Kostya Kimlat - Mastering the Cull eBook English

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Mastering The Cull - Companion E-Book Kostya Kimlat © 2007

Welcome to “Mastering the Cull” e-book. This is a text-only companion to the Roadrunner Cull DVD. Here you will find the original write-up of the Roadrunner Cull, The Culligula Triumph, and the routines I am sharing for the first time. I have always been a big fan of the written word, so I felt this project would only be complete with this writing. Enjoy.

Contents: The Roadrunner Cull (2002) Culligula Triumph (2002) Unshuffling the Colors (1999) Shuffle First, Ask Questions Later (2004) Four 4 Following (2006) And If All Goes Wrong (2006)

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

The Roadrunner Cull Originally published in “MAGIC: Experiments with the Art & Thoughts on the Artistry” 2002 In 1998, I watched Paul Cummins do incredible things with a cull at a Steak-n-Shake after his lecture. He blew me away and inspired me to keep working on the cull. The culling method that I am going to describe is the technique that I have developed over the last few years. I will not, however, take full credit for it. First of all, this technique, although created independently, has a lot of history behind it and many other methods as its backbone. Second of all, I have heard of other magicians developing techniques similar to mine. Third, through word-of-mouth I have heard of other culling techniques that amaze me even though I have yet to see them and I do not dare to compare mine with unknown, underground techniques. And finally, I do not take full credit for this technique because I did not create it on purpose. I was simply so amazed by Paul Cummins’ culling that I just worked and worked until the move became natural and my fingers began moving on their own. It wasn’t until I started performing my “Cull-igula” triumph for magicians that I realized that I was actually doing something different and had to try to understand my own technique. I am putting this cull in print for two reasons. First, many magicians who have seen me do it have asked me to write it up. Second, I feel that culling has been a very underused technique. In my current performances, it has slowly become one of my most used moves. I use it at restaurants and in walk around performances, in my guesstimation routines; it is constantly used in my Triumph routine; always employed instead of Lennart Green’s Angle Separation; and I have adapted it to use in many other effects. I call this the Roadrunner call because when done right it is incredibly fast. However, I am always working on improving my technique and I hope that over time it will become even faster and smoother. What I want to share with you now are the very mechanical details that make the Roadrunner Cull possible. It is my sincere wish that you try this technique yourself. If you have never seen culling done well, try to find someone to show it to you. You will be pleasantly surprised at the speed, invisibility, and usefulness of a good cull. The Technique: For this explanation, you are going to cull out all of the red cards. Start out with a well-shuffled deck. What this means, usually, is that although many cards will be interlaced (red, black, red, black) most often you will come across runs of cards, three or more in a row. This will make the culling easier and much faster. (You will see in a moment that you will literally be able to cull out a group of seven or ten cards with a single move of the fingers.) Start by spreading the deck from left to right. When you reach the first red card in the spread, (we will use a three of diamonds) perform the original Hofzinser Spread Cull (The Basic Spread Cull is described in Hugard and Braue’s “Expert Card Technique” on pg. 129.) Briefly: place your right hand thumb onto the card directly above and to the right of the three. Use the middle and ring fingers of the right hand to contact the back of the three underneath the spread, and pull it out of the spread by simply bending the fingers inwards, towards the right palm. When the three comes out of the spread it will slide all the way until its right edge hits your palm and it is directly below and is practically aligned with the top card of the spread.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

