Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 50

Here is another magical gem from Ken De Courcy. It is packed with mystery, humor and audience participation. This card effect is suitable for close-up, stage, cabaret-floor or where you want to present it. The totally unexpected (yet logical) climax really hits the audience between the eyes and cannot fail to gather applause.

EFFECT: A lady is invited to assist. She chooses one of four envelopes and the remaining three are left in full view. She is then handed a red-backed pack to shuffle while the magician shuffles a blue pack. Then the packs are exchanged and shuffled again if you want. ...

Here is Ken's version of the signed card to wallet. A classic effect in a beautiful version with the complete presentation. The Effect: A card is chosen and signed by the taker. When it has been returned to the pack, a wallet is introduced. Inside it is a card which proves to be the one that was chosen and signed.

• No palming
• No force
• Use any wallet
• Easy to do
• Diabolical method

1st edition 1985, 1st digital edition 2018, 4 pages.

A chosen card that not only penetrates right through a deck of cards and a card-case, but also right through a spectator's hand. A very strong effect that looks impossible.

The effect is startling because it appears to happen in the spectator's own hands. As always Ken provides precious ideas for an intriguing presentation.

• Easy to do
• No palming
• The card can be signed

1st edition 1986; 1st digital edition 2018, 4 pages.

If you like a real card baffler, look no further. This is a sort of 'One-Deck Do-As-I-Do' but it works on a very different principle.

Cards are shuffled and cut both by the spectator and the performer (really!). The spectator mentally chooses a card (free choice) and the performer does the same. Then the cards are shuffled again. Unbelievably, the magician and the spectator get cards of the same value and colour. It almost works itself.

Effect: The performer cuts a portion off the pack, hands it to a spectator and asks him to do exactly as he does. First they both shuffle their packets,...

A close-up "lay-out" type effect based on a mythical game, "New Zealand Brag".

You deal out the shuffled Aces, Kings and Queens, yet miraculously when the hands are turned over they have separated into suits and, what is more, each hand is in their right order, Queen, King, Ace! Something very different in card magic.

1st edition 2018, 5 pages.

Based on a Bob Hummer and Karl Fulves principle. A spectator is handed seven playing-cards. He shuffles them, then places one of them aside face-down without looking at it. Now squares of cardboard are shown with cut-out windows. Spectator follows the magician's instructions and, at the end, looking through the cut-out windows in the cards, an index of a card appears. The chosen card is turned over and has been correctly revealed.

You will have to make up the squares of cardboard for this. The trick itself is self-working, the real work having been put into the evolution of the effect, but they are useful for...

Here is a wonderful routine that you can perform every time and everywhere. From an idea by George Sands, Ken developed a beautiful three phases routine that can be performed under all circumstances with eight unprepared giant cards. The routine develops the theme “You can’t do what I do”.

Effect: Having enticed a spectator up to help, the magician hands him eight jumbo cards and says, "Please give me any four....and keep four yourself." This done, both performer and spectator carry out some simple movements but, when the cards are counted over, all the magician's cards are face down...

"Everywhere and Nowhere" is a classic plot which, due to the difficulties in performance, is rarely seen. The original version calls for exceptional aptitude in card-changes which are not the easiest sleights to do well. Here is a new method utilizing a well-known fake pack that surely you already have, used in an undetectable way. This routine brings "Everywhere and Nowhere" within the range of everybody. Give it that and you'll have a trick that will amaze and entertain both laymen and magicians.

EFFECT:

A card is selected from a pack, then returned and the deck is cut a number of times...

You correctly guess how many red and black cards a spectator has casually put into four pockets with an unexpected climax. No skill required.

EFFECT

A spectator is given a pack of cards, or he can use his own. He shuffles it, removes some cards, splits them into blacks and reds and places the blacks in his left trouser-pocket and the reds in his right. He takes some more cards, splits them as before and conceals the black cards in his left jacket pocket and the reds in his right. All this has taken place while the performer's back is turned.

The magician asks the spectator to again...

A multi effect comedy card routine with audience participation and an unexpected climax. Cards mysteriously increase and decrease of number in magician's hands defying the laws of mathematics in a crescendo of surprises.

EFFECT

The magician fans a pack of cards to a spectator asking him to choose one and place it in his inside jacket pocket. The performer tries to read the mind of the spectator and to guess the chosen card but he fails. In desperation he slings the pack high in the air. With hardly a break, he removes some more cards from his pocket and goes straight into another trick...

A "Coin Assembly" with a signed and torn playing card with a surprising finish.

EFFECT: A spectator shuffles a pack then removes a card. The card is signed on the face by the spectator and torn into four quarters, and then an indifferent card is shown and laid aside face down on the table. One at a time the four quarters of the chosen card are vanished and reappear under the indifferent card. When the fourth corner should have arrived, however, there is nothing at all under the card ... all four have vanished. When the card is turned over, it is found to be the chosen card, complete with...

Instantly find any card called for by spelling out its name. No sleight of hand requested. No force.

