By David Solomon
As a teenager, I received a giant, 545-page book for Christmas. On the cover, a man in a top hat balanced a ribbon of playing cards spread across his outstretched arm. The book – the Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes by Jerry Cestkowski – excited me with its wealth of possibilities. I had no idea that one of those possibilities would eventually lead me to juggling playing cards.
The Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes. Photo by Author
Playing card flourishes are fanciful displays of manual dexterity with an ordinary deck of cards. Though they originate from card magic, flourishes are different from sleight-of-hand in that they do not attempt to deceive. Magicians use flourishes as supplemental diversions or practical utilities such as spreading the cards in a fan to demonstrate the different faces. Historically, many magicians warned against the over-use of flourishes, as too much ostentatious skill might undermine a sense of magic. For instance, magician Marvin Kaye wrote in The Stein and Day Handbook of Magic (1973), “If finger work is not concealed from the audience’s vision, the magician becomes simply a juggler” (p.26).
Though it is an uncommon flourish, juggling playing cards dates at least as far back as 1959 when Dai Vernon refers to Argentinian magician Senor Notis in his book Inner Secrets of Card Magic, Vol. One by writing, “One of his specialties was juggling three spinning playing cards, in the same manner as a juggler would perform with balls” (p.65).
In his humorous, tongue-in-cheek book Cards as Weapons (1977), magician Ricky Jay covers an impossible technique for juggling cards by softly tossing them horizontally. Allegedly, Ricky Jay could properly juggle cards and would do so prior to performing a 3-card monte routine. It wasn’t until 2002 that earnest instructions for juggling cards were finally published in Cestkowski’s Encyclopedia.
Ricky Jay’s Cards as Weapons
Satirical card juggling instructions from Cards as Weapons
Early books on flourishes were limited in scope. Edward G. Love’s Card Fan-tasies (1946), for instance, contained fewer than twenty maneuvers. The Encyclopedia, on the other hand, contained nearly that many in just one of its twelve chapters. It remains the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject. It’s no wonder, then, that it helped spark what would later become known as cardistry.
Over the following decade, cardistry evolved into a standalone art form separate from magic. While some flourishes taught in the Encyclopedia remain staples in a cardist’s arsenal today, others have gone largely ignored – juggling being one of them.
Though juggling has not been a mainstay for cardists, it has had a few practitioners over the years. Its peak exposure may have been on the 2010 instructional cardistry DVD XCM Champions Vol. 1 where Max Vlassenko teaches a cascade, cross-arm reverse cascade, 423, and Mill’s Mess. Another cardist, Marcos Demian, juggled three cards while the rest of the deck balanced on top of his head in an XCM Championship competition video around the same time. In spite of this, playing card juggling remained a niche skill to the point where I could not find any card jugglers among hundreds of cardists at the 2019 Cardistry Con.
Still from the XCM Champions Vol. 1 DVD Trailer. Max Vlassenko juggling
Over the years, I’ve continued to revisit the intersection of cardistry and juggling. In doing so, I’ve been able to execute some patterns and tricks that I have yet to see performed elsewhere including a 3-up start, under the leg throw, penguin catch, 531, and a 3-card color change (claw catching each card to change which side faces out). When accomplishing something as basic as a 531 is breaking ground, nearly everything is breaking ground.
Still of author doing a 3-up start to a cascade
In Cards as Weapons, Jay accurately points out some of the difficulties in juggling playing cards regardless of technique when he writes, “there is no time to re-grip the cards for each new throw” and “the cards are so light as to make it difficult to control their flight” (p.50). These sensitivities in cards as a prop may well be the reason why juggling them has remained little more than a party trick.
Juggling Instructions from The Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes. Photo by Author.
The unique properties of cards make them both challenging and rich in possibilities. Cards can be juggled in one hand while doing flourishes in the other. Similar to a club balance on the forehead, a fan of cards can balance on the nose. Cards can be caught in a fan or a closed deck. They can be shot, propelled, thrown, rolled, slid, and spun in a myriad of ways all around the body. The Encyclopedia describes a technique called “brushing.” This is essentially bouncing a spinning card on the hand. It can also be done with other parts of the body. Arguably a one card juggle, this trick can be naturally incorporated into a standard juggling pattern.
Brushing Instructions from The Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes. Photo by Author.
Photo of author balancing card fan on nose
While it seems to have originated as a throwaway stunt in magic, playing card juggling is more at home in the realm of cardistry. Unfortunately, even there it has yet to find devoted practitioners as most modern cardists primarily focus on increasingly complex two-handed cuts. Magicians and cardists are not best suited to push a juggling prop to its full potential, even cards. As Cestkowski wrote, “If you are born a juggler, learning to juggle playing cards will be much easier.”
In the Encyclopedia, Cestkowski recalls seeing footage of a Russian circus performer juggling 5 playing cards, tearing them up, and then throwing the pieces to the audience to prove their regularity. This elusive footage has yet to re-surface. While I hope one day to recreate this feat myself, I know other much more talented jugglers could achieve it, and more, in less time. Cestkowski pondered the possibilities when he wrote, “Juggling three, four, and even five ordinary playing cards is certainly possible, but what about seven? As of this writing, the world record for ‘numbers juggling’ of any object (it happens to be rings) is thirteen. Will anybody ever be able to juggle twelve regular playing cards, perhaps all of the same suit for that added crowning touch? I’d wager heavily against it, but who knows?” (p.3).
Photo of author juggling 3 cards on stage (card in mouth is backup in case of a drop)
For me, playing cards have proven to be an unreliable prop best suited for edited videos. But if a professional juggler could confidently juggle 5 cards during a live performance, I have to think the problem is me and not the prop. I am far from the best cardist or juggler. So far, I have achieved a few minor things, but it will take a greater number of explorers to demonstrate what playing cards are fully capable of as a prop. I invite you to join me on this adventure. There is much yet to discover.
David Solomon has been an amateur cardist and juggler for about 22 years. He is also a film buff and collector of movie novelizations. He lives in Columbia, MO with his girlfriend and cat. You can follow his explorations of playing card juggling on Instagram @cardjuggling
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