This effect has nothing to do with hammers or smashing things. It does have to do with the aces, however. The title came about because David was listening to Cannibal Corpse while He was playing around with this routine, and the song that was on was, "Hammer Smashed Face". That is enough about the weird title.
Here is the effect (and what an effect!):
The four aces (or four selections) are signed and placed aside. A fifth unknown card is selected and placed face down between two jokers, which are then placed into the card box. The aces are then shown once again, and are then cleanly shuffled into four different parts of the deck. The top card of the deck is turned over. Let's say it is a seven spot. This indicates that the performer will have no more than seven seconds to find all four aces. The seven is placed off to the side. To make things more difficult the cards are then mixed face up into face down, leaving the deck a total mess.
The performer asks a spectator who has a watch with a second hand to time seven seconds as soon as he says, "Go!" In a split second the performer says that he is finished and that he has found all four aces. Not only that, but they are in four different places on the table.
The deck is spread, and the only face up card is an ace. The performer's ungimmicked and personal wallet is slowly opened to reveal the second ace is inside of it. The seven spot that was placed aside moments before is turned over and has changed into the third ace. Finally, the spectator himself opens the card box, removes the jokers with the unknown card in between them. He removes the unknown card, turns it over, and it is the fourth ace!
- All four aces (or selections) are signed
- There are no "false signatures"
- This can be done with a borrowed deck
- This is virtually impromptu
- This is not a difficult routine to learn and perform
- The revelations of the aces are extremely clean as the dirty work is done long before the productions. In fact, two of the four revelations are done by the spectators!
1st edition 2014, 16 pages.
word count: 3366 which is equivalent to 13 standard pages of text
Reviewed by Mark
★★★★★ Date Added: Saturday 03 May, 2014So I received this 16 page PDF file and read through it twice, once with cards in hand. This is my type of effect. Well written, logical and packs a punch. The effect itself is not difficult and the moves and sleights as performed by the creator are all described. Overall, this effect works and plays as described without embellishment of magi advertisement fluff. Some may elect to substitute some moves with their own , their preferred handling in some places. Not that it is needed , all is well written and described as performed. It just is a personal preference, at least for me. The effect does play out as described. The four cards can and should be signed, which immediately rules out duplicates or gaffs. Another plus is the routine has audience participation. There is a lot of magic throughout from the cards shuffled into the deck, a triumph type sequence, a transpo of a sandwiched card and the climax of having signed cards revealed in different locations. The deck can be borrowed. I like this effect.This is intermediate but not difficult.I think a video demo would be fantastic and assist with overall interest in his effect. Until that happens--- or not, I highly suggest you read through the effect once again, believe the truthful advertisement and then head over to Lybrary.com and purchase this. If this type of effect piques your interest, you will not be disappointed.
Recommended.
David Devlin does credit his inspiration for this effect.