From now on, the left thumb will not have to do any work. In fact, the one thing to remember about this technique, the thing that is the key to making it work, is that the left hand does nothing but simply spread the cards. After the initial Hofzinser Spread Cull, it is only the right fingers that do the cull work. The left hand’s fingers and thumb simply spread the deck. This helps to keep the spreading casual and natural without any false movements. The dirty work is always done underneath the spread, completely out of the view of the spectators, by the right hand’s fingers. It is also important to remember to keep the faces of the cards tilted towards the audience so the outer edges of the cards (where the work can be seen) are not in the direct view of the audience. The three of diamonds that you have now culled is going to rest on your right hand fingers. The edges of your index and middle fingers can curl around its left edge. The fingers will keep extending out and closing back underneath the spread. But, if at any point you have to stop culling and simply spread the deck for a long time, (like when you have finished the culling early or when you are looking for the next card to cull) the fingers can curl around the left edge of the culled packet, squaring it up and preventing it from getting out of control. If you’re going to be culling a lot of cards non-stop, then do not curl your fingers around the deck. Instead the curled fingertips will support the culled packet from below. This packet (in our case the culled three of diamonds for now) that is resting on your right hand fingers and riding underneath the spread now becomes the key to the culling technique: Continue spreading the cards until you get to the next red card. Let’s say that it is a queen of hearts. The index and middle fingers of the right hand are going to push up from below and use the three of diamonds to clamp all of the cards above the queen. The three will actually slide in-between the queen and the cards above it. The right thumb will put pressure downwards, clamping the spread from above. At this point the right hand can lift up and it will have all of the cads above the queen clamped by the thumb above and three of diamonds below. However, the last thing you want to do is separate the hands: keep the spread together, without any breaks. The middle finger now lets go and only the index finger is left, pushing up. The middle finger extends outwards and contacts the back of the queen of hearts. Once it has touched it, the middle finger curls inwards, pulling the queen out of the spread. This is very important: as soon as the middle finger has contacted the back of the queen, the index finger relaxes and extends outwards, away from the cards. Now it is only the middle finger that is used to keep the cards from falling onto the ground. Unlike in some culling techniques where the cards that are being culled go above the previously culled cards, in this case the queen of hearts goes below the three of diamonds. The fingers of the right hand now extend flat and the left thumb continues to spread the cards. It is important, also, to keep those right hand fingers at a downward angle of about 20-30 degrees from the spread of the deck. This is large enough to ensure the clearance of the black cards that continue to be spread above the culled cards and into the right hand. And it is small enough so as not to be seen sticking out from below the spread by the audience.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Continue spreading, the two culled cards riding below, until you reach the next red card. Let’s say that there is a group of two. Use the three and the queen to clamp all of the black cards above the two red cards. Once again, the index finger pushes up and the middle finger extends. It must extend, however, all the way to the second card. Because the three and the queen are wedged above the two red cards, the uppermost of the two cards needs not be even touched. When the middle finger touches the back of the second red card, the pressure caused by that middle finger when it curls inwards will cause both of the cards to go sliding out of the spread and into the right hand, below the three and the queen. As soon as the middle finger touches that second card and begins to curl inwards, the index finger extends outwards, getting out of the way, and the two cards go sliding into place. You should now have four red cards riding on the fingers of your right hand. Continue spreading until you get to the next set of red cards. We will say that it is a whole group of red cards, six or more, together. Use the four culled cards to clamp all of the black cards above the group of red ones. Since this will be a large group it will be harder for your middle finger to estimate which is the last card of the group. To help out, the left thumb will simply continue doing what it has been doing: it will keep pushing the spread until the lowest red card of the group is spotted. Once it is, the left thumb will stop and press downwards on the first black card below the group of red. At this point it is very easy for the right middle finger to contact the back of that last red card, put upwards pressure, and then pull inwards at the same time as the index finger extends and gets out of the way once again. Because you are using the culled cards as a clamp, all of the cards in the spread continue riding directly underneath and into the fingers