When more than one person helps in a card effect and the revelations are different from each other, there seems to be a better reaction from the onlookers, that is, as long as things aren't drawn out too much. Borrow someone's deck, have it shuffled, and offer it to spectator #1 for a selection. Turn your back while he shows it to the others, and at this moment peek at the deck's top card and remember it. Undercut the deck, have the card returned to the top of the original upper half, place the lower half on top of all,…
The Three Card Monte effect has stood the brunt of many variations. Without boasting I consider this one of the cleaner, quicker, and more convincing ways which a performer may use impromptu at any time with any cards. From a deck being used the performer asks that three cards be removed, preferably two spot cards and one picture card. They are handed him, and he uses nothing more. If the magician is adept at this game he may "throw" the cards several times in the regular method and then resort to the following idea as a climax, saying that perhaps…
Many card effects have a sound beginning and weak ending while others are built just oppositely. For that reason this pair of ideas should be found welcome. Together they make for a clean and complete novel discovery. Separately they may be used either for a force, or for a finale, in conjunction with other effects. The performer has a card selected in a quite fair manner and it is shuffled back by the spectator himself. The deck is dropped into an unprepared goblet, back to the audience. A silk handkerchief is thrown over them. The spectator is now requested to…
Effect : The performer has two assistants on either side of the stage whom we shall call L and R. The performer asks R to cut about one-third off a pack of cards and retain them. L cuts the remaining portion of the pack in half so that everybody has a third. Assistant R now takes a card from his own packet which he shows to the audience out front. Assistant L selects a card from his packet and the performer takes one from the cards he holds. Both he and L show their respective cards to those watching. Next…
To describe this effect as one would find it in most magical catalogues might be a bit presumptuous, for the reader will know the secret immediately after without the fun of sending to his dealer and waiting until the reply makes everything clear. Imagine, though, reading somewhere that the performer says he will write a prediction for one of his spectators. He hasn't paper handy so jots down a few words upon the face of one of the cards from his deck. Then he tosses the written on card into the spectator's own hat, never to touch it again. The…
Dear Ted : In a recent Jinx (#102) was a Poker move by Art Lyle using a double draw. This reminded me of a similar but slightly different move which I think is a little better covered. It was shown to me some years ago by an inveterate poker player. In the first place it can only be used while you yourself are dealing, but it's no detraction for any such dodge is employed but once or twice during an evening of play. Suppose you hold a pair of nines, a four, Queen, and Ace in your hand. Comes time…
The following effect together with the method for its performance have been found very acceptable over a period of years of professional engagements. In my card work I have always tried to think of the showmanship before the method, for it is what an audience thinks it is seeing that is more important to be true, than what actually takes place to make the effect possible. Most difficult sleights can almost always be circumvented by the use of a subterfuge. Behind-the-scenes trickery of this sort is decidedly permissible because the magician is supposed to be a wonder-worker or he would…
Novelty playing card monologues have always been liked, but such routines have also been very scarce. This one should find quite a few ready to use it, especially because, with the suggestions at its finish, little memory is necessary for its telling, and no memory at all for the set-up of the deck. A deck is removed from its case, given a false shuffle if possible, and a story told. It is during this that cards are taken off the top of the deck and shown to illustrate the theme. "I am going to tell you a story, and I'm…
The magician counts off 8 cards without calling special attention to their number. They may be any 8 cards. The patient is asked to just concentrate upon one as they are fanned before him. This done they are shuffled, then 4 taken in the left hand and 4 in the right. "In which hand is your card?" queries the magus. The patient gestures, sometimes disinterestingly, towards your left hand, we'll say for example. AT ALL TIMES THE CARDS ARE KEPT FACING THE SPECTATOR. The cards are tapped even on the table, and, beginning with the left (always start with the…
A few years ago, at a hotel on Lake Tahoe, I noticed a playing card stuck to the mirror in back of the bar. The bartender refused to allow anybody to touch it, or, for that matter, even go near it. "No, sir, you keep away. That was put up there by magic by Max Malini!" And he refused to touch it himself. All of this only goes to show that some of the oldest tricks have the most magical effect. This one was, of course, the very old effect of flinging the deck of cards against the wall, or…