Magic & Conjuring: page 211

This routine was inspired by a magician’s challenge that it was unfeasible and unadvisable to perform several Ace Assemblies in a row for lay audiences. In fact, he argued that most Four-Ace Assemblies are neither entertaining nor interesting to layman because they are essentially magician’s exercises. This synergism is an exercise based on an opposite view; however, a key lies in presentation. The performer ostensibly is relating a bit of history regarding how a card trick was performed in the 16th century. In the course of the explanation, he acts as a proxy for skeptical spectators who...

Karl Fulves published in Pallbearers Review an unsolved card problem wherein an Ace having the same suit of a previously selected card changes into that selection. The puzzling aspect of this problem was this: The four Aces are shown, mixed, and tabled face down. Nobody knows the order or disposition of the Aces, not even the spectator.

Jon describes eight solutions each with its own trade-offs, strengths and weaknesses.

Jon concludes his manuscript with:

Even though the small packet card trick goes at least back to Hofzinser's times Jon argues that the modern small packet trick started in the 1940s when the Buckle Count was introduced by Dai Vernon and got into full swing when the Ghost Count (Elmsley Count) entered the stage.

Jon writes:

On the Clock Effect

The clock effect/principle is a variant of the automatic placement principle. It allows you to force a card. The procedure typically is that the spectator freely selects any full hour on the clock (1-12). Cards are then dealt into a clock pattern where one card takes the place of each hour. The card at the spectator's freely chosen hour is the force card, which for example could have been predicted beforehand.

The Clock Effect using playing cards originated at the turn of the century. Potter's Index subsequently listed thirty-eight (38) references—one of the earliest...

Slip Cuts play a vital role in "Cutting to the Aces," a presentation auspiciously introduced in Stars of Magic (1946). Dai Vernon's handling sparked lots of interest when it first appeared, providing strong incentive to master the Slip Cut. Cardini, who also knew a great trick when he saw one, strongly endorsed Vernon's presentation:

"To lovers of outstanding card magic I heartily recommend 'Cutting the Aces.' It is showy and mystifying, more so than you would think a card trick could possibly be."

Therefore, this treatise begins with explanations of three versions of Ace-Cutting. This may induce...

Every card magician will know the Triumph effect:

The most famous routine is Dai Vernon's "Triumph" originally published in Stars of Magic. However, he probably was influenced by other similar effects that came before. One such routine is Sid Lorraine's "Slop Shuffle".

Jon Racherbaumer will take you through the history of this wonderfully visual effect and will explain and discuss the many...

These are all self-working or very easy to perform effects.

One item that I would like to highlight is the Klutz Force, because it is on the same skill level as the popular Criss-Cross force, which is frequently used in self-working effects. With the Klutz Force you have an alternative that has a different feel and procedure.

• Simplex Physical & Mental
• Telephenomenal
• 21 And Then Some
• Guesstimation City
• Marked Calculation
• What Is the Question?
• Easy Prefiguration
• Klutzy Forces
• Hobson Chooses Again
• Punch-Line Division
• Simple Sync
• Is Your Pants On Fire?
• Made In the Shade
• No-Clue ...

Gene Castillon presented this lecture at a meeting of Ring #27 IBM in the early 70’s, calling it "The Double Undercut Routine". This routine was designed to feature only one sleight or move—the Double Undercut. To prove the versatility and usefulness of this one move, Gene incorporated into one routine a series of different effects all accomplished by this one move. As you will discover, there are magic appearances, a simple sandwich prediction, several Ace tricks, a poker deal, and a simple triumph trick.

When recently asked to lecture again, Gene pulled out his old lecture notes and was surprised...

This is the fourth revised treatment that Marlo and Jon worked on during the last year of his life. Their objective back then was to publish a new old-book by expanding the original work to include ideas, finesses, and variations devised after 1962. More important, the revision was to be more organized and cohesive than the original.

The original K.M. MOVE booklet was typed on twenty-three pages. There were only eleven hand-traced, inked drawings [by Marlo]. The material faithfully duplicates Marlo's hand-written notes and was typed by Muriel Marlo. All in all, the finished product had an unpretentious,...

A treatise on how to determine a thought of card.

• Out of Sight - Out of Mind (Dai Vernon)
• Streamlined Discernment (Edward Marlo)
• Mental Discernment Improved (Ken Krenzel)
• Mental Selectivity (Charlie Miller)
• Far Out Of Sight (Bob King)
• No Questions Asked (Randy Wakeman)
• The Spectator Seems to Really Think of any Card (Bob Farmer)
• A Card That Lies = A Deck That Tells The Truth (Bob Farmer)
• Unambiguous Discernment (Edward Marlo)
• Fish-Fry For Two (Robert Baxter)
• Fish (Lewis Jones)
• The Discerning Mentalist (J. K. Hartman)
• Mental Schemental (J. K. Hartman)

1st edition 2011; 52 pages....

This is a detailed and thoroughly researched work on double lifts taken from the center of the deck, or so called center double lifts.

A double lift is one of the hardest moves to do well and at the same time one of the most practical and useful moves in magic. One strategy to make a double lift more deceptive is to take two cards from the center rather than from the top of the deck. The downside of this strategy is that the utility of the move is reduced. Nevertheless, for the expert card handler it is worthwhile to study these types of double lifts and acquire one or two versions for one's...

Controlling a card to the top or to the bottom is the most fundamental technique in card magic. Every card magician should have at least one good method to do that. Consequently many authors use the phrase "control card to the top/bottom with your preferred method" and leave the rest to the reader assuming that everyone already has his or her preferred method. While you might have your favorite method, the search for better ones never stops.

In this ebook Jon Racherbaumer describers several - as he calls them 'finessed' methods - to control a card to the top or to the bottom. You should find...

Classic Racherbaumer. I had to use the dictionary twice just to make it past the title :-) If you don't learn any card magic you will certainly expand your vocabulary. But I am sure you will learn a good amount of very thoughtful pieces.

From the introduction:

To explore ways to convert, tweak, and redeem "pasteboard antics"...

Ways To End Up With the Only Thing You Want

From the introduction:

• Two Ways to Convincingly Disclose One of Two Possibilities
• A Card That Lies, A Deck That Tells...

Brother John Hamman's effects are conducive to creating strong, synergistic routines. That is, many of his individual effects, including its discrete parts, can be combined to form powerful presentations. The following nine-phase is a good example.

Holistic Hamman was originally part of an unpublished book titled Real-World Cardstuff: Synergistic Schemes.

Requisites: A regular deck of cards.

1st edition 2000, 2nd edition 2013, 15 pages.

• A WHIM-WHAM WARM-UP: Warmed Over Rhetoric
• KINDS OF PERMUTATIONS
• FIRST PERMUTATION: HUMMA-HUMMA-HUMMER
• SECOND PERMUTATION
• PERMUTATION THREE: VALUE-SUIT, SUIT-VALUE (Jon Racherbaumer)
• PERMUTATION FOUR: WHY IS THIS ODD CARD SO QUEER? (Jon Racherbaumer)
• PEMUTATION FIVE: THE LAST GAME (David Britland)
• PERMUTATION SIX: BILE AND BLOOD (Jon Racherbaumer)
• PERMUTATION SEVEN: PURIST CARD PUZZLE (Edward Marlo)
• PERMUTATION EIGHT: MR. FOGG TRACKED DOWN (Steve Reynolds)

1st edition 2013, 49 pages.

This manuscript explores hybrids of the Jonah Card Principle. Beyond that it hopes to draw attention to this fascinating motif and perhaps inspire further research and development.

• THE FOUR QUEENS (Bill Simon)
• MEN FROM THE BOYS (Colm Mulcahy - Bill Simon)
• ODD YET PREDICTABLE (Jon Racherbaumer)
• SPIN-OFFS of WINKLER'S COIN PUZZLE
• NO-JONAH POKER (Jon Racherbaumer)
• (LOSING) END POKER (Jon Racherbaumer)
• OUROBOROS (Jack Parker)
• DOUBLE PREDICTION JONAH POKER (Jon Racherbaumer)
• STRONG CIDER (Edward Marlo - Jon Racherbaumer)
• THE JONAH IN THE HARRY'S POCKET (Jon Racherbaumer)
• EMPOWERING POKER A BIT MORE (Jon...

