If you could only use one sleight of hand technique for the rest of your life, which one would it be. This is the magician’s version of “What would you take to a desert island,” type question. If you were only allowed to do one sneaky move which would you pick?

I thought about this a lot. And I think that I’d take the force over anything. That’s right, I’d take the classic force over any other move. Why? Well, it’s not a move for one thing. It’s more of an attitude. A subtle way of influence over what is seemingly free choice.

If you can influence someone selecting what you want them to then you can recreate lots and lots of interesting plots. The knowledge of that card and whatever is written on it could be revealed in thousands of different ways.

The interesting thing for me is, when using the classic force, it feels more like real magic to me. It’s natural and there’s nothing to hide. With the simple knowledge of that card you can do impossible things.

 If I could only practice one sleight for the rest of my life I would definitely pick the Pass. It’s my favorite sleight of hand move to just practice. For so many reasons. I don’t think it’ll ever be perfect, there will always be work to do on it. An adjustment here. Adding a movement here or removing one from somewhere else. It’s concptually such a simple move. But it requires so many elements. Speed, Economy of Motion, Timing, Awareness of Angles, Dexterity and lots and lots of practice.

The pass makes my fingers happy while the force makes my mind happy. So there you have it. What are your two favorite sleights and why?

So, recently I’ve watched both The Illusionist and The Prestige, two of the most recent movies with magic as their theme. I liked both of them for different reasons.

  The Illusionist was a light and fun ride even though I saw the ending coming from a mile away. I mean, if you know how Pepper’s Ghost works then you know that when you see ghosts on stage or in the audience you’re really seeing a projection of the person from somewhere. Which kind of spoils it for any of the magicians watching. And the ending, while striving to have a Usual Suspects’ type twist, was a bit predictable.

  The acting and the overall story were fun though and I did enjoy it.

  As for The Prestige, well, I just thought this was a much more complex story. The characters were richer with more underlying subtext. When you get to the end you realize that you have been taken in by illusions in the story, just like a good magic trick. One of the taglines is “You want to be fooled,” and I immediately wanted to watch it again and again to see what I missed. When they have the final reveal I got the feeling you get when you find out the secret to a trick that has fooled you for a long time.

  It’s always fun to see magic and magicians portrayed on the big screen but I think The Prestige had a greater impact on me. It really got me thinking. The Illusionist was more of a fun way to spend an hour and a half. I didn’t really think much about it once it was over like I did with The Prestige.

 For anyone who hasn’t seen these yet, here are trailers for both movies:

 The Prestige Trailer
 The Illusionist Trailer

 So, which one of these movies was your favorite? And why? Looking forward to your responses…

  I’ve been wanting to get into a practice schedule for a long time now. Right now I practice when the mood takes me and while it’s fairly often I’ve been wanting to practice on a more disciplined routine.  So here’s what I’m going to do:

  1. Every Sunday night I’m going to set my goals for the week. It might be mastery of a particular sleight or a trick.

  2. Estimate how long it will take me to gain complete mastery of the move/trick.

  3. Plot out specific times everyday that fit into my schedule to practice.

  4. At the end of the week take inventory of what I’ve accomplished. Was my estimate on target? Did I show up and practice when I said I would? Do I need to schedule more time for any particular move/trick?

  In addition, I also want to schedule maintenance time in. This would be time where I practice and go over old routines and moves. Just to stay in shape. Maybe only 15 minutes to 30 minutes a day.

  I wonder if this will help me improve quicker or if it will be detrimental. For instance, I might put off practicing because I’ll just tell myself that I’ll do it at my regularly scheduled time. So I’ll have to test to see if this will actually cut down on the practice time. But on the other hand I might be more focused in my practice sessions if I have a set schedule of exactly what I’m going to do.

  I’m excited to get this started and see what results I’ll have. Will report back with how it goes…

  Thinking about last year and all the stuff that came out and all the stuff I bought, probably the two DVD sets that I’ve yet to make a dent in are The Trilogy by Dan and Dave and Past Midnight by Benjamin Earl.

  When I’m stuck on something I’ll throw in the Trilogy and work on new move for a little bit. It frees up my mind and I get to practice some killer card sleights in the process. I’ve solved lots of real life problems from forgetting about them and doing some sleight of hand.

  I only got Past Midnight at the end of the year so I haven’t had too much time to absorb it all. But I find myself going back and looking for new stuff to add to my repertoire. There is so much good card magic here.

  So there you have it. The two DVD sets I watch the most on a weekly basis. As we speak, Benjamin Earl is explaining the Grey Shuffle in the background and my cards are sitting by the keyboard. I love always having something new to learn waiting for me.