(Editor's note : We are happily doing the following stunt at every available opportunity. It is a far cry from the school days effect of 25 cards dealt into 5 hands twice and Mr. Christ has brought into being a subtle problem with ramifications that cover all trickiness.) Any deck is shuffled, and the reader should have a deck in hand while he reads, for the effect and method are being combined. The performer states that he will demonstrate a little "psychic poker" and show how one accomplished in the reading of minds could very easily know exactly what cards…
The magician, between other card effects, remarks that playing cards are very, very old in history. He continues that first mention of tricks with cards is found in books and writings of 300 years ago. One of the first of these was the then miraculous feat of making one card change to another. The performer proceeds to demonstrate this as he talks, color changing the face card of the pack. Then he tells how magic has improved through the ages and states that the changing of one card's face is today considered "small power" in the eyes of the magi.…
Into a ten ounce bottle put the following : 1/2 ounce of Gum Sandarac; 1/2 ounce of Gum Mastic; 8 ounces of Grain Alcohol (use Denatured Alcohol if Grain is not obtainable); 1 ounce of Liquid Carbolic Acid. (Editor's note : Death to the guy who wets his thumb or finger every time he deals a card !) Shake the bottle to dissolve the gums. Then let it stand for several days to fully dissolve them. Strain through a fine white cloth which action removes all foreign substances. Daub a wad of cotton into the fluid and then rub it…
When Charles T. Jordan was reigning king of the card trick originators back in the early 1920's, one of his card table problems was named The Keystone Card Discovery. Students of the Jordan school of cardology will recognise a similarity of procedure in what follows, but will also see a decidedly different approach, presentation, and especially the never observed method of handling the cards that "does" the trick and confounds those who may try to follow your actions in an effort to duplicate things. The performer borrows a deck and tells a tale of the two black Jacks. Back in…
(It may seem rather difficult to believe, but there IS a really new variation of the ageless Rising Cards. Several years ago I thought of how truly fair it would look if there were no houlette, no glass, or no holder at all for the deck. With just a rubber band around its waist the deck would stand on end by itself for the ascension of the cards. If the reader will visualize such a deck and try his best to figure the direction a pull could take and how it could be applied he'll immediately see what I was…
Stop tricks are legion, but this impromptu version which does not allow of a single visible sleight or change may find use in the hands of more than a few magicians. The effect is more or less as of yore. A selected card is returned and shuffled into the others. Cards are dealt until the spectator is bored or satisfied and the next card proves to be his own. In this method no table is needed. It is all done with the deck in hand. Take a deck in hand at this reading. Assume that you have had a card…
From the days of Jordan this effect has been more or less standard. The method given here has seen constant and practical use, and makes, in my opinion, for a cleaner working with less chance of the spectators catching any untoward move. From a borrowed deck the performer removes the four Aces and the four Kings. He throws them into two face down piles on the table and the remainder of the deck is placed face up to his left. The right hand now picks up the four Kings, thumb on top (or back) and fingers at front (or face)…
Being constantly asked "Show me a simple card trick I can show my friends", or, "How is it done ?" is a burden that must continually be carried by the exponents of our art. We've all had to flatly refuse to divulge a method at one time or other whereby incurring displeasure, even to the point of being dubbed "a poor sport". This routine can be presented impromptu with a borrowed deck and is designed to show how a selected card can be found in four different ways, and still not expose anything. You have apparently complied with their request…
(Editor's note: Here is one of those infrequent ideas well worth the evening's labor to make up. For that very reason, though, there will be comparatively few readers who will bother preparing such a deck, that is, until someone else performs it first. It should be needless to say that I made one up the evening of the day when I first learned the trick.) For a number of years I wished to do a prediction effect with cards but did not want to use the card index in the pocket for securing papers as first promulgated by Al Baker.…
Let's start this off by getting fundamental. Every magician is familiar with the original "reversed" or "turned over" card trick wherein the pack is held face up, but with a single card face down on top of it. When a spectator replaces a chosen card, it will naturally be found face up, later on. The magician's one problem is to hide or get rid of the dummy card which he used on the "top" of the pack. This trick not only gets rid of said card; it utilizes it to double the effect. The whole working is simplified to the…