There is something incurably viral about this curious card problem. Does anyone know? What's so irresistible about displacing, displaying, counting, spreading, mixing, re-mixing, un-mixing red and black cards? What's the allure? What's the incentive? Yet, despite all cease-and-desist entreaties, methods keep popping up, including the ones in this compact manuscript.

The Ten Phase routine described in this ebook combines ideas and handlings by Hideo Kato, Dave Solomon, and Edward Marlo. You can figuratively use the Oil and Water patter theme, referring to red cards as "water" and black cards as "oil," but some...

As a plot, Cards Across is fairly simple and direct. It's a transition effect where a number of cards - usually three - magically travel from one packet to another. There are methods that use gimmicked cards, others use purely sleight-of-hand.

This manuscript is an exploration of subtle methods based on Stewart James' "Pockethereal." Its selling point is that there are no switches or exchanges. The only sleight of hand is the false counts. This put it in a class by itself.

• INTRODUCTION
• POCKETHEREAL (Stewart James)
• POCKETHEREAL, MINUS POCKETS (Bert Fenn)
• POCKETHEREAL MINUS POCKETS (Edward Marlo)
• CLARIFIED PACKETHEREAL...

This is an interesting study of the X-Force and variations thereof only the way Jon Racherbaumer can do it. The X-Force is the simplest force that every magician has learned to do at one point in their life. Jon dissects the X-Force or Criss-Cross Force and then puts it back together in different and new ways. This is fodder for those that want to go into the fine and nuanced details of performing this force.

• Introduction
• Drilling Down
• A Little History of the X-Force
• Layered-Cross-Cut Force
• First Method
• Second Method – Layered Double-Cross
• Two Cuts Are Better Than One
• Three Free...

This ebook features six presentations by Edward Marlo, one of the most prolific producers of card magic ever known. My criteria for selecting these six presentations was to pick effects that stressed subtlety and psychological cunning and required little or no difficult sleight-of-hand. The irony here is that such tricks are seldom associated with Marlo, even though he devised scores of easy, semi-automatic tricks during his career. But don't despair. The ones in this ebook run a gamut.

Cozy Card to Case is a subtle version of an ancient trick dating back to Walter Gibson's Popular Card Tricks. Most versions are based on miscalling a...

Beautiful close up magic by Jon Racherbaumer, John Cornelius, Roger Klause, Ed Marlo, Jim Hunter, Steve Draun, Eddie Adams, Lee Fried, Chuck Smith, Phil Goldstein, Tom Mullica, and Simon Aronson. Here is magic that is unique and that you will not see in other books. The ebook is divided into chapters on Coins, Cards, Linking Pins, Mental Magic, and Diversions. You will find such unusual items as Marlo's complete presentation of the Color Vision box, Racherbaumer's close up Miser's Dream, Marlo work on Linking Pins, Cornelius' Coins thru Table, Mullica's version of Jarrow's Cig thru Hanky, and more. The section on card magic (mostly Marlo...

A different take on the usage of the mini-plunger or tiny plunger. When Danny Orleans showed the item to Jon it sparked his creativity. Read about the outcome here.

• About the Mini-Plunger
• How to Make a "Breather"
• Stuck Up
• Suck-Up Sleuth
• Malini Lite
• Pokerratum
• A Plunger Went A'Courting
• Aces Take a Plunge
• In-Depth
• Bonus: Ham-Fisted Find

1st edition 2013, 41 pages.

This manuscript is ancestrally related to Criss-­Crossings: Unleashing the X-­Force insofar as it also deals with cutting cards. In this case, it deals with "cuts" and "turnovers."

This type of combinatorial maneuver began with Henry Christ's forcing technique that he developed in the early 1920s. He originally developed six variations but he only published the fifth one in Ted Annemann's book, Sh-­h-­h It's a Secret, calling it "The 203rd Force." It subsequently has been referred to as the Christ Force and it spawned many versions and applications.

Because of the cut-­?turnover-­?and-­?replacement mechanics, the Christ Force is often confused with Ed Balducci's...