Sunday School: One Handed Top Change

Welcome to Sunday School, Class is in Session.

Good day you beautiful magical people and thank you for joining me for another edition of Sunday School.

Today, we're going to cover something that is considered fairly advanced for most card magicians: The One Handed Top Change.

Should you even preform it?

There's a lot of discussion about the efficiency of magic, and the examination of certain moves.

For instance, you can get pretty far with just a good double lift and Ed Marlo's Tilt. You don't need any fancy moves to accomplish difficult tricks. Most of the time you can do something incredibly simple.

In my opinion, you should totally preform more outlandish moves, especially because they throw people off.

Especially your friends.

However, in a professional environment, I think you should preform what your comfortable with.

The last time I worked professionally, I used a double lift, a double undercut, Ed Marlo's Tilt, and a classic palm and I got by just fine.

The classics are super simple moves that can be executed with muscle memory.

Not to say hardcore moves don't eventually become muscle memory as well.

Which brings up a really good point.

Preform whatever makes you feel good about your magic

There are tons, and tons of essay's about making your magic look like your doing nothing vs. making your magic look super flashy, and with those essay's are tons of opinions about if flashy stuff is more or less impactful.

None, absolutely none, of that matters. This may cause some controversy but I'm a firm believer that if you're having fun, your audience is having fun and it doesn't matter what style you preform as long as it's comfortable.

Preform what you want, how you want.

Just make sure you preform with respect to the art. Take it seriously.

Alright with all the theory talk out of the way, let's get into some history:

The One Handed Top Change was published as far back as 1876 published in a booklet called "Modern Magic"

Some people use "The Ultra Move" to encompass all One Handed Top Changes, and that would be incorrect.

The Ultra Move was first published by Harry Lorayne in 1975 in his book Afterthoughts

So, where can I learn it?

A lot of magicians have work on the One Handed Top Change, the most famous being the aforementioned Ultra Move.

I can't actually recommend learning the Ultra Move. It's tons of fun to preform, but the level of dexterity that's required just won't be possible for some magicians.

If you want to take a crack at it, the link to the book is above in the History section of this post.

A decent alternative, even though it requires two hands, is taught by Lloyd Barnes in his out of print Odyssey project called "Covert". It's used in a no palm card to wallet that absolutely fries. I can't recommend it enough if you find a way to learn it.

Another fantastic version of the move is Eric Jones "Eclipse"

Where can I learn it for free?

There is an excellent variation of Eric Jones' move taught by Fernando on his Website

Closing thoughts

The One Handed Top Change is the perfect way to really flex and show off your technical skill, but don't think for a second that it can replace the older moves. It's all about knowing what moves to preform when.

When I preform, I use a Jazz style for my magic. It's freeform, and I use different moves for the same routine, especially when I preform at restaurants so someone one table over who's watching won't recognize what's happening if I decide to preform the same trick for them.

I'm really behind in posting videos and tutorials over on r/Magicsecrets (links to join in the about section of r/Magic) I'm filming a bunch of stuff with my best friend later today. Sorry to over promise guys :(

Still! I look forward to seeing your thoughts down below. I'd love to know your opinion on "move monkey" moves, and maybe some other places that you could learn this move.

And if your a beginner don't feel bad if you can't do this right away. It takes time. Stick with it and I promise one of two things will happen: you will nail the move, or discover a different move that accomplishes what you need.

Thanks for being a really solid community. My PMs are always open if anyone wants to talk shop about tricks.

Submitted August 25, 2019 at 08:45PM by HordogChamp https://ift.tt/2ZgO44C