Versions of a chosen card in an inflated balloon are many, but invariably by mechanical methods. The following was designed as an emergency method and its simplicity will be appreciated by all Club performers. Effect The performer exhibits four colored balloons on a small tray. A spectator who will act as an assistant is requested to select one of these after which it is inflated by blowing air into it. A tape ribbon is tied securely around the neck to keep it so. Another spectator selects a card, a corner is torn from it for the spectator to hold, and…
The performer borrows any deck and proceeds to deal four piles of eight cards each. The onlooker selects any one of these piles, and picking it up, the performer has him think of a card when they are fanned face outward. The four piles are grouped together and again dealt into four piles. Fanning each pile for the spectator to glance at, the performer asks him to state when he sees his thought of card. The others are discarded and this pile dealt into two rows of four cards, one under the other, and with all of the cards face…
Although there isn't much originality in this effect, it is one I have been using quite constantly and with which I have had much success. To the audience you have performed quite a miracle in psychic tests. Your assistant or medium goes out of the room and the performer then spreads a deck of cards face down on the table. A spectator is asked to step forward and take three cards in a bunch from the pack. He is then to give two of the cards to different people in the gathering and keep the other for himself. All of…
There has long been a need for a simple and deceptive way of dealing seconds. This method was devised to fill that need. Take a sharp razor blade and slit along the long edge of the closed end of your card case at the opposite side to the flap. Make the slit exactly along the crease of the cardboard and it will not be noticeable. Sometimes the whole end of the case will open out when you do this. When this happens, a couple of daubs of glue on the side tabs will remedy the trouble. Now, if the cards…
In the book Shh-h-h–! It's a Secret by Annemann is an effect where the spectator takes ten chances to find the performer's card and fails, whereupon the performer takes one chance to find the spectator's card and succeeds. The method as explained used an impression device, but this improvement in procedure for gaining the information simplifies it, and may make it more desirable an effect for many. The subject is asked to think of any card in the deck and write it on a slip of paper which the performer hands him. This is folded and dropped into a glass…
Passing through Waverly, this summer, Mr Hummer, of Binghamton, N. Y., gave me this excellent subterfuge for the disappearance of a card, together with an astonishing idea for the reappearance. Having noted a card in the deck, the spectator sees the performer openly drop the deck into a borrowed hat or receptacle. Asking the person the number of spots on the noted card, the performer reaches into the hat and pretends to take out that number of spots and flip them away. The spectator is now asked to remove the deck and see if the card is there, but it…
Quite a few methods similar to this have been evolved, but I just fell onto it while playing with a deck, and it has its points. The card is selected, noted and replaced as is customary. Shuffling the deck, four cards are dealt off face down in a row and the selector asked to put his finger on any one. The number on it is called, cards counted off the deck to that position and the selected card is found. Very little preparation is needed, it being necessary only to have a 6, 7, 9 and 10 on top of…
I have been using what I consider a very practical and mystifying little conception with a big effect. It is impromptu and can be done anywhere and at any time, something that is pretty rare for worthwhile effects of this nature. It can be learned, with an assistant, in five minutes, which is another point in its favor. No apparatus is needed. Any pack of cards is borrowed from the host or hostess. Mixing the cards, the performer requests that the assistant, or medium, be sent to a distant room for the time being. He now states that one person…
Effect: A spectator freely selects a card from an ordinary deck. After being replaced, the deck is genuinely shuffled and cut several times. This may be done by the spectator himself. Saying that he will locate it, the performer removes a card at random. Upon seeing it however, the spectator says it is not the one he picked. A two foot ribbon is fastened with a sticker to the back of this card and it is cut to the center of the deck. The spectator now names his card and gently pulls on the ribbon. He pulls out the card…
Once again I introduce an effect that has been tested under fire and which has proven a good item for small club and close-up programs. It uses one of my favorite subterfuges - that of introducing an odd card into a borrowed deck - than which there is no other principle more intriguing at the moment. Asking two members of the audience to assist, you have one on each side and announce a most baffling problem with the borrowed deck. With the cards face up you deal them onto the spectator's hands, the man to your right getting the black…