Tag: card trick

Magically Sound Magic

One of the things about doing magic tricks is that you can do some amazing things and you can do them fairly easily, but that doesn’t make it good magic. What’s got me thinking about this, is that with the internet, magic is very accessible to people that perform other variety acts, and it’s easy … Continue reading “Magically Sound Magic”

One of the things about doing magic tricks is that you can do some amazing things and you can do them fairly easily, but that doesn’t make it good magic. What’s got me thinking about this, is that with the internet, magic is very accessible to people that perform other variety acts, and it’s easy to add magic to their show and get a good reaction.


Being able to do a trick, and present it is only part of the game if you want to be a magician. It’s OK to do a magic trick in your show, but once you basically start doing a magic show, it’s time to actually learn how to do magic.


I recently saw a card trick where the performer did the trick in the easiest manner. Fine, but watching I could think of 3 better ways to do it. Three better ways that were more deceptive and none of them that much harder than what he was already doing. He wasn’t in a magic show, he was doing a magic trick within a larger show, so he get’s a pass.


TLDR: if you’re going to call yourself a magician, you need to learn to do magic.

One of the tricks I’ve always loved is the Haunted Deck. It’s an amazing trick, the first one I ever bought as a kid was horrible, half the deck was gimmicked, and you were attached to it, so it wasn’t the most practical version of the trick. It worked, but it could be better. This … Continue reading “”

One of the tricks I’ve always loved is the Haunted Deck. It’s an amazing trick, the first one I ever bought as a kid was horrible, half the deck was gimmicked, and you were attached to it, so it wasn’t the most practical version of the trick. It worked, but it could be better.


This is where innovating comes through, there’s are better ways to do the Haunted Deck, and it’s a good thing we didn’t stop at the version I bought as a kid. A similar version is the one popularized by Eugene Burger, which while similar in method, allowed you to use the deck after the trick. This is a huge leap in the method.


Then you have a version using Loops, which allows you to use a borrowed deck, but can be unreliable as the gimmick is fragile. A few years ago I discovered Haunted 2.0, which fit the bill for me. 100% reliable, allowed me to use the deck before and after the trick, it’s great and the version of the trick that I do. However last week at a magic session a friend of mine showed me an impromptu version. It’s at about the 37 second mark of this video:


I think this version looks amazing and the only reason I haven’t switched to it is that in Haunted 2.0 you don’t have to touch the deck, which is one of the strong points of that version.


If we stopped innovating with “good enough” the Haunted Deck would be a trick that I wouldn’t be doing now. So go out there and make good tricks better!

Ripping Routine Part V

The additions to the base script are in bold. EFFECT 1: “Take a card, and don’t let me see it.” “And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.” “On the count of three say your card out loud. If you say the same thing, that’s amazing and it means you’re married in Uruguay. … Continue reading “Ripping Routine Part V”

The additions to the base script are in bold.


EFFECT 1: 
“Take a card, and don’t let me see it.”

“And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.”

“On the count of three say your card out loud. If you say the same thing, that’s amazing and it means you’re married in Uruguay. Ready…One, Two Three.”

EFFECT 2:

“We’re going to make it a little bit harder. We’re going to cut the cards”


“I learned to do rip a deck when I was younger. One of my roomates was a circus strongman. He could do things like rip a phone book in half, take a cast iron frying pan and roll it up like a burrito, open a pickle jar on the first try “


“The wrist strength to do this is common in every circus strongman and teenage boy.“

“You’re going to take a card and you’re going to take a card. Hopefully your cards will match each other and my card.”

“ Like two turtles, your cards match on the back …”

“The odds of them matching the first time were one in fifty two. Now that there are double the cards, it’s one in fifty two times fifty two. Or one in two thousand, seven hundred and four. There’s also a one hundred percent odd that my math is wrong. ”

“On the front…They match about as much as my mom and my ex-step dad”

“Oh, wait. I put my card here, hopefully it matches one of your cards.”


“Like a half Hawaiian, half pepperoni pizza, this end perfectly!”

The ripping routine is now off to a start. It’s brand new, so it’s not the best routine that it can be yet. There is still a lot of work, audience testing and workshopping it.

Ripping Routine Part IV

Today we’ll start writing the meat of the deck tearing routine. Basically I’m going to write a narrative script. This is going to be the essential things that I need to say for the trick to work, or to make sense. I’m also going to write the accompanying action with the trick. There are essentially … Continue reading “Ripping Routine Part IV”

Today we’ll start writing the meat of the deck tearing routine. Basically I’m going to write a narrative script. This is going to be the essential things that I need to say for the trick to work, or to make sense. I’m also going to write the accompanying action with the trick.


