Alex Hansford - Sprezzatura

Sprezzatura Chatting about an art which doesn't seem to be an art.

(card tricks) A lex Hansford

Card to Pocket Micro Breaks M ystery Card Instant Assembly Diamond Cut Diamond Cull Effect A Childish Spelling Trick

Introduction Thank you so much for purchasing these notes! I hope you get a lot out of them, find them engaging and challenging. The contents are, I feel, easy enough to be within the grasp of anybody who wants to learn them, I wanted to write them with a wide audience in mind. I love all of the material here and it’s stuff that I really do perform and want to show to people if ever I’m asked to perform. What I mean is that of course there are some nuances and difficulties to certain aspects of each of these effects, but ideally upon reading the description, if it sounds like something you might want to do, you’ll be able to pick it up pretty quickly. So all the things here are fun to do, either because the premise of the effect is really interactive with the spectators, or because the ‘behind the scenes’ work is quite sneaky and fun. I wanted to write this so it’s not dull. This is largely because it’s more interesting for me to write a little bit more in-depth than simply to do bullet-point-like instructions for tricks, but I also feel it would make for more interesting reading. I’d love for the notes to have some interest to those who don’t even do card magic, but I’m sure it won’t be to everybody's taste. I didn’t particularly fancy writing out the notes in the way these sorts of things are often written, and I feel that this is a refreshing change that you’ll like. The title of this work comes from an old Italian word which I’ve found most commonly used describing a way of dressing, but was originally coined in reference to art or style. I think it’s a beautiful notion and gives way to a really fascinating train of thought when we consider it in the context of magic and our performances. The translation is “a studied carelessness”.

Sprezzatiira Okay! Enough blabber, let’s go do the card things. Alex

3

Card to pocket Will Houstoun was showing me methods for producing a card from a flat palm, involving curling the forefinger and middle finger of the hand in, clipping the palmed card, then extending those two fingers so as to produce the card. This is a great little production, but I haven’t ever used it, at least not in its conventional sense. Will introduced the idea to me as a form of ‘topping the deck’ , which I toyed with for a while, but soon shelved never to think of again, because I felt it wasn’t really my thing. A few years later, for a reason I’m not too sure of, I was trying different approaches to doing the production Will had shown me, but just from a different type of palm. In trying out these different approaches, thinking I was being original and clever, I in fact took a step backwards to an easier (and much older) move. Yes, I had successfully recreated the standard Tenkai production! The one we all know and love, once made popular by Brad Christian of Ellusionist. In the trailer for that DVD, Brad Christian says he did the move with som ebody’s credit card...

I suppose that sort of thing is to be expected when trying to improve an already fine move. Regression is just super, isn’t it? In it’s basic form, this is a pretty easy move. The thing you may be uncomfortable with is using Tenkai palm in the sorts of environments you’re probably used to performing in. There isn’t really a quick fix to sort out this uncomfortable feeling, but I can assure you that any conscious effort you put towards this move will show in your work quite rapidly, it’s never really a comfortable feeling to hold cards out, not to mention that the angles of Tenkai palm can be fairly daunting when you consider performing them. Luckily for us, when we get into the groove of doing challenging things like this, that uncomfyness changes to excitement - “I can’t believe I’m actually getting away with this!” W e’ve all had this same feeling when first learning a card under box routine, or even when first doing anything that involves palming cards. I get it, it’s unnerving. But how did you deal with that? You learnt how to manage it through countless performances, and now it’s

second nature, we show no concern or nervousness for the move. It’s more than that, in fact. Not only is the difficulty of classic palming a card of no concern to us now we’ve learnt it, those techniques are things we take for granted and, consequently, use all the time. The move is more than something we tolerate just to be able to do a certain trick; it’s something we love to use. Although it’s perhaps a bit different to learning a classic palm, I can assure you the same process applies to this sort of a palm. The learning process here, however, instead of a technical thing, is more of a mental thing. We all know how to do a Tenkai palm, so physically this is not a difficult thing to do. What we have to address, though, is the firstglance attitude that we have for this palm. Our initial idea of this palm is that it’s silly. Tenkai palm always seemed a bit like a novelty to me; like something I would never use; something I’d mess around with at magic conventions or meet ups, but never perform for a lay audience. After a point, as well, we feel that we’ll never go back to the old things we perhaps learnt quite early on, because we’re taught to always be progressing and improving, and usually this means trying harder moves and more challenging performance styles. This is the beauty of magic, though, because higher difficulty in no way implies stronger tricks. It took me a while to realise this. So the block we have to get over is a mental one, and it is twofold; one, that the audience will see what we’re up to, and two, that Tenkai palm is not quite as silly as we once took it to be. Okay, it’s still quite silly, but it is a legitimate move that can add a certain ‘j e ne

sais quoi’ to your work. I use Tenkai palm for a couple of different things when I perform, but here I will detail a way it is used to create the cleanest card to pocket move I know. Have a card chosen. When you return the card to the deck, you will want to put the card into Tenkai palm. You have a few options here. Either you can immediately steal the card, and produce it from the pocket, or you can leave it in the deck and go into a couple of other things before showing the card has appeared inside the pocket. My preference is the former, so I will explain that first, then I’ll chat about the latter. To get the card into the palm I use either the first half of Ed Mario’s Deliberate Side Steal or Larry Jennings’ LJ Angle Steal. I will explain the side steal variant here, though I strongly recommend you read Jennings’ steal, as that one is my favourite, and I use it all the time. The other advantage of the Angle Steal is that the card goes straight into Tenkai palm, where Mario’s move doesn’t. I’ll explain how to get from the side steal to the palm, though.

The usual selection process here would be to dribble the cards and ask a spectator to call stop, then lift the right hand to show the spectator the face card stopped at. They remember the card and you can go into the side steal from here. Bring the top packet back to the deck as if to square the deck, and push the selection slightly to the right with your left fingers. This is done by contacting the face of the selection in the action of squaring the cards. You’ve now side jogged the selection, but it is hidden underneath your right hand. Your right pinky finger now contacts the upper right corner of this jogged card, while your

right thumb contacts the lower left

corner of the card.

A nice touch here is to keep your right forefinger slightly curled on top of the deck, and to keep this finger curled throughout the steal. Usually here you continue this steal and the card is controlled to the top of the deck, but in this case you want to palm the card, and it’s necessary that the full control is not executed. Pull the card to the right and curl your right ring and middle fingers inwards,

towards your wrist. This should clamp the card between your fingertips and the underside of your knuckles of your right hand, in such a way that you should be able to let go of the card at the back with your thumb, and move your thumb around to the right hand side of the card. At this point it is fairly straightforward to squeeze upwards (into the palm of the hand) with your ring finger and inwards with your thumb, and the card should arrive in Tenkai palm.

Even

though

th e y ’ re

not

really

contacting the card in any way, it is a good idea to keep the fingers curled inwards at the front of the card to provide a bit of additional cover for the palm. Fantastically, you’ve palmed the chosen card out of the deck! Congratulations, the tough part of this effect is finished. The rest is easy sailing, technically. Mentally, however, as I mentioned

a little earlier,

this next

part

might be a bit peculiar. To help yourself out a bit and to feel a bit more secure, keep your fingers curled to cover the card. Let your hand drop to your side. You now need to do the fiat palm production

with your right hand, but you’ll notice this is more

akin

to

the

standard

Tenkai

palm

production, as the card is in fact in Tenkai p a lm (!)

T his

is

done

by

curling

your

forefinger and middle finger in further, so that they clip the card - forefinger on top of the card, middle finger under the card.

Keep the back of your palm towards the audience so as to continue hiding the card. You can release your grip on the card with the thumb now, as the two fingers should have it.

Since your hand is already at your side, the next move is very easy. Move your right hand b a ck

b e h in d

you r

leg

slig h tly ,

as

if

approaching your back pocket, and extend the forefinger and middle finger while turning your wrist so the palm of your hand now faces the audience. From the front, it should appear that your hand is totally empty as you hide the card behind your leg.

