As an unusual effect this trick possesses several attractive features. It can be done deliberately and convincingly. Its puzzling part depends upon the simplest of sleights reduced to a minimum, eliminating faked cards common in similar tricks. It is also one of the few sleight of hand tricks that can be adapted to Giant Cards, with practically no change in operation. The magus takes six cards and holds them in a face down packet. The left fingers are at the left side of the packet - thumb at the right. The hand tilts upward to show bottom card, which is…
Well, wouldn't you be in fear with a couple of fancy, but sharp, knives looking for you? And especially so knowing they were in the hands of irresponsible spectators who didn't know and didn't care where they were stabbing? Of course, magic itself is not logical, but it has always seemed to me a bit incongruous for a knife to be thrust into a pack and selected cards found on either side. With two cards chosen and shuffled back it is quite a little miracle just to have them come together in the pack. This version of the stabbing trick…
When Charles T. Jordan was reigning king of the card trick originators back in the early 1920's, one of his card table problems was named The Keystone Card Discovery. Students of the Jordan school of cardology will recognise a similarity of procedure in what follows, but will also see a decidedly different approach, presentation, and especially the never observed method of handling the cards that "does" the trick and confounds those who may try to follow your actions in an effort to duplicate things. The performer borrows a deck and tells a tale of the two black Jacks. Back in…
The moves in this interlude for the "close-up" man are child's play once that you get the idea or knack. Every time, it seems, that I take out a dime and penny, no matter what the trick may be, there is somebody in the audience who is certain that I'm using the fake dime and penny, letting on to everybody about it in no uncertain terms. The trick has been capably exposed but in this case, not only the ones not in the know but the wise boys also get a beautiful fooling. And there are very few among us…
The "dupe" seats himself at the seer's table. He wants his fortune told. Complying with the lady's or gentleman's request, the old faker mixes the cards about and deals four of them face down. Assuming that it is a lady, she turns up any one to suit her fancy and writes her name across it while the merchant in future's back is turned. She puts it face down among the others and moves them about to lose the card, even unto herself. The magician (for he is no better) returns to the table, picks up the group of four, puts…
I have had a great many magicians and laymen tell me this is the best coin trick they ever saw. This can be said without braggadocio because I did not invent any of the sleights. I put them together and there is the real secret. All these moves are to be thought of merely as different parts of ONE stunt, not as separate sleights. They should be executed very deliberately, in SLOW MOTION in fact, and it is the gestures which make it a natural. The moves should be learned with the patter for the timing of the words to…
Editor's note : The following Cup and Ball manoeuvre will fit in very nicely with the subsequent effects covered in the very exhaustive treatise in Jinx issues 35 through 47. Regardless of the thousand and one moves for this effect, here is an original routine to be used as the opening, designed to eliminate the usual unorthodox repeated "hands to pocket" moves. The three (?) balls only, used in the trick, lay openly on the left palm, and cups can be examined. This opening routine ends nevertheless with the fourth ball under one of the cups and ready for your…
THE GREAT MERLINI; b. Barnum&Bailey circus car en route through Illinois, Aug. 15, 1882; s. Victor and Edna (Bradna) M.; educated at intervals; Eton, Heidelberg, Beirut, Paris; m. Mary Cordona, Jan. 1, 1914; children, Michael, 1916, dec., Roberta, 1921; carnival and circus magician, 1903-1912; full evening show 1912-1929; magic dealer 1930- ---; Inventor of many effects and illusions including The Vanishing Elephant (Method #5), Haunted Alarm Clock, The Card From Hell, etc., etc.; Authors : Legerdemainiacs, The Psychology of Deception, Sleight--of--Hand For Experts, Sawdust Trails; Editor : Conjurer's Monthly 1920-28; Decorations : Sacred Order of White Elephant presented at command…
:: EFFECT :: (1) The magus has any person freely select a card from a shuffled red deck, and another select any card from a freely shuffled blue deck. When selected cards are named, it is found that both persons have selected the same cards. (2) The red deck is shuffled by the spectator and placed in the magician's inside pocket. The other spectator shuffles his blue deck and places it in his own inside coat pocket. This person then reaches in the magician's pocket and removes any card. The magus also removes one card from the deck in spectator's…
Dabblers of things of a spiritualistic nature should be interested in the following effect which has been put together for the small gathering and intimate type of performer. It can be carried in one pocket and, performed practically impromptu, runs about seven minutes with great impression. The performer asks the spectator to write the initials of a dead man on one of seven small white cards, explaining that from this point on the card will represent the deceased person and that his burial will be re-enacted. On the six remaining pasteboards, the spectator is told to write the initials of…