Cards in Magic & Conjuring

"The construction of the card is ingenious..." - Michael Close (Magic Magazine)

The famous and easy animated card that mysteriously moves away from your fingers—zooming across the table.

Examinable, before, during and after. This is one of the most devious uses of Elastic Thread ever created. Prior to releasing the idea to critical acclaim in 1999, Ben had been sitting on this for over ten years, using it privately for the most important occasions only. It is the perfect effect for Street Magic performances as it can be performed under the most stringent conditions—ANYWHERE!

As you and...

An effect about famous highly intelligent human beings and a hunger for brains.

Billy McComb's classic McCombical Deck updated for the Zombie Apocalypse. Artwork included.

If you're a zombie, why eat just average brains? Wouldn't you want to eat the most intelligent brains available? That's the premise for this version of this classic effect! Included is the artwork for 7 special cards.

1st edition 2015, 10 pages.

Please note that this video is in Vietnamese, but the instructions to make the gimmick, and how to use it is perfectly understandable from the visual information alone.

Change a bill into a card. Easy gimmick. Easy to perform.

Obviously you need to use paper money that is compatible with the width of the cards you are using. Often bills can be trimmed slightly if they are too wide.

1st edition 2018, length 7 min 32 s

This is a wonderful item in many respects. First, these three 78 rpm records and booklet, bound in a beautiful hard cover are quite rare. I have seen copies with missing instructions or broken records. Second, Zingone was a fast and smooth professional card manipulator. Being able to hear him speak and perform tricks accompanied by his voice is a treat. And third, the six tricks taught are excellent.

You will receive a PDF that includes the instructions, photos of the original box, and six audio clips embedded in the PDF, one for each trick. (You can also download the audio clips as stand...

Night club performer Tony Kardyro (Senor Torino) reveals his favorite card mysteries in this clever collection. Drawing heavily from eighteen years' experience in the night club and banquet field, Kardyro created these effects to fill modern day demands for magic, as well as professional demands of the performer. Some of the effects depend on well-known sleights that are within the capacity of any adept magician. These proven, audience-pleasing effects will prove that you're a master of mystery.

Two of the ten effects, Strange, Very Strange and Two Ace Change were called out by Walter B. Gibson as being...

This trick starts out as a display of the power of chance. A card is selected by the roll of dice. The magician doesn't know what the card even is. He spreads the cards and picks four random cards face down. One of the four cards is picked randomly, and the magician declares that it will be the card the spectator picked. When its not the right card, the magician makes up for it by making the card first disappear from the deck entirely, and reappear in his shoe.

Note that you will need to purchase a gimmick for under $10. Ryan provides a link where you can buy this particular gimmick.

...

An amazing twist to the Red Hot Mama/Chicago Opener routine.

A card is selected and placed back into the middle of the deck. The magician states the selected card will reveal itself to him. As he spreads through the deck, a card with a different colored back and a paperclip with a note attached to it is seen. The note reads "Your Card!"

The card is turned over, revealing the selected card. The paper-clipped card is set aside, facing down. A second spectator selects another card and an attempt is made to repeat the effect.

As the magician spreads through the cards, a second with an...

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,...

Dave Campbell may be a new name to you but in Scotland he is a highly respected card worker whose creations are both numerous and commercial. You Won't Believe Your Eyes is one of the finest card printing effects we have seen. Five cards, blank on both sides, instantly become duplicates of the spectator's selected card. The routine is visually stunning yet is quite easy to do. The instructions are detailed step by step and are fully illustrated.

One of the strongest points about Dave Campbell's routine is that it can be adapted to so many different themes. Using his handling you needn't restrict...

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.

A stunning version of the 'wild card' theme.

An effect by Peter Duffie. Performed and explained by Aldo Colombini. A tremendous novelty and a big hit for your close-up act. A spectator cuts the deck and deals off four random cards. You now show a packet of seven cards - six of the cards have blank faces, the seventh is blank on both sides. The latter card is the special "image copier." The six blank-facers are laid out in pairs on the table. One by one, the image copier causes a selection to appear on each of the blank pairs. But that's only three of the selections - what about the fourth? In a dramatic...

Eye candy at its best.

Magicians always do card tricks. Why not do something more than just a card trick that will blow everyone's mind? For example, take any two playing cards from the deck, and fold them into 2 little supports. Take the ordinary card box and place it on top of them. This may not seem impressive yet...until you remove one of the structures leaving an impossible image in your spectators mind!

