Self-Working

This triple tabled false cut is a thing of simplistic beauty, developed by Jay Ose. Calling this a move is an overstatement.

runtime: 50s

NOTE: These are the instruction sheets that come with the trick. This PDF does not explain how to make up a deck.

The Jumbo Pop Eyed Popper Deck is one of the most used "trick decks" of professional magicians and mentalists from all over the world. This "secret weapon" is one of the cleanest ways to force a card without sleight of hand. This deck is drastically improved over older versions.

No more fumbling to separate paired cards. This has been a problem for many magicians. These cards have been especially prepared so you only have to place your thumb on any of the four corners and the...

The basic effect as seen by your spectators is that you can read minds and see through the cards as if you had X-ray eyes.

• The deck can be shuffled
• You never know the spectator's card
• You never look at the faces of the cards after the selection is made
• No multiple outs
• No special decks or props required

This is an updated version of the first publication of The Cards Will Back You Up. In this new version you will find some corrections that were made due to the fact that the version described in the first edition did not work one hundred percent of the times. With the "new" (or corrected...

This is a pretty color change that is self-working. It can also be used for a change out. The underlying principle was first discovered by Alex Elmsley. Ed Marlo turned it into a self working color change.

runtime: 1min 11s

The third edition of Coffee Break Mental Magic is a Sherlock Holmes special to celebrate the launch on January 1st of the third series of BBC TV's wonderful Sherlock programme! This PDF features a self-working card routine (the only equipment you need is a normal deck of cards) that explores the eternal dance between the Great Detective and the King of Crime, Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty! What is the unbreakable bond that links these two men? Why is it that they battle to destroy each other and yet neither can exist without the other? Holmes & Moriarty - the Yin & Yang of crime and...

The Aeon Reading is a mysterious Tarot card reading/experiment that will leave your participant wondering about the mystical powers of the Tarot. It will also leave them with an important message. If you perform at all with Tarot cards, you’ll surely be using this routine which has been in Alexandre's repertoire for years.

Written for the Thoth tarot deck (where the Aeon card is the 20th card) it can be automatically adapted to any tarot deck you might already own. This is based on a self working principle - no sleight of hand required.

1st edition 2005; 3 pages.

A wonderful self-working rendition of the classic "Out Of This World" effect. This was the first real card trick I saw - and I was baffled.

A borrowed deck is shuffled. A red and a black card are placed face up on the table. The performer then removes cards, one at a time from the deck. Without the spectator seeing the faces of these cards, he indicates whether he thinks a card is a red or a black. If he thinks it is a red card, the performer places it, face down, on the face up red card. If the spectator thinks it is a black card, the performer places it face down on the face up black card....

Very easy to do, impromptu and with a big effect! What else would you ask? Count Down by Ken de Courcy is a card trick that you can present in several ways, all well explained in this little manuscript.

The basic effect is the following: A spectator shuffles his own pack (Yes! It can be his own pack of cards and he really shuffles it...), then counts ten cards in a reverse order. If a number of spots on a card happens to match the number he is counting aloud at the time, the card is thrown out face-up. If none match during the count, a card is dealt face down in front of the magician.

This...

Psychic Self is a three-phase card routine wherein you NEVER touch the deck. The deck is borrowed and shuffled multiple times. Yet, the routine is entirely self-working and will work the majority of the time. No risk; no reward. Yes, there is a chance of one of the phases not working; and even lower chance that none of the routine will work. There is a simple scripting for why one or all the phases did not work. The majority of time, you will have a three-phase miracle routine.

The scripting of the routine is what really sells each individual effect. The methods are essentially the effect...

The following is a complete card routine created by U.F. Grant a long, long time ago. You will find it mysterious, entertaining and practically unknown by modern generations.

EFFECT: A series of bewildering effects with a deck of cards shuffled by spectators.

1. A deck of cards is shuffled by spectators. A card is chosen and returned to the deck. Performer puts cards in trouser pocket and spells the name of the chosen card. The last card results to be the chosen one.

2. A spectator now chooses another card. The deck is cut. Tell the spectators that you have X-ray eyes and can see...

A card trick that is flashy and plays big, it is suitable for parlor or stage and requires no skill.

Four Queens are each seen in four glass tumblers facing outward. Each Queen is then turned back outward and returned to its glass. Three indifferent cards are placed in each glass with the first three Queens. The fourth Queen is left by herself in the fourth glass.

