(Cedric, of London, uses this extremely cute trick as an advertising novelty, the cards and instructions being packed into an envelope for giveaway purposes after a trial. Ed.) The cards used for this "sell" are illustrated on our Comic Section page. Note. - The key card is the Four of Spades with the words "I will" printed thereon. This card can be read from the back, made possible by any secret marking that is convenient to the individual performer. The trick is best shown in the company of "the man who never pays." Without showing the faces of the cards,…
The desire of every magician is to be able to do one "miracle" with cards which will stump a heckler... an effect wherein the performer divines a card without handling the deck or without asking any questions whatsoever. Here is one I use, released to JINX readers because I promised its Editor a mindreading effect. I call it Smeero ! because Ted seems to like tricks ending with "o" such as Whisko or Ghosto, etc. While this effect may be used as part of any card routine, it is much better to hold it in reserve until heckling starts... if…
A spectator is requested to think of any one card in the deck and the performer writes something upon the back of a playing card. This he places aside face up for the time being. Producing a pack of blue-backed cards which he demonstrates as such, the performer holds them in a face up fan behind his back. He asks the spectator assistant to locate his thought of card, withdraw it from the fan, lay it face up on the table, mark his initials on it and return it to the deck. This done the performer turns around and shows…
Editor's note : While I am only too well acquainted with the fact that card reversals are far from new, the following concept struck me as being cute and not to be found in print as far as I know. Please excuse both Mr. DeLaney and myself if it doesn't impress -- after trying it out at least once. The effect is quite short and sweet, but one of those ideas suitable for fast table work. A selected card is placed, by the performer, face up in the pack. The cards are cut and, eventually, the card is found face…
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…
This location principle is short and sweet but it packs a lot of dynamite. As far as I can ascertain it is original with me. Others in a select group have worked on similar ideas but I have never seen what I am going to reveal as much as attempted. Can you stir your imagination sufficiently to see a person going into another room with his or her own deck -- a deck you've never seen nor touched? Or imagine a card party where you are across the room -- calling over that you'll do a trick and that they…
Hindu Shuffle ! Even the name sounds mystical. I must confess ignorance as to its birth. John Northern Hilliard told me that he didn't know much about it either. In the fall of 1927 I was in Rudy Schlosser's old magic store on New York's West 42nd Street. Clinton Burgess had taken me there and we met, both for the first time, Emir Bux, an adept with the cups and balls, and an obsession (true or false ?) that he was the only Hindu who could do card tricks. What few tricks he did show us were and are quite…
Effect The performer writes on a piece of paper a number and the name of a card. On another paper, a spectator also secretly writes a number and the name of a card. The pack is dealt into two piles. The performer's card is found in one of the piles at a position corresponding to the spectator's number; the spectator's card is found in the other pile at a position corresponding to the performer's number. The idea of this problem is that the performer makes a double prophecy to start. He writes down a number at which later is found…
One of the most pleasing and typical English card problems for discriminate performers has been for quite a few years the sympathetic arrangement of values between suits as originated by Herbert Milton. Long a favorite of Leipzig, this mental stimulator recently appeared in print again (Milton published it years ago in a British magazine) but through uncontrollable circumstances was incomplete in its most salient details. A feature which can be used before club audiences, this effect should receive careful consideration by all those who want practical and well conceived material. Two packs of cards are at hand and a spectator…
Between more startling tricks, the following neat bit of eliminating magic may be welcome if for nothing else than its difference "face". The selected card is noted and returned. It is necessary that the performer control it to the extent that it eventually lands 22nd from the top. This can be left to the individual prowess of each reader, but a simple and impromptu method is to start running the cards for the selection, counting them in groups of three. The card removed, keep on running along through the 21st, and hold the deck apart for the replacement after which…