The BOOF to My Card Magic

My Favorite Castle

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Contents

Scatter Shot A multi-phased Ace production speciﬁcally designed for an opener. The Aces literally seem to come from everywhere, right up to the mind- blowing ﬁnish.

Favouritism A spectator nominates their lucky Jack to ﬁnd two selected cards, but discovers it can do much better than that! A great ‘kick back’ style routine.

Psychic Blackjack Lay out four blackjack hands, and then loan the spectator a poker chip in order to make a bet on your behalf. They have a completely free choice, but they always pick the hand that’s best for you…

Hard to Read A demonstration that appears to be all about watching for a spectators ‘tell’ and reading their poker face to reveal their selection, but is really about winning, by any means necessary!

X-Static A very efﬁcient sandwich routine that boils down to literally one move that does everything – great card magic has never been lazier!

The Big Squeeze A simple and off-beat variation of the Hofsinzer Lost Ace Problem, where the Aces reveal the suit and value of a selection, before being squeezed together to produce the card!

Equidistant Transpo A streamlined take on a notoriously difﬁcult plot that sees two packets of cards transposing, despite being buried in different sections of the deck. And this version is (nearly) easy!

Straight and Narrow What happens when you tweak the timing on the classic Jazz Aces, and then add a kicker that shows you only play it straight? BOOF happens!

Munchies Everyone’s favourite story style trick gets a bold but fun make over , and you will love performing it, even if people do question your sanity.

King King Thing Thing Richard Sanders ‘King Thing’ is so good, it should be repeated. Immediately. Now it can be!

Britland Twist The four Jacks are removed, twist repeatedly, and then suddenly change into four Aces. A streamlined version of a dynamite David Britland routine.

Cheater A perfectly justiﬁed Black Jack transposition that has it all - visual moments, tight handling, strong effect and big boobies.

BONUS ‘TAG TEAM’ SECTION! Jack Tighe and Liam Montier

Retarded Departure Take a standard plot. Make it bafﬂing, backﬁre, and easier to do than the original version. You will never go back!

Collectable This version of Roy Walton’s plot has more repeats than Xmas TV! (That’s a lie - it just has one repeat).

Whispersition A perfect blend of Scottish cardmanship. Start with Jerry Sadowitz, add lots of Roy Walton, and whack on some Dave Campbell at the end.

Introduction

First things ﬁrst, and I know what you are thinking. I will explain the meaning of ‘BOOF!’

‘BOOF’ is a word often used at BigBlindMedia, usually by Owen Packard, and it is the exclamation made before presenting something simple, but extremely effective.

I have appropriated it for my own use, and now all of my Tricktastic crew use the word, and particularly in reference to magic. Magic with ‘BOOF!’ is easy to do, straight forward in plot, and strong in effect. In short, substance over style, or the end result being more than the sum of its parts.

So, here is my attempt to bring the BOOF to my card magic. Practically all the material in here is old, and has been repeatedly tweaked over the years, with various goals in mind at various stages.

Here though, it is condensed. More effect, less effort. Less ﬂounce, more BOOF.

Here’s some general rules to help you navigate ‘The BOOF!’.

Firstly, the vast majority of the material requires no set up, and few moves beyond the conventional. Hence, ‘The BOOF!’ is best enjoyed with a pack of cards in hand.

Secondly, I have tried to explain any moves you might not know. The descriptions of these moves appear in red ink. This just means that if you know the move, you are able to skip to the next section of black text, and continue the explanation.

Finally, any presentation appears in light text. I have only included the presentation where essential.

So, tear the cellophane off your new deck (preferably Karnival, obviously) and settle down for a healthy dose of the one thing that we just can’t get enough of - the Card Stuff.

BOOF!

Liam Montier www.tricktastic.com

Scatter Shot Four Aces are produced from all over the place - the ﬁrst appears one handed, but not how the crowd were expecting. The second is genuinely cut right out of the centre of the pack with one hand!

The third appears with no hands, between the ﬁrst and second, despite you not going near them!

The last Ace is supposed to be face up in the centre of the pack, but on checking, you ﬁnd the other three Aces! The last one has transposed in impossible conditions, leaving you with all four Aces, ready to go into your set.

Backstory

Four Ace productions probably make up a substantial proportion of the published material on card magic in general, and the decision to add to the already overwhelming work on the plot doesn’t come lightly.

There is a set up involved, and as such, the most convenient time to perform the routine is probably as an opener. Usually, this is a structurally weak place to perform such a routine, as Ace productions would increase in impact if the spectators were convinced the deck was thoroughly shufﬂed.

So the main aim here was to somehow skirt around that issue, with each production is handled fairly and visually, with the Aces coming from all unexpected places, aside from just the deck.

Try it out with the cards in hand, and see what you think.

Handling

From the top down, stack your deck as follows...

• Three Aces

• Rest of Deck

• Black King

• Final Ace (Spades, ideally)

• Reversed Black King

The First Ace – One Handed

Bring out the pack and use a false shufﬂe or cut to apparently mix the cards, and then top palm the ﬁrst Ace in the right hand as you square up. The effect hasn’t started yet, so there is very little heat on the palm.

Now declare your intention to produce the four Aces, and the ﬁrst one using just one hand. Place the right hand into your trouser pocket (with the palmed card) and keep it in there while you call all attention to your left hand, which performs a Charlier (or other one handed) cut.

Cheekily declare that you never said which hand, and bring the right hand out of your pocket with the Ace in view. Show it, and then place it aside to your right, face up.

(This ﬁrst Ace is whatever your spectators make it. They may assume that you started with the Ace in your pocket (which you could if you liked), or they may presume that you somehow sneaked it into your pocket. Either way, the production is amusing, and subtly lowers expectations, which in turn will increase the impact of the subsequent productions).

The Second Ace – Really This Time

Apologise for ‘gooﬁng around’ and promise to really try it this time. Again call all attention to the left hand, and use a Charlier cut, cutting at the natural break caused by the reversed card.

This is very easily done by holding the deck in Charlier position and simply letting about half fall off of the thumb. Note that it is also easy to check, as the cut leaves the lower card of the upper packet visible to the performer, so you can easily ensure that you have cut to the right place.

Complete the cut and ﬂip the top card face up, revealing the second Ace, and as you square it back onto the pack, secure a little ﬁnger break below the card beneath the face up Ace.

With the right hand, lift off the double and table it on the ﬁrst Ace, ensuring that they are both located to your right, ideally close to the position of your right elbow.

(The production of the second Ace is very effective, as it fulﬁls the expectations set by the ﬁrst, and in an extremely fair manner. This also directs the spectators attention back onto the deck, which covers you for the surprise production of the third Ace)

The Third Ace – Two Hands

Comment that it is harder to ﬁnd the third Ace, as now there are only two in the deck. Therefore, you will need both hands.

Perform any false cut that you know that will retain the bottom stock, but call all attention onto the deck as you do so, and allow your right arm to come into contact with the tabled Ace packet. Now, when you perform the cut, your right arm will naturally cause the sandwich to spread, disclosing the face down card in the middle of them. This will go completely unnoticed by your spectators.

After the false cut, ﬂip the top card face up to reveal an indifferent card – an apparent miss. Flip it face down again, and then comment that you needed both hands because you wanted to ﬁnd the third ace, and sneak it between the other Aces...

Direct attention to the tabled sandwich to reveal the third production, and then pick up the sandwich with the right hand, and have a spectator remove the face down central Ace and show it around.

Use the misdirection afforded by this to slip the two Aces, face down, beneath the pack, and then ﬂip the pack face up and secure a break below the uppermost four cards. The pinky count is ideal here, although rifﬂing with the right thumb as you apparently square the cards is also an option.

Take back the ﬁnal ace and place it face up onto the others, retaining the break, and spread off the top two, displaying all three Aces found so far. I cover this with something like “So we have Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, which just leaves Spades to go.”

Square the Aces and apparently ﬂip them face down, in reality turning over everything above the break in a block. With the right hand, apparently lift the packet off of the deck, but in reality, just take the top face down card, handling it as a packet. As a face up King still shows on the face of the deck, the switch is very deceptive. Casually table the card as if it were a packet, off to one side.

(The surprise production of the third Ace has a great impact, as the handling really seems as if you haven’t touched the packet that it appears in. It also makes everyone wonder what will happen for the last Ace, whether you will play it straight, or ‘cheekily’. This makes the surprise climax even more unexpected.)

The Final Ace – The Kicker

Bring attention back to the left hand, and casually cut the face up deck as you comment that you will get the ﬁnal Ace to ﬂip face up in the centre of the deck.

Turn the pack face down and spring them between your hands. This may show a ﬂash of the reversed cards, which is ideal. Ask if they saw it happen, and then spread the deck face down across the table (or between your hands) to show that actually, there are THREE face up Aces!

Direct the attention back to the tabled ‘packet’ and then ﬂip it face up to disclose the surprise transposition and reveal the Ace of Spades.

Final Thoughts

Of course, if you are lacking a table for the third Ace, you can produce it by simply spreading the packet, invisible travellers style.

Inspired by ‘Fantasy Aces’ from the Art of Astonishment, book 2, page 191.

Favouritism

“I think we will make this trick even harder than the others. In fact, it will be twice as difﬁcult, as I am going to have two cards chosen and I’m going to limit your choice slightly, but not by much!”

You spread the deck with the faces towards yourself and remove four cards, which are slipped to the top of the pack. Two cards are now chosen by the spectators, and returned to the centre of the deck.

“All I know about your cards at the moment is that they aren’t Jacks, because those are the cards I removed.”

The top four cards of the deck are spread off and displayed as the four Jacks, and a spectator chooses a number between one and four. The Jack at that number in the packet is placed in front of them, face down.

“That will be your lucky Jack, and I will have the Jack of Spades as mine”

The one of the remaining Jacks is turned over and shown to be the Jack of Spades, and it is returned to the others which are tabled as a group.

The spectator is invited to pick up their lucky Jack and slip it into the deck, anywhere they like.

“Now, your lucky Jack was the Jack of Hearts, and you placed it into the deck. You remember that we put the chosen cards back together? Well, now you have put the Jack of Hearts, totally freely, into the deck. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had put it right between the selections? Let’s check it out!”

The two cards on either side of the spectators lucky Jack are shown, but they aren’t the selected cards – instead they are the other two Jacks!

“Wow, that’s a better trick than my lucky Jack does. He just ﬁnds the chosen cards!”

Attention is directed towards the Jack packet, which is ﬂipped up to reveal your Jack of Spades in the middle, with a selection on either side, to ﬁnish.

Backstory

This routine is a reworking of ‘Playing Favourites’ which originally appeared in a collaborative e-book called ‘Released’, by myself and Cameron Francis. Both of these were inspired by Cameron’s “Hof the Case” from his ‘Moment’s Notice 2’.

Although technically there is little change, overall the new version is much smoother in look and feel.

Performance

To perform, all you need to do is cut a court card of some description to the face of the pack. If there isn’t already one there, simply cut it into position before you start the introductory comments for the routine. In this example, we will assume you have cut a Jack to the face.

“I think we will make this trick even harder than the others. In fact, it will be twice as difﬁcult, as I am going to have two cards chosen. Although I’m going to limit your choice slightly, but not by much!”

