Magic Mystery Masterclass | Card Skills

1. Introduction: Mastering cards isn't as hard as it looks. I have hand-picked a selection of basic skills for you to master from the ground up and carefully broken them down into easy-to-follow steps. By the end of this course, you'll have everything you need to start handling cards like a pro. Hello. I'm Matthew, three times Close-Up Magic champion living in Cambridge. I've been a full-time magician since leaving education, which has been an amazing ride so far. It's literally taken me all over the world. I'm also a magic examiner and highest level member of the Magic Circle in London, which is the world's most prestigious magic society. I'm a 4F attendee, which is the world's only by invitation only magic conference. Now, the reason I'm telling you all this isn't a show-off or brag. It's just to reassure you that you're learning from someone who really knows their stuff. Now that's out of the way, I can tell you that there is nothing new here. There isn't anything original, and there's no magic formula. I've learned hundreds, if not thousands of moves with cards from all over the place, over my 25 years in magic. I've consumed countless books, VHS tapes, and DVDs. In this series of videos, I'm sharing my top picks, a selection of basic moves that will set you up nicely for becoming a master with playing cards. Now, I want you to start from the ground up so that anyone new to card skills can learn something, even if they've never held a deck of cards before. I've started with some basic movements and included some more challenging moves for people with more experience. I share a selection of shuffles, cuts, spreads, spins, and even the infamous card spring, along with how to practice and some basic hand nail care so you'll know how to look after your precious digits. I've broken each movement down into detail, right down to the finger placement and pressure on the fingertips to help you learn as quickly as possible. By the end of this class, you'll have everything you need and you'll be well on your way to becoming a master with playing cards. Welcome to my mystery masterclass. This is basic card skills. 2. Cards, Surfaces, and Equipment: First up, we have the playing cards, surfaces, and equipment. Now the most important element throughout this entire course is going to be the playing cards themselves. We want to be using a high-quality playing card to enable us to do all of the moves I'm going to be sharing with you on this short course. With that in mind, you can get two size playing cards, there are bridge size and poker size. The difference is very small, however, it makes a big difference when we're trying to accomplish some of the moves. This is the poker size. I'll place the bridge size on top and you'll notice that the poker size is about half a centimeter wider than the bridge. It's not a huge difference but it gives us an advantage if we have slightly smaller hands. When I was starting out, I had smaller hands, and I used a bridge size playing card. The poker size I started using later on. I just became accustomed to using that size. It doesn't matter which is which, whatever you feel comfortable with, and whatever you can accomplish some of the moves with. If you have a deck of playing cards in your hands right now, you've gone and got from the games drawer at home and you want to measure the cards to know which size you currently have, then I can put the measurements on screen now, you can check with a ruler or a tape measure however you like. Those are the sizes. Next up is the finish of the playing cards. What the finish is, is the way the cards have been finished on the surfaces of the card itself and also how they've been made. There are slightly different ways of making playing cards. Each manufacturer has its own method. This particular card here is called a linen finish. A linen finish, a Stratus playing card, I've had these for a number of years. These are made by Cartamundi, who've actually improved in production recently. They might still sell these, but they also now sell a high-quality style playing card. But nevertheless, linen finished cards work quite well straight out of the box. You might be able to find them and spread them quite nicely. However, over time, they do degrade and they pick up dirt from the fingertips and we might not be able to do fans or spread on the table a little bit haphazard and not particularly neat. I wouldn't recommend linen finished playing cards. Next up are the plastic-coated playing cards. Now, these are particularly popular. You can get lots of different plastic-coated playing cards. These I picked up probably in a pound store or something, 99p. I think from a Tiger shop here in the UK. If you're in the States, then there might be similar versions in a Walmart or $1 store or whatever. These actually aren't too bad playing card. They fan quite nicely. They spread okay. I can just feel that they're going to get worse over time and they're going to degrade much like the linen finish. These are plastic-coated playing cards. Just to give you another example of plastic-coated playing cards is a pack I picked up from a local supermarket called Tescos. Again, same deal, plastic-coated, bridge size, however, no chance in hell I'm being able to fan or even use these cards in any serious way, so just be wary buying decks of playing cards. If they're cheap, then it might not mean the quality is particularly good. Those are the playing cards I'd recommend you avoid. The ones I do recommend you use are these. These are called Bicycle playing cards made by the United States Playing Card Company. These have something called an air cushion finish to the front and the back. It's just the way the cards have been finished in their manufacturing. We don't need to know the details of that. However, what we do need to know is that the cards are going to fan and they're going to work well against each other. They fan quite nicely. They move against each other smoothly, and e can accomplish nice neat fans that are going to be consistent time and time again. Bicycle playing cards are the way to go. You can pick up a deck for a couple of dollars or a couple of pounds. You'd get them online and I'll put a description in the link below. Those are the playing cards. Next up are the surfaces. Now, the table I'll be working with, this is a custom-built card table. Its got a high-quality base and just the right amount of padding underneath. However, when I was starting out and I wanted to do some of the table work, I found a table cloth or a carpet, or some of the soft surface that worked for me. You might want to experiment at home to find the surface that works for you. Spreading the cards, make sure it's not too bumpy, not too smooth. If you're trying to do some of the card work using a tabletop which is too slippery, like a wooden tabletop or a glass tabletop, you'll find that the cards slide all over the place and you won't be able to manage them properly. If you're really keen on learning those things and you want to take it a little step further, you can invest a little bit of money, about £20 or $25 into one of these. This is called a close-up mat. It's a magician's close-up mat for card handlers. This is one of the first mat that I ever had. It's about, wow, 15 years old, something like that. It's been well used. It's creased, it's had tape on the back. However, it still works perfectly just for practice at home. I wouldn't use this professionally, but I would use it if I was traveling, I could roll this up, throw it in my bag him and do some practice on the road. This is the close-up mat. It has a rubber backing so it doesn't slide on the surface you're working it on. The top has a soft cushiony feeling to it, and there's a little bit of give in the tabletop just so you have a nice surface to use. This particular one, I'll put the dimensions again on screen just