- Why do we practice sleight of hand?
More in particular, why
is it important for us,
as magicians, to learn harder sleights
and adapt them to our tricks,
our routines, our effects,
whatever you wanna call them.
See for me, it's very important
to learn harder sleights
so that your fingers get used to that,
and when you're doing easier sleights,
when you're spreading cards,
when you're shuffling,
having a card selected,
you will look like you
know what you're doing more
when you've learned harder sleights,
even if you don't use them.
A lot of people out these
say there's no reason
to learn harder sleights,
I'm never gonna use that,
I might as well just do a double
lift and get it over with.
Well, that my friends
is the wrong attitude.
If you want to achieve a
level of success in the things
that you love to do,
in this case it's magic sleight of hand.
So with that being said,
I'm going to show you today
a move I love to practice
that I don't perform,
I don't have an effect that uses this,
not that I could think of,
and if I did perform it, it's
just to show off the move
maybe for another magician.
But it is important to learn
these types of sleights
because it will make your
card magic smoother, better,
and make you stay out from the rest.
I think that's important.
So without further ado,
let's go over the half pass.
(upbeat instrumental music)
July 5th, that is the official day
that alexpandrea.com will launch
and that is the day we are launching
my summer course in magic.
If you signed up, you
already know what the deal is
and if not, you're gonna
head over to alexpandrea.com
on July 5th and we are
releasing the summer course.
Everything that you need to
know about it is going to be
right on the home page.
This is something that
I've put a lot of time
and effort into and it is
for those who want to become
a better magician, a better performer,
a better sleight of hand artist.
I have taken all my
knowledge that I've learned
over the last 20 years and
I've put it into this course.
It's going to be five weeks
long with a bonus week
and we are going to go over
everything that you need to know
to go from zero to hero.
I just made that up.
And guys look, if you're interested,
this is going to be for serious students.
If you are willing to
learn and if you're willing
to take the journey with
me, alexpandrea.com July 5th
and we'll see you there.
All right, let's take you
through what you need to know
to perform the half pass.
Now, the half pass is basically a way
to turn over half the deck,
or in this case I turned
over every single card
besides the top card.
The top card is going to be used as cover.
But you can do it this way,
you can do it with half the
deck, hence the name half pass,
where half of the cards are
being passed and turned around
under the guise of some top cover.
Now there's a few things
that we have to learn first
and then put them together.
So the sort of elements
to it are holding our hand
in a position where your
hand covers it correctly.
So we wanna know the fingering
position of the right hand,
as well as the bottom half of the hand,
or the bottom left hand,
the move that it needs to
make with the bottom card.
So whether it be half
the deck, a few cards,
or even one card in that matter,
or everything except the top card,
it's going to be the same
action with the left hand, okay.
So for now we're going
to learn how to do it
with half and half,
so half the deck in your right hand,
half the deck in your left hand.
There are two motions that need
to be done at the same time,
or rather the right hand's
motion, the left hand's motion,
and then we put them together.
So go ahead, grab about half
the deck in your right hand
and it's important to
note that at the point
where you start the move,
you don't want your fingers
to do a lot of moving
so you wanna get in the
position from the start
of how the hands are going to
be when the move is performed.
And that position is as follows.
This is in just a regular
dealer's grip like this
and your right hand is on top of it
holding the deck from the top.
First finger could be either
curled a little bit like this
or it can be straight,
and you'll see why
that's gonna be important
based off of your preference.
The thumb is along the bottom over here.
And the other fingers are
just kind of closing in
on any gap that might be
shown from the front side.
So you'll see what I
mean in just a second.
So here is the position, once
again, with the hands, okay.
Left hand comes underneath
and now you're gonna break off
about half the deck because
we're just gonna start
with half the deck.
Now the left hand is going to
do this with the bottom half.
With this as cover, of course,
you're going to lever down
the bottom packet so that it is clipped
between the pinky and the
base of the pinky, I guess.
So right over here,
and here you're going to clip
the bottom right hand part
of the deck, okay, and
you're going to kick it out.
So you're using your pinky
to pull down to kick it out
and you could also use a little
bit of weight from this hand
to lever that down, okay, maybe
using a little bit of weight
from here, as well.
But the pressure from
the right side pivots
this up like that.
Now look what you're inclined
to do when you do this.
Your thumb comes out just like that
and your other fingers kinda spaz out.
Keep this in mind, try not
to move these fingers out.
So what you're gonna want
to do ultimately is keep
your thumb in that exact position.
And that's going to be
a little tricky to get,
especially if you're just starting off
because you're naturally
gonna wanna do that, okay.
So just keep that in mind.
And that is the first step of the move.
So with the right hand on
top you're getting a break.
So you're pulling down
either riffling like this
or pulling down or if
you already have a break
under the card, or wherever
this is gonna be used for,
there is gonna be some sort of break in it
and will stem from the pinky.
It will be moved now
to grab the top packet,
with whether it's a thumb
break or a pinky break,
you're still grabbing the top
packet with the right hand
and you're starting the move
as if you're almost doing
a turnover pass.
So if you know the turnover pass
that is the beginning of the move.
Keep the thumb on the side of the deck.
That is very, very important.
Keep the thumb on the side
of the left side of the deck
as you do this because you
want everything to be still
at this point, okay.
So about half way and
you're already there.
You started here, you're
already there and notice,
this is why my fingers now
are covering the front end
because the front end could
possibly flash at this point,
so you want to be careful of that as well,
as well as the angle up or down.
