Lapping Lessons

As a magician raised in the era of social media, I almost immediately began recording my magic. While I kept most of the early videos to myself (and we're all glad I did), at one point, a magician friend convinced me to start an Instagram account to share my magic.

Little did I know that sharing card tricks and techniques online would open up opportunities for connecting with people, traveling, and ultimately turning magic into a career. But it all started with many videos featuring one magic technique: lapping.

If you're unfamiliar with lapping, it refers to any technique that involves using your lap as part of the method. In close-up magic, lapping typically involves ditching or retrieving objects from your lap to accomplish vanishes, switches, color changes, and more. You can find brilliant examples of lapping in the work of Slydini and, more recently, Yann Frisch.

• "Any Card At Any Number" Method

• Natural Vanishes Magic Technique

• Object To Impossible Location

I filmed my first lapping video in 2016. I was playing around in front of a mirror with four aces and thought it looked nice to make them vanish by throwing them off the table one by one. I recorded a short sequence and quickly forgot about it. It took a year before I found that old video again and decided to post it. Then I filmed more.

For reasons still unclear to me, one of those videos went viral among magicians, so I continued creating more. I eventually released a major project on lapping, gave lectures on it, and was even labeled as the "Italian lapping guy." Although I've since stopped teaching lapping and now focus on teaching different areas of card magic, lapping taught me some of the most important early lessons in sleight of hand, and I still recommend others to practice it.

So, when One Ahead asked me to write about sleight-of-hand, I knew I had to start with lapping. I've put together a list of the best lessons I learned from lapping—and as you'll quickly realize, you can apply the advice here to almost any area of sleight of hand. Lapping is gold.

Slow It Down

Almost every hidden sleight-of-hand technique in card magic improves when slowed down. It's a natural tendency to speed up movements when it comes to "secret stuff," as we don't want to get caught. But this speed change is precisely what creates suspicion, as our actions lose uniformity, and the break in the pattern signals to the spectator that something sneaky must be happening.

This note doesn't mean you should practice sleights slower than normal. You need to practice at your ideal speed. The issue may arise during a performance when you're under pressure in front of an audience.

Here are some tips that worked for me:

• Work on the presentation as much as the techniques. You may execute the best sleight-of-hand in the world, but if you're not in control of what you say—and how you say it—you'll likely lose control over the speed and uniformity of your actions.

• Breathe out as you execute the technique. Doing so will release tension from your body and help you perform the move more slowly and naturally. This tip was given to me by Gaia Elisa Rossi, whom One Ahead readers know well—and it works wonders.

• Identify marking points in your actions. I like to call this "punctuation". Mentally noting specific points in your technique helps you consistently replicate those actions and reinforce the good habits you've developed through practice. For example, after secretly ditching a card into my lap, I slowly move my body forward until my elbow touches the table—this confirms that I'm now far enough from the table's edge to conceal the method effectively.

Get In, Get Out

In lapping, it's important to execute the technique well, but it's even more important to get into and out of the technique smoothly. If you suddenly reach the edge of the table with no context, or if you perform an entire set standing up and then sit down for a card vanish—that could ruin your whole performance.

This note is the greatest lesson I learned from lapping: the technique starts long before the actual movement and ends long after. Everything before and after the technique contributes to its success or failure.

If you're retrieving something from your lap to perform, like during a deck switch, you'll need to work hard on the motivation for bringing the cards close to the table's edge and out of sight for a second or two. You'll also need to consider what to do with the ditched deck. If you choose to wait and hide it secretly at the end of the routine, you'll realize how flexible the timing of "getting out" of the technique can be.

If you're practicing the classic pass, carefully study how to get into it—are you holding the break with your arm resting at your side or at chest level? Are you looking at the cards or away from them? Then, focus on how to get out of it—is your hand holding the deck differently than when you had the break? Are you going to repeat the action of squaring the cards even after you've already done it when you had to justify the pass?

Focusing on the transitions between actions will inevitably force you to consider your presentation and incorporate the punctuation we discussed earlier into your techniques. Each block builds upon the previous one.

Be Music

I used to listen to a lot of classical piano music while practicing lapping, and it had a dramatic impact on my actions. I now realize I was unconsciously matching my movements to the music. In the silent lapping sequences I filmed, my speed was often dictated by the music I listened to.

Try matching a technique with a song or a music genre. Choose one that feels right to you and practice with that music in the background. Absorb the rhythm you want, and once you've found it, leave it and explore different alternatives. You'll quickly realize if it suits your performance style or not. Once you find a rhythm that resonates with you, your actions will likely become more uniform.

This concept particularly resonates with me as I primarily created and performed silent lapping sequences, but the same can be applied to practicing a double lift, top change, or other sleights where you can easily repeat the action over and over in practice. I promise that if you listen to different types of music, at some point you'll notice that a specific move will feel good with a particular song. That can be your starting point, which you can then combine with your presentation to explore different speeds and gain a new awareness of your movements.

Everything Else

What started as a short, forgotten video ended up becoming the most motivating area of my first five years in magic. It made me stop focusing solely on how good my color changes looked on camera and instead ask questions about everything else: speed, rhythm, the use of space and body, and presentation. I wouldn't be where I am now if it weren't for that—and if you love card magic like I do, I'm sure you feel the same motivation for a move you love.

Once you get the basic handling down, I promise you'll dramatically improve any technique by focusing on everything else. This will lead you to ask questions you'll want to find the answers for and will force you to face fundamental choices that will have a deep impact on your journey into magic.