Cards in Magic & Mentalism: page 63

Here is a small collection of automatic and semi-automatic out-of-hand card effects, empowered by the "chaos" philosophy brought forward by Lennart Green and Dani DaOrtiz.

The effects are easy to do and they don't require you to be another "David Wiliamson" or "Dani DaOrtiz" in order to perform them. Just a regular, normal magician. More important than the routines you will see and learn how the chaos handling is applied to this type of effects - you will be able to apply those ideas later in many of your effects to make them more fooling and fun.

The effects included are:

Mr. Green Goes Red:...

The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.

• Proem
• About this Issue
• Excerpts Taken from a Photocopy of a Letter Written from Ed Whitford to Edward Marlo
• A Marlo Letter to Persi Diaconis
• Racherbaumer Letter to Charlie Miller
• Shall We Ask All The King's Horses and Men?
• Correspondence Between Jon Racherbaumer and Stephen Minch Regarding the So-Called Hide-Out Move
• Appendix: Paul Curry's "Out of this World"; a new version / Ed Whitford

1st edition 2014, PDF 30 pages....

The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.

From the introduction:

This can be done with a borrowed shuffled deck that does not have to be complete. (The only requirement is that the deck is in decent condition, but it does not have to be a new deck.) There is no stack or prior arrangement necessary. Somebody hands you a deck and you go right into the routine. You ask the spectator to take about a third from the deck, shuffle it at heart's content, then remember the bottom card and burry that pack somewhere in the middle of the remaining portion on the table. This all happens while you look away. You then take the deck behind your back and find the spectator...

"It's not easy to improve on a trick by Dai Vernon, but Ian Baxter has managed to do just that!"

A timely observation from reviewer David Jones, who has hit the nail right on the head. Here is an easy, clever new treatment of a respected Vernon classic. Don't be surprised if you find yourself performing Refining Vernon's 1-2-3 over and over again.

Jones continues: "This streamlined handling of Vernon's 1-2-3 is so much cleaner than the original, more magical in effect and far easier to perform. It's a winner!"

This familiar, fast-moving card mystery has been 'doing the rounds' for decades:...

J. Stewart Smith's third book on card magic, containing six more card masterpieces. Like his previous releases, all the work is accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. Only a few simple moves are necessary, easily within the grasp of the average magician.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• Our Cards
• False Cut
• Ascent of the Black Fours
• A Restoration
• Triple Alliance
• The Four Aces
• Double Cut
• A Prediction

Card workers the world over praise his beautiful effects and their methods. See below for a few brief quotes from experts in the field.

"The author has attempted to approach as...

Unpacking the Smith Myth and the Rashomon Concept.

This collection of tricks focuses on a similar motif because they fit the precise definition of that word and, in each case, the goal is to show what unifies and specifically defines each one. I'm also using the term "curate," because I sifted through lots of material so readers can compare and analyze everything. I consider this to be a contextualizing exercise that reveals the motif's history and pinpoints its rightful place in the Creative Continuum.

The two motifs compiled here are the Smith Myth and what's popularly known as the Rashomon...

More than the twenty major Marlo items Ed contributed to New Tops Magazine in 1982-1983 - not to mention new sleights, finesses, and subtleties - these items have been largely unavailable since their publication, almost 40 years ago. Wesley James has added another two years of material toward fulfilling Ed Marlo's expressed wishes, keeping his material available "for the guys."

As with Wesley's two previous releases, M.I.N.T. III and M.I.N.T. IV, these long-unavailable Marlo items could have been all Wesley compiled. Such a volume would have been a huge contribution to the literature of card magic. As a tribute...

Available again after a long absence is this fine work by J. Stewart Smith, presenting eleven more of his mystifying card effects, each of which is accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. This is the book that had card workers talking all over the country. It had to be good to receive praise from such internationally known close-up workers. See below for a few brief quotes from some of the very best.

PARTIAL CONTENTS:

• Ascending Treys
• Pop Over Treys
• The Four Aces
• The Four Queens
• Follow The Leader
• Sevens and Jacks
• The Inseparable Sevens
• Peek-A-Boo Discovery
• Horse...

Learn some of the most deceptive magic ever created, by a modest man, Elmer Biddle ... 5 impromptu effects plus a bonus trick!

Included with this e-book are 3 videos and 10 pictures. This e-book is a deep dive into the famous "Biddle Move", which is composed of The Biddle Steal and the much less known, The Biddle Switch - and all 5 tricks are impromptu. The videos teach the proper way to perform both Biddle Moves with in-depth instruction - plus the 4 as 5 Count.

