(Chicago, Illinois: 13th October 1947 - )
Inspired around age 9 seeing a full-evening show. USO shows 1964. Math lecturer at University of Nevada at Las Vegas 1971-present. Proprietor of computer store. Semi-pro close-up and card magic. One of the top card mechanics alive.
Allan Ackerman is one of the world's foremost experts at sleight-of-hand magic and gambling moves with playing cards. On this jam-packed download DVD you'll be treated to over 150 minutes of Allan's most cherished effects, routines and sleights - audience-tested foolers that have earned him a worldwide reputation as The Las Vegas Card Expert. Previously released on two separate videos, this fantastic download DVD contains all of the superlative material from both critically acclaimed titles, The Las Vegas Card Expert and Every Move A Move.
The Las Vegas Card Expert contains the following...
Four incredible card effects that defy explanation and invite complete examination.
Allan Ackerman is one of the world's foremost experts at sleight-of-hand magic and gambling moves with playing cards. On this amazing download DVD you will be treated to four of the most incredible card routines ever created - absolute stunners that simply defy explanation. Normally, a brother magician might exclaim, "You're using gaffed cards!" To which you reply, "Go ahead, take a look!" Examine to their heart's content and they will find nothing. That's because Allan has devised extremely devious and elegant...
There are three moves and nine complete routines covered.
Allan Ackerman is one of the world's foremost experts at sleight-of-hand magic and gambling moves with playing cards. On this fascinating video recording, you will be treated to card magic's most venerable and classic effects, all given the Ackerman treatment. These are some of Allan's most cherished effects that he has used under fire, night after night to fool both laymen and magicians alike. Card magic like this has earned Allan a worldwide reputation as The Las Vegas Card Expert.
Magic can be a lifetime hobby and card magic...
A lovely story trick involving two queens, four kings and two hotel rooms. Both the faces and the numbers of cards in two piles magically change.
length 5:29
This is number two of the Paul Diamond "Gems of Magic Book" series.
Roger Klause writes in his foreword:
Those of you readers who have had the opportunity to study and benefit from Allan's first work, Magic Mafia Effects, and those of you who have had the more fortunate experience of witnessing this young man's remarkable ability with the pasteboards will certainly welcome this treatise with great eagerness.
Should this be your first encounter with Allan's literary efforts please be assured that each and every premise contained herein has been given the acid test before some of the most knowledgeable cardmen...
This is an extension of the Martin Gardner poker deal from Royal Road to Card Magic including ideas from Simon Aronson and John Bannon.
This effect starts out with a quick transformation. Two spectators select four cards in total. These four cards visually and instantly change to the four kings. Then Allan demonstrates how a cheat would stack a deck to achieve an advantage. The final climax is a Royal Flush dealt to himself and three kings to one of the spectators.
runtime: 15min 36s
Four hands are dealt starting with an Ace for each hand. Another three cards are dealt on top of each ace. One at a time the Aces travel to the magicians hand - your standard Ace assembly. However, in a flash the aces jump back and on top of each pack is an Ace.
There are no difficult moves in this routine, but it is a longer routine with several steps to remember.
runtime: 8min 18s
The four kings are shown and pronounced to be cannibals. A random card is pushed between the four kings and vanishes. The kings have eaten the card. This happens a few more times until the kings ate too much and change to the four Eights.
runtime: 9min 22s
A card is selected and returned to the deck. The performer cuts to a random position to show an indicator card. The value of the indicator card is used to count to another card which the performer thinks is the chosen card. However, the indicator card was already the spectator chosen card. So it appears as the performer messed up. Nevertheless, everything straightens out magically and the card counted to is the spectator card and the card counted off are the aces.
runtime: 3min 31s...
Deck is shuffled and spectator cuts to a card. Performer removes one pip at a time from the card until it is entirely blank and as a final climax the card vanishes completely.
runtime: 3min 11s
Two cards are peeked at. Performer selects a few cards from the pack an shows them. One spectator notes that his card is among the ones shown. When the cards are shown again, the spectator card is missing and reappears in the other portion of the deck whereas the other spectator's card has magically appeared face down in the first packet.
This is a plot by Carmen D'Amico and Ed Marlo.
runtime: 6min 27s
This routine was first published in Allan's book Here is my Card. The four kings are shown. A deuce is placed under the top king of the four king packet. Magically the deuce rises to the top. Then the deuce is placed third from the top but it still manages to rise to the top. Then it is placed fourth and finally fifth but it always rises to the top. In the end the deuce changes to a king and the four kings change to the four deuces.
runtime: 4min 53s...
You deal four hands of cards. The first card for each hand is an ace followed by four indifferent cards. However, magically all the aces assemble in the performer's packet.
You will need to be familiar with the Veeser Concept to perform this effect.
runtime: 4min 1s
A deck rests on the table. The spectator is asked to cut it into four roughly equal packets. The top card on each packet turns out to be an ace.
