card magic
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John Raven Stacks the Deck
Category: presentationRead more: John Raven Stacks the DeckIt feels like there has been a renewed interest in the Curry Open Prediction plot recently (what with all the drama surrounding Unnamed Magician), and behind the scenes here, it’s a plot we at the Oval have discussed on multiple occasions. Each of us has our own favorite methods, but methods are useless without a…
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Read more: Shuffling for Virtual Audiences: Free, Fair, and Fully Fraudulent
The following presents two alternative approaches for shuffling on behalf of audiences who are on the other side of a camera from two different Oval writers. We’ll start with Drew’s take, and move on to Franklin’s which you can do half asleep. Drew’s Version The following technique was inspired by my friend who was performing…
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The Theatre Behind the Fold
Category: tipsRead more: The Theatre Behind the FoldEditor’s note: Short post this time. We have several meatier posts in the queue, but they need a bit more polish. So use the time we’re saving you today wisely so you’ll have more time to read in the coming weeks. This is a small way to improve the revelation of a folded card. It’s something…
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Read more: Justifying the Vanishing Deck’s Leftover Joker
We all know and love Paul Harris’s Vanishing Deck. A true modern classic. I’m a big fan of it because it’s cheap and easy to set up, and once you know how to make one, you have a very versatile and powerful gimmick for life. I’ve been fooling around with it again lately and I…
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Read more: Tips for a Bigger Clock
Editor’s note: Damn, that last post set a new record for reader mail in the first 24 hours! Don’t be afraid to email us; even if we enabled comments, we always appreciate emails. We’ll be featuring two in a long overdue Reader Mail followup if they agree to it. Anyway, now you should enjoy this…
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Read more: Clockwork Apple
Happy New Year guys! It’s your boy, Drew. My first post of 2026! I know, there’s been other posts by me that have come out this year. I wrote those 2-3 years ago, it’s the punk-ass bitch Editor who is only getting them out now. I’m trying out a new writer’s voice. How do you…
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Air Remixed
Category: trickRead more: Air RemixedWith the help of my fellow Ovalites, I came up with a variation on a very old Daniel Madison trick. Before I get into that, I thought it’d be fun to share what led up to the conception of the effect. If you don’t care, skip along to “The New Method” below. The other day,…
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The Transport Peek
Category: trickRead more: The Transport PeekThis is a way to ascertain the identity of a freely chosen playing card. What separates the Transport Peek from other methods is that the selection procedure is done entirely in the participant’s hands, and you do not need to look at the deck before, during, or after the procedure. That’s right. You never look…
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Read more: Let’s Move False Shuffles Out of the Grey
Let’s be real for a second here. False shuffles don’t really work. I’ve always loved false shuffles ever since my first foray into the magical arts. There are two specific shuffles I’ve always loved, the Truffle shuffle and the Zarrow shuffle. I’ve practiced both continuously for over a decade. Over time though, I realized something…
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Read more: The Berglas Effect That Got Away
This is a story of a performance that I will never forget. I was nineteen years old, and on a road trip with my at-the-time girlfriend and her family. We were heading to a family reunion of theirs that they hold every 5 years. It was sort of a big deal that she brought me…
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Recent Posts
- Oz and Woes
- John Raven Stacks the Deck
- Chicken Soup for the Socially Inept: Flirting for Magicians
- The Off by One Principle (Not That One)
- A Hot Rod in My Drunken Fist
- Shuffling for Virtual Audiences: Free, Fair, and Fully Fraudulent
- The Theatre Behind the Fold
- On Weight and Touch
- Chicken Soup for the Socially Inept: Narrative Ease
- Justifying the Vanishing Deck’s Leftover Joker
- I Hate “In & Of Itself”
- Rich Man’s Which Hand
- Hanging for Later
- Stop Shtooping Steve Sheraton (or, A Joyful $1)
- Hey, Doxxing Isn’t Cool, Actually
- Get Rid of the Get-Ready
- An Actual Hello From the New Girl
- The “Creativity” Discourse
- Commenting Works Again!
