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Packet Tricks by Jerry Mentzer

For fun I’m working through the book Packet Tricks by Jerry Mentzer. This was published in 1982, so kinda when packet tricks as a trend were becoming really popular.

It’s really interesting to see where these tricks and techniques came from. The Phil Goldstein stuff is intesesting as I see the roots of some of his later stuff in the two tricks he has in the Packet Tricks book.

I’ve been posting some of these of TikTok, and you can see them and other vintage magic tricks and routines there. Plus I post some other stuff I think of on there.

If you’re not on TikTok, here’s some of the videos from the book Packet Tricks:

@louiefoxx Vintage packet card trick! #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #magician #magictrick #packettricks #jerrymentzer #cards #royalflush #aces ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx 40 year old card Trick! #cardtrick #magictrick #1982 ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Classic Ace Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #aces ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Royal with Cards! #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #magician #magictrick #packettricks #jerrymentzer #cards #royalflush #aces ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Like oil and water! #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #magictrick #twos #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Magic trick from 1982! #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #cards #magictrick #1982 #vintage #magicbook #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Four-A-change card trick! #cardtrick #magictrick #cardmagic #cards #kings #aces ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Those aces! #cardtrick #magictrick #packettrick #magic #cards #aces #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Classic card trick from 1982! #cardtrick #magictrick #magic #cards #twist ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

These are fun to learn, and I think it’s important to learn things for fun. It can be a challenge balancing my passion for magic with the job of performing magic.

-Louie

One Dollar Bills to Two Dollar Bills

Yesterday I posted about a thing I was playing with using money instead of playing cards for packet tricks. I’ll give a walkthrough of how to do it, but first here’s the video of the routine:

@louiefoxx Double your money! #money #double #magic #moneymagic #dollar #twodollarbill #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Needed: Three one dollar bills and three two dollar bills. These must be crisp, and the fake movie money works great for this.

Set Up: From the top down: A single one dollar bill, then the 3 two dollar bills and the remaining 2 one dollar bills.

Working: Show the packet of bills face down and then turn them face up. Do an Elmsley Count to show what appears to be the faces of 4 one dollar bills.

For the first change you will do another Elmsley Count to show that one of the one dollar bills has turned into a two dollar bill.

Repeat that, doing another Elmsley Count for the second one dollar bill to change into a two dollar bill, but this time put it the final bill bottom instead of the top of the stack.

For the third change you will do another Elmsley Count, however this time when you get to the single one dollar bill outjog it about an inch. Set the final bill (two dollar) on top of the stack.

Strip out the one dollar bill with your right hand and show it on both sides. As that his happening your left hand buckles the bottom bill creating a gap between it and the rest of the bills above it. Your right hand puts the one dollar bill into this gap above the lowermost bill in your left hand.

For the final bill to change, simply do a modified Elmsley Count to show four two dollar bills on both sides. Do the first two counts Elmsley Count, leaving you with the block of bills in your right hand and 2 two dollar bills in your left hand. Your left hand spreads its two bills and turns over to show both sides. The left hand then puts the two bills UNDER the bills in your right hand. The whole packet of bills is then flipped face down and Elmsley Counted to show four backs.

That’s it, a change of 4 one dollar bills to 4 two dollar bills. Nothing really ground breaking there, but I think this will be a stepping stone for something better…I hope!

-Louie

Packet Tricks With Money

This isn’t a new idea, but doing packet tricks with money seems like a good way to get away from card tricks while still doing card tricks. I’m aware of a few of packet style tricks that use paper money that have been sold or published in the past.

I bought a pack of the fake “movie” money on Amazon and started playing around with what can be done. Here’s the first thing that I learned, the modern US currency has color variations on most of the bills, so it’s really hard to do anything because anything hidden hast to be perfectly squared. Also, unlike cards the different amounts of money doesn’t all have the same back. Then there’s the problem with the bills needing to stay crisp!

The solution to the first problem is was easy, use $1’s and $2’s as they have the same color edges. Emotionally changing a one dollar bill to a two dollar bill doesn’t hit as hard as turning a one into a one hundred. However two dollar bills are interesting as people thing they’re rare, so there could be something there.

Here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx Double your money! #money #double #magic #moneymagic #dollar #twodollarbill #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

There’s not much to it, just a few Elmsley Counts and a Buckle.

I wonder If this would work better held at chest height as a platform/stage piece over a close up trick?

Anyway, I think there’s something with packet tricks with bills. I don’t think this it and there’s a better application out there!

-Louie

False Shuffle Sequence

A couple of weeks ago I started playing with a shuffle sequence. Essentially it’s a few zarrow shuffles:

@louiefoxx Every day I’m shufflin’#cardtrick #magictrick #cardmagic #shuffle #cards ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I think it fun about this is that in the middle there’s a display of the deck mixed before they end up back in order. In my stage show when there’s video projection I do a shuffle sequence where the deck stays in order, however I’m currently not doing the mixed display. I think that this is interesting for magicians, I don’t know if non-magicians appreciate the it.

I’ll give it a try…

-Louie

Queens to Queens

One thing I realized when posting on social media is that a lot of standard techniques that work in an in person show don’t hold up to video. One example is using an Elmsley Count of four of the same cards, but you’re passing one card off as two. You say you have four queens, and count through them, and don’t call out the suits, so one suit shows twice. This doesn’t hold up to repeated watching.

