Private Lesson

I taught a private lesson last Friday morning. This fellow wanted a two hour lesson to help him along. He had learned some stuff from a mutual acquaintance. He knew enough to be dangerous to his progress. He had learned a few advanced things with no real fundamentals.

He brought a few of the tricks that he performs and I asked him to do them for me. He started with the vanishing silk using the "you know what" and made the classic beginner mistakes. This was a good place to start. I taught him the Slydini technique that Cellini had taught me. as well as a few moves of my own. I emphasized the importance of the first transfer as you stroke the silk to get the gizmo in place. If they suspect off the bat. . . your done.

I spent some time talking about the value of secrets and the importance of effective and productive practice.

We started with some fundamental concepts like "The larger motion conceals the smaller motion."

I showed him my tri-fold practice mirror and talked about the differences of working with mirrors vs video.

Next I talked about routining and logical sequence of effects.

We talked about card tricks and made the distinction between self working and sleight of hand.

I taught him a self working cutting the aces. (I wanted to give him something with some immediate gratification).

Again I stressed the importance of the fundamental building blocks of our art.

While he had learned to do some card manipulations and could split fan, but he had never heard of a DL, so we spent some time learning the DL with and without a get ready. Strike, Push Off etc. . Different ways to turn/ flip the card over with an injog and without.

He wanted to learn the Sybil Cut but I said no.

I showed him some easier cuts and false cuts.

I stressed the importance of proper terms and discussed the proper way to break a deck in.

We talked about more fundamental card handling like the overhand shuffle and jog controls. Proper finger positioning for a standard riffle shuffe as well as some tricky shuffles (wink wink).

We moved on to coins and discussed different palms, Classic, Finger, Downs, Back, Goshman Clip

I taught him Tenkai Pennies (with quarters) just like Sol Stone taught me so many years ago.

We walked through some vanishes and reproductions. Discussed coin sizes, angles and using various parts of your clothing.

I think he had a good time and learned a lot. I know I did.