Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 1

To all magicians, amateur and professional - here is a loaded question:

Have you ever been bored silly watching a magician perform a spelling trick?

This is contentious and very obviously axiomatic. Quoting from the Preface of his new manuscript, Australian card man Ian Baxter comments: "Unfortunately, spelling effects in card magic hold the onerous title of being the most laborious, boring presentations imaginable."

This is the point at issue - boredom setting in, thanks to the tedium of endless counting and spelling, usually propped up with trivial patter. Such effects are simply...

This effect was invented by Herbert Milton and made popular by Karl Germain. The improved method needs no double-faced cards and can be done impromptu providing the right type of glass is available. This visual effect can be performed at any time in your act and it may be done silently, with talk, or to music.

EFFECT: A shuffled deck of cards is placed in a stem goblet. Each time a handkerchief is flicked in front of the glass an ace appears.

1st edition 1981, PDF 2 pages.

An incredible impromptu effect that uses all court cards in the deck to tell a story dense with mysteries.

This is a packet trick that tells the magical solution to a mystery. An impromptu card effect that, borrowing all the pictures from the deck, uses those to tell the story of a mysterious disappearance at a prestigious dance party reserved for these four aristocratic families.

The illusionist, after shuffling the twelve cards, gives them to cut and complete to a spectator who then, by rolling two dice (even if only imaginary ones) decides the precise moment when the mysterious vanishing...

A lost Michael Skinner mystery, updated by Steve Pellegrino. Included is Michael Skinner's original handling and Steve Pellegrino's additions. Your Last Card is a triple revelation with two different predictions. You can reset it during performance and no sleight-of-hand is required.

You ask a spectator to cut off a small packet of cards, less than half of the deck. You turn away as they do this, so you don't know how much they cut, even an approximate amount. They pocket their cards. You also cut off a small packet of cards for yourself.

Before the presentation with the cards begins, you write a...

"Pretty sure Moe would have been fooled by this." - Ryan Schlutz

"A clever method for a memory demonstration." - Christian Grace

Note: The effect described below makes up less than half of the entire e-book. The rest of the e-book contains several other methods for the "Move a Card" plot.

Imagine:

The magician asks the spectator for their own deck of cards as he wishes to use a borrowed deck for the routine. He invites them to thoroughly shuffle the cards in any way of their choosing. The spectator does that. (The magician also promises never to touch the cards at any point in...

An amazing twist to the Red Hot Mama/Chicago Opener routine.

A card is selected and placed back into the middle of the deck. The magician states the selected card will reveal itself to him. As he spreads through the deck, a card with a different colored back and a paperclip with a note attached to it is seen. The note reads "Your Card!"

The card is turned over, revealing the selected card. The paper-clipped card is set aside, facing down. A second spectator selects another card and an attempt is made to repeat the effect.

As the magician spreads through the cards, a second with an...

Imagine:

The magician introduces a special deck of 52 cards, where each card is seen to have a number 1 through 52 printed on it. The spectators (two of them) are asked to verify that all the numbers are indeed different, that there aren't any duplicate numbers. The magician hands one spectator this special deck (in a face-down position) and says, "I want you to select a number 1 through 52. But instead of just thinking of a number 1 through 52, I want you to randomly select one. Like that, even you don't know what number you'd end up with, thereby eliminating any psychological influence....

Three pre-folded cards are tipped from a card box and displayed as being a QH and two blank cards. The three cards are folded to conceal their faces and arranged in a row on the table ready for the classic Find The Lady. Having mixed the positions of the three cards, the one that should be the QH is opened to reveal it is in fact one of the blanks. That’s surprise no. 1. Surprise no. 2 comes when the other two cards are unfolded to reveal they are both blanks as well! The QH has completely disappeared. Surprise no. 3 is revealed when the QH is found folded inside the card box that has been...

Cards across

The Thirty Card Trick is a magical classic that can be done on stage as well as close up. It is entertaining to all types of audiences. The classic method (Magicians' Tricks by Hatton and Plate) used sleight of hand and math chicanery. Zens used envelopes. Crandall used roughing fluid. You should find this method one of the best because instead of making the passing of three cards an arbitrary choice it offers a logical reason for using three. Also, there is very strong misdirection. Each step is clearly explained along with the reasoning.

The moves are well covered by misdirection and by having unbalanced...

Fifteen excellent pasteboard effects, all easy to perform, as they require little or no skill.

The contents include "Unbelievable Coincidence" which in itself is worth more than the price of the entire book; "U-Find-Our-Cards," a chapter wherein spectators unknowingly discover their own selected cards in a puzzling fashion; and "Auto-Graphic Minds," which will never fail to bewilder the closest observer. Plus additional tricks of a professional caliber.

Here is a collection of the very smartest magic, devised and used in his own act by Lu Brent, the top-notch Philadelphia professional...

Imagine:

The magician introduces a deck of cards. The spectator can thoroughly examine it, after which they can freely shuffle it for as long as they want in any way that they want. Once they're done shuffling, the magician invites them to spread through the deck face down and select any two cards that they like. They leave these face down on the table. The magician then instructs them to turn one of them face-up - let's suppose it is the JS. As for the other one, the magician tells the spectator not to look at this card yet - it will be a mystery for the end.

