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    Self-Working Card Tricks
    Self-Working Card Tricks
    Self-Working Card Tricks
    Ebook227 pages2 hours

    Self-Working Card Tricks

    By Karl Fulves

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    What is a self-working card trick? A trick that does not depend upon legerdemain or special abilities on the part of the magician, but a trick that works automatically because of the mathematics inherent in the card deck itself. Long practice and supernormal dexterity are not needed to perform these tricks, yet they are often among the most entertaining and most spectacular of all card tricks.
    Some of these sure-fire tricks are simple, a good place to begin. Others were specially adapted from professional routines and are here presented for the first time for amateurs. Almost all of these tricks can be worked informally, with a borrowed deck of cards. Some also adapt to stage presentation.
    Individual tricks in this book have sold for more than the price of the entire book. Amateurs can use them to get a start in magic and to feel, at once, the rewards of giving a professional performance. Advanced and professional magicians will find tricks to add to their acts or informal routines. Author Karl Fulves is one of the best-known writers and editors in the field of magic.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateApr 30, 2012
    ISBN9780486156569
    Self-Working Card Tricks

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    • 5/5
      Incomparable, unintentionally ironic, and beautiful. This was the IWW's brief effort to revive the old OBU Monthly which had expired in the years of the criminal syndicalism prosecutions, and the disastrous ""EP" vs "Four-Trey" split. It is ironic in that so many resources were plowed into this effort at a time when they were probably best employed elsewhere. Still, they remain a wonderful source, not merely for the historian but for the general reader with a conscience and a fighting spirit.

    Book preview

    Self-Working Card Tricks - Karl Fulves

    INTEREST

    CARD LOCATIONS

    In terms of plot, or the effect as seen by the audience, card locations are probably the simplest and most direct card effects. The spectator chooses a card and returns it to the deck. The magician then finds or locates the chosen card. Generally speaking, the manipulator is concerned with two things in the location trick, the means used to secretly determine the identity or position of the chosen card, and the means used to reveal the chosen card to the spectator. In this chapter we will begin with simple card locations and then develop the theme to include more sophisticated mysteries.

    1. NO-CLUE DISCOVERY

    A spectator chooses a card and returns it to the deck. He then cuts the deck and completes the cut. His card is lost in the pack and no one-not even the magician—knows where the card is.

    The magician takes the deck and begins dealing cards one at a time into a face-up heap on the table. As the magician deals, he instructs the spectator to call out the names of the cards. The spectator is asked to give no clue when his selected card shows up. He is not to pause, hesitate, blink or change his facial expression. Nevertheless, the magician claims, he will be able to detect the faintest change in the spectator’s tone of voice at the exact instant the chosen card shows up.

    The cards are dealt one at a time off the top of the deck. The spectator calls them out as they are dealt. It does not matter how he calls them out; he can disguise his voice, whisper, shout or name the cards in French; when the chosen card turns up, the magician immediately announces that it is the card selected by the spectator.

    Method: This trick makes use of a principle known as the Key Card. Before performing the trick, secretly glimpse the bottom card of the deck. This can be done as the deck is being removed from the card case. In Figure 1, the Key Card is the 3D.¹

    Figure 1

    Hold the deck face-down in the left hand. Then spread the cards from left to right, inviting the spectator to choose a card from the center, as in Figure 2.

    As the spectator removes his card, separate the deck at the point from which the card was taken; see Figure 3. Tell the spectator to look at his card and remember its identity. As he does this, place the packet of cards in your right hand on the table.

    Tell the spectator to replace his card on top of the packet that lies on the table. Your instruction should be something like this: Please place your card back in its original position in the deck. As you speak, point with the right hand to the tabled packet. As a matter of fact, the spectator is not returning his card to its original location, but this fact is never questioned.

    Figure 2

    Figure 3

    When the spectator has placed his card on top of the tabled packet, place the packet in your left hand on top of his card. Tell the spectator to carefully square up the deck. His card is apparently lost in the deck, but really it lies directly below the Key Card, the 3D in our example.

    Now begin to deal cards off the top of the deck, turning them face-up as you deal. Explain that if the spectator names the cards as they are dealt, you can detect which card is his, no matter how he tries to disguise his voice. Encourage him to announce each card in a different manner; he can speak in a dialect or an obscure foreign tongue; he can shout, scream or whisper. The more variety he uses, the more impossible the trick seems.

    All you need do is wait until the 3D shows up. Then deal the next card. This will be the spectator’s chosen card, and you announce it as such.

    The next trick is a good follow-up routine because the performer appears to make a mistake. The trick looks as if it will go completely wrong for the magician, but he succeeds anyway in finding the chosen card.

    2. A SPORTING PROPOSITION

    This version of the No-Clue Discovery is presented as a gambling trick. As you shuffle the deck, tell the audience that a gambler once showed you an infallible way to win a bet. So infallible is this system that the lucky few who know about it have earned millions of dollars. As you talk, glimpse the bottom card of the deck and then place the deck on the table. We will assume the Key Card is the 6C.

