Cards

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

Excerpt from the introduction:

You can do this with a borrowed shuffled deck and four jokers you prepared beforehand. The spectator shuffles the deck. The performer cuts it into six packets. The spectator chooses four of these packets by placing the four face-up jokers on any of the four packets. These packets are cut by the spectator. The four cards lying next to the jokers are pulled out of the packs. Their value is added and that many cards are counted down in the remainder of the deck. The card selected this way is predicted on the backs of the four jokers.

1st edition 2022, video 17:15.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• A Cocksure Choice
• Topsy-Turvy
• Without Doubt
• Invisible Power
• A Weird Event
• A Surprising Revelation
• A Transformation
• In Like Manner
• The Survivor
• A Magical Restoration
• Hide and Seek
• At Ease
• An Interchange

"Within these pages the reader will find many new effects. He will also discover a few oldies in new dress. But most of all he will find good, effective card tricks that he can perform with a minimum...

Excerpt from the preface:

• Preface
• APS Rising Cards
• Slow Motion Aces
• Red And Blue All The Way
• Incredible Sandwich
• Acrobatic Card
• Strange Deck And Triumphant Aces
• Turn Over Herrman Pass
• Meet Sreenivas

This ebook includes more than 130 photos to illustrate the moves...

All patter and two excellent videos are included.

My favorite effect of all time is my version of Dream Card, which was in my most popular e-book, My Favorites, and I have received accolades from professional magicians around the world for this effect. My second favorite is Dream Card Light which I have been very apprehensive about sharing because it is such a powerful effect - and it's easier to do than Dream Card ... and I've loved this trick for years.

This is more than just an impossible effect ... it is theater. The patter is so very powerful, that it is exactly what will be remembered most - and...

Three cards magically penetrate your hand one by one. Gregg worked out other solutions to this problem in his earlier ebooks, but they all used four cards. This is a streamlined version with only three cards. He suggests using Ace, 2, and 3 spot cards.

1st edition 2021, PDF 5 pages.

Add to your arsenal of outstanding close-up effects with this hard-to-find manuscript from a recognized master of deception. The effect is simple and direct: Four Aces change places with four Kings, which are later found face-up in the deck.

Meanwhile, in the pile formerly occupied by the Kings, are cards that match one previously selected by a spectator.

Or, as Canadian reviewer Sid Lorraine says:

"Aces in one pile, Kings in another. The Aces and Kings change places; then the Kings jump into the deck face up and the four remaining cards on the table turn out to be the four Queens."

Let...

A very visual version of the "detective" theme that is perfect for stage, parlor, and closeup. Adding another card allows this to become a sandwich effect. The deck can be borrowed, shuffled, and card signed.

A Jack of Spades is removed from a borrowed deck. Someone selects a card and the card is very visibly returned to the center of the deck. The card may be signed, and the deck may be shuffled. The Jack is then placed face up on the deck, the magician passes his hand over the card, and it vanishes. But it fails to return to the top of the deck. The deck is then spread and the Jack is found...

Four excellent ESP effects with cards - and they're easy to do.

The introduction provides a wealth of information about performance, spectator control...and even jokes. These four effects will fool magicians...just wait until your next club meeting...especially the title effect, UNSEEN!

1) UNSEEN is a devilishly clever effect that will fool anyone. Shuffle a deck of cards (it really is an ordinary deck) and display it, faces outward, for all to see - then shuffle it again. The performer never once looks at the faces of the cards. The spectator makes a free selection and then shuffles the...

Paul Curry is a name that captures the attention of magicians everywhere, thanks to his famous card trick Out Of This World. Invented by Curry back in 1942, it remains an absolute staple for the self-working card enthusiast.

Not to be overlooked, however, was Curry's initial blast onto the magic scene five years earlier. Launched in 1937, Touch was (and still is) by any measure, a superlative card mystery. Over the years, variations from the experts have appeared in print. Some of these have been downright disappointing because they have been far too complicated, or like Curry's original, the burden...

A remarkable transition effect using unprepared objects and little sleight of hand.

Four Queens from any pack are placed on the four corners of a square cloth. Two of the Queens are covered with squares of paper. One at a time, the Queens are put beneath the cloth thru which they penetrate and come up under the square of paper. It is amazing to see the identical card make the passage and appear under the paper along with the others, until all four are assembled under one paper.

Vernon's original methods and several puzzling variations - different from anything ever offered, no extra...

The Sympathetic Split is a fun yet powerful effect to present. Visually it captures the audience's attention throughout, and an explanation seems impossible in the audience's mind.

You show the audience a deck of cards that is literally cut in half. Next, you and the spectator count off the top ten cards, the Ace through Ten of Spades. Then, you ask the spectator to mix their ten cards while you do the same with your cards. You and the spectator choose one card from the ten Spade cards and place it in the deck. Next, you and the spectator pick a random card from the deck and mix that card...

