Scott Guinn - Magishing My Way

Magishing My Way Conjuring Routines for the Performing Prestidigitator Developed and Explained by

Scott F. Guinn

©Copyright 2001 by Scott F. Guinn All rights reserved, including manufacturing of original items for resale. Performance rights are granted to the purchaser. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical now known or to be invented, without express permission in writing. Layout, cover and book design by Scott F. Guinn

Scott F. Guinn

Page 3

First Word

W

ell, here we are again! I thought that Officiously Yours would be my last book, at least for a while, but it turns out I had some more (and I think very good) material left in me. It’s almost as if I’m just not happy unless I’m working on a book! If you’ve read my previous works, you already know my philosophies and thinking to a large degree, and the routines in this latest tome will reflect those ideologies. If, on the other hand, this is your first exposure to my magic, I think a brief overview of my style and opinions on the performance of magic are in order. This will help you to better understand the magic you are about to read. First and foremost, I am a performer. I perform magic for a living in front of real people who pay me to entertain them. I structure my routines to that end. They are not designed to “fool the guys” at the next magic club meeting (although some may well do that), and I don’t spend time trying to figure out every possible way to accomplish a sleight or effect. Rather, I try to find the best way to perform the effect for the venue in which I intend to use it. If it is impromptu or easily reset, that is a bonus if the effect is to be done in strolling or restaurant work, but I am not above doing tricks that are a little labor intensive or difficult to reset if these effects have an extremely powerful affect on the audience. I also think you should know up front that my work is largely based on the work of others who have gone before me. Occasionally I come up with something that no one has seen before, but (and there are many “name” magicians who will back me up on this) my real strength lies in my ability to spot a weak point in an existing effect, or in routining or combining effects, and making the effects new and stronger. If you are looking for a cutting edge new sleight, you’re not likely to find it in the writings of Scott F. Guinn (with the notable exception, if I may be so bold to say so, of the Guinn Utility Backslip, described in detail in my book, Great Scott! It’s Card Magic!). What you will find are effects that play in the real world for real, paying clients. Routines that are tested in the fire of performance before I bring them to you. Tricks that I actually use in my professional repertoire. As such, they are of great value to me. If you take the time to learn them and adapt them to fit you, I believe you will find them to be of great value as well. I truly believe the effects and routines in this book are some of my best, and that they will garner a response that will be everything you could have hoped for if you learn them well and perform them properly. I hope you will find at least a few that will cause you to agree with me. And I hope your audiences like them (and you) so much that they will beg you to perform for them again in the future. I also put a lot of thought into the layout. All the photos are on the same page as the text that refers to them. The photos are on the inside of facing pages, making it easier to scan them after you have familiarized yourself with the routine. I think it makes learning the routines easier. I hope you’ll agree. As always, you have my best wishes for your success. Scott F. Guinn

Table of Contents First Word

3

Section One: Pasteboard Prestidigitation

5

Chapter One: Plain Pack-ages

7

Hi-ways and Bi-ways

9

Direct Decision

16

A-Jacks Transposition

20

What the Devil?

26

Lumberjack Stew

31

Chapter Two: A Little Something Extra

37

Coeur d’Alene Assembly

39

Ransomed Back

47

Universal Appeal

51

Face-Off

54

The “X” on Val Dees

58

Dearly Departed

64

Chapter Three: Worth the Trouble

67

Mr. Collins’ Opus

69

McCall of the Wild

72

The Legend of Scott Star, Trader Vic and “Slick Jack” Spade

77

Chapter Four: Double Time

83

Tri-Optical Illusion

85

Brundle-Fly Transposition

88

Section Two: Cunning Chicanery

91

Chapter Five: A Familiar Ring

93

Stick Around

95

Wedded Bliss

101

You Bet Your Ring

104

Jellis

108

Chapter Six: Just Kid-ding

115

Plumber’s Bottle

117

Million Dollar Chocolate

118

Bonus Routine: Bernard Sims’ “Really Linked!”

121

Last Word

127

Index of Sleights

128

Part One Pasteboard Prestidigitation

Chapter One: Plain Pack-ages The routines in this first chapter require no special cards or extra props— just a pack of cards. These are “anytime, anywhere, any deck (within reason)” effects: • •

Hi-ways & Bi-ways • Direct Decision A-Jacks Transposition • What the Devil? • Lumberjack Stew

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Hi-Ways & Bi-Ways

M

y good friend and mentor, Aldo Colombini, considers J.K. Hartman’s Card Craft to be the single greatest volume of card magic ever published. After having finally obtained a copy of this nearly impossible to get tome, I can see why. Mr. Hartman filled the volume to overflowing with simply superb effects. In going through the book (quite a chore, at over 600 pages!), several items in particular caught my attention. One of them is an elevator effect called “BiWay.” However, like some “Wild Card” and “Oil and Water” routines, I felt that the trick needed an ending. The body of this routine is the Hartman effect with some of my handling changes, to which I added a couple of kickers. Effect: From a shuffled deck, you remove three nines and the AS, which you place face up on the table. After giving the deck a few more shuffles, an audience member is allowed to select a card from anywhere in the deck—she is even given an opportunity to change her mind and take a different card. The card she finally settles on is set aside, face down; no one knows what this card is. You table the deck and take the AS and the nines. You put the ace face down on top of the face down packet and then “push the button” on the back of the ace. You show that the ace is now second from the top. You square the packet and push the button again. The ace is now third from the top. This is repeated, and the ace is shown to have moved to the face of the packet. Now the ace inexplicably makes it way back up the packet, one position at a time. After it moves to second from the top, you turn over the top card to show a nine. You then turn the nine face down, set the packet on the table, and ask your audience assistant to push the button. When she turns over the top card, she sees it is the ace! You draw her attention to the card she selected earlier, which has been sitting face down to one side the entire time. Reminding her that she could have chosen any card in the deck, and that you even gave her the opportunity to change her mind, you ask her to turn the card face up. It is the fourth nine! Finally, you explain that the AS is the magic card. That’s why it was able to move up and down amongst the nines. You drop the nines face down on the table and ask her to wave the ace over them. When she turns them face up, she finds that they have changed into the 10S, JS, QS and KS, forming the rest of a Royal Flush! Requirements and preparation: To perform this routine, a slight setup is required. Remove the nine through king of spades from the deck. Put a down crimp on the inner right corner of the top card of the deck. Place the cards you removed face down on top of the face down deck, in order from the top: 9S, 10S, JS, QS, KS. Method and performance: With the setup atop the deck, either do a couple of jog shuffles, or a few riffle shuffles, leaving the top five cards on top. Do a false cut or two. Now openly spread through the deck, face up, and remove the other three nines and the ace of spades. Toss them face up onto the table, with the AS at the face. Turn the deck face down and do another false shuffle or two, followed by a couple of false cuts. Ask Gertrude to select a card, and give her an opportunity to change her mind (as you are executing the Slip Force—see page 66). Place the 9S face down on the table to your right, without

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Magishing My Way

letting anyone see the face. Explain that this card will remain unknown until the end of your experiment. Further comment that you want everyone to remember that Gert could have chosen any of the cards in the deck, and you even gave her the opportunity to change her mind. As you say this, spread the face down deck between your hands and then square it. Table the deck to the left of the selection. Collect the face up packet and spread it to fairly show the faces of the four cards as in photo 1.

Photo 1

Square the packet, holding it in right Biddle Grip. The steps explained below will make the ace seem to move from the top of the packet to the bottom and back up again, one position at a time. Reverse count the packet, taking the ace into the left hand as in photo 2. Photo 2

Steal the ace back as you take the first nine, ostensibly on top of the ace, as in photo 3, where the ace is exposed for explanation purposes. In performance, it would be flush with the nines.

Take the second nine on top of the first, and drop the double in your right hand on top.

Photo 3

The cards are now in the order shown in photo 4, but the audience believes the ace is at the back of the packet. Turn the packet face down into left dealers grip and spread it.

Photo 4

As you close the spread, get a break above the bottom card, as in photo 5.

Photo 5

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Do a triple turnover to show the ace on top. (photo 6) Turn the triple face down, holding a left pinky break under it. Push “the button” on the back of the card. Photo 6

To show the ace has moved to second from the top, do the first move of the Gemini Count as follows. Angle-jog the top card. Because you’re holding a break above the bottom card, this leaves a double with its right edge exposed. Refer to photo 7.

Photo 7

Grasp the double with your right fingertips and turn it face up onto the packet, catching a break under it (photo 8).

Photo 8

Lift the double in the palm down right hand. Push the top card in the left hand to the right with your thumb as in photo 9, and turn the right hand palm up and replace the double under the top card. Square the packet.

Photo 9

Push the button again. Spread the packet, fairly and slowly outjogging the third card, as shown in photo 10. Remove this card with your right hand and turn it face up onto the packet to show the ace has traveled to third position from the top. Turn the ace face down and apparently replace it to third from the top by doing the first three moves of the Elmsley Count, as follows. Photo 10

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Magishing My Way

Hold the packet at the right edge with the palm up right hand. First, take the ace into left hand dealers grip. Second, push over two cards with the right thumb as the left moves back to take the next card. Refer to photo 11. But instead of taking one card on top of the ace, the left leaves the ace at the bottom of the packet and takes the top two cards from the right hand. Photo 11

As the left hand moves away, spread its cards slightly, and spread the top card in the right hand with the right thumb (photo 12). Each hand clearly holds two cards and everything looks as it should.

Photo 12

On the third count, come back and fairly take the top card from the right hand onto the left hand cards. Spread these three cards, as shown in photo 13.

Photo 13

Drop the three-card spread onto the right-hand card as in photo 14. Square the packet in left dealers grip.

Photo 14

Push the button. Take the packet in right Biddle grip and turn your right hand palm up so the ace can be seen at the face. See photo 15.

Photo 15

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Turn the packet face down and place it in left dealers grip. Push the button. Do a pinky pull-down (or buckle) to separate the face card from the packet. See photo 16. Extend your right forefinger and insert it into the gap (seemingly onto the face of the packet). Again, refer to photo 16.

Photo 16

Slide out the third card, which the audience believes to be the face card. Turn it face up to show a nine (photo 17).

Photo 17

Turn the left hand palm down to show the ace at the face of its three cards. Replace the nine at the face of the packet and, as shown in photo 18, spread the four cards and hold them so that they face the audience. Allow everyone to clearly see that the ace is third from the top. Lower your hands and square the packet into left dealers grip, getting a pinky break above the bottom card.

Photo 18

Push the button and do the first part of the Gemini count, as in step two. (Refer to photo 19.) Push the top card to the right as in the photo. The right hand takes the exposed edges of the two center cards and removes them as one card. Turn the double face up on top of the packet, displaying the ace.

Photo 19

Turn the double face down on the packet. Remove the top card with your right hand and spread the remaining three cards in your right hand. Replace the right-hand card below the top card in the left hand (photo 20—you’re apparently replacing the ace at the second position), holding a pinky break below it as you square the packet. Photo 20

Do a double turnover to show the ace is not on top and

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Magishing My Way

display a nine as in photo 21. Turn the double face down and set the packet face down on the table. Ask Gert to push the button and then let her turn over the top card to reveal the ace. Pick up the deck with your right hand and place it into left dealers grip, getting a break below the angle-jogged cards. Slide the three nines from below the ace and turn them face up onto the deck. Remind Gert that she had a free selection of a card earlier, and ask her to turn over the face down selection that has been in full view the entire time. She does, to reveal that of all the cards in the deck, she chose the only remaining nine! Place the fourth nine onto the three on the deck and spread them. This position is shown in photo 22.

Photo 21

Photo 22

Ask Gert to pick up the AS from the table. As she does, switch the four nines for the four cards above the break, using a multiple top change or any other switch you know. (I use my Spread Turnover Switch , explained on page 63 of this book. Photo 23 shows it as the cards are being switched.)

Drop the four cards face down on the table. Remark that the ace is the magic card; that’s why it was able to move around among the nines. Ask Gert to wave the ace over the nines, and then let her turn them over to find they have changed into the 10S, JS, QS and KS—a royal flush! (photo 24)

If you want to end a little cleaner, do a pass or quietly cut the deck to bury the nines, in case someone wants to look at the top few or bottom few cards of the deck. I don’t feel this is necessary, but do it if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Learning the sequence of this routine will probably prove more difficult than learning the actual moves. It is important to the successful presentation of the effect that you are able to carry out the entire

Photo 23

Photo 24

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sequence smoothly, flowing from one phase to the next without having to stop to think of what comes next. When you get to the point where you can do that comfortably, you will have a strong routine that is almost certainly unlike anything your audience has ever seen.

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Magishing My Way

Direct Decision

O

f all the “Spectator Cuts to the Aces” routines I’ve seen, my favorite is John Bannon’s “Directed Verdict.” There was a weak spot, in my opinion, with the last ace, unless you can do a perfect bottom deal under fire (I can’t!). So I used a displacement move of Dean Dill’s for the last ace, and also added a few handling finesses. I think you’ll find the result to be a real audience-pleaser!

Effect: A spectator shuffles the deck thoroughly. You spread through the face up deck to show that the aces are lost and separated in the deck. You then turn the deck face down and shuffle it again. The spectator cuts the deck into four approximately equal piles. He turns the top card of each pile face up to reveal the four aces!

Method and performance: Give the deck to Chris to shuffle. When he is done, take the deck, turn it face up and spread through it, outjogging the aces as you come to them., as in photo 1.

Photo 1

Square the deck, leaving the aces jogged as shown in photo 2.

Photo 2

Immediately do Marlo’s Simple Multiple Shift: extend your left forefinger to the outer end of the outjogged aces. Tilt the deck forward, allowing the cards above the first ace to slide down to your forefinger. See photo 3.

Photo 3

Scott F. Guinn

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Grip the sides of all the injogged cards between the thumb and middle finger of your palm down right hand. Squeeze the sides of the outjogged cards between the thumb and middle finger of your palm up left hand as the right hand strips out the injogged cards (photo 4) and immediately Hindu shuffles them onto the left-hand cards. This brings the aces to the back of the face up deck.

Photo 4

Immediately turn the deck face down and carry out the following overhand shuffle sequence. Take one card, then a block of about twelve or thirteen, injog one and shuffle off. Take the deck back into the right hand for another shuffle, getting a thumb break under the jogged card. Overhand shuffle again, this time taking the top and bottom cards on the first chop in “milkbuild” fashion as in photo 5. Shuffle to the break, run one card singly, injog the next card and then throw the balance on top.

Photo 5

Photo 6

Square the deck with your palm down right hand, getting a right thumb break above the injogged card. Lift up on the cards above the break and take the next card as well, holding a thumb break between it and the rest of the packet (see photo 6) as you take the packet into right Biddle grip. Extend the rest of the deck in your left hand to Chris, asking him to cut off a packet of cards approximately equal to the packet in your right hand. When he has done this, gesture toward the center of your working surface with your right hand, telling Chris to set his cards down there.

As he complies, bring the right-hand packet back over the left-hand packet for just a moment and drop the card below the right thumb break onto the left-hand cards, as shown in photo 7.

Photo 7

Extend your left hand again so that Chris can cut off a second

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Magishing My Way

packet, which you instruct him to place next to the first one. Drop the cards in your right hand onto those in your left and set the combined packet on the table on your side of the two cut-off packets as shown in photo 8.

Photo 8

Ask Chris to cut off about half of the remaining cards and place them at the end of the row to his left (photo 9). There is an ace atop each of the three packets in the row. The fourth ace is on the bottom of the remaining packet. We are going to get that ace to the top of the packet with Dean Dill’s Displacement.

Photo 9

Slide the packet back toward you to pick it up. As you do, simply leave the bottom card on the table, as if by mistake, as displayed in photo 10. Pretend to “notice” this card, pick it up and set it on top of the packet and place the packet to the end of the row at your left. This very simple and seemingly innocent ploy is absolutely deceptive, particularly if you handle it in an offhand manner, paying no attention to it.

You need a bit of time misdirection, so take a moment to review what has happened so far, emphasizing that Chris shuffled the deck and made the cuts himself. Gesture at the packet on your far right and ask him to turn over the top card. He will be surprised to see the ace. Point to the next packet in line and tell him to turn over its top card. Repeat with the two remaining packets, revealing an ace on top of each packet as in photo 11.

Photo 10

Photo 11

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By handling the displacement casually, taking time to review the actions that had taken place, and making the packet with the displaced card the last one he touched, you will have totally disarmed Chris and he will have forgotten all about that displaced card (assuming he noticed it at all in the first place!). Rather, he will be quite taken aback that he somehow managed to cut to all four aces! Let him continue to think that, and you will have done your job and made a powerful impact on the audience. Despite the displacement, multiple shift and jog shuffles, this seems to be a “moveless” effect to the audience. It is nearly impossible to backtrack or explain. That’s my kind of card magic!

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Magishing My Way

A-Jacks Transposition

I

n 1978, Karl Fulves published an excellent book entitled, Transpo Trix. The final trick in this manuscript is an unsolved card problem that Mr. Fulves called “Snark Hunt.”

Effect: Here is the effect in Mr. Fulves own words: “This is my idea of an ultimate version of the thought-card transposition. You start with a packet of aces and a packet of jacks. One jack is named and one ace is named. The ace packet is picked up. The named ace magically turns face up, but also, it is the only ace in the packet; the other three cards are jacks. It follows that the named jack is found face up in the other packet, and it is the only jack in the packet; the other three cards are aces. Obviously, the trick must contain some sort of constraint to make the pursuit of a method interesting, and here it would be that the cards must be ordinary.” My solution, which meets the “no-gaff” criterion and also happens to be pretty easy to do, has met with a more than satisfactory response from those for whom I have performed it, both layman and magician. I believe it to be a strong and commercial effect that would compliment almost anyone’s repertoire.

Requirements and preparation: You require nothing but the four aces and four jacks from any deck. Arrange them in the following order, from the top of the face down packet: JH, JD, JC, JS, AH, AD, AC, AS. Photo 1 shows the setup.

Method and performance: Square the packet into face down left dealers grip, and you are ready to begin. Your right hand takes the top card (JH) and displays its face to the audience. As you bring the card back toward the packet, push over the JD with your left thumb. Take this card with your right hand, holding it spread on the face of the JH, and expose both cards to the spectators. The audience view at this point is shown in photo 2. Take the JC in the same way and display the three-card fan to your onlookers.

Photo 1

Photo 2

When you take the JS onto the face of the spread, take it almost square with the JC. See photo 3 for clarification.

Photo 3

Scott F. Guinn

Photo 4

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Take the first ace onto the face of the jacks, letting it completely cover the two black jacks, and inserting your right pinky between it and the jacks at the bottom. Display the spread. The AD is taken almost square on the AH, and the two black aces are taken one at a time, widely spread at the face. Of course, each time you take a card, you raise the spread to show it to the spectators. See photo 4.

As you lower the spread to face the floor, the right pinky and ring finger curl in slightly, pulling the red aces to the right (photo 5, bottom view).

Photo 5

Simultaneously, the left thumb clamps down on the left side of the black jacks (photo 6, top view), and the hands separate. You now hold the red cards in your right hand (from the top: JH, JD, AH, AD) and the black ones in your left (JC, JS, AC, AS). The audience believes you’re holding the aces in your left hand and the jacks in your right.

Photo 6

Photo 7

Table the packets face down. Explain that you are going to attempt to make a selected ace and a selected jack magically reveal themselves and change places with each other. Ask Clarence to name any ace. Suppose he says the AC. Address Edna, “Since Clarence named a black ace, would you please name a red jack?” Assume she chose the JH. (I’ll explain what to do if other cards are named later.) Pick up the left packet and reverse count it as you remark that it contains the four aces. Spread the packet, taking the top two cards in the right hand, as you further comment that there are two red aces and two black aces. Replace the right pair under the left and immediately spread as you state that you gave Clarence his choice of any one of the four aces. As you close the spread, half pass the bottom card (reverse it on the face of the deck—see photo 7) and then immediately do a Jordan Count (showing four face down cards), saying that the one ace he chose was the AC. Table the packet to your left.

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Pick up the packet on the right and reverse count it, saying that there are also four jacks. Immediately spread it, reviewing that you asked Edna to choose one of the red jacks and that she chose hearts. Close the spread, executing a half pass with the JH as you do. State that you promised you would make the cards magically reveal themselves. Immediately carry out an Elmsley Count, outjogging the face up JH, as in photo 8. Spread the packet slightly and drop it on the table.

Magishing My Way

Photo 8

Take the left packet in left dealers grip. Ask Clarence to name the ace he chose again. When he says the ace of clubs, reverse count the first two cards into your left hand (as in a dealers grip Elmsley Count) and then spread the two remaining in the right, as shown in photo 9. Thumb the face up AC onto the table and replace the left hand’s cards onto the one in the right hand. Pick up the right packet in the right hand, and use the back of the left fingers to hold the front edge of the JH on the table as the right hand pulls away (photo 10). The selected cards are face up on the table, and each hand holds a face down three-card spread. As you say that you always keep your promises, bring your hands together and apart in a gesture. This is no idle gesture, though. In the course of this motion, you perform a switch by Dai Vernon, similar to the move at the beginning of this routine that separated the colors.

Photo 9

Photo 10

As the hands come together, the left thumb contacts the back of the bottom card of the right spread, as shown in photo 11.

Photo 11

The right fingers contact the face of the top card of the left spread. See photo 12

Photo 12

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As the hands separate, these two cards are switched (photo 13). Do this as you speak and without looking at your hands, and it will be completely unnoticed.

Photo 13

Photo 14

Drop the right packet behind the JH and the left behind the AC. Sometimes, someone will remark that you also said you were going to make them change places. If they do, terrific! Respond, “What? I don’t remember saying that—I never said that, did I?” Thinking that they now have you in a bind, the audience will insist that is, in fact, exactly what you said. Sometimes, they will have forgotten that you said anything about the cards changing places. In that case, you pretend to remember it yourself. “Wait a second! I said they would magically reveal themselves and change places!” Regardless of who brings up the unfulfilled portion of the stated mission, continue, “As I said a moment ago, I always keep my promises!” Wave your hands over the face down packets and then turn them face up to reveal that the three cards with the AC are jacks and the three with the JH are aces! This final display is shown in photo 14.

Notes Obviously, you have to adjust the procedure to the chosen cards. If a red ace is chosen, you ask the second spectator to name a black jack. Move the chosen cards to the bottom, keeping their mates next to them, and proceed exactly as above. But in this case, the face up cards will appear in the opposite packets, so you don't have to go through the schtick of making them trade places at the end. Regardless of which cards are named, always start with the packet on the left, control the selection to the bottom with its mate directly above it, half pass it and do a Jordan Count before tabling it. Pick up the right packet; control the selection to the bottom (the mate second from bottom), half pass, and Elmsley Count. A few examples may help clarify further. • • • •

AS & JH: Spread the left packet, half pass face card as spread is closed, Jordan Count and table. JH is explained above. AC & JD: AC is explained above. JD--Spread right packet, take top two in right hand, and bottom two in left. Replace R.H. cards under L.H. Spread, half pass, Elmsley. JC & AH: Reverse count left packet, spread, half pass, Jordan and table. Do the same with the right packet, only Elmsley instead of Jordan. JS & AD: Spread right packet, taking top two in R.H. and replacing to bottom, spread half pass, Jordan, table. With right packet, simply spread, half pass and Elmsley.

