Alain Bellon - Quaddro Libris

QUADDRO LIBRIS By Alain Bellon

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QUADDRO ©Copyright 2000 By Alain Bellon n envelope. I placed it on the table for everyone to see. Then, I removed a deck of cards from its box and mixed them casually. —I want to show you something. Something that I will not be able to try tomorrow. Even if it fails it will be an interesting experience. I am just too curious. Would you like to help me? This cannot be done without your cooperation. Please? Thank you. Take a sit. I looked at my voluntary helper and after a brief pause said to her: —Would you please cut this deck? Thank you. Now take it in your hands and start dealing cards in a single pile on the

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table. At some point you shall stop. You may stop at any card you want. You will feel the urge to stop as if something otherworldly held your hand. Perhaps it will be an inner vioce barely perceptible. And perhaps others will hear it too. She dealt some cards on the table and then stopped. —Did you feel anything? Yes, me too. That’s why I chose you for this experiment. It will all be more clear to you in a moment. Please take the card you last dealt and put it aside on the table. We will look at it later. I took the deck and showed the faces of the cards to her. —You could have stopped at any of these cards but you chose to do it at that one precisely. Free will or destiny? At this point I had some butterflies in my stomach. That eerie feeling I sometimes get. I reached for the envelope and opened it. —Please look inside the envelope and tell everyone what is inside. —A piece of paper. —Exaclty. Would you please extract that piece of paper and put it on the table? Thank you. Deciding that everyone would like to hear the rest of the story, I walked away from the table and started to tell them the what had happened last night.

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—Yesterday I had an interesting dream. You and I were at a nice coffee house. But someting was strange. We didn’t say a word to each other, yet we seemed to be involved in some sort of conversation. At one point I removed a gigantic envelope from my coat pocket. I opened it and on the inside was a piece of paper. The writing on the paper was the name of a playing card. You looked at me and then left. In my head I kept hearing a whisper. I tiny vioce that said: “That’s the card. See you tomorrow”. The voice was so clear that I had no doubts that the other people at the coffee house heard it too. Did you happen to have such a dream last night? Perhaps you did and can’t remember. Did you hear the voice telling you to stop at that particular card? Good. After waking up from from that strange dream I realized that it had been really vivid but as with all dreams, it started fading away. I knew I should not let it slip away. So I wrote the name of the playing card in my dream on a piece of paper and then sealed it inside this envelope. Could you please read what’s written on the piece of paper? —4 of Clubs. —Right, that’s my dream card. Now please turn around the card you selected. Incredible! It’s the 4 of Clubs as well! Perhaps some dreams do come true.

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The Quaddro Principle Quaddro is, in essence, an envelope that allows one to have 4 different outs in a single gimmick. It eliminates any sleightof-hand, freeing the performer to focus on presentational issues. While the construction of Quaddro is hard to explain and looks convoluted, it really is not that complex. Once you grasp the concept behind it you will be making Quaddros quickly and easily. The principle is straight-forward but difficult to grasp unless you have a Quaddro in your hands. The Quaddro Envelope contains 4 different pockets. Two pockets are accessible by either un-sealing the envelope’s flap or by cutting the bottom of the envelope. The other two compartments can be reached by cutting with scissors the top or bottom of the envelope. This procedure seals one of the forementioned pockets through the “clippo” principle and gives access to one of the

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to alternative pockets. So by opening the flap or cutting the envelope at different places we can release any of the 4 predictions contained within the Quaddro envelope. The gimmick is clean and arises no suspicion. The interior of the envelope is always empty besides the single prediction which can be extracted by the spectator. This principle and gimmick allows for an extremely clean presentation of mental effects of all kinds. Credits One of the principles behind the Quaddro gimmick comes from Ted Lesley. While his application and gimmick are very different, the inspiration for the creation of Quaddro come from his great book Paramiracles. I extremely recommend it.

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Construction Materials © 1 regular envelope with adhesive flap and bottom flap unsealed (Envelope) © 1 envelope-back along with top and bottom flap (A) © 2 envelope-backs with no flaps (B and C) © 1 piece of waxed paper or any other scrap paper (the remains of the used envelopes work well) © Glue stick © Rubber cement © Talcum powder © 4 messages (your 4 outs or predictions) The back side of the envelopes refers to the side where the flaps are attached to. The front side is where the envelopes are glued along the seam. When you encounter the term “glue” it will refer to the use of a glue stick or similar, NOT

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to rubber cement. The procedures involving rubber cement will be described as such. To prepare the Envelope just carefully un-seal the bottom flap with the help of a sharp knife. This will leave you with a tube-like object. To prepare the envelope-back with flaps (A), just un-seal the bottom flap of an envelope like above and then cut off the front part. To prepare the 2 flap-less backs cut the bottom and top flaps of two envelopes. Then cut the sides. You end up with a couple of rectangular pieces of paper. Finally you need to trim the sides of all 3 envelope backs so that all 3 can be easily inserted inside the Envelope. A 1/16” (about 2mm) trim on each side shold be more than enough.

