CARDS BY ALL MEANS

16 strong card magic effects with your everyday deck of cards

CONTENTS & EFFECTS

Black Sheep: Two spectators each select cards from a packet, then you select one, but you leave your selection face up as proof of your actions. You spread the packet and remove your card along with the two cards on ether side. These prove to be the other two selections. As an afterthought, you point out that both of the spectator's selections are red, and your card is black. When you show all the other cards, they prove to be black also. Somehow the spectators managed to choose the only two red cards!

The Keepers of the Secrets: A quick sandwich effect using ten red spot cards and the two black Jacks. This uses a Laurie Ireland Bottom Deal concept, that of secretly losing a card as you deal. But you only need to do it once, and ‘you' choose when. So no pressure.

Spectator Cuts to the Aces: Classic plot - a spectator cuts the deck into four piles. The top card of each pile proves to be an Ace.

Spectator Cuts to the Aces - Plus!: You show the four Kings to a spectator and place them face down on the table, saying, "I now want you to create four perfect blackjack hands - to do this I want you to cut to the four Aces!" The spectator cuts the deck into four piles. You now turn over the top card of each pile to find.....the four Kings! The four cards that you placed aside at the start prove to be the four Aces.

K.I.A: A different stack for an ingenious Marty Kane Automatic Placement concept.

MIRACLE OR IMPOSSIBLE REVISITED: This is a simple variation on Arun Bonerjee's "Miracle or Impossible" (Billet no.348, July/Aug 2000). During all the spelling in this routine I suggest that you spell the words as the spectator deals the cards.

THE UNIVERSAL BASE: A "Universal card" (Ace of Spades) placed on the face of the deck changes into the mates of two freely chosen cards. Finally the other three Aces appear unexpectedly to finish.

HOFZINSER ON BASE: This uses the same concept as the previous trick to achieve a different effect. This time we revisit the Hofzinser Card Problem.

CHANGE-OVER QUICKER: A forerunner to the Fulves "Black Widow" plot was Tom Sellers' "The Change-over Aces" from Magical Mixture, 1943. In this, a red Ace is placed between two red court cards and a black Ace is placed between two black court cards. The Aces change places. Sellers uses only the Glide to achieve the effect. However, he transfers eight cards in the process. It struck me that he didn't need to transfer eight cards, it can be done in only six transfers - which is what you want. I have also added a second phase with the Aces face up.

HERE WE GO AGAIN...: I return once again to one of my favourite obsessions, the Hofzinser "Royal Marriages" plot - the marrying up of Kings and Queens. Among past methods I have used is the Stay Stack principle. The present version also uses the Stay Stack principle, but not with the full packet, as the cards appear to be divided into Kings & Queens to begin. I'll describe handling only here and leave the patter to the reader.

COMBINATION LUCK: A card discovery using a random number thought of by a spectator that works automatically.

CANNIBALECTOR: As an introductory feat, the four Kings demonstrate their magical abilities by causing two random cards to vanish. Having proved their expertise in the art of vanishing, they now instantly collect three previously selected cards.

WITCH WAY?: The two black Queens are shown then cut into the deck. Instantly one of the Queens is produced from your pocket. Using this red Queen as a magic device you wave it over the deck then spread it. The two "red" Queens are now seen to be face up on the middle, but there's one face down card trapped between them. This proves to be the other black Queen.

THE FACE UP TRICK: You offer to demonstrate a card trick, but you point out that you've only learnt it with the cards face up. You turn the deck face up and begin. A card is freely selected and pushed back into the middle. Using your "sensitive fingers" you successfully cut to the chosen card. You now offer to do try it again with half the cards face up and half face down this time. You spread the cards and spectator indicated the spot near the middle. You flip the upper section over so they lie face-to-face with the bottom section. Instantly you spread the deck and all the cards are now face down! "Great!" you say, "I've never been able to do this trick with all the cards face down before." But there are two cards that remained face up. Noting that there is a card trapped between them you slide it out and it proves to be the previously selected card.

PIANO BIDDLE: You remove six matching pairs of cards, then you count them to make sure you have only six pairs because this trick uses an even number of pairs. But, oops, you have seven pairs, so you return one pair to the deck. These might be the red Aces. You now split the six pairs up be dealing them into two piles. A magical gesture, and you now show that the pairs have magically reunited, as you turn over pairs of cards from the top of each pile. But wait, there is a single odd card remaining in each pile. These prove to be the red Aces!

TRIPLE HUMDINGER: A spectator removes any 8 cards from the deck then you write three predictions. In the end, all three predictions prove to be correct.