Magic & Conjuring: page 64

This is David Gemmell's solution to the classic Paul Curry/Stewart James card problem "51 Faces North".

History of the card problem:

• Paul Curry conceived the idea for this effect sometime in the 1940's. At the time he had no workable method for achieving the effect.
• Ed Marlo got wind of this sometime in 1949 and published a method in the Cardician 1953.
• Stewart James and Howard Lyons corresponded on this subject in 1953.
• Stewart James contributed several methods to Ibidem in the early years of its run. This is where Stewart James first laid down the (almost) impossible conditions for the effect dubbing his idea as "51 Faces North".
• Jon Racherbaumer launched the Hierophant...

A borrowed coin magically penetrates three times a solid coaster resting on top of a glass.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 3min 2s

Three professional effects with a finger ring and a rubber band.

Paul takes three well known rubber band effects, one is the popular "Crazy Man's Handcuffs", and shares his touches and improvements. Paul is not teaching each of these routines but rather focuses on his contributions.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 6min 32s

This is a beautiful ring-card linking effect.

Spectator freely chooses a card which he signs. Performer hole punches the signed card and magically attaches and then magically removes a ring. The hole punched card can be handed out for inspection.

• Easy and cheap to make
• Extremely simple to do
• Resets instantly
• Use a free selection or thought of card
• The linked item is borrowed
• Everything is examinable
• You end completely clean

Some random letters are chosen to make up the initials of a fictional character out of the performer's sight. A name could be thought of from these letters, this will never be written down; it's in the mind of the spectator.

The spectator is asked to grip the performer's wrist and scream the initials in their mind. Slowly and visually the performer's veins shift and morph into the selected initials.

As an added kicker, the name can be revealed without anything being written down, they really do just think of the name in their head!!

This is powerful stuff. This isn't like Twisted...

Cameron Francis strikes again with a workhorse of a packet trick. An astonishing three phase routine that packs a wallop and is incredibly easy to do.

Effect:

The magician removes a small packet of Jokers. "These Jokers may look like normal cards but they are actually incredible magicians!" he claims. The Jokers are placed aside and the spectator selects a card. We'll say it's the Queen of Diamonds. The card is left face down on the table.

The magician shows that there are three Jokers in the packet and one blank card. "This card is a canvas on which the Jokers will write a divination."...

A demonstration of "Invisible Palming" leads to a selection magically traveling into a wallet the spectator is holding. As a kicker, the selection is actually inside a folded photocopy of a hand with the selection printed on it. Commercial magic at its best.

Despite the strong effect this is relatively easy to intermediate level difficulty.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 16min 39s

A barehanded production of a steel ball bearing. A professional lesson in concealment.

Jerry Andrus only taught and performed tricks he created himself. In that sense he was a purist, a one of a kind magic creator. Here he teaches simple but wonderful sleight-of-hand where every movement is thought through to appear as natural as possible while concealing a large heavy steel ball.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 4min 55s

This is a very effective and very easy card rise developed by David Regal. Any card is selected and shuffled into the deck. The selection now inexplicably rises out of the deck. New method, easy to do.

No threads, rubber bands, magnets or other contraptions. The gimmick is simple and right there invisible in the deck. Spectators can stare right at it and not see it. Very clever and very practical.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 3min 57s

Two spectator's selections are lost in the deck and then found in an incredibly clean fashion. Difficulty is intermediate.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 9min 38s

This is based on a Martin Nash cutting ace revelation called "Honest Aces". Amazingly the aces are cut from a shuffled deck. For the kicker, four jacks are cut to, completing four blackjacks.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2001.

runtime: 9min 20s

Imagine performing a card trick for a blind person - making them the star. Actually, any unsuspecting spectator can instantly become your secret accomplice and read your thoughts. They will be able to identify the color and value of cards without looking at them. Practical and magical.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 14min 43s

This is a comedy gamblers routine. A very magical routine that convinces them you've got a killer bottom deal. Easy to do (no bottom deal needed).

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 4min 26s

Mike finally releases one of his true pet routines. Imagine linking and unlinking two borrowed and unprepared coat hangers. You can have the coat hangers examined both before and after the routine.

