My workplace is at Dhoby Ghaut so every morning i'll be playing my cards in the train, i sometimes will flourish the deck a bit and etc, etc.

But do you think it's ok to practise sleight of hand on board trains and such? You don't tell people what you're doing but you're just there passing the pack and passing and passing...so how? But if i don't play cards I have nothing else to do liao. Advise me please haha.

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If you are just doing the pass, then i guess there's nothing wrong, unless you blatantly attempt to do a pass "colour change", and maybe that might give away something about what you are trying to do. Otherwise, if you are doing it face down, then there's no problem because to the people watching (let's say you do it quite terribly), they will either think you are crazy or you got nothing better to do but keep "cutting" the cards in that fast manner. No offence or whatsoever ya.


Cheers,
Shufi

I met someone who practiced his push off DL in a mrt. He got the my attention. The bad thing is he got the attention of other passengers too. I don't think it is wise to practice DL in a mrt, especially if you are just learning the move. You are telling the whole world "I'm trying to learn how to pick up a D*****"

I could not stop him from practicing his DL, hence I just took out my deck of cards and start to do some flourishes. The passengers started to look at my flourishes, instead of the other guy's DL.

For me I normally don't practice card magic in public. Most of the time I'll practice my coin roll lol.

Read a book, listen to your songs, do what other commuters are doing, i.e. sleeping or staring in the air.

I think to pratice in public is attracting attention. If its a new move, you're prone to exposure too.

There are some things you can practise on the MRT, but there are something whch you definitely DON'T (please don't, never!) practise on the MRT.

You can practise fanning, charlier cuts and the likes on the MRT (though i trust the person sitting next to you won't appreciate cards that keep falling onto him/her).

In my opinion, never practise DLs, Elmsly Count etc on the MRT. Because, if you're not perfect (which tends to be the case, since you're still practising), someone's gonna change the move sooner or later, and you don't want that.

If you are not sure what is okay to practise, stick to Magicdow's advise. Listen to music - which anyway can still be magic-centric. You can always listen to music that you use in your routine and do a mental projection kind of thing which is what I always do on the MRT. It really helps in your performance.

Ok, thanks everyone for their advise. I 'll stay low next time.

If you really want to practice some card stuff in the public, you can practice Richard Osterlind's Break Through Card System.

You don't even need a deck of cards to practice that. B)

Why did u not approach him?

Ya, I should have just walk towards him and ask him to stop. I was thinking if I did that, it might be too embarrassing for him.

I think that doing flourishes in public is fine.
But one should always be careful not to expose anything.

Unless your intention IS to entertain that spectator in public,
then by all means go with a routine.

R™

For me, i will prefer not to practice anything in the public. Even if you were to practice flourishes, the train may suddenly stop and you deck of cards may fly all over the cabin, and you could embarrass yourself on the spot. And with all the attention you're seeking, you could get much people staring at you, and some would ask you questions, which you may have problem answering.

You can always bring your book on showmanship to read on the train.

Dancers practise their moves in the dance studio,

Singers practice in a music room,

Actors don't practice their lines on the bus,

Why should magicians practice their stuffs in the public?

Personally I feel that those who meddle with their cards, flourishes in public are just show offs and attraction seekers.

Grab an ipod or a Darwin Ortiz book instead.

my opinion is do what u want.

most people in mrts cannot be bothered to look out for ur tricks to be honest. they are either sleeping ( in the morning ) or too tired in the evening after work.

it's important to keep ur exposure to ZERO though


personally i practise my classic palms / muscle pass , coin roll , card shooting , false cuts in public

i firmly believe there is no such thing as too little practise...and if u have whatever little time on hand , it's good if u have a pack of cards or some coins to just fondle and practise ard instead of wasting time that could make u a better magician.

u never know , u might just come up with killer routine or idea

Couldn't have said it better.

Well, i don't have a MASSIVE issue with people practising in public. Most people don't even have a deck of cards, they'll forget anything they see when they get off the train. Don't though. Pick up a book on showmanship or card theory or something and read that instead. You don't want to be dropping cards everywhere in the train.

Although i dought this would happen, someone may catch a glimpse of the slieght you are practising. I guess that would be a type of exposure. It's great that you want to practise though because for every trick intentionally revealed, 10 more are accidentally revealed by people who don't practise enough. Pardon my disgusting spelling by the way. Hope I helped mate. Take care =D.

