It is seldom that a mathematical type of trick finds an improvement after fifty years of being kicked around. It isn't often that an effect so old can be done today in a manner acceptable. The ancient 27 card - 3 pile count out is known to most living beings by its appearance even if the observor doesn't know the exact computation. However badly this may sound towards that particular trick, we think that a solution for modern presentation has been evolved. Heretofore it has been necessary for the performer to have a secret list of figures and manoeuvres, or…
EFFECT A spectator is given the pack of cards and instructed to remove any one, look at it, commit it to memory, and replace in the pack. Then he places the pack in pocket. This may be done whilst magician's back is turned. Now you ask him to mentally add the number next higher in value to the value of his chosen card, multiply by 5, add the suit value (according to auction bridge), and then tell you the result of his calculations. Immediately you reveal the correct suit and value of his card. The puzzling feature is that the…
It's an old effect. It's an old trick. It's still fundamentally sound, however, and all that it has needed was a little "detail" which would throw off the scent those who had learned the principle from cheap books and throwaways. How many times have you, you and you performed a card trick only to have someone grab the deck and feel for "strippers" ? Even though the trick performed couldn't possibly have been done by using that principle. This new (to print) angle is a perfect disguise for the effect wherein a column of five figure numbers is added and…
Choosing a prominent member of his audience, the performer gives him a piece of chalk with a slate, and stands this person at one end of the room or stage. The performer, also with chalk and slate, stands in a distant opposite location. Four more of the assembly are asked to stand at their seats. The first is requested to concentrate upon his year of birth. The second thinks of the year in which his wife or her husband was born. The third person mentally selects any important year, in the last 20, during which an event of consequence has…
It seems as though Mr Roosevelt called a conference between Mr Morganthau, Mr Ickes, and himself. He explained that he had 28 million which had been left over from somewhere, and wanted to divide it equally among the seven different relief departments running at the time. The 28 million was credited to the treasury and the two went on their way. Mr Ickes figured thusly: we have 28 million, (write down) and 7 departments (7/28). 7 goes into 8 once with 1 to carry (put after the 2), 7 goes into 21, 3 times, and therefore they get 13 million…
Calendars in magic have been scarce, and for that reason, the following ideas may be of quite some interest to those who are looking for something just a bit different. They make nice close-up tricks as well as being adaptable for larger audiences through the use of larger calendar sheets. In the first effect, it is the purpose of the performer to tell any four dates that are marked off by a spectator. Tear a sheet from a calendar pad and give it to him with a pencil. He is to mark a square around any four dates, as illustrated…
Lucky number magic squares are scarce even though magic squares themselves are not. Most of these squares are complicated bits of figuring which do not find much favor with the spectators. In this case, however, Mr. Heath has a novel presentation that uses the spectator's birth date and is not too long to become boresome. We shall explain it as we go along, and the reader can follow with paper and pencil. Illustrated here is a magic square made from the numbers 1 to 9. This must first be learned perfectly so you know the position of each number as…
An extremely cute match divination can be presented impromptu with the paper packages that are so common now. Hand a paper of them to a person and ask him to turn his back. First he is to remove several and pocket them so that the performer will not know how many are in the pack. Now he is to count those remaining and tear out enough more to represent that number. For instance, should there be fifteen left, he is to tear out one and lay it on the table, and then tear out five to lay alongside it, in…
I know many people who don't care for an effect like that which is to follow in the wake of these lament but nevertheless there are a few who will make use of it in their spare time. When Mr Cole showed it to me I thought it rather cute and different in several ways from the usual run of such stunts. I find it nice to do when I have the back of an envelope that is without notes and upon which the lenient victim can make his notations as well as calculations. The person in question is asked…