Old man, old cars, and old whisky
There are probably hundreds of methods for achieving the “Sandwich” effect, where the selected card is found between two face up court cards. Here are some that I have learned over the years.
All of these, unless otherwise noted, start with the court cards removed and face up on the table. In the descriptions below I use the red kings.
Continue reading “A few Sandwiches”Boy the world has changed! When I was young if you wanted to learn magic you had to hang out at a magic store. A real brick and mortar building. To get to the real good stuff you had to make friends with the magician behind the counter and prove your worth. If you were lucky they might show you something more than “Scotch and Soda”. They might recommend a really good hardback book on magic, but those books weren’t cheap. You had to pay your dues, so to speak.
Today you have the Internet. The brick and mortar stores are almost completely gone. I miss them.
Anyway, while I was surfing the web I found this self-working coincidence trick that looked interesting. Now like a lot of these tricks on the Internet, this one had several “kickers” to the coincidence effect. Go ahead and take a moment to look at it. It is at https://youtu.be/9KhQrR5uqN8?si=2rnxeBWteVBaXC7m .
Continue reading “Faro coincidence”This is another lie detector plot. I have another that I also perform which you can read about at https://robertjwallace.com/lie-detector/. This one is easier.
Start by having a card selected and controlled to the bottom of the deck. The convincing control is a good method which you can learn here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78aZh6eUneI&pp=ygUSY29udmluY2luZyBjb250cm9s
False shuffle and/or cut keeping the card on the bottom.
Set the deck down and ask the spectator to cut around two thirds of the cards to the side, to eliminate them. This cut is key. The bottom part of the deck must contain at least 15 cards, but not more than 23.
Pick up the remaining cards and explain that you are going to use the deck to determine the card by asking the spectator to name their card, but allowing the spectator to either lie and name a different card, or to tell the truth and name their card.
Demonstrate by dealing out the cards, spelling the phrase “your card is the”, dealing one card for each letter face down in a pile. Drop the remaining cards on top of those and ask the spectator what their card was. They can lie or tell the truth. Pick up the pile of cards and spell the name of the card they named, one card per letter.
For example if they say the “eight of clubs” you would deal out “e”, “i”…”s” with one card per letter down to a pile, then drop the remaining cards on top.
Now pick up the pile and deal the cards in the same manner, spelling out the phrase “did you lie or not” (14 letters). Turn over the last card dealt (the “t”), and it will be their card, showing whether or not they lied.
So why does the pile need to be between 15 and n cards? Well this is because of the number of letters in the names of the cards. Cards can be spelled out with from 10 to 15 letters. So to spell out the longest card name without running out of cards you need at least 15 cards. Now after the first deal of “your card is the”, the position of the chosen card is equal to the number of cards in the packet minus the number of letters in “your card is the”. The number of letters is 13. That means the chosen card will be at the 2nd from the top if the packet has 15 cards, for example. For the trick to work, that position must be within the number of letters in the name of the card that the spectator names. This is so that the chosen card is dealt by on the second deal. Since the spectator’s smallest name contains only 10 letters, the chosen card must be within the top ten cards after the first deal. The largest number of cards for that to happen is 23 (23 – 13 = 10).
To visualize this algebraically:
n = number of cards in the packet
c = the location of the chosen card
At the start with c at the bottom of the packet, c = n.
After the first deal of “your card is the”, c = n – 13.
After the second deal, c = n – c + 1. Since, from the last step, c = n – 13, this is the same as c = n – ( n – 13) + 1. This will always equal 14 for n = 15 to 23.
Then after the third deal of “did you lie or not”, c with be the last card dealt.
I like the basic sandwich plot and I use Ed Marlo’s technique which I think is one of the cleanest.
Effect: In this version, the two black jacks are removed and displayed face up on the table as the spectator selects two cards. The cards are lost in the deck with the deck shuffled, and the two Jacks placed on top of the deck, face up. The deck is cut several times and then ribbon spread face down, and the two jacks now have one face down card between them. The deck is cut so the Jacks and the trapped card are on top and the trapped card is shown to be one of the selections.
Continue reading “A double sandwich”When I was performing regularly in restaurants the scalloped or concave short card was my favorite tool in my card magic arsenal. For those who don’t know what a concave short card is, it is like a normal short card, but instead of the end of the card being trimmed off with a straight cut, and then the corners reshaped, it is cut so that the corners remain, the cut starting past the corner and cutting on a slight curve.
Continue reading “Short Cards”I was looking to buy a set of math sticks which are used in a prediction effect (or a super computation effect.) Diamond Jim sells a wooden set for about $15.00. Stevens Magic has a set for $18. Being of Scot blood, I didn’t want to spend that much on a set of four wooden sticks.
Continue reading “Home made math sticks”This is a two card ambitious like routine that is very difficult to do. It is based off a two card transposition that I do.
Phase one: Ideally start with contrasting cards second and third from the top of the deck. For this explanation I´ll use the Two of Diamonds and the king of spades, with the two second from the top.
Continue reading “Doubly Ambitious”This is a simple four ace trick that is self working using the CATO principal (Cut and Turn Over). I present it as a lesson in fate, that your choices in life don’t always matter.
Start with four Aces on the table, face up. Add three face down cards on top of each Ace.
Continue reading “CATO”This is basically an elevator trick with four jacks, although you could use Aces but then the name wouldn’t make sense.
Display the four Jacks face up on top of the face down deck. Use the Braue add on technique to switch out two of the Jacks for two indifferent cards, as you flip the Jacks face down onto the top of the deck. The order of cards from the top down is Jack, indifferent card, indifferent card, Jack.
Continue reading “Jumping Jacks”I like a good mathematical card trick. While they usually involve too much dealing of cards, they still can be entertaining, or at least puzzling. I have a friend who is a retired mathematician who taught a Rutgers University and these are a few that I liked showing him.
Continue reading “Mathematical Card Tricks”