~Magical Mysteries With Special Packs, etc.~
Contents
Impossible Card Discovery
BakerTWO packs are required, one a forcing pack with all the cards alike, the other being a regular pack minus the card of which the forcing pack is made up. Place the forcing pack in your left outside coat pocket on its side.
Thus prepared, fan the regular pack with the faces to the audience and then have it shuffled. Take it back and illustrate to a spectator what you want him to do, saying, 'I want you to put the pack in your left coat pocket so' (put it in your left pocket upright) 'then draw a card from the middle of the pack thus and, without looking at it, hold it close to your body and place it in your right-hand pocket so,' do this with a card from the upright pack. Take the forcing pack from the left pocket and the card from the right-hand pocket, which you put on the bottom of the forcing pack. Hand this pack to the spectator and he puts it in his pocket. While you turn your back he takes out one card as directed and places it in his right-hand pocket.
This done, you turn and take back the pack. You ask him, 'Did you do as 1 directed? Now put the shuffled pack in your pocket in this manner--(put the forcing pack in your left pocket on its side) you withdrew one card only and put it in the other pocket--(take a card from the regular pack and put it in the other pocket). Is that right?' Take the regular pack from the left pocket and the card from the other pocket and put the pack down. You slowly name the card and the spectator takes it out and shows it. This card added to the pack on the table makes it complete and no clue is left to the mystery.
One Ahead
JordanEFFECT. Performer shows two packs, red- and a blue-backed respectively. From the blue pack he throws a card face down on the table. A card is freely chosen from the red pack and is retained by a spectator. The blue card is turned, it is the same as the card freely chosen from the red pack.
METHOD. The blue-backed pack is unprepared but has at the top a double-backed card, one side red the other blue, with blue side uppermost. The red-backed pack consists of twenty-six pairs of duplicate cards. The backs have a one-way pattern and the cards of each pair point in opposite directions. All the first cards of each pair point one way, the second cards the reverse way. The pack can be riffled to show all the cards are different. Place the double-backed card from the top of the blue pack on the table, carefully avoiding any exposure of the lower red side. Riffle the red pack showing the faces to the spectators and they will appear to be ordinary cards. Spread the pack and allow a spectator to make a free choice. As he takes it you note the way the pattern lies so that you will know whether the duplicate is above it or below. Cut the pack to bring the duplicate to the top. Take it and with it execute the Mexican turn-over, thus leaving the duplicate card face up on the table and carrying away the double-faced card which you turn over in your fingers so that the red back shows to the spectators.
The Mentalist's Card Staggerer
AnnemannA LITTLE preparation is required. You need five cards of the same suit and value, say 8H, with backs to match the pack in use. From the pack take the 8H, put four indifferent cards on it and put the packet in your inside coat pocket with the backs outwards. Take from the pack the KD, put it amongst the five 8's of H, between the third and fourth and put the six cards on top of the pack. In the coat pocket have some letters or papers.
Take the pack from its case and slowly fan it, from left to right, faces to the spectators, remarking that it would be a wonderful thing if you were to have one of the cards merely thought of and then find it. You say you cannot do that but you have had some success with a small number of cards. By this time you have spread all the cards but the special cards at the top and you close the fan. Riffle shuffle several times keeping the six cards intact on the top. Hand the cards to a spectator asking him to deal five cards face down in a row. This done take the pack back. Tell him you will turn your back and he is to turn and look at any card he wishes, being careful in picking it up not to bend it and after putting it face down again to move all the cards slightly so that no possible clue will be left. Illustrate by picking up the fourth card, the KD, carefully, then as you are about to replace it, as if struck by an afterthought push that card back in the pack and deal the top card, the fifth 8H, all five cards are then 8H's.
Turn away; spectator looks at one card and replaces it; turn to the table again and pick up the five cards keeping the faces towards yourself. Hold the packet in your right hand, with the left remove the letters, etc., from your breast pocket, then turn your right side to the front, take the five cards in your left hand and hold the edge of your coat with the right. Apparently place the cards in the breast pocket, really thrust them into your upper waistcoat pocket but insert the free fingers of the left hand into the pocket making a slight bulge which is visible to the audience. Open the coat and let them see your hand coming away from the pocket. With the left hand reach into the pocket and take out the top card of the packet there and repeat the action three more times. For the last card let the spectator put his hand in the pocket and certify that just one card remains. Have him name the card he looked at originally, then bring out and show the card he now holds. It is the same card.
The pack is now complete and can be freely examined as no clues remain.
Coincidentally
JordanANY two packs may be used after being shuffled by the spectators. One pack is put on each of your palms and you deal the top card from each pack face down on the table about a foot apart. Ask a spectator to choose one of them and as your hands swing back after the deal change the two packs from hand to hand behind your back. Pick up the card not chosen and put it on top of the pack it apparently came from, actually due to the switch it goes on to the pack which has a duplicate of it. Run over the faces, find the duplicate, put it on the bottom and put the pack down. Look at the other chosen card, note what it is but call it as being the card returned to the pack, keeping its face away from the spectators, and replace it face down on the table.
Take the second pack, take out three cards. naming them. one being the duplicate of the card on the table, and put them face down, the duplicates being No. 1 and 2 in the row. Riffle the other pack, asking spectator to call 'Stop' whenever he pleases. At the word separate your hands, right hand holding the original lower half, left hand the upper half, and put them side by side. Top card of one, or bottom card of the other, is chosen and put aside, and the packets put together so that the duplicate card remaining becomes the top or bottom card as the case may be. Let spectator throw a die. No matter what number shows, you count to one of the duplicates, pick it up and put it on top of the pack in right hand. Left hand takes other pack. Ask spectator to turn up the three remaining cards and as he does so swing packs behind your back and push the duplicates on the top or bottom to the opposite pack to which they belong. As the missing card is named, deal it with the right hand from pack to which it was just transferred. The card from the other pack is turned up and proves to be the same.
The two packs must have the same back pattern.