There are essentially two tricks in the routine. The first is where they both pick and card and it’s the same card. The second is where you rip the deck, they both pick an card and they don’t match, but do match your half and half prediction


Here’s the bare bones script:


EFFECT 1:
“Take a card, and don’t let me see it.”
Have a card selected and returned to the deck.


“And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.”
Have a second person select a card and return it to the deck.


“On the count of three say your card out loud. One, Two Three.”
They both say the same card.


EFFECT 2:

“We’re going to make it a little bit harder. We’re going to cut the cards”
Rip the deck in half


“You’re going to take a card and you’re going to take a card. Hopefully your cards will match each other and my card.”
Set your prediction card on the table and have a card selected from each half of the torn deck.


“The cards match perfectly on the back…”
Line up the tear on the face down selected cards.


“On the front…”
Flip the cards face up to show they don’t match, and react.


“Oh, wait. I put my card here, hopefully it matches one of your cards.”
Flip the card over to show it matches the halves they picked and react.

Currently we’ve got three things done. We have a presentation hook, we have a few random jokes and we have a bare bones script. Tomorrow we’ll start working on putting those together and punching it up.


Split Deck…

In a post a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was learning to rip a deck of cards in half. I’m up to consistently being able to rip about half a deck of bicycle cards, but and able to rip a whole deck of cheap cards about 95% of the time. Every now and … Continue reading “Split Deck…”

In a post a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was learning to rip a deck of cards in half. I’m up to consistently being able to rip about half a deck of bicycle cards, but and able to rip a whole deck of cheap cards about 95% of the time. Every now and then I’ll hit a pack that for whatever reason just gives me a hell of a time ripping.


Last night in Seattle we had a magic jam and I threw a few decks of cheap cards in my bag. My routine is basically the “Split Deck” but without any gimmicked cards (aside from the cheap deck). It played well for the magicians, and then later we ended up doing some magic for the table next to us it played for them as well.


In between the two times I did the trick, a little bit more framework had developed in my head. The trick started with two people each looking at a card and they end up having picked the same card. Next I put out a prediction card, and I rip the deck in half. I say that they both will pick a card that matches my prediction and they both take a card (from different halves of the deck). They compare their cards and they aren’t the same card…but then we look at my prediction and the front is two ripped cards glued together and they halves match the selection.


This played pretty well, and I think it’s going to be something that I start to explore as a routine bit more in the future.

Plan B Set List…

Yesterday’s blog post had a back up show set list that I would easily fit in my carry on luggage on an airplane. The next step is going to be to put those tricks into a set list for the show. There are a couple of tricks that are similar in effect, so I’ll have … Continue reading “Plan B Set List…”

Yesterday’s blog post had a back up show set list that I would easily fit in my carry on luggage on an airplane. The next step is going to be to put those tricks into a set list for the show. There are a couple of tricks that are similar in effect, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t put those back to back.


Here’s the list of the tricks from yesterday:


-ACAAN
-Card to Pocket
-Card Memorization
-Blindfold drawing duplication
-Book Test
-Cue Card Confabulation
-Coin Under Watch
-Mismade bill
-Color Changing Hank
-Rubik’s Cube trick
-Torn and Restored Newspaper


Right now I know by looking at this list, I’m going to open with ACAAN and close with Torn and Restored Newspaper. ACAAN is an amazing trick, and there’s a decent amount of action right out of the gate, and it uses person, but they don’t have to be on stage…they could be, but don’t have to. I’ve used the Torn and Restored Newspaper as a closer in the past, so I know it will work there.


Right after ACAAN I’m going to do the Book Test, followed by the Rubik’s Cube Trick. These are both tricks I’ve done in that order in the past as warm up for my show at Fairs, and they are a great combo back to back.


Next I’m going to do Coin Under Watch. It uses a person from the audience, and while I coin trick, I can make it play big. After that I’ll do a solo piece, which will be the Color Changing Hank. This has a lot of action, and a lot of jokes.


Now we’re going to get into a mentalism block. I’m going to do the Blindfold followed by my Cue Card Confabulation. The Blindfold routine I do let’s me play with the person from the audience and it’s a longer piece that hits hard! The Cue Card Confabulation is my own creation and it’s just me on stage talking to people in the audience, and it’s joke will build off the strength of the Blindfold routine. The confabulation routine ends with a great surprise!


Next up I’ll do Card to Pocket, the set up to the Card Memorization, the Mismade Bill and then the final part of the Card Memorization. I’m going to use the time during the Mismade Bill for the two people who will help me with the Card Memorization to sort the cards. That will eliminate some dead time.


