Somewhere in this issue is a force by Don Diavolo, complemented with an unusual climax. My trick cannot approach Mr. Diavolo's conception for originality, but it DOES amaze people because of its backwardness. I must emphasize the presentation. It should take the audience through sincerity of purpose, maddening suspense, lack of confidence, despair of success, and finally, a grand climax as perfect for the performer as for the spectators. It's a trick with cards best introduced in a program where cards otherwise are absent. The performer opens up a deck (obviously new) with the statement that he will attempt a…
The following combination of two mysteries is of the type most suitable for intimate audiences and small club shows. By following the first effect, which is repeated several times, with the second, and improved version of the Princess Card Trick, and which is done but once for the climax, one has a very bewildering series of apparent predictions and mental selections. Four Jacks are selected from the pack and shown. One is placed face downwards on the table, and a spectator asked to name one of the four Knaves. No matter which is called, the card on the table proves…
This is an excellent mate, or sequel, to the Dai Vernon Up and Down trick in Jinx #38. Both use 20 cards dealt from a shuffled deck and follow each other logically. The magician deals off any twenty cards from any deck. One person looks through and notes a certain card - also its number from the top - as the three of diamonds, eight from the top. Another person does the same, noting say, the four of spades, fifteen from the top. It is specified that each number must be BETWEEN one and twenty, eliminating the top and bottom…
If this routine is given the proper practice and presentation it will prove to be a reputation builder. After steady use for four years I know it is good. It can be done at any time and anywhere with borrowed material. EFFECT #1. First of all the magician is securely blindfolded. I always borrow two coins, half dollars or quarters, and place one over each eye. Then a pad of gauze is placed over each coin, followed with a cloth blindfold over all. This is a genuine blindfold and the method has a decided appeal to the layman. The magician…
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…
If the magicians who read these words spend an evening period of two hours to make up the required gimmick combination, plus an additional hour or so of steady practise in making the fans required, provided they don't already have them mastered, they'll be in possession of a really new and quite startling routine to be used at almost any time during their program. The modern deck of cards obtainable now in the five and ten stores have a wide range of ornamental backs. These are of such odd designs that they allow of at least four entirely different patterns…
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…
As an unusual effect this trick possesses several attractive features. It can be done deliberately and convincingly. Its puzzling part depends upon the simplest of sleights reduced to a minimum, eliminating faked cards common in similar tricks. It is also one of the few sleight of hand tricks that can be adapted to Giant Cards, with practically no change in operation. The magus takes six cards and holds them in a face down packet. The left fingers are at the left side of the packet - thumb at the right. The hand tilts upward to show bottom card, which is…
Away back when the Jinx was bestablized, ('twill never be. Ed.) there was published a stack that would beat the solitaire game of "Canfield." Now, and with as few apologies as will save face, we offer Mr. Arbuthnot's arrangement, easily made, for beating that gambling houses' money maker. Our previously printed set-up was, to the "fast crowd", an old maid's version too easily, on percentage, broken. Canfield, who ran the famous Casino in the Gay Nineties, and who originated this type of solitaire, would sell, for $52, and pay $5 for each card played onto the foundation. Hence, you must…
Back in the days when "Soapy" Smith reigned as king of the con men from Kansas City to San Diego and thence north to Skagway, three card monte ranked with the walnut shells as a standard and consistent source of what it takes to live. This effect makes use of the modified Mexican Turn-Over sleight so often used in monte. I first described it in conjunction with a trick in Jinx issue #57. The patter scheme might be built around the plainsmen and prospectors of '49 who were always eager to bet their shirts on anything remotely resembling a certainty.…