Nick Conticello

This effect has intrigued me for many years. I've published several approaches in the past ("Think Stop" in Automatic Placements, "Talons of the Hawk" and "Talons of the Bat" in Potpourri 2, to cite a few) but these tricks smack openly of mathematics. They lack the directness of selection and revelation I would deem ideal.

Two classic but widely divergent approaches are Ed Marlo's "Double Thought, Single Deck" and Simon Aronson's "Simon-Eyes." Recently, I combined Marlo's basic premise with a concept of Aronson's and a hitherto unpublished key card...

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Bit of History
• Chapter 2: Judah's Mutus Nomen (S.J. Mutus Dedit Trick)
• Chapter 3: Thoughts on the Classical Effect
• Chapter 4: Third Person Singular: 30 cards in play, 3 selections. After the Judah shuffle, top ten cards are put aside and the rest laid out. Performer reveals the third card without seeing any of the faces.
• Chapter 5: There Are No Words: The basic effect with no code words, just a modified shuffle and a few simple arithmetical rules.
• Chapter 6: Poker Four-ay: 20 cards, 4 selections by four different people. All four indicate...

Nick Conticello starts a new series of ebooks on sleightless magic with a new take on the venerable 27 Card Trick. A card merely thought of by a volunteer is revealed at a position the volunteer requests at the start. This method uses just 18 cards and needs no complex formulas or tables, just a few simple rules. Besides the basic effect, Nick adds a presentation that elevates this item from a mere puzzle to a great card effect.

1st edition 2017, 11 pages.

1. Australian Aces: The performer casually shuffles a pack of cards, then hands it to a volunteer. The performer need not touch the cards for the duration of this feat. The volunteer cuts off roughly a quarter of the pack. The volunteer names any Ace freely. He spells its name and gives the packet an Australian Shuffle. The last card he holds is the Ace he named! The volunteer now spells the word 'Ace' and the Ace matching the color of the named Ace turns up. Finally the volunteer spells the suit of the named Ace and...

"The stuff you do with a shuffled deck and one or two key cards borders on the miraculous!"

2. TALONS OF THE HAWK: Two volunteers each think of a card from a group of ten. The packets are lost in the deck by the volunteers themselves. The performer...

TOCATON, the word, is an acronym for "thought-of card at thought-of number." It's pronounced "talk-a-ton." The word was coined by Nick Conticello to describe his new approach to the classic David Berglas effect "Any Card at Any Number." Nick feels the word is more descriptive of his effects because he does limit the choice of numbers and the choice of cards. But his approach has the virtues of speed of presentation and lack of preparation. Like most of his published work, TOCATON can be performed impromptu, with any reasonably complete pack of cards.

TOCATON, the e-book, contains four...

This ebook is a bit of a departure for me. The material is mathematical, but it need not be performed with playing cards. It can be performed with pencil and paper close-up, or with a blackboard or a dry-erase white board in platform or stage settings. Thus it can be employed in situations when the use of playing cards would be inappropriate. However, I will describe these effects with playing cards as that is how I use them.

The basic idea is that the performer predicts the sum of a seemingly random array of cards or numbers. The spectator has quite a bit of control...

The Catch-All Principle allows you to covertly position a free selection at a predetermined position in the deck. It does this with the help of two key cards. The real strength and novelty of this principle is that at crucial moments the spectator is free to cut the deck, which makes it seem impossible that the selection will end up at a predetermined position - but it does.

Perhaps the best use of this principle...

• Having two spectators write down two numbers, choose two cards, lose the cards in the pack and finding their cards at their numbers!
• Letting someone cut a freely chosen card into the pack and knowing the card's location with just a glance!
• Allowing a person to freely shuffle a pile of face up and face down cards, give you half the cards without you seeing them, and having your pile match his, despite touching your pile with only one hand for only a few seconds!
• Losing the four Aces into the pack and finding them by cutting the pack, the last two at the same time!
• Performing...

ABC/123: Alex Elmsley's Spell by the Numbers without the Faro shuffle.

NO LOOKING ORACLE: Without seeing the face of a single card, the performer locates one mental selection and names another.

SELF-PROMOTION:...