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Jack McMillen
by Michael Landes & Jack McMillen

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Jack McMillen by Michael Landes & Jack McMillen

Jack McMillen is famous for his (plunger) card rise. Seventy-five years after first appearing in print, it remains the preferred pure sleight of hand method for the rising cards, as well as a powerful more general concept that can be used as a force or a switch for example. If you are an avid reader of card magic literature you will no doubt have encountered other effects credited to Jack McMillen – for example in Expert Card Technique, but his name tends to slip through and very little is known about him although he is without a doubt one of the great card men of all time.

We have to thank Michael Landes who, starting more than 20 years ago on a suggestion by Paul Chosse, sat down with Jack McMillen and recorded his most important contributions to magic. Michael Landes meticulously and carefully studied every nuance and every detail to share with all of us Jack McMillen’s legacy. This is THE book on Jack McMillen. There will never be anything more authoritative on Jack than this book. The late Paul Chosse, another student of Jack McMillen, did not only suggest this book, but also generously offered to supply any material of his own that Jack and/or Mr. Landes thought appropriate. If you find any references to a ‘Jack McMillen book’ by Paul Chosse – this is it. This is the book he was referring to.

Who was Jack McMillen? Jack was an all-rounder, a technician, creator and performer, and he excelled in all three realms. Blessed with prodigious skill, he was already one of the top card men in the country while still in high school (1925-1929). Due to his widening reputation, Charlie Miller, living on the other side of the country, sought him out in 1929. They were to remain close friends for sixty years.

Blessed with a strong creative bent and an analytical mind, Jack was a superb problem solver, talented at refining the ideas of others as well as with coming up with original tricks and methods of his own. The measure of his talent lay not in the quantity of his ideas, but in their seminal quality. A startling number of his ideas continue to inspire new thinking even today. Blessed with an affable nature, gregarious personality and a fascination with the problem of making tricks entertaining, Jack evolved into a top performer. He really was truly charming, an ideal close-up magician. In spite of the miraculous impact of his tricks, the spectators primarily remembered him.

Despite his status as one of the top card magician – friend and confident to legends like Charlie Miller and Dai Vernon - Jack never put a lot of his creations on paper. Other than the lecture notes he wrote for his Magic Castle lecture in the seventies and a single contribution to Charlie Miller’s Magicana, he never wrote up any of his material. The articles that appeared in print bearing his name were invariably written by others, with only minimal cooperation from Jack at best, and sometimes without even his knowledge or permission. As a result the descriptions usually missed salient details and were often downright inaccurate.

This ebook will set the record straight. It will describe the most important contributions of Jack McMillen in minute detail. Mixed into the technical descriptions are some wonderful anecdotes and stories which will bring the person to life.

One note of caution: This ebook does not have illustrations. We believe that the meticulous textual description allows for a more detailed and more accurate communication of method and their nuances than illustrations could provide. If you are the kind of person that quickly flies through a book glancing at a few illustrations to pick out what you think are the main nuggets of information, you will be disappointed. This is a book for the serious student of card magic. Take a deck of cards and follow along the descriptions of what you will find to be some of the most efficient and clever techniques with cards ever created.

Paul Chosse: "Jack McMillen taught me to 'Go Slow! and be sure the audience understands the plot. Jack was the most unaffected, affable, charming guy you would ever meet. An old country preacher sort of a fellow, always a smile, soft-spoken, and gentle. He epitomized the card-handling techniques that Vernon espoused: he held the pack like a little bird, gently, softly. There were no hurried movements, no "big move covers the little move" actions. Just great timing, perfect excecution, and a pleasant personality and presentation that charmed people into submission! No one wanted to catch Jack - they wanted to be fooled! They like him and wanted him to succeed - that makes a huge difference. Jack's favorite text was Erdnase, though he studied all the classics. He was always trying to be better. Jack was never quite satisfied. Even his signature tricks, things he'd done for 50 years, could be altered if he found a better way. I remember him making a change in a trick he'd been doing since the forties, because Roger Klause showed him a little thing that fit, just right, in the trick. I don't even know that it made any difference to anyone else, but it made a difference to Jack, it brought the trick just an iota closer to perfection, so he used it. In fact, it was so small a thing that the first time Jack did the "new" version of this trick for me, I didn't notice the change. But like I say, Jack didn't do it for me, he did it for himself. He was an artist, a master, and he knew that this little change made his work a bit better, for him if not for anyone else. I learned a lot about magic from Jack, and a lot about human nature, and since his tools were cards I'd have to say he was the single most influential person in my card magic education. ......."

