Life's A Beach By Gary Jones Vol1.pdf

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L i f e 's a B e a c h

Published by Magicseen Magazine First edition (2019) Printed in Great Britain. ISBN No. 978-0-9566539-9-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any other form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. © Effects copyright Gary Jones © Text copyright Magicseen Magazine Compiled by Graham Hey Edited by Mark Leveridge Designed, Typeset & Illustrated by Phil Shaw

Other titles published by Magicseen Magazine: WD40 - Wayne Dobson Wayne Dobson - The Definitive Collection Wayne Dobson & Friends Magicseen Magazine’s Best of British The Man Who Would Be King - Andrew Normansell A Magic Life - David Copperfield Crafted With Carey - John Carey The Travelling Trickster - Mel Mellers Congreave’s Curiosities - Chris Congreave A Lifetime in Magic Volume 1 - Devin Knight A Lifetime in Magic Volume 2 - Devin Knight

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FOREWORD

By Chris Congreave I’d heard of Gary Jones quite some time before we actually met. He had an “underground” reputation in those days as a superb magician, and a real wind up merchant. Turns out both are true. We first met at a lecture many years ago and hit it off straight away. We then met up again at a Blackpool convention and got chatting for a longer time, and it was then that I first started seeing some of Gary’s original effects. At that time I was performing material that I’d learned from other magicians, but it was Gary who helped and inspired me to try to develop my own material. In those days we used to spend hours chatting on the phone most days tweaking ideas and brainstorming stuff all the time. Gary is always happy to share his incredible knowledge with any magicians he meets, and I will say this, he has no ego whatsoever. Something else that many won’t know about him is that he can take a prop or trick that you have completely disregarded and come up with a brilliant routine for it. He used to come with me to a bricks and mortar magic shop (remember those?) pick up something from the bargain bin and then the next time I’d see him he would fool the heck out of me with it. When I asked him to write the Foreword to my own book he decided to share a story of when I got him with a wind-up, so I feel it’s only right to share that again here....

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L i f e 's a B e a c h We were out with a couple other magicians having a few beers. Now let me tell you, when out with Gary if you leave your cards unguarded, expect to come back to them shuffled face up into down, or gaffs missing etc. When Gary popped to the toilet I grabbed his cards, and instead of shuffling them face up and face down which Gary always did, I decided to write a VERY rude word on about 20 or so of Gary’s cards, and then put them back into the card box. Now, we were in a pretty rough pub near where I live and this guy came over with his young son and asked to see a trick. Gary is always up for sharing magic, even if he just goes to the corner shop he’s got a thumb tip, Coinvexed, an Omni deck and a dove on him! So Gary went to show them a card trick and asked the young man to take a card (yes from that pack) so I’m sure you’re ahead of me by now, but he went through the trick without knowing that the lad had chosen a card with the swear word on. When it came to the end of the trick Gary asked the lad to turn the card over. It was only then that Gary realised the card had the worst swear word in the English language written in bold letters right across the face of the card!! Gary was mortified, and we were in absolute hysterics. The guy took it well (it was a rough pub after all), but Gary has vowed to get his revenge.....so we now have to spend the rest of our days watching our backs haha! Now apart from all of that Gary is a fantastic creator, a superb performer (we’ve gigged together many times) but most of all he’s a great guy and I’m proud to call him my friend. I can’t wait to sit down and read this book - trust me you’re in for a treat. Chris Congreave February 2019

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C O N T E N TS

Foreword (by Chris Congreave).................................................................................3 Introduction..................................................................................................................7 Almost ACAAN.........................................................................................................11 Instant Sandwich........................................................................................................14 Aqua Ring....................................................................................................................17 ESP-ionage...................................................................................................................20 Ambitious Jazz............................................................................................................25 Grater...........................................................................................................................30 Metal Sheep.................................................................................................................33 No Luck........................................................................................................................36 Balducci, Balducci, Balducci.....................................................................................38 Homespun...................................................................................................................40 Fireballs........................................................................................................................44 Colour Changing Silk Surprise.................................................................................47 Card To Wallet Plus (by Paul Gordon)....................................................................49 Card To Wallet!...........................................................................................................52 Bottle Production.......................................................................................................54 Lead Free.....................................................................................................................55 Lead Free #2................................................................................................................58 Gary On Being A Pro.................................................................................................60 Do Or Die....................................................................................................................66 Peeky Blinders.............................................................................................................69 Ultimate Inversion......................................................................................................72 Mine and Yours...........................................................................................................75 Lucky Card..................................................................................................................78

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L i f e 's a B e a c h Pseudo Card Counting..............................................................................................80 Instant Reverse............................................................................................................82 Not Chosen.................................................................................................................84 Starter For Ten............................................................................................................87 One Short of a Full Deck...........................................................................................89 Thought of Cards Across Plus...................................................................................91 Pockets Predicted.......................................................................................................93 No Palm Signed Card To Card Box.........................................................................97 Shaken Not Stirred...................................................................................................100 STP (Switch, Tear And Peek)..................................................................................102 Six Cards To Pocket..................................................................................................107 Predicto Pocket.........................................................................................................111 Pro CUB (Pro Card Under Box)............................................................................115 No Count Oil and Water.........................................................................................118 TNT (by Lee Smith).................................................................................................123 The Top Con Control...............................................................................................127 No Palm Coins Through Table...............................................................................131 Marlo’s Future Reverse.............................................................................................134 Last Word..................................................................................................................135

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I N TR O D U CT I O N

First things first, I would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to the team at Magicseen for approaching me about writing a book, I feel honoured and humbled. Thank you Graham Hey, Mark Leveridge and Phil Shaw for the hours and hours you have put into this work. So, who is Gary Jones I hear you think....I am a professional magician and a hobbyist magician. By that I mean, my sole income is from magic, but that when I’m not performing magic professionally, I am jamming and sessioning with other magicians, and buying the latest trick. I never set out to be a full time magician, it just happened. And thirty years on I’m still a full time professional performer and still loving every minute of it just as I did when I first started. It all began when people said things like, ‘do you do this professionally?’ This was when I was showing a few tricks down the pub, or in cafés etc. I started to do a few shows here and there, and then it came to the time to give up the day job. My day job at the time was as an Outward Bounds Instructor. Basically I was, and still am, an adrenaline junky - although I no longer jump off mountains or climb down underground caves! Magic now feeds this urge, and when performing I just love to steal their watches, or load cards underneath the spectator’s glass, or load people’s pockets with weird and crazy things, to get that buzz! When I gave up the day job it also opened up a new world for me, a world of performing at some amazing venues, and it wasn’t too long before I built up a

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L i f e 's a B e a c h good clientele, which is the real secret to getting work. I will at some point write a book on this subject, time permitting.... Magic has been very kind to me, and during my spare time when not performing I can be seen in the local beach bars and cafés supping a cold beer or an extra hot latte. This would explain the cover to this book! I find I become very creative when I’m near the sea, or it could be to do with the beer :-) I have performed every effect in this book at some point, and quite a few are still in my working set to this day. I’m not afraid to use gimmicks. My goal is to get from A to B in the most direct way. If this requires a difficult sleight I will learn it, if it requires a gimmick I will use it. After all, the audience never sees the method, they just see the effect. Many tricks appear cold when in print, so you have to try them out to bring them alive. How many of you have been fooled by another magician performing an effect from a book that you own? I know I have on a number of occasions. Magic is a performing art, so try each of these effects and see what works best for you. If you think the effect suits your style, then work on it and add your presentation to it. Make it YOUR trick. This can only be achieved by trial and error, but if you don’t try you will never know! Here is something my old mentor Ron Heaver always drummed into me. Do not be afraid of failure, because failure is a product of trying, and if something goes wrong when performing a trick just shrug your shoulders and move on - do not dwell on it. This is really sound advice, but it’s only good advice if you take action and use it! Never give up if you make mistakes when learning new tricks or sleights. It’s all too easy to move onto the next trick or sleight when you reach a stumbling block, but often you just need to sit back for a few moments to take stock (I love this saying), and when you go back you will often find you will discover a way around the stumbling block/problem.

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I N TR O D U CT I O N I want this introduction to be short and sweet, so to finish this I would like to say ‘Thank You’ to a few special people who have helped me on this awesome journey. Special thanks go to the team at Magicseen for their hard work and dedication. Ron Heaver, my mentor and inspiration. Chris Congreave and Lee Smith who have been partners in crime both in creating magic, appearing on DVDs and in drinking dry many of the bars in the UK. Paul Gordon. I use so many of Paul’s creations in my own professional work as Paul has a real eye for what works in the real world. John Carey. John, like Paul Gordon, is a prolific creator/writer, and John has this amazing ability to take a knuckle busting trick and simplify it without losing any of the effect. And like Paul, I use a number of John’s effects in my working repertoire. And a really special ‘Thank You’ goes to Mark Bendell (The Unknown Magician). Mark and I create so many effects when we session. We meet or speak on a weekly basis, and I know for sure that Mark has a notebook choc full of effects we’ve created whilst supping a few bottles of Rioja. One day the magic world will hopefully see these creations....stay tuned. And the biggest ‘Thank You’ goes to........you for purchasing this book. Without your support this book would never have happened! Gary Jones February 2019

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ALMOST ACAAN

Effect The performer spreads the cards and asks the spectator to select one, look at it, and then replace it into the deck. They then square up the deck, so there’s no way the performer can know what the card is or where it is located. The performer then asks the spectator to give him a number between 3 and 40. “There are 52 cards, so if you choose a really high number we’ll be here all day, and if you choose 1 or 2, then it won’t be very impressive….” Let’s say they select ‘17’. The performer hands the deck to the spectator and tells them to deal off 16 cards and place the 17th card to one side. They do this… and the 17th card is THEIR card!!

Set-Up From the top of a face down deck, arrange cards in the following order: ANY single indifferent card. Then 39 identical duplicate cards, followed by ANY 12 indifferent cards amongst which should be the four Aces.

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Gary says

When I use a stack of duplicates as in this effect, I also sign each card with the same person’s name – in the same place, as if it has been signed during a routine – this gives the effect an added ‘convincer’ – I also add a little smudge of ink in one of the corners. These little bits of extra detail can make a big difference!

Working 1. Spread the cards and let the spectator select one. All you have to make sure is that she doesn’t take either the very top card or one of the last few cards. She obviously has to take one of the duplicate stack! Having remembered the card the spectator is invited to return it to the centre of the deck. 2. If you have a table at your disposal, you could spread the cards on the table and ask them to push one card forward, have a look at it, replace it in the middle, and then square up the deck into a pile. 3. Now, if you can do a false cut, this is the time to do it once or twice. 4. Tell the spectator they are to choose a number, to see if they can find their card. “Choose a number maybe between 5 and 40?” Let’s say they choose the number 17. 5. Hand the deck of cards to the spectator (or you could do this yourself, if you are not confident enough to hand the deck over) and ask them to deal 16 cards off the top of the deck into a face down pile on the table, and then to place the 17th card to one side. You then take the remaining cards off the spectator and leave them in a pile of their own on the table next to yourself. 6. As if having an afterthought, you pick up this pile again and turning it over you say: “I hope you didn’t choose an Ace did you? Oh, no, all the Aces are here!” As you patter you turn the pile face up and spread some of the bottom block of cards which will show a whole selection of indifferent cards with the Aces scattered amongst them. This reinforces that the deck is normal, as all the cards they see are different!

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ALMOST ACAAN 7. The other pile on the table is the pile dealt off to get to the chosen number. If you wish, you can reverse spread this pile on the table and pick up the lowermost card and flash its face. As this was previously ON TOP OF THE DECK, it will be an indifferent card. Again, this reinforces that the cards are all different! 8. All that remains is for you to ask the spectator to turn over the card they dealt to which was the 17th from the top of the deck. It is their freely chosen card – and it is genuinely theirs, as it has the signature on and everything!

Make sure you have different material for reception work (drinks reception). Remember, you may not have a working surface, i.e. no hands or tables etc.

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Effect A freely chosen, signed card visibly jumps from the centre of the deck to the top, sandwiched between two Kings.

Comments This was developed over 10 years ago in a session with UK card magician Ron Heaver. A similar effect was recently put into print by David Jade in Magic magazine (great minds think alike!!!).

Set-Up Simply have the two black Kings on top of the face down deck.

Working 1. Flip the two black Kings face up on top of a face down deck and get a little finger break under the top three cards. Lift off these three cards in a right hand Biddle Grip. Fig.1. 2. Using your left thumb, reach across and peel off the first King back onto the deck, placing the second black King, along with the face down card below it (as one card), face up on top.

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INSTANT SANDWICH

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3. Transfer the deck to the right hand and hold it in a Biddle grip. Dribble the cards into the palm up left hand and ask a spectator to call stop. Outjog the card they stop at. Place the remainder of the cards back on top of the outjogged card. Fig.2. 4. Strip out the outjogged card (keeping it face down) and place it on top of the deck. Immediately triple lift and turn over the top three cards as one. Ask the spectator to remember this card, and then turn the triple down face down again.

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5. Put the top ‘selected’ card into the centre of the deck but outjogged for about an inch. 6. Pull back the top two cards as one for about half their length. The spectators will see two face up Kings on top of the deck and a face down card outjogged half way down the deck which they believe to be the selected card. Fig.3. 7. Push in the outjogged card with your first finger of the hand holding the deck and at the same time, with the other hand pull back the upper King to reveal a face down card in between the Kings. 8. Show the spectators the face down card to be their selected card. The card could be signed if you wish.

GARY SAYS There is a discrepancy when executing the intial triple lift. The second King will be seen instead of the one that is on the face of the deck. This flies by, but if it does bother you, you can substitute the black Kings for two identical Jokers. 16

AQUA RING

Effect The performer ties a ring on to a string of dental floss. It is then handed to the spectator to examine – it really is tied on to the string! It is then all placed into a cup of water, as the performer says he is trying to re-create Houdini escaping from a water tank! The spectator then removes the dental floss from the cup – and the ring is now missing and is found loose inside the cup of water! The ring has miraculously escaped from the dental floss! This is a real miracle and works with a totally devious and unfathomable method! This effect is one you will do over and over again!

Comments This effect uses PVA string, which you can get at any supplier of fishing equipment! It is dissolvable string (used by fishermen to tie dissolvable bags containing bait. They throw the bait bag out into the river, and the string AND the bag dissolves, releasing the bait without harm to the environment!) One small reel of this will last you a lifetime!

Requirements PVA string from a fishing supply shop (or online), some dental floss. A cup of water. You will borrow a ring from a spectator.

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Set-Up

Tie a loop of dental floss (about 12 inches in length). You will tie a ring on to PVA string that needs to be about the same length. You will also need a cup of water, about half full. Place the tied loop of dental floss into the water, pushing it down so that it is completely in the water. Do not draw much attention to the cup or water.

Working 1. Ask the spectator if they’ve heard of Houdini. Tell them about his famous water tank escape where he is chained up and then locked in a tank full of water, and then he has to try and escape before he drowns! You say you are going to recreate this amazing escape in miniature with a ring. Ask to borrow a ring from someone. 2. Remove about a foot of dental floss, or have a foot length cut off, ready. (This will really be the PVA string. A good idea is to have the PVA string wrapped in a dental floss reel for the ultimate deception!! DO NOT LEAVE IT ON THE PVA REEL!). 3. Proceed to tie and knot the ring on the string. Then let the spectator examine it, to make sure the ring really is securely tied within the string. 4. Hold up the cup at eye level and ask the spectator to drop the string and the ring into the cup. The performer pushes it down, to make sure it really is under the water, just like Houdini! 5. The PVA string now takes about 5 seconds to dissolve, so just give a re-cap about how they examined the knotted loop and the ring was definitely secured – by which time the string will have completely disappeared, leaving the ring loose. Also in the cup is the genuine dental floss placed in there during the set-up.

