Cards in Magic & Conjuring

Zenneth is a successful and innovative magician in China and is sponsored by the US Playing Card Company. His specialty is close-up and particularly cards. In these notes he is explaining some of his variations and creations.

Life is Dangerous
This is a technically easier version of Jerry Sadowitz's Prone to Live Dangerously.

Thanks to Duffie
A variation on Peter's Illusion versus Reality.

69 By Play
A visual multiple transposition of two cards.

Strange Prediction
This is a small kicker finish to Roy Walton's Strange Prediction which makes it appear that the spectator has managed to find four of a kind in addition...

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.

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

This is a true miracle. The description below is true to the last word. It reads like a miracle - because it is one.

With contributions from: Greg Arce, Neil Tobin and Richard Osterlind

The Prediction:

A prediction is sealed in an envelope and held by an audience member the entire presentation. No switches.

The Game:

On stage; a table, 5 chairs and a deck of cards. 5 players (spectators) come up to play a hand of blackjack. Cards are shuffled by a random player and re-cased to avoid any tampering by the performer as he explains about blackjack. No false shuffles. No Sleights. One player deals...

This is a gutsy and exceptionally strong effect. Look out for this guy. He will be releasing more of his strong ideas.

1st edition, 2002.

A new series in Magic and Mentalism, here comes the Loudmouth. A short and direct ebook series striving to give you not only quality and tested material, but thoughtful pondering's on issues and subjects involving the magic world.

CODE-BLACK 52-RED LEFT ON 3 (Trick)
A demonstration of either incredible memory ability or a "remote viewing" act. You can accurately take a shuffled deck (by you and your spectator if desired) and either memorize, or remote view any suit called for over and over again to the decks completion. (Can even be done blindfolded.)

THE ZIMMERMAN EFFECT (Trick)
There...

Possibly the world's funniest card trick!

A spectator is asked to assist on stage with a card trick. Both he and the magician wear a paper bag blindfold over their heads as a card is attempted to be selected. Eventually a large knife is introduced into the routine that the magician intends to stab through the selected card when the spectator is instructed to toss the entire jumbo deck into the air. Everything goes wrong and the audience is in hysterics. Eventually the magician identifies the card successfully. An incredibly commercial, funny and entertaining routine for any serious professional. ...

Originated by Martin Lewis, retailed for many years, and manufactured in a larger than jumbo size, by Ken Brooke, and enhanced by Wolfgang Riebe.

An incredible giant 4 card routine that totally bamboozles your audience. Three blank cards and an ace are shown and the audience is instructed to follow the Ace. They always get it wrong. An unexpected surprise finish occurs when there is only one blank card and three aces!

An incredible stage routine for any serious professional.

The video instructions include:

• Full explanation
• Custom make your own giants cards for under $15
• 30 years of refinement explained ...

Based on the old 'Fred' card trick, Wolfgang launched his magician fooling version 'Fred Outdone' in 1990, causing a sensation amongst magicians and adding a unique twist in that the whole deck could be shown as a red back deck, except for the Fred card. In 2017 Wolfgang took the trick to new heights, hence the new 'Fred Outdone Squared' title.

It's as simple as any spectator naming any card, e.g. seven of hearts. The entire deck is shown to be red backs with different names on the back of each card. Even another seven can be shown to have a red back and different name. When the seven of...

This incredible visual card effect was originated in the 80's and has been adapted, fine-tuned, up-dated and changed to what could easily be considered to be one of the most visual and surprising card tricks ever.

The magician admits he has a special set of trick cards and shows 8 regular blue backed cards each with a huge black cross drawn on the back. However, nobody one can see the crosses, even as each is clearly shown. In fact the cards magically turn face up too. Eventually all the cards change to different color back cards with a huge black cross drawn across each back.

Incredibly...

