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Sleight of Hand Terminology
Here's a list of popular Prestidigitation terms and definitions.
Let's start here: Prestidigitation is the performance of magic tricks, especially those involving quick manual dexterity and sleight of hand. I'm also partial to the french term Legerdemain: Skillful use of one's hands in performing conjuring tricks.
Study up, there will be a quiz!
- Add-On: A technique where extra cards are secretly added to a controlled packet.
- Alignment Move: A subtlety used to align multiple cards as a single card.
- Ambitious Card: Selected card repeatedly appears on top of the deck after being placed in the middle.
- Back Palm: A technique used to conceal small objects behind the hand by holding with the fingers.
- Biddle Grip: For playing cards, palm down hand holds at short ends, thumb at back, fingertips at front.
- Bluff Pass: A pass where the deck appears not to be cut but the selected card is controlled to the top or another desired position.
- Bottom Deal: Dealing the bottom card of the deck as though it were the top one.
- Butterfly Cut: A flashy cut where the deck is split into multiple packets that are twirled in the fingers.
- Cascade: A visually striking way to shuffle cards where they cascade from one hand to the other.
- Change: To switch one item for another, this could be covert or open.
- Charlier Cut: One hand cut of the cards.
- Classic Pass: A card sleight used to cut the deck secretly.
- Clip Palm: A palming method where a card or small object is held using the clip between the thumb and palm.
- Coin Vanish: Any method used to make a coin disappear.
- Color Change: A visual effect where any visible object appears to change color or transform into another.
- Control: A technique to bring a chosen card to the top or any predetermined position.
- Crimp: A slight bend put into a card to mark it or locate it easily within a deck.
- Cull: To secretly coalesce a desired quantity of cards, usually while spreading the pack from hand to hand.
- Diagonal Palm Shift: A method for secretly palming a card while squaring the deck.
- Double Lift: A sleight where two cards are lifted as one.
- Dribble: Dropping cards from one hand to another, allowing for controls or forces.
- Drop Switch: A technique for secretly exchanging one item for another under the cover of a drop.
- Elmsley Count: A false counting technique that hides one or more cards in a 'four' card packet.
- Erdnase Change: A complex color change using sleight of hand, named after the mysterious S.W. Erdnase.
- Fan: Spreading the cards out in an arc, which can be used for display or to facilitate certain sleights.
- False Cut: A way of cutting the deck that maintains the original order of the cards.
- False Shuffle: Any shuffle that appears real but leaves the deck in a specific order.
- Finger Palm: A palming method where the object is held with the fingers rather than the palm.
- Flourish: A visually impressive manipulation or display of playing cards or other objects.
- Force: A method to make a spectator select a pre-determined card or object seemingly at random.
- French Drop: A sleight used to vanish a small object.
- Gambler's Cop: A palming technique used to secretly hold a card or small object in the hand.
- Glimpse: A technique to secretly view a card or information.
- Hindu Shuffle: A type of shuffle that also serves as a way to control or force cards.
- Jog: A protrusion of a card or cards in a deck, used as a locator or control point.
- Lapping: Secretly disposing or retrieving an object in the performer's lap.
- Load: To secretly add an object to a location, often used in cup and balls routines.
- Matrix: A coin assembly trick where coins are covered with cards and then mysteriously gather under one card.
- Misdirection: The magician's technique of focusing an audience's attention away from the method or sleight.
- Monte: Any gambling-style card game used in magic tricks, such as the "Three Card Monte."
- Okito Box: A round coin box used to perform penetrations, vanishes, and transpositions.
- Out-jog: A small, outward displacement of a card from a deck.
- Packet Trick: A trick that uses only a small number of cards from a deck.
- Palm: A method of holding an object in the hand in a concealed manner.
- Peek: A secret look at a card while it appears to be in a normal position.
- Penetration: Any trick in which one solid object appears to pass through another.
- Pinky Break: Holding a small break below cards in the deck with the tip pinky.
- Pinky Count: Releasing cards off the tip of the pinky into a pinky break.
- Pivot: A technique where a card is rotated out from the deck, typically for identification or control.
- Prestige: The climactic part of a magic trick or routine.
- Retention Vanish: A coin vanish where the coin is seemingly still visible as placed in the hand.
- Revelation: The act of revealing a chosen or thought-of card in a dramatic way.
- Riffle Shuffle: A common method of mixing cards on the table, with cards riffling off the thumbs.
- Second Deal: Dealing the second card from the top of the deck as if it were the top card.
- Shuttle Pass: A sleight used to switch an object held in one hand with another, under the guise of passing it to the other hand. Also often called a "Utility Pass".
- Side Steal: A sleight where a card is secretly moved from the middle to the top or bottom of the deck.
- Silk: A common magician's prop used in various tricks for vanishes, productions, and color changes.
- Slip Cut: A method of false cutting the deck that only moves one card.
- Snap Change: A quick change of a card from one to another while being held at the fingertips.
- Sponge Balls: Soft balls used in magic tricks involving vanishes, appearances, and transpositions.
- Spread: A display of cards laid out so that multiple cards can be seen at once.
- Stack: A pre-arranged order of cards designed to facilitate certain tricks or outcomes.
- Steal: The act of covertly removing an object from its place, typically used in card and coin magic.
- Steeplechase: Rolling a coin across the knuckle of your fingers.
- Table Pass: A technique for secretly shifting cards while the deck is on the table.
- Tenkai Palm: A method of palming a card while the fingers remain apart.
- Thumb Fan: A type of fan made with cards where the thumb is used to spread the cards out in a circular form.
- Tilt: Playing card illusion that a card is being placed in the middle, but it goes beneath top card(s).
- Top Change: A sleight that exchanges the top card of the deck with a card in the magician's hand.
- Top Palm: Removing the top card of the deck secretly in the palm.
- Transformation: A trick in which one object turns into another, often seen in card magic.
- Undercut: A cut where a portion of the deck from the bottom is taken and placed on top.
- Up the Ladder Cut: A method of cutting where cards are taken sequentially from the bottom and placed on top.
- Vanish: Any method by which an object is made to disappear.
- Wand: A traditional magician's prop used to perform various magical effects or as a misdirection tool.
- Zarrow Shuffle: A false shuffle that retains the entire order of the deck but appears as though the cards have been thoroughly mixed.