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AQUA RING 6. The PERFORMER now looks in to the cup and puts his fingers in to bring out the first little bit of ‘dental floss’ and asks the spectator to take over and pull it out of the water! “Make sure the dental floss is still tied and knotted!” (At this point, the cup can be placed on to the table as there is nothing that needs to be hidden). 7. Once the string has been examined, the performer reaches in to the cup and brings out the ring! The performer has to do this as there may be a tiny bit of residue from the dissolved string left on it. When you bring out the ring, just casually ‘dry it’ on a tissue or with your fingers…

Gary shares his packet of Opal Fruits.

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Effect The performer shows five cards, each with a symbol drawn on the front. The backs of the cards are blank. He also shows a small envelope on which he has drawn a selection of the same symbols as on the cards. The cards are handed to the spectator, and she is asked to mix them up, then look at one, and place the selected card into the envelope face down, and to place all the other cards out of the way. She does this. The performer says he is going to tap all the symbols on the envelope with his pen, but when he taps the spectator’s symbol, she is not to give him any clue that it is the one she selected. He taps all the symbols, and then asks the spectator to do the same. He detects that she is drawn (for example) to the CIRCLE. The card is removed from the envelope, and it is the CIRCLE! Now the performer says he is going to do a different experiment. He asks the spectator to mix up all the cards face down, select one and place it into the envelope face down. This time, the spectator doesn’t know which symbol she has selected. The remaining cards are removed. The spectator now holds the pen, but her wrist is held by the performer. He says she will tap random symbols and if the spectator gets a feeling about any symbol in particular, she has to stop. She proceeds to tap the symbols and she stops on the TRIANGLE symbol. She removes the card from the envelope and it is the TRIANGLE! 20

ESP-IONAGE This is a brilliant, self-working routine that really should be marketed! You’ll use this all the time, as it is very clever and completely baffling!

Set-Up/Making the gimmicks You need to make a gimmicked ball point pen. All you need to do is place the smallest magnet you can get hold of into the pen lid as far down as it will go, along with some glue to keep it in place. Then let it dry. Each of the five symbol cards are also gimmicked. Again, this is pretty easy to do and will take you about 10-20 minutes, but once you have made them, they will last for years. For this you will need some very thin, metal shim. You need to cut nine very small squares of shim. You will also need ten double blank playing cards. Draw one of the five symbols (Circle, Cross, Triangle, Square and Star) onto each of the first five cards. Turn the cards face down ready to stick the metal shim into place. Now imagine the playing card divided into nine sections. This is where you are going to stick the metal shim for each of the five different cards. Fig.1. Note how the numbers are placed so it doesn’t matter which way around the card is put into the envelope the metal shim will always be in the same position for each number. Once all the shims are stuck into place take the remaining five double blank playing cards and glue them onto the backs of the shimmed cards sandwiching the shim between them. You have now created 5 double thickness cards.

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Make sure the cards are face down when positioning the shims

This is the order for the shims. Fig.2. The Circle (as it is one continuous line) Place the squares of shim in position(s) 1 The Cross (as it is two single lines) Place the shims in position(s) 2 The Triangle (as it has three lines) Place the shims in position(s) 3 The Square (as it has four lines) Place the shims in position(s) 4 The Star (as it has five points) Place the shim in position 5 You are now going to mark the symbols onto the envelope. One at a time, place each card into the envelope. Use your magnetised pen lid to tap each card. You are now going to draw symbols on to the envelope. For example: Place the CIRCLE card in to the envelope face down. Tap your pen lid on position/s one – and draw a little circle over where each shim is positioned! Then place the CROSS card into the envelope, face down, and where the shims are (position 2) draw a little cross over both shims. Continue to do the same with the TRIANGLE, SQUARE AND STAR cards. Now you have to fill in the remaining ‘decoy’ shapes. Look at the envelope illustration and fill in the remaining shapes. Fig.3.

NOW LET’S TEST IT OUT! Mix up the cards face down so you don’t know which is which. Now place one of them into the envelope face down. Take your pen (with the lid on) and tap each symbol. When you feel the pull of the magnet, the symbol the pen is on should be the same as the one drawn on the card inside. Take a look, if it IS, then you have set up the gimmicked shims correctly. Try it will all the cards.

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VO L U M E O N E

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Working 1. Show the five different symbol cards and the envelope with the symbols drawn on it. 2. Ask the spectator to mix up the cards, select one and to place it face down into the envelope, then remove the other cards from view. 3. The performer has the pen in his hand with the lid on. He says he will tap the symbols, but the spectator is not to give him any clue with their facial expression as to which symbol she has selected. 4. As he taps the symbols, he can feel by the magnetic pull which card is in the envelope! Let’s imagine it is the circle. YOU MUST HOLD THE ENVELOPE DOWN AS YOU DO THIS, OR THE MAGNET WILL LIFT THE ENVELOPE WHEN IT CONNECTS WITH THE SHIMMED CARD INSIDE. 5. He then casually removes the lid and places it on the bottom of the pen, so that the nib is showing, and hands it to the spectator. She proceeds to tap the symbols in any random way…. The performer then says he ‘senses’ that she had been drawn to a particular symbol! Let’s say he suggests she is drawn to the CIRCLE! “I believe you have selected the circle card!” She removes the card from the envelope and it is the CIRCLE!

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Now for the second part of the routine 1. Ask the spectator to mix up the cards face down, select one and place it into the envelope – again face down - so that neither she nor you knows which symbol has been selected. 2. When she has done this, you re-cap what she has just done, and use the pen to tap the different symbols, to show that she could have chosen ANY of the five symbols. As you do this, you discover which symbol card has been selected, by the feel of the magnetic pull. (Let’s say in this example that you know the TRIANGLE is in the envelope). *Remember that as you tap the envelope, make sure you hold the envelope to make sure it doesn’t ‘lift up’ with the pull of the magnet touching the hidden shim. 3. Tell the spectator that this time, you are going to try something different. Place the pen into her hand, casually turning it over, so the magnetised lid is away from the envelope – and take a hold of her wrist. 4. Tell her to move the pen and slowly tap the different symbols - and to stop when she feels the urge. Let her tap the symbols – but when she taps the triangle drawing, you ‘stop’ her arm from moving. You can say: “You stopped there, did you feel something strange? – Anyway, carry on, and just stop when you feel anything…” Again, let her tap the different symbols, but when she taps the triangle, stop her hand from moving any further. 5. “So, you’ve stopped on the Triangle again… that’s strange!” Invite the spectator to remove the card from inside the envelope – it’s the TRIANGLE! *Remember that there’s so much going on inside the spectator’s mind, and she is aware that NEITHER of you could possibly know what symbol card is inside the envelope, so it must be a greater power that is making her stop of the same symbol! This is a fabulous and baffling trick!

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AMBITIOUS JAZZ

Effect Four KCs and four 2Hs are shown. The Kings are placed onto the table, the 2Hs are left in the hand. The first King is taken and placed on the bottom of the 2Hs packet and it instantly appears on the top. This King is placed aside. The packet is shown to contain just 2Hs. The next King is placed in the centre of the 2Hs packet. Again, it instantly appears on top, and is placed aside. The packet is again shown to contain just 2Hs. The next King is placed in the centre and it instantly appears on top and is placed aside. The packet is again shown to contain just 2Hs. The final part happens out of the magician’s hands, as the cards are just placed on top of the last King as it melts up through the rest of the 2Hs to the top.

Comments This is a mix between Peter Kane’s sensational Jazz Aces, and Larry Jennings’s Ambitious Classic.

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Set Up Four KCs and four 2Hs are needed. You don’t have to use these exact cards, as all you need are four duplicates of one card and four duplicates of another card, but these contrast well. Arrange a face up packet with the four Kings on top of the four 2Hs.

Working 1. Spread the packet face up to show the Kings on top of the 2Hs. As you square up, get a break under the fifth card from the face, which is the uppermost 2H. 2. Lift up on the break, taking these five cards, (supposedly only four) into a right hand Biddle grip. Use these cards to flip the cards in the left hand face down as you then place the cards in the right hand on top, turning them face down as you do so. 3. The situation is now from the top down: Two, King, King, King, King, Two, Two, Two. Fig.1. Deal the first card face down onto the table without showing its face. Then deal the next three cards on top of this. You can casually flash their faces if you want.

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AMBITIOUS JAZZ

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4. You now have four cards in your left hand. From the top down it is King, Two, Two, Two. Fig.2. You need to rearrange the order of these cards a little. To do this, with the left thumb, push the top card (King) to the right and take it with the right fingers. The next card is pushed over and taken on top of this card (Two). The next two cards are pushed over one at a time and taken under the right hand cards. This leaves the pile in a face down order of Two, King, Two, Two. Fig.3.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 5. These cards are then replaced into the left hand. Whilst doing the first sequence, your patter is basically: “Eight cards, four Kings, fours 2Hs. If I place the four Kings on the table that leaves me with four cards in my hands.” 6. Now you turn the cards in the left hand face up and Elmsley Count the cards, showing four 2Hs. In reality three 2Hs have been seen, and the King is now on the bottom of the face up packet. 7. Turn the packet face down and take the first King from the pile on the table. Show its face and place it openly face down on the bottom. Snap your fingers or make a magical gesture and turn over the top card, showing it has supposedly melted up to the top. Place this card to one side. 8. Elmsley Count the cards face down saying, “Only four cards used in the hands...”. This positions the King that was on the bottom, second from the top. 9. Turn the packet face up as you again Elmsley Count to apparently show four 2Hs and which also places the King on the bottom of the face up packet. Turn the packet face down again. During this face up Elmsley Count you say, “...and those cards are the four 2Hs.” 10. Fan the packet in your hands face down and hold it in the right hand. Take the next card from the tabled pile with the left hand and flash the face of the King as you place it into the centre of the fanned cards, making it third from top. 11. Square up, make a magical gesture and again show it has risen to the top. Place this King to one side. Due to the handling, the next King is already positioned so that if you now turn the cards face up again and Elmsley Count the cards again, four 2Hs will once more be displayed, with the hidden King again will be displaced to the bottom of the packet. 12. Turn the cards face down and fan them again in the right hand. Pick up the next King, flashing its face, and place it in the centre again, but leave it outjogged. Now comes a nice subtlety to show supposedly the King amongst four 2Hs.

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AMBITIOUS JAZZ 13. Turn the cards face up in the left hand. Thumb the top two cards over into the right hand, as you say; “Two 2Hs are beneath the King...” Here a 2H will also be visible under the upjogged King when you remove the top two cards. 14. Replace the right hand’s cards onto the left hand packet, turn the packet face down, and push the top two cards into the right hand one at a time, without changing their order. You continue, “And two 2Hs are on top of the King.” 15. If you keep these two cards reasonably squared you can flash the face of the lowermost 2H in order to corroborate what you are saying. Drop the two cards back face down onto the King. 16. Slowly push the outjogged King flush with the packet, showing its face a couple times to the spectator before pushing it completely flush. Turn over the top card and it seems as if the King has melted to the top again. Place this King with the other two Kings to one side. 17. Turn the packet face up and Elmsley Count to show the four 2Hs. Now comes the easiest King of all. Place the left hand’s cards face down on top of the final card on the table, and immediately turn over the top card and show the King has risen to the top. 18. Drop this King over with the other Kings and flip over the tabled face down cards to show the four 2Hs.

Gary says When I perform this effect, I do everything in the spectator’s hands. So, I count the Kings at the start onto the spectator’s hand rather than the table and just use the spectator’s hands as tables. It makes it seem like the magic happens in their hands, and they are more involved. It also means you can do the effect in walkaround situations.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h

Effect A spectator shuffles the deck and then cuts the cards and remembers the card they cut to. The performer asks the spectator to now change the card in their mind. If they selected a number card, they must change it to a picture card – and vice-versa (of the same suit). The spectator now names their card, and the performer brings out a miniature grater. Folded inside the miniature grater is the card they selected after changing their mind! The performer then reads the mind of the spectator and reveals the name of the card they ORIGINALLY selected!

Requirements Three miniature graters. These are usually used for grating ginger or chocolate. They are inexpensive. A deck of cards.

Set-Up Inside each grater place a single card: JH, QH and KH. Put a little mark on each grater with a marker pen so that you know which card is in which grater. The spectator will only ever see one of the graters, so this mark can be very obvious and it will not mean anything to them. The graters are then placed into your pocket. Or alternatively, you could have the three graters in three different pockets instead.

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GRATER

Working 1. Give the deck to a spectator and ask them to shuffle it. Once they have done so, you need to get a HEART card (but not a picture card) to the top of the deck. The best way to do this is to turn the cards face up and show that they are now well shuffled, and then casually cut a Heart card to the top of the deck. Remember this card. 2. Now you are going to do the cross-cut force. Get the spectator to cut the cards into two piles, and YOU place the bottom portion ON TOP of the top portion of cards at an angle. “We’ll mark the cards exactly where you cut them…” 3. Ask them to look at the card they cut to – the top card of the lower portion - which you know is a HEART SPOT CARD. Then ask them to replace their card back into the deck anywhere they like and to give the deck another shuffle, so their card is well and truly hidden in the deck. 4. You now say: “Let’s make this more interesting – I want you to CHANGE YOUR MIND! Whatever card you selected, I want you to change it, but keep the same suit. If you were thinking of a number card - Ace/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10 - I want you to think of a picture card instead… and if you are thinking of a picture card – Jack, Queen or King - I want you to think of a number card instead!” Make sure they understand what they have to do. This forces them to think of either the JH, QH or KH. 5. “So, you now have a card in your mind?” They say ‘Yes’, and you ask them to name the card they are thinking of. Let’s say they name the QH. 6. You say: “I hope you like this trick – but this is a little GRATER!” As you do this gag, you bring out the grater that has the QH folded inside it. You’ll know if you have the correct one by where you put the dot! 7. Comment that you haven’t got 52 graters on your person - (tap your pockets etc), and then remove the card from inside the grater – it’s their selected card!

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 8. Remember that THEY shuffled the cards, then cut them, and then changed their mind about which card they wanted! This itself is a brilliant trick, but now you still have some other information. As you know which card they originally selected before you had them change their mind, you can now add another element to the trick. 9. Say something along the lines of: “Now, you originally chose a number card, didn’t you – because you then changed it to a picture card….?” And now you can look into their eyes and do your ‘mind-reading’ bit to reveal what card they originally chose!

Gary surprising the ladies with his ‘final load!’

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METAL SHEEP

Effect Two 2p pieces and five 10p pieces are placed in a row on the table with the 2p coins at each end. The magician says that he is going to try and get the two 2p coins into his right hand and all the 10p coins into his left without the spectators seeing. He proceeds to pick up one coin with each hand from each end until all the coins are in his closed hands. He makes a magical gesture and asks if the spectators saw the coins move between his hands? They didn’t of course, so he places the coins back down on the table. Again, he picks up the coins from each end, and magically this time when he opens his hands, his right hand only contains the two 2p pieces and his left hand contains all the 10p coins!

Requirements You need two 2p coins which are double sided (copper/silver) – they have a 10p on the other side - and five normal 10p coins.