Here’s my solution to it:

@louiefoxx Super Quick and Stupid Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #magictrick #cards #playingcards #queens #red #black ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

In the trick above at the end you see all four suits, however you I’m only showing three cards. The solution is something that I stumbled on and it’ll be in the February issue of Vanish Magazine.

It’s a small thing and won’t improve or apply to every trick where you’re passing of the same card as two different cards using an Elmsley Count, but it’s a nice thing to be able to add when it makes sense!

-Louie

Adding Production Elements!

I’m working on adding more production elements to my show. I’ve been using video in a very basic way that’s just a camera that’s either on or off, but that’s it. I just added some visual element for projection, and did my first show with them. The first show was pretty basic, it was simply the either a logo, live close up video or pictures.

The first show went well. I’m using Show Cues System and my Media Star remote and running it off of a laptop. Show Cues System is production software (not to be confused with Show Cues music app for your phone) that can run all of the show elements from music to lights. It’s the PC version of Qlabs.

The thing that I don’t like about it is the lack of a screen that I can easily see what the current thing it’s playing it. That helps when you skip a routine, or accidentally push a button and need to move around in your set list. I think I just need to use it more to get used to it!

I tried it out at a gig at a senior community. That’s one of the great things about doing shows for seniors, they are low pressure shows, not huge events where you’re getting paid thousands of dollars. If there’s a tech hiccup, it’s not as huge of a deal!

-Louie
PS if you want to learn more about performing for senior communities, check out my book How To Perform For Seniors!

Ali Baba Box!

Inside a box of old magic I bought I came across an strange coin box which I later learned was called the Ali Baba Box and it appears it was originally created/made by Eddie Gibson in the UK. The one I found was made by Paul Diamond and was originally part of a larger set.

The basic effect is you open the box and take out a sponge sponge ball, then close the box and when you reopen it, it’s full of coins. There really was no context to the sponge ball aside from filling the space inside the box. Here’s my attempt to give the box some sort of context:

@louiefoxx Tooth fairy doesn’t always have cash! #toothfairy #cointrick #magictrick #coins #quarter #payday #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The tooth fairy theme with the sponge tooth kinda makes sense to tie it all together. I’m sure if I thought a bit more I could come up with something better…

-Louie

Ultimate Aces on TikTok

I’m newer on Tik Tok, so still working hard to build it up, let’s hope the government doesn’t take it away and I lose that work! I recently posted John Fedko’s Ultimate Aces and it’s gotten a ton of views (for me on tiktok).

One of the things that I noticed was if you look at the bottom of that screenshot there is a suggested search. It’s “Ultimate Aces Card Trick Revealed”. That’s kinda messed up from a magician’s perspective. I’m assuming that suggested search is based on what people are searching after watching the video.

Here’s the video of the Ultimate Aces:

@louiefoxx Watch the aces! #cardtrick #aces #cardmagic #magic #magictrick #vintagemagic #acetrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

To me this confirms my idea that people aren’t figuring out how tricks work based on watching the video, but doing searches to figure it out. It also adds to my not really caring if people post how it works. One thing I’ve seen in the comments for this trick is that for every correct reveal there are ones that are incorrect. Lot’s of people saying the routine uses a double lift!

Noticing that search bar has given me a lot of perspective about the Tik Tok comment section.

-Louie

Ultimate Aces by John Fedko

Many, many years ago when I was a teenager I was given a set of paperback books (lecture notes?) by John Fedko. There was a lot of stuff in those books that I learned, but there was also a lot of stuff that I didn’t learn because it used gimmicks that I didn’t have.

One of those tricks was Ultimate Aces, which is an ace assembly. I was excited when I came across a set of the cards and could try out the trick. I did the trick as part of my “vintage magic tricks” series on TikTok. If you’re on TikTok please give me a follow at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx

Here’s what John Fedko’s Ultimate Aces looks like:

@louiefoxx Watch the aces! #cardtrick #aces #cardmagic #magic #magictrick #vintagemagic #acetrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m kinda amazed at the response from magicians who messaged me asking where they can get the cards. This surprised me because on PenguinMagic.com there is only one review and it’s one star.

I think this is a case of the person who ordered it thinking the gaffs were something different, or they never tried the trick out. I think it’s as good as any ace assembly out there.

-Louie

Evolution of an Idea

About 50 years ago Paul Harris put out the Paul Harris Vanishing deck. This is the vanish of a full deck of card. Well, almost a full deck of cards, here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx This is 50 years old! #cardtrick #magictrick #cardmagic #disappear #vanish #gone #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The weak point of the trick is the card that’s removed. I guess if you gave the trick context, like that’s a chosen card then it makes more sense. The improvement with the trick came about 20 years later was when Steve Bedwell put out Reboxed.

@louiefoxx Card trick from 30 years ago! #cardtrick #cardmagic #magictrick #cards #magician #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The huge improvement that Steve gave the trick was context. The deck didn’t disappear it went through the box! That change in effect from a vanish to a penetration also cleaned up the weak point of having to remove the card from the deck.

Then about ten years ago they improved the Reboxed gimmick to clean up the handling.

The new gimmick made the handling a little bit cleaner.

That’s a 40 year evolution of the Paul Harris Vanishing Deck! This is a good example of why nothing should ever be considered finished.

-Louie