Feen

Feen-X: January, 2000 - December, 2001 Table of Contents 1
Issue 1 Sweet Little Sixteen Instant Card to Pocket ................................................................... 6

The Odd Coin Paddle Move with Two Copper/Silver Coins........................................................ 8
Mental Thoughts Causing A Seed To Germinate By Willing It! ................................................ 10
The Womb Special Thoughts................................................................................................... 11
Issue 2 Introducing Running Montay Monte Demo Phase 1..................................................... 13
The Odd Coin Fingerpalm HPC (Han Ping Chien) Coins Across ............................................. 15
Mental Thoughts On New Shamanism..................................................................................... 17
The Womb On Variety Magic Shows ....................................................................................... 18
Issue 3 Running Montay Phase Two Monte Demo Phase 2..................................................... 20
The Odd Coin Double Deluxe HPC with Extra Kickers............................................................. 22
Mental Thoughts A False Charlier Shuffle................................................................................ 24
The Womb Misc. Thoughts, On Manipulation .......................................................................... 25
Issue 4 Running Montay Phase Three Monte Demo Phase 3 ................................................. 28
The Odd Coin Pseudo Variations on HPC................................................................................ 31
Mental Thoughts Thought Reading With Pictures.................................................................... 32
The Womb Misc. Thoughts on Manipulation ............................................................................ 35
Issue 5 End of Running Montay Monte Demo Phase 4 ............................................................ 37
The Odd Coin Coins Across With False Count ........................................................................ 41
Mental Thoughts Blinded By The Lack of Light (Blindfolded Mentalism Stunt With Cards) ...... 44
The Womb Misc. Thoughts, Reviews....................................................................................... 45
Issue 6 Pell-Mell Bound............................................................................................................... 48
Pell-Mell Bound Card Turns into Coin & Vice Versa................................................................. 49
Pell-Mell Section 2 Modified Rub-A-Dub Vanish....................................................................... 50
Pell-Mell Section 3 Small Details.............................................................................................. 55
Feea-X Maa:lae
1aaaa:, 2000 - Decembe: 2001
Table O| Ceateats
(Click topics to go to specific pages)
<< Menu
The Womb Sakewegea Dollar Coins ....................................................................................... 58
Issue 7 My Magic Card................................................................................................................ 59
My Magic Card A Selected Card Appears in a Case Held by Spectator ................................... 60
In Hands Hit & Run In Hands Coins Across ............................................................................. 62
Blinded By the Lack of Light ESP Card Version (Mentalism).................................................... 64
The Womb Misc. Thoughts ...................................................................................................... 65
Issue 8 The Twitch...................................................................................................................... 67
The Twitch - A Thought of Card Moves (Invisible Thread) .......................................................... 68
Poor Mans Raven (Homemade Palm Magnet) ........................................................................... 69
A Variation of HPC With Cards ................................................................................................... 71
The Womb - Sballbound (Spellbound Effect Using Billiard Balls) ................................................ 74
Issue 9 Transpo HPC.................................................................................................................. 76
Transpo HPC Pseudo HPC With coins .................................................................................... 76
Deport A Routine Using HPC for Cards ................................................................................... 78
Psychic Pen & String Mentalism Effect Based on a Bob McAllister Routine............................. 80
The Womb Thoughts on Ouija Boards..................................................................................... 82
Issue 10 (Halloween Issue) Bound and Gagged ......................................................................... 83
Bound and Gagged A Selected Card Appears Between Jokers............................................... 83
The Odd Coin In Hands Hit & Run With 7 Matching Coins....................................................... 86
Hit & Run 8 In Hands Coins Across (No False Counts Version) ............................................... 87
Kone Dume Blee Effect With Voodoo Dolls & Hatpins ............................................................. 88
The Womb Thoughts on Doing a Manipulation Act Close Up................................................... 88
Issue 11 All That Jazz ................................................................................................................. 91
Jazz Aces With Cards Face Up .................................................................................................. 92
The Doctored Jaks Purse A Utility Device................................................................................ 95
Mental Thoughts Mind Reading With a Can of Mountain Dew ................................................. 96
The Womb Thoughts on Doing Magic for Non-Magicians........................................................ 97
Issue 12 Improved Chinese Production....................................................................................... 99
Improved Chinese Production Production for Stand-up Card Manipulation............................ 100
The Odd Coin Roll of Pennies Through Table........................................................................ 102
Mental Thoughts Any Card at Any Number ............................................................................ 103
The Womb A Christmas Story (A Fable) ................................................................................ 104
Issue 13 Metal-ism (Mind Over Matter)...................................................................................... 105
Metal-ism A Spoon Bending Effect......................................................................................... 105
Bluff In Depth Combining Bluff Shift With Depth Illusion (A Card Utility Move)....................... 108
Hit and Run 4 Coins Across With False Count and an Odd Coin ........................................... 109
The Womb Credits for Bound And Gagged (see Issue 10), Thoughts on TV Mentalism........ 111
Issue 14 Chanins Disarrange ................................................................................................... 114
Chanins Disarrange Jack Chanins Handling of the Bluff Shift ............................................. 114
Its Alive! Living and Dead Test With Billets (Invisible Thread) ............................................... 116
The Odd Coin Change-O Presto (Presto Change-O With 2 Coins)........................................ 118
The Nagual Thoughts on Magic Exposure, Misc. Books ........................................................ 119
Addendum to Change-O Presto Additional Handlings............................................................ 121
Issue 15 Special Jack Chanin Issue.......................................................................................... 122
The Odd Coin A Look at the Chanin Production................................................................... 123
Gregg Webbs Work on the Chanin Production ........................................................................ 124
Mental Thoughts Chanins Use of Daub With Cards .............................................................. 125
The Grapevine Bro. John Hamman, Jerry Andrus, David Roth .............................................. 126
The Library Continuing List of Books ..................................................................................... 126
The Nagual Notes on Jack Chanin, the Person...................................................................... 126
Issue 16 9 Card Think ............................................................................................................... 128
9 Card Think Gregg Webb Variation of Jim Steinmeyer's 9 CARD PROBLEM...................... 128
Double Bop Pseudo HPC Coins Across................................................................................. 130
String & Pencil Living and Dead Test ........................................................................................ 131
The Library New & Old Books................................................................................................ 134
The Grapevine Ricky Jay's B'Way Show................................................................................ 134
Snappy Comebacks A New Section....................................................................................... 134
The Nagual Genii Magazine, Books....................................................................................... 134
Issue 17 Interest........................................................................................................................ 135
Matrix With Interest Coins and Cards..................................................................................... 135
Streamlined Even Farther Cards and a Coin.......................................................................... 136
Vernon Meets Hobson Variations on the Vernon 5 Card Psychological Force ....................... 138
The Library Books.................................................................................................................. 138
Snappy Comebacks.................................................................................................................. 139
The Nagual Techniques for Layman, TV Entertainers............................................................ 139
Issue 18 Tri-Matrix Plus Special Issue....................................................................................... 140
Tri-Matrix Matrix With Self-Contained Load of Large Coins.................................................... 140
The Grapevine B'way............................................................................................................. 145
Kudos Max Maven / Phil Goldstein in March, 2001 Genii ....................................................... 145
The Spin Room Variations on Effects Seen in Genii Magazine.............................................. 145
The Library Hereclitus............................................................................................................ 146
The Nagual Monte on TV, Playing Marks............................................................................... 146
Issue 19 New Format ................................................................................................................ 147
Not A Kicker Using Matrix to Set Up for a Second Routine (Cards and Coins)....................... 147
Mental Thoughts With Cards Q H Thang (Strong and Spooky).............................................. 148
New Opening for the Three Ball Trick Alternate Opening for Ball Routines............................ 150
Kudos Meir Yedid & Jerry Andrus .......................................................................................... 152
Scoop Meir Yedid & Herb Zarrow........................................................................................... 152
The Library HANNIBAL and Memory Systems....................................................................... 152
Snappy Comebacks.................................................................................................................. 152
The Nagual Spies Like Me (A Story) ...................................................................................... 152
Issue 20 Bi-Polar HPC .............................................................................................................. 154
Bi-Polar HPC A Trick With Two Groups of Differing Color Coins ........................................... 154
If Annemann Knew The Zarrow Shuffle A Spelling Trick With Cards (Mentalism).................. 155
Rubber Band Thingee A Rubber Band Gimmick.................................................................... 157
The Nagual Misc. Thoughts About Videos ............................................................................. 158
Grapevine TV Magic .............................................................................................................. 158
Library The Effect of TV Mentalism........................................................................................ 159
Issue 21 Step-By-Step .............................................................................................................. 160
Step-By-Step Restoration of a Torn Card............................................................................... 161
Bat A Utility Bag & Mat ........................................................................................................... 162
Take 3 An Ungaffed HCP Transpo With 6 Coins ................................................................... 162
The Nagual Thoughts About TV Magic .................................................................................. 163
New Products............................................................................................................................ 164
Issue 22 Stigmata ..................................................................................................................... 165
Stigmata Methods for Achieving the Effect............................................................................. 165
What Is The Sound of One Coin Clapping? An Okito Coin Box Routine ................................ 166
Ever Advancing Get-Ready A Utility Move for Cards.............................................................. 167
The Nagual Thoughts on Videos Vs. Books........................................................................... 168
Issue 23 Return to Palm Magnet ............................................................................................... 169
Poor Mans Raven Revisited Tricks With a Palm Magnet....................................................... 169
Booked Coin to Predicted Book Page.................................................................................... 170
Deluxe Color Change as a Vanish Uses in Card Tricks ......................................................... 171
Issue 24 Christmas/Final Issue ................................................................................................. 174
Mental Departure Thought of Card Between the Palms ......................................................... 174
Announcing The Book That Doesnt Exist ................................................................................. 176
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #1 6
Out of the fire and into the frying pan! This has been tested on magicians and lay audiences and
passes the FRY test. What is good is that it is easy and more important is the fact that it is fun to
do and a cute name that makes this easy to remember
I recently showed this to one of the biggest names in mentalism and the bigger they are splat!
The Rag of Choice for The Bold and Literate
Effect: Instant card to pocket.
Required: Seventeen cards. One is a double-facer. One is a duplicate of one side of the double-
facer, and one is a gaff easily made by putting a half-inch of double stick tape on its face.
Set-up: The dupe regular card goes in your right pocket. The sixteen card packet that remains is
set up with the sticky gaff at the face and second from the face is the double-facer.
Performance: With the cards in the left hand, face down, get a break above the gaff by buckling,
thumb counting, or pulling down, and now begin a Hindu shuffle by pulling out about half the packet
with your right hand but leaving the broken gaff in the left hand group.
Have the spectator say "STOP", and rest the right hand group jogged to the front and side as
shown. This resting place takes the curse off of the force coming up. Ask the spectator if they
have a good memory to justify this pause.
Come over the jogged section with your right hand in Biddle grip and turn the hand and cards palm
up and face up respectively. Say, "I want you to remember this card." The card facing them is a
force, the face card of your double-facer.
Peel this card face up, but left side-jogged to the right, onto the left hand's cards which are still
face down. Turn the right hand and cards face down again and put them UNDER the right-jogged
face up double-face force card, and square.
"I'll leave this card face up to make it easier to find", you say as you give the packet one straight
cut, losing the card. "Watch, I'll make YOUR card vanish", as you snap your right fingers - your
little ceremony - and deal through the cards STUD FASHION, to a single pile on the table. Each
card now shows a back and a face as you make this loose face up pile. You can count as you go.
You'll get to the number fifteen. Their card seems to have vanished by virtue of the double-stick
tape. It sticks a card with a back to the double facer.
Produce the dupe of the forced selection from your pocket and drop it on the other face up cards
as you finish with, "Sweet Little Sixteen".
I know you'll enjoy doing this, and I suggest making up several sets with different force cards.
Easy yet powerful. This fits the bill. Richard Kaufman's book COIN MAGIC has a paddle move
handling of TWO Copper/Silver coins which got this move started. I try to change handlings to fit
myself whenever possible. I came up with this method, and more of the routine is original and not
like the routine connected with the trick in the above book.
A slight drawback is that this uses TWO C/S coins. What really clinches the illusion is that you
must have one of the silver sides showing "heads" and the other coin's silver side showing "tails".
The eye goes to the silver coin. The copper sides don't matter as much, but if you can also find
coins where the copper sides also show the obverse and reverse, that would be gravy.
The basic move is for all the world like a turnover spread with cards-but using just two coins. One
silver side up and the other down. Or, you could say it is like T. Nelson Downs' turnover of 40 coins
with just two copper/silver coins.
Your left hand closes at the end of the turnover just for a blink and then opens. Do this several
times. The illusion of two different coins is perfect, and this move alone is worth your year
subscription.
Effect: A silver coin changes place with a copper coin AND a Chinese cash coin. An American
penny or dime could be substituted.
Required: The two aforementioned C/S coins and a Chinese cash coin with a square hole. The
requirement is that this coin be small. I use a real Chinese cash coin.
Set-up: Have the two C/S coins on your left hand as taught, and hold the cash coin in your right.
Do the turnover. After the first time you can jiggle the coins into position to do it again, or help with
your extended first fingertip. Either way, do the move more than once.
Put the cash coin on top of the two gaffs, close your left hand and turn it palm down. Reach in
the thumbhole and take out either C/S coin with the cash coin hidden under it, between the right
thumb and first finger. Let's say the audience sees a copper coin. They think a silver and the cash
are in your left.
Bring the C/S and cash coin into your right hand, and after making a magical gesture, rattle the
coins in your right, and open your right hand to reveal the silver side of the C/S coin AND the cash
coin.
Open your left hand to reveal the copper side of the C/S coin there.
Put both C/S coins on your left palm and keep the cash in your right, and repeat the basic move.
This routine can be expanded to have a coin jump to a pocket or put a coin in the pocket and it
comes back, but you took the opportunity to "ring" in a normal coin, and repeat the same trick with
just one C/S coin and one normal coin, and later use pocket dodges to end with all ungaffed coins.
But - do you know what? I don't. The basic move and the trick itself are just right as is. It is a
quickie, but a good visual quickie, so I put the coins away and bring out cards.
Mental Thoughts
CAUSING A SEED TO GERMINATE BY WILLING IT
By Gregg Webb, USA
This almost has to be done with thumbpalm - the type where a small object can be completely
concealed by the flesh, making it possible to show both sides of the hands before, during, and after
this feat. It should be noted that this part of the presentation is probably not new, even though I
thought of it on my own. By this I mean that Eastern Mystics have been doing things like this back
to the dawn of time, and was also the beginning phase of the Mango Tree growing illusion, in some
cases. There are supposedly people doing the seed germination now, but after help from Stephen
Minch and Jeff McBride, I am assured that my specific handling is new, and I think you'll find the
second phase, that of a TV presentation to be of interest.
The mechanics of the seed germination are easy. It is such a small trick and that's why I like it.
"Watch, using the same FORCE that I can use to bend a spoon with my mind - by willing it, I can
take this seed and just say GROW, GROW, and look! It has SPROUTED! " That's the whole
presentation, yet it's very clean look allows you to be very deliberate.
The only details are that the germinated seed with sprout is thumb palmed in the left hand. After
showing the unsprouted seed with the right hand, it is thumbpalmed in the right hand as you
pretend to put it in the left hand. Work the sprouted seed out of left thumbpalm and into the left fist
proper as you patter and then reveal the successful end to your feat of New Shamanism.
Another detail to address is the availability of germinated and ungerminated seeds. I am
experimenting with a wide variety now and find that some flowers, apple seeds because of their
size, and tomatoes because of a further extension of causing cherry tomatoes to grow, which I'll
submit someday, are good.
To make seeds germinate it is very easy. Wrap them in a damp paper towel and keep them in a
warm dark place. They'll sprout.
The TELEVISION DEMO. This is inspired by the clock trick of Uri Geller, wherein he'd ask
people to hold a clock that has stopped working near the TV.
