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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want!

Spinning card illusion whenever you want! By Wilhelm Eberhard

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Perform the classic card illusion at any moment! The thread is hidden in the card, not in your body. Have complete freedom of movements with no risk of breaking the thread! Affix the anchor without having to look at the card!

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San José, Costa Rica, December 21 2010

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want!

Contents Spinning card illusion whenever you want!

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Introduction

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Preparatory actions

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Preparing the wax anchor

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Preparing the thread

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Preparing the card

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Preparing the deck

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Method

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Transferring the anchor to your thumb

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Transferring the anchor to your thumb later

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Floating the card

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Advanced methods

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A clean finish

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Multiple levitations

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Aces from different pockets

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Other methods to produce the Aces from different pockets

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Performing for challenging spectators

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“The Flying Card” that really flies!

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Combine methods!

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Useful showmanship techniques

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Emphasize the uniqueness of your performance!

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Reward attention

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Use your art sparely

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Handle applause gracefully

12

Triggering an ovation

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Receiving applause

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A magician is both actor and director

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Learning more about showmanship

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Final section

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Why was this method created?

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Additional credits.

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Final thoughts

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Disclaimer

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About the author

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Useful links

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Excellent books about showmanship

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Other versions of Bob Hummer’s trick I have found using Google

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! breaking the thread during the day. You may really perform the illusion at any time, as you do not need to look for a favourable opportunity to transfer the anchors.

Introduction This is an alternative method to the classic floating card illusion invented by Bob Hummer and marketed in 1943, originally called the Hummer Card and later the Hummingbird Card1. This floating card illusion became popular among magicians thanks to Geno Munari and Mark Blais’ UFO Whirling Card and Michael Ammar’s Easy to Master Thread Miracles series.

Finally, you may keep several prepared cards in different pockets. There is no need to transfer the same anchor several times. You may simply discard the anchors, and let them fall to the floor. Consequently, there is no need to handle the anchor carefully. You simply use a new anchor each time.

The original method uses a long piece of thread anchored on the head. The thread hangs in front of the body and tends to get entangled in the hands or in objects during normal movements. Because of this, the thread may be damaged just before you could perform the illusion. To the best of my knowledge, the first available method to perform this illusion without the long thread anchored to the head was the “Whirling Business Card”, in Michael Ammar’s Easy to Master Thread Miracles series, volume 1, “Section Three - Magic with Invisible Elastic”. This method uses a prepared stack of business cards that can be carried in the pocket and used to perform the floating illusion at any moment. However, if you want to levitate a playing card, the method in Michael Ammar’s video requires you to transfer two anchors from your shirt buttons. One anchor has to be transferred to the bottom card of the deck and the other to the exact centre of the top card. A procedure to accomplish this is not provided in the video. You must find an opportunity to do it while handling a burrowed deck. This alternative method uses a shorter piece of thread hidden in the card, not in your body, similarly to Ammar’s Whirling Business Card. But the anchor is transferred from the card to your thumb nail. This allows you to keep the card ready to perform the spinning card illusion at any moment, eliminating any risk of 1

See the entry for the “Whirling Card” in Magicpedia at http://www.geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Whirling_Card And the entry for “Hummer Card” in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer_card

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want!

This section explains all you need to prepare in advance.

make the pink wax anchor somewhat bigger, so you could easily find it by sense of touch alone.

Preparing the wax anchor

Preparing the deck

You may use ordinary magician’s wax. But thee optimal anchor for this effect uses a mix of flesh wax and red wax to create a pink coloured wax that matches the colour of the thumb nail nail. You will also need card wax matching the back of the playing card you are levitating.. You may also use black wax to attach the thread to a black pip, or white wax to attach the thread to the face (see the links to the products at the end of this document). ). These instructions assume the anchor is aattached to the back of the card. But they continue to be valid if you attach the anchor to the face of the card.

Have a duplicate of the prepared card in the deck.