Spread through the pack with the faces towards you, and up-jog any indifferent card followed by the remaining three Jacks, ignoring the one that is on the face of the deck. Strip out the up-jogged cards and slide them to the back of the deck, ensuring that when you do so, the top two cards will be opposite colours. Any rearrangement can be done casually, as the trick hasn’t even started yet.

With that done, spread the deck between your hands and have two cards chosen (and signed, if you feel the need). As they are being noted, square up the pack and take the opportunity to secure a Tilt break below the top two cards.

Take back both selections together, so they are an un-squared packet in your right hand, and put them straight into the Tilt break. I normally make a comment here about how ‘they can just go in together for now’ which will tie in with the effect later on.

With the cards returned, allow the Tilt break to fall, leaving you with a square pack.

“All I know about your cards at the moment is that they aren’t Jacks, because those are the cards I removed.”

Spread off the top four cards and take them in the right hand, without reversing their order before tabling the deck off to the left. Do not table the deck face up, or a Jack will be on view on the face of the deck that shouldn’t be there!

We are now going to display the four Jacks with a move called the Spirit Count, which is very underused, quite unfairly.

Gene Castillon’s Spirit Count

Hold the packet in the right hand pinch grip, just as you would for an Elmsley Count or similar move, and peel the first card into the left hand dealing grip. Turn the left hand palm down briefly to flash the face of the Jack before turning the left hand palm up again.

Peel a second card onto the ﬁrst in the left hand, but leave this one jogged to the right a little, and again display the faces of them by turning the left hand palm down, and then back.

It is on the third count that the deception happens. As you bring the left hand back towards the right to take the third card, its other two go underneath the packet, in the Elmsley count fashion.

The right ﬁngers and thumb now do a block push off of the top three cards by pushing downwards and then to the left. The three pushed over cards are taken in the left hand and the face of this block is displayed as the third Jack in the same way as the others.

For the last one, the right hand simply ﬂashes the face of the single card it holds, completing the display of four Jacks (despite the fact that only two are in the packet!) Check out the pictures below that give you an idea of the Spirit Count in action.

Note that you could also substitute other counts here – The Marlo ‘Olram Subtlety’ or Brother John Hamman’s ‘Gemini Count’ could both easily be worked in. However, I prefer the Spirit Count as it doesn’t involve tabling the cards and has a natural, casual vibe.

Anyway, at the end of the count, slip the last Jack to the bottom of the packet and then immediately fan out all four cards, face down, and have the spectator name a number between One and Four.

You need to force one of the genuine Jacks on your spectator, and because you have two of them in the packet, this is very easy to work. If your spectator names number 1 or 2, count from left to right from the fan, and if they name 3 or 4, count down from the top of the packet. I appropriated this clever force from one of Roy Walton’s routines.

Either way, removing their selection and tabling it face down will leave you with a face down packet of three cards, which are the two selections with another Jack at the bottom.

“That will be your lucky Jack, and I will have the Jack of Spades as mine, in case we need it later.”

Perform a bottom double lift to show the Jack that is on the bottom of your packet (assume the Jack of Spades).

The technique that I use for this is very simple, and is the second part of the aforementioned Gemini Count. All you do is grip the packet at the right long edge with the right hand, thumb pinching on top, ﬁngers beneath. The left thumb then pulls the top card into dealing grip, leaving the right hand with a double pinched, which it simply ﬂips face up onto the packet. The double is then turned face down again.

Although the bottom double lift is slightly unnatural looking, performed casually it is very deceptive. It also serves two purposes here – it calls attention to the other Jack (that you say is your favourite, so the climax makes more sense) and it also repositions the Jack between the selections without resorting to any cutting or displacing actions.

Anyway, now comment that the spectator will use their lucky Jack, and ask them to slip it into deck somewhere, but not to push it in ﬂush, as you don’t want to lose it. This makes sense, and also ensures the spectator pushes the Jack in face down, which justiﬁes the upcoming move.

“Now your lucky Jack was the… Jack of Hearts, and you placed it into the deck. You remember that we put the chosen cards back together? Well, now you have put the Jack of Hearts, totally freely, into the deck. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had put it right between the selections? Let’s check it out!”

Of course, in order to name the spectators lucky Jack, you need to turn it face up. So here, we use the Prophesy Move to reveal the lucky Jack and also secretly position the other two Jacks (one on top, the other on the bottom of the deck) either side of it.

Bill Simon Prophesy Move

Once the spectator has slipped their card into the pack somewhere, leave it out- jogged for about half of its length. Then, in order to apparently name it, and secretly cut the pack at the same time, carry out the following…

Firstly, spread the cards between the hands, and when you come to the up-jogged card, split the spread, with the left hand holding the bottom half and the up-jogged card, and the right hand holding the upper half.

Roughly square the right hand cards, and turn the right hand palm down. You are now going to clip the out-jogged card in the right hand by trapping it at the outer end between the right thumb and the back of the squared packet.

Carry the out-jogged card away in this position, and turn the right hand palm up, which turns the card over, revealing its identity. Place the left hand cards, face down, square with the right hand packet, leaving the Jack face up and out-jogged.

Once the move is complete, I table the deck and get some time misdirection by saying the “You remember that we put the chosen cards back together? Well, now

you have put the Jack of Hearts, totally freely, into the deck. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had put it right between the selections? Let’s check it out!” part. This just takes any heat off the move.

Anyway, having built up their expectations, continue to lead them down the garden path by spreading the pack between your hands and removing the face up Jack and the cards on either side of it. All of your presentation should imply that this is the end of the trick, and these are going to be the selections.

When you are ready, ﬂip the cards face up to reveal the kicker!

“Wow, that’s a better trick than my lucky Jack does. He just ﬁnds the chosen cards!”

Pull attention back to the tabled packet of Jacks, and slowly ﬂip them face down, revealing your ‘favourite’ Jack with the two selections on either side, to ﬁnish.

Final Thoughts

There is quite a lot of technique going on in this routine, but also a lot of effect. Don’t be tempted to try to rush through the opening parts. Hurrying any action generates suspicion, which is of course to be avoided, particularly when the work is occurring before the effect, as in this case.

The Spirit Count was published in Pabular Volume 5, No.2, page 639.

Bill Simon’s Prophesy Move can be found in The New York Magic Symposium Collection 1 on page 16.

Psychic Black Jack

“Being a magician, I am quite often asked about cheating at cards, especially by people who want to learn how to do it to become rich! However, people always expect card cheating to consist of sleight of hand, such as dodgy dealing, clever shufﬂes that don’t really shufﬂe, and so on. But that isn’t always the case…”

From a borrowed and shufﬂed deck, you remove four pairs of cards that represent Black Jack hands and lay them out on the table.

“For example, here, I am just going to try to inﬂuence your decision making. There are four Black Jack hands in front of you. I’m going to ask you to make a decision about one of them, on my behalf. And I have faith that this will work, so I feel a little wager might help…”

You bring out a poker chip, and hand it to the spectator.

“I’m going to ask you to bet on one of those hands, on my behalf. You think you can choose any one, obviously, but I’m hoping for a very speciﬁc outcome. When I click my ﬁngers, I want you to drop the poker chip onto one of the hands. Once you have dropped the chip, you can’t change your mind.”

With a single click of the ﬁngers, the spectator drops the poker chip onto one of the hands.

“Now we will see how you did. Had you dropped the chip on this hand, or this hand, or this hand, we would have been losers.”

The other three hands are turned over and displayed, each totals 16, which is a notoriously low hand in Black Jack.

“So, was my faith well placed? Turn over the hand you selected…”

The spectator does so, and reveals that their chosen hand is the only one worth 21.

“Black Jack!”

Handling

Begin by having a pack of cards and a poker chip (or coin) within reach.

Spread the cards between your hands, keeping the faces towards you, and remove two Six spots, and table them in front of you, and then remove two Aces, placing

them behind the Six spots to make a square formation. On top of each card, table a court card, which will leave you with two hands worth 16 and two hands worth 21.

As this is going on and you are removing cards from all over the pack, contrive to get any Ace and any Six to the top of the deck secretly. Although they can be in any order, I always get the Ace uppermost so that the handling is consistent.

The way I get into position is by cutting the deck so that a Six is on top, and then culling any Ace above it. However, simply placing them there or slipping them to the back of the pack will work ﬁne, as you are apparently looking for the right cards to use.

When you have everything tabled, hold the deck casually in left hand dealing grip, face down.

Bring out your poker chip or coin. Don’t miss out this part. Although the effect will obviously work if they just point to a hand, the ‘bet’ aspect will help clarify the ending the trick, and also serves to isolate and draw attention to the selected hand, while we work with the ones not chosen. All will become clear!

Theory! “Change your mind, or keep the one you have”

I ALWAYS do the part about not letting them change their mind. I think this is very important, and often overlooked in many effects, particularly in mentalism. Sure, the trick works no matter how many times they change their mind, but is that something I want to advertise to a spectator? If someone comes to realise that their choice has no consequence to the end of the trick, then they will start backtracking to work out how that could be the case, which is obviously to be avoided.

So here, although it makes no difference to me which hand they choose, I state that it does, and put great importance into stressing that they only get one choice. That way, they are pulled into concentrating their attention on part of the method that doesn’t exist, i.e. how could I be inﬂuencing them? Of course, I’m not.

Also, I will just quickly mention that I always use the square formation for the hands, and I often mention to the spectator that I have laid them out in this way on purpose, so as not to inﬂuence them. For example, I say, people often avoid choosing items on either end of a row.

Anyway, click your ﬁngers and let the spectator drop the poker chip onto one of the Black Jack hands. There are now two possibilities;

1. They drop the chip onto a hand worth 21.

2. They drop the chip onto a hand worth 16.

People being lazy, they often drop the chip onto one of the two hands closest to them, which is why I position the 21 hands there. So for now, we will assume that this is what they have done.

“Now we will see how you did. Had you dropped the chip on this hand, or this hand, or this hand, we would have been losers.”

Secure a little ﬁnger break below the top two cards of the deck as you talk, and then pick up the hand NEXT to the one they selected with the right hand. This will be the other hand that is worth 21.

Spread the pair of cards in the right hand, and take the lowermost one onto the deck, and apparently ﬂip it face up, in reality turning all the cards over above the break. The result is a triple turnover, and a Six will be displayed on the pack.

Turn the right hand card face up, showing a court card, then take it onto the pack as well, side-jogged so both cards are visible, and table the pack.

These pictures (above) show the multiple lift in action, performed casually just as the deck ‘happens’ to still be in your hands.

Note that the actions look identical regardless of whether it is a double or triple lift that you are performing.

With the multiple lift completed, table the deck as below, with both cards in view.

Justiﬁcation Thoughts

Of course, there is very little justiﬁcation for going back to the deck, so that is why we didn’t table it after removing the cards at the beginning. The context here is simply that you are still holding the pack, so it is present as you show the ﬁrst hand. Then, you have tabled the pack to free up both hands, so you can turn over the remaining pairs. Played casually, this is completely deceptive.

Now pick up both remaining hands and turn them face up to display that they are also worth just 16 each. I place them face up on top of the deck so that they are still visible, but that the table is clear, which places all attention on the selected hand, isolated by the chip.

“So, was my faith well placed? Turn over the hand you selected…”

Of course, they do so to ﬁnd that they have been inﬂuenced into choosing the only winning hand.

Scenario Two

Now, if the spectator selects one of the hands that is worth 16, the procedure is exactly the same, except that you secure a little ﬁnger break below just the top card of the pack. This means that then you are doing a double turnover on the deck, revealing an Ace and a picture card, following the handling above.

