What is Magic Exposure?

Oh man, so yesterday I posted a routine for a card split routine. Part of the routine you expose a double envelope and it got me thinking about what is exposure. To me 99% of the magic that’s exposed doesn’t matter…well doesn’t matter in the context it’s exposed. I think magic that’s exposed in the moment it’s being done is the 1% that matters.

Ok, now for some of my general thoughts on exposure. I think magicians are the worst at exposure. They routinely give away “secrets” during their shows without realizing it. How they do it is when they cancel methods. For example, simply saying “no stooges” or “we haven’t prearranged anything” in a mentalism routine exposes a viable method.

Other ways things are exposed unintentionally through cancelling methods are things like, “check out the box, there’s no trap doors, mirrors, hidden assistants…” That tips three methods right there. Or at the end of a prediction when the magician/mentalist tears apart the envelope and says, “there’s nothing else in here” also exposes a method.

In the card split routine that I posted, I’m exposing a double envelope. I’d argue this method is exposed by soo many performers in the context of cancelling methods, it’s really not a secret. Also, it’s a logical method for any audience member to think of, to have an envelope with more than one prediction in it. That’s why it’s a common thing that magicians or mentalists expose to eliminate a method.

If your trick relies simply on an A/B prediction where the mystery hinges upon you simply opening one side or another of an envelope, your trick probably isn’t very magically sound. You need to add a lot more layers to your trick to make it a decent trick.

-Louie

Card Split Routine

Yesterday I posted a video of a method for a “card split” effect. I mentioned I don’t think I’ll ever do it, however last night I thought of a routine for it, or at least a way to give it some context and it’s not just showing an 8 of hearts and turning it into two 4 of hearts.

Here we go:

You start with a prediction envelope on the table and a deck of cards. You drop cards onto the table and someone from the audience stops you at any point and you show the card they stopped at. It’s the eight of hearts.

You open the envelope and take out a card, it’s the four of hearts. You admit you messed up and that it’s a trick envelope and you opened the wrong side. You flip the envelope over and open the other side, but that side also has a four of hearts!

You admit you really screwed up the trick and put the same card in both sides of the envelope! You then realize that an 8 is actually two 4’s, so technically you got it right!

You then rip the eight of hearts in half and each half then turns into a four of hearts!

There’s not much to the routine, just a drop force and a double envelope…well that and the gaffed card for the card split.
-Louie

Card Split

I’m in a text chat group with some magicians and one shared a “card split” idea. What I’m calling a card split is where you take a card and it becomes two cards…but the two cards value equals the value of the original card. For example a two would become two aces. This idea was popularized (created?) by Paul Harris’s Las Vegas Split in his book Super Magic.

Magicians really love this premise, however I think for a general audience it lack connection (in most cases). Yes, there are times when a presentation can have it make sense, like in a Sam, The Bellhop style card routine. However in the majority of cases if you took a joker and turned it into two signed cards, that would hit much harder!

That said, here’s what I came up with after seeing by buddy’s trick:

I feel like this method has to have been done before, if you’ve seen it before, let me know!

-Louie