Controls
The Crimp
The Crimp is a very powerful weapon in any cardicians arsinal because it alows you to follow a card`s location no mater how you shuffle it. To do the crimp, all you have to do is slightyl bend the corner of a card. Now you have a little "bookmark" for your card. Using this "bookmark" you can cut your card to either the top or bottom of the deck, or anywhere you want. Never under estimate the sheer power of this control.
The Double Under Cut
This control is used to bring a card back to the top of a deck. Cut the deck into two piles, hold one in your right hand and one in your left hand. Now tell the spectator to put their card on top of the one in your left hand, when they do this get a thumb or pink break under the top card (your just basicly sticking some of your fingers skin under the card and creating a small gap between their card and the rest of the deck). Now take your right hand pile and put on top of your left hand pile while still retaing the finger break. Next you cut some cards BELOW THE BREAK and put them on top then eventualy cut the cards at the finger break and put them on top of the deck. Their card is now on the top of the deck. From here you can do some false shuffles to make it look like the card is realy buried in the deck.
Reverse Double Under Cut
I can`t realy say where I learned this, and I don`t even know if thats it`s real name if this control is found in books. But is a good control for getting the top card to the bottom of the deck and at the same time......KEEPS THE REST OF THE DECK IN ITS ORIGINAL ORDER!!! First hold the deck with your pinky finger, ring finger, and middle finger at the skinny end of the facing the audience and with your thumb on the inside skinny end of the deck facing you. Refer to Fig 1. Your index finger can do a numer of things, cur up uder the deck and push up on the cards to help obtaine a thumb break, keep the deck steady, and even help renforce the break by puting your finger up against the side of the deck and catching the break from the side while also holding it with the thumb. I find that it helps me a lot to get that extra break. Continued below Fig 1.
Fig 1.
When Holding the cards in the right hand
Now that you have a thumb or finger break under the top card, take your other hand that doesn`t have any cards and pull out the bottom half of the deck and put it on top of the deck while still retaining the finger break. Now pull out the cards BELOW THE FINGER BREAK LEAVING THE TOP CARD ON THE BOTTOM OF THE DECK!!!! Then put the packet of cards you just pulled out on top of the deck. The top card is now on the bottom of the deck and the rest of the deck is still in its original order. If you don`t belive this, divide the deck into two halfs, one red and one black. Then do the reverse double under cut, when finshed spread the cards and you`ll see that the rest of the deck is still divided by color except for the bottom card. I really hope that was clear and easy to understand.