Hi Y'all.

Just a simple question.

Does (or did) anyone have problems palming a card? I'm getting a little discouraged because my hands are small and when ever I do manage to get the card to stay in my hand, it looks stiff and weird and then it pops out of my hand.

How did you overcome the problem? Any advice?

Thanks!

Try different palms. Try Tenkai, Gambler's Cop, or Lateral Palm. If you don't have to use a certain palm, use one of your choice.

If your hands are small, try using Bridge size decks...they're not as wide as Poker size.

i dont really have trouble plaming cards because i have big fingers but i have small palms. i can get away with palming if i keep my hand moving while holding onto the card.

I have the same problem. My hands are tiny. You can even see the card if I palm a bridge sized card. ARGH

Try a mini deck....

i don't know if this will help but it's a suggestion. if u are able to get the palm perfected somewhat, notice how your hand looks, preferably in a mirror since that's the spectator's view. then practice holding your free hand like that when u aren't palming. that way (maybe) to most people it will just look like the way u normally hold your hand. i haven't tried this but if u watch close-up or card magicians very much, they almost always look like they are concealing something in one hand or another. even if they aren't.

thats a really good idea! i'll have to try that.

dude i have a problem palming too. my hands are big enough, but yeah it looks stiff & unnatural.....if i can get away with it i try not to palm and just do something else

Ultimatly the art of palming does not lie in the size of your hands, it lies rather with your ability to direct the attention of the audience off of your hands while you are executing the palm.

Many great magicians "flash" a little, but no one notices because of the way their attention is directed.

The ability to control the eyes of your audience, is perhaps the greatest challenge in magic!

Great point LeConte, I have noticed that a lot of magicians might point to something lying on the table, and so on to misdirect the spectator. Also, when I am performing I notice that if I look at something, then the specs will think that they need to look at that too. These are very important misdirection techniques for me, because I, like a lot of people posting on this topic, have very small hands.

Have you tried learning the one hand palm. It is pretty difficult but you can do it with your hand hanging by your side then bring the deck up and they wont think anything about it. Another thing i have noticed is that when you doing magic for people who know about palming they only think about you palming off the top of the deck so i use a bottom palm when i get those kind of people. it works great because they're looking at your hand that is on top of the deck and not even thinking about you palming it from the bottom. they dont think that's even possible. hope that helps.

hey dat's a good idea magicman.....never even really thot about doing a bottom palm......

My hands are tiny And I do it really obviously but if you divert attention enough then you can most likely do it maybe with a stooge to distract someone but that would be a bit extravagant for a card trick

palm the card with your palm not with fingers and paln.
try it!
oh and the card should be sticking to your arms