Читать книгу Expert Card Technique - Jean Hugard - Страница 33

The legendary strolling conjurer, Max Malini, brought to its apogee the natural and audacious concealment of a vital sleight by covering it with a characteristic and deliberate action. For instance, with a card pushed from the pack in readiness for the side slip, he often paused to converse with the spectators and, perhaps a minute later, brought the card to the top effortlessly in an unhurried action which superimposed the card on the pack as he turned to an onlooker and illustrated how the pack was to be opened for the spectator peek. The action, a legitimate one, gave a tacit reason for the right hand moving over the pack.

Another favorite subterfuge of this expert card handler was the following cover for the same sleight, the side slip. Immediately before slipping the card to the top, he would request the spectator to concentrate on his card. As if to emphasize the request, he would raise both hands until the back of his right hand rested against his forehead, his right fingers grasping the pack by the ends and the left fingers by its sides. The hands, grasping the pack, seemed only to dramatize the request, actually the side slip was made as the hands rose, perfect cover for the sleight being thus afforded.

It is not suggested that readers adopt these actions, for, while they suited perfectly Malini’s personality and style of presentation, they may be wholly unsuited to others. They are given as examples of the type of covering actions which card confers should seek—actions which are natural, unhurried and apparently predicated upon necessity.