Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 62

Steve Mayhew has come up, with what must be the most clever application of the Gilbreath principle, or strictly speaking a principle closely related to Gilbreath's. He achieves with this idea extremely strong poker deal effects. If you are only remotely interested in poker deals, mathematical principles, or in particular the Gilbreath principle, you must read this ebook. This ebook is a reprint of his notes with the same title plus the effect "Freedom" from his lecture notes.

1st edition, 1999, Me and the Other Guy Productions.

1. Acknowledgments
2. Introduction
1. The Principle
1. Getting Ready ...

This is the 'pick a card and I find it' type of effect, where the spectator's card is revealed with a color change. It is a nice sequence that could fit into many card routines.

runtime: 4min 37s

Spectator merely thinks of any card out of 52 and that card is the only one with a different back than the rest of the deck. But what if the spectator would have named another card? To demonstrate the performer takes another card and visually moves the off color back from the first selection to the new one. A very visual and stunning transformation.

runtime 9 min 32s.

This hard-to-find book of eleven clever card effects was ahead of its time and still plays well to today's audiences. While not self-working, magicians with ordinary card ability can do them all.

The effects include:

• An Instantaneous Detection
• The Haunted Whisper
• The Hazy Pips
• From Another Deck
• A Joker Location
• Another Joker Location
• Blowing the Pips
• A New Reverse Location
• Upside Down
• The Phantom Pips
• Topsy-Turvy Location

Acclaimed by close-up masters including Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller, McMillen and Brown were known as the most skillful card performers on the Pacific coast. Those who knew...

This publication is in my opinion among the best books on cards ever written, but it is rarely mentioned or recommended. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps one reason is that Jack Merlin himself has not left a large footprint in the magic literature besides this one publication. He has a published trick in Expert Card Technique and if you read Card College 1 you will have learned the Jack Merlin's Riffle Shuffle. Farelli mentions in his Farell's Card Magic: "I agree with Mr. Jack Merlin that the custom of continually practicing in front of a glass is the cause of the unfortunate habit many magicians have of blinking at the precise moment of performing...

You apparently teach four card tricks to a member of the audience, but the explanation leave the spectators more and more bewildered ... with a strong climax.

Here's a routine that has withstood the acid test of time. Jack Shepherd's great comedy routine performance to the paying public has been very valuable to the originator. It can be as valuable to you too! You get a member of the audience to help and offer to teach him how to do four card tricks. False explanations of the various effects as performed lead up to a brilliant climax where the spectator reaches into his own pocket and removes...

Jack Vosburgh was a close friend of Ted Annemann and deeply inspired by that master. Annemann referred to Vosburgh as "an unusual idea man." See for yourself in these thirteen novel playing card problems, especially the famous "Future Deck." Everything clearly explained so you can learn them quickly and easily.

From the introduction:

There are some mighty good card miracles here, from the fertile mind of Jack Vosburgh. Contains six original, impromptu card tricks with anybody's deck - with no extra appliances, preparation or setup - and almost no skill.

Here's a listing of the clever effects included in the book:

• The Bashful Card is a combination divination, spelling and reversal effect - and it's plenty good.
• The Five Card Mental Elimination - this is an easy-to-do puzzling mental effect.
• The Fifth Column - This is a color separation that is both novel and clever.
• A Lesson in Card Magic - A real fooler and the...

"Jack's Wallet" is an ingenious way of predicting a freely-chosen card using an unfaked wallet, the sort you probably possess already. It is a 'stand-up' trick without the need for a table, the type that is becoming more and more popular.

The second effect, "Jack's Line-Up", is a mental masterpiece that, properly performed, will stagger an audience whether it's done impromptu or as part of a regular cabaret act.

Here are the more detailed effects:

JACK's WALLET: Briefly, a spectator selects a card. It is not forced. The performer allows another spectator to remove a sealed envelope...

Jack Yates was a very clever and innovative magician who has somehow stayed below the radar and is completely unknown - undeservedly so - to many particularly in the US. Jack's Pack is a clever stacking method for finding any card in a deck by way of using numbers, names, words, etc.

Edited and with additional notes by Ken de Courcy.

1st edition 1978, 8 pages; 1st digital edition 2017, PDF 10 pages.

It's uncanny; you don't touch the pack; you don't see the pack. Yet you are able to reveal in a novel fashion a freely selected card. Write the simple instructions in the form of a letter to the "customer". You can do it over the phone, over the radio, on television, via SMS, Zoom, or any other communication channel. Or, if you prefer, you can do it close-up with a spectator. They do it at their leisure over and over again and still it works. The card is revealed by your own name thus gaining publicity, or you can use your own phrase or a number to reveal the card!

EFFECT: (There are different...

A self-working principle which determined a person's thoughts . . . Listen to this bewildering effect. A pack of cards is shuffled and a spectator merely thinks of a card. The pack is then dealt once, twice and finally a third time into two piles. Before completing the last dealing the spectator may, if he so wishes, shuffle both halves. Despite all this, when the spectator deals through the pack he finds there are only 51 cards; the thought-of card has vanished! The performer produces the card from his pocket before the spectator names his chosen card. An astounding climax which completely...

