The-carey-files-volume-1-by-john-carey.pdf

The Carey Files: Volume 1

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The Carey Files: Volume 1

Copyright © 2016 John Carey All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. Printed in the United Kingdom by Haresign Press Design and illustration by Phillip Smith at Sushi Design ( www.sushidesign.net )

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The Carey Files: Volume 1

The Carey Files - Volume 1 Firstly a very big thank you for your purchase. In this new collection you will find a wide variety of extremely practical and commercial card and coin work. There is a wealth of information in this volume, encompassing myriad plots and techniques. I have no time for angle ridden pipe dreams - everything you will study has been designed to be performed in a wide variety of performing situations. At the risk of immodesty I will state that if you take the time to study, learn and perform a small handful of these pieces, you will have received the cost of your investment. Nothing in this work is beyond the intermediate student. A lot of the effects are nearly sleight free, enabling one to fully focus on the all important presentation which can take a simple card trick and turn it into a little miracle. Strong magic doesn’t have to be loaded with moves: subtlety and strategy combined with good routining can get the job done without toil. Whenever you are working on an effect ask yourself questions. My favorite magical question is ‘what if?’ I find it stimulating and most rewarding to work on a plot, streamline the handling and remove unnecessary clutter, without diluting the impact. Go grab some cards, some coins and a coffee and let’s have some fun together!

John Carey

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The Carey Files: Volume 1

Contents Spectator Open Prediction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6 Mysterious Metal- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7 Pocket Royale- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8 International Gadabout Coins- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10 Finnell as I Finnell! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11 Thoughts on Leech- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12 One for the Bar!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14 Past, Present and?- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15 Ten tips on creativity- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 17 The T.M Spread force.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18 Time to Time- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19 Biddle goes to Dunbury!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20 Bold deal force- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22 Stealth Assembly - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23 Yes we Caan!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 25 Slipstream Aces- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 27 Aces for Larry- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29 Cull Force Finesse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 31 Espresso Ring- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 32 Bluff stop trick- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 33 Gemini Prediction- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 34 Prediction A la Carte- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 36 Wired!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 37 Three in One- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 39 A la Goldman- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 41 Mutual Exchange- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 42 A Game of Make Believe... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 43 One thought across- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 45 B’lieve - A homage to Maven- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 47 Some random thoughts on card magic - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 49 Think-a-Card Triumph- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 50

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Inevitable - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 52 When two minds meet...- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 53 Me and You- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 55 Invisicard- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 57 Mentalcaan- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 58 Smartcaan - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 60 Simplex Card in Purse- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 61 Signed Bill to Purse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 63 Mirror Match - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 65 Homage to Roth- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 67 Opening Salvo-Coins to purse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 69 Time Traveller- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 71 The Deal Ruse Card Force- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 73 Indeed we CAAN!- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 74 Raj’s Pyramid Prediction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 75 Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 77 Uprising - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 81 Impromptu Hat Trick- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 84 Lifted, Again- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 86 Every Which Way PLUS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 89 Poker Face - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 91 Practical Joker- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 95 Misdirection Misconception - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 97 The Karachi Fried Chicken Trick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 101 Impromptu Foursome- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 103 Busted Flush - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 105 Offshore Banking- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 108 X Gon’ Give It To Ya - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 111 Sort of Epic- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 115 Pick Up Mix - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 118 Final words and thanks- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 119

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Spectator Open Prediction Here’s an approach to an open prediction style effect, where a spectator names any card, which ultimately proves to be the card stopped at. Position a Joker near the top of the deck and you are good to go. Ask a spectator on your right to name any card. Let’s say they say Seven of Hearts. “That’s interesting. Do you know the one card that nobody ever thinks of? That card is the Joker. Here, let’s remove it.” As you say the above, start spreading the deck face-up. When you sight the card they named, cull it under the spread, Hofzinser fashion and continue spreading until you reach the Joker. Up-jog the Joker and discard it. Square up the deck and turn it face-down. Their card is on top and you are way ahead of the game. Swing cut about half the deck into your left hand and then complete the cut, securing a little finger break above their card. Commence dealing cards face-up into a tabled packet. After you’ve dealt a few, ask your participant to call out stop based purely on instinct. Once stopped, ask the spectator to spread the face-up tabled packet. This affords you perfect shade or misdirection for a classic pass, covertly sending their named card to the top of your packet. Ask your helper if they see the card they freely named. They will reply in the negative of course. Deal the top card of your packet face-down on top of the face-up tabled spread. Then deal a few cards face-up on top of it, leaving the face-down card exposed. Then turn the rest of your cards face-up and drop them on top of the tabled cards and complete the ribbon spread. “At the very beginning I asked you to name a playing card. I placed absolutely no restriction on you right? What card did you name again please? And you could have stopped anywhere as the cards were dealt, but for some reason, known only to yourself, you stopped right here. Please take out the face-down card and turn it over. Impossible!!!” Conclude a la the above script and conclude your mystery. If you’ve ever worried about using a pass, this piece and the built in cover should allay your concerns ;-)

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Mysterious Metal Applying a card plot to coins can sometimes yield interesting results. What we have here is an approach to the classic mystery card plot, but done with coins. Start out with a 10p/quarter in your right pocket and four matching coins in your left pocket. Have a Sharpie in your pocket too. Bring out the single coin and table it near you. Don’t say anything, just do it! Then remove the other four silver coins and table them in front of a spectator. Take out the Sharpie marker and hand it to them. Request they sign one of the four coins. Extend your palm up right hand and take the signed coin from them. Execute a false transfer, retaining the signed coin in right hand finger palm and immediately pick up the other 3 coins and throw them casually into the left hand. Pick up the ‘mystery coin’ at the right fingertips and ask the spectator to hold out hand. Apparently drop it into their hand, really though executing a Bobo switch (shown below), switching in their signed coin and getting them to hold the coin in their closed hand. Pick up the Sharpie marker and put it away, at the same time ditching the palmed coin. We are now a mile ahead and all that needs to happen is the all important presentational framing. Reach into the left hand and take out a coin. Show it isn’t the signed one. Repeat this twice more, building up the dramatic tension. Finally snap your right fingers over your left fist and reveal the complete vanish of their signed coin. This is a very strong moment if you analyze it! “They say you cannot be in two places at the same time, but maybe, just maybe, you can!” Ask the spectator to open her hand to reveal that the coin of mystery is her signed coin!

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Pocket Royale Here’s a practically self working piece that’s a lot of fun to do. Set a royal flush in Spades on top of the deck and you are set to go. False shuffle the deck retaining your set up on top. Hand the deck to your helper and have them do the Jay Ose triple false table cut on themselves (sequence shown below). Then ask them to deal off the top five cards into a face-down packet and discard the deck. Ask them to mix this packet and then peek at the bottom card and put the thought of that card in their mind. Let’s say it’s the Ten of Spades. Now for a sneaky Larry Jennings automatic placement: Direct them through a down under deal mix, dealing the first card face-down and taking the next card and placing it under the packet. Have them continue this procedure, tossing the last card on top of the packet. This automatically sets their selection third from top. Take the packet and place it back outwards inside your right pocket. Ask your helper to try and mentally project the colour of their card to you, then the suit and finally the value. Feign concentration and then go into the pocket and take out the top card of the packet and toss it face-down onto the table. Repeat this, taking the new top card of the packet out and discarding. The next two cards you remove will come from the bottom of the packet in the pocket, leaving just one card remaining. Get your spectator to call out the card they are thinking of and dramatically remove the final card to reveal their Ten of Spades. “Hey that’s not a bad card in Poker.” Turn over the four tabled cards to reveal a Royal Flush. “And that’s unbeatable!”

Notes The Jennings placement comes from his routine ‘Thought Card to Pocket’ in Feb 2016 Genii. For larger audiences I prefer another strategy for getting the royal flush into play. Position the flush cards on the bottom of the deck. Hand out small groups of cards to multiple spectators, making sure you hand the last five flush cards to the final person. Have the cards thoroughly shuffled and then take back the packets and assemble the deck, taking the five royal flush cards last and placing them on top. Continue as per the routine above. I first saw this brilliant holdout ruse used by my friend Mark Elsdon. It has myriad applications. The Jay Ose false cut was first published in Harry Lorayne’s ‘Close Up Card Magic’. Cut about a third of the deck and table it. Next cut off half the remaining

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 cards and table them to the right of the first packet. Finally table the cards in hand furthest to the right forming a row of three packets. Pause a beat and then gather up the packets from left to right and square up.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1

International Gadabout Coins Here’s a take on the classic Gadabout Coins / Two in the Hand and One in the Pocket with three different coins and no duplicates. Technically very simple but strong, you can perform this anytime you have some pocket change. For formal situations I like to use a Chinese, American and English coins. Come out with the three different coins and table them. Pick up two coins in the right hand and drop them into the left hand which closes. Take the remaining coin with your right hand and put that hand in your pocket, supposedly ditching that coin. Really though you thumb palm it and bring that hand back out from the pocket. Tap the right hand against the pocket casually as a subtlety. This is a Charlie Justice idea. Wave your right hand over the left fist and snap your fingers. Then slightly open your left fingers and peer inside and look up and smile. Allow the thumb palmed coin to drop to fingertip rest as you do this. Bring both hands together and, when they touch, open the left hand as the right hand brings the coin in fingertip rest into view. Timed correctly, the illusion of taking a coin from the left hand is excellent. Drop that coin to the table. Then pick up the remaining coins and toss them one at a time to the table. For the second phase pick up two of the three coins in the right hand and drop them cleanly into the left hand, which closed into a fist. Take the remaining coin in the right hand and supposedly place it away in the right pocket. Actually though you finger palm that coin and bring the hand out. Snap your right fingers over your left hand, making the moment. Partially open the left hand and react. Then toss its coins into the right hand, which opens palm up receiving the coins. Toss all three back into the left hand and then table them. Attitude is everything with both of these two phases. Be casual and don’t rush. For the final phase pick up two coins in the right hand and execute a clink pass as you apparently drop those coins into the left hand, actually retaining them in right hand finger palm. Take the final coin from the table and put it away in your right pocket, ditching all the coins in the process. Make the moment over your left hand and then dramatically slap the hands together and reveal all the coins have vanished.

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Finnell as I Finnell! Here’s a nice application of Gene Finnell’s Free Cut Placement in the context of a Do As I Do routine. From a spectator shuffled deck push off three groups of five cards in front of you in a tabled row. Repeat this, placing three more rows of five cards in front of your spectator. Do not call attention to the size of the packets. State to your helper that together you will both try something that goes beyond good or great and is actually, maybe, impossible. Pick up any of your packets and invite the spectator to do the same. Cut away a few cards, look at the face card of that cut away section and place it on top of either of your two remaining tabled packets. Ask your helper to replicate your actions, remembering a random card etc. Pick up your remaining five card packet from the table and drop it on top of the larger packet. Finally drop your remaining cards in hand on top of all and square up. Once more, they copy you. Both of you now pick up your packets and you walk and talk your spectator through the Jay Ose false table cut from Lorayne’s Close up card magic. Swap packets with the spectator and you are now ready for the double revelation. Due of course to the Finnell free cut, each selection will reside tenth from the top of each packet. Recap what has taken place and remind your audience that you said you were going to try something impossible. Tell your spectator to deal cards facedown onto the table and spell out loud the word impossible, one card for each letter. Once they have done this you do exactly the same. Ask for the name of the card they are thinking of and turn over the top card of your tabled packet to reveal their mental selection. A beat later call out the name of your card and let them turn over the top card of their tabled packet to reveal your card.

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Thoughts on Leech In the book The Complete Al Leech, is a beautiful little card mystery called ‘The Spectator Does a Trick’. This version has spawned some lovely variations down the years, in particular the effect ‘Untouched’ by Daryl. I wanted to take out the dealing aspect of this and give it a different feel. Using the basic Leech idea, I put the following together which is designed for working for couples. Essentially it’s a mystery-card-meets-thought-of-card. Do not underestimate the power of the very simple method. Throw some smoke around the presentation and this thing plays. From the top of the deck down have the following three cards set: Seven of Diamonds, either black seven, any Diamond. Execute an in-the-hands riffle shuffle retaining your set up and then table the deck. Have the gentleman on your right cut off a fair sized packet of cards. As you address his partner, casually place the other packet on top, offset at an angle in readiness for Max Holden’s classic cross-cut card force. Do not mention the death words, “mark the cut”:-) Mention to the lady that you are going to attempt an experiment in thoughts and connection with her and her partner. Lift off the upper packet and place the top card of the balance into the man’s hand. Ask him to cover it with his other hand. “This will be our mystery card.” Pick up the remaining cards and place them on top of the cards in hand. Your black seven spot and Diamond cards are back on top and the Seven of Diamonds is being held by the man. Run the top two cards to the bottom of the deck with an overhand shuffle and shuffle off the rest of the deck normally. “Mary, a playing card is made up of two main components. A value and a suit. I want you to put the thought of a card in your mind in a moment but first let’s divide the deck into two portions.” Suiting actions to words, slip shuffle holding back the bottom card of the deck and shuffle off about half the deck and table it. Slip shuffle once more with the remaining cards, asking your helper to call out stop. Table this packet to the right of the first packet. Your value and suit force cards are nicely set on the face of each packet. Ask the lady to pick up either packet. If she picks up the packet with the black seven on the face, ask her to take a peek at the bottom card and lock just the value of that card in her mind. Get her to place that packet on the table and then pick up the other packet and peek at its bottom card and focus on and remember just the suit. Ask her to combine those two thoughts to form the thought of a card in her mind. This successfully forces her to ‘think’ of the Seven of Diamonds. However, if she picks up the suit packet first, you simply reverse the above instructions, having her think of the suit then the value with each packet. Have the deck gathered up and request she shuffles the deck. “So, Mary, right now you are merely thinking of a

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 card that not a soul in the world could know. Keep saying the name of that card over and over in your mind as you visualize the colour and value of that card that exists purely in your mind. Wouldn’t it be great if you could make it appear on top? It’s not there? How about the bottom? No joy there either. Bob, you’ve been holding a card since the beginning. Before Mary even thought about thinking of a card. There was something special that first brought you two together. Fate, chance or simply some kind of mystical connection. Mary, tell all of us what card are you thinking of please. Bob take out your card and turn it over. Impossible!” Follow the outline of the above presentational smoke and bring the piece home, revealing a perfect mental and physical connection :-)

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One for the Bar! Here’s a very simple but strong and funny piece I use in pub situations. Take a selfie of yourself with say the Five of Diamonds face outwards on your forehead. Have the Five of Diamonds on top of your deck in readiness for forcing and a duplicate of this card in your pocket face outwards. False shuffle keeping your force card on top. Table the deck and have your spectator cut away a chunk. You pick up the remainder and place them offset on top of that packet, setting up Max Holden’s classic cross-cut card force. Take out your phone and ask the lady for her phone number :-) Promise her you won’t stalk her and it’s all in aid of entertainment! Text her your selfie but tell her not to open the text just yet. Reach over the deck and lift away the angled packet. Point to the top card of the remaining packet and ask her to take a peek at it. Ask her to lock the thought of that card in her mind. Drop your packet on top of hers and have her shuffle the deck. Ask your helper to pick up her phone and open the text message you sent her moments ago. As she does this you have perfect shade to palm out the duplicate card from your pocket and load it face outwards on your forehead. She will look at the text and react/laugh. When she looks at you she might just scream!;-) Notes: For a video option just film a ten second clip of a folded card coming out of your mouth, revealing the Five of Diamonds. Of course you would steal and load a pre folded duplicate of her card into your mouth as they’re viewing it. Etc etc.

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Past, Present and? Dressing up card effects with a fortune telling theme seems to really appeal to people, especially ladies. The following effect was directly inspired by Bill Simons beautiful business card prediction in Scarne on card tricks. Using his famous prophecy move, the effect is almost self working, allowing one to present this strongly to make it memorable. You will require a small Manila pay envelope. Pop the Queen of Hearts in the envelope and seal it. On the front of the envelope write FUTURE with a marker. Take out the Queen of Clubs and the Two of Hearts from your deck and place the Queen on top and the Two on the face. Bring out the envelope writing side down and table it casually. Take out your cards and riffle shuffle, retaining the top and bottom cards. “Cards are not only used by magicians and gamblers. For generations they have been used by Gypsies and psychics to tell the past, present and future. Lori, let’s see what the cards have to tell us about you today.” Hand the pay envelope to the lady and have her insert it into the deck, but leave it protruding. I like to softly riffle down the corner of the deck to around the centre and pause, allowing her to insert the envelope smoothly. Mention that you wrote a message on the envelope earlier that day. Hand to hand spread the cards until you reach the envelope. Turn the envelope over revealing the word future written on it. As you do this execute Bill Simon’s prophecy move, secretly juxtaposing the upper and lower halves of the deck and leaving the now printed side of the envelope protruding from the deck as you square up.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Comment on how they could have inserted the envelope anywhere in the deck. Hand to hand spread the cards once more and take out the envelope and the card above and below it as a sandwich. Set the deck aside on the table or better yet hand it to the spectator. Point to the bottom card you are holding and state that this card represents their past. Turn it face-up, showing the Queen of Clubs and give a reading about the past. Please make this light-hearted and generic! Place this card face-up below the envelope. Turn the upper card face-up, showing the Two of Hearts. State this card represents the present. Once again give a light hearted and friendly reading of this card to the lady and place it back on top of the envelope. Comment on how a paying card is made up of a value and a suit. “As this card is a Queen and this card is a Heart, if we combine them we get the Queen of Hearts.” Remove the two cards and table them. “The past is one thing and the present is now, but sometimes our future is staring us in the face.” Open the envelope and take out the card inside. Turn it face-up to reveal the Queen of Hearts and finish the mystery.

Notes If you have a double faced Queen of Clubs / Two of Hearts in the envelope you can offer the spectator a fee choice of which card represents the value and which one represents the suit. Just remove the double facer the correct way up from the envelope to reveal the correct card.

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Ten tips on creativity 1.

Have a foundation firstly so that you have the tools to do the job. You can’t build a house without foundations! Read, read, read ;-)

2.

Think what you would like to achieve with an effect and then start working on it. Rule nothing in or out.

3.

Set your mind free! About 90 per cent of my stuff comes from letting go and visualization. It’s fun and stimulating. Next time you are on a long boring train or plane journey, close your eyes and visualize the cards, the coins or whatever.

4.

Look at other art forms for inspiration. Go to an art gallery and take in the pieces there. It can be really inspiring. Or a pub ;-)

5.

One plot a week! Something I advise my students is to take one card plot and work on that and nothing else for a week. Work through all the versions of that plot you do and know and dissect them. Ask questions. How can I make this cleaner? How can I improve reactions etc.

6.

Always keep a notebook! Write or type up all your ideas and thoughts. Do it properly so that when you revisit them you can understand what the hell you were thinking :-)

7.

Improv! Sit down with a bunch of different small objects and play. See what you can come up with.

8.

Listen! Always listen to your peers. They may give you an idea you can expand upon in your work.

9.

Read books other than magic! You will surprise yourself how stimulating reading up on other non-magic topics is.

10. There are no rules! By this I mean that no card or other kind of plot is set in stone. Twist it, turn it and throw it up in the air and see where your thoughts land. Also, don’t get sucked in by magician’s logic. Think about audience perceptions and how you can take advantage of this. 10a. When working on something, always ask yourself what if? 10b. Have Fun!

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The T.M Spread force. Good, strong semi-automatic card forces are few and far between. The classic cross-cut card force of Max Holden is for my money the best one out there. My contribution to this genre of forces uses time misdirection, just like the Holden force. Hence the title. A calm, casual attitude is essential here. Show no fear! Let’s say your force card is the Two of Hearts. It starts out on top of the deck. Execute an in-the-hands riffle shuffle retaining it on top. Table the deck and ask your helper to cut the deck into two halves, your right hand miming this action as you pretend to cut a packet and table it to the right of the lower half. Once they have completed their task you will create the time misdirection needed to make this force work. Ask your spectator if they have ever tried visual estimation? They will look at you like you are nuts, but that’s good! The right hand goes to the table and picks up the lower half of the deck from above. Move this hand forward a few inches and ribbon spread this packet from left to right, finishing the spread so that the top card is pretty much in line with the other tabled packet. Without any guilt the right hand takes the top card (force card) from the squared packet and raises the face of the card towards your helper to remember. Drop it on the end of the ribbon spread leaving it out-jogged. Pick up the remaining cards and complete the ribbon spread, leaving the force card protruding. Pause a few seconds to allow this image to sink in and then ask your spectator to push their selection square and then shuffle the deck. What you do from here is entirely up to you. Just be casual, apply the all important time misdirection and you will have added a useful weapon to your armory.

