By Tom Interval
I haven’t frequented the local magic clubs for years, but one thing that stands out is how some magicians insisted on doing magic using difficult sleight of hand to achieve the desired effect on the audience. Judging from many videos I’ve seen on YouTube, nothing has really changed since then. But anyone who studies magic for any length of time quickly learns that sometimes the easiest secret methods yield the most entertaining and amazing results. Unfortunately, many magicians ignore this and choose to prioritize difficult methods over practicality and entertainment value.
Not surprisingly, this applies to many card tricks. In the interest of preserving secrets, I won’t get into too much detail about specific sleights, but there is one called the “pass” that allows a magician to “control” a card for whatever purpose he has in mind. The following video includes three relatively easy moves any intermediate magician can learn to accomplish the same thing a pass does without spending literally years to perfect a difficult move. While the full video is only for my Patreon patrons, you can still watch the performance.