Cards in Magic & Conjuring: page 10

You start with four cards that are blank on both sides. A magic gesture and they have suddenly backs and faces.

1st edition 2021, video length 3:12s.

'Mexican Joe' refers to a specially crimped card or deck, one that is crimped at diagonal corners in opposite directions.

The first person to publish anything on this crimp was Victor Farelli when he published Farelli's Card Magic. Several years passed before another mention is made. This time it was explained in Dai Vernon's More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. Racherbaumer collects a number of routines and ideas with this crimp. In so doing he weaves his way through some interesting nooks and crannies of card magic history.

• Prologue
• Introduction
• Origins
• The Double Crimp
• Mexican Joe's Crimp: Dai Vernon
• Applying The Work
• Marlo Dead...

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...

Reviving "Between the Palms" one of Alex Elmsley's most offbeat plots. This is sort of a "locked room" mystery with playing cards.

It is an offbeat plot because the implicit aspects of effect, particularly its climax, are not immediately understood or appreciated. Yet the effect still has an emotional impact. Compared to other card tricks being done in 1952 it was very different. (Perhaps its closest cousins may be Fred Braue's "The Prechosen Chosen Card" from The Gen (February 1962) or Brother John Hamman's "Signed Card.")

Effect: The performer removes a card from the deck and, without showing its face, places it between...

Offbeat alternatives of the Three-Card Motif

This compilation makes a distinction between the well-known Three-Card Monte wagering game, and motifs using three principal cards in different ways. All of the motifs challenge a spectator's ability to follow the actions to keep track of certain principal cards as they are physically moved around.

In some of the motifs, the principal cards are moved by the spectator while the performer's back is turned. Then, sight unseen, the performer is able to ascertain the location of a card previously designated as the "money card."

In other motifs...

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:

The original Prophecy Move in Bill Simon's book Effective Card Magic has been a favorite with magicians since its publication. The spectator places a business card or playing card between two cards at a random position somewhere in the middle of the deck. The move forces the top and bottom cards of the deck. A myriad of variations and tricks with the sleight have surfaced through the years.

The author first describes his version of the move. This in-the-hands handling accomplishes the move using natural movements in spreading the cards. Neither hand turns over when performing the sleight as in the original version. Gerald...

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...

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...

What is Color Isolation? It's a complete card act where the two colors of the deck — red and black — continually separate, each time under quite different and more mysterious conditions. The deck is handled and shuffled by the spectator throughout, yet the colors seem to instantly obey the magician's every whim.

From the performer's standpoint, Color Isolation is an interlocking series of effects, each building on the next. You can borrow a deck, have it thoroughly shuffled by the spectator and proceed. After shuffling the deck, the spectator simply cuts off a portion and counts them...

Excerpt from the Foreword:

Of particular interest is section 3 with several short essays and opinions on...

A complete revelation of the cheaters' work at Bridge, Nap, Solo, Bluff, Banker, Baccarat, Faro, etc.

Published by Coe & Co. A rare booklet offered at the first 2023 Ricky Jay auction with an estimated price of $500-$800. Excerpt from the introduction:

No secrets!

You know, with such an incredible trick as the "Invisible Deck", I have rarely seen a pitch in work that differs from the original "take an invisible deck and turn over the card". Yes, this performance works, but ... well, there can't be such a genius deck - a deck of one trick. The deck has long been the property of the layman, so you need to develop it.

I decided to dig deeper and see what else interesting things can be done with this deck and decided to create this guide to the Invisible Deck.

• Over 300 options for demonstrations and upgrades to the Invisible Deck ...

No secrets!

You know, with such an incredible trick as the "Invisible Deck", I have rarely seen a pitch in work that differs from the original "take an invisible deck and turn over the card". Yes, this performance works, but ... well, there can't be such a genius deck - a deck of one trick. And the deck has long been the property of the laymen, so you need to develop it.

In this part of the Invisible Deck Project, I have collected the best (in my opinion) options for demonstrating and upgrading IDs from the first part + here you will find two pleasant bonuses: the chapter "How to...

Excerpt from the introduction:

Excerpt from the foreword:

The price will increase to $20 on May 21st, 2024.

This ebook is not about any particular effect but rather is about a principle that you can apply to certain types of effects in order to double their fool factor. The principle makes it possible to create the illusion of a shuffle where a shuffle wouldn't otherwise be possible. There are many effects in which the deck can only be cut at the end (not shuffled). With the application of this principle, you can create the illusion of a shuffle. Best of all, the illusion can be created with the spectator themself shuffling.