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Time to Time This piece was inspired by the presentational premise of Richard Sanders’ ‘King Thing’ from one of his DVDs. From a shuffled deck in use have three cards stopped at in different positions as you hand-to-hand spread. Break the spread at each point stopped at and show each selection, culling each one under the spread and secretly sending them to the bottom of the deck. Execute any convincing false cut and then casually spread the cards and sight the bottom three cards. Secure a left pinky break above them as you square up. Talk about how cards have a lot in common with time. Transfer the deck to right hand overhand grip and the break to your right thumb. State that you need a timer card. Swing cut about a third of the deck into your left hand and then start peeling off cards one at a time with your left thumb until stopped. Push over the top card of the left hand’s packet and use the left edge of the right hand’s cards to tip it over and face-up, showing say a 4 spot. “This card determines that I have to find all three selections in no more than four seconds.” Push the timer card over and again, using the left edge of the right hand’s cards tip the card face-down, secretly allowing the three selections below your break to drop on top (shown below). Push off the top card of the left hands packet and drop it face-down on the table. Bring both hands back together and as you do so, secure a left little finger break beneath the top card of the left hand’s stock. Square up as you ask the group to get ready to start the countdown. As soon as they shout “Start!” you cut to your break, table that portion and slap the remainder on top. “Stop!” This will get a laugh. Ask for the three selections to be named and take the top card and show one of them, then turn over the deck to reveal another selection on the bottom. To conclude the mystery look down at the timer card and make a magical gesture. Have this card turned over to reveal the final selection and your work is done.

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Biddle goes to Dunbury! Charlie Miller’s classic ‘Dunbury Delusion’ is a real crowd pleaser. There are many methods in print worthy of your attention. My contribution here is a small packet approach using the time honored Biddle move. It’s quite lean and mean and doesn’t go on forever. From a shuffled deck in use casually spread off eight cards from the top without calling attention to the number and hand them to a spectator for mixing. Table the balance of the deck face-down. Take back the packet and spread it for a free selection. Secure a left pinky break above the bottom two cards of the packet as you square up. The right hand comes over the packet from above and casually lifts away all the cards above the break. Extend the left hand and have the selection placed on top of its cards. Bring the hands together and drop the right hands cards on top and square up. Now for a casual mix which retains the selection third from bottom. Spread off the top three cards and drop them to the table. Push off the next two and drop them on top. Leaving the remaining cards squared, drop them on top of the tabled cards and pick the packet up. Now simply repeat the above procedure which will shuttle the selection back to third from the bottom of the packet. State that in order to find their selection you will use a process of elimination that never fails! Turn the packet face-up and hold it from above in right hand Biddle or overhand grip. The left hand approaches the packet and the thumb peels off the face card into the left hand. Repeat this action peeling off the next card on top. Bring the hands together again and once again peel off a card on top. This will be the selection. Secure a left pinky break beneath it and secretly steal it back under the right hand’s cards, Biddle style, as you peel off another card from the right hand’s packet. Finally peel off one more card from the face of the right hand packet and place the left hand’s cards face-down on top of the deck. Mention that you are certain that none of those cards are their selection and they are to keep a poker face. Do not call attention to the number of cards you peel off as you execute the above sequence. Turn the remaining four cards face-down and deal them one by one into a packet onto the table, sending the selection to the bottom. Hand the packet to your helper. “In order to find your card from those you hold we will now use a mystical elimination ritual an old Gypsy fortune teller showed me.” After saying this direct your spectator to do a simple down / under deal until they hold just one card. Ask them to pin the index finger of their other hand on top.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Turn over the three cards on the table and ask if they see their card? They will say no of course. Then ask them to call out the name of their card. Act slightly confused and shocked as you look down at the deck and then back at them. Then with a twinkle in your eye ask them to turn over the card they are holding to reveal their selection and conclude the mystery.

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Bold deal force In my opinion you can never have enough good, strong card forces. Each have their merits and can be plugged into various routines. The following little swindle is a lot of fun and extremely easy to do. Your force card starts out on the bottom of the deck. Mention that there are several ways you can mix a deck of cards. Slip shuffle, retaining the force card on the bottom by pressure of the pads of the left fingers as you shuffle. Secure a left pinky break above the force card as you square up. A simple pull down with the tip of the left pinky is as good as any for this. Continue by cutting a few small packets to the table, one on top of the other as you say that this is a good mixing action. Then start dealing cards one at a time on top of the tabled packet and ask a spectator to call out stop on impulse. Transfer your remaining cards to right hand Biddle or overhand grip, taking a right thumb break above the bottom card. “Now ordinarily I would just place these cards on top but first would you please take a peek at the card you stopped at?” Suiting actions to the above words, bring the right hand and its cards down on top of the tabled packet for just the briefest of moments, secretly dropping off the force card from your thumb break. Bring the right hand back about two inches and then using the tips of the right fingers push the force card forward a couple of inches and immediately ribbon spread the whole deck, leaving the force card protruding. Have the spectator peek at this card and your work is done.

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Stealth Assembly There must be more versions of the classic Four Ace Assembly in print than any other card plot. But that still doesn’t mean it’s not ripe for continued experimentation. My humble offering here was inspired by a John Bannon assembly in his book ‘Dear Mr Fantasy’. It uses a brilliant ruse of John’s to pretty much do the whole job. A nice feature of the following handling is that the faces of all twelve indifferent cards are seen as the cards are laid out prior to the effect taking place. Take out the Aces and hold them face-up in the left hand. Table the deck facedown to your right. You will now display each Ace at the same time setting up the Bannon ruse I referred to above. Take off the face Ace, turn it face-down and place it under the packet. Repeat this with the next two Aces. Look over to the tabled deck and ask your helper to pick it up and shuffle. Casually place the Ace packet onto the table. This leaves us with a face-up Ace on view and three face-down Aces beneath it. Just act nonchalant and casual as you do the above. It isn’t a move, so don’t make one of it. Ask your helper to deal twelve face-down cards into a packet on the table and to discard the rest of the deck. “Four Aces, twelve random cards and a charming personality!” As you have fun with the above line, pick up the Aces from above and drop them on top of the other packet. Pick up the combined packet and turn it over, holding the packet in left hand dealer’s grip. “I want you to see the faces of each and every random card.” Push over three cards and flip them face-down, allowing them to drop on top of the left thumb. Pick up these three cards and table them to your left. Repeat exactly the above same actions twice more, showing indifferent cards and forming two further packets to the right of the first packet. To complete the lay down, push off two single cards and then execute a block push off of every card above the bottom card and flip the packet face-down (sequence shown below).

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Deal off three face-down cards into a packet nearest to you. Technically speaking, your work is done. Simply deal a supposed Ace on top of each of the three packets in a row and then flash the face of the Ace you are holding and drop it on top of the leader packet nearest to you. Roll up your sleeves and rub your hands together. “Are we ready to start? Actually I’m ready to finish!!!” Turn over each of the outer packets and fan face-up to show that the Aces have vanished. Then direct attention to the leader packet and turn it face-up to reveal that the Aces have well and truly assembled.

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Yes we Caan! The card at any number plot is extremely popular among magicians in recent times. There are many versions in print. Some are very good, while others seem way too convoluted, in my honest opinion. The version we will discuss here is simple, practical and strong. Did I mention it’s also nearly self working too? Ask one member of the group you are working for to think of a number, not too small, but not too big. Say between ten and twenty, but make it high and difficult. This is a devious ruse of Dani DaOrtiz to steer your spectator towards a high number in the range. Suggest that you get a few of the group involved with shuffling the deck. Push off a group of five cards from the top of the deck and drop them in front of a spectator. Repeat this twice more, dropping two more groups of five cards on top of the tabled cards. Finally drop three more cards on top of all. Do this casually and of course silently. Eighteen cards are on the table. Make two further packets of cards in front of two other people, casually dropping cards down in front of them like before, the quantity not being important though. Ask the three people to shuffle their packets and to then table them. Then have spectator three drop their packet on top of spectator two’s. Then direct attention to your first helper and almost as an afterthought ask them to take a peek at the face/bottom card of their packet and to put the thought of that card into their mind. Request they drop their packet on top of the other tabled cards and square up. Pick up the deck and execute a casual Jay Ose false cut. Maybe even have a spectator do the cut on themselves - a Jim Swain idea. Direct attention to the person thinking of a number and ask them to reveal it? If they say eighteen, you are of course golden. Seventeen too is good. Simply count down and reveal the mental selection at the thought of number or show the next card as the selection. However let’s deal with other numbers. We will use a delightful ruse/ swindle I saw Lewis Jones use to displace cards sleightlessly. Let’s say the number thought of is fifteen. That means we need to displace the top three cards. Simply push off the top three cards and flip them face-up. Take them into the right hand in a spread condition and ask if the selection is near the top? Once they confirm it isn’t flip the rest of the deck face-up and push off a couple of cards from the face, asking this time if it’s near the bottom. Place the right hand’s three cards casually onto the face of the deck and turn it face-down. Do the above nonchalantly and it flies. If nineteen is called I like to show the top card, flip the deck face-up and spread off a few of the face cards, secretly Hofzinser culling any random card to the rear/top

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 of the deck. Turn the deck face-down and table it. All that’s left is to deal and count down to the thought of number and reveal the selection with style!

Notes A very big thank you to my friend J.K Hartman for the great suggestion of having the selection made in a hands off fashion. Originally I assembled the shuffled packets together with a break under eighteen cards and did a dribble force. Jerry’s suggestion is far stronger.

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Slipstream Aces Alex Elmsley’s ‘1002 Aces’, first published in Ibidem magazine is a true classic in the field of Ace assemblies. There is a wonderful economy of motion in his effect. The following approach was put together after hearing on the grapevine that such luminaries as Larry Jennings and Bill Goodwin had worked on the Elmsley effect, but without switching any Aces at the start. Commence by dealing the Aces into a face-up row on the table. Hand the deck out for shuffling and upon return take off the top three cards, flash their faces and table this packet face-down in front of the Aces and slightly spread. Ask a spectator to nominate any one of the Aces as a leader. Let’s assume they say Ace of Diamonds. Drop this Ace face-up on top of the face-down packet. Start spreading the deck and ask your spectator to return each of the remaining Aces face-down in different parts of the spread. As each Ace is returned, Hofzinser cull it under the spread. Once the third Ace is culled, square up the deck, securing a left pinky break above the three Aces at the bottom of the deck. This control should be credited to John Carney who published it as multiple slip in his book Carneycopia. Focus attention on the face-up Ace of Diamonds and three X cards packet on the table. The right hand lifts this packet from above and turns palm upwards, casually flashing the three X cards. Because the packet is slightly spread you have the motivation to turn the right hand palm down and bring it over the deck to square it up. Once squared your left thumb immediately drags off the face-up Ace of Diamonds and comes away to the left with it and the three Aces you have a pinky break above. Immediately spread this packet slightly and table it. Ribbon spread the deck facedown. The above is Larry Jennings beautiful slip switch published in his routine reaping the Aces in his book The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings (as shown in illustration)

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Ask your helper to cover the tabled packet with either hand and make the moment. Get them to lift their hand. Pick up the packet and deal the face-up Ace of Diamonds on top of the left end of the spread. Then dramatically deal the remaining cards face-up from left to right on top of the tabled spread to reveal that the Aces have magically assembled.

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Aces for Larry Yes, another Ace effect, but I believe this one is worthy of your attention. In his book The Cardwright, Larry Jennings had a nice piece called ‘Larrollover Aces’. I liked the effect but felt the method was a bit topheavy, for me anyway. My approach isn’t at all difficult but really gets the job done quite nicely. From a shuffled deck in use take the deck into face-up dealing grip in the left hand. Start spreading the cards as you mention you will take out the Aces. Injog the fourth card from the face slightly by pulling it down with the left thumb. Continue spreading and take out each Ace and place them onto the face of the deck. The palm down right hand then comes over the deck from above to square up, at the same time the right thumb lifts up slightly on the injog, allowing the left pinky to establish a break beneath the face eight cards. Push off three of the Aces into your right hand, thusly displaying all four, then bring the hands back together and with the left thumb execute a block push off of everything below your break, then flip the block of eight cards face-down onto the deck and square up. Bring the right hand palm down over the deck and take off the first face-down card and table it to your left. Repeat this twice more, tabling the next two face-down cards to the right of the first supposed Ace, forming a row of three cards. Finally take off the next face-down card, at the same time turning the left wrist inwards slightly so as not to expose the true condition of the deck. Table that fourth card to the right end of the row. With the right fingers and thumb grasp the outer short end of the deck and turn it face-down. Execute a quick centre Hindu shuffle, pulling out a block of cards from the middle and shuffling them off Hindu style. Then spread the deck between your hands without exposing the four reversed cards. Pause in this position to let this image sink in. Square up the deck and then cut off about a quarter of the deck with the right hand and table this portion onto the card at the far right of

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 the tabled row. Repeat these actions three more times, tabling packets onto the remaining three cards. I like to leave the supposed Aces side jogged beneath each packet before picking up and stacking each packet from right to left and then squaring up the deck. Hold the deck in left hand dealer’s grip and ask a spectator to cut off around half the deck and table it. You then place the remaining cards on top. Ask your helper to cover the deck with either hand. Make your mysterious incantations over their hand and get them to lift their hand away. Dramatically ribbon spread the deck to reveal the four Aces have magically assembled face-up in the centre. Perform each step in a nice, smooth and unhurried fashion and you will have a nice display piece for intimate working conditions.

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Cull Force Finesse The force of a card using the mechanics of the Hofzinser spread cull is a beautiful thing. Attributed to the late Fred Robinson and titled ‘The Ultimate Force’, I believe only the classic force (if you can do it well and reliably) beats it. I’ve had a few finesses on this force in recent times and here is another strong and quite cheeky approach. Let’s say your force card is fifth from the top of the deck. Start spreading the cards and cull the force card under the spread. See Card College for an excellent description. Continue spreading until most of the backs are in view and bring your left hand away as you ask your helper to reach over the deck and pull some cards away. Make a grabbing action with the left hand at the left end of the spread, by way of demonstration. Once they have pulled some cards away from the left end of the spread ask them to table those cards. Now simply hand them the remaining cards, pushing the left edge of this packet against their hand, squaring up the packet and thus secretly sending the culled force card to the bottom. Have them peek the bottom card of their packet and your force is complete.

Notes You can also offer them the opportunity to come back to the spread and remove a few more cards which adds further smoke to the force. Just sayin ;-)

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Espresso Ring It’s always nice to have effects which you can do in social situations, like having a coffee with friends. The following is a kind of flying ring effect, using an espresso coffee cup, a few coins and of course a borrowed ring. Take out four ten pence pieces / quarters and table two to your left and two to your right. Have them one on top of the other. Ask your friend to pick up the empty(!) espresso cup and to invert it and cover the two coins on your right. Request the loan of their finger ring and take it with your palm up right hand. Make favourable comments on their jewelry and then execute a simple false-transfer into the left hand, secretly retaining their ring in right hand finger palm. Immediately follow through and pick up the two silver coins on your left and place them into your left fist. Ask your helper to grasp your left wrist. Comment on the situation at hand: two coins and their ring in your left hand and two coins under the espresso cup. As you mention the cup, the right hand lifts it to display two silver coins. As the focus is there, you simply tilt the mouth of the cup towards you, then secretly load their ring under the cup as you cover the two coins. This is exactly like a cups and balls load. “Your finger ring will act like a teleport and send these two coins over to join the coins under the cup.” Shake the left hand, pause a beat and then open it to reveal the coins are still there but their ring has vanished. A moment later look down to the cup, look back up and smile. Your spectator will need no invitation to lift the cup and discover their finger ring has made a most mysterious journey!

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Bluff stop trick The classic stop trick has always fascinated me. So many nice versions in print, some based on psychology and others more sure fire. There is nothing new technically in my handling. My presentation is really just a big bluff, but if Lady Luck is on your side, some strong moments can occur prior to the climax. From a shuffled deck in use have a card freely selected and signed. Have the card returned to the deck and control it to the bottom with a favourite method. I use the Hofzinser spread cull. Execute an in-the-hands riffle shuffle retaining the selection. Secretly glimpse the card, say two of Hearts, as you do an all around square up. Hand the deck to your helper and walk and talk them through the Jay Ose triple false cut. Take back the deck and hold it in left hand dealer’s grip. “Shannon, a playing card is made up of a colour, a suit and a value. As I deal the cards to the table I want you to mentally project the colour of your card to me and call out stop.” When they stop you dealing, lift off the top card of your packet and peek at its face. “Your card is a red card, right?” If this card is red you can show its face. If not, simply replace it on your packet. “I will continue dealing and based purely on impulse call out stop again.” Once they stop you, take off the top card of your packet and peek at its face. “The cards are telling me your card was a heart, yes?” As before, if you luck out and it is a heart take full advantage of this moment and show the face of the card! “It seems like strange forces are at work here tonight, Shannon. As I continue dealing them again, please call out stop one last time.” Once your helper stops you the right hand picks up the tabled packet and turns it face-up and ribbon spreads it from left to right. Bring the right hand back to the cards in hand and execute a bottom deal, secretly dealing their card and placing it face-down and out-jogged on top of the face-up tabled spread. Turn your remaining cards face-up and complete the ribbon spread. Build the thing up and bring the trick home, letting them remove the face-down card from the spread to reveal that it’s their signed card.

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Gemini Prediction Karl Fulves Gemini mates is a true workhorse. Such a simple but elegant hands off forcing procedure. Here we take this concept and use its properties to achieve something a little different. You will require two decks and three business cards. Set the Ten of Diamonds fourteenth from the top of the blue deck and case this deck. From the red deck remove any black ten and the Four of Diamonds. Place the ten spot on the bottom of the deck and the four spot on top and case this deck. To complete your preparation, write the word value on the back of one of your business cards, suit on another and the number fourteen on the third card. Set these up printed side up in number, value and suit order from the top down. Bring out both decks and then remove your business cards. Table the number prediction centre stage. Place the value business card sight unseen in front of spectator one and the suit card in front of spectator two, also sight unseen. Take the red cards out of their box and execute a quick in-the-hands riffle shuffle retaining the top and bottom cards’ position. Hand the deck to spectator one and ask her to start dealing cards face-down one at a time in a pile and use her intuitive sense to stop dealing some time. When she stops dealing have her place her business card on top of the dealt packet and then place the remaining cards on top and then pass the deck to spectator two. Have them carry out the same procedure, dealing and stopping freely, placing their business card on top of their dealt cards and once more placing the remaining cards on top and squaring up. Recap what has taken place and how everything was under their control. Take the deck and ribbon spread it, or hand to hand spread if table space is tight. Take out the uppermost business card and the playing card to the right of it. Table this pair. Repeat with the other business card and the card adjacent to it. Ask your helpers to turn over their playing cards to reveal a ten and a four. “Two random cards generated entirely by you both. If we add the values we arrive at fourteen. But if you had of each dealt one card less or one card more then everything changes.” Direct one of the spectators to turn over your numerical prediction business card to reveal the number fourteen. “That’s quite spooky, don’t you think? But let’s take this further than that. You see, a card comprises of a value and a suit. Please turn over each of the business cards you used earlier, where you will both see a message.” They turn over each business card to reveal the words value and suit. “If we take the value of your random card and the suit of your friends card and combine them, we arrive at a playing card. Since yours was a Ten and the other card is

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 a Diamond, we make the Ten of Diamonds. Not the greatest card, but certainly not the worst. And if we take our magic number of fourteen, let’s see where that takes us.” Ask either of your helpers to pick up the blue deck that has been in full view the whole time and to remove the cards from the box. “Please deal and count out loud to number 14 and stop. Let me ask you a question. Do you like surprises?” Let them respond and then direct them to turn over the card at their number to reveal the Ten of Diamonds.

