card magic – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

Queen Ace Transpo!

It feels like it’s taking me for ever to get through the Vallarino book!

One of the tricks in the transposition section is an Queen / Ace Transposition. I think JP Vallarino made it a little too complex. Here’s my streamlined version of it:

@louiefoxx Fast Card Trick! #fourqueens #fouraces #cardtrick #magictrick @bicyclecardsofficial #louiefoxx #jpvallarino #vallarino #vanishinginc #magicbook #cardmagic #sleightofhand ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s a super quick swap of the two packets. It’d be a good transition bit, it’s not a full routine on it’s own.

-Louie

Disappeared Thought by Mathieu Bich

The best version of the princess card trick is Limited Edition by Gordon Bean. Having the thought of card disappear really solved the biggest problem with the trick, that’s that you couldn’t show the card they picked. When their card turns blank, it makes sense!

I just came across Disappeared Thought in magic junk bin purchase and I think it’s a better solution from a method standpoint to the effect in Limited Edition. One of the cool things about Mathieu’s method is that it allows you to show the full front and back of all the cards.

Here’s Mathieu Bich’s Disappeared Thought:

@louiefoxx Mind reading card trick! Think of a card and I'll make it disappear! #mindreading #psychic #readmymind #cardtrick #cardmagic #disappearingcard #mentalism #louiefoxx #iknowwhatyourethinking ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

That got me thinking, what if I reversed the trick, so all the cards disappeared, and that led me to a strange trick, that would probably only be interesting to magicians.

Here’s the version that I came up with:

The ending with the 52 on 1 card isn’t a strong enough gag for a real audience, however I think it would do well for a group of magicians.

-Louie

Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay

Here’s another visit with an old packet trick. It’s Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay, that was put out by Emerson and West. The trick is a “follow the leader” effect where two packets keep matching when one is turned face up or face down, then there’s a couple of kickers with jokers appearing and backs changing colors.

The problem with the trick as written is you end up with two more cards than you start with. It’s a small problem, but also something that I feel needs to be addressed. However there’s a lot of magic that happens in it and it’s pretty good magic, so it’s not a bad trick…

If I was to improve it, the main thing I would do is try to figure out a way to get rid of the two extra cards. Other than that, it’s pretty good.

-Louie

Liar’s Blackjack by Bob King

Here’s another packet trick I picked up from a magic shop’s junk bin. It’s called Liar’s Blackjack by Bob King. It’s sorta an all backs routine, but not really. You have five cards that have backs on both sides, then a few faces appear and one of them changes.

Here’s what it looks like with when the original instructions are followed and my update on the trick:

The big change is that I got rid of the cards with backs on both sides. That’s such a strange object that the routine really glosses over and I think detracts from the routine. Using blank face cards keeps the focus on the effect and presentation. Then a little change in the count as the Kiss Elmsley doesn’t really work with the blank face cards, so I used the Hypnotic Rumba Count.

This isn’t a routine that I would ever do, but I think that getting rid of the cards with backs on both sides is a HUGE improvment!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing For Me!

I had a day off last week and finally made a prototype of my custom props for The (W)hole Thing which is Daryl’s version of an Emerson and West packet trick.

The main differences is that the circle around they hole is a donut, the spots are arranged like an X and the cards are black. The main reason that the cards are black is that I might have a line about a black hole. With the cards in black I’m sacrificing some visual clarity of what’s a hole and what isn’t. I think if I end up not using the black hole line, I’ll switch the colors back to red as it visually pops!

-Louie

Kannibal Kards by Nick Trost

In my close up work I don’t really do any packet tricks, however I love working through them. One thing I like to do is buy packet tricks out of junk bins at magic shops and then try to improve them. In a recent junk packet trick purchase I got Nick Trost’s Kannibal Kards.

First of all, the art is offensive by today’s standards, however this was made in 1981, so over forty years ago when this style of art would have been acceptable. That doesn’t make it right, but socially acceptable at the time.