Now all that’s left to do is mime pulling the card from your back pocket. This is a cute new way of doing card to pocket, and I hope you enjoy using it!

Notes: Usually when I perform this, I go straight to the pocket from the steal, however there is certainly something disarming about staying in this position with your hand resting at your side for a short while before producing the card. The super thing about this palm is that (A) I have rarely seen it being used, and (B)

the palm allows for a more natural

resting pose than full palm, and the hand looks totally empty should anyone happen to glance at your hand. If you want to delay the steal, this is a doddle. Shuffle the deck such that the chosen card is controlled to the bottom of the deck. Chat for a bit. Now you can just swing cut the deck

and let your fingers contact the face card (originally the bottom card of the deck), push it to the right, and go straight into the Deliberate Side Steal. Mmm.

Micro Breaks. Here I want to describe a little bit of my work on the Micro break. I find this type of break fascinating for a couple of different reasons. The lack of comfort that performers seem to have towards this work is intriguing to me. I've not seen anyone using these methods of breaks, so while I have since discovered that this is a technique created/explored by Vernon, when I discovered it I believed it to be original. Initially this was a disheartening thing to learn, but my applications of it, at least, are original! I had a really strong suspicion that the work here had already been done by other people in the past, although because of its temperamental nature, it felt plausible that I had stumbled upon a modern take on classic methods. The premise here is that you can hold a break at a point in the pack and allow this break to become very very small, yet still retain complete control over where the break is and retrieve it easily if needed. The beauty of this is that you can let the break collapse almost entirely, and it will appear as though you're not holding any breaks at all. I discovered this method when I accidentally all but lost a break I was supposed to be holding in a performance, and just tried to regain the break via this method. That performance wasn’t particularly spectacular because of that mistake, but what’s great about this move is that, from now on, wherever I may have moments which seem tough to recover from (namely almost losing a break), I can now handle them properly and without disturbance! And, after reading this, so can you! This started me thinking: if you can use this move to recover from an unintentional problem, surely you can also profit from it as an intentional action. Indeed you can. With a little bit of practice, you can get to the stage where you’ll be comfortable showing the backside of the pack without exposing anything. Usually, this would be akin to performance suicide, as you would be exposing a break to your audience, however, in employing the Micro break, you're able to remove any tell-tale signs that you're holding a break. O f course, all that isn't to say that you want to walk around showing the back side

of the pack to every spectator you encounter just because you can. On the contrary, I’m of the opinion that this method is most effective if handled the same way you would use a normal break. The only difference here between this and normal breaks is that it can handle the attention of super scrupulous eyes, people ‘burning your hands’. This technique is purely for your own enjoyment, as while you can perform this to laypeople, I feel it is entirely wasted upon them. Lay audiences, if you are doing your job right, don’t even suspect that you might have control over the cards in this manner, and ideally your break is small enough that it appears as if the entire deck is square anyway. So this is purely a little bit of fun you can use to fool your magic buddies, but also, for your own enjoyment, in that you’ll have a marvellously clean control. Let’s take a look at what’s going on when we take a break normally. So let’s take a break at the centre of the deck. Go ahead, take that break! Now. let’s analyse your handiwork... If you’re holding the deck in a relaxed dealers grip with a break at roughly the centre, by looking at the back of the deck, you will notice that your break starts off large (at your pinky finger) and - hopefully - tapers to nothing at the heel of the thumb. By applying a little bit of pressure with the left thumb at the top of the pack you're able to close this break quite substantially.

But I know what you're thinking! Yes, pushing down has managed to close the break a little bit, but it's still kind of noticeable. Here is the point at which you must learn your own tolerances and your own sensitivities to the cards and your break. At this point you want to, bit by bit, release your grip on the break from your pinky finger by gradually flattening your little finger. Continue applying downward pressure on the top of the deck with your thumb and releasing pressure with your pinky finger bit by bit until, slowly but surely, the break begins to close. You will notice that the surface area of the fleshy pad of your pinky finger that retains the break is getting smaller and smaller by the second. The deck is taking on more of a ‘pinching’ action of the skin on the pad of your pinky finger. Sometimes I feel it helps to bevel the cards slightly outwards with the base of the thumb, this is done by rolling the left thumb on top of the deck so that instead of the edge 11

of the thumb contacting the deck, now the pad of the tip of the thumb is on the top. This rolling action bevels the cards for you.

If you continue to relax your pinky finger’s grip on the break, eventually the break will become almost indiscernible. You can get the break to be pretty small. Remember, it’s possible you get into this situation by accident, so it’s nice to know how far you can go with the break still being salvageable. At this point, make sure your left forefinger is on the front of the deck. RETRIEVING THE BREAK: You now want to approach the deck with your right hand from above, as if to hold the deck in end grip. You will want to mimic the look of end grip, but really the deck is mainly held in dealer’s grip. Both of your hands will hold

the

deck

simultaneously,

and

your

dealer’s grip hand doesn’t relax, for fear of losing the minuscule break. The important pressure points here are the right thumb, the base of the left thumb, and the left forefinger. Now you will open up the break as Vernon did - tilt your right hand round to the right so that your thumb is edge ways on the back of the deck, contacting the general area of the break. Now slide your thumb inwards along the back of the deck towards the base of your left thumb, but also push upwards towards your left forefinger as you slide along. This should open up the break!

Give it a couple of tries, and eventually you should be able to do regain a Micro break quickly, and without needing to look at your hands. The difficulty with this move is that you need to apply quite a lot of pressure in order to open up the break, so it’s something you will need to try and try in order to learn your own way of doing it, it’s different for everyone. TW O CONTROLS: I want to talk about two controls that use this type of break. CONTROL A: Bill Simon had a method of side jogging a card under the guise of squaring it into the deck. This is usually performed by squaring in the card with the thumb, however Will Houstoun showed me a

beautiful way of

doing this with the forefinger, instead. You have a card chosen, place it back into the middle of the deck, and square it in such that is slightly side jogged. Hold the deck from above in right hand end grip. It is important to note that the deck is held at the far left side, and the only contact points are the thumb and middle finger - your ring and pinky fingers do not contact the deck.

They

must be out

of the way to

facilitate the jogging of the selection, which will happen momentarily. Your left forefinger now contacts the closest end of the selection and taps it square with the deck, then slides forward, squaring in the remainder of the card.

You will notice that the top right corner of the selection now protrudes from the right hand side of the deck. This is covered by the palm of your right hand.

This protrusion can easily be taken into a side jog by contacting the corner with your right pinky finger.

Your left hand now approaches the deck such that your left thumb can contact the jogged selection. You will now square in and push down on the jogged card, which will create a Micro break. The picture of the Micro break is exaggerated - your break would be much smaller than this.

The deck is now held entirely by the left hand, and the left forefinger can curl at the back of the deck and press inwards. This will close the break and make it seem, from the front and from above, as though the deck is entirely square. An excellent moment here is to tap the lower short end of the deck on the table. This not only properly squares part of the deck that you want to square, by aligning the

two

halves,

it

also

appears

to

the

audience as if no break could be being held. Now you want to pause and talk for a bit. Your left hand can fall to your side, basically so you put some time between the squaring of the card into the deck and the control of the card. At this point it is very easy to cut at the Micro break, thus controlling the card to the top of the deck. After a couple of tries, you can do this without looking at the cards. A more convincing way of doing this, however, is to faro shuffle the cards. You can easily approach the deck with your right hand and cut

at the

Micro

break,

taking the top

portion and faro shuffling that half into the lower half. When doing this, just be sure that the lower half is shuffled on top of the upper half, so the card is controlled to the top. You can

also

Charlier cut

the

deck

by just

bending your left thumb slightly, and the cards will automatically cut at the break. Complete the cut to control the card.

CONTROL B: A second control is just another option for closing the card into the deck, if you don’t want to use the Bill Simon thing. Bill Simon’s move, while fantastic, should, in his own words, “be used sparingly”.

Magictrucos.com Card is chosen. Replace it into the deck at the middle, leaving it out jogged at the front for half its length. These next movements, I have since found out, are similar to some published by Paul LePaul, and utilise the plunger principle with a deck of cards. Hold the deck in dealer’s grip and lift it up towards the spectator, so they can see the face of the out jogged selection one last time. You now hold the deck quite firmly in dealer’s grip as your left forefinger now pushes the selection flush with the deck. If you have held the deck firmly enough, however, this will cause a couple of cards to secretly become down jogged at the back end of the deck.

Your right hand now approaches the deck as if to take the deck into end grip. You continue to hold the deck firmly and now want to square the down jogged cards into the deck with your right thumb. Since the deck is being held so tightly by your left hand, this should cause the selection to become slightly out jogged at the front again.

This is hidden by the fingers of your right hand, and the selection is only out jogged for a very short amount of time, since the pinky finger of your right hand should push down on this out jog and take an Erdnase break above it.

This action is covered by tilting the deck forward

and

to

audience, so that

the

right

towards

the

your right thumb is at the

top, and the long right-hand edge of the deck faces the audience. The break, therefore, is at the bottom corner of the deck, closest to your body. The deck is held entirely by your right hand at this point, in what is effectively end grip. These actions should appear as though you just transfer the deck to your right hand. Pause for a bit.

You now curl your right forefinger on the top of the deck and your left hand approaches the deck from the back. Your left thumb contacts the space of the break while your left fingers hold the front of the deck. This allows the right thumb to riffle the top of the deck while your pinky finger maintains the break.

Your left thumb can now glide up the edge of the deck, taking over the Micro break, and holding the deck entirely in your left hand, as in the earlier method. You can now finish the control as outlined in the previous method.

KEY CARD + GLIMPSE: While on this topic, let’s explore a cool use of keycard.

A

small additional thing that I

wanted to put in here that I may not have gotten to go into in the lecture is the use of the Bill Simon square-in as a glimpse. So the two cards are chosen. I ask to have one o f them back and I take the card with my right hand. I hold the deck facedown in dealers grip in my left hand. I riffle down the edge of the deck with my left thumb, stopping at roughly the centre of the deck. I put the card facedown into the deck and

square it in as per the previously explained method. So the

really disarming part of the glimpse is that you need to tilt the deck up such that you can see the face of the face card of the deck. If you can see the face card of the deck, you should also be able to see the tiny index of the chosen card, protruding to the right of the deck. You can see the index at the corner furthest from your thumb. You need to pull the thumb of your right hand up to bring the deck closer to the palm of your left hand. The card that you have just glimpsed will now be our ‘key card’. Imagine there is a laser coming straight out of the back end of the deck, through your thumbnail. You want to aim this laser so that, if it were to continue on into the ether, towards you, it should hit the very top of your forehead. This way, you should be able to look down at the deck in your hand and see the index of the protruding, side jogged selection completely clearly. The beauty of this is that, from the front and sides (your audiences’ views), the glimpse should appear that you are just looking at the pack. The disarming nature of the glimpse is in your demeanour as you carry it out, not in the sleight of hand. I feel that this theory can be applied to many other glimpses with great success. Here is the nuance: you want to look at the deck for as long as it takes for you to be absolutely, one-hundred percent certain what the value of the chosen card is, and then add another second just for fun. I find I am usually looking at the deck for about three full seconds, so use this as a guide (it is important to count the seconds, slowly, in your head).

18

Then, while holding the deck in exactly the same position (your hand does not move), tilt your head back slightly and look up towards the ceiling. Let me be clear; when I say your hand ‘does not move’ , what I mean is that it has reached a neutral, natural position, where there is no tension or focus about it. You can move your hand a little bit, but not so as to draw attention to it. I find that, once the card has apparently been squared into the pack, the right edge of my hand is resting on the table, and is thus relaxed and calm. No heat. Anyway, tilt your head back, relax your shoulders and look up towards the ceiling. Here you should look at three or four different parts of the ceiling, or artefacts of the room which you’re in, one by one. Imagine looking straight ahead, i.e. parallel to the ground, is labelled as ‘looking at an angle of zero degrees’ , while looking directly upwards would be labelled as ‘looking at an angle of 90 degrees’. Don’t look up at angle of more than 45 degrees - none of this staring directly upwards nonsense. The looking shouldn’t be rushed, but also doesn’t need to take an hour. This can be used as misdirection for lots of moments in your performances, even as a little bit of time misdirection, and I’m sure you’ll take this on board and use it accordingly, not solely for this move alone. I use it specifically for this move, but it’s a fun little thing to throw in all over the place. After a while, of course, you will be doing this without thinking much about it, but I feel it is good to have some little checklist of things to be doing when first starting out with this type of misdirection, especially if it is quite foreign for you. These movements should be used to emulate the idea of a quick little ‘mind blank’; a short amount of time where you’re simply thinking “what should I do next?” In fact, I find this is a good question to just say to yourself in your head while you are doing the ‘looking at the ceiling’ exercise. I find it’s pretty helpful to have an idea in mind of how to go about these moments of ‘relax’ . Now you come back to the spectators and ask for the second card to be returned to the deck. At this point the right little finger comes into contact with the corner of the side jogged selection and moves slightly to the left and downwards. Thus the selection becomes slightly diagonally jogged, but more importantly allows your right hand’s middle finger to contact the card and push inwards on it slightly. At this moment your right thumb should

leave the deck for a moment so the selection can become down jogged. Finally, the base of the left thumb can square in the card at the edge, thus creating a down jog in the motions of transferring the deck to dealer’s grip. This ‘change of jo g ’ process takes about a second.

You now take the second selected card in your left hand, keeping it face down, and riffle down the corner of the deck with your right thumb, preparing to put the selection back into the middle of the deck. The fantastic utility of the down jogged nature of the first selection is that, as you riffle down the corner of the deck, you will find it easy to stop right at it. As you riffle your thumb down the corner of the deck, you will hear (and feel) a “click” at the down jog. ft is at this very point that you want to insert the second selection into the deck, such that (unbeknownst to the spectators) you have now

placed

the

second

selection

directly

below the first selection (whose value you know)

in the

middle of the

deck,

ft

is

important at this point to ensure you square in the second selection in a similar manner to that of the first selection, except this time you can actually square in the selection. You want to make these two actions look the same so that neither of them look suspicious. Once you have squared in the second selection, 1 immediately go into a full deck false overhand shuffle. After that, 1 hand the deck to one of the spectators and ask them to shuffle the deck too. Here 1 mimic the actions of an overhand shuffle with my now empty hands as 1 say the words “give them a shuffle too...” This usually encourages the spectator to do an overhand shuffle. As soon as the spectator starts the shuffle, say “excellent, that’s great” and open your hands to receive back the deck. This should mean that the spectator only gives the deck one shuffle. This is important because, for the most part, after one overhand shuffle, the two selected cards should still be right next to each other. Thus your

key card (the first selection) is still directly above the second selection. Reveal them how you like.

Mystery Card This is my take on the mystery card plot - in effect, a card is selected and signed, then a card from a different deck is removed from the performer’s pocket. The card has been signed too. The value of the card is exactly the same as the selected card. However, this was just a coincidence, and you feel, as a magician, somewhat obliged to do a magic trick instead of passing off luck as skill. So you change the signature that was originally on the card from the different deck into the signature of the spectator! The spectator is left with a signed card with unique back. Aside from the technical aspects, what 1 love about this effect is a quirky little presentation that I’ve been trying out lately. It seems very much like the sort of presentation my friend Harapan Ong would do, in that it is off the wall and silly, and can be quite funny. It’s really a peculiar sort of thing to have happen. The speech would go something like this: “You look really familiar to me, have we ever met? W hat’s your name? Albert?? And you’re sure we’ve never met?! A couple of days ago I swear I was performing for someone who looks exactly like you, and his name was Albert too! Very odd. If I were to ask you to name a number between 102 and 104, what would it be? 103?? That's exactly the same answer as Albert the other day gave! Hey, let’s try this - cut off a portion of these cards, it doesn’t matter how many, but Albert from the other day cut off 23 cards... how many did you get? 23?! This is ridiculous, I’ve got to take a photo of you and send it to him, do you mind? He’s not going to believe this. Amazing. Okay, well anyway, let me do a card trick for you. Please choose any one of these cards. It doesn't matter if I see it, and can you sign your name across the face of the card for me. please? Is that honestly your signature? It kinda looks similar to Other Albert’s... Maybe he even chose the same card as you! That would be remarkable! I have it here in my pocket... the other day I used red cards, not blue... and he chose the SAME card as you!!

“Okay, up to now I’ve not really done any magic... All of this has just been really lucky coincidence, but I can’t in all honesty take credit for what is essentially just me being lucky. So I figure I should at least try to do a trick, right? Okay, well look at Other Albert’s signature... It’s a little similar to yours, but the similarities aren't really that strong, are they? It’s funny though, because I have a picture of Other Albert here on my phone, and you really do look similar... He’s quite a bit chubbier than you, and has a moustache... but there’s definitely a strong resemblance to you, wouldn’t you say?? “I’ll tell you what, Albert, watch Other Albert’s signature. See, I really want you to remember this

crazy day, and have something to take away... (!) Now we have your

signature on Other Albert’s card... from a different deck! Incredible. Thanks!” Choose a force card from a different colour backed deck to the one you’re using. I’ve got the Seven of Hearts from a red deck. Place this force card face down sixth from the top of the face down deck. It’s probably a good idea to also remove the matching Seven from the blue deck you’re using, so you don’t run into any compromising situations involving duplicates. Remove that and throw it into the bin. With the deck face down, begin spreading off cards in sets of two; two cards, two cards, then thumb off two more cards while turning both your hands palm down. This will let you cull the force card when your hands turn back together without exposing its odd back. The culled

Seven

rides

along

underneath

the

spread as you ask a spectator to touch the back of one of the cards. When they do so, you break the spread so that the touched card is on the face of the right hand spread (in this case the card the audience actually touched is the Ten of Spades). Keeping the deck parallel to the table, use your right fingers to push the Seven so that it’s in line with the second card from the face of the spread. The left thumb helps keep the structure of the

right

hand

This

spread

intact

from

above.

positioning of the force card will place the card

as close

to

its final destination

as

possible without risking exposing its red back. You will now turn the right hand spread over by lifting the faces of the cards up towards the audience, and in this motion you should

move the Seven along the face of the spread so that it lines up with where it should be, if the spectator touched the back of it.

Since the spread of these cards is being turned over, the small action of moving this force card into place will be totally invisible. Continue turning the spread over to show the face

o f the

card

the

sp e cta to rs

have

apparently selected, and in a continuing motion thumb the Seven face up onto the top of the left hand packet. Finish the spread. Now cut the deck at the place of the selection and extend the lower half of the deck asking them to sign the face of the card. These actions mean that you can perform this effect stood up, without needing a table. If you happen to be sat at a table, I’d recommend taking the card out and placing it onto the table so they can sign it. Either way, the card is signed. You now spread the deck and separate at the selection, then reverse the actions you just performed in order to reverse the card at the face of the spread top half of the deck. Now perform Mario’s Convincing Control

(or,

as

is my

preference,

Tony

Chang’s version of the DMB Spread Control) to control the card to the face of the deck w h ile

le a v in g

an

x

ca rd

out

jo g g e d

masquerading as the selection. The convincing control, in brief, involves up jogging the card that is second from the face of the right hand spread while culling the face card (selection). This is a super move and deserves much more description than I am giving it here. Look it up! Tony’s control is quite seamless, and I love him for it. Go learn that too. The important thing I’d like to call attention to here is not the control, but rather the placement of the culled card immediately after the control. As you square the deck after executing the control, instead of allowing the Seven to square flush with the deck, use your right fingers to drag the Seven down so that is down jogged by about half its length. This means that, when the deck is placed into dealers grip, the Seven can be immediately placed

into a deep cop position, being held between the ring and pinky fingers and edge of the palm of the left hand. This is done by slightly loosening your grip on the deck, then re­

gripping after the Seven tilts downwards. Be sure

to

bevel

the

top

o f the

deck

backwards slightly as you roughly square the cards after the control, as this will cover the down jogged card. Once the Seven is in the cop position, your right hand approaches and picks up the deck. The joy of the Seven being copped in such a way is that you can extend the forefinger of your left hand to point to the protruding card as you take the deck away in your right hand, and the Seven will not only be totally hidden, but also the left hand will look totally empty. A thing to bear in mind with regards to the

angles here

is to

keep the

copped

card

perpendicular to the audiences vision. If the card

is at

a perfect

right-angle

to

the

spectator’s view, in this cop the card will be hidden.

view from the front.

The deck is handed to a spectator to shuffle, or is placed onto the table, and your left hand drops to your side. Relax the hand but ensure the ring and pinky fingers continue to firmly clamp the card. You will now produce the ‘different card’ from your back pocket!!! Your left hand now moves from your side to your back pocket, and the ring finger curls in and contacts the face of the card. You want

to extend your ring finger so that you’re pinning the card against your back pocket. From the front this gives the illusion of your hand being completely empty! Now all that’s left to do is mime removing the card from your pocket. I love this! You need only do this display for one second; it should be a quick way of showing your hand empty, not a longterm position to hold.

Notes: When I showed Tony my work on the card to pocket plot in the Summer of 2015, specifically this move, he informed me that Fred Robinson published a similar thing where he would push the card against his back pocket, but from a card in full palm. While Fred Robinson used full palm, I perform this from a cop. I’ll leave the effect that is described at the beginning, in its entirety, for you to figure out. The ‘changing of the signature’ can be achieved by placing a signed blue blacked Seven of Hearts in your back pocket before the beginning of the effect, then when you produce the red backed card from your pocket, it is a double with the blue backed Seven at the face. Now ditch that blue Seven on the deck when you want to show the signature has changed to match your spectator’s.

Instant Assembly When I first wrote this up, I wanted to do it in a style I’ve never seen magic being written in before. I included the style here in these notes because it’s a nice break from the de rigeur, adds variety, and is a little more entertaining than standard notes. I am writing a larger set of items in this way, but wanted to include this sample here. It’s a satire, people.

Steven, Ollie and I are sat in a Byron burger restaurant. After a long meander about the streets of Soho, in central London, we had arrived at the burger place. Earlier that evening, after much deliberation about where to eat (including Ollie chiming in with various ‘‘do you want to go to Shoreditch?” and “do you fancy going to Elephant & Castle?” - met with ridicule by Steven), we had agreed to go into a nearby Italian restaurant. It was a chain restaurant, and as with many chain restaurants, the three of us were apprehensive that this place might not have much character. But luckily it did have some character, and all was fine. However, this restaurant was tremendously busy and loud and we had to wait for an awfully long time before we could get our food. This restaurant had the novel idea of inviting its patrons do all the work themselves. We had found a table and walked up to the counter to order our food, then stood there watching it being made. We then took our food back to our table and dined away. Steven and I thought this was a beautiful idea in theory, but on a night such as the one the three of us had chosen, didn’t quite pan out in practice. After a thirty minute wait in the queue for our food, Ollie had summarised the evening pretty well with a text that he sent to me, while we both waited in different queues. It read: “Don’t you just love coming to a restaurant to stand around for ages, then you get to watch the food made, then you get the pleasure of serving it yourself to your table, and if that wasn’t enough, all the while you being accompanied by a cacophony of 100 screaming apes. This place is so backwards - onaipav.”

