Why I want to learn the classic pass.
Let’s cut to the chase. The cheap plastic kiddie tricks never held my attention for long. Toward the end of high school, in the mid 1990s, I had finally stumbled onto The Amateur Magician’s Handbook by Henry Hay. While this is an excellent book, it is definitely of the old mindset in its teaching of card magic. It was also the only source I had to learn any form of magic from.
This printing of The Amateur Magician’s Handbook is almost 400 pages long. On page 29, the book begins evangelizing a version of this same maneuver. The author even seems to understand that he is instructing children to learn the move.
I skipped this section, read past it, and tried to learn what tricks I could from the remainder of the book. I was even able to surprise my brother with a few good tricks. But I let the stigma of being stumped by page 29 stay with me.
I believe in giving fault where fault is due. There were a lot of other factors as well: isolation from any circles of magicians, lack of money to purchase more books or any VHS tapes with, and this overall sense that being in it alone was a bad thing. I alone let myself be intimidated by this move when all was said and done.
Now I’m in my 30s. I have my own job and my own money, and am using videos very heavily to learn the basics of the craft. I still have that same copy of The Amateur Magician’s Handbook, as well as Expert at the Card Table in print and in digital book form. I have videos ranging from the usual newbie Ellusionist titles to some of the specialized ones.
I want revenge against the pass. I want to learn how to do it well. In the coming months I will share thoughts about this, as well as some praise for the same Hays book. It is a good book and it did have me performing card tricks.
This is not to earn cool points, or to show off, or to even think that I will use the move very frequently. This is entirely about redeeming myself in my own eyes, and conquering my fears. It is about revenge, and it’s about one thing even bigger.
This move used to look impossible to me. I want to turn that impossibility into something entirely possible.