The First Eleven
by John Holt

"All the items are varied and interesting and make a good collection of strong, practical card magic" – Peter Duffie

"BSBCS is very clever" – Richard Osterlind

"What the hell is an ebook?" – his mum

If you have read Mind Blasters you will have encountered one effect by John Holt. John became gutsy and released his own ebook with a collection of close-up card and mentalism effects. He also describes two moves, an excellent full deck overhand false shuffle and a double lift.

• False Overhand Shuffle
• Twirl Double Lift
• BSBCS: A spectator shuffles a deck, which can be borrowed, the performer turns away and asks her to grab a packet of cards from the middle of the deck, think of one and then replace the packet on top of the deck and shuffle. Only now does the performer turn round. Immediately, and without touching or looking at the deck, he begins naming cards that were in the packet. He then goes on to name the thought of card!
• Sidetracked Transposition: An alternative handling for Dorian Rhodell's 'Sidetracked' effect, in which two packets transpose under impossible conditions. This handling eliminates any false shows or counts, as the moves are done before the effect has begun. Also includes a suggestion by Dorian Rhodell to add a double punch finish.
• Credit Card Theft: A spectator’s writing vanishes from the back of one card and appears on another.
• Anniversary Waltz: An impromptu version of the classic Fusion/Anniversary Waltz effect, where two cards, signed by two different people, magically merge into one card.
• Eliminator: Whilst a spectator shuffles a deck of cards, you make a prediction. The spectator freely deals two piles of cards, shuffling and dealing as they go, eliminating piles one by one until they are left with one card - and it matches the prediction. Includes a bonus handling by Peter Duffie!
• Two Card Transpo: From a shuffled deck with no duplicate cards, two cards magically change places, and, for a kicker, swap back again!
• Absolutely Positive: The magician removes a prediction from his pocket. A spectator is given three imaginary silver coins to hold and place on the table before him. In their imagination, one coin is selected. The spectator, again using their imagination decides whether the coin is heads side up or tails, let’s say they call heads. All this is done without the spectator saying a word. The magician draws the spectator’s attention to the prediction. The spectator opens it to reveal a blank piece of paper. The magician draws the spectator to the other contents of his pocket on the table …one coin, and it is heads side up – matching their imaginary choices exactly!
• ESP Card Force: a psychological forcing technique for ESP cards.
• TCP ESP: using five ESP cards and an envelope, you are able to simulate three psychic demonstrations: telepathy, clairvoyance and predicting the future.

1st edition 2011; 29 pages.
word count: 8446 which is equivalent to 33 standard pages of text