The spectator is then...

Note: For those of you who own ACAAN: A Fresh Approach to an Age-Old Plot, this uses a totally different principle.

Imagine:

The magician introduces a special deck of 52 cards, where each card is seen to have a number 1 through 52 printed on it. The spectators (two of them) are asked to verify that all the numbers are indeed different, that there aren't any duplicate numbers. The magician hands one spectator this special deck (in a face-down position) and says, "I want you to select a number 1 through 52. But instead of just thinking of a number 1 through 52, I want you to randomly select one. Like that, even you don't know...

The magician can't find the spectator's card but his prediction can.

In short:

The spectator cuts to a card, removes it from the deck and remembers it. Then, the magician shuffles the deck and divides it into two halves. The spectator shuffles both parts, loses his selection between them, and shuffles even more. At the end, the magician runs through the deck and removes a card, but it is not the spectator's. Fortunately, the magician has an "emergency out", a message on a piece of paper inside a red envelope, in full view from the start. The spectator reads it out loud:

This is a straightforward version of the classic Lie Detector routine that can be performed with any deck (even a borrowed one) and with no advance setup.

A deck is shuffled by a spectator to put the cards into a genuinely random order, and the performer then extracts one card which he leaves sight unseen in view on the table. The magician then asks a spectator three questions about the tabled card, and the helper is invited to make up his answers (since he doesn't know at this stage what the tabled card actually is). Whatever answers the participant gives, the performer spells the word...

A blue-backed deck is openly displayed and one card is selected from the face-down deck. Cutting the selection back into the pack and shuffling the deck, the performer offers to find the selection quickly and effectively.

Snapping his fingers over the deck, he turns the cards face down and spreads through the entire deck to reveal that every card back has changed from blue to red, except for just one card, and that turns out to be the selected card!

No sleight of hand is required, this is designed to instantly re-set in front of the spectators and everything takes place up in your hands,...

Instructions, routines, tips, and ideas for a card punch.

This is a series of letters to a fictitious E.N. Igami ('imagine' when read reversed) with information on how to use a card punch and what can be done with it, particularly from a conjurer's perspective. It is one of the few resources available on card punches. It also reproduces a few passages from older books that cover punch work.

Several gambling demonstrations are detailed, including a Dai Vernon Bridge Deal as well as poker and blackjack routines. Other routines have more of a mental slant. Ray Grismer also explains his system for placement...

Bracelet sequences and algorithmic stacks.

Mathematical Stacks contains a collection of various stacks made with 52 standard playing cards. Although some routines and presentations are mentioned, the book is not predominately about either routines or presentations. The very few presentations listed in this book are generally the bare minimum to demonstrate an effect.

The book contains stacks with bracelet sequences and built-in routines. The book includes stacks with binary bracelet sequences, e.g. a red-black suit bracelet sequence, where six consecutive cards identify the cards. Some...

It is an amazing automatic card magic effect that uses an ordinary deck of 54 cards (complete with the two jokers) and a pair of dice (which can also just be imagined by the spectators).

It tells the story of a pirate, the map of his island, and the magic dice he used to find his legendary treasure, in a crescendo of suspense, until the unexpected final surprise.

Completely self-working but with a surprising ending that will fool magicians too!

1st edition 2024, PDF 7 pages.

Price will increase to $20 end of April.

An impromptu, gimmick-free, borrowed deck miracle. A location and divination of a selected card under test conditions. Read on.

Imagine:

The magician introduces a deck of cards. The spectator can thoroughly examine it, after which they can freely shuffle it for as long as they want in any way that they want.

Once they're done shuffling, the magician invites them to look through the deck (faces towards themself, backs towards the magician) and select any two cards that they like. Let's suppose they select the two black A's. They turn these...

Excerpt from the introduction:

Excerpt from the foreword:

In this fantastic ebook, you'll find the truly impromptu tricks found in The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, together with dozens of notes not found in the original. These notes add new and interesting tricks and fresh ideas for presentation and even patter in some instances. But that's not all. We have added many illustrations that help clarify the description of certain tricks. Another thing we have done is adding, in some cases, the original advertisements that were used to sell these tricks when they were put on sale way back then.

Truly impromptu means that you take a normal shuffled deck and immediately, with no preparation...

The Wild Card effect has been one of my favorite packet effects from as far back as I can remember and is indisputably one of the best card packet effects of all time. Unfortunately, in its original form, it does not meet my concept of good magic. It does not answer the basic audience dilemma - "Why does he do it ?"

I know transformations (anything that changes) are part of a magic effect, but there ought to be some reason for it. If a performer changes blank paper to currency notes, that's logical, it's something everyone in the audience would like to do. If he changes a silk to an egg,...

This e-book is a challenge / puzzle PDF. You, the buyer, have the opportunity to win $100 USD.

Note: If no one finds the correct solution and wins the competition, then at the end of the competition (which is exactly a month after the start date) you will get another PDF that contains the method. Thus no matter what happens you will eventually learn the method. Moreover, the PDF will be sold separately after the competition as well - for those who didn't take part in the competition - but it will be sold at a higher price.

In the PDF you will find a performance video to an effect - a card...