The effect is that two cards disappear one at a time within a packet of three cards. Then for then ending there is a surprise reveal card.

The problem with the original routine (besides the art) is that the first card physically disappears and the second one doesn’t. Here’s what the original routine and my improvement looks like:

What I did was change the handling so that the second card also physically disappears and then for the reveal, all three remaining cards change to the surprise card, not just one card. I also noticed there’s a little subtlety where you can show show half of the reveal card and it appears to be one of the original cards. This works with the original card set, however it’s not mentioned in the instructions.

I also made a version using the original handling with a slightly different reveal card at the end

@louiefoxx What Happens To Hikers That Get Lost? #hiking #wilderness #forest #bigfoot #party #sasquatch #camping #louiefoxx #supriseending #waitforit #crpytid #intothewild #magictrick #cardtrick #nicktrost #sleightofhand ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Reworking these old packet tricks is a fun exercise!

-Louie

Vallarino Card Sandwich

It’s taking some time go get through the JP Vallarino book, but I’m still working on it. I finished the card sandwich section last night and there’s one thing that really stuck out to me. I think it was called the “automatic sandwich“, it’s a very hands off way to get the selected card in between the two other cards.

Before you watch the video, while you can’t see the cards, I never touch the pair of cards, the selection or any of the cards and there are no gimmicks.

And here’s how it works:

I feel OK showing this as the routine makes it happen openly, so I’m not giving away anything secret that wouldn’t be shown if I did the trick as written. In the video above I’m blowing on it, in the book Vallarino uses a riffle to create the air force to blow the card.

This would make an interesting bar bet OR as a paper balls over head sort of trick where everyone sees how it works except for the person who selected the card. It’s a fun little bit for a card sandwich routine, I don’t really do any card sandwich routines, but might start just to use this bit!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing

An idea for a presentation of The (W)hole Thing by Daryl came up in my daily writing a bit ago. I managed to fill out the idea a bit and do some writing. While I was in the Bay Area, I had Joe and Misdirections Magic Shop order me a set of the cards in.

One thing I found interesting was that there’s no mention of Emerson and West in the ad copy for the trick. This is essentially Daryl’s routine for the original trick. I’m guessing this is a Murphy’s Magic copywriting thing, as Daryl was pretty good about crediting things.

Here’s Daryl doing the routine:

For the routine that I want to do, I will need to make some custom cards. For now I’m working out the muscle memory for the routine!

-Louie

Three Card Reveal Sequence

The other day I wrote about working on a variation of Alan Wakeling‘s trick Aces Front. Here’s the rough outline of the sequence of events:

I think the sequence is good, where I think there’s a sense of progression. For the first card, I do touch the deck before it goes into the glass. For the second card, it happens with the deck in the glass the whole time and then the card rise for the final card.

What’s fun is my starting point was something like Aces Front, but my end point is something completely different than Aces Front. I always love it when there are a couple of twists in working on a variation of an existing trick that leads you to something completely new.

-Louie

Aces Front Variation

Many, many years ago when I was a teenager, I remember a trick if Tarbell that used a wine glass and a deck of cards. The deck was in the wine glass and the card at the front of the deck changed. Then a few years later Lance Burton did it on TV and the version he did was basically Alan Wakeling’s Aces Front.

I’ve liked this idea and for a long time wanted to do a version with three selected cards. The first two appear at the front of the deck and the third one rises out of the top of the pack. I’ve had all the stuff I need to try to figure out the trick, however just lacked time/motivation to start playing with it.

I’m coming up with a lot of challenges for the trick. The main one is that with only a couple of cards, the deck will be in a crazy face up and face down condition for what I’m envisioning. Then it hit me, what if I revealed the a card this way:

This was a situation where playing with the cards ended up coming up with a solution for changing a card inside of a wine glass, and one that I don’t think has really been done before.

Now to work out a sequence…
-Louie