Preparatory actions

At any moment, preferably ly after performing other card effects, force the duplicate of the prepared card by your favourite method and have the card returned to the deck. You may allow the spectator to shuffle and lose the card in the deck.. But control the card to the top or bottom bott if at all possible to do so. Put the deck in your pocket next to the prepared card and ask the spectator to name his chosen card (the one you forced).

Preparing the thread The length of the thread between the anchors is the same as the distance from your thumb’s nail to your pinky’s nail with your fingers extended extended. Make ke sure you detach a longer piece of thread, as you will need to roll some thread in the wax to create the anchors. To prevent the invisible thread from cutting through the wax anchors, you may roll a tiny piece of ordinary sewing thread in the wax pellet. Use sewing thread matching the colour of the wax you are using. The invisible thread will get entangled in the sewing thread instead of cutting through the wax.

Preparing the card Stick one end of the thread (the one with the pink wax anchor) to the back of the card, near the corner.. Stick the other end of the thread to the centre of the card’ card’s back. Put ut the card in your pocket. As the thread is so short, you don’t even need to wrap it around the card. Make the anchor that goes on the middle of the card aas tiny as possible, but still capable of holding the card. You may 5

Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Place your thumb nail next to the pink wax pellet. Pull the wax anchor over the thumb nail with the index finger. finger

Method This section explains the actions that will permit you to float the card.

Transferring the anchor to your thumb Pretend you will locate the card by sense of touch in the pocket. When your hand is in the pocket, it will be easy to locate the pellet of pink wax in the corner of the prepared card and transfer it to your thumb nail.

You ou may hold the card facing the spectators to cover the transfer of the anchor. But it is not necessary to use e the card to cover the transfer, transfer if the movement of forefinger is minimal. minimal The small anchor is completely covered by the finger.

By pretending to detect the card by sense of touch in a shuffled deck, you also justify any amount of extra time required to correctly affix thee anchor to your thumb nail nail. If you have any unexpected difficulty doing this,, yyou are simply looking for the card.

Only the movement of the forefinger might look suspicious, if you draw attention to it.

The optimal areas on n the nail to affix the anchor are shown in the illustration. If the wax is flattened and smoothly extended until it touches the skin, the anchor will not look bulky, but will blend with the natural curvature of the nail. You are now ready to produce the prepared card from your pocket and float the card.

Transferring the anchor to your thumb later You may remove the card from your pocket and transfer the anchor later on, for instance, to perform a standard boomerang card throw. When you transfer the anchor to the nail,, do it without looking at the card. Use only your left hand, while you perform some other action with the right hand hand. Proceed like this: Hold the card between the thumb on the back and the middle finger on the face. You may also hold the deck in dealing position with the prepared card on top.

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Warning: Do not throw the card forward. The thread is too short and the card may fly forward too much and be suddenly pulled back by the thread. If this happens, hap even though spectators cannot see the filament, they will have a clear indication that the card is actually attached to a thread.

Floating the card Throw the card from your left hand to your right hand. This simple move proves that the card is not attached to your left hand and also helps you position the card in front of the lower right part of your torso, so you may extend the thread ad to full length before spinning the card.

Next, turn the left hand palm down, catching the thread between the middle and ring fingers of the left hand.

Move the card down and a little to the right, away from the left hand until the thread is taut. Turn the left hand palm up, facing your chest, to facilitate catching the thread between the middle and ring fingers later on.

Maintain the right hand under the floating card as a decoy. Apparently, the card floats between your hands instead of hanging from your left hand.

Extend your left index finger and let the thread lie over the side of your left middle finger.

Float the spinning card from right to left and upwards. When your left hand reaches about shoulder height, extend the left thumb to pull the thread and cause the card to float up while you maintain your left hand static. Your right hand continues to follow the upwards movement of the card, however.

Your right hand takes the card by the corner as shown in the illustration illustration.

These actions create the illusion that the card’s movement is independent from the left hand’ss movement.

To spin the card, extend xtend the middle finger sharply. At the same time, quickly move the right hand backwards. The card will rotat rotate in place,, under the left hand hand.

Finally, catch the card between your hands and detach the anchor from the back of the card. The card may now be examined.

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! After that, produce and levitate each of the three remaining aces from different pockets.