diagonally across and you'd be able to find a similar size. This is a large close-up mat, it's what it's called, and you're able to get it at any magic store and I'll put some links in the description below as well. Alongside this mat, you might be able to notice there are some bits of lint and fluff and things like that stuck to it and that's why I recommend getting one of these. Now if you own a pet, a dog, or a cat, then you might recognize one of these. It's for getting hairs or lint off of clothing when you own a pet or if you have a suit that you haven't put on for a long while, you want to get some of the lint and the dust off it, use one of these. It's great for picking up all of the hairs and the dust, and the fluff off of the close-up mat, and you'll see as all of the hair slowly vanishes like this. Now the great thing about this particular roller, there we go, it's pretty good. The advantage of this style is you can use this over and over again. If I was to run this under a tap right now and pull up all of the fluff, it would go down the drain and then leave this to dry and it will be sticky again. I've had this for over five years and it still works. I still wash it under the tap, it dries, it's sticky again, and it's like magic. You can get some where you have a label system so you peel off a label and then become sticky, roll that up, peel that one off, another label underneath you have to buy refills for that. You can also get the combs which will comb in one direction. They can pull the fluff off in the other direction. However, this has been the most effective and has lasted well over five years, and it's particularly good. I'll leave a link in the description below for one of those. Those are the cards, surfaces, and equipment we're going to be using. The first step, we're going to be covering the terminology for this course. 3. Terminology: Next up we have the terminology, the words I'm going to be using throughout the course to describe my hands, and some of the positions I want the cards to go in. Just quick overview. Hand is made up of five digits with the thumb, the index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. The tips of the fingers are right at the tips here and each finger is made up of three segments, and these are called phalanges. There's a little bit of trivia for you there. That's pretty much everything with the hands. Next, we have the grips. Now, there are different ways to hold playing cards, but the default way of holding playing cards is called the dealer's grip. You'll notice the thumb goes along the side, the index finger is on the front, and that stops any cards falling off the front, so we put our index finger there, and we have the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger just resting lightly along the edge of the playing cards. Now we can hold these cards like a grip, like a vise, or we can hold them a little bit higher towards the fingertips. This is the position which gives us the most flexibility. Fingertips allow us to deal cards off neatly if we want to. Index finger across the front is also a very important points. If we put it over here, we can't control where the cards fall off. The index finger is at the front and the hand just holds the cards nice and loosely in natural manner. That's the dealer's grip. Next, we have the Biddle grip. I'm right-handed. The Biddle grip goes in the right hand. My two middle fingers, ring finger, middle finger go on the front, and the thumb goes on the back. You'll notice that it's slightly over to one side, so slightly over to the right side. That allows the index finger to move and do whatever it needs to do. Throughout the course, you'll see that the uses for this. There's also a side grip, which is like a Biddle grip, but it's just onto the side. Again, middle fingers on the front edge, thumb at the back, and we can move our index finger around to do various jobs if we need it to and the little finger just rests along the ring finger. Those are different grips and those are the words I'll be using for the fingers and the hands and I hope that helps later on. 4. Overhand Shuffle: First up on the shuffle list. The first shuffle I'd like to share with you is the overhand shuffle, and it looks like this. The reason it's called the overhand shuffle is because the right hand is dropping cards over the left hand. Is the overhand shuffle, the first thing is the grip. The cards are resting on the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger of the left hand like this. Quite loosely, just curled underneath. The index finger falls across the front of the cards. This is to stop the cards from falling forward. The index finger just curves round the front there like so. The thumb is just loosely placed on the top like that. That is the grip for the overhand shuffle with the left hand. It's almost like a little shelf. Needle tip is to hold the cards at about a 45-degree angle. Not too flat like this, otherwise they might fall off. That way, and not too high up, otherwise there'll be resting on the thumb too much. About 45 degrees just like this. Next is what the right hand is doing. The right hand picks up the majority of the cards from underneath the top pile, and just slowly drops off packets like this. Just small little packets at a time. The way I'm doing that is the middle fingers and the thumb are working together to open up for a second and then close up quickly. Open up for a second and then quickly close. You'll see as I open and close the middle finger and thumb, they just don't allow a few cards to get passed and then quickly stop the cards from falling any further. If I will just start keep on letting go the cards, they'll fall if one want to continuous stream. We don't want that, we'll open up for a second or two, and almost through a little packet on top of the left hand. Open and close like that in this motion. That's pushing the cards onto the top. Next is what the index finger is doing. Now, I'd normally do a shuffle, either like this with the index finger curled on top. This gives me a bit more control over the cards, or it can hold the index finger over the edge here. Just depends on how I'm feeling. I'll have more control. We can place the index finger on the side of the cards here. To stop the cards from drooping downwards like this, we can rest the index finger on the side, and may just stops the cards from falling. We can also enclose some cards down using your index finger as well. It's a bit of a feeling thing. That's the left hand and the right hand. The final thing is a pinching action with the left hand, index finger, and thumb. As I drop cards down, you'll notice my index finger and thumb just pinch together, to square up those cards, just like this. As we shuffle, we're just squaring up those cards into packets. This keeps everything nice and square and neat. We can gradually build up speed, and you'll hear me say throughout this entire course, technique over speed. Make sure that you're doing this properly. Getting the technique right and gradually the speed will come. That is the overhand shuffle. 5. Hindu Shuffle: Next up we have the Hindu shuffle. Now there are two versions of the shuffle. There's the original, the classic version, and the modern version. This is a popular shuffle in India and Asia and it looks like this. This is the classic version or the original version. The modern version is like this. There's a slight variation, but I'll teach you the classical or the original version first. This is the grip. We're going to be holding the cards in the left hand just to get the cards ready on the left-hand side of the packet with our thumb, middle fingers, and index finger. Then our right-hand comes over and re-grips with the two middle fingers on the edge furthest away, and the thumb on the edge closest to the body. Then the index finger rests on the side just here, just to stop the cards from drooping downwards. The index finger's resting on the side there. Left-hand thing comes in and it holds the cards on the top of the packet with the middle finger and the thumb. It will strip small packets away like this. As I strip a packet away, I push it downwards. Our index finger just keeps that packet square. The index finger is important to keep it in front of the pack here to stop any cards falling of our hand like that. That once again, hold the packet, middle fingers and thumb, index finger rests on the front, stripping small packets away with our middle finger and thumb. Our index finger stops the cards from falling away from the front of the cards. Finally, as I'm returning my right hand or my left hand to my right hand, there's a chance that some cards can fall of going this way as well. What stops that from happening is my little finger, so middle finger just grips down on these cards as my middle finger and index finger grab another packet, then let go, underneath it the little finger re-grips, stops the cards from going anywhere. Lets go. Re-grip. Let go. You can just hold the cards at an angle like this, so you don't need to use your little finger. Or if you want to move your hands a bit more perpendicular like this, then the middle finger is there to stop cards falling, just like that, difficult to do when instructing and at slow speed. That is the original of a classic way to do the Hindu shuffle. The other way, which is a way magicians have developed, I believe, for other uses which I won't go into in this video, but slightly different grip with the right-hand. The same with the left, but the right hand just turns itself upside down and as a side grip, almost like a side middle grip with our middle finger, ring finger on the edge first away, thumb on the edge closest to us. We're just stripping cards away like this. Notice how the cards are almost at a right angle to our middle fingers. It's almost at a right angle there. It's the same motion. Middle finger and thumb with the left-hand, pulling off small packets, stopping any card slipping with the index finger. The little finger's re-gripping as the packets get secured into the left hand. That is the original. This is the modern Hindu shuffle. 6. Table Riffle Shuffle: Next up we have the table riffle shuffle, which looks like this. Once again, the table riffle shuffle like that. The first thing we do is we cut the cards roughly in half. Doesn't need to be perfect. Take a few more cards there roughly in half like this. Next part is the grip. Now the thumbs come in on the sides, the middle fingers, ring fingers, and little fingers on the front edge, and index finger pushes the cards through the thumb and the middle fingers and little finger, and this just squares the cards. What I mean by squaring the cards is when the cards are messy, you can square them to be neat. We're just doing this with one hand. Cut the cards into two piles. We can square the cards by squeezing with our fingers, index finger pushes through and that finally squares them up like that. That's the first step. The second step is the riffle itself. Now, a misconception of this is we're using the tip of the fingers and some people try and riffle cards like this, using the tips of the fingers perpendicular to the edge of the card like this. It's the wrong technique. The right technique is to use the side of the thumb like this. This is how to get a really good riffle, even riffle. What I mean by an even riffle is we can hear every individual card falling off of the thumb. What it shouldn't sound like is this. Almost like small packets falling off. That's the wrong technique. You should be able to hear a fluid mice riffle like that. To practice that, we split the deck into two piles. We then squeeze and square. Now my thumb is in contact with the table. My index fingers and the tips of my middle fingers and little finger are also in contact with the table. My thumbs are going to riffle upwards. My index fingers rest and curl on top of the packs and they're pushing downwards just ever so slightly to cause the thumbs to do this. If my index fingers aren't there, I can still do it. Not quite as controlled. My index fingers can just help with that, controlling the riffle. We practice this riffle like so. The next part is to put those moves together. We hold the cards like this and they slowly interlace with each other. That's the shuffle. We have the split, the square, the riffle. Let me just push them through. Once again, we split the cards, riffle them into each other, and we ought to get a fairly even distribution. It must go one from the right, one from the left, one from the right, one from the left, and so on and so forth. The more even the shuffle like this, and the better shuffled they will be. This helps us later on as well with the bridge or the waterfall finished with the in the hands shuffle. We want to practice the cards falling off of the thumbs evenly and distributing the cards like this. As best we can. Doesn't need to be perfect. But as best we can. That is the table riffle shuffle. 7. Riffle Shuffle: Next up, we have been in the hands riffle shuffle with the waterfall finish. It looks like this. It sounds lovely, it looks lovely, and it's a shuffle that everybody sees in the movies and they really want to learn. This shuffle can be broken down to three parts. The first is the get ready, the second is the riffle and the shuffle, and the third is the waterfall finish. The first thing is the grip. We're going to be holding the cards almost in a biddle grip, but we're going to use the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger at the front of the pack just here. The thumb is at the back of the pack, and the index finger is curled on the back of the cards. It's going to push on the cards like this, to cause a bit of a bend or a bow in the cards as the cards fall off of the thumb. Cards are held like this, almost parallel with the thumb. We're going to be riffing the cards off of the thumb of the side of the thumb. So remember we're not riffing them off the tip of the thumb. Off the side of the thumb like this. I'm pushing against the heel of my thumb just here. My index finger pushes against each other, so my thumb is pulling and my index finger is pushing. That allows the cards to fall off nice and fluidly like this. That's the first part. The left hand has the cards fall against the fingertips, and this is ready for the cards to come up and catch the packet like that. So we riffle about half the cards here. The right hand comes up as the left hand goes down, they get pivoted upwards and caught by the thumb. So that once again, cards get riffle off about halfway, pivot up onto the thumb. My index finger taps the front side and my little finger taps the inside. This is the square of the cards again. So once again, half divided up, square. Now, if you're having a bit of trouble getting the cards to come upwards and they're falling all over the place, then there is a little bit of a trick you can do, which is you can riffle half the cards off, use the thumb just to steady the cards to this point and then as the cards move upwards, you can quickly move the thumb to the top. So that once again, riffle off half, use the thumb to grip just here, pivot up and quickly move the thumb to the top. That's another way you can do that. So then I square the cards with the index fingers on the front, little finger on the back. Again, next is the shuffle or the riffle, actually. So we're going to hold the cards, we're going to re-grip them in a slightly different grip like this. The way we do that, we riffle half the cards off up to this point, we square. My thumb is going to readjust just so the cards lie parallel. My little finger joins my ring finger, and I just pull the cards inwards with my ring finger, little finger, and middle finger. So now they're almost parallel with my thumbs, just here, the edges of the cards parallel. This is quite a tight grip with these fingers. They're holding quite tight. My thumbs are quite tight at the top and my index finger can either be curled or it can be straight on the edge of the cards. But then we're going to cause this bow again. This is what builds up the tension and allows us to riffle the cards like this. So we can curl the index finger behind or we can have them straight outwards and push down like that, whatever is your preference. As we do the riffle, we're going to riffle the cards together like that. So once again, half the cards, pivot up, square. We're going to put our little finger down the bottom, squeeze those cards in, and our thumbs at the top edge, top corner of the cards almost parallel. Index finger pushing. The riffle happens here. We're going to practice first just getting this riffle right. They should sound like a fluid riffle, like this. It shouldn't sound like this. Sounds quite clunky. Sounds a little bit more fluid. Once you've practiced the riffle, we then want to cards to interlace as evenly as possible. What I mean by that is every other card interlaces on top of each other. What we don't want is to have three cards or five cards in between one card and have chunks of cards because that leaves extra cards on top of one of the packets and it makes for a messier and less pretty shuffle. So once again, half the cards up, down, shuffle. The last part is the bridge. With the bridge, if we finish with some cards on top of the right pile, we'll push those over and the left thumb joins the right thumb like this. Now, this stops from happening, if we don't do that, the cards will unlock. So if you're experiencing the shuffle, you get to this point and then you're trying to do the bridge and they unlock, you can stop that by pushing over a small packet of cards like this. That just locks the cards in. The thumb pushes over until it reaches the middle. The left thumb goes next door, and that stops the cards from unlocking. So we're holding those cards down. The fingers underneath are holding the cards like this. They're gripping the cards quite tight, and it's the wrists opening up. So rather than the fingers trying to bend, just open up your wrists, and that will help bow the cards outwards. As we straighten all of our fingers but leave our thumbs in place, it'll allow the cards to drop. That is the bridge or the waterfall finish. Once again, pushover, thumb joins, open up the wrists, and release the fingers like that. Difficult to do slowly. One final thing actually is also how deep we shuffle the cards together. If you watch, if I try and shuffle these cards quite deep within each other, and what I mean by that is the cards are interlaced with each other by about an inch just here. If I spread these like this, you'll see how deep they are into each other. If we try and do the bridge while the cards are that deep, it's not as impressive. Whereas if we keep that shallow, and interlock the cards maybe half a centimeter or a centimeter, something like that, just here, then we do the bridge, we have a lot more control, sounds better, and it looks better. So that's another little tip there. Push those cards over like that. So that is the in the hands riffle shuffle with a waterfall finish. Have fun. 8. Rapid Swing Cuts - FULL: It looks like this. It's quite satisfying cut and it looks nice in the hands. It looks really efficient and quite solid. The way that it works is we start off with the standard dealer's grip. Then we use the right-hand, we come over in a Biddle grip. So that's the middle fingers on the front, the thumb on the back. Next, the index finger is free to move around it. We're going to utilize that by peeling off about half of the cards with our index finger. we're holding between the middle fingers and the thumb, fingertips, the index finger then picks up about half the cards and pushes them out to one side like this. But if an hacky thing to do, if you're handling cards for the first time. But with that little bit of practice you'll be able to get there quite quickly. Index finger pulls upwards and off to the side. Next, the left hand grips the cards between the thumb and the index finger. It's almost in the crutch of the thumb just here. Again, better grip. We kick over half the cards, they get taken in the crotch of the thumb. The left hand, that's the cards down. We throw on top. Once again, swivel over, grip throw on top. Swivel over, grip, throw on top. That is the swivel cotton. Now, there's an addition to this which is called the rapid cuts. The rapid cuts looks like this. Once again, it's basically a swivel cut which has been repeated over and over again. This is how I like to cut the cards. I think it looks quite efficient and quite impressive, the speed at which the cards are moving. It's the same thing but this time we're peeling off smaller packets of cards. We're re-gripping every time. We're re-gripping with the thumb and the index finger of the left hand. That once again, first one comes over between thumb and index finger. Second one, this thing goes into the hand like this. Second one comes over as I'm holding these cards down with my ring finger and little finger, my index finger and thumb come over to grab a second packet. They go down. Index finger re-grips, re-grips, re-grips. Eventually we can speed this up. You see the index finger and thumb working together to take those cards off. At the same time, the ring finger and little finger. I'll regrouping around the cards, I guess from the index finger and the thumb, ring finger and little finger re-grip. Index finger can move, ready to take the next packet. The grip. Ready to take the next one. As you speed this up, it looks quite impressive. That is the rapid swivel cuts. 9. One Handed Cut: We have the one-handed cut or the Charlier cut, which looks like this. Just like that. The way this works, the grip we're holding at fingertips, so you have the middle finger and the ring finger on the far right edge, the little finger on the inner edge, index finger on the furthest edge, and the thumb on the left side edge. Held quite high at fingertips, we're then going to hold the cards at a 45-degree angle, just like this. Next, we point our thumb, and we're going to release the grip between the index finger and the little finger just here. That allows the bottom section of cards to drop down. We'll do that once more. Hold the cards like this. Thumb points downwards and we release the grip between the little finger and the index finger. That allows the cards at the back to drop downwards. Next, is our index finger, curls underneath this packet and pushes upwards until it meets the thumb at the top. That once again, holding the cards at fingertips, nice and square, 45-degree angle, thumb points. Let me release the grip between the little finger and the index finger. Index finger curls underneath, pushes up until it meets the thumb. Now it's going to keep on pushing and the thumb lets go of its packet, allows the cards to meet the index finger underneath here. The index finger then curls back down and completes the cut. Once again, holding the grip, release, index finger curls underneath, pushes up, the thumb let's go, and the index finger just curls underneath. You might find you need to stretch your hands a little bit. If you use thinner bridge cards, it might be a little bit easier as well. But a bit of practice and a bit of stretching with your hands, you'll be cutting the cards with one hand in no time. If you're feeling like a little bit of a challenge or you want to try something a bit extravagant, you could learn to do this in both hands. You can do this, which looks really pretty and it's quite eye-catching. All that's happening is I'm ruffling off about half the cards into the right hand. You have a packet in each. We do the Charlier cuts in each hand, and then we just spin the cards right back over. It's very