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Prediction A la Carte So in the previous piece, ‘Gemini Prediction’ we explored a formal two deck piece. Let’s now take a look at a sleight of hand approach with just one deck. Once again we will use the three business cards, with value, suit and ‘14’ written on them. Set the black ten and red four at positions fifth and sixth respectively. Take out the Ten of Diamonds and place it sixteenth from the top. Take out the deck and remove the business cards, placing the number prediction on the table sight unseen. Hand the value business card to a person on your right and the suit business card to someone on your left. False shuffle the deck and address the person on your right. Start a hand to hand spread and Hofzinser cull the fifth card from the top under the spread. Continue spreading and ask your spectator to insert their business card somewhere in the deck - just make sure you go past your force card at sixteenth. Once they have inserted the business card you secretly load the culled card above it and then square up. Go to your other helper and repeat the above sequence, culling the fifth card under the spread and secretly loading it above where they insert their business card. Square up and table the deck. Ribbon spread the deck and remove each business card and the playing card above it. Square up the deck and ask your helpers to turn over their playing cards, revealing a ten and a four. Comment on how they had complete freedom as to where they inserted the two cards. “If we combine the values of those two random cards we arrive at 14. Please turn my prediction over.” They turn over your business card to reveal your prophecy was spot on. “You see, a playing card is made up of a value and a suit.” Ask your spectators to turn over their business cards to reveal the words value and suit written on them. “If we combine the value of your card with the suit of yours, we arrive at the Ten of Diamonds. Now let’s take things one step further than that.” Hand the deck to one of the group to deal and count out loud to fourteen. Then have the card at that number turned face-up to reveal that by forces unseen, there is the Ten of Diamonds!

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Wired! The commercially available effect, Wiregrams, where a length of wire magically moulds itself into the name of a chosen playing card is a lovely, strong, visual piece of magic. Normally you see it demonstrated without much in the way of routining which, to my mind, is a pity. What I’m offering here is a full bodied routine which I believe maximizes the use of the revelation, with some additional magic woven in to elevate the impact. I will describe my routine using the Seven of Diamonds wiregram. But they are available for quite a few other cards too. In addition to a wiregram, you will require a small plastic ring or necklace box to store it with a lid that pulls off. Also you need a duplicate Seven of Diamonds folded face-down into quarters. Start out with the box and loose folded card in your right pocket. You also require a lighter which you place into your left pocket. When you want to get into this piece mid set, simply manage your force card on the face of the deck. Cut the deck and complete the cut, securing a left pinky break below your force card. Execute a dribble force on a spectator, asking them to put the thought of the card they saw into their mind. Square up the deck and table it for a moment. Your right hand goes to the pocket and finger palms the folded duplicate card and then comes out with the little box. State that inside the box is a high tech thought transmitter! Ask your spectator to extend a palm up hand. Tip out the screwed up wire onto their hand and let them examine it and untangle it. This gets a laugh but also gives you perfect shade or misdirection to secretly load the folded duplicate card into the box which you then close the lid on. Put the box down on the table. Pick up the deck and say you will first try and narrow in on their card. State that you feel you can estimate its current position because you saw approximately where it went back. Turn the deck face-up and feign concentration as you spread through the cards. When you see your force card take all the cards above it, except one and table them face-up, leaving the force card second from the face of the cards you are left holding. Transfer the packet to right hand overhand or Biddle grip in readiness for the classic Biddle steal. With your left thumb peel off the face card into the left hand. Then peel off your force card on top of it, securing a little finger break beneath it. As you peel off a third card onto it steal the force card under the right hand packet and then peel off one more card. Place the rest of the cards on top of the tabled packet. “I’m getting the sense that the card you are thinking of is one of these four cards, right?” As you say this, turn the packet face-down and execute a Stanyon three-asfour false count, which basically is an Elmsley count. Ask your helper to hand you

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 the wiregram and then place the packet of cards onto her palm up hand. Get her to cover the cards with her other hand. Take the wiregram and bring out the lighter. Ask your helper to visualize their selection. Ignite the lighter and bring it next to the wire. It will start mysteriously animating and taking form into a seven and a Diamond, their selection! Allow this beautiful visual revelation to register and then make the moment over her hands and have her reveal that her card has vanished in her hands. Then look down to the ring box, look back up and smile. Ask the lady to open the box to reveal a folded card. Her card.

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Three in One “John and Raj, would you like to see the difference between magic, telepathy and telekinesis? Great. Please shuffle the deck and then deal out two hands of five cards, exactly like you would in a game of draw poker. Would each of you take a packet and mix some more. Now take a little peek at the bottom card of your packets and lock the thought of those cards into your mind. I have an old friend who is a Gypsy and he used to work the carnivals reading the cards for the people. He always used to mix the cards in quite a mystical way. Would you guys please deal a card to the table face-down and then put the next one underneath. Then deal another one down and then put one under. Continue doing that until you’ve mixed all the cards. Let’s take this one step further and mix both packets together, one card from each packet getting mixed with another until we run out of cards. So you are both merely thinking of cards. John, we will cast a spell and use magic to find your card. If we spell the word magic and deal one card for each letter let’s see what we arrive at. What card are you thinking of? There it is! Raj, we will now enter the realm of telepathy with you. I want you to send me the thought of your card. First the colour, then the suit and finally the value. I’m getting a clear sense of red, a heart, the Ace of Hearts right? Now we could just end right there,but I promised you a demonstration of telekinesis, which means the ability to move objects with the mind. Raj, hold the cards between your palms. As I bring my hand palm down over your hands and slowly turn it palm up, just free up your mind and imagine your card moving, slowly turning and revolving. Let’s see how we did? Spread the cards across the table. Now that’s what’s known as telekinesis!”

Method Pretty much as above;-) From a method point of view, this couldn’t be much simpler, but it’s extremely well hidden. From a shuffled deck in use deal five cards to each participant. Have them mix those packets and peek at the bottom card of their respective packets. Next walk and talk them through a down under deal as you talk about your old Gypsy friend who used to read people’s fortunes at the Carnivals. This makes this little bit of process interesting for the people. It also secretly sets each mental selection to third from the top of both packets.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Pick up both packets, one in each hand and mix the cards some more, dealing off the top card from the left packet first and then the top card from the right hand packet on top of that. Continue this back and forth mix until the cards are exhausted. Both selections are nicely set now at fifth and sixth, ready for the subsequent revelations. Look at the spectator on your right (John) and tell him you will cast your spell and find his card using Magic. Deal cards one at a time into a face-down packet, spelling out each letter of the word magic as you deal each card. When you take off the last card slightly push off the card below it and secure a left pinky break beneath this card. Ask John for the name of his card and flip the card you are holding face-up on top of the packet in hand to reveal his selection. Pause a beat and allow this to register. The right hand comes over the packet from above and lifts off the back to back double card at your break . Use the left edge of this double to flip the remaining cards face-up. Place the double card on top of them retaining a pinky break beneath it. Finally pick up the packet on the table and flip those cards face-up on top of the packet. Then bring the right hand over the packet and turn it face-down from left to right. The cards will automatically step at your break, allowing you to secretly glimpse Raj’s card. Hand him the packet. The above is Ed Marlo’s bookbreak glimpse. To conclude the piece you will demonstrate telepathy and ultimately divine his mental selection. Finally, segue into the telekinesis phase, bringing your hand palm down over the cards he is holding and mysteriously turning it palm up. Have him spread his cards to reveal his card face-up to successfully finish the mystery.

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A la Goldman The classic do as I do using two decks has always been one of my favorite card pieces for the public. There are myriad exceptional methods in print from some very notable names. For many years I have used Bill Goldman’s ‘One For The Money’ routine in my work. It’s a true crowd pleaser and so simple but strong. I recently realized the crux of Bill’s effect could be used to effect a very direct and fooling two deck do as I do routine. Bring out two decks of different colours and offer a spectator the free choice of either one. Both of you remove the decks from their boxes and shuffle and cut freely. “Bill, today we will attempt an experiment in synchronicity. Firstly would you shuffle your deck and I will follow your lead and copy you. Now cut your deck and complete the cut. It doesn’t get much fairer!” Now we will use the beautifully devious Goldman ruse from his routine. Ask your helper to start dealing cards face-up, one at a time into a tabled packet as you do the same. Secretly note the second card they deal, say Jack of Hearts and commit it to memory. Tell your spectator that whenever they stop dealing then so will you. Once you have both stopped dealing you each set your remaining cards face-down and pick up your respective face-up packets and turn them face-down. Continue by asking your helper to lose or ‘burn’ the top card of their packet as you demonstrate with your cards. Then both of you burn the bottom card of each packet. Ask the spectator to take a peek at the top card of their packet (JH) and to lock the thought of that card into their mind. You replicate their actions with the top card of your packet, but simply ignore the card. Next ask your helper to shuffle their packet, put it on top of their other cards and to give their deck one last mix, as you of course once more do as they do. “So Bill, we have worked in sync every step of the way and are both thinking of a card. Here, you take my deck and remove your card and place it face-down on the table and I will take your deck and replicate your actions for the final time this evening. Turn over your card please.The Jack of Hearts. Now turn over mine. Now that is what is known as Synchronicity!” Both cards are revealed to match perfectly and everyone goes home happy!

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Mutual Exchange Simply put, this is another method for the classical copper silver coin transposition. But the good news is it’s almost self working. If you can hold two coins at your fingertips, you can do this effect! You require an old English penny and a silver half dollar. Introduce the coins and pass out for examination. Take them back and hold in a vertical spread between the left thumb and first and second fingers. Have the copper coin uppermost in the spread and held in place by the left thumb. Extend your palm up right hand by way of a gesture as you ask your helper to hold out their left hand palm up. The right hand approaches the left hand and apparently takes away the copper coin at its fingertips. In reality though, the left thumb slides the copper coin downwards and almost automatically takes the silver coin instead, hidden behind the right fingers. This is an almost self working switch which simply requires timing rather than dexterity. Place the switched in silver coin into the spectator’s hand and help them close it and then turn palm down. Your left hand which holds the copper coin behind its fingers closes into a palm down fist too. “I will attempt to make my silver coin teleport over to join your copper coin.” Ask the spectator if they felt anything? Once they reply in the negative you suggest a different effect. Extend your right hand and shake the spectator’s right hand. “Tom, that isn’t just a greeting or social exchange. It can also exchange the power. Open your hand! Because you see you now have my coin and I have yours!” Request they open their hand to reveal a silver coin and a beat later show you have the copper coin and the transposition is complete.

Notes The shaking hands presentational gambit is a beautiful idea by Larry Jennings. Larry used it in the context of a two card transposition effect.

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A Game of Make Believe... The beautiful coin effect, the fading coin by Tomoyuki Takahashi, first published in Genii magazine is one of those little gems that only pop up ever so often. Imagination games combined with magic always seem to register strongly with the public. The great Eugene Burger has featured his presentation of this piece in his work for many years. I loved it but wanted a stand up version and only needing one coin. The classic copper silver coin and a little swindle happily achieves my objective. “Shannon, do you have a good imagination? Great! Ever since childhood I have always liked to let myself go and use my imagination. Let’s both play a little game of make believe together. Here in my pocket I have something to show you. If I shake my hand, can you guess what is inside? Yes, coins! A copper English penny, a silver half dollar and this one’s an old Chinese coin with a little hole in it. Hold it. Unusual no?” Your hands are clearly empty, the coins are totally imaginary. You place two imaginary coins on the table and hand the Chinese imaginary coin to Shannon. “From the two coins on the table, which one do you want me to have, silver or copper? Fine. I will hold the silver coin and would you hold the copper coin in your other hand? Close your hands into a fist just like me. Shannon, do you know the difference between fantasy and reality? Let’s both make a wish. Open your hands. Now that’s fantasy.” His hands are empty but when you open yours you have the now real silver coin. “This is reality!” From a method point of view this is extremely simple, but deceptive. Combining the two way out of the copper silver coin with a little swindle pretty much does everything. Finger palm the c/s coin in the right hand, copper side against the fingers. Make your opening gambit talking about imagination and make believe. The left hand goes into the trousers pocket and comes out with what you say are three imaginary coins. The right hand comes over the left hand and mimes taking a coin that you state is copper and places it onto the table. Repeat this action as you call attention to an imaginary silver coin, again placing it onto the table. Finally the right hand comes over the left hand one more time and mimes taking off a Chinese coin. Secretly allow the c/s coin to drop into the left fingers as your right hand comes away with the last imaginary coin. The copper silver coin is now in left hand finger palm. Without fuss you give this imaginary Chinese coin to your spectator to look at and

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 hold in their left hand. Then you ask her to nominate which of the two remaining coins you should have? Mime picking up that coin in the right hand and toss this invisible coin into your loosely curled left hand which then closes into a fist. Have her pick up the remaining imaginary coin and hold it in a fist in her free hand. If she wants you to have the copper coin you don’t have to do any manipulation of the c/s coin. However if she says she wants you to have the silver coin it’s a very simple task to secretly allow the coin to flip over inside the hand. To finish the effect you invite your helper to blow on both of their hands and make a wish, as you replicate them with your closed left hand. They open their hands and nothing has occurred. A few moments later you slowly open your hand to reveal the silver coin. Put it away and do a card trick;-) Notes: The breakthrough moment with this piece was the little swindle with the Chinese coin. Simply handing this imaginary coin to them and shifting the focus to the silver and copper coins really cleaned up the effect. Combined with the multiplicity the c/s offers you and you arrive at a strong, practical solution.

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One thought across Cards across is an all time classic. I’ve used many versions down the years and it’s a crowd pleaser. The following version was put together after I asked myself how a mentalist might present this effect? There are five strong moments in this piece and they build nicely to a strong payoff. Pass the deck to a spectator for shuffling. Then ask them to deal twelve cards out loud into a face-down packet. The balance of the deck is discarded. Ask your helper to deal a row of three cards from left to right and continue this back and forth deal, ending up with three packets of four cards each on the table. We will now have the spectator put the thought of a card into their mind using the beautiful free cut principle of Gene Finnell. Ask the spectator to pick up one of the tabled packets and mix it. Then have them cut away some cards and look at the face card and lock it into their mind. Let’s say it’s the Ten of Hearts. Ask them to drop those cards onto one of the other two packets. Next have them pick up the other tabled packet and drop those cards on top. Finally ask them to drop the cards they are holding on top and square up. Then pick up the packet and give it a casual Ose false table cut. The mental selection has been automatically controlled to fifth from the face of the packet. Turn the packet face-up and hold from above in right hand Biddle grip. Say to the spectator that you will divide the twelve card packet in half and they are to observe which packet their card is in. Start peeling off cards and counting out loud one at a time with the left thumb. When you peel off their card, secure a left pinky break beneath it. Steal this card under the right hand packet as you peel off the sixth card, and place the packet face-down into their palm up right hand. Peel and count five face-up cards into your left hand and drop the double card on top. Place this packet face-down into their left hand. “Lori, you are merely thinking of a card and all I know right now is that it is in one of the two packets you are holding. Now try and keep a poker face, but try as you may, I will intuit or pick up on your tells. I believe the card you are thinking of is in this packet yes? Excellent but maybe you think it was just an inspired guess? Now I will ask you to think about the colour of your card as I ask you the same question twice. Please answer yes both times and I will see if I can pick up an inflection in your voice. Is your card red? Is your card black? Ah yes, a slight inflection there Lori! Your card is red yes? Now just keep saying the name of the card you are thinking of, over and over merely in your mind. The Ten of Hearts, the Ten of Hearts yes?!

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Finally I will attempt to make your card teleport from that packet over to the other packet. I think it’s gone. Let’s see. One, two, three, four and five and your card has gone! Please count the other packet onto my hand. Now there’s seven! One card mysteriously made the journey and here it is, your thought of card.” Simply follow the above script, allowing each phase to register. Don’t rush it because this is strong stuff for the public. After they have counted seven cards into your hand, simply fan the faces of the cards towards you and dramatically remove their card.

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B’lieve - A homage to Maven Max Maven’s ‘B’wave’ is a modern classic of close-up mentalism. With just a small packet of cards a little miracle is created. The following version is an ungaffed approach that has served me well. I’m not the first to put together an ungaffed version, but I never really liked the equivoque that they used. I will firstly outline my script and then we will get into the nitty gritty of the effect. “Shannon, a wise old man once told me that a pack of cards is like a story made up of fifty two pages. If that’s the case then this little packet represents a short story that will involve you and your decisions and vivid imagination. Imagine these cards are the four Queens. Further, would you imagine me taking the red Queens and placing them over here and then taking the black Queens and putting them over there? Now would you simply pick up either pair? Ah the red Queens. A free choice and would you now stretch your imagination and imagine the two black Queens simply fading away, like a ghost into the night. Perfect imagination! Now another decision, Shannon. Which of the red Queens would you like me to have? The Queen of Hearts? Fine, would you hand it to me and just like before use your imagination and see the other Queen simply melt away, like chocolate in a heatwave! So from decisions made entirely by you, I am holding the Queen of Hearts, but any card was possible. I will now join you in our little game of make believe and turn that card face-up. See it? Then I will throw it towards the packet of cards on the table. Now all stories are composed of three things. The beginning part should establish interest. You see, if we spread those cards, there’s only one face-up. The Queen of Hearts! Kind of mysterious yes? The second part of a story is of course the middle. In action thriller novels a sudden surprise is always nice. Please turn that card over? A completely different colored back. That’s surprising. Finally there’s of course the end. Something that will hopefully make you never forget what happened today, because if we turn the other cards over you will well and truly see that this is the END!” You will require three blank faced blue back cards and a red back Queen of Hearts for this piece. Take a Sharpie marker and write the letters END on the blank facers, one letter on each card. Do it nice and big and bold. Set up the cards from the top down: E,N, face-up Queen of Hearts and then the D card. Bring out the packet and table it face-down as you make your opening monologue.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Mime holding the Queens,the reds in your left hand and the black Queens in your right hand as you call attention to which hand holds which colour. Place the imaginary red Queens to your left as you say red and then place down the imaginary black Queens over to your right as you say right. It’s important to do this in an unhurried fashion so that your spectator clearly knows which colour is where, in readiness for the following piece of equivoque inspired by an imaginary cards effect of Derren Brown’s from his ‘Devil’s Picturebook’ DVDs. Ask your helper to use their imagination and pick up either pair of imaginary cards. As you clearly punctuated which pair was where earlier you will know of course, and so will they what colour they are holding. If they pick up the pair on the left you will know they are red so you call attention to that colour, as in the script and ask them to imagine the black Queens fading away. Naturally, if they pick up the right side imaginary cards you will call attention to the fact they are holding the black Queens. In this instance you would alter your wording, asking them to imagine the black Queens fading away. Either way the red Queens have been nicely forced. Continue your presentation by asking them which one of the red Queens do they want to hand to you? If they say the Queen of Diamonds extend your hand and take it from them. Then, as in my script you ask them to imagine this Queen melting away, just like the black Queens. However if they hand you the Queen of Hearts your wording deviates and you ask them to imagine the other red Queen melting away. With the above equivoque act calm and natural and it is very deceptive. Kudos to Maven and Brown for these beautiful strategies. So the Queen of Hearts has been very subtly forced and either you or your spectator are holding this imaginary card. If you are holding it state that you will turn this card face-up and throw it towards the packet of cards on the table. Obviously if they are holding this imaginary card you would ask them to mime turning it face-up and toss it towards the tabled packet. Your work from a method point of view is now done and it’s a matter now of doing the three step revelation. Bring your right first fingertip down to the tabled cards and slowly spread them, revealing a face-up Queen of Hearts. Let this moment register and sink in. Do not hurry into the next phase. Slowly turn the Queen of Hearts face-down to reveal it has a different colored back. Again, let this very strong moment resonate with the people. To conclude your mystery mention as in my script about how all good stories should have a memorable end. Then pick up the three blue back cards and slowly deal them into a face-up right to left row to reveal the word END.

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Some random thoughts on card magic There are of course so many branches of magic, but to me card magic is unique. With just 52 pieces of paper you create the wonder of any type of effect, be it production, transposition, vanish or transformation to name but a few. The secret to create good, strong card magic is clarity and simplicity. But simplicity doesn’t always mean easy. This is why it is so important to have a foundation in the craft. This way you have a large number of tools to choose from to make the best job. Basically it’s all about problem solving. It always gives me great pleasure to work on a new piece and eliminate unnecessary moves, but still retain the magical impact. Try to dream, as Tommy Wonder did, what the effect would look like if it was real magic. Ask yourself questions and keep notes on your ideas on a particular piece of magic you are working on. Another area I want to talk about is the pauses in an effect. Too many times I see people rushing through an effect without putting pauses in the performance. This makes the picture you are trying to create confusing for the public. Dai Vernon said confusion is not magic! A master of the pausing technique was the great Michael Skinner. Watching him work was like watching a play at the theatre. Mike knew exactly when to pause in his effects, creating moments of wonder while allowing the piece to breathe and let the audience appreciate the magic. Sometimes at the end of an effect he would make an extended pause which created great anticipation and amplified the magic. To finish my little article I would like to say how grateful I am to play this game. Magic has enabled me to travel to many countries and to visit beautiful places and make so many new friends. I get so much satisfaction teaching people and helping them with their work.

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Think-a-Card Triumph If this was a dealer advertisement it might say a deck of cards is shuffled face-up into face-down and the spectator thinks of any card from the mess created. Then the deck magically straightens except for their thought of card. Well there’s two good pieces of news and that’s the above is pretty true and, secondly, it uses two techniques that I’m sure most of you know and have used! Hand out the deck for mixing and upon return mention that there’s one shuffle in the world that is totally insane! Then segue straight into Sid Lorraine’s classic slop shuffle, pushing off a packet of face-down cards into the right hand, then revolving the right hand palm down and pushing off some more face-down cards underneath the face-up cards and then revolving the right hand palm upwards with this packet and continuing the action by pushing further face-down cards underneath. Repeat this up and down action until the deck is exhausted, ending up with a face-down card on top. Make this noisy and sloppy! The configuration of the deck from the top down is now one face-down card, approximately half the deck face-up followed by about half the deck face-down. Execute a casual display of the topsy turvy deck, lifting up about a third of the deck to show face-up, then replacing that packet on top and lifting off about two thirds of the deck showing face-down and then replacing the cards back on top. We will now segue into the think a card part of this presentation. We will be forcing the top face-down card of the deck as the cards are riffled off the right fingertips. This force of a thought of card was used very successfully by David Blaine in his first TV special, but I’ve been unable to track down the history of the move. Hold the deck with the palm up left hand by the long edges and push the inner short edge of the deck firmly against your body, creating a nice bevel. This is a tip I saw in print by my friend Eric LeClerc from Canada. Transfer the grip of the deck so that it is held at the inner short end with the left thumb on top and the first and second fingertips on the face. “Jared, as I riffle this mess of cards past your eyes, just think of one can see ok?” This wording is extremely important and it primes your spectator for the selection process. Tilt the outer short edge of the deck so that it’s pointing in the direction of their nose.Then with the right first finger briskly riffle off cards. I start this riffling action about two thirds of the way down into the deck so that they will see a blur of faceup followed by face-down cards. The uncanny thing is though that the top card will literally just pop out at them, forcing them to think of this card. Also, for some weird, strange reason that card appears to be somewhere inside the deck. Good

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 old optics! Once you confirm that your helper is thinking of a card,it’s just a simple matter to execute another standard face-up and face-down display, before secretly straightening out the deck ready for the climax. To do this, hold the deck in left hand dealers grip. Bring the palm down right hand over the deck and lift away about a third of the deck as you say face-up. Replace this packet and then lift off about two thirds of the deck as you say face-down. Replace this packet and then cut at the natural break in the deck and revolve the right hand palm outwards showing some cards are face to face. Turn the right hand palm down and allow the packet it is holding to flip over on the top of the deck. This is done by letting the packet tumble from right to left against the right third finger. Your work is now done. Table the deck and make the moment. Ask your helper to call out the name of the card they are thinking of and then dramatically ribbon spread the deck to reveal that the deck has magically straightened out except for their thought of card.

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Inevitable Here’s a simple, but practical version of a Mark Elsdon effect called ‘The Inevitable’. Mark used an invisible deck for the final revelation. Here’s a no gaff approach: You need a red and a blue deck. Place the Jack of Diamonds on top of each and box the cards up. You also require a different coloured back Jack of Diamonds. On the back of this card write THE INEVITABLE. Bring out the message card face-down and table it saying that some things in life are just meant to be or inevitable. Take out the two decks and offer a free choice of either to your helper. Both of you take your cards out. Spread your deck face-up in the hands and ask your spectator to do the same. Both of you square up and turn the decks face-down. “In a game of poker, blackjack or indeed any game, there are 3 main physical actions: Dealing, shuffling and cutting. Please deal a few cards face-down into a packet just like me. Then shuffle the cards you are holding. Great. Now cut off a packet and drop it on your packet. Then shuffle what’s left and cut off some more and drop them on your tabled cards. Finally shuffle whatever’s left and drop them, just like me on top of your cards on the table. Excellent. So we both shuffled and cut multiple times. Everything was under your control.” The above ruse of course positions both Jacks on the bottom of each deck. “Now pick up your cards as I pick up mine. Purely on impulse, cut off a section like me and table it. Then place the rest on top just like this.”As you say the above you walk and talk your helper through the classic Max Holden cross cut card force. “So let’s recap: you chose a deck and you shuffled it thoroughly as I shuffled mine. Each of us then cut to a random location. But I have a strange sort of hunch that as we worked in synch so well that something strange, or even mysterious might happen. Maybe it’s just meant to be or inevitable...” Direct your helper to take off the upper packet of their deck as you do the same. Revolve your hand palm up to display the Jack of Diamonds. Ask the lady to do the same to show a perfect match. Look down to the odd back message card and smile. Ask another person to turn it over to bring this mystery to an inevitable conclusion...

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When two minds meet... In my book Crafted with Carey, I published an effect called Think n Sync which was a mental mystery with the cards using a nice Bob Hummer keycard placement which enabled me to get secret information. Here is a non keycard approach I have had a lot of fun with recently. Tell your audience at the outset that for some strange reason you simply can’t get a card out of your head. Suggest a little experiment of the mind but say you will remove the Jokers first. Turn the deck face-up and start spreading in search of the Jokers. As you do this, mentally count the cards from the face and injog the tenth card from the face slightly. Continue spreading and take out and discard both Jokers. Flip the deck face-down and push down on the injog with your right thumb and secure a left pinky break above the ten cards. “Firstly let’s get a few of you involved and mix the cards.” As you say this, cut off about a quarter of the deck and toss this packet onto the table. Repeat this, throwing down another face-down packet. Then cut to your break and toss a third packet down and finally drop the ten card packet down onto the table. Drop the packets at random points on the centre of the table and do it casually and kind of sloppily. Ask four people to each pick up packets. Make a note who takes the ten card packet as you ask the group to shuffle their cards. Have the three non target packets assembled and then, almost as an afterthought ask the person with the remaining packet to silently count their cards under the table to form a random number in their mind. Once they have completed their task have them drop their cards on top of the deck. The number ten has been forced in a devious fashion. “So Dani, you are merely thinking of a number? Now I want you to think of any of the four suits and form the thought of a card in your mind. So, for example if you are thinking of eight and Clubs it would be eight of Clubs yes? So it’s just like I walked into this bar and you are just thinking of a card. Be honest, you’re not thinking of a red card, are you? Yes? Me too! I will take out the card I simply can’t stop thinking about and table it. Now would you take out the card you are simply thinking of and table it too? It’s not there? Are you sure? That’s most mysterious. Tell everybody what card you are thinking of? Ten of Diamonds? Turn over my card. Impossible!” The above strategy comes straight from my Think n Sync routine. Ask them to think of any of the four suits and combine that with the number they are thinking of to form a card in their mind. Now, without guilt, casually ask the question about them not thinking of a red card. If they say they are, you say that so are you. However if they say they are not you retort that neither are you. In the description above we

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 assumed they are thinking of a red card. So you know they are thinking of one of the red tens, but you genuinely don’t know which one. The great news is it doesn’t matter. Simply take out the first red ten you come to in the deck and table it facedown. Pass your helper the deck to enable them to remove their thought of card. If they can’t find their card you can dramatically reveal it on the table. However if they do remove and table a card, the end of the effect is one of an impossible matching of your card and theirs.

Notes Of course if they are thinking of a black card you would remove a black ten.

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Me and You A rather bland title for a deceptive little performance piece. Almost self working but strong and interactive. My favorite kind of card trick. Take a business card and a pen and on the back of the card write: “I will get a 10. You will get a 6. Together we will make 21!” We will apply Deddy Corbuzier’s beautiful Freewill principle with this message. On top of your deck of cards place any ten, six and five spot in that order from the top down. It’s very simple to get into this position between effects as you are not concerned with suits. Take out your business card and toss it, message side down onto the table, without calling any real attention to it. Execute an in the hands riffle shuffle, retaining your three card set up on top. Table the deck in readiness for the classic cut-deeper force. Ask your helper to reach over the deck and cut off less than half, turn them face-up and replace on top. Then direct them to cut off more than half, once again turn them over and replace on top. Pick up the deck and spread through all the face-up cards commenting on how random things are. Turn the face-up cards facedown and table them. Then deal off the first two face-down cards from the packet you are left holding. Place the remaining cards on top of the tabled packet, leaving the five spot on top. Ask your spectator to pick up the face-down pair of cards and mix them. Then have them deal one to you and one to themselves. Offer them the opportunity to switch cards. Both of you then turn over your cards to reveal a ten and a six. “In Blackjack this is known as a shaky hand, because it’s tempting to hit but the odds are that you will bust.” Casually pick up the deck and hold in left hand dealing grip. Direct the spectator to pick up both face-up cards. As all attention is focused on them you will do the world’s easiest cull. Push off the top card of the deck and simply spread the rest of the deck on top of it, allowing the culled card to ride beneath the spread. Ask your helper to place the two face-up cards together in the middle of the facedown deck. It’s a simple matter to secretly load the culled card secretly between the pair. Square up and then table the deck. Draw attention to the business card you brought out at the start. Now two scenarios will present themselves here before we use the Freewill concept. Your spectator will either have chosen the ten spot or the six. If they chose the ten spot, ask them to turn over the business card and read out loud the first line of the message, stating that they will get a ten. Then have them read out the next line stating that you will get a six. Confirm each statement to be absolutely true. Then ask your spectator to read out the final line of the message which states that together you will get twenty

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 one! Of course, if earlier on you had the ten spot, then you would read out the message line by line. “Well we have sixteen so I guess we are going to have to use our imaginations Jack. Let me take out an imaginary card from the deck and hand it to you. Would you throw that piece of imagination towards the deck? Beautifully done! But the question is, where does make believe stop and reality kick in?” Pick up the deck and ribbon spread it revealing that a card has materialized in between the ten and the six. Remove it and dramatically turn it face-up to reveal a five. “And that’s how we make twenty one and take the pot!”

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Invisicard I’ve always loved the notion of invisible cards in card effects. Here is a nice interlude piece with a small packet incorporating a lovely presentational idea by my friend Paul Cummins. From a shuffled deck in use have a spectator take out five cards from random positions in the deck. Get her to mix them and then peek at the bottom card, say Jack of Hearts. “So Sarah, you are thinking of a card and now I want you to mix them in such a way that even you won’t know where it is.” Direct them through a simple down under deal which will place their card third from top. Take the packet in left hand dealing grip and fan them. Raise the fan towards your helper, tilting it slightly enabling you to get a glimpse of their card. Square up the packet and hold once again in dealing grip. “Have you ever seen an invisible card, Sarah? Really? You’re crazier than me! Here, let me take out your card invisibly and hand it to you. You have perfect imagination!” As you say the above, mime extracting an invisible card and hand it to your helper. “Sarah, what is five minus one? That’s right, four!” Elmsley count the packet to show as four cards, the last card going on top. Then turn the top card of the packet face-up and then table it by holding from above in the right hand and dropping it onto the table. Repeat this action with the next card, dropping it face-up on the first card. Flip the next card face-up and then take the packet from above in the palm down right hand. The left fingertips slide away the bottom card as the right hand casually drops the double card on top of the tabled cards. A moment later, turn the remaining card face-up and drop that onto the tabled cards. “Did you see your card, Sarah? No, that’s because it’s invisible and you are holding it, right there, right now! I’m going to count to three and I want you to flash the face of that card towards me. But do it real quick! Ready? Ah the Jack of Hearts yes?! You did it quickly, but you have to be quicker! Would you now throw your piece of imagination towards the cards on the table? Please spread the cards. Look! One card trapped face-down in the middle. Your card. You have an amazing imagination!” Have your helper play along as above and remove the face-down card and reveal it is their selection. Credit to Paul Cummins for the lovely flasher divination from his routine called Flasher in his FASDIU lecture notes.

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Mentalcaan The card at any number plot has fascinated magicians and mentalists for years. Some people dream of the holy grail. Spoiler Alert: The following is not the holy grail! However it is a very practical method with a thought of card at a thought of number with a twist in the tail... You will require two decks, one red and one blue. Set the Ten of Hearts at sixteenth from the top of the blue deck and case the deck. On top of the red deck have any four spot cards which total sixteen and a Ten of Hearts which is the highest value card. Bring out both decks and set the blue deck aside. Do one or two effects which don’t disturb your set up in the red deck and then table the deck face-down. Ask a spectator to cut off less than half the deck and turn them face-up and place on top. Then have them cut more than half, flip them face-up and replace on top. “So, Shannon, you made a couple of random cuts, arriving at equally random cards. One card less or one card more and everything is different.” The above is of course the venerable cut deeper force. Do not underestimate its power on the uninitiated. Pick up the deck and hand to hand spread through the face-up cards, commenting on how random they are. Place this face-up section face-down on the table and then deal your five card force bank in front of your helper. Ask them to mix those cards as you assemble the deck. “Shannon, would you spread those cards towards you like a hand of Poker? Great. Now I want you to think of one. Tell you what, think of the highest card you see. If there’s two high cards of the same value, just think of either one.” This ruse belongs to my friend Jerry Hartman. Ask the spectator to place their thought of card into their pocket and keep the thought of that card in their mind. Next ask them to hand their remaining cards to another person. “Lori, you have a few cards there. What I would like you to do is simply add up the values to form a random number in your mind. Done it? Excellent. Drop those cards into the deck and place the deck in its case.” They will by default of course be thinking of sixteen. Focus attention on the blue deck and remove the cards. “So Lori and Shannon, you are both merely thinking of a number and a card. Not a soul in the world has this information. Lori, I’m going to deal these cards and count out loud. Please keep a neutral expression, but when I arrive at the number you are thinking of I want you

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 to mentally scream stop!” As per the above, deal cards and count one at a time at a steady pace. When you get to sixteen suddenly stop and look up. This will get a reaction. Direct attention to your other spectator and ask him to remove his thought of card from his pocket and display the Ten of Hearts. Ask the lady to turn over the last card dealt to reveal the thought of card at the thought of number.

Notes You could of course use switches and all manner of things to get the force cards in play. But in this instance, I believe less is more.

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Smartcaan Smartphones are everywhere. Like em or hate em, they’re here to stay. Here’s a nice way to use the texting function in the context of a card effect, which also leaves a person with your contact. You will need two decks, a red and a blue. In the blue deck set the Jack of Hearts to position sixteenth from the top. Ahead of time take a photo of this card with your phone. Bring out your phone and both decks. Get a volunteer and tell them that you want to send them a message, but they are not to open it just yet. Get their number and text it to them. Take the red deck from its box and have them shuffle. Take back the deck and turn it face-up, as you mention you will remove the two Jokers. Use this time honored ruse to secretly cull two cards that total sixteen under the spread to the rear/top of the deck using the Hofzinser cull. Turn the deck face-down and run the top two cards to the bottom of the deck and then shuffle off normally. “Jerry, I’m going to shuffle again and I want you to just go with your instincts and say stop a couple of times.” Slip shuffle, retaining the bottom card by pressure of the left fingertips and get them to call stop. Table the right hands cards face-down. Repeat this slip shuffle, holding back the bottom card and once more ask them to call out stop on impulse. Table this packet next to the other packet. Both your force numbers are on the bottom of each packet. “So from a deck you shuffled and on decisions made by you, we have two packets. I will look away and I want you just to remember the values of the two bottom cards and then add them together. Then put that total into your mind.” Of course, they will be thinking of sixteen. Direct your helper to pick up the blue card box and remove its contents. Ask them to deal and count out loud to their thought of number and then stop. “So you thought of Sixteen? One number higher or one number lower and everything changes, Jerry. Please turn over the card at your number? The Jack of Hearts. Quite a colourful character, just like you! Now please open the message I sent you earlier and show everyone. Impossible!!!” Simple, interactive and efficient. This effect is all about them. My kind of card trick ;-)

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Simplex Card in Purse I am a great believer in the use of a duplicate card, if it’s used sensibly. Also, if you are using a duplicate in say a card to purse, as in the following handling, the vanish of the card before its subsequent discovery must be strong and carry conviction. For the following effect, you will require, in addition to a deck, two small coin purses, an old ‘lucky’ coin and a duplicate card, say the Seven of Hearts. Fold the duplicate into eighths and face-down and place it inside one of the purses. Place your lucky coin inside the other purse. Place the purse with the folded card inside into your left side Jacket pocket. The purse with the coin goes into your left trousers pocket. The deck with the Seven of Hearts on the bottom is inside your right Jacket pocket. Introduce the effect by saying you have a lucky coin with mystical properties. Take out the purse from your left trousers pocket and shake it. Hand the purse to a spectator and ask them to open it and take out the contents, where they will find an old coin. Casually take the purse and close it and mention that you will also need some cards. Both hands enter the side Jacket pockets. The left hand switches purses and the right hand takes the deck. Come out with the deck just a moment before the left hand comes out with the switched in purse. Toss the purse casually on the table. Remove the deck and execute a slip shuffle retaining the Seven of Hearts on the bottom. “Let’s put the magic coin to the test and just use a group of cards.” As you say this, riffle off about forty cards with your left thumb and set them aside. We will now execute a small packet card force of the bottom card, inspired by John Bannon’s Christ cross force from his book High Caliber. Hold the packet from above with the palm down right hand. The left thumb starts slowly peeling off cards, one at a time into the left hand as you ask your helper to call stop. Once they stop you tap the left long edge of the right hands cards twice against the back of the left hands packet. Then place the right hands packet side jogged on top about an inch or so. Hold both packets in place with your left thumb as your right hand comes away and gestures.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Bring the right hand back to the left hand and lift the upper side jogged packet up from above and raise the face of these cards towards your helper and ask them to remember the card. Do not say the card you stopped at! Be casual but confident. Assemble the two packets, securing a left pinky break beneath your force card. Pause a few seconds as you converse and then cut all the cards above your break to the table and then drop the remainder on top. This gets the force card to the bottom. Continue by casually running that card to the top with a simple overhand shuffle. “So Heidi, you are merely thinking of a card. I’m going to divide this packet of cards into two sections and then we will put my magic coin to the test to try to home in on your thought.” As you say the above you will simply push out five or six cards from the middle of the packet. As the right hand swivels them out, secure a left pinky break beneath the selection on top. In one fluid action flip the packet face-up on top and immediately take away all the cards above your break and table them to your right. This is an Al Leech steal and leaves a face-up packet on the table with the selection secretly face-down on the bottom. Table the remaining cards face-down to your left. Pick up your magic coin and pass it back and forth over both packets, eventually stopping over the face-up packet. “I’m getting a sense from the coin that your card isn’t in this packet. Let’s confirm that Heidi.” Pick up the packet and hold in left hand dealers grip. “I will show you the cards one at a time. Please observe and tell me if you see your card?” As we say this, we will use the lovely undercount hideout move of Martin Gardner to apparently show the faces of all the cards, yet conceal their selection. Simply push off the face card of the packet into the right hand, flip it face-down and place it under the packet. Repeat this with the remaining face-up cards and get a confirmation that their card isn’t there. Set those cards aside. Ask the spectator to pick up the remaining cards and mix them. From now on in it’s all smoke leading up to the final translocation of their card. Have them deal those cards into a face-down tabled row. Then proceed to eliminate and show the faces of the cards after passing the coin over them, until just one face-down card remains. “So it looks like the coin truly does have mystical powers. Please turn over the card on the table and it will be your card.” They do and it isn’t! Act confused and concerned and look over to the purse, then look up at your audience and smile mischievously. Have the purse opened to reveal a face-down folded card inside. Have it unfolded to reveal their selection has made a most mysterious journey. Put the cards away and have a beer ;-)

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Signed Bill to Purse The Signed Banknote/Bill to impossible location is a classic. Most people use a fruit or a box for the discovery, which of course is very effective and strong. Here’s my simple, but very practical, handling using a small coin purse. Not at all difficult and strong! You will require a small coin purse. I use a Goshman style one, but any small purse will do. Take a £10/10 of your denomination note and fold into sixteenths. Apply a piece of blue tac/fun tac to it and stick the note to the inside wall of the purse. Drop a small handful of pocket change into the purse and you are set. Put the purse in your left side pocket and have a deck of cards and a lighter in your right side pocket. Drop a Sharpie into your outer breast pocket and it’s showtime. Bring out the purse and shake it. Mention that inside is your rare and valuable coin collection. Borrow a £10 note and have it signed. Fold it slowly and deliberately into sixteenths and hold at the base of the fingertips of the palm up right hand. Now we will apply Juan Tamariz brilliant double crossing the gaze switch concept, but as a complete vanish of the note. “We need a lighter.” The left hand pats the left side pocket as you look down to this area. Cross your gaze as you look over to your right side pocket, at the same time executing a simple false transfer of the signed note into the left hand. The right hand enters the pocket, drops the note and comes out with the lighter.

“Now for something I’ve always wanted to do!” This will get a laugh. Ignite the lighter over the left fist and a few moments later open this hand to reveal a complete vanish of their note. Table the lighter and gesture with empty hands. “Has anyone got a fifty I can use?! You look concerned sir. I have a good solution to ease your concerns. A card trick!” As you say the above the right hand enters the Jacket pocket and finger palms the folded note and then picks up and comes out with the deck of cards. Have some fun with this and table the deck. “I’m truly sorry about your money but in return I can offer you my rare and valuable coin collection in that purse?” Get a response and then pick up the purse in the

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 left hand and shake it. Open the purse and look inside and then look up and act surprised. Expose the inside of the purse to the audience, revealing a folded note inside. Tip out the coins from the purse into your right hand allowing them to coalesce with their note. Extend the palm up right hand towards your helper and have them unfold it to reveal their signed note. Quietly pop the coins back inside the purse and put it away. Then do a card trick :-)

Notes Bruno Hennig gets the credit for the dummy card/bill inside a prop concept. Fred Kaps used the idea in a signed card to box back in the day. I believe Jamy Swiss gets the credit for the great idea of the loose objects coalescing with the finger palmed card or bill. He used it for a piece called ‘Kiss of the Big Apple’.

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Mirror Match I’ve always loved the classic ESP matching effect. There have been some notable versions over the years. Some using marked cards and others with an extra card. My approach uses just ten unmarked cards and is self working. Set up ten ESP cards in the classical circle, cross, wavy lines, square and star order from the top down. Give this packet a few straight cuts and pop the cards into your wallet. When you are ready to work, remove the packet as you introduce the theme of ESP, telepathy and all things mysterious. Casually flash the cards and table the packet face-down. Ask a spectator to give the cards a straight cut and complete the cut. Offer them the opportunity to cut and complete again. “You mixed those well, Peter, but there’s an even more random way. Here, let me show you.” Pick up the packet and hold in left hand dealing grip. We will now apply Paul Curry’s brilliant deal/mix swindle to create the illusion of a genuine mix of the cards. Deal the top card face-down to the table. Then mix or swap the next two cards and drop them onto the tabled card. Repeat this, mixing a pair or two and dealing some single cards until the packet is exhausted. Hand the packet to your helper and walk and talk them through the deal or mix process, giving them total control of their choices and subsequent actions. The illusion is beautiful, but nothing has essentially changed to the cards. Ask the spectator to deal five face-down cards to themselves and then just hand the remainder to you. Spread your cards into a face-down fan and request they do too. “Peter, life is all about decisions. Indeed one decision can often affect another decision. Take out any one of your five cards and place it sight unseen in your left jacket pocket. I will take a random card too.” In fact, you will now do something nice and sneaky. If they take the top card of their packet and pocket it, you take your bottom card of your fan and pocket that. If however they removed the card second from top, you would take out the card second from bottom etc etc. It’s akin to mirroring their action, hence the title. So repeat the above three more times, the second card going into theirs and your left trousers pocket, the third and fourth cards going into the right Jacket and trousers pockets respectively. Just watch which card they remove and remove a card from the opposite position in your fan each time. Both of you then drop each remaining single card face-down onto the table. “So from a packet of cards mixed by you, we both made five random decisions. Turn over your card on the table Peter and I will turn mine. A perfect match! But maybe we both just got lucky? Let’s each take the card from our left Jacket pocket.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Another match!” Build up the pacing and delivery after the second match as you and your spectator remove each of the three remaining cards to conclude with a perfect five way match!

Notes I put this together because I never felt comfortable using marked ESP cards. My eyesight isn’t the greatest! Business cards are another nice option for this. Simply draw in the symbols.

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Homage to Roth David Roth’s ‘Wild Coin’ is a beautiful piece of table top close-up magic. Check out his version on the New York Coin Magic Symposium DVD. The following is my variant handling, which suits my style and is offered as a homage to the maestro. You will require three silver coins and a Chinese coin of the same size. In addition a coffee cup is utilized. Have the Chinese coin in right hand finger palm. The coffee cup (empty!) is on the table. The left hand goes to the left pocket and removes the three silver coins, which are laid out in a horizontal row. The right hand picks up a silver coin and transfers it to left hand French drop or spellbound position. We will now execute a classical spellbound change of the silver to Chinese. The right hand comes over the left hand and thumb palms the silver coin and secretly deposits the finger palmed Chinese coin between the left thumb and fingertips. Make a brushing motion with the right hand and move it away to reveal the first change from silver to Chinese. Pause a beat and then take the Chinese coin with the right thumb behind and the fingers in front. Move the right hand over the coffee cup and make a gentle tossing action, secretly allowing the thumb palmed silver coin to fall into the cup with a nice clink. Move the hand away, the Chinese coin now being in right hand finger palm. The right hand then picks up another silver coin from the table and supposedly tosses it into the left hand. In fact, a simple Bobo switch is executed, retaining the silver coin in the right hand and secretly switching in the Chinese coin. Bring your left fist up to your mouth and gently blow or whistle to make the moment. Lower the left hand and open it to reveal a second change to Chinese. A few moments later execute a Roth half-shuttle pass. This is very simple. The left hand turns palm down at the wrist, retaining the Chinese coin as the right hand meets it and turns partially palm up. Bring the right hand over the coffee cup and toss the switched in silver coin inside. Pick up the remaining silver coin and place it in left hand spellbound position. Mention that all you have to do is snap your fingers over that coin and it too will change. Snap your right fingers over the left hand. Nothing happens... We will now execute a spellbound change my great friend Gary Jones showed me. He wasn’t sure of its origin. The right hand comes over the left hand and thumb palms the silver coin. The left hand simultaneously closes into a fist and the right hand makes a waving motion over the left fist. Open the left hand to reveal the change from silver to Chinese. (illstratied) Then a moment later bring both hands together and execute another half shuttle pass into the right hand. This hand moves over the coffee cup and drops the thumb palmed coin inside.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 “So on three separate occasions you have seen me change three silver coins just like an alchemist. But what if we could turn back time?” The right hand picks up the coffee cup and shakes it. Then it pours out the contents in a sideways motion revealing the triple change back to silver. The left hand picks the silver coins up and drops them all into the cup, at the same time allowing the Chinese coin to fall in too. Extend your hands in a palms up gesture and your work is completed.

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Opening Salvo-Coins to purse I really am standing on the shoulders of giants here with my approach and handling to the classic coins to purse. My inspirations were Milton Kort who published a two purse version in Bobo’s New Modern Coin Magic and Mike Gallo whose single purse handling is on the New York Coin Magic Seminar DVDs. I wanted a simple and strong version, stripped down to the basics and ideal as an opening piece and within my skill set. The classic ‘Gadabout Coins’ forms the basis of the effect. You will require a small coin purse, six silver coins and a Chinese style coin. Place three of the silver coins inside the purse and close it. Finger palm the remaining four coins in the right hand. Bring out the purse at the left fingertips and shake it. Bring both hands together and open it, transferring the purse to the right hand, thumb on top and fingers underneath. Give a brief flash of the contents and then apparently tip the contents out onto the table. In fact, you retain the coins inside the purse with pressure of the thumb and fingers and allow the four coins in finger palm to fall out onto the table. Close the purse and set it to one side. “Three silver coins and a lucky Chinese coin. Actually, I only need two silver coins, so let’s put one away in the pocket.” Suiting actions to words, the right hand picks up two of the silver coins and tosses them into the left hand which closes into a fist. Take the remaining silver coin with the right hand and go to the right pocket with it. When inside you secretly thumb palm it and come back out. Tap the right fingers against the pocket twice in a gesture. This is a lovely idea of Charlie Justice. Shake the left fist and then partially open it. Look inside the hand and act surprised. As you do this allow the coin in right thumb palm to drop to fingertip rest. Bring the right hand over the left hand and enter it and then bring the coin from fingertip rest out and drop it onto the table. Then fully open the left hand, exposing two more silver coins and take them out one at a time and drop them onto the table. A little bit of acting and a casual attitude makes this first sequence deceptive. “Like I said, I only need two silver coins and my lucky Chinese coin.” As in the first phase drop two silver coins into the left hand and close it into a fist. Take the remaining silver coin in the right hand and enter the right pocket with it. When inside you finger palm it and come back out. Focus attention on your left hand and shake it. Open this hand just slightly and peer inside. Look up at the audience and once again register surprise. Toss the left hands coins into the right hand and then toss all three coins back to the left hand, showing you mysteriously have three coins once more. Table them and pick up the Chinese coin for a moment stating once again that you only need that and two of the silver coins. Table the Chinese coin.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Pick up two silver coins at the right fingertips and bring this hand over the palm up left hand. Apparently toss both coins into the left hand, but in fact execute a simple clink pass, allowing the two coins to drop into right hand finger palm as you make a gentle downwards tossing action into the left hand which then closes into a fist. The right hand picks up the remaining silver coin and puts it away into the pocket, at the same time secretly ditching the other coins. Bring the right hand back out showing it empty and pick up the Chinese coin at its fingertips. “Strange things seem to be happening today, so I may just give up and turn back time. Back to when there was no Chinese coin here…” now thumb palm the Chinese coin as you make a fist around it, blow on your hand and make a tossing action towards the table, apparently vanishing the coin, “...no silver coins there…” open your left hand to reveal the silver coins have also vanished, “And go right back two minutes in time to where we started…” Pick up, shake and then open the tabled purse with your left hand, then turn the left hand palm down, allowing the three silver coins to fall out into your right hand, coalescing with the Chinese coin, before you tip all four onto the table. “With a little purse and four coins!”

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Time Traveller “Jack, I’d like you think of a number, any number between nine and eleven? Ten? Perfect! Let’s count ten cards onto the table and set the rest aside. Actually, ten might be too many. Let’s put one back. Thinking about it, nine is too many too. I will put another card back. But they do say seven is a very lucky number so we will get rid of just one more card. But what if we could turn back time? Back to when we had eight cards? Then back to when we had nine. There’s nine! Please take the cards and I will attempt to send us way back to where we started. Please deal and count out loud. Ten cards it is and that my friends is time travel!” So this is a fun approach to the classic cards across plot. It’s short and snappy and the presentation plays strong. Secure a left pinky break above the bottom three cards of the deck and then playfully ask for a number between nine and eleven. Have some fun with this and then deal and count ten cards into a face-up packet on the table. Transfer the break to the right thumb as you take the deck from above in the right hand. The left hand picks up the tabled packet at the left long side, thumb on top and fingers underneath. Use the left long edge of the deck to flip this packet face-down, secretly adding the three cards below your break on top. This is Jack Merlin’s tip over addition. Table the deck face-down.

Casually spread the cards for just a beat and then square up. Make this spread sloppy and casual. As per the presentation, put a card back on the deck, saying ten is maybe too many. Repeat this twice more, mentioning that seven is considered lucky so that is what you will use. Cut the deck and complete the cut. Talk about how cool it would be if we could turn back time? Make a grabbing action over the deck and toss an imaginary card towards your left hand. We will now execute a Vernon push off false count. Take off and count the cards one at a time into the right hand, reversing their order. When you get to seven execute a block push off of everything above the bottom card and toss the remaining card on top. This shows the packet as eight cards. Allow this moment to register and then repeat the grabbing and throwing action as before and execute the push off false count as above, this time though executing the block push off on eight and tossing the last card on top, showing there are now nine cards.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Hand the packet to a spectator and make one last tossing action from the deck and have them deal and count the cards out loud to show that you have successfully travelled back in time and everyone is ten seconds younger!

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The Deal Ruse Card Force Card forces are fun. I actually love working on them and collecting them as certain types, fit certain routines better than others. The deal ruse force is self working and rather cheeky. Suffice to say, it’s deceptive. Position your force card, say the Seven of Diamonds twelfth from the top of the deck. Execute any convincing false shuffle and then hand the deck to your spectator. “I’d like you to give the cards a true triple cut.” After you say this have the spectator cut about a third of the deck and then table it to your left. Then have them cut about half the remaining cards and table them next to and to the right of the first packet. Finally have them place the remaining cards to the far right of the row. Pause a beat and then have them gather up the cards from left to right and square up. This of course is the classic Jay Ose false cut with Jim Swains brilliant idea to let the spectator do the cuts. Pick up the deck and hold in dealing grip. “Dani, numbers play an important role in our lives. Please call out any number, but to keep it brief, between five and ten?” Let’s say Dani says six. “Now if I was to deal and count like this to your number, maybe you think I might do something sneaky. Here, take the deck and count to six and remember the card at your chosen number. Lock it into your mind and then gather up all the cards and shuffle them.” So in this scenario, as six is chosen, you do the ruse demonstration deal, dealing off six cards face-down and then dropping the deck on top. If they chose seven, you would deal five cards, eight would be four and nine of course would be three cards, ultimately positioning the force card at their number in readiness for their deal. Now go read their minds:-)

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Indeed we CAAN! The Card At Any Number plot has become very popular in recent years both in the Mentalism and Magic communities. Some are seeking a Berglas like holy grail, others take the route of throwing smoke like the following effect around the plot. I’ve been exploring Ray Goulet’s devious deal and shuffle ruse, which I just love - his idea makes the old double deal force so deceptive. Here it’s applied to a thought of card at a number, combining Jerry Hartman’s high card mental force and a wee bit of smoke. In a red deck position, say, the Nine of Hearts twenty eighth from the top. On top of a blue deck, have a forcing bank of five mixed cards, the highest one being the Nine of Hearts and the combined total of the five cards making twenty eight. Bring out the decks and set the red deck aside. Remove the blue deck and do a couple of pieces which don’t disturb your slug on top. Hand the deck to a helper and have them do the Jay Ose false table cut on themselves. Ask your helper to deal a few cards face-down into a tabled packet, then request they shuffle the remaining cards and then deal a few more cards on top of the tabled packet. Get them to shuffle once more then deal a few more and finally discard the deck. Your 5 card slug is now at the bottom of the packet. “Simon, from the deck you just shuffled, I want you to deal 5 hands, just like you would in a house game of poker. I will turn away and I want you to turn the top card of each hand face-up. Next I want you to think of one, hey make it the highest one and lock that image in your mind. If there’s two high cards the same, either one. Next would you add the values of the cards together to form a random number, determined entirely by your shuffle in your mind too? Turn the cards over and gather up the whole deck and I will turn back round. So it’s just like I walked into the room and you are thinking of a card.” (Paul Cummins great line) Draw attention to the red deck and have them remove it. Ask for the number they are thinking of and deal down to it face-down. Then ask for the name of the thought of card and have the twenty eighth card turned over to reveal their thought of card.

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Raj’s Pyramid Prediction by Raj Madhok On a private forum, Jack Carpenter had the brilliant idea of placing cards in a triangle (“pyramid”) formation to build and create a predicted card. This version is my take on that concept. It allows you to begin with a borrowed, shuffled deck. Allowing the audience to choose where to begin the building of a card is Carpenter’s wonderful subtlety. Your participant shuffles and returns the deck to you. You spread the cards and spot any two same-suit cards followed by a contrasting color card and cut these three to the top. For example, the Three of Spades, Jack of Spades and the Ten of Hearts. Next secretly cull your prediction card to below these three. This card will be the same suit as the top two cards and the value of the third card. In the above case it would be the Ten of Spades. Another example: after cutting the Six of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds and Five of Clubs to the top, you would cull the Five of Diamonds to below the top three cards. Holding the deck face-up, cut to three “random” face-down cards using John Bannon’s Bullet Catcher move, (See a description in the NOTES section below.) Repeat it two more times ending with three face-down out-jogged cards spread within the face-up deck. After the third face-down card is selected place the remaining cards onto the deck keeping a left pinky break above the final outjogged card. Position Check: you have three out-jogged face-down “pyramid cards” and are holding a break below the force (prediction) card. Retain your break but strip out the three face-down cards and deal them onto the table creating the three corners of a triangle. Note and remember where the first “value” card lands. Immediately go into an overhand shuffle by cutting to the break then start the shuffle with a single card thus bringing the force card from the break to the bottom of the deck. Hand the face-down deck to your participant and walk her through what I term the Cross Packet-Deal force (an outgrowth of Ben Earl’s Cross Deal force which I originally saw posted on his website.) Ask them to drop small packets of cards into a single pile in the center of the pyramid until they choose to stop. They place the remaining cards perpendicular to the lower half, not directly on the deck, but leaning on it. (This is my ‘Lean on Me’ variation of the Cross-Cut Force.) The force card is at the bottom of this side-jogged packet, awaiting time misdirection and your revelation. You might suggest three cuts to represent the three corners of the

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 pyramid. You now ‘build’ a card asking them which corner of the pyramid they wish to start with. If they begin with the value-card, you can let them choose which card to reveal next for color and the remaining card reveals the suit. If they choose to begin with either of the like-colored cards, you steer the direction to the next likecolored card for the suit and then the value-card is turned up last. Finish with the revelation of the card THEY cut to in the middle of the pyramid. It is the same as the card they created. The power of the pyramid prevails!

Notes The following description leans heavily on John Bannon’s write up in his book High Caliber on page 131. It is printed here with his permission. Bullet Catcher is Bannon’s move that can be used as a production or force of cards. The procedure appears as if the performer is reversing and out-jogging certain cards at certain positions in the deck. The produced cards, however are actually taken off the top of the deck. Your force cards are on top of the deck. Turn the deck face-up and hold it in your right hand from above, fingers in front, thumb in back in Biddle/End Grip. You will next do a running swing cut of three packets. Each packet should have ten to twelve cards. With your right forefinger, lift up a small packet of cards and swing cut the packet into your left hand. In a continuing action, and starting a rhythm, turn your right hand palm upward. With your left thumb, pull of the now topmost face-down card of the right-hand packet onto the face-up left-hand packet. Pull off the facedown card so it is out-jogged about one half its length. Repeat these actions for the second card. Turn your right hand palm downward. Swing cut another small packet onto the left hand cards; turn your right hand packet palm-up and, with your left thumb, pull another face-down card onto the left-hand packet. Repeat this sequence on more time. You will be left with a small packet of remaining cards in our right hand. Place it face-up onto the left-hand packet and hold a break. Continue from the Position Check noted above.

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Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater by Tom Dobrowolski This is my handling of the classic lie detector plot based on a David Solomon handling my friend “Silent” Bill Wheeler showed me. I’ve added more freedom in the handling and a more robust presentation which you would see in my in the lecture or performance. It’s become one of my favorite impromptu effects. At the end of this write up is an nice addition developed by Eugene Burger and Max Maven after Eugene attended one of my recent lectures.

Effect A spectator chooses a card and mixes it with a number of other cards so its location is unknown. By answering several questions truthfully or by lying they end up finding their selection.

Performance Deal three piles of two cards each to the table. Do not draw any attention to the number of cards. Simply acknowledge that for this trick you will be using a small amount of cards and not the entire deck. Allow the spectator to select and remove any card from the rest of the deck. “Here is how this little mystery is going to work. I’m going to ask you 5 questions. For the first four you may tell the truth or lie to me. The last one you must tell the truth.” Instruct the spectators to place their card on top of any pile. Then further instruct them to reassemble the piles in any order that they choose, while you pay careful attention to where the selection ends up. The selection needs to be 3rd from the top, so at this point you have three different possible scenarios.

Scenario 1 The spectator has assembled the piles in the necessary order right off the bat. You

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 don’t need to do anything extra. I have found that this is the most common way a spectator will assemble the piles.

Scenario 2 The piles have been arranged so that the selection is 3rd from the bottom. In this case you will illustrate what you are about to have the spectator do. “I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to spell your answer by dealing cards to the table.” Deal the cards one at a time to the table to illustrate this, spelling an example word at some point during the process (it need not be a full seven letters for the full seven cards). Ex. Deal, deal, deal (as you deliver the above line), deal (“T), deal (“O”), deal (“M”), deal. This reverses the stack so that the selection is now in place.

Scenario 3 The piles have been arranged so that their card is on top. This scenario is quite rare. Originally I simply by-passed this option by immediately instructing the spectator to place one of the remaining piles on top of their selection, thus ruling it out completely. The spectator is only given the choice of what to do with the last two card pile (on top or below). My friend Jeremiah Zuo suggested simply instructing the spectator to “assemble the piles freely.” The odds of this one are low (people like the idea of their card buried, not on top), and you are able to give the impression of total indifference to the end result. In the rare instance that the piles do end up this way simply do the following. Again you will be illustrating the coming process. But this time simply spell a three letter word and stop. Ex. Deal (“T”), deal (“O”), deal (“M”). Pick up the three cards dealt to the table and add them back on top of the deck. At this point the selection is third from the top. Hand the packet to the spectator and begin with the questions.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 “Is your card red or black? Remember you can lie or tell the truth, it is completely up to you.” Regardless of the color they choose, walk them through the dealing process again. Dealing cards into a pile on the table, one at a time, one for each letter. Instruct the spectator to drop the remaining cards on top of the tabled cards. Have the spectator pick up the packet in preparation for the next question. Repeat the procedure exactly, having the spectator deal their answer and then drop the remaining cards on top. “What is the suit of your card?” For each suit include the “s” in the spelling with the exception of “diamond.” “What is the name of your card?” Repeat as before. “At this point you we have a few different possibilities. I have been asking you questions. You have been giving me answers. Now it is possible that everything you told me is true. But it is also possible that you lied the entire time. And it is even possible that gave a mixture of both. So which is it? Remember again that you can still lie to me now if you wish.” The above is meant to control the spectator’s phraseology at this point. They will rarely give a one-word answer to this question. It will usually be something along the lines of, “I was lying the whole time.” Regardless of how they phrase their answer, you will set the specific word to be spelled with your own confirmation. It will always be four letters – “true”, “lied”, or, “both.” “So you lied. Typical. Okay spell ‘lied’” or “Ah so your words were true” or “A mixture of both, I’m not surprised.” The spectator’s selection will now be on top. All that is left is to perform the reveal. “We have arrived at our last question. Only for this question do you have to tell the truth. What was your card?” After they answer allow them to turn over the top card and enjoy the adulation.

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Notes and Credits Steinmeyer “Remote Control” New Invocation Feb 1988 Steinmeyer “Nine Card Problem” Magic Mag. May 1993 Solomon “Steinmeyer’s 9 card problem w. 7 cards” Solomon’s Mind 1997 After seeing the premier of this lecture, Eugene Burger was kind enough to email me the following. Hi Tom I really enjoyed your lecture last night. After I got home, I was talking with Max Maven about your idea of letting the audience member gather the three piles as they wish without any instructions from the performer about the order in which they should be picked up. We came up with the following: 1. Scenario 1: Card is already in 3rd position 2. Scenario 2: Card is 5th from top; 3rd from bottom: Spell “black” and drop cards. 3. Scenario 3: Card is on top. Spell “red” and gather cards and spell “king.” The advantage is that we are doing exactly what we want the audience member to do. Feel free to pass this on if you wish. Again, thanks for a thought-provoking lecture. All the best, Eugene

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Uprising by John Bannon Precis The performer places the Ace through Four of Spades in a facedown row. He drops a small packet of red spot cards onto the Ace. The Ace rises to the top of the packet. Lest sleight-of-hand be suspected, the performer sets the Ace aside and places the packet on the Two which, in turn, rises to the top. The feat is repeated, in slow motion, with the Three: Slowly, the performer shows that the Three is no longer on the bottom and, in fact, has risen to the top. When he places the packet with the Four, nothing happens – the Four remains on the bottom. Suddenly, the packet is show to consist of the Ace through Four of Spades! The Spades have changed places with red spot cards!

Nos Encanta I was not a big fan of the small-packet-elevator genre. While there was room for some surprising climaxes, there never seemed to be enough “trick” there. My new friend from Poland, Michel Kociolek, posted his “Michelevator” routine on Lance Pierce’s Magic Pebble and got my attention. This is my handling of Michel’s plot. The plot allows my kind of tactics: The elevator sequence is essentially part of the misdirection. By providing a minor magic effect, the sequence focusses attention in one direction, while you secretly get ahead for the climax. The elevator helps establish which cards are supposedly where just in time to turn the tables. You know, the elevator grabs them by the nose, and the transposition kicks them in the ….

Mise En Scene Set Up And Deal Down Remove the following seven cards and arrange them in this order from the face of the packet: Ace of Spades

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Two of Spades Three of Spades Four of Spades Nine of Hearts Eight of Hearts Nine of Diamonds Display the cards by spreading the cards face-up. Break the spread, taking the Spades in your right hand and the red spot cards in your left hand. Use the righthand Spades to flip the red spot cards face-down into your left hand. Then, flip the Spades face-down onto the left-hand cards. You will now apparently deal the Spades in a right to left row on the table. With your right hand, take the top card, casually show that it is the Four of Spades, and deal it on the table. Let’s refer to the following diagram: ABCD The Four is placed at position D. Apparently, deal the next card, the Three, to position C, but deal a bottom instead. Deal the next card to B, and the next to A. You can call these cards as you deal the row, “Four, Three, Two, and the Ace.” Apparently, the Spades are in a left-to-right row from Ace to Four. Actually, the situation is: 2S 3S 9H 4S The Ace is on top of the supposed red spot cards and you are efficiently oneahead. As an additional sell, turn both hands palm down and “straighten” the row of cards, contriving to show the red spot card at the face of the remaining packet. Now, turn your hands palm up and deal the left-hand cards onto the supposed Ace at position A. After you deal the first card, take the top card with your right hand and flash its face. As you place this card onto position A, with your left hand, flash the face if the last card and drop it on top of all. There is a rhythm here—sort of like a delayed Olram count. The bottom card is shown during the “straightening,” and the second and third cards are shown Olram-style.

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Ace Rising Pick up the packet at A. I pretend to do some kind of move here. You will be doing the “elevator” effect three times in a row so it’s a good idea to at least pretend to mix it up a bit. So, I fake a side-steal and replacement. Now do a Block Turnover of all but the bottom card of the packet—the Ace will show, apparently having risen to the top. If your pretend move was convincing at all, your audience should not be terribly surprised. Do another Block Turnover to turn the card face-down and deal the top card back at A, but in-jogged toward you about half its length.

Two Rising Drop the packet onto the supposed Two at position B. This time be slow and open and do not feint a move or any surreptitious action. Do another Block Turnover to show that the Two has come to the top. Another Block Turnover and deal the top card back onto the table, but down-jogged, aligned with the first card. Now you should have their attention.

Three For The Show Let’s do the Three in slow motion. Drop the packet on the supposed Three. Once again being very open, pick up the packet, turn it face-up and show that the Three is no longer on the bottom. Turning the packet face-down again, do a Block Turnover to show the Three has come to the top. Do a final Block Turnover to apparently turn the Three face-down. Then, instead of dealing the top card, deal another bottom.

Gang Of Four Drop the packet on the Four. As if to make the same display you made with the Three, slowly turn the packet face-up. Unlike the Three, however, the Four is still there; it hasn’t gone anywhere. After a short pause, as Michel says, “End with the transpo like a boss.”

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Impromptu Hat Trick by Mark Ennis Effect From a shuffled deck, magician removes three predictions and attempts to cut to the mates of these three predictions. Magician is successful on first two cuts but on the third cut, the magician misses. However thanks to the powers of magic, the magician is able to transform the missed card into the third and final mate bringing this effect to a wonderful conclusion.

Notes This effect is a combination of several ideas from JK Hartman, Gene Maze and Darwin Ortiz. This was created more or less on the fly about fifteen years ago at work and I have been using this ever since as an opening effect or an effect to perform when someone hands me a deck of cards. The only requirement is that you should use a full fifty two card deck to ensure that each card will have a mate and there are no duplicates.

Method Have your spectator shuffle the deck. Magician takes the deck and either table spreads or spreads the cards in his hand and memorizes top three cards of deck. If I have a performing surface, I spread the deck face-up quickly to show they are mixed and quickly memorize the top three cards. Magician spreads through to remove the mates of the top three cards of the deck and openly places these predictions face-up on the performing surface or hand the cards to three different spectators to hold (I place them in the sequence of the upcoming revelations from my view left to right). You will cut to the first two mates using JK Hartman’s “Uppercut” move. Simply, you catch a pinky break beneath the top card, undercut about a third of the deck and flip it face-up on the deck then slide the cut packet forward, loading the top card of the deck above your pinky break beneath this group of cards (similar mechanics as the Braue Reversal). At first it appears that you missed the mate since you will be

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 flashing the card that is on the bottom of the deck. Turn over the entire cut packet revealing the face-up mate to the first card. Set the right hand packet on top of the left hand packet and hold a pinky break between the two (the break is above the next card you will reveal. After placing the packets together, deal the mate to the table on top of the first face-up mate with your now free right hand. (Patter is “The mate is not on this side, but it is on this side over here”) To avoid flashing the same bottom card when you “cut” to the next mate, cut the top half of the upper packet with your right hand and hold the packet in your right hand, cut to the break and set this packet on top of the packet in your right hand, and drop the remaining cards on top of the right hand cards – the two mates are back to the top and ready for revelation two. You will repeat steps 4 and 5 above for card number two. Card number three will be slightly different. You will catch a break beneath the top two cards instead. When you perform the final cut, you will show an indifferent card when turning over the packet which should lead the audience to believe you actually missed this time (really you are showing a double with the mate behind the face-up card showing). When you turn this double face-down and deal a single face-down card over to rub on the tabled mate, you will show that it changed to the mate (typical double lift revelation). Please note that on occasion, the top three cards may consist of two mates. If the two mates are on top and second from the top, I memorize cards three, four and five, etc. You may have to displace a couple of cards if you run into that situation. Also, as I mentioned, make sure you have all fifty two cards. I once made the mistake of borrowing a magician’s deck and for reasons unknown he had duplicate cards in the deck so it threw me off for a moment.

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Lifted, Again by Shannon Clark You need a fifty three card pack which contains a bottom cutting breather. Place the four Queens on the bottom of the deck in any order. The breather card should reside in the twenty seventh position. Make a mental note of the Queen which is on the bottom of the deck (We’ll assume the QH.)

Phase one Force the QH in any manner you wish, as long as the end result doesn’t ultimately mix the cards. During the selection and control bring up how gamblers, for decades, have privately challenged each other with various bets and challenges at the card table. Introduce the concept of “estimation” to them: I tell them we’ll give them a shot at cutting off about a third of the cards. If they cut a little light, or a little heavy (within reason) it is of no consequence, but if they are way off I have them place the packet back and retry. This isn’t suspect due to the fact that you’re trying to allow them to practice a bit. Let’s imagine they cut off 15 cards for the sake of explanation. As soon as they cut their packet ask them to slowly and audibly count the number of cards to the table while everyone else follows along with them. While this is going on pick up the remainder of the deck, cut at your breather and Straddle faro the smaller packet into the larger -- do not finish the shuffle. In typical Straddle fashion you will strip out the woven cards which are bound together, allowing the cards which were above and below the weave to fall into the waiting left hand. The RH cards are now placed on top of the LH cards and the shuffle is completed. This takes just a few seconds and will be completed prior to the counting of the cards by the spectator. Place the packet to the table. Reaffirm their number as you talk about estimating the cut. Build tension as you apparently attempt to match their number by skill. In reality, all you need do is cut to your breather. Place the cards you cut off (containing the breather), to the right for a moment. The cards you have left in front of you will automatically total 15 cards. Due to this wonderful principle, the number of cards left beneath the breather will always match the number of cards the spectator cut originally. Pick up the packet and pretend to weigh the cards in your hand. “Yes! Dead on… oh…you don’t believe me? I understand… will you please count them to the table

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 so everyone can see? “ Again they will count the card slowly and audibly to indeed show 15 cards. Two things will happen while the spectator is counting your packet: 1 – She will unknowingly reverse the order of the cards and bring the Queens to the top, the selection being the uppermost. 2 – You will do a quick and very easy mental calculation which will be applied to the next phase. (we’ll return to this in a second) I should say, after the effect has had time to sink in, you will reassemble the deck in a specific way. Pick up your packet of fifteen and place it on top of their packet of fifteen. Pick up the packet containing the breather and place it on top of all. At this point in the routine you have their selection under control, beneath the breather, followed by the other three Queens. The selection is in the twenty fourth position from the top and we’ll now exploit that fact. But first let’s cover the quick mental math alluded in step 2: To calculate the exact position of their card is very easy. Simply add both your packet and their packet together. This is rendered extremely easy because the quantity of both packets will always match. In this case both packets contain 15 cards. 15 + 15 = 30 Subtract this number from 52, equaling 22. Now you will add 2 to this total = 24. The selection is twenty fourth from the top of the deck. Keep in mind you will always add 2 to total you come up with when subtracting from 52. This is simple math made even simpler by the fact that you can do the calculation while they are counting your packet.

Phase Two Now you’ll combine Pit Hartling’s Finger Flicker combined with a bluff to bring about an impressive display of skill. Tell the person you’ve heard stories of an old card cheat who was so talented he was said to have been able to cut any number of cards with just one finger, but no one knew if it was legend or had some grain of truth to it. Perform any blind shuffle and cut sequence you’d like while talking about this. Ask the spectator to tell you only the value of the card they selected earlier (not the suit). They will of course answer it was a Queen. Fan the deck with the cards facing you. Pretend to study the cards for about ten seconds or so and triumphantly close and square the deck, and place it on the table. “Ok, I think I have them. There are Queens at twelve, twenty four, thirty third and fortieth positions!” Obviously you are naming arbitrary numbers with the exception of the position you calculated earlier (24).

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Now, as they name the Queen they selected (QH), put your best studied look on your face as you pretend to try and recall which position the QH occupies. After some thought you announce that the QH sits at the twenty fourth position. Now build up the fact that you will try and cut to twenty four using only one finger. They can’t imagine how you would do this so it’s a pretty fun moment to build to, and it’s a very easy manner to flick at the breather because you know precisely where it sits in the pack. Scoop up the ‘flicked’ packet, turn it face-down and have them count it to the table, where they will find twenty three cards. Have them flip the twenty fourth card over on top the deck to find their QH. As they are reacting you reassemble the deck making sure the balance of the Queens go on top of the deck.

Quick Phase Three This is more of a quick bonus than a true phase, but I’ve found it truly impressive for the laity. Reiterate what has transpired in the routine and mention that this deck was shuffled but since we cheated we still know what positions the Queens rest in. Tell them knowing where each card is, and having the ability to cut at specific numbers, has some positively advantageous applications. As a quick ending rename the three arbitrary numbers you told them the Queens were in earlier. While you call out these numbers you will simultaneously execute John Bannon’s Bullet catcher display from Smoke and Mirrors.

Credit The Penelope Principle appeared in the Collected Works of Alex Elmsley Vol II. John Bannon’s Bullet Catcher Display appeared in Smoke and Mirrors Pit Hartling’s Finger Flicker appeared in Card Fictions.

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Every Which Way PLUS by J. K. Hartman The original version of this small-packet Triumph appeared in the manuscript Super Dupes (1974), p. 27. An improved handling was published in Loose Ends (1978), p. 75 and Card Craft (1991), p. 283. The following approach adds a new first phase, evolved from an unpublished idea of John Carey, which neatly positions the selection as required for the final phase and creates the impression that the spectator merely thought of it. Turning your back, ask Spectator Kathleen to shuffle the deck, deal off nine cards (a “mystic number”), and place the deck aside. Have her pick up the packet and deal it into three piles just as if she were dealing hands in a card game. She is then to pick up any pile, fan it so she can see the faces of the cards, and think of one of them. She squares that pile, sets it on one of the other two, and places the third on top of all. Kathleen’s next task is to re-deal the cards into three hands, this time with the cards face-up, noting in which pile her card is located. She picks up that pile, sets it on one of the other two, and places the third on top of all. Finally, she turns the combined packet face-down, and tells you she’s done. In all cases, the selection has been automatically placed fifth from top. At that point, face front pick up the packet, and remind everyone that Kathleen selected one of the cards by thinking of it. Say that so far, she alone has handled the cards. “Now is the time for me to spring into action,” you say, “by giving these cards a highly irregular shuffle.” You now perform the core routine, as follows. Fan the packet face-down, holding it in the left hand. Pick off the uppermost card (on the right), turn it face-up, and insert it for half its length between the two lowermost cards (on the left). Take the next card on the right, turn it face-up, and insert it between the second and third (face-down) cards from the left. Repeat this sequence twice more so that four face-up cards are entwined with five face-down cards. Closing the fan from right to left, say, “So the cards are face-down and face-up on this side….” Turn the elongated packet over side for side, and continue, “…and face-down and face-up on this side.” (Don’t omit this step.) From this point on, the pace accelerates, the action constant and the patter continuous. Tilting the outer end a bit upward, with the left forefinger, push in the outer tier to the extent possible, plunging out the trapped cards, saying, “Some down, some

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 up…” Strip out the plunged section and slap it on the balance, saying, “Some cards are face to face…” As you then go on, “…and some back to back,” lift up on the inner end of the faceup block via the natural break beneath it, and roll the right hand forward and palm up, thumb outward. A back shows on top of each section. With only the briefest pause, reverse the right-hand action, rolling the hand inward and palm down, simultaneously slipping the left thumb under the left-hand section and revolving it over. In a continuing motion, place the right-hand section on top of the left-hand section to reassemble the packet. Don’t try to hide the left-hand maneuver – a back flashes, and the sequence looks graceful and natural. “Now, Kathleen,” you say, slowing the pace. “Do you think the card you thought of is one of the face-up cards,” tapping the uppermost card. “Or one of the facedown cards,” flipping the packet over and tapping the uppermost card. If Kathleen replies, “one of the face-up cards,” straddle the packet, preparing for a one-hand fan. Saying, “Not only that, it’s the only one that is!” and execute the fan, holding it so that Kathleen and her fellow spectators can clearly see this result. If she says “face-down cards,” perform the fan as you conclude, “No…but all the others are!”

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Poker Face by Liam Montier Effect and Presentation “Have any of you folks ever played any poker? I always thought that to play it, you had to be good at cards, but it is just as much about psychology. Now, I know a little bit about psychology, and I’ll show you how useful it can be. First of all, just as a demonstration, can you select a random poker hand by touching the backs of five cards for me?” The spectator obliges, and their five selections are fairly up-jogged and removed, being held in a fan in your right hand. “Now, I guess when you get really good, you could do this with five cards, but let us just try one for now. Choose any one you like, and think of it as a ‘hole’ card if you play poker. When you have remembered it, place it back into the packet and shuffle them up.” The spectator has a genuinely free choice of any of the five cards they selected, and commit it to memory as you asked. It is then replaced (by them) into the packet, which you hand to them to shuffle. “Ok, so I know that one of these cards is your ‘hole’ card. What I am going to do is to try to find out which one is your hole card by reading your reactions, or trying to call your bluff. I’ll shout out the names of these cards, and I want you to keep silent but look me straight in the eye. I’m going to see if I can spot your ‘tell’.” One by one you shout out the names of the cards, watching the spectators’ reaction closely. “Right, I think I’m with it. I’m going to commit myself – which is probably overdue if I’m being honest. Here, this one. What was your ‘hole’ card?” The spectator replies that it was the Seven of Spades. Turning the card that you are holding over, it is the selected card. “I think you might be pretty good at poker, you know. I mean, the Seven of Spades isn’t a great hole card, but it’s not always dependent on that. The other four cards might be good enough on their own to win you a game…” Flipping over the four other cards, very cleanly, reveals them all to be Aces!

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Preparation In order to get hooked up for this piece of crazy magical going on, you just need to ensure that you have four aces residing on the top of the deck. Working from a borrowed and/or shuffled deck, you could of course cull these into position in real time, or simply start with them in place.

Performance “... First of all, just as a demonstration, can you select a random poker hand by touching the back of five cards for me?” Spread out the deck between your hands and have five cards touched, up-jogging them as you go. I always start near the top of the deck, being sure to spread over the four aces before you ask – this avoids one being chosen. Then, when the first card is nominated, the rest are chosen as you continue spreading through the deck. With five selections out-jogged, square up the deck in dealer’s grip (obviously leaving the selections out-jogged) and get a little finger break above the top four cards as you square everything up. Now strip out the five selections and hold them face-down in a fan in the right hand. “Now, I guess when you get really good, you could do this with five cards, but let us just try one for now. Choose any one you like, and think of it as a ‘hole’ card if you play poker. When you have remembered it, place it back into the packet and shuffle them up.” Allow them to take any of the five cards, look at it and show it around. As they do so, we do the first and last move in the whole routine – the Multiple Top Change that is rarely seen, but positively sexual in nature, so here is how it goes down. (Naturally, there are other switches that you could use here, but I think you would lose something by making a substitute. The advantage of the Multiple Top Change is that none of the faces are seen, it is fair, casual, natural and very well covered as the spectator is looking at and showing the selection around). As the right hand comes over to the deck, it squares the packet and takes it in Biddle Grip, specifically between the thumb at the inner end and second finger near the outer right hand corner. The picture below shows the starting position.

