The following effect consists of two distinct parts, each of the two being practical for use in conjunction with some different trick. The "force" of a playing card is a typical Tom Seller's idea and quite certain of always working. The handling of blank cards for an appearing message or name is a Val Evans idea adapted from an ancient card manoeuvre, and, strange as it may seem, is more effective with cards blank on both sides than with blank playing cards. For some reason the watchers are convinced that all surfaces are shown blank, while with playing cards they…
There's one thing about a new trick -- it takes a second reading and twice as many tryouts to convince the reader of its worth. Magic has always been that way. You can do this one after the first reading. You'll appreciate it more and more depending upon how many times you present it. For once you will get a trick, depending upon the simplest of secrets, a trick which is a psychological mystery because its finale embodies (?) more than its preparation to the onlookers might presume. The spectator shuffles his own deck. From it the performer has a…
This is my conception of an appearing card or picture in a frame which has been shown to be quite unprepared. The simple construction is my own, and together with an original method of forcing the card or picture, one has a difficult trick to ponder. Like all such frames to appear in books and on the market in the past this one has a glass face, a plain white card to lay on the glass, and a dark colored cardboard backing. When the pieces are in place they are secured by a single twist catch on each side of…
And by a miracle -- that is JUST WHAT I mean -- as far as your audience is concerned. Imagine this : You ask a spectator to think of some card in the deck and name it aloud. Warning everyone to watch you closely, as you are to attempt one of the most difficult card feats, you riffle the deck and state that the card has left the pack and passed into your pocket. With obviously empty hands, or the spectator may do it, the card named is removed from the pocket. There are no duplicates - no set-up of…
The telephone trick, in one form or another, is ever-popular although a great many people are familiar with the original method of coding. As long as the performer must do the calling himself, or supply a name to be called other than his wife or a friend known to everybody present, no system, however ingenious, will allay suspicions. My methods for this are planned to mystify everybody as well as satisfy the hecklers. And I make use of a deck which can be found valuable in many other tricks. Arrange or purchase a Svengali deck, one in which all the…
This effect has been a favorite of mine for the past twelve years. Its simplicity of execution should commend it to the neophyte. The performer exhibits two glass tumblers and places one upon the seat of a chair flanking him to his right, whilst the other is placed upon the seat of the chair to his left. Four sheets of tissue paper are now shown; two of the sheets are white, one is red, and the fourth is black. The sheets of paper measure 20 inches by 12 inches. Picking up a piece of white tissue the performer places it…
This force is a departure from the usual run, since the deck itself is resting on the table at the time that the actual force is made. Other features of it make the entire procedure appear to the audience as fair beyond a doubt. The flexibility of this method allows not only the force of a single card, but also the force of any number of cards and the force of one card any number of times. There is no uncertainty as to the results; the force is positive. Assuming that you have control of the card you wish to…
:: SYMMYST :: This is Symmyst, and it identifies a person who has been initiated into the Mysteries. A great favorite of mine since released in 1931 by Annemann has been what was called The One Man 'Genuine' Magazine Test. Peter Warlock, in a biography for The Magic Circular, referred to it "I cannot call to mind in any modern magical literature, any subtlety producing so great an effect." Only once was I "caught", by an alert friend, whose "flash of wisdom" one of those recurrent telepathic ideas gained no doubt from a guilty conscience, gave voice to the correct…
:: EFFECT :: (1) The magus has any person freely select a card from a shuffled red deck, and another select any card from a freely shuffled blue deck. When selected cards are named, it is found that both persons have selected the same cards. (2) The red deck is shuffled by the spectator and placed in the magician's inside pocket. The other spectator shuffles his blue deck and places it in his own inside coat pocket. This person then reaches in the magician's pocket and removes any card. The magus also removes one card from the deck in spectator's…
Editor's Note Some might say this rightly belongs on the periodical Jinx Improvement page. However, Arthur Monroe's Voodoo, in Jinx #32, caused so much comment and has been written about so often, that I think this Clever version of the unusual theme will make possible an effect which many couldn't use before. When the effect Voodoo first appeared in the Jinx I went wild over it. But I just couldn't see spending $10.00 on it. (I know of four persons who did. — Ed.) Therefore I evolved another method and explained it in December 1937 TOPS. I was bawled out…