Self-Working or Sleightless in Cards: page 9

This is by far the best ebook on self-working card tricks. (For the second volume in this series see Card College Lighter. For the third volume see Card College Lightest.)

From the author of Card College, the world's most acclaimed course on sleight-of-hand card magic, comes Card College Light, Roberto Giobbi's first text focused entirely on professional caliber card tricks requiring no manipulative skill.

For whom is this ebook intended? It is for beginners, of course - but by no means in total. This ebook is intended for everyone who has always wanted to perform card tricks, but who didn't have the time necessary to learn complex routines,...

This is pure Giobbi, a great card routine including Poker, Stud Poker, BlackJack, and Bridge demonstrations where the gambler always wins. However, the real value are the lessons Giobbi teaches you in terms of constructing a routine, timing and psychology. He explains why he says a certain word or sentence at that particular time and not earlier or later and why not anything different. You get the reason and thus you can apply these lessons to many other effects. These insights transcend the routine at hand and will make you a much better, more effective and more knowledgeable magician.

As...

Roberto Giobbi's newest survey of sleightless card magic, Card College Lighter, gives the famous Giobbi treatment to 21 baffling card tricks by some of the craft's greatest masters, including Vernon, Annemann, Leech, Maven, Fulves, Hummer, Vollmer and Krenzel. These tricks do not require sleights, but they all show the cunning perspective of a professional performer, guaranteeing astonishing and entertaining results.

Following in the footsteps of his Card College Light, Roberto Giobbi teaches the secrets of professional-caliber card magic, providing insights into the presentation, psychology and routining that make these simple tricks into...

This ebook, written by Roberto Bombassei and edited in the English version by Biagio Fasano, is a formidable collection of almost twenty card magic effects, semi-automatic and hands-off, meant to be performed remotely, on the phone, or in a video conference. Principles known to magicians alternate with others more interesting and less known by various authors, to create new effects that can pleasantly amaze your viewers.

Here are some of the tricks you'll find:

• TOUCH CARD LOCATION - a method to find a chosen card in an inexplicable way.
• MACH PREDICTION - another way to locate a card...

10 new card magic effects, semi-automatic and hands-off, thought to be performed at distance, remotely in a video call (like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet...) or just on phone. Some mathematical principles alternate with others less known in card magic, to create easy but amazing new effects that can pleasantly fool all your viewers.

Here are the effects, all executable at a distance:

FIVE CARDS MIRACLE - One card thought of in five, so simple and straightforward that it will fool anyone.

E-SANDWICH - Two special cards will be able to capture the card the spectator is thinking about. ...

This is a marvelous ebook on mostly sleight-less card magic. The only skills you will need to bring to these effects are presentational. Pros will tell you the presentational aspect of a trick is more difficult to master than any sleight or move. That probably is true, however, these effects have been selected and re-worked so as to have built-in impact so that your presentation can even be as direct as simply stating exactly what you are doing. This is the most basic form of presentation, but it remains effective for those who do not have the creativity or inherent comedy to develop entertaining...

A binary method with a twist that makes it incomprehensible.

EFFECT: Three spectators select an item off your Bucket List. You show them four short lists and for each list, they are asked if they see their chosen item. Spectator one is asked to answer truthfully and spectator two is told they can either lie or tell the truth but they are not to tell you which they choose. Spectator three is told to only answer silently in their mind. Despite these increasingly more difficult conditions you are able to reveal all three selections.

I have been creating binary effects for a couple of years...

During the first lockdown period, we lived separated from the world, connected to friends only with the phone; to please my friends I started looking for effects to be presented remotely to people connected, without phone videoconferencing, so that they can use their deck of cards or objects at their disposal, without my possibility to operate, except by checking the game instructions.

I searched for automatic effects and found principles that in some cases were a few centuries old; others, more recent, often conceived by famous and illustrious names; many of these, when they were published...

Due to the "fault" of the lockdown, I began to collect effects to present on the phone to my friends, using their deck of cards or the objects at their disposal, without any possibility for me to intervene, except by carefully checking the game instructions. Many are the mathematical principles used, some "old" of a few centuries, others revised over time, others, contemporary, just as original. I tried, for each of them, to invent a story, a suitable setting, which was unique and original, fantasy, and which was consistent with the operations that performer and spectator were going to perform,...

The effect on the phone has always intrigued me: you cannot arrange the cards, nor do you see them, the deck is that of the spectator, you cannot touch it or see it. Then there is an insurmountable difficulty: you have to explain each operation in a simple, step-by-step way and, not being able to visually check, you are forced to prepare, in the presentation, control "stakes"; all this, however, provided that your description is perfect and, at the same time, flawless, without danger of misunderstanding.

And then there is the "revelation" mode: it can only be presented as an effect of mentalism,...

The effects on the phone have become, for me, almost an obsession. I have, for now, collected more than 100 and, slowly, I am proposing them with these publications. Some draw inspiration from real "pearls" of great artists, which I allowed myself to face, with extreme humility, developing them with a new setting, sometimes adding some interesting details. Others are a little older, even centuries, maybe even well known, but they are often "disruptive" as never before. I share them with pleasure.

In this booklet you will find:

I WILL FIND YOUR CARD
It is said that the cards think to...

Ask the spectator to take any deck of cards, and to shuffle it well (it is useless, but it is very "magician"). Get a few cards, as many as the spectator wants, and then make another packet of the same size next to this one. You will ask the spectator to move, as desired, cards from one pile to the other, to divide one pile into two unequal packets, to look at a card of a certain number down the middle pack, and then collect the packets one on top of the other. Before concluding, remind the spectator that he made all the choices independently, he chose the number of cards to move from one...