That's not to...

A blue backed deck is removed from its case. The deck is spread and your spectators are asked to call out the names of some cards that they see. You then take the named cards and, one by one, begin to magically change their back colour from blue to red. Offering a better look at the technique you announce that you will change the back of another card...

...IN SLOW MOTION!

With a gentle wave of your hand, the card begins to visibly change. The card actually appears to change as you move your hand back and forth over it! You pause halfway - the card under your hand is half blue and half...

INSTANT RE-SET! VERY EASY TO PERFORM!

Someone tries to find the queen amongst two jokers, but fails every time. You pocket the queen, and ask them to find the black and white joker... they fail again as... all three cards are queens!

Holding three face down jumbo(ish) sized playing cards you say, "These cards may look very large, but they aren't... it's just that I have very small hands." As you patter, you show the cards to be two jokers and... a queen.

You explain that they are to ignore the jokers and... try to follow the queen.

You now mix the three cards very quickly as you...

More than 30 card effects and 7 bonus coin routines.

1st edition 1984, 70 pages; PDF 87 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Dunbury Well
6. Judy
8. Distraction
11. Back From The Brink
13. All Change!
16. Creating A False Impression
19. Olympia
21. Variations
23. Those That Do And Those That Don't
25. Open Till Late
27. Short Break
29. Con Tents
31. Compute
33. Chicken Curry
35. Fake!
38. Back For Seconds
40. Sufferer
43. Superking
45. Enigma
47. Day Of Reckoning
50. Incentive
52. Three's Company
54. Mimik
56. Zig Zag Zone
59. Revisit
61. Twist And Twist Again
64. Better By Half
66. Xtro
67. Less Choice
68. Sell Out!
69. Trouble Spots
71. Paradise Twins

    Bonus Section

73. Glassgo
75. The...

23 fantastic card routines.

1st edition 1984, 52 pages; PDF 61 pages.

Table of Contents

5. Who's The Dirty Rascal?
6. Stitches In Time
8. Footsteps
11. Just A Few Wrinkles…
14. Breaking The Silence
16. Doppelgaenger
19. Tried And Twisted
22. Rock Around
25. The Inner Limits
28. Scanner
31. Withdrawal
33. All Heart
36. The Dance Master
39. Raiders Of The Last Ace
41. Indexlink
44. Revealed
47. Face
49. Finding New Strength
51. Thoughts!
51. Weekend
53. Ambassador
55. Empress
57. Mirage
60. The Brail Deck

Stephen Tucker's classic Cardiac series revived as an ebook. This is the first part of the trilogy.

1st edition 1983, 36 pages; PDF 44 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Mexican Revelation
9. The Nervous Card
13. Upstaged
16. Encounters Of The Fourth Kind
19. May The Force Be With You
24. Fast Moves
27. The Centre Of Attention...
31. Only Jo
33. Diversity
35. Cops And Robbers
38. Down Under
41. Under Observation
42. The Time Warp

Stephen Tucker's classic Cardiac series revived as an ebook. This is the second part of the trilogy.

1st edition 1984, 36 pages; PDF 40 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Total Control
6. Henchmen
10. Going Nowhere
14. Cutting Remarks
17. The Alternative
18. Edge Hog II
20. III
21. Chinese Tuckaway
24. To Have And To Hold
26. A Sticky System
28. In The Best Of Taste
30. The Other Side
32. You Only Get Out What You Put In. Or Do You?
34. Pneumatic
35. For Whom The Belle Told
38. Snap And Tickle
40. Bye!

Stephen Tucker's classic Cardiac series revived as an ebook. This is the third part of the trilogy. 20 stunning effects.

1st edition 1984, 40 pages; PDF 49 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Intro...
5. Making Light
6. Cocktail
8. Busy Doing Nothing
9. Conversaceon
11. So Be It!
13. Royal Passage
15. Oil Well That Ends Well
17. The Tuckount
20. Face Value
22. Spot The Difference!
25. Case In Question
27. Back From The Front
29. A Passing Interest
32. There Must Be A Catch
34. So What Else Is New?
37. You Must be Psychic
38. Electron
40. Mohammed
43. Disgracefull
47. Over And.......
49. Bye.....