2. THE PALM
Here is the pons asinorum of most card conjurers, yet to palm a card is one of the easiest of the sleights to be learned. The trouble lies partly in lack of confidence and partly in ignorance of the correct method. The first thing to be learned is the correct position in which to hold the card in the hand. Place your right hand palm upwards and lay a card on it, face up, so that the outer index corner is at the fold of the top joint of the left little finger and the inner corner is against the fleshy part of the base of the thumb (Fig. 11). Bend the four fingers slightly, keeping them pressed together, and turn the hand over.
You will find that you can hold the card securely and that the hand has a perfectly natural appearance, for, when in repose, the hand is always partially closed. Retain the card in your hand and practice picking up articles, handling them, taking matches from your pocket, striking one, making the overhand and Hindu shuffles and so on. Do this until that inevitable paralysis of the wrist and the forearm, always present when palming is first tried, and which some performers never overcome, disappears entirely. Keep the wrist and arm flexible but always remember that the back of the hand must be kept toward the spectators. When you feel quite at ease with one card palmed, practice with several; and gradually increase the number until you can handle objects quite naturally with half the pack in the palm of your hand.
The next step is to learn how to get the card or cards into the palm secretly. To palm the top card of the deck, hold the cards in the usual position for dealing them; bring the right hand over the pack to square the cards, the four fingers being together at the outer end and the thumb at the inner end of the pack. Move the fingers and thumb along the ends several times in the usual way, squaring them; at the moment when the fingers cover the deck completely, push the lower end of the top card toward the right with the left thumb (Fig. 12). Bend the right little finger slightly on the top right corner, thus pressing the opposite diagonal corner against the base of the right thumb; move the right hand along the top and bottom of the pack to the right-hand side, press the palmed card firmly into the palm with the tip of the left middle finger, and grip the pack between the first two fingers of the right hand and the thumb (Fig. 13).
To palm several cards at once, first slip the tip of the left little finger under them, then treat them in just the same way as one card. On no account must the right hand be moved away after palming a card; always complete the action of squaring the ends and then hold the deck if only for a few moments. Later, when the left hand takes the pack or you place it on the table, no suspicion of palming can be aroused, for your actions are perfectly open and natural.
Audacity and easy, natural gestures with the hand that has the card, or cards, palmed are the secret of success in palming; on the other hand, furtive glances at the hand, keeping the hand and arm stiffly at the side of the body, and using the left hand to perform actions (such as taking the pack from a spectator) which should be done with the right hand spell failure. Many of the most effective tricks with cards depend upon perfect palming, and the neophyte should not be satisfied until he can palm a number of cards and use the hand which conceals them with perfect freedom.
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