Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 43

The Four-midable Magic Series comprises of specialist ebooks, each of which supplies four effects of a specific type.

This first volume in the series teaches four card routines that require little or no sleight of hand, and are well structured to produce clear magical card effects. They are clearly described in easy-to-follow numbered sections, supplemented by a total of 39 colour photo illustrations.

• Introduction
• Royal Flush: the magician uses magic to produce a Royal Flush from a shuffled deck of cards.
• Big Deal: a spectator shuffles a deck and cards are dealt face up onto the table...

Special guest appearance by Cameron Francis. Contents and contributors:

• JOHANN’S FOLLY (Ryan Matney): A great presentation for a standard Hofzinser theme.
• APACHE (Aldo Colombini): A stunning transposition of four cards with some comedy in it.
• MAYO-ACES (Didier Dupré): Two Jokers find the four Aces! You will love this routine.
• TAKE OFF (Aldo Colombini): A card vanishes from an envelope and reappears face up in the middle of the deck.
• THOSE LEAPING ACES (Paul Gordon): The four Aces change place and find two selected cards.
• THE OLD ROMANTICS (Aldo Colombini): You produce the same Ace four times and at the end...

I consider this among the very best card books ever written - and I have read an awful lot of card books. You might ask why a rather thin work from the 1980s would qualify for that high praise? There are three very good reasons for it.

One, Walt Lees has selected four absolute gems of card magic. He could have added fifteen other ok routines to make it look a lot more, but he has refused to pad his work with mediocre material. Good for him. There is already enough mediocre material published. It makes it a lot easier for the reader. You do not have to look for the gems. They are already right...

An incredible card routine with multiple climaxes. Four packets are cut by a spectator. The top card of each pile is taken and placed in front of each packet. You take three cards from a pile and these cards are the mates of the first selection. You repeat this with the other three packets. At the end the Aces appear on top of each packet. It uses a regular deck of cards.

This is a cheeky trick to perform when there is a request for "one more". The magician starts by telling a story. The spectator gets involved in the action and turns "matchmaker". This trick is free of any sleights. The spectator invariably cuts to the four queens in an impossible way.

The performer removes the four Kings openly and lays them face down next to each other. The deck is shuffled and a card is dealt face down in front of each King. The performer continues to deal cards into four piles. When the spectator stops him, the performer places the face up King on the pile stopped at...

From the introduction:

Counteract
A shuffled deck of cards is cut in half. The performer and participant each select a half and shuffle. The performer tells the participant a number between 1 and 26 and invites them to count to that card in their half. The participant is invited to do the same; to name a number for the performer to count to. This is repeated until both the performer and participant have three cards each. One by one the cards are turned over to reveal three perfect matching pairs.

Blinded
The performer and participant each have a different colored deck. Each deal four cards face down randomly from...

An introduction to basic sleights and techniques.

You will learn:

• Riffle Shuffle
• The Zarrow/Shank Shuffle
• Daryl Martinez Display
• The Mechanics Grip
• Ed Marlo's 'Hit' Double Lift
• The Elmsley Count

1st digital edition 2013, 13 pages.

After working a few card tricks, how many times have you been asked "Can you tell fortunes with cards?" Fortune telling with cards has always been interesting; but, how many of us have wanted to spend the time to learn and memorize the meanings of all the playing cards? I would dare say, very few of us. Besides, there is no trick to it.

Now you can say, "Yes." Not only that, but you can actually tell people how many brothers and sisters they have, how many children they have including their gender, number of pets and the month of their birthday, including their current age (without doing...

From the Foreword by Ed Marlo:

With the 'FORECAST' deck you'll be performing the most unbelievable prediction effects with the greatest of ease. In the first effect included on this 15 minute instant download, you accurately predict a card that will be freely cut to and then, unbelieavbly, a second card that was just named.

In the second effect a spectator chooses any card - a completely FREE choice yet you produce an odd backed duplicate of that card from your pocket. The download will tell you everything you need to know including details on how to construct your own 'FORECAST ' deck - don't worry - it's cheap and easy...

Should a Mentalist use playing cards?