If you are searching for a visual 'packet style' card trick with normal (even borrowed) cards, then this is the trick for you. Three red numbered cards are removed from a regular deck of cards and all simultaneously shown to be normal cards. One at a time, each card changes into a Joker. The last change is the most visual of them all. The cards are clearly all shown to be jokers and instantly they change back into the original three normal red numbered cards.

A packet card trick with normal cards. Can be done impromptu with a borrowed deck.

The video instructions include:

• Two full performances...

Wacky, incredibly visual and totally impossible. Only a few words can describe this reputation maker. Ever wondered what to do with those double blank cards you've collected over the years? Here's the ultimate trick for you.

A spectator can chose any 4 double blank cards from a deck, or you can hand out 4 cards for inspection. Any one card is signed and placed aside. The remaining 3 cards all change to the spectator's signed card and can be clearly shown one at a time. In the end, they all become blank again and the spectator keeps his original signed card as a souvenir.

A packet card...

Another killer close-up packet card trick from the creative mind of Wolfgang Riebe. 3 blank cards are shown and a spectator is asked to write their name and a picture on one of the cards. Suddenly the freely drawn name/picture duplicates onto all 3 cards. Now the surprise ... suddenly all cards have HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on them!

A completely unexpected surprise and incredibly personal magical birthday greeting. Of course you can have any message written on all 3 cards at the end too - it’s all up to you.

Use any normal blank cards. Ideal for table hopping. Incredibly visual with an...

The most popular magic tricks amongst magicians are card tricks, yet there are few jokes and sayings that cover those ‘quiet’ moments between tricks and moves. Here you will find many. What about just adding some comedy entertainment to your next card trick? Looking for the right quick one-line joke - you should find one, or many more here.

1st edition 2020, PDF 15 pages.

A teach-in video for card magicians who are searching for reputation-building commercial tricks that are fast, visual, and mind-blowing for a lay audience, yet will also blow away fellow magicians. Full performance video followed by a detailed explanation of every trick. 8 tricks in total of which 5 can be performed with a borrowed deck.

ALL BACKS: Ideally performed with a borrowed bicycle 'seconds' deck, but any deck can be used. All cards change to double backs, except for the chosen card.

OUT OF THIS WORLD - OUTDONE! The ultimate impromptu version of this classic using a borrowed deck,...

3 cards are shown and a joker is openly placed in various places amongst the cards, for example on top, in the middle, and at the bottom. Magically the joker always returns to its original position. The audience soon suspects that 3 identical cards are being used, and at one point even see 3 jokers. Eventually the magician admits that he has 3 identical cards and suddenly all 3 cards change to mirrors. 3 identical mirrors and no jokers anywhere! Isn't that how most tricks work? With mirrors?

This is a snappy, fun, and magical routine with a tremendous unexpected, surprise ending. You learn...

Every effect in the L. W. Card Mysteries is an apparent miracle. None of the effects requires long practice or more than a modicum of sleight of hand. Many require little skill at all. Just a rehearsal or two and you'll be all set to amaze and, most of all, entertain.

Just think!

You'll learn how to make two selected cards turn over in the pack without the use of skill and no false moves of any sort; to make a selected card vanish from the hands of the spectator and be found elsewhere; to make two cards change places - the positions of the cards being seen up to the moment of the change;...

Long out of print, we're pleased to bring you this nice collection of sleight of hand card work from the team of Larsen and Wright. These clever card miracles are written in a relaxed, personal style, just as if Larsen and Wright were sharing the various moves in the back room of your local magic shop.

You'd expect to pay a king's ransom for the original, single broadside sheet manuscript. Luckily, Magic World has reissued this hard to find manuscript in a revised, easy-to-read digital format. Unlike the original, the individual effects now even have titles, making it easier than ever before...

This work compares the contents of Jean Hugard's Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, Encyclopedia of Self-Working Card Tricks, and The Second Encyclopedia of Card Tricks by Glenn G. Gravatt, to see which effects and discussions were kept, altered, or deleted by Hugard. It will also identify those effects added by Hugard.

1st edition 2020, PDF 19 pages.

The magic in Controlled Miracles is a composite of both skill and subtlety. Subtlety has been invaded to the maximum; skill has been kept at its minimum point. The majority of the effects are with cards. At the back of the ebook you will find a few tricks with coins and cigarettes.

Edited by Bruce Elliott and illustrated by Frank Garcia.

1st edition 1949; PDF 36 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Contents
5. Foreword
7. A Matter Of Miracles
8. Cut Control
9. The Chinese Cut
10. Simpl—Speller
11. Simon False Table Cut
13. The Stab Force
14. Miller’s Card Change
17. The Card In The Hat
19. Dual Discovery
20. The Grippo...

• written by Bill Simon
• illustrated by Ed Mishell
• edited by Bruce Elliott
• introduction by Dai Vernon

1st edition 1954; PDF 33 pages.

Table of Contents

5. Table Of Contents
6. Foreword
6. Introduction
7. In General
9. Card Effects
9. - The Mathemagician
9. - Eye Doubt It
11. - The Flash Change
17. - The Turnabout
18. - The Impulsive Ladies
19. - The Four Packet Shuffle
21. - Two Up
23. - The Vital Prediction
23. - The London Illusion
28. Miscellaneous Effects
28. - Sponge Surprise
29. - The Ring On Wand
31. - The Coin Transposition And Climax

This book was edited by Jean Hugard and illustrated by Stanley Jaks.

Martin Gardner had the following to say:

"Bill Simon has achieved an astonishing mastery of the medium. His mind is constantly probing for new and subtler moves, and bold effects which break fresh paths in the card jungle. In this book he has given generously the fruits of his thinking and experience. The result is a book almost certain to become one of the basic texts of modem card conjuring."

This ebook covers many entertaining plots, novel sleights, shuffles and fancy cuts as well as useful information on practice, structuring, presentation, audience...

Here you will find more than 50 card tricks including easy as well as difficult ones. The book includes a number of tricks from other prominent books. For example, we find tricks borrowed from Erdnase's Expert at the Card Table, and the last section is a partial translation of Kartenkünste by Ottokar Fischer.

From the introduction:

From the introduction:

The subtitle reads: Containing explanations of all the tricks and deceptions with playing cards. Tricks with cards performed by skillful manipulation and sleight of hand; by the aid of memory, mental calculation, and the peculiar arrangement of the cards; by the aid of confederacy and sheer audacity and tricks performed by the aid of ingenious apparatus and prepared cards. The whole illustrated, and made plain and easy.

The first section of this book is identical with the card section in The Secret Out.

• PARLOR TRICKS WITH CARDS
  • General Rules for Amateurs
• PART I: TRICKS WITH CARDS PERFORMED BY SKILFUL...

Imagine performing a card trick for a blind person - making them the star. Actually, any unsuspecting spectator can instantly become your secret accomplice and read your thoughts. They will be able to identify the color and value of cards without looking at them. Practical and magical.

Recorded live at the Convention at the Capital 2000.

runtime: 14min 43s

From the man whom Dai Vernon called: "One of the best!!!" and Frank Garcia: "One who can hold his own with the best" and Peter Pit in 1991: "Easily the best close-up performer of the year." comes this ebook with wonderful routines and thought provoking essays.

"Damn! This guy's good, very good!" - Ken Simmons, April 1999

"A modern creator and performer who has repeatedly shown his ability to make important and lasting contributions" - Stephen Minch, Dec. 2003

"One of the great minds and two of the great hands in magic" - Matt Field, Feb. 1998

Wesley James has been universally highly praised for the...

Wesley James' 7 DVD set, "The Man Who Knows Erdnase", on the enigmatic book The Expert at the Card Table by Erdnase has been met with controversy. Discussions about Erdnase generally do lead to heated debates, be it the discussions about his identity as well as discussions about the techniques taught in the book and their applicability, history and execution.

Wesley James is undoubtedly an informed card expert with decades of experience who had the guts to put his thinking, believes and information on the table. He made a sincere attempt at trying to make Erdnase more accessible. It is Erdnase through the lens of Wesley James...

Many magic books come and go but when Wesley James releases a new book, serious students of magic pay attention. This is his first all new book since 2007 and it shows the same consideration for detail and exceptional technique he always delivers. In addition, it reveals new plots and insight into the thought he gives any new effect or routine he explores. Each investigation is important; any of them could change your magic forever.

It should come as no surprise to those who have read Wesley's previous works that he examines card magic at a depth rarely found in any field, but less so in...

The Wesley James Magic Castle Lecture

Not everyone will immediately recognize the name Wesley James. Those in the know will. For many years Mr. James has been an underground secret. During his many years as a professional he refused to lecture for magicians or publish the effects he used in his professional performances. Since Mr. James has retired from performing and has lectured for magicians. Stop Fooling Us! are the lecture notes from his first lecture series.

"One of the best sets of lecture notes I've seen in quite some time. Top notch stuff! and a good value." - Harvey Rosenthal ...

Two of the Most Impossible Card Effects of this Century

No one is surprised when Wesley James introduces a card effect that breaks new ground. He has been doing so for nearly fifty years. However, when he releases two innovative new plots in one dedicated volume, you know they must be incredibly powerful.

Out of Sight Discernment II and How'd You Know are two such effects.

Out of Sight Discernment II

From a shuffled deck, which could be borrowed, a spectator is given the opportunity to think of any one of potentially dozens of cards you offer to show them at different random points...

A Treatise on the E.G. Brown 12-card Thought-of card Transportation

"One of the Strongest card effects you can ever perform."

"You can expect to hear audible gasps."

"...the roomful...sat speechless."

"A card at a purely thought-of position vanishes...

Once in a great while an intelligent and thought-provoking work is released to the magic fraternity. On those rare occasions, the craft is moved closer to the attainment of ultimate perfection. It exhorts those who read it to more profound thought. This is such a book and we are honored to bring it to you.

Pasteboard Perpensions was the first major offering from Wesley James, a name that has long been respected among the underground. His book is not fluff, rehash or re-workings of existing handlings. Every one of the twenty-five plus items in this book adds something new, significantly improved,...

Mr. James has been an underground secret. During his many years as a professional he refused to lecture for magicians or publish the effects he used in his professional performances. Now, Mr. James has largely retired from performing and has begun to lecture for magicians. Selling the Tough Stuff are the lecture notes from his 2nd lecture series.

Larry Jennings, Ken Krenzel, Jim Patton and Gordon Bruce would agree. They all attended his past lecture.

Wesley's first new set of lecture notes in almost 15 years. Packed with 10 new effects, routines or sets straight from his working repertoire. This is...

Almost every close-up magician and with near certainty every magician that uses cards in their performances includes assemblies. Some are good, some fall short of what we desire, but few have considered which of the wide variety of assemblies are the greatest. Such an assessment must, perforce, be subjective to some degree. Drawing from broad and extensive experience performing for real-world lay audiences, objective criteria can be applied and Wesley James, based on more than fifty years of first-hand performance experience, has done so. In this monograph he has distilled the subject to the...

Wesley James has long been associated with innovative ideas in card magic. His contributions are too numerous to list. They include the Physical Merger plot, best known as "Forgery," and "Anniversary Waltz." Wesley has been holding out on the magic community since the early 1970s. There has been a more advanced, more visually impressive version of the Merger plot, the Visible Merger plot.

In this monograph, for the first time, Wesley is releasing his developments on the Visible Merger plot. You probably won't perform these versions every time you perform his Physical Merger plot - Visible...

Warren places utmost importance on the effect and uses whatever method suits him to achieve it: mathematics, stacks, crimps, sleights, etc. He credits Ed Marlo for clarifying and simplifying his work.