Set-Up Place the double sided coins with the 2p facing upwards at each end of a row of 10p coins. You are now ready.

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Working 1. Begin to pick up the coins like this: Pick up a 2p coin with your palm down left hand, making sure the coin rests with the 10p side against the fingers. 2. Now pick up the other 2p from the other end of the row with the palm down right hand, the 10p side also resting against the fingers. 3. Next pick up the 10p at the far left end of the row with your left hand, stacking it on the 2p side of the fake coin. 4. The right hand does the same with the coin on the right end of the row and you continue alternating hands and picking up 10p coins until all have been collected. 5. At this point you will have three normal 10p coins in your left hand on top of the 2p side of the double sided coin, and two normal 10p coins in your right on top of the 2p side of the fake coin. 6. As you patter, allow the piles of coins to secretly turn over in your hands so that the fake coins are now on top. 7. You are now going to begin placing the coins back onto the table, starting with your RIGHT hand. The first coin you put down will be the fake coin, 10p side face up. Now place the first coin from your left hand (this will be the fake coin 10p side face up) to the left of the first coin. 8. Continue placing coins down on the table in a row from right to left, alternating your hands. The two fake coins will be the two at the RIGHT end of the row. They will both appear to be 10p pieces. 9. Once you have a total of five coins on the table, stop. At this point you will have no coin in your right hand, but you must keep your fist closed as the spectator thinks you have a 2p coin still left in there. In your left hand, you

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METAL SHEEP will have two normal 10p coins – but the spectators will think you have a 2p coin left in there too. On the table it looks like you have simply placed down the five 10p coins. 10. Now you begin to collect the 10p coins again, starting with your left hand and alternating as before with your right hand until all the coins have been picked up again. 11. At this point you will now have the two fake coins in your RIGHT HAND and the five NORMAL 10p coins in your LEFT HAND. With your closed fists together (knuckles facing upwards) you simply place the two fake coins in your right hand onto the table 2p side upwards and spread them slightly. The 2p coins are now together! Then you are left with all the normal 10p coins in your left, so you can drop them onto the table as a final flourish! 12. Pick up all the coins and place them into your pocket.

Practise your outs. If things can go wrong, they surely will, trust me! 35

L i f e 's a B e a c h

Effect The performer tells the spectator that he is one of the world’s unluckiest people, that everything he does, he’s ‘off by one!’ He hands over three dice and asks the spectator to stack them one on top of the other – and they are going to add up all the numbers that are hidden when stacked. The spectator stacks the dice, and the numbers are added up. In this example the total is 20. The performer opens his prediction, which has been on the table all along, and he tips out a card which has the number 19 written on it. As he predicted earlier, he’s off by one again!

Set Up You will need three normal dice, plus a two-way envelope or purse/wallet etc. You could just have a normal envelope with a divider in the middle. Take two blank cards and write the number 16 on one and the number 19 on the other. Slip them into the envelope making sure you know which compartment contains which number.

Working 1. Tell the spectator that you are one of the world’s unluckiest people – you are always ‘off by one’ when it comes to luck. For example, your next door neighbour won the lottery – YOU were one house away from the winner! Then, you were just about to sit down on the bus, but someone in front of you

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NO LUCK took the seat, and found a ten pound note there! You were ‘off by one’ again… and then you placed a bet on a horse, and it came second! You are always ‘off by one’! Today, you’re going to see if you can be luckier than normal. 2. Show the prediction envelope and place it in view on the table. Then introduce the three normal dice. You ask the spectator to stack the dice on top of each other in any way, and you are going to add up all the numbers that you cannot see due to the way they are stacked. 3. The spectator stacks the dice, and you ask her if she would like to change any of the numbers. When she is happy with the way she has stacked the dice, you now add up all the ‘unseen’ numbers. 4. You will add the number on the bottom of the top die, with the two numbers that are top and bottom of the centre die, and combine that total with the top and bottom numbers of the bottom die. 5. Because the total of the numbers on any opposite sides of a die will always total 7, it means that it is only the number on the bottom of the top die of the stack which will create a different total. So, this means that the only totals that can be arrived at are 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. 6. If the spectator’s total comes to 15 or 17 you remove the prediction card showing 16 (so, you’re ‘off by one’ as you said you would be), while if it’s 18 or 20 you take out the 19 prediction card, again fulfilling your ‘off by one’ prophesy. 7. If the total comes to either 16 or 19 – you will obviously NOT be off by one, as your prediction will be spot on. So, say this: “So you stacked the dice in the order that you wanted – and you predicted 19! (Tip out the correct prediction card) and YOU ARE SPOT ON! If I’d done that I would have been off by one!”

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Effect A completely impromptu, self-working prediction of three cards.

Comments Inspiration for this effect came when I discovered that after doing the Balducci Cut Deeper Force, you could actually force three cards. Also, you could cut the deck as often as you like, and these force cards wouldn’t change their positions. Armed with this knowledge I decided to work out the prediction sequence explained below.

Working 1. Have the deck completely shuffled by the spectator. You will now remove three cards as your predictions. The first card you remove is the mate of the card on the face of the deck. So, if the face card is the 2S, you remove the 2C. Place this card face down on the table. 2. Spread the deck so you can see the top two cards. You will remove the mates to these two cards starting with the card second from the top followed by the mate of the top card itself. If the card on top is the 8H, and the card second

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BALDUCCI, BALDUCCI, BALDUCCI from top is the JC, you will initially remove the JS and place it on top of your first prediction, followed by the 8D. 3. Hand the deck face down to a spectator and instruct them to cut about a third of the deck and to turn these cards face up and replace them onto the rest of the face down deck. Have them now cut the deck in half and complete the cut. The situation is; the top third of the deck is face down followed by a face up third and the last third face down. 4. Have the spectator to turn the whole deck over and give the deck another complete cut. If they cut to a face down card have them cut again until a face up card appears. 5. Take the cards back from the spectator and spread the deck and remove the first batch of face up cards and place them onto the table to your left. Take the next face down card, (the top card) and place it face down onto the tabled packet. This is the mate to the first prediction card. 6. Remove all the face down cards and place them to the right of the first pile. The top card of this pile will match your second prediction. Place the remaining face up cards to the right of the other two piles, the card on top will be your third prediction. 7. Turn over the top card of the far left packet and replace it back onto its packet, do the same with the middle packet. The top card on the last packet is already facing up so you don’t need to do anything. The cards are now ready to reveal. 8. Remind them that they shuffled the deck, you took out three predictions and they cut the deck several times. Turn over your prediction cards to show that they match the top card of each packet.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h

A sensational sleight-free effect, with credit to the fabulous Shaun McCree.

Effect The performer places a folded piece of paper down onto the table. He says there are two things on the piece of paper; one is a prediction that may or may not prove to be correct, and the other is a FACT. The prediction is placed to one side. The spectator shuffles the cards, then cuts them in half and in half again. She is invited to pick up the final pile of cards she cut, and to count them. The performer asks her how many cards she has. Let’s say she has 7 cards. He opens the prediction which says: ‘YOU HAVE 13 CARDS!’ He says this was his prediction – and predictions aren’t always correct, but he also wrote a fact. He opens the paper further to reveal that it says: ‘I ALWAYS GET THAT WRONG!’ The spectator is invited to select one of the cards from her packet of cards, to remember it and return it. The cards are then mixed up. The spectator shuffles them too. The performer then places ONE CARD in his pocket. The spectator names her chosen card. And the performer removes her very card from his pocket! The performer then replaces the spectator’s card back into the pile, and makes a magical gesture, saying the card is now travelling invisibly up his sleeve and into his jacket pocket! He asks the spectator to count the cards left. She does so, and

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HOMESPUN there are now only 6. The spectator removes the selected card from inside his jacket pocket once more! This is a high-impact, sleight free effect.

Set-Up Have a piece of paper which is folded in half and in half again. When you unfold the paper the first thing you should see is the phrase: ‘YOU HAVE 13 CARDS!’ and when you unfold it one more time, write the phrase: ‘I ALWAYS GET THAT WRONG!’ That’s all you need other than a deck of cards.

Working 1. You hold up the piece of paper and say that you have a prediction written on it – that may or may not come true – AND, you also have written a solid FACT. Place this to one side. 2. The spectator is asked to cut the deck in half and in half again (so there are now 3 piles of cards). She is asked to pick up the final pile she cut, and to count the number of cards in the pile. She is asked how many cards she has. For our example we’ll say she has 10 cards. 3. You then draw attention to your prediction paper. You open it to reveal it says: ‘YOU HAVE 13 CARDS!’ This is incorrect, of course, so then you remind the spectator that he also wrote a ‘FACT’ – you unfold the paper further to reveal the phrase: ‘I ALWAYS GET THAT WRONG!’ 4. In the event that the spectator DID actually cut 13 cards, the second part of the ‘prediction’ paper is not referred to again - and you look like the brilliant mindreader that you are!! 5. The spectator is now asked to shuffle or mix up her 10 cards and then give them to you. Invite her to then select any card and remember it.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 6. While the spectator is looking at her selected card, spread the cards in your hands so that you have four cards in your right hand, the rest in the left, and then extend your left hand towards her as you simply invite her to ‘pop your card back in’ very casually. This will position her card 5th from the top. 7. You now have to cut the selected card (which is 5th from the top) to the bottom of the pile. This is very easy to do. Casually spread the cards and drop the first five cards, without changing their order, onto the table (this places the selected card on to the bottom), and then quickly drop a few more cards on top of those, and then a few more on top of those until you have none left. 8. Once this is done, pick the cards up off the table and as you are squaring them up, casually look at the bottom card and take note of it. Then hand the cards to the spectator to freely shuffle. 9. Take the cards back after shuffling and tell the spectator that you are going to turn away from them and remove a card and place it into your inside jacket pocket (*If you don’t have a jacket, you could place the card (!) into your back pocket…) 10. Having turned away, find the spectator’s card plus ANY OTHER CARD – and place both into your pocket so that the spectator’s card is nearest your body. 11. You now ask the spectator to name their card. They are then asked to see if their card is missing from the cards they have. YES! Their card is missing. And you proceed to bring out their selected card from your pocket!!! 12. Now, here comes the very clever part! Tell the spectator you are going to tell them how you did it. Hold their card in your hand and say: ‘This is what happened – I managed to get your card up my sleeve while you weren’t looking (as you say this, run their card up your arm to illustrate your point!), it travelled all the way up, across my shoulder and down into my pocket…’

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HOMESPUN

As you pretend to be putting their card into your pocket to illustrate where it went, you switch their card for the indifferent one already in there and bring that one out instead. Continue talking, ‘Didn’t you see anything?’ And you have now switched their card! Easy!

13. You now offer to show them again how their card gets into your pocket. ‘I’m going to place your card (really an indifferent card, held face down) back into your cards.’ 14. You place the card into the middle of their pile - and tell the spectator to watch as their card vanishes… place your hand over the pile of cards and pretend to press down on them in order to vanish their card! Tell them that their selection has now gone again!!! 15. Ask the spectator how many cards they had. She will say ‘10’. Tell her to count the cards now. When she does, there will be only 9 cards. One has vanished! Then for the final reveal – you slowly, in full view, remove their card once again from your pocket!

Try to find instant reset material. This way you can move from one group to the next without having to keep resetting your effects.

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EFFECT Here’s a great trick which you can find in almost every children’s magic set – but I’ve never seen anyone do it! It’s a classic, self-working Cups and Balls effect which gets a fabulous reaction every time. My version uses flash paper, so if you are under 18, please seek adult guidance before continuing. There are no sleights, moves, or final loads.

Requirements For this you will need three small cups that stack together – shot glasses (opaque) or the mini-cocktail shaker lids. You will also need four squares of flash paper (an inch square is fine), a cigarette lighter, a shallot (like a very small onion from the supermarket!) although you can use anything you like as long as it fits into one of the cups and is hidden from view.

Set-Up Roll one of the pieces of flash paper into a small ball and drop it into one of the cups. Stack the three cups, ensuring that the cup containing the ball is in the middle, and that the shallot is in the final uppermost cup. Place the three cups, loaded and ready, into your pocket.

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FIREBALLS You also need to have the other three pieces of flash paper ready to bring out. Please note that when I say place the paper ball on top of the cup, this is actually the bottom of the cup as it is upside down.

Working 1. Bring out the pieces of paper and place them on the table. Now produce the cups, tilted towards you so that no one can see inside the cup which has the shallot inside it. 2. Place the cups out in a row LEFT TO RIGHT as follows: Take the bottom cup and turn it opening downwards onto the table, then the middle cup, then the last cup which has the shallot in it. You’ll have to do this quite quickly as you don’t want anything to fall out as you do it. I tend to keep a hold of the last cup for a second or two when it’s on the table as it can ‘move’ slightly, depending on the weight of the shallot. The cup with the final load is not actually touched again until the end of the trick. 3. You give the three pieces of flash paper to three spectators (or less if there aren’t three!) and say: “As we have three cups, we now need three balls, so I’d like you to screw up the pieces of paper and make three little balls… and place one in front of each cup…” 4. This is done. Pick up the ball from in front of the EMPTY cup and place it on top of the middle cup. Then lift up the empty cup and stack it on top of the middle cup. Click your fingers and lift the stack of two cups, and the ball appears to have magically gone through the solid cup and onto the table. 5. Holding the two cups towards you, slip off the bottom cup (which has the ball in it), and quickly invert it in the middle position on the table covering the ball that has just penetrated the cup, and then place the remaining cup in your hand back in its original position at the left end of the row.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 6. Pick up the ball which is in front of the centre cup and place it on top. Stack the first cup again on top of the centre one. Click your fingers and lift up both cups together, and there are now TWO balls underneath! 7. You must slightly separate these two balls to show there really are TWO balls, as the audience may not believe it otherwise. 8. Now place the bottom cup that is in your hand (with the extra ball in) so that it covers the two balls visible on the table, and return the remaining cup back to its original position on the left. 9. Pick up the ball in front of the third cup and place it on top of the middle cup. Pick up the first cup again and stack this on the middle cup. Click your fingers, lift both cups together, and there are now THREE balls underneath the cup. Again, you must separate the three balls, to show that there really are three balls on the table now. 10. So you now have two cups in your hand, and the bottom cup has the extra ball inside. Remove the bottom cup and stack it on top of the third cup, and then place the remaining cup on top of that. This actually puts the secret ball back in the centre cup, ready for you to do the trick at the next table, or wherever you are. 11. So, the audience has now seen that there are three little balls. You scrunch them together to make a single ball, and place this on top of the stack of cups. 12. You now remove your cigarette lighter (making sure people are not leaning over the cups!!) and light the flash paper – which will obviously instantly disintegrate. You click your fingers and then lift the whole stack of cups. The spectators are expecting to see the three balls now underneath – but when you lift the stack – there’s a tiny shallot! You now do the gag – “You thought you were going to see three balls of paper, but I’m afraid that’s shallot!” (‘That’s yer lot!’).

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COLOUR CHANGING SILK SURPRISE

Effect A red silk becomes blue, the blue then becomes invisible, the invisible silk then becomes blue and a second invisible silk then becomes red. Instant reset, ideal for strolling magic.

Requirements You will need a thumb tip large enough to take two 12 inch silks, plus two different coloured 12 inch silks e.g. red and blue.

Set-Up In your right pocket put the thumb tip and the red silk. In the left pocket have just the blue silk.

