Tag: ascenio spread

The 1-2-3-4 Ace Trick

I was playing around with some cards the other night and came up with a very 1980’s feeling packet trick. The effect is you show four aces. The ace of diamonds changes to a two of diamonds. Then the ace of clubs changes to the three of clubs. For the finale, the ace of hearts turns into the four of hearts, giving you a one (ace), two, three and four.

This trick uses a series of Ascanio Spreads. I’m not going to go teach that move here, but you can look it up and find a tutorial for it online.

Here’s the starting order of the cards:

Hold them face up in your left hand in dealing grip. Do an Ascanio Spread to show four aces, putting the four card block on top of the packet .

Do a second Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of diamonds is now a two. Put the four card block top of the spread.

Next do a third Ascanio Spread to show that the ace of clubs is now a three. This time, you will switch places of the middle two cards. I openly displace them, and then put the four card block on top.

Finally, do a fourth Ascenio Spread to show that the ace of hearts is now the four!

That’s it, there’s really not much to this trick, and it feels like it needs an ending. I have played with having the backs change colors and have a method for that, but I’m not really happy with it.

Additionally, I’d be surprised if this sequence had not been created before. It seems fairly obvious that this result can be achieved with just Ascenio Spreads.

-Louie

Update For Nick Trost’s Mexican Monte

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Nick Trost’s Mexican Monte packet trick (read it here). I was thinking about it and the end with the card with a different colored back is okay, but I think it needed something a little punchier.

Here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick – Updates for Nick Trost's Mexican Monte #magictrick #packettricks #cardtrick #sleightofhand #louiefoxx #nicktrost #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The ending doesn’t play well on camera and from the straight down angle as well as in real life if the change is done by rubbing the card on your sleeve. The Tree of Hearts is think is a more visual ending and having the face change is more of a punctuation on the trick, than the original ending of simply turning the last card over.

-Louie

The A.C.T. Card Trick…

Here’s the second video of me revising a packet trick that I got with a collection of magic that I acquired. Today’s trick is the A.C.T. (another card trick) by Bill Pryor.

Here’s a demo of the trick as written, then how I revised the trick:

The big problem with this packet trick is that the whole effect is a “kicker” without the initial ending. What I mean by that is that you start by asking someone to think of a card, but you never reveal it. You need the initial effect for a kicker to really work. I think at the end spectators will still be thinking, “what about the card I was thinking of?”

Also I don’t think the gags are strong enough to carry the trick past you never revealing the card they are thinking of.