of the right hand below the first four. Once the last card is pulled in by the middle finger you will feel a sharp click. That means that the block of red cards has now cleared out of the deck and that the red cards are no longer clamping the spread. The right thumb is then free to continue spreading. By now you should be able to understand the technique of the cull. Remember that the right hand’s fingers work as little movers, constantly extending outwards and pulling cards inwards. The index and middle fingers must always be on the move. A great thing to do is to let them take turns in stealing the cards. That way they are never in each other’s way and you are able to steal a lot more cards than if you were using just your middle finger. Continue spreading through the deck until you have culled out all of the red cards. Close the spread, bringing all of the red cards to the bottom and now you are set to perform any miracle that your heart desires. The Angle-Cull-Separation: Here is a very advanced and incredibly diabolical culling technique that I have developed. This one allows you to really get ahead. With this technique, you can go through a shuffled deck of cards once and cull out two four of a kinds, yet keep them separate! So, although the kings and queens may be intermixed throughout the deck, after a single spread of the cards, the four kings are together, followed by the four queens, on top of the deck. Also, you can go through the deck one and a half times and have all the cards separated into the four suits. When I first discovered the extra move that made this technique possible I was incredibly excited and I hope that you will be, too.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Separating Sets of Four of a Kind: For the explanation, we will cull out the four kings and the four queens. First shuffle the deck, making sure the cards are very well mixed. Now begin spreading them from hand to hand until you get to a king or a queen. Perform the Hofzinser Spread Cull, using the middle finger to steal the card out of the spread. Let’s say that it was a queen. Now spread until you see the next card, let’s say a king. Here’s what you’re going to do different: you are going to clamp and cull out the king as per the regular cull, but when the middle finger pulls inwards it needs to pull downwards as well. Doing this causes the card to go diagonally, instead of directly with the spread, and causes it to be down-jogged, yet still in the right hand and underneath the first queen. Continue spreading until you reach the next card: a king. Repeat the culling action, again pulling the middle finger in and downwards, down-jogging the second king with the first one. Spread until you reach a queen. Cull it but keep the middle finger straight as you bring it in. This keeps the queen aligned with the first queen and separated by the two down-jogged kings. Essentially, all you are doing is up- and down-jogging the cards underneath the spread. Continue spreading the cards and culling the queens and kings, down-jogging or keeping them straight accordingly. To cover the down-jogged kings you may wish to use your right thumb to slightly down-jog the top card of the spread. You can also use your right ring finger to prevent the kings from getting pushed in with the queens: all you need to do is curl it around the left edge of the kings, all the way near the bottom. The ring finger should put a lot of pressure on the sides of the cards, almost bowing the kings inwards, because you want to make sure they don’t go anywhere. Once you have culled all of the cards, keep the ring finger still wrapped around the kings. If you now flip the deck over side for side to the left, you can squeeze the four kings between the palm of your right hand and that ring finger, unweave them from amongst the queens, and drop them on top. If the ring finger feels uncomfortable, then just flip the deck over, grasp the down-jogged cards between the thumb and middle finger and strip them out like that. Four Suit Separation: To separate the four suits you will have to go through the deck one and a half times. Spread the deck once. As you do, begin culling the diamonds and the clubs, but downjog the clubs so they are separate. Strip out the clubs and drop them on top of the deck. Once you have done that, the first 26 cards of the face-up deck will be mixed hearts and spades, followed by thirteen diamonds and then thirteen clubs. To the untrained eye of a lay person, the top twenty-six cards, if spread quickly, will be seen as mixed red and black cards and the lack of clubs and diamonds in the spread will not be noticed. So, if you go back and just spread the top twenty-six cards, culling out just the hearts, the spectators will still see a mixed deck and think nothing of it. Upon closing the spread, however, you now have the deck separated into the four suits. Ideally, you could actually cull out three of the suits, down-jogging one farther than the other, but I believe this would be too cumbersome. (This idea was shown to me by my friend Karl Hein utilizing the Lennart Green Angle Separation) The method I have just given is pretty easy once the regular cull is mastered. The mix of hearts and spades during the second spread prevents the lay people from thinking that anything was separated during the first spread. What you can also do is borrow someone else’s deck and go through it once, looking for Jokers. While you are looking, of