Or perhaps take a pencil and place it onto an ordinary pop can, and on the end of the pencil place the card box leaving a totally impossible image that just can't be explained. All...

A plot by Ben Harris with a solution by Steve Shufton and an out by Felix Schellenberg.

"Ben Harris and Steve Shufton's X-Ray is, I think, one of the three best card effects to come out this decade. It's so unbelievably smart, and I use it all the time." - Joshua Jay

"A wonderfully clear cut plot. This is very powerful and appears utterly impossible." - Marc Paul

From the introduction:

When I was young, my uncle Peter fooled me badly with a simple X-Ray Vision stunt. It played serious havoc with my developing mind. Pete had been using his X-Ray Vision to "see through" the table top in order to identify how many fingers I was...

A card is selected from the deck, say the 8 of Clubs. Four Jokers with red backs are introduced. The performer claims that the jokers will reveal what card the spectator selected. One of the jokers is placed with the deck. The other three now have bold words printed on their backs: the three cards together read “Eight of Clubs”! The remaining face down joker is seen to have transformed into the selection! The magician then claims that the jokers did more than just reveal the selection, but they also revealed the mates of the selection: the three cards that have words on their backs are now...

A new, updated handling of one of John's all-time favorite packet effects, Write You Are. Four amazing climaxes with very little effort and using very few cards. Best yet, all of the cards can be examined at the end of the trick! Check out the video demo!

Ebook features:

• Brand new handling
• The original effect
• Variation by Cameron Francis
• Video demos for all effects

1st edition 2013, 8 pages.

Effect:

A card is selected...signed...the deck is shuffled and boxed...the box is inspected...a lighter is introduced...a corner of the deck is burned away...and the selected signed card is the only one not burned.

Wrath is a gimmicked deck. You do not need to burn a new or different deck every time you perform. The deck takes approximately 10 minutes to make. The deck is re-usable and has an instant reset. The deck is shown to be 100% legit and so is the box. There are no difficult sleights and no deck switching. The deck can be given away to your spectators afterward. Wrath can be made...

Effect

Two cards are selected and lost in the deck. The first card magically travels under a napkin that's been on the table the entire time. This card is wrapped in the napkin and handed to a spectator for safe keeping. They can actually see the face of the card through the napkin so they know what card is in there and that the magician can't touch it. The magician then causes the card in the napkin to turn into the second selection.

Above is just one possible routine that can be done with this gimmick. It can really be used any time you wan to turn one card, or any number of cards, into...

Working Progress is a short ebook of six tricks that I use when working for real, live human beings. They're all practical tricks that work in pretty much any performing environment you could possibly find yourself.

Inside you'll find a cool transposition that you'll love to perform, a chop cup routine which includes TWO fabulous endings that get round the awkward "putting the lemons back into your pocket" reset moment, a great use for the Phil deck that you can use for parlour performances or to open a set at a house party, plus there's a routine for the card to wallet that doesn't foreshadow...

Seven great effects in one eBook, all based around James Ward's Wordsmith Deck - a pack of some fifty cards consisting of fifty different words.

Voyage and Return
Three spectators put their chosen word into an envelope, the envelopes are mixed by a fourth spectator. The first three spectators are then asked to choose an envelope - they all choose the envelope containing their word.

Rags to Riches
Random words are picked from a dictionary, a spectator, or number of spectators, pick a word each. Each of these words are then discovered and revealed by the magician.

Rebirth
A volunteer...

This ultra-rare manuscript from magic author-dealer Howard Albright, features a trio of effects that each use two different-colored decks. These are audience-tested effects that will leave the spectators talking, long after the performance.

RED AND BLUE EN RAPPORT - You exhibit a red-backed deck of cards and a blue-backed deck. A spectator is handed one of the decks and shuffles them. You do likewise with your deck. A suit is chosen. Both of you remove the 13 cards of the selected suit from your deck. Each 13-card packet is then placed in its own houlette or wine glass. One at a time, the...

This is a collection of three card effects with a Mentalist's presentation. Because of this, there are no knuckle-busting sleights or use of anything but a standard deck of cards (although one of the effects works better with a single double-backer).

Not only do you get three audience-tested, astounding effect, but you also get a video explaining the author's improved method for the cascade control and many extra tips, tricks and alternate endings. The video is in wmv format. You are taught everything you need to perform all the effects to know except the humble double lift.

You will learn...

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...

Make a card appear or change behind a window!

With WindowX you can make a card appear or change a card behind a window. You also can change the card in a sealed plastic bag that is attached and in full view behind the window. The spectator can remove the card or the bag himself (in most situations). The gimmick is very easy to make.

