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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » A tangled web we weave... » » Magic that places burden of sleights on one hand? (0 Likes) Printer Friendly Version

tophat
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I am in the intended process of returning to magic after a 15 year absence. The art has always been a serious pursuit for me, and it remains so today. As such, I have found myself in a sticky spot as I attempt to return to practicing it: this is as I have a disability that impairs my dexterity in one hand, making much slight of hand more challenging for me than most magicians. In the past, I attempted to work around this personal restriction to make require sleights feasible, to what I thought was fair success.

With a more mature eye, however, I have realized after reviewing my repertoire that my ability with all but a few does not meet my own standards, and are fundamentally unimprovable owing to the disability. Indeed, even legitimate handling of cards, coins, etc, often do not appear natural (clumsy and awkward) in my hands. The other hand is perfectly capable.

With that in mind, I am very curious as to where I should be looking for magic whose sleights are primarily one-handed, either in genre or focus. Having asked myself this before turning here, I am at a complete loss as to whether such a specific area even exists. I have always taken magic with the utmost respect, and I would far sooner abandon it than to compromise it by poor performance. So, even guesses would be eagerly accepted.

My off-hand is not completely useless, for what that's worth. For instance, although I am unable to touch type or perform a standard riffle shuffle, I can perform the Ninja Rings, well enough to have received compliments on it from even a notable magician.

(Although it limits capabilities, Rene Lavand proved that it was possible to perform one-handed sleight-based magic. Unlike Lavand, however, my own limitation is not casually obvious to the observer and there is no elegant way to work it into a performance--besides "the disabled magician" does not make a good tagline if one can possibly avoid it. I'd also prefer to perform as wide a range of magic as my existing capabilities will permit, and that's far wider if one works with two hands, even if one is not as able as the other.)

Thank you very much for any and all thoughts!
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