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

course, you cull out the diamonds and clubs using the angled-cull technique. Then, after taking the Jokers out of the deck if they are there, ask the spectator (“oh, by the way,”) if they know if theirs is a full deck or not. Whatever their answer, begin spreading the top half of the deck, doing the final cull of the hearts. Then stop midway and tell them that either a) it doesn’t matter, then go into a different effect and produce the four suits later or (b) tell them you’ve got an easier way of checking, and spread the deck to show the cards separated by suits. Beep Beep: Timing is not everything when you first begin learning the cull. The only way to master this technique is to do it always. For years, whenever I picked up any deck, the first thing I would do without even thinking about it was to shuffle the cards and then to separate them. Try to utilize the cull in whichever effects possible. I hope you will be able to master both the Roadrunner cull and the Angle-Cull Separation and find good uses for them in your routines. Best of luck. ♦♣♥♠

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Cull-igula The Hardcore Triumph Originally published in “MAGIC: Experiments with the Art & Thoughts on the Artistry” 2002 The following is the most direct triumph possible. The spectators look at a card, they shuffle the cards face-up into face-down themselves, and then, somehow, the cards are all facing one way except for their selection. There are no false displays, counts, or special shuffles; there is nothing to hide. The shuffling is done in the spectator’s hands and the dirty work is done invisibly underneath their noses. It takes guts to try this at first, but damn does it feel good to get away with such blatant cheating. This method was created while working at a magic shop in Orlando. I got really tired of performing the triumph with a stripper deck. I felt very cheap performing a miracle and then telling my audience that they could do the same exact thing for a couple of bucks and no practice. Performing the triumph with a regular deck and then telling my audience that it was a stripper at least made me feel good on the inside. My favorite part, I should mention, was handing the deck to “knowledgeable” laymen and asking them to make sure it was perfectly normal – at which point they would subtly caress the sides of the cards or riffle the outer edges– and then I would perform the effect. “Yeah, it’s a stripper deck,” I’d tell them afterwards. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice.” They would always look confused. One of my most memorable performances of this effect was when I worked for Camel cigarettes during Bike Week in Daytona, Fl. Surrounded by 40 bikers, clad in full leather and gang regalia, with their tattoos warning me of what they might do to me if I piss them off or mess up a trick, I decided to just go for it and perform my triumph. I was nervous as hell, worried that they might break my fingers if they didn’t like me or caught me cheating. But two minutes and one shuffled and restored deck later, I was the God of cards to them and they were the most enthusiastic audience I had ever performed for. I really hope you try this method. It is incredibly important to have the technique down 100% before performing it. Any little mess-up or pause during the dirty work will give away the entire effect. But if you’ve got the technique down, you’ve got a miracle. Enjoy! Procedure: Have a card selected. There is no need to control it. All you need to do is to peek it so you know what it is. Now give the deck to any layperson to shuffle. Tell him to mix it up really well. After his second shuffle, pretend like you just got a crazy idea in your head (a crazy look in the eyes convinces them of that). Tell the spectator to turn half of the deck face-up and leave the other half face-down. Then tell them to shuffle the two halves together. At this point, most spectators will pause and ask you if you’re sure of this. Magicians will do this, especially. To lay people, I say: “You’ve never done something crazy like this before, have you?” To magicians, I say “It’s okay, it’s a stripper deck,” and smile …and then wait for them to check.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

It really doesn’t matter how the deck is shuffled. It can be perfectly faro-ed for all you care. Lay people always shuffle the cards in bunches, though, making it even easier for you later on. Once the deck has been well mixed take it back and spread it between your hands, showing the spectator that he has mixed it really well. As you spread through the deck, quickly look for the spectator’s selection. If you do not see it amongst the face-up cards, then square up the deck, pause, and turn it over casually. This is not a secret action; you can do it openly. All of this is done while pattering about how mixed up the cards are and how the spectator was crazy for taking you seriously about the shuffling. Now ask the spectator to look for his selection as you spread through the cards. All you are going to do now is spread the cards from one hand to the other. As you do so, however, you are going to do the dirty work: you will cull out every single face-down card in the spread along with the face-up selection. This may sound easy in the description but it takes a lot of work to make smooth. It may also sound hard but it is actually quite easy once you have the technique perfected. I describe my culling technique elsewhere in the notes, so let me continue with the procedure and also provide you with some culling tips that will help you in your performance Before I begin the spread, I like to cut the deck, doing two things at once. First of all, I cut the deck so the selection is somewhere in the lower fourth of the deck. Since you will tell the spectator to look for his card, the longer he has to look for it, the less time he has to look at the other cards. When I cut, I also cut so a face-down card is on top of the deck. This is a visual subtlety. When you are culling, the face-down cards will be disappearing from the spread leaving only a face-up spread. Leaving one face-down card on top visually convinces the spectator that the cards are still mixed up. It’s a very subtle thing but it really helps! Now you can begin to spread and cull. Don’t be shy, just do it. My strategy to make sure the spectator doesn’t notice anything weird happening during the spread is to completely overwhelm them visually and auditory. While spreading the cards pretty fast, I keep talking to them: “Do me a favor and look for your card. Just look for it amongst the face-up cards. When you see it don’t say anything. Don’t point at it, do not shout it out. Otherwise I might know which one it is. You still remember it, right? (I pause and look at them – a question throws them off) Good, Just look for it. Don’t say a word until I get to the very end. Once I get to the very end, then you can tell me whether the card is face-up or face-down. You really shuffled these cards, didn’t you? Still remember it? OK, which way was it facing?” In the time that it takes me to say all of that I have completed culling all of the face-down cards and their face-up selection. My average time, including the interaction with the spectators is 15 seconds. Doing just culling without any talking, I can separate the cards in a little over 10 seconds. I can only hope that over time my technique will improve. Once you have culled out all of those cards, bring them to the bottom below the face-up cards. The deck is now in the following order: face-down card, 25 face-up cards, and 26 face-down cards with selection face-up somewhere amongst them. All you have to do now is to cut the deck at the natural

