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Title: Magic Dictionary
Description: terms


ron_magic - October 6, 2004 08:45 AM (GMT)
·3 Burn
 To let someone get a good look at something that is usually in motion.
·4 Card Fan
This is when a deck of cards are held in one hand while the other hand fans them out in the shape of a fan. i.e. most magicians fan their cards so that an audience member can pick a card
·5 Clean
 When a magician is able to show their hands/sleeves/ without any worry that the secret will be revealed
·6 Confederate
A person helping the magician that is acting like they are a part of the audience but they are actually helping out the magician complete his trick, a kind of secret assistant
·9 Cull
 To take out certain cards before or during a performance
·10 Ditch
 To get rid of an object that is no longer needed but is still believed to be part of the trick
·11 Escapology
The art and craft of a magician who specializes in escaping from handcuffs, chains, ropes, etc. 
·12 False Count
To count cards, coins, etc. in a manner to where it seems that there are more or less of that item
·13 False Shuffle
 A shuffle that looks just like a regular shuffle but none of the cards or only certain cards are shuffled
·14 Faro Shuffle
 A shuffle where the magician splits a deck in half and inserts them end to end so that each cards are evenly spread out, from this position the magician can make a giant fan
·16 Flash
 to expose a ball/back card/ etc. 
·17 Flash Paper
Thin paper which is made so that it can be lit on fire and immediately create a flame and then evaporate.
·18 Flourish
 This is the more artsy side of magic normally used with cards, balls, and coins.  i.e. card flourishes include: card fans, 1 handed fans, one handed cut, one handed shuffle, ribbon slide, etc.
·20 Gimmick
Some part of a trick/prop that is unnatural to the item.
·22 Grabber
An audience member who can't help themselves from touching a magicians props without permission
·23 Hindu Shuffle
A shuffle where the magician takes the deck on their right hand and with the left hand pulls off blocks of cards at one time, many different sleights can be done with this shuffle
·24 Impromptu
A trick that can be done immediately or without any advanced preparation
·28 Mechanics Grip
 A certain way that a deck of cards are held, usually to perform sleights or hide certain parts of the deck
·29 Miscall
To purposely read something in an incorrect way
·30 Misdirection
To distract the audience or make them look another way so that you can secretly do something
·32 Patter
Something that the magician says during a trick usually a story or something that explains the trick 
·33 Peddle
A maneuver that is used to move the top card of the deck to the bottom while cutting the deck
·35 Routine
A series of tricks that are performed one after the other which were usually put together in a certain order before the performance
·36 Sleight of Hand
The manipulation of usually cards, balls and coins which is performed in the hand or fingers
·37 Steal
opposite of Ditch. To obtain an object
·38 Square Up
To take a deck of cards and align the edges of the cards 
·40 Strolling Magician
A magician that usually performs at restaurants going from table to table performing small tricks for dinner guests
·41 Talk
To accidentally bump or hit magic props together which might reveal their position or what they are. i.e. if a magician has 5 coins in their hand and is only showing 1 of the 5 coins he would not want the other coins to talk because the audience would find out that they have more than one coin in their hand
·42 Vanish
To make an object disappear

Huron - October 7, 2004 06:37 PM (GMT)
Thanks for the contribution!
One thing I must say though... MAGIC and FLOURISHES are two TOTALLY DIFFERENT ARTFORMS!!

Flourishes can be used to spice magic up, but is definitely not classified under magic. I'd say magic and flourish are different genres of card manipulation. It's like a stuntman vs an actor. Both are in the movie, but both do very different things. Ask the actor to do a cartwheel without hands... and he'll flip (Pun intended). :D

Huron




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