Working 1. Reach into your right pocket and remove the thumb tip and red silk, your left hand secretly bringing out the blue silk hidden in a left finger palm at the same time.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 2. Place the thumb tip into your left hand on top of the blue silk and start putting the red silk into the thumb tip. 3. When half of the red silk is in the thumb tip reach up into the bottom of your left hand and start pulling out the blue silk. 4. Continue pushing the red silk all the way into the thumb tip and then steal it with your right hand. Remove the blue silk now completely from your left hand with your right hand (this will also cover the thumb tip). 5. Show your left hand empty. Put the thumb tip back into your left hand and start pushing the blue silk into the thumb tip on top of the red silk. 6. Mime the action of pulling out an invisible silk from the bottom of your left hand explaining that it has now turned transparent. 7. Push the remainder of the blue silk into the thumb tip, steal the tip again and show both hands empty. 8. Re-load the thumb tip into your left hand and mime putting an invisible silk back up into the bottom of your hand, as you pull the blue silk out from the top of your left fist. 9. As you remove the blue silk completely, steal the thumb tip away as well. Place the blue silk back into your left pocket. 10. Explain that you cheated and actually used two invisible silks! Then repeat the above with a second invisible silk going up through the bottom of your hand, pulling out the red silk from the top of your hand. 11. Steal the thumb tip with your right hand and place the red silk and thumb tip back in your right pocket. You are now reset.

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C A R D TO W A L L E T P L U S

By Paul Gordon

Gary says Here is a true Paul Gordon worker I use a lot, and I have also added my own version to this book which eliminates the palm. It’s from his best-selling book (full of other workers), Quidnunc. So, here’s Paul in his own words…

Comments Since the late seventies, when I first learnt Scott Hollingsworth’s Two-Card Transpo from Jerry Mentzer’s Card Cavalcade Finale, I’ve been using this idea of mine to utilise the extra card one ends up with in the trouser pocket. You can see me perform this on various social media and J. C Wagner loved it. It’s a card to wallet routine where you don’t actually palm the card into the wallet; which can often be fumbly and cumbersome. I bet I’ve now got your attention! If so, read on… So, with full credit to Scott Hollingsworth, here’s my addition to his great routine.

Requirements A card-loading wallet in your jacket pocket set to load a card. I prefer the original Kaps/Balducci wallet. Modern workers might opt for a JOL wallet.

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Set-Up Prior to performance, strive to get two contrasting cards to the top of the deck. Assume for this description the top card is the AH and the second from top card is the KS.

Working 1. Have a card chosen from the deck and once signed, control it to the top, above the two card set-up. 2. Say, “Before I find your card I need to test your powers of observation. Okay! What’s the top card? No idea? Okay, it’s the Ace of Hearts.” Here you do a double lift to display the AH. 3. Flip the double over onto the deck and push off the top card (the selection) and appear to place it into the jacket pocket but actually load it into the wallet. (It’s an open load! I’ve used this idea a few times before in The Gold Dust Trilogy.) The spectator will assume it’s the AH. 4. Say, “I’ll leave the Ace of Hearts in my pocket. Okay, what’s the new top card? Yes, it’s the King of Spades.” Perform a second double lift to display the KS. Flip the double face down onto the deck and table the top card; the supposed KS. The spectator will naturally assume it is the KS whereas it’s actually the AH. 5. Say, “Are you really observant? I don’t think so! Turn over the tabled card.” As he does, revealing it to be the AH (gasps and surprise), top palm the KS and produce it from the jacket pocket. An amazing transposition of two cards has taken place. All this is incredibly magical. 6. Now, at this stage I often perform another trick or two and simply wait for the spectator to ask for the whereabouts of their card. Or, I take the wallet out and do a packet trick (like Killer OMG) that I keep in there. After doing said packet trick, I leave the wallet on the table and after the final reveal, the

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C A R D TO W A L L E T P L U S spectators will believe the wallet has been on full view since the start; as was Dan Harlan when I did my Penguin Magic lecture. It’s darned powerful. 7. Or, I sometimes go straight into the ending like so: Say, “Had you’d been observant you’d have seen your chosen card fly out of the deck and go onto your trouser pocket...” As he goes to look (in his pocket) continue, “...But, it didn’t stop there.” Slowly pull out your wallet and reveal the loaded selection with flair as you say, “It flew to my pocket and into my wallet! That, I just don’t understand!” Excuse immodesty, but it’s a killer…and not very hard to do. Copyright © Paul Gordon. All marketing rights reserved. See www.paulgordon.net for more about Paul’s magic

Gary takes time out to check his lottery ticket. He says, “If I win, I won’t be doing gigs like this again!”

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Effect Here is my way of doing a signed card to wallet using the standard palm wallet... but without having to palm! My method requires a duplicate card - but it’s only used in a way that it’s just shown and it’s never in the deck.

Set-Up Have any palmed card to wallet (JOL for instance) in your jacket/hip/back pocket etc, or purse/handbag, and next to it have a duplicate card, let’s say the 4D.

Working 1. When you are ready to perform, bring the 4D in your deck to second from the top. Have a card selected and signed, control it to the top of the deck. Position check from the top down; signed selection, indifferent card, 4D, then the rest of the deck. 2. Double lift to show an indifferent card, turn the double down and say you will place this card into your pocket. However, instead you slide off the real top card (the selection) and taking it to your pocket, you load it straight into the wallet (this is a Paul Gordon idea - see page 49).

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C A R D TO W A L L E T 3. Execute another double lift and show the 4D. Turn down the double and place this card (it’s the indifferent card) onto the spectator’s hand. All the work is done... 4. Ask the spectator to have a look at the card in their hand. At the same time, reach into your pocket and instead of bringing the card out, which will be the duplicate 4D, remove your wallet first and place it onto the table. Then remove the 4D. 5. This completes the first effect and it’s a very strong two card transpo… I just put the duplicate 4D straight back into my pocket at this point - thereby instantly resetting. 6. You are now in a lovely position. The signed selection is loaded and the wallet is out on the table… with a little time misdirection you’re done and you are ready to reveal the signed card inside the wallet!

Magic that happens in the spectator’s hands is always very powerful. Try and include at least one in your set.

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Effect A plastic carrier bag is shown to be screwed up and empty. The bag is then opened out and a full bottle of wine is produced from the bag.

Requirements A plastic carrier bag and a bottle of wine.

Set-Up Cut a large hole in the back of the bag. The hole should be about in the middle of the back of the bag and large enough to easily put your hand through. Conceal the bottle in your waist band.

Working 1. Start with the bag flat and screwed up. Show it to be flat by patting it. Shake the bag open making sure the hole is at the back. 2. Reach into the bag and out through the hole, grabbing hold of the bottle from your waist band. Bring it back through the hole and consequently out of the bag.

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LEAD FREE

Effect A completely self-working coin bending routine! The performer shows two coins. In this example, it’s an old (large) one penny and an American half dollar – so there’s one copper coloured coin and one silver. The performer asks the spectator to select either coin. She selects the half dollar – and the performer asks her to think positive thoughts about her coin. The performer drops the penny into her hand, which she then closes, so the coin cannot be switched. He asks her to think negative thoughts about the penny. The half dollar coin is placed on the back of her hand she holds the penny in. The spectator feels some movement in her hand… and a few seconds later, the half dollar is unharmed on top of her hand, but when she opens her palm, the penny is now bent.

Set-Up You require one two sided coin (our example is an old penny on one side and a half dollar on the other). You will also need a penny coin (which looks the same as the one on the reverse of the half dollar coin) and this needs to be bent in advance. Not completely bent in half, just enough so that it actually looks bent. Have the two coins in your right pocket.

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Working 1. Remove the two coins from your pocket and say you are going to conduct a test in positive and negative energy. Throw the coins into your left hand, as you talk – but don’t really let the spectator see too much. The fact that one of the coins is actually bent will not be suspected, so just throw them casually, once. 2. With your right fingers reach into the left fist and bring out the UN-BENT coin (and it doesn’t matter which side of the coin you show). Place the coin on the back of your left fist that still holds the bent coin. 3. “Here we have an American half dollar…” Pick it up again with your right hand and throw it back into the left fist, turning it over as you do so. To do this, pick it up at the farthest edge away from you and tip it towards you as you pick it up, and then throw it straight back into your fist. This will automatically turn it over. 4. Then you remove the same coin from your fist again (only now it will be showing the other side of it) and place it on to the back of your closed fist. This time it will be the PENNY SIDE that is face up “And we also have an old penny.” (This is just our example remember, it doesn’t matter which side you bring out first). 5. Remove the coin and drop it back into the fist so that the silver side is uppermost (you may or may not need to flip it over depending on what side you were just displaying). 6. “I’d like you to name one of the two coins for me!” She picks the American half dollar, so you say: “OK, I keep the half dollar for me and you get the penny – I’m going to drop your penny into your hand and I want you to grip it as soon as it lands.” 7. Reaching into the back of your curled left fist, remove the bent coin and drop it into her open palm from 6 inches or so above, and she will immediately close her hand around it into a fist. 56

LEAD FREE 8. This drop happens too fast for anyone to see that the copper coin is already bent, but remember also that it was apparently just shown anyway, so there is no suspicion. “Alright, now I’m going to place the American half dollar on the back of your hand…” 9. If she selects the old penny for you, the performer, then you say: “Right then, let’s get rid of my penny by letting it drop into your hand, and I want you to close your fist as soon as it touches you.” You do that, and then say, “And I’m going to place YOUR American half dollar on the back of your fist. Now I’d like you think positive thoughts about YOUR half dollar and negative thoughts about MY penny…” 10. Having told the spectator to think positive thoughts about the half dollar, and then negative thoughts about the old penny… after a little bit of acting and moving your hands over the spectator’s closed fist, you comment that because they have been thinking positive thoughts about the half dollar, it is unharmed. 11. Lift the half dollar off the back of the spectator’s fist and place it into your pocket. “But let’s see if your negative thoughts have had any effect on the penny…” The spectator opens her fist to reveal that the penny is now bent! 12. You can pick up the penny from their palm and they can see it is now bent. Also, if you push the bent penny between your thumb and finger, the curve of the bent penny makes it look like it is bending even more! Just practise it for a minute and you’ll see how effective that final ‘extra’ bend looks.

*NOTE When the bent coin is in the spectator’s closed fist – they cannot feel that it is bent!

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Sleight-Free Double Coin Bend!

RequirementS You need a bent half dollar, a disposable cigarette lighter, and a bent English penny and a double faced coin (half dollar/old English penny).

Set-Up Place the bent half dollar and lighter in your right hand pocket. In your left hand pocket slip the bent penny and double faced coin.

Working 1. Take out the two coins from your left hand pocket and throw them from one hand to the other. “For this we need two coins.” 2. Have the hand with the coins in, in a fist. Say: “We have an old English penny.” Place the double faced coin, penny side up, on the back of your fist. 3. Having displayed it, pick it back up and throw it back into your hand, turning it over as you do so. “And we have a half dollar.” Take out the same coin, only this time you are showing the other side of it. And place this on the back of your hand as before. 4. Then pick it up and throw it back into your hand with the other coin and close your hand.

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LEAD FREE #2 5. “I’d like you to select a coin for ME – the penny or the half dollar?” If they say the half dollar, you remove the ‘half dollar’ (double faced coin) and place it half dollar side up beside you on the table. 6. “So that means the penny is yours. Open your hand. I’m going to drop the penny down onto your palm, and as soon as it lands, I want you to grab it in your fist and keep your hand closed so that I can’t get to it.” (Of course, if they select the half dollar, you vary your patter – see above). 7. “Now for this to work, I need a lighter…” Pick up the double faced coin, and go to your right pocket. Once inside, switch the coin in your pocket as you bring out the lighter, which means you now have a bent coin in your hand, and the spectator has a bent coin in theirs. 8. Throw the bent coin you have just switched, from one hand to the other, and say: “Hold your fist over here. I’m going to try and send some heat into your hand…” 9. Flick the lighter so that the flame is on, and quickly move it around their fist. “Now take the other coin and place that into your other hand and make a fist.” Help them close their fingers around the coin as you place it into their hand. 10. Now at this point, the spectator has a bent coin in each hand but has no idea! You are ‘clean’ as the double sided coin is now in your pocket! 11. Move the lighter now around their other hand and then have them open each hand to show both coins are now bent!! *Alternatively, you do not have to place the switched coin into their hand at all. As you draw attention to the lighter, simply place the switched second coin onto the table without mentioning anything – simply focus on their fist with the lighter. Once they have opened their closed fist to reveal a bent coin, you can then draw attention to the coin on the table which has now bent itself in sympathy with the first coin! No one will notice the coin on the table being bent until you mention it, as all focus is on the coin in the spectator’s grip and the cigarette lighter. 59

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Is the pay good? Yes and no. I think the best way to sum up life as a pro would be ‘feast and famine’. What I mean by this is that you have really busy periods, like the summer season and the Christmas season, but then there are also quiet parts of the year. But having said that, fortunately I’ve never been quiet as there is always a party happening somewhere all year round. The secret is, bank the money during the good times because you may need it when things go quiet. Yes, I know that’s obvious, but I have seen magicians spend like crazy during the good times and really struggle during the quieter times, especially before they are well established.

How do you Find/get gigs? Well this is the biggie isn’t it. The best way to look at this question is to ask yourself how much money you want to earn. If you just want an easy but good lifestyle doing what you love and you don’t have a mortgage etc, then you could probably pick and choose your gigs. But if you’re like most magicians, you have to have gigs coming in on a regular basis, which means you tend to go after every gig that’s going.

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GARY ON BEING A PRO Personally, I’m in the middle of these two extremes. I obviously still need to pay the bills, but I can also pick and choose the gigs that I want to do. The reason I can do this is that over many years I have built up a large clientele. These are spread across the corporate market, the wedding market, the holiday market, plus of course birthdays, anniversaries etc. The trouble is, there is no shortcut to getting where I am now in magic. You just have to keep at it, you have to ride the storms and just stick at it, and then hopefully one day it all comes together. However, you must never become complacent and never take your eye off the ball because there is always someone else ready to step into your shoes!  Of course, that didn’t really answer the question, so in a nutshell...it’s a combination of marketing and being seen - and being seen is the biggie here. A quick story. Many years ago I was the resident magician at a golf club. I got the gig because a friend

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L i f e 's a B e a c h of mine worked there, and up until then I was just doing the odd gig here and there and had a day job. After only a couple of weeks at the golf club I started to get asked to do birthday parties etc. I had no idea of how much to charge or how long to perform for (there was no internet or Facebook back then). This is when it all came together. I plucked a fee out of my head and quoted this, and people said “yes”. I had no website back in those days so the only way to get work was to be seen. Moving along many years later to when this book is published (2019) and the same principles still apply. If no one sees you, how do they know what you’re like? Yes, you can do ‘aggressive’ marketing that will get you work, but the best way by far is to be seen live. I do showcases, wedding fayres, I perform down the pub, and everywhere I go I carry a pack of cards and try to perform as often as I can. I’ve been told that this isn’t very professional, but those who tell me this are not busy themselves. Of course, what works for me may not work for you, but the rule here is that there are no rules!

What would I change if I could go back in time? Ah, I know the answer to this question. When I was a young man learning sleight of hand I was told by the ‘older’ magicians at my local magic club that what I was doing was too clever, and no one likes a clever magician. I now know why they said these things to me, it was because they themselves couldn’t do what I was doing. Of course, they could have done the same, but that would have meant dedication and practice, something they weren’t prepared to do. I was just learning my art, I was learning all the basics and some more. The big problem was, their comments knocked my confidence and created doubts in my mind. I was young and new to magic and these people had been in the game much longer, so I made the big mistake of listening to them.

