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 mentions that two is his lucky number and to illustrate introduces a pack of cards and two envelopes, these later being stood in a prominent position against a book or candlestick. The cards are then brought to a spectator who is requested to deal two heaps, choose one and then shuffle the cards he has chosen. After this he is requested to deal the cards slowly one at a time face downwards onto a table or chair, and another spectator is requested to tell him to stop dealing whenever he wishes. When this point of the…
Eight years ago, in 1930, I evolved what was a new effect in subtle cardology. A mentally chosen card was to automatically turn over in the deck! There could be no sleight or fumble of a known nature, and the card must be an absolute free choice from among the 52. The method, with which I had good success in deceiving not a few of the experts, was based on a principle of preparing cards on their surface so that when a pair of these treated sides did come into contact they would adhere enough to prevent separation when the…
:: EFFECT :: (1) The magus has any person freely select a card from a shuffled red deck, and another select any card from a freely shuffled blue deck. When selected cards are named, it is found that both persons have selected the same cards. (2) The red deck is shuffled by the spectator and placed in the magician's inside pocket. The other spectator shuffles his blue deck and places it in his own inside coat pocket. This person then reaches in the magician's pocket and removes any card. The magus also removes one card from the deck in spectator's…
:: EFFECT :: This is one of those extremely effective stunts which the subject remembers for many a year and thinks about whenever he has you in his mind. It makes a nice number also for the press. A card is selected, replaced and the deck shuffled. The performer shows a card and asks if it is the chosen one. The answer is "no." This card is placed on the table and the spectator told to cover it with his hand. The performer now tells him to look intently at his (performer's) forehead and imagine he sees an image of…
Removing from his finger an odd appearing ring, the performer states that it has a peculiar occult power and originally was a valued possession of the famed Merlin. It seems that after looking at the ring, a person sees the last object with which the ring came in contact, no matter what actually is held before him. The performer offers to demonstrate this uncanny situation. A spectator is asked forward to act as a custodian of the truth. A pack of cards is mixed, spread across the table faces down and the spectator freely pushes out any one. The performer…
Calling the trick Preposterous, Martin Gardiner furnished a trick for Jinx #40 which received nice mentions but was passed up by many more. I have combined it with a somewhat similar trick of Charles Jordan's and whenever I've used it, comments have been good and the requests for the working were numerous. Certainly it is one of those things you have to KNOW, rather than SEE HOW, for there is nothing to catch and follow. You fan through a borrowed deck and remove the Joker or extra cards. In this action you simply count from face of deck and note…
A NEW TORN CIGARETTE PAPER WRINKLE Versions of the torn and restored cigarette paper with duplicate waxed to thumb nail were deceptive close-up methods. For a small audience and under more stringent conditions, try this. Wax rolled duplicate to front or ball of the thumb instead, this portion of thumb being kept downward while presenting. Thumb should be dry and free from perspiration. For best results, apply wax, either diachylon or magician's wax, after slightly warming. In presenting, after tearing and rolling the first sheet, remove the duplicate roll, squeeze the two together, and show them as one between the…