Here is one of those cute "quickies" of an impromptu card nature which is a "natural" for table workers. A much used or borrowed deck is looked through by the performer who picks out one card and places it face down on the table. He says, indicating one spectator that he or she will exert the magic power for this experiment. The magus now shuffles the deck and cuts it. He puts it on the table before the person who further cuts the deck and places the halves together crosswise. When the top half of the deck is turned over…
Effect: Any pack of 52 cards is used. While a spectator shuffles the performer says that a complete deck may prolong the method of choice too much and he asks the spectator to name the number of cards that shall be used. The performer counts this given number of cards onto the spectator's hand. Then the person is asked to hold the packet face down, give the performer the top card, put the next on the bottom of the bunch, give the performer the next, put the next card onto the bottom, hand over the next, etc., and this action…
This basic mixing (?) principle was discovered around 1907. There are many uses for it today. We'll take up only the bare effect. A borrowed deck is shuffled by anyone, dropped into a borrowed hat, and covered with a borrowed handkerchief. A spectator shakes the cards up with abandon, reaches in and takes one, followed by two or three others who do the same. The performer, apparently by clairvoyance or mind reading, can name the choices. Previously the wizard has stolen four cards from the deck and memorized them in order. They are palmed onto the mixed deck when it…
A modern war scare story told to the tune of an old time card trick, with several new and subversive elements. "We read a lot nowadays about propaganda, fifth columnists, Trojan horses and the like," begins the conjuror. "I wonder what would happen if two enemies tried to out-propagandize and out-fifth-columnize each other ?" So saying, the performer exhibits a pack of playing cards, fans it, and shows the red cards separated from the blacks. "For example," he continues, "the red cards could represent the Communists, and the blacks could be the Fascists or black shirts." And the magician lays…
Dear Ted: Some years ago, I believe at the Batavia, N.Y. I.B.M. convention, I showed you a card trick and you admitted that it puzzled you. In fact, it has fooled most magi to whom I've ever shown it, so I thought perhaps you could use it some time to fill space. Sixteen cards are counted off the deck, one is freely selected, replaced, AND LEGITIMATELY shuffled among the others. The cards are dealt into 4 piles of 4 cards each, as in the typed diagram. By elimination all cards are picked up except the one selected. Why this effect…
One of the cleverest single die and cup effects I've ever seen was shown to me by a gambler several years ago. The secret of this truly impossible trick has been closely guarded. It is impromptu and uses only one die and a regular dice cup or a paper cup. The onlooker shakes the die in the cup and then turns the mouth of the cup downward upon the table. The seer takes hold of the cup without lifting it, shakes it a bit back and forth upon the table, and then announces the top number on the cube. He…
The magician counts off 8 cards without calling special attention to their number. They may be any 8 cards. The patient is asked to just concentrate upon one as they are fanned before him. This done they are shuffled, then 4 taken in the left hand and 4 in the right. "In which hand is your card?" queries the magus. The patient gestures, sometimes disinterestingly, towards your left hand, we'll say for example. AT ALL TIMES THE CARDS ARE KEPT FACING THE SPECTATOR. The cards are tapped even on the table, and, beginning with the left (always start with the…
This prediction mystery contains a very subtle point of operation. It is impromptu and also has the distinction of needing no sleights or undercover moves. To the spectators it appears as if everything takes place in their own hands and is under their positive control at all times. A spectator mixes his own deck. Another person then takes out a small bunch of cards from the center, putting two or three on top and two or three on the bottom so as to preclude any possibility of the performer's knowing the location of any card in the pack. The deck…
Here is a neat (I have been told by quite a few) combination of trickeries which have appeared in past numbers of The Jinx by Dunninger and Martin Gardner. One principle from each results in a problem somewhat different. With any deck at hand the performer has the spectator shuffle them and count off a bunch of cards not to exceed 15, which he places in his pocket. Then he is told to deal another pile onto the table of the same number of cards he first selected and hid. During this time the performer is standing with his back…
The performer turns his back while a person among the group watching shuffles his own deck and discards three of them to leave a pack of only 49 cards. The spectator now thinks of any one of the cards he holds, and deals them into seven face up heaps from left to right, a card at a time. He announces which pile, counting from left to right, holds his mentally chosen card. Though the performer's back is turned, he says that he thought so, requesting the spectator to pick up the heaps by putting the 7th pile onto the 6th,…