An incredible coincidence plus an incredible prediction that looks completely impossible. You present two decks to a spectator. They have a free choice (no force). The spectator takes one deck, and you take the other. Both of you shuffle your deck. Then the decks are exchanged. Each one gives their deck a final cut. Then each one puts their deck into their pocket. Then cards are withdrawn from the top of the deck and put face up on the table until a match of the face appears. Once a match appears the magician presents a prediction that was on the table the whole time in which he predicted...

Here is a new, mind-boggling effect, raised up from the depths of the Bammo cerebral cortex - an effect that will defy all attempts at revealing its secret because the interlaced deceptive mechanisms - to quote Winston Churchill - create, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."

It uses something we call here at the Bammo offices, the TCF Principle. A principle that others, notably Henry Christ, John Scarne, Martin Gardner, Nick Trost, and Terry Lagerould have toyed with but, until now, its true potential has not been achieved.

The spectator shuffles the deck (52 cards, all different). The magician, without looking at any...

12 card tricks based on the same principle.

Sneak is a collection of tricks based on an overlooked principle that allows you to find a selected card under impossible conditions. Thanks to the use of one readily available fake card, every trick in the book is technically effortless. This means most of them are self-working while a couple of them require the ability to hold a break or execute a double undercut. Also included for the sake of completeness are impromptu versions (except for New Deck Joker), based on a variation of a well-known card force.

1) GOOD LUCK: A spectator cuts the...

J. Stewart Smith continues with his professionally-praised run of card magic routines, this one containing seven appealing card mysteries. Like his previous releases, all the work is accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. Only a few simple moves are necessary, easily within the grasp of the average magician. Smith strives to strip down his creations so every move is logical, from an audience's perspective. There is no confusion as to what happens. It looks like pure magic.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• A Transformation
• The Nostalgic Trio
• The Unseen Passage
• Two Faces Up
• Pure and...

ABOUT RUB-A-DUB: The rhyme is of a type calling out otherwise respectable people for disrespectable actions, in this case, ogling naked ladies - the maids. The nonsense "Rub-a-dub-dub" develops a phonetic association of social disapprobation, analogous to "tsk-tsk," albeit of a more lascivious variety.

The Rub-a-Dub Move's inauspicious beginning began in 1909 at a time when, relatively speaking, magicians had a limited number of utilitarian sleights and techniques at their disposal. Besides, the Rub-a-Dub Move happened in the blink of an eye and was only an offbeat way to make a card disappear. ...

More than the fourteen major Marlo items Ed contributed to New Tops Magazine between 1984-1985 - not to mention new sleights, finesses, and subtleties - these items have been largely unavailable since their publication, almost 40 years ago. Wesley James has added these final two years of material, completing the full run of Marlo's New Tops articles, fulfilling Ed's expressed wishes, keeping his material available "for the guys."

As with Wesley's previous releases, M.I.N.T. III - M.I.N.T. V, these long-unavailable Marlo articles could have been all Wesley compiled. Such a volume would have been an important...

The Dead Man's Hand is a famous hand of poker that Wild Bill Hickock held when Jack McCall gunned him down in Deadwood, SD. Hickok was playing five-card stud when McCall shot and killed him. He was holding two pairs: black aces and black eights. Lost to history is the suit and value of that 5th card, but that mystery works to your benefit for an entertaining card effect.

The primary effect is you show the Dead Man's Hand, the Aces, and 8s facing up. One card is facing down. The spectator guesses what the 5th card is. The manuscript describes three different methods for revealing the 5th...

A magician holds a card and then changes it to a poker chip, paper money, a coin, or any small flat object. The method is based on a black-art principle and thus best suited for a stage or video performance where lighting and angles can be controlled well. Making the gimmick involves arts and crafts.

1st edition 2022, video 23:04.

The All Backs Motif is odd. For one thing, it casts a revealing light on we magician's claim (when it suits our purpose) that we use ordinary cards. That is our decks, which we prefer to borrow, consist of cards that have faces and backs on both sides. Therefore, if we show a deck that consists of all backs and faces we are admitting that such anomalies exist and the cards being used are probably gimmicked in some way. Why do this?

A better question may be - What motivated someone to create such an effect using this kind of deck? That "someone" was Dai Vernon and my guess is that he wanted to...

A combination of "Disposable Color" and "B'Wave", both classics by Max Maven, makes each trick stronger and more fool-proof with just the addition of some scripting ideas and a few simple handling changes.

1st edition 2022, PDF 25 pages.

Here is a small collection of automatic and semi-automatic out-of-hand card effects, empowered by the "chaos" philosophy brought forward by Lennart Green and Dani DaOrtiz.

The effects are easy to do and they don't require you to be another "David Wiliamson" or "Dani DaOrtiz" in order to perform them. Just a regular, normal magician. More important than the routines you will see and learn how the chaos handling is applied to this type of effects - you will be able to apply those ideas later in many of your effects to make them more fooling and fun.