The above gives you all the information for every possible combination--just refer to the specific card, remembering the blacks are in the left packet, reds in right. Also, after the red card is revealed with the Elmsley Count, always drop the spread, pick up the left packet and then reverse count the first two and spread the bottom two. When you drop the right hand pair onto the left card after thumbing off the chosen black card, the packet is set for the Vernon Switch.

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The Jordan Count Named after its creator, this is a false count that shows four cards as four, but hides one while showing one twice. Confused? Read on. In a Jordan Count, the original bottom card is the one that is never seen. Assume you have the four jacks and the JS is face up at the bottom (photo 15). Photo 15

Hold the packet squared in left dealers grip and grip the right long edge between the tips of the thumb and first two fingers of the palm up right hand, as shown in photo 16.

Photo 16

Remove the top card with your left hand, which then moves forward and to the left, allowing the card to drop onto the palm (photo 17).

Photo 17

Bring your left hand back to the packet to take the next card off the top of the packet. The card on the left palm goes under the right packet during this action. The left hand then moves forward and to the left with both of its cards. Refer to photo 18. It is as the third card is taken that the switch takes place. Bring the left hand back to the right packet. Both of the left-hand cards go under those in the right hand, and the left thumb stretches across the packet as if to pull the top card off onto the two left-hand cards. Actually, as soon as the left-hand cards are flush with the right-hand cards, the right fingertips curl in, slightly side-jogging the bottom card to the right, and the left hand moves away with the top three cards (photo 19). This action appears identical to the taking of the first two cards—it seems that you are simply reversing the order of the cards as you count them into the left hand.

Photo 18

Photo 19

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Finally, take the remaining card from the right hand on top of the left-hand packet. The end result of this count is that the card which was originally face up at the bottom was never seen and the original top card is shown twice—but it seems as if you fairly showed the backs of all four cards. The face up card ends up second from the face (photo 20). Photo 20

The Elmsley Count This false count was originally called the Ghost Count, but it has come to be more commonly named after its inventor, the great British magician, Alex Elmsley. It is also a “four-as-four” count, and is very similar to the Jordan Count. In fact, a happy coincidence is that the Jordan Count sets you up for the Elmsley count, and vice versa. To start, then, the cards are in the order shown in photo 20. Grip the packet with both hands as in photo 16 and take the top card away with the left hand as in photo 17. As the left hand returns to the packet, curl the right fingers inward, side-jogging the bottom card of the right-hand packet as shown in photo 21.

Photo 21

As with the Jordan Count, the card in the left hand goes under the right-hand packet to facilitate the left thumb stretching across the top card of the packet. However, unlike the Jordan Count, in the Elmsley count, the secret switch happens, now, on the second card counted. The left-hand card goes under the right fingertips, which hold it in place, and the left hand moves away with the top two cards (easy, due to the jog). See photo 22. Each hand holds two cards, which is exactly what they would be holding if no switch had taken place.

Photo 22

The left hand returns to the right, taking the top card from the right hand onto its cards. Finally, take the last card from the right hand on top of the left packet. The end result is that the cards are back to the order shown in photo 23, in position for the Jordan Count, if required. Just as in the Jordan count, the Elmsley Count hides one card (the third from the top), showing the top card twice while apparently showing all four fairly.

Photo 23

Notes: There are two very common variations of the Elmsley Count: 1) Underground Elmsley - here you simply take the last card on the bottom of the packet instead of the top. 2) Sometimes, instead of counting the last two cards singly, you simply spread them and then either drop them onto the left-hand cards, or drop the left-hand cards on top.

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What the Devil?

D

evilish Miracle” is a classic effect created by Ed Marlo. Quite a few versions have popped up over the years—it’s a great trick, and different cardmen have come up with intricate methods and expanded phases. I decided to go the other way. I have streamlined the handling, putting this effect within the reach of just about anyone, and I feel I have also made the effect more direct. If you are looking for a strong, impromptu card effect that is magical and hardhitting, you could do a lot worse than this one! Effect: Ken and Twila each select a card and memorize it. These cards are replaced in the deck and the deck is shuffled and cut. You spread over the top five cards of the deck and remark, “Would you be impressed if both of your cards were among these top five?” They respond that they would be, indeed. “I’ll show you these five cards one at a time. Let me show you all five and don’t tell me if you see your cards until I ask you.” You show the faces of the five cards, one at a time, setting each card on the table after you show it. After the fifth card is tabled, you ask, “Did you see your cards?” Ken admits that he did, but Twila states that she did not. “Really?” you ask. “What if I had gone one more card?” You show Twila the next card in the deck, but that one is not her selection either, so you bury it and set the deck aside. Commenting that since you got Ken’s card at least, you say you’ll do some magic with it. You pick up the tabled packet and spread it face down, showing five cards. Then you snap your fingers and count the packet again, but this time there are only four cards. “Ken, your card has disappeared!” You show the four cards front and back, and ask Ken if his selection is still among them. He confesses that it is not. You admit that the card hasn’t actually vanished; it just turned invisible. You pick up the invisible card, turn it face up and insert it in the center of the face down deck. You spread the deck across the table. There in the center of the face down deck is one face up card! Only, it’s not Ken’s—it’s Twila’s! You ask Ken to tell you what his card was. You remove Twila’s card and turn the spread face up, searching for Ken’s card. It isn’t in the deck. “Sometimes,” you say, “they run back to their friends!” You spread the face down packet. Ken’s card is face up at the center! Method and performance: Shuffle the deck a couple of times and then spread it and let Ken and Twila each remove a card, asking them to memorize their cards and to be careful not to let you see them. We’ll say that Ken took the AD and Twila the 2S. Overhand shuffle about half of the deck into your left hand and extend it toward Twila, asking her to place her card on top. Overhand shuffle the rest of the deck onto this packet, running the first two cards singly, injogging the third, and then shuffling off. Square the deck, getting a left pinky break below the jogged card (photo 1, grossly exaggerated). Ask Ken to take one last look at his card to be sure he remembers it. Then cut off the cards above the break with your right hand. Extend your left hand and have Ken place his card atop the packet. Overhand shuffle the right-hand cards on top by running four singly, injogging the fifth, and shuffling off. Square up, catching a pinky

Photo 1

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break under the jogged card. Cut off all the cards above the break, tabling them and then place the remainder of the deck on the tabled portion. Spread the top five cards and ask if they’d be impressed if both selections were among these five cards. Explain that you will show them each of these cards individually. They are not to tell you what their cards are, or to give you any hint when or if they see them, until after you have shown all five. Then they should only tell you whether their cards were among the five you showed them. Square the spread, getting a left pinky break below the fifth card. Turn the top card face up on the deck, display it and then turn it face down and deal it onto the table. Repeat with the second card. The third time, do a triple turnover (easy due to the break), which will show the AD (Ken’s card – photo 2). Catch a break under the triple when you turn it over, to facilitate turning it back face down after you display it. Photo 2

Turn the triple face down and then deal the top card onto the first two on the table. Turn the next card face up on the deck and display it. When you are ready to turn it face down, push the face up card to the right over with the left thumb, making sure to push the next two cards over as well (photo 3). Flip the card face down and deal it onto the tabled packet as your left hand gets a break under the top two cards of the deck (which is why you pushed them over!). Photo 3

Turn over the double and display the indifferent card (photo 4). Flip the double face down.

Photo 4

Deal the top card (Ken’s AD) onto the packet. As you push this card over to deal it, again push the next two as well and get a break under them as you square the deck.

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Ask Ken and Twila if the cards they chose were among the five you just showed them. Ken will say yes, Twila, no. Ask Twila, “What if I had gone one card further?” Double turnover the cards above the break onto the deck, showing an indifferent card (photo 5). Twila states that this card is not hers either. Photo 5

Bring your right hand over the deck in Biddle position. Pick up the face up double as well as the first face down card below the double (this is Twila’s selection!), and hold the triple as one in right Biddle grip. The right fingers cover the far end of the triple to hide the thickness. Refer to photo 6. Photo 6

Turn the left hand palm down, which turns the deck face up, and riffle to the center with the left thumb, holding a break (photo 7). Insert the triple as it is into the break and shove it flush into the deck. You have just secretly reversed Twila’s card at the center of the deck! Set the deck face down on the table. “Well, at least I have one card to work with—let’s see if I can do some magic with it!” Pick up the five-card packet and spread it face down to show all five cards. Tell Ken you will attempt to make his card disappear. Snap your fingers and do a buckle count (without reversing the order of the cards) to show only four cards, as follows. Push over the first card normally with your left thumb and take it in your right hand. Do the same with the second card and take it under the first card in the right hand. As the right hand comes back to the left to take the third card, the left forefinger tip contacts the outer right corner of the face card and squeezes inward, causing the near end of the bottom card to buckle as shown in photo 8. The right fingers go into the break and take the cards above it, as one card, under the other cards in the right hand. The right hand then moves away to the right as it did with the first two cards. Finally, take the last card under the packet.

Photo 7

Photo 8

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Get a right thumb break under the top card as you square the packet and take it in right Biddle grip. You are going to secretly reverse the selection in the center of the packet while apparently showing it only contains four cards, by doing a modified, smallpacket version of the Braue Reversal. Photo 9

Bring your palm up left hand under the packet and slide off the face card, revolving it face up on top of the packet (photos 9 & 10).

Repeat with the next card. Photo 10

Now remove the two cards below the break in your left hand, turn them face up and spread them, displaying two indifferent cards, as in photo 11. Replace the two cards face up at the bottom of the packet and square the packet. Ken’s selection is now face down at the center of the face up packet. Photo 11

Photo 12

Do Bro. Hamman’s version of the Ascanio Spread. To wit: Hold the packet face up in right Biddle Grip. The thumb is at the inner right corner and the ring finger at the outer right corner of the packet. Bring the extended left fingers under the packet, contacting the back of the bottom card. Draw the packet to the right across the left fingers, allowing the bottom card to come into view, followed by the card above it. Then place the left thumb onto the face of the top card and move the right hand inward, causing the top card to break free of the packet, its outer right corner pivoting on the right ring finger. Immediately move the double in the right hand forward, still beneath the top card, in line with the spread. See photo 12 for the position of the cards at this point. Square and turn the packet face down and do a face down Ascanio Spread (photo 13). As you do this, ask Ken if his card was one of the four in the packet. Table the packet face down.

Photo 13

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Admit that Ken’s card didn’t actually disappear--it just turned invisible. Pretend to pluck the invisible card off the top of the packet and to turn it face up and insert it into the center of the deck. Ribbon spread the deck, revealing the 2S face up at the center (photo 14). Say, ”Look, Ken! Your card really is face up in the middle of the face down deck!” They will be quick to correct you—the 2S was Twila’s card, not Ken’s! Act confused. “Well, I found Twila’s card. That’s good. But then, what the devil happened to Ken’s card?” Slide the 2S out of the spread and do a spread turnover. Ask Ken what his card was. “The ace of diamonds? Huh, I don’t see it anywhere! What the devil? Oh! Sometimes they run back to their friends!”

Photo 14

Spread the face down packet to reveal the AD face up at the center (photo 15), to end with a bang!

Photo 15

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Lumberjack Stew

T

his routine is fun and visually interesting with an unexpected ending. I absolutely love performing it.

Effect: You spread through the deck and remove one card, which you place face down on top of the card box. Next, Chad shuffles the deck and places it on the table, where Jenna and Troy are allowed to cut it. You spread the deck face down and Chad, Jenna and Troy each select and sign a card. These are set face down on the table. You cut the deck into three packets, which are also placed on the table. The selections are placed directly above the card you set on the card box a few moments earlier—the selections extending slightly beyond the edge of the box at the front and either side. You place a saltshaker on top of these cards and then move the three packets, leaning each along the edge of one of the selections. You comment that the saltshaker is full of mystically empowered salt crystals and then you lift it. The three selections flip over, landing face up atop the packets, but they have magically changed into three jacks! You turn over the face down card on the card box (the one you put there at the beginning)—it is the fourth jack! The deck is reassembled and spread face up across the table, but the selections are missing. You open the card box and remove three cards from inside—they are the three, signed selections! Requirements and preparation: This can be done with any deck and its box, with no preparation at all if you are adept at culling cards secretly. Otherwise, place three jacks on top of the deck and one near the center and then case the deck. Method and performance: Take the deck out of the box, letting it slide into left dealers grip. Close the flap and place the box on the table with the “half moon” cutout at the top and at the near end, as shown in photo 1.

Photo 1

Spread through the deck, faces toward you and out of the audience’s sight. Remove the jack at the center and set it face down on top of the card box, commenting that this is the card of Destiny. As you square the deck into left dealers grip (face up) get a pinky break above the three jacks at the rear. In a continuing squaring motion slide the deck back into Gamblers Cop position, where you cop the jacks and then immediately slide the deck forward into a high dealers grip. Refer to photo 2.

Photo 2

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Rest your left hand at the edge of the table with your fingers in a relaxed curl. The copped jacks are out of the line of sight of the audience, and the left hand rests naturally. (photo 3).

Photo 3

Grip the far edge of the deck with your right hand, thumb on top, and remove it from the left hand, turning it over (face down) end for end as you hand it to Chad (refer to photo 4).

Photo 4

Allow him to shuffle and then ask him to set the deck on the table as your right forefinger points to a spot to your left about 8-10 inches from the edge of the table. See photo 5. Ask Jenna to cut the deck and then to complete the cut. Do the same with Troy. “Would you all agree that the cards are now thoroughly and randomly mixed?” Photo 5

They will look at you and at each other when you pose them this question. It is during this moment of natural and very strong misdirection that you load the jacks on top of the deck. Slide your left hand along the table toward the deck (keeping it angled towards you). When you reach the deck, turn the hand palm down and grab the deck, loading the jacks on top. This sequence is depicted in photos 6 & 7. Do this casually (and at a brisk but not rushed pace) and load the cards and pick up the deck in one continuous motion, and the load will be completely invisible.

Photo 6

Spread the deck face down between your hands and have Chad, Jenna and Troy each remove a card. Clamp down on the top three cards tightly with your right thumb to prevent one of the jacks from being removed. Have the chosen cards signed. Meanwhile, get a break under the three jacks on top of the deck. Photo 7

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Take the selections back and switch them for the three jacks. (I use my Spread Turnover Switch, but you could use the Braue Addition, a multiple Top Change or any other method you prefer.) Drop the three “selections” (actually jacks) face down on the table to your left, as in photo 8.

Photo 8

Cut off the top third of the deck and place this packet directly behind the card box. Cut off another third and set it to the right of the first pile. Take the remaining packet from the left hand and table it at the left end of the row on the table (photo 9).

Photo 9

The following effect is Paul Harris’ “Flapjacks.” Pick up the jacks (“selections”). Place the first one face down on the card box, outjogged about ½ inch, as shown in photo 10. Photo 10

The second jack is set on the box flush with the ends but sidejogged ½ inch to the right (photo 11).

Photo 11

Place the last jack on the box, sidejogged to the left, as shown in photo 12.

Photo 12

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Set the saltshaker on top, centered on the box (photo 13).

Photo 13

Pick up the packet on the right and lean it on the card jogged to the right. The edge of the packet should run along the card’s border. Do the same with the packet on the left and the card jogged to the left. Refer to photo 14. Photo 14

Finally, pick up the remaining packet (original top portion of the deck) and lean its narrow end along the border of the outjogged card (photo 15).

Photo 15

“The saltshaker is full of mystically empowered salt crystals. Concentrate all your energy on it for a moment.” Wait a few beats for suspense and then lift the shaker. The packets will drop to the table, causing the jogged cards to flip over face up on top of them (photo 16), revealing the selections have magically turned into jacks! Photo 16

Give the audience a moment or two to react and appreciate what has happened. Pick up the packet on the left, tilting it to allow the jack to slide off onto the table (photo 17). Hold the packet in left dealers grip. Follow suit with the packet on the right and then the one in front of the box, placing each on top of the packet in your left hand.

Photo 17

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As you square the deck in left dealers grip, get a pinky break under the top three cards. Three jacks are face up on the table surrounding the card box. One card is face down on top of the card box (photo 18). Call attention to it. “Remember the card of Destiny?” Photo 18

Pick up the box in right Biddle Grip and tilt it sideways to the left such that the card slides off onto the table without turning over (photo 19). Gesture toward the card with the card box, asking Chad to slowly turn it over. Move your right hand back out of the way to allow him to do this. Photo 19

Under the cover of this natural gesture and the audience’s strong attention on the card, bring the box on top of the deck and pick up the three cards above the break underneath it (photo 20).

Photo 20

Immediately move the hand to the right, distancing it from the deck, as in photo 21.

Photo 21

Set the deck face down on the table to your left. Place the box (and selections) into left dealers grip. With your right hand, ribbon spread the deck across the table as you remark that you assume everyone is wondering what happened to the three chosen cards (photo 22). Photo 22

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Do a Spread Turnover to show the faces of the cards, revealing that the selected cards are missing. Take the box from above in the right hand, the thumb along the near long side, second finger along the far long side, the flap to your left. The tips of the thumb and finger pin the selections to the bottom of the box. Open the flap with your left hand (photo 23). Photo 23

You will apparently remove the three selections from the box one at a time using a move credited to Matt Schulien. Extend your left thumb and middle finger. The thumb goes inside the box and the finger goes underneath, straddling the box’s flap. Contact the face of the bottom card under the box with the fingertip and briskly draw the hand to the left (photo 24). The card slides out with the hand and the flap covers the fact that it came from under the box. Because the move is done quickly, the illusion of the card coming out of the box is perfect. Drop this card face down on the table. Repeat the “removal” of the other two cards.

Photo 24

Drop the card box on the table, flap open and facing the audience to show an empty interior. Slowly and dramatically turn over each of the three face down cards to reveal that the cards that came out of the box were the signed selections (photo 25)!

Photo 25

Chapter Two: A Little Something Extra Chapter Two contains five card routines that require a regular deck of cards plus one or several extra cards, either from another deck or easily attainable gaffed cards. •

Coeur d’Alene Assembly • Ransomed Back • Universal Appeal • Face-Off • The “X” on Val Dees • Dearly Departed

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Coeur d’Alene Assembly

ohn Bannon’s Mirage includes a card assembly routine, “Ménage a Quatre.” I fell in love with J the routine, but felt it had one drawback—five jokers are passed off as four. The problem with this is that you also use twelve red spot cards, which are shown freely and the spectator can handle. I wanted to begin and end with the spectator being able to handle and count all the cards, joker or spot. That meant re-routining the effect without the extra joker. While this made the sleight-of-hand aspect of the trick more difficult, it did so only marginally, and with a few subtleties thrown in, I feel I have attained my goal without sacrificing the effect at all. I showed this to my wife (who is very jaded to card tricks, especially when performed by me!) and she exclaimed, “Holy crud! That’s a great trick!” That’s the best recommendation I can give you. Effect: Four jokers and twelve red spot cards are brought into play. You explain that as a magician, you go through quite a few decks of cards, but since you rarely need the jokers, they don’t wear out as quickly as the rest of the deck. This means you always have extra jokers lying around, but you’re very careful not to put more than two in any deck at any time, because they react strangely with the other cards. You offer to demonstrate what you mean. The jokers are tabled in a diamond pattern. On top of each you place three of the red spot cards. Now the weirdness begins. The joker from the first packet travels to join the joker in the second packet, magically trading places with one of the red cards. These two jokers mysteriously and invisible jump to the third packet and then all three jump to the last packet. You are left with three packets of four red cards each, and one packet with four jokers! Very slowly and fairly, you exchange one joker for one red card in each packet. Yet, when the packets are turned face up, it is seen that the jokers have instantly traveled back to the leader packet—the other three packets have nothing but red cards! Requirements and preparation: Besides a normal deck of cards, you need four duplicate jokers with backs that match the deck. Place the jokers in a pocket, wallet or envelope. Method and performance: I recommend this routine as a closer for a card set. After doing some card effects, remove the red fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines and tens from the deck, and set the deck aside. Hand these cards to Brett to count, verifying that there are exactly twelve red cards. Meanwhile, hand Suzanne the four jokers, allowing her to verify that there are only four and they are normal in every way. Take the jokers face up in your palm up left hand. Extend the left hand to Brett, asking him to drop the twelve red cards face up onto the jokers. Turn the packet face down. Spread over the top five cards. Take the top four (jokers), still spread, in your right hand. As the left thumb pulls the fifth card back onto the packet, get a pinky break below it. Hold the jokers just to the right of the packet (all the cards are still facing the floor). Photo 1 is an exposed view.

Photo 1

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Bring the hands up so that the cards face the audience. The right hand goes a bit higher than the left, such that the bottom edge of the jokers are about an inch from the top edge of the squared red packet. Under cover of this larger movement, allow the leftmost joker (at the face of the spread) to enter the break under the top red card. In other words, the lower left corner of this joker is secretly beneath the top card of the packet (photo 2, exposed). This cannot be detected from the front (photo 3). After you’ve displayed the jokers for a moment, close the spread so that it is square with the packet and the jokers are jogged upward. Push them flush into the packet as you bring the cards back down to left dealers grip.

Magishing My Way

Photo 2

Photo 3

Deal the top four cards in a diamond pattern on the table, the first to your left, the second to the far center, third to your right and last card (a red one that the audience assumes is a joker) to the near center. As you deal, casually flash the faces of the first three cards (photo 4). Since the last one is dealt right in front of you, it makes sense that the audience doesn’t catch a glimpse of its face. Photo 4

Turn the packet in your left hand face up and nonchalantly spread it, holding the last two as one (photo 5) as you say, “That leaves us with the red cards.” Close the spread. Push over three cards with the left thumb.

Photo 5

Take them in your right hand and flip them face down on top of the tabled card nearest you, as in photo 6. This will be the “leader” packet. Push over three more and place them face down on the card to your left. Take the next three and flip them face down on the card at the far center. Photo 6

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Take the last three, still squared, by the inner end in your palm down right hand as in photo 7.

Photo 7

As you turn the cards face down, spread them (photo 8) and drop them onto the card at your right. The spectators believe that each packet contains three red cards and one joker, but in reality, the packet on your right has two reds and two jokers, and the packet in front of you is comprised of four red cards.

Photo 8

Photo 9

During the preceding displays and layouts, you have been telling the audience about all the decks you go through, the extra jokers that you always have left over, etc. Now you state that you will show them what you’ve been talking about.

Pick up the packet on your left with your palm down left hand (photo 9) , such that when you turn your hand palm up, the cards are in dealers grip, a joker showing at the face as in photo 10.

Photo 10

Flip the packet face down and hold it above the far center packet by the extreme left edge as if you were going to do a fingertip Elmsley Count, as shown in photo 11.