Magnetic Mental ControlTWO packs are required. One with blue backs, unprepared, and one with red backs, prepared as follows: Take twenty-six red-backed cards and twenty-six blue-backed ones, and set them up alternately to make a regular fifty-two-card pack. Roughen the faces of all the red cards and the backs of the blue cards so that when the cards are spread the red backs only will show. Thus prepared the pack can be fanned, spread on a table and even shuffled by the overhand method without revealing the blue-backed cards. Take the bottom card of the pack, it will be a rough-backed blue card, and put it on top of the unprepared blue pack.
To show the trick. Take the blue pack from its case, fan it to show the faces and the blue backs, and throw out the Joker. Take out the red pack, and exhibit it in the same fashion. Put the red pack down and take up the blue-faced cards. Shuffle the top card to the middle, then take it out, not allowing anyone to see its face, and place it on the top of the red pack and make one cut. This returns the card with the rough blue back to its mate the red card with roughened face. So far as the audience is concerned you have simply taken a blue card from the blue pack and placed it in the red pack, burying it with a cut and you next shuffle the reds with their faces to the front. Spread these cards face up and invite a spectator to touch any one of them; cut at the card, slide it out of the fan and hand it to the spectator face up. Ask him if he had a free choice. Then have him turn the card over, it is a blue-backed card. Turn the rest of the cards and fan them, they all have red. backs. He has found the very card you just before transferred from the blue pack.
Movie Color CardsTWO packs are required, one with blue backs, the other with red backs, and card cases to match. Also two double-backed cards, one side red, the other side blue. Place one of these, red side upward on top of the blue-backed pack and the other blue side upward on the red-backed pack. Place the red pack with blue top card in the blue case and the blue pack with the red top card in the red case.
The effect of the trick is to apparently make the packs change places. Take the cards from the blue case and to make them appear all blue backs, first hold the pack so that the blue-back card on top is seen by the spectators. Turn the pack with its face to the front in the left hand as if about to overhand shuffle face upwards. Lift the rear half of the pack with the right hand and turn it so that the blue-back card on top can be seen; drop some cards from the face of this packet on to the packet in the left hand and again turn the right and show the blue back. Repeat this several times, remarking 'a blue-backed pack of cards'. In squaring the pack, keep its face to the audience and secretly reverse the top card, bringing its red side uppermost. Replace this pack in the blue case.
Perform the same operations with the other pack to prove it is a red-backed pack and, after reversing its double-backed top card, place it in the red case. It only remains to work up the effect as strongly as possible: order the change to take place and show that the red cards are in the blue case and vice versa.
Transpo Color Change
TWO packs are required, one with blue backs and one with red. They are placed in your trousers pockets, one pack in each. The packs change places.First show your pockets are empty, and then place the red pack in the right pocket, the blue in the left. Openly take the packs from the pockets and show what will take place by changing the packs from one hand to the other, the left hand taking the red pack, the right hand the blue. Put the packs in the pockets again, order the invisible transfer, take them out and show that the red pack has passed back to the left pocket and the blue to the right. When you took the packs out of the pockets to demonstrate the change, one card was left in each pocket, so that at the finish the audience see only these single cards of the opposite colors.
Invisible Flight
HamblenTWO packs are necessary, one with blue backs, the other red, and a duplicate of one blue-backed card, 5S, for instance. Steam off stamp on the red pack's case, insert the duplicate 5S in the middle of the pack and reseal it. Put this on your table with the blue-backed pack on top of which you have placed the 5S, together with five slips of paper, an envelope and a glass.
To begin, hand the sealed red pack to the spectator for safe keeping. False shuffle the blue pack keeping the 5S on top, then have five cards drawn, amongst them must be the 5S, with five chances you can hardly fail to force the 5S, but remember which person drew it. Hand slips of paper and pencils to the five persons, asking them to initial the faces of their cards and to write the names of the cards on the slips. This done, gather up the five cards getting the 5S to the bottom of the packet. Tell the five spectators to wad their slips into small balls, and as you turn to your table to pick up the envelope let the 5S drop on top of the pack. Turn to audience and slowly place the four cards (supposed to be five) in the envelope and give it to be held. Collect the wadded slips in a glass, take particular note of the 5S slip so that you will be able to pick it out. Shake the pellets around and toss them on to the table.
Pick out the 5S pellet, hand it to the spectator who has the red pack. He reads the name on the slip, opens the pack and finds the duplicate blue-backed 5S. Take this card from him to show it to everyone and ask the person holding the envelope to open it and see that the 5S has gone. As he does this you change the card in your hand for the initialed 5S previously dropped on the top of the pack. Hand this to the person who drew it to identify his initials.
Blind Man's Buff
HamblenTWO duplicate packs are required, one unopened and other prepared as follows. Suppose you use Bicycle Rider cards which have a small white dot in the circle on the backs. With red or blue ink according to the colour of the backs cover up this white dot. Put about forty of the cards thus prepared in your left outside coat pocket so that they lie, well squared, on their sides. Thus prepared hand out the unopened pack to a spectator to break open, after which he is to shuffle the cards thoroughly and have ten cards selected by other spectators. This done you take back the remainder from him and tell the choosers of the cards to mark their cards inconspicuously on the faces. Your volunteer assistant is then to collect them. While this is being done you have all the time in the world to put the remainder of the pack in your left coat pocket and bring out the forty marked cards. Casually place these on the table. Let your volunteer assistant put the collected cards in the pack and then shuffle as thoroughly as he pleases.
Have a folded handkerchief tied over your eyes as you stand behind the table, and have the pack placed down in front of you. You can see down the sides of your nose and as you flick the cards off the top one by one spot the white-center cards, which are the selected ones, show them and have them acknowledged. Place them aside face up. A good blind is to let your hand stray from the pack after you have found half a dozen or so and hover over one of the cards already turned up. Pick it up, turning it and ask 'Someone's card?' You will be told you have already found that one. Ask your helper to put the cards aside as you find them. This clinches the impression that you cannot see anything.