So you'll record yourself,
you'll do this in the mirror
but you'll get that first
part down just like that
with the good angle, a
good tilt, and a good wall
that these fingers will create, okay.
Boom.
So step number one is done.
You're in this position.
Now notice that this portion
of the deck will be placed
on basically the pinky and
the base of the right hand
just like that, all right.
Your left side starting with
the pinky down from here.
So as I do the first move, it
will get into this position
where if I take this aside,
and you see this is the exact position
that it's going to be in, all right.
So from the top, it is invisible
but from the bottom you can see
that it is on right here, all right.
This side is here.
Boom, okay.
Now what's going to happen is,
I'll do this part without that top half,
is going to start to push
up with the left fingers
so the left fingers are gonna push up,
so remember this part is here,
let's make pretend it's there,
it's going to push up
with the left fingers.
You're left fingers are
just pushing up like this
and you are getting this
now into a flat position,
rather a 180 degree turn
from the way we started
and now it is parallel with the floor.
So it started off parallel like this,
it went to a perpendicular position,
and then, because of the weight,
you're going to use
these fingers to create
a lever point right there.
These fingers will push up
half the deck just like that
so it becomes now flat,
back to a parallel position,
but 180 degrees the other way, okay,
while this is still here.
Okay, so it's here and it's here,
and the only things that
should move at this point
are the bottom fingers here and here.
Boom, okay.
Now notice these fingers did not move,
my thumb did not move, my
other thumb did not move.
You're using this as cover
to do the whole action, all right.
Here, that's step number one.
Step number two, push with the fingers,
push with the fingers,
push with the fingers,
don't move anything
else, and then come back
when it's all squared up to grab the deck
in a dealer's position.
Square up like this and you
have accomplished the move.
One thing to note is that
you want to make it easy
for yourself by at the
end ending on the nails,
so ending on the nails with
the bottom of the deck, okay,
will make this process much smoother
because if not, the flesh of
your fingers will not help
to bring the cards back.
You'll see that there
is a bit of a hesitation
because of there.
So if you move these
cards off of the flesh
and onto the fingertips by rolling it,
rolling it basically and
pushing up with the fingertips
you'll have a much easier
time in getting it.
Another thing that I want to
mention is once you are here
and are starting to push
with the fingertips,
you'll notice that it
might be a little bit hard.
You can't press it because
this side is stuck, right.
You can't press it so
what you're gonna wanna do
is lower this hand so that the
pressure is off of the base
of the fingers here, off
here, so it kinda comes out.
So you're just doing this
with the hand, all right.
So doing this with the hand will help
and then push up with
the nails and get it back
into the position.
And all of this is done
under the guise of this hand.
So you're here in this position,
this gets kicked out so that there's room
to start pushing up.
It gets pushed up with the nails.
Nothing else moves, left thumb,
right thumb, right fingers,
and then square up.
And you have this nice move
with nothing should be moved
and the move is done.
(cards thud)
(cards shuffle)
Now a more advanced technique
is with a one-card cover
by covering with one card.
If you wanna learn more about this,
I do suggest checking out
the work of Aaron Fisher,
gravity half pass.
He has really, really great
and detailed studied work
of this move.
But as a quick overview,
you're going to do the exact same thing,
but by getting a break
under one card, okay.
You're gonna get a break under one card
and you're gonna do the exact same thing.
So one-card break.
You're here, you're grabbing it,
and now you're just putting up that wall
covering all the cards.
Make sure your angles are right,
and now you're going to just make sure
that this one card is stable, all right,
and there's no room here
so you're pushing it flush
with the right side, the
right hand is pushing it flush
against the left thumb so there's no room
for the other cards to be seen.
You're creating a barrier.
Look at the left side,
look at the right side
with the thumb, okay,
and look at the side here
with the fingers.
So keep that in mind and
now you can practice it
with one-card cover,
two-card cover, et cetera.
Here, here, lower, move up, and done.
Now I do wanna note
one last thing
(cards shuffle)
before we head off here
and that is a lot of people
tend to do something like this.
As they come here, they
turn the cards 180 degrees
and I have mixed feelings on this
because this move should be
done just by holding the deck,
not doing anything, and then
placing the cards on the table
for whatever application you have it for.
It's not the type of move that
should have a lot of motion
around it, especially if
it's gonna be a secret move.
And again, just keep in mind
that this is going to differ
between applications,
whatever you use it for.
But just try to learn this
move without having to have
too much distraction,
without too much motion
that is not necessary.
If you keep that in mind,
not just with this move
but with all magic,
I think you will have
(cards thud)
a much better success
rate with your sleights.
Boom.
All right guys, there you have it.
That was the video.
Let me know what you think.
It is something that I love to practice.
It is something that I sort of
obsess over to get perfectly
when I film myself, even
just looking in the mirror,
even looking at reflections.
When I walk by and a car is there
and if I'm stopping for whatever reason,
I try to make my sleights look perfect.
And like I said, I don't use this sleight
but it is important to
learn and learn it correctly
'cause that's only going to
help your sleight of hand
as a whole.
If you learned something,
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because there's a lot of stuff coming
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when everything happens.
Thank you so much guys for watching,
and we will see you very
shortly on the next video.
And we will see you on July 5th
when alexpandrea.com launches.
If you are watching this
obviously after July 5th,
well then alexpandrea.com.
I'm sure there's much
more content there now,
if you're watching this ahead of time,
but if not, you could...
See you on the next video.
Peace.
(upbeat instrumental music)
