The Online Magic Store Blog: Magic Education

Red-backed cards and blank white cards scattered on a dark wooden table

Blank decks explained: blank-face and blank-back cards

What blank-face and blank-back cards are, what magicians use them for, and how to start using blank cards in your card magic.

A brass metronome beside a single red-backed card on a dark stage floor

Pacing and timing in magic: beats, pauses and the moment of magic

How to pace a magic routine: beats, pauses before the reveal, offbeat moments, and why rushing and dragging both kill the magic.

A magician’s raised open hand in a spotlight while the other hand rests in shadow

Misdirection principles: how magicians manage attention

The working principles of misdirection, from where you look to offbeats and time delay, and how to practise them.

A magician’s hand holding a red-backed deck while a spectator’s hand takes a card

Card forces: overhand, Hindu and cut

What a card force is, and how the cut, Hindu shuffle and overhand families work, with a learning order and the mistakes to avoid.

A thumb lifting the corner of the top cards of a red-backed deck on a dark close-up mat

Double lift mastery: showing two cards as one

What the double lift is, how the get-ready and turnover work in principle, where to use it and how to practise until it looks like a single…

Hands dealing a red-backed card onto green felt beside three dealt cards

Dealing seconds, bottoms and centres: false deals explained

What second, bottom and centre deals are, where they came from, why magicians learn them and why they never belong in a real game.

Cover of Professor Hoffmann’s Modern Magic, the 1876 textbook that teaches the pass, as a free ebook

False cuts and the pass

What a false cut and the pass each do, how Erdnase and Hoffmann taught them, and why most magicians learn false cuts first.

Title card for The False Shuffles and Cuts Project video download

False shuffles explained

What a false shuffle is, how overhand, riffle and Hindu versions keep cards in place, and how to learn one without getting caught out.

The Expert at the Card Table by S. W. Erdnase, 1902, cover showing two hands handling playing cards

Palming fundamentals: how magicians hide a card in an empty hand

What palming a card means, the top palm, bottom palm and gambler’s cop explained, and how to practise until your hand looks natural.

Cover of The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue

Card control techniques: how magicians keep track of a chosen card

What a card control is, how the key card, overhand controls and the pass work, and the order to learn them in.