Photo 11

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Take the top two cards in the right hand by the extreme right edge and snap the four cards into an “x” pattern by pulling the bottom cards back with the fingers while simultaneously pushing the top cards forward with the thumbs (photo 12). Replace the right-hand cards under the left pair and square the packet. (This is Mr. Bannon’s somewhat flourishy but very effective method for displacing the bottom two cards to the top.) To show the first joker has disappeared, turn the packet face up and do a modified Elmsley Count as follows. Do the first two counts normally. Instead of counting the next two cards in singly, spread them as they are (photo 13) and drop them onto the other two. Square the packet and drop it face up onto the table at its previous position. Pick up the far center packet in the palm down left hand as you did with the first packet. Turn the hand palm up and immediately do a regular Elmsley Count, showing two reds and two jokers. Flip the packet face down and hold it above the packet at your right. Do the “x” displacement ( photo 14). Turn the packet face up and do the modified Elmsley. Square up and table the packet face up at its former location. Take the right side packet as you did the others and Elmsley Count it to show three jokers. Turn it face down, hold it over the leader packet and do the “x” move, but put the right-hand cards on top of the left instead of under them. As you square the packet and table it face down where it was, execute the Vernon Transfer (see the notes following this effect explanation), stealing the bottom card and loading it onto the leader packet as you pick it up with your right hand. Place the leader packet in left dealers grip and do a Reverse Buckle Count (see notes), taking a double on the third count. Flip the packet face up into left dealers grip, revealing an ace on the face. Do a Rhumba Count (also in notes) to show four jokers, dropping the cards into a pile on the table and holding the last two cards as one. Set the double on top of the pile and then immediately remove the top card and use it to scoop up the packet. Square up, getting the bottom card in position to do the Vernon Transfer again. Pretend to “notice” that you “accidentally” left the right side packet face down. As you table the leader packet, do the Vernon Transfer, loading the card stolen from the leader packet onto the right packet as you pick it up (photo 15). Remark that you did “the magic move” with these cards, but you forgot to show them the faces.

Photo 12

Photo 13

Photo 14

Photo 15

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As you say this, do the “x” displacement and then turn the packet face up and do the modified Elmsley Count. Drop this packet face up at the right. Pick up the leader packet by removing the top card and using it to scoop up the rest. Turn it face up and do another Rhumba Count as you say, “All four jokers ended up here.” Slide the last card under the packet. You are ready for the instant repeat. Photo 16

Photo 17

Photo 18

Photo 19

Photo 22

Flip the other three packets face down where they are. Very slowly and fairly, remove the top card of the left packet with your left hand and the top card of the leader packet with your right hand (photo 16). Drop the right-hand card onto the left packet and drop the left-hand card to the left of the leader packet (photo 17). Pick up the top card of the far center packet with your left hand and the top card of the three in the leader packet in your right (photo 18). Drop the card in your right hand onto the center packet and drop the left-hand card to the left end of the row that is forming in front of you (photo 19). Finally, lift the top card of the remaining pair of the leader packet with your left hand, and take the top card of the right packet with your right hand (photo 20). Drop the right-hand card at the right end of the row in front of you and then drop the card in the left hand on the right packet (photo 21). Snap your fingers. Simultaneously flip the left and right packets over sideways toward the center and spread them toward the audience in a vertical face up row (photo 22). Flip the center packet end for end toward you (photo 23) and spread it as well (photo 24).

Photo 20

Photo 23

Photo 21

Photo 24

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Finally, slowly and dramatically turn over the row of jokers, one at a time, for a killer finish (photo 25)!

Notes The Vernon Transfer Created by “The Professor,” Dai Vernon, this is a wonderful move for secretly transferring cards from a packet in the hand to one on the table right in front of the audience. Unless they know exactly what to look for and when to look for it, when properly done it is completely invisible.

Photo 25

Assume you are holding a packet of five cards in right Biddle Grip and there is a packet of three cards on the table. The audience believes there are four cards in each packet. The packet in the hand is held directly above the tabled packet. The card to be transferred is at the face of the packet in the hand. The left hand approaches the packet and grips the left long side of it, thumb on top and fingers below. As the left hand apparently removes the packet from the right, carry out the following actions. With the left forefinger, anglejog the face card slightly, pivoting it on the tip of the right pinky as exposed in photo 26. In performance, the packet should be held nearly parallel with the floor, the front end tilted down about 10-15 degrees. Photo 26

As soon as the face card is in position, the left hand without hesitation removes all the cards above the jogged card as in photo 27 (exposed view). The entire sequence of events so far should look as though the left hand has simply taken the packet from the right hand. Photo 27

As the left hand moves away, the right hand descends directly onto the tabled packet and picks it up in Biddle Grip, loading the card on top (photo 28).

Photo 28

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The Buckle Count While the preceding routine actually uses the Reverse Buckle count, the two are so similar that I will just teach them together now. This count hides one or more cards while apparently fairly counting a packet.

Photo 29

Assume that you have a packet of five cards that you want to show as four. Hold the packet face down in left dealers grip. Push the top card over slightly with the left thumb so the right hand can grip it by the right side, thumb on top and fingers below. The right hand takes the card off the packet to the right. Push over the next card and take it under the first one in the right hand as in photo 29. As the right hand moves away with the two cards, buckle the bottom card by curling the left forefinger (whose tip is at the outer index of the face card) in toward the hand. This causes the inner right edge of the bottom card to bow open (photo 30).

Photo 30

Bring your right hand back to the packet to apparently remove the third card. Actually the right fingers go directly into the break (photo 31, where the break is grossly exaggerated to expose the action) and takes both cards above the break as one under the two cards the right hand already holds. Finally, the right hand comes back to the left and takes the last card under the packet.

Photo 31

Reverse Buckle Count The procedure for this count is exactly the same as for the Buckle Count, except that each card is taken above the previous one as opposed to under it. The Rhumba Count The brainchild of Jean-Pierre Vallarino, this excellent count should be in the repertoire of every serious close up magician. Accomplishing the same thing as Hamman’s Flushtration Count (apparently showing a packet as duplicates of the same card), it is, in my opinion a superior move and more convincing.

Photo 32

You are holding a packet of cards face up in left dealers grip. Your right hand grips the packet at the center of the right long edge, thumb below and fingers on top. See photo 32.

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Lift the packet with your right hand, which turns palm up (rotating the packet face down) simultaneously squeezing the edge of the packet such that the thumb pulls the top card slightly to the right and the fingertips push the remainder of the packet in a block slightly to the left. The end result is depicted in photo 33. Photo 33

Place the left edge of the block at the base of the left fingers as displayed in photo 34.

Photo 34

Move your right hand up and to the left, holding onto the top card and pivoting the block to the left. Photo 35 should make this clear.

Photo 35

Allow the block to fall face up onto the left palm and move the right hand away with the former top card (photo 36), which it drops face down onto the table.

Photo 36

The right hand returns to the packet as at the beginning, photo 37, and the whole process is repeated until you have shown the requisite number of duplicate cards.

Photo 37

Scott F. Guinn

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Ransomed Back

Ransom is a magician friend of mine from Nampa, Idaho, not far from where I live. He is J ohn getting more seriously into card magic, and one of the effects that caught his attention was Karl Fulves’ “All Backs” from Epilogue (based on a Johnny Thompson routine). John felt that parts of the routine were a bit awkward, and he was uncomfortable with using a packet of four cards as three for a fairly extended period of time, so I went to work streamlining and simplifying the handling. The following is the result, with some ideas of John’s thrown in. I added the cleanup and kicker and I think the end result is a very strong and entertaining piece. Best of all, it is VERY easy—the hardest move is a double lift! Effect: Carol’s chosen card is lost in the deck. You remove three cards and set the rest of the deck aside. You remark that you believe one of these three cards is Carol’s. You then show that all three cards are the selection. Surprised, you remark that you aren’t usually so fortunate—and all three cards are now shown to have backs on both sides—there are no faces on any of them! You explain that you are merely using the power of suggestion to control Carol’s perception. The cards really do have faces, but none of them are Carol’s. In fact, all three are now the same indifferent card! You drop the packet onto the deck. As further proof that you really were controlling her perception you show that all the cards have different faces, but her card is gone. Finally, just by saying, ”BACK,” Carol is easily able to perceive her card when you spread the deck—it is face up at the center of the face down deck! Requirements and preparation: The sacrifice of doing away with an extra card in this case means using a gaffed card—a double-backed card (db) that matches your deck, to be precise. However, the easier handling and more convincing displays make this, in my opinion, a worthwhile trade-off. Start with the db on top of the deck. (The db is different in the photos for clarity.) Method and performance: Spread the deck for Carol to pick a card (say, the JH). Square the deck into right Biddle Grip. Swing cut off about the top half of the deck into the left hand (photo 1) and extend it so she can put her card on top of the packet. Drop the right-hand packet on top, catching a left pinky break between the packets. Photo 1

Banter for a moment and then spread through the packet. When you get to the break, place the right middle fingertip on the face of the card and spread a few more cards. Then place the left thumb on the back of the selection (card below break) and separate the hands. Thumb the top card of the left packet off on top of the right packet, as shown in photo 2. Replace the right packet on the left, catching a left pinky break between the packets as you square the deck. Photo 2

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Execute the exact same procedure to bring the db (card below the break) to the top of the deck, but this time there is no need to hold a break when the deck is reassembled and squared. Finally, spread a bit further into the deck and remove any indifferent card and place it on top of the right half. Assemble the deck and square it into left dealers grip. Reverse count the top three cards into the right hand. Table the deck and place the packet into left dealers grip. The order, from the top down, is JH, db and an indifferent card (x). Say that you believe at least one of these cards is Carol’s selection. Flip the top card face up on the packet to reveal the JH (photo 3). As you move it to the right with the left thumb (so the right hand can flip it face down), make sure that the middle card is also pushed over slightly. Refer to photo 4. Flip the top card face down and get a break above the bottom card as you square the packet (facilitated by having pushed the middle card over slightly). While you do this, ask Carol if her card was the JH. During her response, remove the top two cards as one and place them under the remaining card. This should look exactly as if you removed only the top card and placed it at the bottom of the packet. Pretend to be mildly surprised that you were correct. “Wow! I got it on the first try!” Spread the packet as you speak. “That doesn’t normally happen, which is why I took out three cards.” Square the packet, catching a break above the bottom card. “I usually don’t get it until at least the second card.” Do a double turnover, again revealing the JH, although you pretend not to notice it. Turn the double face down and fairly remove the top card and place it at the bottom. “Sometimes, I don’t get it until the third card!” Turn the top card face up onto the packet and then turn it face down. You have just shown all three cards as the JH. “Usually, I’m not so successful with this trick—I seem to get everything backwards!” Do a double turnover to reveal the db. (Photo 5 shows the midway point of the double turnover.) “See what I mean?” Do another double turnover and then move the top card to the bottom. Turn the top card over to reveal “another” double-backed card. As you thumb it to the right so the right hand can flip it over, push the next card over slightly as well again, refer to photo 4, although this time the order of the cards is different).

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Scott F. Guinn

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Flip the db over and catch a break above the bottom card as the left hand squares the packet. Remove the top two cards as one and place them at the bottom. Do two more double turnovers to show the “third” card also has backs on both sides. Leave the packet in its current order—do not move any cards to the bottom.

Photo 6

“Actually, this has all been an illusion—these cards had faces all along.” Tap the packet and then turn the entire packet face up into left dealers grip, revealing the x card (photo 6).

“Just not the faces you thought you saw!” Perform the Rhumba Count (page 45) to show three x cards. During the count, drop the first card onto the table, the next card on top of it and then use the third card to scoop up the other two (photo 7).

Photo 7

Drop the three-card packet onto the deck. You can flash the face of the packet as you do this (photo 8).

Photo 8

Pick up the deck and give it a false cut. Turn it face up into left dealers grip. As you square the deck with both hands, riffle the bottom two cards off the right thumb (photo 9) and obtain a left pinky break above them.

Photo 9

While you do this, say, “All the cards really had different faces the entire time.” Spread a few cards from the face of the deck (photo 10). “I simply controlled your perception for a little while, causing you to THINK you were seeing something that you weren’t via the power of suggestion.”

Photo 10

“In fact, I’ll do it again! Do you remember what your card was? GONE! You see, with just that one word, I’ve controlled your perception. I’ll prove it. Jack of Hearts, right?”

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Begin spreading the deck from the face into the right hand, telling Carol to look for the JH. Stop near the center and ask Carol if she’s seen her card yet. Take the spread cards into the palm up right hand, loosely squaring them. Turn the right hand palm down and apparently place the packet face down underneath the deck. In reality, you pull down on the bottom card with the left pinky and insert the packet into the widened break. Refer to photo 11 for clarification.

Magishing My Way

Photo 11

Spread the cards into the right hand again, stopping when you come to the face down section. Ask Carol if she saw her card this time. She will say no. Turn the rest of the face up cards face down and replace them under the rest of the deck (photo 12). The above sequence seems as though you have spread through the deck and stopped halfway through to facilitate spreading all the cards fairly and openly. But you’ve accomplished something very sneaky—Carol’s card is now face up near the center of the face down deck!

Photo 12

“I just controlled your perception--just enough that you couldn’t see your card. I can also control it so that with just one word you can easily perceive your card. BACK!” Ribbon spread the deck from right to left across the table, revealing the face up JH at the center of the face down spread (photo 13).

Photo 13

“Can you see your card?” Remove all the cards above the JH (photo 14) and place them in left dealers grip.

Push the JH forward, off the spread, and then pick up the rest of the cards (photo 15) and drop them on top of the left-hand packet.

Photo 14

” I think I’ve proven my point…” The db is back on top of the deck. You can palm it off, or put the cards in the case, do a non-card effect and then leave the db in the case when you remove the deck for your next card trick.

Photo 15

Scott F. Guinn

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Universal Appeal

K

arl Fulves’ “Universal Card” plot has captured the imagination of many card men. My take on this plot is very simple and direct in effect, and almost as simple and direct in method. It is exceptionally easy to do and very clean. Effect: After thoroughly shuffling a deck, you set it down. You remove three additional cards, which you refer to as “Chameleon cards.” These are placed aside and three cards are selected from the deck. The chameleon cards are placed onto each selection in turn, and they take on the identity of the selection. At the end, one chameleon card is placed on top of each selection. When turned face up, it is revealed that each chameleon card has become a duplicate of the card on which it was placed!

Photo 1

Requirements and preparation: For the sake of explanation, assume that the three cards you’ll be using are the 6S, 2D and KC. Place these three cards face up on the table with the 6S at the rear and the KC at the face (packet A). From another deck with matching backs, remove the same three cards and arrange them in the same order. Place them on the table and displace the bottom card to the top, so the order from back to face is 2D, KC and 6S (packet B). See photo 1 (performer’s view). A mnemonic to help you remember the order: “bottom to top.”) Put packet A face down on top of the deck and packet B (the “dupes”) in your pocket, an envelope or your wallet. Method and performance: Shuffle the deck, leaving the force cards on top and then set the deck face down on the table. Remove the dupes and set them face down on the table, spread so that it can be plainly seen that there are three of them. Remark that these are your “chameleon cards,” and you will demonstrate their amazing properties in just a moment.

Photo 2

Pick up the deck in left dealers grip and cut about half to the bottom, holding a break between the halves with the left pinky. Riffle Force (explained in the notes) to the break and remove the three force cards, tabling them in a face down row from left to right (photo 2). Set the deck aside. Turn the card at the left end of the row (6S) face up and then turn it face down again. Drop the three dupes on top of it and pick up the packet in left dealers grip. Spread to show four face down cards and as you square up, get a pinky break above the bottom card (photo 3).

Photo 3

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Triple turnover to show a 6S. Turn the triple face down and thumb the top card onto the table, directly behind the spot the original 6S occupied a moment ago (photo 4) . Double turnover to show another 6S, turn the double down and thumb off the top card onto the first. Take the top card of the remaining two in your right hand and turn it face up to show it is a 6S. (This series of moves is known as a Diminishing Lift Sequence.) Photo 4

Continue to hold this card face up as your left hand turns its card face up, showing a fourth 6S (photo 5). Showing the last two at the same time strengthens the conviction that the first two cards were also each a 6S. Drop the right card onto the pile of dupes and the left card face up at the end of the row of force cards. Turn over the next card in the row to reveal the 2D, turn it face down and then pick up the dupes and drop them onto 2D. Again, do the diminishing lift sequence described above, but this time you vary the procedure slightly. When you are holding a face up 2D in each hand, use the right card to scoop up the other two dupes as the left hand tables its 2D face up in the center of the row (photo 6).

Photo 5

Place the packet face up into left dealers grip and do the Rhumba Count (page 45) as you comment on the amazing abilities of the chameleon cards. Use your right hand to turn the last card (KC) face up and face down again. Drop the dupes on top, pick up the packet and repeat the diminishing lift sequence as before. When you’re holding a face up KC in each hand, again use the right one to scoop up the dupes as the left tables its KC face up at the right end of the row. Perform another Rhumba Count as you state that the cards temporarily take on the identity of the last card they touched— unless you separate them. As you do the count, drop the first card face down on top of the face up 6S, the second on the 2D and the last on the KC (photo 7).

Photo 6

Photo 7

“Then they’ll permanently retain that identity.” Pause for effect and then turn the face down cards face up, revealing that each now matches the card upon which it was placed (photo 8). Everything may be examined.

Photo 8

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Notes The Riffle Force This is one of the easiest and most versatile forces in card magic. Start by having the force card (or cards) at the center of the deck (which is held in left dealers grip) with a left pinky break above it— photo 9. Photo 9

Tell the participant that you want him to stop you somewhere in the deck as you riffle through it. Riffle down the outer left corner with your left thumb, stopping where told and maintaining a fairly wide break as depicted in photo 10. Photo 10

Bring your right hand over the deck in Biddle Grip, all four fingers coming down over the far end as in photo 11.

Photo 11

As soon as the end of the deck is shielded from the audience’s view by your fingers, release the left thumb’s break and immediately pick up all the cards above the pinky break (photo 12).

Photo 12

Done smoothly and confidently, this will fly by anyone—even a lot of magicians. It appears that you simply lifted all the cards above the thumb break.

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Face-off

L

ouis Falanga (of L&L Publishing fame) created a wonderful effect called “Jo-King,” which was included in Harry Lorayne’s book, Best of Friends, Volume 2. This effect is a packet trick that uses a gaffed card (double-facer) to accomplish an almost instantaneous change of four jokers to four kings. I loved it, but I wanted to do it by having a value selected, removing the cards from the deck and using no gaffed cards, so that everything could be examined at the end. After much “tweaking,” the following routine came into being. I am extremely pleased with it. Effect: You ask Art to name his favorite four of a kind. Assume he chose the eights. You spread through the deck to remove the four eights. However, you explain that the eights in this deck were never printed, and you show all four cards have blank faces. With just a snap of your fingers, the four eights appear, and the rest of the deck is shown to be absolutely normal!

Requirements and preparation: You’ll need to get one blank-faced card with a back that matches your deck. (I can hear some of you raising your hackles already, saying, “I thought you said there were no gaffed cards!” I don’t consider the blank-faced card to be “gaffed” in the sense that you will be openly showing it, as opposed to a trying to keep it secret. Start with the blank at the face and the joker face down on top of the shuffled face down deck. Place the deck in its case. This routine was designed to be an opener. Method and performance: Remove the deck from the case, tabling it face down, and place the empty case in your right jacket pocket. Ask Art to name his favorite four-of-a-kind. For explanation purposes, we’ll say he named the eights. Spread through the deck without allowing anyone else to see the faces and upjog the eights halfway as you come to them. (This is exactly the same action as at the start of “Direct Decision.”) When all four eights are protruding from the top of the deck, square the spread. In a continuing motion, bring the right hand from the right side of the deck to the top to strip out the eights. As you do this, bring the right thumb onto the face of the blank card and draw it out with the other four cards (photo 1). Table the face down deck without flashing any faces. Set the packet into left dealers grip, getting a pinky break below the top two cards. Reverse count the packet as four cards, taking the double on the first count and the other cards singly on top of the double. As you do this, ask Art if he trusts you. During his reply, half pass the card on the bottom of the packet. Remark that he’ll have to trust you. Spread the packet, holding the last two as one, and take the top two in the right hand. Pause for a moment, apparently displaying two cards in each hand (photo 2).

Photo 1

Photo 2

Scott F. Guinn

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Replace the cards in the right hand under those in the left. Tell Art that the backs of these cards are fine as you do an Elmsley Count (page 25) to show four face down cards again. In this application, you are using the Elmsley Count to show five cards as four. The mechanics are exactly the same, except that you block pushoff a triple during the second count as opposed to a double. Photo 3

Photo 4

Explain that it’s the faces that are the problem, as the eights in this particular deck weren’t printed. The following sequence apparently shows four blank cards. Pick up the packet in right Biddle Grip and turn the hand palm up to show a blank card (photo 3) as you say, “This bottom eight was left blank.” Turn the hand palm down and return the packet to left dealers grip again. Do a modified Anneman Alignment Move. To wit: pull back the top card about an inch with your right fingers. Place your right hand over the injogged card, thumb at the near edge, forefinger on the center and middle finger at the far edge (photo 4). The middle finger also contacts the back of the second card. Move your right hand forward until the near edge of the top card is square with the packet (photo 5—bottom view). This simultaneously outjogs the second card.

Photo 5

Photo 6

Lift the right hand and approach the packet from the right. Contact the exposed edge of the outjogged card with your right middle finger and angle the card to the left as shown in photo 6. This exposes the outer right corner of the rest of the packet. Your right middle finger then moves to that exposed corner as the right thumb moves to the inner right corner. Gripping the packet (except for the outjogged, angled card) between thumb and middle finger, slide the four cards as one to the right (photo 7) and flip them over onto the remaining card (catching a left pinky break above the bottom card) as you say, “This top eight wasn’t printed, either!” Turn the block over onto the bottom single card. Note: I know a couple of quadruple turnovers may make some of you nervous, but if you do it smoothly, without hesitation and just keep going, no one will catch you.

Photo 7

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Immediately take the packet in right Biddle Grip. Slide off the bottom card with your left fingers and turn your right hand palm up to show a blank (photo 8), saying, “The eight that is second from bottom wasn’t printed…” Replace the block face down onto the single card in your left hand holding a pinky break above the bottom card. Thumb over the top card, and take it in the right hand. Allow this card to cover the right edge of the packet and do a triple turnover, showing the blank (the right-hand card helps hide the thickness of the triple—photo 9).

Photo 8

Remark, “And the eight that’s second from top is also blank!” Leave the packet in your left hand as it is and drop the card in you right hand face down on top. Say, “That’s why I said you’ll have to trust me— because I can tell that these are the four eights, even though they aren’t printed…yet!” As you speak, do an Elmsley Count, showing the blank card second among four cards, the remainder of which are face down. In other words, everything appears exactly as it should. Snap your fingers and do another Elmsley Count, stopping on the second count. Each hand holds (apparently) two cards; a face up eight on top of a face down card in the right hand and (apparently) two squared, face down cards in the left hand (photo 10). The effect is that the blank card magically and instantaneously changed into an eight.

