Carlyle Lecture Notes

F R A N C I S

C A R L Y L E

L E C T U R E

N O T E S

These lecture notes are from Carlyle’s papers and published posthumously.

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The Homing Card (Updated)

There are few card tricks that have a greater impact on a lay audience than this one. A spectator selects a card, marks it, returns it to the pack, and you immediately show it has gone to your pocket. You then repeat the effect in an even stronger way. Since I first released this trick in the original Stars of Magic series, I have made several changes in the handling and presentation that have markedly improved its mystery and dramatic punch. Here is the complete routine, evolved over a number of years of experience. Preparation: Empty your right trouser pocket. Locate the Eight and Seven of any suit. Put the Seven on top of the deck and the Eight, face outward, in the upper inside corner of the pocket. Grasp the pocket by the lowermost point and pull it inside out, making sure the card is well tucked up in the upper portion where it will not show. Now carefully tuck the pocket back inside, leaving the point still high up inside the pants, so that it may be grasped quickly by the fingers when you are ready to do the trick. Performance: Force the Seven (let’s say it’s the Seven of Spades). Hand the spectator a pen or pencil and tell him to put any kind of identifying mark on the card that he wishes: “Your name, your initials, a symbol, a number — anything you want, so long as you are the only person on the world who knows what it is.” As he marks the card, and before you have had it returned to the pack, show your right hand empty and say, “I want to show you that my pocket is empty.” Reach in, grab the point of the pocket, and turn it inside out. The Eight of Spades, of course, remains concealed in the pocket. Tuck the pocket back in, pulling the Eight down to the bottom while you do so. Now spread the cards for the return of the selected card and control it to the top of the deck. Snap your fingers twice over the pack with the right hand, and say, “Would you believe the card has already gone to my pocket?” Show the right hand to be clearly empty, reach into the pocket, and grasp the Eight so that the first and second fingers of the hand cover the index corner. Pull the card halfway out of the pocket, look at it and miscall it as “the Seven of Spades.” Push the card back down into the pocket. Look directly at the spectator and say, “Now, I could have a duplicate of your card. But I cannot duplicate whatever mark you have put on the card. Only you know what that mark is. How did you mark it?” As you say this, Top Palm the Seven (the Erdnase Top Palm, or Vernon’s “Topping the Deck” are both good here). At that moment all eyes are on the spectator. As he is about to reply to your question, move the right hand with the palmed Seven from the top of the deck to the pocket. As he answers, “With my initials, J.K.L.,” or whatever, you reverse the Seven inside your pocket and bring it out. Hold it as you did the Eight, with the first and second fingers concealing the index, but quickly turn the card upside down so that the opposite index is now showing right side up and call out, “Your initials, J.K.L. Your mark right on the card. Will you verify it, please?” and hand him the card. After his verification, take the card back, holding it face down. Say, “I want to ask you one question. Did I go to my pocket before I showed you the card there or did I do it by magic?” As you say this, suit the action to the words. On the words “go to my pocket,” thrust your hand into the pocket. Release the Seven, grab the Eight, reverse it, and All rights reserved The Miracle Factory www.miraclefactory.net

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bring it out face down. The easiest way to do this is to hold the Seven pinched between the first and second fingers as you go into the pocket, which leaves the thumb and first finger free to latch onto the Eight. All the while, the audience thinks the trick is over and you are simply waiting for the answer to your question from the spectator. Whatever he answers, you say, “You don’t seem too sure. Look, I’ll do it again, and this time you watch very carefully and remember everything.” With the left thumb, riffle the outer left corner of the deck until you reach a point about the middle where you stop, leaving a wide break. You are holding the Eight face down in the right and once again the first and second fingers are concealing the index as you push the card halfway into the opening in the pack. Now tilt both hands upward so that he can see the card going into the deck. The index of course is hidden. “Your card, with your mark,” you say, as you push the card the rest of the way flush. All the dirty work is over, so make the most of the presentation now. Hold the cards flat on the left palm and cut them once with the right, completing the cut slowly and very cleanly so everyone can see that you’re not doing anything. Now ask the spectator to extend his right hand and place the pack on it. Snap your fingers over the pack and make a short throwing motion as if taking an invisible card from the deck and tossing it toward the pocket. “Would you believe it’s in my pocket again?” you ask. Now raise both hands high and turn your right side toward the spectator. “Reach in, please, and take it out of the pocket yourself.” As he does so, you say once more, “Your card and your mark, right?” He agrees and you take your bow. Let me warn you that when this effect is well presented, there are few card tricks that can follow it.

