Magic & Conjuring: page 215

The Bite is a very useful and subtle principle that allows you to mark billets or cards in a unique and exceedingly clever way. The cool part is that the marking is unknowingly done by the spectators themselves without them knowing what is going on. This is perfect because you can have your back turned to them or even be in another room while they are following your instructions.

This idea is not completely new, but pretty obscure and most likely you will be unfamiliar with it. It was first published by Bob Ostin in his 1974 living and dead test entitled 'Vampire'. Later, Tom Stone published...

This is a compilation of three of Prager's effects.

1. The Bite (a way to secretly mark billets)
2. Peeki (a peek wallet)
3. Genocidio (a variation on Kenton Knepper's Kolossal Killer avoiding 'the out')

1st edition 2011; 16 pages.

This is an ebook test. Yes, not a book test done with actual paper copies, but rather a book test done with ebooks, PDF ebooks that is. The advantage here is that you can perform it wherever you have your smartphone, tablet or iPad with you. (For another ebook test see Dracula Ebook Test.)

Effect: A spectator selects any one of seven ebooks, turns to the page of his/her choice as you look away. The spectator concentrates on one word and you name it, even though you don't know the page and there is no fishing.

You will get the following ebooks:

• "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
• "Around the World...

A deviously clever drawing duplication using an ungaffed, store-bought pad.

"WOW, I just got this today and really like it. It is so simple and to the point that I can’t believe no one has thought of this until now! I have played around with this and think that I like this better than my IMPs pads. No kidding!" - Ray Noble

"Thanks Jose, you have come up with another gem." - NeilS

"Nicely done J. Prager, this is some clever stuff, a great lil peek device." - jaybest

"Love your stuff! Bob Nelson and Al Koran, both very dear friends, would have enjoyed your thinking a great deal....

Remote viewing, mind reading, song revelations, predictions and more... All with an iPhone or iTouch. (Some Android phones can be used for this too).

Swipeit is impromptu, can be performed with a spectator's phone and no special apps or software are needed. Absolutely no funny or illogical moves are involved.

Also featuring additional creative routines and ideas from the minds of Ran Pink, Mauricio Jaramillo and Paul Carnazzo that will give you plenty of concepts to experiment with.

Have an easy remote viewing routine and some very powerful mind reading effects at hand any time you meet someone....

It’s a peek wallet…without the wallet!

Evil Twin is an easy-to-make / easy-to-use gimmick that allows you to obtain information in a super-clean way. You will need some blank business cards or other small cards one can write on.

"It is a very clever idea and will be making one up straight away." - Carl at The Magic Café

"This is an excellent, portable p**k device that will be on me at all times." - Anthony Brandonissio

"I like my mentalism simple and the more I play about with this effect the more I like it." - NeilS

"Jose just keeps putting out those …Wow, I wish I thought...

Cliff is a new use for an old gimmick. In that sense it is a groundbreaking new concept in the art of PK magic. The gimmick, virtually invisible to the naked eye, can be with you at all times, and is applicable to a nearly limitless amount of objects. You can easily perform Cliff in the midst of a large crowd, as there are no threads, blowing, or vibrations involved in the effect. Your body never comes in contact with the object. You can even hand out the item for examination.

Cliff is a dramatic, stunningly visual addition to your repertoire and a new development in the world of PK magic.

This is an extremely clever gimmick which you can construct in a matter of minutes. You will probably have to make a quick trip to your office supply store, but it will be worth it. This is probably one of the most clever duplication principle.

Just look at the massive positive feedback this has already received:

"Very simple, direct and organic... This could be done in your birthday suit,with nothing more than a marker and one business card and you never peek the card. Got some ideas brewing on this one for double divinations, but for one assistant, nothing more than a good presentation...

Possibly The Scanner is one of the most innocent impression devices/pads you will ever come across.

• It is perfect for real time and pre-show.
• The reset takes about 5 seconds.
• It uses an ordinary pen/pencil.
• It is very low tech and costs next to nothing to make.
• Prager uses it all the time to read minds close-up and even stage!