An unexplored "classic": this has been for me, for many years, the "Australian shuffle". I learned it as a young man from Aldo Colombini, who often included it in his impromptu effects; later I studied John Scarne (and his wonderful idea in Phone Miracle, which we will comment on together later) and Max Maven.

Then I read Nick Conticello, and a new world opened up: I discovered that all the greats of card magic have tried their hand at the Australian deal; Nick, however, made me wonder a bit more: today I don't think there is more space to invent, but a lot to develop new routines, putting together various principles.

In my...

The effects of "remote" mentalism (with the performer blindfolded, in another room, or, even, on the phone, with only the audio connection) generally use mathematical principles. Often, with a little pack of cards (or billets) real miracles can be performed: if the cards are to be shuffled by the spectator, it is necessary that the shuffle appears as random as possible, even if it must necessarily be a mathematical one.

With this publication I have addressed some well-known moves, used in different ways, alone or in conjunction with other shuffles or other principles; once the principle...

Water and oil is an effect that has always fascinated me, but the principle is so simple that I think it is impossible to invent something more effective; moreover, the effect requires a secret manipulation that is impossible to replicate, if everything is expected to be done in the hands of the spectator, "on the other end of the line" (of the telephone).

I, therefore, followed a different path: to try to replicate, in the spectator, the amazement of finding the separated cards, when they were arranged alternately by his hands, in front of his eyes.

Also in this publication I propose,...

I saw the first spelling effects a long time ago, studying Aldo Colombini's DVDs; they were in English and I gave up almost immediately, due to the great difference in seed letters and numbers: from diamonds to diamonds there was an ocean. I saw, I appreciated them ... and then I gave up. Some time later, trying and trying again, a light bulb came on: I thought I had invented my spelling in Italian; beautiful exceptional. Later I discovered that I had not really invented anything, there were dozens and hundreds of similar and ... almost the same. Then, continuing to study the great masters, I began to collect...

THE ABBOTT'S TEN PRINCIPLE: The principle, generally called Abbott's Ten by the Americans, actually dates back to an Italian manuscript about five hundred years ago (Mariano Tomatis - Messmer in pills - La Lollins and the magic of the sixteenth century - Episode 206).

This publication first describes the standard 10-card routine; I then analyzed the possibility of doing it with a different number of cards, even with tarot cards, and I studied the possibility of doing it in all conditions: in close up, on stage (two versions, one with billets and the other with the Tarot) and even on the...

For many years, Ray has worked on the problem of developing an impromptu version of the Paul Fox Miracle Gimmick. After testing and discarding several earlier handlings, he has come up with a stunning version that is a reputation-building demonstration of mass mentalism.

It can be done anytime, anywhere, totally impromptu, with a borrowed deck of cards which is first thoroughly shuffled by a spectator. The cards are handed out to several spectators - between five and twenty if you wish - and they are each asked to just think of a card. The cards are gathered and once again shuffled. You...

Effect: Using a full deck of playing cards, a spectator cuts to one card that the magician asks him to remember. He selects a second card by secretly spelling the name of his thought-of card, dealing one card for each letter, and pockets it. In the first climax, the magician is able to divine the card that the spectator is thinking of. In the second climax, the pocketed card and a prediction (tabled from the beginning) are revealed: They are identical!

No gaff. No sleight. Basically self-working. This routine uses a regular deck and an ordinary odd-backed card only. Everything can be examined. ...

EFFECT: A spectator shuffles a packet of number cards as much as he wants and deals through it to create a random number. Then, he deals through a blue-backed deck of playing cards (in which the magician put a red-backed prediction) and stops at his number. Let's say his card is the 7 of Clubs. Unbelievably, the red-backed prediction is the 7 of Clubs!

NB: The deck is always dealt face-up. Self-working. Happens in the hands of the spectator. Examinable. Quick reset. No gaff. Uses one regular deck and one red-backed card only. Includes a handling to perform it anytime during your act with...

A self-working and examinable ACAAN effect with two decks.

EFFECT: The magician thoroughly shuffles a deck of cards. Then, the spectator cuts the deck to split it into two piles. Only now is he asked to create a random number in his mind. After a very quick and simple procedure, he writes his number down on a Post-it note - let's say, "13". He sticks it onto the card he cut to - let's say, the King of Diamonds. From a second deck - on the table from the start - he deals the cards one by one. Amazingly, the 13th card is the King of Diamonds!

Self-working. No gimmick. No extra card. Both...

The magician can't find the spectator's card but his prediction can.

In short:

The spectator cuts to a card, removes it from the deck and remembers it. Then, the magician shuffles the deck and divides it into two halves. The spectator shuffles both parts, loses his selection between them, and shuffles even more. At the end, the magician runs through the deck and removes a card, but it is not the spectator's. Fortunately, the magician has an "emergency out", a message on a piece of paper inside a red envelope, in full view from the start. The spectator reads it out loud:

Effortless is probably just as apropriate or misleading as self-working. It doesn't mean that these tricks don't require any effort on your side. You have to read the descriptions, remember the sequence of actions and perform the act - entertain, which in my book is neither self-working nor effortless. But what these terms try to convey is that you will not need to master difficult moves or finger breaking sleights to perform these effects. And they are very good effects. Often an 'effortless' trick can be performed to greater effect because the performer can pay more attention to audience managment,...

This stunning two-part routine has no sleights and nothing to remember except the simple handling, and it leaves the deck ready for a repeat performance. What can you wish more?

After explaining that - not unlike humans - each playing card has a guardian angel that watches over it, you show a 6" x 4" card (can be laminated) that has a full deck of 52 cards printed on it - blacks on one side - reds on the other. These, you claim are the guardians. Against each card is another random card - these are the cards over which the guardians watch. This card is called "the card of the guardians" and...