The performer waves his hands and the magic happens. The cards are removed from the first glass. There are only three cards, the Queen has vanished. This is repeated with the next two glasses. Finally, the card is removed from...

This is an oldie but goodie, it helps solve a problem with certain church shows. Devin has often got phone calls from church groups asking for a magic show, but to not bring playing cards because the church frowns upon them as being sinful. Here is an effective and proven way to use playing cards in church groups that think cards are based on gambling and are of the devil. Yes, these people still exist today and this treatise gives an effective way to overcome this belief. Devin was raised in a household that forbid playing cards, but he used the technique in this e-book to change his family's...

Paul Curry invented this effect when he was just 25 years old. It is one of the most well known and probably most often performed card effects today. A classic through and through. An incredibly strong effect paired with a most simple method. You can't find much better card tricks.

The effect as Curry describes it:

The performer shuffles a pack of cards and starts to deal them into two piles - the red cards in one pile, the blacks in the other. After a few cards have been dealt into each pile the deal is stopped and the performer explains that were he to continue to deal in this manner...

This effect was created by Dai Vernon and was published in Rufus Steele's book The Last Word on Cards.

The deck is shuffled by a spectator. The magician removes a prediction card from the deck and places it face down on the table. The spectator creates two piles. The top card of one is turned face up. The value of that card is used to count to a card in the other pile. The card counted to is the mate of the prediction.

runtime 4min 29s

Personally I find any trick using a swastica not a particularly good idea today, because the swastica is loaded with meaning not necessarily appropriate for entertainment. But we should not forget that this manuscript was originally written in the 1940s.

The gem in my opinion is the last effect, "The All Clear Card Transformation."

Here are the effect descriptions as they were originally written by Stewart James.

SWASTRICKA

The performer writes a prediction and anyone retains it for the time being. He now displays a card, the same size as a playing card, bearing a Swastica. The assertion...

This is a great opener for any routine or act, which uses the four aces. The inspiration for this came from David Regal's "Deep Guilt Aces".

Before you chalk this up to "another ace cutting trick", take a look at the features:

• No rough/smooth.
• No short cards. No long cards. No thick cards.
• No memorization.
• No sleight-of-hand.
• No "messing with the deck" after each cut. When the spectator cuts the cards, neatness doesn't count. You never miss.
• Totally self-working!

1st edition 2013, 9 pages.

Have you ever wanted to hypnotize someone to have a photographic memory? Now, you can create this illusion using a fantastic principle applied in an innovative way. This effect uses only a deck of playing cards (which can be borrowed, no set-up required at all...in fact, you don't even touch the cards). After the spectator randomly shuffles the deck, you ask her to quickly glance at each card. Under the premise of a hypnotic induction, you then cause her to remember the location of any cards. Let's assume she is "tested" to locate, for example, the 2 of hearts and the 7 of spades. If she says...

You ask the spectator to blindfold you, or you turn around so that you can't see anything that the spectator is doing. You really do not see anything! You ask the spectator to create 5 piles of 10 cards each, so that 50 cards are in play. You tell her to make sure that there are 5 cards face-up and 5 cards face-down in each of those 10 piles. They can be in ANY order, and she is to do all of this ordering in ANY way she wants, without telling you (and, of course, you can't see anything that she is doing).

You then let her know that you are going to separate each pile of 10 cards blindfolded...

[Eddie Joseph and George Armstrong both published this effect in 1949 under the same name: Premonition. The effects are identical and the methods are also pretty much identical except some minor details. Since George Armstrong describes his inspiration and when and where he developed it, while Eddie Joseph does not, I believe George Armstrong to be the inventor of this method. George Armstrong's inspiration was an effect from Greater Magic by Bill McCaffrey. But already Hofzinser has a similar routine Domination of Thought from his Card Conjuring.

A spectator names a card. He is asked to take a pack of cards from the table, remove them...

A spectator cuts the pack of cards and counts off 25 cards. Shuffle these cards and have five of them selected by members of the audience. The magician does not view this selection process as his back is turned away during all this. The cards are replaced and the pack shuffled. A spectator is asked to place the cards in five rows of five cards each on an unprepared stand or easel or display board. (When performing this close-up or at a party situation the cards may be placed on the table surface, rather than using an easel.) Note: The cards may be placed in any order, on any row, either face...