Magic & Mentalism

Magicians have always incorporated the latest technologies into their miracles. Electronics is no exception. This ebook deals with effects that use lights and switches in deceptive ways. The Magic Switchboard effect with four switches and four lights is the most well-known of them, but there are others. Electronics is at the heart of their methods.

Little has been published about these effects in the past. One can find bits and pieces in the magic literature, but most of the necessary information to understand these tricks has not been released in a comprehensive form before. The Magic...

These tricks were taught to US soldiers in military hospitals to keep up their spirits. They do not require any sleight of hand. Originally published by the Association of American Playing Card Manufacturers.

• Foreword
• Three Deep
• Spellbinder
• Dead Duck
• Club Sandwich
• On Tap
• Topsy-Turvy
• Plus Ten
• Two-By-Two
• Seven-Eleven
• Frying Pan

1st edition ~1950s, 21 pages; PDF 23 pages.

Excerpt from the introduction:

A variation of a classic routine: the four Aces are turned face down one by one. The performer openly changes the orientation of all the cards, and after the audience confirms the backs are the same color, all four cards change to different colors.

1st edition 2025, video 7:39.

A completely self-working effect requiring no sleight of hand. The magician introduces a prediction card and has the spectator freely cut a small packet. The deck is then divided into three piles, and cards are dealt down according to a freely chosen number. The four Aces are cleanly located. In addition, the spectator's cut card, the prediction card, and the bottom cards of the three piles combine to form a Royal Flush. For the full procedure, please refer to the video demonstration.

1st edition 2025, video 6:56.

A double "Any Card At Any Number" effect, fully automatic, with a secretly ordered stack that will practically do all the work for you.

An incredible and Self-Working pair of Card Magic tricks, based on the properties of a variant, unknown to most but in any case unrecognizable to the public, derived from what is probably one of the most famous mathematical stacks... In addition to learn a practical method for building it easily, starting from a new deck, you will find two effects explained here on the theme of "Any Card At Any Number."

In the first effect, the magician will announce...

Un Doppio Effetto di Carta al Numero, Completamente Automatico, con un Mazzo segretamente ordinato che farà praticamente da sé tutto il lavoro!

Una coppia incredibile e Self-Working di effetti di "Carta al Numero", basata sulle proprietà di una variante, sconosciuta ai più ma in ogni caso non riconoscibile dal pubblico, derivata da quello che è probabilmente uno dei più famoso stack matematico...

Oltre a poter apprendere un metodo pratico per costruirlo facilmente, partendo da un mazzo nuovo, troverete qui spiegati due effetti in tema "Any Card At Any Number".

Nel primo il...

A new method for a simple oil-and-water type of routine. Nothing is gimmicked. There isn't any complicated sleight-of-hand either.

1st edition 2025, video 1:20.

Sensational collection of mystifying pocket and stage tricks. Including tricks with cards or coins.

• The Erratic Egg
• The Hat And Coin Trick
• The Obedient Dime
• To Lift Three Matches With One
• How To Cut A Visiting Card For A Cat To Jump Through It
• To Make A Cone Or Pyramid Move Upon A Table Without Springs Or Any Other Artificial Means
• To Prepare A Fountain Of Fire
• The Magic Egg
• The Nondescript
• The Miraculous Apple
• The Old Man's Face
• The Turn Wonder
• The Cards By Weight
• The Link Boys
• To Draw Two Figures With Crayon On A Wall, One Of Which Will Light A Taper, And The Other Extinguish...

This routine illustrates the principle of synergism. After you learn it, analyze how all its parts (even the minutest) are combined into a time-and-content continuum. It's systematically designed in a progressive way: each discrete effect is successively better. There's culminative improvement and step-by-step enhancement - not only in terms of overall deception, but in virtue of its "theater."

This was the original version of what Jon later called Ladies on the Loose.

1st edition 1991, PDF 11 pages.

Effect: A spectator freely selects a card and loses the card in the deck. The spectator cuts a packet of cards and places it face down on the table. The cards are eliminated in a very fair manner until only one card remains. That card is not the spectator card, but a prediction revealing the location of the spectator's card in the deck.

Description:

The PATEO Principle appears to give the spectator control over how items are eliminated. In reality the magician is in control during the entire process.

One of the major disadvantages is that it can be a long procedure. The other major...

The magician begins by taking out 9 cards. A spectator then freely cuts off a packet, counts the cards, and remembers the card at that corresponding number. After that, the spectator freely selects 3 cards from the 9, and the sum of those values not only locates the original selection but also reveals the other three cards of the same value.

A classic principle reworked with a special setup turns this into a much stronger ACAAN-style routine.

Full effect shown in the performance video.

1st edition 2025, video 8:10

A spectator freely selects a card and returns it to the middle of the deck. The cards are split into two packets and interlaced face-up into face-down. In an instant, every card turns face-up except the selection - still face-down. And it's not over. Why can the magician locate the selection so cleanly? Because it's the only card in the deck that's different from all the others.

Bottom Fan Control: This routine also teaches my bottom control: the spectator's card is openly placed into the middle of the deck, the magician squares the pack, and the selection is controlled straight to the...