Photo 9

Photo 10

Let the face up eight drop onto the table. Flip the other card in your right hand face up to show a second eight and drop it on the first (photo 11).

With your right hand, flip the cards in the left hand face up into left dealers grip, taking care to keep them squared. A third eight shows.

Photo 11

Immediately grip the cards in right Biddle Grip and slide out the bottom card with the left fingers, revealing the fourth eight (photo 12), which you then drop onto the double in the right hand. Take these cards in left dealers grip, so your right hand can pick up the two eights on the table. Drop them onto the left-hand cards.

Photo 12

Scott F. Guinn

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Pick up the entire packet in right Biddle Grip and set it on top of the deck which you then immediately pick up and place in left dealers grip. Remind Art that when you started, you asked him to name his favorite four-of- a- kind, and he said the eights. Thumb the four eights off the top of the deck onto the table. “Isn’t it interesting that you named the only cards in the entire deck that weren’t printed?”

Photo 13

Square the deck, turn it face up and spread through it, holding the last two cards (joker and blank) as one. Mention that you weren’t aware the joker was still in the deck. Take the rest of the deck with the right hand and table it. The left, holding the joker (actually a double) goes to the left jacket pocket and the right hand immediately goes to the right jacket pocket. Once inside the pockets, thumb off the blank with the left hand, grab the card case with the right hand and come back out of the pockets. Place the joker in the case and set it aside, and go on to the rest of your card act. There is nothing to find, so let Art check out the deck, the case and the joker to his little heart’s content!

Notes The above description with the joker and case ploy is the easiest way to clean up after the trick. However, it is not my preferred method. What follows is. Photo 14

Photo 15

Photo 16

Forget about the joker. Put the case in your left pocket. At the end of the routine, after you’ve thumbed off the eights, turn the deck face up and take it in right Biddle Grip. You will now perform the Automatic Bottom Palm. If you’ve been afraid of palming, this move is for you! (I claim no credit for this, as I’m sure someone somewhere has come up with something similar.) Hold the deck in right hand Biddle Grip. Hold the left hand about six inches below and parallel to the deck. Begin to dribble cards into your left hand as in photo 13. After you’ve dribbled the entire deck, pause and hold the left hand flat to display the deck very openly and fairly (photo 14). Bring your right hand over the deck in Biddle Grip and begin to pivot the deck into left hand dealer’s grip. Due to the friction of your skin on the bottom card, it will stay put as shown in photo 15. Continue turning the deck until it is in dealer’s grip with the palmed card hidden underneath as in photo 16. Take the deck in right Biddle grip and spread it across the table as your left hand goes to the pocket, ditches the blank card and returns with the card case.

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Magishing My Way Magishing My Way

The “X” on Val Dees

H

ere is my extended routine of Ed Marlo’s “Oil and Water” plot. It is based primarily on the work of two of my good friends, Aldo Colombini and Dan Fleshman. The first part is Aldo’s “Nice Salad” from his book, What’s Up, Deck? I have changed the last phase and the handling to include the face up/face down effect. This is followed by Ray Kosby’s “Never the Twain Shall Mix” from Spectacle and Dan’s “Oil Slick,” which can be found in his book, Encounters of the Close-up Kind. Effect: Red and black cards repeatedly mix and separate in a very mysterious manner! Requirements and preparation: In addition to a deck of cards, you will require one doublebacker (d/b) that matches your deck. Place the four aces face down on top of the face down deck, reds on top, and the d/b on top of all. Method and performance: Pick up the deck and spread it between your hands, such that the faces of the cards are visible to you but out of view of the audience. Upjog the eights and nines as you come to them. Strip out the upjogged cards and table the rest of the deck face down. Arrange the packet in the following order from the face to the back: red 8, red 9, red 8, red 9, black 8, black 9, black 9, black 8. Freely spread the packet, displaying the faces of the cards to the audience (photo 1), as you remark that you are going to show them an unusual trait that playing cards have, using the eights and nines. As you square the packet into left dealers grip, get a left pinky break above the bottom card.

Photo 1

Take the packet in right Biddle grip, the right thumb taking over the break. Under the guise of counting off the four red cards, you will secretly switch the cards around to allow you to perform the effect via the Biddle Move. Bring the left hand to the packet, thumb going across the top card and extended fingers going below the packet (photo 2). Slide the top card off the packet into left dealers grip.

Allow the card to rest on the fingers as the left hand comes back to take the next card off the top of the packet. The first card goes under the packet, and as the thumb slides off the top card, the fingers secretly steal the card below the break onto the card on the left fingers. The top card comes off the packet onto this card (which is of the opposite color), hiding it from view. Photo 3 is an exposed view of the situation at the midpoint of this move.

Photo 2

Photo 3

Scott F. Guinn

Photo 4

Photo 5

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As the cards come free of the packet, catch a left pinky break below the second red card. Bring the left hand back to the packet in the same manner and draw the next red card onto the three (supposedly two!) in the left hand. When you come back to draw the fourth red card into the left hand, secretly take the two cards above the left pinky break onto the bottom of the right packet (photo 4) and draw the fourth red card on top of the two cards in the left hand. This entire sequence should look as if you simply drew the red cards off the packet into your left hand, one at a time. Set the right-hand packet on the table for a moment. Flip the “red” packet face down into left dealers grip. Do a Stanyon Count (commonly called a “3 as 4 Elmsley Count”) . This is exactly the same as an Elmsley Count (page 25) in technique, except that, during the transfer on the second count, the right hand takes only one card from the left instead of two or more. Thus, you have apparently shown and counted four face down cards. Bring the right hand over the packet in Biddle Grip, and as you move the hands forward to table the packet, half pass the bottom card. From the top down, this “red” packet actually consists of two face down reds followed by a face up black (photo 5).

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

Pick up the “black” packet. Do a face up Jordan count and then flip the packet face down into left dealers grip. Spread the cards as four, holding the bottom two as one. Take the top two cards into the right hand as you patter and replace them underneath the left cards. Take the packet in right Biddle Grip. Explain that you are going to attempt to make the colors change places, but you must proceed slowly and carefully. Draw the first three cards, one at a time, into left dealers grip. Place the last two, as one, on top, holding a left pinky break under the double. Snap your right fingers and do a double turnover to reveal a red card. Do not call attention to this card’s identity; simply say, “The first red card has arrived.” Immediately flip the double face down and deal the top card face down onto the table. Take the packet in right Biddle grip and count the four cards into left dealers grip as three, again keeping the last two as one and holding a break under them. Double turnover, showing another red card and double turnover again. Deal the top card face down on top of the first. Snap twice, take the packet in right Biddle grip, and draw the top card off with your left hand (photo 6), holding a double in the right hand. Turn both hands over, showing two more (?) red cards (photo 7). Turn the hands back again and replace the left card under the double (photo 8).

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Immediately drop the packet in the hand onto the two tabled cards. Pick up this new “red” packet as you remark that the cards return to their original positions extremely quickly. Flip the packet face up into left dealers grip and do an Elmsley count to show four black cards. Get a break above the two red cards at the bottom of the packet (using a double buckle, pinky pulldown or thumb count). As you continue to talk about the cards’ marvelous properties, half pass the two red cards. The packet you are holding is now arranged as follows: three face up black cards followed by two face down red cards (photo 9). Pull off the top card with your right hand. Buckle the bottom card of the packet with your left forefinger and return the right-hand card into the break—apparently to the bottom of the packet (photo 10).

Photo 9

Photo 10

Pull off the new top card and fairly return it to the bottom of the packet. All of this is done casually, and with no particular importance or attention given to the actions. It seems as if the packet is black and you are hiding nothing. Flip the packet face down. Pick up the “red” packet from the table by pinning the outer left corner to the table with the knuckle of the left pinky (photo 11), drawing off the top card with the right hand and using it to scoop up the packet (photo 12). Turn this packet so the spectators can see a red card at the face and then immediately turn the packet face down again. Place the right packet onto the left, holding a break in between, and as you square the combined packet, half pass the cards below the break. Set the packet on the table, make a magical gesture, and ribbon spread the packet on the table. The audience will be shocked to see that the black cards are face up, with face down cards alternating between them! Do a spread turnover to show the red cards face up, alternating with the face down black cards. Scoop up the pile and do a reverse Faro shuffle, outjogging the face up cards (photo 13). Strip them out with your left hand and flip the black cards face up on top. Spread the cards and take the red ones in your left hand and the black ones in your right. You will now perform the Kosby effect. Ask Monica which cards she prefers, red or black. Give her the four

Photo 11

Photo 12

Photo 13

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cards of her choice (we’ll assume she said red). Hold the remaining cards (in this case, black) face down in your right hand by the edge, in Elmsley Count position, as shown in photo 14. Extend your palm up left hand and ask Monica to place one of her cards face down on your hand. State that you will place a black card onto the red one in your hand. Photo 14

Photo 15

As your right hand approaches your left, the right thumb pushes all but the bottom card to the left (photo 15). As you apparently place one card from the right hand on top of the card in the left, you actually place all three jogged cards onto the left hand and steal the red card under the packet (photo 16, just as in an Elmsley count). Again extend your left hand to Monica, asking her to place another red card on top of those in your hand. When she does, hold a pinky break under it. Meanwhile, the right thumb has pushed the top card of its pair slightly to the right (photo 17). Bring the right hand to the left and do the “Elmsley-esque” exchange, leaving the top card and stealing the card above the break under the other card. Fairly spread the two cards in your right hand as you move away.

Photo 16

Photo 17

Photo 18

At this point, the audience believes you have four cards of alternating colors in your left hand and two black cards in your right. Actually, you have four black cards in your left hand and two reds in your right. Extend your left hand once again and allow Monica to place her third card on top of the growing packet. Fairly place the top card of the pair in your right hand onto the packet, let Monica put her last card on top of that and place your last card on top of all. Snap your fingers and flip the packet face up. Slowly spread through it to show the colors have magically separated. Square the packet and take it face up in right Biddle grip. Pick up the deck in left dealers grip. Set the face up packet atop the face down deck. State that you will eliminate half of the cards to make this anomaly easier to follow. Spread the face up cards, upjogging the eights. Strip them out, turn them face down and bury them in the deck. You are now in position to perform Fleshman’s routine. Spread the top five cards of the deck (four face up nines, blacks on top, and d/b—photo 18). Square them, holding a left pinky break below the d/b and immediately lift them off the deck in right Biddle grip.

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Table the deck and then place the packet face up into left dealers grip. Take the two black cards with your right hand and give them to Monica. Spread the three cards in your left hand as two, holding the bottom two as one. Ask Monica to put one of her cards face down on the table. Flip the cards in your left hand face down and place the top card (d/b) face down on top of the tabled card. Tell Monica to put her remaining card on top of the pile. Flash the face of the double and place it face down on top of all. Pick up the packet and place it into face down left dealers grip. Deal the top two cards (one at a time) face up onto the table. They are both red. Extend the left thumb across its packet, allowing it to rest lightly on the top card. Bring the right hand over the three cards in the left in Biddle Grip and draw out the two bottom cards as one to the right as the left hand holds back the top card (photo 19).

Photo 19

Photo 20

Turn both wrists to reveal two black cards as in photo 20. Turn the cards face down and replace the double on top of the left-hand card as displayed in photo 21. Ask Monica to pick up the red nines and to set one of them, face up on the table. As you say this, demonstrate by doing a double turnover of the top two cards in your left hand. Take the top card and set it face up on the table. Thanks to the d/b, a back shows in your hand, as it should. Put the tabled card back, face up on top of the two cards in your left hand and double turnover. Monica puts one of her cards face up on the table. Put the top card from your left hand (d/b) on top of Monica’s. Ask her to place her remaining card face up on the pile. Take the double from your left hand in right Biddle grip, show its face, and then place it face down onto the pile. Pick up the packet, squared in right Biddle Grip. Shake the packet and set it in left dealers grip. Push over the top two cards with your left thumb. Take them with your right hand and drop them face up on the table (photo 22). Pick up the remaining cards in right Biddle grip. Slide out the bottom card with your left fingers to show two face up red cards (photo 23). Replace the double under the lefthand card and leave these three cards in the left hand. Pick up the two black nines and drop them face up onto the red nines. Drop all five cards on top of the deck.

Photo 21

Photo 22

Photo 23

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Pick up the deck in left dealers grip. Review briefly what has taken place so far--how you started out with more cards and then eliminated half. As you say this, spread over the top nine cards and then square them with the deck, holding a break underneath them. Spread over the top five cards (face up nines and d/b) remarking that the blacks are on top of the reds. Photo 24

Photo 25

Execute the Spread Turnover Switch (explained in the notes—or substitute any other switch you know), stating that now that the cards are face down, the reds are on top of the blacks. Deal the cards fairly into two piles, alternating between the piles as if dealing hands in a card game. Tell Monica that the two top cards are the same color and ask her to guess what that color is. She should say black. Tell her she is right, and let her turn the top cards face up to reveal the black aces. Let her turn up the remaining two cards to reveal the red aces. As she is turning the aces over, pick up the deck and palm off the d/b or place the deck in the card case to end.

Notes Spread Turnover Switch

Photo 26

Photo 27

I won’t claim credit for this move because, although I’ve never seen it elsewhere, it seems so obvious that someone else has probably thought of it. Assume you want to switch four indifferent cards for the four aces. The aces are on top of the face down deck. Spread through the deck and remove four random cards. As you square the deck, get a break under the aces with your left little finger. Turn the indifferent cards face up on the deck. Spread them and take them from underneath in your right hand. The thumb is at the inner end, middle finger at the far end (photo 24). Turn your wrist so the spread faces the audience, your thumb at the bottom. Rotate your wrist back and bring the spread back to the deck again as in photo 24. Turn the spread perpendicular to the deck and tap it on the deck, squaring the cards as in photo 25. Begin to turn the packet face down. As it nears being squared with the deck, several things happen almost simultaneously. You’re still holding a left little finger break under the four aces. Grip them between your right thumb and ring finger, still holding the indifferent packet between right thumb and middle finger (similar to the hype move position in three card monte). See photo 26. Release the middle finger’s grip on the indifferent packet and pin the packet onto the deck with your left thumb (photo 27). In a continuing motion, slide the aces off the deck, leaving the indifferent cards behind (photo 28). The entire maneuver, from turning the indifferent cards over to pulling the aces off the deck, should take less than one second.

Photo 28

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Dearly Departed

I

have always considered Alex Elmsley’s “Point of Departure” to be one of the greatest card tricks ever invented. Of the many variations in print, my favorite (and the one I performed whenever I could in my professional work) is “Timely Departure” from Smoke and Mirrors by John Bannon. Occasionally, however, after the selections disappeared from the pack, one or more spectators would jump to the conclusion that the selections were among the cards that had been removed before the selection process started, when in reality they reappear face up in the face down deck. I thought the trick would play stronger for me if I could meet this expectation. Judging from the feedback I’ve received performing it this way, I was correct! Effect: A deck of cards is freely and fairly shown front and back. You shuffle the cards and let several members of the audience cut the deck. Three spectators are invited to help you with a little experiment. Each selects a “card of mystery” which is set on the table without anyone seeing it’s face. After the three cards are selected, the deck is again shuffled and cut by the spectators. A spectator selects a number between one and thirteen, which is shared with the other two assistants but not with you. You now show each of your helpers thirteen cards, and each remembers the card at the position corresponding to the chosen number. Remarking that you will now attempt to find the mentally selected cards, you spread through the face up deck, but to the utter surprise of the assistants, their cards have vanished! You remind them of the mystery cards in front of them, which they selected when you first started the experiment. They turn these cards over—they are the selections! The three selections are inserted face down into the face down deck. With no false moves and just a snap of your fingers, they instantly turn face up in the otherwise still face down deck! Requirements and preparation: To perform this, you will require a deck of cards and three duplicates of your force cards whose backs match the deck. For example, assume the three duplicate cards you’re using are the JS, 2H and 10C. Spread the deck face up and remove those three cards, placing them with the duplicates. Now remove the JC, 2D and 10C (mates of the force cards) and discard them. Refer to photo 1. Also, remove any three-spot. Set one set of the force cards in the deck at these positions (from the top of the face down deck: JS-3rd; 2H-16th; 10C-29th. Place the remaining four cards face down on top of the deck, with the JS on top, followed by the 2H, 10C and the three-spot. See photo 2.

Photo 1

Finally, crimp the bottom card of the deck (I use a Nash Infinity Crimp, although a Breather Crimp or corner crimp would also work), and you’re ready to go. Photo 2

Scott F. Guinn

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

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Method and performance: Give the deck a Charlier Shuffle (see notes) as you enlist three people (Mike, Phyllis and Kristi) to help you. Let each of them give the deck one straight cut. Take the deck face down into left dealers grip and cut the crimped card to the center, getting a pinky break below it. Riffle Force (page 52) or Classic Force the JS on Mike, the 2H on Phyllis and the 10C on Kristi. Have them set the cards on the table in front of them without looking at the faces, as you explain that these are the “cards of mystery.” Explain that there are 13 different values in a deck, the ace being one, the jack eleven, queen twelve and king thirteen. As you talk, casually double undercut the crimped card to the bottom of the deck. Slip Force (see notes) the three spot on Mike and have him show it to Phyllis and Kristi. Have the card returned in the bottom quarter of the deck (below the 39th card). Tell them that you are going to show each of them, in turn, thirteen cards. They are to remember the card at the position of the value matching the card they just saw. “For example, if that card was a nine, remember the 9th card I show you. Don’t look for another nine--remember the 9th card. If it was a queen, remember the 12th card, a two the second card, etc. Also, let me go through all thirteen cards—don’t give me any indication of which position Mike chose.” Make sure they understand before going further! Start with Mike. Take the top card off the deck into your right hand. Turn its face toward Mike as you count “One.” (photo 3) Take the next card below the first (photo 4), show it to Mike (photo 5) and count “Two.” Repeat this until you’ve shown thirteen cards. Set the cards on the deck, holding a break under them, and double undercut them to the bottom of the deck. Repeat this procedure with Phyllis and then with Kristi. After double undercutting the third packet to the bottom, the JS will be 13th, the 2H 26th and the 10C 39th.

Photo 6

Say that you are going to try to locate their mentally selected cards by intuition. “I’ll turn groups of cards face up and show them to each of you. Don’t tell me what your card is, just tell me if you see it in the group, and then I’ll attempt to tell you which one it is.” Push over twelve cards (four groups of three) without calling attention to the number. Turn them face up on the deck and spread them again, also spreading the first face down card (photo 6). Show the spread to Mike, asking if he sees his card in this group. Then show it to Phyllis and then to Kristi. Square the spread and lift it, along with the first face down card underneath( photo 7), and place the packet on the table.

Photo 7

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Push over twelve more cards and repeat the process: turn them face up and re-spread (getting a break under the first face down card), show the cards to each assistant (asking if they see their selections), square and lift the packet along with that first face down card, and drop the packet on top of the cards on the table. Do this one more time. You will be left with ten cards. Turn these face up and show them to the spectators, again asking if they see their cards. They will be amazed that they don’t. Apparently, all three selections have completely vanished!

Magishing My Way

Photo 8

Pick up the face up tabled packet (exercising caution so as not to let it spread and reveal any of the three face down cards) and drop it onto the face up packet in your hand. Turn the whole deck over and table it face down. As you do this, ask what the three selections were. Then say, “Remember the ‘cards of mystery?’ Please turn over the cards in front of you.” They turn over the cards they selected at the very beginning to find their mentally selected cards! Take these cards from them and insert them face down into different parts of the tabled deck. Snap your fingers, pause for dramatic effect, and ribbon spread the deck to show the three selections have magically turned face up!

Photo 9

Notes Charlier Shuffle This is a very easy but quite convincing false shuffle. Hold the packet in left hand dealer’s grip. Push several cards on the top to the right with your left thumb. Take these cards in your palm up right hand at the fork of the thumb (photo 8) and move them away to the right. Now, with your left fingers, push some cards from the bottom to the right. The right hand takes these cards above the ones it holds (photo 9) and moves away to the right. Keep alternating, taking cards from the top and then the bottom of the left hand’s packet. Just remember, cards from the top in the left hand go on the bottom in the right hand, and cards from the bottom of the left hand go on top in the right hand!

Photo 10

Slip Cut/Force Hold the deck in left-hand dealers grip. Riffle down the outer left corner with the thumb, asking a spectator to stop you somewhere. When he does, perform a slip cut at the break as follows. Bring the right hand over the deck in Biddle Grip. The left middle, ring and pinky fingers curl over the right side of the deck onto the top card (photo 10). As the right hand pivots the top portion away from the bottom portion, the left fingers hold the top card back (photo 11, exposed) and both hands turn palm up, the left forefinger pointing to the face card of the right packet (photo 12). Explain that, had he stopped you one card earlier, this exposed card would have been the selection. Turn the hands palm down and give him the top card of the left-hand packet as his “freely chosen card.” This is the original top card—the force card..

Photo 11

Photo 12

Chapter Three: Worth the Trouble In this chapter you’ll find three routines that require a bit more effort. The first requires a special deck (it can be done without one, although not as effectively). For the second, you’ll need two extra packets of cards, one of which is gaffed and the other prepared in advance. The third routine demands a plethora of “extras”. But, as the title above says, the impact on the audience makes them “worth the trouble!” Mr. Collins Opus • McCall of the Wild The Legend of Scott Star, Trader Vic & “Slick Jack” Spade •

•

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Mr. Collins’ Opus

U

nfortunately, Stanley Collins is a name that is virtually unknown to today’s magicians. That’s a shame, because he had some great material in his books, all of which are now out of print. He died in 1966, but the British magician was one of the true legends of magic. The following routine is based on Mr. Collins’ effect, “Mystification Follows Explanation” from his book, A Conjuring Melange. I have made the effect considerably easier to do, strengthened the illusion of the selections having multiple duplicates, and added a kicker ending. Effect: You shuffle a deck of cards and enlist the help of Fred and Shirley. Each selects a card and commits it to memory. The deck is cut in half, and one selection is returned to and lost in each half. You ask Shirley for a number from one to five. You deal that many cards into a pile, which you then shuffle until she stops you. She names her card and you turn the packet face up. On the face is her selection! This process is repeated with Fred with the same result. Next you show that all the cards in each packet are duplicates of the selection. They each choose one of these duplicates, but the selections are shown to have transposed! Finally, the remaining fifty cards are turned face up to reveal fifty jokers! Requirements and preparation: This can be done with a normal deck, but you’ll miss out on a terrific finish. Get a one way forcing deck (I highly recommend all jokers) and two obvious cards (i.e. the JS and AH) for your force cards. Method and performance: Begin by forcing the JS on Fred and the AH on Shirley. I start with the cards on top and then cut the deck and classic force them. If you can’t do the classic force, put the JS on top of the deck and the AH on the bottom. False shuffle or cut and then do the crosscut force (see notes), giving Fred and Shirley the “cards that were on either side of the cut.”