Then, you show the other two hands also consist of winning cards. The spectator turns over their hand to ﬁnd the only losing hand. Any potential ‘sting’ is taken out of this presentation, thanks to the bet idea. Your presentation goes as follows…

“If you had chosen any of the other hands, you would have got 21. But hopefully, my inﬂuence worked, and I win my poker chip back. Check it out…”

I then take back the chip, and sometimes add a closing line of “You know what they say though? Unlucky at cards, lucky at love!” which is an old saying in the UK, to end.

Inspiration

This routine came out after seeing Luke Jermay’s Psychic Black Jack routine, which appeared in his lecture notes “Walls and Bridges”. Luke’s method is totally different, and as ingenious as you would expect, where the spectator chooses the only hand worth 21 when all the other hands are blank. It is totally worth checking out.

There is also another version of this plot, by Steve Mayhew in The Angel May Shufﬂe, but the Devil Still Deals. Steve’s one, while similar in some respects, is also quite different to the handling I have here, in method and presentation. It has a lovely ending, which is worth checking out.

Hard to Read

You explain that being a magician gives you a great insight into cheating at cards, and particularly watching for facial expressions and ‘tells’. A demonstration is proposed!

“There are two things that you need for this to work, ﬁrstly a good imagination, and secondly, a good Poker Face. I want you to touch a card, and imagine that it is part of a game of poker you are playing, and this card gives you a good hand – it’s going to make you a lot of money! Touch four other cards as well, to give us a poker hand of ﬁve cards.”

First of all, a spectator makes a free choice of card, and is asked to imagine that it is an important card in a poker hand, high stakes. They are to commit the card to memory, and then they touch four more cards, again totally freely, to act as a random poker hand.

“Keep your card in mind, and then mix the packet so that neither you or I know the position of the one you are concentrating on.”

The spectator mixes their card into the packet themselves, so you can have no idea as to its identity or its position.

“Here is where the poker face comes in. I am going to call out the names of these ﬁve cards. One of them is your card, and the other four are not. However, I want you to stay silent, and to give away as little as you can. I’m going to try to read your ‘tell’ and work out which card was yours.”

Taking the packet back, you call out the names of the cards and direct the spectator to deny that any of the cards are theirs. Despite their best efforts, you correctly name the card they were thinking of!

Going on, you declare that advanced methods of cheating are similar to magic in other ways, particularly in terms of misdirection. While the spectators were convinced you were just demonstrating how to read tells, you reveal there was more at play…

The other four cards in the spectators’ possession are turned over to reveal that they have changed into all four Aces, to make a killer poker hand!

Handling

In order to set up for this effect, you just need the four Aces on the bottom of the deck. You can get them there with culling techniques, pre-setting the deck, or even doing a four Ace trick early on in a set, and then simply double cutting them as a block to the bottom, and continuing with some other effects that don’t use the Aces, before going into this one, so they can make a surprise reappearance.

Begin your opening lines and casually spread the deck between your hands as you talk, taking the opportunity to then close the spread and secure a little ﬁnger break above the bottom four cards of the pack.

When it comes to the time, have a card selected by spreading through the cards and having one touched near the top of the deck. Up-jog the card a little (about a third) and take it onto the right hand spread, so that you can display the card to the spectator.

Once it has been noted and remembered, have the backs of four more cards touched, to make up the poker hand. Ensure that each card is out-jogged a little more than the previous one, and also ensure that none of the Aces at the bottom of the deck are selected.

With all the cards selected and progressively more out-jogged, close the spread and grip the deck with the right hand at the inner end. This is the same position as the Hindu Shufﬂe. Be sure to keep the pack held horizontally, otherwise the out-jogged cards can fall from the pack. Also, be sure to take over the little ﬁnger break with the right thumb.

You are now in position for Alex Elmsley’s superb ‘Pick of the Litter’ switch. Unlike the No-Lap Switch or similar moves, this one you can really call attention onto the technique, and remain completely free from detection.

Pick of the Litter Switch – Alex Elmsley

With the left hand, grip the lowermost out-jogged card at the outer short ends between the thumb and second ﬁnger, and strip it clear from the pack before allowing it to drop into left hand dealing grip. Keep your actions slow and casual.

Repeat the same strip-out process for the next three cards, but as you strip out the last one (the selected card) secretly allow the Aces underneath the pack to drop, silently and secretly, onto the four cards you have already stripped out, and the selection drops straight on top.

The pictures below show ﬁrstly how the cards are stripped out, and then how the packet of Aces is loaded into position just as the selection is taken across.

This ingenious move leaves the packet in the left hand in the following order, from the top down.

• Unknown selection

• Four Aces

• Four indifferent cards

Here is another subtlety that you can use – once you have stripped out the selection, push the top card of the left hand packet over to the right and raise the packet up to eye level, giving the spectator another chance to look at and remember the card. This also subtly ﬂashes an indifferent card at the face of the packet.

Regardless, cleanly slip the pack underneath the packet in the left hand, and thumb off the top ﬁve cards, completing the switch. Give the packet to the spectator to mix up, as you casually table (or even better, pocket) the rest of the deck.

Take the packet back from the spectator, and emphasise how you can’t know either what the card is, or where it is in the packet.

Now comes the fun part – the sheer bluff of it all! Tell the spectator that you are going to name each card, and you want them to deny that it is theirs, even if it is the selection, and hopefully you will be able to read their ‘tell’.

Pick up the ﬁrst card, and if it is an Ace, miscall it as any indifferent card. I typically use the ﬁrst four cards of the Eight Kings set up (Eight of Clubs, King of Hearts, Three of Spades, and the Ten of Diamonds).

Repeat this stage all the way through, only genuinely calling the name of the selected card (the identity of which will become obvious as you go through the packet – it is the only card that isn’t an Ace).

Look into your spectators eyes each time, as if genuinely looking for a tell, and then pick up the packet and remove the selection. Ask the spectator how they think you did, and then snap the selection face up to reveal the apparent climax of the trick.

Whatever you do, don’t downplay this. Poker is a hot topic, and the presentational idea of reading the’ tells’ (which is very ‘Derren Brown’, and hugely effective) makes this a very strong trick in its own right.

When the reaction has died down, comment about how misdirection is also used in cheating, as well as magic. And while attention was on you reading the spectators ‘tell’, you took the liberty of ensuring that you had a backup plan, in case the spectator was unreadable…

Turn the tabled cards over, one at a time, to reveal that they have somehow changed into the four Aces!

Final Thoughts

The Wallpaper Switch – sometime back, I worked out a little touch for the Elmsley Switch that makes the ditch at the end slightly cleaner. The trade off is that there is a set up at the beginning, and then a reversed card left in the deck at the conclusion.

For me personally, the trade off isn’t worth it, and I keep the handling as described above, but you may like to try out the ‘Wallpaper’ variation and see what you think.

Begin with the same set up, Aces on the bottom, but a face up Joker underneath them. The other (identical) Joker is on top of the pack.

At the beginning of the routine, comment that you don’t want the Joker to be chosen, and flip the card face up on top. Square the pack and secure a break above the bottom five cards of the deck by riffling them off with the right thumb.

Perform the rest of the routine, and the switch, exactly as described, leaving the other Joker face up on top throughout. Then, when you come to spread off the ﬁve cards from the top of the deck after the switch, the Joker will still be in view (It is apparently the same one, and rules out the idea of a switch completely).

However, you are left with a reversed Joker sixth from top. You could double cut this to the bottom and use it to your advantage in a later routine, or clean up at your leisure.

X-Static

You bring out a deck of cards, and ﬂip the Joker face up on top, stating that you will come back to it later. A card is selected and signed by a spectator, and very cleanly pushed into half the deck, which is tabled.

The face up Joker on the remaining half is used to visibly ‘attract’ the other Joker, which appears next to it. A moment later, the face down selection visually appears between them, having leapt from the tabled half!

A repeat is proposed, but goes slightly awry – the selection vanishes completely from between the Jokers, and reappears buried right in the centre of the tabled deck!

Backstory

Inspired by Alex Elmsley and his ‘Fiddle with the Biddle in the Middle’ (from The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley Volume 2, page 129), this routine has become one of my favourites to do. I used to use the Elmsley routine all the time, but it was discarded when I also started using Alex’s ‘Double Swap’ (from the Collected Works of Alex Elmsley Volume 1, page 293), which used the same unusual double lift technique (the ‘Forceps Double Lift’), and I felt that the same move in two different routines would arouse suspicion.

It was during a skype session with Jamie Daws that I ﬁrst saw the idea of having a face up cover card used in conjunction with the Tip Over Change, and I quickly worked out this routine, which makes full use of the extra cover card.

Finally, the ‘Static’ production of the second Joker comes from Paul Wilson, who used the move repeatedly in the context of a Collectors routine on his video tape Knock ‘em Dead. See ‘Collectors Day’.

Handling

Begin with a deck of cards that contains two identical Jokers. In a pinch, you can use two similar court cards (the red Jacks, for example) but this isn’t for the faint of heart - there will be several discrepancies. For the description, I will assume your pack has two suitable Jokers.

The starting position is to openly have one Joker face up on top of the deck, and the other secretly at the bottom, face up. You can either start in position, or here is a simple way of getting into it in real time, before the presentation begins.

Start by spreading through the face up pack, and when you come to the first Joker, secure a little finger break below it as you flip all the cards above it face down. Immediately lift off the cards at the break and table them. This is the same reversal sequence often used in Henry Christ’s Fabulous Four Ace routine.

Continue spreading through, remove the second Joker, and then drop the cards in your hand onto the tabled packet, completing the deck. Then display the Joker,

begin your presentation (I usually say something like “People normally throw the Jokers out of their cards, but I keep them. Here is why...”) and drop the Joker face up on top of the tabled deck.

Continue by spreading the pack casually as you talk, and square up the pack with both hands, secure a little ﬁnger break above the bottom two cards.

Comment that as you have chosen a card, it is only fair that your spectator gets to choose one as well, and use the left thumb to rifﬂe down the pack and have a spectator call stop at any point.

The right hand grips the pack at this point, with the thumb taking over the break, and the foreﬁnger then swing cuts all the cards above the stop point into the left hand dealing grip. Use the left thumb to drag the top card of the right hand packet (the selection) onto the left hand packet, using the packet in the right hand to ﬂip the selection face up in the process.

Pause here, and have the selection signed if you like, before using the right hand packet to ﬂip the selection face down onto the Joker, and performing the Drop Sleight, allowing the two cards below your right thumb break to drop straight on top of the selection as it turns face down. The left thumb immediately pushes over the face down card and inserts it into the centre of the right hand packet, but leaves it side-jogged a little, before the packet is tabled.

The pictures below give a feel for how clean the whole process looks. (The selected card, in this case, is the Ace of Diamonds).

Note how clean this looks – the face up Joker has been in view literally all the way through, and apparently continues to be even after the switch. Not only that, but the selection is already sandwiched between the two Jokers, putting you way ahead.

Static Production – R.Paul Wilson

Now we are going to make the most out of the situation, by ﬁrstly producing the second Joker using a R.Paul Wilson idea from his Collectors routine. The right hand takes the face up Joker in right hand Biddle Grip, and the left hand turns palm down, so the right can rub the Joker on your left arm to ‘build up some static electricity’. In reality, this covers the left hand as it secures a little ﬁnger break underneath the top card of its packet.