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GARY ON BEING A PRO For a while I lost my confidence as a magician, so much so that I was scared to perform in front of them, and non-magicians too. That was my biggest mistake, listening to others who had no hope themselves of becoming successful instead of following my heart and my instincts. My advice would be, go with your instincts. If what you do feels right for you then go for it. You will have people knocking you, so just look at these people and see how successful they are in magic. There is a huge difference between constructive advice and negative criticism, so learn the difference between the two and follow the path you want to choose.

How do you create magic? There is a secret to this. One answer I often hear is simply that some people are born creative. However, in my opinion we are all born creative, we just need a little kick up the jacksie to release the beast. The best way to become creative is to learn as much as you can about your subject. Learn moves, subtleties and every other weapon you can, and when you have built up this wealth of knowledge, at some point it will switch on your creativity button. Once the creativity starts to flow make sure you write everything down. Now, the chances are quite high that what you

L i f e 's a B e a c h have created will have been invented before, but don’t let that deter you....just let it flow. So in a nutshell, creativity starts from knowledge of your subject, we all have it in us so go and find it in yourself!

Don’t give up the day job? When you decide to give up the day job and turn full time professional something fantastic happens, something that you won’t find as a part-time magician. When you turn full time pro you have to find work, and agents etc will also see you in a different light. They want to book someone who’s a professional, as does everyone else. Think about this. If your gas boiler stops working, would you go to someone who just dabbles in plumbing and heating to fix it, or would you go to a professional who not only guarantees the work they do, but they also do a really professional job? Well there’s your answer!

Is it true that you only need about 6 effects which you have perfected? Yes and no, and by that I mean that when you start out as a professional magician you probably will only have about 6 or 7 effects which you can do whilst blindfolded. As you progress as a professional you will end up doing repeat bookings so you will need to have plenty of other material to keep your act fresh. For me I have perfected over 100 effects, but my main core are those 6/7 effects I have been doing for over 30 years. 

Your strengths and weaknesses?  This is something I strongly believe in. We can’t be good at every sleight, no matter how much we practise. Let me explain. There are some moves I just cannot do. This could be due to my hands being too big or too small, or that no matter how much I try I just cannot physically or mentally do it. There are moves and sleights that I am good at - palming cards and coins for instance. So what I do is to perform effects which are based on my strengths and 64

GARY ON BEING A PRO avoid effects which require me to do certain moves I cannot do. Or, I do these effects by substituting moves I am good at. In a nutshell I play to my strengths. Time is short and rather than spend my energy on trying to strengthen my weaknesses, I would rather use this energy to create or perform effects which I know I’m good at. 

“You’ve been a wonderful audience - now give yourselves a standing ovation!”

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Effect A deck of cards is cut. Two different coloured dice are introduced – a white die and a red die. They are shown to be normal dice. Two spectators each throw a die, and their two numbers are added together – and the magician deals off that amount of cards. Let’s say they roll a 2 and a 4, so the magician deals off six cards from the face up deck. The performer then asks a spectator which die they would like to keep. They select one (the 2 for example), and this leaves the other dice (the 4). He says that he is now going to deal a number of cards – the number that is on the opposite side of the 4. This is a 3, so he then deals off another three cards. The spectator is then asked to roll the die again (let’s say they roll a 4). They are asked if they’d like to change their mind, and then the magician deals off another four cards. Finally, the magician says that he’s going to add the two dice numbers together – the number 2 (on the die kept to one side, earlier) and then the number 4 which was the final number thrown. These add up to 6. He picks up the pile of cards he had previously dealt and deals off five cards and the sixth card is placed in front of the spectator. The performer then says that he knew all along that the spectator was going to arrive at that particular card… the card is turned over and firstly, it’s a red backed card and a message on its back says: “I knew you’d select this card!” The rest of the deck are ALL BLUE BACKED CARDS!

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DO OR DIE

Requirements Any two normal dice. A deck of blue backed cards. One red backed card. On the back of the red backed card, you can write ANY message, depending on what event you are performing at. Or it could just say: “You’ll select this card!” or “Your turn to get the drinks in!”

Set-Up Place the red backed card in the 8th position from the top of a FACE UP deck. The deck will be dealt with the cards face up for this effect.

Working 1. Give the two dice to the spectator and ask them to roll them a few times in order to make sure they are normal. When they are happy, ask them to roll both dice to come up with two random numbers. 2. Let’s say they roll a 5 and a 4. Proceed to deal the cards (with the deck face up) on to the table. So, deal five cards for the ‘5’ die rolled and then another 4 cards for the ‘4’ die rolled. 3. Now ask the spectator which die they would like to keep. Whichever they select (it’s a free choice, let’s say they select the ‘5’), place that die to one side, making sure you keep the number ‘5’ uppermost on the die, like when it was rolled. 4. Now look at the remaining die (in our example a ‘4’), and say, “Now we’re going to turn this die over and use the number on the opposite side.” So, turn over the die and in our example, it will mean the number 3 is now uppermost. And you deal three cards on to the pile of cards. 5. Now give the spectator this die and ask them to roll it again. Let’s say they roll a 6 (it can be any number, of course), so you deal that amount of cards on to

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L i f e 's a B e a c h the pile (in this case 6). Now place the main stack of cards to one side, you won’t be needing those again. 6. Proceed to pick up the pile of cards you have dealt. You are now going to add together the numbers uppermost on both dice. In our example this will be a 6 and a 5. The total is 11. Deal off six cards, and then another five cards. The last card you deal (the 11th) will be the RED BACKED CARD. This happens EVERY TIME, no matter what they roll!! Don’t try and work out how this happens as it will drive you mad. 7. So, you will have one card face up on the table. You can now pick up all the other cards and show that they have BLUE BACKS. Finally, re-cap that all along, they could have rolled ANY numbers… and they selected ‘this card’ – pointing to the single face up card on the table. ‘But earlier today, I made a prediction and wrote it on the back of the ONLY RED CARD IN THE DECK!!’ Let the spectator turn over the card to reveal your message on the back of the only red card in the whole deck!! This is a brilliant, self-working mathematical miracle which is impossible to work out, as all the rolls of the dice are completely fair!

Have effects in your set which do not rely heavily on patter i.e. for noisy night clubs and when working abroad etc.

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PEEKY BLINDERS

Effect The performer gives one of his business cards to three different people and asks each to draw a simple image on it, without showing the others. Once they have done this, one of the spectators is asked to shuffle the cards, and they are then handed back to the performer who places them into his wallet so that he cannot see the cards at all. He removes the first drawing and proceeds to reveal which of the three spectators drew it. He then removes a second card and again reveals who drew it. He leaves the final card in his wallet and says he is going to try and re-create the drawing from the spectator’s mind! He proceeds to draw an image on a fourth card, and it then matches the drawing done by the final spectator!

Requirements You’ll need to construct a ‘peek wallet’ – but don’t panic – the wallet you’ll need will cost you less than a bar of chocolate. You’ll need one of those plastic card wallets that packet tricks come-in – magic dealers sell them. Fig.1. All you have to do is cut out a big square in the back of one side of the wallet, so that then anything you place inside can be easily seen during handling. The hole you cut should be slightly smaller than the size of a standard business card. You will also need a pen and three business cards which are blank on one side, or alternatively three pieces of white card, business card size.

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1

Set-Up The business cards need to be marked on the front. Place a single dot on one card, two dots on the second, and leave the third card without any marks. Make sure the dots are easy to see. As each spectator will only see their own card – and will hardly ever see the ‘printed’ side - you can be bold with the markings. (If you are using blank pieces of card, use a little ‘nick’ on the short side of one card, and one on the long side of a second card, with nothing on the third.) Have the cards already in the wallet – in an order you can remember - and you are ready to go.

Working 1. Remove the three business cards from your little card wallet and hand them to three spectators. The card with one ‘mark’ goes to the first person, the card with a double marking to the second person, and finally, the unmarked card to the third person. Hand a Sharpie over and ask them to do a simple drawing. They are not to let each other see what they have drawn. 2. Once they have all finished, one of the spectators is asked to mix up the cards drawing side down, so that no one knows what has been drawn, or what

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PEEKY BLINDERS order they are in. Take the cards and slip them into the card wallet, making sure the ‘drawings’ are facing the peek window. 3. Remind everyone that none of the spectators know what each of the others has drawn. The performer now says that he is going to remove the first card and see if he can reveal who drew it. Remove the top card from the pile in the wallet and as you do so, look for the marking and you’ll instantly know who drew it. Turn over the card and look at the drawing, then place it casually drawing side up on top of the closed plastic wallet. 4. You then say that you are going to ask each of the spectators if they drew the (in our example) house? They are ALL to answer “YES!” and you will try and tell from their body language who did the drawing. Of course, in reality you will already know who did the drawing as you looked to see how the card was marked as you got it out of the wallet. 5. As you ask each of the spectators the question you will get a peek of the bottom picture in the wallet. Here’s how. Lift up the wallet with the face up drawing still on top of it and hold it facing the first spectator and ask if they did the drawing. Then to the second and finally to the third spectator. Because the hole in the wallet will be facing you when you do this, you have plenty of time to see and remember the picture. 6. After hearing each spectator say they did do the drawing, you correctly point to the spectator who did actually draw it. 7. For the second card, remove the top card of the pile of two cards in the wallet, and thanks to the marking you will be able to divine who drew it as well. 8. Turning to the final spectator, you leave their picture inside the wallet and say, “Obviously the last card belongs to you – but I have no idea what you have drawn. I’d like you to visualise it, and I’ll see if I can draw it!” 9. You then proceed to draw what you peeked at earlier. Sometimes it is best to do a very similar image rather than one that is exactly the same. 71

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Effect Two cards are selected and placed back into the deck. With just a snap of the fingers, the first card turns face up in the middle of the face down deck. The card is then replaced face down but outjogged from the pack. A blow this time, and the card visually turns face up whilst still outjogged. But what about the second card? Well first, the whole pack which was face down turns face up! Then, one card appears face down in the centre of the deck…the second selection! The effect as written really doesn’t do this justice. Incredible is an understatement for how this looks!!!

Working 1. Using any deck, have a card selected and controlled to the bottom of the deck. Once the card is on the bottom, you need to half pass the card to reverse it on the bottom. So now you have a face down deck, with a selection face up on the bottom. 2. For the next selection, riffle down the cards until the spectator says stop. When they say stop, get them to remember the card they stopped at. You then seemingly square up the deck, but what you do is Marlo’s Future Reverse (see page 134 for explanation).

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U LT I M A T E I N V E R S I O N 3. Now, both cards are set up for the effect. First of all, snap your fingers to create that moment of magic, and then spread through the deck until you come to a face up card - it’s the second selection! This is reaction number one. Spread a few more cards so the spectator still sees the deck face down. 4. Take the card out, show it front and back and place it face down into the middle of the deck, but outjogged for half of its length. Now, to get it face up whilst outjogged, all you have to do is turn the deck over…though, it isn’t just a turnover. 5. Because there is a selection face up on the bottom, it will give the impression of a face down deck again in a moment. Hold the deck in your left hand, with the first finger curled under the deck. The right hand holds the deck from above in Biddle grip. Now in an upward motion, your first finger under the deck is going to straighten, turning the deck over with the aid of the right hand and the rest of the left fingers. Do this as you blow on the deck. 6. The cover of the right hand from above will stop any flashes and help square up after the turn over. The card seems to have visually turned face up in a face down deck whilst outjogged. 7. Take the selection out and place it face down on the deck, as if the effect is over…but wait, there was another card selected. Turn the top card back face up (which is the second selection), so that it looks to the spectator as if there is a face up card on top of the face down deck. 8. Snap your fingers, and spread the cards over showing the entire deck is face up, making sure you spread over the first five or so cards as a block to start. This prevents the reversed first selection card second from the top being seen at this point. 9. To get this reversed card to the middle, when you push over a block of cards to show the cards are face up, take that group into the right hand, and then push off another bunch, and place that ON TOP of the right hand bunch,

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L i f e 's a B e a c h then push another bunch on top. Finally, place the right hand cards on top of the left hand cards. This places the face down card in the middle of the face up deck. 10. Snap your fingers, spread the deck, and one card will be seen face down. The spectator can take the card out, and see it is their selection....

Gary says James Lewis created Inversion. Bill Kalush and Randy Wakeman have versions released, and one of the most recent is by Aaron Fisher in his Paper Engine. I am sure there are many more.

Pocket management is of the highest importance. I cannot stress this enough. If you learn and practise where everything belongs inside your pockets/purse/bag, your magic will flow and there won’t be any stalling while you try and find stuff.

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M I N E A N D YO U RS

Effect You display a small packet of cards and ask that someone chooses the cards they would like for themselves. The cards are divided into two piles, one for the spectator and one for the magician. The cards are then turned over revealing the word MINE in big, bold letters on the magician’s cards, and when the spectator’s cards are then turned, it shows that they not only have different coloured backs but also have the word YOURS written in bold letters on the back.

Requirements Three red backed cards with the words MINE written in large letters on the back (written as similarly to each other as possible). Three green backed cards with the words YOURS written in large letters on the back (written as similarly to each other as possible).

Set-Up Alternate the red and green backed cards starting with a “Yours” card on the face - and have them face up.

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WORKING 1. Show the spectator the six cards face up and explain that you would like him to choose some cards by choice and some by chance. 2. Ask them to CHOOSE a number from 1 to 10 and explain you will transfer that many cards from the top to the bottom of the packet to choose a card for them. 3. You now need to force an odd numbered card. So, if they choose an odd number, say five, transfer four cards, one at a time, to the bottom of the packet and deal the fifth one face up in front of them. If they choose an even number, say four, transfer four cards one at a time to the bottom of the packet and then deal them the next (fifth) card face up in front of them. 4. Now explain you will choose some cards through chance. Deal the next card down in front of you and then the following card underneath the packet. Repeat this ‘Down Under Deal’ until you have just two cards remaining. (These are actually both “YOURS” cards). 5. Ask the spectator if they would like one or other of the cards, or both of them. If they choose both cards, deal both to them. You can now reveal all your cards showing “Mine” on the backs and their cards showing “Yours” on the reverse. 6. If they choose just one of the cards, deal it to them and the other to yourself. You now need to put this last card in your pile in Elmsley Count position. This is done by showing your cards face up and transferring 3 cards one by one to the bottom of your packet as you say “you could have chosen this card or this card etc, etc.” 7. You can now turn your cards face down and Elmsley Count them showing all the backs to say “Mine”, leaving the spectator to turn over their chosen cards to reveal that they clearly state the word “Yours” – and they also have completely different coloured backs.

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M I N E A N D YO U RS 8. To re-set the packet simply alternate the cards.

Note You can substitute “Mine and Yours” with company names for trade shows, birthdays, product launches etc, and you can use any colour backs of course. I like to use red and green for the contrast.

Gary in action, just before his arrest for gate-crashing a private party where he wasn’t booked!

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Effect You find the spectator’s lucky card in a magical way.

Requirements A deck and a palm-and-load card to wallet (optional).

