tricks Archives - Page 2 of 2

June 27, 2019June 27, 2019

Always Cut the Cards

I love the material of Larry Jennings. The first effect in “The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings” is the effect “Always Cut the Cards”, where the aces are lost in the deck by cutting, and then magically assemble back on top of the deck. In the book this is accomplished with a crimped card on the bottom of the deck and using Marlo’s Unit Upjog Addition.

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019

Oil and Water

Effect:

This is a classic oil and water effect, where four red cards and four black cards are interlaced, then shaken and shown to show that they have separated back to four red and four black. This is repeated three or four times. The for a climax, the shuffled deck is picked up and shaken. Then it is spread to show that all of the cards have separated into red and black. There are many methods published, I don’t remember where I found these, but you can find a list at the conjuring archive1I like the version in Nick Trost's Super Subtle Creations, Vol. 5.

April 27, 2019December 30, 2020

Bluff Shift, bluff center

Effect:

Four aces are displayed on top of the deck. They are turned face down and inserted (and left protruding) in the front of the deck in different locations. The deck is turned face up to display the aces, then turned face down and the aces are pushed flush into the deck. The deck is then cut and shuffled once. The four aces are back on top of the deck. An alternative is a faux demonstration of a center deal.

February 16, 2019May 5, 2019

Christ Aces

This was one of the first four ace tricks I learned. It is easy to do and is a little different from the “Let’s cut the aces” routines.

December 25, 2018May 6, 2019

PM Principle

I like doing sleight of hand, but I also enjoy self working tricks. I recently came across a small pamphlet on the PM Principle, which uses two key cards to locate a chosen card (The PM Principle by Michael Powers, 1990). Most key card tricks can be pretty obvious unless the placement of the key card is done well. But in this principle the placement of the key cards is totally invisible to the spectator creating an impossible location.