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TIPS & TRICKS

A One-Hand Cut & Fan

by Emory Kimbrough

If you would like to extend your juggling skills to include some fancy moves with a deck of cards, then start by learning one-hand cuts and fans.

These flourishes will impress onlookers far more than such relatively simple manipulations ought to. Any deck of cards will do for the one-hand cut, although people with smalI hands may find bridge-size cards easier to handle than poker-size.

You should be much more selective, however, in choosing cards for the onehand fan. If the cards do not smoothly glide over one another, then even an expert cannot make a fan free of irregularly spaced clumps. Tahoe and Club casino cards made by the Arrco Company fan very well.

The simplest one-hand cut is called the Charlier cut. Turn your left hand palm-up, and place one long edge of the deck along the fingertip pads. (Yes, right-handed people often use their left hand for this.) The pad of your thumb should naturally come to rest in the middle of the other long edge. An almost imperceptible rocking forward of your outer thumb joint will alIow the hand of the deck nearest your body to fall into the palm (ill. 1).

Curl in your index finger slightly so that its fingertip presses up under the outside left comer of the packet of cards you dropped into your palm - packet A. Push upwards with the index finger, levering up the outside edge of the dropped packet A to form an inverted V with the other cards - packet B.

Now comes the tricky part. Slowly lower your second, third and fourth fingers slightly. The upper edge of packet B should slide down the fingernail of the index finger (ill. 2).

Now carefully curl in your index finger, lowering packet B as the index finger's tip slides down the face of packet A. B should now be well below A. Firmly push down and out on A with your thumb while pulling in on B with your second, third and fourth fingers, snapping the packets together to complete the cut.

The one-hand fan is easier to master than the cut. Using your right hand, grip the inner left comer of the face-down deck so that the pad of the thumb presses that corner firmly against the outer joint of the second finger. The inner right comer of the deck should be close to the middle joint of the first finger.

The first finger also supports the deck, but the second finger is dominant. The third and fourth fingers, curled into the palm, never touch the deck. Rapidly and firmly arc your thumb to the outside while your first and second fingers simultaneously curl into the palm. The motion is almost identical to snapping your fingers (ill. 3).

Within reason, the quicker and more forcefully you make this snap, the better the fan will be. Many card handlers prefer to add the third finger to the face of the deck. The larger part of the thumb's pressure will then act on the pad of the third finger, but the snapping action remains the same. In either case you can expect to litter the floor several times before you master a fan!

(Emory Kimbrough is active in the performing arts of juggling, magic and comedy. Residing in Montgo1hery, Ala. , he works as a science educator and writer.)