Photo 1

As they look at their cards, give the deck a couple of genuine shuffles and then cut it in half. Hold the first half in your hand and let Shirley replace the AH near the center. Control it to the top of the packet. Ask Shirley to give you a number between one and five. Deal that many cards face down on the table. Set the rest of the packet off to the side. Pick up the dealt cards (the AH is at the face, so be careful not to let it flash!). Hold the packet in your right hand in preparation for an overhand shuffle. Do the first action of the “milk-build;” that is, the left hand holds back the top and bottom cards as the right hand pulls the packet upward (photo 1). Immediately replace the rest of the packet in front of the left hand cards (photo 2) and repeat the procedure. Continue doing this until Shirley tells you to stop. If you keep a steady rhythm going, this is a very convincing false shuffle, particularly with a small packet of cards.

Photo 2

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When Shirley stops you, square the packet face down in left dealers grip. Ask her to name her card. After she does, flip the packet face up to reveal the AH. You should get a good reaction here. Drop the packet on the table face up, taking care not to let the cards spread. Turn your attention to Fred. Ask him if he’d like to see you do that with his card. Pick up the other half of the deck, have Fred’s card returned and control it to the top. Ask him for a number between one and five and deal that number of cards onto the table. Set the remainder of the packet on top of the other discarded half of the deck. Pick up the cards you just dealt and repeat the milk-build shuffle until Fred says stop. Turn the packet face up to reveal the JS, Fred’s chosen card! Remark that finding his card really wasn’t all that difficult, and do the Rhumba Count (page 45) to show every card in the packet is a JS. As you “show” the cards, deal them into a face down pile on the table. When you’re left with only the JS, slide it under the rest of the pile. Pick up Shirley’s pile and do the Rhumba Count to show all of the cards as the AH. When only the AH is left, take it with your right hand and use it to scoop up the rest of Shirley’s pile. Square the cards and do the Vernon Transfer (page 44), loading the AH on top of Fred’s pile as you pick it up and set Shirley’s pile aside. False Overhand Shuffle, retaining the JS on the face and the AH on top by running the cards singly through the entire packet twice. Force the AH on Fred, asking him to set it face down on the table in front of him without looking at it. As you square the rest of the packet in right Biddle Grip, bring it over Shirley’s packet, angle-jog the bottom card and do the Vernon Transfer. This time you load the JS onto Shirley’s packet as you pick it up with the right hand, while the left tables the rest of the packet. Force the JS on Shirley, asking her to set it face down in front of her without looking at it. Set the rest of her packet on Fred’s packet and then place this combined packet on the rest of the deck. Ask Fred and Shirley what cards they think are in front of them. They should say the AH and JS. Say, “You’re right! Take a look.” When they turn the cards over, indeed, they find the selected cards, but the JS is in front of Shirley, while Fred has the AH! The cards have magically transposed. Finally, remind them of your “little secret” for locating their cards—all those duplicates. Ask them not to tell anyone, because then they’ll want to see you do it with different cards. “On second thought, I guess that really wouldn’t matter. Jokers are wild!” Ribbon spread the deck face down on the table as you deliver the first sentence. During the second sentence, do a spread turnover, revealing all the other cards in the deck are jokers! (If you’re using a regular deck, simply drop the joker line.) Give this trick a test run on a real audience. It’s a winner!

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Notes Sometimes the transposition part of the effect can be confusing. So if I get people who aren’t as “into” my performance as I’d like, or they’ve had a few drinks or are easily distracted, I skip the transpo, toss the card at the last count of the Rhumba on the table face up each time, drop the rest of the packets on the deck and spread the deck face up to finish. This version still plays extremely well.

Photo 3

The Crosscut Force (aka the Crisscross Force) This may be the simplest force there is as far as technical ability goes. However, it requires some time misdirection to pull it off successfully. The force card can be either on top or bottom (or, in the case of the preceding routine, two force cards are used, one on the top and one on the bottom). Set the deck face down on the table and ask a spectator to cut the cards near the center. When he lifts a packet off the deck, ask him to set his packet on the table. Pick up the remaining packet and place it on top of the other at an angle (photo 3), commenting that you will mark the spot where he cut. Patter for a few moments and then lift the upper packet and give him the necessary card: • If the force card was on top of the deck, it will be the top card of the lower portion. • If the force card started at the face of the deck, it will be the face card of the upper portion. • If you are using two force cards as in “Mr. Collins’ Opus,” give the spectators both of the above cards.

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McCall of the Wild

W

ild Card” is, arguably, the greatest packet trick of all time. My one qualm with it is that most versions don’t really have a climax. One card changes after another until all eight match the wild card and you end. The same effect repeated eight times in a row. Yawn! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great trick—I just think it needs a finish. I believe I’ve come up with an ending unlike anything you’ve seen before with this effect, and I’ll tell you, it is devastating! Also, the “wild card” is a spectator’s selection, and you end clean. You can even let the spectator keep the packet! Intrigued? Read on! Effect: After doing a number of card effects, you hand the deck to Adrian, asking her to deal the cards, counting them as she does, until she reaches her favorite number between one and fiftytwo. Assume her number was 32. She deals down to the 32nd card, which we’ll say is the 5S. She sets the 5S on the table and places the rest of the deck aside. You remove a small envelope, from which you extract eight jokers. You show the jokers front and back, and then add the 5S to the packet. Commenting that jokers are wild, you touch the 5S to the jokers and they visibly transform into duplicates of the 5S! Again, you show the fronts and backs of all nine of these cards, dropping them on the table in a face down packet. “What amazes me,” you say, “is not that the jokers changed into threes, but that you somehow knew that 32 was my favorite number!” Adrian seems unconvinced. “I can prove it!” you retort. “Before I gave you the deck, I placed my favorite card at the 32nd position! And my favorite card is the five of spades!” Adrian becomes even more skeptical, and asks how she can be sure that the 5S is your favorite card. “Well,” you reply, “obviously, because it was 32nd—my favorite number!” Adrian is now absolutely positive you are putting her on. “I’ll prove it,” you exclaim, exasperated. “Turn those cards over!” Adrian turns the packet face up, and written across the face of all nine duplicate fives of spades are the words, “My Favorite!” Everything may be completely examined, and, if you like, she can keep the cards as a souvenir. Requirements and preparation: Here are the physical materials you need to perform this exactly as written above: • A deck of cards • A “wild card” packet, consisting (for example) of four dupes of the 5S, the backs of which match the deck, and four double-facers, with the 5S on one side and jokers on the other (instead of jokers, you could also use blank-backed cards). This packet is kept in a small pay envelope. • Nine regular dupes of the 5S, also with backs that match your deck. On the face of each of these, you have written, “My Favorite!” (photo 1) • Here’s the part where most of you are going to run away. The deck is a memorized stack. Now don’t panic! If you don’t have a Photo 1 memorized stack and are not good at estimation, you can always just force the card. But to do the routine as I’ve described it, you’ll need to have the memorized deck. It also makes the selection seem much more fair, and since the spectator is the one dealing, it seems impossible that you could have any control over the outcome.

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Set the ‘Wild Card” packet in the following order, from the face of the face up packet: the four double-facers (DF), all with the joker face up, followed by the four face up 5S dupes. Place the packet in the envelope so that it will be face down when you remove it. Put the “Favorite” dupes packet in your left pants pocket, faces away from your leg. Put the deck in memorized order, and you’re all set! Method and performance: After doing a few effects that don’t disturb the order of your stack, cut the first card of the stack to the top of the deck. Ask Adrian to tell you her favorite number between one and fifty-two. Quickly do the mathematics mentally to figure out how many cards you need to move from top to bottom or vice versa in order to put the force card at her number. For example, she chose thirty-two and the force card is the 5S. In the stack I use (Martin Joyal’s), the 5S is 20th from the top, so I would need to move 12 cards from bottom to top. Using estimation (or a thumb count), I would get a break above the bottom 12 cards and transfer them to the top with a pass. The 40th card in Joyal’s stack is the 2H, so I would glimpse the bottom card to make sure it was the 2H (52-12=40, meaning the 40th card is at the face of the deck). If not, I would make the necessary adjustments as I asked Adrian if she wanted to change her mind. Before she could answer, I would say, “Never mind, it’s best to stay with your first thought.” Then I would hand her the deck. (Remember, if you can’t do a pass and/or don’t have a stack memorized, you can just force the 3S on her. Just use a good, clean force, like the slip force, Hofzinser Spread Force or classic force. This is not the time to use the crosscut, Balducci or Hindu shuffle force!) Once Adrian has the deck, ask her to deal the cards one at a time into a pile on the table, counting them as she deals. She is to stop when she reaches the 32nd card and hold on to it. After she complies, have her set the deck aside and place the 3S face up on the table. Bring out the envelope and slide the face down packet into view. Replace the envelope in your right side coat pocket. Casually spread the top three cards, showing four backs. Mention that you’d like to try an experiment with these cards and Adrian’s selection.

Photo 2

Hold the three spread cards in your right hand as your left hand, still holding the packet, turns palm down and picks up the tabled 3S on the back of the packet (photo 2).

Turn the left hand palm up and drop the right hand cards on top. (At no point thus far should you call attention to how many cards are in your right hand or the packet.) Spread four cards, showing five backs (photo 3). Close the spread, obtaining a pinky break under four cards.

Photo 3

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Flip the packet face up into left dealers grip in the following manner. Grip the packet between the right middle finger at the outer right corner, and the right thumb at the inner right corner (photo 4). Turn the packet over sideways to the left, where the cards above the break automatically angle-jog, forming a step to the left (photo 5—this is Marlo’s “Automatic Book Break”). The step is hidden by your right hand. Instantly use your left pinky to pull the cards flush with the packet, catching a break above the bottom four cards of the face up packet.

Carry out a Veeser Count as follows. Grip the packet in a deep dealers grip (well into the fork of the left thumb and behind the left forefinger) . Your left thumb holds back the top card as the right hand strips out the cards above the break (photo 6), leaving the top card and the bottom four cards behind in the left hand as one card (hold a pinky break under the top card). Immediately draw the next three cards singly off the top of the right packet onto the left, and you will be holding a single, regular 3S in the right hand. Bring this onto the left packet briefly, before repeating the first move of the count as described above. As you do the count, say, “I’ll use one, two three, four jokers, your card, and four more jokers.” One-hand fan the cards in your right hand to show four jokers as you say the last phrase.

Magishing My Way

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Drop the fan of jokers face up on the table and then flip the remaining cards face down and deal the first four face down on the table (photo 7). Say, “These jokers go face down.” Flip the last card face up as you say, “I’ll hang on to your card.”

What follows is my minor variation of Flip’s Wild Card routine. Pick up the four face up jokers and drop them onto the selection. Take the packet in right Biddle grip. Reverse count them into your left hand and do a through-the-fist flourish (see notes) to secretly turn the packet over. The 3S is still on top when the packet comes out of the fist, so no chicanery is suspected. Immediately take the packet into right Biddle grip and reverse count into your left hand, holding a break under the fourth card. This shows four 3S dupes and a face down card (photo 8). Say, “The jokers have changed into copies of your card, but look what happened to your card!”

Photo 7

Photo 8

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Square the packet, getting a pinky break below two cards. Double turnover to show a joker and double turnover again. Pull off the top card and deal it face down to the right end of the row on the table and then deal the four D/F dupes in a row on the table from left to right (photo 9). Rub the selection on the table and turn it face up to show it has changed back into the 3S. Photo 9

Pick up the face down cards and drop them onto the face up row, so there is a face down card atop each of the D/F’s, as in photo 10. Pause for a beat and then turn each face down card face up in place to show they have all changed into 3S dupes as well (photo 11).

Photo 10

Pick up the pair at the right end of the row and drop it onto the next pair from the right. Pick up these four and drop them onto the next pair. Pick up all six and drop them on the next pair. Finally, pick up all eight and drop them onto the single card. Place the packet in left dealers grip.

Photo 11

Photo 12

Photo 13

To show all the cards have backs, we will use Daryl’s handling of the Olram Subtlety. Push over the top card and take it in the right hand. Turn both hands palm down, showing two backs. Turn the hands palm up again, and, almost simultaneously, drop the right card and thumb off the face card from the left packet. Time this so that the left card hits the table first and the right card lands on top of it, outjogged about halfway (photo 12). Repeat this display until you are left with one card in the left hand. Take it in the right hand and use it to scoop up the packet, aligning it with the injogged cards. Turn the still-jogged packet face down into your left hand. The back of the card you used for a scoop shows, covering the face up cards that are injogged, and all of the outjogged cards have backs. Bring the right hand over the packet and use the right fingers to wiggle the outjogged cards backward one at a time until the packet is flush (photo 13). This is a very convincing display, and your audience will be in shock. Now we’re going to push them over the edge!

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Take the packet in right Biddle grip. Ask Adrian to turn the deck face up and run through it to make sure there are no more 5S in it. As she does this, casually place your left hand into your pants pocket and classic palm the packet of cards there. Bring the hand out and set the right-hand packet into left dealers grip directly above the palmed cards, effectively hiding them (photo 14). Remark that you aren’t as amazed by the changing of the cards as you are that Adrian somehow knew your favorite number was 32. When she seems doubtful, say, “I can prove it! Before I gave you the deck, I put my favorite card 32nd from the top! And my favorite card is the three of spades!” Adrian will grow even more skeptical and ask how she is supposed to believe that the 3S is your favorite card. Reply, “Well, obviously, because it was at my favorite number—32!” Everyone will laugh (or groan) here, and it’s as they do that you execute a Hellis Switch— bring the right hand over the exposed cards in the left hand in Classic Palm position (photo 15). Palm the cards and curl the hand inward, gripping the edges of the newly exposed packet, lifting it off the left palm, as in photo 16. Drop the exposed packet on the table. (Don’t sweat this. Everyone’s relaxed and they think the trick is over.) Immediately reach into the right side coat pocket, ditch the gaffed packet and come back out with the envelope, which you set on the table. Say, “Actually, I really can prove that the three of spades is my favorite card. Turn those cards face up.” Adrian turns the packet over to find that written on the face of each card are the words “My Favorite!” Believe me, everyone will want to check out those cards! After they have, place them in the envelope and either give them to Adrian or put them away. Oh, and don’t try to do another card trick after this!

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Notes Through the Fist Flourish Created by Dai Vernon, this is a very easy flourish to do. Set the packet (or card) on your palm, long edge along the base of the fingers, as in photo 17. As the hand turns over, curl the fingers onto the packet and push the packet through the hand with your thumb (photo 18). The packet is now reversed from its original position.

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The Legend of Scott Star, Trader Vic & “Slick Jack” Spade

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f you enjoy storytelling, the Old West, strong card magic and giving your audience a fun time, this is the feature presentation piece for you! I only recently developed this piece, and it’s already more than exceeded my expectations. You may want to change the patter slightly to suit your needs.

Effect: Technically and methodologically, this is nothing more than a card location. But in regards to entertainment value, I have seen nothing that matches it! I know that’s a bold statement, but try it and prove me wrong! In a nutshell, you tell a story of the old west and a card game where a stranger shows up to play with the two heroes. In the course of the story, you find a signed selection in a novel way, along with a few other surprises! Requirements and preparation: You’ll need to gather the following items to do this routine, but it will be well worth it! 1. “The Dark Card” from the Camirand Academy of Magic (also available from dealers, but if you can, buy directly from Guy Camirand—tell him Scott from Idaho sent you!) 2. A red deck of Bicycle Rider backs 3. A black Sharpie marker 4. A hole punch 6. A cigarette and lighter (no, I don’t smoke—it’s to prepare a card!)

First, we’ll prepare the JS. Remove it from your deck. Punch a hole through the card in the patterned area just below the hand—right where the heart would be. Light the cigarette and use it to burn the edges of the hole (photo 1). Put the cigarette out and dispose of it without smoking it—it’s a matter of life and breath!

Photo 1

On the back of the card, use the marker to write “WANTED” across the top. Below the hole, write, “Known killer and card cheat!” (photo 2)

Photo 2

On top of the prepared jack, attach the red “Dark Card.” (We’re not using the gaff to change the card’s color, but to hide the hole and writing on the back.) If possible, use a Dark Card that is a face card, as this will help to better camouflage the hole from the front. However, this is not essential, as the handling will take care of this to a large degree.

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Remove the following cards from the deck and place them in this order, face down from the top: QH, AC, 10C, KS, AH, 9C, KD, AS, 8C, QD, AD, 7C, KC, any indifferent card, 6C. Place this packet on top of the deck, drop the gaffed JS on top of everything and case the deck. Place the marker and deck into their respective pockets, and you are prepared to perform. Method and performance: Remove the deck and the pen. Hand the pen to a male spectator. Uncase the deck and overhand jog shuffle as follows. Take about a third of the deck on the first chop. Run one card, injogging it, and shuffle off (photo 3). Pick up a break under the injogged card with your right thumb as you square the deck. Shuffle fairly to the break and throw the remainder on top. If you want to do a slip force or crisscross force, stop here and force the jack of spades. If you prefer to do a dribble force or classic force, do the first part of the above shuffle again. Get a break under the jogged card and force it. In any case, after you’ve forced the card, turn it face up on the reassembled deck (making sure the setup goes back to the top!), covering the hole with your thumb (photo 4). Ask the gentleman to sign his name on the card, as you extend the left hand. Hold it for him as he signs it. Bring your hand up to your face and blow on the card, helping the ink to dry. Read the man’s name from the card (assume it’s Ray Miller) and pause contemplatively. Then remark, “Wow, that’s very interesting. You just reminded me of something.” Turn the card face down with your right hand and insert it into the deck from your end, about 35 cards down (photo 5). If you hold the deck firmly with your left hand, the Dark Card gaff will separate from the jack (photo 6) and attach itself to an indifferent card. Give the deck a couple of false cuts, and begin to tell the story: Often, people ask me how I got into card magic. I’m the first magician in my family, but the Guinn men have always known how to handle a pack of cards. In fact, my great grandfather, whom I was named after, was a mighty fine poker player in his day. He was also the very popular sheriff of the town of Star, Idaho in the late 1800’s. He came to be known as Scott Star, and had the reputation of being the fairest, gentlest man you’d ever meet—unless you got on the wrong side of him or the law. Then you’d just as soon have the devil himself after you. At least the devil might give you the chance to bargain for your life with your firstborn son, or for your freedom with your

Photo 3

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soul. With Scott Star, you’d get no such offer. Well, as I said, Scott was a pretty fair poker player, and since not much in the way of crime happened very often in Star, he spent more than a little time in Sam’s Saloon playing cards with his old friend and deputy, Trader Vic. Vic was an accomplished poker player as well, and both men enjoyed playing, but the real reason the two spent so much time at Sam’s place was the help. Vic was sweet on Lori Longlash, the lady bartender. As for Scott, he had his eye on Miss Kristi, the dancing girl and waitress. They say both women were beautiful, with hair the color of an Idaho sunset. One evening, Scott and Vic were just sitting down to their game when a stranger walked into the saloon. The sheriff was instantly suspicious when the man walked right up and asked if he could sit in on the game. Scott looked at Vic, but the deputy just shrugged, so against his better judgment he let the stranger join the game. The three men played late into the night, each losing about as much as winning. Finally, they agreed to play one more hand, winner takes all. It was the sheriff’s turn to deal, so he shuffled a few times and let the stranger cut. Give the deck a few false shuffles and a false cut. He dealt out the cards, five to each of them, right off the top of the deck. Like I said, he was a fair man. Deal out three hands of five cards and table the deck. Trader Vic smiled and said, “Sorry fellas! Read ‘em and weep!” He turned over his hand—a full house, kings over queens. Turn the first hand face up to reveal the full house (photo 7). Photo 7

As Vic started to reach for the pot, the stranger cried out, “Hold on there, partner! A full house is a fine hand alright, but where I come from, it don’t beat four aces!” Turn up the second hand to show the four aces (photo 8).

Photo 8

The stranger was grinning from ear to ear as he reached for the money. Just as he got to it, Scott Star’s hand came down on his, clamping it to the table. “Not so fast, stranger!” said

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Scott. The stranger’s face went white as the sheriff turned up his cards—a straight flush! Turn the third hand face up (photo 9). The stranger seemed to take it pretty well. He shrugged, stood up and said, “You win, fair and square. Thanks for letting me play.” Then he turned to go. Scott started to put away his winnings, but froze when he heard Miss Kristi and Lori Longlash scream. The stranger was standing across the table wielding a knife. “I’ll take that money!” he snarled. “Nobody does me like that! Besides, I noticed you boys don’t even load your guns!”

Photo 9

“Don’t normally need to,” Scott replied calmly. “It’s not every day that someone like Slick Jack Spade comes into town.” The stranger’s jaw dropped. “How’d you know my name?” he asked. “Simple,” the sheriff answered. “You’re standing right in front of your wanted poster, signed by Judge Miller himself.” When Slick Jack turned to see the poster, Scott and Trader Vic leapt into action. Vic jumped over the bar, knocking Lori and Kristi to the floor, while Scott, quick as a whip, reached into his pocket and pulled out a bullet. He loaded it into his gun and fired. Form your right hand into a gun, like a little kid playing cops and robbers. Pretend to put a bullet in the right hand. Bring your right thumb down as if firing the gun. Point your finger upward and blow on it, as if blowing smoke from the gun barrell. Slick Jack Spade never saw it coming. The bullet went clean through his chest and right through his wanted poster, signed by the judge himself, the Honorable Ray Miller. Ribbon spread the cards, revealing part of the writing on the back of the JS (photo 10). Slowly remove it from the spread, allowing the “bullet hole” to come into view and let everyone read the “Wanted Poster.” Then turn the card over to reveal it is the signed selection (photo 11).

Photo 10

A picture of Jack Spade, signed by Ray Miller. That’s what reminded me of the story! Give the card to the man and take your bows. Photo 11

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Notes While this is a very strong card routine, it is much more than that. It is driven by the story, and if you can tell the story well, the routine becomes more than a card trick. It becomes an event—a memory ingrained for a very long time in the minds of the audience. Some people have actually believed this was a true story! So learn the workings so well that you can put all of your focus into the delivery of the story. Talk faster and more loudly during the showdown between the stranger and the sherrif, and talk more slowly, lowering your voice to almost a whisper as the bullet goes into the poster. Take a dramatic pause before turning it over, and then very slowly, clearly and dramatically deliver the last line. To add to the whole ambience of this routine, I often add the following bit. I put a .45 bullet in a cigarette pull (available from most any magic dealer). The end of the elastic is pinned to the left shoulder seam of my shirt, such that the bullet hangs about an inch or so from the end of my jacket sleeve. When I get to the part where Scott Star shoots Jack Spade, I reach into my pocket, where the left hand bends inward and grasps the bullet. I bring my hand out of my pocket with the bullet at my fingertips (pull hidden behind hand) as if I had retrieved it from the pocket. I pretend to place it into my right hand, actually letting it fly up my sleeve. I “fire” the gun and then open my right hand to show the bullet is gone. This little “extra bit” really adds to the entertainment value of the routine. If you want to soup this up even more, get the “Smoke 2000” gimmick and some of the “Fingertip Flash” powder that you put on your fingertips that makes a loud bang when you snap your fingers. When you “fire” the gun, snap your fingers and press the bulb of the smoke unit. The audience hears a bang, sees a puff of smoke, and the bullet is gone. This gets a tremendous reaction! Of course, you’d have to be careful with the powder and how you obtain it, so as not to get it on the cards or set it off prematurely. I know most of you won’t go to the time and effort to make up and learn this routine. That’s fine with me! It means it will remain an exclusive item for a select few. Perhaps in the future, I’ll market this with all the necessary props. Or, maybe not!