Suffice to say he didn’t much care for the place. Anyway at long last we all got our food and ate it, and it was good, but the wait and the atmosphere somewhat took the thrill out of it. Part of the way through the meal, Ollie bullied Steven into trying some of his pasta dish, which Ollie had asked the chef to add extra chillies to. Steven was clearly not very well accustomed to spicy foods, and the pasta was far too spicy for him. Steven had wailed and lamented about how much his tongue was burning, and even at the end of the meal, he still said he felt the pain of the fiery chilli burn. He suggested we all go to find somewhere to have ice cream, allegedly to tend to his 3rd degree wounds. O f course I sat up at what a wonderful idea that sounded, and exclaimed how much I love ice cream. Ollie was passive about it, but said he would come along. The three of us paid for our meal and drifted out of the restaurant onto the bustle of Wardour street. I’d say it was about 9pm, the sun was just settling down below the horizon, giving the street and the people on it a lovely blueish glow. It was mid summer and we were excited to find an ice cream emporium. We set off softly down the street, with Steven quipping how we might be stuck in the same situation we were for the decision of dinner, or rather, the same indecision. We first broached a gelato place but it was far too expensive, then considered Ben and Jerry’s, before Ollie suggested we all go for milkshakes. O f course, I thought this was another wonderful idea, even more so than the ice cream, and I exclaimed how much I love milkshakes. So the three of us went straight to Byron burger, and ordered our drinks. And so we find ourselves here. Steven, Ollie and I are sat in a Byron burger restaurant, and we’ve all but finished our milkshakes when I bring out a pack of cards. I hand the deck to Steven to shuffle, which he does, and ask Ollie to name a suit from the options of Clubs, Hearts, Spades or Diamonds. Ollie says Hearts, and I take the deck back from Steven. Excitedly but not too hurriedly, I pull out the four Kings. I move my milkshake out of the way and wipe the condensation from the glass that has appeared on the table, then place the four Kings face down in a line where the condensation once was. I pick up the deck and add three random cards to the top of each King, creating four separate packets of four cards, each with a King at its face. Everyone at the table clearly knows the plot, as it has been mined to death. Before Ollie and Steven fall off their chairs from the usual boredom that assembly tricks carry with them, I ask again for the suit Ollie named, to which Ollie reiterates “Hearts”. I gather up three of the packets, leaving the King of Hearts packet on the table. I turn the three-packet packet face up to show a King at its face. Suddenly, I can see Steven’s eyes fluttering, he is close to falling deep asleep. Even though the procedure so far has lasted seconds, the lead up to what he is expecting is dull enough to warrant almost passing out. I am in trouble if he passes out, as I don’t want to be stuck with his share of the bill - I’m not paying for his milkshake, for goodness sake! The pressure is on. My task is to stop him passing out at all costs. I wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead and regain my composure. That’s the thing with assembly tricks; more often than not, they’re awfully dull. I wanted to do something a little differently. In a swift motion the three-packet packet is thrown face up to the table, and it spreads elegantly forward towards Steven. All the cards of the packet can be seen, and not only has

the King vanished from the face of the packet, none of the Kings are amongst the cards now splayed on the table. It appears the three Kings have vanished from this big packet. The fourth packet, aside on the table, is immediately shown to contain all four Kings. The three other Kings have joined Ollie’s named King of Hearts. It was pretty cool! I wanted to grab their attention with this sort of thing; an immediate assembly. A kickback would be nice but I’ve just not happened upon a way of doing it just yet. I can’t say I’ve given it much thought though. I don’t think I care for assembly tricks enough to give it that thought, at the moment.

EXPLANATION: Neither Steven nor Ollie were curious about the method, but nevertheless I wanted to divulge what was going on. I think it’s a cute little thing, what just happened, and I wanted to get their opinions on some of the finer points. Happily, we have that this effect requires no duplicates or gimmicks. Have the cards shuffled (though not necessary, this effect doesn’t require a set up), and a suit named. You now spread through the deck, and up jog the four Kings (or Jacks or Queens, nobody cares). Also cull any two cards in the process. These two culled cards ride under the deck as you are up jogging each King. As I reach the final King, I suggest that, if Steven and Ollie were to perform this, they would strip out the Kings and place them at the back of the deck, with the named suit King being the lowermost one of the four. I say how they should feed the two culled cards beneath the four Kings, but slightly down jog the Kings, then as you turn the deck over, it is easy to pick up at the down jog and turn the “four Kings” (really six cards) over onto the top of the deck. The situation at this point is that you have secretly added two indifferent cards to the back of the Kings, when everyone in the audience will think you’ve done nothing more than pull out four Kings and place them face up on top of the pack. You are now holding the deck face down with the face up Kings (and two face up x cards immediately below them) at the top of the deck. Clap your hands now, and applaud yourself that you’ve set yourself up for a super little subtlety that not enough people take advantage of. It’s a Mario thing, Racherbaumer might be proud of you for doing it. Good job!! It is so easy at this stage to lift up the six face up cards from the top of the deck, thanks to the natural break that most decks have where face up cards are atop face down cards. Lift these and catch a break under them with your left pinky finger. By now I am so elated by my own explanation, I have become something of a spectacle in the restaurant. Everybody in the restaurant has stopped eating and stopped talking, and are now learning from me. I have somehow transformed Byron Burger into a lecture hall! I’m so excited by all the expectant faces.

“For the more adventurous of you out there”, I address to the crowd, “the very same break can be achieved by applying pressure with your left thumb onto the top left corner of the deck, similar to a pinky count...” and I show how the six cards pretty much automatically separate away from the deck, allowing everyone who desires it to catch a pinky break. I suggest that everyone now takes the deck from above in end grip in their right hands, transferring the break to be held at the back by the right hand thumb. Everyone in the restaurant does this, including the waiters. To my surprise the restaurant has started handing out packs of cards to all the patrons. At the back, one of the customers is complaining about how his hands are too small, and is asking if the restaurant has any bridge cards. Luckily the owner of the restaurant came out onto the floor at that very moment, just in time to calmly walk over to this customer’s table and jollily slap the customer in the mouth, punching a poker size deck firmly into the chap’s stomach. He then wanders over and takes his managerial seat amongst his patrons and listens into what I have to say. I mention how the right hand can now set the whole deck onto the table and easily lift up not only on the six cards, but also pick up a face down card below it all. Everybody’s right hand now holds - from above, in end grip - four face up Kings, then two face up x cards, then a face down x card, with a break held above the bottom card of this packet. The packet is square and the end grip conceals the break.

“Have any of you ever wanted to ditch two cards at once?” I address the crowd, which has grown since I last looked up; some people have filed in from the streets to see what the commotion is about. “Well this is the way to do just that” as I demonstrate that they should thumb off each of the “four Kings” one by one into the left hand. I enumerate that they should thumb off the top King, then the second King, and then on the moment you would

remove

the

third

King,

ditch

the

bottom two Kings under the packet as you peel off the third King. “The set up now should be a single face up King in your left hand, and your right hand holds, from the top down, in end grip: one

face up King; two face up x cards; break; face down card; two face up Kings”. At this moment I explain how you should gesture towards the table with your left hand, which is supposedly holding three Kings, and at the same time as your left hand moves slightly forward to gesture, the right hand ditches the cards below the break back to the top of the deck. After the ditch, you now immediately bring your right hand to your left hand and place everything atop that third King. I make clear to the restaurant patrons that at this moment you should turn the packet of “four Kings” face down and spread them out on the table in a face down line. This is done as follows; I reverse spread the little packet as soon as it is face down, and I take the lowermost two “Kings” with my right hand, without altering their order, and place them to the right, with the lowermost card (the named suit King - in our case Diamonds) furthest to the right. The left hand then places the lowermost of its two cards slightly to the left of the leftmost card on the table, and the final card (the other real King) to the far left. I reiterate to the group that the set up is now four cards face down in a line, the outermost two being Kings, the inner two being x cards, all masquerading as four face down Kings. Everyone applauds at how sneaky this has all been up until this point, but I shrug it off. “Now is the moment we want to sell the idea of placing three random cards onto each of the four Kings” I say as thirty or forty new people pile into the restaurant. It’s all getting a little cramped, and many of the patrons have had to stand up from their table and sit on the floor to allow older folk, pregnant folk, and disabled folk to have a seat. Everybody’s food has gone cold, but nobody seems to

33

mind. The focus here in the restaurant is tremendous, and looking out into the crowd I can tell everybody is feeling a calm quite unlike anything they’ve felt in a long while: a strength; a calling; a terrifying but exhilarating sense of purpose taking hold of them and driving them towards a moment of total clarity of existence. I sense many are close to experiencing an epiphany on what life is really about, and we haven’t even done any magic yet. But I shrug it off. I pick up the deck and explain that, once again, we can take advantage of the gorgeous subtlety of natural breaks, to help us do something sneaky in apparently taking off three cards from the top of the deck. I hold the deck in dealers grip, and instruct the many others to do the same. I call on everyone to lift cards from the top of the deck with their right hand, effectively picking the cards up into end grip. This makes it very easy to pick up the top three cards of the deck as one - you are picking up a face down x card and two face up Kings below it, all as one card.