In this case have people hold packages of seeds near the TV. When they open the envelopes of
seeds, they will find at least one has sprouted, of those in the envelope. The reason that this would
work is that inside every package of seeds there is at least one that has sprouted. I come from a
family where my grandfather sold seeds. A little known fact is that in virtually every packet of seeds
there is usually at least one that has germinated. I was even told once that this was deliberate to
"prove" that the seeds are "live" and not duds.
I disagree. I think they germinate because of the darkness inside the envelope, and a certain
temperature condition, in either case, that is the secret to what comes next.
After demonstrating the single seed germinating in your hand after perhaps some spoon
bending, announce that if people at home have packets of seeds to bring them unopened, to
prevent any tampering, to their TV sets. Say, "Grow... Grow", and sound like you mean it. Then
tell the home viewers to open their packets and to call in the station if ANYTHING unusual is found.
The station will get swamped with calls just as in the Geller clock trick, but I would say this would be
most effective in the very early spring when more people might have seed packets on hand.
The Womb
By now you realize that I am taking off on Bruce Elliott's THE PHOENIX, and indeed this venture
is dedicated to that gentleman and his publication that did the most to mold my thinking about
magic.
I loved the fact that it LOOKED like it was pasted up by an individual with a typewriter and some
glue. I'm going for the same look and method, and while admittedly not GLOSSY, I want to
maintain a high caliber in the material presented, and hope that it is useful material at that. Also
fun to do. No lapping. Practical.
The first section will be cards, at least for a while. The next is coins, of course, and the third will
be mentalism or bizarre magick and THIS section will be stray thoughts.
I also intend to present corrections in credits whenever I am wrong, and I'm wrong a lot. I tend
to dream up my ideas and try to be original and if I never read or saw somebody do something, I
often think it is original and none of us know it all. I often ask some of my friends in high places
who are better historians than I.
Write to me about any mistakes in credit I make, and I'll run the corrected credits here.
Now for some stray thoughts. On the area of magic shows in the TV land, my favorite performer
is The Amazing Jonathan. He makes me laugh. I don't do comedy magic, so I'm not threatened,
and he doesn't expose any real tricks for laughs, and I thank him for that.
The only big trick that fools me completely is the Clear Sawing of Charlotte Pendragon. I'm
completely stumped and it looks perfect. Most other acts seem too busy trying to be dancers with
their equipment for my taste. Real patter from genre films might be adapted. Many torture device
tricks could borrow and adapt scenes from the inquisition from such movies as The Name of the
Rose, and rework the lines with professional writers. Other large tricks seem like Sci-Fi and a good
example of this kind of tie-in is when David Copperfield made people reappear in a screened-in box
where you first saw the peoples shadows appear because of a rear light. It got a great amount of
applause.
Another thought is that MCs seem to bring the show down every time. Rather than an MC, I'd
rather have a narrator tie the whole show together.
"One day a group of weary travelers became lost in a great forest. When they came to a
clearing they came upon a man who seemed lost in his own thoughts. Then ( fade up light on next
act ) he began to move as if performing an ancient ceremony, and he seemed not to notice our
travelers who were watching. ( Meaning the audience ). Etc.
This would make the whole show a trip instead of each "act" a piece separated by this guy who
brings the audience back to reality each time, after which they must be brought AGAIN to that state
of suspension when they can enjoy the magic. Each time you do that to the audience, I suspect it
becomes harder and harder to get them to go there again. I'd say let them stay suspended by
making a story of the whole show. Let Penn narrate it. Light fades on previous act and fades up
on narrator. Light fades from narrator of some story line and back up on next act.
We try.
So. ..$3.00 per issue. $30.00 for 12 issues.
Gregg Webb
28-32 208th St.
Bayside, NY
11360
Copyright Gregg Webb 2000
Out of the frying pan and into the gris-gris. This spot will be serialized for four issues with a new
presentation of Monte.
The "RUNNING" part of the title is to say that the intended way to run this in a series of magic
tricks is to keep coming back to this BETWEEN other tricks. Each of the four phases is different
Even more important than the methods and techniques is a real improvement in presentation for
monte.
What I mean is that we won't actually be asking a spectator to GUESS where the queen is.
Ever. Besides the fact that the spectator can screw us up and all it takes for them to do that is to
pick a card OTHER THAN the one they thinkbecause they suspect that the one they pick won't
be it, if you in fact prevail and they pick the wrong card, you've still created a "bad vibes" situation
where you have made them a loser. No one likes that so don't be surprised if that spectator and
their friends don't mind seeing YOU get egg on your face later in the show, if you use the old
methodology.
What works JUST AS WELL magically, but better politically is to deliver the trick as a narrative.
"The reason you shouldn't play monte on the streets is that just when you're sure where the
queen is...DON''T BET ON IT," is the gist of what you say as you put the cards down as cleanly as
possible with the instructions to come.
Effect: Phase one of a monte demo.
Required: Look at the drawing above. The card on the right is a gaff card, a double/face card that
shows a Queen on one side and lets say a two on the other. Next you need two matching regular
twos, and last is a matching regular Queen.
Set-up: Just as in the drawing.
Performance: Hold the packet face up in the left hand. The audience will only be aware of three
cards. Spread two cards off and keep the bottom two squared. They'll see a Queen and two twos.
The game is to find LIL."
Square getting a pinkie break under two. Double turnover back to the packet and you'll thumb
the top face down card to the table.
The next card on the packet shows a two, because it is the other side of our D/F gaff. Spread the
top card of the packet to show two twos, and square. Snap your fingers (always do something no
matter how minor that seems or can be taken to be what causes something magic to happen, and
turn over the tabled card to show a TWO, and then with the right hand in Biddle Grip, peel the
lowermost card to the left and free with your left hand, to reveal the real Queen. The Queen in the
left hand and the double in your right can both be flashed on BOTH SIDES because the Queen
side of the D/F gaff is hidden and given a back by the regular card held squared with it.
Gather up all cards and put in your pocket. Do coin tricks, full deck tricks, bill tricks, or cups and
balls, then we'll return to monte phase two which will use only three cards. That will be taught next
issue.
One thing I forgot to mention is that in none of the phases will the cards be bent. Yay!
THE ODD COIN
NEW WORK ON HPC: Fingerpalm HPC
Talking Han Ping Chien here. I don't do it as Through the Table but as Coins Across, but this
will work for either modality. Effect: A technical change in HPC. Required: Six coins and an odd
coin.
Set-up: None.
Performance: Spread out the coins three on the left and three on the right as shown with the odd
coin in the middle.
Pick up the three on the left with your left hand. Pick up the other three AND the cash coin with
your right, but maneuver the three coins into right LOW fingerpalm as shown in the drawing, and
keep the cash coin between the right thumb and first finger.
Gently toss down the left hand's three and pick them up again, but this time ready for Han Ping
Chien, meaning that they extend a bit out of the lower left fist, ready to drop free easily when
needed.
Now comes Fingerpalm HPC. Your right hand will ever so gently toss only its cash coin
downwards and slightly to your left, and keep its three coins in right low fingerpalm. This is not a
slap! This is a gentle palm down downwards toss - almost just releasing the Cash coin. (The
downwards toss action is VERY minimal ).
As in other HPC handlings, this odd coin joins the three coins from your LEFT hand, which are
released as the left fist moves slightly to your left, as if to get out of the way, and this leftward
motion adds a leftward vector to the motion of the three it drops. Of course, the illusion striven for
is that four coins fell out of the right hand.
What is the advantage to this technique? Well, there are several that will be explored in future
issues, but for today the big advantage is that the right hand can pick the four coins up in a fan and
turn PALM UP as in the next drawing. This is your view. The audience will not see the three coins
still in low fingerpalm because of RAMSAY'S SUBTLETY. This show is the advantage. At the
proper angle they can see into your palm and see nothing in classic or thumbpalm.
Make a "toss" action with your left and a grab in the air with your right, when you let all the coins
come together with a crash in your right fist, then show your left clean front and back, and finally let
the seven coins spill from the right hand.
A bonus idea here is to use a sound gimmick, both styles from KENNEDY being good, on your
left arm to allow you to supposedly rattle coins in your left fist just before you teleport them over.
In closing I'd' like to announce that I took the guts out of a cheap watch and put in a few small
coins - and, INSTANT SOUND GIMMICK, although I like my KENNEDY better.
MENTAL THOUGHTS
My favorite kind. This section deals with mentalism. New Shamanism, or Bizarre Magick.
Today I'm not going to run a trick. I think you'll find the information useful nevertheless.
I just want to report on some of my research. After wading thru T.A. Waters' MIND, MYTH, and
MAGICK, which is a huge tome, and after wading many many times, I finally narrowed it down to
my favorites of things to actually use. I learned a great deal by the elimination process, and
eventually decided not to use much of it. One that I'll discuss is a true miracle. I used it on a
Hollywood bigwig and his son, when retained to entertain after a luncheon for them, and they both
turned out to be magic enthusiasts to the extent that they go to magic shops and watch and buy.
Therefore they knew Scotch and Soda, and D 'Lite, and other things that magic shops everywhere
push. They were sort of thinking they'd know what I would do.
I did COUNTACT from the Big Book, and FRIED them (politely) and calmly. They swore I never
peeked and it happens right under their noses and is pure magick. Many of you who've given up
on that book should go back to it. In future installments, I'll go into the other pieces from the book
that are real good and also practical.
Another item, a routine, that I want to rave about a while, and which I consider the greatest piece
of Magick that there is, and that's a strong statement, is Stephen Minch's FORTUNES OF A WISE
FOOL. This is a Tarot card "reading" or demo that leaves no room for doubt but that magic is real.
It is isn't it?
It can be found in Minch's THE BOOK OF THOTH (Tarot Card Trickery) from HADES
PUBLICATION, in Canada. It also appeared in GENII Magazine when Mr. Minch won the Writing
Fellowship from the Castle and was honored by being put on the magazine's cover - and a bio and
several good photos and tricks also ran.
And, while on the subject of HADES, Brian Hades is working on a new edition of the Nelson
books, and other of the vast array of books they publish. I may be involved with some jazzy new
cover art for them, but in any event, they have some GREAT books which many seem to think are
unavailable. Not true. Hades will be putting on a big new marketing plan with a new image, but
one that is deserving for this great storehouse of terrific books.
Lastly, I'd like to tell you what I am working on for this section of next issue.
I'm working on a shuffle that closely resembles the Charlier (false) Shuffle that is so useful in
Card and Tarot Card and ESP cards and even envelopes, but which is an actual shuffle that is
used to destroy a set-up at the end of a routine that used a true Charlier in the beginning to
MAINTAIN a set-up. You could say it is a false Charlier. That's a double-negative since the
Charlier IS a false shuffle, so it's a false-false shuffle. Meaning a REAL shuffle. Therefore, what
the audience will see is what looks like the same shuffle they saw early on, as you toy with the
cards as you conclude an experiment, and should anyone want to examine the cards, in the right
situation this new shuffle will prove that it (or the one that looked like it at the start IN FACT MIXES
CARDS.
THE WOMB
Again I'm going to ramble on about variety magic shows. I have a few more thoughts on this,
and then I'll switch to a new topic for the next issue.
Here goes! Storytelling, or even speaking magic should be left to those with professional voices
and delivery. There aren't many who have said skills. Max's voice resonates. So does Eugene's.
Penn has a professional delivery. So does Ricky Jay. There are probably others and I don't intend
to slight anyone by omission. Frank Garcia had mellifluous tones.
My point is, though, that those that do NOT have the trained voice-I've heard it can be taught
and that there are exercises that help similar to singers' voice coaches' methods ...should perhaps
adopt a different style of presentation, ..or go through the training. I already stated that I feel most
MCs on the magic shows are doing a disservice to magic. I myself long ago decided that I don't
speak professionally enough and adopted the Silent Manipulator role and with a little mime
knowledge I feel I have an international language.
If I start talking on stage, take me aside.
Now, going further. Even with silent presentations and often with illusions, and done to music, I
feel that some acts would work better by less audience contact. Less eye contact with the
audience and surely less mugging and posturing. It evokes too much of the circus or side-show
and yet we wonder why magic isn't included amongst the High Arts.
Let me take my example from the cinema. Directors are always telling actors, especially those
with some stage experience, not to overact. Instead of acting an emotion, just THINK it, they are
told. The camera will catch it. Any more is OVERacting.
Therefore, the real skill of the film actor is to never look at the camera. If even for a second their
eye flickers to the camera lens, the jig is up. The audience isn't supposed to be aware of the
camera. The audience is just supposed to believe they are just floating there and able to observe,
like a fly on the wall.
I just think that for some acts, that the invisible fourth wall concept would be better. With the
proper lighting effects such as Fades up and out, the acts in question could IGNORE the audience
as in good cinema and be MORE effective. Instead of bowing to the audience, and "playing to" the
audience they could bow to each other as if in a ceremony of a magical or semi-religious nature.
The magician and assistant or assistants would play to and off each other. Then, after the fade
out at the end of their act, they could fade up the lights again and the performers come out and
take their bow. Maybe not till the end of the entire show.
One more topic and this is an idea of an imaginary magic circle that takes up most of the stage
proper, and anything that happens in the circle takes place without playing or mugging to the
audience as if it were a separate world that the audience can somehow see into.
The few acts that are good speakers, and who will interact with the audience have to STEP OUT
OF the magic circle. These acts and our narrator (not MC) would perform "In One."
Copyright
Gregg Web
The Frying Pan section of FEEN-X is happy to present phase TWO of Running Montay. Out of
the gris-gris and into limelight, as they always say. After your set of non-card magic - The Pop Up
Tie or origami perhaps? Bills? Mentalism? The three ball trick? Coins?
Whatever your non-card trick or tricks were, you are about to go back to monte. This will be a
different M.O.
This time we'll just be using three of the cards. While the left hand is in your pocket, thumb off
the real Queen and bring out the D/F gaff Queen/Two with the Queen showing and the two real
twos.
Arrange them so that the Queen's face is up, below that are and the two real two's face up also.
As you square, get a break above the bottom card. Perform a double turnover back onto soon as
your viewers are sure they saw the Queen well enough to have burned a picture on their minds.
Thumb the top face-down card to the table. On the packet shows a two, due to the D/F gaff.
The illusion of the Queen going to the table is complete but we'll add to it with a Flushtration count
of the two two's at hand to seemingly show two backs as well. This seals the viewers' fate.
These two twos, now face, up are separated at this time with a pinkie pulldown, or just while
squaring.
We are about to do a half-pass with drop. The right hand is holding from above in Biddle
Position. About halfway through the turn of the lower card (which is supposed to be the D/F gaff--
check your position after the Flushtration Count), DROP both cards as in the drawing. If the Queen
is accidentally completely covered by the two, spread them so a Queen and a two show.
Details of that last passage are that for the Flushtration count the right hand takes the cards from
above in Biddle grip and wrist turns so the hand is palm up and the back of the once lowermost
card shows. The hand turns palm down again and the left hand peels the top card into left hand
dealing position.
The right hand again turns palm up to show THE SAME BACK AGAIN, which the audience
takes to be ANOTHER BACK. Casualness is the key. Your attitude says, "See? I wouldn't fool
you for the world".
After getting the pinkie break, and just beginning a half pass of the bottom (D/F) card, the drop
action move is a thing of beauty because air pressure during the drop helps the card to turn the
rest of the way. As the cards hit the table the top two of hearts kills the turning action caused by
the air pressure and you should practice to get the cards to be separated as they land.
The line I'm trying to memorize, which I've worked years on, is:
"Madam, if you bet on THIS (face down) card you would be north on the proverbial estuary
without the conventional means of locomotion." Turn over the face down card on the table to show
a two and not a Queen as the viewers would have had to think was there.
The face down card should be turned over according to Prof. Dai Vernon's instructions on how to
make a turnover of a card seem more mysterious and theatrical. I get my thumb under the edge,
and then rub the card on the mat or table. I lift the card so only I can see it. I rub it again on the
table, then lift the card and give it a shake as if to crystallize the "change" and then toss it face up.
