Instructions on card tricks.

I dabble a little in card and coin tricks. Nothing big or clever, just enough to keep me amused and to build up my dexterity. This has given me what appears to be a novel view of muscle memory- but I will share that at a later date.

This is more about manuals and the difficulties in creating a workable motion from the written word. Below is an extract from 'Expert at the Card Table' by Erdnase (Dover publications, reprint of a 1902 book about cheating at gambling)

To cull two cards-
Undercut about half deck, in-jog first card and shuffle off. Undercut to in-jog, run one less that first number running one more and second number out-jog. (The two desired cards are now located at top and bottom of the middle packet, which is held by the in and out-jogs) Under-cut to out jog, forming break at in-jog, in-jog first card (a desired card), throw to break, and shuffle off. (The two desired cards are now together, being the injog card and the next above it.) Undercut to in-jog and shuffle off. This leaves the two desired cards at the bottom.

Confusing isn't it- and the bloody thing has no illustrations. The thing is, it is really hard to explain magic using a static medium. It has it's own set of dynamics that the uninitiated will not understand. Also, this is not the only way to cull two cards- once you get the principles and the basic moves, you will find your patterns altering towards a way that is more natural to you.

I don't know many magicians who Lay Down The Law. They are more concerned with the effect rather than the method. This may be one of the better, harder to detect methods of culling cards. However, if you can just put the two cards where you want then do it.

Essentially, you take a base set of manoeuvres and principles, then adjust them to fit your own body mechanics and produce a desired effect. If you can produce that effect with less mucking about, then aren't you going to do that?

Magicians can't guarantee that their interpretation of the instructions are correct, and they are written in modern English.

Is any of this that different to HEMA?