Advanced methods This section deals with advanced methods to make your presentation of this illusion even more incredible.

Your deck will have only four aces at the end, as you discharged the four duplicates in the first pocket.

A clean finish If you controlled the forced card to the top or bottom of the pack, you may leave it in your pocket when you take the deck.

Other methods to produce the Aces from different pockets You may have noticed the previous effect would be similar to Milton Kort’s “Travellers without Palms”, in page 109 of The Magic of Milton Kort, by Stephen Minch, published by Hermetic Press, of Seattle, Washington.

Now, you have no duplicate cards in the deck.

Multiple levitations If you wish, you may have more than one duplicate card prepared with thread and wax in the same or different pockets. To repeat the illusion, locate the duplicate of the next prepared card and force it.

You may perform Kort’s version of this classic effect, and still produce prepared aces ready to be levitated. Force the four aces using the “Obliging Aces” presentation from page 125 of the “Royal Road to Card Magic”, by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue. Then, switch the aces and burry four indifferent cards in different parts of the deck or use a multiple shift to control the aces to the top or bottom.

You may practice levitating cards that are anchored on your left or right thumb nail and produce cards from left and right pockets. An efficient method to locate the necessary duplicates of the prepared cards is to perform a trick that requires you to remove specific cards from the deck.

Finally, palm the four aces or discharge them in the pocket using Milton Kort’s method, and produce the prepared aces that you can levitate.

For instance, in gathering the red and black cards you need to perform an oil and water routine, you may also cut the card you need to the top of the deck, so you may force it later.

Also, if you don’t mind having to practice a complex sequence of Elmsley and Jordan counts, you may prefer to use the spectacular effect “The More Things Change”, from page 126 of Peter Dufie & Jerry Sadowitz’ extraordinary book “Card Zones”, published by Breeze Books, London.

Aces from different pockets Why not have duplicates of the four aces prepared in different pockets?

Performing for challenging spectators Control the normal aces to the top of the pack with a Vernon’s Multiple Shift, for example.

An effect with multiple solutions permits you to triumph over adversaries or obstacles no matter what and finish the performance with dignity after a victory.

You may also use a packet switch, and bury four indifferent cards (apparently the aces) in different parts of the deck.

This is why, if you have the type of spectator who is trying to expose you, and you consider it is not safe to attempt to control or palm the card while he shuffles (because that’s what he expects you to do), you can still let that spectator burrow the card in the deck himself and shuffle the pack.

Palm the normal aces from the top, and leave them in the first pocket from which you remove the first prepared ace. Spin and float the ace, remove the wax from it, and return it to the deck.

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! You may even use the dramatic tension created by such a challenging situation to make your presentation more interesting.

have only 52 cards (really 53, but the duplicate is adhered to the back of an indifferent card). In most cases, the cards will adhere so well to each other, that you may allow spectators to handle the deck and they will not detect the double card. You may ask a spectator to deal the cards face up on your hand, pretending you want him to find the aces for the next effect. No one will notice that one of the cards was actually two cards adhered with wax.

And you may still produce and levitate the duplicate card, even if the original card is genuinely lost. Of course, if something like this happens, it is better to end the performance triumphantly at this point. But, assume the worst case scenario and suppose you have reasons to suspect the troublemaker may know about forcing. He could eventually imagine you used a duplicate card.

Once you have the aces, you may perform the routine where you produce them from different pockets, and levitate each of them, or maybe levitate only the last ace.

Before he could even think of this solution, you may proof him wrong by showing the deck has not duplicate cards.

If you want to be absolutely sure that the cards will be perfectly adhered, use an 8, 9 or 10 with a tiny pellet of card wax affixed to each pip, to make sure the cards will be immovable.

This requires only a little extra preparation in advance, to bring into play the classic principle used to vanish a card in Prof. Hoffmann’s effect, “The Flying Card”, described in Chapter VI, “Card Mysteries employing diachylon”, in the “Encyclopedia of Card Tricks”, edited by Jean Hugard.

