How to do the Sybil cut

The Sybil is a two-handed flourish cut. The deck is split into several packets that rotate around each other, are displayed between the fingers, and then come back together with the cards in their original order. Based on our research, the earliest mention we’ve found is Chris Kenner in Totally Out of Control, 1992, where it appears as “The Five Faces of Sybil” (p. 125). Learn the Biddle grip and the swing cut first; they are the building blocks.

What is the Sybil cut?

The Sybil is a cut done in the air, between both hands, with no table. Rather than simply moving the top half of the deck to the bottom, it divides the deck into several packets, turns them around one another and displays them between the fingers before reassembling the deck. It is a showpiece: the point is to look skilful, not to fool anyone.

Because the cards finish in the same order they started, it is also a practical flourish for a magician. You can do it with a stacked or set-up deck and nothing is lost.

Where does the Sybil come from?

Based on our research, the earliest mention we’ve found is Chris Kenner in his book Totally Out of Control, published by Richard Kaufman in 1992. The flourish appears there on page 125 as “The Five Faces of Sybil”, a multi-packet flourish cut that keeps the top and bottom cards in place.

Since then it has become one of the best-known moves in cardistry, the art of card flourishing, and many later flourishes build on its ideas.

What do you need to learn first?

The Biddle grip

Hold the deck from above in your dominant hand, palm down. Your thumb rests on the short end nearest you and your index, middle and ring fingers on the far short end. The little finger hangs free. The deck is held only by its ends, which leaves the index finger free to lift packets.

The swing cut

1. Start in Biddle grip in your dominant hand.
2. Lift a packet with the index finger. Keep the thumb and ring finger in place and use the index finger to lift the top half. It should split from the rest and form a “V”, pivoting on your thumb.
3. Swing it across. Pivot that packet out to the side, around the thumb.
4. Receive it. Clip the swung packet in the crotch of the other hand, between thumb and palm, so it settles into dealer’s grip.

Practise the swing cut until the packet swings out cleanly every time. In the Sybil you will use the same pivoting action, but with packets held in both hands at once.

How is the Sybil built?

The full finger-by-finger handling is long, and it is best learned from the book where it was first published, ideally with the illustrations in front of you. But it helps to know the shape of the move before you start:

1. The opening split. The deck is broken into two halves held at an angle between the hands, a position known as the Z grip.
2. The second split. The top packet is divided into two smaller packets, so the hands are now controlling three.
3. The drop. The bottom packet falls onto the palm of one hand while the other hand takes hold of a packet.
4. The rotation. The packets swing around one another, much as in the swing cut, so that they turn towards the bottom packet.
5. The display. The packets are held apart between the fingers for a moment, then brought back together into a squared deck.

The trick to learning it is to treat each stage as a separate exercise. Do the opening split twenty times, then the next stage, and only string them together when each one is comfortable.

How should you practise it?

• Go slowly over a soft surface. Packets will fall while you learn. A bed or a cloth-covered table saves your cards.
• Use a deck that slides well. Packets need to slide off each other easily, so an old, sticky deck makes the Sybil much harder.
• Watch your angles in a mirror. A flourish only looks good from the front. Check that the display stage faces your audience.
• Keep the order. When you finish, check that the top and bottom cards are where they started. That tells you every packet went back in the right place.

How do you use it in a performance?

Use the Sybil as punctuation: while someone thinks of a card, after a shuffle, or as a brief show of skill before a trick. Because it keeps the deck in order, you can do it after a card has been controlled to the top without losing it. Pair it with a gentle flourish such as the waterfall or the card spring so your hands don’t look busy all the time.

What helps you take it further?

• Totally Out of Control Supreme MME Edition by Chris Kenner. This hardbound edition reprints the entire original Totally Out of Control, plus the full four-episode run of Magic Man Examiner: 272 pages, 40 routines and over 500 illustrations of coin, card and rope magic.
• Shuriken Deck by SansMinds Creative Lab, a deck designed for cardistry and visual impact.

Build the rest of your flourish skills with our guides to the dribble and the riffle shuffle and bridge, and find a deck in our playing cards range.

Frequently asked questions