You may easily get the very last card on top of the rest as you pretend to search for it. Gather the pack, take off the blindfold and palm the card. Have it named, plunge your hand into your pocket and produce it. 'No wonder 1 couldn't find it,' you say.
Speaking Of Pink ElephantsA BLUE-BACKED pack of cards is shown to contain no duplicates. A mentally selected card is removed by a spectator and is found to have become red-backed in his own hands. Knockout number two comes when he discovers that the whole pack has turned red-backed. He replaces his card without your seeing it and as soon as he names it you spell out its name, removing a card for each letter and turning it up on the last one. The pack is now cut in two portions and a card selected from one of them vanishes and reappears in the other.
Bicycle cards, whose backs have white margins, are most suitable. From a red-backed pack remove these cards: 2, 3, 7, 8, Q, of C's; 4, 5, 9, J, K, of H's and S's. Cut a narrow strip from the ends of these and glue each to the back of a card taken from a blue-backed pack being sure that none of these red-backed cards are duplicated by the blues. Lay the double cards out face up, glued ends all one way. Now from a second red pack remove the duplicates of the fifteen named above. Cut them short and smooth their cut corners with sandpaper. Lay them out face up in the same order as the rear ones of the glued pairs already laid out.
To assemble: On the first single card place the eighth double one, then the second single, ninth double, third single, tenth double, etc., to the ninth single on which goes the first double, tenth single, second double, etc., until all are picked up. The duplicate of any rear card of a glued pair is thus about half the pack removed from it, the pack having been assembled face up, and all glued ends the one way. Turn the pack face down and place on it an indifferent blue-backed card.
Hold the pack face down, glued ends inwards and with the other hand riffle the free ends, from back towards face of pack. Do not call attention to it but everyone will notice that all backs show blue. Raise the pack vertically, so that it faces the company and freely show the blue-backed card at the back, transfer it to the face of the pack. Riffle the free ends from the back towards the face, or fan the cards, the faces now showing, owing to the upright position of the pack. Demonstrating that the cards are all different, have someone mentally select a card as you riffle them. As he can only see the faces of the short rear cards of the glued cards, his choice is limited to them.
Fan the pack requesting the man to remove his card. Naturally he removes its single duplicate and his free handling of it is what makes this so convincing. Square the pack and turn it face down, concealing its back for the present. Tell him to return his card. He turns it face down to do so and discovers it is red-backed. Before he recovers you begin fanning the pack from the left hand to the right, counting as you do so. The whole pack is now red-backed.
When you have counted eleven cards of the fan into the right hand, have him insert his card there, and continue spreading the cards, being careful not to expose the single blue-backer at the pack's face. Close the pack and have him name his card. Then deal a card at a time on the table for each letter of its name, as 'DEUCE OF CLUBS', and turn up the last card. It is his card. This is because each of the fifteen cards he could choose all spell with twelve letters.
As your right hand turns the card up your left hand slips the blue-back card at pack's face into left side coat pocket. Fan the pack until you feel two adjacent double cards and insert his between them, where it originally came from. Replace the spelt off cards on the pack one at a time to restore the original order.
Fan the pack to show there are no duplicates, then cut it into two heaps. Riffle the end of the smaller heap so that only the rear cards of the glued pairs can be seen. The spectator mentally selects any one save the heap's face card. Riffle the other heap similarly to show his card isn't there. Now fan the first heap showing each card separately. His card has gone. Fan the other heap and its short single duplicate is found and may be removed and examined as it is unprepared.
Card TelepathyTHE performer's assistant, acting as the medium, is escorted to another room. From a pack of cards a spectator freely selects a card which is shown to everyone and then put in the spectator's pocket. A blank slip of paper is placed in a plain envelope and together with a pencil is sent to the medium. The envelope is returned and being opened by one of the audience is found to have a message written on the slip of paper giving the name of the card.
The information is conveyed by the envelope and the pencil. If the card is a C gum down the right side of the flap only; if a H gum the left side, if a S the tip only and if it is a D simply push the flap inside. The value of the card is marked on the pencil with the finger-nail on the wood beside the letters denoting the trade name, etc. For instance, if the card is an A make a mark opposite the first letter, if a 2 mark the second letter and so on.
Card XTHE pack is thoroughly shuffled by a spectator and the performer takes the pack. He introduces his assistant who is to act as the medium. She is seated on a stool and a blindfold placed over her eyes. In adjusting this some eight or ten cards, previously memorized by the lady, are added to the pack by the operator taking them from her sash at the back. Cards are then held up with the faces to the spectators, backs to the medium. With the customary hesitation, slight mistakes and corrections she calls their names.
Sight UnseenTHIS trick is arranged for two people, performer and medium, preferably a lady, and is only suitable for private performances or small clubs.
You arrange that you and your assistant shall be introduced to members of your audience and you take care to both note the first three people. Classify them in the order of the first letters of their surnames, for instance Mr. Bell, Miss Jones and Mrs. Smith. It is understood between you that the first person will represent the AC; the second person the AH; the third the AS and any fourth person in the audience will stand for the AD. When the feat is to be presented the medium is escorted into another room. From any pack lay out the four A's, face up and invite one of the three people first introduced to step forward and touch a card. Suppose you call Mr. Bell and it happens luckily that he selects the card he represents, you tell him to simply concentrate on the card he touched, go into the next room and the medium will tell him the name of that card. The medium, of course, knows the card she is to name the moment he enters the room and does so with the proper acting. If, however, he touches another card you ask him to sit down again telling him to keep his mind fixed on the card. Suppose it was the AH he selected, then to get a double concentration, you would ask Miss Jones to go to the medium. If the AD is the card touched send any member of the audience outside of the three special persons.
As with all similar feats the presentation is practically the whole thing.
Miracle CodeA SIMPLE code is used covering the cards of a pack. The order of the suits is C, H, S, D, and the cards of each suit run from the A to the K. Thus one is AC, thirteen the KC; fourteen the AH and so on up to fifty-two which would be KD. Therefore any card having been selected if you convey the corresponding number to the medium he can name the card.
