Asking everyone present to think of a card, the mentalist passes around a small pad upon which several write their thought of cards, one under the other. Someone else takes the written on sheet, secretly crosses out any one of those thereon and pockets the paper. The performer states that he will not make the card appear, but rather will take a thought photograph or thought image of the card marked out. Showing a blank playing card, it is placed on a spectator's left hand face down, and their right hand used as a cover over it. The person who…
Once in a while a really good effect pops up and is found to be different in its psychological appearance to an audience. There isn't any definite part of this that is new or original except for the dress. Dr Jacob Daley first told me of the general effect using playing cards for both spectators used. Al Baker then came along with the idea of illustrating to one person how the slip should be torn for burning, and getting information in this ingeniously ordinary way. Finally, after using the stunt for a dozen or more times as an impromptu item,…
If ever there was an impromptu mental novelty, this should be it. I took the basic working from an idea of Montreal's Charles Peet about two years ago, and it has served me quite well. Borrow a derby or soft hat. Say that you'll show a test of clairvoyance and telepathy combined. Ask for the loan of seven or eight one dollar bills. However, before starting to collect them, step up to one volunteer and ask him to write his name in pencil on his bill to identify it later as his. Ask him to fold it over and over…
Around 1925 Hugh Mackay published his tome, Classical Conjuring, in which was a new and novel two person telepathic effect using the four aces from any deck. I made a notation at the time, and subsequently used the effect whenever the opportunity arose. Mr Mackay's method made necessary the learning of 24 different arrangements in conjunction with two key cards (from the rest of the deck) for each. This way is extremely simple, yet the effect is still worked, and very different in theme from other such problems. The lady assistant retires to another room with a spectator as a…
Here is one of those rare effects that have an anticlimax but become greater because of it. The base of the trick, or the addition part, is not, by any means, a new idea. Around this, however, Mr Baker has woven a bit of chicanery which dresses the problem in a not soon to be forgotten guise. A spectator is chosen for the problem, and is handed a folded paper upon which the performer has scribbled something. Showing a large size slate, the performer hands him a chalk with the request that he write down a line of figures as…
Very few magi haven't a set of the five dice used in Heath's Dyciphering Dice Trick, it being one of the few highly effective pocket tricks of the past several years. After using it for a time I discovered several points which make for a subtle test in connection. Produce the five dice and mention that they are used for some money game, (without going into that part further) as an excuse for their being numbered with three digits to a side. Let someone shake and roll them. You line them up in a row, and turning your back ask…
Fifteen or sixteen years ago, Al Baker originated an effect using a deck of cards, three pieces of paper, and a borrowed hat. To the audience the procedure was to have three cards selected and thought of while the pack of cards was in their own hands. The names of these selections were written on pieces of paper, folded, and collected in the hat. One by one, the performer would take out the papers, and apparently by divination reveal the selected or thought of cards. I first obtained the original method in 1924 and later, around 1929, added somewhat to…
For a nice club or drawing room item, this will be found to cause comment and it is extremely simple in the working. Back in the early twenties there were many methods for accomplishing this feat and I gave my own in The Book Without a Name. However, the one weak point, to me, was in the necessity of jotting down the items as selected when any simple minded person would find no trouble in remembering them. I think this to be almost as simple as it can be done, but that has been said before of many tricks. On…
For two people this is a cute idea in clairvoyance with coins or other objects. I like the money version. The medium or psychic is sent from the room. The performer asks someone to donate for the time being a piece of money and it may be either a coin or a bill. Stating that the psychic has a strange faculty where money is concerned (so have a lot of people), the performer puts it in an ordinary letter envelope and fastens on a spring paper clamp to one of the tabs (where you pinch them together to open the…
Simplicity is ever a virtue in magical effects. This should find favor with many because it is effective, to the point, and there is little chance for the subject to miss. Writing a prediction on a slip, the performer folds and deposits it in a cup. A deck is mixed and spread on the table. A spectator freely chooses one and is given a small book of poems or fiction. He is asked to open the book to the page corresponding with the number of spots on the card and then count to the word at the same number. The…