- The Glossary, or ‘We cannot eliminate the root causes of codes by magicians, but Oval can.’
- Support the Heck Out of Craig Petty
- Tips for a Bigger Clock
- Clockwork Apple
- Odds and Ends #10: The Perfect 10/10 Trick
- Air Remixed
- Odds and Ends #9… …#9… …#9…
- A Magifest 2026 Retrospective
- The Day The Pedophile (Un)subscribed
- The Transport Peek
- Reader Mail Number Four: Can You Believe There’s Even More?
- I Spent 25 Dollars, and All We Got Was This Lousy Comment
- The Extreme Workout Universal Presentation
- New Year’s Comments and 2026 Plans
- Franklin Assumes Dominion Over All (Things Oval) In 2026
- A Color Coded, Tailor Fitted Effect
- Let’s Move False Shuffles Out of the Grey
- The Berglas Effect That Got Away
- The Loaded Lightning Principle
- How We Generate The Best Anagrams Around
- Making Your Anagrams Commute
- Toward Better Progressive Anagrams
- Announcing Anagram August (And Presenting A Trainer)
- 21 Savant (Degaffing Petty and Barnes)
- Bits and Bobs #2: The SUMS Out
- Let’s Talk to Invisible People
- In Defense of Lecture Patter
- My Cheap Uncle: A Bank Night Presentation
- Further Notes on Halal Magic
- Phantom at the Magic Festival
- Halal Magic
- Bits and Bobs #1: On Realism and Reality
- Spaced Out Tarot
- Reassembling the Woman Sawed in Half
- Last Minute Thoughts on Blackpool
- How To Spend Your Time At A Magic Convention
- Odds and Ends #8: The Burgle Ass Effect
- Notes on the Number Forcing Stack
- New Year, New E-Mail
- The James Hydrick Presentation, or Amateur Telekinesis
- Bricking Around with Drew Perry’s “Bricked”
- Holiday Hiatus and Schedule Scuttling
- Conducting Trains and Bones
- Excessive Errata, Non-Jerry Edition
- Zen and the Art of EmotiPsychic Maintenance
- Constructing Your Own Matrix Force
- Cut Your Nails
- Decoding the Matrix Multi-Force
- The Magic Oval 101
- The Annual Company Picnic (In Lieu of Bonuses) Part 1
- Odds and Ends #7: The One About Asian Competitions
- The Poor Man’s WikiTest Approach
- A Review of Michael Kras’s Synthesis & Secrets
- Meeting of the Masterminds
- To Put Too Fine a Point on It
- The Zen of Magic: Avoiding Method Overloading
- Double Blind Control, or Move Them With Your Mouth
- Memorability: A Misguided Proxy Metric
- I Was Wrong About Memorability in Card Magic
- Mnemonic Possession: The Arc of History Bends Towards Oblivion
- Spectators as Mirrors
- No One Is Keeping Your Souvenirs
- Odds and Ends #6: Electric Boogie Licks
- History in Flames: Why Magic Needs Public Museums Now
- Reader Mail #4: The Benefits of Not Using the Same Decks
- The Stripper Fakes A Breather
- Prisoners Passing the Pat Downs
- Banachek’s Salad: Eggplant Is the New Broccoli
- Taking a Peek to the Cinemas
- In Memoriam of Katakura Yuichi, a Japanese Underground Legend
- Thinking Through Methods, Pt. 2
- Thinking Through Methods, Pt. 1
- Oops, Private Post Fixed, and An Unscheduled Update
- “Sorry, I Have To Ditch This”
- Why Do People Hate Crazy Sam’s Mind?
- Magic Mirror on the Wall, Who Has the Fairest Dribble of All?
- Curse You, Andy
- Easter Errata, and a Schedule Shift
- The Forbidden Library: A Prelude
- The Chinese Knockoff: A Presentation For Obvious Gimmicks and Other Things
- Sharing A Thank You