Royal Road to Card Magic The

hand will appear naturally bent and relaxed (figure 56).

    The two essential points in the correct palming of cards are:
    a) The right hand must remain arched throughout.
    b) The right hand must retain the deck after the card is palmed, while the left hand moves away to make some appropriate gesture or natural personal action. For example, you may gesture to illustrate what you want done, which may be for a person to stand closer to you. Or you may brush the table clean of an imaginary speck, touch the corner of your mouth with the knuckle of your index finger, touch your chin as if in momentary thought - in other words, make some personal action that is natural and characteristic of you. Because of this, the transfer of the pack from your left to your right hand will seem to have no connection with the trick you are performing.
    Do not make the mistake of trying to palm a card with the utmost rapidity, for all rapid actions of the hand arouse suspicion. The quickness of the hand does not deceive the eye. The palm must be made in exactly the same time as merely squaring the cards, neither more nor less.
    7. A moment later, take the pack from the right hand with the left and dispose of the palmed card as required by the trick.
    Top Palm 2 - Several Cards
    1. Hold the deck face downwards in your left hand between the top phalanx of the thumb on one side and the third phalanxes of the middle and ring fingers on the other, the index finger bent under the pack and the little finger free. Not only is this a very open and graceful method of holding the deck, but it is also essential to the proper execution of the sleight.
    2. With your right hand square the deck, and under cover of this action, lift the inner ends of the cards to be palmed and insert the tip of the little finger into the break thus made (figure 57).

    3. Remove the right hand, making some appropriate gesture, then with it grasp the whole pack, with the fingers close together at the outer end and the thumb at the inner one, which maintains the break. Move the left thumb and fingers inwards along the sides of the deck, squaring it. Press the tips of the thumb and fingers into the break, and in the outward squaring motion push the separated packet of cards up into the right hand (figure 58).

    4. Slide the right thumb and fingers along the ends of the pack, squaring them. Grip the pack between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, and flex the ring and little fingers a little, thus palming the cards securely. Remove the left hand, holding the right hand stationary for a few moments. Use the left hand as you would when palming a single card, and a few moments later take the pack with the left hand again and dispose of the palmed cards as may be required.
    Palm Glimpse
    When a card has been palmed in the right hand, the mere act of handing the deck to a spectator affords a perfect glimpse of the card. Many performers prefer the palm glimpse to any other method of glimpsing a card. With the card palmed, a mere wave of the hand bringing the card within the line of vision is all that is necessary (figure 59). The pack can then be placed in the left hand and the palmed card returned to the top in squaring the pack.

    Note that when, having a card palmed in your right hand, you want to hand the pack out for shuffling, it should be held by the lower left corner, thumb on the back and bent forefinger on the face, the other fingers curled inwards. Hand the pack to someone on your extreme left.
    Replacing Palmed Cards
    The replacement of palmed cards upon the pack is much more difficult than is their secret abstraction. Let us say that you have palmed a card and handed the pack for shuffling. The shuffle completed, you ask for the return of the cards. If you take them with your right hand your awkwardness will betray the fact that you have a card palmed, and you will probably turn your hand so far that it will be seen. If you take the cards with your left hand, you must then have a good reason for placing your right hand over the pack. Moreover, since placing your right hand flat on the pack will tell your audience that you are replacing cards, how will you transfer them from the arched right palm to the flat pack?
    First method
1. Extend your left hand, palm upwards, pointing to it with the forefinger of your right hand, and have the spectator place the pack on it. Hold the cards loosely (figure 60).

    2. Request the spectator to cut the cards. When he lifts the