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Shuffling Erdnase

By Vanishing Inc. - Thursday, October 10, 2024

Our recent acquisition of Magicana gave us the ability to bring you remarkable books like The Experts at the Card Table by David Ben. This eye-opening reimagining of S.W. Erdnase's Expert at the Card Table makes it easier then ever for modern magicians to comprehend the invaluable concepts first introduced in the seminal text. When David's book was first released in 2015, he sat down with Alan Howard of MAGIC Magazine for a fascinating interview that we are grateful to have full permission to post below. Enjoy!

Shuffling Erdnase by Alan Howard

MAGIC Magazine | April 2015

MAGIC: There have been a number of books about Erdnase and The Expert at the Card Table. Can you explain why there is still such an interest?
BEN: Erdnase is the foundation of sleight of hand in the 20th century. At a fundamental level, Erdnase teaches your hands to work together. For me, the moves he teaches represent the magic equivalent of Bach Inventions — each a beautiful work in its own right, but as a collective, a textbook on technique and composition in every key.

MAGIC: What about books like Expert Card Technique, Royal Road to Card Magic, and Card College?
BEN: Each of those books has merit, but none of them, with the exception perhaps of Royal Road, reflects a real pedagogy. They are, by and large, a collection of moves and tricks. Erdnase is different. The techniques employ not just digital skill, but more importantly, timing. To execute the techniques properly — that means, together — requires flow and timing. Erdnase is also a primer on prop management, how to handle things — in this case, cards — with economy and grace. Erdnase also demonstrates the importance of managing transitions. In gambling parlance, “how do you get into it, and how do you get out of it.” All of us — particularly those who perform with apparatus — could benefit from learning more about managing transitions.

MAGIC: How did you learn the Erdnase material?
BEN: I struggled with the book when I was in my teens. Who doesn’t? It was Ross Bertram, one of the great sleight-of-hand artists of the 20th century, who broke it down for me. I would meet him week after week, for many years, and for a very long period we went through the book line by line. It was Ross who impressed upon me that Erdnase was really a system.

MAGIC: A system?
BEN: Yes, a system in which “every move is more or less dependent on another.” That is something that has been my mantra for years. It was Ross Bertram, in my opinion, who was the first to really flag this. Most Erdnase pundits take a different approach. They are fond of citing that it was Erdnase who suggested that the bottom deal is the most important move. Erdnase says this, but then immediately qualifies the notion by stating that without being able to locate, cull, and stock the cards to the bottom, execute false shuffles and cuts, and circumnavigate the cut, the bottom deal would be useless. That is why every move is more or less dependent on the other. And this is not from just a technical point of view, but also from a conceptual one. The importance of the bottom deal is just one of what I consider to be many misconceptions about the book.

MAGIC: What are some of the others?
BEN: Two others that we have tried to address in this new edition are the misconceptions that the book was both well written and well illustrated. I don’t believe either is true. I would be surprised, for example, if the author had a college education. He may have had the gift of gab — a skillset not uncommon for advantage players, particularly those who worked solo, as one has to soothe the ego and feelings of the losers in order for them to keep losing. But I also believe that he probably learned to turn a phrase because of his work experience. And while magicians are fond of quoting various passages — there are many pithy and profound lines in the book — it is very poorly organized and rife with errors. There are technical errors in the language, the illustrations, and the grammar. It cannot be said to be a polished work. The biggest problem, however, may be that Erdnase never had an editor. If he had, the book would have been much better. So, I suppose I have taken on the task of being the editor.

MAGIC: How did you go about that task?
BEN: About fifteen years ago I started piecing this together, literally and figuratively. I scanned each page with optical character recognition software and converted it into a Word document. I then started reorganizing the text — without altering the words — into an order that reflected “the system.” That’s when I discovered a host of grammatical errors and the fact that Erdnase repeated himself — sometimes word for word. As I edited, the material became that much cleaner and much easier to read.

MAGIC: Can you give us an example?
BEN: In his introductory remarks, Erdnase describes the process of marking cards. The words related to marking cards, however, really belong as the preamble to “Second Dealing.” Because of the ease of modern technology, I was able to move that text to that part of the book. The same holds true with something like the Riffle Cull, which is really the forerunner of the double undercut. I moved it to the section on “Locating, Securing and Stocking” cards, rather than retaining its original placement later on in the book. So, the words are the same — except where I cut out duplication or cleaned up a transition passage — but the organization of the material is completely different.

MAGIC: What about the illustrations?
BEN: The magic community is fond of Marshall Smith’s illustrations. The problem is that the work in Erdnase is so fine, the handling of the cards so precise, that it would be impossible to capture that sort of detail in a line drawing, particularly with how we have been told the drawings were commissioned and executed. It is not, of course, the fault of Marshall Smith or Erdnase. They just did not have the time or technology available to them that we have today. Modern technology and lenses allow us to capture that information in much more detail. For example, the 64 line drawings in the “Card Table Artifice” section have been replaced with over 800 photographs. There is simply no comparison.

MAGIC: Although you are using modern technology to capture the images, the photographs have a rather retro feel to them.
BEN: That was intentional. Our original inspiration was the work of Eadweard Muybridge and his studies of motion. Fortunately, Julie Eng is a superb photographer and captured the images beautifully. We shot all of the images twice. She wasn’t happy with the first lot. Being a perfectionist, she isn’t happy with this lot either, but I said that we would not reshoot again — the photos are beautiful.

MAGIC: You mentioned the 64 line drawings. Weren’t there originally more?
BEN: There were 101 originally, but they also illustrate the material in the “Legerdemain” section of the book. Erdnase was divided into two parts: “Card Table Artifice” and “Legerdemain.” Our book only delves into the “Card Table Artifice” section.

MAGIC: Are you saving the “Legerdemain” section for another volume?
BEN: There will be two more volumes in this Experts at the Card Table trilogy, neither of which will cover the material in “Legerdemain.” The next volume will present annotations on the material in Volume One, but more of a detailed exposition — a meditation, really — than any of the previous annotations offered in either print or DVD. This meditation is based on my studies with Ross Bertram, my study of Vernon, my time spent with Herb Zarrow, and my association with the odd advantage player. The third volume will focus on “gaps” in Erdnase, and how those gaps were addressed by Dad Stevens, Vernon, and others.

MAGIC: Why did you choose to release this material in three volumes rather than one?
BEN: Julie Eng convinced me that everyone is better served if the material is released over a period of time. We are hoping that those interested in Erdnase will take the time to read it in this new format and develop new insights into the work. It is only after they have had the time to digest this information that they can really appreciate or