Chapter Four: Double Time Card effects that require two decks are often scorned by most magicians. This is a shame, because they can be truly awesome tricks! I understand that they are not for every situation, but just because you can’t always do something doesn’t mean you should never do it! All I know is the two tricks in this chapter are absolute KILLERS! Tri-Optical Illusion Brundle-Fly Transposition •

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Tri-Optical Illusion

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have always enjoyed the old triple prediction effect. This effect is typically accomplished with either a switch, the “one-ahead” principle, or the use of duplicate cards. As far as I know, what follows is a new approach to this effect. It is very easy and very deceptive. Some of you will read this and pass over it. I think that is a mistake! Those who learn and perform it will have an extremely convincing and amazing routine in their arsenal! Effect: You show a red deck front and back. You then remove three predictions, which you place, face up, in a row on the table. The rest of the deck is set aside. Now you bring into play a blue deck. It is spread face down on the table and Zach chooses any three cards. As each is chosen, he is given an opportunity to change his mind, and then to decide on which of the predictions he wants his selection placed. It is placed face down on top of the selection of his choosing. When he has chosen all three cards, you pick up the blue deck and spread it face up, commenting that he could his choices could have been very different. The blue deck is cased. You flip over each pair of cards on the table. Incredibly, Zach chose the very same cards from the blue deck as the predictions you removed from the red deck!

Photo 1

Requirements and preparation: You will require a red deck, a red/ blue double-back deck (D/B) of the same brand as the red deck, ten regular blue cards from a deck that matches the blue side of the double-backers, and three “repeater” double-facers (D/F). These cards have the same face on both sides. For explanation purposes, we’ll assume the D/F cards are the JD, 10C and KC. You will find these three cards in a standard Bicycle D/F deck available from magic dealers. Make sure that none of the regular blue cards match the D/ F cards (photo 1). Place this deck in the blue case.

Remove the regular JD, KC and 10C from the red deck. Place the D/ F cards in this deck, in the following positions from the face: JD, 1st; KC, 4th; 10C, 7th. See photo 2. Place this deck in the red card case. Photo 2

Remove ten cards from the D/B deck and discard them. Hold the deck so that the red backs face upwards. Place five of the regular blue cards face up on the top and the other five on the bottom of the deck (photo 3). Photo 3

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Method and performance: Remove the red deck and spread it face down between your hands, stopping before you reach the D/F cards near the bottom. Cut about half the deck to the bottom and turn the deck face up. Fairly spread through the entire deck. Tell Zach that you are going to break tradition. “Normally, when a magician sets a card down as a prediction, he sets it face down, so you can’t see what it is. I’m going to make three predictions, but I’ll let you see what they are.” Spread through the face up deck again, removing the D/F cards and setting them in a row on the table. Place the rest of the deck back in the card box, the back of the top card toward the half moon cutout, as shown in photo 4. Remove the “blue” deck from its case, and fairly spread through it face down. Square and hold the deck so that it faces Zach. Explain that you are going to ask him to choose three cards from this deck, but you don’t want him to pick cards near the top or bottom of the deck. As you say this, spread over the top five cards and then the bottom four cards, showing ten indifferent cards (photo 5). Ribbon spread the deck on the table, again displaying all blue backs. Ask Zach to touch a card somewhere in the middle of the deck. When he does, slowly and openly slide that card out of the spread. Ask Zach if he wants to change his mind. If so, put the card back and let him pick another one. Once he’s decided, pick up the card and ask him to tell you which of your predictions to place it on. When you set it on the prediction, placed it jogged about halfway to the left, such that the index and part of the face of the prediction remain in view, as in photo 6. Repeat this process two more times. Scoop up the rest of the deck, and as you review what has taken place so far (you removed three cards from the red deck; he removed three from the blue deck), casually overhand shuffle the top five cards singly into your left hand and then throw the deck on top of them. This places all ten regular cards at the face of the deck. Flip the deck over and casually spread the first nine cards to show ten indifferent cards (photo 7), saying, “You could have chosen any three cards. But you chose those three.” Square the deck. You have apparently fairly showed both sides of the deck to be normal. Place it back in the blue case, the face card toward the half-moon cutout (photo 8). “The three cards I removed from the red deck were the JD, KC and 10C. They have been sitting here, face up in plain view, since the moment I removed them, so there can be no possibility of sleight-of-hand or any such shenanigans on my part. You’ll remember I said that these cards were predictions. After I removed my predictions from the red deck, I let you re-

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move any three cards you wished from the blue deck. In fact, I gave you an opportunity to change your mind and let you decide where each card was placed. Would you agree that this is exactly what has happened? Good! Let’s see how accurate my predictions were!”

Photo 9

Pick up the first pair of cards with your palm up right hand. The fingers “dig” under the cards from the right side, while the thumb keeps them spread (photo 9).

As you turn your hand palm down, draw your thumb in and push out with your fingers, subtly changing the relative positions of the cards, a la the “Optical Move” from “two-card monte” (photo 10).

Photo 10

In a continuing motion, let the D/F drop onto the table and drop the D/B to the right of it (photo 11).

Photo 11

Repeat with the other two pairs, revealing (?) that you correctly predicted which cards Zach would choose (photo 12)! Photo 12

After allowing the effect to sink in, gather the three “red” cards. Open the red case and slide the three cards between the deck and the half moon side of the case. Now gather the three D/F cards. Open the blue case and slide these cards in at the face of the deck. Put both decks away and go onto something else.

Brundle-Fly Transposition Page 88

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Magishing My Way

ere is a butt-kicking transposition with an entertaining presentation, which uses gaffed cards as the method and the effect! Give it a whirl; I think you’ll enjoy it!

Effect: You bring two decks into play, one red and one blue. You shuffle the red deck and let Jennifer select a card (say the 2H). She initials this card on both the front and back, and you place it into the center of the deck. You set the red deck aside and pick up the blue deck. You shuffle this deck as well and then give Andrew his choice of a card (3S), which he also initials front and back. This card is lost in the blue deck, which is then set on the table. You lean back and relate the story of the Jeff Goldblum movie, “the Fly,” explaining that Jeff played a scientist who had invented a teleportation machine. The machine was still experimental, so he could only teleport from one side of the room to the other. You further explain that you are going to try a teleportation experiment of your own, but for safety’s sake, instead of using Andrew and Jennifer, you will use their initialed cards. “The idea is to have Jennifer’s card teleport from the red deck to the blue one, and Andrew’s vice versa.” So saying, you make a mystic waving motion over the decks and then exclaim that it is done. You spread the face up blue deck across the table. There, in the center, is one face down red card with Jennifer’s initials! Next, you spread the face down red deck, revealing Andrew’s initialed 3S face up at the center! You give everyone a moment to calm down and then resume your story. “Of course, if you remember, in the movie the experiment had a tragic and horrific result! Unbeknownst to Dr. Brundle, a fly had been in one of the chambers, so after the teleportation the DNA of the scientist merged with the fly, and the fly’s DNA merged with the man’s! I fear we have had a similar result here today!” You remove the initialed cards and turn the red card over to reveal the other side is a blue back with Andrew’s initials! You turn over the 3S to show the opposite side is Jennifer’s initialed 2H! Let them keep the cards, and keep them they will! Requirements and setup: In addition to a red deck and a blue deck of the same brand, you will need a double-faced card (d/f), which we will say is the 2H/3S for explanation purposes, and a red/blue double-backed card (d/b). You can get these cards from your favorite magic dealers. You’ll also need a Sharpie marker. Remove the 2H from the red deck and the 3S from the blue deck. Put them away—you won’t need them for this effect. Place the blue deck in its case. Hold the red deck face up and cut the regular 3S to the face of the deck. On top of this, place the d/b, blue side facing you. Finally, put the d/f on the d/b, such that the 2H faces you. This setup is displayed in photo 1. Turn the deck face down and put it in the red case.

Photo 1

Scott F. Guinn

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Method and performance: Set the two cased decks on the table. Uncase the blue deck and table it to your left. Remove the red deck from its case and hold it in left dealers grip. Remark that you are going to have Jennifer and Andrew each select a card, one from the red deck and the other from the blue. Say you will start with Jennifer. As you are talking, bring the right hand over the deck in Biddle position and allow three cards from the bottom to riffle off the right thumb. Hold a left pinky break above these cards. Turn your right hand palm up and take the deck with it. Do a “milk-build” overhand shuffle, taking the top few cards onto the bottom three on the first “chop” (photo 2) and then shuffling the rest of the deck on top normally. Cut about a third of the deck to the bottom, holding a pinky break between the packets. Tell Jennifer you want her to select a card from the red deck. Riffle force (page 52) to the break. Pick up all the cards above the break in the right hand, turning them face up. Turn the cards in the left hand face up and replace them under the right hand’s packet (photo 3). Place the whole deck in left dealers grip. The 2H shows at the face. Hand Jen the marker and then extend the deck toward her, asking her to initial the 2H. Bring the deck up to your face and blow on the card to help the ink dry. As the deck is moving, push the top two cards over slightly with your left thumb and get a pinky break under them. After you blow on the card, bring the deck down so that everyone can see the “selection.” Do a double turnover, and immediately push the d/b over to the right about a half- inch (photo 4). As you turn the double over, the audience will see the real 3S on the face, and when you push the d/b over, they see the 3S side of the d/f. They also clearly see the single edge of the d/b and everything appears as it should be. Once again, extend the deck toward Jennifer and ask her to initial the “back” of her card. Bring the deck back toward yourself, do a double turnover immediately followed by a double lift. Set the double on top of the tabled face down blue deck (photo 5). Ostensibly, you do this so you can have both hands free to give the red deck a quick shuffle and spread it face up between your hands, remarking that Jennifer could have chosen any card in the deck. Square the deck into left dealers grip. With your right hand, pick the d/f off the top of the blue deck. The blue side of the d/b shows atop the blue deck, so again, everything seems above board (photo 6). Insert the “2H” (actually d/f) face up into the face up red deck, executing the GUB cop (or use any method you know of secretly stealing the card out of the deck as it’s apparently being inserted—see notes).

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The right hand tables the red deck face up to your left beside the blue deck (crossing in front of the left hand to help provide cover for the copped card—photo 7) and then picks up the blue deck. Place the deck face down on top of the copped d/f (photo 8). Do a milk-build shuffle, taking the top and bottom cards together on the first chop and shuffling off the rest of the deck. Cut about a third of the deck to the bottom, holding a left pinky break between the packets, and repeat the riffle force sequence with Andrew. Have him initial the “3S” and then do a double turnover so that he can initial the “back” of it. Do another double turnover and immediately turn the entire deck face down.

Photo 7

Buckle the bottom card, cut off the top half of the deck with your right hand and reinsert this packet into the break (photo 9), thus centering the d/b and leaving the d/f on the bottom. Slide the deck back and forward in a squaring motion, copping the d/f (photo 10). Table the deck face up with your right hand, crossing to your left and placing it next to the red deck (photo 11). Immediately pick up the red deck, put it directly onto the copped card and cut the deck. Table this deck face down. Do this absentmindedly as you begin to tell the story of “The Fly.” Do your magic gestures or snap your fingers and then ribbon spread the face up blue deck across the table, revealing the red face down card with Jen’s initials at the center of the spread. Pause a beat before ribbon spreading the face down red deck to reveal, at its center, the 3S with Andy’s initials!

Photo 8

Photo 9

After the reaction, resume the patter regarding the unknown presence of the fly in the teleportation pod and the resulting mutation of both victims. Say, “I fear we have had a similar result here today!” Remove the initialed cards and turn them over to reveal that they, too, have fallen victim to the horror and tragedy of a teleportation experiment gone terribly awry! Let them examine everything (you removed the duplicate real cards from each deck before you started, so there’s nothing for them to find!), and allow them to keep the “mutated” cards.

Photo 10

Notes The GUB Cop is explained in my book, Great Scott! It’s Card Magic! If you don’t know it or any other move to cop a card as it’s being inserted into the deck, you can just place the selection on top of the deck, double undercut it to the bottom, and cop it in a back and forth squaring motion.

Photo 11

Section Two:

Cunning Chicanery

Chapter Five: A Familiar Ring Chapter Five contains three routines with borrowed finger rings—the first for close up performance and the other two for parlor or platform. Following them is my routine for one of the classic props in magic, the Jardine Ellis Ring. Stick Around • Wedded Bliss You Bet Your Ring • Jellis •

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Stick Around

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he Ring on Stick is considered by many well-posted magicians to be the single greatest close up effect that can be performed. I feel that most of the routines in the literature are too short; people always want to see this particular effect repeated. The few I have seen that do have repeats don’t have enough variety for my taste—in method or effect. I set about gleaning my favorite sequences from the literature and put together the following routine, which has become a favorite with my audiences. It is also a blast to perform! Effect: A borrowed finger ring penetrates on and off a stick while a spectator holds both ends. This is repeated several times under increasingly difficult conditions!

Photo 1

Requirements and preparation: In order to perform my routine, you’ll need an opaque handkerchief, a rubber band (size #19 is good) and a wand or stick. I use a fairly long chopstick, as the smaller circumference makes the moves easier to do. I say it was a gift from a Chinese magician friend. Place the hanky in your back pocket and the rubber band in a side coat pocket. (I won’t tell you where you can put the stick!) If you want to perform the finale, you will also require Patrick Reymond’s “Deadlock,” with the accompanying two duplicate rings, available from the Camirand Academy of Magic or your favorite dealer. Lock one ring on the real shackle. Place this in your right pants pocket along with the other ring.

Photo 2

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Photo 4

Method and performance: I’ll break this down and explain each sequence individually. A nice feature of this routine is that, after you learn one phase, you can perform it while you are learning the next! 1st Sequence: A borrowed ring penetrates onto the wand while a spectator holds the ends. (Koran) Place the wand under your left arm such that 2/3 of the wand extends to the front. Borrow a ring from a spectator. Hold the ring on your palm up right hand, resting on the first joint of the middle finger (photo 1). As you pretend to dump the ring into your left hand, which closes as if catching it, lift the right ring finger over the left edge of the ring (photo 2), pivoting it to a vertical position and clipping it between the right middle and ring fingers (photo 3). Extend your left hand forward, and move your right hand to the stick. Secretly thread the ring onto the stick as you slide the right hand back to the spot where it meets the right shoulder (photo 4). Pull the stick away and ask a spectator to hold onto both ends. Maintain your grip at the center of the stick, your right hand hiding the threaded ring.

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Bring your left hand up to the stick and flatten your hands together (photo 5). Rub them on the stick for a moment before removing them to show that the ring is on the stick.

Photo 5

2nd Sequence: The ring comes off the wand while a spectator holds the ends. (Brooke) Take the stick, with the ring still threaded on the center, with one hand at each end. Turn your hands perpendicular to the stick and flatten them, such that the ends of the stick are pressed against the hands at the base of the fingers (photo 6).

Photo 6

Tip the stick to the left, allowing the ring to slide down to the left hand. Tip to the right, allowing the stick to slide to the right hand. Repeat this sequence, but when the ring hits the right hand the second time, the fingers immediately close around it, pivoting it off the end of the stick (photo 7), as the left hand simultaneously pushes the stick through the right fist until it is centered (photo 8).

Photo 7

Photo 8

Hold the stick out so the spectator can hold both ends. Bring the left hand up to the right, flatten the palms together and rub them for a moment. Then separate the hands, showing the ring on the left palm, having apparently penetrated the stick (photo 9).

Photo 9

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3rd Sequence: The ring comes off again while a spectator holds the ends. (Vernon) Hold the stick by the left end in your left hand. Hold the ring in spellbound position (photo 10).

Photo 10

Place the ring over the very tip of the stick, exactly as if you were going to thread it onto the stick (photo 11).

Photo 11

Photo 12

Photo 13

Rotate your right hand to the left, pivoting the ring so that it clears the stick (photo 12), and immediately slide your hand to the center of the stick, scraping the ring against the stick as you go. Do this entire sequence in one smooth motion and you will give the perfect illusion of the ring being threaded onto the stick. Ask a spectator to grasp both ends of the stick. Bring your empty left hand up to the stick and flatten both palms together and then rub them briskly. Stop and drop your left hand with the ring on it to reveal the penetration. 4th Sequence: The ring goes back on while a spectator holds the ends. (Vernon) Put the stick under your left armpit as in the first sequence. Hold the ring on the fingers of the palm up right hand exactly as in the first sequence. Using the exact same motions as you did for the Koran false transfer, actually dump the ring in the left hand, which closes around it. The goal here is to make the audience think you’ve kept the ring in the right hand, so as you take the stick with your right hand, pretend to slide the “ring” onto the stick before you take it, fumbling just a bit (photo 13—don’t overdo it!). Ask a spectator to hold the ends. He’ll probably remark that the ring is already on the stick. Ignore the comment and bring your closed left hand under the stick as before, as if about to make the ring penetrate onto the stick again. Flatten the hands together, rubbing them. As you do, thumb palm the ring in the right hand (photo 14).

Photo 14

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Someone will assert that the ring is already on the stick and accuse you of cheating. Pretend to be mildly offended. Remove the closed left hand as if it still held the ring and extend your right fingers, slowly moving your right hand backwards (with the thumb palmed ring) until you clear the stick (photo 15). Take the stick back and tuck it under your left arm as you say that you can’t believe they think so little of you. Ask a spectator on your left to hold your left wrist. As she complies, take the stick in your right hand, secretly threading the ring onto it in the process. Let another spectator hold both ends of the stick. Bring the left hand up to the right, again flattening both hands and rubbing them together. Stop rubbing and slowly remove your hands to show the ring is again on the stick (photo 16). 5th Sequence: The ring is clearly and fairly placed in your hand, which is covered with a hanky. A rubber band secures the hanky around your wrist. The ring vanishes from your hand and reappears on the wand while a spectator holds the ends. (Skinner) Ask a spectator to take the ring off the stick. Place the stick back under your left arm. Remove the hanky and the rubber band. Hand both out to be examined. Extend your empty left hand and ask the person with the ring to set it on your palm. Close your left hand into a fist and turn it palm down. Ask the spectator with the hanky to drape it evenly over your closed left hand. Then ask the person with the rubber band to double it over in a figure eight so that it will be tighter. This is slightly ambiguous, and everyone will look at this person to see what she will do. Take this opportunity to secretly work the ring into heel clip (photo 17, exposed view). Once the rubber band is doubled, instruct the spectator to wrap it around your left wrist, securing the hanky in place. As you say this, sweep your right arm in a clockwise circle around your left hand, just clearing the bottom of the hanky (photo 18). Your left hand drops the ring just as the right hand passes the top of the left hand. As the right hand passes under the left, it catches the ring. A few trials will teach you the timing.

Photo 15

Photo 16

Photo 17

Photo 18

As the right hand moves up to the left armpit to get the stick, maneuver the ring into curl palm (photo 19) The larger motion of the hand and arm covers the smaller motion of the fingers. Thread the ring on the stick as you take it. Once again have a spectator hold both ends of the stick. Photo 19

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Bring the wrapped left hand under the stick (photo 20) and gently repeat the flattening and rubbing motions. Remove your hands to reveal the ring on the stick (photo 21). Let someone remove the rubber band and hanky from your left hand. Openly and emphatically show the hand empty (photo 22).

Photo 20

Photo 21

Finale: The ring is secured on a padlock and covered with a hanky. You bring out your own ring and have the spectator hold both ends of the wand. The ring penetrates onto the wand, but it has changed to the spectator’s ring, and your ring is secured on the padlock! (Reymond/Acer/Guinn) Offer to make the feat more difficult to do. Remove the Deadlock gimmick and “lock” the borrowed ring onto the fake shackle. Cover the ring with the hanky, executing the switch for the duplicate ring and steal off the borrowed ring and fake shackle (as described in the Deadlock instruction manual). Have a spectator hold onto the locked ring through the hanky. Reach into your pocket, ditch the fake shackle, thumb palm the borrowed ring and take the duplicate ring at your fingertips. As you do this, remark that you will also use your ring for this last phase. Bring the hand out of the pocket, displaying the duplicate ring. Openly place this on your left hand and display it to the people on your left as your right hand gets the stick, secretly threading on the thumb palmed borrowed ring.

Ask the person who loaned you the ring to hold both ends of the stick. Bring the left hand, with its ring in clear view, under the stick in the same way as before. This time as you are rubbing the hands together, put the duplicate ring into right thumb palm. When you stop rubbing, slowly move both hands away, showing that a ring is on the stick, but it is the ring you borrowed from the person holding the stick! Let her take it back and ask the person holding the ring on the lock to remove the hanky. As all eyes watch this happen, ditch the duplicate ring in your pocket. Everyone will be amazed to see that your ring is now locked on the shackle of the padlock! Take the hanky back. Fold it and put it in your back pocket, giving everyone time to examine the ring and lock and to verify that it really is locked in place. Then take the lock, leaving the ring on it, and place it in your pocket, secretly reattaching the fake shackle. You are reset!

Notes I know I keep saying this, but in this routine, more than most, it is important to work smoothly, naturally and confidently. This means you will have to put quite a bit of time and effort into learning and remembering the sequences. However, as I stated at the beginning, you can start performing each sequence as you are working on the next. This routine isn’t easy—but you will be very well rewarded for your efforts!

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Listen, my friends, this is magic of a very high order! You are not likely to find many effects that will hold a candle to this one. Why do you think Koran, Vernon, Skinner, et al performed the ring on stick? They aren’t known as the masters for nothing! Credits: I used moves and sequences, in whole or in part, from the following sources: Al Koran’s Professional Presentations; Ken Brooke’s Magic—the Unique Years; Michael Skinner’s Ring on Stick Teach-in Video; and Dai Vernon’s routine in Stars of Magic. Although I may have modified the handlings slightly, the moves still belong to these giants of magic.