The effects included are:

Mr. Green Goes Red:...

The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.

• Proem
• About this Issue
• Excerpts Taken from a Photocopy of a Letter Written from Ed Whitford to Edward Marlo
• A Marlo Letter to Persi Diaconis
• Racherbaumer Letter to Charlie Miller
• Shall We Ask All The King's Horses and Men?
• Correspondence Between Jon Racherbaumer and Stephen Minch Regarding the So-Called Hide-Out Move
• Appendix: Paul Curry's "Out of this World"; a new version / Ed Whitford

1st edition 2014, PDF 30 pages....

The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.

From the introduction:

This can be done with a borrowed shuffled deck that does not have to be complete. (The only requirement is that the deck is in decent condition, but it does not have to be a new deck.) There is no stack or prior arrangement necessary. Somebody hands you a deck and you go right into the routine. You ask the spectator to take about a third from the deck, shuffle it at heart's content, then remember the bottom card and burry that pack somewhere in the middle of the remaining portion on the table. This all happens while you look away. You then take the deck behind your back and find the spectator...

"It's not easy to improve on a trick by Dai Vernon, but Ian Baxter has managed to do just that!"

A timely observation from reviewer David Jones, who has hit the nail right on the head. Here is an easy, clever new treatment of a respected Vernon classic. Don't be surprised if you find yourself performing Refining Vernon's 1-2-3 over and over again.

Jones continues: "This streamlined handling of Vernon's 1-2-3 is so much cleaner than the original, more magical in effect and far easier to perform. It's a winner!"

This familiar, fast-moving card mystery has been 'doing the rounds' for decades:...

J. Stewart Smith's third book on card magic, containing six more card masterpieces. Like his previous releases, all the work is accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. Only a few simple moves are necessary, easily within the grasp of the average magician.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• Our Cards
• False Cut
• Ascent of the Black Fours
• A Restoration
• Triple Alliance
• The Four Aces
• Double Cut
• A Prediction

Card workers the world over praise his beautiful effects and their methods. See below for a few brief quotes from experts in the field.

"The author has attempted to approach as...

Unpacking the Smith Myth and the Rashomon Concept.

This collection of tricks focuses on a similar motif because they fit the precise definition of that word and, in each case, the goal is to show what unifies and specifically defines each one. I'm also using the term "curate," because I sifted through lots of material so readers can compare and analyze everything. I consider this to be a contextualizing exercise that reveals the motif's history and pinpoints its rightful place in the Creative Continuum.

The two motifs compiled here are the Smith Myth and what's popularly known as the Rashomon...

More than the twenty major Marlo items Ed contributed to New Tops Magazine in 1982-1983 - not to mention new sleights, finesses, and subtleties - these items have been largely unavailable since their publication, almost 40 years ago. Wesley James has added another two years of material toward fulfilling Ed Marlo's expressed wishes, keeping his material available "for the guys."

As with Wesley's two previous releases, M.I.N.T. III and M.I.N.T. IV, these long-unavailable Marlo items could have been all Wesley compiled. Such a volume would have been a huge contribution to the literature of card magic. As a tribute...

Available again after a long absence is this fine work by J. Stewart Smith, presenting eleven more of his mystifying card effects, each of which is accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. This is the book that had card workers talking all over the country. It had to be good to receive praise from such internationally known close-up workers. See below for a few brief quotes from some of the very best.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• Ascending Treys
• Pop Over Treys
• The Four Aces
• The Four Queens
• Follow The Leader
• Sevens and Jacks
• The Inseparable Sevens
• Peek-A-Boo Discovery
• Horse...

Learn some of the most deceptive magic ever created, by a modest man, Elmer Biddle ... 5 impromptu effects plus a bonus trick!

Included with this e-book are 3 videos and 10 pictures. This e-book is a deep dive into the famous "Biddle Move", which is composed of The Biddle Steal and the much less known, The Biddle Switch - and all 5 tricks are impromptu. The videos teach the proper way to perform both Biddle Moves with in-depth instruction - plus the 4 as 5 Count.

Bonus effect: A 6th trick taught here is topological and can be used as a fun ESP effect or a straight-up prediction. A written...

Some aficionados consider Dai Vernon's "Out of Sight-Out of Mind" from More Inner Secrets of Card Magic the best mindreading trick with an ordinary deck of cards. They may be right. Since the spectator does not remove a card from the deck but only thinks of a card, it makes a terrific mindreading trick. Erdnase explores the principle in "A Mindreading Trick" in Expert at the Card Table. Vernon used the principle to construct his trick.

Gerald keeps the exact effect of Vernon's original trick. In "Only in Your Mind", he uses adaptations of the Overhand Lift Shuffle and constructs a completely different handling of the trick. In keeping with the...

From the introduction: