Worlds Fastest Catd Trick

C O P Y R IG H T

1948

W 8LL ALMA M.I.M.C. (L O N D O N )

Dear Brother Magician: It gives me considerable pleasure to release the W ORLD’S FASTE S T (?) CARD TRICK. It was YOUR enthusiasm and YOUR nu­ merous requests that have prompted me to do so. The W ORLD’S FASTEST CARD TRICK has earned more laughs for me in my act (so called) than any other comedy trick that I have ever had. I sincerely hope that it will do the same for you. Milbourne Christopher once laughingly suggested an idea using a stooge that stayed with me for a long time. Then after seeing some magicians get into embarrassing situations, often through no fault of their own, and realizing how funny it looked from out front, I decided to get up a routine with planned situations, involving a spec­ tator and using no stooges. Strangely enough cultured audiences seemed to delight in seeing "art” in magic go haywire and took more pleasure in seeing the magician get out of "this one.” Naturally the magicians themselves went quite overboard for the routine because to them the satire hit the mark. Well, here’s luck. You’ll need it. It may not be a riot the first few times, but the trial and error method is best in order to really get it down pat. Thanks a million for your interest, and thanks for reading this far. But it only shows that you are highly educated and can read. This being a new book, let’s turn over a new leaf and get to work. Cordially yours, JOE KARSON.

Copyright 1948 Published by Karson Xcluslves Springfield, Mass.

JOE KARSON'S THE WORLD'S FASTEST CARD TRICK E f f e c t :

The performer states that he is about to do one of the world’s fastest card tricks. A spectator is invited upon the platform to select a card. The cards are fanned out, and the spectator is shown how the card should be taken from the pack. Following this, due to some very bad timing on the part of the performer or the hesitancy on the part of the spectator, there seems to be a certain amount of confusion and diffi­ culty in having the card selected. The card is finally taken, however, and returned to the pack. The performer shuffles the cards and places them behind his back, and in one second withdraws one card. With a certain amount of triumph the performer asks the spectator what the name of the card was that was selected. Seemingly embarrased the spectator claims that they did not look jit it. It seems now that the performer is also slightly embarrassed and another attempt is made in having the card selected with the same bad results in timing. However, another card is taken and the per­ former shuffles the pack again and this time has some one else shuffle the pack. Once again, placing the pack behind his back the performer in one second brings forth a card and again asks the name of the card. The spectator names the card and being slightly confused shows that he still has the card in his possession. The magician now showing slight signs of irritation explains to the somewhat bewildered spectator that card tricks as a rule are fairly simple. All that is necessary, he states, is for the spectator to look at the card, and then simply return it to the pack. That’s all. One more attempt is made in having a card selected and returned to the pack. The cards are again shuffled, and placing them behind his back, the magician, with a flourish, again produces a card; asking the spectator once more what the card was. The magician is now more or less shocked when the spectator says that he has forgotten the card. Being determined to do this world’s fastest card trick, which is now taking up considerable time and effort, and quite probably con­ vulsing an audience, the magician again has a card selected and re­ turned.

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He now visibly reaches into the deck, pulls out a card and asks the spectator again to name the card. At long last the card is named, but the magician has not succeeded, as he has the wrong card in his hand. This is, however, easily cor­ rected, as the card magically changes to the selected card and the spectator and magician acknowledge some, if any applause.

Requirements: The only equipment necessary for this comedy routine is a deck of cards. The only sleight involved is a top change or a bottom change of a card. Also under requirements is the selection of a proper person to help in this trick. A confederate or a rehearsed stooge is not to be recommended. They will always overact certain parts and underact others; whereas the expressions on the proper volunteer are always genuine and each surprise is real. However, some knowledge of picking the proper person is re­ quired. Before doing this trick, I always size up the audience or people nearest me. It is also more advisable to pick a young lady for the trick, rather than a male assistant, as they are not so apt to blurt out whatever they have on their mind at some precarious mo­ ment during the trick. Always try to pick some one whose per­ sonality more or less seems to appeal to you, and let your good judgment be your guide in trying to ascertain their qualities and character. You can more or less spot a quiet person and tell them apart from a nervous or irritable person. It is a good rule to be prepared to outwit, handle, and guide the person that comes up, to the fullest extent. That is, because no matter how good your judgment may become in picking the proper person, there is always a time when you are definitely wrong and the person that comes up will be pretty much on the ball. If the person that comes up is such, and on the ball, he, too, of course, is handled quite easily if handled properly. I certainly do not mean that you should always strive to get some dumb person to come up; but on the other hand some person of average intelligence. He should not be insulted by any disparaging remarks whatsover, as he will feel uncomfortable enough at times during the trick.