similar to this get ready with the riffle shuffle, but we're just going sideways instead, rolling over, doing that cut, and then rolling right back again, just gripping the cards between the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger as you roll them back. That is the double-handed, one cut or the Charlier cut. 10. Card Fan: Next up we have the card fan. It looks like this. Once more like this. The first thing to note before we can do the fan is to make sure we are using a good-quality deck of cards. Up until this point, we should be able to do all of the shuffles with any pack of cards within reason. However, once you start getting into the fans and the spreads, we need to have a good quality pack of cards which is relatively new. This is really old and it's got blackened edges, then we might find these moves quite difficult. Just a heads up there. The first thing we need to do is to work out the grip. With the left hand, we're going to pinch the cards in the bottom right corner with the thumb, on the back of the cards. Underneath we have the middle finger, index finger, and ring finger, all squeezing against the thumb. That is the grip right there. The little finger is just that next to the ring finger, it doesn't really do anything, but it's just supporting the ring finger here. That is the grip for the fan in the left hand. Left-hand grip, bottom-right corner. Next is what the right-hand does. Now, the first thing is it squares the cards between the index finger, middle fingers, and little finger, and then it cocks the cards backwards, ready to then fan. It's almost the get ready position. So we got the cards here, it cocks the cards backwards, and then it fans the cards. Now, the squeezing action between the thumb and the middle fingers causes this pivot point, this is where the cards are going to spin around. The only job we now need to do is to get the cards to evenly fan. This happens with speed and a good-quality deck of cards. The faster we fan the cards, the more evenly spread and the prettier they will look. We squeeze the cards here, we cock the cards back, and as we fan the cards, the pushing action downwards with the left-hand index finger, there's an upwards pushing from the left-hand. side right hand is pushing down with the index finger, left hand is pushing upwards. It causes a slight bow just for a second of those cards. I'm pushing down and then I slowly release. Slow-motion, I'm pushing down quite hard, I'm slowly releasing the pressure for my index finger, as the cards slowly get fan down like this. Again, very difficult to do slowly, much easier to do quickly. That is the two-handed fan. One other to consider is if you are using slightly old cards, there's something called a pressure fan, which I won't go into detail in this video. However, you might find it useful to know that if we're squeezing with our thumb and our index finger, ring finger, and middle finger, if we push the cards slightly over the left index finger, almost like a Boeing action like this, you can help distribute the cards more evenly. If you push downwards with a bit more pressure and the right type of cards, it can help get an even fan when the cards are a little bit more worn or used. That's a little bit of a tip there for you, but that is the two-handed fan. 11. Double Fan: Next up is the double fan. It looks like this. That is the two-handed double fan. The way that works is we're going back to the riffle shuffle technique, where we divide the pack into two equal halves. We're going to do the squaring action. This time, the thumb goes down, this is quite a quick action, the thumb moves down into the bottom corners. The right hand goes to the bottom right corner, left hand goes to the bottom left corner. We're going to squeeze between the ring finger and the thumb, move all of our fingers to join back here. I'm still squeezing between the ring finger and the thumb. Then we squeeze the cards in a fanning action and without the cards, it would look like this. That's the action we're looking for. Underneath the cards I'm holding quite tightly like this, the ring finger is opposite the thumb, and I'm pushing with my thumb, I'm pulling in with my fingers, and that causes this fan action. That once again, with the cards in play, we riffle the cards into halves and fan. Try and get that again a little bit slower. Square, the thumb goes into the bottom corner, keeping your finger squares quite quick movement, and then we fan. Again, speed helps with this, but remember technique over speed. We want to try and make sure that we've got our finger square, we can roll our thumbs down, and then quickly fan the cards like that. Once again, split the deck into two. Square them either on the table or we can square them in our hands like this, holding the cards in this kind of a grip. We got the middle fingers on the outer edge, little fingers on the bottom, index finger on the top edge, just hold the thing square. Our thumb finds the bottom corner and quickly the thumb squeezes the ring finger, index finger, and all the other fingers move the back and we do the fanning action all in one motion. At full speed, it's like this. That is the two-handed double fan. 12. Finger Spin: Next up, we have the card spin, and that looks like this. That is the card spin. This is the first card spin I learnt, and I don't think I was ever formally taught it. I think I saw somebody do it on a magic video, and I decided to try and figure it out for myself. This is how it works. The cards are slightly beveled to start off with. They're beveled over to one side. Our right hand then puts the middle finger on the top-right edge, and the thumb on the bottom right edge. Just like this. It holds the cards quite tight between those two fingers. All the cards are squared, slightly beveled. Next, the index finger is going to peel a card downwards like this, it's peeling the card downwards. It scrapes its nail across the card underneath. The fleshy part of the tip of the finger pulls the card down until it can start scratching the card underneath with it's nail. Now, if your index finger nail is too long, you might find this difficult to do. It might be worth filing your nails, and there'll be a section on that at the end of this course if you're unsure how to do that. But for the time being, I'll assume that the fleshy part of your index finger can pull a card down, and it scratches the back of the card underneath. Once you can do that, the index finger is then going to pull itself downwards in this direction. It's coming down across the card. As it comes across, the card will just ping off of the pack, like that. It just pings off of the pack. I'll slow this down so you can see what's happening, but it's slides off of the nail over the card. We pulled down with a fleshy part of the index finger, we then scratching the back of the card underneath of the nail as we curl our index finger inwards. It then uses its nail to slide against the top card to allow it to spring off like that. As we speed that up, there's a rhythm to it. But that's just the case of learning how to catch those cards. You can play around with the angle of your hand. If you move upwards, it goes more backwards. Whoops. As you can see, play around with the angle and the position of your hand that you should be able to find an angle where you're catching the cards with regularity. There we go. Also to notes, as the cards get thinner and thinner, it takes a little bit of a different pressure on the hands. It might find it a little bit harder. If you practice with about half of the pack and take that half, put it back together again, and practice again. You'll be springing cards from the top of the pack in no time. That is the card spin. Now, two things I forgot to mention while teaching the card spin, the first one is to have the card slightly bowed upwards like this. This helps with the index finger to remove individual cards and they naturally bend upwards like this. If the cards are bowed downwards, then it's a lot harder for the index finger to peel those cards, it has to go through a lot more effort. By just bowing the cards upward slightly allows the index finger to peel those cards off for that spin. The second thing I forgot to mention is to get the card being spun to get a bit more height, you can just move your hand upwards in time with the spin. I can help get a bit more height to add a bit more spin on the card. There you have it. I hope that helps. 