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

break, slip cut that top face-down card onto the other face-down cards, then turn over the block of 25 face-up cards onto the rest of the cards. All you have left is to remind the spectator of everything that has happened. Be sure to point out again and again that the spectators are the crazy ones that got the idea to shuffle the deck face-up and face-down. Then say a magical word or give a magical snap and spread the deck. If your culling technique is invisible, then their jaws should hit the floor. ♦♣♥♠

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Unshuffling the Colors I learned the basis for this routine from Kevin Beaty, a student of Eric Anderson’s. Kevin and I worked together at a magic kiosk in a shopping mall when I was about 15 years old. I would sell stripper decks by performing this routine with a regular deck. This was way before I started working on the cull, so I was using Lennart Green’s Angle Separation. Since those days, this trick has continued to be my closer. This is the first time that I am sharing this routine exactly as I have been performing it for the last nine years, only now it's been upgraded to use the cull. Effect: A spectator selects a card and shuffles the deck. The magician instantly separates the shuffled deck into red and black cards. He gives each half to a spectator, then cause the selection to vanish from one half and appear in the other half, amongst the opposite colored cards. Method: Have a card selected and replaced. We’ll imagine the selected card is the seven of diamonds. Perform either a force or a peek, so you know the identity of the card. Have the deck fairly shuffled by the spectators. Take the cards back and spread through the face-up deck. Have the spectators look at the cards with you as you spread. Tell them that you’re going to go through the cards and try to narrow down which card could be theirs. As you spread, you’re going to cull half of the deck. Which color of cards you cull depends on the color of the face-card. If the top card of the deck is red, then you’re going to leave that card there and cull all of the red cards. The only card you will not cull will be the seven of diamonds. On the other hand, if the top card of the deck is black, you’re going to cull all of the black cards AND the selected seven of diamonds. As you’re nearing the end of the deck, a good line to deliver is: “Okay, I think I narrowed it down to 26.” This elicits an easy laugh and relaxes the audience. You will now have the deck separated into two halves with the selection in the opposite color half. Spread the cards in the middle with the faces towards you and separate the deck where the colors meet. “I am now going to perform an un-shuffle,” is a great line here. Perform a riffle shuffle, but don’t push the cards in. Instead, let them visually unweave, explaining to the spectators that this is a strange thing called an un-shuffle. “What it does is undo all the shuffling you’ve done. And it separated the deck into two distinct halves…” Pick up the half deck with the selection. Execute a pressure-fan with the faces of the cards towards yourself. You’ll instantly see the 7 of diamonds amongst the black cards. As you pretend like you’re adjusting the fan to make sure all the cards are visible, you will slide the card that is directly to the right of the seven slightly to the left, so that it covers up the seven completely. Move some of the cards around a bit, but still keep the tight form of the fan. Now bring your hand down to display the fan of all black cards. The spectators will be dumbfounded. Instantly pick up the other half, pressure fan them with the faces towards yourself, adjust slightly (mimicking the actions you made with the other half), and then bring the fan down so the spectators see all the red cards. Don’t give the spectators enough time to look for their card. If they start looking, shift their focus and ask them to put their hands out. Cleanly and clearly pick up the red fan and square it up, placing

