• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Howcast

Howcast

The best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides.

  • Arts & Crafts
  • Entertainment
  • Food & Drink
  • Health
  • Home & Garden
  • Relationships
  • Explore Guides
  • Contact
  • About
  • FAQs
  • Explore Guides
  • Arts & Crafts
  • Entertainment
  • Food & Drink
  • Health & Wellness
  • Love & Relationships
  • Home & Garden
EntertainmentCard Flourishes & Sleight of Hand

How to Do a One-Handed Fan Card Flourish

Transcript

Hi. I’m Mike Patrick, and this is how to do the one-handed fan. It looks like this. Your alternative is to do it in both hands, and you can make an S fan and close it like this. This is how to do it. You should hold it in. . .you’re going to use your pinky and your index finger, and you put it right into this kind of grip. So this should be not a death grip, but you should be able to hold this securely like this without letting go.

You’re not actually going to hold them entirely like this during the course of the fan. You’re going to place your thumb on the bottom edge right around here, and you’re going to sort of let go. And when you do this, you’re going to push with your thumb and pull with your other fingers. This is difficult to do with an entire deck and make it look even. Usually, this type of fan is performed with half the deck like this.

And you get a very even spread. So again, the basic mechanics are you hold them in this position, and you place your thumb on the actual border of the cards underneath, stretching way down. Let go. And you’re going to pull with these fingers downward, and you’re going to push with your thumb this direction, in a sort of smearing action. I’ve heard someone call this a smear fan once, and it’s sort of for good reason, because you do this. This will take a little bit of time to get looking good. But when you do, you can do this, and you close. And it looks very fancy. You can minimize when you’re dividing the deck into two hands. You simply riffle the cards like this.

Allow them to swivel up so that your other hand can grip in a mirror action. And then you spread both of them like this. And you can make the S, and then just reverse the action to close them back into a dealing position. I’m Mike Patrick, and that’s how to do a one-handed fan.


Lessons in this Guide

How to Do Card Flourishes with Michael Patrick

How to Make a Coin Vanish

How to Do the Coin thru the Handkerchief Magic Trick

How to Do the String & Straw Magic Trick

How to Make a Cigarette Disappear

How to Do the Classic Cups & Balls Magic Trick

How to Do the Jumping Thimble Magic Trick

How to Do the Thimble Vanish Magic Trick

How to Do the Disappearing Handkerchief Magic Trick

How to Do the Instant Knot Magic Trick

How to Do the Top-of-Fist Vanish Magic Trick

How to Palm a Sponge Ball

How to Do an Overhand Lift Shuffle Card Flourish

How to Do a Thumb Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a One-Handed Shuffle Card Flourish

How to Do an Arm Spread Card Flourish

How to Do a Boomerang Toss Card Flourish

How to Do a Spring Card Flourish

How to Do a Quadruple Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a Charlier Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a Butterfly Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a Triple Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a Pivot Cut Card Flourish

How to Do a False Cut Card Flourish

How to Do the Double Bridge Card Flourish

How to Do an Overhand Shuffle Card Flourish

How to Do an In-the-Hands Riffle Shuffle w/ a Bridge Finish

How to Do the Tabled Riffle Shuffle Card Flourish

How to Do the Faro Shuffle aka Dovetail or Weave Shuffle

How to Do the Hindu Shuffle Card Flourish

How to Do a Card Cascade Card Flourish

How to Throw Cards

How to Do the Catch a Deck Card Flourish

How to Close a Fan Card Flourish with One Hand

How to Do a Variation of the One-Handed Fan Card Flourish

How to Do a One-Handed Fan Card Flourish

Copyright © 2026 · Howcast · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Ventures with Springwire.ai

Privacy Manager