What we've done is create interest in a NORMAL ungaffed card and we've made this change
from (supposedly) Queen to Two be our big ending by where we've put our emphasis.
Put the cards away and do more non-card magic, or at least not a packet trick. Next month we'll
bring three cards out again for more monte fun, but that time it will be with three regular cards only
and I have fooled magicians with that bit to come. Stay tuned.
THE ODD COIN
DOUBLE DELUXE HPC WITH EXTRA ( read TWO ) KICKERS
I submitted a version of this with ONE kicker to the NEW PABULAR. That was before I thought
of the extra hiding place (Classic Palm) left vacant by the advent of Fingerpalm HPC explicated in
the last issue.
The great coin expert DAVID ROTH, to whom I owe most of my understanding of Routine
Construction, generally feels that the adding of kickers" dilutes the effect of a classic. I usually
agree, but this routine I feel should be recorded, so here it is.
Please remember that this is HPC as "Coins Across" and not as "Through the Table."
Effect: HPC is performed as Coins Across, yet using three silvers and three COPPERS and a
Chinese cash coin.
After the main event, the left hand picks up the cash coin and after a magical gesture, dribbles
out three LARGER Chinese coins and the cash coin. Then the right hand picks up the cash and
squeezes and dribbles out three larger Chinese coins and at last the cash coin. A whole mess of
coins are on the table, and the kickers are covered verbally with something to the effect of,
"...but I can never figure out where THESE come from."
Required: Three C/S coins. Three English Pennies. A small cash coin. Six larger Chinese
coins about half dollar size or larger.
Set-up: Have three large Chinese coins and the three C/S coins ( copper sides facing your leg )
in a left pants pocket.
Have the three coppers, three large Chinese coins, and the small cash coin in a right pants
pocket.
Performance: Reach both hands into your pockets. Each hand now classic palms three large
Chinese coins. You can tell for sure by the holes.
The left also grips the C/S coins at the fingertips, and the right grips the coppers AND the cash
coin at the fingertips.
Come out and arrange the three C/S coins at the left - silver side up, and the coppers at the right
and the cash coin in the middle. Maintain contact with your fingers with one silver and one copper
after doing this. This looks more natural than having coins hidden in classic with nothing to do.
You'll only hold that pose a blink anyway, then pick up the C/S coins loosely into your left fist.
The right hand picks up the coppers, but maneuvers them into fingerpalm and THEN picks up the
cash and holds it between right thumb and first and second fingertip pads.
GENTLY toss down the C/S coins from the left so they STILL show silver. Pick them up by
digging under their front edges and levering them into a standing on edge position sticking half out
of the left fist and controlled by pinkie pressure as in the next drawing. Note the larger Chinese
coins in left classic palm are not affected by this procedure.
Now, HPC. Fingerpalm HPC. As the right hand makes a tiny toss downwards, it only releases
the cash coin. The three coppers stay in right fingerpalm, and there are three Chinese coins in
right classic palm. The left hand moves to the left, to get out of the way, and as it does it releases
the C/S coins which flop copper side up.
When you get the knack, it looks as if four coins fell from the right hand. This use of C/S coins
in HPC is credited to Harvey Rosenthal.
The right hand picks up the four coins from the table, make a gesture, and open out the left hand
palm DOWN then make a grab in the air with the right and let the coins jangle. Spread them out on
the table showing the silver sides of the three C/S gaffs and three coppers and the cash coin.
Grip one copper coin with your right hand. This is better than having a right hand palming with
nothing to do. The left hand dives for the cash coin, makes a squeeze and dribbles out three
Chinese large coins and the cash coin.
Set down the copper from your right hand and now this hand dives for the cash coin and makes
a squeeze and spills out three large Chinese coins and the cash coin. There will be a lucky thirteen
coins on the table.
"Where THESE come from I'll never know".
MENTAL THOUGHTS
As promised, a false Charlier Shuffle. A double negative, since Charlier is already a false
shuffle, making this really a TRUE shuffle used to destroy a set-up at the end of some routine that
had a set-up and used the Charlier False Shuffle in the beginning.
The audience thinks they are seeing the same procedure as the earlier version, so if they
scrutinize THIS one, and we hope they will because that is part of its reason for being, they will
realize it is a true shuffle, when they only assumed the one you did at the beginning was.
They'll assume the first was the same as this one, and you do this last one several or many
times so that your set-up is destroyed in case you get asked by someone if they can examine the
deck, or if you give away a deck as I do as a way of proving they are not some special deck.
The procedure begins with the pack in left dealing position. You thumb over a few and take them
with your right. Use the left thumb to push a few more over and these are taken UNDER the ones
in the right hand. In other words, all the cards from the left hand come from the top by being
pushed over by the left thumb. Each small group goes in alternating fashion above and then
below, etc., the right hands packet.
Practice to make this smooth, and practice your attitude of acting as if it is the same thing they
saw earlier.
In other words, make them seem the same by your tempo and rhythm, your casualness and
attitude, and don't look at your hands.
The Routine
Have a set-up pack. "Eight Kings" is fine. Charlier shuffle. (The false kind). Have a card
selected and give the pack a cut at the place you felt the card taken from. In other words, keep a
break at the spot they take their card from, then cut. You want to make it look as if you are looking
away during this procedure.
While they are looking at and memorizing their card, glimpse the face card, then begin this
shuffle variation just taught.
Have them put their card back without peeking, and while really looking the other way. Do this
real shuffle AGAIN and next pass the deck to someone for MORE shuffling. This entire procedure
disarms everyone.
Take the deck back, and lay out five cards face down so that one is the selected card. You just
count ahead one card in your set-up from the card you glimpsed.
Then use Hobson's Choice or Magician's Choice (it doesn't matter which) with the spectator that
selected the card.
This is one of the strongest things I know and especially so since instead of showing YOUR
powers as a show-off, you help the lovely lady discover HER power which is good instant karma.
THE WOMB
Meir Yedid has helped me again. He was the one that encouraged me to develop my writing
ability. Visit him at MAGICTIMES on the Internet.
I have been advised that Uri Geller himself caused radish seeds to sprout in a similar
experiment. I think it was described by Randi on TV. I hope this sets the record straight, and I
blame this on skipping my Ginsana.
Seriously folks, the thumbpalm to entirely conceal the sprouted seed to give a very clean look is
new, I still think.
The "packet of seeds" part is like what Al Schneider wrote about in his brilliant article in the Feb.
GENII magazine, when you see something then forget, then think you create something when it is
really the old knowledge surfacing.
The part of his article when he describes how his presentation of Matrix differs from how most do
it just blew my mind. Stay tuned for his next installment in that magazine.
Black Day at Bad Rock. I am still trying to come to grips with the news of Doug Henning. I
never met him, but I know how important he was to the revival of the field we love. Many eulogies
are being prepared by those more qualified than 1.
Today I want to leave my criticism of stage illusion variety shows on TV, and move closer to my
own area, manipulation.
A few comments at first. Most young manipulators rush too much. In this area also there may
be too much "mugging" to the audience. Did you ever see a concert violinist mug to the audience?
There is too much of a feeling of trying to make a sport or contest out of it. I think the time has
come for the "less is more" type of thinking.
I have an idea that might help. Let's try this. Let's act like that when a manipulation object
"vanishes", that what really happens is that it becomes INVISIBLE, but that we as magicians can
still see it in its new form. Let's also say that when it becomes invisible that it also becomes
weightless, and when it is released it wants to float just above our eyes.
What these two thoughts do for us and manipulative magic are extremely powerful aids for us
AND the audience.
If we act as if we can still see the object even though it has become invisible, the audience
doesn't have to worry about "where it went". It didn't cease to exist! It just changed form. This
takes acting in the sense that we have to act that when something "vanishes", that we really mean
"became transparent, and weightless and rose when released to a height a little above our eyes.
..but we the magicians can still see it." It gives us something to focus on besides mugging to the
audience. Instead we are looking at the invisible (to them) object, maybe intently, as if magic were
special and not about getting to the gloating part so fast.
The reason for letting the "semi-invisible" object rise to only slightly above eye level is to build
into our acting a location that causes us to have good stage posture as a bonus.
One more final thought on manipulative magic, or TWO.
By-the-way, I don't think the term "manipulator" should be used for the lay public. Only amongst
ourselves. Literature students of the English language outside of magic will realize that the word
"manipulator" already has a meaning - and not a good one.
I'm asked all the time about whether to use this term in promotion, and I realize I'm talking to
someone who lives entirely in the magic world. I think we need to always remember that the
viewers don't know what we know about magic, but they know more than some of us about some of
the high art forms, in some cases.
I want to leave you on this note. It is about the use of a top hat in a manipulative act, whether to
throw junk in, or to wear.
My advice is this. If you are not going to produce a rabbit, don't display a top hat.
The public is funny. They see a top hat, they expect a rabbit.
$3.00 per issue
12 issues $30.00
Gregg Webb
28-32 208th St.
Bayside, NY
The "Frying Pan" section of FEEN-X is proud to
release from the limelight and into your new
repertoire. Phase Three of the Running Montay.
By now you have realized that we are not bending
cards and we aren't actually asking spectators to "guess" which one is the Queen.
In the first two phases we used a gaff, a double facer, from our original four card set, of which
the audience only knows of three. Each time you come out with three cards between other tricks
with non-card items or at least not packet tricks, you have to bring out the right mix from your
pocket by thumbing one out of the way. It isn't hard if you check the order when you put the cards
away. You'll get that part easy (pocket traffic control) after you learn the whole routine. This time
you've just brought out the real Queen and two real two's.
Show the cards fanned face up with the Queen on the face. Square and turn the packet face
down. Now we'll do Bro. Hamman's double-lift from the bottom of a three card group. Hold the
cards from above in Biddle grip. Peel one card into your left with your left thumb. Now you have a
double that the audience is to believe is one card, in your right. Turn this face up onto the card
face down in your left, but keep a left pinkie break above the face down card. That's all there is to
it.
The Queen will show. Flip the double face down again onto the left hand and face down card,
using your right hand. Thumb the top card of the packet to the table, with your left.
What follows is a modified Flushtration count that fools well-posted magicians. The only thing
different is a little razzle dazzle in the handling. First, turn the remaining cards face up by grasping
the far end of the cards and turn them over towards yourself, bringing the far end to the side of
your left hand nearest your belt buckle.
The drawing should make this easy. Then, after the two has sunk into the audience's retina
and mind, flip the two cards over a different way - sideways, to the left, and back face down in
your left hand.
The second drawing shows this second turnover direction. Thumb the top card to the table to
the left of the card already on the table which they should think was the Queen. It's not
It is a two! The card you just now thumbed down is the Queen, but they think it is a two
because of the Flushtration.
With the remaining card, a two, repeat the turnover towards yourself, followed by the sideways
turnover back face down, then place it to the right of the other cards on the table.
They see the SAME TWO twice! That's why our set of cards has matching red cards, so this
Flushtration concept can be done slowly and not rushed through. It is a discrepancy move to be
sure, but as I said, it even fools magicians.
Say to a male audience member, while pointing to the center card, "Pick the black. Jack, and
you get your money back. But-pick the RED, (and to another member) Fred, and you're dead."
Pick up the center card and flick it to show a TWO! Without even showing the other cards, pick
up all three into a face down packet so the Queen is on top. Do a double turnover back onto the
packet to show a red spot. Turn down the double and thumb the TOP card to the table. Turn the
next card, they again see a two-the same two. Turn it down and thumb it off on top of the first on
the table. Turn the last, another red two, and show it cleanly and then drop it on your pile. Pick up
and mix the cards a little and hand them to a spectator to examine. They'll find the Queen. Say,
"She's b-a-a-ck."
This ends this phase by letting the spectators finally handle the cards, and the aforementioned
procedure is a feint that will be like a seed planted for phase FOUR. Next month.
This, in conjunction with other variations on HPC that I have published on the Internet, in the
New Pabular, and in French and Swiss magic journals, allows for an idea I've had for a long time
which is to keep coming back to HPC-remember, I favor Coins Across and not Thru the Table-
BETWEEN OTHER KINDS OF MAGIC...ALMOST A RUNNING HPCI A running gag of coming
back to HPC but a DIFFERENT M.O. each time.
What would tie this together is to bring out a different ODD coin each time. The explanation is
that the odd coin is the one with the magical power, and each odd coin makes the HPC trick come
out a little different. I love it!
Effect: For this version, a fake HPC is used. Pseudo HPC. It looks like HPC but isn't. Rather than
try to let this stand alone, this is best when following a real HPC routine earlier in your set.
Required: Six English Pennies. Three Half Dollars. An "Odd" coin.
Set-up: Have the odd coin and three halves in a right side pocket. Have three English pennies in
that same right pocket, and three in a left side pocket. When about to perform this routine, put
your hands in your pockets. Your right hand fingerpalms the English coppers.
You can tell by there being no milled edges on them. Then grip the halves and "odd" coin in the
loose fist. The left hand brings out the three English coins from the left pocket.
Performance: Lay out six coins and the odd coin in the middle in the proscribed manner. Three
coppers on your left and silvers on your right. Your right hand has three EXTRA coppers
concealed in fingerpalm. Pick up the three coppers with your left and the silvers AND odd coin with
your right.
Throw down the three coppers with your left hand, then pick them up again, but work them into
classic palm inside your closed left fist. Toss down the three loose silvers AND the odd coin from
your right. This is the part that looks like a super HPC but isn't, and may get magicians in the
audience think "double-face" coins, especially if they read the last FEEN-X. Keep the fingerpalmed
coppers concealed as you pick up the four coins on the table with that right hand.
Make some kind of gesture and make a "toss" action towards your right, with the left hand which
opens out palm down with the fingers spread but only briefly. Then relax that left hand, which still
"holds out" three copper coins. Make a "catch" with the right, letting all coins crash together, then
let all seven spill from your right hand.
Clean-up. Of many I developed, the best one is to have had a fourth silver coin in a left pocket
from the start. As soon as the seven spilled out on the table, you would have dived for the odd coin
and the three coppers with your left hand. It is always better to do something with the palming
hand to keep it busy. Dump all coins from the left hand (actually six coppers and the odd coin) into
a left side pocket and then bring out the fourth silver coin I mentioned so you can proceed with a
routine using just four silver coins. To help clarify, that extra silver need not be in the same pocket
that you dump into. It can be in another left-side pocket.
Further, you could have TWO silvers there, and classic palm one and grip the other at the left
fingertips, so when you bring out the left hand from the pocket, you have one silver in view and one
concealed, so that with the three silvers remaining on the table you car do any routine with four
silvers AND an extra concealed coin for your one-ahead gambits.
APRIL FOOL! This is not a piece of bizarre magick, although I like that type. Noooo! This is a
modern display of a part of the mind that everyone has to some degree - DON'T THEY?.
By now I hope you've heard through your grapevine that prediction effects are the weakest in
mentalism. Therefore, this is presented as "thought reading" of a picture that seems very fairly
selected and you draw the same picture on a chalkboard or white cardboard.
Any good effect can be presented as thought reading and not a prediction by altering the patter
and presentation.
The reason that predictions can bomb, yet they seem to be the most published form in
mentalism and mental magic, is that the public simply smells something wrong.
Once you say that, "See? I knew beforehand (when I made my prediction) what you would pick,"
the very next thought in an intelligent mind is, "Oh, during that procedure he went through, he GOT
ME TO CHOOSE A CERTAIN ITEM - SOMEHOW." And they're right!
Another reason that turning predictions into "thought reading" is the better way to go is that it
allows for the "acting" part. The struggle to "GET" what's on the other's mind-which the public still
believes possible. They know that that skill is a fleeting kind of thing. They expect it to look hard,
and I maintain that they realize that it isn't 100%. More about this next month.
The routine I am about to describe is one of Ted Annemann's from "PRACTICAL MENTAL
MAGIC", and his IS about thought reading. The main IDEA came from Extra-Sensory Perception.
What happened was that by luck I got the thought that I could simplify it. Sometimes that ruins a
good trick, but in this case it really worked out.
I eliminated the "crib." Here's how. On blank index cards, I drew simple pictures of everyday
household items that anyone would recognize- such as a coffee cup. The items I selected were
ones whose first letter of their "name" could be put in alphabetical order.
A for apple, B for bottle, etc. Bear in mind that there are ways to throw off the audience from this
simple fact (that your pictures are in alphabetical order). One is to call an object by a different name
during the presentation than the one in your mnemonic system. You can refer to apple as "a piece
of fruit." See how this throws off the viewers from just how simple this is. The simplicity aids in the
freedom to work on the acting part of the presentation.
Another way to "throw off" is to use a different attribute of an object than its name, in your
mnemonic. For example, a banana could be used for the letter "Y" for yellow.
Also remember that the entire alphabet doesn't have to be accounted for. X and Z are hard
objects to find. Just remember at what the letter is that you stopped-before it cycles back to "A."
The reason you don't need a crib sheet is that after you've done the one-time work of finding and
drawing the right articles, you'll remember! "F" for flower-or whatever you chose from YOUR
household.
The reason that I'm not just giving you a list, is that it is the process of finding the objects YOU
relate to for each letter is what allows you to remember. You picked them. Draw them simply in
pencil. Markers bleed through blank index cards. In the patter you will say someone else, your
wife-she draws better, or a friend who you say draws better, drew them for you, and for a reason.
The work:
With your cards in order, begin by Charlier Shuffling face up once. Then thumb through them
stopping occasionally to let them get a good view of several. "I had a commercial artist friend of
mine make simple drawings of common household objects that anyone can recognize." The
reason for this is that it suggests less intimate involvement on your part with the drawings.
"The reason we'll use pictures is that often people think in words, which are abstractions of the
thing itself. I sometimes do experiments where I have people imagine they are writing a word on a
blackboard. Let me tell you, some people's handwriting is hard to read. ..with ESP.".
Call out the names of some of the objects, using your alternate description if you can, as you
stop at a few to illustrate, "Such as a doora golf ball, simple household objects anyone is familiar
with."
Turn the cards face down and Charlier Shuffle again without even looking at your hands. This is
important. Then have your subject pick one. A word on the selection of a subject, ask the
audience for someone who has ever had the phone ring and knew for sure who it was before
picking up, or better still, been thinking of someone and upon picking up the phone to call that
person, found them on the line because they were calling YOU and the phone hadn't even rung yet
when you picked up to call THEM! Study that wording, because it is that thinking exactly that
fosters a belief in "women's intuition"- another word for ESP. You'll get someone who believes this
stuff is possible and even common.
In any case, after a card is selected, hold a simple break at the spot the card was removed from,
and then CASUALLY cut and glimpse the drawing at the face of the packet and immediately go into
a casual shuffle-remembering the drawing you saw. Just count ahead in the alphabet one letter
and you'll know the letter of the initial of the object they have selected. Offer the packet for them to
return the card-looking away the whole time. Then, also without looking hand the entire packet to
them for mixing. This is all very disarming.
Have them picture the object in their mind. Struggle to get it as you draw it on your board. As I
said before, they don't expect ESP to be 100%. Make your drawing be a little "off." If you are too
perfect, it seems more like a "trick" and less like an experiment.
THE WOMB
...as in Back to the womb. Hey, it's where I go to think. The reference is to the fact that I do my
creative thinking in bed in the middle of the night. I've trained myself for years to wake up at
around 2:30 AM. Most people don't like to wake up at that hour. I plan out the next day's creative
projects instead of counting sheep.
I'm working on this in early March 2000. It is just after lunch. David Roth the coin master just
appeared in a puff of smoke to tell me that he thought I should credit Jules DeBarros and his
"Coins of Ishtar" for the general idea of using multiples of C/S coins. Not the move I taught in issue
One, but the general principle.
Next, David filled me in on the exposures of the TV show on Street Magic - obviously a direct
attack on Blaine. Wait - David just disappeared in a puff of smoke. I wonder how he did that?
Check this out! CHELSEA CLINTON just sent in her order for FEEN-X !
( April Fool )
Wait! Stephen Minch, the great writer and publisher just appeared in a puff of smoke to tell me
that Roy Walton published a monte routine "Queenie", that used a double facer. And my face is
red on both sides. Not exactly like my routine, but must be mentioned.
Stephen just disappeared in a puff of smoke. I wonder how they DO THAT? If this keeps up it
will get exposed on TV.
A good segue point here. I want to mention that the great manipulator Jeff Sheridan has left
America for the Tiger Palace in Germany, those lucky dogs. He has developed a beautiful new act
that I'm sure will get on to German TV. Perhaps in time we'll all get to see him when he returns
from Europe.
Before he left we had many discussions about the fact that manipulators may be the last ones to
be hurt by exposure. I'd say we all should do-what we were told long ago and not get too caught
up in gimmicks and really master the sleights that allow for great magic with BORROWED decks (
or give your deck away ), borrowed coins, etc. and when using ANY gimmick to ring it in or out
cleverly.
Another thing that is working for me is to tell people when asked, that the tricks exposed on TV
are not what the pros use, but old fashioned and out of date methods. I tell them that magic keeps
changing - and it MUST - and that is one of the reasons for FEEN - X, and that the TOP GUYS
don't use those tricks anymore. Maybe a few kids and amateurs. (In fact we DO HAVE to switch to
new material in some cases.)
I think back to Alexander Hermann's poster showing him palming billiard balls in all sorts of ways
and then going out and fooling people with the act anyway. I still wouldn't want to use that
approach, but the skill tricks - complete with flourishes which are good to do - contrary to what
some say, ARE seen by laymen as different and better than something that just has a simple
"secret" that anyone can do if they know "it."
Also, if based on a gimmick that you must own ( buy ) to do the trick, laymen will be less and less
impressed - but we feel the stage is set for the emergence of "The Sleight-of-Hand ARTIST." And,
it goes without mention that we must all work hard on better presentations.
In this vein, I want to pick up where I left off last time about acting and manipulation. We spoke
about making an object vanish better by learning to act as if we could still see it ourselves - not the
audience, by thinking of a vanish as more like that the object becomes invisible but continues to
exist.
Now I want to mention about reproductions and productions. What I see too often is producing
objects from the hands. Cards, coins, balls, etc. are produced by causing them to come up out of
a hand. Even from backpalm I usually see the trick ACTED like "see them pop up from my hand". I
think the trick of producing an object can be acted differently with a sleight change in technique and
timing to be - "I see an object in the air. I can see it because I'm a magician. It is not only invisible,
but can float in the air, or hover, for now." "But, now. ..as I sneak up on it and reach UP and grab it,
and PLUCK IT like a piece of fruit, DOWN from the proverbial bough, THAT is the instant - on the
downstroke, that the object becomes visible again - just like plucking an object down from a
branch." Don't say it - think it! (When I remember to act this out I get more applause).
Copyright 2000 Gregg Webb
THE FRYING PAN
Welcome back. So good to see you. And so we
reach the end of RUNNING MONTAY.
I think you'll enjoy the move to be taught here. It
involves palming a card, but I have small hands, and I
even do this a number of times for someone, because I
can't believe they aren't catching it.
I think palming has a bad rap. So much of card magic is based on finding ways around palming.
In actuality, after gaining confidence, it is often the way to go. This has built in "throw-offs," and
may get more of the guys palming cards. If this doesn't, next month's installment definitely will.
The basic move is an extension of Marlo's Misdirection Palm, which I thought everyone knew.
In showing Marlo's and mine to a number of well read NY cardmen, I was surprised to find how
many didn't know it or use it.
What I did for this routine was to try to apply the move to a three card montay packet. This
raises some interesting issues. Then, while palming a card, I evolved the ability to false count the
remaining two cards as three with a Biddle Count, and hand the two (supposedly three) cards face
down to a spectator to see if they could pull out the Queen without peeking. I found that it took
much longer for them to realize they had only two cards (and no Queen), and by then I'd be pulling
Lil Queenie out of my pocket - or fly, in certain crowds. Usually the pocket. I'm not in the
raunchier venue as much anymore.
Let's get on with the details of remember, we're coming back to monte between other non-card
tricks. Let's say you just did some origami, or put on some music and did some dance steps, or the
pop-up tie. Maybe you took out a B.B. gun and shot a cigarette out of someone's mouth. Or, a
bullwhip for the same trick goes even better, so Im told. Seriously, a color-changing knife or a
coin trick would be just fine. You are just now garnering your applause for that non-card feat.
Again bring out the three regular cards of the set. This would be a black Queen and two
matching red-spot cards. Have the Queen at the face of the packet. Spread and show and then
square and turn the packet face down.
Perform another double-lift and turnover from the bottom, the same Bro. Hamman move
explained in last month's issue. Keep a pinkie break under the face up double, with the Queen
showing. Let the LIL register and then flip the double face down on the packet. Push off the top
card, which they think mistakenly is the Queen, take it with your right hand and insert it outjogged
AND angle-jogged under the rest of the packet, as in the following drawing. The left thumb and ball
of second finger, AND the curved first finger, keep the card in place.
The angle-jog is very important. When we do Marlo's Misdirection Palm with three cards only
and with the decoy angle-jogged as taught, the card they think is the Queen, really the switched-in
two, is seen more clearly to go under the packet. When you go straight, without the angle, there is
much more confusion. WITH the angle, the entire outer left corner from your point of view is seen
as the card is pushed in.
The details of the move are these. Place your right palm on the actual Queen, the one on top of
the packet proper. See the following drawing. Slide your right hand, AND the Queen forward so
that the tips of your right hand can contact the corner marked "X.
The Queen is really not palmed yet. It just slides. As your right fingertips reach corner X, and
begin to push this decoy in, two things happen.
First, the Queen is actually palmed, and second, the right thumb moves to the inner narrow edge
of the packet, so that there can be a slight squeezing action as the card is seen to go flush and we
end up as in the drawing to the above right, with a card, the Queen, in right palm, and two squared
cards in view, and the viewers think there are three there, and that they saw the Queen up until the
last second, not realizing they were following the wrong card.
We are near the end, but first a neat move. We'll Biddle Count the two visible cards into the left
hand, even though palming in the right hand. That is why we're using a Biddle False Count and not
a more modern Elmsley.
The details of this false count of two cards as three go like this. Use the left thumb to "peel" a
card into left dealing position from the top of the right hand's visible (two) cards. As you go to peel
another, the first card peeled is stolen beneath the right hands card, to be used again - to make
the count of three. So, right after the count of "one", that card is stolen back during the count of
"two" and the first card, now stolen back in the right, is counted again for "three." This must be
practiced to get it casual, but when the audience experiences three cards going into the left hand.
Pass this packet, really two, to a spectator on your left, and say something to the effect of,
"Would you try an experiment and see if you can slide out - face down- the Queen without
peeking.".
You'll find, if you got through all the above steps smoothly, that it takes a while for this spectator
to realize they have two cards and not three.
When the moment is right, go to your right pocket and produce the Queen slowly from that
pocket.
If you do this for the same crowd again, have a small cardboard square or a business card with
"DON'T BET ON IT" written on it in your right pocket and an EXTRA dupe regular Queen in a left
pocket.
This way, you can ditch the Queen with your right hand and bring out this message card which
you drop to the table as you now show your left hand empty and go to a left pocket and produce
the Queen, although this one is a dupe as explained.
This entire sequence from start to finish is filled with one throw-off after another. You'll grow to
love palming a card.
I was very fortunate to have had my coin routine Coins Across 2000 published in GENII
magazine. Richard Kaufman changed the title from "Hit and Run" to the above tag. The routine
had been in Meir Yedid's Magic Times and on Magic Show under the "Hit and Run" moniker. It
introduced the concept of Biddle Counting coins, and it was taught to include the possibility of
palming coins in either (or BOTH) classic palms, left and right, as a way of increasing the
possibilities of variations or kickers.
This feature is a variation on the false count of coins. In this use, only one coin will be classic
palmed in the right hand during the Biddle Count. This will have its most practical use in Coins
Across one-at-a-time, when using an odd Chinese Cash coin in the trick.
Effect: A utility move for getting into the first passage of a coin in Coins Across.
Required: Four half dollars. A Chinese Cash coin. Any odd coin will do as long as there is enough
difference to the look of the coin, so it is seen as very different from a half. Also, the diameter
MUST BE SMALLER than a half dollar.
Set-up: Almost none. Have all five coins in a right pocket.
Performance: Reach into your right pocket and classic palm one of the half dollars in right classic
palm position, and bring out the three other halves and Cash coin stacked as shown. Try to keep
the faces and not the edges of the coins aimed at the spectators.
Peel the cash coin into your left hand with your left thumb. This is very much like standard
technique with cards, only with coins instead. The next picture shows this step.
The next procedure is to peel the next coin, the half on top of the right hand's stack, onto the
cash coin already on the left hand. This is just a normal "peel."
When the next coin, the second half, is peeled is when some secret work takes place. Come
over the coins on the left hand, and indeed peel the next half off of the right hand group, but ALSO
PICK UP THE FIRST HALF THAT WAS PEELED, underneath the right hand's stack with the right
thumb and first finger pads. The sound is right, it looks correct if you keep your wrists broken
forward to make sure the viewers aren't looking at the edges, and the CASH COIN being smaller
causes it to NOT be picked up when you steal back the first half.
To review, as you peel half number two, you steal back half number one under the stack. The
cash coin stays in the left hand and is not stolen. There are a total of two coins in the left, a cash
coin and one half. The audience thinks there are three coins.
The next drawing shows the half being picked up under the stack just before the left thumb will
do its peeling action of the top half of the stack, onto the left hand and cash coin. The cash coin
even helps the sound.
All we have to do now is to continue the rhythm established, and peel singly the remaining (two)
halves into the left hand. We are virtually done. The audience thinks there are five coins including
the cash coin, in the left. Actually there are four and there has been a coin in right classic palm,
hidden by Malini Subtlety as the false count was done.
To make the first coin "go" across, work the cash coin out of your left fist and let it fall to the
table. Pick it up with your seemingly empty right hand as you explain that the odd coin is the one
with the power over other coins' souls. You're one ahead.
MENTAL THOUGHTS
Obviously a blindfold stunt. Real blindfold, or if you want you can just turn your head away so
that it is abundantly clear that you aren't peeking at "marks". Oh, I forgot to mention this is with
cards.
Evolved from T.A. Waters' GRAYZE from his Big Book MIND, MYTH, and MAGIC, which
involved a tactile cue through a cloth - I found I could eliminate the cloth.
What we're using here are two principles. One is roughing fluid BUT NOT FOR ROUGH-AND-
SMOOTH. I wanted to get that out fast. NOT FOR ROUGH AND SMOOTH: It is instead used for
a tactile "mark" that you feel instead of look at. I used this idea for years with ESP cards and fried
many well informed fellow magi.
The other principle used here in a use with playing cards is a Rosary, or cyclic stack and "Eight
kings threatened to save, ninety-five ladies for one sick knave" is fine, but in our case the suits will
play NO part, so randomize the suits at will. Willy Nilly in fact.
To make up the deck, after arranging the cards into poetry, take the four EIGHTS and rough the
backs. I use Krylon Matte Finish spray found in art supply stores. Let them dry thoroughly and put
them back in the deck in their correct places. Again, disregard suits in this entire trick.
What you must understand is that if only four cards have roughed backs in a deck, and those
roughed backs are next to a normal card, the deck handles normally. There is no more friction
than with all unroughed cards. The "pairing" only happens in rough-and-smooth tricks because a
rough card is next to another rough card. That is not the case here.
To perform, with or without blindfold, is to do a face down Charlier Shuffle without looking at your
hands, and follow up with a faceUP Charlier shuffle (very convincing) and then turn the deck down
and give several cuts.
Ask someone to call out a number between or really FROM one to thirteen. This is the part that
eliminates the concern for suits.