Move this hand away from the deck slightly and continue to pick up two other cards from the deck, staggering each. You show you will place three random cards on top of each King. At this point your right hand squares the “three” cards into a small packet, and in doing so ditches the lowermost two x cards of the packet. This squared packet (which merely consists of a face down x card and two face up Kings hidden below it) goes straight atop the face down King at the far right of the table. I bark to the crowd that “you must now mimic these actions three more times for the remaining three supposed Kings” and I do just that, taking three cards from the top of the

deck

in the

same

fashion

as

before,

squaring them, then placing them on each ‘King’ . I go from right to left for this sequence.

Muffled but rapturous applause can be heard from the people in the doorway and outside edges of the group. They clearly see where this is going - not bad for a bunch of people who, one hour ago, had no knowledge of card magic whatsoever. But I shrug it off. I ask the crowd to pick up the far right packet and peel the King off the face of it, turn it face up, place it at the top of the packet, then set the packet down where it was.

“Now is the time to gather the three leftmost packets one on top of the other, but from right to left. This will leave a King at the face of this new three-packet packet, WHICH IS VITAL” I bellow to the crowd. The

crow d

retention

is

con sta n tly

o f these

peoples’

grow ing, attention

the is

staggering. People are having to double and triple up on each others shoulders in order to see what is going on. This makes following along

with

their

cards

in hand

a little

challenging, but the tough ones soldier on. After a while people are stacked so high that we are reaching the physical volume capacity of

th e

restaurant,

some

are

being

uncomfortably squashed into the ceiling. The crowd is much the same outside of the restaurant, and the ones who are closest to the windows have begun a Chinese Whispers sort of system to convey the instructions to this assembly routine to the hordes of people that are too far back in the street to be able to see in through the windows. It’s really quite something, but I shrug it off. There is no space for ego in a room as tightly packed as this.

I turn the three-packet packet face up and hold it from above with my right hand, in end grip. This shows everybody a King at the face of the packet, to which I then remark that at this point everybody should make a comment

such

as “the

three

Kings

are

distributed amongst this packet”. Better yet, I think, they should say something slightly less clinical, but I don’t mention this tip to the crowd as it’s a tip that is one of those golden secrets of magic that many people wouldn’t appreciate and takes years to learn... As this packet is in end grip, is it not difficult to transfer a card from the face of this packet into lateral palm by simply clipping the face card (King) between the right pinky finger and ring finger. After I have securely clipped the card, I toss the packet to the table, while retaining my grip on the face card, the King. Thus the King is immediately in lateral palm, while the remainder of the packet splays out towards the audience.

In a sweeping motion, my right hand (with the palmed King) moves clockwise around in an arc and scoops up the final packet from the table. This is the sort of move which I love, and you want to deposit the palmed King on top of this ‘named suit’ packet as you scoop it up with your right hand. Immediately place this packet into the left hand dealer’s grip, and you’re ready for the finish! At times, the crowd cannot contain their jubilation at what they are learning. Every now and then screams of joy and exaltation can be heard amidst the pile of bodies as certain people cannot quite believe the power they are unlocking. This is one such moment. Now all you are left to do is Ascanio spread the packet, showing that all the Kings have joined each other. We are concealing a face

36

down x card amongst the Kings. So simply take the double of the Ascanio spread and place it on top of the deck, and you are clean. I mark this by suggesting that the audience (I have become their guru and overlord by now) say to their respective audiences that “the three Kings have joined their named King of Diamonds”. The end is slightly discrepant when it comes to the orientation of the cards, but I love it so much. Everybody in the restaurant and adjoining streets and boroughs explodes into applause. I shrug it off.

A SECOND PHASE? There’s a little corollary to this if you fancy doing it. Gather up the cards, leaving the Kings on the table momentarily, and place the deck face up in dealer’s grip. Pinky count three cards from the top (face) of the deck as you gather up the four Kings from the table, and spread the four Kings, showing them at the face o f the deck. Now square the Kings and pick up at the break, turning over the deck underneath the break and placing it to the left hand side of the table. The deck should end in front of your dealer’s grip hand. Now make a sharp bend in the inner edges of the seven cards in your left hand as you turn that hand palm down, and your right hand squares the deck on the table. Turn your left hand back palm up and spread the top three Kings off the packet, allowing you to catch a break below the top three Kings. Square this packet and turn it over side to side, keeping the break as per Mario’s Future Reverse. This should jog the three face Kings (now the three lowermost cards of the packet) slightly to the right. You’re preparing to do a ditch of Vernon’s under the cover of ribbon spreading the deck. You now move both hands slightly to the left of the deck on the table and take the cards above the break into your left hand (easy because of the jog) as your right hand comes away with the lowermost three Kings, and deposits them onto the deck in the action of ribbon spreading the cards on the table. PHEW! That’s a lot to take in! Basically, you end up ditching the three face Kings face down on top of the face down deck, in the action of spreading the deck on the table. Apparently the packet never comes into contact with the rest of the deck, so this is a very fooling ditch. As the deck is being spread on the table, your left hand can also spread its four cards, in preparation for putting them inside the pack. Your right hand approaches the left hand cards (supposedly the four Kings), and takes off the top card, placing it up jogged into the spread. The left hand turns palm down and pushes down at the back of the spread to make it easier to put the apparent King into the spread. This also flashes a King at the face of your left hand packet, which is perhaps reassuring to the spectators that the cards haven’t switched. Repeat this process with the next two cards of the packet, turning your left hand palm down to help each time.

You are now left with one King in your left hand. Square the deck on the table, leaving the three apparent Kings up jogged. Now, because of the sharp bend you put into the four Kings, and the set up of the spreading ditch, you should notice a convenient break separating the top three Kings from the rest of the deck. Turn the final King face down and hold it from above in your right hand end grip. Here I use my left hand to point to a place somewhere up from and diagonally to the right of the deck. You will notice that this action mostly covers the deck. My right hand will apparently place its final King off to the side where my left hand is pointing, but of course on its way up to that corner, I pick up the three Kings using the break and put all four cards up there. At this point, I don’t drop the card there, as it’s quite difficult to pass off four cards as one in a practical way. Rather, I just hold them there in end grip. My left hand now squares in the three other “Kings” into the deck, and my right hand then immediately snaps the four Kings face up, to show the other three Kings have jumped from the deck to join the fourth King.