The gimmick is easy to make, invisible, and straight forward to deploy and clean up.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 10min 12s

A wonderful routine only requiring a false count. Martin Lewis uses the Buckle count but several other false counts can be substituted.

The premise is a game of cards with a card sharper. You deal cards and the sharper counts his cards. He has 6 cards. Since you can't play poker with six he removes one card and counts them again still leaving him with six cards. This is repeated two more times always leaving him with six cards. Only the last time he is left with 4 cards. Since you can't play poker with 4 cards he adds a card but still is left with only 4 cards. This continues until in the...

A card is chosen, travels to the pocket, but turns out to be the wrong card. Visibly 'flick' the diamonds off of the wrong card. They flutter to the floor, leaving you holding the selection.

This is of intermediate difficulty. You will need to be able to force and control a card to the top. And you will also need to do a top change. No palming required.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 7min 5s

This is a wonderfully entertaining routine for two (or more) spectators. Each one of the spectators and the performer receives four cards. All go through the same actions of turning over cards and placing them on the top or bottom of their pack. In the end the performers cards are all face down, whereas the spectators cards have a face up card among them. This basic effect is done again two times in fairer and fairer ways.

Very easy to perform. All you need is any double lift and the Elmsley count. You can read the original description of this routine in Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 9min 36s...

Watch and learn Jerry's masterpiece of coin magic. Four silver dollars are produced one at a time, first from between two freely chosen cards, and the last two coins from a single playing card which is torn smaller and smaller.

There are no difficult moves in this routine. The ingenuity of Jerry is how he steals, hides and moves the coins behind pieces of cards.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 7min 25s

Snap your fingers to produce during the snap a coin at your finger tips. Greg does this three times and then vanishes the coins one by one.

The move to produce a coin while snapping is Doug Wick's Snap Production.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 13min 13s

Watch and learn the routine that won Carl the F.I.S.M. World Championship. Four signed cards completely vanish. Three of them reappear inside three different pockets. The fourth selection reappears in your sock! All four cards then vanish again, only to make their reappearance inside a sealed can of Slimfast, opened by the spectator.

The methods of how to get cards in your pockets, a card in your sock and how to load cards into a closed can holding some type of powder are easily applicable in many other situations.

The routine uses palming and sleeving, however Cloutier demonstrates how...

This is Alan Rorrison's solution to the Hofzinser Ace Problem.

A spectator freely chooses any card and signs it. The card is put face down between the two Jokers and these three cards (Jokers and spectator selection) are tabled. Then the spectator or another spectator selects four random cards from the face down spread. Magically the four chosen cards are the four aces. The ace with the same color as the spectator's card vanishes and reappears between the Jokers. The signed spectator selection is now found among the three remaining aces.

Alan has engineered his method to not require any difficult...

"This is going to fry a lot of people..." - Richard Kaufman

"...the Crossroads Deck; a devious conception and one of the most interesting to hit the magic scene in recent times..." - Peter Duffie (from the foreword)

"The Crossroads technique alone, which we really like, will be seen as food for thought by many. As mentalists, our variation would be to use no deck at all. Just a single, thought-of card in the pocket. The solution will dawn on you after reading the text..." - Richard Busch & Larry Becker

Full details of how this magnetic miracle works.

"Ben...what a beautiful thing you have created here. The moment that card breaks free from gravity in the spectator's hand is quite the joyous event." - Paul Harris

This 100 page ebook gives you all of the details. Learn the back history, how a simple advertisement in a catalog inspired the idea. Learn how to operate the gimmick, how to install it in a deck of cards, and how to use it to make a dollar bill float. You'll still...

"...at last, the originator explains his classic micro-levitation in complete detail — a digital first..."

Invented in 1986, and marketed as Cosmosis by Ben Harris, this effect has become one of the most pirated close-up creations in magic's recent history. It truly has become a "classic." Even today, twenty-three years after its debut, unscrupulous individuals and manufacturers in many countries market it without any due respect for its heritage or compensation for its creator. From street stalls in India and across Asia, to the high streets of London and Paris, you'll find this effect...