In emergencies, you may transfer the wax from your nail to the card’s face, and stick it to the top card as explained. But, as the card will be fixed by means of only one pellet of wax, it might not be entirely immovable. It is therefore not recommendable to allow some spectators to handle the deck in this case.

You will not employ diachylon or saliva, as in the traditional method, however. Happily, cleaner products are available these days. Have four small pellets of coloured card wax adhered to the corner pips of the duplicate card in your pocket. Use red or black wax that hides in the pips of the same colour. After levitating the duplicate card, remove the wax anchor from its back with the nail, place it on top of the pack, and press it on the top card. The duplicate card will adhere to the top card thanks to the wax pellets.

“The Flying Card” that really flies!

You may wish to shuffle the pack to lose the double card in the deck at this point.

Have the card prepared with wax on the bottom and the card to be forced on top.

Or you may prefer to simply cut the deck and squeeze the cards as recommended in the “Encyclopedia of Card Tricks”, for the cards to adhere.

Backslip force the top card. Cut for the return of the forced card and complete the cut.

Finally, why not be ready since the very beginning? If you are performing only this trick with the deck, or you don’t mind having two cards stuck with wax for the rest of your performance (you might even find uses for this double card), you may also vanish the selected card from the deck as in the original trick, “The Flying Card”.

Squeeze the deck and proceed to show that the chosen card vanished from the pack.

Now, you can spread or fan the deck, and even drop the cards face up on the table one by one without exposing the duplicate card, and end up clean. The deck will apparently 9

Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! But, instead of producing the card from a card case, as in Prof. Hoffmann’s version, you produce the duplicate from the pocket and levitate it. You can perform this illusion completely surrounded by spectators, as there is nothing to palm or any bad angles at all, which makes this illusion perfect for strolling magic.

Combine methods! You can still have the long piece of thread ready to perform the original version. You may even have the piece of elastic thread with the two anchors fixed to shirt buttons as suggested in Ammar’s video. You may also carry a prepared stack of “Whirling Business Cards”, and handle one after performing the spinning card illusion with a chosen card! The approach provided here does not replace other procedures or prevents you from using them. It is an additional method.

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Or maybe it is privileged knowledge that will save you from dire consequences: Gamblers unaware of the danger you are going to expose lost immense fortunes.

Useful showmanship techniques This section explains basic showmanship techniques that will help you bring your unique personal charm and talent into play.

Allow yourself to fantasize about why your effect is unique: Do you use an irreplaceable object? It took you 10 years of study and practice to acquire the skill you are going to demonstrate? Was it incredibly difficult to persuade a reluctant magician to teach you the real secret of this routine? Are you demonstrating an inexplicable ability or lost secret of an ancient civilization, society or tribe? Did you find a lost artefact that allows you to do this? A rare matter is consumed, so you might not be able to repeat this demonstration until you find more of the substance? It works only at special times or when you experience a special feeling? Is it a routine you perform only for people you are fond of? Or is it associated to cherished remembrances of your childhood? You became able to do this after some exceptional event (accident, near-death experience, trauma, etc)? Is it an unexplainable unique ability you have always had and you don’t know how it works?

Showmanship is basically the skill to create a special experience for your spectators. How? By emphasising the uniqueness of your performance, rewarding attention, using your art sparely, handling applause gracefully and having a clear vision of how your show will be. Be different! Go beyond simply learning how to perform a trick by discovering your unique wonderful ways to make use of showmanship. You will be delighted by the results!

Emphasize the uniqueness of your performance! Extremely rare or unique things arouse interest and become associated to special experiences. This is why you must emphasize a characteristic that makes your performance unique. To illustrate this, imagine a pair of handcuffs Houdini himself used in his act. Imagine you received these handcuffs as a prize, in a special ceremony.

Act, think and feel as if all you said about the “uniqueness” of your effect were absolutely true, no matter how fantastic it is. It is true for you as an actor in the context of your performance.

Now, imagine an identical ordinary pair of handcuffs you bought from a dealer who sells items used by escape artists. The objects are identical. But the experience is entirely different.