I totally agree that you shouldn't practice stuff like cards on trains, you'll get everyones attention. Imagine if its not cards, but lets say linking rings... or ropes. will you practise that on the train or bus ?

you can do other magical stuff, like go through IN WRITING your patter, practise your coin roll, ball roll.

cards is layman items, i wouldn't mind practising ropes either, just pass it off as a scout learning some knots, then the linking rings is something no one will practise in public.

Once upon a time, I had this habit of practising muscle pass in the public. I thought nobody would ever care.

But... one day, while I was performing a coin vanish, a colleague said he knew how it was done. I thought I fl*** my classic P***, but to my relief, he thought I actually muscle P the coin back (and he was pretty smug when he said that). I'm not sure whether to laugh or not. But it taught me an important lesson: there will always be people watching you and you never know when that guy will be there to expose you.

Bottomline: Don't practice in public!!!! YOu can always read FHM or Maxim.

Good idea. That is what I do. Script my patter and construct routines in my head. Practice my coin roll.

Actually, I won't read FHM and Maxim in the public :P

I think most of us have had the experience of having just bought a new trick and on the bus/mrt ride home, u opened it up and contemplate whether to practise it or not, worried about exposure and too much attention.

Hmm.. so what's your point here?

Anyway, try not to dig up old old threads unless you've some very significant things to say.

Well, since this thread is up again, personally I practise my dl (picking up using thumb directly without break or anything) in public. Saves a lot of time, as I don't usually watch tv or movies. Plus I'm mostly walking anyway, so it doesn't really attract the attention of people.

Another thing I do in public is practise my erdnese. No one really cares about the guy with cards. Really. Anyone who does will most probably already have looked it up on youtube.

Furthermore, most card sleights are replacable with similar techniques. If you can't use another sleight when some heckler exposes a move, or adapt to the situation e.g. showing you aren't doing a dl etc, then learn! It helps your magic overall as well.

Not exactly true. I was horrified when my cousin told me over christmas that he knew so many card sleights because he had seen a guy practising all those sleights to his girlfriend in Mac Donalds (badly apparently). Though my cousin was already mildly interested in magic, he had almost no basic inmagic. This meant that he had really learnt ALOT from the guy in Mac.

Ade

personally i am very opposed to practice in public, especially in day.

those who do so are just making excuses like trying to do efficiently with their time (no offense though)

the best thing to use your time wisely, is to read books, magic books.

as i believe that practice alone without proper theory in mind is useless !

and some friend of mine in fact tell me that you shouldn't practice before you really understand what the text taught you (which most of the time i really don't understand :P)

so, i found it the most efficient is theory in day, and practice in night.

and as to my knowledge, all professional magicians would suggest you to read a magic books. and i guess, if they make it to become professional this way, i will follow the path.

Yeah, but that is a guy who has a mild interest in magic. Most people do't, I think.

But anyway, that guy must have been really horrible -.- How many sleights? I know about 4-5 at most only? Really the bare essentials lol.

Personally I practise a sleight till it's somewhat passable privately before I even dare to practise it on the streets.

I think it's somewhat dangerous to read and walk/cross roads at the same time though.

P.S. Since I'm now in the UK, I spend very little time sitting in buses etc. I get motion sickness anyway >.<

It's very easy to catch someone with a double, even pros tell us to use it sparingly. Another thing is that, if you practise your moves in public, people are bound to look at you, then you will look once in a while to see if anyone is looking at you, so it's kinda attention seeking, unless you really got something in your head and want to try out.

A good way to keep yourself in, if you wanna practise cards in public, then treat it as if you are performing silent tricks, it not only forces you to be more careful about flashing, and it also helps you to cope with the attention you are getting if you do something really fanciful

Which McDonald's branch was that? I want to go there for some free lessons. :P

Actually, I'm guilty of practising in public too. That was last time, when I was a super newbie and I wanted to improve dramatically in a short period of time. But at least, I have some sense as to ensure exposure is kept to a minimum. I do check out the angles sometimes.

I think that the best thing that we can do in public is the easy and safer kinds of XCM. Sleights? No no.