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Then, rather cheekily, we are going to swap entire packets. The right thumb and third finger grip the packet of aces, above the little finger break, in preparation. Using the right second finger, kick the uppermost packet (the four indifferent cards) over to the left, where the left thumb clips them to the top of the pack. Releasing the right second finger and pulling the right hand to the right completes the switch, bringing the packet of aces to the right hand and leaving the indifferent cards on top of the pack. Now, just a quick note about this move – it may seem bold. Let me assure you, that done smoothly, it is completely undetectable. An identical switch is used in the Hamman count, and there, full attention is on the faces of the cards. Here, you even have the natural misdirection created by the spectator remembering their card to cover the move. Note that if you wanted more cover, you could even turn your whole body away (or even right round) as the spectator is looking at their card. You state it is so that you can’t see their card, but in reality, that’s not quite true.

Either way, the switch is made, so continue by fanning the aces in the right hand and invite the spectator to replace their card into your packet, and then immediately hand it to them to shuffle. “Ok, so I know that one of these cards is your ‘hole’ card. What I am going to do is to try to find out which one is your hole card by reading your reactions, or trying to call your bluff. I’ll shout out the names of these cards, and I want you to keep silent but look me straight in the eye. I’m going to see if I can spot your ‘tell’.”

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Now is the time to get rid of the deck, while the packet is in the hands of the spectators. Either table it, or pocket it. Take back the packet and explain what you are going to do about trying to spot their ‘tell’. Fan the packet faces towards you, and apparently call out the names of the five cards. In reality, miscall all the aces, only honestly naming the selection. To avoid tripping over your words or other confusion, I recommend using the same four cards to miscall each time. The first four cards in the ‘Eight Kings’ set up are ideal – they are the Eight of Clubs, King of Hearts, Three of Spades and the Ten of Diamonds. “Right, I think I’m with it. I’m going to commit myself – which is probably overdue if I’m being honest. Here, this one. What was your ‘hole’ card?” Having apparently read out the names of all the cards in the packet and read the spectators silent reaction, remove the selection and hold it in the right hand, tabling the aces. Have the spectator declare the selected card, and then flip the card in your right hand face-up to reveal that you were correct. Here it is important to act as if the trick is now over – given that the selections were all free, as was the spectators return of the card and shuffling of the packet, this is not an effect to be downplayed, and in fact mentalists may like end it there.
However, I like to make the most out of the situation and end up with this totally unexpected (but logical) kicker. “I think you might be pretty good at poker, you know. I mean, the Seven of Spades isn’t a great hole card, but it’s not always dependent on that. The other four cards might be good enough on their own to win you a game...” Flip the four aces face-up one at a time to conclude. Given that the deck has been out of play since before the preliminary effect, this change packs a big punch.

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Practical Joker by Jason Dean Effect Two cards are freely selected and returned. The Joker whispers the names of the cards to the performer and the performer reveals the two selections. The Joker then switches places in a most visible manner with the two selections! The revelation of the selections is very subtle and a nice effect. The climax, where not only do the values of the cards change places, but the number of cards transpose, i.e., One Joker for two selections, is quite astonishing.

Performance Begin with a Joker on top of the deck face-down. Have one card each selected in a fair manner by two different spectators. Swing cut the top half of the deck into the left hand and ask the first spectator to replace their card. This positions the first selection onto the Joker. Place the right hand half of the deck onto the selection maintaining a pinky break above the selection. Openly cut approximately half of the cards beneath the break to the top of the deck while maintaining the pinky break. Turn to the second spectator and ask for the return of their card. Explain that the second selection will go further down in the deck as the deck is opened at the break. This is a discrepant ruse to make it seem like the two selections are being placed at separate positions in the deck. Replace all of the right hand cards onto the second selection without maintaining any form of a break. This is a nice place to throw in a dribble or ribbon spread of the cards to subtly show there are no holds or breaks over the cards. Announce to the audience that the Joker will read their minds. A small look of insanity might be seen on their faces. This provides a nice opportunity to play off of the crowd. Spread the deck with the backs towards the audience as the Joker is looked for. When it is located, cut the cards so the Joker becomes the third card from the top. Perform a triple lift to show the Joker on top of the deck. Utilizing the Altman Trap is useful here to ensure the ease of turning the Joker back face-down. After the Joker is turned face-down, table it to the right. Hold the deck above the tabled Joker (?) and move it back and forth as the Joker “scans the cards to find the selections”. This continues to condition the spectators that the Joker does lie on the table.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Pick up the Joker in the right hand in a Biddle grip position. Raise it towards the right ear as if it is going to whisper in your ear. As this position is reached, be sure that the face of the card is turned away from the audience so as to not reveal the face of it. As the Joker is whispering in your ear, the left thumb pushes the top card of the deck to the right momentarily to obtain a break beneath it. Lower the Joker (?) in the right hand to the deck as the audience is addressed. Name the characteristics of the first spectator’s card, color, suit and value, finally naming their card in full. As this is done, the right hand picks up the second selection under the first selection. Raise the Joker (?) again to the ear as it pretends to whisper the name of the second selection in the ear. As the card is raised to the ear, it is quite simple to glimpse the card. Once again, name the characteristics of the second card, completed my naming it fully. Table the two selections as one card away from the spectators and to the right. As far as the audience is concerned, it is simply the Joker. The Joker is actually on top of the deck. Make no mention of this as the spectators should get the impression the effect is over. Top palm the Joker from the top of the deck and immediately hand to hand spread the deck. The palmed Joker will remain hidden in the palm with the spread deck creating additional cover. As the center of the spread is reached, the right and left hand push towards each other, closing the spread. Simultaneously the Joker is loaded upside down into the spread near the center. This is a move of Paul LePaul entitled “A Useful Acquitment”, The Card Magic of LePaul, page 68. Take the deck in the right hand and turn it face-up. Prepare to ribbon spread the deck from left to right as shown in the illustration. Notice the position of the left hand. As the right hand ribbon spreads the deck, it is a simple matter for the left hand to separate the two tabled cards secretly. As the audience follows the larger motion of the deck being ribbon spread, no one will notice the slight motion needed to separate the two selections. Reveal the reversed Joker in the deck, then slowly turn your attention toward what is supposed to be the Joker. Act as surprised as the spectators when two cards are seen. Slowly turn them over to reveal the transposition of the two selections.

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Misdirection Misconception by Keith Bennet Few magicians really understand misdirection. Much of the problem with understanding misdirection is similar to the problems with computer manuals in that a lot of the writing on the subject has been done by people who already understand it and fail to explain it from the perspective of someone who is struggling to grasp the basic concepts. I shall attempt to explain how two types of misdirection work and then give an example in the form of a trick or move. This will best show how to design and apply misdirection of your own. Probably the two least understood aspects of misdirection are time misdirection and the concept of the action in transit. The first because it is a total misnomer and the second because of the difficulty of making a satisfactory translation of Ascanio’s original Spanish expression describing the concept. The way the mind works is important in both of these forms of misdirection and so I shall explain that first. How often have you walked from one room to another and thought to yourself ‘why did I come in here’? How often have you thought ‘where are the scissors I had them in my hand a moment ago’? The human brain has evolved to not remember all the insignificant details of daily life: for instance if you remembered in detail every time you switched on or off a light or every amount of change you had ever been given in a shop life would become unbearable. Psychologists have recently discovered how this type of memory works: When you cross a threshold whether it is a physical one such as going from one room to another or whether it is one of attention such as concentrating on what you are going to do next the mind does not put into long-term memory things which it considers unimportant or inconsequential. So as something new catches your attention the short term memory is cleared. The act of paying attention to what you are now focusing on clears the short-term memory. Sometimes things that are important are also lost as the short-term memory is cleared. How often have you asked yourself ‘what have I done with the scissors or pen that I hand in my hand a moment ago’? It is because you have shifted your focus of attention and the human mind is programmed to forget unimportant things when it crosses a threshold of some kind. Where you put the scissors or the pen is not important compared to what you’re going to do next and so is wiped from your short-term memory and then of course never gets into your long-term memory. In effect it becomes collateral damage.

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Time Misdirection The problem with understanding and properly applying time misdirection is essentially that it has nothing to do with time. Time misdirection is all to do with the focus of attention. The essence of time misdirection is that if you give the spectator something to think about or look at immediately after the move that needs shade, the focus of his attention will shift as his mind crosses the threshold to a new centre of attention and the memory of the move you wish to hide will be wiped from his short-term memory. If you do a move which he sees and then you stop and wait even if it is for an hour or a day or a month it will become embedded in his memory. No matter how much time you apply it doesn’t work, but a switch in his focus of attention will work within seconds. For an example, let us consider that hoary old favourite: the crosscut force. The first problem is that most magicians draw attention to the point that they want the spectator to forget by saying I will just mark the point where you have cut to. You are sowing the seeds of your own destruction by drawing the spectator’s attention to what you want him to forget. A better way is to look at the spectator and slap the cards down onto the table in front of him. Don’t put them down delicately slap them down so they make a noise and it looks as though you think what you are doing next is not very important. Reach over and mime cutting about half the cards and placing them at the side of the bottom of the deck and at the same time say “can you just cut the deck like this please”. Without saying any more you just pick up the bottom half of the deck and drop it on to the top half. It’s better still if you just place it unevenly so that it is only half on top of the deck with its end resting on the table, this looks even more casual. Now without saying anything more about the deck you reach into your pocket and take out an ornate silver box and put it carefully in front of the spectator (new focus of attention). Ask him to look inside it, he says that he can’t open it. You produce from your pocket the key and ask him to open it (a second new focus of attention). You ask him what is inside it and he says “a piece of paper”. You ask him to take it out and then say “is there anything else in there?”. Also in the box are seven red diamond shaped pieces of plastic. Hopefully he replies “some diamonds” and you ask him to tip them out onto the table and read the paper which says to count them (a third new focus of attention). When he says, for example “seven diamonds”, you pick up the upper half of the cards and show the face card to the audience which of course is the seven of diamonds. (Of course this is the card that was originally in the force position on the face of the deck.) Analysing the effect first of all we avoided the trap that many magicians fall into of emphasising a point that really want the spectator not to notice. This problem arises from an inadequate amount of rehearsal of the trick, which leads to the magician inadvertently focussing on a weak point and where his attention is: so is

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 the spectators. Also, forcing the bottom card of the deck leads to a more natural display of the card at the end. Ordinary people don’t cut the deck and turn over the next card, they look at the bottom card of the cut portion. When it comes to analysing the so called time misdirection we have given the audience at least three new things to focus their gaze and thoughts upon. Each time it is a threshold in their thoughts and creates an opportunity for their mind to clear its short term memory. Obviously if you want to try this out you don’t need a silver box but you do need to substitute other things that catch the attention. I have done a routine like this in my lecture on misdirection and regularly have had experienced magicians asking how I forced the card.

Action in Transit The ‘Action in Transit’ misdirection relies on the same psychological principle of the mind regularly clearing the short term memory. You do not have to cross a threshold for the mind to clear the short term memory, if the brain decides what it just observed is inconsequential it will also clear the short term memory Whatever you do, either just before or at the same time as the action that is thought unimportant, will also disappear from the short term memory. This gives us a very powerful misdirectional tool. However if the mind detects the inconsequential action as being false or meaningless it realises something is going on and looks for whatever is being hidden. For example when the inexperienced manipulator waves a handkerchief up and down for no reason other than he mistakenly thinks he is misdirecting the audience then his action becomes a red warning flag and the audience straightway spots the other elbow sticking out and making the steal under his jacket. However when Cardini dropped the monocle from his eye and replaced it passed as a simple accident and the steal he made at the same time went completely unnoticed. The action has to immediately follow or be at the same time as the move that needs the shade. If it is before the move needing misdirection it won’t work. So what do we need? We need an action that is:•

Inconsequential in that it has no relevance or importance to the execution of the trick in the eyes of the spectator.

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A genuine action with a real motivation but that has no importance to the trick.

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Completely natural and everyday and appearing spontaneous.

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Contemporaneous with or occurring immediately after the move to be covered.

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Examples of this are:-

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Scratching the nose or earlobe.

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Pushing the spectacles back up on the bridge of the nose.

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Taking a drag on a cigarette.

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Taking a sip out of a glass.

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Adjusting the sleeves.

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Moving your watch strap up your wrist.

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Straightening the knot in your tie.

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Dropping a prop( don’t overdo this)

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Pushing a coin purse or card box to the side of the table.

I will now explain how I use this principle to provide shade for the top change. With the deck held just above waist level I take the top card and raise it up back towards me so the audience can see what it is. Next I tip it over backwards towards myself to see what it is and as I do this I tip my head up slightly and my shoulders rise a little. This signals I am paying attention to what the card is and I name the card out loud. Now I lower the card to the level of the pack and as I do so my head drops back to its normal position and so do my shoulders. This all signals relaxation and takes the focus of the card. Its at this point I do the top change. While I do the move I look directly at the audience and smile and then immediately with the hand that holds the deck I reach up and push my spectacles back up onto the bridge of the nose. Only now do I look down at the card and name it again and then openly sneak a peek at its face . Expressing surprise on my face I now show it has changed. I know the adjustment of the spectacles works as misdirection because when teaching the misdirection for the top change in my misdirection lecture I do the top change with the cards face-up and still catch everybody. Go out and try these principles and learn how effective they are and how much they will improve your magic.

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The Karachi Fried Chicken Trick by Keith Bennett Sitting in a kebab house in Birmingham with John Carey I placed a single card face-down on the table and said to him “Just name a card”. He said “The seven of diamonds” and I said “Turn it over” He confessed that it was the best trick he had ever seen until it dawned on him some ten seconds later that I couldn’t repeat it. I was actually going to make a point about psychology and misdirection rather than do a trick but the effect on him was so strong that I have been trying to duplicate it ever since. At last I have come close to being able to do just that. For this trick you need a double back card; it needs to be the same colour both sides and the same colour as the deck of course. Place it anywhere in the deck and the setup is complete. Start by saying that you have been experimenting with the some tricks based upon psychology and coincidence and look through the deck as if you were going to choose a card but instead cut the deck five cards above the double back card and turn the deck face-down. At this point you can do a false shuffle and a false cut if you like. Now casually leaf through the face-down deck until you get to the double back card and place it down on the table and say “this will be my prediction card... even though I do not know what it is.” Because it is only five cards down from the top you can easily find it and lay it down in a way that looks casual. Ask the spectator to name any card in the deck and run through the cards face towards you until you get to the named card. Cull it to the face of the deck. This only needs to be a simple cut, but carry on looking through the cards as though you can’t find it. Your intention should be to make it look as though you didn’t expect the card on the table to be the card that was named. Turn the deck face-down and look at the spectator feigning disbelief. As you do this take the named face card into gambler’s cop from the bottom of the deck. Reach over towards the spectator and ribbon spread the deck in front of him faceup. Look him straight in the eye and say to him “Please try to find your card in the spread before I make a fool of myself ” The human eye has evolved over time to follow a moving object and so as you spread the cards across the table it will provide excellent misdirection for the gambler’s cop and the holding out of the card for a few moments. At this point the deck has gone forward and the hand holding the card in gamblers cop comes back and rests on the edge of the table. Make sure you spread the cards on the spectators side of the table, this will ensure that the movement made by the deck is a much larger and faster one than the

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 movement made by the hand holding the single card. Further faster and forward will always attract the eye more than shorter slower and backwards. While he’s looking at the cards pick up the prediction card and place it on top of the card in your hand. Align the two cards in your hand. You will now have the double back card on top of the face-down named card. Don’t worry about this little move because all the heat will be on the spread deck and the spectator searching through it for his card. Lift the pair of cards up from your palm so that there is about an inch of air below the cards and the edges of the cards are aligned in the crease in your fingers nearest the fingertips and the other edge is being held by your thumb. Let your index finger rest in front of the cards so that the double thickness is hidden from the spectator’s view. The reason for this grip is explained later. When he says that he cannot find his card, reach over and scoop up the spread and turn the deck face-down onto the table with your other hand. By the way, you should have spread the face-up deck across in front of you so that when you finish the spread the top card of the spread is in front of the hand that is taking the named card into gamblers cop. Not only does this make it easier to pick up the spread one-handed but it also gives better cover as you take the hand holding-out the card towards the edge of the table. Put the deck face-down on the table in front of you. It is better at this point if the deck is not perfectly squared. This is easy to achieve as you are picking up the spread deck one-handed. Now turn the double card in your hand face-up and drop the two cards onto the deck. To increase the illusion that it is just a single card lift the thumb so that the double card turns through 90° and is vertical but with its long edge still parallel to the table. At the same time turn your wrist that the double card is now face-up about 3 inches above the deck and just drop the double card on top of the deck, don’t place it there. Alternatively, for added misdirection turn the double face-up and take it in the other hand and pick up the deck and move it back a little towards yourself as you place the double card onto the deck. Then casually pick up the face-up card from the top of the tabled deck and toss it onto the table in front of the spectator . This should merely look as though you are moving the deck slightly to make room for the card to fall on the table. If you are wondering why this trick is called the Karachi fried chicken trick it is because the kebab house had been named Karachi Fried Chicken so that an enterprising Indian gentlemen had his very own KFC without having to pay a franchise fee.

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Impromptu Foursome by Peter Duffie A spelling effect based on a Henry Christ premise. Two single Bottom Deals are required but they happen on the off-beat and a fine technique is not necessary.

Working 1. Ask a spectator to remove any four of a kind and give you back the deck. We will use Aces for this description. The spectator now selects one of the foursome and gives you back the three he doesn’t want. Place these three cards into the deck and bring them secretly to the top using a Multiple Shift or similar move. Now dribble the cards into your hand and ask the spectator to call stop, at which point he places his selection face-down on top of the lower half. Place the upper section on top and carry out a Half-pass of the lower section. Finally Double-cut or Pass the top two cards to the bottom. If cutting, make sure you don’t cut into the face-up section. POSITION CHECK: There is one Ace on top of the deck - the lower section of the deck is face-up - there are two Aces face-down on the bottom - the selection is face-up above them. 2. Place the deck in position for dealing Bottoms. Ask the spectator to name his card - let’s say he says Ace of Hearts. Spell A-C-E by dealing three cards one on top of the other into a face-down pile. Spell O-F dealing a bottom then a top. Spell H-E-A-R-T-S dealing a bottom then the five tops. 3. Look at the spectator and repeat the name of his card as if for confirmation. As your eyes meet set the deck on the table by turning your hand palm down - this reverses the deck. 4. Flip over the three piles to reveal the other three Aces, saying, “It seems as if your card has got a close relationship with his other three mates.” Finally draw attention to the deck and flip over the top card - apparently the one

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 arrived at by spelling the name - to reveal the selection. To clean up, simply gather all the cards together and then correct the face-up section that is on the bottom of the deck. The trick is over, so there is no heat.

END NOTES To get the cards to appear on top of the three piles, one would need to deal Seconds on the first pile, and finish with a Bottom on each of the other two. I prefer to deal the Bottoms first. I don’t think the effect is any stronger with the Aces on top. The fact that they are there is what matters.

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Busted Flush by Ryan Matney This is a variation of my effect “Flush Exchange” from my upcoming book “Spoiler Alert.” This version is designed to be performed without a table, making it ideal for strolling.

Set-Up Take a blank face card and write “Busted on the Ten” on the blank face. This card is on top of the deck before you begin.