Assembly Let me begin by explaining the basic setup. The envelope back with flaps (A) goes on top. Next you place the 2 flapless envelope backs (B and C) under it as shown in the figure below.

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Each back is a single piece of paper and will be refered by letter from now on. As you can see below , B is cut shorter than the rest of the pieces and aligned at the bottom.

The amount you cut off B depends on the size of the envelopes, but for coin sized ones I use about ½” (1.2 cm). The next step is to glue B and C to the back of A. This is done by applying glue to the top areas of both B and C, and to the bottom area of B. Notice the thicker glue area on C. This overlap will hide the extra thickness of B a bit better. See the illustrations below.

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Once the glue is applied, stick the pieces to one another in the order prescribed and aligned to the bottom edge of A (the folding edge of the bottom flap). For clarity all the illustrations that follow will show the pieces in unassembled state, but yours should be a single unit by now. The next step is a little tricky. In this step you will apply a coat of rubber cement to corresponding areas of B and C. The idea is for them to stick together when cut with a pair of scissors, just like the clippo effect. So apply a coat of rubber cement along the areas shown in the illustration.

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You will be making two stripes one on the frontside of C and one on the backside of B. You will need to hold them appart while they dry to the touch (in the illustration B and C are shown unglued from each other for clarity purposes). Once dry you need to apply a little bit of talcum powder. The powder will prevent the two pieces of paper from sticking to each other during normal handling but will allow them to stick if cut by a pair of scissors along the cement stripe. Make sure you don’t apply too much talcum. Blow on the paper to remove the unnecessary powder. Note: This step is easier to accomplish before pasting A,B and C together. I changed the order to provide a more clear description of the idea behind the construction for a first time builder. Once you have understood the whole concept feel free to do the rubber cement step first. We are almost done. Now turn to the top part of A. Apply a coat of rubber cement to the top area and add some talcum as before.

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Also apply a corresponding rubber cement coating to the inside of the front flap of the Envelope as shown in the last illustration. Do not cut the Envelope open, just open it by pressing on the sides, apply the cement and either wait till it dries or place a piece of waxed paper inside to prevent the glue from sticking to the other side of the Envelope. Once dry, apply talcum as well. When the whole A,B,C gimmick is inserted inside the Envelope, the rubber cement areas on A and the inside of the Envelope will coincide. This will allow for a second self sealing compartment if cut with scissors. Before gluing the gimmick inside the Envelope you need to insert the predictions in the appropriate pockets. Create appropriately sized pieces of paper (thin paper is best since the gimmick is already thick) and insert them in the pockets for message 2 and 3 as shown below.

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Messages 1 and 4 can be set in place after the gimmick is inside the Envelope. The final step is to insert the gimmick in the Envelope and glue it. The Envelope is prepared by carefully opening the bottom flap so that the gimmick can be inserted fully. As seen in the 2 previous figures, glue is applied to the bottom area of A. Notice the large area of glue. It should overlap both glue and rubber cement areas on the bottom of B and C. Refer to the 2 previous illustrations. Some glue is also applied to the backside of C at the bottom as seen below.

When the A+B+C gimmick is inserted in the Envelope, the bottom parts of A and C are the ones glued to the bottom on both sides of the Envelope. The illustration below shows an imaginary view of the Envelope with its front open so you can see the relative position of all the glue areas. In

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reality the gimmick slides down the envelope from the top, then glue is applied to both A and C. Once the gimmick is glued in proper alignment, the bottom flaps of A and the Envelope are glued together then folded and glued back to the envelope. It should look like a normal bottom flap of a regular envelope. You may want to trim the edges of the glued flaps to achieve perfect alignment before folding back and gluing to the Envelope.

At this point you can insert messages 1 and 4 (refer to illustration showing the positions of the messages). Then the flaps of A and the Envelope are glued together. Some trimming might be necessary to make them look like a single flap. Finally you wet the Envelope flap just a little so it seals the Envelope shut but not tightly. It is important that you can easily open this flap if necessary. You are ready to perform. 16

Performance Operation The prepared envelope looks completely normal and can be placed in full view during performance. Once you are ready to show your prediction (which at this point is one of 4 possible choices), you open the envelope in a specific way depending on which prediction you want to show. Message 1 -Top compartmentOpen the envelope flap, which you barely sealed. Do not tear the envelope, just open the flap. This will give you access to the prediction in the top-most compartment of the envelope. Message 4 -Bottom compartmentUsing a pair of scissors cut the envelope along the top and not too far down. Your cut should be along the rubber cement area on the top part of the envelope. This action will 17

seal the top compartment and will give you access to the bottom compartment of the envelope. Message 2 -Compartment second from topUsing a pair of scissors cut along the bottom of the envelope but a little deep so that you hit the rubber cement area. This will seal one of the two bottom compartments and give you access to the second one from the top. Message 3 -Compartment third from topUsing a pair of scissors cut along the bottom of the envelope but close to the edge. The cut should go along a line above the rubber cement area on the bottom. This will give you access to the third compartment from the top. This procedure is a bit complicated but easily understood by referring to the illustration showing the different message areas. December 15, 2000 Alain Bellon © Copyright 2000 by Alain Bellon

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