You can use many (but not all) windows. The trick is perfect to present in your living room or at a party with a little set up.

1st edition 2015, length 20 min

A signed business card vanishes and reappears inside a sealed junk mail envelope.

Everybody receives junk mail and you probably have some lying around the house right now. Wouldn't it be great to do some magic with it and put it to good use? This video will teach you how.

This trick is very easy to do and very clever in its method.

runtime: 9min 5s

A corner from a card is seen in a transparent plastic bag. Blow on it ... and the corner will disappear. The disappearance of the corner is very fast and visual. The trick works automatically, all you have to do is to blow on the bag and the corner will disappear. After the trick, the bag can be given to the spectator.

[Note that the video only explains the vanish of the corner from the transparent bag. If you want to show a card tear off a corner put it in the bag and then vanish it, you will have to figure out how to secretly introduce the gimmicked bag with a prepared corner already inside.]

• No black art
• No thread
• No Magnets

1st edition 2020, length 5 min 13 s....

The first and most exceptional definitive study ever written on the Wild Card.

The classic miracle of the century and forerunner of all packet tricks is the Wild Card. Many of the routines have been closely guarded and found print for the very first time in this publication. Within the confines of these covers you will find revolutionary new routines, ideas and show stopping effects which are diabolically different, superbly written and magnificently illustrated.

When Frank Garcia speaks, all magicians listen. When Frank Garcia writes, everyone reads his books. When they see Frank Garcia...

Four Jokers turn one by one into the same card that was selected before by a spectator. For the climax the four cards turn into the four Queens.

This effect was inspired by Jenning's Wild Cards.

runtime: 8min 22s

Another epic effect by Peter Pellikaan – with an unexpected kicker!

You will need:

• three double facers (Queen/9H, Queen/9H, Queen/9H, regular 9H, four regular Queens)
• Cut Count (briefly explained)
• Elmsley Count

length 4min 23s

John Gelasi's Wild Color Twist has never been better! This new video download features an updated handling of John's favorite packet trick, making it cleaner and more mechanically direct than ever.

The effect is this: Four aces are shown. Each ace turns face up in the packet, one by one: first the ace of diamonds, then the clubs, then the spades - to mix things up a bit, the performer surprises everyone by turning all of the aces into aces of spades, except for one: the missing ace of hearts. The magician snaps his fingers, showing that all of the aces have gone back to being different -...

The Wild Card effect has been one of my favorite packet effects from as far back as I can remember and is indisputably one of the best card packet effects of all time. Unfortunately, in its original form, it does not meet my concept of good magic. It does not answer the basic audience dilemma - "Why does he do it ?"

I know transformations (anything that changes) are part of a magic effect, but there ought to be some reason for it. If a performer changes blank paper to currency notes, that's logical, it's something everyone in the audience would like to do. If he changes a silk to an egg,...

This is a wonderfully visual climax to any ambitious card routine. The gimmick is easy to make and easy to hide. Watch the demo video below.

Version 2 includes everything from the original version plus new ways to change the card and deck into the signed selection, new single routine and new transposition routine.

This treatise is a detailed exploration of a glorified location-divination, framed by a whimsical conceit - namely that an inanimate object - a playing card - is the supposed agency that makes the entire trick work. In this regard it was an effort to upgrade an essentially puerile divination effect.

Here is the basic approach or plot: The way the performer learns the identity of a freely selected card is apparently due to enlisting the assistance of another playing card (usually a Queen), which whispers the name of the selection to the magician. The magician then acts as the Queen's proxy...

A notebook on card magic with more than 50 routines including wide range of different themes. All moves are being taught. A self-contained work with practical, effective and easy-to-do card magic.

"He has that brilliant mind that enables him to invent tricks which are easy to do and entertaining at the same time." - Obie O'Brien

"This new book will, I think, be welcome by all sleight-of-hand artists. Aldo has set out to describe several major improvements, and the items he has included in this book have been chosen from his collection of material that is the outcome of a wide experience...

A spectator (freely!) selects a playing card as her lucky card and is also asked for the initials of her first love (no force!). The initials are written on a piece of paper and the lucky card is signed by the lady. The paper is placed onto the card and suddenly bursts into flames. When the lady turns over her lucky card, she finds that the initials of her first love have appeared on the back of her lucky card!

This effect always creates an emotional impact and will be remembered for a long time. The card with the initials may immediately and without any switches be given out as a souvenir...