If someone calls seven, a popular number, deal cards into a face down pile until you FEEL an
eight when you deal it. That's right. You can feel the rough card and to be honest, there is a slight
different sound of your fingers rubbing the card in the act of dealing that the spectators will never
notice, and you are probably going to have to work with to believe in. I've been doing this for a long
time and to me the difference in feel and sound are like night and day. When I tip this to a friendly
magi, they don't notice the feel or sound right away.
To continue, when you do feel that eight, begin your mnemonic (poem) and for each card dealt,
wave your flat right hand over it as if feeling for "vibes". When you get to the seven in your poem,
deal it face down, feel its vibe, and then set it closer to the center of the table and off the dealt pile.
To conclude, turn over several cards from the top of the pile, and then several from the top of
the deck, so that your witnesses see no apparent order. Finally turn over the card at the center of
the table to reveal the card value called for - a seven. All of the above moves and really the entire
routine is done without looking, if not using a blindfold, and even with a blindfold you should also
turn your head.
You can repeat this by just continuing, with another number from one to thirteen called out. You
could also false cut then give one real cut - or let someone cut, and begin again and deal till you
feel your next rough card to begin your rosary once more.
In two issues I'll go over my method for using this with ESP cards which has fooled great
magicians and a great mentalism consultant.
Back to ... THE WOMB
A fog and a glow are forming in my great crystal ball. Incoming! David Roth just appeared in my
answer to phones and the internet. I love magic and magick!
He wanted to tell me Jon Racherbaumer ran a Walt Rollins idea in MAGIC magazine called
Fingerpalm HPC. I never saw it, but David told me that the action in Walt's was more of a "pitch"
and that he didn't feature the palm up show using Ramsay subtlety in his.
Another topic from Mr. Roth that I feel is well worth a few of the choicer words involves a buzz on
the internet chat rooms about Shadow Coins by Michael Ammar, which is only a variation on Roth's
Original Chinese Coin Assembly which appeared in Apocalypse #1 and Coinmagic (Kaufman &
Greenberg), and David Roth's Expert Coin Magic and on his tapes.
Adding a shell, or doing the routine on the floor doesn't make for a new trick. It is a variation on
the pre-existing trick. In fairness to Ammar, he does mention Roth's version but others have
seemed to have lost track of the original credit.
He's gone! Mike Bornstein just appeared in the crystal ball to tell me he once made a card
vanish with sticky tape. He's gone!
On to other matters, Jeff Sheridan still doing well in Frankfort, Germany in his coup of reviving
classical style manipulation which we both feel is on the verge of a big comeback, and he'll be at
the head of the parade when he returns to the states.
Meir Yedid has expanded his line by gaining video editing capabilities and he has acquired many
properties that he will be handling the distribution of as well as some editing. I particularly found
interesting his acquisition of Kaufman's tapes and also I very much enjoyed one new release from
England featuring Quentin Reynolds.
Quentin is a pro from Briton, and he is shown on video in his performance in front of an audience
of little kids, and you can tell he's had loads of experience. Also, his material is honed. All with a
handkerchief, the gags and tricks build until he finally gets to the part where he folds and ties the
hank into a mouse shape.
The mouse comes alive as in Rocky Rackoon, but he makes it seem truly alive and when it
jumps to a teacher's lap she screams. It jumps into the audience, and the kids scream. It jumps at
the camera and I screamed.
Then the tape goes into teaching mode, and Quentin is as good a teacher as a performer. I
learned a lot and will watch it again. Finally Quentin runs through the entire routine without an
audience.
Meir also has many new tricks in a glossy brochure, and one trick of note is his new paddle trick
with new ideas on the jumping and multiplying and changing and splitting of arrows on a black stick
that allows for a LOT of magic and variation.
Next, I want to announce the arrival of a book from Stephen Minch's HERMETIC PRESS that I
am especially intrigued with. It is "LIFE, DEATH, and OTHER CARD TRICKS" by Bob Neal.
Neal, a theologian as well as magician, has packaged routines that deal with death and the
philosophical issues therein. I am not averse to magic about this area, it being part of our magical
origins
HERMETIC PRESS is world famous for its dedication to quality and the NEAL book includes
humorous AND serious philosophical presentations. You'll at least use the material at Halloween,
but more than that it will make you think.
The artwork on the cover and for chapter headings attempts to balance a fine line between wit
and terror, in a faux woodcut style.
I recommend it. Get it. Well, the fog is clearing from my great crystal ball.
PRESENTS AN HOMAGE TO EDWARD VICTOR, DAI VERNON, ARTHUR FINDLEY, MATT
SCHULIEN, and whoever invented the RUB-A-DUB VANISH.
Happy Birthday to me! I'm considering getting this into print to be my birthday present to myself.
Several publishers have liked it, but thought it too long. It is long to describe but not to do.
It is hard. It is all technique, but I chose techniques most already know. It is pure magic, and if
you like both cards and coins this blend will be seen as not another card trick, or coin trick, but an
excursion into magic.
Effect: A card turns into a coin. Next, the coin changes back into a card. The deck is cut, and in
the middle is the coin. The card has changed into a coin while in the middle of the deck.
The coin changes to the selected card once more and again back to a coin, each time with
different methods
The coin is put away in a pocket and reappears out of the cardbox, which had been seen empty
at the beginning. The coin is put away again, and the box picked up. When the box is shaken, you
hear a coin - obviously a coin - rattle in the box. When the box is opened the selected card - not a
coin now - it changed again - is withdrawn from the box to end.
The card can be signed, but I don't because the coin should have the spectator's signature on it
too, for consistency, but I don't know how.
Required: Deck. Box. Two matching coins.
Set-up: One coin is loaded between the cellophane and box on the crescent-cutout side of the box.
That's the side without the flap.
Have the other coin in right classic' palm position, and the deck in the box.
Performance: First I'll give a bare bones type of explanation as I teach the modifications on basic
sleights needed, and the one original bit, and then I'll run through the whole routine in detail to
make it all clearer.
Don't worry, because even though this is a virtuoso piece, all the sleights are standards.
First is a Modified Rub-A-Dub Vanish. The modification is that a coin that was classic palmed in
the right hand, appears on the table after the "rub," changing this to a change and not a vanish.
The next is a modified Spellbound Move, and the modification is that a coin changes to .a CARD
and not to another coin.
Later, a Modified Paul Gertner Vanish is used. Instead of rubbing the fingers on the table or mat,
they are rubbed on the top of a face down deck held in dealing position.
Following this, a modified Findley Tent Vanish is needed. Two new things here are a pinkie
break that is held beneath the second card down while the move is done to the top (tented) card, to
allow for a no-get-ready turn of a double after the vanish/change.
The other variation is that a coin in right classic palm gets rung in to effect a change of a card to
a coin.
After the coin is put away, the dupe that reappears out of the box is the one hidden between
cellophane and box since the beginning. Details will be covered in the next section.
The coin is put away again, to a left pocket, and brought out again. This coin is concealed in left
fingerpalm, and when the box is placed in dealing position in the left, hiding the coin, the coin is
released to make sounds of a coin rattling when the box is shaken and this sounds like the coin is
IN the box but is really outside and beneath the box. It is regripped in left fingerpalm for the rest of
the sequence which is the Matt Schulien illusion of seeming to produce a card from the box, but
really it comes from under the box.
The coin is not seen again, and clean-up details will be given in the third section.
SECTION TWO
Here's the work on the Modified Rub-A-Dub. There is a coin in right classic palm from the
beginning. The deck is in the left hand and the selected card has been brought to SECOND from
the top. Details in section three.
Push over the TOP card. Pretend to take it under the flat right hand, and even let a corner of
the card extend past your right hand but as the right hand pretends to pin it to the table, the left
thumb pulls the card flush on top of the deck. The right rubs and lifts to reveal the COIN.
The details of the Modified Spellbound are that the right hand has the card palmed and also still
holds the deck from above. The left hand holds the coin in French Drop Position.
The right hand sets the deck down but retains the card in palm and moves in front of the coin in
left French Drop Position and then the coin is let fall to left fingerpalm and the card is deposited at a
French Drop Position (except that it is a card and not a coin), and the right hand moves away to
reveal the change.
The right hand takes the card and turns it face towards the audience and the left first finger flicks
the card for emphasis. It helps if you use "low" fingerpalm (more towards the pinkie) for doing the
"flick" action while not exposing the concealed coin.
The next sequence to do is the cutting of the deck so as to load the coin into the deck. It is so
easy I'll teach it as I go in Section Three.
Lets move on and see how to get the most out of the situation we are now in with the cards AND
the coin.
The next sleight I always associate with Paul Gertner, and it is a beautiful yet easy thing
Normally, you pick up a coin and classic palm it as you pretend to rub your fingertips with thumb
held pressed against the balls of the fingers as if the coin is still there but it is by now already in
classic palm.
After the rub, the hand is lifted briskly and the hand opened out palm down with fingers and
thumb spread, acting as if the coin vanished. It has a lot going for it. In our version it is exactly the
same except the tips of fingers and thumb rub the back of the top card of a face-down deck in left
dealing position instead of the table or mat.
The next sleight to modify is the Findley Tent Vanish. The first variation is that the left pinkie
holds a break under the second card from the top as the top card is "tented." This allows for an
easy turnover of two cards in the full routine. The other modification, but of course, is that the right
hand will be palming a coin.
The next order of business is to put the coin away in a pocket - easy - and to cause it to
reappear from the box. The box is on the table crescent cutout side down, with the concealed coin
underneath. The flap is not IN the box, but under it. The weight of the box on the flap keeps it
closed. It looks during the early routine as if the lid (flap) is closed, yet it is not inserted in the box,
but outside and under it.
All you have to do is lift the box as in the drawing and the flap falls free. The coin slides by
gravity down and out of the cellophane and HITS THE FLAP which is a big part of the illusion.
Then the flap moves down from the weight of the coin and continues its path to the table. The
illusion is perfect!
That last bit got the viewers thinking about the box, which is fine. It sets up a theme. Now the
left hand again puts the coin away in a left pocket. Do this after closing the box for real and setting
it down again with the crescent side down, and after having false cut the deck and top palmed the
selection. Take the deck in right Biddle Grip from above with the right hand, which helps the hand
look normal by having something to do.
THE IMPORTANT THING HERE IS THAT AFTER FINALLY PUTTING THE COIN AWAY,
REALLY FINGERPALM IT WITH THE LEFT AND COME BACK OUT OF THE POCKET AS IF
YOU LEFT IT THERE.
Pick up the box with the left hand being careful with your angles and the coin will be under the
box.
Relax your hand and shake the box and the coin will rattle against the bottom of the box. This
seems to indicate that the coin has returned. "It's BACK." "But it CHANGES!"
Again grip the coin in left fingerpalm under the box, and we are ready for the Matt Schulien
move. Set the deck down and keep the selection palmed. Come over the box and load the card
against the box and control of the card is taken by the left thumb and fingertips.
Now comes a wrist turn, and we're, home free. Open the flap with right fingers. Insert the right
thumb and first finger INTO the box and the second finger goes UNDER THE open flap to contact
the selection.
Pull the card in a straight line, seemingly out of the box and PAUSE. Those are your keys to this
illusion. Pull straight out and pause.
The clean-up will be covered in Section Three - the full performance.
SECTION THREE
To actually do this routine, there are other small details. Before you begin, classic palm one coin
and have the other in the cellophane of the card box. Take out the deck without flashing the coins.
I use my left fingers to mask the one hidden under the card box.
Open the lid way back (the flap) and shake the box as if making sure no cards accidentally
stayed in the box. Fold the lid closed but the flap doesn't go IN the box but under it.
Still classic palming a coin, spread deck for a selection. For its return, swing cut the top half to
your left hand, take the selection ON the left half, and peel one card on top of it from the right
group, then set the right group ON the left group, but keep a break.
Double cut to the break and the selection is second from the top. Say, "since I am a magician, I
can give your card special powers. For example, I can get it to climb to the top." Do a double
turnover to show their card. Turn the double back down on the deck and push over the top card,
which is the indifferent card (face down) in readiness for our Rub-A-Dub. "It has other magical
properties now." Do the Rub-A-Dub Variation taught, and after the move when you raise your hand
and reveal the change to a coin, say, "It can change into a coin."
Flip over the top card to show that their card is not on top of the deck. It is the indifferent card
pulled back flush during the rub variation. Turn it back down with a break and double undercut it to
the bottom. Now their card is on top. Continuing right along in your squaring action after the cuts,
top palm the selected card in the right hand but end up holding the rest of the deck also in the right
hand from above with Biddle Grip. My advice here is don't substitute a one-handed top palm. The
young turks think it's cool, but I've never seen it done without flashing and considerable strain
showing. Even those with big hands are fooling themselves. Use the regular old two handed top
palm. You have to square after the double cuts, so use that squaring-up motion to hide the top
palm.
So...set down the deck and pick up the coin with your left hand simultaneously, and have the
coin in left French Drop Position and do our Spellbound Move Variation as taught. "And it can
change BACK." Use your right hand to turn the face of the card to the viewers and flick it with the
left first finger for emphasis. If the coin is in left low fingerpalm, nearer the pinkie, this works better.
Set the card on the table and pick up the deck and set it into left dealing position to screen the
coin.
Pick up the card and put the selection face down on top of the deck. Cut the top half of the deck
on the table and the next thing to do is use your right first finger to lift the coin against the talon in
the left hand, and the right thumb on top to lift cards and coin from the left hand and place them on
the half deck on the table and square. Make a magical gesture and say, "It can change again," and
lift all the cards above the coin to reveal the coin in the center of the deck. In other effects of this
nature, such as Larry Jennings' COIN CUT, the coin is FINDING the selection by appearing next to
it. Here, the card CHANGES INTO a coin (again).
The selection is under the coin. Put the half deck in your right hand into your left hand dealing
position. Move the coin from on top of the tabled half to the table, then put the tabled half on top of
the half in your left hand. Now the complete deck is in left dealing position with the selection on
top. We're ready for the Paul Gertner vanish variation.
Pick up the coin and classic palm it on the way to the deck. After you finish palming you still have
to mime that you still hold the coin behind the fingerTIPS as if held there with the right thumb tip. In
Gertner's move, you rub your fingertips on the mat. Here we rub the fingertips, and supposed coin,
onto the top of the deck. Lift the right hand briskly with the fingers and thumb spread as wide as
possible to show the coin vanished. It is really in right classic from earlier.
Next comes the Findley Tent Vanish Variation to change a card back into a coin. The left hand's
thumb pushes over TWO cards. They are not squared. JUST TAKE THE TOP (selected) CARD,
with the right hand and as you pull the second card back flush with the deck with the left thumb,
obtain a left pinkie break under it. Turn the right hand's selection up and put it in the TENT
position, face down, after the viewers have seen the face of the selection. Care must be taken
here not to flash the coin in the right hand during the turn to show the face before turning the card
face down again into TENT position.
The detail here, if you'll remember, is that the pinkie holds a break under the second card while
the left thumb holds the card above it (selection) TENTED.
The right hand comes in front of the tented card, hand held flat, and the left thumb relaxes and
the tented card falls flat on the deck. Now there is a break under two. The right hand acts as if
taking the card away, rubs on the table and releases the coin and lifts to reveal the coin.
Immediately you can flip two cards over back onto the deck to show the selection NOT THERE.
The "get-ready" helps speed the process. The only patter I use for the proceeding sequences is
"...and again, and again."
At this point we are entering the end phase. Put the coin away in any pocket, with your right
hand. Reach for the cardbox and lift it by its bottom end to vertical and let the dupe coin make its
appearance from the box. This is strong magic when you get the right knack and timing as you'll
see as you play with this. Actually close the lid with the flap in the box and set it with the crescent-
cutout side down and the mouth away from you, on the table for later.
False cut the cards, and top palm the selection as before during your squaring-up. Keep the
deck held from above by the right (palming) hand in Biddle grip. This frees your left hand. Take
the dupe coin with your LEFT hand to a left pocket, pretend to leave it there, but really fingerpalm it
back out. Pick up the box with your left hand. Study your angles.
