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…
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"…
These two effects may be presented together, one after the other, and serve as welcome proof that a principle may be duplicated immediately if dressed entirely differently the second time. Both effects are workable with subtleties which very effectively cover their principles, even to those quite initiated. To me. At least, the simple idea of reversing cards end for end is an immortal magical thought. I hope my applications will find favor. The magician's apparatus consists of two decks of cards to be described, a slate with chalk, and a one-inch cork ball at the end of a length of…
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…