Your assistant is taken to another room by a committee. From any pack a card is freely chosen, you take and fold it in half, noting what it is. Hand it to a spectator telling him to continue folding it in the same way into the smallest possible compass. As he does so tear a corner about six inches square from the top of a page in a magazine you have lying handy, the page number corresponding with the number of the card in the code. Take the folded card and wrap it in the paper so that the proper page number is on the outside. The package is carried to your assistant, he places it to his forehead, reading the page number as he does so, and after due concentration he names the card.
Telepathic CardsA PACK is shuffled and spread on a table face up. Members of the audience touch any cards and remember them. Cards are gathered up and again shuffled and a spectator takes the pack out of the room to an assistant who acts as the medium. In a few moments she makes her appearance and hands to the spectator a sealed envelope containing the chosen cards.
A blank playing card and a short pencil repose in your right-hand trousers pocket. As the spectators touch the cards, one at a time, write an abbreviated name for each, thus, JD, 10H, 3S, and so on. Palm the card and add it to the pack when you gather up the cards. Cut or shuffle the cards after adding the palmed card. The spectator himself is thus the innocent bearer of the necessary information. For impromptu work with a borrowed pack palm one of the two's and use it for writing the names of the cards.
Toy Telephone ReadingASSISTANT is seated on the stage, performer carries a pack of cards and a toy telephone amongst the audience. A spectator selects any card then whispers softly into the telephone a request for the medium to name the card. She does this correctly. This may be repeated as often as desired.
The information is given by a silent code as follows:
SUITS Hearts: Phone in right hand, receiver on hook. Diamonds: Phone in left hand, receiver on hook. Clubs: Phone in right hand, receiver off hook. Spades: Phone in left hand, receiver off hook.
VALUES. Divide into four sections, omitting the K: 1. A, 2, 3. 2. 4, 5, 6. 3. 7, 8, 9. 4. 10, J, Q.
- Hand spectator the phone and ask him to stand up.
- Ask him to stand, then hand him the phone.
- Have him stand up, hand him the phone, then sit down.
- Merely hand him the phone.
Signal position in each of the sections thus:
1st number: if performer does not remove telephone from spectator.
2nd number: if he takes telephone with right hand.
3rd number: if he takes telephone with left hand.
Duo-Mentality
AlbrightTHIS is a trick for two people, the name of a card being apparently transmitted to one of them without any apparent means of communication.
The secret lies in the use of an Eversharp pencil, known as a propelling pencil and which has a transparent barrel. In this barrel there is a series of spirals, one of which is red. By holding the nickel tip and turning the barrel the lead is forced out and the red signal moves down one spiral towards the tip. It follows that any number from one to thirteen can be signaled by bringing the red point to the required spiral, so covering the value of any card. The cap band can be replaced in four different positions in relation to the barrel of the pencil; let these indicate C, H, S, D.
With the pencil in hand let any card be named and while the spectator finds the card, removes it and puts it in his pocket, set the pencil; it is best to have this at the tenth spiral and move the red signal back or forward as may be necessary. Send the pencil to the medium (who previously had left the room) together with a pad, an old envelope or a piece of paper. She reads the signals, writes the name of the card and this is proved to be correct by the card in the spectator's pocket.
Three In One Card Trick
R. W. HullYOU require a pack, one extra card with the same back pattern and two visiting cards. Discard the Joker and any one of the other cards, inserting in its place the extra card, say the 7D. Find the 7D belonging to the pack and put it on top, the duplicate on the bottom. On one of the two visiting cards write 'Seven of Diamonds'. Turn the written side downwards and put the blank card on top, now put them in a waistcoat pocket, blank card outside.
Show the pack by spreading the faces without exposing the top 7D and riffle shuffle leaving top and bottom cards in place. Divide the pack into two packets of twenty-six cards, by counting off twenty-six from the top without reversing the order of the cards; then count the remainder reversing them in the count. You have thus two packets of twenty-six with a 7D on the top of each. Ask a spectator to call a number between one and twenty-six. Count to that number reversing the cards, bringing a 7D to that position. Put the packet down, take out the visiting cards. Let the top side be seen to be blank, turn over the two and on the blank side of the lower one write the number just called. Put this card on top of the packet, 7D side downwards. Take the other packet and have someone else call a number, count down to it again reversing the cards. Write the number on the second visiting card letting both sides be seen. Force the choice of the first packet, hand it to the spectator to deal to the number he called where he finds the 7D. Hand the visiting card to him and he finds the name of that card written on it. In the meantime you have wet your thumb with saliva. Pick up the packet, transferring the moisture to the back of the top card. Place the 7D on it, cut the cards burying it, unobtrusively squeeze the packet and order the 7D to pass to the other packet at the number chosen freely and recorded on the other visiting card. Let a spectator pick up that packet and hold it. Deal your cards face up, the 7D sticks to the back of the wet card; it has vanished. The other 7D is found at the chosen number.
The Midnight Marvel
U. F. GrantEFFECT. A spectator takes the four 2's from his own pack, replaces them in different parts of the pack and shuffles. The pack is handed on again. The four 2's are reversed in the pack. They are taken out. The spectator holds the rest of the pack. The lights are put out and on again, the 2's are again reversed in the pack, and the performer holds four indifferent cards.
SECRET. In your waistcoat pocket you have four 2's from a strange pack, the back pattern doesn't matter since it is never seen. When the spectator takes the four 2's and replaces them, tell him to be careful not to put any of them within six cards of the top or bottom. When the lights are put out you simply take out your own four 2's, put them in different parts of the pack reversed, take off four cards from the top of the pack and put them in your pocket.
When the lights are on again, spread the pack backs up and the four 2's (your strange cards) are seen to be-face up. Draw them out towards yourself and put them in a face-up packet, being careful not to allow a glimpse of their backs. Run through the pack, saying you will reverse the four cards in different places, any four, you say, but you really reverse the four 2's, this time being careful not to allow a glimpse of their faces. Lights out-put the four 2's (our stranger cards) in your pocket and take out the four indifferent cards you took from the pack in the first phase of the trick.
