Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 40

PSI-POKER is the latest creation from Ben Harris (co-creator of 2010’s hit X-RAY).

This new effect is totally self-working, requiring no skill or gaffs. (Unless you are calling 'peeking the bottom card' a move.) The secret is ancient, but it’s never been used in this manner before. Magic’s leading historians and card experts have confirmed this claim. (To be precise, it is a new property of an old principle. Very clever indeed.)

So, what is PSI-POKER?

The effect is a multiple prediction of how a game of “Texas Hold ‘em” will play out from a shuffled deck. You hand a prediction...

A retrospective look at Dai Vernon's Five-Card Mental Force.

• Introduction
• The Prototypal Version From Early Vernon
• A Woolgather's Aside
• My Skirmish with the Five-Card Mental Force
• 30 Years Passed
• Five Card Mental Farce / David Acer
• Max on Five-Card Mental Force / Max Maven
• Outtings
• Rescuing the Five-Card Mental Force / Allan Slaight
• The Ultra Effect / Paul Rylander
• Dai-Cipher / Phil Goldstein
• I Have It / Edward Marlo
• Psyboards / Tom Frame
• Indisputably Predictable / Jon Racherbaumer
• Post Mortem

This is a quick playing card divination effect. The performer divines the card merely thought of by the participant and the best part is that there is no need of any physical deck of cards. Just one single business card is used.

There are no sleights, no stooges, no preshow, no peeks, no impressions, no outs, no tears. Nothing to reset and instantly repeatable for other participants.

The method is an old classic reworked for this effect. The underlying principle is very flexible and can be put to multiple uses with a little creativity.

A new design shared by Michael Lyth is included. Another cool...

Two spectators are invited on stage. Spectator A gives the deck a shuffle, and then deals exactly twenty cards into the magician's hand. The performer shuffles the twenty cards, and then gives some of the cards to Spectator A and the rest to Spectator B, who proceed to shuffle them further. Both packets of cards are then handed back to the performer who shuffles the twenty cards together.

The performer now explains that this is going to be a demonstration in 'Psychic Telekinetic Teleportation'. The performer has spectator A hold out his hand into which exactly ten cards are dealt. Spectator...

Effect: Two people each select a card. The performer then shuffles the deck by giving it a riffle shuffle. The spectators take the deck and returned the cards with the deck in their own hands in such a manner that there can be no suspicion of trickery. The two cards are not forced.

The performer now spreads the deck face up on the table so all the faces are in full view. The first card is found by contact mindreading (apparently). The first spectator holds the performer's wrist while he moves his fingers over the face up cards. Suddenly, the performer's finger drops down on a card and it...

Predict a matched pair from a spectator shuffled deck. The deck can be freely shuffled and cut as often as the spectator wishes.

The methodology is somewhat involved because you need a billet index, a gimmicked envelope, and a marked deck. You could do without the gimmicked envelope but the rest you will need. Nevertheless, the effect is strong.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 1999.

runtime: 17min 40s

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...

Psycho is an ebook of simple and subtle ideas and performance effects based on psychological suggestion and pseudo-psychological magic, written in 2007 and released in 2010. These notes offer a way of thinking and a refreshing approach to the art of using psychological suggestion as both a tool and an illusion within itself.

Psychological Forces
An insight into the idea of psychological forcing and 'pseudo-psychological suggestion'.

Playing Card Psychological Forces

• Four of Clubs
• Jack of Spades
• Jack of Hearts
• Queen of Hearts
• Four of Diamonds

Psycho
An expose on psychological...

The Pull Through False Shuffle is similar to the Strip Out False Shuffle. It is likewise a tabled full deck false shuffle.

runtime: 1min 33s

This particular variety of the pull through false shuffle is attributed to Ed Marlo and Dai Vernon.

runtime: 2min 22s

Two sets of 10 cards are counted out fairly and openly onto a spectator's hand before being dropped into two glass tumblers where they can be clearly seen. One at a time three cards are invisibly moved from one glass to the other, and when the piles are counted back onto the spectator's hand again, the first glass only contains 7 cards and the other 13.

This is the classic cards across effect using a method that is completely move and sleight free. Everything happens at fingertips and there is no palming required, nor any special counts. Designed for a close-up or intimate parlour show,...

Allan describes how to avoid some of the most widely made errors with the bottom deal.

runtime: 3min 53s

The push-off-center deal is quite a bit harder to do than the strike-center deal, but it is also more versatile. Allan executes it flawlessly.

runtime: 2min 43s

These double lifts start out essentially like a push off second deal, but have an added square up motion to display two perfectly aligned cards. Allan teaches two push off varieties.

runtime: 1min 27s

This push off one-handed bottom deal achieves a perfect illusion.

runtime: 1min 32s

With a bit of neck-tieing the deck you can turn a push off second deal into a very effective card change.

runtime: 46s

Allan teaches the basic push off second deal. Very similar push off techniques are also used for double lifts or to get a break beneath the top two cards.

runtime: 1min 25s

This is a variation of the classic push off second deal where the thumb works from the top edge of the package rather than the long side edge of the deck.

runtime: 55s

From the introduction:

"Some of the most clever takes on the Torn and Restored Card in years, Ben Harris' Quarks & Quirks is an invigorating journey of topological twists and tears." - Richard Kaufman

A journey beyond the tear, inspired by the weird world of Quantum Physics. In this superbly produced book, filled with photographs Ben Harris shares seven routines. Includes:

THE QUARTER BACK TEAR

A method for apparently tearing a card cleanly in half, while in reality, only tearing one quarter from the card. This sets you up as either a "quarter ahead" or a "quarter behind" depending upon the intended...

In effect, a card is selected and signed. The card is then cleanly torn into four separate pieces. The pieces are then placed between the fingers ala The Multiplying Billiard Balls, and the hands are otherwise empty (they really are!). The pieces are then gathered up one at a time. Each side of each piece is clearly shown. The bundled pieces then instantly pop open in a "flash". The card is fully restored and given to the spectator to keep as a souvenir.

1st edition 2011, 17 pages, photo illustrated

Four cards (you could use jumbos) are shown. They are all the same on the face, but one has flipped face down. They are shown again and a second has flipped face down.

This is repeated until only one remains face up. You now ask if they'd like to 'see' the final card visibly flip face down? They would, but aren't too impressed when you simply remove it, and openly turn it over!

However, when the four cards are dealt face up to the table... they are now all completely different, and match the four freely 'forced' cards that they chose earlier!

This routine is great for mastering the...

It's a devilishly clever method with four different presentations. You'll likely think of several more. There's a You-Do-As-I-Do effect, a Card Climax, a Phone Miracle, and Scarne's Best Prediction. No sleights. Simple, sure, and direct. Can be worked surrounded by spectators and dead easy to perform. All you require is the instructions, as no gimmicks are used. Use anyone's cards.

If you think that the pandemic is limiting your performance opportunities, you'll especially like Scarne's Phone Miracle. All you need is a spectator with a smartphone or landline. And, unlike virtually every...

All the effects use simple fakes or subtleties to accomplish off-beat effects.

INTERNECINE is a novel version of the Tunnel Change and uses a small packet of cards. The cards appear to change places of their own accord. The performer demonstrates this phenomena further by causing two of the cards to change places in a very convincing manner. Finally the transposition is repeated and this time the change takes place visibly.

DICHOTOMY is a very strange prediction effect. A spectator chooses a card and tears it into two pieces. One of the pieces is destroyed and the other retained by the...