Random Thoughts - Page 14 of 25

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.

December 23, 2018May 6, 2019

Up the ladder false cut

I like false cuts and one of my favorites is the “up the ladder” cut. But I noticed that the way many tutorials teach it is not how it was originally described. None of the tutorials I found gave any history or credits for the cut.

December 19, 2018May 6, 2019

Variations on Erdnase Fancy Blind Cuts

Here are two variations on Erdnase fancy blind cuts from “Expert at the card Table.”

December 18, 2018May 6, 2019

Springing cards from hand to hand – tutorial

December 9, 2018May 6, 2019

Visual Ace Production

This is something that I am playing around with, trying to find the right combination of sleights.

Effect:

Spectator shuffles the deck. The performer shows the faces of the cards and comments on how well mixed they are. The performer then does a couple of shuffles to further mix up the cards.

Then the performer shows the top two cards of the deck by turning them face up. The performer then shows the bottom cards of the deck by flipping the deck face up on top the two top cards. Then turning the deck face down, the performer waves his hand over the deck and a face up ace appears.

November 30, 2018January 25, 2019

Ace Control notes

The following table shows the movements of the aces during the Ace Control. The first column assigns a number to the 52 cards from the top card, 1, down to 52. Since the aces begin out of the deck, they are numbers 49, 50, 51, and 52. Reading the other columns from left to right show what happens as each ace is inserted into the middle of the deck and then the cuts are made.

The column labeled "First Ace" shows the ace being inserted at location 26 in the deck. The next column, "After Cut" shows that that ace has move to location 2, etc.

November 30, 2018January 25, 2019

Ace Control

This is my own ace control. It looks very fair, with each ace being inserted into the deck and the deck cut several times. Between each ace insertion the top and bottom cards can be shown. After inserting the aces and cutting, the deck is shuffled once and then all four aces are back on top.

The left hand column describes the cutting actions, the right hand column shows photos and adds more detail. There is a video at the bottom of this post showing the action.

Begin with the four aces face up on the table.

November 22, 2018November 24, 2018

Substitutes for the Pass

This is not a post arguing for or against learning how to perform a classic pass, or turnover pass or any of the other passes. Learning to perform a pass is a good exercise to undertake, in part because learning to do a pass is also learning about misdirection and audience management.

But often it is just as mystifying to an audience to use a substitute for a pass, probably the most common one in use today is a double undercut. But I remember one that I learned back when I first got into card magic. It was from one of Blackstones books and was named the "Roly Poly Pass" as I recall. It was basically a fancy cut of of the cards. You can see it in my practice video below.

November 20, 2018December 9, 2018

One handed 4 way cut

I first wrote this up in some lecture notes in 2001. I figure it is time to get it online.

On one of my business trips to San Diego, I visited Brad Burt's Magic shop. Brad showed my a one-handed multiple cut that he had worked out by studying a classic Houdini poster. Later on an airplane home I played around with multiple one-handed cuts and came up with this one. It is a four way cut. The criteria I gave myself was that it had to be a true cut with each of the four packets ending in a different position. You can see a video of the cut below the tutorial.

November 19, 2018January 29, 2019