Say, "It's BACK!" and shake the box, causing a rattling sound of coin UNDER the box, really, which
sounds like the coin is IN the box. Then say, "...but it CHANGES..." and regrip the coin in left
fingerpalm and continue to load the card against the box after setting the deck proper down. Then
finish with the wrist turn and all the rest of the Schulien fake production of a card from (really
UNDER) a cardbox.
The cleanup is easy. You still have the coin in left fingerpalm, holding the cardbox. It is not
supposed to be seen anymore. Its presence in no way hampered the Schulien move. It is just
there in left fingerpalm going along for the ride.
Set the selected card face up on the table. Take the box from the right hand and set it on the
table. Put the rest of the deck into left dealing position, masking the coin. Take deck and
concealed coin to a left pocket and. ditch. This way you are left with the card and box only on the
table as your ending picture.
Afterthoughts: I don't have the card signed or initialed. One real deluxe version of this could be to
have the selected card INITIALED and for this to make sense you'd have to preshow initial both
coins with the same initials of the person who you will select to be the assistant. There are cases-
private parties-when you'd know the name of the honoree of the event. In such a scenario, the
initials on the coin(s) would give extra interest.
But, first master the basic routine. Even though difficult, I don't think it is too difficult. My
handling on it was enough honed to impress Richard Kaufman who only declined to publish it
because it is too long for a Genii column.
Bare Bones: A card is selected and returned. It comes to the top. Rub-a-dub and it changes to a
coin. Spellbound it back to a card. Cut cards and card changes to coin in the middle of deck.
Gertner it back to a card. Tent Vanish it into a Coin. Put it away-it comes out of box. Put it away
again and the SOUND of a coin is heard from the box-but it CHANGES AGAIN and the selected
CARD comes out of box.
I think sleight-of-hand-artists should be this good. moves throughout that are DO-able.
When the new Dollar Coins were announced last year, the COLOR was given as Bronze
Colored. I thought, good, these in conjunction with Susan B. Anthony's will give us good props for
copper/silver tricks with all American money.
Later the ads began to read Gold-colored, and on a cereal box offer, I even saw "Gold Coin"
which I knew was misleading.
Well, now I've seen them and the color is too pale. Just only slightly "gold" tinted, but not a
strong enough contrast from a Susan B. in color to be useful for those routines.
On another topic. I'm saddened at the passing of Walter E. Cummings which was his stage
name for Kaminsky. Walter was a prince and is the man who inspired my interest in stand-up
manipulation. At the time I met him at the first of several conventions, I could probably backpalm
one card. What I saw him do with cards, billiard balls, and cigarettes will never be forgotten or his
complete generosity in teaching me anything I asked him.
We had a falling-out only because I didn't want to do "every" move there is - his approach - but
to edit and begin experimenting on my own. He wanted me to do his routines exactly as he did. To
tell you the truth, I'm glad I followed my instincts at devising variations because that is what I do
today, but I wouldn't have had a starting place without the foundation he taught me. We should all
manipulate till we're ninety-five. I miss him. He probably wouldn't have liked my new sleights and
variations, though.
While on the subject of manipulations, I am working on Spellbound with Billiard Ball(s). It is
coming along. I'll give progress reports.
Complaint Dept. : While trying to give a non-playing card use for my Fake Charlier Shuffle, (real
shuffle that looks like the Charlier), I accidentally re-invented the wheel. My grapevine informs me
that a Syl Reilly had a marketed effect pretty much like my pictures of everyday objects. It was
called the Mental Pictoria Deck. I hang my head in shame for never having heard of the man and
his deck.
While on the subject of the grapevine, I heard that Ricky Jay's Broadway show is postponed till
maybe next year. I hope you enjoy working on Pell-Mell Bound.
Next issue I'll return to the regular format.
Welcome back to the Frying Pan section of FEEN-X. This card piece we are about to begin is
so "Off Trail," yet a pet and tested on real people for many years. You realize that my creations are
for the most part not intended to impress knowledgeable magi. Magicians who only work for other
magicians lose touch with how magic for lay people works. Those lost souls usually think card to
wallet is better than this.
But, do you know I got rid of (read sold) all my magic wallets (except for my Dr. JAKS wallet for
mentalism) in favor of this. It uses the lowly cardbox instead and I wouldn't trade it. Women scream
and it does your heart good when you reach the finale.
It is simple, yet has the right chemistry. The lesson here is that WE as MAGICIANS get
impressed when we see or read a complex and difficult routine BECAUSE WE ARE MAGICIANS.
Laymen who haven't seen good magic LIVE are different. Simpler and more direct method and
effect are usually better for them. They probably can't even appreciate the nuances in a long
multiphase ace routine. Sometimes it is too much. This trick is simple but WORKS.
Effect: Magician shows his magic card and cuts it into the deck. He has a card selected and cuts
IT into the deck. Announcing that he can always find his MAGIC CARD by causing it to rise to the
top of the deck, the wiz turns up the top card to indeed show his MAGIC CARD.
Putting the MAGIC CARD in the empty cardbox, and having a ravishing beauty hold the box, HE
snaps his fingers and asks, "Do you know what happens when I do THAT?" Showing his right
hand empty, he reaches into a right pocket with a bare hand and produces the MAGIC CARD. He
then says, "When that happens, guess what happens to the card in the box. Open it!"
The "volunteer" opens the box and finds the selection and screams. She was holding the box
herself. I don't know myself why this works as good as it does, because upon analysis several
things go contrary to conventional wisdom, but IT DOES WORK SO WELL.
Required: A deck. One duplicate card. I always use the Two of Clubs but you can use any one,
but I recommend using the same card all the time. Be a creature of habit.
Set-up: Have one Two of Clubs at the face of deck. Have the other in a right side pocket.
Performance: Take the deck out of the box without flashing the Two of Clubs at the face yet. This
is mainly for consistency because there is a feature of the Deluxe version of this routine, which I
most often use, which I'll teach at the end, which needs this non-flashing of the face card too early.
"I have a MAGIC CARD in the deck, that helps me." Turn the deck face up and say, "The Two
of Clubs." By now you've pushed the card over, and upon squaring it get a pinkie break under it.
Double undercut to the break and you lose the face card, the Magic Card, and now turn the deck
face down and the Magic Card will be face down on top, although the audience will think it is lost in
the deck.
Spread the deck for a selection, and you only have to make sure that the top card isn't taken.
While your mark is looking at her card you swing cut the top half of the deck to your left hand.
Have the selection returned onto the left hand half, which means it is right on top of the magic card.
Drop the right hand's half onto the left's, but keep a pinkie break there. This is all standard
procedure.
Double cut or pass to the break and we're ready. Say, "I can always find my magic two of clubs
by causing it to rise to the top," or somethingand perform a double turnover to show the magic
card. Turn the double down and thumb off the real top card, their selection and put this face down
into the card box. Have your beautiful assistant hold this tight, so it can't "get away.
Snap your fingers over the box and say, "If I do THIS, my magic card JUMPS to my pocket."
Show your right hand and reach to your right pocket and withdraw the dupe Two, and show it and
put it back in your pocket. This is important to the cleanup.
Now say, while snapping your fingers over the box again, If the magic card just jumped to my
pocketguess what is here IN THE BOX YOU HAVE BEEN HOLDING THE ENTIRE TIME. Open
When she opens the box the selection is found! Great merriment ensues!
This is a trick that isn't great in theory but IS GREAT IN PRACTICE as long as it is for laymen.
As a magic lesson it teaches us that we tend to think like magicians because we are magicians.
Laymen can be happier with less. Short - to the point - yet with enough twist to be more than a
simple trick. I used to just palm the magic card to my pocket. One day I dropped it. This was
born!
Now for the cleanup. After the trick is clearly over, top palm the magic card that is still on top of
the DECK, and it is best to do this after a false cut, so the palm in the right hand can be covered by
a squaring action-the false cut provides a reason for needing a squaring action. Now go to the
pocket that still contains the dupe, and leave the dupe still there and bring out the palmed Two and
put it on the deck. Or you can just wait till you are on your way to a new group. This is a mingling
trick.
One thing that happens when I teach this to magicians, and only those that "get it" that this is
good - quite a few immediately suggest a left hand one-hand top palm. WRONG! Learn it the way
I taught to clean up. Magicians seem often to get slap-happy with the one-hand top palm. It is not
the best way. I once saw a guy with huge hands do it ok, but in other cases there is always tension
and a flicker of flash. I can think of only one trick that it is better for.
Deluxe Version: Sign YOUR name on the faces of both magic cards and put one in your pocket
and one on the face of the deck and put the box around the deck.
Take deck out of box necktied. Take out a marker and PRETEND to sign it but of course it is
already signed. Lower the deck (it is face up) and blow on it. Now proceed as before. When the
magic card comes out of your pocket, the dupe also is signed. This is the "off trail" part. The
magic card coming out of your pocket is a secondary effect-even with your signature. The
selection being found in the box is the primary effect.
Lesson. Even though magicians know that a signed card is supposed to be THEIR signature,
LAYMEN DON"T KNOW OR CARE enough about magic to see the difference. But - if they see
someone do a signed selection to pocket (spectator's signature) on TV in the future, they will recall
that you did the same thing. Laymen don't remember details. That is how magic works - partly.
I have never in twenty years had a layman say, "It was supposed to be MY signature-not
YOURS." They don't think that way. Only the magicians that perform for magicians think that way.
Before you conclude that there is nothing here, actually do it at your local pub for a non-magician
(female). Then tell me I'm not right.
P.S. When using the signed magic cards, don't use the same magic cards all night, and when
mingling, move to a widely separated group after you leave one group. A rolling stone gathers no
moss. By this I mean spectators who follow you to see your tricks over and over.
That is what I do when I use this to mingle. It is ok to do just once, too.
to have had my routine HIT & RUN, the original title, run in GENII magazine.
Richard Kaufman changed the title to COINS ACROSS- 2000.
What I've done since then is develop an in-the-hands version with no need for a table. Luckily, I
taught the false Biddle-style count for coins in my last issue, except here there is no extra "odd"
coin in play.
Effect: Coins Across one-at-a-time.
Required: Six matching coins to masquerade as four.
Set-up: All six in a right pocket.
Performance: Reach in and classic palm three and bring out the other three stacked and held
between the right thumb and first finger. False count the three in view, as four, into the left. Be
careful to show the faces and not edges, of the coins, to the viewers' eyes.
Let one fall to the curled fingers from right classic palm. The situation is that three coins show in
a fan at the left and one at the right.
The move I added to eliminate the table is here. It is a turnover of the three coins at the left, and
a turnover of the single at the right. Both hands move their first fingers to the top of coins and coin,
respectively. Next the thumbs move underneath coins and coin, and lever them over, away from
yourself. That's it.
Palm one coin of a group with the left and let another fall from the right. Two and two. Repeat
the turnover move with both hands. At this time, both hands conceal coins (or coin) in Malini/Kaps
Subtlety.
Palm another with the left and let another fall from the right. One now shows in the left, and
three show at the right. Again perform the turnover move with both hands.
For the last one, classic palm the single against the other two in left classic. But, then keep
kneading the thumb and fingers and then make a toss towards the right and splay open the left
hand as far as you can palm down. The right hand jangles its three coins and one-handedly levers
the coins up in a stack between the right thumb and first finger for another "count."
Perform the false count into your left, let one coin from the concealed three join the three just
false-counted there, to make a total of really four coins. Set these down, if you can get near a
table, or into someone's hand, or drop the four into your right hand and go south (the RUN part of
Hit and Run) with your left hand to a left pocket for a deck of cards and ditch the two extra coins.
Or, ditch one of the two extra coins and pick up an odd (Chinese) coin and bring it out in view while
concealing one coin still, so you can retrieve the four coins and proceed with a routine using four
coins and a secret fifth, AND odd coin. Don't just ditch with no excuse.
This is the ESP card version of BLINDED. This is actually the way I began doing this. The ESP
cards will be set up in rotation circle, cross, wavy lines, square, and star. This is face down from
top. Then repeat and repeat again, five times, till you've used up the twenty-five ESP cards. This
order is a mnemonic. A circle is made with one stroke. A cross-two strokes. Three wavy lines-
three strokes. Square-four. Star-five.
The backs of the circles are sprayed with matte finish to give a tactile cue that is not nail nicks or
marks. You can feel the difference and sort of hear a drier, scratchier sound of your fingertips on
the "roughed" card backs.
Sojust Charlier Shuffle face down. Charlier Shuffle face up and be either blindfolded or look
away obviously, during all of the above steps. Have someone cut and complete the cut.
Explain what the symbols are and have one called out. Deal into a face down pile until you FEEL
a circle. Then just keep track till you get to the symbol asked for. Stop dealing and wave your right
hand over the dealt pile at least four inches above it. Lift the card (still looking away) and place it to
center table. Show several cards from the top of the pile and several from the top of the deck to be
other than the symbol called for. Finally turn up the card from the table to show the correct symbol.
You can repeat several times by keeping going. No more.
As in all good mentalism, simple method which you make believable by acting psychic, if you
can.
Opinions are like belly buttons. Everyone has one except clones or do they?
I watched a rerun of Lance Burton's first special and really enjoyed his re-creation of his FISM
manipulation with the canes, candles, and birds. Masterful magic and just the right attitude and
presentation.
I watched KGB Paranormal Files with Roger Moore. It was certainly an uncritical overview. One
thing is clear, though. Both the USSR and US wanted the other to believe there was something
going on with psychic phenomenon, and also each wanted the other to believe they had captured
UFO's to study the technology therein.
As bad as all that style of dumbing down TV for the masses, there is a two-edged sword at work
because it is good for magic and mentalism if people believe in "powers" and phenomena.
I had more time to digest the Bob Neale book from HERMETIC PRESS and the material is just
great. The tricks are better than I expected by far. The patter is the state-of-the-art in terms of
adding meaning and intelligence to magic. I'm looking forward to the Jamie Swiss review since I
am sure he'll come up with more to say than I can.
I liked the book very much. This is one way to learn sophisticated presentations that wipe out
the possibility of being thought of as a "guy doing card tricks."
Next month a card technique - a utility move. For coins - POOR MAN'S RAVEN. For mentalism
- THE TWITCH. My best idea so far in the area of mental magic.
Bob McAllister and I had many conversations about the Thread Reel and how we both felt it was
too good. Also, we felt it was too good for every shop to be selling to six-year olds with their tourist
families. But, as far as what we could do anything about, we decided that the sheer impossibility of
the effect, something floating or hovering, was too good to be true and that is what a spectator
must think, too. In other words, no matter how good it looks, a layman could piece it together and
conclude "must be a thread." And, they'd be right. Not bad for a comedy magician, but we further
decided that less would be more.
Bob showed me his work on getting a bill to balance in many impossible ways on edge, on the
table. Barrie Richardson, is his book from HERMETIC PRESS, THEATER OF THE MIND, also
explores this idea of less is probably more in a "telekinesis" demo.
As you have no doubt noticed, we are beginning this issue with a mental powers experiment, and
then I'll move to coins, and end with cards The last section. The Womb, is also going to change
slightly. I decided to run some manipulative stand-up moves in that slot for awhile.
Without further ado, THE TWITCH is my answer to thread work, AND it uses old fashioned
invisible thread without the reel. NO REEL!
Effect: A THOUGHT OF card, from a number on the table, twitches and moves just slightly as a
spectator concentrates on their card. That's it! You don't read their mind, per se. They choose
one mentally and concentrate. It is as if their concentration causes THAT CARD only to TWITCH.
Required: Cards. Invisible thread - no reel. Tape.
Set-up: Attach one end of a fifteen-inch length of invisible thread to the back of the four-of-hearts.
Attach the other end to the inside of your belt-near the buckle.
Arrange these cards from the face of a face-up deck. Ten-of Diamonds, threaded Four-of-
Hearts, Ace-of-Diamonds, Seven-of-Spades, and King of Diamonds. Rest of Deck. You have
enough length to put the deck in a left pocket.
These are the cards I use for Dai Vernon's 5 Card Psychological Force. This idea has seen print
in many places, including Vernon books, and tapes, and T.A. Waters' MIND, MYTH and MAGIC,
and numerous other books and magazine articles.
