One-handed Cuts

[Voob]

Hello all
This place is pretty dead lately, so I thought I'd post something.

Which one-handed cuts can you do, which ones do you prefer, and what do you use them for?

I do the Charlier with a little variation, a Cardini cut I recently learned from allmagic.com, and what I believe is called the "reach cut".

I use the Charlier when I have to do something fast, for example as I reach around behind the spectator's back. I also like it as the first move in a false cut I do retaining the top stock.
The reach cut is best for the visual appeal to difficulty ratio--It's easy, but looks rather flashy. It's also good for glimpsing the new bottom card, as well as a nice bs substitute for the real hotshot cut. IIRC, I think Dante King uses this too.
The Cardini cut was the most difficult of the three, and I like it just for the personal satisfaction of being able to do it. It could also be used to glimpse a force card, as mentioned on allmagic.

Sure there are others I should learn (the "real" hotshot cut being one of them), but they're further down on the list of sleights I want to master, so for the time being, I'm content with what I can do now.

And you?

[Brown]

I can cut the cards one handed in four ways. Although I have large hands, I find that some of the techniques are very hard to do with a poker deck. I learned them with a standard bridge deck, which uses narrower cards.

I do not know the names of the different techniques. My favorite technique involves holding the deck in my palm, reaching across with my thumb and levering up some cards with my thumb, using my fingers to lever up the cards in my palm, dropping the cards held by my thumb, and dropping the cards held by my fingers. This is my favorite technique because it is the fastest one for me and I make fewer mistakes.

Two of the techniques are not very good as sleights. They are more like flourishes. You can use these techniques to perform a one-handed shuffle and a one-handed cut.

[fsol]

It sounds like the Charlier pass. I do three one handed single cuts. One is the charlier pass, the other two are flourishes. I do a modification of one of the flourishes to do a single handed triple cut. And another modification of the same single cut to shuffle the cards. All rather pointless, but they pass the time. :) I am currently practising another single cut and a modification of the charlier pass into another triple cut.

[Richard G]

Dunno what they're called, but I do a couple one handed cuts. What are they good for? Not much other than a quick flourish, and a bit of entertainment value.

I've been at odds doing such things at times. It can psychologicly detract from the imposibility of the miracles themselves, which can be easier passed off as mundane manual dexterity.

[Voob]

The Charlier's good if you if you want to cut the deck as you hand the cards to a spectator behind his back. For example, the spec sees a face-up card on top as you reach around behind him to place the deck in his hand. A split second later he's holding the deck and the dirty work is done.

Can be used as a nice little card location.

[Lavie Enrose]

Originally posted by Richard G
Dunno what they're called, but I do a couple one handed cuts. What are they good for? Not much other than a quick flourish, and a bit of entertainment value.

Experiment. Be creative. Work them into your routines. You may be surprised with what new uses you might be able to discover for them. And never underestimate the value of entertaining your audience.

I've been at odds doing such things at times. It can psychologicly detract from the imposibility of the miracles themselves, which can be easier passed off as mundane manual dexterity.

I use flourishes in my close up routines. I find they are good ways of getting a person's attention while there are other distractions going on around me. I also find flourishes appeal to the artistic side of some people. They get both the left and right side of the brain stimulated during the performace.

Doing flourishes, like a one handed cut, may do what you say with some people, but my experience is many people enjoy seeing flourishes done, and they are more likely to believe in my skill as a magician rather than mistakenly think I am using some sort of trick deck that does all the work.

But it all comes down to your personal style in deciding which, if any, flourishes you do in your routines.