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...
A routine by André Robert, performed by Aldo Colombini. Visual magic with several climaxes! The final climax will 'kill' your audiences! Eight blue-backed cards are split into two packets. In one packet all the cards turn face up. Then the eight cards alternate face up and face down. Finally, all the cards are red-backed and with crosses on their backs!
Requires four double-backed cards.
This was Eddie Joseph's first card publication. As such, coming out in 1942, it represented already at that time 20 years of performing. It's unbalanced contents shows very much that it is not simply a book of card magic, but a summary of Joseph himself as a card man and his particular biases and interests. A chapter on his particular way of doing the fundamental sleights he depended upon and an entire chapter on the intelligent use of daub.
PART ONE
If you're a fan of the Oil & Water plot, feast your eyes on this release, containing three takes on Oil & Water!
Ed Marlo's Oil & Water plot is a modern classic of card magic, and contrary to what some magicians say, the effect can absolutely rock laymen! Great Scott's Oil & Water Routines is a 43-page ebook with 49 photos, in which Scott teaches the following in his famously clear writing style:
The Ambitious Card is visual, impossible, and engaging. It breaks the old "never repeat a trick" rule - in fact, it becomes stronger when repeated, especially as the conditions become more stringent along the way.
This ebook teaches Scott's Ambitious Card routine (no surprise there, eh?). He explains not only what he does, but why he does it--why each phase goes where it does, etc.
A lot of you will be adding the finale to your own routines; it's free, quickly constructed, easy to use, and it creates the same illusion as some pretty expensive marketed gaffs. It is also much cleaner and...
From the foreword by Ken de Courcy:
Thompson's Bridge and Poker Demonstration is probably one of the most convincing that has ever appeared. The interesting part, the discarding and drawing of cards to improve the Poker hands, is entirely believable and leads to a strong climax.
1st edition ~1947, PDF 6 pages.
A freely chosen card levitates on top of the deck. Then another card is passed under the levitating card to prove that there is no connection at all, you can look through and see that it is in the air.
Please note that the explanation video has no verbal explanation. It includes a couple of inserted lines of text, and the rest is purely a visual explanation. Building the gimmick will require some time and effort, and you will most likely have to buy some supplies, but it is not particularly difficult to make.
1st edition 2019, length 18 minutes.
A matrix effect with playing cards.
[Also available as an instructional PDF.
You place the Ace, Two, Three and Four of Clubs on the table in a square formation as is typically done with matrix-type effects. You cover two cards with two jumbo cards. One by one all the cards assemble under one jumbo card.
You try to repeat the 'assembly' without the jumbo cards but the regular cards do not move. You turn over three cards and they are seen to be all blank. The other card is the 10 of Clubs, the sum of all the cards!
[Note: Aldo originally included the three necessary blank cards and the two jumbo cards. This download does not include these cards. You will have to supply them yourself.]
1st edition 2010, video 7:47...
This is a fascinating book on card magic. It shows U. F. Grant at his best. (Robert J. Smith mentioned on the cover was one of U.F. Grant's pseudonyms.) These are some of the most ingenious methods for card tricks you will find. Many are magician foolers. All are very easy to do but pack a wallop. Most of them require no sleight of any kind!
You get 50 tricks in all. Some of these items can be used as show platform tricks such where a glass of ink changes to glass of clear water with a selected card inside using no chemicals. Another effect is that three people just name cards at random....
A complete mental act with an impossible object!
You present a bottle with a full deck of cards inside. (You can hand out the bottle for examination). The spectator selects one of five playing cards (no force!). With the heritage from your grandpa you are able to reveal any selected card.
You can perform this on stage and even close up. Build the routine up to 4-5 minutes.
You will learn:
A closing routine with multiple climaxes. You produce the four Aces and place three of them in an envelope leaving out the Ace of Spades. Then you produce ten Spade cards in order. You then try to produce the Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades and King of Spades but the three Aces appear and the three face cards are found in the envelope. Then, all the Diamond cards appear in order, then the Club cards and the Heart cards. Amazing finale. Uses a regular deck of cards.
An exploration of the Hotel Trick, aka "A Night on the Town". A trick with a good plot is half the battle. This one has an interesting plot that can be styled and modified to fit your needs. Sleight-less and sleight-of-hand versions are being taught.
Jon was introduced to this trick by Persi Diaconis in the 1970s. In this ebook he has traced it back to its roots, and forward to modern variations and spin-offs.
The core effect:
Two Queens and four Kings are shown. The Queens are tabled face down next to each other. Two Kings are added onto each Queen to form two three-card packets. After...
Even though the small packet card trick goes at least back to Hofzinser's times Jon argues that the modern small packet trick started in the 1940s when the Buckle Count was introduced by Dai Vernon and got into full swing when the Ghost Count (Elmsley Count) entered the stage.
Jon writes:
When the Elmsley Count became more widely known, the genie was out of the bottle. Vernon’s “Twisting The Aces” provided momentum. Marlo’s groundbreaking work on “Think Ace” and “Touch Turn” was privately circulating and then was eventually published in The Linking Ring. By the time Larry West and Verne Chesbro published Tricks You Can...
The magician presents to the spectator a deck of blue backed cards and shows that this is just a regular deck of 52 cards. The magician places the deck, face up, on a table. This is the last time that the magician will touch the deck.
The magician invites the spectator to cut the deck approximately in half and place it next to the original pile. The spectator is then invited to select one of the two piles which is then put to one side.
From the selected pile the magician invites the spectator to deal the cards face-up and to stop at ANY card they wish. This gives them a genuinely free...
This is probably the most visual signed card at impossible location effect available today. The spectator's signed card penetrates a borrowed and sealed bottle.
This effect was invented by Herbert Milton and made popular by Karl Germain. The improved method needs no double-faced cards and can be done impromptu providing the right type of glass is available. This visual effect can be performed at any time in your act and it may be done silently, with talk, or to music.
EFFECT: A shuffled deck of cards is placed in a stem goblet. Each time a handkerchief is flicked in front of the glass an ace appears.
This is Ray's totally impromptu method for a classic effect - one that has recently found favor with a number of well-heeled modern performers....
Get ready for five high octane, visual business card effects! From the introduction:
As magicians, we all love giveaways: signed cards, signed matchbooks, signed coins. Or, if you're Rune Klan, signed bologna. I think most of us would have to agree, though, that the best giveaway of all is a business card. And if you are able to magically alter the card before handing it out, well, all the better. It makes the card that much more special; a conversation piece for the spectator. And there's no better publicity than great word of mouth.
Effects:
Another Merger -- A two signatures and...
This is a woman empowered card trick. The spectator (preferably a woman) randomly selects a group of cards from the middle of the deck and deals them into four face-down piles. The top card of each pile is turned over to reveal the four Kings. Suddenly she finds the matching Queens. Sounds familiar, right? But this routine goes one further. When all the cards under the Queens are spread, they are of matching suits. This trick is free of any sleights.
1st edition 2021, PDF 7 pages.
A sandwich effect with a twist. The performer has three spectators each chooses a card and loses it in different parts of the deck. Then, the performer takes two Jokers, stating that they will find the selected cards. However, the final twist is that one spectator's card will end up sandwiched between the other two spectators' cards.
1st edition 2024, PDF 7 pages, 42 photos.