The Coins Through Table

This great coin classic is the origination of the Chinese magician called Hang Ping Chien, so he is called by Walter Gibson in The World’s Best Book of Magic. The Bobo book of coin magic refers to the same Oriental wonder worker as Han Ping Chien, as does The Dai Vernon Book Of Magic; the Slydini book calls him Han Ping Chein, and a knowledgeable Chinese friend insists the correct spelling is Heng Ping Chien. Whatever the doubt about the spelling, there is no doubt that Chien achieved a measure of immortality with this great trick and authors of magic books will perpetuate his name, misspelled or not, for centuries to come. Most of the more recently published books and lecture notes have greatly altered the original handling of the basic move and in my opinion the changes have robbed the effect of the disarming appearance of total innocence that characterized the original. The basic move, of course, is the catch made when the left hand releases its coins and they are swept onto the table by the right hand. In the original version, the left elbow rested on the table with the forearm extended to the right at a 45 degree angle. The coins are clipped at the bottom of the left fist, which is a good nine inches above the table. The right hand makes a big sweeping arc coming down by the left fist and opens into a cupped position just as it passes the left fist, which releases its coins at that instant. As the cupped right hand continues downward, sweeping the coins from the left hand with it, the left fist moves quickly about six inches to the left, where it remains stationary while the right hand turns over on the table to reveal the coins. It’s really easy, requiring only timing and confidence. Done well, this move is absolutely invisible and the fact that it is done at that height where trickery would appear impossible avoids all suspicion. The modern versions which have the wrists of both hands on or near the table are to my mind suspicious looking and even though the spectator cannot see anything he can make a good guess as to when something happened that he didn’t see. My Routine: Seated at a table, you place three quarters to your left in a vertical line going away from you. Place three more to your right, paralleling the first three, and then place a half dollar in the middle. The two rows of quarters should be about a foot apart. With the right hand, pick up the three quarters on the right, counting aloud as you do so, “One, two, three quarters in the right hand, plus this half dollar.” Pick up the half dollar as you say the line. “I am going to put these coins under the table,” you say, as you put the right hand underneath. “The other three I will take in the left hand and force them right through the table to join the ones in the right.” While you pick up All rights reserved The Miracle Factory www.miraclefactory.net

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the remaining quarters with the left hand, the right deposits its quarters on the right leg just above the knee, retaining only the half dollar in the right fist. Look at the spectator and say, “Nothing has happened yet. Look, I’ll show you once more — three quarters in the left hand…” Slap the left hand down on the table and lift it to show the three quarters. Pick them up and now you execute the basic move: “And in the right hand three quarters plus the half dollar.” Once the coins are exposed on the table, the right hand picks them up and returns under the table, silently picking up the stack of quarters on the knee as well. With the left fist palm downward, work the left thumb and index finger together as if you were working one quarter from the fist into position between the forefinger and thumb. As you do this, the left fist approaches a point at the center of the table and you bend your body forward. At the same moment, the right hand approaches the same point under the table and works one coin from the fist into position between the thumb and forefinger. Look again at the spectator and say, “Listen — and watch.” You rap three times with the left thumb and forefinger (fist still closed, of course) and with each rap, you simultaneously rap the table underneath with the projecting coin in the right hand. Count “One, two, three…go,” as you do the rapping. Turn the left hand over to show it empty, straighten up in the chair, bring the right hand out from under the table, open it, and let all the coins fall slowly on the table. Now offer to repeat the trick, saying, “This time I’ll do it above the table.” You start off as before, but this time after the right hand has picked up the quarters, slide them into the thumb palm position as you reach for the half dollar. Continue to proceed as before; pick up the quarters in the left hand, show them that nothing has happened. Slap the left hand down on the table and expose the three quarters. Pick them up and get ready for the basic move. This time when you make the basic move, the right hand retains the stack of quarters in the thumb palm as it opens flat while passing the left fist and sweeps the half dollar and the quarters from the left fist onto the table. Now the right hand, palm down and with fingers slightly spread, moves back quickly to the edge of the table to a point where the knuckles are above the table edge. It is a perfectly natural movement here for the thumb and that part of the hand that is back of the knuckles to droop down slightly below the table edge. This provides great cover for the thumb palm. Again you say, “And in the right hand, three quarters plus the half dollar.” Now reach for the quarters and pick up two of them together before you close your fingers. This will account for any clinking sound made when the thumb palmed stack is added to those picked up. Now complete picking up the third quarter and the half dollar. This time you can’t do the under the table knocking, so you hold both fists about two feet apart from each other. Say, “One, two, three, go,” and shake both fists, letting the coins in the right hand jangle loudly. Open the left hand first to show it empty, then pour all the coins from the right onto the table.