This is Ken's version of "Magic Spell" by Hen Fetsch. Although it looks incredible, with a simple preparation of the deck you will be able to immediately find any card named by someone in the audience simply by spelling it. You will be able to do this with different spectators one after the other. Yes you can take out the pack of cards and spell any of the 52 cards...and, yes, the Joker too.

In the complete instructions by Ken de Courcy you will find in detail how to do the simple preparation...

Find any card a spectator takes from a borrowed and shuffled pack.

EFFECT: The magician tells his audience he has trained his mind to work like a computer. To demonstrate its computer-like capabilities, he asks a spectator to shuffle a pack of cards then, without looking at it, remove one card and place it in his pocket. Taking back the pack, the performer runs through it quickly, then goes through it again even more quickly and pulls out one card which he places face down on the table. The spectator removes his card from his pocket and places it face-up alongside the magician's card, then...

A very easy to do routine in which a black card repeatedly flies from hand to pocket leaving spectators amazed again and again, despite the performer trying to simplify things. All can be examined.

Imagine deliberately counting five cards....four of which are red with only one black. Each and every card is called and shown - without a single false move four cards are tossed to the table and the black card is seen to have vanished. It is reproduced from the pocket. Now Imagine that you can do it again and again each time eliminating one red card to make it easier for the public to follow the...

An "even bet" gambling routine in ten stages with no preparation and no sleight of hand.

A gambling routine which is completely different to anything that has gone before, because it doesn't deal with the usual card games such as Poker, Blackjack, Bridge and so on. Even Stephen is a routine, you don't play for money, instead play for matches ... and yet you win. Even with poor luck, you "scoop the pool". It's all so easy to do, the main skill being in presentation. 'The last Bet' is the only one needing a little handling and even that shouldn't place a great strain on your ability. Altogether...

A deck of cards is shuffled and put in trouser pockets, any card called for produced, then any non-playing card (birthday card, membership card, postcard, ...) called for, with gags and card castle finale.

This manuscript has not been available for a long time. This comedy and mysterious act, which has not been seen for a number of years, contains all the ingredients for hit entertainment today.

THE EFFECT

The performer comes on to a stage which bears only a table. He introduces a pack of cards and hands them out for shuffling, then has them cut into two halves and, after rapidly glancing...

In one of the New York Magic Symposium volumes there is a trick by Brother John Hamman entitled "The Lie-Detector Card Case". In it, he describes a truly brilliant-in-its-simplicity method for discovering a merely-thought-of card. Here is an alternative ending to it which, for me, makes it easier for larger audiences to see.

EFFECT

A spectator shuffles a pack of cards, then merely thinks of a card as the performer counts some over before his eyes. The cards are shuffled, then the performer shows the cards at the top and bottom of the pack; the selected card is not among them. Next, he introduces two paper...

The Ace to Six of each suit are placed on the table, and the two players turn cards face down alternately and a running total of the pips is maintained. The winner is the one who takes the total to no more than 31. Even after the spectator is told the secret to winning, the magician still wins. Ends with an extra kicker.

PDF 10 pages

Magic with credit cards.

Credit cards are easier to handle than playing cards because they're smaller and they're also a lot more valuable. In short, a borrowed credit card is an ideal thing with which to conjure. This ebook will give you a few ideas to include in your program.

• Foreword
• Gimmicks
• Crossed Credits
• Credit Card In Wallet
• Credit By Chance
• Card To Cash
• Credit Shower
• Through Credit
• Unlocked Credit

A book of alternative, easier, card sleights and tricks to go with them.

Excerpt from the introduction:

This is Ken's take on R.M. Jamison's 'Yogi Tells' effect from The Phoenix. Someone thinks of one of four cards of the same value of different suits. After two brief shuffles, you spell "Y-O-G-I" three times discarding the card on the last letter, and the card that remains is the one the spectator chose. In Ken's version the spectator thought of card magically flys into the pocket of the performer.

1st edition 1984, 8 pages; PDF 9 pages.

A series of novel and above all entertaining card tricks, all requiring a minimum of skill, the simplest of apparatus and all designed for the maximum entertainment and audience appeal.

No. 1. "A Double-Dose": Predestined and Black and Red Computation II.

Two effects, both using the same subtle principle, credited to Nick Trost.

PREDESTINED is for platform performances. You can use a Jumbo pack of cards and four cardboard plates. You will make this up in a few minutes and have a good program item. The working is simplicity itself but, being more interested in the presentation possibilities...

Here Ken de Courcy took a clever cut effect by Gerald Kosky, changed it, and altered it to make it completely self-contained and also impromptu. Whilst doing this, Ken hit on another use and here you are getting two for the price of one.

EFFECT:

A borrowed pack is shuffled by the owner, then the magician extracts two cards from it, hands the cards to the spectator and asks him to place them into a convenient pocket. The deck is placed on the table and the spectator is requested to cut off about two-thirds and lay it face-up alongside the remainder. He now cuts the larger packet roughly...

Effects with the Zodiac deck. (Deck not included with this PDF.)

Excerpt from the introduction: