Christopher Severson - Selenium Shift

Selenium Shift By C h r i s t o p h e r C. S e v e r s o n

. : EXTRAS : .

Selenium Shift Copyright © 2015 By Christopher C. Severson All Rights Reserved Print For Personal Use Only

.:Table of Contents:. . : Table of Contents ...........................................................................................1 . : Thank You.......................................................................................................2 . : Shift Half Pass .................................................................................................3 . : Instant Location ..............................................................................................5 . : Shift Palm ........................................................................................................6 . : Gestures ...........................................................................................................9 . : Triple Card Color Change .......................................................................... 12 . : Snap Change Clean Up ............................................................................... 17 . : Adobo Production ....................................................................................... 19 . : Clean Color Change .................................................................................... 23 . : Thank You Again:…(Again) ...................................................................... 26

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Thank You:. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my work, and the magic community as a whole, by buying this DVD. This Shift has been a huge part of my life since its creation in 2008, and I constantly discover new uses and applications for it. I hope that it will inspire your own magic and performance style, or at least plant an idea in your mind so that you may create something new. The following pages are chock-full of ideas, tricks, subtleties, and random thoughts regarding the Shift that I didn’t put into the DVD; as we are in the digital age, it is best to keep some concepts in ink. On the same lines, I do not want to see you putting a video of yourself attempting to do the Shift on YouTube, Instagram or any other social media outlet. Spend the time needed to practice and perfect this move, and, once it is mastered, go out into the real world and entertain real people. Please note: The Selenium Shift is hard. It will take a great deal of time to get it into your fingers, so please, for the love of all things holy, take your time in learning it. If you have any questions about the Shift or any of its applications on this DVD or in this booklet, please feel free to contact me, and I will gladly help you to the best of my ability. So, without any more prologue, enjoy the Selenium Shift and these extras. -Christopher C. Severson

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Shift Half Pass:. It occurred to me that in the middle of the Shift, when the selection is freed from the deck, you are in the perfect position to do a half pass with the rest of the pack. This leaves you with the selection face-down on top, with the rest of the deck reversed underneath. I perform many versions of the inverted deck plot, as well as various sandwich effects, so it was only natural that this idea came about. A selection is replaced in the middle of the deck, and you perform the Selenium Shift.

Halfway through, once the deck clears the selection, you are going to let the upper left corner of the deck fall into the base of the little and ring fingers of the right hand.

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Your deck hand little, ring, and middle fingers are going to push up on the deck, while the left thumb and right hand stay isolated in the air.

The deck is then going to slide down to the palm of your left hand from the left hand fingers, until it rests square underneath the selected card.

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Instant Location:. Here is a small idea using the Shift Half Pass as a little magical moment to find a selected card. Let’s get this clear right off the bat: I am absolutely garbage at coming up with patter. So please feel free come up with a better story yourself! The deck is handed out to be shuffled, and upon being returned to the magician, a card is selected and memorized...as per usual. The card is returned to the deck and lost amongst the other cards. The magician explains that he does not have to do anything to find the selection, as the deck will do all the work for him. As everyone’s attention is drawn to the cards, the performer snaps his fingers, causing the deck to instantly turn face up! The magician then spreads the cards to reveal that only one card is left face down ‒ the selection. The above idea is fairly basic, though it can be built into a great intro to a selected card routine. The deck is shuffled and a card is chosen. The selection goes back into the deck and left outjogged. The Shift Half Pass is now performed as described previously, acting as if you just lost the card somewhere in the deck. Right now you should have the selected card face down on top of the deck with the entire deck face up underneath. Now this is where the magic moment happens. You are going to do a single card pass, to bring the selection to the middle of the deck. You want to get a little finger break in the middle of the deck with your left hand whilst your right hand is in Biddle grip. Have your left hand ring and middle fingers drag the top card into the middle of the deck, as your right hand gently lifts up on the upper left and lower left corners of the top half of the deck. Since it’s only a one card pass, the speed of the change from face down to face up will be blistering fast. The spectators will see a face down deck, and within the blink of an eye, it will invert to be face up.

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Shift Palm:. This is a simple idea that puts a selected card into palm right after it’s shifted to the top of the deck. Right before you complete the Shift of the selected card to the top of the deck, you will notice that your right hand is in Biddle grip. You must now transfer the majority of the grip on the selected card from your left thumb and first finger to your right thumb and little finger’s middle segment, as the deck is squared up underneath the selection.