The left hand turns palm up again, and the right hand rubs the Joker over the packet, picking up the face down card above the break behind it, which brings the second Joker into view. With just a little practice, this simple production is surprisingly effective. Return the right hand card (now a double) to the left hand packet, and clamp it in place, right-jogged a little, with the left thumb.

Comment that perhaps you can use the same ‘static’ to do something with the chosen card. Pick up the tabled packet with the right hand, and square in the side- jogged card which is apparently the selection.

Make a spread across the table and call all attention there, using the cover for the left thumb to discreetly push the uppermost Joker to the right, bringing the selection into view, sandwiched between the Jokers.

This is done as a surprise production, where the spectators see you spread the tabled packet, and by the time they look back, the selection has already jumped across. This is powerful, and catches people off guard.

Conclude this phase by ﬂipping the face down card between the Jokers face up, to reveal that it really is the signed selection. Allow everyone to think this is the end of the trick, and square up the left hand packet, leaving the selection face up between the Jokers.

Final Phase

Begin the final phase by taking the packet in the right hand Biddle Grip, and peel the face up Joker into the left hand dealing grip. Peel the face up selection onto the first Joker, but keep a break between the selection and the Joker, and then peel off the final Joker, stealing the face up selection back underneath the packet as you do so. This is the classic ‘Biddle Steal’ in action. Casually place the right hand packet onto the spread on the table, and gather the cards up and leave them off to one side.

Now, call all attention back to the packet in the left hand, ﬂip the packet face down, and use a two for three false count to reinforce the idea that everything is as it should be.

When you are ready, use a magic gesture and snap the Jokers face up and drop them to the table, showing that the selection has totally vanished. I take my time here, allowing the spectators to examine the Jokers and check my sleeves, etc.

Only when they are sure the selection is totally gone, I direct a spectator to spread the face down pack, which was well out of play, to reveal the selection face up in the centre, to end.

The Big Squeeze

In effect, you remove the four Aces before having a card chosen. Let’s say it is the Five of Hearts, for example. The Five is returned to the pack, and the Aces displayed as you state that one Ace will have something in common with the selection. Suddenly, three of the Aces vanish, leaving just the Ace of Hearts! This, you explain, proves that the spectator selected a Heart card.

However, that doesn’t help you with the value, as you comment that selection could still be anything, so you propose to use the Ace of Hearts as a wand, which is waved over the face down deck. When you spread through, a Five is face up in the middle of the pack! This gives you the value and the suit!

Both cards are then placed together and literally squeezed into one card, which is the selected Five of Hearts!

Back Story

This routine began as a variation on a routine by the Buck Twins, called Hofzzy Osbourne and published in their ‘Five’ notes.

The original got me thinking about other approaches to the well-worn ‘Lost Ace Problem’ and this came into being.

Handling

Spread through the deck and remove the four Aces from the pack, taking the opportunity to secure two cards of matching value on top of the pack. This can be done by simply cutting the two same value cards to the top of the deck if they are together, or culling them into position. Glimpsing the top card of the pack before you start spreading will mean you can just cull one card, if that is preferable.

So, let’s say you have two Fives on top of the pack, with the Five of Hearts at the top and the Five of Spades below it, and the four Aces on the table.

False shufﬂe the deck and force the top card with (dare I say?) your favourite method, and then control it to second from top via either Tilt or the Bluff Shift. Secure a little ﬁnger break below the top card of the pack (the Five of Spades) as you square up.

The Aces Vanish

Pick up the Aces one at a time and place them face up onto the deck, maintaining your break, and being sure that the Ace of Hearts goes on first, so that it is lowermost. Pick up the packet in Biddle Grip and peel the first three Aces back onto the deck, placing the final Ace (actually a double) on top of all.

Snap your ﬁngers and push off just the top face up card, showing that all the Aces have vanished except the Ace of Hearts, which tells you the suit of the selection.

Table it, and immediately spread the deck between your hands, pushing over a block ﬁrst, to emphasise the vanish.

Square up the pack, and secure a break below the top four cards of the deck, which is made easy by the natural break in the deck.

Determining the Value

Comment about now that you have worked out the suit of the card, you just need to work out the value, so you have gone from 52 possibilities to just 13. As you make this comment, do the Braue Reversal, turning the ﬁrst packet face up and placing it on top, and then the second packet face up and putting it underneath. Spread through the ﬁrst few cards of the now face up deck, just to emphasise your point, and turn the deck face down again.

Tap the face down deck with the face up Ace of Hearts, and drop it casually face up onto the deck as you spread it between your hands. This will show the Five of Spades face up in the centre, and explain that this signiﬁes that the chosen card must have been a Five.

Up-jog the Five, and then square up the pack, taking a break below the top two cards as you do so.

Putting the Squeeze on

Strip out the Five of Spades and drop it face up onto the pack, but up-jogged a little so that both cards are in view.

Visibly merge both cards into the selection by lifting all three cards above the break and taking them into the right hand dealing grip, and then doing a Vernon ‘Through the Fist Flourish’ (which basically involves just turning your right hand palm down, and pushing the packet through your hand with your right thumb).

This brings the selection into view.

Ensure the packet drops onto the deck, and push off the selection to end clean.

Equidistant Transpo

From a shufﬂed deck in use, two packets of cards are removed, and the performer proposes to demonstrate a complicated gambling switch.

The packets on the table consist of four Twos (a good poker hand) and four Queens (a great poker hand). The four Queens are placed into separate parts of the pack, and reversed, so that the spectators can follow everything. Everything is pushed ﬂush.

Next, the four Twos are dropped on top of the pack face up. The pack is given a slight shake (or a large shake, depending on your technique!) and they visibly change into the four Queens - the winning poker hand!

If that wasn’t enough, the rest of the pack is spread across the table. The four Twos are now evenly distributed, and reversed, throughout. You end clean.

Backstory

This plot was ﬁrst published by Bill Goodwin with ‘Slap Exchange’ in “At the Expense of Grey Matter” and later popularised by Ernest Earick in his book ‘By Forces Unseen’, ‘Jack Synapses’ and whilst I always had a fondness for it, my technique always let me down.

After reading several variations in various publications, and still having the same problem, I tried to work out a ‘stripped down’ method - I wanted to bring the BOOF. After much experimenting, this handling came together pretty quickly, and I still use it today.

Handling

Begin by spreading through the pack and removing the four Twos, which are tabled face down to your left, and the four Queens, which are tabled face down to your right. Note that you don’t want to display these cards as you remove them, as you will be displaying them brieﬂy anyway.

Begin your presentation about demonstrating a new card switch (or whatever) and as you talk, grab a break under the fourth card from the top of the deck.

Pick up the left hand packet, and ﬂip them face up onto the deck, revealing a Two. You are now holding a break underneath the top eight cards. Lift this block off with the right hand, gesture for a moment, and secure a new little ﬁnger break underneath the top card of the pack. This break is held throughout the upcoming switch, and is simply to avoid having to catch a break under 5 cards later.

With the left thumb, slide the uppermost Two across from the right packet onto the deck (being sure to maintain your break), and then slide the next two cards in the same way. Your right hand is left holding a block of ﬁve cards, which are immediately placed on top of the pack, but not quite square - the right thumb actually rifﬂes one card onto the deck, and then makes off with its packet, tabling it to the left.

Note that the impression you are trying to give here is that you picked up the three face up Twos underneath the last one. In reality, you have rifﬂed one card off of the bottom of the right hand packet instead.

Position Check

The packet on the left hand side of the table is apparently four face up Twos. It is actually one face up Two, with three face down cards beneath it.

From the top of the deck, you have a face down indifferent card, three face up Twos, another indifferent card, and then a little ﬁnger break, separating this section from the remainder of the deck.

Now, we are basically going to use the exact same switch. Pick up the tabled Queens, flip them face up on top of the deck, and immediately grab everything about the break in the right hand Biddle Grip. Slide the first three Queens onto the deck with the left thumb (no breaks held this time) and then apparently lift them back under the final Queen, but actually allowing one card to riffle off the right thumb as before. Instead of tabling the Queen packet, the right hand leaves it side-jogged on the top of the deck, where the left thumb locks it in place.

Explain that, of course, the hand you wanted wouldn’t be all together, so you will place the Queens into different parts of the pack, but reversed, so everyone can keep track.

Suiting actions to words, grip the Queen packet with the right hand, but with the ﬁngers on top and the thumb underneath. Lift the packet away from the deck, and turn the right hand palm up, which essentially leaves the Queen packet in face down Elmsley Count position.

At the same time, flip the deck face up in the left hand using the left thumb, and immediately block push off with the right thumb, taking everything but the bottom card flush onto the face up pack. This is a simple and efficient way of losing the cover card from the switch earlier.

Losing the Queens

Flash the right hand’s card as a Queen, and place it into the face up deck second from bottom, and out-jogged for about half its length. The remaining three ‘Queens’ (actually Twos) are placed in various parts of the pack, all out-jogged slightly less than the bottommost Queen. This is so that you can brieﬂy display by turning the left hand palm down for a moment - the bottom Queen will cover the three up-jogged cards behind it.

Then, make a big deal about squaring the reversed cards in, and end up with the deck face down in left hand dealing grip. Get a break underneath the top card as you reach forwards to pick up the packet on the table (apparently the Twos) and drop that face up on top of all.

Finish all the work by performing a Pass at the break. Due to a complete lack of dedicated practice, I use a Herman style pass, covered by giving the deck a little shake.

Spread the top four cards to show that your Twos have changed into Queens - this comes as a nice, visual surprise.

The kicker though, is when you ribbon spread the deck face down on the table to show that the Twos are now, somehow, distributed throughout the pack!

Straight and Narrow

The four Aces are removed from the pack, and three are tabled face down in a row, while the last one, the Ace of Spades, is tabled face up as the ‘leader’ Ace.

A small packet of four black spot cards is also removed, but you decide four cards is too many, and one of them is placed onto the face up ‘leader’.

The ﬁrst Ace is slipped amongst the packet of spot cards, and vanishes without a trace!

You offer to repeat the trick with another Ace, but ﬁrst, you discard one of the indifferent cards onto the ‘leader’, in order to make the trick ‘easier to follow’. The second Ace goes into the indifferent cards, and again, vanishes without a trace.

By the time you discard another indifferent card onto the ‘leader’ Ace, and cause the third Ace to completely vanish from the packet, you are essentially accused of outright cheating, particularly when you claim all three Aces have vanished, without showing the identities of the three face down cards on the leader Ace.

However, despite the suspicions, you prove your claim. The Aces really have vanished, and you were playing it straight all along... the leader packet has changed to a Royal Flush, with no sign of the other Aces!

Backstory

Starting off with Peter Kane’s classic ‘Jazz Aces’, I took to experimenting with the timing of the reveals, as in vanishing the Aces ﬁrst, and revealing them all together at the end of the trick. Naturally, this was a disaster - the plot is so suggestive, that the ending of the routine basically consisted of just meeting your spectators expectations.

However, it occurred to me that if the ﬁnal location of the Aces was that obvious to spectators, then naturally revealing something else in the same location would be strong. The slight ‘sucker’ element of the trick leads them to all the wrong conclusions, and at the end, there is literally no place for them to go.

