Is there a diffrence between the ego change and the cardini change

[Kieran Oloughlin]

Title says it all
Is there a diffrence between the ego change and the cardini change?

I can do a change similar which I belive is the ego because in dan and daves the trilogy you do the cardini diffrently.

[la0o9]

they're both one and the same i think... that one color change have so many names... then again, may be the difference is in the finger(s) that actually does the move, i've been doing it with the middle finger for a whole year, then i started practicing stuffs on the Trilogy and the Top Shot and now i do the move with my pinkie.

[Albert]

Yes, there's a difference between the Ego, Cardini, and even Pughe's pass (which looks very similar). They are all apparently independently created. What I will explain may have some flaws:

1) Ego change: Garcia's version of it which is silent and uses mainly the index finger and thumb to hold onto the deck while doing the change. This one mainly requires a rotation of the deck to clean up mostly due to the way the deck is held. Found in Garcia's Project Volume 1

2) Cardini Snap Change: As taught correctly, I assume, from Michael Ammar's books and DVDs called The Magic of Michael Ammar, the Cardini actually uses the ring finger to enter into a large break before doing the change.

3) Pughe's Pass: This one (I do not currently know of the origin) is what most people claim to be the Cardini Change. This one is done in a mechanics grip, different than the Ego change. The cleanup is also different, where this one does not need an all around square up. As the name suggests, this was normally used as a pass of one card I believe, not a change.

Like always, distortion happens in magic, and a lot too. Hope this helps :)

If I made a mistake anywhere, please feel free to correct me.

[Mark]

The basic concepts are the same but the looks aren't. That is, comparing what we nowadays tend to call the 'Cardini Change' and 'Ego Change'.

The first source on those mechanics was written by George Pughe back in 1933. Later this year, Lance Charles published a similar move. Both of these so called passes were just used as controls though, as the term pass already suggests.

Then Richard Valentine Pitchford a.k.a. our beloved Cardini came in and used a similar idea as a color change, yet using very different finger positions and mechanics. This change was called the 'Snap Change'. Cardini's 'Snap Change' that is, of course not to be confused with Ed Marlo's. This was published by Jean Hugard, Arthur Buckley and Michael Ammar just to name a few.

In the meantime, James Steranko used Pughe's mechanics for a card steal which he published in 1960. Indeed, a steal, not a color change.

Decades later, Ray Kosby came up with the 'Coffin Change', an independent improvement on what he called the 'Cardini Change' but in which he actually used mechanics similar to the ones of George Pughe instead of Cardini's. He used it for a visual card to box effect, hence the name he gave it.

I believe Daniel Garcia was the first to publish Pughe's mechanics as an actual color change, calling it the 'Ego Change'. Unlike any of the earlier changes though, his isn't snappy and happens fairly slowly.

I suppose people like Ray Kosby started giving Cardini credits for it because Cardini was the first to turn the basic idea into a color change. By the looks it's also very similar for the differences are only to be found in the mechanics behind the cover. That is how it became known as the 'Cardini Change', which doesn't have all that much to do with Cardini's 'Snap Change', although without that creation he wouldn't have gotten the credits for it.

Nowadays, the difference between the 'Ego Change' and 'Cardini Change' is defined by the used fingers and the speed. The grip differs from person to person so you can't tell the difference by that. The Buck twins do the snappy, so called 'Cardini Change', Daniel Garcia does the slower, smooth 'Ego Change'.

Hope this clears things up. Oh, talking about clean-ups, these differ from release to release too. The all-around squaring up motion is the most common for the latter one though. ^_^