Introduction to the art of card magic: The Palm

Hey there Fellow Steemians!

This will be e follow up to the four key principles of sleight of hand.
This time I like to tackle the Palm.
Every time you hide a card in your hand but act like there is nothing you execute the move called palm.
There are of course a lot of different ways which are used by many magicians around the world. Because this is e really classic move there is not much difference around the world.
The most common palm is the classic palm.

This move is much easier if you have big hands to cover the whole back of the card but it is not impossible for people with smaller hands. With smaller hands you have to rely more on the technique to cover this move. As a rule of thumb you can say: "if your four fingers can cover the width of the card, then you should be able to to this technique."
If you flash the card between the joints of your fingers then you have so-called windows which are the enemy of the classic palm. Try to press your fingers together but dont act suspicious.

The muscle memory is key here. You should be able to hold a card in the classic palm as if you are holding nothing.
In the beginning it is very hard to relax your fingers while palming. Especially the thumb tends to stick out really obvious.
Like every other move this one comes down to practice. A lot of practice.

So how do you practice the palm you ask?
Well, you should get comfortable with palming cards so I recommend you place a card inside your palm according to the picture and let it rest there for some minutes. Try to keep your fingers as relaxed as possible without dropping the card and try to hold some things around you.
Maybe a cup or something small and light or perhaps a deck of cards.

I remember the first time i learned the palm. I was working in the alternative to our military, the civil service. There I had to overlook kognitiv disabled people manufacturing cases for colored crayons. While walking around the machine I always palmed a card and went through my day. Just after one day I had a good feeling about the card and felt normal while palming.
The next step is to make sure you always hold your hand correct.
Your palm ist just as good as your ability to put yourself in the position to see what your spectator might see.
This is called angle sensitivity. A palm can be visible from one side but perfectly hidden from another side, so always keep in mind where your good angles are.

As you see here the right side is perfectly fine but the left side is obviously not good.
Try to only show the view from the right side. If you have e group of spectators you have to turn around a little and face them with your right shoulder.
Keep in mind that the height of the eyes of your spectator matter a lot too.
A child sees your hand different than another adult with your height.
Your bathroom mirror should be e great help with that and if you want to go even further then you can make your own triple-mirror.
The one shown in the picture is just 3 squares mirrors held together with electric tape.

Now that you know the classic palm, lets look at different ways to get into this palm.
The easiest way is the "double handed top palm"
Grab the pack of cards with your left hand like in the picture below and grab the card while pushing a little on the front edge of the top card. Your right hand should be on top of the top card and then move your hand a little over the front edge. The card should pop up right into the position where you can grab it with your hand.

If this part is unclear I can explain it even further or can link you a proper tutorial from a good learning source.
Skilled magicians can get into the classic palm onehanded but for the sake of your sanity i will leave this one out. Let me know if you are interested in this method too.

This is the Tenkai palm. Another great form of palming and as you see it is really angle sensitive.

So when do you use a palm?

Personally i use the palm a lot if I have prepared the top card of my deck for a trick with a force but a spectator wants to shuffle the deck. Simply palm the card off and let them do what the heck they like with the deck.
Obviously most of the routines where a card vanishes are based on some sort of palm and some productions rely on a firstly palmed card.

The palm in general is mostly used inside of a trick but well performed you can make a routine just with palming a card. A simple vanish can be a miracle when performed correctly and it works very well with children.

Of course palming is much more represented in the world of coin magic but on this blog I don't want to go to deep into that area.

Thanks for reading and if you got something out of that please upvote this blog and maybe resteem it to your friends!

Cards used in pictures: Karnival Delirium
Pictures: Iphone 6
Source: original

Knowledge about the force:
https://steemit.com/magic/@rheteric/card-magic-the-force-what-is-a-force

Cheers
@Rheteric