You will need to be familiar with the Veeser Concept to perform this effect.
runtime: 2min 3s
This is Allan's variation of the famous Eleven Card Trick. That reads like a joke, but it ain't. The spectator counts ten cards and hands them to the performer who double checks counting them aloud. However often he counts, adds and removes cards, they never really are ten cards. (Requires knowledge of Carly's False Count.)
runtime: 6min 40s
This is an updated handling of a Le Paul effect. A blue and a red-backed deck are used. The spectator selects a card from the blue-backed deck. This card is mixed into a small packet of red-backed cards. Magically the back colors change and suddenly the selected card has a red back and the other cards are now all blue-backed.
runtime: 5min 8s
This routine was first published in Allan's Moose Notes. The subject of the performance is shuffle tracking. Spectators are signing the four kings, which are lost in the pack. Nevertheless, the magician finds them. But then they magically change to the four aces and the kings are found in various pockets of the magician's suit.
runtime: 16min 3s
This is Allan's handling of a famous Brother John Hamman effect. Black queens transform into red queens and black kings transform into red kings, all tied together in a fun story of a double date going to a bar.
runtime: 5min 28s
The four aces are shown. When they are counted and they reduce to three, then two, one and finally none. A few cuts and the aces are found again in the deck.
runtime: 3min 34s
This is a tremendously visual effect developed by Dai Vernon using the Elmsley Count. The aces one by one turn face-up while the four aces are merely shown and counted. For the climax the black aces change place with the red aces while they are resting in the spectator's hand.
If you want an even more visual twisting effect, then take a look at Waving the Aces by Guy Hollingworth.
runtime: 4min 14s
This is a 'princess' style mental effect. Spectator receives a few cards, remembers one of them and then these cards are shuffled back into the rest of the deck. The performer shows groups of cards to the spectator until a group is identified that holds the spectator thought of card. The card magically travels from one packet to another packet exactly to the position that a second spectator cut to.
runtime: 5min 21s
The deck is shuffled. Spectator cuts off a small packet and sets it aside. The performer selects one card from the remaining cards. It turns out that this is the mate card to the card on the bottom of the spectator cut packet. The same procedure is repeated and again the performer is able to pick the mate card. In ever more impossible ways the spectator selects cards which turn out to be located next to their mates.
This routine was first published in Faro Control Miracles. It uses the stay stack principle.
runtime: 16min 52s...
This is an effect by Francis Carlyle. It is an unusual revelation of a peeked at card. The Ace of Spades, also known among gamblers as 'the bullet', is used to shoot out the spectator's card.
runtime: 2min 22s
This is one of Ed Marlo's best routines also sometimes called "Miracle Ace Cutting" and was first published in Faro Control Miracles. The patter Allan uses is from Dai Vernon and tells the story of a one handed gambler who miraculously can cut to the aces.
runtime: 6min 52s
This is another classic of card magic, a routine first published in Paul LePaul's book. The four aces are put back into the deck at different locations. The deck is shuffled and one half is half-way stuck into the other half. A few flicks and one ace at a time flies out of the deck.
runtime: 1min 58s
A deck is riffle shuffled. Spectator cuts off a portion and performer can tell by the weight of the packet how many cards were cut. Performer quickly glances through the deck. Spectator calls out a number and performer knows immediately the card at that position in the deck. Then a poker hand is dealt with the magician dealing himself a straight flush. And the routine ends with a game of bridge where the performer receives all 13 spades, the best hand you can have in a game of bridge.
This is a routine Ed Marlo published in the 1940s in his book Spades - that is where the name of the routine comes...
This is an all time classic routine first published in Stars of Magic developed by Dai Vernon. A card is selected, lost in the deck, and then cards are shuffled together face-up and face-down mixing them into a big mess. Magically all cards turn back face-down except the one chosen by the spectator which is found to be face-up in the center of the deck.
runtime: 5min 5s
This is a nice opening effect for a routine where you need aces and kings. Performer shuffles and cuts to produce two kings. He does that another time to produce the other two kings and repeats the sequence to produce the four aces.
runtime: 2min 8s
Face-up and face-down cards are shuffled together and then dealt for a five handed game of poker. Some cards will be face-up and some will be face-down. However, the performer is able to deal himself mostly face-down cards whereas everybody else receives all face-up cards. The four face-down cards the magician received turn out to be the four aces. On top of it the backs of these four aces have a different color than the rest of the cards.
runtime: 4min 50s...
This is a routine by Carmen D'Amico. The effect is exactly what the title says. The performer passes a freely selected and ungimmicked card three times right through the table.
runtime: 3min 4s
This is a fun routine that first appeared in Allan's Magic Mafia book. It is based on a Dai Vernon plot from the 60s. However, a typical 'all backs' routine requires many moves - half passes and double lifts. Here Allan has engineered a routine with a lot less moves. You could even do this routine while maintaining a stacked deck.
You show a deck that consists of cards that have backs printed on the front and back. This changes then to faces on both sides of the cards until everything goes back to normal.
runtime: 6min 30s...
The performer fans a deck of cards which are all blank. Spectator merely thinks of a card. Performer removes the thought of card, which is naturally again a blank card. Magically the blank card turns into the thought of card and as a climax the whole blank deck turns into a regular deck.
runtime: 3min 31s
Performer repeatedly riffle shuffles the deck and still cuts to all four aces one at a time. This is an Ed Marlo routine.
runtime: 2min 25s
This is a Roy Walton's effect where Allan has slightly changed the method. A spectator selected card ends up between the two red kings.
runtime: 3min 56s
