(Note by Annemann: I thought that I exhausted the 14-15 deck stack principle long ago but Mr. Vosburgh has a decidedly new angle for its use in a book test. Besides this "break-down" of chances to a three-word possibility there is included a revelation via slates which, for the first time to our knowledge allows of the word being foretold (?) by the performer without the use of a definite force.) Remove two aces from a deck and arrange the remaining 50 cards by values so that each adjoining pair, when added together, total either 14 or 15. (7-8-6-9-5-10-4-J-3-Q-2-K-A-K-2-Q-3-J-4-10-5-9-6-8-7-7-7, etc.)…
From out of the past I have taken a slate writing principle, long off the market, and utilized it in this problem. Bruce Hurling's method for getting rid of a "flap" while standing before an audience in view of all may be used for countless effects. It should not be forgotten. To his watchers the performer shows a slate blank on both sides and identifies these sides by writing initials on each - initials as called out to him. The slate is stood in full view of everyone for the time being. Next are shown three current newspapers having blatant…
"There are people", begins the performer, "who just don't believe in anything, even when they see it before their very eyes. They are the skeptics of the world who hold back and retard progress in almost every line of creative endeavor. My experiment now is to duplicate the accomplishment of many spiritualistic mediums -- that of receiving a written message from "the happy summer land", that part of the veiled universe where departed souls live, and strive to make their thoughts and wishes made known to us still among the living." The performer shows a single slate to be clean…
People show an unreserved interest in this effect - it looks unique. Then, too, it is in that class of "visible" card magic which enjoys a popularity with the layman. The magus shuffles a deck of cards, divides it into halves, and turns one half face up. The two halves are inter-shuffled and the deck then given to someone who further mixes the face-ups with the face-downs to his heart's content. The trickster takes back the deck and spreads it for a selection of a face-down card, for, as he says, "I otherwise would see what card you might take…
The effect is that the performer shows two black-boards, about 6x9 in. in size and rubber bands onto one a plainly shown blank piece of paper. The remaining board is placed on top of the first, paper between, and heavy rubber bands secure the two together. In a "magically-like" manner, trusting that it all occurs naturally, a name, number, or object is chosen by the audience. The large bands are removed and the boards separated. Still attached to one, by the little bands, is the piece of paper. That paper NOW bears either a picture of he who was named,…
While there is little spectacularly new in the manner of working this effect, the progress towards the finale is logical, interest holding, and the finish of the test a surprise. Saying that he wishes to demonstrate an example of the ultimate in coincidence the performer shows a glass bowl full of one-inch square cardboards, each bearing a letter of the alphabet. These may be shown freely as there is nothing wrong with them in any way. A spectator is asked to reach into the bowl and take therefrom a small handful (say, 7 or 8) of the letters. These he…
When, in Jinx #95, we offered Card In High as an effective vanish of a pasteboard, a number of readers seemed to like the idea well enough to write regarding its use in many varied ways. One dealer even suggested the printing of thin paper card faces which could be pasted on a newspaper sheet and thus eliminate the necessity of the individual having at least a hundred newspaper replicas made up with no variety of cards thereon. We liked that very much. Since that time we've mulled over the two essentials which must precede and follow such an evanishment.…
Effect : The performer has two assistants on either side of the stage whom we shall call L and R. The performer asks R to cut about one-third off a pack of cards and retain them. L cuts the remaining portion of the pack in half so that everybody has a third. Assistant R now takes a card from his own packet which he shows to the audience out front. Assistant L selects a card from his packet and the performer takes one from the cards he holds. Both he and L show their respective cards to those watching. Next…
The performer picks up a fair size ball of wool with a pair of knitting needles through it, saying, "My grandmother used to be quite renowned in our village because of her ability to tell fortunes. I never could get her to read the cards for me because she said I was too young to understand. That she did possess some weird powers was believable, though, for night after night, at bed time, and while she was knitting, she'd call me to her, ask if I had studied my school lessons, and then do the very thing I'm going to…
(Editor's Note: Some of the magician-detectives that have been lately popping out from every book and magazine do other things beside their unmasking of murderous maniacs, their outwitting of international spies, bloodthirsty vampires and invisible men. THEY CONTRIBUTE THEIR PET EFFECTS TO THE JINX! Way back in issue #56 Clayton Rawson's fictional zombie, The Great Merlini, gave us RED VIBRO. And now the genie from Stuart Towne's brain and typewriter, Don Diavolo, The Scarlet Wizard, steps out of the pages of fiction to give you, and your audiences, a trip into the future of the fourth dimension!) "You have all…