Empty Hands

The best fighters win without using weapons- that's a skill. No guns, swords, or arrows- just empty hands. I'm begining to meditate on this as a magician: swordless samurai. Why do we insist on charging into a crowd with a deck of playing cards? The limitations are subtle, and so many more sights exist outside of the single island that is a magician's deck. Magicians tend to maroon themselves on this prop, navigating any gig or venue with supreme confidence that everything they'll need for a good show will come straight out of that cardbox. They use it for mentalism, manipulation, quiet transpositions, crazy stunts, color changes, penetrations, and anything else in their magical vocabulary. Why is it that this prop deserves so much popularity? I've been meditating on my dependence on the deck, or the sword, as a means for performing survival, and come to the conclusion that there is life without a deck. As fond as I am of it, my spectators would be relieved to see more. I'm feeling magic with fire, matchsticks, gum, soda, forks, napkins, coins, necklaces, Ipods, leaves, and even sponge balls again- they all just seem so much more 3D than the flat surface of a ribbon spread. In other words, I want my hands empty again. My friend Sam aka Remy Connor said there's better magic out there, when I asked him why he's been so cardless. A deck of cards is a magician's compass, but like any crutch, it can become an addiction. There is my instinct outside of cardwork, and magicians can survive without it. I'm going cardless for a while. I'm curious to see how I'll do.

-antidote