Working 1. Have a regular deck shuffled and when you take it back spread the cards face up to show they are well mixed, at the same time secretly peeking and remembering the top card of the deck. This will be your key card. 2. Turn the deck face down and holding it in a dealing grip, ask a spectator to cut off about 3/4 of the deck and place the pile onto the table. Then have them cut half of the cards they just cut off and put them back onto your pile you are holding. Position check, your key card is now back on top of the pile you are holding.  3. Have the spectator cut half the cards left on the table and look at the bottom card of this cut-off portion and mention that this is their lucky card. Have them place this portion onto the cards you are holding. This puts their lucky card right above your key card.

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LUCKY CARD 4. Now have them pick up the remaining pile on the table and shuffle them and place them onto your pile. Place the deck onto the table and get them to cut the pack a few times, each time completing the cut. This won’t separate the selection and the key card, so don’t worry. 5. Now for the big finish...Say that you also have a lucky card and that card is, and here you name your key card. You then add “You didn’t choose that one too, did you?” Of course they couldn’t have chosen your key card, but it adds a little smoke and mirrors to the effect. 6. You now spread the deck towards yourself looking for your key card, and when you find it you cut the pack so that the key card is second from the top. This also puts their card on top of the deck. 7. Do a double lift and show your lucky card (the key card), turn the double down and hand them the top card. This is, of course, their selected card, so have them put their other hand on top of it. 8. Now palm the top card of the deck and load it into your wallet as you remove it from your pocket. As you open the wallet, say to them, “Would you be amazed if the card sealed inside my wallet was your lucky card?” When you then remove the card and they see it’s your lucky card, they immediately turn the card they are holding and realise that it’s their lucky card. 9. Of course, you don’t need to load the card into a wallet/purse etc. you could secretly reverse the top card and do a table spread or put the whole deck into your pocket and say that you will reach in and find their lucky card. You then just remove the top card of the deck.

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Effect How many times have you been asked, “Can you card count?” Well here’s a completely self-working method for you. It’s extremely easy to do (in fact you can do it immediately) and people will give you great credit for a skill only a few have!

Working 1. Have the deck shuffled and then have any card selected. While the spectator is showing the card around glimpse the bottom card. 2. Cut off the top half and have the selection replaced on this half, placing the lower half on top. Your key card is now on top of the selection. 3. You can now cut the pack a few times if you want. Say that you will memorise the position of every card in the pack. 4. Holding the pack so that the faces are towards you, start counting the cards from the top of the pack (if the cards were face down). When you get to your key card the next card will be the selection. Let’s say for this demonstration that your key card is the 4D and the selection is the KS, and let’s say that the key card is 23rd from the top and that the selection is the 24th card.

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PSEUDO CARD COUNTING Remember this number and also remember the card in the 25th position also - let’s say it’s the 8H. 5. Continue to look right through the pack (acting as if you’re remembering all the cards). Put the pack down on the table and ask the spectator, “What is the name of your card”. They will say “the KS”. 6. Look at them and make out you’re doing some sort of working out in your head (acting again). You then state “the KS is 24th from the top and it is between the 4D (your key card) and the 8H”. 7. Have them count down to the 24th card but stop them on the 23rd. Get them to turn this card over to show that it’s the 4D. The next card will be their card, (I get them to deal this card face down to one side for the moment), show the 25th card as the 8H, and now get them to turn over their card. 8. You only have to remember two cards and the number their card falls at. If you find this too difficult you already know the key card so you could forget about the other card, but I think it really sells the effect. 9. While they’re turning over the selection, casually pick up the pack and give it a shuffle. This is just to avoid a spectator asking for another card to be located! Yes, this is so convincing that you will get asked this so it’s better to ‘cover your tracks’!!

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Effect Cards from Ace through to Five are shown and laid down on the table. They are then turned over and are shown to have instantly reversed their order.

Requirements The Ace through to Five of ANY suit.

Set-Up From the top down with the cards face down, they should be in the following order: 5 A 4 2 3

Working 1. Double lift to show the Ace, turn the double down and deal the top card onto the table placing it to your far right. 2. Take the next card and without showing it, place it to the bottom of the face down pile. 3. Perform another double lift and show the 2, turn it down and deal the top card to the left of the first card. 4. Take the top card and place it to the bottom without showing it.

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INSTANT REVERSE 5. Turn over a single card and show the 3. Turn it face down and deal it to the left of the others. 6. Put the next card to the bottom. Deal the next card to the left of the others without showing it and name it as the 4. 7. Then deal the last card to the left of the others and without showing it, name it as the 5. 8. Snap your fingers and swiftly turn the cards over to show they have actually reversed their order!

It had to happen: Gary finally gets a trick right!

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Effect A spectator freely selects a playing card and the performer says that he has made an interesting choice as the selected card hasn’t been chosen before! To prove it, he shows the back of all the cards – and on each one is written “BEEN CHOSEN!” As he goes through all the deck, one card has the words – “NOT BEEN CHOSEN!” written on its back. When it is turned over, it is the selected card! This card is then turned over again – and now it has the words: “BEEN CHOSEN!” on the back!

Set-Up Take a deck and on the back of every card write: BEEN CHOSEN! This will take you a few minutes, but once it’s done, then the deck will last forever. You also need a DOUBLE BACKED card (red backed cards are best for this effect). On one side, write: BEEN CHOSEN! and on the other-side write: NOT BEEN CHOSEN! *YOU WILL NEED TO DO A DOUBLE-LIFT WITH THIS CARD, SO YOU WILL NEED TO WORK OUT WHICH WAY UP TO WRITE THE WORDS ‘BEEN CHOSEN’ & ‘NOT BEEN CHOSEN’ TO MAKE SURE THE WORDS DO NOT APPEAR ‘UPSIDE DOWN’ WHEN YOU DO THE MOVE! On top of the face down deck place the double backed card, with the words ‘NOT BEEN CHOSEN’ face up. Now turn the deck face up and slip it into the card box. 84

NOT CHOSEN

Working 1. Slide the deck face up out of the box and spread the cards openly. Have a spectator touch ANY card as you go through the deck. Remember that at the other end of the deck will be the double backer, so don’t flash it! 2. Whichever card they touch leave in the deck and then as you square up the cards just get a break underneath it. 3. After a slight pause, cut all the cards below the break away and place them on top completing a cut. This moves the double backer to the centre of the deck and leaves the selection on top when the cards are held face down. 4. Flip the deck face down and start to spread through the deck, saying: “It’s interesting you selected the (example) 3D, as that it is the only card that’s never been chosen before!” The spectators will now see that every card has the words ‘BEEN CHOSEN!” written on its back. 5. When you get to the pack’s centre, the ‘NOT BEEN CHOSEN’ card will suddenly appear. Stop at this point and slide this card out of the middle of the spread and move it to the top, saying, “We’ll come back to this one in a minute…” 6. At this point, people will be ahead of things, saying, “No way!” etc, as they know that the ‘NOT BEEN CHOSEN’ card will be theirs! 7. Continue spreading the deck right down to the bottom in order to emphasise that all the cards except one have the words ‘BEEN CHOSEN’ written on them. 8. Square up the cards, getting a left little finger break under the top two cards as you do so. Flip them over as one card to reveal that the ‘NOT BEEN CHOSEN’ card does in fact appear to be their freely touched 3D! (This move turns over the double backed card so that it now says ‘BEEN CHOSEN’ on the side which is face up on top of the deck.)

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 9. Now hand them their card FACE UP - and say, “But actually, your card now has been chosen, hasn’t it?” Ask them to turn their card over, and it now says: ‘BEEN CHOSEN’ on the reverse!! To reset, place their selected card anywhere into the deck, and turn over the top card (the double backer), and you’re ready again.

Cabaret - be prepared to do stand-up even when booked for close-up. Again, I cannot stress this enough. Just be ready to perform for the whole group at the same time by making sure you carry effects which will play to a larger audience.

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STARTER FOR TEN

Effect A note pad is instantly transformed into a deck of cards right in front of the spectators’ eyes.

Requirements One blank faced card and one blank backed card (that matches your deck).

Set-Up Put the two gimmicked cards on the table, both blank side up. Using invisible tape, stick them together along one of the short edges. Fig.1.

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(When folded together you should have what looks like a regular card but with two blank faces inside). Place the gimmick on top of the deck.

Working 1. Open the gimmick so the two blank faces are showing and hold the deck as if it was a notepad. Fig.2. 2. When you want to produce the deck simply flip back the opened gimmick and spread the cards showing a full deck of cards.

Always be at least one step ahead of your audience.

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ONE SHORT OF A FULL DECK

Effect A spectator selects a card that is shown to have a different coloured back to the rest of the cards. The duplicate with the correct coloured back is found in the performer’s wallet.

Requirements A red/blue double backed card and a card loading wallet (a handling for this trick without the wallet is also described at the end). If you don’t have a red/ blue double backed card you can just glue two cards together as the card is never handled by the spectators.

Working 1. Start with the double backer on the top of the deck with the opposite colour showing. Talk to the spectator about how easy it is to influence people. 2. Spread the cards face up and invite the spectator to select any card by just touching it. Keep a break under the chosen card and cut the cards a couple of times so that the chosen card finishes on the top of the face down deck. This will automatically put the double backed card in the centre of the deck. Square the cards and turn them face down.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 3. Now spread the cards face down and tell the spectators that you put one card with a different back in the deck. This will show straight away, but continue to spread the cards to show it is the only different back in the deck. 4. Take the double backer and place it on the top of the face down deck (directly on top of the chosen card) and ask them if they know what card they think it is. This will often get the response ‘my chosen card’. 5. Perform a double lift and show that it is indeed the chosen card. Leave the double on the deck and due to the double backer you can spread the cards quite freely. This is a very strong moment, so pause a beat to enjoy it. 6. Turn the double face down again and say you’re going to put the card with the different back into your pocket. In reality, actually take off the top card (the double backer) and place it into your pocket and say, “but this will leave me one short of a full deck.” 7. This is a great line and it usually gets a laugh. The laugh will be your misdirection to palm the top card of the deck. Reach into your pocket, and load the palmed card into the wallet. Bring the wallet out of your pocket whilst saying that you put one card in your wallet before you started. Open the wallet up to reveal the chosen card inside. 8. This trick can be done without the wallet and be almost as strong. Start by showing the back of a card you keep in your pocket as a prediction. Perform as above, then when you put the double backer in your pocket make sure it’s a different pocket from the prediction. The palmed card is drawn from the ‘prediction’ pocket. It works this way just as well as a prediction/influence trick.

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THOUGHT OF CARDS ACRO SS PLUS

Effect A spectator thinks of a card in a packet of ten cards they are holding, and this card travels across to another packet of ten cards held by another spectator. Then another thought of card travels across without the magician going anywhere near the cards.

Working 1. Have a spectator shuffle the pack and count off twenty cards into your hand, putting the rest of the deck aside. 2. Spread off ten cards and get a break under two more. Flip these twelve cards face up onto the other cards, (the spectators think you have just turned the top ten cards face up). Spread the face up cards and ask a spectator to think of one but not the face card. 3. Try to let a couple more spectators see the cards but don’t mention this. Square up the cards and get a break under the face card, now perform a half pass of all the cards under the break, (all the cards under the face card). All the work is done, just hand all the face up cards to a spectator (we will call spect 1) and all the face down cards to another spectator (spect 2).

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 4. Get the spectator who thought of a card to name it. Spec 1 now counts their cards only to find nine cards and the thought of card is no longer there. Spec 2 counts their cards to find eleven cards and they can remove the thought of card from amongst their cards. 5. On the offbeat palm one of the cards from the nine card pile and add it to the eleven card pile. Say “did anyone else see a card?” If no, then do nothing. But if someone else mentions a card, you have a miracle. 6. Get them to name it and once again get the packet counted. Packet one will now have only eight cards and packet two will have twelve cards and also the second thought of card.

Gary’s on fire tonight....No, Gary really IS on fire, call 999!

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PO C K E TS P R E D I CT E D

A version of Stephen Tucker’s Visa Cabaret

Effect Three envelopes are placed on the table, along with three cards (with blank backs) each of which has a colour written on the front: In our example: RED/ LILAC/BLUE. There is also a prediction envelope placed on to the table. The spectator is asked to mix the cards face down and then place random cards into random envelopes, and then to mix up the envelopes. She does this, and then the performer asks her to select ANY envelope and place it into her LEFT POCKET. She then selects another envelope – and that is placed into her BACK POCKET, the final envelope goes into her RIGHT POCKET. The performer instantly reveals which coloured card is in each pocket. But not only that, the prediction is opened and it says: “Red will be in your right pocket, lilac will be in your left pocket, and blue will be in your back pocket.” The prediction is 100% correct!

Set-Up Firstly, there is a reason for the colours of the cards: RED – the ‘R’ stands for RIGHT hand pocket, the ‘B’ of BLUE stands for BACK POCKET, and the ‘L’ of LILAC stands for LEFT POCKET. You will now need to make three gimmicked cards by sticking three sets of two double blank playing cards together. Two of these double cards will also have

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a small piece of thin metal shim positioned between the layers before they are stuck together. You need to position the shims top left and bottom right of both cards. This is so that the shim will always be in the same place even if the card is rotated end for end. The third card simply has two cards stuck together (to make it the same thickness as the other two cards) with no shims embedded. Take the first gimmicked double card and with the shims top left and bottom right, write the word LILAC boldly on the upper surface. The ‘x’ in Fig.1. shows the positioning of the shims when you are writing LILAC on the card, just to clarify. Next, take the other card with shims in it top left and bottom right, and turning the card over from left to right, write the word RED boldly on the face. This will mean that when this card is writing side downwards, the shims will be sited top left and bottom right, which is the opposite orientation to when the LILAC card is writing side down.

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PO C K E TS P R E D I CT E D On one side of the remaining double card write the word BLUE. Collect the cards in a pile in any order with the writing sides downwards. You will need four envelopes of a size just a bit bigger than the cards being used. One will be used as a prediction envelope. With this one you have to place a small magnet into the bottom corner. Place it in the bottom right corner when the envelope is held flap side up. The magnet you need has to be very small. 1mm thick, 5mm width (approximately). The prediction card which goes into the envelope needs to say: “You’ll place the Red in your right hand pocket, “Blue into your back pocket, “…and Lilac is in your left pocket. This is then placed into the prediction envelope before you begin.

Working 1. Show the prediction envelope and place this onto the table. 2. Show the three cards with colours written on them and ask the spectator to mix up the cards face down and then to place one face down into each of the three regular envelopes, and then to mix them up again. 3. They follow your instructions – and at this point no-one genuinely knows which card is in which envelope. 4. Once the envelopes have been mixed up, you take them AND the prediction envelope, and hold them in a fan in your left hand, the flap sides upwards and with the flaps themselves furthest away from you. The prediction envelope needs to be on top of the pile.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 5. You now ask the spectator to select ANY envelope (but not the prediction envelope, on top, obviously!). Let’s say they select the middle one of the three envelopes. With your right hand, take hold of the flap end of the selected envelope and slide it to the left so that it is removed from the spread but is still resting slightly on the fan itself. 6. Without a pause, slide the envelope across to the right so that as you remove the envelope from the spread you can secretly and casually drag it over the top of the prediction envelope. As you do this make sure that the bottom edge of the envelope slides over the bottom right corner of the prediction envelope (where the magnet is). 7. If you feel a magnetic ‘pull’ on the right corner of the envelope, you know that the RED card is inside – and you tell them to place that envelope into their RIGHT pocket. If the magnetic ‘pull’ is on the left side, then you know the card inside is the LILAC one, and you tell them to place that into their LEFT pocket. If there is NO MAGNETIC ‘PULL’ at all, then you know that’s the BLUE card – and you ask them to place that into their BACK pocket. 8. Once all three envelopes are in the pockets, with a little bit of acting, you reveal where you THINK the coloured cards are… “I think you have the Red card in your right pocket…. I’m pretty sure you have the Blue card in…your back pocket…. and in your left pocket you have the Lilac card!” The spectator removes all the cards – to show you are 100% correct! 9. Then, as an additional ‘kicker’, you remember the prediction that you’ve had in an envelope throughout. You remove it, and it says: ‘You’ll place the red card in your right hand pocket, Blue is in your back pocket… And Lilac is in your left pocket!’

