Cards in Magic & Mentalism: page 50

The Four-midable Magic Series comprises of specialist ebooks, each of which supplies four effects of a specific type.

This first volume in the series teaches four card routines that require little or no sleight of hand, and are well structured to produce clear magical card effects. They are clearly described in easy-to-follow numbered sections, supplemented by a total of 39 colour photo illustrations.

• Introduction
• Royal Flush: the magician uses magic to produce a Royal Flush from a shuffled deck of cards.
• Big Deal: a spectator shuffles a deck and cards are dealt face up onto the table...

Special guest appearance by Cameron Francis. Contents and contributors:

• JOHANN’S FOLLY (Ryan Matney): A great presentation for a standard Hofzinser theme.
• APACHE (Aldo Colombini): A stunning transposition of four cards with some comedy in it.
• MAYO-ACES (Didier Dupré): Two Jokers find the four Aces! You will love this routine.
• TAKE OFF (Aldo Colombini): A card vanishes from an envelope and reappears face up in the middle of the deck.
• THOSE LEAPING ACES (Paul Gordon): The four Aces change place and find two selected cards.
• THE OLD ROMANTICS (Aldo Colombini): You produce the same Ace four times and at the end...

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...

An incredible card routine with multiple climaxes. Four packets are cut by a spectator. The top card of each pile is taken and placed in front of each packet. You take three cards from a pile and these cards are the mates of the first selection. You repeat this with the other three packets. At the end the Aces appear on top of each packet. It uses a regular deck of cards.

A very fooling card location and ACAAN effect.

Two spectators each cut a packet and remember the bottom card, then replace them into the deck. The performer has a spectator cut a large packet, then deals left and right on the table, eliminating the left pile each time, until only one card remains on the right. That card is spectator two's selection. Not only that, the top cards of the four dealt piles are turned over - their values add up to reveal the final position of spectator one's card.

• No force
• No gimmick
• No crimp

1st edition 2026, video 6:52.

Forcing a card is one of the strongest moves you can do. When the spectator handles the cards and the magician seemingly never touches the cards, you have a miracle waiting to happen. The reveal can be as extravagant as you want. All of these forces require no sleight of hand and are not well known. They can be done with the spectator's deck.

1st edition 2025, PDF 12 pages.

This is a cheeky trick to perform when there is a request for "one more". The magician starts by telling a story. The spectator gets involved in the action and turns "matchmaker". This trick is free of any sleights. The spectator invariably cuts to the four queens in an impossible way.

The performer removes the four Kings openly and lays them face down next to each other. The deck is shuffled and a card is dealt face down in front of each King. The performer continues to deal cards into four piles. When the spectator stops him, the performer places the face up King on the pile stopped at...

From the introduction:

Counteract
A shuffled deck of cards is cut in half. The performer and participant each select a half and shuffle. The performer tells the participant a number between 1 and 26 and invites them to count to that card in their half. The participant is invited to do the same; to name a number for the performer to count to. This is repeated until both the performer and participant have three cards each. One by one the cards are turned over to reveal three perfect matching pairs.

Blinded
The performer and participant each have a different colored deck. Each deal four cards face down randomly from...

An introduction to basic sleights and techniques.

You will learn:

• Riffle Shuffle
• The Zarrow/Shank Shuffle
• Daryl Martinez Display
• The Mechanics Grip
• Ed Marlo's 'Hit' Double Lift
• The Elmsley Count

1st digital edition 2013, 13 pages.

After working a few card tricks, how many times have you been asked "Can you tell fortunes with cards?" Fortune telling with cards has always been interesting; but, how many of us have wanted to spend the time to learn and memorize the meanings of all the playing cards? I would dare say, very few of us. Besides, there is no trick to it.

Now you can say, "Yes." Not only that, but you can actually tell people how many brothers and sisters they have, how many children they have including their gender, number of pets and the month of their birthday, including their current age (without doing...