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As the rest of the deck aligns back under the selection, the upper right corner of the selected card presses up into the middle segment of your right little finger. Now you will transfer the pressure of holding the card with your right thumb to your left thumb tip, while maintaining grip with the right little finger.

Your left thumb is now contacting the upper left corner of the selection and your little finger is still contacting the upper right corner of the card. If you slightly push your right hand forward, you will see the selection pivot off the thumb and move the card under your right hand. This puts you in perfect position to palm off the card.

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Your right hand will simultaneously square off the top and bottom edges of the deck as you palm off the selected card.

Note: This sleight takes a nod from the “Berg Palm”, originally published in Card Control (1946) by Arthur Buckley under the name, “Berg’s Top Palm” (Joe Berg, p. 68).

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Gestures:. When I was in New York for a convention, I was fortunate enough to meet and session with Tony Chang. Now, if you are not familiar with who Tony is or what he is able to do with a deck of cards, then you need to take that supercomputer out of your pocket and do a quick Google search. I’ll wait. I showed Tony the Selenium Shift a few months before meeting him, and we got to talking about what could be done to present it better. He gave me the insight to use natural gestures when the selected card is still out-jogged from the deck, right before performing the Shift. This gives the Shift a better flow and makes things less robotic-looking. Through talking with him, I came about this next set of movements. I feel they add cover and give the Shift an all-around natural, organic feeling, as opposed to, “See your card sticking out?? Watch it go into the deck. Now it’s on top!” When the selection lies out-jogged from the deck, I tell the spectator to “cup” their hands together as I do the same, so as to show them what I’m talking about.

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As the spectator cups their hands, I adjust their height with my thumb and first fingers, raising them upwards a few inches.

I then let go of their hands, as I move my own slightly downward, at the same time performing the Shift. At this point, I can bring the deck back up into view over their cupped hands. The beauty of this gesture is that the spectator’s own hands block all of the movement from the Shift! This action should take no more than ½ of a second to execute.

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Once the cards are above the spectator’s hands, I proceeded to top palm the selection and drop the deck into the awaiting hands; telling them to shuffle

At this point all of the heat is removed from you, allowing you to do whatever you want! Another idea from Tony is to incorporate a “point” to cover the Shift. When you have a card out-jogged from the deck, you can turn your deck hand 90 degrees clockwise so the top of the deck is facing to your right. You can now gesture with your first finger, using this pointing action to direct the spectator’s attention. Right after you point, your right hand moves to hold the deck in Biddle grip while your left hand starts the Shift. By the time your right hand contacts the selection, the Shift should already have taken place, and you should already be replacing the deck under the cover of your right hand.

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Triple Card Color Change:. Based off of the color change sequence found in “Schizophrenia” on this DVD, this idea takes that two card color change and adds a third card into it. Card 1 is shown, and it changes into card 2, then back to 1. Changing back into card 2, then becomes card 3, and finally back into card 1. To summarize, one card phases between 3 forms so many times and so quickly that it’s almost impossible to put into writing. The best part about the above sequence is that it ends clean, allowing you to hand the card out. You start off by performing a triple lift and placing it face up in the upper right corner of the deck, just as in the effect shown on the DVD.

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You then want to have the bottom edge of the three cards pressing into your left ring finger, directly in between the side of your nail and the skin.

For the first change, you are going to perform a D’Amico-type spread with the left hand thumb, as it pulls down the top card, and your ring finger holds back the double; all while your right hand spreads open to cover the sliding of the top card.

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Your right thumb is then going to contact the top card’s upper-left corner as your right first finger contacts the double’s upper-right corner. Your right middle finger will support the double from underneath.

Your right hand is then going to pull back, spinning the top card 180 degrees onto the deck for the second change, as the double is placed into longitudinal palm.

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Your right hand is going to now flatten out and come across the top of the deck, dropping the double to show the third change. Alternatively, an idea by a friend of mine, Simon Black/Toby, is to drop the two cards individually from longitudinal palm, thereby adding an extra change.

You are now going to execute a Cardini Change, using your left little and/or ring finger(s) to pull the top card of the deck downward along the right side of the pack, to the bottom; as your right hand provides cover for the change.