Contents

• Packet Prediction
• Miracle Do As I Do
• In My Estimation ...
• Blindfold Poker Deal
• Card Illusion
• Double Separation
• Royal Mentalism
• Superstitious Mentalism
• Peek!
• Divination Supreme
• Think-a-card - Wiersbe version
• A Change in Number
• Fantispell
• Pasteboard Affinity - a complete routine with eight effects using the Si Stebbins stack.

1st edition 1946; PDF 39 pages.

A great book of card tricks, written by magic technician and noted theologian Warren Wiersbe. The accent is on simplicity, quick results, minimum of skill, and audience appeal. Forward by Ed Marlo.

• Introduction
• This Card Gets Around!
• What A Coincidence!
• Back Up
• Tell How It's Done
• New Ace Control
• The W.W. Color Change
• Military Mixup
• Miracle Discovery
• Delayed Discovery
• Numerical Discovery
• The Hindu "Slop Shuffle"
• Instantaneous Four Ace Transposition
• The Perfect Card Prediction

1st edition 1944, 18 pages; PDF 22 pages.

An incredible Nate Leipzig card effect, now redesigned with subtlety, instead of knuckle-busting sleight of hand. A deck of cards is genuinely shuffled. The spectator then chooses a suit and removes the corresponding thirteen cards from the deck. The performer chooses another suit and likewise removes his thirteen cards. The spectator places the top card of his packet on the bottom of his packet; the magician duplicates this procedure. The spectator places his next card face down on the table. The magician does likewise. The spectator then alternately places cards on the bottom of his packet...

Walter Gibson intended this book for the novice. All the tricks are quite easy to perform. And in the beginning under the heading "The Presentation of Card Tricks" Gibson gives very valuable advice on how to create a program and how to present it.

Nevertheless, the book is so good that even the intermediate and advanced card magician will be able to learn a lot from its pages.

This book was originally written by Walter B. Gibson for Houdini. Houdini's death in 1926 prevented him from putting it out, and Walter issued it under his own name. Ted Annemann considered it one of the best books in its field . ....

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...

Everything I raved about for Four Professional Card Tricks from the Repertoire of Walt Lees is true for this one, too. Four great routines, explained in minute detail so that you do not only know what to do, but also how to do it, and biting self-deprecating humor that it is a joy to read. One other benefit this ebook has is that the photos are of much better quality.

• Foreword
• Matchochism
• Another Departure
• Hofzinser/Jennings
• Crazy, Mixed-Up Poker
• A Shank Shuffle Technique

1st edition 1981, 37 pages; 1st digital edition 2018, 60 pages.

Excerpt from the introduction:

Extract from the preface:

Imagine: The performer shuffles a deck of cards. He hands them to a spectator, who shuffles them once more. The magician turns away, and the spectator fans half the deck before him and selects any card from the fanned cards. He remembers the card and puts it back into the deck face-up - anywhere. He now makes a total mess of the cards: half of them face-up, the other half face-down. He shuffles the cards again, and again, and again - as often as he likes. Furthermore, he flips the deck so frequently that he has no idea which way his card is facing.

The performer, who could not have seen...

Unavailable for 70 years - not anymore

A practical treatise on little-known card sleights, including numerous new card problems.

"You already know it, of course, but I would be amiss if I did not state for the record that putting Farelli parts I & II into standard format, transforming it, in the process, from 50 pages into 140, much improves it as a reference and it now looks really great. Thanks for a job well done." - 'M'

This is an exceptional book on card moves and tricks. A publication that has been long forgotten. It is filled with notes and advice by Victor Farelli - a professional...

The performer borrows a pack of cards, which, if desired, may be thoroughly shuffled either by the lender or by another spectator. Without arranging the cards in any special order, and without "sighting" any of them, the magician deals four packets, of five cards each, face down on the table. The entire procedure is exactly as if a game of poker or nap were about to be played.

Any member of the audience selects one of the four hands. No force, direct or indirect, is employed. The three packets not chosen are returned to the pack. The person holding the selected hand is requested to choose...