Magic: Cards and Coins

When I was a child, one of my favorite things was magic tricks.

Now, I was never very good at performing the magic tricks, but I loved to explore them and learn what I could. A few of my successful performances included counting cards, a melting knot, and rope the went through my throat. All these are easy to set up and take little to perform.

All this trial and error helped me to appreciate well performed magic tricks and though I still try to see what is done, I am totally enthralled in each well played performance.

Lately, I have had a friend who does coin and card tricks. I started watching his fingers flow around a coin and though I knew how the trick was done I couldn’t imitate it until he gave me a pointer here and there. I still have quite a bit of practicing to do, but I can and have recently done a clumsy performance that is enough to fool those not in the know but not those with sharp eyes. It helped that I worked in concert with him once. We had been practicing mime, but we would need more practice now that I realised what we can do with mime and magic, but I happened to have a couple coins and we made it look like we were passing the coin back and forth through the air. Of course, I am bad at it, so it only went one way, but if you talked to those who watched… we did it both ways. Amusing.

Sometime after the coin tricks, he brought in cards and I watched the card dance in his hands. I was never able to pull off the card tricks. They require an angle and hand movements my fingers wouldn’t allow. I still can’t, but I do appreciate knowing how the tricks are done. He frowned at me the first time I asked. After I proved I knew how several tricks were done, he tiredly informed me that I had to carry cards around all the time. Well, I took him at his word. I carried the cards around. I didn’t PLAY with cards myself, but in moments of dull times, I would pull out the cards and pass them over to him to play with. He would amaze and astound anyone near us just for fun. He didn’t seem to be happy that I could see through his tricks.

Finally, it happened. The one trick I was unsure of. After he astounded our mutual friend over and over again by using a tactic I didn’t actually see, he not only showed me that tactic, but also showed me the one I had been asking after for nearly two years. AMAZING yet another trick that I have no skill at, but he is so skilled and energetic, it makes me want to practice.

As we were traveling together at one point, he illustrated with hand movements and energy how much he appreciated the masters. I informed him I thought he was amazing enough. Later, he told me that if I liked his performance, I would be astounded with the Grand Masters and he would send me links.

Ok, I know this sounds really weird for someone who proclaims to like magic tricks… but my response was:

If I wanted to see Grand Masters, I would pay for a show. I would rather see someone I know doing amazing things. Then it is more real.