Francis Carlyle on the Glide

Perhaps the most overlooked and underrated move in all of card magic is the glide. Fancy finger flingers who have mastered fifteen ways of making the pass look sneeringly down their noses at the glide as “early Hoffmann.” Yet the glide, correctly done, is a most deceptive move and opens up possibilities for great effects. 1. The Vernon Glide Dai Vernon’s Glide eliminates the awkward look of the original method. You pick up the pack, left thumb at center of one side, first and second fingers opposite, little finger free. Turn the hand to reveal the bottom card, and bring the right hand to the pack as the left hand starts to turn the pack face down again. The tips of the right first and second fingers are together about an inch from the right inner corner of the bottom card. The second finger touches the bottom card. Move the left little finger to the center of the left end of the pack. The rotating action of turning the pack, combined with a pushing action of the right second finger, moves the bottom card backwards against the left little finger. The card moves just enough for the right forefinger to touch the second card and pull it forward. At the same moment, the right second finger starts pulling the bottom card forward, aided by a push from the left little finger. Both bottom and second cards are moving to the right, but the moment the bottom card is aligned with the pack, you release the second finger while the forefinger continues to pull All rights reserved The Miracle Factory www.miraclefactory.net

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the second card. The right thumb goes to the right end of the card to assist the forefinger in taking the card cleanly and prevent any step from appearing. 2. Red and Black Aces An effective quickie with the glide. Arrange the Aces so that the Ace of Clubs is on top, red Ace next, Ace of Spades next, and the remaining red Ace. Show them quickly as you say, “Four Aces.” Close the fan, call attention to the red Ace on the bottom and do the Vernon Glide, laying the Ace of Spades face down on the table. In doing the glide, do not pull the bottom card back into full alignment but allow it to project slightly to the rear. You now have an automatic Double Lift of the top two cards, which you turn over to show the second red Ace. Turn the double back down and deal the top card (Ace of Clubs) face down on the face down Ace of Spades. The spectators believe the two tabled cards to be two red Aces. Fan the two face down cards in your left hand and say, “How observant are you? Is the Ace of Spades on the top or on the bottom?” If he says, “The bottom,” you say, “You’re right,” and reach with the right hand to the table and turn over the bottom card, showing the Ace of Spades. “It was the Ace of Clubs that was on top,” you say, as you turn over the other tabled card. “The two red ones are, of course, in my hand,” you say as you turn them over and drop them on the table. The trick is simple, direct, and easy to perform. But if you sell it well, very effective. I often follow this with Bert Allerton’s “Pump Room Fantasy” from Stars of Magic. 3. Henry Christ’s Pressure Trick Borrow a shuffled deck and hold it face down in the left hand in dealing position. Turn the hand over, bringing the cards face up and putting you in position for the Glide. Call attention to the bottom card, naming it. Now, with the deck still face up, the right fingers go beneath the deck, do the Glide and pull out, face up, the second card from what was the original top of the deck. Pull it halfway out of the deck, and leave it there while you call attention to it, naming it and calling it the top card. Push it back square, turn the deck face down, and drop it on the table. Take the top card and push it still face down into the middle, calling it the card you had shown earlier. Now pick up the deck in the left hand, once more show the bottom as you turn the deck face down and do the glide, taking the card second from the bottom in the right hand and pushing that into the middle. Take the deck face down in the right hand, dribble the bottom half of the cards onto the table, drop the rest on top, slap the pack and show that the two cards have returned to their original positions at the top and bottom of the deck. 4. Vanish for Stanley Collins Aces One of the finest of all the