Card manipulation (not to be confused with card magic) is the artful handling of cards without any magical purpose, whether it be the cards themselves, the box, the cards in the box, and so on.

Within this art, there are many sects. Some, as you will find on the Handlordz forums, prefer to keep to fans/springs/spreads/one handed cuts, while those who follow the manipulations of Dan and Dave use a larger amount of two handed cuts. The names vary between the sects as well, the Handlordz members refer to what they do as "XCM", while Dan and Dave use "Flourishing". No matter what you call it, or how you do it, it is all Card Manipulation none the less.

Playing cards became popular with magicians in the last century or so as they were props which were inexpensive, versatile, and easily manipulated. Although magicians have created and presented myriad illusions with cards (referred to mainly as card tricks), these illusions are generally considered to be built upon perhaps a hundred or so basic principles and techniques. Presentation and context (including patter, the conjurer's misleading self-serving account of what he is doing) account for many of the variations.

Card magic, in one form or another, likely dates from the time playing cards became commonly known — towards the second half of the fourteenth century — but its history in this period is largely undocumented. One may surmise from the practice of how other everyday objects have been pressed into the service of conjurers across cultures and the ages that card magic developed spontaneously and roughly concurrently in different parts of the world, if not always synchronously. However, compared to sleight of hand magic in general and to cups and balls, it is a relatively new form of magic. But the history of cards depends on who you ask. So in the end, it is up to you to believe what you believe.

Notable card practitioners

• Allan Ackerman
• "Cardini" (Richard Pitchford)
• Brian Tudor
• Brad Christian
• Charles Bertram
• Criss Angel
• Dai Vernon
• Dan Buck
• Dave Buck
• Darwin Ortiz
• David Blaine
• De'vo
• Ed Marlo (Edward Marlowski)
• Euan Bingham
• Jay Sankey
• Jeff McBride
• Jerry Cestkowski
• Jerry Sadowitz
• Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser
• John Scarne
• Vinnie C.
• Juan Tamariz
• Lennart Green
• Michael Ammar
• oz pearlman
• Paul Daniels
• Ricky Jay
• Robert Houdin
• Roy Walton
• Simon Lovell
• S. W. Erdnase (suspected to be Milton Franklin Andrews)
• Zenneth Kok

See also

• Card marking
• Sleight of hand
• Trick deck

Magic (illusion) | Card magic | Card tricks

Kartentrick | Cartomagia | קסם קלפים

Card magic | Card tricks