Lights up-you hold four indifferent cards and the four 2's are again found to be reversed in the pack. The pack is again complete, the stranger cards are safely out of the way and no clue is left.
It is advisable to carry two sets of 2's, one bridge size and one poker size, you are then prepared for whatever cards may be used.
The Limit Four Ace Trick
Billy O'ConnorTHE four A's are shown and laid singly on the table in a row, or on a card stand. On top of each A three other cards are placed. One pile is now selected and is shown to contain but one A and three indifferent cards, and is placed in a glass facing the audience. The other three piles are picked up, shown to be as represented and are placed back into various parts of the pack. On command the A's are caused to leave the pack and enter the pile on the table; the pack is riffled through and no A's are to be seen, while on fanning the packet which has been standing in the glass they are found to be the four A's.
Preparation. Seven A's are required-One AS and duplicates of AD, AC and AH. These latter six A's are all cut short, and one of each suit is prepared as follows: Paste each one on to the face of an indifferent card, gluing them together at the bottom only, so that you have three double cards with an A showing on the face of each. These three double cards are the ones that will be later dealt on to the AS pile, so it is obvious that when this pile is picked up and ruffled at the top (loose end) by the thumb, only the AS and the three indifferent cards will show, yet when the packets is fanned it shows four A's. Place the prepared duplicate A's third, seventh and eleventh from the top of the pack, and the other three short A's and the AS among the lower cards of the pack.
Routine. Fan the pack and pick out the four single A's and set them in a row on the card stand with the AS in third position. Deal three cards on to each A, one at a time, bringing the prepared duplicate A cards on to the AS. Force this pile, riffle it as explained above to show only the A on the face and three indifferent cards and, set it up in a glass facing the audience. Take up each of the other piles, riffle them in the same fashion and put them back in the pack. Tap narrow edge of pack on the table to settle the 'short' A's and riffle the top edge of pack slowly to show that the A's have disappeared. Fan the packet which has been standing in the glass and show the four A's.
Zen's Card MiracleYOU will require two packs of readers, that is with marked backs, and a small easel made to hold twenty-five cards in five rows of five cards each. To prepare for the trick sort out the two packs, separate into odd and even cards, counting J's and K's odd, Q's even. From each of the odd packets discard three cards, the 3's of C, S, and D, for instance. You have now two packets of odd cards, twenty-five cards in each. Shuffle one set, then sort out the other into exactly the same order and stack one set on top of the other. Put this pack on the table face down.
Take one of the piles of twenty-four even cards and discard any four, say the four 2's, leaving twenty cards and put these in your upper left waistcoat pocket. Take the other pile of even cards, add one set of the discarded 3's to them making twenty-seven cards and put them in your right-hand coat pocket with a handkerchief over them. Discard entirely the other set of 3's and 2's.
To present the trick, have a spectator cut the pack and count off twenty-five cards. Let him have four cards taken and retained by any four persons. Casually pick up the remaining twenty-five cards and put them in your right coat pocket under the handkerchief with the twenty-seven cards already there making a complete pack. When the helper returns to you take the cards from him and let him choose a card. When you turn your back so that all the five chosen cards can be held up for all to see, quietly take out the twenty even cards from your waistcoat pocket and drop into it the twenty odd cards. Do this without moving your elbows. Have the helper replace his card in the packet and shuffle the cards, then go down and collect the rest, having the cards shuffled as much as is wanted. 'Faking the packet you lay the cards out on the easel, note the five odd cards and later pick them out as dramatically as you can. Finally switch for the pack in your right coat pocket.
A Novel Card ProblemTWO packs are necessary, one ordinary the other with all the cards cut a trifle shorter. Put the short pack in your right-hand coat pocket on its side and you are ready.
Let five or six persons each pick out a card and hand the pack along. This done, go to the first person, have the card returned, bring it to the top and false shuffle, leaving it there. Put the pack in your coat pocket upright. Say that you will bring the card out at any number that may be called. Suppose 7 is the number chosen. Draw out six cards from the short pack and on the seventh bring out the top card of the ordinary pack which is the first card chosen. Bring out the short pack and add the six cards previously drawn from it but leaving the chosen card on the table.
The remaining chosen cards are now returned to the short pack which is given a vigorous shuffle, and you find them with ease and reveal them in various ways. Deal with one card at a time and throw each card as you discover it on the table.
Get it in the Dark
AnnemannTHREE forcing packs are required. Suppose for the sake of illustration that one pack is made up of A's, the second of 2's and the third of 3's. Remove these three cards from a regular pack and place a forcing pack in each of your outside coat pockets and the third in the right hip pocket. To show the trick:
Have the regular pack shuffled and examined. Take it back and have the lights turned off. At once take forcing pack No. 1 from right coat pocket and drop regular pack into left hip pocket. Let a spectator take the forcing pack, take out one card and return it to your hand. Meantime with your left hand take out pack No. 2. Take back pack No. 1 in right hand and at once give No. 2 to a second spectator with your left hand. Your right hand meanwhile drops No. 1 pack into your right coat pocket. Take No. 3 pack from your right hip pocket, receive pack No. 2 in your left hand and hand out No. 3 with the right. Take out the regular pack from the left hip pocket and when the No. 3 pack is returned slip it into your hip pocket and have the lights turned up. Name the three cards, varying the method of pretended divination each time. These cards being returned complete the pack, and no clue is left to the modus operandi.
Zens' Miracle Pocket To Pocket TrickTHREE packs are required, all with the same backs. Take any fifteen cards from one pack and mix them. Take the same cards from each of the other two packs and put them in exactly the same order as the first fifteen. Stack the three piles together. This pack can now be cut, with complete cuts, any number of times and the first fifteen cards and the next fifteen cards will always be duplicates. Three small envelopes are necessary. In one place any twelve cards from one of the original packs, seal it and put it in your inside or outside breast pocket. Take three more indifferent cards from the same pack, put them under the two remaining envelopes and put the envelopes and cards near the edge of your table, but slightly overlapping it, so that you can pick up cards and envelopes together and keeping the cards concealed below it.
