Gedanken und Meinungen zur Zauberkunst
Once a card man, always a card man.
Kühne's Perspektive
Daniel Kühne
Mastering card tricks is a journey that deepens the understanding of one’s own skills with every step, while expanding awareness of untapped possibilities – a lifelong exploration of the art of card handling.
The term „card man“ (or woman, or person) describes someone who is able to tickle the pasteboards, much like a piano player is able to tickle the ivories.
Learning any skill happens in stages, much like learning a language. You progress from beginner to intermediate, and then to advanced. When learning languages, there is a common European framework that divides the beginning stage into A1 and A2, the intermediate stage into B1 and B2, and finally the advanced stage into C1 and C2.
Of particular interest is the stage B2—let’s call it the advanced intermediate stage—because it represents a threshold. Any less, and it is possible to forget the language again; B2 or better, and the language will stay with you for the rest of your life. It may get rusty through disuse, but it will remain.
Handling cards (or coins, or a cue stick, or any other instrument) follows a similar pattern. Somewhere between five and ten years of serious study and practice, and you’ll be able to handle cards at an advanced intermediate level, at least. The cards become an extension of yourself, and you can express yourself with them. They won’t feel foreign to you, nor will it seem to an onlooker that they are foreign to you.
Giobbi once described this initial period of obsessive study and practice as the passionate love of youth—an apt comparison, in my mind.
At any rate, once you are a card man, you will have an instrument with which to express yourself and possess a series of skills that no one can take away from you (yes, there are some sleights that are perishable, like riffle stacking, but most will remain).
Most importantly, the more you learn about cards, the larger the abyss of not-mastered sleights becomes. Learning increases your knowledge, but it primarily increases your knowledge of your own ignorance. Much like science, each new discovery raises new questions. So, while the journey is never-ending, it is fun to be on anyway.
Weitere Themen
On Proper Cardmanship