Technically, there were two elements that came together to really complete this piece. The ﬁrst being the Ed Marlo switch, originally shown to be by John Bannon, who uses it in his assembly... It is simple, natural looking, has a great choreography, and is just unknown enough to leave magicians a little in the dark as to what you have accomplished.

The second element was how to add in the extra card to the working packet to make the Royal Flush ending come about. Of course, the leader Ace and three face down cards account for King, Queen and Jack. The solution to produce the Ten so casually and unnoticed really did feel like the ﬁnishing touch.

Handling

From a shufﬂed pack, casually cut the Ten of Spades to the back of the deck as you spread through, either between tricks, or while removing and discarding the Jokers, etc.

Spead through the pack again, up-jogging the Aces as you come to them, and taking the opportunity to cull the ﬁrst two Royal Flush cards you come to under the spread. Culling two cards while you openly remove four is a pretty simple task, even for those still working on the technique.

End up with the pack face down in your left hand, and the Aces face up on top, with the Ace of Spades at the rear of the packet. Spread the cards to show the situation, and then ﬂip the Aces face down on top of the pack, retaining a break below them in the process, in readiness for a cunning Ed Marlo ruse.

Bold Substitution Laydown

Flip the top card of the pack face up, revealing the Ace of Spades, and make a comment about using it as the ‘leader’ Ace.

Your right hand apparently lifts of the Ace, in a Biddle Grip, but actually, the right hand takes the entire block of Aces, all the cards above the break. This can be quite covered to help conceal the thickness of the packet.

The left hand now deals it’s top three cards in a row, from left to right. These are apparently the remaining three Aces. Once they have been dealt out, the right hand replaces the block onto the deck, which is motivated by the right hand then adjusting the dealt cards, arranging them into a neat row. Finally, the Ace of Spades is dealt face up underneath the row.

Position Check!

Royal Flush Card, Royal Flush Card, Ten of Spades

Ace of Spades (face up)

Spread through the pack with the faces towards you, and up-jog any two black indifferent spot cards, then the last Royal Flush card, and then one more indifferent black card. Strip the packet out, and discard the rest of the deck, as it won’t be used again.

Elmsley count the packet face up, displaying four black spot cards for the ﬁrst time. Make a vague comment about four being a bit too many, and ﬂip the packet face down and deal the top card (one of the Royal Flush cards) onto the leader Ace.

Now, pick up the ‘Ace’ on the left hand side of the row, and slip it into the packet of black spot cards, second from top. Make a magic gesture and then ﬂip the packet face up and Elmsley Count, showing that the Ace has apparently vanished.

Repeat a second time, ﬂipping the packet face down and dealing the top card onto the leader packet with another vague comment about there being too many cards. Slip the central ‘Ace’ into the packet, and Elmsley count, showing the second vanish. This is where people start getting a little suspicious about the vanishes, which plays into your hands.

Apparently conﬁrm their suspicions by repeating the exact same sequence as before, only this time, after the Elmsley Count, deal the indifferent cards to the table one at a time, to the right of the leader packet, to show that the Aces really have ‘gone’. This also positions the Ten of Spades onto the face of the tabled packet, ready but unnoticed for the kicker ﬁnish.

Declare loudly that you have caused all three Aces to totally vanish, and express disbelief when you are accused of having simply sneaked them onto the leader Ace.

‘No, they really have gone - I was playing it straight all along!’.

Turn the three face down cards face up and arrange them into a row, giving you the sudden appearance of a Royal Flush in Spades, to end!

Final Thoughts

Ed Marlo’s ‘Bold Substitution Add-on’ appeared in Marlo’s Magazine, Volume 2, page 108.

Peter Kane published ‘Jazz Aces’, a classic take on the Ace Assembly plot, in ‘Another Card Session with Peter Kane’.

John Bannon (aka the Bannonator!) has also published a version of the Jazz Aces plot with the Royal Flush kicker. Check out ‘Boogie Woogie Aces’ from Smoke and Mirrors, page 87.

It was also John that bought the Ed Marlo move to my attention. See John’s ‘Four Shadow Aces’ from the Bullet Party DVD, or book of the same name on page 41.

Munchies

Four Kings are removed, shown, and then in classic fashion, consume three selections - a starter, main course, and dessert. All are digested, leaving just four cards behind.

However, all is not well - the Kings have over-eaten, and it has bought them out in spots... All four Kings have changed into Tens!

Backstory

This is one of the earliest tricks I remember creating, and quite how I have managed to publish as much as I have without recording it before now astonishes me.

Anyhow, now is the time.

Like all versions of the Cannibal King plot, this version is best played ‘tongue in cheek’ at the very least, and I play it very geeky. It suits the whacky plot, generally amuses people, and also lowers their expectations of the actual magic, which is a good bonus - it makes the actual climax and kicker all the more powerful.

Originally, I simply changed to Kings to Aces, with little more presentational ﬂair than “Ta-Dah! They are Aces!”. The line about them coming out in spots is, I believe, a Roy Walton idea.

Chris Kenner uses a Don England line for the same plot, but the Kings change to Eights... because they ‘eight and eight and eight and eight’ in his version of this plot, published in ‘Out of Control’ and entitled ‘Diet’.

Either is good, and certainly better than just going “ACES!!”

Handling

Begin with a shufﬂed pack and spread through, face up, up-jogging the Kings as you come to them, and taking the opportunity to cull the four Tens, to the back of the deck.

Spread the pack again brieﬂy in your hands as you make a comment, (I explain about the Kings being cannibals, and point out the weapons they all carry) before picking up a break above the bottom ﬁve cards (that is, the four Tens plus one extra indifferent card). After this, the pack is in left hand dealing grip.

The Vernon Addition

This wicked move is going to do a lot of the work for us here, ultimately switching out the Kings right at the beginning, and also positioning them underneath a cover card without any further displacements, as you will see in a moment.

To do the move, grip the pack at the inner right hand corner with the right hand, fingers below and thumb on top. Note that the right hand grabs the pack only, and not the five cards below the little finger break.

The right hand now freezes in place, as the left hand moves forward from under the pack, pulling the Kings out, and directly on to the ﬁve cards that it took with it, that were under the break. There is no need to maintain the break, simply allow the Kings to fall ﬂush.

Openly drop the face up deck on top of all, and then ﬂip the whole lot face down and spread off the top four cards (apparently the Kings) taking them into the right hand. The remainder of the deck is tabled, and cut into three packets.

Turn over the top card of each packet, calling these the ‘victims’. Note that there is a little subtle touch here - an indifferent card shows up on each packet.

You are now going to repeat the same eating sequence with all three of the face up cards, as follows.

Take one of the face up cards, and drop it onto the face down packet (which, of course, you refer to as Kings throughout) and then cut the top two cards to the bottom as you explain that the Cannibals surround their victim.

Do whatever magical gesture you like, and then Elmsley Count to show four face down cards. The ﬁrst face up card has apparently been ‘eaten’ and vanished. I will typically display the packet by pushing over the ﬁrst three cards, and holding the last two as one, to give some credibility to the Count technique.

Repeat the same sequence twice more, causing all the selections to vanish, and as you square the packet up on the ﬁnal time, secure a little ﬁnger break above the bottom three cards. Because of the reversed nature of this cards, there is often a natural break that you can use by lifting up with your right thumb.

You want to now act like the trick is over, and make a vague comment about the Kings as you perform the following actions.

With the right hand, grip all the cards above the break between the right thumb (which goes into the break) and the right ﬁngers on top of the packet, and lift the cards off and upwards, fanning them slightly as you do so.

At the same time, the left hand simply turns inwards with it’s reversed cards and drops them straight onto one of the tabled packets; whichever happens to be closest. In a continuing action, the left hand picks the packet up, and drops it onto another, and then picks those combined packets up and drops them onto the last one. You are apparently simply tidying the cards away.

This transfer move, like all the similar ones, requires a certain conﬁdence in your misdirection, and a completely casual attitude. With those two things in place, you will invisibly be cleaning up right in front of everyone.

Make a vague comment about the Kings and how they have digested their three courses already, and then openly display that there are only four cards in the packet by taking two in each hand, all the time keeping the backs to the spectators.

For many, this is a strong moment, and feels like the end of the trick.

This is of course the perfect time to hit them with the kicker, and state that in fact, they ate too much, and have come out in spots...

Reveal the cards to now be the Tens. You should get a really great reaction from this, because the Kings were switched out before the trick even started, and your constant referring to the packet as Kings reinforces the false state of play.

Toss the cards to the table to end.

Final Thoughts

The Roy Walton routine that features the ‘spots’ line is called ‘Return of the Cannibals’ and appears in The Complete Walton Volume 1, page 131. It is a superb routine, and well worth checking out.

Chris Kenner’s ‘Diet’ routine appears in Out of Control, page 48.

King King Thing Thing

Four Kings are displayed and placed into separate parts of the pack. With a single rifﬂe, they jump into different places, the ﬁrst appearing on the face of the deck, the second appearing under the card box, the third on top of the pack, and the last one from your pocket.

The pack is shuffled again, and the spectator is given the opportunity to try the effect. They riffle the pack as you did, and find the Kings have jumped again, and they remove them from the face of the deck, under the card box, from the top of the box, and the one in your pocket!

Backstory

The plot belongs to Richard Sanders, and was called ‘King Thing’ and appeared on his ‘Sanders Show’ DVDs.

Cameron Francis showed me a version that worked from a borrowed shufﬂed pack, which was later published in his ‘Moments Notice’ ebooks, and since then, it has been a plot that Cameron, Dave Forrest and myself have published various versions of.

This one keeps the simple and impromptu handling, but also adds the repeat phase, which plays very strongly and comes at the cost of just a double undercut or two.

Handling

Begin by subtly moving the card box to a position in front of you, or, if using this as an opener, simply place the case there when you remove the cards to begin.

Spread through the face up pack and transfer the four Kings to the face of the deck, openly, as you come to them. When you have all four there, spread over the top few cards to display, and then close up, getting a little ﬁnger break below the uppermost eight cards.

Lift off the block with the right hand, taking it in Biddle Grip, and then ﬂip the deck face down in the left hand. Replace the block onto the top of the deck, maintaining the break, and again display the Kings by pushing off the ﬁrst three cards.

Flip all the cards above the break face down onto the pack, and spread off the top four cards into the right hand, taking them in a spread, and grabbing a little ﬁnger break below the top card of the left hand packet at the same time (the uppermost King).

The Box Load

Now we are going to load the ﬁrst King secretly under the box. This is motivated by your desire to table the spread of Kings in your right hand on the table, in the position that the card case currently occupies.

So, pick up the card box with the left hand, taking it onto the top of the deck by turning the left hand palm down as you pick it up.

Table the right hand spread in the space that the box used to be on, and then pick up the card case with the right hand, also secretly taking the card above your break as well. Table the box and the card secretly underneath it off to the left hand side.

Position Check

Four cards are on the table that the spectators believe to be Kings. In fact, they are indifferent cards. The ﬁrst King is underneath the card case to your left, and the remaining three are on the top of the pack.

Double cut the top King to the bottom, and then fan the pack in your left hand, so that your right can pick up the indifferent cards from the table and place them into different parts of the fan, to apparently lose all the Kings into different places.

Very fairly close the fan and square up all the edges.

The Productions

1. Rifﬂe the pack and turn it face up, revealing that the ﬁrst King has appeared on the face of the pack. Name it (assume Clubs for the description) and then apparently lose it back into the deck, actually just double cutting it from the face to the rear.

