The wonder worker makes use of any deck within borrowing distance. A card is chosen, remembered, and returned amongst the others in a very fair and above-board manner. The performer takes back the shuffled pasteboards and deliberately looks over their faces. He looks wise, picks out one card, and places it face down upon the table. The deck also is put face down on the table a bit to one side. The performer says that he has found the selected card. "Yes, or no?", he asks. The spectator looks at the single card on table. The answer is "No". The…
The performer writes a prediction upon a slip of paper which is folded and placed aside. He shuffles a deck and gives it to a person for cutting. The spectator looks at the top card of the deck and puts it face down on the table. Onto it he deals seven cards, and then deals eight cards in a pile for the performer. The performer picks up his eight cards, remarking that the spectator knows the name of the card at the bottom of his (spectator's) pile, so therefore he will look at the bottom card of his pile ---…
The performer puts a single slate and a pack of cards on the table. Before leaving the room he asks a spectator to shuffle the deck (all of this after he is out of sight, of course), cut it several times, and then put the top card face down under the slate. The mystic returns when this has been done. He peers at the blank upper surface of the slate. He may state that he is going to prove that man can, with proper training, use his eyes and brain to surmount normally impassible barriers. He draws a picture of…
The performer shuffles a deck before a volunteer and gives it to him for further mixing. He cuts, looks at the top card, and buries it in the center of the deck, or thereabouts. Next he is asked to fan the deck out and hold it with faces towards himself. All of this time has seen the performer at a far side of the room. The performer now holds a slate and chalk. He attempts to get an impression, but is dissatisfied. He moves toward the spectator, asking him to hold the fan of cards up and directly before himself.…
You can do this modern version of the You Do As I Do type of trick without any of the faults which haunted your first instruction sheet. Nobody exchanges decks, and it looks awfully fair to the initiated. This can follow either of the #1 or #2 effects because it needs only a marked deck and no stacking. The spectator gets the marked deck and you keep the one that is ordinary. Both of you shuffle well and then put your decks on the table opposite each other -- both decks are face down. Ask him to think of any…
Publisher's note: For the readers who do not wish to mutilate their Jinx pages in order to make use of the Bluebeard effect, an extra set of pictures is supplied with this issue. The heads should be mounted on cardboard and cut out. Extra pages will be supplied for stamped and addressed envelopes. Those who have read the fairytale version of Bluebeard and his wives will immediately realize that the mise en scène is easily applicable in the case of the seven wenches. The performer has seven drug envelopes which he explains represent the seven doors behind which Bluebeard incarcerated…
The trick is ruthless, but effective. The audience sees four envelopes passed out, and four cards taken from the pack by those people. The cards are sealed, collected by a fifth person, mixed well, and laid, BY HIM, in a row on a table between performer and audience. Now the magus speaks out. He wants to show that a sympathy exists between people and the objects they have touched. To emphasize that sympathy he will let each of the four people pass through a sieve of chance. Each of the four persons is given his chance. Each, in turn, keeps…
THE GREAT MERLINI; b. Barnum&Bailey circus car en route through Illinois, Aug. 15, 1882; s. Victor and Edna (Bradna) M.; educated at intervals; Eton, Heidelberg, Beirut, Paris; m. Mary Cordona, Jan. 1, 1914; children, Michael, 1916, dec., Roberta, 1921; carnival and circus magician, 1903-1912; full evening show 1912-1929; magic dealer 1930- ---; Inventor of many effects and illusions including The Vanishing Elephant (Method #5), Haunted Alarm Clock, The Card From Hell, etc., etc.; Authors : Legerdemainiacs, The Psychology of Deception, Sleight--of--Hand For Experts, Sawdust Trails; Editor : Conjurer's Monthly 1920-28; Decorations : Sacred Order of White Elephant presented at command…
Effect: Four cards are freely drawn from the spectator's deck previously shuffled and cut, and which the cards are in spectator's hands. The performer does not touch the deck and the cards are drawn face down on the table so no one knows what they are. While the performer is blindfolded, in another room, or has his back turned at a distance, one of the cards is drawn to the edge of the table, still face down, and an identifying mark placed upon its face. Then it is mixed with the other three, so that its identity and position are…
Many ways have been figured and produced for this effect of a selected card being found in a rubber banded pocketbook, each getting more complicated than the others, and generally losing sight of the very important fact that you can't waste any time in opening up the pocketbook or metal plates without hurting the effect. It just doesn't do, as far as professional work around the clubs is concerned. After all, the only thing remembered by the onlookers is the fact that the card travels into the wallet from the deck. No one ever is deceived into thinking that it…