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W o r k i n g :

First, you must have some one come up to help you with the trick. Many performers find it difficult to have some one come up without resorting to some trick to get them up. -Here is a little tip when getting some one up to help you during the performance. If you have done nothing or said nothing to insult your audience up to this time, they will have confidence in you, and they will not be afraid that you will embarrass them if they do come up to help you. In asking for some one to come up, do not beg the audience for some one. Your expression should be practically blank with a trace of a smile. (N o smirk, such as you would see on some wise guy.) You should,more or less, speak directly to that one per­ son; one who you would like to have come up to assist you. Merely hold out your hand and ask this person if they would mind coming up to take a card. In that way, unwanted people will not get up and start ahead in your direction. By all means do NOT go to this person and insist that they must come up, and do NOT touch them in any way. You must try to see the impossible situation as soon as you can, and direct your attention to some one else immediately. Let us assume, now, that you have a young lady on the platform. She stands to your left, both of you face the audience. You ask her to hold out her right hand, palm up, and with the left hand draw out any card from the pack and to slide it on the palm of her right hand, and to cover the card with her left. Like this, (you take out a card for her and have her place your left hand over the card. Do not give her any indication that she is to look at the card, but on the other hand insist that no one be allowed to see the card.) Now that that is clear, replace the card and fan the deck again, the fan being held in your right hand as you hold it out toward the young lady. The success of this trick depends on two things; your constant patter, and timing of your movements. As you hold the fan outstretched for a card to be selected, you look at the audience, more or less the left side, while you are pattering. From the corner of your eye you will be able to see her hand come up to take the card, that is when you pull the fan away and direct your attention to the audience in front for a few seconds. (By this time the young lady has dropped her hand, because apparently unknowingly you have pulled the cards away too soon.)

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As soon as her hand is withdrawn, you swing right back with the cards, telling her that she can take a card from any place in the deck; •and, again, as she raises her hand to take one, you face the audience to tell them how marvelous it is that she can take any card at all. THIS IS DONE SEVERAL TIMES, BUT BY ALL MEANS TRY N O T TO OVERDO THIS. Finally, let her take the card, telling her no one is to see it, and to cover it with her other hand, keeping an eye on her. YOU M UST N O T LET HER LOOK AT THE CARD. YOU M UST GIVE NO IN D ICA TIO N UP TO THIS PO INT TH A T THE CARD IS TO BE LOOKED AT. Square the pack up, and have your assistant raise her hand that is covering the card. You immediately pick up the card still face down, and place it right into the deck, and begin to shuffle. Now place the deck behind your back, and take out any card and hold it out before you, the back of the card toward your assistant and yourself. Now ask her N O T what is the name of the card, but "W hat was the name of the card that you JU ST HAD IN YOUR H ANDS.” (Now the situation gets funnier.) Usually the assistant just mumbles that they didn’t look at it. With a blank stare and no expression, look at the audience and repeat, "She didn’t look at it.” Now pause. Seldom, but sometimes, they do say, "You didn’t let me look at the card” ; or "you didn’t tell me to look at the card.” Your answer is, " I told you not to let any one ELSE see the card.” (This time you inject the "ELSE” into your statement.) You casually explain at this time to your assistant that, of course, she is to look at the card, but not to show it to some one else; and again the same procedure is gone through. Taking a card, your timing when the young lady reaches out to take a card, finally allow­ ing her to take one and to look at it. D O N ’T LET HER RETURN THE CARD! Now you shuffle the pack, and you decide, it seems, to let some one else shuffle the deck, which you do. Now come back to your assistant without looking at her, take your place next to her and go through the same motions behind your back; withdrawing a card and showing it to the audience, and without looking at the assistant ask what the name of her card was.

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At this point she will either name the card or say, "I still have it in my hand.” If it is the former you show the card that you hold and look at it and say, "I must have missed, I wonder if your card is in the pack.” Then not being able to find the card, you turn to tell her so, and notice that she still has possession of the card. At this point you explain, "Oh, you didn’t put it back.” Then turn to the audience and with an embarrassed smile you say, "She didn’t put it back.” Pause. . . . If the occasion is the latter where the girl immediately tells you that she still has the card, you merely turn to the audience repeating the fact that, "She didn’t put it back.” Pause. . . . At this point you explain to the young ladythat in order to do a card trick you must look at the card and then put it back into the pack; and once more you ask her to hold out her hand while you fan out the deck, and go through the very same procedure of hit and miss in having a card selected. However, after she has taken the card you insist that she look at it, then replace it into the pack. To suit the action you cut the pack, then allow her to place the card on one half; after she has done so, you look at the bottom card on the other half of the pack in more or less an obvious but sneaky manner. Now put that half down and hold the break with your little finger, and make a weak attempt at a smile when your audience laughs. After seeing you deliberately peek at a card, during the matter of seconds that the audience is laughing, you say to the girl as you turn to face her, "You’re doing fine, please say that you forgot this card. Aren’t we having fun?” The audience will think that you just turned to look at the girl or just made some casual remark, but will hardly ever associate the forth­ coming effect with what just happened. Now cut the cards at the break. (The selected card is now on top.) Turn to the girl and ask, "D o you know when to say stop?” Follow this up with riffling the cards and then ask her to say stop, and withdraw the card at this point, and dramatically show the card to the audience and asking the girl at the same time what her card was. ---- She will say that she forgot, which brings another big laugh from the audience and a look of consternation from you as the performer. Pause. . . . However, if she does not play ball and does name her card, do the top change and show the card is correct after all. Thank her very much and show her to her seat.