Good question and one which has been raging among Mentalists since Annemann was still going strong. In this book Scott has addressed that question and put together some of his favourite Mentalism card routines, covering effects with borrowed decks, stacked decks and gaffed decks.

You'll find no knuckle busting sleight of hand here; instead Scott has included some of his own routines taken straight from his professional mentalism repertoire, many of which no other magicians have seen until now. Some of the ideas are based on old effects given a new twist, but...

The magician attempts to find the spectator chosen card under impossible conditions. In the end, he also manages to find the four aces. Everything is done with a normal deck of cards. Requires minimal sleight-of-hand.

1st edition 2022, video 12:52

You show four double backer cards, one of which has a big black spot painted on it. You again show the cards and suddenly the card has actually a big black hole and the remaining three cards are double backers as before.

1st edition 2021, video 2 min.

The original trick, first released by Devin Knight in 1972 and long off the market. It is available again, after being one of his most popular effects during a recent lecture tour. You show a deck of cards and have a lady freely select a card. There is no force. The lady may sign the card if you wish. The card is returned to the deck and lost.

You tell the lady that you will give her magical powers and that she will find her card with magic. This always intrigues the lady you are performing it for. You ask the lady to blow a kiss toward the deck. The deck is spread and an image of a kiss...

This is a 1-x-x count developed by Canadian magician Norman Houghton around 1955 and popularized by Brother John Hamman. You repeatedly show the same card while tabling the others one by one. Very easy to do, but perhaps not that deceptive. Allan shares a nice touch to make this count quite a bit more deceptive.

runtime: 1min 40s

The spectator shuffles the deck and freely cuts it into four packets. When you turn over the top cards they can be anything you like it to be (the four aces, a royal flush, ...). (Also part of Move Mastery 3.)

runtime: 6min 24s

A spectator card is floating over the deck instantly. This effect was inspired by several classic versions from different magicians but this one uses a different gimmick. Easy to create. Easy to perform. Requires some arts and crafts to construct the gimmick.

1st edition 2022, video 23:45.

Here is the effect: a spectator has a packet of 5 cards. For argument's sake, let's assume the five cards used are simply numbered 1-5 (the actual make up of the cards is up to your imagination). The spectator goes through a procedure in which cards are turned face up, face down, left as they are, the packet is cut, some-times the spectator decides whether the cards are turned over or not, sometimes the performer decides. But in the end, no matter who made the decisions, or which decisions were made, only the center card is face up and it is the 4. Not only that, but no matter what decisions...

A very direct divination and prediction effect with two selected cards.

Two spectators freely cut to two cards. Both selections are remembered and buried into the deck. The magician points to a pair of odd-backed cards (on the table from the start) before he correctly guesses the identity of each selection and to which spectator they belong to. Finally, he turns over the pair of cards: They are a perfect match.

Easy to do. Instant reset. Can be performed before or after any other card trick. At the beginning, the spectators can freely shuffle and inspect the deck. Uses regular cards with...

A spectator-selected card turns face-up in the deck.

Have a spectator freely select a card from a deck. There is no force. The spectator remembers the card. The magician inserts the card into the deck. When the deck is fanned the card has turned face-up (or face-down if you are showing the deck from faces.)

You will need to be able to do a half-pass. A short card helps in the sleight-of-hand proceedings.

1st edition 2023, video 13:38

"Flat Pack packs quite a punch!" - Stephen Tucker

"Flat Pack is cool as Ice. Love it!" - Tony Chris

Inspired by David Regal's "Sudden Deck" and Stephen Tucker's "Tardis Deck".

You display an unfolded card box, and clearly show it inside and out. You then proceed to fold it up, snap your fingers and slide a full deck of cards out of the box! It's that simple. It's that effective.

Flat Pack is great for close-up as well as stand-up work. It's super easy to make, and the angles are great.

1st edition 2014, length 20 min.

A matrix effect using playing cards instead of coins. A simplified and better version of Albert Goshman's classic cards through the newspaper (Genii vol. 30, June 1966).

1st edition 2019, 4 pages + videos.

From the introduction by David Jones: