Reviving "Between the Palms" one of Alex Elmsley's most offbeat plots. This is sort of a "locked room" mystery with playing cards.
It is an offbeat plot because the implicit aspects of effect, particularly its climax, are not immediately understood or appreciated. Yet the effect still has an emotional impact. Compared to other card tricks being done in 1952 it was very different. (Perhaps its closest cousins may be Fred Braue's "The Prechosen Chosen Card" from The Gen (February 1962) or Brother John Hamman's "Signed Card.")
Effect: The performer removes a card from the deck and, without showing its face, places it between...
'Mexican Joe' refers to a specially crimped card or deck, one that is crimped at diagonal corners in opposite directions.
The first person to publish anything on this crimp was Victor Farelli when he published Farelli's Card Magic. Several years passed before another mention is made. This time it was explained in Dai Vernon's More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. Racherbaumer collects a number of routines and ideas with this crimp. In so doing he weaves his way through some interesting nooks and crannies of card magic history.
This manuscript is about one trick that incorporates a seminal sorting procedure now given the name Belcho's Disbursive Deal. Over the years the trick eventually morphed into an organized compilation that shares the same identifiable title: "Poker Player's Picnic."
It begins with Vernon Lux, an enterprising amateur who founded the International Society of Junior Magician in 1931 and began a magazine called The Dragon in 1932. Therein Oscar Weigle had a column called "Themes and Schemes" where he explained a trick called "The Million to One Trick." (Later it was changed to "Belchou's Aces.") It's unclear...
"One of the greatest card tricks ever invented." - George Anderson"It fooled the hell out of me!" - Ted Annemann
"Without any possible doubt, Stewart James' 'Miraskill' is one of the greatest self-working card effects to have appeared in print. Apart from its own value, it is the ideal prelude to 'Out of this World'." - Peter Warlock
Miraskill came into being in 1935 when Stewart James self-marketed it. According to him, only one copy was sold. But it leaked out and Dr. Jacob Daley demonstrated it to Ted Annemann, who eventually published it in the Jinx, which was the starting point for much thought and commentary by other clever minds.
A retrospective look at Dai Vernon's Five-Card Mental Force.
Robert Walker was a unicycling, high-school student. Looking five years younger than he was, he was a dyed-in-the-wool card guy tutored in Marlovian ways. He was also a precocious writer-creator, obsessed with false counts and packet tricks. He spent many hours "twisting the night away," taking voluminous notes, and developing new methods and approaches. His first mini-treatise dissected a marketed packet trick by Larry West ("Wild, Wild West") which he passed onto Jon Racherbaumer to publish. It became the second installment of the loose-leaf Avatar, printed on pink paper and unadorned by illustrations...
Jazz Aces was inauspiciously introduced to the magic world in 1971 when Peter Kane published Another Card Session. It was a fortuitous event because it appeared about the same time the Elmsley Count was gaining favor with magicians from coast to coast. Like weeds in an open field, packet tricks were also popping up everywhere. Furthermore, Kane's routine clarified the transposition aspects of basic Ace Assemblies. Using only 8 principal "players" (cards), his action procedure was simple and direct. Best of all, the final transposition was squeaky clean. As a result it did not take long for Jazz...
Remixing the Gardner-Marlo poker deal - its history and histrionics.
1st edition 2020, PDF 50 pages....
A deep dive into a key principle - the sunken key card.
Culling (cards) is not a particularly fashionable technique. During the past forty years, card magicians started to pay closer attention to various ideas and techniques, especially those having broad application. In this treatise three types of culls will be examined:
Although Marlo is generally credited with the Elevator plot, analysis of the action steps taken in the Four Burglars, Jacob's Ladder, and Marlo's Penetration exhibit procedural similarities and could be presented as "elevating tricks" if accompanying patter expressed the "elevator" analogy. As far as the "elevator" trope is concerned, we can credit Bill Simon for naming rights.
This issue of Facsimile includes the complete contents of the first two (and only) issues of Jon Racherbaumer's periodical Marlophile. Jon has reformatted Marlophile, and added some additional routines.
1st edition 1995, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 50 pages.
1st edition 1994, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 55 pages.
1st edition 1983, 2nd edition 1994, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 52 pages.
The Ascanio Spread is a beautiful false display move, generally used to display 4 cards and hide a fifth one.
From the Introduction:
The Ascanio Spread immigrated to this country from Amsterdam. Del Cartier, Herb Zarrow, Mike Rogers, and Pete Biro were instrumental in bringing this technique to America. In fact, Del Cartier is a close personal friend of Ascanio and was the go-between in obtaining the original Ascanio manuscript for Mike Rogers, who in turn passed it on to me.
Jon explores the bluff pass and its spin-offs.
An exploration of the Hotel Trick, aka "A Night on the Town". A trick with a good plot is half the battle. This one has an interesting plot that can be styled and modified to fit your needs. Sleight-less and sleight-of-hand versions are being taught.
Jon was introduced to this trick by Persi Diaconis in the 1970s. In this ebook he has traced it back to its roots, and forward to modern variations and spin-offs.
The core effect:
Two Queens and four Kings are shown. The Queens are tabled face down next to each other. Two Kings are added onto each Queen to form two three-card packets. After...
"It is one of the very best tricks which can be done for close-up work." - Hugard and Braue from Show Stoppers With Cards
From the Foreword:
The Dunbury Delusion has an illustrious pedigree that has been up, down, and all around the magic scene for at least 100 years. Charlie Miller's method that was published in Expert Card Technique in 1940, more or less branded his name on it, but seven year earlier Victor Farelli published a modified version ("The Partagas Sell") in Farelli's Card Magic. He did not claim paternity but credited a Spanish magician named Partagas who apparently taught him the trick in 1908.
Basic Plot:
A selection "lost" in a deck is successfully found by using three...
From the Introduction:
The purpose of this compilation is to incentivize and "tickle" students to reexamine the Mene-Tekel deck and reconsider its possibilities. This has been done before and as recently as 2003 when Chris Wardle (via Paul Hallas) published a 27 page booklet titled Investigating the Mene-Tekel Deck (Magic's Forgotten Trick Deck).
...
We begin with Ed Marlo's groundbreaking addition of what he called the Roughed Mene-Tekel. We end with ends with David Britland's clever routines. In between there the other contributions are meant to provide further context and stimulation - enough to tickle anyone's fancy. At least that's the presumptive impulse that led to its creation.
Eight select bits of rascality from Harry the Hat.
From the Introduction:
When Harry Anderson lived in New Orleans, we regularly discussed tricks, scams, and what Harry liked to call "throwaways that are keepers." These are tricks that symbolically serve the same purpose as Mardi Gras beads and doubloons tossed from floats during carnival season.
The following 8 things in this booklet are stunts and tricks Harry performed in his inimitable, fast-and-loose way when he held court in barrooms, poolrooms, or at his night club called Oswald's. In the right time and place they are worth knowing...
A survey of the seven-card assembly.
This ebook is a survey of the Seven-Card Assembly, a subcategory of Ace Assembly. Its name due to the number (7) of principal cards used, which makes it different from other Ace Assemblies. Standard versions use sixteen cards - four Aces and twelve X-cards - and when the preliminary layout is made, the Aces are dealt into a T-formation and three X-cards are placed onto each Ace. In a Seven-Card Assembly three X-cards are added onto only three of the Aces. The Leader Ace lies alone. This reduces the duration it takes to set the stage. Then the four Aces...
This manuscript is an exploration of the origin and evolution of one of the most dependable, commercial, and semiautomatic card tricks extant. Even its name is unusual and memorable - "Further Than That"
This compilation, like my others, my goal is to discover the "bits and pieces" and in this particular case, to partially answer how and why The Lazy Man's Card Trick came into being?