Card tricks are a dime a dozen. At least eighty percent of the 6,854,989 card tricks extant are calculated to put an audience to sleep quicker than any other single form of entertainment. This is because so many of them are little more than complicated puzzles that merely confuse an audience. Confusion is not entertainment. Card tricks should be short, sweet, and to the point; the surprises should come thick and fast; and each surprise should out do the one before it. Pardon the lecture, but we wanted to accent that last statement. It is the whole point of the…
From "A Matter of Policy", a political effect to appear here five years ago, comes this idea for a modern story. It seems very timely in English speaking countries as well as in South America. Tell about Rep. Martin Dies and his Committee on Unamerican Activities. In other countries he may be substituted for an equivalent investigating group. Someone had the happy thought that if people in each community were lined up at random and every fifth person deported or confined, the country would be rid of fifth columnists. You shuffle a deck of cards and deal a face down…
Down deep in the archives of magic, but not down deep in the minds of practical performers is the Instanto deck. First marketed by Billy O'Connor, who, a decade and a half ago came to America from England with his act of superior mysteries, it was a principle of card magic which embodied countless possibilities. In itself the effect simply was to instantly cut at any card called for, a feat supposedly requiring no mean ability, but, nevertheless in this day and age, one which gets immediate response from the skeptics and readers of the modern magazines which make magic…
If one wants a cute little opening effect he can't go far wrong with that which follows. It is one of those "not-so-mysterious" tricks with a laugh at the end which should put you on good terms with the audience. "Once upon a time a magician was caught playing poker with a couple of other lowlifes. The policeman who arrested them brought the culprits before one judge noted for the novel ways in which he meted out punishments." "Taking three cards from the deck with which they had been playing, he showed them to the guilty prisoners. Next he shuffled…
Here is one of those "what you make them think you do" ideas that carries its potential wallop in the presentation. It is impromptu and simple. "For ages the mind and its little known capabilities have been investigated by delvers into the mental and psychic field. I would like to show you one of these strange mind perceptions." A card is chosen, noted and returned to the deck. After a shuffle the performer explains that he wants someone to take the cards and retire to a far corner where he is to fan them slowly before his eyes. This is…
A freely selected card, placed between two reversed cards in the center of one-half of the pack, is later found between two reversed cards of opposite color in the other half. Follow the instructions with a pack at hand. It is an impromptu effect and excellent for the card table interlude. Sitting opposite to your watchers, hand the pack to a person and ask him to shuffle, then cut the pack about in half. Turn up the top card of the lower half of the cut and call its denomination, throwing it face up on the table. Suppose it to…
Most card magicians have their pasteboards selected singly and watch with great care over the replacements. This is one instance in which the "master" allows the picking and putting back to be done very freely while he uses both hands separately in the process. It is probably the fairest appearing location trick, for not one but the masses, yet devised. The performer breaks open a deck, divides it in half, and, with one portion in his left hand and one in his right steps into the aisle. A spectator on each side of the aisle is asked to shuffle the…
One of my favorite card tricks for many years is a spelling effect which uses a person from the audience without the usual "take a card" angle. It brings many laughs and makes the audience think that the performer is an expert card manipulator. Only thirteen cards are used, Ace to King, all of them black except the 9 which is red. They are on top of the deck, arranged as given here later, and when the spectator arrives, you give the deck a fancy shuffle and cut (so, fake ones), pick off the group, toss the others aside, and…
The deck is shuffled and fanned by the magician for the spectator to select any four of the cards from any positions. The spectator thinks of one of the four, whereupon they are well mixed with their faces down so that no one can possibly know the location of the mentally chosen card. At random these four are shoved into the fanned deck which is squared. The performer now puts the deck behind his back, saying that he'll attempt to find the thought of card through the use of another as a "diviner". His right hand brings out a card…
Any deck is well shuffled by a spectator who then cuts off about a third of the cards. He is told to look them over and finally settle his mind upon one. You now take the packet and appear to try finding the thought of card. But what actually is done is that you look for two spot cards of like value, preferably from 6 to 10. They are kept together and placed in the packet so that the second of the two will be at its number from the top of the pack. Thus if you use two "nines"…