13. Thumb Spin - FULL: Card spin number two, slightly different technique that looks like this. That is card spin number two. The way it works is slightly different from the first one. This is using the built-up tension in the thumb and the grip is very unique as well. The first thing we'll cover is the grip. I'm holding the cards between the ring finger, the middle finger, and the index finger. This is the group that I'm holding them. It's quite a tight grip. My little finger assists the ring finger like this. It's being held quite tight. Notice how the tip of my middle finger is almost over the face of the cards and pulls inwards quite tight. Everything is being held really tight so they can't move anywhere. Next is where the thumb is positioned. Now the thumb goes in the bottom right corner just down here. The thumb pushes against the middle finger. The middle finger is a little bit lower the middle and it pushes against. I'm squeezing against my thumb back here in order to build up tension which I'm going to release in an upward motion with the thumb. Now the thumb moves in almost a C motion like this, C motion. But before it does that, it needs to build up the tension that it can then release and that causes the card to spin up suddenly. The way that works is I squeeze tight between my middle finger and my thumb. My thumb is going to move in this direction quickly releasing pressure from the card. It squeezes and as it moves, it releases tension like this. It squeeze really tight, and as it moves upwards, it releases tension. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, then it releases. What happens is the card is being pushed up against the index finger, which then causes it to spin upwards like this. That is the second spin. Again, as the cards get thinner and thinner, it becomes a little bit different to manage the grip. If you're struggling again, put the cards back together, find that grip, and continue practicing. You might want to practice with how quickly the thumb moves, how much pressure you are using, but also to get a bit more height just move that hand upwards like this. I encourage even more height with that spin. That is the second way to spin a single playing card. 14. Spread and Turnover: Next, we have the spread and turnover, and it looks like this. The first thing is the grip. We start in the dealer's grip with the left hand. The right hand comes over and we're doing a biddle grip, but we're using the three fingers, so the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. The thumb is at the back and the index finger is going to go on the side of the cards just here. This is really important. The index finger just rests on the side of the cards. One last thing is the cards have a bevel in them. The bevel is just where the cards aren't completely square, but they're pushed over slightly. You can see the slanting action just here. These are beveled playing cards. There's a slight angle in them. Slight angle on the cards held between the middle finger, ring finger, and little finger, thumb on the back, index finger across the side of that bevel. Next, we're going to apply pressure to the table. Now, the surface does matter in order to get this even. You can sometimes do this on a glass or a wooden table top. It's very difficult, but sometimes it can be done. I'd recommend using a filter top like this, or a tablecloth or a fine towel, or if you can get hold of a close-up mats that we showed earlier on, it would be perfect for this work. Once you've got your hand in this position, I'm holding quite tight between my thumb, middle finger, and ring finger. Not really tight, but just fairly firm. The index finger, it's going to push downwards into the table. In fact, the whole hand pushes downwards and the arm is going to move to the side. Now, as I push down on the cards, my index finger is allowing the cards to fall off in a uniform fashion. If my index finger wasn't there, they don't fall quite so neatly. My index finger is needed in order to divide these cards up evenly. That's why the finger rest across the edge and the tip of the finger, slowly straightens the further along I get. The further along I get, my index finger straightens. My hand pushes down into the table, push, push, push until it's almost flat at the end. That once again, we get the grip, index finger, the bevel. I'm pushing downwards, downwards, downwards slowly until literally is just my index finger and middle finger that are pushing against those final cards. That's how to get that spread. Now, you can experiment with the speed and the arch or the size of the arc. Like this, play around with the pressure, push harder, push softer, and just play around with the speed until you find a bit of a groove. Again, it's quite a gentle motion, it's not too cagey. That is the spread. Now, there is another version of the spread that you can experiment with, which goes the opposite direction. That comes off of the middle finger. So the way that works, is we're holding the deck in the side grip, almost like a side biddle grip. But the middle finger's on the front edge, thumb on the back edge, the index finger pushes down on the top, and the cards are held almost like this, right at the fingertips. These are in contact with the table as well. Now, as the cards are pushed down, the ring finger and middle finger are pushing downwards and allowing the cards just to fall off. They're doing the same job that the index finger does in the opposite direction, but they're just coming off the back edge like that. That once again, middle finger is on the front edge, thumb on the back, index finger on the top, tips of the fingers are just about in contact with the table, the very tiny tips of the fingers and thumb, and we push down with all of our fingers and index finger. There's the spread that's me pushing quite hard. Just do a slow spread as I'm explaining this. If I loosen up a little bit and go little bit faster; like a wider spread like that. You can either go in this direction of the index finger. If you want to go in the opposite direction, you can spread of the middle finger like that. Next, is the turnover. After we've spread the cards out, we can pick up the end of the cards and they can roll across our index finger, and they can be scooped up like that. If we're spreading from right to left, we'd pick up from the right, spread over to the left and then scoop up like that. If we're spreading from left to right, we pick up from the left, we've over and scoop. If I slow that down a little bit. After we spread out the cards like this, we then pick up from this edge. The side of the thumb isn't just going to carry that on. It's quite loose, I'm not pushing too hard. But I just pause the cards along, it'll naturally just follow almost like dominoes, and we catch the cards underneath with our fingers and scoop. Now, once again, spread the cards, pick up and scoop like that. You can also have a play with this by picking up from here, pushing the cards down like this, and allowing the cards of fall. Another cool thing you can do, is take a playing card from underneath, like this, and using a playing card to scoop the cards. Finally, if you're feeling really adventurous, you can take one playing card from each end, move some cards over this direction, and then at about midway, you can play with the cards like this. That's quite a fun thing to do. The way we do that, you spread the cards out, we take a card from each end. This hand moves these up into the turnover. The right hand just comes over and finds the right point to pull in the opposite direction. It's a bit of a knack, you have to find the right point on the turnover, but once you've found it, it's a bit of a play, like that. Is the spread and turnover. If you are into doing the turnover moves, I suggest using a straighter line in order to get this move to happen a bit more consistently. You have a bit more control than the semicircle from earlier on. That is the spread and turnover. 