From the Foreword:

A spectator is asked to freely cut a shuffled deck of playing cards and hide the cut-off portion in his pocket, while the magician is standing far from the table with his head turned away.

The spectator puts the remaining cards back into the case and hands it to the magician. Without even looking at it, the magician weighs the card case in his hands. He is immediately able to tell the spectator the exact number of cards that are in the spectator’s pocket.

• Can even be done blindfolded
• The case is not gimmicked
• No force of any kind
• No stooges
• No questions
• No fishing
• No calculating...

After "Reformation", this is Guy Hollingworth's most brilliant creation. The aces visibly turn face up while at the fingertips. If you think Twisting the Aces is a strong effect, then Waving the Aces will blow your mind. And it is not at all difficult to perform for an intermediate level card magician.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 1998.

runtime: 18min 39s

ALL ABOARD! B'wave by Max Maven has been one of David's favorite effects since its release in 1991. Since then, countless variations have been published...and here are some more! These routines have been designed to give what is essentially the same effect as B'wave, but eliminate the need for Equivoque or any other force. There are four effects that will knock 'em for a loop, plus two bonus chapters devoted to the "Wave" concept.

First up is Jacks in the Box. On the table sits a single card box. It is explained that the box contains the four jacks, and only the four jacks. However, there...

Young magician John Gelasi presents three new takes on a classic plot in packet card magic: the brainwave effect. Each of these new effects are novel, fun approaches to the plot, with varied methods and handlings, so you're sure to find one that you'll love performing. Better yet, each effect ends completely clean, with all of the cards being totally examinable at the conclusion. Resets are fast, making these the perfect effects to have in your wallet for that spur of the moment performance.

The eBook contains these three new routines:

The Royal Wave: Impromptu "B’wave" at its best....

"And the best stuff….Scatterbrain! I LOVE that effect. That is such a clever plot. People do multiple cards to multiple location plots all the time but seeing it done in a packet trick was just beautiful. If you like the sound of the Scatterbrain plot then buy this for that effect. If you are a packet trick lover who would like to see some clever thinking on the B-wave plot, then this is a worthy buy." - Erik Ostresh

John Gelasi presents an entire ebook dedicated entirely to one of his favorite card plots: the packet brainwave effect.

Included in this new ebook are eight baffling "B'wave"-style...

Over the years, many versions of the famous card trick "Oil and Water" have been developed, performed, and even filmed. It's a popular effect amongst magicians. Magicians are very sure that oil and water can't mix. But have you ever asked yourself if water and oil can mix?

The spectator mixes black (oil) and red (water) cards by placing one from each on the table in one stack, one after the other, until all cards are exhausted. Then the performer separates the stack into four packets, shuffles each packet, splits each packet into two parts, recombines everything, and - water and oil are...

Wasabi is a truly amazing effect for the audience. Full of twists and a great climax at the end. Basically, it is a semi-automatic effect that is very easy to perform. An impossible location, a spelling trick, and still a triple prediction. What more can you have than this? All this with a normal deck of cards. No gimmick.

1st edition 2022, video 13.28.

Ideas and Routines for Card Warp.

• Foreword
• Notes
• Routines
  • Witch Hunt
  • Physics Class
  • Batman Unmasked
  • Card Warp - 'David Blaine style'
  • Beat the Challenge
  • Spirit Contact
• Ideas
• Resources

1st edition 2017, 12 pages.

If you love sleight of hand and if you want to do a creative routine in card magic, then this is the perfect four ace transposition routine for you. It requires you to be able to do the Elmsley Count and the Classic Palm.

This routine has been inspired by esteemed magicians like Larry Jennings, Dani Da Ortiz and Bebel. What sets this routine apart from others is that it employs only sleight of hand and no gimmicks whatsoever. I have performed this routine in many shows. It is a visual treat for the audience for its kicker ending which includes card from box. You will be very happy to see...

Walker's Card Mysteries is a book of highly useful and original card conjuring. The forty odd items deal with systems, sleights and subtleties, while each experiment is worked out in the most minute detail. Accurate illustrations enhance the value of the publication.

From the Preface:

A small ebook but what exciting contents! The routine uses just two regular decks of cards. Lewis Ganson on the pages of Magigram wrote,

"This is a really super 'Do as I do' routine. The routine starts in the classic way and then enlarges on the theme; the spectator and performer continuing to match cards from their respective decks until a whole series of apparent coincidences have occurred. The final display of matched cards is both amazing and spectacular."

The effect: A spectator freely selects a card from, say, a red-backed deck and the performer removes a card from a blue-backed deck. When turned...