Magic glossary
The words magicians use, explained in plain English.
A
Angles
The directions a trick can be watched from without the secret showing. Surrounded means people can stand all around you; front-facing means everyone needs to be in front.
Animation
Making an object move by itself: a pen that rolls, a card that crawls. Often done with invisible thread or magnets.
Appearance
Another name for a production: making something appear from nowhere.
B
Backslip force
A force where the spectator stops you at any point in the deck, yet the card they get is the one you wanted. Simple, but very convincing done well.
Biddle grip
Holding the deck from above, fingertips at the front and thumb at the back. Many card sleights start from this grip.
Billet
A small slip of paper someone writes on. Mentalists use billets to learn a secret word or thought.
Bridge
The arch put into the cards at the end of a riffle shuffle, so they spring back together in a neat cascade.
C
Card force
Making someone take the card you want while they believe they chose freely.
Cardistry
The art of card flourishes: cuts, spins and fans done to look good, not to fool anyone.
Charlier cut
A one-handed cut that swaps the two halves of the deck. A flourish, done to show skill rather than to fool anyone.
Classic force
A force where the cards are spread and the spectator seems to take any card they like, but takes yours. One of the hardest forces to do convincingly.
Close-up magic
Magic performed at arm's length, often at a table, for a few people.
Colour change
A card, coin or object visibly changes into another while people watch.
Control
Secretly moving a chosen card to a place you know, often the top of the deck, while the cards seem to be cut or shuffled fairly.
D
Dealer grip
The standard way to hold a deck in one hand, ready to deal. Most card magic starts here. Also called the mechanic’s grip.
Double lift
Lifting two cards as if they were one. One of the first card sleights most magicians learn.
Double undercut
A pair of quick cuts that looks like nothing at all but works as a control. One of the most common ways to bring a chosen card where you want it.
Download
A video tutorial you download and keep. You can watch it offline, as often as you like.
Dribble
Letting cards fall in a steady stream from one hand to the other. A flourish, and also a natural way to let someone say “stop”.
E
Effect
What the audience sees happen. The effect is the magic; the method is the secret. Almost every effect is one of seven basic types: transformation, teleportation, production, vanish, levitation, penetration or restoration.
Elmsley count
A false count that makes a small packet of cards look different from how it really is, such as four cards that all seem the same. Named after the British magician Alex Elmsley.
Erdnase colour change
A card visibly changes into a different card as the hand passes over it. Named after S. W. Erdnase, whose 1902 book The Expert at the Card Table describes it as a “transformation”.
F
False count
Counting cards so the number, or the faces, seem different from the truth. The Elmsley count is the best-known example.
Flash paper
Specially treated paper that burns in an instant bright flash with almost no ash. For adults only, and it needs safe storage away from heat.
Flourish
A display of skill with cards or coins. It isn't magic, but it shows you can handle them.
Forcing deck
A trick deck that makes a card force easy, so you know which card they'll take.
French drop
A classic sleight that makes a coin seem to be taken by one hand while it stays in the other.
G
Gaff
A secretly altered object, most often a specially printed card.
Gambler’s cop
Secretly holding a card loosely against the palm while the hand hangs naturally and looks empty. Card cheats used it long before magicians did, hence the name.
Gimmick
A secret prop that makes a trick work. Gimmick included means it comes in the box.
H
Hindu shuffle
A shuffle where small packets are drawn off the deck from one hand into the other. Magicians also use it to force or control a card.
Hindu shuffle force
A force done during a Hindu shuffle: the spectator says “stop” and gets the card you chose.
I
Impromptu
Magic done with borrowed, everyday objects and no set-up.
Instant reset
A trick you can perform again straight away, with nothing to put back in place.
Invisible Deck
A famous trick deck: they name any card, and it's the only one reversed in the deck.
Invisible thread
Very fine thread, hard to see even up close, used for levitation and animation.
L
Levitation
Making an object, or a person, appear to float. One of the seven basic types of magic effect.
Load
Secretly putting an object somewhere, so it can appear there later.
M
Mentalism
Magic presented as mind reading, prediction or the power of suggestion.
Method
How a trick is actually done.
Misdirection
Guiding where, and when, the audience looks.
O
Overhand shuffle
The everyday shuffle, with small groups of cards run from one hand into the other. Magicians also use it to control and force cards.
Overhand shuffle control
Keeping track of a chosen card during an overhand shuffle, so it ends up where you want it.
P
Palm
Secretly holding a coin or card in the hand.
Parlour magic
Magic for a room of people, performed standing, with props big enough to see from the back.
Patter
What you say while you perform.
Peek
Secretly glimpsing information, such as a card or a written word.
Penetration
One solid object seeming to pass straight through another, like a coin through a glass or a ring onto a rope.
Pinky break
A tiny gap held in the deck by the little finger, invisible from the front. Used to keep track of a card or get ready for a move. Also called a little-finger break.
Prediction
Revealing something you seemed to know before it happened.
Production
Making something appear from nowhere, like a rabbit from a hat or coins from the air. Also called an appearance.
R
Reset
Getting a trick ready to perform again. Reset time is how long that takes.
Restoration
Destroying an object, such as cutting a rope or tearing a card, and then making it whole again.
Riffle force
A force where the spectator says “stop” while you riffle the corner of the deck. Often the first force magicians learn.
Riffle shuffle
The casino-style shuffle where the two halves of the deck are riffled together, usually finished with a bridge.
Routine
Several effects put together into one piece.
S
Self-working
A trick that works by its own principle, with no sleight of hand needed.
Set
The tricks you perform, in the order you perform them.
Shell
A hollow coin that fits over a normal coin, used in many coin tricks.
Sleight of hand
Skilled, secret handling of cards, coins or small objects.
Spectator
The person from the audience who helps with the trick.
Springing the cards
Shooting the cards in a stream from one hand to the other. A classic flourish.
Stage magic
Magic for large audiences and theatres, with big, visible props.
Streaming
A video tutorial you watch online through your account, instead of downloading it.
Street magic
Informal magic for strangers, often filmed for TV or social media.
Svengali deck
A classic trick deck that lets you force the same card again and again.
T
Table-hopping
Performing a short set at each table in a restaurant or at an event.
Teleportation
Making an object vanish from one place and instantly appear in another.
Thumb tip
A fake thumb worn over your own, used to vanish or produce small things like a silk.
Top change
Secretly swapping the card in your hand for the top card of the deck, under cover of a natural gesture.
Top palm
The most common card palm: a card from the top of the deck held hidden in the hand.
Transformation
Changing an object's form, colour or nature while people watch, like a rose turning into a dove.
Transposition
Two objects swapping places with each other, such as two chosen cards.
Triple lift
Lifting three cards as if they were one. It works like the double lift, with one more card.
V
Vanish
Making an object disappear completely.
W
Walk-around
Strolling magic at events, moving from group to group.