    Instruct the spectator to remove a packet of cards from the middle of the deck. Hold the end of the deck with the right hand so that the deck stays in place while the spectator removes a packet of cards, as in Figure 4.

    Figure 4

    Emphasize that you have no way of knowing how many cards the spectator holds. Then tell him to shuffle the cards until they are thoroughly mixed. When the spectator is satisfied that the cards are completely mixed, have him note the top card of the packet. He then replaces the packet on top of the deck.

    As a further precaution against trickery, tell the spectator to carefully square the deck; then have him cut it and complete the cut. Finally he is to square up the deck once more. The situation appears hopeless, but in fact his chosen card is directly below the Key Card, the 6C in our example.

    Again emphasize that your infallible system cannot possibly fail. So sure are you of this system that you would be willing to bet thousands on its success. As you talk, deal cards off the top of the deck. Turn each card face-up as you place it on the table, and overlap the cards so that they are all visible to the spectator, as in Figure 5.

    Figure 5

    Sooner or later you will turn up the 6C. Do not hesitate or pause in the deal. Place the 6C face-up on the table, deal the next card (the chosen card) and two or three more. Of course, the card you deal right after the 6C is the chosen card, but you do not give any indication that you know this fact. Simply remember the identity of the chosen card as it is turned face-up. For the sake of example, say it is the 2H.

    After you have gone several cards past the chosen card, stop dealing, tap the top card of the deck and say, The next card I turn over will be your card. It’s absolutely guaranteed; the system is infallible. I’d offer to bet you a small sum of money on the outcome, but I don’t want to take your hard-earned cash. The system never fails.

    The spectator will be obviously skeptical of your challenge because he sees his card already on the table. Before he has a chance to say anything, however, you remark, Remember, I said the next card I turn over will be your card. Reach for the top card of the deck as if you are about to turn it face-up. Then hesitate, withdraw the right hand and immediately drop the hand onto the chosen card. (If you forget the identity of the chosen card, it will be the card immediately to the right of the Key Card, from the spectator’s point of view; see Figure 6.) Remove the chosen card from the spread and turn it over so it is face-down.

    Figure 6

    This outcome is completely unexpected by the audience. When you have turned the chosen card over, you can say, A remarkable system, isn’t it?

    3. SPELLO

    A different type of location is used here. The identity of the chosen card is not known; instead, position in the deck is controlled by an offbeat means.

    Borrow a deck of cards if possible. Then say that you want to be sure there are no jokers in the pack. Turn the pack and spread the cards from left to right. As you pretend to look for jokers, you in fact count the cards, beginning at the face card of the deck, and continue the count until you reach the 12th card from the face.’ Note and remember this card, which we’ll say is the 8H.

    Tell the spectator you would like to write a prediction about the card he is going to select. Pick up a business card and on the blank side write, This Must Be It. Pick up the deck, fan it and insert the business card directly in back of the card you glimpsed (the 8H in our example); see Figure 7. Do not let the spectator see what you wrote.

    Figure 7

    Square up the deck and place it face-down on the table. Instruct the spectator to cut off some cards from the top of the deck. Remark that he should cut off less than half.

    Tell him to shuffle the cards he cut and to note the top card. Then tell him to drop his packet back on top of the deck and give the deck a cut. When he’s done this, take the deck and cut it at the business card, so that the business card becomes the top card. It is easy to cut to the business card; the thickness of the business card forms a natural break or separation in the deck, and you simply cut to this break and complete the cut.

    Turn over the business card so the side with the writing is uppermost. Have the spectator read your prediction aloud. You then spell out the prediction message, T – H – I – S – M – U – S – T – B – E – I – T , dealing a card off the top of the deck for each letter in the message. After you have dealt off the card corresponding to the last letter of the message, turn over the next card and it will be the chosen card.

    4. THE LAZY MAGICIAN

    In this trick the spectator does most of the work. It was a favorite of the stage magician Blackstone, who often presented it by having several spectators invited up on stage to participate. You can do the trick with as many as five spectators, the procedure being the same in each case. For the present, we will assume you are going to present it to just one spectator.

    Tell him that sometimes you can spot someone who has the talent to be a magician and that he looks like the type who could be an expert with cards. As you talk, remove ten cards from the top of a freely shuffled deck and hand these to the spectator.

    Say that in this trick he is going to do all the hard work. Direct him to shuffle the packet. Then have him look over the cards and decide on one. When he has chosen one, tell him to remember its position from the top of the packet. To take a specific example, assume that when he fans the cards he decides on the 8H. He would then remember that the Eight of Hearts was 6th from the top of the packet, as in Figure 8.

    Figure 8

    Tell him to square up the packet and hand it to you. When you get it back, say, We’ll give them a cut. Hold the packet face-down in the left hand. Push off the top five cards. Take these as a unit and place them on the bottom of the packet. Then hand the packet back to him.

    Have him hold the packet face-down in his left hand. Then tell him to transfer as many cards from top to bottom as the original position of his card. In our example, since his card was 6th from the top of the packet, he would transfer 6 cards, one at a time, from the top to the bottom of the packet.

    Now say, "All you have to do is use the

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