Also remember that you may be as fantastic as you want, as long as all you say matches all you do or show. You may say that an obviously fake diamond made of plastic is a real diamond that was cursed to look as a cheap imitation. But you should not pretend it is a real diamond if it is obviously a false one, because this would destroy the illusion you are creating.

Tricks are like objects. They cannot create special experiences by themselves. The peculiar circumstances around them create these experiences. Use your patter to establish the “uniqueness” of what you are going to show. If you persuade spectators that they will see something special, mysterious and uncommon, they will be attentive and interested.

Reward attention Once you have secured the spectator’s interest with your patter, you may make a silent pause for the meaning of your words to sink in. Look at your spectators. Focus on those who are paying attention. Smile at them. Reward their attention by making feel you are also paying attention to them.

This “uniqueness” may be related to historical events. Maybe the ability to carry out this particular magic act used to determine whether one would be accepted as a wizard in some ancient society.

Then carry out your effect. 11

Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Perform for those that are paying attention. Do not worry about spectators who do not seem interested nor try to force them to pay attention to the show. If, at some point they begin to pay attention to you, look at them while you talk and smile at them, so they know you are pleased.

Give your entire attention to spectators at the end of your performance. Never complete complex secret preparations while receiving applause, as spectators may notice you are not paying attention to them. Always consider your performance to be a dialogue.

Use your art sparely

In a dialogue, you must give your listener a chance to say what he thinks. Your interlocutor has respectfully paid attention to you. Now, you must make clear you finished and are respectfully paying attention to him or her.

Remember that you may repeat an effect. But you can’t always repeat the experience your spectators had. Do not ruin a special experience by performing an effect too often. Just because you can do an effect whenever you want, you don’t have to do it whenever you can.

Applause in a formal performance -or simple praise in a casual performance- is the way the public has to tell you what they think. You must make clear that you have finished and that it is your turn to listen to them.

Common things cease to be connected to the experience of a special moment. Use your art sparely and always leave spectators wanting more.

This is why it is so important to plan how to clearly mark the end of your performance, even if it is an improvised performance for someone you met in a corridor!

Handle applause gracefully Handling applause gracefully requires you to know both how to trigger an ovation and how to receive applause.

Also remember that you must always leave spectators wanting more. This is an important part of the spectator’s experience! Perform an additional effect after the concluding effect (an “encore”) only when you are sure spectators are capable of giving you an even greater ovation if you do so. Always terminate your performance at its highest point.

Triggering an ovation Applause is an important part of the spectator’s experience. To trigger an ovation, make clear you finished and thank the public for their attention. You may conclude a formal show by taking a bow and saying something along the lines of: “And this concludes my performance. It was a pleasure to entertain you and I hope you had enjoyed my performance too. Thank you for your attention. I wish you a lovely evening.”

A magician is both actor and director As a director, you must have a clear vision of how your show will be: • • • •

Also finish small improvised performances by making clear you finished and thanking the spectators for their attention. Spectators may simply praise you instead of applauding when you perform in informal conditions (such as when performing for a small group at a restaurant table or for a friend in a corridor).

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Receiving applause We all want to feel we are special. If you make spectators feel special because they are applauding, they will applaud even more!

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How will it begin? How will it end? What will make the spectator’s experience special? How will your show arouse the spectator’s interest? Are there intense parts (danger, laughter or surprise), slow parts (suspense, contemplation or reflection), fast parts (skilful manipulation or flourishes) and which events trigger the rhythm changes? How will your voice and demeanour convey the adequate feelings at those times? Will your spectators be active participants or passive witnesses? How will you clearly communicate to spectators what is expected from them?

Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! •

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Have you eradicated all the common mistakes, such as shifting from foot to foot, fidgeting and other bad habits, such as inadvertently repeating some unnecessary words or expressions? All you need to guarantee the success of the performance is available? Attire? Lights? Props? Adequate rehearsal? Is the show adequate for the target audience?

Have a clear vision of how your show will be. Do not merely perform the moves taught in a book or DVD that explains how to perform a magic trick. You are unique. Produce a show in your unique way, even if the show consists of only one magic trick performed for a friend in a corridor and it lasts only 2 minutes. Be a showman! Think of every performance as a show.