2. Flip the deck face down and then riffle it at the card box, ideally making it move a little. Get a little finger break below the top card as your right hand lifts up the card box, and places it directly onto the pack in your left hand, revealing a face down card. Have a spectator flip it face up to reveal the second King, and take the opportunity to table the card box, and the card directly below it, exactly as before.

3. Take back the second King and apparently lose it in the pack, but actually putting it second from top using the Tilt or Depth Illusion Move. As the King goes in, get a break below it, and top palm the top two cards as you square the pack up. Drop the pack to the table, and your right hand to your side, as your left hand makes a gesture over the pack and then turns the top card face up to reveal the third King. Again mention the suit, and then ﬂip it face down onto the pack.

4. Reveal the ﬁnal King by placing the right hand into one of your pockets, ditching the palmed cards, and coming out with the one nearest your palm. Display it as the ﬁnal King. Drop it face down onto the top of the pack to complete the productions.

Double cut the top card to the bottom, and do a quick rifﬂe shufﬂe retaining top and bottom stock if you like.

The Reproductions

Table the deck in front of the spectator and offer them a go (or ideally, wait until they ask to see the trick again...)

Then simply have them snap their ﬁngers over the pack, and reveal the Kings have jumped back. Direct the spectator to check the face of the deck, then under the card case, then the top of the pack, and ﬁnally your pocket for the last one.

Final Thoughts

This approach to the plot (minus the repeat phase) was inspired by ‘The Unreal Work’ by John Bannon, from Impossiblia, page 6.

The idea of adding the repeat phase comes from Mike Close, and his ‘Stupid Travellers’ routine from Workers Number 5.

Britland Twist

Four Jacks are removed from the deck, and two turned face up, one at the bottom of the packet, and one at the top. Somehow though, when ‘twisted’, the Jacks are all face down.

This is repeated, this time with the packet being spread to display the condition before the ‘twist’. Again, the Jacks still correct themselves.

You explain how the trick works, that actually, the twist has nothing to do with it - the Jacks do it themselves, and indeed they do, this time correcting themselves even without the twist!

Finally, you comment that this is a trick traditionally done with the Aces. A face up Ace of Spades appears, and then changes the packet into the four Aces to end.

Backstory

This is one of those routines that simply came into existence gradually. The twisting part belongs to David Britland, and I found it in ‘Deckade’ as ‘Jackrobatics’ and then later in ‘Equinox’, published as ‘Dust Busters’, where it had a new kicker.

I tweaked the handling at the beginning, and managed to remove some displacements that occur near the end of ‘Dust Busters’, and add in a climax where all four cards in play change, rather than just two.

Finally, I also tweaked the set up a little. In David’s original, the two Jacks that are turned face up are always the same colour. I deliberately manage the situation so that the face up Jacks are a different colour. That way, the impression is that any Jacks could turn up and be used, which leads to greater conviction that the packet consists of four Jacks all the way through. A minor point, for sure, but I think it makes the ﬁnal change into Aces that little bit stronger.

Handling

There is a small set up involved. Remove the Ace of Spades, Clubs and Hearts from your pack, and arrange them as follows. Drop the Ace of Spades face UP onto the face down deck, then the face down Ace of Hearts onto that, and the face down Ace of Clubs on top.

With that done, you are ready to perform.

Start with the deck face up in your left hand, and spread through, removing the Jacks as you come to them. Turn the deck face down again, and drop the Jacks onto the pack so that they alternate in colour (or so that one pair is between the others, for example Red, Black, Black, Red, or vice versa).

Pick up a break below the top seven cards, which is below the reversed Ace of Spades. If there isn’t enough of a natural break, I will just lift up and rifﬂe with the

right thumb. Because the Jacks are square at this point, it just looks like I am separating them from the remainder of the deck.

Anyway, once your break is in place, you can display the Jacks again by pushing over the top three cards with the left thumb, bringing all four into view, taking the opportunity to slightly down jog the second Jack that you take into your right hand.

Apparently flip the Jacks face down, but actually flip over all of the cards below the break, and then push down on the in-jogged card, allowing your right hand to lift off the top five cards in a simple action. The rest of the deck is tabled and not used again.

Use an OPEC count to show the Jacks start off all face down (the OPEC, or ‘Out of Position Elmsley Count’ is an Ed Marlo idea, and just involves taking the bottom card of the packet on the count of one. The rest of the cards are counted in typical Elsmley Count fashion)

Push over the top card, and take it, turning it face up as you slip it to the bottom of the packet, leaving it in-jogged for about an inch. Then ﬂip over the next card from the top, and leave that out-jogged for about an inch. This displays two Jacks, with apparently the other two face down in the middle.

Square the packet, and then do the Vernon ‘Through the Fist Flourish’ by turning the left hand palm down, and pushing the packet through the hand with the left thumb. The right hand grabs the packet as it emerges, and then Elmsley Count to show all the Jacks have turned face down.

Repeat the twisting sequence again, but this time when you have the Jacks in- jogged and out-jogged, place your right foreﬁnger where the out-jogged Jack and ﬁrst face down card meet, and smoothly push them both forward for about half of an inch. This will make a little spread, perfectly showing two face up and two face down Jacks.

Again, square everything, do the ‘Through the Fist Flourish’ and Elmsley Count to show the packet is all face down.

Explain that many people assume that it’s the magic move that corrects the Jacks, but actually it is the cards themselves. Repeat the ﬁrst twist phase (that is, the usual procedure but without spreading to show all four cards) but instead of using the ‘Through the Fist’ move, simply and openly turn the packet face down before Elmsely counting.

All Change

Happily, no displacements are necessary to head into the kicker ﬁnish. Make a comment about how traditionally, this trick was done with the Aces, and you will use the Jacks to catch one.

Make a magic gesture, and Elmsley Count, up-jogging the Ace of Spades as you come to it. Remove it from the packet, then ﬂip it face down on top.

Do the Through the First Flourish to reveal another Ace, and then Elmsley Count to show that all the Jacks have apparently changed to Aces. Cut the packet back into the deck to ﬁnish up.

Final Thoughts

David Britland’s ‘Dust Busters’ routine, on which mine is heavily based throughout, was published in his book Equinox, on page 41.

Cheater

“You know, people often ask me about playing cards, but being a magician, I always refuse to play. I mean, if you win they say “Well you would do, you’re a magician!” and if you lose its “You’re a magician and you can’t even win at cards?” So, I don’t play or cheat. But I know how to, and if you play any cards, I’ll show you how to get one up on everyone else!”

You bring out a deck of cards and give it a casual shufﬂe (as opposed to a formal one, where your ﬁngers have a shirt and tie).

“Let us say that you are playing Black Jack and you want to make sure you win. Start off, before the game, by removing a hand that is going to win.”

Spreading through the face up deck, you remove the Jack and Ace of Spades.

“Now, if you are going to be dealing, you need to have one card face up and one card face down, as that is how the dealers’ cards fall in Black Jack. Then the ﬁnal preparation is tucking them somewhere nobody will ever think of looking…”

Following actions to words, you place the Jack and Ace together, face to face, and then tuck them both into your sleeve with a cheeky smile. That is, your cheeky smile, not the one on your sleeve.

“Then when it comes to the actual game, you will ﬁnd that you get a hand that isn’t so good. We’ll take these cards as an example, as they add up to sixteen which is the lowest hand you can keep in Black Jack.”

Spreading through the deck again, you remove two cards that add up to sixteen, say a red Nine and red Seven.

“Then all you need to do to win all the cash on the table is secretly swap one hand for the other, and scoop up all the chips.”

In just an instant, the indifferent cards change into the Jack and Ace of Spades, making the winning hand, which you place onto the table.

“And you can sort out the hidden cards that are up your sleeve when nobody else is looking, to ﬁnish…”

You conclude the effect by openly pulling out the indifferent cards from your sleeve and placing them onto the table, to end the effect.

Handling

It is super easy to set up for this on the ﬂy, but for now we will assume that you will start with the cards in position.

Place the Nine of Hearts face down on top, with the Seven of Diamonds face up underneath.

“Let us say that you are playing Black Jack and you want to make sure you win. Start off, before the game, by removing a hand that is going to win.”

Bring out the deck, give it a bit of a false shufﬂe or cut, and turn it face up and spread through, up-jogging the Ace of Spades and Jack of Spades as you come to them.

Although it is not essential, you can make life easier later by keeping your eyes out for the other red nine and seven as you go through. When you come to “randomly” removing them later, it looks a lot more casual if you know roughly where they are.

Strip them out with the right hand and display them at chest height, taking the opportunity to ﬂip the deck face down in the left hand and secure a little ﬁnger break underneath the top two cards (the set up).

Any technique is ﬁne here – you could use the natural break, pinky count or even spread them over and pull back if you let the left hand drop naturally to your side and out of sight.

Bring the hands together and place the right hand cards face up onto the deck, maintaining your break which is now under four cards.

Position Check

Your right hand now holds four cards in Biddle Grip. They are, from the top down, the face up Jack and Ace of Spades, then a face down red Seven and a face up red Nine (or vice versa).

You are now ready to switch the two pairs as you apparently place the spades face to face, using a Richard Kaufman Radical Change style move.

Come over with the right hand and grip all four cards above the break from above, in what is known as Biddle Grip, shown in the picture below.

The left thumb then lies across the uppermost card, and holds it in place as the right hand pulls its packet to the right.

This action, basically a slip cut, leaves one of the spades face up on the deck, and the other apparently in the right hand. In reality, the right hand is holding a triple, as shown below.

Note that you can casually ﬂash the back of the triple if you want to – as long as the right hand is kept in motion then the thickness will not be noticed.

Flip the right hand triple face down onto the left hand cards and immediately pick up the top two face to face cards with the right hand, ﬂashing both sides before placing the packet into your left sleeve.

Deliver the lines above and then ﬂip the deck face up and spread through, up- jogging this time the other red cards that match the ones in your sleeve. In our case, that would be the Nine of Diamonds and the Seven of Hearts.

Now, I partake in a small subterfuge here. I up-jog the ﬁrst card, and then I up-jog an indifferent card next to the second one, say the Ten of Clubs.

I comment along the lines of “We’ll use these two, making a total of 19… actually; we’ll use this one, because that makes 16, which is the lowest hand you can have in Black Jack.”

Now, I’m not an actor by ANY means, and unless you are, I would say not to overdo it. The idea is to just casually imply that the cards you are removing are completely random, and this little touch, played correctly, helps put that idea across. If you are in any doubt, you can leave it out and just up-jog the cards you need straight off.

Either way, you repeat go straight into the exact same set of actions as before, starting by displaying the red nine and seven in the right hand as you ﬂip the deck face down in the left hand and secure a break beneath the top two cards (the face to face spades).

“Then all you need to do to win all the cash on the table is secretly swap one hand for the other, and scoop up all the chips.”

Place both of the cards face up onto the deck as before, retaining the break underneath the top four cards. You are going to repeat the Radical Change variation, only this time you are going to do it as a colour change, instead of a switch. The starting position is shown below.

So, when you ﬂip the right hand triple face down, immediately thumb the top card of the pack off to the right, exposing the spade underneath.

The right hand ﬂips it face up, displaying both face up spades brieﬂy before tabling them separately from the deck.

Note that if you are familiar with Richard Kaufman’s Radical Change (a similar move but with a snapping kind of action) then you could use that here instead if you preferred).