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

it in their hands. Do the same with the black fan, placing the cards in another person’s hands. “You see, that’s what I meant earlier: I narrowed it down to one of the 26 red cards. Here, you hang on to those. And I’d like you to hold on to all the black cards. Now I can take out your card invisibly…” Mime the action of taking a card out of the red packet, look at the invisible card in your hand and announce the name of the selection. “Oh, the seven of diamonds…and I’l place it into your packet. … You’ll now notice that your card has vanished from here. And you can find it has instantly…reappeared…right…over…here…” Take the black half from the spectator and spread it in front of your chest so the spectators see the final visual of all black cards and their selection in the center. At this point, you will be done with your performance, the audience will be in the palm of your hand and the world will lay at your feet. ♦♣♥♠

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Shuffle First, Ask Questions Later Just imagine this: change the time at which you do the cull and you have a completely different routine. You also have an opportunity to practice the cull without any worry of the spectators noticing that something sneaky is happening because the misdirection is so strong. This is a perfect routine to start playing with if you’re just starting to work on the cull and want to get your feet wet doing it real-time, in front of an audience. Method: Begin by shuffling the cards face-up into face-down. Make sure that your presentation justifies this in the beginning. Presentational ideas: Did you drop the cards all over the floor by accident? Did a spectator sabotage your cards? Are you telling a 3rd person narrative of what happened to you when a drunk grabbed your cards the other night? As you gather the shuffled cards from the table or from the spectator(s), make sure the top card is a face-down one. Turn to a spectator. Begin spreading the cards and culling every face-down card (leaving the top one in place). Try to spread through the first quarter of the deck as you ask the spectator to grab a card. “Any card at all. Some people like face-down cards because they’re a mystery. Others prefer to grab the face-up cards because they like me and want to make my life easier. It’s up to you.” This line sets up a nice opportunity for byplay and interaction, depending on what card they go for. Once the first spectator has picked a card, continue spreading and turn towards a second spectator. Again try to kill some time, talking as you spread, asking them their name, whether they prefer face-up or face-down cards, etc. You should go through most of the middle of the deck as you talk and then have the bottom quarter of the deck spread for them to pick a card from. As they withdraw their card to show it around, you finish up culling all the face-down cards and bring the culled cards to the bottom. As you bring the spread cards together, do not square the cards around the edges. In fact: Be Messy! As you are culling the cards, don’t worry about squaring them up nicely. You actually want to have a good messy display at the end. This way, you can turn the deck over a few times and they will see all cards going in different directions. In reality, the top card is face-down, half the deck is face-up, the bottom half is face-down and two spectators hold two selections. To keep the cards in their messy shape and not squared up, just keep a tight pressure with your fingers from above and below. Now ask for the first selection to be returned. Ask the spectator if he would like to put it back faceup or face-down. If they want it face-up, just slide it anywhere in the lower half. If they want it facedown, then slide it into the upper half. Turn to the second spectator. You typically want them to put it back the opposite way, so work them into it: “And you want your card to go the other way.” Make it a statement and not a question. They’ll typically agree. It makes the effect seem more difficult. I like to slide one card in at the front end and one card at the back. Now you can turn the deck over several times. “Never-mind the mess, I know this is a bit crazy. Just remember your two cards. That’s the only thing you have to do. Keep saying them over and over in your head.”

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Square up the cards completely. I used to want to keep a break, but this is the worst time to be sneaky. Instead, square up, and then turn your attention away from the deck and onto one of the spectators. Allow your hand with the deck to naturally come down to waist level. Use the other hand to gesture towards the spectator as you ask them: “Can you please put your hand out, palmup?” At this moment, your left hand prepares for a Charlier Cut, separating the halves at their natural break. The right hand comes over and takes the top half. Using the left thumb, slip cut the top card onto the left hand’s packet and perform an action-like half-pass of the cards in your left hand, as the hands come together – just as you would in the original Triumph routine. Do this as you point out that “although the cards are all mixed up and your cards are facing opposite directions, I will try to turn one of them around, so both cards are facing the same way – without even touching the deck. Here, you hang onto it.” Now pause, and mime whatever magical action you think looks right. Snap your fingers and announce that “The two cards are now facing the same way. … But to make it easier for you to see them, I’ve straightened out every other card, except for your two selections.” The last line is delivered as you spread the cards. Oh, what a powerful moment! Afterthoughts: I hope you love this as much as I do. Think about it: The spectators just watched you shuffle a deck of cards, they see the mix again as you spread through the messy deck. But because they are focused on picking their selections, there is Absolutely NO heat on the cards as you do the cull, and now you are done with the hard work. I fell in love with this idea when I first discovered it and continue to smile each time I do this effect. Simply by changing the timing of when the cull was done, I was able to streamline the routine. If you are nervous about performing the cull right before your audience’s eyes as in the regular triumph, you don’t have a single thing to worry about with this routine because the timing is so perfect! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! ♦♣♥♠