Learning more about showmanship There is a list of useful books on showmanship in the links section at the end of this document. I am sure you will love to read them, if you have not done it already. You will enjoy studying showmanship. By creating a special experience for your spectators, you will also create an extraordinary and different experience for you as performer and director of your magic show.

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! I initially thought of a simpler way to eliminate the need to transfer two anchors: Have a card with both anchors fixed on the face in a pocket.

Final section This section is for those curious about all that made possible publishing this work.

I would control a selected card to the top, put the deck in that pocket, find the chosen card in the pocket, remove the deck from the pocket along with the card on the bottom of the pack, place the chosen card on top and transfer one of the anchors to the middle of it.

Why was this method created? Why another method to perform this classic illusion? The original method is still excellent and offers you many interesting possibilities not offered by the method presented here.

Nevertheless, it was still necessary to look at the card while transferring the anchor, to make sure it was fixed in the middle of the top card. This is not always easy to do unnoticeably.

However, the traditional method has two problems: 1. The long piece of thread might not remain intact enough time to be available when you want to perform the levitation.

I did not like to do it while showing the bottom card to spectators. That’s a little like saying: “Please look at the bottom card while I carry on these secret preparations on the top card”. Besides, it does not work when you are surrounded, as people seeing over your shoulder will notice what you are doing. And I wanted to levitate the card at any time, even when surrounded by people.

2. You also have to transfer the anchor to the exact middle of the card, forcing you to look at the anchor during the transfer. These problems of the original method may be due to the fact that Bob Hummer did not use invisible thread when he began performing the floating card illusion. He actually allowed a series of hairs from the back of his head to grow long. These hairs would be attached to the card using wax.

So, the reason why I developed this method is to really be able to perform this illusion with a chosen card whenever you want!

Only later was invisible thread used to perform this effect and the thread was, naturally, attached to the head, as in the original method.

Additional credits. I have already credited Bob Hummer for inventing this illusion and Geno Munari, Mark Blais and Michael Ammar for being the masters from which I learnt it. Now, I have to credit one final magician for empowering me to create all I have invented on my own. This magician is Aaron Smith.

Michael Ammar provided the first method I ever found to perform the levitation at any moment by carrying a prepared stack of business cards in the pocket. But this method has two limitations:

It was until the Magic Depo released the flesh coloured wax and red card wax that I finally came up with a satisfactory solution to the above mentioned problems.

1. I wanted to levitate a chosen playing card, not an indifferent business card that happens to be on top. And I wanted the deck to be unprepared, so I could handle it freely. 2. To perform the illusion with a burrowed deck of cards, the method suggested in the video requires you to transfer two anchors from shirt buttons to the deck.

The coloured card wax manufactured by Aaron Smith includes red and blue coloured invisible thread. It was this coloured thread and wax that suggested to me the idea of hiding the whole set up on the card’s back. I experimented with both anchors attached to the card’s back and I realized that it was more effective if the permanent 14

Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! anchor is the one that goes in the centre of the card to be levitated.

Disclaimer To the best of my knowledge, I have mentioned all the creative magicians who contributed to develop or popularize this illusion.

It is not really important to affix the other anchor to a precise spot, as long as it holds the thread. So, you can transfer it in the pocket without looking at it.

If I have failed to mention anyone, I apologize to this creative person. I will be glad to mention his or her contribution.

Finally, I have used pink wax to fix invisible thread to my nails for years. But home-made pink wax is not good enough. I was finally able to produce the perfect wax by mixing the flesh coloured wax and the red wax sold by the Magic Depo. These new waxes allowed me to solve the problem of levitating the card at any time.

Any similarity between the method I developed and other method I don’t know about that might have been published by other magician is coincidental.

About the author I was born in San José, Costa Rica, in February 1974.

Final thoughts My mom enrolled me in a magic course from an extinct distance learning company called “Modern Schools” when I was about 6 years old. The course author was said to be FuManchú, (stage name of David Bamberg2).