Bonus effect: A 6th trick taught here is topological and can be used as a fun ESP effect or a straight-up prediction. A written...

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...

From the introduction:

From the foreword by Ken de Courcy:

1st edition ~1947, PDF 6 pages.

Do as I Do under impossible conditions.

An impossible coincidence, a powerful mental effect. Two regular and shuffled decks. Really simple and fun to do. The spectator takes any card from one deck and the magician does the same from the other deck. The amazing thing is that the magician and the spectator surprisingly took the same card. A variation "Do as I do" with an interesting and fascinating technique.

• Two normal decks
• No gimmick; no double-sided card
• No sticky stuff; no wax; no rough and smooth; no tape or double-sided tape

1st edition 2022, video 17:55.

Imagine that a spectator freely shuffles a deck of cards, then randomly picks any 4 cards and from them freely decides which one to choose. The assistant delivers into the right hand of the medium, whose back was turned the whole time, the three remaining cards, and she, studying them for a few moments, will be able to guess the chosen card. Not only that but, repeating the experiment with a second spectator, she will guess the chosen card after simply having the three discarded cards announced by her assistant.

This is an original idea, developed by me, to enable the magician's assistant...

More than the thirteen major Marlo items Ed contributed to New Tops Magazine in 1981 - not to mention new sleights, finesses, and subtleties - all these items have been largely unavailable since their publication. Wesley James has added another year of material toward fulfilling Ed Marlo's expressed wishes, keeping his material available "for the guys."

As with Wesley's previous release of M.I.N.T. III, these long-unavailable Marlo items could have been all Wesley compiled. Still, this volume would have been an important contribution to the literature of card magic. As tribute to Ed, Wesley wanted this volume to offer more....

Ian Baxter here, introducing something new from me in the 'Card Stabbing' arena. Nicely Stabbed! offers not one but two approaches to this evergreen card mystery. But rather than have me rattle on about this, I'll ask reviewer and fellow Australian David Jones to offer his opinion.

When Ian Baxter told me that his next manuscript involved the concept of forcing an unknown card, I was intrigued, to say the least. What resulted from this offbeat thought was a very clever, streamlined and almost sleight-free method for a known classic. A spectator stabs a card anywhere into the deck and ends...

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...

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:

J. Stewart Smith presents more of his mystifying card effects, accomplished without knuckle-busting sleight of hand. The author was something of an enigma, eschewing public performances in favor of fooling magicians and mentalists at magic conventions. After a process of continual refinements from demonstrating his effects under the critical eyes of magicians, he would assemble a small number of his latest creations and issue them in small, limited-edition booklets. To say that his books are hard to come by is a gross understatement. This is a shame since the magic is priceless.

Smith was...

The Effect of the Card in the Orange ranks with that of the Bank-Note in Lemon, or the Card in the Egg effect, but has one main advantage over the other two and that is that it is easier to do. Although the impact on the audience is precisely the same, the trick can be performed under any conditions and is literally worry-free. The Card in the Orange is one of those effects that, in the right hands, can be a reputation-maker. The whole effect depends entirely upon showmanship and presentation.

• Edwin's Routine
• What You Require
• Another Method
• Knife Force
• Simplicity Force
• The Glide ...

As you can understand from the title this is an impossible divination. The method is becoming more and more diabolical.

The effect is a classic: the spectator chooses a card and the magician finds it. Here, however, the conditions are strict for the magician. There is seemingly no way the magician could find the card. The deck is shuffled while the performer looks away. Despite this, he will be able to find the chosen card face down. All this with a normal, borrowed, totally impromptu deck.

1st edition 2022, video 12:03

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 will find here card tricks, cheating exposes, card games, and gambling stories.

A later expanded version of this book was published under the title Gamblers' Tricks With Cards Exposed and Explained.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick Of Thirty Six Cards; Telling The Card You Look At Without Seeing The Pack.
  • To Tell A Card Thought Of
  • Three Jacks As Thieves, Caught By A King As A Policeman
  • To Burn A Card And Fin'd It In A Watch
  • How To Shift Cards
  • The Four Associates
  • To Make A Card Jump Out Of The Pack
  • How To Change Cards To Pictures
• Chapter II
  • All Fours
  • Deceptions Used In The Game Of All Fours
  • How To...