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Four 4 Following Effect: A spectator is asked to fully shuffle a deck of cards and name any playing card – let’s say the 4 of Spades. The magician spreads through the deck and removes the named card. The spectator replaces the card anywhere they like in the deck, face-up. The spectator is asked to square up the spread, snap their fingers, and re-spread the deck. When they do so, they discover that all four-4’s have turned face-up throughout the deck. Method: Start by asking the spectator to shuffle the deck. Point out how fair this trick is going to be and that they should know that this is an impossible effect that will scare them from ever playing cards with you. Take the cards back and ask them to name any playing card. Spread the deck face-up and look for their card. As you spread, cull out the other three cards of the same value. Remember that rhythm is the key to making the cull look good, especially when culling a four of a kind. The named card will come up at any position, so you have to be ready to say something interesting to the audience either before or after you out-jog it. Note: When you being spreading the cards, tilt the cards so the faces are slightly towards you. Sometimes you’ll get lucky: the card they name will be one of the first few you see. This gives you the opportunity to cull the card right away and bring it to the bottom. As you execute the cull, bring your hands down so the spectators can see the faces of the card for a second and will not be able to see the action of the card being stolen underneath the spread. Square up the spread instantly, saying: “the card could be anywhere…you said the five of spades? (they’ll correct you.) oh, the four…my bad…let me see if I can find it…” Now just turn the deck face-down, snap your fingers and show their named card on top of the deck (or produce it via Lennart Green’s Top Shot). This, in and of itself, is going to highly impress them. If the card is not amongst the first few then continue spreading the cards, culling the three other fours. Now is a good time to kill time by asking the spectator exactly why they named the card they did. Once you spot the named card, outjog it. Continue spreading if you need to cull more cards, pointing out that their card is the only one in the deck and they could have named any other card. Ask the spectator to take their card from their spread. As you close the spread, in-jog the very bottom card of the deck. When the spread is closed and the three matching cards are on the bottom, the in-jogged card will allow you to instantly get a break above those three cards. Action Over-Hand Shuffle Turnover-Cover: Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It’s actually quite beautifully simple. You’re going to keep the three bottom cards face-up while turning over the rest of the deck in the action of an overhand shuffle. Hold the deck in the left hand with a pinky break above the three bottom cards. Bring the right hand over and take the deck from above with thumb at the back and fingers at the front, gripping the cards at the left side of the deck. Your right hand will pick up all the cards above the break and turn slightly palm-up. The right edge of the deck will scrape against the face of the face-up cards as it

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

turns. You want to keep this turnover tight, to cover any flashing. As soon as the right hand is palmup and the deck is face-down, the left thumb will instantly pull down on the top card and begin an over-hand shuffle. The overhand shuffle will cover up the three face-up cards that are held in the left hand. Finish the overhand shuffle and you’ve got the three mates face-up on the bottom of the face-down deck. Reloading the Cards back into the spread: You’re now going to spread the cards from hand to hand. As you do, you’ll load the three bottom cards into three separate parts of the deck. It helps if you bevel the deck slightly to the right. As you begin the spread, your right fingers will contact the bottom card of the deck and put slight upwards pressure. It is very important that your left hand holds the spread in straddle grip to ensure the cards being taken from the bottom do not flash. The bottom card will slide underneath the spread all the way to the right. You will then be able to reload it back into the deck, somewhere near the top. This is something akin to a reverse cull. Now, just repeat the same action two more times, loading the other two face-up cards in different positions. The entire action should take you about five seconds. The spectator should believe that you are just spreading the deck as you ask them to replace their card. They will usually start to put it back in face-down. Stop them and ask them do it face-up. Doing so will kill more time and allow you to execute the loading procedure at a pace that makes you feel more comfortable. The last thing you want to do right now is alert the spectator that you may be doing something sneaky. The three matching value cards are now loaded into the deck and the named card is sticking out at the front. You can now either square up the spread or lay it out on the table as is. If you didn’t square up the spread as you loaded the cards, the three cards you inserted into the deck will be rightjogged for almost half their length. This allows you to spread the cards on the table and the three face-up cards will be hidden by the spread. This is one of my favorite moves in all of card magic: the Charles Nyquist “Ribbon-Spread Hide-Out” found in THE RIBBONSPREAD REVERSE by Charles W. Nyquist – in Hugard's Magic Monthly - Vol. 06 - Jean Hugard (Jun, 1948) pg.450A. Cleanly close-up the spread and set the deck onto the table. Build up the climax, explain to the spectator that the four of spades has three other friends inside the deck. Remind them that they shuffled, they took out the card, and nothing was changed about the cards or anything tricky done. With a snap of the fingers, however, the three friends instantly join the named card. Voila! This is a stunning and powerful effect that will establish your reputation as a solid cardician – whether performing for fellow magicians or for a paying crowd.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