What they are saying about The Scanner:

"The Scanner is an easy to make impression pad that looks very innocent while holding...

Jose Castineiras is an accomplish young magician from Spain. In this download video you will get the full performance and explanation of two coin routines, Coin Glass and Coins Across, as well as his innovative use of the muscle pass.

"Jose is one of my favorite coinmen: the best muscle-pass I've ever seen, the best technique and execution transferred to many his personal routine...Great!" - Giacomo Bertini

1st edition 2016, length 26 min

• Schallplattenerscheinen
• Kartenverkleinerung
• Seidentücher zu gleichfarbigen Gedränk
• Flasche zu Blumenstraus
• Münzenerscheinen (Misers Dream)
• Ringspiel
• Geldvermehrung

[Alle Folgen sind als preisreduziertes Paket zu haben: Magisches Intermezzo (Alle 23 Folgen).]

Scores of street scams, swindles, and card table ruses are explained in this 163 page ebook, guaranteed to separate a sucker from his money just as quickly today as when this tome was first written in the mid-1800s. Don't read this book to cheat -- instead, get it for protection so you don't become a victim.

This a fascinating study, filled with accounts of colorful, larger-than-life characters. Some were victims, others turned the tables and made suckers out of the swindlers. The author, "a reformed gambler," goes beyond playing cards to detail the inside work on thimbles (the precursor...

This is an unusual mix of contents including magic card tricks, card games and how gamblers cheat at those games, other swindles and scams, a section on dice and cheating at dice games, as well as moralizing against the evils of gambling.

Jonathan H. Green was a reformed gambler, who made a career exposing cheating via lectures, presentations and books.

An earlier shorter edition of this book was published under the title Games and Tricks with Cards.

If you are looking for an edited version and somewhat modernized rendition of this book you can find it here.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick...

You will find here card tricks, cheating exposes, card games, and gambling stories.

A later expanded version of this book was published under the title Gamblers' Tricks With Cards Exposed and Explained.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick Of Thirty Six Cards; Telling The Card You Look At Without Seeing The Pack.
  • To Tell A Card Thought Of
  • Three Jacks As Thieves, Caught By A King As A Policeman
  • To Burn A Card And Fin'd It In A Watch
  • How To Shift Cards
  • The Four Associates
  • To Make A Card Jump Out Of The Pack
  • How To Change Cards To Pictures
• Chapter II
  • All Fours
  • Deceptions Used In The Game Of All Fours
  • How To...

Full exposition of all the various arts, mysteries, and miseries of gambling.

It is a complete exposure, of the different and various ways of deception and cheating in all the numerous games played, such as Faro, Two, Three, and Four-Handed Poker, Shuffling Cards, Roulette and Rolling Faro, Vingt-Un, Brag, Euchre, Game of Boston, All Fours, Cribbage, Whist, Dice, Stealing out Cards, Palming, Playing by Signs, Marking Cards, Backgammon, Solitaire, Playing Three against One, Spring Tables, Spring Boxes, Pulleys, Ingenuity of Gamblers, Card Manufactories, Lotteries, then modes of drawing and...

A dissuasive to the young against games of chance.

• DIALOGUE I. On Playing Pins.
• DIALOGUE II. On Playing Marbles.
• DIALOGUE III. On Pitching Coppers.
• DIALOGUE IV. On Matching And Tossing Coppers, Throwing Heads And Tails, &c.
• DIALOGUE V. On Sabbath Breaking - Telling Lies - Disobedience To Parents, &c.
• DIALOGUE VI. On The Use Of Tobacco.
• DIALOGUE VII. On Playing Various Games.
• DIALOGUE VIII. On Gamblers, Lotteries, &c.
• Death Of A Boy On A Race Course.
• Social Card-Parties.
• The Gambler's Victim.
• The Ruined Family; Or, A Warning To Those Who Play For Amusement.
• The Charm Of Gambling. ...