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For the last change, use your left thumb to lever up the face up double as if you were to perform a “Tent Vanish” (Arthur Finley p. 42; Expert Card Mysteries (1969) - Alton Sharpe). Your right first and middle fingers will now grab the lower right corner of the double and execute a snap change, ditching the changed card back onto the top of the deck

You can now hand the card out to the spectator to examine or give away.

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Snap Change Clean Up:. There is a cleanup of mine that I do whenever I execute a snap change. It adds a little flare, while simultaneously hiding the ditching of the changed card. After you do the snap change, you want to lower your hand and place the original face card back onto the top of the deck.

As soon as you drop the card, your middle finger extends, clipping the card between your right middle and first fingers. This will flatten out the changed card so that the face of the card is facing the ceiling. At the same time, pull back with you right hand, so that the card pivots on the crotch of your left thumb.

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Your ring finger of your right hand then contacts the face of the card, as it transfers the clip from the first and middle fingers, to the ring and middle fingers, as you rotate the card around your thumb.

Rotate the card all the way until the face of the card is facing the ceiling again. Release with your ring finger and re grip the card with your right thumb and middle fingers. Raise your right hand so the card flicks off the left thumb.

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Adobo Production:. “Adobo” is a two-card production that happens virtually instantly. I usually perform it before getting into a sandwich effect, as I feel that a top shot is an exceptionally overused method of presenting a pair. Start off by have a face up card in the middle of the deck and getting a break above it. Have its mate face up in the second position from the top.

As you bring your right hand over the deck, your left little finger enters the break and pulls down on the face up card so that it is angle-jogged. The upper left corner of the card is going to be touching the base of your thumb.

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Your right hand covers the angle-jogged card with its palm. Your right thumb will now help situate the jogged card by pushing on its left long edge, thereby shifting it to the right so that the upper left corner is touching the base of your left thumb.

You are now set to do the production. Your left ring finger is going to pull down on the top card, mimicking the actions of a Cardini-style change, with your right hand acting as cover. As the card is pulled off the top and to the side, perpendicular to the deck, it will abruptly straighten out the side jogged card so that it is instantly back-jogged.

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Right now you have a back-jogged card face-up in the center, a face-up card on top, and an indifferent card on the side of the deck in the midst of a Cardini change, which is covered by your right hand’s palm. To display the produced pair, your right thumb moves under the deck as the four other right hand fingers rest on top of the cards. Lift up on the deck to show the produced pair, allowing the Cardini card to fall underneath the pack.

Lower the deck back onto the card, and use your right four fingers atop the deck to strip off the top card, while at the same time grabbing the in-jogged card with your right thumb.

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Rotate the pair around your left thumb, using the upper left corners as a pivot point. After making one full rotation, use the left thumb to strip off the top card onto the deck, followed immediately by the second card.

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Clean Color Change:. This is another handling of my color change using the Shift, but this time you end clean, being able to hand the card outright after the change with no ditching. Get a triple lift break with you little finger, and turn over the first two cards as a double, keeping a break below the third card.

Up jog the three cards as one about a half an inch, displaying it for the spectator to see.

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As your right hand comes over the top of the three cards, have your right thumb push back the top card so it is square with the deck.

Feel free to spread your right hand fingers open, as your middle finger will block the up jogged pair of cards, thus only showing the top card.

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Now, close your fingers and do the Shift with the two up jogged cards. The brief cover of the right hand will hide any movement. The spectator will see the card instantly change to their selection. (My thumb is up just so you can see what should be happening. Your thumb should be contacting the short edge of the cards, closest to you in Biddle grip.)

Replace the deck under the selection and the face down card. You can now hand out the spectator’s card. The face down card is hiding the now changed card, allowing you to cleanly deal off the top card and hand it out.

Note: This also takes a nod from Tony’s CHANGe color change; of changing a card and ending clean.

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Thank You Again:…(Again) I want to express my sincere gratitude for supporting me and my magic. I hope that you can take something away from this project and incorporate it into your own style. Please feel free to contact me by means of social media or on my website at ChrisCSeverson.com. I also want to thank my family, friends and mentor(s) for helping me along the way with this project. Without their support, I wouldn’t be doing this today. Before I stop writing, I want to say one more thing: read books, perform magic for real people, support your local magic shops, and NEVER stop practicing. -Christopher C. Severson

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Selenium Shift C h r i s t o p h e r C. S e v e r s o n

Shift Half Pass Instant Card Location Shift Palm Gestures Triple Card Color Change Snap Change Clean Up Adobo Two Card Production Clean Color Change

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