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Wedded Bliss

H

ere is my stand-up routine for the marketed effect, “Wedding Rings.” The moment I read about this effect, this presentation leapt into my mind. I bought the trick and “married” it with my presentation, and the result has been so strong that this is now the closer of my corporate and adult banquet stand up shows. Most of the time, it gets a standing ovation! You will need to purchase “Wedding Rings.” It is available from most major dealers, and at the time of this writing, directly from me for $75 + shipping. It is a high-quality, gimmicked brass Master padlock. I will not reveal the method of this fine effect here. Rather I will share my presentation. If you already have the lock, feel free to use this. Preparation: Leave the lock open and set all the dials to zero. Place the lock in a small cloth bag or a case. Give this to someone at the beginning of the show. Make sure that the person has excellent eyesight, as the dials on the lock can be hard to read, particularly in dim light. (We’ll call this person Ted.) Have a bow tie and a long-stemmed rose ready in your case. Performance: “Before I go, I’d like to do one more thing for you. First, if you are married and your spouse is here with you tonight, will you please stand right where you are. Everyone who is married and accompanied by your husband and wife, just stand up right now.” Married couples all over the audience rise. “I’m going to call out some numbers. As I call out each number, if you have been married for FEWER than that many years, please take your seats. We’ll start with five.” A few couples sit. You continue, next calling out ten, then possibly fifteen. Depending on whether many of just a few couples are still standing, you jump up either five years or one year each time. For example, let’s say you’ve been going by fives, and at 25, only six couples are still standing. You would then begin counting by ones, pausing after each number to allow people to sit. Occasionally, you will have the last few couples all sit on the same number. If that happens, ask them all to stand again. Ask them how many months past the last number they’ve been married. This doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. So, let’s assume that at 40, three couples are still standing. At 42, one couple sits. At 44, a second couple sits, leaving only one couple standing. “Ladies and gentleman, this couple has been married longer than anyone here. Please give them a rousing round of applause as they join me on stage!” Typically, this will be an older couple, unless it’s a very young audience. Odds are good that it will take then a while to make it up front. So, after the applause dies down, invite the person holding “the package I gave you to guard at the beginning of the show” to join you on stage as well. Ask the audience to give him a hand, also. By the time he has joined you and the ovation has died out, the older couple will be on stage as well. Have the couple (Burton and Vita) stand

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to your side. Ask Ted to stand on the other side of them. You want everything to be as “handsoff” on your part as possible. Have Ted verify that he has been holding the small package the entire time, and you have not tampered with it, nor has he opened it. Ask him to open it. As he does, have Burton and Vita verify that you have never met, you did not give them any instructions before the show, and other than the fact that they have been married longer than anyone present, you still don’t know how long they have been married. By this time, Ted will have the lock out and in view. Ask Burton and Vita to assist you by removing their wedding rings and handing them to Ted. Sometimes, older folks can’t get their rings off. If this happens, either remove your own ring or ask to borrow the rings of a younger couple near the front. Instruct Ted to load the rings onto the hasp and then to press it down into the body of the lock. Have him make sure the lock is secured. Point to someone in the audience and ask him to give you a one-digit number, higher than one but, obviously, less than ten. Assume he chose six. Ask Ted to turn the first dial on the left at the bottom of the lock to six. Point to another person, and remark that you weren’t thinking before, as there is also a zero on each dial. Ask her to give you any number from zero to nine. Have Ted enter this on the second dial. Continue with two more numbers chosen by audience members. Verify that Ted has, indeed, dialed in the correct numbers on the lock. Really build up this part of the effect—the lock has been out of your control, the rings on the lock have been borrowed from members of the audience, the numbers to the combination called out by other members of the audience, and an audience member has entered the numbers and been in control of the lock since the beginning of the show. Turn to the participants on stage, and ask them if they’d agree that it would be amazing if the lock were to open now. They all agree it would be. Explain to Ted that with this particular type of lock, you have to push down on the hasp first and then pull up to open it. Tell him to do so. He does, but the lock doesn’t open. Look at Ted and ask, “It didn’t unlock? Do you know why? Because that’s NOT the combination!” You will get a laugh here. Explain that you do this simply to prove that not just any set of numbers will open the lock. Offer to have four more numbers chosen, and then four more if necessary. When everyone is satisfied that there really IS a combination, move on. Turn to Burton and Vita. “How many years HAVE you been married?” They say 52. Ask them in what year they were married. Burt answers that it was in 1949. Tell Ted to move the dials on the lock to read 1949. He does and tries the lock. It opens! You receive a nice ovation. Take the lock and rings from Ted, thank him for his help, and send him back to his seat, asking everyone to thank him by their applause. Set the lock aside, holding onto the rings. Address Burton. “Sir, I’m going to ask you a question. But before you answer, I want you to keep in mind that

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you are in front of a large group of people and that your bride is standing right next to you! “Burton, if you had to do it all over again, would you marry Vita again?” He will, of course, say yes. Smile at him and then the audience. “Then let’s do it!” Go over to your case and get the bowtie and rose. Hand the rose to Vita and clip the tie onto Burt’s collar. Hand each of them the other’s ring and ask them to face each other. Ask Burton to hold Vita’s left hand as he repeats after you: “I, Burton, take you, Vita, to still be my wife, to still love, honor and cherish, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health ‘til death do us part.” Have him place the ring on her finger. Repeat the procedure with Vita. “By the power vested in me by the International Brotherhood of Magicians, I now pronounce you STILL husband and wife! Sir, you may kiss your bride.” Don’t think THIS won’t elicit some strong applause, or even a standing ovation! After the applause subsides, take the bowtie back, but tell Vita she may keep the rose with your compliments. Tell them they may return to their seats. As they do, say, “Let’s hear it for Burton and Vita—52 years of wedded bliss!” To which you will get another rousing ovation. Just before the applause dies down, thank the audience and wish them good night. You will regularly get a standing ovation here.

Notes When I first conceived this presentation, I was concerned that the calling out of numbers and having the couples sit to find the one that had been married longest would be “dead time.” I needn’t have worried, as quite the opposite is true. It is EXTREMELY suspenseful to see who will be “the last couple standing,” especially when you start getting way up there and several couples are still standing! Milk this part; don’t rush! If you’re doing this at a local show and you also perform at a local restaurant regularly, you might like another idea I’ve used. I got the restaurant where I performed to donate a gift certificate for dinner for two. When I explained this routine, and how I was going to use the certificate, the boss jumped at the chance. So, as you are taking the tie back from Burton, you tell Vita to keep the rose with your compliments. Then you hand Burton the gift certificate, mentioning that you perform at the XYZ restaurant every Thursday night, and you would like him to take Vita out to dinner, compliments of the house. This is a nice extra touch that costs you nothing, and it builds good will and PR for the restaurant, as well as advertising your regular gig! This has grown to become my single favorite routine. If you choose to perform it, please practice and rehearse it well, so that you can give it the performance it deserves!

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You Bet Your Ring!

M

y routine, “Water Monte” (from Great Scott! It’s More Magic!) has always played very well for me. In fact, it’s been one of the strongest things I’ve done. So I did something I rarely do with my magic—I stopped thinking about how it could be improved, and just went with it. Then one day my friend Darrin Cook (aka Raymonde Crow) explained to me how he had adapted it. I had to admit I felt it was an improvement. The borrowed ring in nest of boxes is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful effects in standup magic. I often used it as a closer. Shortly thereafter, while on The Magic Café Forum (www.themagiccafe.com), I came across an idea to do the Nest of Boxes routine like a game show. That’s when this whole routine fell into place. This, my friends, is a real showstopper!

Effect: After causing a woman’s borrowed finger ring to vanish and leaving her with a small key in its place, you offer to play a game with her to make up for it. You explain that she can win a “fabulous prize,” drawing attention to an attractive wooden box that has been in view for quite some time. You show three empty plastic cups and a bottle of water. You pour some water into one of the cups and change the positions of the cups several times. When you stop, you explain that she is to guess which cup has the water. If she guesses correctly, she wins the prize. If she is wrong, she will get another chance, but the prize won’t be as good. She guesses, and you show that she is incorrect. Remarking that she didn’t win the big prize, but she still has a chance for the next biggest one, you open the box and remove a smaller box from it. You offer to make the game easier by eliminating one of the cups. You move the remaining to around a bit and ask her to guess again. Again, she is wrong. You open the second box and remove an even smaller box. “I’ll give you one more chance,” you say. “And I’ll make it as easy as possible on you by eliminating another empty cup. If you don’t guess right this time, you lose!” You move the remaining cup around on the table and then ask her to guess which cup has the water. Unfortunately, she is wrong, for the last cup is also empty! “Ah, that’s too bad,” you say. “You didn’t win the prize, but we have a lovely parting gift for you.” As you speak, you open the small box and remove a tiny box with a small hasp, locked with a tiny padlock. She tries the small key she has been holding in the lock. Sure enough, it opens the lock. She opens the box to find her ring! Requirements and preparation: You will need a table with shelves (which I’ll assume you’re using) or a regular table with a tablecloth that drapes clear down to the floor. You’ll also need a second, smaller table. I use a wooden TV tray without a drape—any small table that is open with a thin top that clearly couldn’t hide anything will suffice.

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This routine uses a gaffed nest of boxes. I use the set Sammy Smith markets. It consists of three nesting boxes with a cutout in back, and a Lippincott box (LB), and sells for around $75-100. (Any set will do, provided it has at least four boxes and the last one has a lock that opens with a key.) In addition, you will also need six opaque plastic drinking cups with white interiors (I use Solo brand, 16 ounce), a bottle of drinking water, slush powder, a small jewelry ring box, a drawstring bag that the ring box will fit in, a magic wand, a devil’s handkerchief and a cheap finger ring. Sew the ring into the inside bottom corner of the pocket in the devil’s hank and then sew the pocket closed. The boxes are nested and closed. Lock up the LB, turn it upside down and open the trap door. Set this into the cutout of the nest so that the door acts as a slide. Place the key to the LB in the ring box and the ring box in the bag. Place this on your table toward the front on one side. The nest goes on top of your table about four inches from the rear. Drape the hanky over the boxes, covering the opening. Put the wand directly behind the nested boxes. Stack three of the empty cups and set them on their side, mouth of the top cup facing the audience. Put about a half teaspoon of slush powder into two of the remaining cups and nest them. Put about three ounces of water into the last cup and nest it into the top slush-loaded cup. Place this stack on the top shelf of the table (or on the floor underneath if using a normal table). Place the bottle of water next to this stack. Give the bag with the ring box to someone for safekeeping at the beginning of your show. Throughout the course of your show, place ungaffed props (hankies, cards, rope, etc) on the table in front of the boxes, such that by the time you get to this routine, the table is quite cluttered. Make sure to “unintentionally” cover the wand with a hanky at some time during the show. Method and performance: Borrow a lady’s finger ring. Bring up a little boy, about 5-6 years old, to help you (or a man if there are no children in attendance). Show the ring to the boy and then, keeping the ring in full view, get the hanky. Cover the ring with the hank and pick up the fake ring through the hank as you finger-palm the real ring. Using the Ramsay Subtlety, show the boy how to hold his hand palm down to take ring through the hanky between his thumb and forefinger. Point at the lady who loaned you the ring, again using Ramsay Subtlety, and say, “If anything happens to that ring, you owe her a lot of money.” As you walk over to the table, remark that you’ll need your wand. “Look” for the wand, loading the ring as you move the nest of boxes forward on the table. Pick up the cups as you remark that there’s too much junk on the table and start to put them away, but change your mind, remarking that you’ll be needing them in a few moments. Of course, as soon as they dipped out of sight, you set down the cups and switched in the loaded stack of cups, which you place upright near the front of the table. Throw a few more things under the table, finally “finding” the wand under the hanky. Pick up the wand and walk over to the boy, who is still holding the “ring” through the hanky.

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Take one of the dangling corners of the hanky between the first two fingers of the left hand, the palm facing the audience. Show the right hand empty in a gesture as you ask the boy, “Are you still holding onto Mrs. -----‘s ring?” He’ll say yes. “Good! Now when I count to three, I want you to let go of the ring, ok?” Wave the wand over the hanky as you count, “One, two, THREE!” The kid lets go of the ring and it apparently vanishes into thin air. Show the hanky on both sides and then stuff it into your pocket. The kid almost always looks around on the floor for the ring, which gets a laugh. Pretend to look with him for a second and then ask him, “What did you do with her ring?” Another laugh. Have him lock his fingers together and put his hands on his head and then “pat him down” like a suspect under arrest. HUGE laugh. Tell him you’re just teasing and send him back to his seat, leading the applause as he goes. Look at the lady. “Are you ready for this? Your ring is…back on your finger!” She will almost always look at her finger. As soon as she does, say, “Yeah, that would have been a great trick, huh?” (Thanks to Dan Fleshman for this line!) ENORMOUS laugh. Ask the person who has been holding the bag to stand. Have her open the bag and remove the ring box. Tell her to open the box and hold the lady’s ring “high in the air for all to see, and the applause will be tumultuous!” She opens the box and holds up the key. In an even moderately large audience, some people will begin to applaud, as they can’t tell that it is not the ring. Eventually, the lady holding the key or the woman missing the ring will point this out to you. Act surprised. Ask the woman with the key, “What did you do with the ring?” Look at the other lady. “Well, it’s out of my hands now. It’s between you two! No, I’m just kidding. Would you like to know where your ring really is? No fooling, it’s back on your finger!” If she looks: “I can’t believe you fell for that again!” If she doesn’t look: “Yeah, you’re not falling for that again, are you?” In any event, have the lady with the key give it to the lady missing the ring. “You keep the key and we’ll call it even, okay?” She will say that is most definitely NOT okay! “I’m terribly sorry. Sometimes things happen out of my control. But rather than have you go home quite literally empty-handed…” This will get another laugh. “I’d like to play a little game with you where you will have the opportunity to win a fabulous prize!” Gesture toward the nest of boxes. Pick up the stack of cups and the bottle of water. Walk over to the TV tray and set the cups on it. Remove the cap from the bottle and table it nest to the cups. “ Have you ever hear of the old shell game, the one with three walnut shells and a pea? Well, this is the same thing. These cups are my shells.” Hold up the cups one at a time, setting them in a row, left to right across the table. Hold up the bottle of water as you say, “And this is my pea. That’s pretty disgusting!” Pour some water (about three ounces) into the cup on your right. It will instantly gel. Begin moving the cups around as in the shell game or three-card monte, but quite slowly so that she can easily follow “the right one.” As you do, explain that when you stop, all she must do is guess which cup has the water and she will win the fabulous prize. If she’s wrong, you’ll give her another chance, but the prize won’t be as big. Stop moving the cups and ask which cup she thinks contains the water. She will guess the cup that was originally on your right. Shake your

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head. Pick up the cup that was secretly loaded with water and pour the water into the remaining cup with slush powder. Then pick up the cup the lady selected and show it’s interior to the audience. It will appear empty. Casually turn it upside down as you express your condolences. Replace the cup on the table. Walk over to the nested boxes, reminding everyone that you’ll give the lady another chance, but as you said, the prize won’t be as big. Open the first box and remove the second, placing it on the table next to the first. This will draw a chuckle from the crowd. Return to the TV tray. Comment that maybe you should make it a bit easier for the contestant to win. Set the first “gelled” cup aside, laying it on its side. Move the remaining two cups around. This time, you can move them a bit faster, as it doesn’t matter whether which cup she chooses. Stop, have her guess, and show the selected cup empty as before. Replace this cup next to the remaining upright cup. Walk to the other table, remarking that you’ll give her one more chance, but she’ll have to settle for an even smaller prize. Open the outer box of the remaining nest, remove the next box and place it on the table, such that you have a row of three boxes. Stroll back to the TV tray, stating that perhaps you need to make the game easier still. Tip over the last cup the lady selected. There is one cup remaining upright. (It is probably the empty cup, but it could be one with gelled water in the bottom.) Move this cup back and forth from hand to hand as if “shuffling” the single cup around on the table. This has never failed to elicit howls of laughter for me. Release the cup. Look at the lady, then at the cup, back at the lady and back at the cup, and finally back at the lady. “Which cup has the water?” Stroke your chin and then point at the cup as if “on the sly” as you look away. Regardless of her answer, show the cup empty and set it on its side on the table. Go over to the other table. “Ah, that’s too bad. You didn’t win the prize, but we have a lovely parting gift for you.” As you speak, open the small box. Close the trapdoor of the LB as you remove it. Ask the lady to come up with the key. Have her verify that the box is closed and locked. Ask her if the key fits the lock. When she replies that it does, comment that it wouldn’t be much of a trick if it didn’t! Have her remove the lock, open the LB, remove the ring and verify that it’s hers. When she puts the ring on, stop suddenly and say, “Your ring is back on your finger!” Lead the audience in a round of applause, as she returns to her seat.

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Jellis

T

he Jardine Ellis Ring seems to be one of the most underused props in close up magic. This is a shame, because it has potential to be a very powerful and entertaining piece of magic. My routine, inspired by J.G. Thompson’s in Top Secrets of Magic, combines ring on string and ring on stick sequences with a cups and balls style effect. Basically, this is a little close up “act” unto itself! Requirements and preparation: You’ll have to gather a few items and do a little prep work, but I feel this routine merits it. Start by getting the following items. · Two Jardine Ellis Rings. Johnson Products of Arcadia, California make the best I have seen. They have a nice weight and are extremely well machined. · A toilet paper tube (without the paper!). · A purse frame, such as is used for sponge ball routines. · A long chopstick. · An Eisenhower dollar-sized Chinese coin. · A round shoelace, between three and four feet in length. · Two balls, 1.5 inches in diameter. I use one rubber ball and one steel ball bearing due to my patter lines, but you could use two rubber or cork balls.

Photo 1

The above props are displayed in photo 1. Cut the toilet paper tube down to three inches. Color the inside of the tube flat black with paint or a permanent marker. Decorate the outside however you see fit. I wrapped mine with black electrical tape, and put one strip of white tape around each end, such that it looks like a short, stout magic wand (photo 2). Take the shell off both of the Ellis rings. Put one ring in your right front pants pocket. Put the other ring away—it isn’t used in this routine. Place one shell on top of the other. In other words, you have two shells nested. Put the coin on top of all (photo 3) and cover this stack with the tube. You will find that by squeezing the bottom of the tube against the stack, you can lift the tube, secretly carrying along the stack (photo 4). Place the loaded tube in your case or right side coat pocket (where you can use a deck of cards, silk or other item to keep it in an upright position).

Photo 2

Photo 3

Place the shoelace in your left front pants pocket and the purse frame in your right front pants pocket. The rubber ball goes in the right side coat pocket, next to the loaded tube, and the ball bearing Photo 4

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goes in the left side coat pocket. Finally, keep the chopstick in your inner breast coat pocket. You will need a close up pad or similar soft surface upon which to perform this routine.

Photo 5

Method and performance: “Magic is an art that is performed all over the world. I met a wonderful Chinese magician once, by the name of Fu Ling. He used this as his magic wand.” Remove the chopstick and set it on the table. “He had heard that western magicians used thicker wands, black, with white tips, so he made himself one. But, never having seen a western wand, he didn’t get it quite right.” Reach into your right side pocket or your case for the loaded tube. Squeeze the bottom to hold the stack in place and bring out the “wand.” (photo 5)

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

Photo 9

“When he visited America he saw that we do, indeed, have black wands with white tips, but their size is much closer to his chopstick! He had a good laugh over that.” Pick up the chopstick with your left hand and insert it into the bottom end of the tube, through the hole in the coin, and move it up until it protrudes for several inches from the top of the tube. Tilt the stick so it touches the top edge of the tube on the far side, as in photo 6. (To the spectators, it will appear that the chopstick also touches the bottom edge of the tube on the side nearest you, completely convincing them that the tube is empty without your “proving” it to be so.) Withdraw the stick, handing it to Sally as you set the tube on the table near the edge at the center of your performing area. Reach into both pants pockets. Take the string in the left hand and bring it out while the right hand takes the ring in curl palm and then grips the purse frame at the fingertips (photo 7), coming out of the pocket a second after the left hand does. Hand the string to Linus, asking him to verify its solidity. Take the string back with your left hand as your right gives Linus the “purse.” Ask him to open it and to make sure it is empty. This will be a source of interest and amusement to the rest of the audience, and as Linus opens the purse, thread one of the string up through the curl palmed ring until the tip of the string extends an inch or so past the top of the hand (photo 8). Once threaded, allow the ring to fall into right finger palm. After Linus verifies that the “purse” is empty, take the other end of the string in your left hand and pull the string taut as you say, “Did you really expect to find anything in that? For crying out loud, the bag has been removed! Fu Ling didn’t want anyone to steal his money.” Place the left end of the string alongside the right end (photo 9).

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Take the purse frame back with your right hand, pinching the clasps between thumb and forefinger and placing it into “production position” between the left forefinger tip and the fork of the left thumb (photo 10). Open the purse frame.

You will magically produce the ring on the center of the string using a move Dan Fleshman taught me. Raise the right hand so that you can lower the dangling loop of the string into the purse frame (photo 11). Continue lowering the right hand until the right pinky touches the left index finger. Maintaining a firm grip on the ends of the string let the ring drop from the right hand into left finger palm (photo 12). Immediately pull the string back up about three inches and drape the ends over the back of the left hand. Gesture with your empty right hand toward Sally, asking her to wave the stick over your left hand. As she does, say, “Money wasn’t the only thing Fu Ling kept in his purse.” Grip the ends of the string with your right hand and pull the string up until it clears the purse, revealing the ring hanging on the center of the string. Close the purse and take it at the right fingertips. Take the ends of the string in the left hand and return the purse frame to the right pants pocket. Take the ends of the string back into the right hand. “This was his good luck charm, given to him by his uncle, China’s premiere television producer. He was known as the Aaron Spelling of China, most famous for his prime-time soap opera about the ultra rich and powerful. Perhaps you’ve heard of it—the Ling ‘Dynasty?’”

Photo 10

Photo 11

Photo 12

During the groan that this stupid joke invariably produces, you perform the first half of Dan Garrett’s “Faustus Ring.” With your left hand, grasp the left side of the string just above the ring, pinning the string between your thumb and the base of the forefinger (photo 13). Photo 13

Close this hand into a fist around the ring and both sides of the string. The right hand releases the ends of the string. A small loop forms above the ring. The ring is at the base of the ring finger (photo 14).

Photo 14

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Keeping the back of the left hand toward the audience, raise the hand to chest level. Bring the right hand, back facing the spectators, up to the left, grasp both sides of the string (photo 15) and stroke downward.

Photo 15

Bring the right hand up again to repeat this motion. As soon as the right hand touches the left and starts to move down, release the ring. Time the drop of your right hand such that it falls at the same speed as the ring (photo 16). Stop when the right hand is about four inches below the left.

Photo 16

The spectators believe the ring is in the left hand, but it is actually in the right. Keeping the string taut, raise the right hand up until it is even with the left and the string is stretched horizontally between the closed hands (left hand palm up, right hand palm down—photo 17). “This ring had some very magical properties.”

Photo 17

Ask Sally to wave the stick over your left hand. Slowly tug the string to the right, allowing it to come free of the left hand (photo 18). The ring is no longer on the center of the string! It has apparently penetrated through the string, and everyone thinks it is in the closed left hand. Slowly and dramatically open the left hand. The ring has vanished! Photo 18

Photo 19

“Even though his concept of the western wand was not to scale, it, too, had magical properties.” Lift the tube, leaving one shell on the table while holding the rest of the stack inside. There is a bit of a knack to this, but you’ll acquire it after a few tries. Replace the tube to the left of the shell and pick up the shell at the fingertips of the palm down left hand. Display the “ring” (shell) for a moment and then make a tossing motion toward the string in the right hand. During this motion, the left thumb draws the shell into finger palm. Simultaneously, the right hand releases the ring, which drops down to the lopped center of the string (photo 19). The ring has seemingly penetrated back onto the string.