This ebook's purpose is to teach something about the art of close-up card magic; not just to describe some card effects. Each chapter consists of three parts:

1. the text
2. captioned drawings
3. a summary of moves and sleights

This is a very well thought out and carefully described torn-and-restored card effect. Seven alternate handlings are explained, plus you get a strong bonus effect.

Effect:
A card is freely selected; the spectator signs their name on the face of the card, and the magician signs his/her name on the back. An envelope is introduced, and the spectator is asked to open it up, and remove one of the pieces of paper it contains, and to examine it if they wish. After the paper is selected, the freely chosen card is visually ripped into four pieces and wrapped up inside of the chosen piece of paper,...

Elliott was a very popular magician. Particularly some of his card effects were considered best of its kind. Nobody knew the secrets to some of Elliott's tricks. People waited impatiently for the release of this book. But it was met with some disappointment that not all of Elliott's tricks were described. We do not know which tricks these critics mean. The reason might well be that Elliott died before he could finish his book. Burgess and Houdini had to collect Elliott's notes and fill in some of the missing explanations. However, Elliott and Houdini believed that all the material in this book was...

Looking for the perfect romantic card trick? Then check out Valentine!

A card is selected and signed with a heart by your spectator. The card is lost in the deck. The Three of hearts is shown to the spectator and the magician asks her to watch the middle heart very closely. At that moment you visually pluck the middle heart from the three and throw it onto a stack of cards on the table. The Three has visablly turned into a two and the heart now lays on the table! You place the two on the table and turn over the card that the heart has landed on. Its the signed card! At that point you collect...

T.A.G is an awesome device Jamie discovered not too long ago. Imagine having a device that could advertise your number, e-mail, web site and anything else while you're performing. Imagine a device that is so small, it can hang around your neck and look sleek and cool. Imagine a device that is eye catching and will get you more bookings. Imagine a device that can do all of these things and still hold a number of magic effects.

Imagine no more! This device will make your professional, working life a whole lot easier and ensure everyone knows who you are and how to get hold of you. This is an...

Including "s.p.A.C.E.d" - featured in the May 2009 edition of Magic Magazine.

Bottoms up!
Effect: A joker is shown to the audience and placed face up on top of the deck. The cards are then spread and two cards are selected and signed. The selected cards are lost into the centre of the deck. The Joker is displayed on top of the deck and with a wave turns into the first signed card. With a flick, the first signed card turns into the second signed card! Then once placed into the spectator hand, the selection turns back into a joker. For your finale, you place the joker face up on top of the...

"It's one of the cleverest Haunted deck methods I've seen!" - Peter Duffie, MAGIC Magazine, May 2009

For Many years, the "Haunted Deck" effect has been favored and loved by all magicians. The old methods to create this fantastic effect were fiddly and sometimes tricky to perform easily. As of late, brand new versions of it have been released like "Really Haunted" and "Spirit" from Alakazam. All, of course used a gimmick that would have to be carried with you. But what if? What if you had the effect on you all the time as long as you carried a deck of cards? What if there was no gimmick in your...

Effect:

You remove 10 cards from the deck and play a Poker game with your spectator. Here the magician deals cards and allows a spectator to freely choose the face down cards that they wish to build their hand from. During the last deal, the spectator gets to look at his existing hand and choose from the remaining cards to build the best hand. Alas, the magician wins even though the spectator did all of the choosing. The magician will always get a royal flash.

• perform it with any deck of playing cards
• without difficult sleight of hand
• use only ten normal playing cards
• force the card...

A gaffed card that allows performing a super-clean back color change of a signed card.

From a red-backed deck, a spectator selects and removes a card, signs the face, and returns it to the deck. The deck is spread and a blue-backed card is seen in the middle of the spread. When turned over, it is the card he signed.

Remember:

• The spectator removes and handles his initial selection which is a red-backed card.
• At the end, he can also handle the blue-backed card (he can even keep it as a souvenir).
• No carbon or other signature transfers. This one is a fooler. It is one of those "things...

The first part consists of stories about cardsharks and other crooks from Robert-Houdin's recollections. This is very readable and an entertaining part of the work. The second part explains some of the technical details of the methods used by cardsharks. However, the methods are for the most part only described in very rudimentary form. As Robert-Houdin writes himself, this is not meant as a way to teach you how to do it, but merely to give the reader insight in how the different ruses are accomplished. Nevertheless, it provides interesting insight into the ways and means of cardsharks.

This...

A translation of Les Trickeries des Grecs by M. Robert-Houdin, one of the most valuable and interesting works on the subject of card sharping.

Excerpt from the preface:

Subtitled: Their tricks exposed or the art of always winning

Translated from the French of Robert-Houdin, first published in 1861, by William J. Hilliar. Robert-Houdin wrote this book primarily as an expose to reduce the number of people being cheated. He writes in his preface: "Enlighten the dupes and there will be no more cheats."

This work was first translated in 1863 under the title The Sharper Detected and Exposed. In 1881 Prof. Hoffman translated it anew and brought it up to date under the title Card-Sharping Exposed. It is not clear why Hilliar would do a new translation in 1903. Perhaps he felt he could ride Erdnase's coattails after his groundbreaking...