With these preparations complete invite a spectator to cut your prepared pack, complete the cut and deal off fifteen cards. Pick up the two envelopes and the cards, drop them on top of the fifteen, thus imperceptibly adding the three cards to the packet. Have the helper choose one of the envelopes, put the cards into it, seal it and put it in his pocket. Again have him cut the remainder of the pack and deal off fifteen more cards. Taking these down to the audience, he has three cards selected by different people and replaced. He then brings the cards back, shuffles them and puts them in the remaining envelope which is sealed. Take it from him, pointing out that you have not touched a card, and push the envelope into your coat pocket but instantly bring out the one already there which contains twelve cards only. Give it to someone to hold. (If you use the outside breast pocket the envelope can remain there in full view.) The trick is now done and you have simply to work up the dramatic part. Order the three chosen cards to pass from one envelope to the other. One is found to have twelve cards and the other eighteen, with the duplicates of the three chosen cards amongst them.
Neat Card DetectionTHE cards of a Bicycle Air Cushion finish pack can be divided into two classifications. The parallel ridges and depressions which run the length of the backs of the cards do so in different directions. The few on which they run straight up and down should be discarded beforehand. Sort the cards accordingly into two packets, making a bridge between them. To locate a card simply cut at the bridge, hand one packet to a spectator and keep the other. He takes any one of his cards, notes it, and pushes it face down into your packet. Let him take the packet immediately and shuffle it. You can readily find his card by the backs alone. Reveal it in as striking a way as possible.
New Card LocatorTAKE any court card face downward and place a sixpence on the center of its back. Hold the coin firmly with the thumbs and press firmly and evenly with the fingers from underneath all around the card. The shape of the coin will be clearly impressed on the card, a rim, imperceptible to the eye, being left on the face of the card. The cards may be freely shuffled by a spectator and the prepared card will pass unnoticed, yet you can find it instantly by squaring the pack and cutting. After a card has been chosen simply cut at the prepared card, have the selected card returned on top of the lower half and drop the cut fairly and openly on top. You have simply to square the pack, cut at the locator card and riffle shuffle, leaving the chosen card at the top to be dealt with as you please.
Or you may hold the pack as for the Charlier Pass, relax the pressure of the thumb and the pack will always break at the prepared card.
The Fourteen Pack
R. W. HullTHIS pack is so arranged that after a spectator has shuffled it and then, while still retaining it, has thrust the Joker into it anywhere, the cards above and below it, or the two cards above or below, will always give a total of fourteen if their values are added together.
The cards must first be set up, then their backs and faces prepared. For the set-up make four piles of cards in order from A to K with the suits well mixed in each pile. From the first draw out the top and bottom cards, A and K, putting them together; then the Q and 2, Jack, 3, 10 and 4 and so on. Each packet will give six pairs totaling fourteen, and the four 7's making two more pairs you will have twenty-six pairs with the Joker being the odd card. Place the pack so arranged face down on a table. The back of the top card must be polished and its face roughened: the second card must have its back roughened and its face polished; the third, back polished, face roughened, and so on throughout the pack. Finally, roughen both sides of the Joker. For the process of polishing see p. 95, for roughening p. 104.
A pack so arranged and prepared may be handed out to be shuffled overhand without fear since the pairs cling together. If a spectator prepares to dovetail shuffle, stop him under pretense of not wishing to have the cards bent. Now if the Joker goes in between two rough surfaces it will push the cards above and below it out a little on the opposite side, in this case the card above it and the card below will always total fourteen; but if it goes in between two smooth cards, the two cards above or below will total fourteen.
Whether all this trouble merely to force one number is worth while is for the reader to decide for himself.
Telepathy?EFFECT. The performer fans a borrowed pack of cards with the faces towards himself. He borrows a pencil and puts any mark or initial a spectator may call on one of the cards. He shuffles the pack and asks the spectator to call the name of any card that comes into his mind. He fans the pack, locates the card named and hands it out. It bears the mark or initial that was called. No other card in the pack bears any mark.
WORKING. This depends on the use of a 'thumb writer'. The borrowing of the pencil, the pretended writing and the return of the pencil, merely built up the effect psychologically. Nothing is written at that time. The card is marked at the moment when it is found in the fan and withdrawn from the other cards. Thumb writers of various kinds from the thumb-tip to the tiny flesh-colored metal bands fitting over the ball of the thumb, can be had from the magic dealers. Ingenious performers will find many uses for this gimmick.
The Whispering Envelope
JordanTAKE an envelope of thin paper, insert a red card and show that it is quite opaque. Return the card to the pack and have someone shuffle it. Take the pack and count the cards to see that there are fifty-two, but as you do so run all the red cards to the bottom. Turn your back and holding the cards behind you spread the black cards and have one freely chosen. Put the pack aside. Pick up the envelope, hold it open, address side downwards and parallel with the floor. Have the card inserted face down, press it well into the lower left corner of the envelope, moisten the flap and fasten it. Fold the right-hand end of the envelope over as far as it will go and also the top. Let the spectator hold the envelope by the top right-hand corner. Strike a match and set the lower left corner alight, holding the match for an instant close to the corner when the index of the card will clearly show to you.
When the envelope and the card are destroyed proceed to read the person's mind with the usual hesitation, getting first the colour, then the suit and finally the value.
Great Psychic Card FeatTHIS trick is purely bluff but with proper presentation can be made very effective.