Performance: Take out the deck being careful to not break the thread, and deal out the face five
cards FROM YOUR RIGHT TO LEFT. That gives a spectator facing you the correct sequence of
cards. The FOUR will be second from HER left. If you have someone standing NEXT to you, such
as at a bar or if both of you are on the same side of a long table, simple deal the face-up cards
from left to right. The viewer will see the force four at the second-from-left spot.
To make the force almost foolproof, you have to maneuver the helper's mind into the frame of
taking their time to decide - not to just take one look and pick the first one they see. You also have
to introduce the notion that they should not pick the most obvious choice and that after they finally
decide on one to use, to not give it away in any manner, and to not change their mind after they
finally decide on one.
The exact wording I use is, "I want you to mentally choose one card. Don't let me know which
one you choose. I'll turn away so I can't even see your eyes. When you finally decide on one to
use, don't change your mind. OK?"
This sums up the ideas I mentioned to get them in the right mood.
The cards used do the rest. The four seems the SAFEST or least obvious choice. The fact that
it is second from their left also plays some part.
In any case, barring the fact that you can't repeat this for the same person, you'll find this works
remarkably well on new people.
What makes the twitch is a movement of your hips, which moves your waist. Leaning your upper
body slightly forward causes your hips to move slightly BACK. Cover the small movement with
some minor hand gestures above the cards. After the slightest of twitches, ask "Did you know you
could do that? Everyone can, when in the right mood."
If it turns out in a rare case that the psych force doesn't work, make it out that they were close
to being in the right mood...they got one to move...they were only "off" by a little.
By-the-way, I've yet to have this force fail, but I realize it will eventually. Again, the riskiest thing
is to say nothing beforehand, since then they may just pick the first card they see. It is only when
they think about their decision that they fall in the trap.
Other thoughts: Jeff McBride liked this idea but felt a PK magnet would be better.
Another idea is to just WRAP the invisible thread around the force card-not attach the thread to
it. This way the card can come free at the end so can be examined.
Whenever something gets "HOT" such as Raven, I immediately start thinking "What else can I
use that has a different method but a similar effect" so that what I'm doing is off-trail from what
everyone else is doing. For me this is natural, in short, I don't want to be a follower. Unfortunately,
most seem to want to be followers word for word - move for move - gimmick for gimmick. It is too
bad and bad for magic. There are good innovators out there, and then there are the followers.
Here, I always try to give my thinking on what leads me to discoveries that are suited to me...the
main rule is don't jump on bandwagons. Try to do what the people on the bandwagons are doing
BUT UPSIDE DOWN, or BACKWARDS, or ANY WAY THAT ISN'T what they do...or you'll be a
follower, too.
What this is, is a palm magnet. I'll give methods of making one, what coins to use, and how a silk
helps you get away with our method and two routines.
I never liked "pulls" anyway. Or holdouts.
Effect: A silk is placed over your left hand, which is held flat. A dark silk is best. (Doesn't have to
be silk.) A coin is placed on the silk. You wave your right hand, held flat, over the coin. The coin
VANISHES as pretty as can be, but when you whip the silk away from the left hand, the coin is
seen to be on the left hand, having penetrated the silk.
The Deluxe version allows you to do this on a spectator's hand.
Required: A bottlecap. Glue or double-stick tape. Felt. A shimmed or otherwise coin that will
attach to a magnet. Several Canadian coins will. Or put some steel in an unused shell. A dupe
coin. A silk. For the deluxe routine: A sugar packet.
Set-up: Glue or tape a magnet to the outer flat surface of the bottlecap. Then, glue or tape
(double-stick tape) a circle of felt over the magnet to prevent talking. For the coins, I put a magnet
in a shell quarter I wasn't using.
Other ways to go are shimmed coin, or shell with a piece of steel glued in the under side, or the
Canadian coins Loons, or other of their coins that will attach to a magnet.
Have a matching coin in a left pocket. In a right pocket are your palm-magnet with the coin
attached to the magnet for ease in finding it, and the silk. When ready to do this feat, put both
hands in pockets and fingerpalm the dupe in your left, and classic palm the rough mouth side of
bottlecap against the right palm, with the coin clinging to the outside of cap by virtue of the magnet.
Also bring out silk at the right fingertips.
Performance #1: This routine will be in your own hands. Show the silk on both sides with both
hands in time honored fashion. Just keep your hands necktied so as not to flash either inner hand.
Cover the left hand and coin. Now the left hand is flat and palm up and the dupe coin just rests
free on the flat left hand.
Your right hand with concealed palm magnet and attached shimmed coin goes to the right
pocket as if to get a coin. Once in the pocket, all you have to do is work the coin off the magnet
and bring the hand back out with the coin in view. Of course the magnet is still concealed. Once
out, put the coin on top of the silk over the left hand.
Wave your flat right hand over the coin and the coin vanishes. It jumps to the magnet silently and
with no movement of the right fingers. This is very pretty and the dark silk adds a nice contrast. I
get gasps and approval even from magicians. They realize it is effective.
The nice thing next is the fact that you have something to do with the vulnerable right hand. It
grasps an edge of the silk and pulls it off the left hand to reveal the dupe coin as if there was a
magical penetration. This coin can be examined, therefore it is offered up as the right pockets the
silk and magnet. A good idea here is to leave the silk partly out of the pocket. As your hand enters
the pocket to ditch, it only takes the silk part way into the pocket. The rest hangs out of the pocket.
As your right hand emerges, leave the silk partly out of the pocket. Launch into some single coin
work, and then re-introduce the silk for other non-gaff penetrations or vanishes and reproductions.
I wouldn't trade this for Raven, personally. This just suits me better than a pull.
The grasping of the edge of the silk and pulling it away with the palming hand is like the grasping
of a wand's end. It gives the right hand a task, and at that moment becomes less invulnerable, and
the dupe coin completes the audiences' journey. At this point I would feel more vulnerable wearing
a pull. Plus, you have to be wearing a jacket. In mine I DON'T.
Deluxe Routine: This can be a repeat of the previous effect but this time in a spectator's hand.
All you need is a sugar packet in a right pocket from the start. If a spectator says, "Do it in my
hand," you are ready, or suggest it yourself.
Say, "I'll be the magician. You will be...not my assistant...but my stage!" Get hold of their right
wrist with your left hand firmly, and raise their hand to about waist level. Keep a hold on their wrist.
Audience management. Reach in your right pocket and classic palm the palm magnet with
attached shim coin. Then grasp the sugar packet and come out with the sugar packet in view.
Remember, you have let another spectator examine the dupe coin. Barring that, you would have
set the dupe down if a table is handy, or barring that, you would have put the dupe coin in a LEFT
pocket.
To return to the action. Say, "in fact you aren't even going to be my stage...THIS (show sugar
packet) is my stage. YOU are the foundation of my stage." Set the sugar packet on their hand.
Let go of their wrist with your left but take over with your right hand on their wrist, but here use
mainly your fingers because you don't want her to feel your palmed magnet and shim coin. Go with
your left hand to retrieve the dupe coin from whichever place you left it, and place it on the sugar
packet on their hand.
Again take over your grip on the wrist with your left so you can get the silk which is part out of
your pocket with your right hand. Use both hands to drape the silk over their hand.
Now comes a switch. Lift one edge of the hank with your left, and reach under with your right,
instead of taking the coin from the sugar packet, you really only touch the coin on the sugar packet
briefly, to supply one sense of contact, then leave the coin on the sugar packet. Instead, as you
withdraw your right hand, use your second fingertip to slide the shim coin off of the palm magnet
where it has been concealed. As your right hand emerges, it is the shim coin they see at the right
fingertips.
Put the coin on top of the handkerchief, and hold your right hand as flat as you can and pass it
and the concealed palm magnet over the shim coin. The coin disappears with no finger movement
of the right hand at all because it jumps to cling to the magnet when the right passes over it. The
look of this vanish is very satisfying and the killer ending is yet to come. Grip a corner of the scarf
with your right hand, and pull the scarf away to reveal the coin on the sugar packet on their hand.
Put the silk away, and while doing so ditch the palm magnet and shim coin.
If you compare Raven and this, you'll choose this for the reason of no jacket required, and no
"hook-up." I've never liked the feel of being "strung up" to a pull device. A palm magnet made as I
taught is the easiest thing to palm classically in the world-a bottle cap.
Next issue, I'll run the full routine that uses this technique, which has found favor with many of
the top guys. In fact all the ones that have seen it have praised it. It is just that not ALL the top
guys have seen it yet. I don't know all the top guys. I feel lucky to know some of them. That's all.
In any case, the full routine next time is called DEPORT.
The key move to be taught today is a kind of Han Ping Chien with CARDS. Shigeo Takagi
showed my his Card Ping Chien years ago. It is in print in Kaufman's MAGIC OF JAPAN.
(Kaufman & Greenberg).
This one today, though, is based more closely on a move from Daryl Martinez' tape on card
moves, and credited to Tony Noice. There is a similar move taught in David Regal's book CLOSE
UP and PERSONAL (Hermetic Press). What these two moves are, in short, are Han Ping Chien
with cards when both the card seemingly tossed down to the table from the top of a half deck in the
left hand (but really not) and the one that DOES fall which comes from the right hand half-deck, are
both face down. A face down card is switched by HPC for another face down card. In mine to
come there is a sweet difference, if I do say so, and enough other people have said so until I
believe it. And I believe IN it.
The basis of my move probably dates back to a move Tony Kardyro showed me years ago. The
Kardyro Switch. He did it beautifully. I couldn't get away with it but practiced it like a crazy man.
That is probably where my left ARM action came from. I was using a Biddle Grip with a break
above the bottom card with my right hand when I first changed the move into a HPC kind of thing.
When I heard about the Tony Noice move from the Daryl tape, I realized I should go about
changing over to Noice's right hand but retain my left hand action since it has extra features.
I'm hoping I haven't confused anyone with the talk of the Kardyro move, because what I am
about to describe is not anything like the Kardyro. His was, in fact, very much like a Curry Turnover
(switch). But, here is a good example of making very radical changes in a move that doesn't work
for you into something entirely different if you want to. (Not all moves fit just anybody. One man's
meat is another man's poison.) I changed a left hand turnover switch into a two hand move of a
Han Ping Chien nature.
Let's go! Spread the deck for someone to touch or point to a card. Here you'll just have to get
used to the fact that spectators want to TAKE a card, not just POINT to a card. Watch for this.
Don't let it happen! Firm grip. Repeat "Just touch one," if you have to. Break the spread at the
spot they pointed so that the left hand halfdeck has the card they pointed to on top. The right hand
holds the upper half-deck slightly spread, still.
Push over the left hand's top card with the left thumb and use the right hand's cards to lever the
card face up. It should extend to the right a bit.
The little arrow in the drawing shows the card that will be switched in. Use its corner as a pointer
to indicate the card they should remember. I tap the selection twice in rhythm.
Then on a mental count of "three" I do the move.
I hope the drawing helps. What happens is that the left hand turns palm down but doesn't drop
the selection. Instead, the left thumb pulls it flush, and simultaneously, the left fingers extend.
That implies that a card was released. You also have to ACT as if you dropped a card.
The right hand's extreme fingertips release the lowest card in their group. THIS is the one that
falls, briefly under the shade of the left hand. Then, the right hand moves to the right to get out of
the way. It is done.
Common mistakes are making this move too heavy handed, (it is a light-touch move) and
slapping down or pinning the falling card to the table. Instead, let them see it fall.
It is supposed to look like you casually drop a card face down to the table. Practice this till next
time, taking time out for meals, of course.
T H E W O M B
My opinion this month is that I just had a nightmare of Jamie Swiss reviewing FEEN-X, and
turning it and me into Swiss Cheese and full of holes. Hey, he liked David Ben's shows, and the
Servais LeRoy book.
On to a manipulative piece. Billiard Balls, my first obsession in magic. A concealed ball is in the
right fingerpalm. The left holds a ball of a different color in French Drop position, although we
won't be doing a French Drop at all. Call it Spellbound Position since that is what is coming. The
right palm takes the ball from the left with a rolling action and deposits the fingerpalmed other ball
where the other one was, in left Spellbound Position. That's it. The Edward Victor concept with
balls.
Next time, the Vernon hand wash but with a billiard ball and not a card. Better than the Rooklyn
or the Garcia changeovers, in my humblest of humble opinions. Make that Sballbound move
smooth.
And so begins another Odd Coin installment. Again, it is HPC related. I must go on record to
state that this spot won't always be Han Ping Chien material. There have been a lot, and there will
be one or two more, tops.
This one must be recorded for posterity, though, and it is do-able also. The downside is gaffs. I
have given up all gaffs except one shell trick, some shimmed coins for a rare magnet application,
and as you know, copper/silver coins.
This piece - TRANSPO HPC, is by-the-way a "PSEUDO" HPC! Is made to look like Han Ping
Chien but isn't. Although I am technically against "magic to fool magicians," ever since all the
exposures, I think we can use more of the ways we used to throw off magicians on LAYPERSONS.
Effect: Three coppers on the left. Three silvers on the right. A Chinese brass coin with hole in the
center. (This use of varicolored coins helps the spectators and in fact makes this feat possible.)
The left picks up the coppers. The right picks up the silvers and the Chinese cash coin.
The left slaps its coins down-coppers, and picks them up. The right slaps down its coins - four of
them, silvers and the cash in such a way as to suggest HPC, but it is not really done. The right
hand picks up its coins.
The effect is that the coins, two groups of them, TRANSPOSE. After a magic word or gesture,
the left is shown to contain THE OTHER GROUP, meaning a CHINESE CASH COIN and THREE
SILVERS. The right hand now has THREE COPPERS and NO cash coin. Yes there is a
convincer and clean-up at the end.
Although there are gaffs, I am working on other versions of the same plot with fewer gaffs and
more sleights, and one with no gaffs and a lot of sleights, and possible uses of the lap which is rare
for me. I like HPC as "Coins Across" and generally avoid lapping, but here I make an exception. I
like the plot idea and think it is new.
Required: TWO Chinese coins and SIX copper/silver gaffs. This will strike many as a big hurdle,
but I justify it by reminding myself that I USUALLY avoid gimmicked coins entirely in favor of
sleights. I figured I could afford it since I DON"T BUY MOST COIN GAFFS that come along. I don't
even use Scotch and Soda.
Set-up: Have one Chinese coin and three gaffs in a left pocket, and the rest in a right pocket.
Performance: The best place in a set to use this is in a set that alternates cards, coin, cards, cards
and coins, etc., and when you have already done HPC earlier in the set-the real way. When they
see this they will be used to the procedure.
Reach into both pockets. Classic palm in your left palm the "cash" coin and bring out the three
gaffs with the copper sides showing. The right hand brings out all coins visible, with none
concealed and has the gaffs with silver sides showing AND the OTHER Chinese "cash" coin.
Lay out your formation of three coppers on the left and three silvers on your right and put the
right hands cash in the middle.
Pick up the left three with your left, and the right three AND the Chinese with your right. Now act
out HPC, but don't really do it. Slap (gently) down the left three copper sides still showing. Keep
the cash concealed (palmed). Pick them up.
Gently slap down the right hand coins, three silvers showing and the Chinese one. This is the
move where you try to simulate how you do a real HPC on your best day. You are trying to make
magicians think you MAY HAVE and PROBABLY DID a HPC. Laymen won't know about this.
Don't come too close together with the hands exactly like in HPC. Try to make it look like you have
a super-clean HPC. This is what is fun about "PSEUDO-HPCs." Laymen will just think you are
going for a similar trick to what they saw earlier when you did real HPC.
Pick up the right hand's coins again with the Chinese coin on top and as you do, classic palm the
Chinese coin with the right palm using palming one coin of a group from David Roth.
You are virtually done except for the crying. Make your magical gesture and reveal FOUR coins
in your left. This time let the silver sides of your gaffs show AND the dupe cash coin. The right
hand reveals three COPPER sides of your gaffs (of course the gaffs must be turned over - don't
make a sleight out of this. I just have the coins in question on my fingertip pads curled in loose fists
and when I open my appropriate hand I use centripetal force.)
