Cards in Magic & Mentalism

The spectator selects four cards. The magician then performs a face-up/face-down Slop Shuffle, thoroughly mixing the deck. Despite the chaotic condition, the deck instantly rights itself - returning to face-down - except for the four selections, which remain face-up at four different positions in the deck.

1st edition 2026, video 7:32.

Although transpositions involving cards are commonplace, not too many are genuine eye-poppers. This one fits that description to a tee, a totally baffling flight of a card from one place to another, in the usual tight-knit setting of close-up magic at the table.

Four aces are removed from a deck with spectator being offered the choice of reds or blacks, the chosen aces being slipped into an envelope and dropped to the table. The two remaining aces, black for example, are lost in the deck which is then placed aside. On command, the red ace chosen by spectator instantly vanishes from the...

Effect: The spectator names their favorite ace. The magician hands them the remaining three aces, which the spectator freely inserts into different parts of the deck. The deck is spread face down across the table, and the magician instantly removes the three inserted aces by pulling them out with his fingers.

The spectator then deals cards face down from the deck, stopping at any point. The card they stop on is turned face up - it's not an ace, but an indicator card. Using the value of that card, the spectator counts down to a new position in the deck, where they discover the named...

This is an experiment to see whether the performer can identify a spectator's fingerprints. A spectator selects 5 cards from a deck, the faces of which are shown to be a random selection. The cards are dealt face down onto the table and the performer turns his back.

The helper now mixes the tabled cards by moving them around on the surface and then turns any one face up and presses his fingertips onto the card face. The card is then turned face down again and the cards mixed on the table again.

Turning back, the performer picks up the cards one at a time and amazingly manages to identify...

A completely open prediction effect. The spectator freely selects a card from 12 cards, then moves the same number of spaces in any direction according to the card's value. The final card matches the value of the original prediction.

Next, the spectator again moves freely according to that value and selects another card with a completely different value - also matching the magician's original prediction.

1st edition 2026, video 9:54.

This is my Ace Assembly sequence: four Aces vanish from three packets and assemble together. In the finale, the Aces are redistributed into four piles. But it doesn't end there - if the performer can truly transpose cards at will, the four Aces can even switch places with the four Aces from another deck.

1st edition 2026, video 11:27.

This is nothing short of extraordinary. Here is an impromptu card mystery that has it all - A startling transposition of two cards merely thought of!

Based on an original idea from George G. Kaplan, author of that wonderful text The Fine Art Of Magic, this 21st-century revision from Ian Baxter will stop audiences in their tracks. Kaplan's original necessitated a set of duplicate cards, but this new handling does not. No gimmicks, accessories, fake cards, strangers or extras of any kind. This baffling crowd pleaser is totally off the cuff and can be performed at a...

The story of Annie Oakley's legendary trick shooting in the Old West lays the foundation for a magical challenge with a selected card secured in the middle of a deck. With the audience providing the sound effects, the challenge is met when the helper's finger gun makes the chosen card fly out, complete with a burn hole from the imaginary bullet. Another legend is born!

Shooting Card was one of my pet routines and I loved every chance I had to perform it. I could create pure wonder by having a young volunteer 'shoot' their selected card out of the deck in my hand. The flying card is memorable...

The spectator freely rolls four dice. The performer deals the corresponding number of cards for each roll, forming four piles. The performer then explains that the top faces give one set of numbers and the bottom faces give another, and has the spectator turn the dice over 180 degrees. The dealing continues according to these new numbers. When all the cards are dealt, the face cards of the four piles are all Kings. The performer asks why we look at both the top and bottom of the dice - because the four piles must also be read both ways. The bottom cards are turned over to reveal four Aces. ...

Themed card mysteries are certainly not new. Many of them are tired, worn out, horribly dated, and probably best left forgotten. Even in their day, these forced presentations, spiked with corny patter, invariably put audiences to sleep. Who wants to be supposedly entertained by a magician who is a crashing bore?

Here is an up-to-the-minute card mystery from Ian Baxter that will leave them scratching their heads. This is top drawer material - easy to perform, within range of the most basic card handler, yet fast, mystifying and amusing.

The basic 'Cops and Robbers' theme evidenced here...

Pastiche II, loosely speaking, is more info. Its value depends on you - how your thinking is affected and, more importantly, if you can use anything in a meaningful way. Otherwise, it's glut soup, idle message units to fill the white space loathed by men who would be Erdnase.

I hope there are differences that make a difference.

• Hull-Scam
• Dry-Dock Divination
• Nominal Nexus
• Dunbury Lie Speller
• Eighteen-Card Version
• Guardian Angel
• How Big and Where?
• Blank-Wave II
• Hummer's Dream Scheme
• Lighter-Side
• Dueling Card Tricks
• Biddle Thought
• Initial Shock

1st edition 1993,...

An amazing routine of three linked effects with cards cut in half

Effect:

A deck of cards (giant or normal) cut in half is shuffled and divided into two piles. One of these is chosen by a spectator, who cuts it and sets it aside. From the other pile, a spectator touches any card, which is left face up in its original position among the others. The two piles are distributed by taking the respective cards from the top and distributing them simultaneously to the bottom. The card that corresponds to the one turned over in the other pile is set aside with it. No pair of cards forms a whole...

A genuinely freely selected card (which can be signed if desired) is shuffled back into a deck. The performer then mimes the removal of that card invisibly and hands it to the spectator to hold for a moment. The cards are then spread face up to show that the chosen card is no longer in the pack.

Squaring the deck, the spectator is invited to push the invisible card he holds face up into the now face down pack. Immediately, the cards are ribbon spread face down again across the table to reveal the selection face up in the centre! Just a regular deck required, straightforward handling,...