In my collection of old magic stuff, I had a pack of FAKO cards. This is a deck of gaffed cards and novelty cards.
The pack I had was just the cards without the booklet, so I’m not 100% positive as to what tricks the cards do. One of the cards has a big stop sign on it, and here’s what I’ve been doing with it:
It’s just a second deal until they say stop, and then a timing force for the second time. Every time I do it, the person has a great reaction when they see the card!
-Louie
There’s a great little card trick that I think is a George Sands thing and more recently popularized by David Williamson. You and the audience have four cards each. They follow along with you, turning cards over, and you always end up with all your cards facing the same way, and theirs don’t.
The instructions that I learned from said to give them the cards to do the last phase. The problem I had with this is that you’re handing them a packet that secretly has a card reversed. Most of the time, the spectator would expose that reversed card. My solution to this was for me to hold the cards in one hand and they perform the action. That keeps the cards squared, and the secretly reversed card a secret!
Here’s what it looks like:
This is a trick that isn’t part of my normal work, but it’s a fun thing you can do for a group that they all get to do. What I don’t like about it is that the spectator doesn’t “win” and I haven’t figured out a way to make that happen. In David Williamson’s version they do win and it’s great!
-Louie
The Destiny Deck by Nick Trost is a fun little routine that has a few effects that happen one after the other. Here’s what the trick looks like:
@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Destiny Deck by Nick Trost! #magictrick #cardtrick #vintagemagic #cardmagic#nicktrost #louiefoxx #dice #closeupmagic #antiquemagic #antique ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
What I’d probably do to change the trick is eliminate the dice and have people hold up fingers for their number. That frees up some pocket space and the trick will still work. It’s a fun trick to do, the only problem is the reset and because of that it’s something that I really won’t carry with me. However I did have fun doing it for a couple of days!
Also it looks like Abbott’s Magic has a few left in stock: https://abbottmagic.com/shop/ols/products/nick-trost-destiny-deck
-Louie
With social media eating up content, I’m always looking for things that aren’t from my show to use. I personally don’t want to burn material from my show on social media. Recently when I was in Cartagena, Columbia there was a parrot at the port, so I did a trick for it:
@louiefoxx Magician vs Parrot! #magictrick #parrot #magic #parrotsoftiktok #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
It’s not the best trick in the world, but it was easy content to create and fun. More importantly, it’s not my act, so I’m not burning material.
Also, this parrot was kind of a card trick master. I put the shuffled deck down and he flipped over the four aces right away. I wish we had recorded that, but it wasn’t planned and caught us off guard!
Keep an eye out for fun moments that you can use for social media videos!
-Louie
One of the things that I’ve noticed when going through old packet tricks from the 1970’s and 1980’s is that a lot of them will have a strange point where an extra card just appears. A good example of this is Mexican IV by Karl Fulves.
Here’s what the trick looks like:
@louiefoxx Bet you can’t follow the card! #game #gambling #betyoucant #magic #cardmagic #magcian #threecardmonte #louiefoxx #karlfulves #amazing #waitforit #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
It’s strange when 3 cards turn into 4 cards, I don’t know how I feel about that. I was trying to give the trick some context and make the appearance of the fourth card make some sense, so here’s what I came up with:
@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
Having the baby appear gives the fourth card appear some context, instead of a four turning into two aces. Another thing that I added was the change of the dog card to the dog and cat card, so there’s a little bonus effect in there!
If you’re learning a trick and something doesn’t make sense, figure out a way for it to make sense!
-Louie
When I was performing at a 12 day gig, I was playing with Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick. I liked the sequence, but thought the ending was just “Meh”. Here’s what the original trick looks like:
@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick! #cardtrick #closeupmagic #magic #magictrick #vintage #columbus #louiefoxx #nicktrost #packettrick #cards #foxlake ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
The main change was the theming, and I kinda changed the end. Here’s what I came up with:
@louiefoxx The One Dollar Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #onedollar #cointrick #louiefoxx #magictrick #magician #what ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
I like the ending being a picture across the four cards, instead of four separate cards. I think them being one image wraps up the trick nicely.
-Louie
This vintage packet trick is interesting, as it feels like Emerson and West’s Color Monte, but with four cards. Here’s what Tom Ogden’s Carnival Cards looks like:
@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Carnival Cards by Tom Ogden #vintage #magictrick #cardtrick #carnival #magic #louiefoxx #cards #gambling #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
This uses the same move and the effect is very similar, except for the fourth card on the table. I’m curious what came first, it looks like Color Monte was released in 1974 and the Carnival Cards is undated, but based on the packaging, my guess in late 1970’s to early 1980’s.
Here’s the changes that I would make to the Carnival Cards trick:
It’s strange that Carnival Cards uses gaffed cards, because they aren’t needed. I kinda wonder if they were added to make the trick feel more “different” from Color Monte?
-Louie
If you read this blog, you know I like playing with old packet tricks. I’m currently at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio and noticed that Nick Trost lived here when he was alive and putting out packet tricks.
I did a little bit of research and found out that he was buried in St Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, OH. I drove out there to try to find his grave and the cemetery was gigantic, so I asked the office for help.
The gave me a map to the location of his grave in the very back of the cemetery. That map saved me hours (days?) of searching and I found him really quick!
It was a nice drive out there and gave me something to do that morning before my shows at the Ohio State Fair.
-Louie
I’ve been using The Rocket Card Fountain for about 9 months now and I still like it.
I have learned recently that with it being 3d printed, it doesn’t handle sitting in the sun with no shade at 108 degrees during a 45 minute show very well. This is a very extreme situation for it to be in and knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn’t use it if I was in that situation again. What happened is that part that holds the cards warped in the heat and no longer holds the poker size playing cards.
I was able to get it to sort of work by putting it back in the sun and then trying to reshape it. However the fix was simply to cut a deck of cards narrow.
Worked like a charm and the cards shoot out just fine! I’m still happy with The Rocket Card Fountain, but it’s good to know it doesn’t handle extreme temperatures very well.
-Louie
I was playing with Fly Cards II by Aldo Columbini from 1991. I’m not familiar with Fly Cards I, so I can’t compare the two to talk about the improvements that this one has over the original. The effect is similar to an ace assembly, you have four cards with flies on them and a dozen blank cards. You make put 3 blank cards on each card with a fly. The first fly disappears and reappears in the next packet, so that packet now has two flies. Then those disappear and reappear in the third, so that packet now has three. Finally the three flies disappear and you accidentally tap the fourth packet revealing the surprise ending of four smashed flies.
Here’s a demo:
@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Fly Cards II by #AldoColumbini #magictrick #magic #sleightofhand #cardmagic #elmsleycount #antiquemagic #louiefoxx #petermaloney #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
What I like about the trick is the progressive assembly, where the flies keep moving to the next packet. What I don’t like is the flies. It’s strange theming, maybe something like honey bees would be better, but then the smashed ending would have to be different as you don’t want to smush honey bees. I think this idea would be interesting in an ace assembly context, however the problem is that I don’t think it would work out as you’re passing off one card as two several times.
It’s a good trick, and I think if someone spent some time thinking of a better theme OR used it as a custom thing for a social media video it’d be useful!
-Louie
