Dan and Dave's first book reveals over a dozen conceptual palming techniques designed to inspire new ways of thinking about the age-old practice of holding out.
Highlights include a method for replacing a bottom palmed card to the top of the deck, a switch loading a palmed card beneath the top card in the action of turning it over, a variation of the Miller Cascade Control that allows for the card to be palmed and a streamlined approach for executing the Diagonal Palm Shift from a peek.
What is palming? Basically, it’s the techniques magicians and gamblers use to secretly remove cards from the pack into hidden positions in the hands. Gamblers refer to it as holding out. In fact, a card can be palmed from any location in the deck into pretty much any palm position without your spectators ever suspecting. As a result, these cards can be surreptitiously placed either back on top, bottom, or anywhere you conceive (your pocket, a shoe, your spectator’s purse, even another palm). Palming also affords the ability to retain certain cards while the spectators shuffle, only to be replaced later, under your control.
With each purchase of If an Octopus Could Palm, a deck of commemorative playing cards is included*. These cards were printed in limited quantities and will not be sold separately. The artwork for the cards was inspired by Juan Luis Buñuel's original painting for the cover of the book.
*Excluding wholesale orders.
Dan and Dave have been called "visionaries" in the art of magic and cardistry. They are world renowned for their unique style and transformation of the craft into visual art. As professional instructors of magic with years of experience authoring books and producing DVDs, they understand the core concepts and techniques used by today's most acclaimed magicians and can help you become the next.
Reviews (7)
The deck that comes with the book is very nice and has a unique feel. The back design is simple, the ace of spades is a simple large spade and the court cards are normal with some added turquoise.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to think outside the box. Great book!
I got the benefit of seeing someone that has actually putt the time into these palms (Dave), and that gave me the confidence to keep working on mine until they looked (nearly) as good as his.
The illustrations are solid, my only gripe is that the cards do not have a back design. This can occasionally make it difficult to understand the orientation of the card you are meant to palm. Several of the palms involve a single card rotating 180 degrees around the pack, or into the palming hand, it would be convenient (for clarity) to have some type of back design to aid the illustration. While I listed this as a gripe, it should be noted that it is certainly a small one. When reading the well thought out descriptions of the palms, the cards orientation becomes clear.
This book was delayed for a long time, but the wait seems to have been for the better. Everything about it is high quality and I am looking forward to learning some new palms to compliment my ever growing knowledge of sleights.
This book is put together very nicely, with Dan and Dave's superior taste in Luxury, it is very evident that the materials chosen for this book was indeed theirs. It comes with If an Octopus Could Palm deck, which has a rigid feel to them. Classic court cards with a beautiful hint of turquoise blue, and a simple Ace of Spades. A deck perfect for practicing the palms and sleights of hand.
If an Octopus Could Palm is a must have to your collection!
On the first touch of the book, I really liked it. It's bigger than I thought, but not a thick book. The look of the book is very funny and I love the idea of the name and theme of this book, If an octopus could palm...
Inside the book, there are a lot of octopus mascot practicing palming - very cute. Also the instruction and explanation written inside the book is useful. But please note here that this is not for beginners, you have to learn basic palming beforehand. Cause you won't find any ordinary things inside the book. The magic here is more advance in both ideas and difficulty.
The deck came with the book. The spot cards are the ordinary spot cards, the ace of spade is similar to the one in the Magic-Con deck. But what I love about this decks is the jokers, it is the cutest deck I've ever seen. Plus the one way subtle back is also great for magic tricks. (But who is gonna use this cute deck for magic).
The book is only about 80 pages, however it's almost children's book sized, but I believe that was the intent once you get a good look at the cover and the little octopus illustrations on some of the pages. The book itself is a very well produced book, the cover is very nice, as is the binding, and the pages feel like they're high quality. I don't know what type of finish, but I'm going to say somewhere between Smoke and Mirrors and Gold Seals. (Kidding)
Included in the book are about 12 different techniques, however there are countless ideas. I don't know if that makes any sense so let me explain. This book is a thought experiment. Taking palming to a new place, for better or for worse, but sometimes - especially as artists, we need to move somewhere, if not just to find out how nice it was back where we were.
This book sets out to inspire you on thinking outside of the box. I really think the book does deliver on that promise - I feel like the ideas on the book are worth far more than what I paid for the book. I want to recreate different ways of doing almost every sleight in every effect I perform. The book has some pretty out-there ideas, which are pretty awesome. More importantly, when you read an idea that's so crazy, it expands your "crazy" boundaries. What you once thought was crazy becomes feasible when you hear of an idea that's FAR more absurd - thus your brain expands your thoughts, what once you thought crazy doesn't seem so crazy anymore - and the paradigm shifts.
As a professional working magician AND as a creator but also someone who sees magic as an art that I take very seriously as an artist - I found this book to be one of the best I've read recently. Do yourself a favor and pick a copy up before they run out.
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The cards are wonderful. I love them. I like the idea that they are exclusively available only through purchase of the book, but I will admit that I'd gladly pick up a brick of these if that were an option.
Thank you guys for this amazing little gem. I'll see you both up here for your next lecture in Sonora! ....Oh wait...