which do your prefer?

without a shadow of a doubt is would perfer sleight of hand.

I think that if you are a closeup magician a majority of what you do should be sleight of hand, gimmicks have there place, but SOH is better

I just like the feeling I get fooling people with sleight of hand vs. fooling them with gimmicks.

Also, gimmicks are much more powerful if you have convinced the audience that you have some slight of hand skill.

Is there really a contest? If you can do the same effect with either, then it's no contest. Some gimmicked effects have their place though, such as the invisible deck.

such as pyroperception, the best 30 dollars ive ever spent. literally.

LOL...why all these polls asking kinda pointless (I was going to say stupid, but decided to reword) questions? I think both have their place, and I don't think you'll find a magician who honestly thinks otherwise. Even sleight of hand tricks often require a "gimmick" of some sort. Kinda limiting yourself to choose one or the other...though I would say that if I had to pick between them both, I'd take up sleight of hand without a doubt.



Now can we please have some real discussion, not all these open ended and pointless polls. To me, these polls are kind of like asking whether you prefer air or food/water or both. Uh....duh.

The gimmicks that work for me are the ones the audience do not know exist....TT, raven, topit, shell coins, hold outs and the like.IMOHO Its hard to convince people your good if your entire act appears to have been bought at a magic shop, Please don't get me wrong the magic shops are wonderful I just like to keep my magic to at least LOOK like I have some skills. Slight of hand is cool too but ill take all the help I can get.

i prefer sleight of hand, but like people are saying, gimmicks DO have their place, especially when mixed in with sleight of hand.