You require a red lead pencil and an exact imitation of it, made of wood with the point painted red. Explain to a spectator that you are going to have him mark a card under such conditions that he, himself, will not know what card he marks. Take the red lead pencil from your pocket and mark several small red crosses on a piece of paper to show him what he is to do. Put the pencil back in your pocket, and hand him a pack of cards in which you have already marked a card with a small red cross. Have him shuffle the cards and then hold them behind his back face up. Tell him to cut the pack anywhere he pleases and, if he likes, to cut-the pack again. Point out that neither he, nor anybody else can possibly know the card now on top of the face-up pack. Take out the fake pencil, hand it to him and tell him to put a small red cross on the top card. Take back the pencil and put it in your pocket. Have him cut the cards, turn them face down and shuffle them, then bring the pack forward. You can pretend to look right through the cards by par-optic vision and name the card with the red cross on it. Having marked the card yourself you have no difficulty in naming it. He searches the pack and finds that very card marked with a red cross. Casually bring out the red lead pencil and leave it on the table.
Card StabbingA CARD having been chosen, returned to the pack and the cards shuffled, it is discovered by a stab with a dagger although the cards after being scattered are covered with a newspaper.
The newspaper is prepared by having a duplicate of the card concealed in a pocket made by pasting a duplicate piece of newspaper over it. After the cards are spread on the table or floor, lay the newspaper over them in such a way that the card pocket is not directly over any of the cards. A blindfold is tied over your eyes and the dagger is handed to you. Look down the sides of your nose, locate the pocket and after moving the point over the paper in gradually smaller and smaller circles, suddenly plunge it through the paper and the concealed card. Take off the blindfold and tear away the paper, destroying all evidence of the paper pocket.
Miracle Card Location
VernonPUT a small quantity of gambler's daub, red or blue, on the flap of your own card case in such a position that the case cannot be opened naturally without some of the daub being smeared on the thumb. Ordinary lipstick may be used for red cards, and eye-shadow, the grease variety, for blue.
Hand the prepared case to a spectator to remove the cards. When he pulls out the flap, a small quantity of daub will have been left on the ball of his thumb, so stop him and suggest that he use his own cards. Have him spread them in a row on the table, pick up any card, note what it is, return it to the pack and shuffle the cards as thoroughly as he likes. You leave the room as be does this. On returning you locate the card easily by the daub mark on the back. Use a small quantity of the daub, a few experiments will quickly indicate the right amount.
Miracle Location Club Version
VernonA PREARRANGED pack and a small dab of gambler's daub on or under a waistcoat button are required. To present the trick the pack should be false shuffled and cut, or at least a series of straight cuts made. Several spectators are allowed free selection of cards but each time a card is drawn you make a light smear with the daub taken on your second finger-tip from the waistcoat button on the card above. Four or five cards may be taken and the pack handed out for their return and shuffled as much as the spectators wish.
To locate the cards you have merely to find the cards marked with the daub and pick out, in each case, the card following it in the system used. Place these cards face down on the table. When you have them all, pick up the packet and hold it with the backs of the cards to the spectators. The drawers are asked to call their cards in turn and you pull each card slowly from the packet and show it.
The same system can be used effectively as a mediumistic stunt.
Telepathic Selection
James Maxwell--Magic Wand, March 1920THIS is the first description of a carbon card and since the invention has been claimed and sold by so many since the date it appeared, this belated credit should be given.
To prepare, take a spare card, either the Joker or the plain card usually supplied with a pack. Soak this for some time in water and carefully peel off the back, then dry it with blotting paper placed between the leaves of a book to keep it flat. Cut a piece of carbon paper slightly smaller than the card and gum this to the prepared back, the tracing side outwards. Next take a court card from any spare pack and with a razor blade cut on the line that encloses the picture along the top and bottom and one side, so that the center of the card will open like a book, the uncut left side acting as a hinge. Paste the prepared back on top of this card, leaving the central flap quite free. Fit a small piece of thin white paper between the flap and the carbon sheet, adding a dot of gum at each corner. This paper can be used for two cards but must be renewed for each performance. This card is on the top of the pack which is used as a rest when the name of the card thought of is written. When you take the pack and run through the faces it is necessary only to lift the flap and read the impression. The prepared card can then be palmed and disposed of. Methods for using the card are left to the reader.
Mental Masterpiece
Annemann
BUY a pack of Bicycle Cards, the case of which contains a replica of the back design of the cards. Cut this out of the case. Split one of the cards and to its back paste a piece of good black pencil carbon paper cut to size, the prepared side of the carbon paper downwards. Paste around the quarter-inch white edge of the cut-out card case and lay the prepared carbon card on it. With the pack inside put the case under heavy pressure to dry. To use this faked case put a card with but few spots, such as one of the 2's, on the face of the pack and put the pack in the case so that this card is next to the carbon paper. Anything written on a piece of paper placed on the back of the case will be reproduced by the carbon on the face of the top card. The pencil used should be a hard one and not more than three inches long so that the writer is induced to bear down heavily.
To present the trick, or rather a trick, since the fake can be used in many ways, invite a spectator to step forward. Tell him to merely think of any card in the pack, he can change his mind as often as he likes till he fixes definitely on one card. Merely as a matter of precaution and as a means of helping him to concentrate on the card, hand him a piece of paper and a pencil and ask him to write the name of the card. Casually take the pack and place it under the paper as a support. Turn away while the writing is done, telling him to fold the paper and put it in his pocket. Take back the case and the pencil and impress on the subject that he must concentrate his thoughts on the card while you run through the pack. Take this out with the cards facing you, read the impression on the top card and after the proper amount of hesitation and searching, take out the card and lay it face down on his outstretched hand. Have him take out the paper and read the name of the card then hold it up for all to see.
Automatic Second Deal
VernonTO ACHIEVE a perfect second deal, make a small hole in the corner of a card at the point at which the ball of the thumb lies when the pack is held in position for dealing, in the left hand. This hole must be just large enough to allow part of the ball of the thumb to touch the card below when the prepared card is placed on the top of the pack. With the card thus placed the left thumb can push off two cards evenly. The lower card is then pulled out by the tip of the right second finger (the first finger acts as a shield) and is seized between the thumb and second finger and dealt on to the table, the left thumb simultaneously pulling back the prepared card to the top. It is this pulling back of the top card that makes the deal so deceptive.