Performance Remove a Royal Flush from deck. The suit doesn’t matter, but let’s assume it is Spades. Quickly arrange the cards in order with the Ten at the face and the Ace at the back. Explain to the spectators how rare it is to ever hold a Royal Flush and how some gamblers play their entire lives and never see one. Tell about a gambler you knew that once drew four cards of the flush but missed (busted) on the fifth. Hold the flush packet face-up and squared in right hand End Grip. Obtain a break under the top card of the deck. You are about to perform a Braue Addition, to display the cards in a Royal Flush one at time and educate the spectators as to just what a Royal Flush consists of. During this, you will switch in the message card and switch out the Ten leaving it on top of the deck. With your left thumb, peel off the Ten of Spades from the face of the packet onto the top of the deck. At the same time, secretly steal the top card of the deck under the flush packet. The break makes this a cinch. Using the left side of the flush packet, lever the Ten face-down onto the deck. “A Royal Flush is made up of five cards, all the same suit, a Ten …” Again, peel the Jack onto the deck fairly and flip it face-down using the side of the packet. Repeat this with each card, naming it as you flip it face-down onto the

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 deck. When you come to the Ace, you will secretly be holding a double card, the Ace and message card hidden beneath it. Immediately drop this double onto the deck and point to the Ace with your right forefinger saying, “And, of course the Ace, the highest value in the deck.” Flip the Ace face-down and push off the top five cards from the deck, taking them with your right hand. The message card is now in the second position from the top of the packet. While still holding the deck in your left hand, shuffle the five card packet at your fingertips making sure the message card ends up on top. Give the packet to the spectator. You will now guide him through the Prime Number Force which will force the message card. “Let’s pretend you are the gambler I told you about, and you will draw four cards of the Royal Flush but, sadly, you will miss on the final card. To make it random, so I can’t possibly know what card you will bust on, name a number between one and five.” Assume the spectator names three. They can name any number except five and the force will work, but the number one is not nearly as deceptive as the others, which is why you ask for a number between one and five. Have the spectator count three cards, one at a time, from the top of the packet to the bottom. He then turns the card now on top of the packet face-up. It may be the King, whatever it is, you say, “You drew the King,” naming the card that appears. The card is left face-up on top of the packet. The spectator repeats this procedure, again counting three cards from top to bottom, counting the face-up card as “one.” The top card of the packet is flipped face-up and you say, “You drew the Jack,” naming whatever it happens to be. This process is done a total of four times, the spectator counting his number and turning the top card of the packet face-up while you repeat the line, “You drew the King, then you drew the Jack, then … you drew the Ace, finally you drew the Queen.” The cards will turn up in a random order every time, you simply name them as they appear. The last card remaining will appear to be the Ten. “Ah, it appears the card you missed, the one card that could have made a perfect Royal Flush for you, is … the Ten. I had a feeling this might be the one that gave you trouble.” You have been holding the deck the entire time. Have the spectator look at the final card to see the message: “Busted on the Ten.” When the spectator (and everyone else) is looking at the message card, you have ample misdirection to palm the real Ten off the top of the deck. Produce the palmed

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 card from your pocket saying, “The truth about that gambler I was telling you about, he couldn’t ever have made the flush because some wise guy stole the card he needed from the deck. I was almost sorry I took it.”

Impromptu Variation To do this impromptu, instead of the message card, use a Ten of Diamonds. This card is on top of the deck. Remove the Royal Flush in spades. The presentation and working are the same but now with a different end line. “This is exactly what happened to that gambler I was telling you about. The irony is that he drew a Ten, just not the one he needed. Instead, it was a red Ten. Take a look.” The spectator looks at the final card to discover it is the Ten of Diamonds. “And the Ten of Spades he needed was never in the deck to start with.” Produce the Ten of Spades from your pocket as described.

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Offshore Banking Tyer Erickson Effect From a borrowed deck, a spectator takes a group of cards, shuffles the group, looks at one card, reassembles the deck and then shuffles again. The magician can be backwards to the audience, or have the deck held under the table where only the spectator can see them. Claiming the spectator will unconsciously signal what card is correct through voice alone, he has them call off the cards one at a time and stops them on the correct card. P.S. To expedite the process, the spectator is directed to only call off the values and not the suits.

Script (After the deck has been assembled) Now I just want to clarify: you shuffled, took a secret glimpse at a random card, and shuffled all the cards again, correct? All while my back was and still is, turned, yes? And still there are people who think—somehow—I know what card you took. Those people suck. I’m tired of trying to live up to their unrealistic expectations. But fine, let’s give it a try; please turn the deck towards you. Make sure there is no way I, or anyone you think might want to help me, can see the faces of the cards. Nobody else...only you. Now, buzz through the deck, NO STOPPING, but notice where your card is. Here’s an odd thing: your card isn’t the first card, or one of the first few cards, is it? YES REPLY: I had a feeling. Ok, cut the deck so it’s not there anymore. If you thought that was impressive, just wait. NO REPLY: Just checking. It’s more impressive if it’s deep down. I want you say each card as it goes by, and believe it or not, I’m going to stop you the second you name your card.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 BUT WAIT! Just read off the value of the cards, not the suits. So, even if we all knew you were thinking of the Ace of Hearts...when you got to it, you would still only say “Ace” so we’d have no idea which Ace was the right one. [they start naming cards] ...Stop! There are other Jacks in this deck, [turning around] but that one is yours!

Overview This is an application of the Waikiki Location, but instead of using face-up/facedown cards, it instead uses a known bank of 16. I use the “Aces and Faces” (A, K, Q, J) for my bank, but honestly any 4 card combination will work: 2, 4, 6, 8 or perhaps A, 2, 3, 4. Regardless of combination, the point is to have a group to which one can instantaneously and reflexively respond.

Set Up Have a 16 card bank on top of the deck. For those that can, a quick spread cull during a period of inattention can gather the necessary target cards. You will need a way of getting a break under those cards such as a crimp or bowed packet, of which I prefer the latter. If you wish, you can do a hand to hand spread and injog the 16th card.

Method False shuffle in a way that maintains the integrity of the group. Table the deck, then cut the 16 cards off the top, display their thickness and say to your helper, “Can you see approximately how many cards there are?” As you are getting your reply, replace the packet onto the remainder of the deck, but slightly crosswise, unsquared. “Lift them up.” The spectator will pick up the 16 card packet. “That probably feels like it’s about...⅓ of the deck, yes? Please put them over here.” Indicate a spot next to the bigger half. “Now cut another group about the same size...and put them over here.” Point to the other side of the target cards. The spectator has now created three relatively equal piles, and due to your directions, the middle one is comprised of the target cards. Tell them to grab a pile and shuffle it. If they take the target pile, continue, “Once you are done shuffling, look at the bottom card.” If they don’t initially pick up the target pile, just have them shuffle that packet and set it back down. In this way, you

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 give the directions to look at the bottom card whenever they pick up the proper pile. Once they have chosen a card they can assemble the piles in any order. Next, they divide the deck in half for a riffle shuffle. If you doubt the spectator’s ability to do such a shuffle, you can instead substitute Lennart Green’s Rosetta Shuffle. While they could follow this shuffle with any number of straight cuts they wish, I prefer to have them cut only once. Now, if the deck is turned face-up and the identities are read off from the face, there will be a long run of null cards right before the selection. So, when you start hearing the values from your target group, the first one called after the run of null cards is correct. The one thing that can interfere with this would be if the selection is too near the face of the deck. If that happens, the first target card you hear will have been correct, you just won’t know until they’ve gone all the way through the deck. This is avoided by the “buzz through and cut.” This also affords the possibility of a lucky hit, in that you knew their card was one of the first cards.

Afterthoughts The opening procedure is my oft used strategy to minimize the spectator’s awareness that I cut the cards. Since they will be lifting the packet up and cutting it to the side, any statement like, “You divided the deck into three roughly equal groups” should go unchallenged. I think it is smart to create the impression you aren’t watching them when they are picking up and shuffling the piles. Something similar to the Annemann glance back technique, i.e., looking back after they have made their choice and seeing which packet is gone from the table. It’s super easy to notice when the middle pile is missing. When I do the example card, I name a card from the target group on the off chance that it is correct. Even if it isn’t, I stand a 25% chance of naming the correct value. Plus, if I should name it correctly, it in no way diminishes the “stop” discovery. The final phrase in the script is designed to sound like I could have named the card outright, which of course, I cannot. After I have done the revelation, I do try to see and remember the suit of the selection, because it can often prove useful. As a final thought, I like to “jazz” the process by which the piles are shuffled/ reassembled, such as having one pile placed into another, etc. For those who like improvisation, many subtle convincers can be generated.

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X Gon’ Give It To Ya by Phill Smith Effect You produce and shuffle a deck of playing cards, and ask a punter to name absolutely any card at all. They say the Five of Clubs and you run through the deck face-up and table it in front of them. You ask them to pick a completely different card and they name the Queen of Hearts: again, you remove it and table it. Do this twice more until there are four tabled face-up cards in a row in front of the spectator, then you line these up. You ask the punter to pick one in their mind, and to silently point to it. This they do. “We mixed the deck, you named any four cards, and there’s no way I could have made you pick those four exact cards.” you explain. “And EVEN if I could, there’s absolutely no way I could have known that you would pick that one card in particular from that four? Right? Well... no. Don’t ask me how, but I knew that you would pick that card. In fact I was so confident you would pick it that I went through the deck and put a cross on the back of every one I thought you wouldn’t pick.” You begin to take cards from the top of the deck and flip them face-down onto the table: each of them has a bold black cross drawn on the back. You flip the rest of the deck over and spread through the cards… each one has a bold black X. You pick up the four face-up cards from the table and turn them over, counting them one by one showing three crossed cards and only one without a cross. “In fact out of all the cards in the deck only one went unmarked.” You hand it to the spectator. It is, of course, their chosen card.

Method This effect is a combination of, essentially, two core methods. The first thing to be aware of is that what you just read above is one of two (equally lovely) ways the effect can unfold. The other way it can go is that their card is the only one in the deck WITH a cross on the back, and the presentation of course changes to accommodate that difference.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 The strength of the effect is the freedom that the punters have. At the point where they indicate their chosen card you can hammer home the reality of their free choices. You couldn’t have made them pick those four cards, of all the cards in the deck, and certainly, even if you could have known which four cards they would pick, there’s no way you could have *made* them pick that one card in particular. Their choices are completely their own. OK here’s the setup, bear with me. Every Club and Diamond in the deck has a cross on the back. Make the cross bold and make sure they are fairly consistent. Shuffle up the clubs and diamonds so they look nicely jumbled, then sandwich them in the middle of the (also mixed) uncrossed cards. You now have a deck that has thirteen normal cards, all Hearts and Spades, on top. Then a bank of twenty six crossed cards (all clubs and diamonds) and then a final bank of thirteen more normal cards at the bottom. This deck is always handled face-up, another beguilingly open feature of the handling. Table the deck and ask someone to name any card, then go through the deck face-up and remove it, tabling it face-up. You now instruct them to pick another *completely different* card, and again and again, finding and tabling each. Your goal is to end up with four cards of different suits. Just instructing the punters that you want completely different cards will usually accomplish this but if they pick a second card of a suit that has previously been selected (this is most likely to happen on the fourth card), just say “Ah no I want four cards that are different in every way, suit and value.” This is fine, it doesn’t feel restrictive and they won’t buck against it. Anyway, you want to end up with four cards, one of each suit, face-up in a row on the table. They are now given a choice of one of them. How you make them do this is up to you, but I like to put weight on this choice. “Don’t just pick one at random or quickly like it doesn’t matter - find a way to make it personal or meaningful, but find the freedom in the choice.” I lean on them to experience the freedom of choice so later there is no space for them to think maybe I coerced them into picking one, or maybe everyone picks an Ace, or whatever. They pick one, you have them point to it or say it or however you want to handle this. Before you make the deck display, make a mental note of whether their card is crossed or uncrossed. Remember, two of the tabled cards are crossed, two are uncrossed. They MUST stay in these pairs. Arrange the cards so their chosen card is on top, then the other card in its pair is underneath, then the other pair is beneath these two. I do this whilst they are still in a spread, but overlapping, so when I square them up in a moment they are in the right positions. As I make this arrangement I explain to the punters that they specifically chose this one card, they could have picked the this or the blah or the blah… What you say now depends on whether their chosen card is crossed or uncrossed.

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 Here’s the handling for if their chosen card is crossed: Pick up the tabled face-up deck and indicate the top card. “You could have picked this card, the five of hearts…” you deal it face-down onto the table, showing the unmarked back without mentioning it. FFS don’t mention that it doesn’t have a cross on it! “Or this one, but you didn’t…” deal down the next one, face-down. Repeat this, still going quite slowly, until you hit either a Club or Diamond on the face-up pack in your hands. Obviously don’t deal this down - instead you flip the deck over and spread the face cards. You need to be careful because if you overspread them you will flash some of the middle stock of X cards, so just be aware. I spread the first six or seven or so quite freely, then lift up the deck, spreading right through the deck. As I do this of course on the backs I am clocking the breakpoint between packets and arranging it so when I put the deck back down again and show the backs there are no Xs visible. You have plenty of time and cover to do this, it’s simple. Lower the cards, showing the backs, OF COURSE without mentioning them, then square up the deck and put it on the table next to the messy pile of loosely dealt face-down cards from earlier. Now the final revelation. Pick up the four face-up cards, square the packet and turn it face-down. Do an Elmsley count. You will see ONE card with a cross on it, and in doing the count you out-jog this then strip it out completely, saying, as you do: “In fact before I came here tonight I put a cross on just one card in the deck…” You end up holding one card face-down with a cross on it, surrounded visually by face-down unmarked cards. Look them in the eye. “It would be mental if this was your card, the Seven of Diamonds, right?” Then flip it over. The place goes nuts. Here’s the handling for it their chosen card is uncrossed: You pick up the tabled face-up deck and spread through it. “You made a bunch of very fair, very free choices right?” You cut the spread in the exact middle and basically swap the top and bottom halves of the deck. “Before I came out here tonight, I took each card in the deck, and held it in my hand and thought ‘will Pete pick this card’...” As you do this you take the new face card of the deck, which will be a Diamond or Club, a crossed card, and kind of weigh it in your hand. “And if I thought ‘nah, not this one’ I put a cross on it.” You deal the card face-down to the table. “Will Pete pick the Six of Clubs (whatever the next card is, you say this whilst weighing it)... nope.” Flip it over and drop it to the table. You do this as you go through until you hit a Heart or Spade, which you know is uncrossed - at this point you flip over the pack and start to spread through the top stock, showing crosses on all the backs. Again, you lift the deck up to show the faces, giving yourself the chance to clean up the backs so no uncrossed backs are visible, before lowering it. “I went through the whole deck and got bad vibes from every single card.” Table the face-down deck with the X showing on the back. Now, pick up the four face-up cards, square the packet and turn it face-down. Do an Elmsley count. You will see ONE card without a cross on it. “In fact, there was

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 only one card in the entire deck I didn’t get a negative feeling from.” Strip out the single unmarked card from the count as you do it. You hold it in your hand, again, the visual is strong, one unmarked card against a backdrop of many crossed cards. “This was the only card I didn’t think you wouldn’t pick. Wouldn’t it be nuts if this was the Jack of Clubs?” Flip it over and show the punters. Flip the table over. Flip the whole damn place over.

Notes For some reason I think magicians are worried that lay people will spot the fact that the suits in the deck are in blocks, but because of the mixing there is a constant random mix of reds and blacks through the deck, and it looks really natural. If a punter genuinely stops you and asks why the top quarter only has hearts and spades, then there’s a huge block of clubs and diamonds, then the rest of the hearts and spades… just fake a heart attack or whatever. The idea of having the half deck marked inside an unmarked half came to me from a lecture Late Local Leicester Legend Roy Johnson did at the LMC back in the day - it’s a very old-school organic way of handling things that’s hard to mess up and it’s really flexible. The idea of using the Elmsely count in combination with a presentational ambiguity to apparently show one card different from three others came from an effect called Elementary by Anton Gardinski that was featured in volume 2.2 of online mentalism staple The Center Tear many many moons ago. The idea that you can psychologically muscle a punter into picking one card of each suit came from Brian Caswell’s effect Cataclysm, which is basically amazing.

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Sort of Epic by Jack Tighe Effect During a lapse in conversation, the magician successfully predicts three freely cut cards, each more difficult and sinister than the last. (They aren’t really sinister, I just wanted to sound like Jonathan Creek)

Discussion This is quite an interesting application of the cut deeper force, combined with old school favourite, mental epic. To prepare, have three business cards and a pen handy, along with a deck of cards. To perform, hand out a deck of cards for shuffling. Take it back, and secretly glimpse the top card. I usually just dribble the cards casually, glimpsing the top card in the process, but feel free to substitute another method if you want to. We’ll still be friends. The card that you glimpsed will eventually be forced on the spectator and will allow you to get ahead of the game. Stay with me. Set the deck in front of the spectator and theatrically foreshadow the narrative of the upcoming trick by saying something like… “In a minute, I’d like you to cut to a card. Just cut off slightly less than half the deck, turn it face-up and set it back on top of the pack. Before you do that, I’m going to write something down. My aim is to try to guess the kind of cards you might cut to. I usually don’t get them correct, but I’ll try to get close.” Pick up the first business card, act like you’re thinking, and write down the name of the card you glimpsed. Please don’t let anyone see what you write. Set the business card face-down on the table. Have the spectator carry out the first half of the Balducci cut deeper force by cutting off less than half the cards and turning that section face-up on the remainder of the pack. Call attention to the card now on the face. Point out that there is no way anyone could have known which card would be cut to, and then set this card off to the side, face-up. Continue with the following… “So, that card was freely cut to. But, I suppose I could have quickly memorised the top few cards, and taken the chance you would cut to one. Let’s make it more

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 difficult. This time, cut off more than half the cards and turn them over. Before you do that though, I need to write something down...” Pick up the second business card, and write down the name of the card that was just cut to and tabled. Each time you write a prediction, you should act for all the world like you are trying to guess the upcoming card. Place the second business card face-down on top of the first one. Have the spectator cut again, this time lifting up and turning over more than half the cards. She has completed the second part of the cut deeper force. Call attention to the new face card, and set it aside face-up to the right of the first card. Again, reiterate that this card was freely cut to… “So that’s two cards you’ve cut to. However, so far, they’ve all been face-up. I’m going to try to guess a face-down card. Let me write down one more guess...” Pick up the third business card, and write on it the name of the second cut to card. Set this final business card face-down on top of the others. As you can see, you are running one card behind reality. The cut properties of the cut deeper force, however, will allow you to catch up. Spread the deck on the table, and slide out the first face-down card you come to. Because of the cut deeper force, this will be the card you glimpsed at the start. Turn it face-up and put it to the right of the other two cards. Recap the situation… “You made several free cuts – no one could possibly have controlled which cards you cut to. Before each cut you made, I took a guess at how you would do. If I get even one correct, I’d be really happy...” All that remains is to somehow rearrange the business cards to match the order of the tabled cards, so that it appears that your predictions were correct. The situation at the moment is that the face-up cards are on the table, in order one, two, three from left to right. The business cards are in a face-down pile, running two, one, three from top to bottom. There are many ways in the literature to handle the correction aspect of a mental epic routine. Here’s a simple one. It’s essentially the Trevor Lewis Monte move but without the out-jogged card - Hold the stack of business cards face-down in your left hand. Spread them with your left thumb so that the cards are fanned to the right. Bring the right hand over, palm down, and grasp the top, rightmost two cards of the fan, fingers on top thumbs underneath. Turn the hand palm up, turning the cards face-up. As you do this, push with the right fingers and pull with the thumb, switching the positions of the two cards as in the standard optical monte move. At the same time that the right hand is doing its work, the left hand flips its card face-up. Place the right hand cards fanned onto the left hand card. It will appear that you simply turned all three cards face-up and fanned them. The order of the

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The Carey Files: Volume 1 business cards in your hand will now correspond to the tabled playing cards. Deal the business cards from your hand into a left to right row in front of the tabled cards. All three predictions will now match the tabled cards. To finish, say a suitably dramatic tag line, such as “look, they all match.” Job done.

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Pick Up Mix by Jack Tighe Effect The deck is mixed. But not really.

Discussion This is simplicity itself, but I’ve never seen anyone do it, and the card men I’ve showed it to had never seen it either. Ribbon Spread the deck from left to right. With the left hand, scoop up a bunch of around eight to ten cards from the left end of the spread. Throw these into the awaiting right hand with as much panache as you can manage. Scoop up another bunch of cards and throw these on top of the right hand cards. Repeat until the spread is exhausted. It seems as though this chaotic procedure should mix the deck somewhat, but it does not. Hilariously, I’ve often had to do it more than once for other card men before they realised what was going on. Use it well.

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Final words and thanks Well I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this volume. An eclectic mix of effects from yours truly and some very talented friends. Take a few of the pieces that you like and put your own presentational stamp on them. Nothing is beyond the range of the intermediate student, but everything will take work. After all, if it was all push button and handed on a plate to you, what’s the point? Yesterday is history Tomorrow is a mystery And today is a gift and they call it the present

John Carey xxx

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