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Assume that you did not have to use the out in the event the girl named her card. Start all over again, this time right to the point, have a card selected and returned, and follow the same procedure again, this time without the evident peek, but do hold the break and cut at that point after the cards are squared up. Now again the girl says stop, and you produce the card at that point and show the card, she names it, and which proves to be the wrong card. As you put both hands together for a top change, you tell the audience you did do it correctly the first few times; but, the inevitable has happened, by this time you have made the top change. Ask the young lady to breathe on the card, and lo and behold, it is her card. Show the girl to her seat, and ask the audience to applaud the young lady for her part in the trick, rather than to applaud your attempt to do the World’s Fastest Card Trick. P

a t t e r

:

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like ,to present the world’s fastest card trick. This wonderful card trick has been invented by one of the cleverest manipulators of our day. After I invented this trick (pause) I thought that the rest of the people in this world would like to see it. I sold the European performing rights to a brother magician across the water. Naturally he performed this trick to the multitudes and the royalty of Europe and by this time he has a title of his own, whether he is a king or duke or a count, I do not know, but he did write me and told me he did this trick for the first time, and they crowned him. All that is necessary to do this trick is to have a card selected and returned to the pack. I do the rest. Will some one please come up to take a card. Some young lady. How about the lady right there? (Direct your attention to the person you have picked.) Will you please come up and just take a card? (Outstretch your hand, bow slightly, and wait.)

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Will you please hold out your right hand and with your left hand draw any card from the pack ? Slide it right down on your hand and cover it with your left hand. Please do not let any one see the card. That is very important. You can take a card from any part of the deck, near the top, from the center, or near the bottom. Just any­ where at all, to me it makes no difference. (Carry this on in this vein, as you keep taking the fan away from her and bringing it back.) (After the card has been selected:) Now please raise your left hand and you see I take your card and place it in the middle of the pack, not near the top, or the bottom, but somewhere in the middle. Now I hold the pack behind my back and in one second, no more, no less, I find the very same card you took. (Hold the card face down, or face to audience without looking at it,) and now will you please name the card that you just had in your hand? (The young lady states that she didn’t look at the card.) You didn’t look at the card? (Turn to the audience.) She didn’t look at the card. As you perhaps know there is one thing very necessary in card tricks, all you do is look at the card, and that manner you will find out what it is; that makes it quite simple. (Ad lib, re. taking a card again, much as in the same manner as before. Carry this right through with practically the same patter up to the point where you have the deck shuffled by a member of the audience, coming back, ignoring the card that the girl holds.) Produce a card from behind your back and once again ask what is the name of the card that she just had, without looking at the young lady. (This time she will say she didn’t return it to the pack.) "You didn’t put it back in the pack?” (To audience say,) She didn’t put it back in the pack. (Pause.) First, she didn’t look at it, now she didn’t put it back in the deck. This is really a simple card trick, all you have to do is take a card, look at it, then put it back. If you don’t put it back into the pack, how can I take it out of the pack? (Ad lib, re. taking a card. This time have it returned and make the apparent peek. At the rise of chuckles from the audience, turn to the girl to tell her to say she forgot the next card. Ad lib trick up to the point where you ask her the name of the card.)

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(A t this point you ask for the name of the card and the girl states she forgot it.) Well how do you like that? First, she didn’t look at it, then she didn’t put it back in the pack, now she tells me she forgot the card. (D o not rush trick at this point, just stand there for a minute or so and let the audience laugh.) This time rush the trick through without any fuss. Have a card selected, returned. Cards squared up, cut at the break, so selected card is on top. The girl says stop, and you produce that card which, of course, is the wrong one. (As you prepare to do your top change you continue.) Well, I did do the trick correctly the first few times, but perhaps you didn’t quite understand how simple it is to do a card trick. However, you say that this is the wrong card and we may as well give up right here and now and do some magic instead. Will you please breathe upon this card? (Turn card around to show it.) There you have the very same selected card that you just took. (Lead the girl to steps going off the platform, taking a bow. Outstretch your hand in her direction to direct the applause her way also.)

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