From the Foreword by Ed Marlo:

With the 'FORECAST' deck you'll be performing the most unbelievable prediction effects with the greatest of ease. In the first effect included on this 15 minute instant download, you accurately predict a card that will be freely cut to and then, unbelieavbly, a second card that was just named.

In the second effect a spectator chooses any card - a completely FREE choice yet you produce an odd backed duplicate of that card from your pocket. The download will tell you everything you need to know including details on how to construct your own 'FORECAST ' deck - don't worry - it's cheap and easy...

Should a Mentalist use playing cards?

Good question and one which has been raging among Mentalists since Annemann was still going strong. In this book Scott has addressed that question and put together some of his favourite Mentalism card routines, covering effects with borrowed decks, stacked decks and gaffed decks.

You'll find no knuckle busting sleight of hand here; instead Scott has included some of his own routines taken straight from his professional mentalism repertoire, many of which no other magicians have seen until now. Some of the ideas are based on old effects given a new twist, but...

Want a sock finish for your favorite ambitious card routine? Here it is. The object card is always handled by two indifferent cards. A perfect effect to add "medical" themed patter to your routine.

[Cover photo credit: Louis Sahuc]

1st edition 2025, video 40s.

Five lovely small packet routines involving apples from Stephen Tucker, Per Clausen, and Shiv Duggal.

The last routine plays off the 'Apple' computer angle. With Apple Inc. having made such a meteoric rise, with many having Apple computers or phones, this routine would probably play even better today than it did during the 1980s. Some changes in the patter will be necessary, but the general idea has merit.

The booklet came originally with six custom cards showing apples and an apple core, some with blank backs, some with regular backs. These cards are not included with this download, but...

The magician attempts to find the spectator chosen card under impossible conditions. In the end, he also manages to find the four aces. Everything is done with a normal deck of cards. Requires minimal sleight-of-hand.

1st edition 2022, video 12:52

You show four double backer cards, one of which has a big black spot painted on it. You again show the cards and suddenly the card has actually a big black hole and the remaining three cards are double backers as before.

1st edition 2021, video 2 min.

You show four Eight of Diamonds. On one you draw a large X and you ask the spectator to follow it. You turn the cards face-down, and after some mixing, you table the cards one after each other face-down. When you turn the cards face-up they have all changed to aces. The eights including the one with the cross on it have vanished.

1st edition 2024, video 3:30

Compelling evidence of other-worldly existence as demonstrated with pasteboards.

I never believed in flying saucers ... that is, not until that fateful night in 2003. You may remember it. That's the night the power went out from the northeast to the midwest, and even left parts of Canada in the dark. Sunspots? Tree branches? Human error? You might think you know the cause, but I know. Because I was there when it all went down.

And so begins this extraordinary card miracle that'll have your spectators believing in UFOs and extra-terrestrials.

A borrowed deck is shuffled and a spectator...

The original trick, first released by Devin Knight in 1972 and long off the market. It is available again, after being one of his most popular effects during a recent lecture tour. You show a deck of cards and have a lady freely select a card. There is no force. The lady may sign the card if you wish. The card is returned to the deck and lost.

You tell the lady that you will give her magical powers and that she will find her card with magic. This always intrigues the lady you are performing it for. You ask the lady to blow a kiss toward the deck. The deck is spread and an image of a kiss...

This is a 1-x-x count developed by Canadian magician Norman Houghton around 1955 and popularized by Brother John Hamman. You repeatedly show the same card while tabling the others one by one. Very easy to do, but perhaps not that deceptive. Allan shares a nice touch to make this count quite a bit more deceptive.

runtime: 1min 40s

The spectator shuffles the deck and freely cuts it into four packets. When you turn over the top cards they can be anything you like it to be (the four aces, a royal flush, ...). (Also part of Move Mastery 3.)

runtime: 6min 24s

A spectator card is floating over the deck instantly. This effect was inspired by several classic versions from different magicians but this one uses a different gimmick. Easy to create. Easy to perform. Requires some arts and crafts to construct the gimmick.

1st edition 2022, video 23:45.