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N O P A L M S I G N E D C A R D TO C A R D B O X

Effect A card is selected and signed and lost in the deck. The four Aces are shown, and the two black Aces are placed into the card case. The spectator opens the card box and finds the red Aces and in between the Aces is the signed selection. No palming required.

Set-Up Remove the four Aces and place the AH face down into the card box with the cut out moon shape facing you. Place the other three Aces on top of the deck, with the AD third from top.

Working 1. The card case, with the AH inside, is placed in front of you just to the right with the cut out moon shape facing upwards. This is important for ease of placing cards into the box later. 2. To start you will use a Ken Krenzel technique to apparently count off the four Aces. With the deck held face down in your left hand, push over the top card four cards, injogging the third.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 3. Square the cards and push up on the injogged card lifting off the top three cards only. Table the deck or hand it to the spectator. 4. Turn the four (really only three) cards face up and Elmsley Count them showing four Aces, the AD being shown twice. 5. Place these cards face down on top of the deck and explain they are to be used later so you don’t want any of them selected. Spread the deck face down and have a card selected and signed. 6. Whilst the spectator is signing their card get a break under the top card of the deck in readiness for Vernon’s Depth Illusion (Tilt). Take the selection and tilt the card into second position from the top of the deck, while supposedly placing it into the middle. 7. Immediately then spread off the top four cards and take them into the right hand as the left hand tables the deck. 8. Turn the cards face up and Elmsley Count the cards showing the four Aces. You will now perform a version of Dr. Daley’s Last Trick, also loading the selection into the card box. 9. Turn the packet face down and perform a double turnover of the top two cards showing a black Ace. Turn the double face down again and take the top card (the selection) and place it face down into the box, just slipping it in under the half moon cut out. 10. Reverse count the three remaining cards and perform another double turnover displaying the other black Ace. Flip the double face down and take the top card and place it into the card box. 11. Hand the spectator the two cards you are left holding, saying, “Please hold onto the red Aces.”

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N O P A L M S I G N E D C A R D TO C A R D B O X 12. Pick up the card case and tap it against the cards the spectator is holding, and then tell them to turn over the cards in their hands to show the two black Aces. 13. Have the spectator open up the card box to not only find that the Aces have changed places but also in between the Aces is the signed selection!

If you get an enquiry asking about corporate work, say, “in which country”. This could add an extra couple of zeros to your fee!

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Effect The spectator’s signed card fuses with the magician’s signed card.

Requirements One deck of double blank cards. One card box.

Set-Up Sign the top card and place it on top of the pack signature side down.

Working 1. Show the pack to be blank both sides being careful not to expose the top signed card. 2. Have the spectator sign the top card on the blank face. Get a break under the top two cards and lift them off the deck as one, blowing on the “cards” to apparently dry the ink. The spectator will see a blank back. 3. Return the double to the top of the pack with the spectator’s signature still uppermost. Take off the top signed card and place it into the card box, taking care not to flash the back. 100

SHAKEN NOT STIRRED 4. You now sign the top card, (try to match your previous signature), double turnover the top two cards as one onto the top of the deck and deal the top card (completely blank) into the card box on top of the spectator’s card. 5. The work is done. Close the card box and hand it to the spectator to shake. They now remove both cards to find your signature has jumped from your card and joined theirs. The deck is now reset.

Gary dramatically reveals his invoice for the gig...

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Effect Originally featured in Best Of British from Magicseen Publications, this is a method for billet switching that I use at my walkabout gigs, but the method can be used anywhere. I’ve always loved the Centre Tear and for many years I played around with the Al Baker billet switch. Recently I’ve been using Jay Sankey’s Paperclipped for a thought of card routine, and this got me thinking............ how about combining Sankey’s Paperclipped with a billet switch to give the impression of a centre tear - stay with me!!

Requirements Some small pieces of paper (mine are from a pad often seen by the telephone for making notes on. They are about 2 to 3 inches square, but as long as they’re all the same size then it doesn’t matter.) A small bulldog clip. A pen or a pencil.

Set-Up Fold the pieces of paper in half and in half again, place these into your left jacket pocket. I usually prepare about 10 pieces of paper in one go. Put one piece into the bulldog clip and place this into your right jacket pocket. The pen or a pencil is in your left jacket pocket.

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STP

Working 1. Bring out the bulldog clip and pen and hand them both to a spectator. Turn your back and ask them to write something on the paper (the initials of someone for example) and to fold the paper and place it back into the bulldog clip. 2. Turn around and take the bulldog clip in your right hand and the pen in your left. Patter about how there is no way you could know what is written etc and that you can’t see through the paper (hopefully you’ve used a pen that doesn’t bleed!!). Tell them that you will destroy the paper to really remove any doubts of peeks etc (or use your normal spiel here). 3. Place the pen in to your left jacket pocket and at the same time finger palm one of the billets (this should be easy as there are loads in your pocket to avoid having to fumble.) Bring the hand out and perform Jay Sankey’s Paperclipped. (See note at the end) 4. Put the bulldog clip into your left pocket and tear up the billet (or have someone else tear it up). Job done! 5. At any time you wish it’s a simple matter to retrieve the billet from your pocket and get your glimpse. Maybe bring out a pad and open the billet behind the pad while writing down their thoughts. Or you could finger palm it and get your glimpse. 6. You’re also in a perfect position for a one-ahead type routine. If you get them to write down the name of a playing card, you can bring out the deck and while fanning the cards towards you open the billet and remove the glimpsed card, the deck making for a perfect and natural cover to get your glimpse! 7. Here’s a method which I use often, which is really cheeky yet very effective. Also have a Sharpie in your pocket (I’ve yet to meet a magician who doesn’t have one on them!!) and also have some more folded blank billets in your right pocket. 103

L i f e 's a B e a c h 8. After you’ve torn up their billet, do all the concentration stuff, then reach into your right pocket and bring out a few billets adding their billet to the pile. Also bring out the Sharpie. 9. You now choose a billet (the spectator’s of course) and put the others away again (smoke and mirrors) open the billet and write over their writing with the Sharpie, add a mistake or two etc. (again smoke and mirrors). 10. This method makes everything self-contained and requires no glimpse!! I love this method as it’s not only very very easy, it’s also just what mentalism methods should be about - cheeky and audacious! By the way I also tear up this billet to destroy all the evidence. 11. Another tip, instead of using blank slips, write a few words on them, so that when they’re torn up bits of writing will be seen. Pretty sneaky, eh?! 12. I’m now going to give away one of the tips on how I get more work using this, especially in the corporate world. I’ve been told by a few that I could have charged for this so trust me, if you use this YOU WILL GET MORE WORK! This is what you do. 13. Ask the client for their business card. Now do the STP routine on them but don’t actually tell them what they’ve written on the slip. I have my own way of not telling them what they wrote at the time which doesn’t look like I’ve failed (long distance mind reading for example). I’ll leave this up to you on how you do this. 14. You now have all their contact details and also their thought! In a couple of days email them or call them (depending on how you’ve left it with the client), and you can now reveal all the information!! If you’ve set the scene in the right way, the time delay misdirection really does work. 15. As for the reveal, well if you’re into publicity stunts, how about an ad in the paper? If working at a hotel and you know their room number, your business card with the information can be found in the centre of their room 104

STP (be careful with this though, as this could come across as an invasion of privacy, even though you didn’t enter their room). 16. How about combining technology and mind reading?..........TEXT THEM THEIR THOUGHTS, so that they now have your number stored in their phone!!! Another great thing about this, you get your peek when you’re alone!!!! 17. This can be used with any type of glimpse of course, but the STP works really well as they do the tearing and the billet never leaves their sight! 18. If doing this in a strolling situation just add a new billet to the bulldog clip openly, so it’s an instant reset.

Note If you don’t know Jay Sankey’s Paperclipped check out his site http://www. sankeymagic.com. He uses a paperclip but I prefer to use a bulldog clip as this works better for me. Here is a brief description of how it works. 1. Hold the bulldog clip in the right hand so the arms of the bulldog clip are just protruding from the fingers. Have the duplicate billet finger palmed in the left hand. Fig.1.

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2. Bring your right hand with the palmed billet to the left hand and align the two billets. Fig.2. 3. In the pretence of removing the clipped billet move your right hand straight up and at the same time push the palmed billet into view. Fig.3. It should just look like you’ve pulled the billet out of the bulldog clip. Immediately put the bulldog clip away as you look at the billet, start to tear the billet and then hand it to a spectator to complete the tearing.

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S I X C A R D S TO P O C K E T

Set-Up Remove the Ace through 6H and put them in the following order from the face: 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H AH

Working 1. Spread the cards faces towards you and break the spread between the 3H and the 4H. Take the AH, 2H and 3H into the left hand, and the 4H, 5H and the 6H into the right hand. 2. As you gesture, turn the cards so the backs of the cards are towards the audience and steal the 3H with the right hand packet so it ends up as the face card. Immediately place the two remaining cards in the left hand under those in the right and square the whole packet. The order from the face will now be 3H, 6H, 5H, 4H, 2H, AH. 3. With the cards squared and faces towards you, use the right hand to remove the AH and openly place it onto the face of the packet. Turn the cards so the faces are towards the audience and the spectators will see the AH on the face. 4. You will now perform the Malini Colour Change. The pile is held face up in the left hand. The right hand approaches the packet palm down and very briefly covers the right hand side of the AH. The right little finger is pressed on the top right corner of the packet. Fig.1.

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5. The moment the hand is in position, the left first finger presses on the back of the bottom card of the pile and pushes up and to the right. This should cause the bottom card to be pivoted on the right little finger. Fig.2. Continue pivoting the card until it is pushed into the right palm. Fig.3. 6. The right hand can then move away from the pile with the 2H palmed before then immediately coming back over the AH and lowering the right palm right over the card, releasing the 2H secretly in doing so.

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7. The patter I use to cover this steal is “Do you want the cards to go separately, one at a time, singly or individually?” Obviously they all mean the same thing but this gives you the off-beat moment for the move. 8. The right hand now comes away as if it has palmed the AH off the top of the pile, the hand being kept in a deliberately awkward pose to signal the apparent palming. After a moment, crumple the right fingers together showing the right hand empty and that the AH has vanished. The 2H will be seen on the face of the packet. 9. You will now use my handling of the Berg Palm to get three cards ahead! To do this get a break below the top three face cards (I use the thumb count). Perform the top palm but as you do, turn the cards face down. 10. The right hand takes the palmed cards to the pocket leaving the palmed cards in there, but immediately bringing out again the centre card. This will be the AH. The 3H and 2H are still in your pocket, with the 3H closest to your body. 11. Holding the packet up with the card faces towards you, transfer the back card to the face of the packet. This will be the 4H but don’t show its face.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h Make the palming action again but this time you don’t do the colour change or show the face card of the packet. The right hand crumples the supposed card into nothing and shows its hand empty. Reach into the pocket and pull out the 2H which is the card furthest away from the body. 12. Turn the cards face down and do an Elmsley Count, counting the three cards as four. Once again remove the back card and place it on the face, this will be the 5H. The right hand again pretends to palm off the face card and crumples it into nothing. 13. You will now get another two cards ahead. Turn the cards face up and reverse count the cards, injogging the 6H. The order from the face is now 4H, injogged 6H, then the 5H. As you square the cards, lift up on the 6H getting a break beneath the 6H and the 4H. 14. Again do my version of the Berg Palm, palming the 4H and the 6H into the right hand as the 5H is turned face down. Immediately as the palmed cards enter the pocket, switch them for the 3H, leaving the 4H and the 6H behind and removing the 3H. 15. Once again the right hand pretends to palm the top card of the packet. Crumple the card into nothing and show your right hand empty. Reach into your pocket and remove the 4H which is the card furthest away from you. 16. As this is happening, your left first finger pushes the card it holds (5H) into the gambler’s cop and goes to the left pocket with the copped card and immediately brings it back out again. This may seem like a bold thing to do but if both hands work together this will fly past the sharpest of spectators. 17. Both hands can now be very cleanly shown empty as the right hand reaches into the pocket and brings out the 6H.

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P R E D I C TO P O C K E T

Effect A signed card is found to be the prediction the performer made before the trick started. The spectator gets to keep the card.

Comments This is a routine that originated from the STEP System by Lee Smith, a routine called ‘You Keep Mine’. I reworked it and came up with Predicto Pocket, which later became Eye Phone 10.

Requirements Two cards with a different coloured back to your deck. These can either have the word ‘Prediction’ written on their backs, or even a sticker with your or a client’s details.

Set-Up Place one of the extra cards into your left pocket. The other extra card (which has the same details written on its back) starts off on the bottom of the deck.

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Working 1. Take out the extra card you have in your pocket and show the back saying that this is a prediction. Replace the card in your pocket without showing its face. 2. Perform a Hindu Shuffle force, or any force that forces the bottom card of the deck without revealing at this stage what is written on its back. 3. Reassemble the deck face up with the force card showing. Ask the spectator to sign the card. Pick up a double lift and blow on the card to dry the ink. This action casually reveals the apparent card back of the selection and is a convincer proving that the card has the same back as the rest of the deck. Place the double back on the deck. 4. You are now going to perform an action palm. This is essentially a double undercut that puts the card in palming position, a very deceptive move and virtually invisible. Get a break under the top face up chosen card with your left little finger. Bring the right hand palm down over the deck and grip it from above, maintaining the break. Fig.1.

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5. Your palm up left hand now takes about half the cards from the bottom of the deck and places them on top of the chosen card at an angle with the corner away from you outjogged to the side. Fig.2. 6. Take the rest of the cards below the break and place them on top of the outjogged section and square them. This should leave you with the deck squared up but the chosen card secretly at an angle ready to fall into your left palm as you square the cards above. Fig.3. This should ideally be done in one smooth movement as you ask the spectator to hold their hand out.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 7. Your left hand now drops away from under the deck, carrying with it the selected card, the left palm being turned towards your body, and goes to your left pocket. You now bring out the palmed card, back towards the audience and it will appear to be the different coloured backed prediction card that you showed earlier. 8. Place the card on their palm. The trick is now done as the rest is just presentation building up to them turning over the card to reveal it is their signed card.

Always try to entertain the whole table by using good eye contact and make larger than normal gestures etc. Also, try to borrow objects from people on the opposite side of the table and try to get everyone involved, no matter in how small a way.

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PRO CUB

Effect Two spectators select a card each and these are then replaced into the deck. One card jumps underneath the card box. Then the second selected card jumps underneath the card box! Finally, the performer is left with the two selected cards and the whole deck has now jumped underneath the card box. A real miracle!

Comments This is an easy version of ‘card under box’ which uses a duplicate card to keep you one step ahead of the audience and uses natural misdirection.

Set-Up On the top of the deck place a duplicate card (for our example it will be the 7D), and the 7D from the deck itself – so you have 2 x 7D on top of the deck. Place the deck into the box.