I’ll play the Card Memorization as the end of the show, and do the Torn and Restored Newspaper as the forced encore with a, “you want to see one more” line. Here’s the set list:


ACAAN
Book Test
Rubik’s Cube
Coin Under Watch
Color Changing Handkerchief
Blindfold
Cue Card Confabulation
Card To Pocket
Card Memorization part 1
Mismade Bill
Card Memorization part 2
Torn and Restored Newspaper


It’s a decent show, not the show I want to do, but it does look solid for an emergency show.

Solid Background Helps…

The other night I did a corporate gig and before the stage show I did some roving during the cocktail hour. Personally I prefer to do this than not do it at a corporate event, as it basically lets me be my own “opening act”. People start to warm up to me before the show. … Continue reading “Solid Background Helps…”

The other night I did a corporate gig and before the stage show I did some roving during the cocktail hour. Personally I prefer to do this than not do it at a corporate event, as it basically lets me be my own “opening act”. People start to warm up to me before the show.


When doing roving magic, I’m always looking for miracles to make happen. Things that aren’t part of my normal close up set. Typically these use things that are in the performing environment. The round tables in this room had a table cloth with a square cloth napkin in the middle. I’m assuming a center piece was on the napkin at some point. That led to a miracle!


I was performing for a group. I asked a guy to name any card. He said 10 of Diamonds. I handed him the deck, he shuffled them tossed them in the air so they landed on the table, and his named card ended up under the middle of the napkin!


How did I do it? I remember watching Eugene Burger’s video on Matt Schulien’s Fabulous Card Discoveries.


On that VHS tape he did Matt’s Card Under Tablecloth and that’s basically what I did. I did have to adjust it a little bit for the situation. That’s where having a solid background in different tricks and sleight of hand moves comes in very handy! This trick was the talk of my roving set and was totally worth the risk of trying something I’d never done before.


Making a Trick My Own…

A few years ago Bicycle Playing Cards changed how they make their playing cards. While they are still the standard, they are crap compared to how they used to be. A deck of cards will last me about 45 mins to an hour when roving, where before they’d last all day. As a result of … Continue reading “Making a Trick My Own…”

A few years ago Bicycle Playing Cards changed how they make their playing cards. While they are still the standard, they are crap compared to how they used to be. A deck of cards will last me about 45 mins to an hour when roving, where before they’d last all day.


As a result of this, I ended up having a ton of cards kicking around that I can’t use after a gig. I wanted to figure out how something to do with all of these cards, so I’m learning to rip a deck of cards in half. This isn’t easy. After about a month I can do 22 cards, with best being 28 cards. I’ve got a long way to go to fifty two!

Now that I’m working on this skill, I’m starting to think of what to do with it. Yesterday in the car I thought of a trick. Why not do the split deck, but instead of the stupid patter line, “I asked someone to cut the cards and they did” when you introduce the cards, I can just rip them in half.


This creates a unique trick that very few people can copy. It adds some texture to the trick as well, because I can talk about learning to rip the deck. Also it’s going to be a harder trick for anyone to copy because of the time it takes to learn to rip a deck of cards in half.


All it takes to make a trick better is taking an extra step forward and adding one thing, plus new scripting and you’ve got something unique!

Not Everything Is Easy…

Every time I hear magicians complain that tricks are too hard, it drives me nuts. Why wouldn’t you try to learn something difficult? If you are an artist, you should be pushing yourself to learn to do difficult techniques. Here’s what Kennedy thinks about it: A great example is I’ve been working on a false … Continue reading “Not Everything Is Easy…”

Every time I hear magicians complain that tricks are too hard, it drives me nuts. Why wouldn’t you try to learn something difficult? If you are an artist, you should be pushing yourself to learn to do difficult techniques.


Here’s what Kennedy thinks about it:



A great example is I’ve been working on a false shuffle for about a year now. It’s not quite right, and I’m still practicing it. Should I give up?


No, and here’s why: It’s the best looking false shuffle I have ever seen. Sure I could stick to something that looks good enough, and that’s fine, but why wouldn’t I go all the way, make my art the best it can be? I do it because that’s what separates me from 80% of other magicians, and I do it because I take pride in my work.


Go out and learn to do something difficult!

The Value of a Magic Jam…

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like … Continue reading “The Value of a Magic Jam…”

Last night I put together an impromptu meet up for magicians and it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of magicians I know that say that they “don’t hang out with magicians“. If you choose to do that, that’s fine, and usually the reason they say they don’t is something stupid like not wanting their material stolen. I’ve found that 90% of the people who are worried about their material being stolen, are the people who really shouldn’t worry about it.


When you get together with other magicians there is a lot of learning that can happen. It’s the “jamming” aspect of it that’s the greatest value. You see someone do something and you play off of it. Will the majority of stuff that comes out of these every see a real audience? Probably not. Flexing your creative muscles will help you out!


Here’s some video from last night:

Some interesting things happened, and most of all you are building a community of magicians!