A deck of cards is shuffled and put in trouser pockets, any card called for produced, then any non-playing card (birthday card, membership card, postcard, ...) called for, with gags and card castle finale.
This manuscript has not been available for a long time. This comedy and mysterious act, which has not been seen for a number of years, contains all the ingredients for hit entertainment today.
THE EFFECT
The performer comes on to a stage which bears only a table. He introduces a pack of cards and hands them out for shuffling, then has them cut into two halves and, after rapidly glancing through each half, places them into his two trouser pockets.
Now he asks a member of the audience to call out the name of any card and, as soon as this is done, he pulls that very same card from his pocket. The card is shown, then dropped on to the table, and another card requested. This, too, is produced and dropped on the table, and this is repeated about half-a-dozen times.
Suddenly someone appears to take his request for a 'different' card literally and calls for, for example, a Birthday Card. The performer immediately pulls a Birthday Card from his pocket and, from then on, issues a silent challenge to the audience to call for any card he can't produce.
As the demands come in, each card called for is pulled, from one pocket or another until the performer wishes to end the act. When this point is reached, he says: "When I did this last night, one man said he thought I must live in a House of Cards. He was joking, of course ... but it's true. Here it is!" The cloth is pulled from the table, scattering cards in all directions, and there stands a 'House of Cards', in other words a Card Castle.
As always Ken describe all the necessary preparation and gives many ideas for the humorous patter.
- No stooges
- Members of the audience can literally request any "card"
- No sleight of hand
- Something different and "new" for your show, that will be long remembered
1st edition 1964, 1st digital edition 2019, 9 pages.
word count: 2372 which is equivalent to 9 standard pages of text
