining undetected. Canadian magician Dai (David) Vernon (1894–1992), known among his peers as "The Professor" popularised this style of magic. Vernon was inspired by S.W. Erdnase, who introduced the concept of 'uniformity of action' to the magic world (Erdnase, 1902). Uniformity of action means the magician's actions must be uniform with normal actions. When, for example, falsely shuffling cards, it should look the same as actually shuffling cards. The uniformity is not only in the movements themselves, but should also be uniform across time (rhythm and cadence) and demeanour (attitude and tension).
The sloppy style is more akin to the amateur card player who plays for entertainment rather than money. Using this style signals to the spectators that you have a lot of control over the cards. A master of this approach is Swedish magician Lennart Green (born 1941). His techniques are so deceptive that in 1988 the judges disqualified him from the world championships because they thought he used confederates to shuffle the cards. In 1991, he repeated the same act; this time, the judges shuffled the cards, and he won the first prize in card magic. To see Green at work, watch his TED Talk from 2005.
The virtuosic style positions the magician as someone in full control of the cards. This style of handling cards includes flourishes, aesthetic moves that display great skill. This presentation style is common in card manipulation where magicians produce playing cards from mid-air. The virtuosic style is arguable more magical, positioning the magician as the person who is in power over the cards.
The virtuosic style also spawned a kindred art in the form of cardistry, a performance art form that uses only flourishes without magic effects. Cardistry is a recent development and a standalone art form that has more in common with juggling than with magic.
The earlier mentioned Dai Vernon and Ed Marlo (1913–1991) are the two most influential figures in 20th-century card magic. They represented a deep philosophical divide regarding style and technique. While Vernon argued that sleight-of-hand should be effortless and mimic normal behaviour, Marlo championed technical exploration that pushed the boundaries of card control, even if the movements appeared slightly unnatural. Vernon criticised Marlo's style as overly mechanical, accusing Marlo and his followers of being "move monkeys". Marlo, in turn, felt Vernon's strict rules on naturalness restricted the craft's technical evolution.
There is no one correct answer in this famous polemic in magic. A sliding scale exists between these three styles. Using occasional flourishes while otherwise using a naturalistic style adds texture to a performance. Even within these three paradigms there are stylistic differences. When adapting the natural style there are subtle differences in speed, firmness and elegance. Which style to use is a matter of artistic choice. When learning magic, it is best to start with the natural style as this is the best starting position to later learn more advanced techniques.
Read lessons 7 and 8 in the Introduction to Card Magic for some examples of card flourishes.
Assignments
Practice this kata until all movements are smooth. Feel free to include
- Take the deck out of its case
- Square the deck in dealing position
- Give the deck one overhand shuffle
- Square the deck in elevated dealing position
- Give the deck one cut in the hands
- Cut the deck to the table and complete the cut
- Square the deck on the table
- Dribble the cards on the table and square the deck
- Cut the cards on the table
- Cut the deck from the table to the hands
- All-around-square-up
- Deal five cards face down on the table in a pile
- Deal five cards face up on the table in a second pile
- Deal one card face up and use it to scoop up the face-up pile,
- Flip this face down on the face-down pile and then place the balance on top
- Square the deck
- Give the tabled deck a riffle shuffles and square up
- Take the deck and put it back into the card case