“And you can sort out the hidden cards that are up your sleeve when nobody else is looking, to ﬁnish.”

Conclude the transposition by removing the ‘impromptu duplicates’ with the right hand and display them before dropping them to the table.

Final Thoughts

You have two options to resolve the reversed card that resides second from top of the deck. Either a K.M move can be used to straighten it up, or palm the top two cards off and ditch them in a pocket. This is what I do, because when I palm them back out and onto the top of the deck, it resets me for next time.

The other comment is just about using the ‘impromptu duplicates’ – it is a bold ploy, but extremely effective in this case, as the routine calls attention naturally to the values of the indifferent cards, but never the suits, which leads to the effectiveness of the ploy.

However, if you do use the palm to reset, it might be worth mentioning that using two exact duplicates could be used, and that palming them out would leave you with a full regular deck to carry on working with.

As a ﬁnal note, this routine originally appeared on “The Wicked World of Liam Montier” Volume 1 DVD, published by Big Blind Media.

By the way, why isn’t a Half Pass just called a Pa?

Retarded Departure

Jack Tighe and Liam Montier

“People always ask me how I do these tricks. Well the secret is that it is all done with camera tricks. Now, I know you can’t see camera, but that’s the trick. No, don’t laugh at that. Anyway, here is something weird to show you what I mean. Four queens’ right? Wrong. This is a Four of Clubs, an Ace of Hearts, a Pokemon card and Monopoly bank note...all camera tricks.”

A deck of cards is spread out and the four Queens are up-jogged, stripped out and placed aside.

“Don’t give me that look. Here, grab one of these out...great.”

Now a card is selected, and signed if you feel the need.

“Right now watch carefully. If I slide that in with the four queens and get the lighting just right then it looks like it vanishes. Damn I’m good!”

The selection is placed between the Queens and is clearly seen as the packet is counted from hand to hand. However, with a magical gesture, the Queens are counted again and the selection has vanished from the packet.

“Of course, it has to be somewhere. Let’s leave these girls here and check the deck. It sometimes appears there… See, if we spread through the deck, it looks a lot like one card appears face down in the middle. Could it be your card?”

The Queens are placed off to one side as you pick up the deck and spread through it face up, revealing just a single face down card in the centre of the pack. You remove the card and hold it in your left hand.

“Well, frankly, no. The camera is playing tricks again, and this isn’t one card, it is the four Queens! Which means these four Queens must be your card!”

The face down card in your left hand splits into four, which are ﬂipped face up to cleanly reveal all four Queens! Attention is directed back to the packet that you tabled, and it naturally turns out to be just the single selection!

Handling

“… Anyway, here is something weird to show you what I mean. Four queens’ right? Wrong. This is a Four of Clubs, an Ace of Hearts, a Pokemon card and Monopoly bank note...all camera tricks.”

Begin by spreading through the deck and removing the four Queens, taking them in the left hand. The rest of the pack is tabled, still face up, just in front of you.

The starting position is shown below.

As you begin your presentation, arrange the Queens so that they are in Red, Black, Black, Red order (or vice versa), and then ﬂip them face down in the left hand, securing a little ﬁnger break beneath the top one.

Invite the spectator to cut the pack on the table to select a card, and use the right hand to pick up the original lower packet in Biddle Grip. (This is the packet with the selected card at the face).

Peel the face up selection onto the packet of face down Queens in your left hand, but as you do so, use the Biddle Steal, so the Queen above your break is added onto the bottom of the right hand packet. Here is the steal in action.

Drop the right hand packet back onto the tabled one.

Position Check

Your left hand is holding three face down Queens and a face up selection, while on the table is the deck, face up, with one of the Queens reversed in the centre.

“Right now watch carefully. If I slide that in with the four queens and get the lighting just right then it looks like it vanishes. Damn I’m good!”

Suiting actions to words, lift off the selection and turn it face down, and smoothly insert it into the packet, just underneath the top card. Then ﬂip the packet face up and hold it in position for an Elmsley style count.

Count through the packet, apparently showing that nothing has happened yet, and the selection is still safe and sound, by peeling one card, and then replacing it back underneath the packet as you peel off the second one. Count the rest of the packet normally, which displays the selection trapped in the centre of four (?) Queens.

Perform your magical gesture, and then use a regular Elmsley Count to show the selection has apparently vanished. If you don’t know the Elmsley Count (which seems pretty unlikely to me!) here is a brief description.

The Elmsley Count

Card #1 - Holding the packet again in the right hand pinch grip, peel off the ﬁrst card with the left thumb into left hand dealing grip.

Card #2 – Once the ﬁrst card has been removed, the right thumb presses down and then to the left, pushing two cards together as a block. The left hand comes over and ﬁrstly leaves its card behind, at the back of the right hand packet, before clamping down on the outer left corner of the slightly side-jogged double and pulling it free on the count of two.

Card #3 and #4 – The remaining cards in the right hand are counted fairly, one at a time, onto the ones in the left hand. It is important however not to rush the counting of these cards. The Elmsley Count is most deceptive when the rhythm is consistent.

With the count complete, immediately ﬂip the packet face down and spread the packet, clearly showing that you only have four cards in play.

You now comment that when the card vanishes, it often reappears in the deck. This is stated to pull attention away from the packet and to the tabled cards, providing you ample opportunity to Gamblers Cop the bottom three cards in the left hand, while the right hand lifts off the face down selection and places it down off to the left.

These pictures show the basic gamblers cop grip (on the left), and how these cards are covered by the selection, with an exposed view on the right.

Once the right hand tables the selection carefully (as if it were a packet) it then picks up the deck, and places it face up straight onto the copped cards in the left hand. It is very simple to keep a little ﬁnger break above the three copped cards as the deck goes into place.

“See, if we spread through the deck, it looks a lot like one card appears face down in the middle. Could it be your card? “

Spread through the face up cards until you come to the reversed card in about the middle of the pack and up-jog it.

You are now going to head into the big kicker climax. As you strip out the up-jogged reversed card, you are going to secretly add the three reversed Queens underneath the pack using Dai Vernon’s Strip Out Addition.

If you don’t know the move, it’s pretty straight forward. Start off by holding the pack face up, with the up-jogged card, in the left hand. The right hand grips the inner end of the deck, thumb above and ﬁngers underneath the deck, but above the little ﬁnger break.

The right hand then pulls the deck inwards, allowing the left hand (with the Queens resting in dealers grip underneath the pack) to strip the face down, up-jogged card straight onto the other Queens, reuniting all four of them. The picture below shows this from head on, the spectators view.

“Well, frankly, no. The camera is playing tricks again, and this isn’t one card, it is the four Queens! Which means these four Queens must be your card!”

The right hand tables the deck off to one side, and then reveals the single card has apparently changed into the packet of Queens by ﬂipping them face up and spreading them out.

This picture shows the ﬁnishing position.

Call attention to the single face down card on the table that was masquerading as the Queens, and reveal that the packet has changed into the selection, while in full view, to end.

Jack Says…

I really wish you could all have seen version one of this routine. It used all kinds of unnecessary complicated moves including but not limited to:

An ATFUS An unjustiﬁed cut displacement The Asher Twist A palm from the face of the packet.

It was about as much fun as getting jiggy with some sandpaper.

Then one sunny afternoon Liam decided he was going to cut out 90% of the handling, replace it all with a single Biddle steal and still keep the effect exactly the same. That’s how he rolls.

My world immediately became a much safer, less stressful place because of this, and I started being able to enjoy the simple things again.

Collectable

Jack Tighe and Liam Montier

“You often hear that you “can’t make something with nothing” (although surely theft is an exception?) but that is pretty much exactly what we are going to do. You will see what I mean in a moment. First of all, I’m going to remove three cards, we will come back to those in a moment.”

Two cards are now selected and shown (and signed if you like) before being returned to the pack out-jogged. The three cards placed aside at the beginning are picked up and shown to be three Queens.

“Now, it may look like I’m going to use the three Queens, but actually, I will be using nothing. I will be using the spaces in between the Queens do something sexy cool.”

The Queens are counted onto the pack, and then cut into centre so that everyone can clearly see the out-jogged selections and the Queens occupy very different spaces in the pack.

“It is entirely possible that you will see it happen here. I’m just going to ﬂick through the pack, but keep your eye right on it! Not literally, obviously, as I am uninsured.”

Everything is very slowly squared, and then the outer edge of the pack rifﬂed and then spread to reveal two cards between the Queens! The cards are shown to be the selections!

“I always give my public what they want, and the second most popular request (after “Go away or I’m calling the police”) is “hey, I wasn’t paying attention, do that crazy trick again!”

The selections are stripped out of the Queens and replaced again into clearly separate parts of the pack.

“This time it is easier to keep an eye on things as well, I’ll leave the Queens on top this time.”

The out-jogged selections are again pushed in square and immediately the Queens are spread, revealing that they have again impossibly caught the two selections!

Handling

“First of all, I’m going to remove three cards, we will come back to those in a moment.”

Spread through the pack with the faces towards you, and remove three of a kind (in our case, three of the Queens). Make sure that you don’t display them, although it is certainly no problem if a spectator catches a glimpse of them casually.

As you do this, you may like to take the time to cut or position the fourth Queen to the top (or very near the top) of the pack. The only reason for this is to avoid confusion – if you are only using three Queens, and the fourth one gets selected, the overall picture can be confusing.

Note that this can also be avoided by using Jokers instead of Queens, as some packs come with three jokers, and the others will have two, and often an advertising card with a back design printed on one side.

Anyway, now we are going to have the selections chosen and controlled via a VERY underused move – the centre double lift.

Centre Double Lift

Begin by holding the pack face down in the left hand dealing grip, and rifﬂe down the corner with the left thumb, asking a spectator to call stop as you do so. Try to time it so that you are near the bottom of the pack, although this isn’t essential.

Once stop has been called, enter your right thumb into the break point and quietly let two cards riffle off your left thumb. The right forefinger now enters at the new break your left thumb is holding, and by pinching your right thumb and forefinger together, you will be gripping a double card.

You can either pull the double straight out and turn it onto the deck end for end, or pivot the double out of the pack by spinning it on the left second ﬁnger, as is shown in the picture below. This takes more practice, but either way, you are left with a selection apparently face up on top of the pack.

Have the card signed if that’s what you want to do, and then ﬂip the double face down and lift off the top card. Replace it “roughly where it came from” and leave it out-jogged for about a third of its length, near the bottom of the pack.

Repeat the centre double lift, this time trying to time it so the spectator calls stop in the upper part of the pack. Note that the out-jogged indifferent card towards the bottom makes no difference to the repeat handling. Again ﬂip the double face down and put the top card out-jogged into the pack, this time nearer the top.

“Now, it may look like I’m going to use the three Queens, but actually, I will be using nothing. I will be using the spaces in between the Queens do something sexy cool.”

With the right hand, scoop up the three Queens as your left hand secures a little ﬁnger break below the top card of the pack. Place the face up Queens onto the deck, maintaining the break. As you talk about using the spaces between the Queens, an ATFUS style sequence is used to load the selections between them. It goes like this…

With the right hand, pick up the four cards above your little ﬁnger break plus one more, but keeping a right thumb break between this second selection and the rest of the packet.

Situation Check

The right hand is holding three face up Queens, a face down selection, a break, and the other face down selection.

