Magic Tricks

First and foremost, David Gonzalez is an excellent teacher. He starts from the very basics of hand position and just moving the cards to the actual cull itself. He then refines the moves, anticipates pitfalls, and shows you how to cover. I found David's accented English pleasant and easy to understand (and as an added bonus, he does the whole thing in Spanish for Spanish speakers).

As a beginner, who had no idea how to cull more than a single card, this was a great introduction to multiple card culling for me. Given my lack of knowledge, I can't speak to how this differs from other methods, but it was easy to learn. It took me about 3 days of playing around with it to start culling fairly quickly and accurately. I have a ways to go, but, to give other beginners something to compare it to, this was much easier to learn (and learn how to cover) than, say, the classic pass.

That said, I am still working on reaching the sweet spot with speed and accuracy. What is really great is that David explains the cull in steps and that he actually does anticipate potential problems.

I appreciated David's examples on how to use the cull a little less. His examples really showed how to apply the principle of the cull to solve different card order problem--for example, how to undo a shuffle (really quite amazing if you haven't done this type of thing before).

The exmaples do sketch out what the cull can do for you. However, he never really shows you a complete routine.

I would have preferred if he had showed how to incorporate these card order solutions into actual routines from start to finish. This might be obvious to a seasoned magician. As a newbie, however, I can see where all this is headed but I still need some guidence as to how to put it all together. (It would also help if there was some performance footage, to help show where to position the audience, how to put the cull together into a routine, and guage the reaction of an audience.)

That said, this is clearly a very powerful technique that will allow you to separate out specific cards or even put the cards in a specific order. It's easy to imagine that there is likely a higher level to culling, where you can even exert more control on card order.

All in all, I was extremely satisfied with the purchase and extremely satisfied with David's instruction.


That said, here are a few things that helped me that weren't specifically on the DVD:
1) IT HELPED ME TO START WITH HALF A DECK: most people comment that I am playing with one, this really helped. Fewer cards to hold allowed me to finish the cull faster (to see how I did) and was less cumbersome at first. You can then work up to 2/3s of a deck and then a full deck.

2) WHEN STARTING USE BOTH PINKY AND RING FINGER AS YOUR LEFT HAND PIVOT POINT: maybe it's the size of my hands or just strength, but man my left pinky really got tired fast. I guess with better technique and strength, I can now use the pinky alone, but this was better at first

3) CULL WITH YOUR LEFT RING FINGER: try as I may, I couldn't get my right pinky to cull easily. He does give the left ring finger as an option, but if the pinky doesn't come easy, start with your ring finger. This may have something to do with the mobility of your pinky or the size of your pinky relative to the cards, etc. but the ring finger option worked best for me.

4) THE POSITION IS AWKWARD AT FIRST: he does say this on the DVD. I think, though, that it's worth repeating. Once you are used to it, however, it starts to feel natural. As you start to loosen up, the cull itself starts to look much better--just like you are quickly taking a look at all the cards.

5) TRY THE CULL IN DIFFERENT WAYS: he mostly goes for culling the black from the red cards or vice versa, but it helps if you mix it up a little. Especially when you start, it is much easier to cull just, say, the 4 aces, and then work up to 8 cards (Aces and kings), then all the royal cards, etc. Again, culling fewer cards is easier but this will keep up you interest by adding variety but also allow more variety.

It also opens up other uses for the cull, such as, say, culling a royal flush or mixing the cards front to back and culling out the backward facing cards for a variation on a triumph routine where the cards are actually mixed up front to back (back to front, front to front...)