Working 1. Remove the deck from the box and as you explain that you are going to try an experiment in time travel, you get a break under the top card. As you are talking, place the box on top of the deck for a moment and steal the card

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L i f e 's a B e a c h above the break away underneath. Casually place the box with its hidden card underneath onto the table slightly to one side. 2. You now force the second 7D, and then let a second spectator select ANY OTHER card (let’s say it’s the 4S). The 7D is returned to the deck and brought to the top using your favourite method. The second spectator’s card is then put back into the deck and is also brought to the top so that it ends up on top of the 7D. 3. Now you say, “Did you see the 7D travel through time and land underneath the card box?” Draw attention to the box, and as you do so, get a left little finger break under the top card of the deck (now the 4S). 4. Lift the card box up off the table with your right hand and push the card now revealed to be underneath it towards the spectator. As the spectator turns over the card and looks at it, place the card box on top of the deck again, casually stealing the 4S away underneath, and place the box back onto the table to one side again. 5. Take back the 7D which has just been revealed, and place it on the BOTTOM of the deck, at the same time, getting a break ABOVE IT. 6. Now say: “Did you see the other card travel through time and re-appear underneath the card box?” 7. Again, you pick up the card box and push the revealed card towards the spectator. As they look at their card, you move the card box back on top of the deck under the general misdirection and pick up all the deck underneath the card box, leaving one card (the 7D) in your hand. 8. Place the card box to one side once more, this time with the whole deck underneath it. Of course, do not draw any attention to this!

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PRO CUB 9. Your final move is to now take the 4S back and slide it underneath the 7D which is in your hand, partly hidden by your fingers. As you slide it underneath, say: “Did you see me do it again?” 10. Then you show that you only have the TWO SELECTED CARDS IN YOUR HAND. “The whole deck has now jumped underneath the box!” And you lift up the box to show the whole deck is now there!

GARY SAYS Before the effect begins, I always have the two identical cards in my pocket – and all I have to do is add them to the top of the deck whenever I am ready to do this effect.

“Yes, it’s hard to believe - I’m your real dad!” says Gary excitedly.

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Effect Four black cards and four red cards are shown. No matter how many times they are mixed, they separate. This is a classic trick brought into the 21st century.

Working 1. From any deck remove four black spot cards and four red spot cards. With the cards face up, have the four black cards on top of the four red cards. 2. Spread the cards face up from hand to hand to display them, and then as you square up the cards, catch a left little finger break under the sixth card from the top. Fig.1. Lift off all the cards above the break in a right hand Biddle grip and use these cards to flip the cards in the left hand face down. Immediately flip the right hand’s cards face down on top. 3. The order of the face down pile now is: red card, red card, black card, black card, black card, black card, red card, red card. 4. Thumb the top four cards into the right hand, without changing their order. Square both packets in their respective hands and if you wish you can flash the bottom card of each packet to show a red card on the face of your left hand packet, and a black card on the face of the right hand packet. 118

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5. Now deal the cards into a pile either onto a spectator’s hand or onto the table. The right hand deals from the top of its packet, the left from the bottom until all eight cards have been dealt. Turn the cards over and fan them to show the first separation. 6. As you square up the spread face up cards once again get a break under the sixth card with the left little finger. Fig.1 again. With the left thumb push over into the right hand the top card. Fig.2.

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7. Now push over the next card, taking it BENEATH this first card, but injogged for about a third of its length. Fig.3. Thumb over the next card and take it beneath the other two but in the same position as the first card. Finally take all the cards above the break under these, supposedly just taking the last card. 8. Use these cards to flip the cards in the left hand face down, flipping the cards in the right hand face down on top. Push down on the injogged card and lift off the top four cards, the injog making this easy. 9. Fan both sets of cards and set the right hand cards in a spread on the table. Pick up the top card of the tabled packet and slip it between the third and fourth card in the left hand fan, outjogged still for half its length. 10. The next card goes between the second and third card, also outjogged for half its length. The next card goes between the top card and the second card from the top, once more outjogged for half its length, and the final card is placed on top, again outjogged for half its length. Fig.4. 11. Square the cards, and then slowly push the outjogged cards flush as you place them into the spectator’s hand. Get them to turn the cards over and spread them to reveal that again they have separated.

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12. The next part comes from Ray Kosby’s excellent routine. Hand the spectator either the black or red cards face down. Hold your cards face down ready to do an Elmsley Count type switch. 13. Have the spectator deal a card face down on to your hand. You will apparently deal one of your cards on top. Hold your pile in the standard Elmsley Count position in your right hand, and bring the pile over to the card on your left hand. As it is about to cover the spectator’s card, block push off the top three cards so that they fall as one on top of the single card, but secretly steal back the spectator’s card under the right hand card as the right hand retreats in classic Elmsley Count fashion. 14. Name your colour as you do this. Then get the spectator to deal another card face down on top, naming its colour, and get a break under this card at the same time. Now deal the next card of your packet on top, stealing the card above the break under the card in the right hand, again naming the colour as you do so. 15. The spectator has two cards, and so do you. Now you cleanly get them to place a card down on top, naming its colour, then you do the same, then the spectator and now you again with your last card. Place the cards in the

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L i f e 's a B e a c h spectator’s hand and again get them to turn over the cards, showing they have separated. 16. Finally, take all the black cards, and place them face up on top of the red cards which are face down. Spread the cards showing four face up cards, and four face down cards. As you square the packet get a left little finger break under the top card. Now half pass all the cards below the break. This will leave you in a situation like this: black card, red card, red card, red card, red card, all face up, followed by: black card, black card, black card all face down. 17. With your right thumb, riffle off the three bottom cards and place them in a face down pile on the table, but sideways rather than square on to your body. The spectator thinks these are the red cards. 18. Turn the cards in the right hand face down and spread over the top three cards, taking the upper two into the right hand. If you want, you can move the top cards of both packets around, as well as the bottom card of the right hand cards, to make it look like all the cards are being moved and shown to be single. 19. Place the right hand’s cards back on top, and as you square up, you steal the bottom card into the right palm. (See sections 4-5 in Six Cards To Pocket for an explanation). 20. The right hand instantly goes to the table, with the back of the hand to the spectators, and you add the palmed card to the top of the tabled pile as you turn all four cards face up to reveal that the four black cards are actually on the table. Immediately spread the cards in your hands face up to show these to be the red cards, the two sets having thus instantly transposed.

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TNT

By Lee Smith

Effect A signed card is torn then restored VISUALLY! The spectator is left holding an impossible prediction!

Set-Up First of all, you need any indifferent card with the corner torn off. It is a good idea but not essential to use a double backed card as this ‘prediction card’ needs to be brought out and shown back to the audience. Double backed means if you forget which way round it is it doesn’t matter.

Working 1. Take the indifferent/double backed card out face down and refer to it as your prediction card. Mention that you have rendered the card unique by removing its corner. Replace it in your pocket. It should be in the pocket you are most comfortable palming to. 2. Get the spectator to select a card, free selection, no force, and get them to sign the face of the card. This card is replaced in the deck. As it is placed back in the deck, secretly get a break two cards above the selection, and then double undercut to the break.

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3. The chosen card will now be third from the top of the deck. Perform a false cut and show the chosen card is not on the bottom. Turn the deck face down and say that the selection is not on the top. Turn the top card over as you say this to display it, and then immediately insert it anywhere in the centre of the deck. 4. The chosen card is now second from the top, just where you want it. Get the spectator to click their fingers, then you perform a double lift and the spectator’s card appears at the top. Turn the double face down and take off the top card. Obviously the spectator thinks it’s their chosen card. 5. Keeping it face down tear off the corner with the index on, place the piece on the spectator’s hand and get them to close their hand. 6. Now to restore the torn card. Outjog the card so that the torn section is clearly visible and tell the spectator that you are going to restore the card. 7. Rub the card and cover it with your palm down right hand a few times this conditions the spectator to the movements. After two or three times perform an Erdnase Top Change as follows.

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8. Because the top card is outjogged it exposes the second (chosen) card. Fig.1. As you cover the top card, press the heel of your hand on the second card and draw the card back under cover of your hand as you pull it backwards. Fig.2. 9. When you feel the second card’s front short edge clear the outjogged card’s rear short edge, you will feel a click. Now move your hand forward sliding the chosen card on top. Fig.3. If you slide the card forward to the outjog position it will appear that the card has been restored before the spectator’s eyes.

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L i f e 's a B e a c h 10. Once the ‘restoration’ has been seen, slide both the outjogged cards as one back flush with the deck. Then immediately slide the top card off the deck, angling the top of the pack a little towards yourself in order to conceal the torn corner card below it. 11. Hand the chosen card to the spectator to examine and as they do so palm the torn corner card into your right hand. Place the deck down. 12. You now ask the spectator if they felt the torn piece vanish from their fist. Get the spectator to open their hand, to reveal that the piece is actually still there. However, you remind them about your prediction, and reaching into your pocket where they saw you place the prediction at the start, you bring out instead the palmed card and on handing it to the spectator, they discover that somehow the corner matches perfectly. A miracle! Credits: Lee Smith, Darwin Ortiz, Jay Sankey

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T H E TO P C O N C O N T R O L

Based on the Convincing Control by Ed Marlo, which controls a chosen card to the bottom of the deck from a spread, the Top Con Control controls the chosen card to the top. Follow these instructions carefully and you have a great move in your armoury! 1. Spread the cards in your hands and ask a spectator to select one by pointing to it. 2. Break the spread at the selected card aligning the chosen card with the card immediately above it in the top half of deck (in the right hand). The tip of your right middle finger lightly contacts the two aligned cards on their face. Raise the top half of cards showing the spectator their chosen card. Fig.1.

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3. As you lower the top half of the deck to square up the cards, upjog all the cards in the upper half (right hand) of the deck approximately half way on top of the lower half. The left thumb rests on the back of the card aligned with the selection. Fig.2. 4. The right fingers are extending across the underneath of the spread and are resting on the face of the selection. The right hand then draws the top half of the deck back towards you until the cards are aligned with the bottom half of the deck, but the left thumb keeps a little pressure up on the indifferent

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card above the selection so that it remains outjogged. Fig.3 shows this process happening. 5. As soon as the top block of cards is aligned with the bottom stock, the two hands push the halves together to square them. This will leave one card still outjogged, and the spectators will believe it is the selected card. Fig.4. 6. You now spread back through the cards until you get to the outjogged card. Take all the cards below the outjogged card (the selection is the top card of

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L i f e 's a B e a c h the bottom cards) and with your left thumb reach over and lift up half the cards saying that you are going to bury the selected card deeper. Fig.5. 7. Insert the outjogged card and all the cards above it into the break and square everything up. It now looks like the selected card is lost in the centre of the deck when in fact it is now on top.

Variation by Elliot Hodges Proceed up to point 5 but instead of proceeding as point 6 use the index finger of the left hand to push a selection of the cards directly below the outjogged card inwards. This injogs a packet of cards (the selected card being the top card of this packet). Simply pull out the packet with your right hand placing them all on top. Square the outjogged card. Their card is now on top.

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NO PALM COINS THROUGH TABLE

Effect Four coins are shown one by one to pass through a solid table.

Requirements Five identical coins and some strong double-sided tape e.g. carpet tape or toupee tape.

Set-Up Stick a small amount of tape onto two of the coins and stick one coin onto each of your palms.

Working 1. Place three loose coins into your right hand on top of the stuck down coin. 2. Having displayed the four coins in a slight spread, toss the loose coins into your left hand on top of the other stuck down coin. Remember to keep your right palm downwards so as not to reveal the stuck down coin there. You have just performed a no move Shuttle Pass! Fig.1.

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3. Place your right hand under the table. Having displayed the four coins in the left hand, slap the hand palm down flat onto the table so that the coins hit the table top. 4. Slowly lift your open left hand straight up to reveal just three coins on the table (the fourth coin remains out of sight stuck to your left palm). Bring your right hand out from under the table to reveal one coin on your right palm. 5. Pretend to toss the coin from your right hand into your left hand (the no move Shuttle Pass again). Pick up two of the coins from the table with your right hand and place them on top of the stuck coin in your left hand. 6. Now pick up the remaining coin on the table with your right hand (keeping the stuck coin still concealed), and take it under the table. Slap the left hand onto the table top and lift to show two coins on the table. 7. Bring your right hand out from under the table showing two coins. Repeat the no move Shuttle Pass into your left hand.

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NO PALM COINS THROUGH TABLE 8. Pick up the two coins on the table with your right hand and place your right hand under the table. Slap your left hand on the table showing just one coin. Bring out your right hand showing three coins. Perform a no move Shuttle Pass into your left hand. 9. With your right hand pick up the coin on the table and place it in your left hand along with the other three to display them. 10. The right hand now openly lifts the three loose coins out of the left hand and takes them under the table. Slap your left hand on to the table. Lift up showing no coins. Bring out your right hand showing that all four coins have passed through the table. Perform the no move Shuttle Pass one final time to display all four coins in the left hand.

Everyone politely claps after a disappointing performance. “Thank you, my name’s Chris Congreave, goodnight!”

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With the deck in the left hand, get a left little finger break under the spectator’s card. Your right hand comes over the deck to square the cards, and as it does so you push up with your left second and third fingers against the face of the selected card and push it to the right as if you were going to do a side steal. The top right corner of the selection needs to wedge between the right third and fourth fingers to keep it from moving too far to the right. As soon as you reach this point, your left fingers pull down on the right side of the deck positioned below the outjogged chosen card. If you pull it down far enough, this will cause the left long edge of the selection to drop down as well. As the card falls down, use your left fingers to press on the card face. This will turn the card face up and it will automatically be pushed down onto the lowered bottom half of the deck. When this position is reached, push up on the bottom half of the deck to close the gap with the chosen card now reversed in the deck’s centre.

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LAST WORD

It has been a real honour and a pleasure to actually have a book of my effects, and I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed reading this collection of ideas, tips, moves and effects. As a professional magician I try to create effects which will have a strong and long lasting impression on the audience, and effects like Pro CUB, Fireballs, Card to Wallet and One Short of a Full Deck fit this bill perfectly, as do most of the effects in this collection. I know this first hand as each effect has been ‘audience tested’ either at my gigs, or before friends and family at social gatherings. I sincerely hope that at least one or two of these effects will find their way into your working repertoire, or maybe some of these effects will spark that creative side in you. This book would never have happened if it wasn’t for the team at Magicseen, so please check out the other awesome books they have produced. If you should happen to bump into me at a convention, or at a lecture and you are using some of these effects then please buy me a beer. If you are not using any of these effects you can still buy me a beer! Gary Jones

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Gary Jones is a full time professional magician of many years standing, and he is a man who is widely respected for both his performing skills and his creative way of thinking. This book brings you the full illustrated details of a large selection of Gary’s worker routines and moves, a couple of effects from some of Gary’s good friends in magic, as well as many tips and much advice on performance and even what it takes to be a pro entertainer. In this volume you will learn the secrets behind Gary’s sleight free coins through table, you will learn a really clever card to wallet idea that removes the need for palming, a simple yet effective method to perform a bottle production, mental effects which are easy to do yet baffling to the audience, as well as a strong collection of other commercial card and coin routines. When you are a pro entertainer you get to know exactly what works with the lay public and what doesn’t. You hone your methods so that they are practical yet strong, and you create magic plots that are clear and easy to follow. The material in this book reflects these principles throughout and will delight anyone looking for new worker tricks to add to their repertoire.

Published by www.magicseen.com ISBN 978-0-9566539-9-4