The performer shows two packs of cards. One pack has red backs and the other has blue. From the red pack a card is freely selected. The performer takes a bunch of about a dozen cards from the pack and the selected card is replaced among them. A rubber band is placed around the packet and it is set in full view in a clip on the table. The same procedure is then adopted with the blue backed pack. A card is chosen and replaced in a small group of a dozen cards. These are also fastened with a rubber…
Just a few days before this writing, I was talking to Jean Hugard, and he mentioned as a favorite of his, the thought of card to pocket effect, an impromptu masterpiece of subtlety. I recollected the presentation I've always given it, with actually performing it three times in a row for two different spectators. Jean suggested that I write it up for The Jinx but I explained that there was nothing much original about it all except the routine of three. My respect for Jean's ability and knowledge always makes me bow low to his views and suggestions, so it…
Book tests come and go about the same way as do Four Ace Tricks, for it seems as though one is on the search continually for improvement. Of course, favorite methods vary according to the individual. I've seen some people who would swear by a method that to me seemed cumbersome, drawn out, and obviously a fake because of the round about way of getting to the word. However, one advantage of using, or at least, knowing several methods for a test makes it possible for one to repeat it at some later time without fear of anyone following the…
When "Wild Bill" was shot from behind by Jack McCall, in the Deadwood days of outlawry, it stopped the life of a picturesque character, but started the legend of the "dead man's hand" and made possible this most original card story and routine in years. In the Mann and Lewis Saloon of Deadwood, S.D., "Wild Bill" Hickock was playing poker with friends. His back towards the one door made it possible for the murder just as Bill was preparing to make his "draw" to the hand illustrated here with the original cards that were taken from his lifeless hands a…
Only with prepared cards, has this effect heretofore been performed. Standing with your right side to the audience, hold twelve cards in your right hand. Fan them with their faces to the audience, and slowly turn your hand to show the backs as well as the fronts. Close the fan and place the cards in your left hand, with faces outward. Now rapidly count the cards from left hand to the right, as follows: Push the first card forward with the left thumb, pull it away with the right thumb, then grip it at the ends between the right first…
Back in the March, 1935 issue of The Jinx ( #6 ) there appeared a billet reading method of great value. The test, in that case, used a newspaper and on a torn out piece a word was encircled. I have found that many are not in a position to read the stolen paper, and this variation in a slightly different dress, will make for greater ease in the reading. In your left coat pocket have a deck of cards and a match or two. Give the pack to a person with the request that he look them over well…
If you have one of the P&L metal card boxes sitting around, this makes an excellent effect as an after dinner or parlor trick. Any card box that locks though, can be used. In short, the spectator writes the name of some dead person on a small card which you give them, and it is placed writing side down and covered with a Queen from the deck. You then put the Queen to your ear, leaving the card with the dead name on the table, but she says nothing. You try again, but still no result. Then, with the remark…
Anyone who doesn't try this at least once before a fair sized audience is passing up a nice bet. It is so much to the point and fast that the effect is always startling. Take a deck and, holding it face outwards, make a right to left fan remarking that the cards seem pretty well mixed. The audience sees this. Close the fan and approach a spectator at one side. You fan the cards again in front of him so that he alone can see the face of the fan. This time you make a left to right fan and…
Performers who have used the effect of a card being placed second from where it jumps to the top will like this really new version which takes away the necessity of much skill. It is necessary only to have a short card in the deck, a short card made by trimming across the entire end of one card about one-thirty-second of an inch. Have it on the bottom and the usual card selected. The noted card is then returned to the top of the deck which is undercut, effectively burying it. Another cut and a riffle shuffle at the ends…
Back on June 9th, 1932, I met this cute principle which I've used many times since for an almost impromptu book or magazine test in homes and at parties. With a minute's access to the book and four minutes with the deck you have as clean cut a test as is possible unless you happen to be one of those genuine telepathists. The deck stack of 14-15 is generally known now among magicians, but that is as far as they have gone with it. To those who don't know the set up idea it is a case of arranging the…