ABOUT RUB-A-DUB: The rhyme is of a type calling out otherwise respectable people for disrespectable actions, in this case, ogling naked ladies - the maids. The nonsense "Rub-a-dub-dub" develops a phonetic association of social disapprobation, analogous to "tsk-tsk," albeit of a more lascivious variety.

The Rub-a-Dub Move's inauspicious beginning began in 1909 at a time when, relatively speaking, magicians had a limited number of utilitarian sleights and techniques at their disposal. Besides, the Rub-a-Dub Move happened in the blink of an eye and was only an offbeat way to make a card disappear. ...

A deep dive into Elmsley's Point of Departure.

The original effect is the following. A card is chosen and placed face down on the table. The two black aces are then removed from the pack and with the utmost fairness, the chosen card is placed between them, and this sandwich is handed to a spectator to hold. On the magician's command, the chosen card vanishes and is found in the performer's pocket.

• Point of Departure / Alex Elmsley
• Card Vanish Supreme / Edward Marlo
• A-E-I-O-U / Sam Schwarz
• Last-Minute Departure / Jon Racherbaumer
• Escapade / Max Maven
• Between Your Points of Departure / Earl...

Ten card mysteries Annemann would have loved.

This book was part of a two-person three-hour lecture session given by Harry Anderson that Jon gave at a Daytona Magic Conference.

Excerpt from the foreword:

Tricks that allude to the game of BlackJack.

• Black Jack Kicker / Paul Gertner
• Blackjacked! / Don Alan & Eddie Fields
• Duck or Deal Blackjack / Nick Trost
• Black Magic / Ron Ferris
• Black Jack Versus Poker / Edward Marlo
• The Almost Perfect Blackjack Hand / Dan Block

1st edition 2023, PDF 30 pages.

A selective history of magic squares and routines and performances which are somewhat unusual and different from the regular magic square presentation of 'give me a number and I write down a magic square of that number'.

• Brother Can You Paradigm? (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Harried History of the Magic Square
  • B.A. (Before Annemann)
  • 1930 – Present
  • Wise-Guy Square
• Kick-Starters
  • Okey-Sidokey
  • Charlier Shuffle
• Miscellaneous Matrix Trix
  • Phoning Marrakech
  • Squaring the Deal
  • Upside Down
  • Cool Things about the Magic Square
  • Harry Ending
• References

1st edition 2008, PDF 31 pages....

This short compilation follows on the heels of another compilation titled Dreamwork. Both relate to Bob Hummer's "The Midreader's Dream." Bob Hummer introduced to the magic world many interesting principles and effects. One of the first to make a splash was introduced in 1952. The dreamy dealer ad seemed too good to be true: A spectator merely thinks of a card and then performs a few, unseen dealing procedures with a deck of cards. The magician, whose back was turned throughout these actions, turns and faces the spectator. He takes the deck, briefly scans the cards, and consults a "dream book." He then names...

Diving into double-back transits.

• Jennings' Visitor: The spectator selects a card and the performer places it between two black Queens. The card becomes restless and upon command leaves the black Queens and is found face-up between two red Queens. Upon command, once again the card jumps from the red Queens back between the black Queens. The selected card may be initialed.
• The Visitor Sans Deck / Dave Solomon: Four Kings and four Jacks are removed from the deck. The Kings and Jacks are separated into two fours of a kind and are placed as two packets on the table. A spot card is selected from the...

A finessed examination of a unique technique.

This manuscript is about a basic card technique that is sui generis, although it remains a limited application. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing because it's been cleverly used to perform one of the best short versions of "Triumph" extant.

The basic move permits you to secretly reverse a card while the deck is tabled and simultaneously riffle shuffled. This manuscript also reveals the how, when and who worked on it. The first Tabled Reverse appeared in Marlo's Off the Top in 1945, credited to Russell Barnhart. Therein it was sparsely explained,...