Note that I developed this method to perform the Floating Card illusion at any moment. The method is not intended to perform the advanced manoeuvres, such as floating the card around the body. Nor it is designed to imitate the “ascending air draft” effect in Ammar’s version, because the type and length of the threads and even the spinning technique are different, and the floating card will not behave as in the other versions.

I liked the course, but I was mostly interested in cold reading (a tradition in my family), until I got my first regular job: I worked as a casino dealer in the 1990s. That job paid for my university studies and I was fascinated by card magic.

If you want to perform these advanced manoeuvres, I recommend you to study the original method in Geno Munari and Mark Blais’ booklet or DVD. You may also want to check Michael Ammar’s Easy to Master Thread Miracles, volume 1, “Section Three - Magic with Invisible Elastic”. Study the “Whirling Business Card” and you will not be disappointed, as it is an amazing, easy and practical effect you will surely be happy to use.

I speak French, English and Spanish, I am vegetarian, live in San José, Costa Rica, and you may find me in Facebook. I will be glad to add you as a connection and know if you liked “Spinning Card Illusion Whenever You Want”. Best wishes,

Finally, if you want to learn a really clever and practical routine to produce the four aces from different pockets, I recommend you to study Milton Kort’s “Travellers without Palms” in Stephen Minch’s book, “The Magic of Milton Kort”. I have also added links to other commercially available versions of the Hummer’s floating card effect I found in Google, even though I have not studied all those booklets and DVDs, to help readers investigate those products if they wish.

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See the entry for Fu Manchú in Magicpedia at http://www.geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Fu_Manchu

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want!

Useful links Flesh coloured wax: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=6193 Black and White Card Wax http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=6584 Coloured Card Wax (includes coloured invisible thread) http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=6578 WaxTaqs Quick Stick http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=6519 Geno Munari and Mark Blais’ UFO Whirling Card http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=1676 UFO Whirling Card DVD: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=4181 Michael Ammar’s Easy to Master Thread Miracles series: Volume one: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=2978 Volume two: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=2979 Volume three: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=2980 All three volumes: http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=3444 The Magic of Milton Kort, by Stephen Minch http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=460 The Royal Road to Card Magic, by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=3973 Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, edited by Jean Hugard http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=3785

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Excellent books about showmanship Magic and Showmanship, by Henning Nelms http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=3889 Showmanship for magicians, by Dariel Fitzkee http://www.lybrary.com/showmanship-magicians-p-357.html Expert Card Technique, by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue (Chapter 2 of part VI offers very valuable information about showmanship). http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=3789 http://www.lybrary.com/expert-card-technique-p-36.html Our Magic, by Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant http://www.lybrary.com/our-magic-p-138.html Tarbell Course on Magic http://www.magic.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=2962 http://www.lybrary.com/tarbell-course-p-34.html

Other versions of Bob Hummer’s trick I have found using Google Although I have not bought or studied all of these versions, I am including them here for readers who might want to explore these products: Bob Hummer’s original whirling card trick, by Royal Magic http://www.amazon.com/Hummers-Original-Whirling-Card-Trick/dp/B000SVC2CK Ellusionist’s version of the Hummer’s Whirling Card http://www.ellusionist.com/hummer-whirling-card-trick.html Jon Jensen’s versión http://www.magicworld.co.uk/magic-shop/product.php?productid=84 The Hummingbird Card http://www.trickshopmagic.com/hummingbird.html The Trickshop version http://www.trickshop.com/hummer-card.html

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Spinning Card Illusion whenever you want! Flitter Fairies (a curious toy based on Bob Hummer’s trick) http://www.x-zylo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=7&Itemid=94 Steve Fearson’s famed Floating Cigarette routine and Area 51 routine: http://www.downloadmagic.com/levitations/levitateobjects/ The mentioned Fearson’s routines are not a variation of Bob Hummer’s trick. But they use similar principles. Also note that a variation of Fearson’s Floating Cigarette routine using an ordinary mint flavoured candy instead of a cigarette is described in Michael Ammar’s “Easy to Master Thread Miracles” series.

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