1st edition 2011; 263 pages.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT
  3. ADDITIONAL NOTES

    SECTION ONE: LOS ANGELES: 1925-1929

  4. 1. STARTING OUT
  5. CONTROL I
  6. A BARBARY COAST SCAM
  7. CONTROL II
  8. THE STILL THUMB

  9. 2. TAKE A CARD
  10. Controls
  11. AN INSTANTANEOUS DETECTION (Judson Brown)
  12. A RIFFLE SHUFFLE CONTROL
  13. Locations
  14. END FOR END
  15. THE RIFFLE GLIMPSE (McMillen/Brown)
  16. GLIMPSE FROM THE PEEK
  17. FIVE CARD FAN SELECTION
  18. SHUFFLE CODE (McMillen/Brown)
  19. Forces
  20. SPREAD FORCE (Larsen)
  21. THE CUT FORCE
  22. KNIFE FORCE

  23. 3. REVELATIONS
  24. UPSIDE DOWN (Judson Brown)
  25. A RETRIEVED ERROR
  26. FROM ANOTHER PACK
  27. THE SPECTATOR FINDS A CARD
  28. REVERSED AT ANY NUMBER
  29. A QUICK REVERSE
  30. THE JOKER FINDS A CARD
  31. THE BIDDLE COLOR CHANGE
  32. A MENTAL SPELL
  33. THE VOODOO CARD RISE

  34. 4. CHARLES JORDAN
  35. THE UNKNOWN LEAPER
  36. EDGE MARK PREMO
  37. SENSITIVE FINGERS
  38. THE PAIRS POKER STACK
  39. PAUL CHOSSE ON THE PAIRS POKER STACK

  40. 5. THE J. M. CARD RISE
  41. FIRST METHOD (for a single selection)
  42. SECOND METHOD (two card rise)
  43. THIRD METHOD (one selection)
  44. FOURTH METHOD
  45. PAUL CHOSSE ON THE J. M. CARD RISE

    SECTION TWO: SAN FRANCISCO: 1933-1953

  46. 6. THE BRAUE CONNECTION
  47. CONTINUOUS SPELLER
  48. THE DOUBLE LIFT
  49. Jack’s CENTER DEAL
  50. THE PSYCHIC STOP
  51. MIND MIRROR
  52. THE WITCHCRAFT CARD RISE

  53. 7. SAN FRANCISCO DAYS
  54. THE VANISHING DECK
  55. Jack’s SAN FRANCISCO SECOND
  56. Senor Mardo’s RING, COIN, AND HANDKERCHIEF

  57. 8. THE COLOR CHANGES
  58. THE SNAP COLOR CHANGE
  59. PUSH OFF COLOR CHANGE
  60. THE ERDNASE STEAL
  61. THE EYE TEST

  62. 9. THE COLLINS’ ACES

  63. 10. VERNONIANA
  64. THE FIRST MEETING
  65. THE DOUBLE LIFT GET-SET
  66. THE THUMBPRINT TRICK
  67. TRIUMPH
  68. A HAND-TO-HAND TRANSFER
  69. THE AMBITIOUS CARD SEQUENCE
  70. A QUICK TRICK
  71. THE GAMBLER'S SECRET
  72. A PROBLEM WITH THE ACES

  73. 11. MAGICANA
  74. THE ONE SHUFFLE POKER STACK
  75. THE ORIGIN OF THE TEN CARD DEAL
  76. THE NYQUIST POKER DEAL
  77. THE SECRET OF HENRY SING
  78. THE TAP THROUGH CONTROL
  79. NYQUIST RADIO CONTROL
  80. CARD TO POCKET WITH A KICKER
  81. THE POWER OF THOUGHT
  82. THE STOP TRICK

    SECTION THREE: SANTA ROSA: 1954-1990

  83. 12. COMING TO SANTA ROSA
  84. THE OLD GAMBLER
  85. SHADE WORK
  86. BLACKJACK ROUTINE
  87. THE BLUFF ACES

  88. 13. THE SAN FRANCISCO SHUFFLE

  89. 14. NEVER BET ON A SURE THING

  90. 15. THE PURSE FRAME
  91. THE PURSE FRAME
  92. WINGED SILVER
  93. QUICK SILVER
  94. CROSSED HANDS
  95. ONE COIN

  96. 16. MORE TRICKS
  97. PSYCHIC STOP II: THE SPREAD
  98. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND
  99. THE BIDDLE TRICK
  100. RING, ROPE AND STICK
  101. EXPANSION OF TEXTURE
  102. THE CHALLENGE POKER DEAL

  103. 17. ODDS & ENDINGS
  104. AN OPENING
  105. COINS
  106. THE LINKING RINGS
  107. AMBITIOUS CARD MANEUVERS
  108. THE CUPS & BALLS
  109. Bob Madison's CARDS TO POCKET

    ADDENDUM: AT THE CARD TABLE

  110. 18. BOTTOM DEALS
  111. Jack’s SOFT BOTTOM DEAL
  112. ANOTHER BOTTOM
  113. FINAL NOTES ON BOTTOM DEALS

  114. 19. MORE SLEIGHTS
  115. RIFFLE SHUFFLE SEQUENCE I. To Retain The Order Of The Entire Deck
  116. RIFFLE SHUFFLE SEQUENCE II. To Retain Top Stock At The Bottom
  117. Martin’s FALSE CUT
  118. Dr. Elliot’s SECOND DEAL
  119. SIMPLICITY BOTTOM PALM
  120. SIMPLICITY BOTTOM DEAL
  121. MIRAGE (THE NO-SWITCH SWITCH)
  122. HOLE CARD SWITCH
  123. Gene Matsuura's ONE-HANDED SWITCH

  124. 20. NOTES ON CARDS
  125. Notes On THE BOTTOM PALM - FIRST METHOD
  126. Notes On THE BOTTOM CARD REPLACEMENT
  127. Paul Chosse on THE DIAGONAL PALM SHIFT
  128. Notes On FALSE DEALS
  129. MORE TIPS & DETAILS
  130. APPENDIX

word count: 110529 which is equivalent to 442 standard pages of text