Take a Breather not a break.
The breather crimp is a secret weapon, even amongst magicians it seems. For a few years now I have been using it as my favourite method to control a card to the top, and being honest I felt a lesser magician for it.
I really should be using the good old pinky or perhaps an in-jog anything that requires a bit of skill. Something that reflects I know my way around Royal Road.
You can’t imagine my relief when someone I consider to be amongst best in card work appreciated my use of it, and confessed he breather crimps the same card in all his decks.
The reason is plain and simple, it works and is invisible.
The pinky break is a great, but I struggle to hold one for a length of time without getting nervous and wanting to shift the selection as soon as possible so I can truly relax.
The same goes for the in-jog. I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.
For a while, I’d put a step in the deck and put it down (thanks to Alan Ackerman) but of course I didn’t always have a table.
A lot of magicians don’t mind controlling a card immediately, but for me unless it is a Pass, it creates a weak point in the method.
The breather crimp, allows a free replacement of the card, the deck to be squared and placed down, even riffled or sprung and yet the selection card still be controlled when the appropriate time comes. All this comes at very cost. A card is crimped sure but that doesn’t limit any other controls or types of tricks you may want to do. It simply lies in the deck waiting for any occasion and the call to action.
I’m not a showy card guy, I do Daryl’s brilliant Snowshoe Sandwich which is a bit flash, but I aim for a nonchalant, careless handling in almost everything I perform. The breather crimp provides me with just that.
Perhaps I’m not trying to convince the magic community to embrace the breather, but rather to think a bit more about how things our done, and find methods and techniques which really suit you, that make you feel comfortable and that you have complete confidence in.
As I said, I used pinky breaks and in-jogs for decades despite the slight discomfort I felt, finding a better method for me though has made the world of difference.
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