Four Ace Tricks, a good description may be found in Cy Enfield’s Entertaining Card Magic, Part Two under the title “Aces for Connoisseurs.” Space will confine my description here to the basic vanish which makes the trick so great, and which again depends on the glide. You have reached the point in the routine where the four Aces are face up on the table and each has four face down cards on it, although the spectators believe that each has three face down cards on it. Pick up one pile, pull out the face up Ace from the bottom of the pile, show it, and turn it face down on top. Take the packet in the left hand in position for the glide and pull out the bottom card. Turn it face up and place it on the table. Now do the same with the new bottom card. As you turn this one face up and place it on top of the already tabled face up card, the left fingers do the old fashioned glide, setting up an automatic double lift of the two top cards. The right hand comes back to the deck, takes the top two as one, turns them over face up, and places them on top of the tabled cards. You are now left with one indifferent card in the left hand, which you snap and turn over showing that the Ace has vanished. Drop this last card on top of those on the table. This procedure is followed with all four piles. Now put the piles still face up on top of each to form one large pile which you turn face down and put on top of the deck. Do a false shuffle and false cut and you are ready to do a poker deal with the four Aces landing in the third hand. Give the spectator a “magician’s choice” of the five hands so that he winds up with the third hand containing the four Aces. All rights reserved The Miracle Factory www.miraclefactory.net

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The Houdini Card

The trick is so named because the selected card makes a seemingly impossible escape from a pack which has been secured on all sides by an elastic. Performance: Have a card selected and returned, and control it to the top of the deck. Hold the pack face up in the left hand and get a little finger break above the selected card, which is now at the rear of the face up deck. Pick up an elastic in the right hand and loop it stretched between the thumb and first finger. Approach the inner corner of the deck and apparently slip the elastic onto the deck horizontally, but the bottom part of the looped elastic goes into the break. As you bring the elastic forward to the point where it has reached the half-way mark of the deck, it is actually sliding above the bottom card but is enclosing the rest of the deck. Now that you have the elastic horizontally at the half-way mark, the right hand takes the elastic in the middle, twists it, and stretches it vertically around the entire deck, including the bottom card. The position is now this: The deck is face up in the left hand. The elastic can be seen stretching both horizontally and vertically around the deck. On the underside of the deck, however, the elastic is stretching only vertically around the selected card. Call attention to the way the elastic has secured the pack. With the right hand, take the deck at the inner end and turn it over to the right to show the back of the deck. As you do so, let your thumb drag across the revolving pack so that it lies horizontally across the middle of the deck when the deck becomes back up. This conceals the absence of the horizontal elastic. There is another way of displaying the pack that takes a bit of practice but which can be mastered. You take the face up deck from the left hand with the right and toss it up in the air so that it revolves sideways several times. With proper timing, you can catch the deck face up. If it should land face down, you simply move the thumb into the position described in the previous paragraph to cover the missing elastic. Now you are set for the finish. You emphasize again how securely the deck is bound. Hold the deck face up in the left hand by the inner left corner, thumb on top, first and second fingers firmly against the bottom card. Now, with a wrist snapping action, you throw the deck onto the table, the left fingers retaining the bottom card, which of course is the chosen card. Display the card and say, “Examine that deck and see if you can get a card out of it the way it is bound.”

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