A rope magic double-header! Straightforward magic can't be beat, especially when it's embellished with the fun of gag scissors and multiplying wands. This first routine takes a while to complete the simple exercise of cutting a length of rope in two and then restoring it, but this is audience participation at its best. And not just with the helper on stage; everyone gets pulled in by watching the entertaining shenanigans play out. Follow it up with another simple visual effect where three different lengths of rope morph into three equal lengths and back again. This classic is still a hit with...

This is a coin routine as a combination of three powerful effects. One seamlessly segues into the next and builds on what came before. The Volunteer Assistants are involved in a growing blend of their personal magic under the guidance of the performer. It is fully scripted in a tested approach until the performer can create thier own supporting dialogue. It contains several move/sleight combinations that produce a result that several noted magicians have said is impossible - a "vanish to empty in a spectator's hand." Their loss!

Features:

• a perfect vanish with a customer selected...

The performer shuffles the deck and then shows the interspersed cards in a sort of incomplete Faro Shuffle, asking the spectator to think of only one of the cards they see. Then, the performer repacks the entire deck, placing it face down on the table. The spectator removes a large portion, leaving it on the table and hiding the remaining portion in a pocket. The performer shuffles the portion on the table and asks the spectator how many cards they have set aside. Having obtained that number, the performer begins counting the cards one by one from the top of the deck, stopping at the number...

This special intro price will go up to $30 from January 16, 2026.

"This is staggering in its brilliance." - Marc Salem

"What a great idea! Bravo!" - Luca Volpe

CalendarX is a novel and fascinating concept. You just have to print out this 2026 calendar in whatever size you want and you can perform several effects throughout the year using this innovative calendar.

You can do coincidence effects, pin reveals, ACAAN effects, book tests, prediction effects, birthday divinations, add a number effects, diary effects, tossed out type routines, envelope routines etc. This...

Its final solution.

Unlock one of the most astonishing deceptions ever conceived - an illusion so powerful it converted hardened skeptics and baffled investigators for decades. The Spirit Portrait Mystery: Its Final Solution reveals David P. Abbott's painstaking unraveling of the famed spirit-portrait phenomenon, a mystery that once captivated the world of spiritualism and later thundered across the stages of great illusionists. Selbit stunned Europe with it, Howard Thurston featured it prominently in his touring shows, and other masters of the craft presented it as a miracle...

Imagine four helpers who each secretly select and mentally store a symbol from a group of sixteen unique characters. Only they know what they chose. Now imagine a mentalist who determines the symbol each participant selected by merely observing the scrambled sixteen symbols. That's it!

Everything can be examined. No forces of any kind. Symbols are selected from four sides of four cubes or blocks. Cubes are randomly mixed and the order of display selected by a participant.

There are two presentations offered. A parlor version uses 2" blocks or cubes. A close-up version uses four dice....

A new presentation for Jack London's "The Almost Real Prediction".

Predict the outcome, reveal the outcome via telepathy, can be repeated with different outcomes. Works in any language.

This is my version of "The Almost Real Prediction" using historical dates. Using a logical reason for the numbers, your participants will arrive at one of four different numbers that you can either reveal using your mind-reading skills or predict beforehand.

1st edition 2025, PDF 11 pages.

A silly invention intended to test a spectator's memory starts with a simple switch-up and crescendos to a double-talk flurry of nonsense as four colored pom-poms appear impossibly connected by ever-changing strings. The kicker comes when the hollow rod is opened up to reveal no connecting strings at all. The baffling connections return as the performer reminds everyone to give the hapless spectator a round of applause.

Daryl Hurst's Hometown Magic routines are laser-focused on practical entertainment that can be performed in a variety of formal and informal venues without significant restrictions,...

A multi-phase ACAAN routine with a completely unexpected ending.

A very unusual selection-finding sequence: after a freely chosen card is returned to the deck, the performer claims to give the spectator four chances to locate it. The spectator cuts the deck into four piles, but none of the top cards are the selection. Just as it seems the magician has failed, the plot turns - each of the four cards not only indicates the exact position of the selection, but also reveals the mates of the chosen value. See the full routine in the performance video.

1st edition 2025, video 6:29.

Effect: Four spectators shuffle the deck, and each of them freely selects a card. The selected cards are the four different tens: 10 of Clubs, 10 of Hearts, 10 of Spades, and 10 of Diamonds. The magician seemingly never touches the cards.

Description: I wanted to create an effect where four spectators shuffle the cards and have a free choice of any card. Each spectator's card is of the same value. Ex: the 4 Tens: Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades. In the spectator's mind, all the cards are different by using a very deceiving ruse.

My other requirements are that the magician never...

An original matching game the performer can never lose, thanks to his sixth sense.

The performer claims to possess a sixth sense and says that this demonstration will prove its existence.

First, he removes a set of twelve playing cards from an envelope. Six of them display the name of a sense - sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, and E.S.P. - while the other six depict these senses with images: an eye, a nose, an ear, a mouth, a hand, and a brain.

Then, following the performer's instructions, the spectator shuffles the cards as many times as he likes. Once he is finished, the performer...

A spectator randomly chooses a card and chooses a combination that, with other numbers thrown into play by the spectator, will produce a poker hand of four corresponding to the chosen card.

1st edition 2025, PDF 7 pages photoillustrated.