Diamond cut Diamond A group of cards are set off to the side at the beginning of the trick. A card is chosen from the deck and reversed in the centre of the deck. You ask the spectator to name a number from one to ten, let’s suppose they say 6. The tabled packet is picked up and you turn the cards over one by one to show they are the Ace to Ten of Diamonds. You deal the cards to show the Ace, Two, Three, Four and Five, but the Six you deal face down. The remaining Diamonds are dealt face up. Thus you have two different spreads of cards, one is the deck with the chosen card reversed in it, and the other is the set of ten Diamond cards, with the named number reversed at its centre. Some magical gesture is performed, and the two reversed cards are shown to have transposed! Sorry to say it, but this trick uses a duplicate card. I know, in some ways I hate myself for it, blit the use o f the duplicate makes this super clean. As Gabi would say, mat wmcn takes away with one hand, gives with the other; and yes, for this I was willing to compromise. So while we sacrifice a totally fair deck of cards, we gain a totally fair procedure. In this case, our duplicate card will be the Five of Clubs. It’s a good idea here to choose the duplicate to be a card that is quite a low value or a court card, and of a different colour to the ten numbered cards you use, as this aids the contrast later on in the effect. Set up the facedown deck from the top down as follows: Five of Clubs, Ten down to Ace of Diamonds, five indifferent Clubs, rest of the deck.

cards,

Five

of

Firstly, you want to perform the technical details of Alex Elmsley’s original Diamond cut Diamond effect. In my version of his effect, though, I want to delay the reveal until the very end. In order to accomplish this, ask

your spectator to name a number for one to ten. This should be done casually and without calling attention to it, as the hope is that with the arrangement of the effect, the audience will forget that they said their number right at the beginning. Remember the number they say. As soon as they’ve said their number, you say something along the lines of “oh wait, sorry, I should have done this at the beginning...” and begin Elmsley’s sequence. Mentally, you will subtract the number they named from 11, and reach a new number. So, suppose they named 5, you do 11 minus 5 in your head, hopefully arrive at 6, and remember 6. From a technical standpoint, you begin second dealing cards from the top of the deck, counting the cards in your head. Again, supposing the spectator said 5, the sixth card you deal should be a regular deal. Continue the deal, not breaking rhythm, till ten cards have been dealt to the table. The deals after the sixth card should be second deals again. So, in this example, the deals are: 5 second deals, 1 top deal, 4 second deals. This can and should be done rather quickly, but not hurriedly. You say nothing other than mentioning - and only mention it once - that you should have set those cards to the side earlier. Square this packet and set it to the side. This process has placed the Five o f Clubs at the named position (fifth), while removing that number from the stack. You will now take up the deck from the table and force the duplicate Five of Clubs via the same method explained in The Mystery Card plot. Thus you have the Five of Clubs face up in the face down deck. Square the cards and relax a little, mentioning that “we all know what the card is, but what’s more important here...” and while saying that, half pass everything under the top card of the deck. Thus the situation as it currently stands is the deck is face up (thought appears to be face down) with a face down Five of Diamonds at the top and a face down Five of Clubs in the centre. You continue your speech by “... what’s important here is the orientation of your card in the deck” and in that time you will perform a switch that I’m quite fond of. The switch makes use of the reverse spread, a move on which Lee Asher has riffed in his booklet Pulp

Friction. However, this switch, this particular use of the reverse spread, and the nuances herein, I haven’t seen in print. So, in the context of this effect, the switch begins with a discrepancy. From holding the deck in dealers grip, bring the deck up so it is parallel with your chest, and begin spreading the cards. This will display the backs to the audience and the faces to you. It is important to do something of a block push off of the top clump of cards of the deck, so as not to expose the face up Five of Diamonds at the now back of the deck. Spread through until you reach the selected card, and break the spread at the point, so that the selection is at the face of the right hand spread. It is usually at this point that

I’m

uttering

the

words “what’s more

important” of the prearranged ‘script’. Now you

want to perform the reverse spread with both halves of the deck, so that you effectively cut the deck at that point. The Five of Clubs will go to the bottom of the deck, while the Five of Diamonds will be switched into play in the centre of the deck. I usually lower my left hand while displaying the face of the selected card, and there is perfect time to reverse spread the packet in the left hand at this point.

Now you want to bring the deck round to your right hand side, as though showing the backs of the cards to the audience; as though you’re giving them a clearer view. You should also twist your body at the waist to turn to the right. In this large action, you should now square

the

r i g ht

hands

packet

and

immediately reverse spread it as you turn to the right. Thumb the top card of this right hand packet off and up jog it under the left

hand’s spread. The final touch is to now continue reverse spreading the right hands spread. This feels a little odd because this is the same packet that you’ve already spread at the start of the switch, but after a couple of practices this should be manageable. Bringing the cards round to your side is aesthetically very disarming, partly because of how natural a thing it seems to do. The actions appear to be totally above board.

You have successfully switched their selection for the Diamond! Oh, and it’s a lovely feeling every time you perform this switch, it’s so open. I move the cards as they are back to the table, and place them, still spread, on the table. You have to take care not to spread so far as to show the switched out selection in this moment. Now all that is left to do is to ask the spectator to name their number, saying something like “what number did you say at the beginning, 6?” An idea shown to me by Franco Pascali (which seems very Spanish and Tamariz-esque), is to mis-call some information a spectator has already told you when it comes to the point of using that information. A great moment here, when the spectator corrects you with the fact they thought of the number 5, is to repeat to them “Five...?” and then to pause for about one second, saying nothing, just looking at the packet. In this case, we know the spectator’s number, but in mis-calling it, strengthens the illusion that you couldn’t know the number, or knowledge of the number was not important until up to this point in the effect. Pick up the face down packet and deal the first couple of cards, turning them face up as you do, and say “we will imitate the situation in the pack with these cards here - you said 5... we’ll leave the 5 face down.” I deal the cards from right to left so they are in a slight spread on the table, not dissimilar to the spread of the deck. Now do some magical gesture, then show that in the centre of the deck is now the Five of Diamonds, and ask the spectator to turn the card amongst the Diamonds over.

Notes: While this trick uses a duplicate, because of the force and the switch, the back of the duplicate card is never seen. Thus the duplicate can be from an entirely different deck. This is usually how I perform this, as it means I can do the effect without having to find an identical pack of cards to mine. The trick can be done without a duplicate card, but it’s not as clean. I don’t do this, but you can, and it’s fun. The difference is that the Ten down through Ace of Diamonds are atop the deck without the force card on top of them. In the secret ‘ahead of time’ work, you deal down to where the number they named is, then just second deal every card after that, counting to nine cards. This reverses the order of the Diamonds on the table, so Ace is at the top, and removes the number-they-named of Diamonds from that packet. You can have a card chosen, but it’s not a force! You should turn the selected card over in the same way that you would if you were using the forcing method described here, so the selection is displayed face up at the centre of the face down deck. You continue in the usual way by

half passing the entire deck under the top card, then bringing the deck up to do the switch, but after the switch, you want to cop the bottom card of the deck (their switched-out selection). Now set the deck down, still spread, on the table, and pick up the packet of nine Diamonds. Ask the spectator their number again, possibly miscalling it, as you pass the packet (still face down) to your left hand, loading the copped selection to the face of the packet. Deal the Diamonds face up, one by one, until you come to their named number, then bottom deal that number face down into the spread, then continue by turning the remainder face up one by one to complete the spread. Transposition occurs as before. Cheers to George for suggesting this impromptu version.

Cull effect: You chat about the four Queens for a nondescript amount of time. You then ask a spectator to name a number from one to ten. They do so, and you spread the deck face up to call attention to the suit order of their named number (the four Sevens, for example), throughout the deck. You then set the deck down and the Aces, when placed in the same suit order as the Sevens, are shown to have changed into the Sevens. This section lets me discuss a great new feature of the cull and a little addition to the Ascanio spread. Turn the deck face up and remove the four Queens. Place them at the back of the deck (technically the top of the deck were you to turn the pack face down) and gesture by holding one of the Queens in your right hand. Begin spreading the deck again, asking a spectator

to

name

a card.

The

Queen

(Diamonds, here) goes under the spread, and rides under the deck. This will facilitate the following sleights, but also allow for a great

Spread through the deck calling attention to the suit order of the named four of a kind, in this case Tens, apparently just commenting on their positions while leaving each of them in the deck, but secretly culling each of them beneath the Queen that’s riding under the spread. Once you’ve culled the final Ten, you can immediately pick up the ‘Queens’ by just 44

rotating your right hand wrist inwards. This creates something of a slide for the deck to glide down, and also separates the culled packet from the deck! This makes it very easy to bring out the culled packet. You comment that “if you take the Queens...” - and the culled

packet

will

have

the

Queen

of

Diamonds on its face - “...and put them in the same suit

order

as the

four

Tens,

they

actually change into the Tens” (with correct suit order).