And If All Goes Wrong As soon as I realized that the cards can be culled while a card is being selected (as in the “NewTime Triumph”), I also reasoned that the cards can be culled while cards are being returned to the deck. In this case, three or four cards are a good number to have selected, as it will give you time to go through the whole deck and cull the necessary cards. I typically perform this routine as a follow up to the previous routine: “Any Card Named For,” since you’re left with a four-of-a-kind on the table. You’ll have a little more heat on you in this routine because the spectators are watching the deck much closer when they are returning the cards, so be very careful about not flashing the cull. At the same time, executing the cull will be easier because the audience’s focus will be elsewhere. Effect: A four of a kind is taken out (or four cards are selected). The deck is shuffled face-up into face-down. The deck is spread and the spectators are asked to return their cards wherever they want, face-up or face-down. The magician squares up the cards and in a heartbeat, spreads the cards out: all the cards are facing one way, except for the four-of-a-kind! Method: Shuffle the cards face-up into face-down. In one of the performances on the Cull DVD, I secretly pre-shuffled the deck so it was already mixed up. Then, as I began the performance, I dropped the cards ‘accidentally’ on the floor. As I picked up sections of the cards off of the floor, I would give them to each person to shuffle. I then had them pick one card each out of their packets and I took back the rest of the deck. … Whichever way you start, once the cards are selected and the deck is in your hand, cut the deck so the top card is face-down. Leaving that top card where it is, begin culling all the face-down cards out of the spread. Time the spreading so you can go through a quarter of the deck with each spectator. Turn to the first spectator and ask them if they would like to replace their card face-up or facedown. If a selection is replaced face-down, let the spectator slide it into the spread anywhere, and even leave it sticking out a bit to the left. This is a great convincer that the cards are facing all different directions. If a card is replaced face-up, just cull it out so it will go along with all the facedown cards. Make sure that to the spectator it looks like their card just got closed-up in the spread and not “mysteriously sucked in” the moment they replaced it. Rhythm is key to this routine. The spectators are watching close. The messy state of the deck helps to cover up the cull. The spectators don’t pay attention to the rest of the deck, however, only their selections. Just don’t flash when you cull their face-up selections and you’ve got a miracle on your hand.

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

Finish like you have before: by slipping off the top face-down card onto the bottom half and performing the half-pass of the lower half of the deck. While in the other triumph-effects there is a lot of action that can cover the half-pass if it’s done openly, as a grand gesture, I feel that this routine benefits from a slow and steady finish, so try to make the half-pass action as hidden as possible. … Oh, and enjoy the thunderous applause…or stunned silence – whichever they decide to reward you with. ♦♣♥♠

Mastering the Cull – DVD Companion EBook – © 2007 Kostya Kimlat

“If you engage yourself with the information presented on this DVD, then you’re about to become a better magician.” -Michael Ammar

“Kostya is an exciting cardmaster who has been making a national impact on the art of close-up magic.” -The Magic Castle

After years of teaching the Cull to magicians in lectures and workshops throughout the US, England, Europe and Japan, Kostya is finally releasing all of the work on this incredible and long-awaited DVD. Whether you’re new to culling or have been trying to master this versatile technique for years - this DVD is the ultimate guide to improve your technique and transform your magic. With your ability to cull cards, you will have the ultimate card weapon in your hands, ensuring the success of every performance!

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