To give a demonstration, have the faked card sixth from the top. Turn up the inner index corner of the top card and miscall it as the prepared card. Deal five cards very rapidly, then take off and show the prepared card, covering the hole with the finger and thumb. Replace it on top and say you will deal seconds again but more deliberately, then deal as described above, throwing the cards face down or face up as your fancy dictates and every now and then showing the top card still in position. With a minimum of practice a very convincing demonstration of second dealing can be made.
MagicardoTHIS trick is performed with a pack that has a hole cut lengthwise through the center of the cards. The slit is about two and a half inches long and about half an inch wide, so that a card can be pushed through it if turned endwise. It is cut slightly nearer to one end than the other. If the pack is set with all the slits coinciding and one card is reversed the end of that card must protrude slightly when the pack hangs on a ribbon passed through all the slits. That is the secret.
When any card has been freely chosen, simply turn the pack round before the card is replaced. Thread a ribbon through the slits, throw a handkerchief over the pack and then give the two ends of the ribbon to be held. The end of the chosen card will protrude above the others. Reach beneath the covering and find the protruding card, separate the pack at that point and push the card right through the holes in the cards on one side of it or the other. Push the pack together and bring the card out upright like the others. Remove it from the ribbon and show that it is the chosen card. The card may be marked and several may be used at once.
Stereotyped--Reading the CardsA SPECTATOR shuffles the cards and takes one. You feel it with your hands behind your back to get the vibration? With a piece of chalk you draw a correct picture of the card on a slate or blackboard.
The cards are prepared beforehand by tracing the indices with Carter's red ink for the red cards and any good black ink for the black suits. You moisten the tip of right forefinger and when pretending to feel the card simply press the finger-tip on the index and so get an imprint of it. This can be read under cover of handling the chalk if you finish the trick using a slate or a blackboard.
Editor's Note--Dr. Bates of Freemont, Ohio, was the first to show this trick. He used indelible blue and red pencils to trace the indices.
Thought Card Discovered
DevantINVITE a spectator to think of any card and then remove it from the pack, put it face down on the table and spread a handkerchief over it. While this is being done take a small black pin, which you had placed beforehand in the lower edge of your waistcoat, and hold it, point down, between the second and third fingers of your right hand. Put this hand on the handkerchief just over the card, place your left hand on top of your right and have the spectator put his hands on top of yours. Telling him to concentrate his thoughts on his cards. Push the pin into the top right-hand corner of the card, which will raise a tiny lump on its face. Then let the spectator replace the card in the pack and shuffle freely. Quietly drop the pin on the carpet. Take the pack and deal the cards face up, and when you reach the marked card, the tiny protuberance can be felt by forefinger. Note what it is but go right on. Accuse the spectator of not concentrating. Spread the cards face up, grasp his hand and sweep the other hand over the line of cards. Drop it dramatically on the chosen one.
Impromptu DetectionTHIS trick had better be done with a pack of well-used cards. After such a pack has been thoroughly shuffled take it and secretly draw your thumb-nail obliquely across one side, leaving a scratched line. Hand the pack to a spectator to cut the cards while he decides on any number under twenty. He then deals cards face down to that number, note the next card and replace the dealt cards on top of it. Finally he is to cut the cards again so that all possible trace of his operations is lost. This is all done while your back is turned.
You locate the card by the scratch. When the spectator first cut the pack, the line is divided into two parts. When he counts off a number of cards their order is reversed and the scratch on their edges will slant the opposite way. All you have to do is to see that all the cards with the reversed slant are in the same group, cut at lowest of these cards and the next card will be the one noted by the spectator. You can learn its identity by cutting so that it is the bottom card of the top half and sighting it as you riffle shuffle. Reveal the card in any way you wish.
Nine In Ten DetectionMARK any card with a pencil dot on the top left corner and the lower right corner. If you are working with a borrowed pack you can do this during some previous trick in which you have had occasion to turn your back.
Hand the pack to be thoroughly shuffled. Take it back and fan it, faces of the cards to the front to show it well mixed, spot the dotted card and cut to bring to the top. Divide pack and riffle shuffle, sighting the bottom card of the left-hand portion and letting it drop first, and retaining the marked card on top of the pack. With the pack face down on your left hand, seize about half the cards near their inner ends between the right thumb and second finger, the forefinger pressing down on the middle, lift the cards, giving the end of the packet a rather sharp squeeze and put it on the table. Take the remainder in the same way and drop them on top. Apparently you have made a simple cut, really you have made a bridge at the inner end of the pack while the outer ends of the cards lie flat.
Put the pack face down on your left hand and invite a spectator to cut and note the card at the face of those taken off. He can only cut at the ends and in all probability will cut at the bridge. If the dotted card is at the top of those remaining in your left hand you know he has cut at the card you sighted, so you hand these cards to him and let him shuffle as much as he likes. You can reveal the card as you wish. If, however, he cut at another point, let him put his packet face down, yours going alongside it. Cut both packets, yours at the crimp, and in putting them together, see that the bottom part of his packet goes on top of the crimp, then cut at the crimp for a riffle shuffle and sight his card in the action. You will not often have to do this, however.
It's Up To YouTHIS trick can be done with any pack. Have the cards shuffled by a spectator, take them and under pretense of finding out if the pack is complete, count the cards face down on the table. As you deal the second, third and fourth cards press the nail of your second finger on the face of each card near the top right-hand corner. A slight lump will thus be made on the backs of these three cards in just the position to be felt with the ball of the left thumb in dealing the cards. After the count the three marked cards will be second, third and fourth from the bottom.
Allow a card to be freely selected and noted. Put the pack on the table, the chosen card is placed on top and the pack cut by the spectator, burying it. Tell him to deal the cards one by one into two, three, or four heaps as he pleases. Infallibly this will bring his card above one of the marked cards. Let him look through the packets and hand you the one containing his card, face down. Pretending you have to know just how many cards are in the packet, deal the cards face down. When you feel the lump you know that the card just dealt is the chosen one. Count the number of cards you deal on top of it and you know its exact position enabling you to reveal it in any way you please. Present the trick as being dependent on an intricate mathematical formula.
