For the past year and a half, I’ve been a card magician. I started learning some basic sleight of hand techniques with cards and I’m now producing cards out of people’s pockets and making a chosen card appear in a sealed envelope halfway across the room.
Magic isn’t just a way to make other people feel stupid. It’s a lot of things:
- It’s mental exercise. Devising card tricks requires ingenuity and a lot of cleverness. And a very devious mind.
- It’s improv. I’ve learned more about giving speeches and public presentations through magic than I have out of speech classes and years of giving presentations at school. Why? Because 95% of magic is getting people to pay attention to what you’re saying rather than what you’re doing. Without my constant chatter, people would notice every move I make.
- It’s incredibly fun. After a while, once the initial “oh my god they might figure it out” nervousness is past, magic is just fun. You know exactly what to do and you can start improvising new lines to say depending on the situation. (Protip: ask the audience to come up with their own magic words. Don’t let them pick “abracadabra.” You’ll probably hear some very interesting new magic phrases to try.)
- It’s entertainment for everyone. I’ve never gone up to anyone and said “let me do a card trick.” All I have to do is start playing with a deck of cards and everyone goes “do a card trick! That one where you make it change colors!”
- It’s a way to get out of boring card games with relatives. All you have to do is produce their card out of your pocket and they’ll be too suspicious of you to let you play…
- If you’re in a team competition, it’s a way to intimidate the other teams. Trust me. I’ve tried this one. (“We’re screwed! The other team has a guy who can make cards switch while you’re holding them in your hands!”)
Try it. If you want a good trick to learn, try this one (there’s a link to an explanation in the Related Videos box). It’s great fun, especially if you put the different-color card in a box and let someone hold it…
