What is the Charlier One-Handed Cut Card Trick?

Series Summary

Magic is an art of illusion, a practice in deception, a training in trickery. People have been entertaining, deceiving, or swindling crowds throughout history with feats of prestidigitation, decorated with salesmanship, dramatic effect, confidence, and charisma.

It is generally accepted today that there is nothing supernatural about magic; in essence, a magician is skillfully conjuring the appearance of true magic through sleight of hand, misdirection, and cunning. This is why many magicians call themselves "illusionists," embracing the idea that the audience enjoys the trick because they do not know how such an amazing feat could have been performed by natural means. In actuality, magic takes a great deal of training and hard work; many performers have been practicing since early childhood.

Whether you are a budding magician, or just a card game enthusiast looking to bone up on his skills, impress your friends and learn some of the many ways to perform card flourishes. Our expert magician will demonstrate each flourish, with step-by-step instructions and tips for properly performing them. Tricks include the one-handed cut, the swing, the swivel, the ribbon spread, and the thumb fan. Enjoy!

This series is an Equilibrio Films production.

Video Transcript

" Hi everybody Malik the magic guy for expertvillage.com now I want to teach some basic cards flourishes. These are things you do to make your magic look a little flashier. The first one I want to show you is the charlier cut. Now this is a one handed cut. We are going to do a couple one handed cuts. This is called the charlier cut and it looks like this. Now I'm going to show you how to do this. What you want to do is—you can do it two ways—you can either start out with the cards held along the long edges by your three fingers here and your thumb here, and you can drop some cards off the bottom. Then you want to push up with your first finger so that clears just like that, and you want to let that fall down just like that. It is the kind of thing you just want to practice until you can get it. There is another way to do it, when you start with the deck in your hand and you lift the top up and then push with your first finger like this. But basically it's your first finger pushing that does all the work with the charlier cut. If I show you underneath, just like that. And then important moment is kind of like when these two halves are going to clear each other right here, and that is going to fall. Just like that. So that is the first one handed cut that is called the charlier cut. I would do a couple of more times for you, and let me do it one time this way. So you can see it and I would do it one time this way. You can see it. I would even show you once from the back . Just like that. So that is some different angles on the charlier cut so have fun with it. We are going to do some more in just a minute."