15. Card Pirouette: Next up, we have the card pirouette , which looks like this. So the card is spinning on the middle finger. It's a great little thing to do and it feels quite fun once you get the knack of it. Takes a bit of practice a little bit of trial and error trying to find the right spot and the right motion. But once you get it, it's really good fun and it's really good piece of eye candy for an anyone that's watching. So the way this works, it's again, very knacky, but I'll do my best to describe this. So the middle finger is the pivot point, so that's where the card is spinning on top of. The thumb is pulling the cards downwards. So it's pulling down to encourage the spinning action just here. Underneath the card the index finger is helping with the thumb. So they're almost pinching the card and it's going to pinch and then let go quite quickly. The middle finger, I don't know if you can see that, but it pushes against the index finger. So as the card gets pulled round by the index finger and the thumb, the middle finger is pushing in the opposite direction and this encourages the spin. So it's almost like a running man action happening underneath the card like this. So the thumb pulls backwards with the index finger, pulling along with it. So again, it's pulling along like this. You might want to adjust where the card is. So if you're finding it's not spinning evenly, then just move your middle finger towards the center of the card and find the right orientation of your wrist and your hand. I have mine kind of a 45 degree angle like this. The palm of my hand goes round, and this is how I find it most comfortable. You might want to play with where the orientation of your hand is and where the card rests on the middle finger. Again, the thumb and the index finger work in tandem to pull the card around the middle finger and the middle finger pushes in the other direction to get that spin motion. Just like this. If I can get underneath my hand, I'm not sure if this is capturing it but like this. Very difficult to do at this angle. Hopefully I can slow this down so I can capture that movement. But once you get it, you can then give a bit of a movement which helps the card spin for a little bit longer on the finger and eventually you'll be spinning cards on your middle finger and having lots of fun with that and that is the card pirouette. 16. Card Spring: Next up is the card spring and it looks like this. Just like that. The first thing is the grip. We're starting in dealer's grip, and we are positioning the cards into the right hand, and the way they go is diagonally across here with the thumb and between the middle finger and the ring finger, they're resting on this little gap here. That's where that corner goes, and then the thumb takes the other corner, just like this. That is the grip. Now, to help with this move, we're going to push down with our left hand as we squeeze the cards, and that causes this concave, just like this. This helps us with the spring, it stores the energy almost like a coiled spring. We're going to allow the cards to fall off using that stored up energy. Now, if I keep on doing this in slow motion, then eventually the cards will bow and they'll get worn and worn and worn. Occasionally I'll turn the cards the opposite direction, and spring them in the other way just to utilize the shape of the cards. I can push against the opposite side so they don't get too worn. If that happens to you and you feel that the cards are really bent, just flip them the other way or turn in the opposite direction and that can help give you a new revived life in the playing cards. This takes a little bit of practice and it's quite a bit of a knack, but as soon as you get it, it's really good fun. The grip, again, to the middle finger and ring finger on the far top right corner thumb on the bottom left corner, top down. This is what it should look like underneath, we then push inwards with the left hand and we're holding the cards in this position, it takes quite a lot of hand strength to do this. I appreciate that, but once you practice enough with playing cards, the muscles in your hands will get stronger and stronger, and yes, you'll be able to do this in no time. This is the grip. Next to note is the cards are falling off of the tip of the thumb just like this. They're falling off the tip of the thumb. The way that happens is I'm squeezing with the middle finger and the ring finger, and I'm pushing downwards with these two fingers as I open. I'm opening up the thumb ever so slightly as I push down with the middle finger and ring finger, my thumb is going to open just slightly to allow those cards to be released. Very difficult to do in slow motion, but hopefully you'll be able to follow along. Middle finger and ring finger are holding quite tight. They're pushing down towards the thumb and the thumb is just opening up, and the cards fall off the edge of the thumb. As the packet gets thinner and thinner, the spring becomes a little bit easier. My thumb slowly straightens out like this, so it starts quite coiled and this slowly straightens out as these fingers push down. That move once again. Now, the grip is between the middle finger and ring finger and the thumb, remember bowing inwards with our hand like this. Our hand is held at a 45 degree angle like this. It's not from straight above and it's not from right to the side like this. It's about a 45 degree angle. Finally, the way we catch the cards is in a cradle with our left hand, like this. Once again, like a cradle. What I mean by that is as we spring the cards, there will be a certain direction. My hand is being held not directly above my left hand, but directly above an almost if there was a clock face here, 12 o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock, and nine o'clock. Our hand comes up through the middle, and then goes over towards the one, two o'clock position, and the card will spring back towards the middle. We hold the cards up directly above, move towards two o'clock, and the cards will spring roughly in that direction. The cradle of the left hand, we want the little finger to pull upwards like this, the thumb comes up to the side and the index, middle, and ring finger are just there to support and catch cards. The reason we put our little finger here and our thumb here is so cards can fall against it and they can't fall behind the hand like that, so that they're just to catch the cards here, and likewise, the thumb's there to avoid the cards falling over like this, and it catches the cards. The grip is between the middle finger and the ring finger and the thumb. We can use our index finger to support this spring to make it a bit of a stronger grip. My little finger just pushes against my ring finger here to support that. This is quite a tight and secure grip. The thumb slowly opens up and you'll get the spring to happen like that. Eventually, you'll be able to move your hands further and further apart, and it's a timing thing. Once you can get a bit of distance, it becomes like this. We start springing and then back together. Notice how I can spring between the middle finger and the ring finger. There's also a version of springing which uses that little finger, it's very similar. However, the corner of the card rests between the ring finger and little finger this time. Just here, all the other fingers are pushing downwards and the cards are still released off the thumb, but there's just a pushing action from the little finger and the ring finger instead. It's a bit more of a straighter spring and sometimes it's a bit more of a direct and even spring. But it all comes down to personal preference, and I tend to prefer to spring between the ring finger and the middle finger here. But I thought I'd show the other variation just in case you give that a try and you find that works more comfortably for your hands. That is the card spring. 