What is happening during all this is this: you set the deck aside and turn the ‘Queens’ face down, holding the packet in the right hand from above in end grip. Thumb off the top two cards, reversing their order, and simply spread to display the lower three cards as two without altering their order. The left hands cards go below the right hands, and now you perform

an ascanio spread,

removing the

double and placing it face up atop the spread.

You’re now ready to go into the mixing sequence, and during that sequence is the nerfeot time for the “if we put the Queens in the same order as the Tens...” bit.

This mixing process about to be explained looks great as an addition to the Ascanio spread, and I do this all the time when I perform the General Card.

ASCANIO SPREAD IDEAS This explanation is a little involved, but the mixing display here is over in about two seconds, and I’m sure you’ll have it down after about ten run-throughs. It should be performed slowly and calmly. And happily, and with dignity. Separate the cards as you would for your usual Ascanio Spread, but perform it more linearly, a tighter display. The pad/fingertip of your right forefinger should contact the upper right corner of the double, while your right middle finger goes under the double. By slightly twisting the wrist and trying to cross those two fingers (for good luck), you should be able to let go of the double with all other fingers. This handling also allows the top card of the display to glide over the top of the double without splitting the double, when moved by the thumb. So now you’re holding three cards in your right hand (a double and a single) between your forefinger, middle finger and thum b,

while

the

left

hand

holds

the

lowermost two cards, in the dullest way you can imagine - be creative!

If you move your right thumb upwards, this will cause the top card to spread forward, while not disturbing the double underneath. The left hand places its cards, still spread, atop this. Thus you’ve out jogged a card.

The left hand now holds all the cards, and your right hand releases its grip on its cards. Take the out jogged card out of the packet and place it on the bottom. Transfer the entire packet to your right hand and with your left hand reverse the order of the top

two cards of the packet. You’re now left with the cards in a neat spread. That’s it!

There is a great moment here if you leave the cards in the spread, where, if you hold them reasonably tightly, you can turn your right hand over to display the spread of Tens. I feel it’s a great time to end, since the punch is a little earlier than most.

A Childish Spelling Trick The deck is shuffled by a spectator, two cards are chosen, remembered, and lost in the pack. You explain how you can spell to the cards in the deck. You demonstrate with one example, then hand the pack to the spectator, they spell to their card. The spectator then hands the pack to the other spectator, who spells to their card. Tins is an example o f having an idea for how you might want an effect to look, then trying to create that as closely as possible. Let’s start! Spelling will work with other cards than the ones I’m using, just so long as the cards you substitute for have the same number of letters. I use the Queen of Diamonds and the Two of Spades. It is important to me that the spectators know the number of letters (number of cards) required to spell to each of these two cards is different. Though I don’t explicitly say “they have a different number of letters”, this is made clear by spreading each of the packets at the end of the trick. Cull the Queen of Diamonds and Two of Spades from the deck, and cop them out as you hand the pack to be shuffled. Take the deck back and load these two cards at the face of the deck, and swing cut the deck, holding the break. Now turn to one of your spectators and ask them to choose a card. You will perform a classic force on them, but there is a little bit of leeway because they can take one of two cards, not just one specific card. When they touch the back of one of your force cards, add, as if as an afterthought, that “well, why not try it with two, if you want,” and simply give them the two force cards. Turn to another spectator and ask them “would you mind remembering this one?” Now two spectators have chosen two cards, you just need to remember which card belongs to which spectator. Let’s assume Spectator A has the Two of Spades while Spectator B has the Queen. Ask Spectator A to hand you their card. You riffle down the corner of the deck with your thumb and place their Two somewhere in the middle, leaving it out jogged. Now ask Spectator B for their card, and as you do, continue riffling with your right thumb to count three cards. Place their Queen back in this position, but continue holding the tension of the cards with your left thumb, bending the lower part of the deck downwards. This should give the illusion of the two cards being separated by at least fifteen cards. The reality is that you have the Two, then three x cards, then the Queen.

Square the cards into the pack, catching a break above the Two, and as you do, riffle off two more cards to go onto the Two. Talk for a bit then cut the deck at the break, bringing the stack to the top. Now you need to do one In Faro, then one Out Faro, then spread to roughly half way in the pack and cull any card to the bottom of the deck. This should be done while talking and should appear pretty natural; you’ve just thoroughly shuffled the deck, and spread it once. The cull is necessary because there is one card too many for the Queen of Diamonds spell, so if you cull any one of those fifteen cards (excluding the Queen) to the bottom, you’re set. False shuffle as you continue to talk. Technically both selections can now be spelt to! However, to add a little bit more to this, I wanted to do a demonstration spell to begin with. Turn the deck so that the faces are towards you, and by spreading the deck, spell, one card per letter, the card at the face of the deck. You will arrive at a point where you need to cut the deck in order to make that card spellable, but don’t just cut it, or catch a break and cut to it later. What is nicer at this moment, I feel, is to use the reverse spread again. I break the spread at the point necessary to cut the face card into spelling position, and turn around to my right and do the same motions as the switch in the Diamond cut Diamond routine from earlier, minus the up jogging. I now continue spreading the cards, showing the faces of them to the audience, and explain how “I could go through and look for each card individually, but there’s an easier way... The cards actually tell us where they are!” You’ve just performed a cut when the most astute of audiences won’t think anything has happened. I love this reverse spread switch! Square up the deck, turn it face down and name the card you just saw at the face as an example. “For example, if I had chosen the Four of Clubs, I could spell F-O-U-R-O-F-C-L-

U-B-S...

and there it is!” Look at Spectator A, hand the deck to them and ask them to do

the same. They spell to their card too! Ask Spectator A to hand the deck to Spectator B, and they spell to theirs! Bow.

Crediting Et c. Reading List Expert Card Technique (1950) - Frederick Braue, Jean Hugard Effective Card Magic (1952) - Bill Simon The Cardician (1953) - Edward Mario The Dai Vernon Book of Magic (1957) - Dai Vernon The Tabled Palm (1957) - Edward Mario Advanced Fingertip Control (1970) - Edward Mario Million Dollar Card Secrets (1972) - Frank Garcia The Ascanio Spread (1976) - Arturo De Ascanio Larry Jennings on Card and Coin Handling (1977) - Larry Jennings The Complete Walton (1981) - Roy Walton Cards Hit (1984) - Jerry Sadowitz Thirty Five Years Later (1986) - Edward Mario Card Fixes (1990) - Jon Racherbaumer By Forces Unseen (1993) - Ernest Earick, Stephen Minch The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley (1994) - Stephen Minch Drawing noom Deceptions (1999) - Guy Hollingworth Pulp Friction (2000) - Lee Asher Movers and Shakers (2007) - Andi Gladwin, Tyler Wilson The Magician's Ltd Cookbook (2007) - Jack Parker, Andi Gladwin The Magic of Fred Robinson (2009) - Peter Dufhe The 75% Production and The Trick With No Method (2014) - Justin Higham Gabi Pareras Have another Sandwich - Millard Lichter Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) - George Orwell The Fountainhead (1943) - Ayn Rand

Thanks Fritz Alkemade, Steven Bridges, Gordon Bruce, Dan Buck, Dave Buck, Tony Chang, George Hage, Justin Higham, Will Houstoun, Jayne Ashenbury, Eric Hu, Marc Kerstein, Patrick Kun, Eireann Leverett, Oliver Mealing, Harapan Ong, Gabi Pareras, Pablo Poza, Ignacio Sanchez, Sunil Singh, Xavior Spade, Elliott Terral, Pipo Villanueva. Photography by the inimitable Ollie Mealing.

Best, Alex. September 2016