Pick a Card...

Every magician has a specialty. Although any ambitious illusionist knows that diversity is key to keeping an audience intrigued, there is always one type of magic that rings true with every magician. With David Blaine it's up-close street magic and feats of endurance, with Criss Angel it's incredible manipulations of his surroundings, like levitating from building to building and phasing his body through the bars of an iron gate, etc.

With me, it's card magic.

Playing cards as we know them today (the four-suited number-and-face cards) have undergone a series of adaptations to become what they are today. The original playing cards were little more than dominoes on paper that made their way to Europe during and after the crusades. In their inception, they were much like they are today, except the suits and symbols were different. For example, in early European playing cards, the suits were King, Knight, and Knave, instead of King, Queen, and Jack. And early suits included (instead of Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts) common objects of the time like coins, swords, spears, and other things like that.

Then the cards were given a massive makeover by the French, who gave us the faces of the King, Queen, and Jack that we know today. And even at those early times of the playing cards, card magic was a prevalent practice. Conjurers would use playing cards for all sorts of entertainment purposes, much like today.

Playing cards can be used for dozens of methods. Close-up magic is the most popular method (i.e. "pick a card, watch me shuffle it in, and BOOM! Your card is in my pocket."), but other methods include fortune-telling, mentalism, throwing stunts (where the magician shows how far/fast/accurately he/she can throw a card), etc. Magician and author Joshua Jay has shown how playing cards can even be used to make wallets, purses, rulers, and calendars. (By the way, if you have a deck of cards and you want to get a workout, shuffle the deck thoroughly, then do push-ups based on the card you pull one-by-one from the top. You'll end up doing 365 push-ups, if you can make it through the whole deck.)

Speaking of 365, did you know that playing cards have an inseparable connection to time? If you add up the values of all the cards, where Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, and King = 13, you get 365. (365 days in a year) Excluding the jokers, there are a total of 52 cards. (52 weeks in a year) There are four suits. (Four seasons, or phases of the moon) There are twelve court cards. (Twelve months in a year) And there are two colors, red, which has symbolized good, and black, which has symbolized evil. (summer and winter equinoxes)

Another fun fact about playing cards? Did you know that the four Kings were originally based on real kings? The King of Spades? King David (of David and Goliath fame). The King of Hearts? Julius Caesar. The King of Clubs? King Alexander. And finally, the King of Hearts (which is sometimes called the suicide king because it looks like he's stabbing himself in the head, but this is unfounded)? King Charlemagne.

But beyond the art of the cards lies a power of potential. The genius of playing cards as a magician's tool is the fact that they're so common-place. Great magic happens when an ordinary object is forced to do something extraordinary. And plus, it feels great to have a deck of cards spread smoothly in your hands. I will always love the effect of a good card trick.