17. Practice Tips: Now you know how to shuffle, cut, and spin cards. You're well on your way to becoming a verified card ninja. But how can you practice to become a little bit better, a little bit quicker? Well, there are two things I can recommend. The first is to carry a pack of cards with you absolutely everywhere. Pop one in your bag or in your pocket, so when you have a spare five minutes, you can get the cards out and have a bit of a practice. The next thing I'd say is that regular practice, 5, 10, 15 minutes a day is better than trying to carve out a few hours every week. Lastly, if you put a pack of cards next to the sofa, next to your bed, and next to your computer every time you want to have a bit of a break, or if you're watching TV or watching a movie, you can just have a deck of cards in your hands and you can be playing and building those connections with your hands to your brain. It's almost like hand-eye coordination, but without looking. This will actually build up more of a connection between your mind and hands. As you're learning these moves, they become second nature, even quicker. Those are two things that have helped me get better with playing cards. 18. Hand & Nail Care: Next is just a little word on nail and hand care. Now as a magician, I'm having to look after my hands, my fingers, or my nails to make sure they're looking their best at all times, There's nothing worse than looking at somebody handling something, and that is the thing people are supposed to be looking at, and the hands and the nails a little bit grubby, they're a little bit torn, and they look sore. I used to be a nail biter. I now take care of my hands because of my profession. It took a lot of hard work and dedication as a teenager working through this, but now I look after my hands, and I take pride in my hands. There are two things that I do to keep my hands in good nick. The first thing is to get hold of a nail or manicure set. You can pick up something like this online. I'll put a link to one on Amazon below if that's helpful. It comes with nail clippers or cuticle cutter or lots of different pieces. The three things that I use the most are these. We have a metal nail file. You can also get ones that are made of a glass and you can also get ones which have almost like a sandpaper, some with bits of rubber attached, all sorts of things. But I think a metal nail files, these has lasted me for a number of years now. I've not had to do anything with it and it still files my nails perfectly. So that's the nail file. The next thing are these two implements and they have the same job. What they do is they push back the cuticle of the finger. Now the cuticle is that a little bit of skin that joins the skin of the thumb to the nail of the thumb. What can happen is this skin can attach itself to the nail and then it pulls up the nail as the nail grows, which then causes the skin on the tops of the fingertips to rip and tear. Now this can also be encouraged with constantly washing hands. You get dry hands that can cause this skin to tear and also cold weather can cause it as well. As you can see on my index finger here, there's a bit of a tear that's just repairing at the moment. The way to prevent this is to take this little implement here and to push back the cuticle of the nail, and this will stop the skin up here from tearing in the future. It's something that you just have to keep on top of? Something that I do perhaps once or twice a week, something like that, just to keep on top of this and stop that skin from climbing up the nail. Just like this. You can also soak your hands in warm water just to loosen up this skin. That helps with this process. Now as you push this skin back, what you might get, which I haven't found just yet, but it's a layer of thin skin still attached to the nail. That is when the next implement comes in handy. I'll just finish this one off. I don't know what the names of these things are. That's where this one comes in handy, which is like a little tiny spoon, like little scoop. This can just push back any pieces of skin, which have attach themselves to the nail. It's quite a sharp implement. So you don't want to push too hard, but it just scrapes away a little layer of skin which can attach itself to the nail. This is how I maintain my fingers and I stop them from tearing. If you're a nail biter, you can sometimes be encouraged to bite the skin around the nails as well, trying to avoid all of that at all costs and start looking after your hands. As soon as you start taking pride in your hands, people will enjoy looking at them and you won't mind people looking at them as you're doing all of the skills that you're learning on this course. Those are the implements. Finally, one of the biggest things you can do with your hands is to moisturize them. This isn't a particularly special moisturizer, is just a gift I received. Any moisturizer will do. But all you need is a small amount just here and we rub it in to the backs of our fingers and we just share it among both hands. What this does Is keeps the skin supple, keeps it from cracking, especially if you're a tradesman or using your hands in your job or you're a cleaner or having to wash your hands frequently. Just make sure that your fingertips are moisturized across the backs of the fingers here. Make sure the cuticles are moisturized. You can do is before bed, and maybe when you get back from home, do it once or twice a day and it will really help improve the health and the look of your hands and nails. Ready to shelf those skills with playing cards. 19. Project & Outro: Well done. You've made it to the end of this class. We've gone through a variety of different moves. We've gone through shuffles, cuts, spreads, fans, and spins. You should now be right on your way to becoming a master with playing cards. Now there is a project to follow, and that is for you to record yourself performing at least one of the card skills that we've learned together and posting them in the project section down below. I really look forward to seeing those videos coming in. This is actually the first-ever Skillshare class that I've put together. I hope you've enjoyed my approach and I hope you've found my teaching style easy to follow. If you did, then please can you leave me a review, it really helps me out and helps other people find these videos. Also, give my profile here on Skillshare a follow and you'll be the first to find out when my next class gets released. I'm planning on making some more of these. This is really fun. If you've enjoyed spending time with me, you like my content and my style, then you can check out my YouTube channel. I post videos about being a professional magician on there. If you'd like to find out what that's like, then go give that a follow. If you'd like to find out more about magic, cards, and performance confidence, then sign up to my newsletter where I send out tips and tricks on those things. Finally, I encourage you to play with everything that I've taught on this course, was for my hands, your hands will be slightly different so do play with the pressure, the way you hold the cards and just see where the boundaries are and see what works for you. I really hope you've enjoyed this. I've had really good fun making it. I'll see you in the next one in a bit.