Peel the ﬁrst Queen onto the deck using the left thumb. As you peel the second Queen onto the ﬁrst, the right thumb drops the selection below its break onto the pack. Finally, the remaining card (actually a double) in the right hand is placed on top of all.

This simple display is just done casually as you make a comment about using the spaces between the cards. In doing so, you have loaded the selections between the Queens.

Cut the pack (either in the hands or to the table) somewhere between the ﬁrst and second up-jogged card. This positions the Queens in the middle of the pack, and the out-jogged cards clearly above and below them. Remember, the spectator still think these are the selections.

Note that if you prefer a more visual approach, you could simply push both ‘selections’ square and then vanish the Queens with a Rifﬂe Pass, which certainly adds ﬂair, at the cost of your social life.

“It is entirely possible that you will see it happen here. I’m just going to ﬂick through the pack, but keep your eye right on it! Not literally, obviously, as I am uninsured.”

Slowly push everything square, and then rifﬂe the outer edge of the pack at a medium pace. People will see the Queens ﬂick past, and may even pick up on the fact that there are now cards between them. This can obviously be sold as them “having seen it happen”.

Spread through the deck until you reach the ﬁrst Queen, and table the right hands cards. The left hand then pushes the Queens and selections into the right hand, but up-jogs the ﬁrst selection for about half of its length, and the second selection about a third.

Turn the right hand palm down to reveal that the two signed selections have appeared caught between the Queens, and act like the trick is over. Quietly get a little ﬁnger break above the bottom card of the left hand packet using either a pull down or buckle.

The Repeat

“This time it is easier to keep an eye on things as well, I’ll leave the Queens on top this time.”

Once the reaction has died down, square the right hand packet onto the left hand cards, but leave the selections out-jogged.

Now, because they were up-jogged by different positions during the display, you will now ﬁnd that the upper selection is up-jogged further than the second one.

Exploit this by pushing the lower selection back into the packet with the left foreﬁnger (this is a Marlo idea). Note that this is completely covered by the upper selection.

See the pictures below for an exposed view.

Now pinch the left hand packet with the right hand thumb on top and fingers below at the inner right corner. Make sure that your right fingers go into the little finger break you are still holding, so the bottom card of the entire packet is loose, while the rest are pinched by the right hand. Pull the right hand back, towards your body, taking the majority of the packet with it, but strip out the up-jogged card with the left hand, which also takes the bottom card of the packet along with it.

Thanks to the Dai Vernon Strip Out Addition, the left hand will be left holding two cards that look for the entire world like they were stripped out from between the Queens. In reality, the lower one is an indifferent card, and the upper one is a selection.

Deal the top one to the table, and then drop the other card onto the tabled packet, up-jogged for half its length or so. Bury it by dropping the right hand packet on top.

Do this casually, and sometimes the top Queen will spread a little, revealing another one underneath, which is a strong convincer that you really did strip out the actual selections.

Pick up the main pack in dealing grip, and with the right hand scoop up the tabled selection, and ﬂash the face of it as your left hand secures a Tilt break below the top Queen.

Push the right hand card into the Tilt break, again leaving it out-jogged for half of its length. Although the picture below shows the card in Tilt position, note that in performance, you would also have a card out-jogged from the front of the pack.

This is a very strong position again, as the spectators can clearly see the apparent selections sticking out of different parts of the pack, while the Queens are on top of the pack, and haven’t been handled at all.

Again slowly square everything in, and then immediately spread the top ﬁve cards into the right hand, revealing the selections have again been caught immediately between the Queens!

Liam Says…

This wicked routine was one that we both worked on for a while, after realising that neither of us had used a Collectors style effect.

The reason was mostly (at least in my case) that I always found having three selections found between four Aces just involved a lot of dead time as they were chosen, controlled (and sometimes even signed) and then interlaced, particularly when the effect is normally so short.

However, that isn’t how Collectors was originally – the idea of using four of a kind and three selections was Ed Marlo’s extension of Roy Walton’s original plot. Roy Walton’s original effect and routine used two selections and three cards, and in terms of clarity of effect and directness of handling, this is deﬁnitely (for me, at least) the best approach.

Then, when Jack and I created the repeat phase, it was obvious that the whole routine could be turned minimalist, with a very clean and surprising repeat.

In terms of this routine, I sometimes extend it with a final phase – I perform it up to the final reveal, but I flip the selections face up and put them back between the Queens as I have a spectator check that the signatures are genuine. The whole lot is dropped face up onto the face down pack, and the routine has apparently ended.

In this moment of relaxation, I then cut off the top half of the pack and peel the cards into my left hand, using the Biddle Steal to steal both selections. The pack is reunited, and then I call attention back to the routine by commenting that I can even do the routine in reverse.

A quick false count (a Hamman Count is ideal) reinforces the belief that things are still as they should be, and then I snap the packet face up to reveal the selections have vanished, and I’m just holding the three Queens. The spectator now spreads the deck, face down, to disclose the two signed cards face up in the centre of the deck, having apparently this time vanished from between the Queens and returned to the centre.

One ﬁnal note – I now always use the “Swain Simplicity Control” after discovering that you can use it repeatedly to bring multiple selections to the top of the pack. This very cool move can be found in “Miracles With Cards” by James Swain, on page 45.

Jack Says…

I like this routine almost as much as I like Coca-Cola (and a damn sight more than I like country music).

One of the things that really makes my ears perk up here is the cleanliness of the handling. In both phases the selections are clearly totally separate from each other AND from the Queens, which is why the collection hits the spectators harder than a wrecking ball.

The other thing that makes me happy inside is the repeat second phase. It’s rare to see collectors done as more than a one phase routine, and most handlings that deal with a repeat are weighed down with palms and add ons, all kinds of weird loading moves and other less than joyful things.

Use this, it will make you smile.

Final Thoughts

Inspiration to tackle the Collectors with a repeat came from John Bannon, and his routine Chain Gang, which was originally offered as a promotional download from www.bigblindmedia.com

Whispersition

Liam Montier and Jack Tighe

“Let me show you something that WON’T get me arrested. It uses three Queens… no really, it’s ﬁne”

The performer spreads through the pack and removes three Queens and leaves them face up on the table. Two spectators then take a card each, which are left face down on the table, underneath their hands.

“Now these Queens are very good at ﬁnding out everything there is to know about other cards. Let me show you what I mean.”

The ﬁrst face down selection is placed amongst the Queens, which then “whisper” the name of the selection to the performer.

“They can do this because they have tiny eyes and tiny mouths. At least, I think they are tiny. Maybe they are normal, and we are giants…”

This is repeated with the second selection, which is again revealed when the Queens whisper the selections name!

“And now they know the names of the cards, they can do some cool tricks with them. Check this out!”

The ﬁrst selection is cut into the pack, and apparently reappears amongst the Queens. On removing it and turning it over, it is seen to be the second one!

The ﬁrst selection is found pinned to the table by the second spectators sweaty palm!

Handling

“Let me show you something that WON’T get me arrested. It uses three Queens… no really, it’s ﬁne”

Spread through the cards and remove three Queens, placing them face up on top of the face down pack. Aim to have them so that the odd colour is the centre one of the three – you will either have Red Queen, Black Queen, Red Queen, or vice versa.

Comment that you need two other cards chosen, and spread the pack between your hands, having two cards removed. Direct the spectators to place them onto the table, and cover them with their hands.

Pick up at the in-jog so you lift off your three face up Queens plus one extra face down card behind them, and table the deck off to the side, as you won’t need it again until the very end of the effect.

“Now these Queens are very good at ﬁnding out everything there is to know about other cards. Let me show you what I mean.”

Pick up the ﬁrst selection, show it to the spectators if they haven’t already looked, and then place it second from bottom of the Queen packet, using a buckle or little ﬁnger pull down.

Explain that the Queens just need a little time to ‘get to know’ the selection, and perform an Elmsley count, out-jogging the face down card that appears third. Remove this card (apparently the selection) and then take the packet of Queens in Biddle Grip and hold them up to your right ear, apparently to hear them whisper.

In reality, it is so that you can glimpse the selection on the bottom of the packet, and name it.

“They can do this because they have tiny eyes and tiny mouths. At least, I think they are tiny. Maybe they are normal, and we are giants…”

Repeat the exact same sequence to switch and reveal the second selection.

“And now they know the names of the cards, they can do some cool tricks with them. Check this out!”

Have the ﬁrst spectator drop their card onto the pack and cut it, thus losing their selection in the middle of the pack. Of course, they have actually just lost the indifferent card.

Elmsley count to show that a face down card has re-appeared back between the Queens, and imply that this is the selection just lost in the pack. Once you have done the count, you can fairly spread the cards to show that everything is (nearly) as it should be.

Finish up by removing the face down card from the spread and snapping it face up to show the second selection!

Invite the second spectator to ﬂip their card over to reveal the ﬁrst selection!

“No, I’m not sure how that works either…”

Liam Says…

You know a routine is well constructed when you just can’t stop performing it just to yourself. That is exactly how I felt (and still feel) about “Stage Shout” by Roy Walton, and “Leap Frog” by Dave Campbell.

During a session with Jack, I was playing around with Stage Shout, and just toying around with different endings. He was playing slightly less attention than I usually do, and before I got to the end, said “Oh you are going to do the Dave Campbell thing at the end?”

I lied and said yes, and spent the next 10 minutes seeing if it would work without changing the Walton handling for Stage Shout (which I abbreviate to ‘perfection’).

To my delight, it did with just the most minor change (Roy actually just uses three Queens, and half passes the bottom one to set up, where as I need an extra reversed card, so I just pick it up underneath the Queens).

I showed it to Jack, and promptly fooled both of us with it. It looked so much better than either of us were expecting. In that respect, it was like a mate’s mum sunbathing…

Now I have three tricks I can’t stop performing to myself.

Jack Says…

It has now taken me 40 minutes to write this paragraph, as I’m deeply struggling to talk about this trick without making sexual innuendos. I would happily cheat on all our other tricks, marry this one and have kids with it.

This is so strong! The transposition at the end seems genuinely impossible, and will even confuse your magic buddies.

The construction here is so perfect that you will probably perform it over and over for yourself, and that’s ﬁne.

But treat the lay dudes once in a while, they deserve it.

Final Thoughts

Roy Walton’s ‘Stage Shout’ routine is from The Complete Walton Volume 2, page 1.

‘Leap-Frog’ by Dave Campbell appears in The Dave Campbell Legacy on page 57.

Final Words

Cheers to the following people who, for some unfathomable reason, continue to put up with me and my work...

Owen Packard for the name. BOOF!

Jack Tighe for posing for some of the photos, and not trying to motivate me too hard when I couldn’t be bothered to take any more. Also for the collaboration routines at the end, taken from our booklet ‘Indie’.

Ade Gower and Monster Creations for putting some awesome artwork together for the front cover. It ﬁtted the title perfectly!

Also, the motivational efforts of Ronnie Wood, a magician on my facebook page who often posted ‘how is the typing going?’ and chatted to me. He probably has no idea on the positive effect that had of making me go ‘hmmm, maybe I should stop just looking at funny pictures of cats on the internet, and actually do something’. I got there in the end, thanks Ronnie!

Most of all though, cheers to you fellas for reading through the work, and I hope you ﬁnd a few bits that make you go ‘Ahhh... Nice!’. Like bacon.

Until next time,

Liam Montier www.tricktastic.com