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The left hand takes the left side of the string where it protrudes from the right hand. The finger-palmed ring is hidden via Ramsay Subtlety. Separate the hands, such that you now hold the string horizontally. The hands are about a 8-10 inches apart, with the threaded ring between them (photo 20).

Photo 20

Say, “Fu often tied his ring on the string, to keep from losing it.” Tie a slipknot onto the ring. Then pass the right end in front of the knot, through the left side of the ring and pull it back to the right (photo 21). Grab the ring in the right fist. Ask Sally and Linus to each hold an end of the string, pulling the string taut.

Photo 21

“It would stay firmly in place, unless he didn’t want it to.” Slide your hand back and forth on the string. The knot will secretly untie, freeing the ring from the string. In a plucking motion, pull the ring away from the string (photo 22). This is a very strong effect! During the reaction, set the ring in the left hand, quietly nesting it in the shell. Take the stick from Sally with your right hand as your left thumb pushes the nested ring up to the fingertips. Tap the ring with the stick a couple of times. “Strong ring!” Table the stick and ring and take the string, giving it a few firm tugs. “Strong string!” Drop the string on the table. As you pick up the ring in your left hand and the stick in your right, say, “Strong magic!” You will now do Sam Horowitz’ (Muhammad Bey) ring and stick effect. Hold the ring in left-hand French Drop position, but with the ring parallel to the floor and your knuckles facing the audience (left fingers pointing to your right—photo 23). Obviously, the nested shell is on top of the ring.

Photo 22

Photo 23

Hold the stick near the center between the right thumb and forefinger. The knuckles of the right hand are toward the audience and the top of the stick is tilted away from you at a 45-degree angle (photo 24). Ask if they would like to see the stick go through the ring.

Photo 24

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Pass the stick down through the ring. When the right hand reaches the ring, the three free fingers grip the stick below the ring and the thumb and forefinger release the stick (photo 25) as you continue to smoothly move the stick entirely through the ring. Repeat this.

Photo 25

Photo 26

Photo 27

Repeat again, but this time let the ring drop free of the shell onto the right fingers as the right hand moves the stick entirely through the ring and off to the right (photo 26). Thus, the ring is secretly threaded on the center of the stick, but nothing seems amiss, as the shell is still in view at the left fingertips. The steal must be done smoothly and without pause, duplicating the first two passes if it is to be deceptive. This whole sequence (the first two passes and the steal) is done as a gag—they thought you were going to penetrate the stick through the ring. Say, “I can see that you are not impressed by that, so let me show you something else Fu Ling showed me.” The right fist is holding the stick at center. It is also secretly holding the ring, which is threaded at center. Turn the fist palm down so the stick is parallel with the floor and have Sally hold both ends of the stick firmly. The left hand places the shell into the right fist where it is thumb-palmed (photo 27). Wait a beat, then slide the right hand back and down off the stick, causing the ring to spin on the stick, and carrying the shell away in thumb palm (photo 28). As everyone reacts to the penetration, pick up the string with right hand and put it in the right coat pocket, secretly dropping the ring along with the string.

Photo 28

Photo 29

Take the stick back with your left hand and dump the ring into your right hand. Comment, “Let me just get that purse again.” Set the stick down and reach into your left pants pocket. Act confused and look over toward your right pants pocket as your left hand comes out of its pocket. Pretend to place the ring into the left hand (photo 29), retaining it in the right hand, which then goes into the right pants pocket, drops the ring and comes out with the purse frame. (This sequence is Juan Tamariz’ “Crossing the Gaze” concept.) Open the purse and pretend to dump the non-existent ring into it. Close the purse at the fingertips, showing both hands clearly empty. Remark, “It happened again!” The left hand lifts the tube, taking the coin but leaving the second shell behind, and tables the tube to the right of the shell.

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Meanwhile, the right hand has placed the purse frame in the right side coat pocket, taken the ball into finger palm and come back out of the pocket. Here begins the final load sequence, accompanied by a series of the worst puns of all time! Pick up the shell at your left fingertips as you say, “That wand had a familiar ring!” The right hand picks up the tube, revealing the coin, and loads the ball as the tube is tabled (photo 30). Exclaim, “This thing is a real money maker!”

Photo 30

In the meantime, the left hand has been far from idle. It has placed the shell in your left side coat pocket, taken the ball bearing in low finger palm, removed the hand from the pocket and picked up the stick (photo 31). Pick up the coin at the right fingertips and say, “That’s a real Chinese coin.” Tap the coin near the hole with the tip of the stick. “It has a hole, for Peeking!” Set the coin back on the table.

Photo 31

Address Sally. “You look like you’re having a ball!” Using the end of the stick, tip the tube back to reveal the ball (photo 32). In a continuing motion, lift the tube with the stick and let it slide down to your left hand (photo 33). Take the stick with your right hand and use it to push the ball forward as you say, “Having a ball—get it?”

Photo 32

At the same time, the left hand tables the tube, loading the ball bearing in it (photo 34). Look at Linus and remark, “This trick has had no bearing on you— until now!” use the stick to tip the tube back, revealing the ball bearing as the final load. To conclude, state, “Of course, none of this story is actually true—I’ve just been Fu Ling!”

Photo 33

Photo 34

Chapter Six Just Kid-ding Birthday parties, schools, libraries...one of the biggest markets for magicians is kids shows. In this chapter I’ve given you two of my favorite routines for audiences comprised of children and families. Plumber’s Bottle Million Dollar Chocolate •

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Plumber’s Bottle

I

have always disliked effects that make the spectator seem to be a fool or always wrong. There are a few exceptions, like three card monte where you perform it as a demonstration as to why they shouldn’t play because it’s impossible to win, or the previous routine, where it’s all tongue-in-cheek, and the lady isn’t brought on stage until the end. But routines where a spectator is singled out, brought up front and made to look foolish turn me off. Take the Tricky Bottles (aka “Topsy Turvey Bottles”). The premise of this is that the spectator is always wrong and you are always right. Then there’s the plunger hat (aka “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”), where a kid ends up with a toilet plunger on his head. I enjoy nothing more than to find another way to use these types of routines in which the spectator is not submitted to this kind of torture. What follows is my combination of these two props (both readily available from major dealers) into a fun-filled routine where the magician is the butt of the jokes and the spectator comes off smelling like a rose! Method and performance: Bring the kid up and give him the bottle and tube. I state that I, too, will use a bottle and tube, but first I have to put on the “special bottle trick hat.” I bring out the covered plunger, which looks like a very cheap sorcerer’s hat. This gets a few laughs. Then I take my bottle and tube, and explain to the kid that it is very important that he does exactly what I do. “We’re going to turn the covered bottles back and forth a few times to get the magic going. When we stop with both bottles upside down inside the tubes, something very magical will happen.” We turn the tubes upside down and right side up a few times. Now, in the marketed presentation, when you lift the tubes, yours is always upright, and the assistant’s is always upside down, and it is all his mistake—that’s where the “comedy” is. But in my presentation, the bottles are SUPPOSED to be upside down—I’m the one screwing up! I act a little flustered and turn the kid’s bottle over, have him put the tube back over it and ask him to make sure he copies me exactly. Then I “remember” that I’m supposed to wave the magic wand over the tubes first, and take the wand out of the plunger hat. I wave it over the bottles and then toss it aside. We try again—and again the kid is right and I’m wrong. I “remember” that I’m also supposed to wave the magic hanky over the bottles. I remove the cloth cover from the hat, exposing the plunger, and wave the cloth over the bottles. The kids are ROARING with laughter, yelling that there’s a plunger on my head and pointing at it. I pretend not to understand, turn around to look at what they’re pointing at, turn back to face them, etc. Finally, I reach up and feel the plunger, get a disgusted look, and remove it from my head. I look straight at an adult and say, “Well, THAT part of the show went right in the toilet!” HUGE laughs. Finally, I “realize” that the kid isn’t supposed to have a bottle and tube—those are just the spares. I’m SUPPOSED to show the bottle upright in the tube (I do so), have the kid wave the wand over it (he does) and lift the tube to show the bottle has magically turned upside down inside the tube (it has). The audience gasps, and I send the kid back to his seat to a nice round of applause.

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Million Dollar Chocolate

T

he Miser’s Dream” is an awesome routine, particularly for children. If it has a flaw, it’s that you’re pulling all of these coins out of the air and from behind kids’ ears and then keeping them! There was a great variation of this on the market a few years back, called, “Chocolate Surprise.” It was a Miser’s Dream using chocolates instead of coins, and the candies were given to the kids at the end. The routine came with some gaffed bags and gaffed candies and a “special something.” Unfortunately, I have been unable to find the routine or who originated it. What follows is my ungaffed version of this routine. It makes a wonderful closer for any audience largely composed of children. Effect: You get a youngster from the audience, Jerome, to come up and assist you. You show him an empty paper bag, and then send him across the room. Holding the bag, you ask Jerome to use his imagination, and to pretend that there is a small chocolate bar floating in the air in front of him. You tell him to grab it and to throw it to you. You follow the imaginary flight of the chocolate and “catch” it in the bag, where it lands with an audible “thunk!” This is repeated. Then you notice a little girl near the front. “You’ve got chocolate on your mind, too!” You reach to the top of her head, where a chocolate appears! You drop this into the bag. You walk back to the front and drop the chocolates from the bag into a bowl on your table. You attention turns back to Jerome. You ask him to envision a bigger chocolate bar. He grabs it and tosses it to you, but you “lose it in the lights.” You don’t catch it—in fact, you can’t see where it landed! You look around all over the stage, and suddenly the kids all start screaming something at you, but you can’t make it out. Finally, you realize what they’re yelling. The big chocolate bar is on the back of your pants! Disgusted, you remove it and toss it away. Remarking that you’d better stick to the little chocolates, you tell all the kids to put on their imagination caps. Then they all pretend to see chocolates in the air all around them. They grab as many as they can, and when you give them the word, they all toss the candy to you. You frantically run all over the stage, trying to catch all the chocolates in the bag. Finally, you stop, mop your brow, and hold the bag over the bowl on the table. You tilt the bag, and a few chocolates fall into the bowl. You tilt it further, and more and more stream out, faster and faster, until chocolates overflow the bowl, which is significantly larger than the bag! You put the bag away, take your bows, and give the bowl of chocolates to one of the parents to disperse while you pack up your show. Requirements and preparation: Get two heavy-duty brown paper bags, about the size of lunch bags, but a bit sturdier. Go to your local market and get several bags of Hershey’s Miniatures and one regular Mr. Goodbar. Carefully remove the Mr. Goodbar from its wrapper. Get a piece of Styrofoam or foam rubber and cut it to the same shape as the Mr. Goodbar. Cover this with the wrapper. Eat the Mr. Goodbar (yea! We’re already having fun with this trick!). Put several strips of double-stick tape

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on the bottom of the fake candy bar. Open one of the bags. Fill it to about two inches from the top with the miniature candies. Next, go to your cupboard and remove a large opaque mixing bowl. Pour more of the little chocolates into this, until it is about ¾ filled. Set aside four of the miniatures. Method and performance: The description of the effect and the requirements pretty much spell out how to do this routine, but I’ll give you a quick rundown. Everything is on your table’s shelf or in your case. When ready to do the routine, grab the bowl in one hand and the fake candy bar in the other. As you set the bowl on the table, stick the fake bar on your rump, such that your jacket covers it. Take the four minis into your right hand and grip the empty bag with the same hand. As you noisily shake the bag open, set the bag full of candy on the floor behind the table (you must have a solid table or one with a cloth cover that reaches the floor in front and sides). Hold the top of the empty bag such that the candies are on the inside of the bag, but hidden under your hand. Call on Jerome. Hold the bag up to his face to look inside so he can verify it is empty. Send him to one side or the back of the room. Have him throw the first invisible candy to you. Really ham up the bit of watching it come toward you like a major league pop fly, and as you pretend to catch it in the bag, let the first candy drop from your hand. Everyone will hear it land, and you’ll get a nice reaction here. Have Jerome do this again. Drop the second candy as you “catch” it. “Notice” a little girl near the front. As you walk toward her, transfer the bag to your left hand, holding out the remaining two candies in your right hand. Do the line about chocolate on her mind and reach toward the top of her head, pushing one of the chocolates to your fingertips. Drop it in the bag. Look at the kid nearest her and say, “You’ve got chocolate on your EAR!” Produce the last candy from behind his ear. Drop this in the bag as well. Walk back to your table and tilt the bag over the bowl, allowing the four chocolates to slowly spill out into the bowl. Turn back toward Jerome. Ask him to imagine a bigger candy bar, and ask him to throw it to you. “Follow” its flight and then “lose it in the lights.” Throw your hands up to “protect” yourself. Then look all around as if you don’t know where it landed. Bend over to look closer at the floor, making sure you bend over far enough that your coattails rise above the fake candy bar stuck to your rump. Move around a bit, and then turn your back to the audience as if looking behind you for the “lost” candy bar. As the kids begin to see the bar on your butt, they will start screaming at you. Pretend not to notice as you frantically search the stage, making your way behind your table, where, without pausing, you drop the empty bag and pick up the full one. As you come forward again, finally “understand” what the kids have been yelling. Remove the “big bar” from your behind, make a face, and set it on the table. Say that you’d better stick with the little candy bars. Finally, ask all the kids to picture chocolates in the air all around them. Have them grab them and toss them to you when you say go. Run frantically all over the front of the stage, back and

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forth, pretending to try to catch every last invisible chocolate. Walk over to the bowl, tilt the bag, and let the bars slowly begin to fall into the bowl. Tilt a bit more, causing the bars to fall faster and faster. Because the bowl was already secretly nearly full, the candies from the bag will start to overflow from the bowl at the end. This gets another nice reaction. Give the bowl to a mommy so she can disperse the candy while you pack up your show. Note: If I am preceding this with a production (usually Rocky Raccoon) I will sometimes change the ending just a bit. It requires a double-load dove pan. I put Rocky in the first load pan. I fill the second load pan with another bag of chocolates and place this on the shelf of my suitcase table. After finishing the dove pan routine, I leave the pan on the table. I start to put the lid away and then “remember” that I need it and bring it back out and set it on the table. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I steal the second load as I do this. Now I get the bag out and perform “Million Dollar Chocolate,” but at the end I pour the chocolates out of the full bag into the empty dove pan. I explain that I’ll just put the candy back into the bag, so that Mom can pass it out. I dump the chocolates back into the bag, set the pan on the table and start to give the candy to mom, but then I stop as I glance into the bag and say, “Wait, I don’t think that’s quite enough.” I walk back to the table and turn the pan upside down as if maybe a few candies might be stuck in it. Then I put the lid on it, tap it with the wand and lift the lid to reveal it is again full of candy! This gets another great reaction, and I pour these candies into the bag and give the bag to mom so she can dole them out while I pack. This makes a nice surprise “kicker” ending, and it also ties the last two routines together very nicely.

Bonus Routine! Bernard Sims’

Really Linked!

An amazing and convincing linking rubber band routine

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Bernard Sim’s

Really Linked! My friend Bernard Sim of Singapore sent me this excellent routine and asked me to edit/rewrite it. I want to point out right now that this was my only involvement in the routine itself—the trick is Bernard’s. He has kindly given me his permission to include it here, and I am very grateful to him for it. It’s a wonderful routine and I’m very enthusiastic about it. Run through it a couple of times, and you will be, too! The photos are of Bernard performing the routine. The effect: Two rubber bands are held, one at the fingertips of each hand. The bands magically link together and are handed out for inspection. Both hands are shown to be absolutely clean. Preparation: You’ll need 3 rubber bands. I perform this with 2 of the same color and 1 of a different color, but all three can be the same color. For the sake of this explanation, we’ll assume you’re using different colored bands: 2 yellow and 1 green. Cut one of the yellow bands and thread it thru the green band. Using super glue, join the ends of the cut band together. You now have a yellow band that is permanently linked to a green band. If you don’t have time to prepare the bands as above (or if you just don’t want to), you can just cut the green band, thread it through one of the yellows and tie the ends together. To justify the tied band, you can make the excuse that the trick requires 2 bands but one of them broke and you are out of bands.

Before performance, roll the linked yellow band into a ball and conceal it behind the left thumb and 1st finger. Hold the green band at the tips of the thumb and forefinger as if it were a separate band. Hold the normal yellow band in the same manner in the right hand. See photo 1. Photo 1

Method and performance: Display the bands and emphasize that they are really separate by moving your hands apart in a gesture as you speak. This is very important! Experience has shown that spectators (including my mom) will assume that the bands were already linked. 1. Hook the left pinky into the free end of the yellow (right-hand) band (photo 2). Photo 2

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2. The right pinky will now hook the green (left-hand) band. The two bands form an “X,” with the green band above the yellow one. The left thumb can now relax and release the rolled band—this band will automatically pop open, concealed behind the fingers of the left hand (photo 3).

Photo 3

3. We’ll refer to the open sections in the crossed bands as “holes” A, B and C. Notice the position of the left thumb and fingers. The thumb will enter hole A from the top downwards (the thumb’s role here is to enlarge hole A). The 2nd and 3rd fingers will enter hole C, coming up from underneath the band. Refer to photo 4.

A C

B

Photo 4

4. After the 2 fingers enter hole C, they do not stop, but continue moving forward, where they enter hole B from the top, as shown in photo 5. A

B C

Photo 5

5. After entering hole B, the fingers enter hole A from bottom. The thumb assists by moving outward, enlarging hole A (photo 6).

Photo 6

6. Curl the fingers of both hands into fists, and pull the left thumb out of hole A. The position at this point appears to be the same position as in step 2 (photo 7).

Photo 7

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7. Show the bands have linked by twisting the hands in opposite directions (photo 8).

Photo 8

8. Grip both strands of the green band with the left thumb and forefinger and release the right pinky from the band. Display the link by sliding the green band along the yellow band. (The left forefinger and thumb will need to grip the green band tightly so that it will not pop off.) Notice that the right forefinger is pointing upward, through the yellow band. Refer to photo 9. Photo 9

9. Insert the right 2nd finger up through the yellow band so the forefinger can be removed and re-enter the same loop from the top. Remove the second finger from the band. Only the tip of the right forefinger, which is pointing down, holds the band (photo 10).

Photo 10

10. For the climax, you’ll secretly ditch the separate yellow band by shooting it behind you between the right hand and the body just above the waist level. (Make sure that nobody is behind you when doing this ditch.) Stretch the yellow band by pulling it forward with the left fingers, which then release it. The band will shoot behind you, and it happens fast enough that nobody will see it. 11. When the left fingers release the separate yellow band, the concealed (linked) yellow band will pop out of the hand. To the spectators, it appears that the yellow band was shot to the left hand and instantly linked onto the green one (photo 11). You can then allow the linked bands to be examined or give them away as a souvenir.

Photo 11

Notes Tying the bands leaves them stronger and they can withstand stretching better than glued bands. The trade off is that some spectators will think that the knotted band is “fishy.” A common question by spectators is “Can you unlink them?” You can prevent this by saying before you start the routine, “The feat I’m about to do is so difficult that it can only be done once and there’s no way to undo it. Please watch carefully.” I hope you enjoy this effect as much as I do.

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Credits: This effect was inspired by David Berger’s “Hypnotic Link,” found on volume two of Dan Harlan’s rubber band magic video trilogy. Scott F. Guinn wrote these instructions.

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Last Word In looking over the material in this book after having written, proofread, rewritten and read it again, I must say that my enthusiasm for it is undiminished. I believe this is, over all, a very good magic book. I think the material, top to bottom, is strong, I think that my writing and explaining has improved, and I think the format lends itself to helping you understand and assimilate the material. In short, I’ve worked very hard on this, and I’m pleased with the result. Some will say the routines are just a re-hash of existing effects. I would not have taken the time to include them and explain them if I did not feel that they were different enough, either in effect or handling, to warrant publication. Believe it or not, you don’t get rich by writing magic books! As far as the routines themselves go, let me say a few words. I have tried to include some card effects off the beaten path as well as some new twists or handling improvements on some classics. It is unlikely that your spectators will have ever seen card effects like “Hi-ways and Biways,” “Mr. Collins’ Opus,” “Face-Off,” “What the Devil,” or “Brundle-Fly Transpo.” Many of you may already perform versions of the spectator cutting to the aces, “Wild Card,” assembly effects, the “Universal Card,” “Point of departure,” and “Oil & Water.” In “Direct Decision,” “McCall of the Wild,” “Coeur d’Alene Assembly,” “Universal Appeal,” “Dearly Departed” and “The ‘X’ on Val Dees,” I have attempted to take these classic plots and either vastly simplify the classic handling, add a kicker ending, clarify the effect, strengthen a weak spot, or alter the usual effect. Speaking from the perspective of the response I receive from performing these, I can only suggest that you give them at least a trial run before discarding them. In section two, I have concentrated on the routining of the effects. If you don’t bother to learn and try “Stick Around” and “Jellis”, I believe you will be missing out on some powerful and entertaining, commercial close up magic. “Wedded Bliss” and “You Bet Your Ring” are showstoppers for adult audiences, as are “Plumbers Bottle and “Million Dollar Chocolate” for kid shows. And Bernard Sims’ effect with rubber bands is a real close up blockbuster! Feel free to alter handlings, substitute moves or sleights, cannibalize presentations and sequences, etc as you go along. Please just do me the favor of learning the effects as I’ve written them first, making sure you understand why I have routined as I have. Once you’ve done that, and you want to make a change or improvement, I encourage you to do so. After all, that’s how I came up with most of the material you’ve just read. Most important of all, spend at least as much time rehearsing your presentation for this material as you did learning the mechanics of it. Present it politely and enthusiastically, with a charming, entertaining and likeable personality, and you will have done your audience, this material, yourself, our beloved art and me a great service! Wishing you all success and much joy, Scott F. Guinn July, 2002

Sleight Index A Anneman Alignment Ascanio Spread Automatic Bottom Palm B Biddle Move Braue Reversal (modified) Buckle Count C Charlier Shuffle Crosscut Force D Dill Displacement Diminishing Lift Sequence E Elmsley Count G Gambler’s Cop H Half Pass Hellis Switch J Jordan Count M Marlo Simple Multiple Shift Multiple Vernon Switch Milk Build O Olram Subtlety Optical Move Overhand Jog Shuffle R Rhumba Count Riffle Force S Schulien Case Production Slip Cut Slip Force Spread Turnover Switch Stanyon Count T Through the Fist Flourish V Veeser Count Vernon Switch Vernon Transfer

55 29 57 58 29 45 66 71 18 52 25 31 21 76 24 16 21 69 75 87 17 45 53 36 66 66 63 59 76 74 22 44