To clean up and convince, I take the visible Chinese coin with my right hand (which is "holding
out"), and move it to my right on the table. My right hand arranges the six gaffs on my left hand and
has them with three copper and three silver showing, in an overlapping spread along the long axis
of my left hand. Close your left, and the left fingers cause the row of coins to turnover like the
turnover flourish of a ribbon spread of cards. Let your left hand close enough to obscure the view
for a beat and then open again. Again, three coppers and three silvers show because of all coins
being gaffs.
Drop the cash coin from the table on top of all, and use your RIGHT hand, still holding out, to
pick up all from the left and take them to a right pocket and ditch.
Inspired by Elmsley's POINT OF DEPARTURE, but it isn't much like it. This is the routine using
the HPC drop switch taught last issue.
Let's assume that just before you begin that you put the two Jokers or lacking those, two Jacks
of the same color on the table. They should overlap. And, face up.
Have a card pointed to, from the spread deck, and lever it face up and ask that it be
remembered. We'll use our same Two of Hearts from last issue as our example. Perform the HPC
switch as taught to seemingly dump the selection face-down to the table. It will look great because
you spent time practicing it.
The face down "X" card should land on the face up jokers. It is not crucial. Leave your left hand
palm down, and turn the right hand's half-deck face up and put it under the cards in the left hand.
Now all cards are face up except for the switched-out selection in the center, which is reversed.
Turn the entire deck over and set it aside to your left. Pick up the jokers and X card so that you
hold the jokers face up and the X card is face down on top. Get ready for a glide.
By gliding the lower joker, it makes it easy to grip two cards as one from the front. Use your right
hand to move these two as one to beneath the packet. Then, repeat that sequence again!
Using that glide technique to easily grip two as one, and moving two as one to the bottom of the
packet - and doing the whole sequence TWICE, creates an illusion of the face down selection
ending up sandwiched between the face up Jokers, but really the X card is face down at the bottom
of the packet.
Snap your fingers over the packet. Next, ribbon spread the deck proper from left to right,
revealing the selection. Push it partly out of the spread. The trick is virtually over, but there is a
subtle clean-up to come.
Take the Joker packet from your left, with your right hand in Biddle grip. Peel the top Joker into
your left hand. At this point you are holding a double in your right, but to the spectators it is clear
that there is no card between the Jokers as they were led to believe. Set the double down on the
right end of the spread. As soon as the double lands you are home free. The face down card
under the double blends with the other face down cards. Finish up, though, by taking the other
Joker and setting it down overlapping the first joker as shown.
A quickie, and one that, as your finesse improves with time and practice, can look like Twilight
Zone material. Not a self-working trick I grant you. There are plenty of those. Here the
satisfaction is in fooling someone's eyes with timing and skill to create an illusion of "must be
magic."
This is based on a Bob McAllister routine - Houdini's Seance. The card part I will describe is way
different from his handling. His used a key card. The pen on the string is also changed drastically
from his version. His used a double strand of sneaker lace. In other words, he tied not a pen but a
butter knife (that once did belong to Houdini HIMSELFor so Bob told me) in the middle of the lace
and gathered both ends up to be held. The trouble is, you could see the method in his way. Still, I
realized the basic idea for a truly GREAT bit of mind over matter was there. I substituted the pen
as a less clunky item, and a SINGLE STRAND of STRING noosed around the pen with a slipknot.
The very last time I spoke to Bob was about getting his permission to publish my version. At first
he said no, then said, "Do you know what? Do whatever you like with it." I've since taken that to
mean that he did realize something was wrong and that he wouldn't be needing it. So consider this
GEM to be a gift from the wonderful guy himself, and through me to the FEEN-X fans.
I sold a version of this to Richard Kaufman for a future installment in GENII, but with a different
handling on the cards. This one relies on Vernon's Five Card Psychological Force, as did TWITCH
in the last issue.
Many magicians do not use the force. They shy away because it is not 100%. They say "What if
it doesn't work?" First off, I've found out why it sometimes doesn't work for them. They're doing it
wrong! Therefore, that is why my handling which I'll explain, does work.
Second of all, in mentalism you can fail occasionally. Ask Chan Canasta. Use your Ouija Board.
Always put something risky in the middle slot of your program or set. If something should go wrong
you always blame the spectator, but kindly, for not concentrating hard enough or not properly.
"Don't picture the WORD for the object, but picture the object itself," in fact most people besides
artists do exactly that, so it is a useful line. More important is the idea in mentalism that an
occasional miss is OK. Just keep going and don't act as if bothered. If such a miss should occur,
always follow with a sure thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is that magicians who try mentalism
don't realize that an occasional miss makes potential followers believe that YOU ARE REAL even
more than if everything works perfectly. ESP - not an exact science.
Effect: A card is mentally chosen. NO QUESTIONS ASKED! A pen tied and suspended from a
string points to the card that YOU COULDN'T KNOW.
Required: A pen. A string. A deck of cards.
Set-up: Make a slipknot at the end of the string and insert pen in the loop and tighten when the
pen is balanced so it will stay perfectly horizontal (level) when suspended. From the top of deck
stack the King of D, 7 of S, A of D, 4 of H, and 10 of D.
Don't just carry the five card packet. It is too obvious you need a CERTAIN five.
Performance: "My grandmother taught me this when I was very young."
False cut the cards, and deal out the five cards in a row. Get a volunteer. Here is the exact
patter that makes this force almost foolproof. (The reason it doesn't work for some is that they just
say "Think of a card." It's not enough. You've got to get them to think about their decision in a
certain way. People all have a lot on their minds and will just "mentally" pick the first one they look
at. In other words, people don't automatically go through the logic steps we want them to.)
"Take your time. Just think of one card. Don't let me know which it is. In fact, I'll turn my back
so I can't even see your eyes. And...when you HAVE decided, don't change your mind. Ready?"
Turn back around and rearrange the cards in a circle, introduce the pen and string. Hold the
very tip of the string between the ball of thumb and second finger pad. Set the pen rotating. It will
rotate like a pointer first one way then the other, and on and on, less each time, until it stops.
Here's how to get it to stop on the "force card," the Four of Hearts, by-the-way, because it seems
like the safest, the LEAST obvious. Wait till the pen is almost stopped, and then begin a tiny rolling
action between the thumb and finger that hold the tip of the string that suspends the pen. Many
people try to look at how the pen HAS been spinning, and try to "correct" early. DON'T USE THIS
APPROACH. IT DOESN'T WORK. Wait till the pen is almost stopped before you begin the rolling
action. The back of the fingers hide the tiny and miniscule movement of the thumb roll. With a tiny
bit of practice this becomes a miracle in your pocket.
It is even stronger to mix the cards face down, keeping track of the Four of Hearts, and doing the
dowsing with the cards all face down in a circle. This takes it out of "maybe looked at my eyes,
maybe read my mind" into clairvoyance - a stronger effect in mental work.
For years I've been trying to figure a way to make the planchette of a Ouija Board to move by
itself AND spell out messages. I had a prototype that worked with a magnet. I tried threads.
I tried black art. I tried making a stooge invisible. Didn't work.
As I look at my Ouija Board today - IT'S MOVING. The planchette is trying to spell out
something! It's Jeff McBride in Las Vegas. He beat me to it! It reads, " I really like this FEEN-X."
The Frying Pan section is happy to say "Halloween is HERE" at last and to not confuse it with
Valpurgisnacht, our second most happy holiday.
This card piece is do-able, strong in the Twilight Zone style effect, and one that I researched and
had my grapevine research at Length because it is so good that someone must have thought of it.
It actually grew out. of seeing all the versions of Point of Departure by Alex Elmsley, and
Between the Palms. Upon showing it to many, I have heard that Mike Skinner used to do it, and
that it is similar effect a John Bannon effect, that it was in the Apocalypse by (perhaps) Peter
Marshal, and that it is like, in theory, Bro. Hamman's SIGNED CARD, and on and on.
Possibly the closest precursor is Ralph Hull's "Two of Clubs" from GREATER MAGIC. This is
even more direct than mine but needs a duplicate card and a perfect Mexican Turnover. At the
very least, I have two handling variations on standard moves and a subtlety that you should like.
Still, I'd welcome any correspondence about this routine to come.
Effect: A random card is placed face down on the table. A coin is placed on it as a paperweight. A
card is fairly selected from the remaining deck and replaced. Next, the wiz takes out and shows
quite cleanly two Jokers, which are then held slightly fanned face down. The random card from the
table is placed BETWEEN the Jokers, still face down, and the spectator is asked to call out the
name of her card after a tiny patter story about a prisoner being extraditedor something, and the
deck proper is spread to show the selection MISSING.
The three cards are turned over to show the selection, which Jeff McBride has stated should and
can be signed, clearly between the two Jokers. Soon to be made into a Sci-Fi prison movie. Time
travel is a possible plot for your patter. It has that spooky, no explanation feeling, for viewers.
Required: A deck with two matching Jokers. I get two decks at a time and exchange one of the
Jokers from each deck with the other so both Jokers in each deck are identical. I do other tricks
with Jokers and want them to match, one being shown twice, etc. In most decks the Jokers do not
match but are slightly different. This procedure is not new to me but might be to you.
Set-up: Two Jokers face down on a face down deck.
Variations on sleights: I'll discuss these first, so when I run with the routine, you'll already know
these.
Dribble Force on yourself: I first learned this from a Darwin Ortiz book. One time when I take
out the "random" card and two times when I locate the Jokers, I dribble and stop MYSELF with no
one saying "Stop" since these aren't selections. This is the subtlety I mentioned, and certainly
there are other ways around this, but I aint changin'.
Webb handling of Flushtration Count with two cards from RUNNING MONTAY: which you've
already learned.
Last, a different handling on the popular Trevor Lewis Move: most often connected with monte
endings.
The first difference is that we're using face down cards and turning them face up. The second
difference is the grip. I have my hands at the far end of the cards. The wrists are broken as in the
drawing and fingers point back at yourself, instead of turning the cards away from yourself, we'll be
turning the hands palm down which causes the cards to turn UNDER On their way face up.
I believe the original move appeared in the Apocalypse. This handling change feels better to
me. Let me know.
The selection, due to the handling to be explained, is the lower face down card, to your left, of
the fan. The middle card is injogged slightly. The right hand controls the right-side single card and
the left hand controls the two cards on the left.
In the act of turning your hands palm down, and away from yourself, the right hand card has to
move to the right side, slightly to allow it to move to on top of the left's two cards.
At the same time the left thumb pulls back on the injogged card and the left fingers push the
selection forward so that by the time the cards reach the position shown in the second drawing, that
the selection is in the middle and outjogged.
Now that you understand the variation on the Trevor Lewis Move, the routine will be easy.
Performance: With two matching Jokers on top, unbeknownst to the crowd, announce that you will
set a random card aside for later, with out showing it. Give the deck a false cut, and then a real cut
and keep a pinkie break. Dribble and stop at the break, and complete the cut. Put the top card
(Joker) to the table and rest a coin on it.
Next, have a card selected and noted or signed. Remember that there is another Joker on top.
Swing cut the top half to your left hand and have the selection returned there, on top of the secret
second Joker and put the right hand's talon on top, but keep a break.
Double cut to the break, and then give the deck a straight cut but keep a break. Dribble to the
break, stop, and complete the cut. This brings the selection to the top with the second Joker right
under it. The covering patter is, "I can't find your card -- it is lost -- but I can find the magic Joker."
Double turnover to show the Joker. Turn the double back down, and thumb the top card, their
selection, to the table.
They think this is a Joker. They've been deceived. Next, you give the deck a cut and keep a
break, and again dribble to the break, and complete the cut, and turn up the top card. They see the
same Joker again, but call it "the other Joker."
Take this Joker, set down the deck to one side, and we're almost done. Use the Joker, face
down to scoop up the supposed OTHER Joker from the table (the "first" Joker) and we are ready to
do my Flushtration Variation from issue 4. It appeared in the third phase of Running Montay. This
is the convincer that you hold two Jokers.
So, turn over the two cards towards yourself as taught, flashing a Joker. Turn over the two cards
sideways, to your left, and thumb down the top card (selection). Turn over and then sideways
down the remaining card, and they see the same Joker AGAIN. Drop this on the selection. Refer
to the cards as the two Jokers as you weave your plot about a prisoner. I actually talk about time
travel in my version, in any case, take the original "random" card -- really a Joker -- from under the
coin on the table, and insert it between the two supposed "Jokers" in your hand, and we're ready
for denouement time! Ask the name of their card. Spread the deck proper face up to show their
card missing. End by performing my variation of the T L Move to show their signed selection
between two Jokers. A Twilight Zone type of impossibility.
A very direct card trick. If worse comes to worst, at the very least I claim the handling variations
on standard moves help make this fly right, an just maybe I didn't reinvent a wheel. I recommend
looking up the Ralph Hull routine, even though it uses a dupe card, as being a tad more direct but
like I said needs a perfect Mexican Turnoverusually an awkward move to do as the final sleight.
Here the Trevor Lewis Move is more casual...especially my handling. Enjoy.
Why didn't I think of this sooner? ! This is just like the IN THE HANDS "Hit & Run" except that
you need seven matching coins.
I use English Pennies. Everything is the same except that you begin with FOUR classic palmed
in the right hand. You begin with the false Biddle Count with coins to supposedly show four --really
three -- peeled singly into the left hand. Everything else is virtually the same until the end when
you can AGAIN peel four coins into the left hand, but this time it is a true count. This is better,
since if anything seemed fishy the first time, when they see the counting action again it is
legitimate, whereas the old way. ..ending with another false count, is not as good thinking. This is
better, and not harder really (if you classic palm). Why didn't I think of this sooner?
Really, this should have been created FIRST and then got whittled down into the 7 or 6 coin
version. It turns out that this isn't all that much harder in terms of palming, and there are NO
FALSE COUNTS for those who might find the whole premise of false counting coins to be shaky
logic. I work on this regularly, mainly to fool magicians or impress them, if they saw my original
article in GENII. I favor the seven coin version the most, now, and to tell the truth, have all but
abandoned the six coin version with the two false counts. Go back if needed to In Hands HIT &
RUN, and then adapt it to the seven coins and eight coins version. Whew!
Effect: A VODUN ceremony.
Required: One dead chicken. One demon.
(By now I've lost a few readers who aren't comfortable with our heritage. Finethey can take
up knitting till November! Some who can't really be called "magicians" really think our art sprung to
life as "do tricks-tell jokes. Not so. )
Happy Halloween! Boo!
Required: Two voodoo dolls. Two hat pins. One scarf big enough to tie around your head as a
blindfold. AlsoONE GOOD STOOGE.
Have you noticed how hard it is to get a good stooge these days?
Set up: None, except that the scarf has to be nicely folded in quarters. Fold in halfthen again.
Performance: What this is a simple code of a nonverbal nature between your stooge and you. It
involves how they hold the scarf just before they blindfold you. This person should not be your
assistant but should be acting as part of the audience.
The person who stabs one doll while your back is turned is a legitimate spectator with a free
choice. With your back turned, your stooge sees where the pin goes in the first doll. Now, get
someone to blindfold you, gesture in the general direction of your stooge, who just happens to be
sitting near the folded handkerchief.
As she brings up the scarf, and has it still folded in quarters -- this is cue #1. In quarters, but
crumpled somewhat, this is cue #2. Held by the middle with the four corners hanging down -- #3.
Held by a corner of the scarf -- #4. Held by a middle of a long edge -- #5.
She then proceeds to blindfold you. Yet, you've already seen her signal. You then stab the
second doll in approximately the same place. Your "zones" could be #1 --head. #2 -- body. #3 --
hips. #4 -- arms. #5 -- legs.
Did I mention how hard it is to find a good stooge these days? Yet, get someone to learn this
AND act casual (the rub) and you have a stunt for Halloween. Boo!
T H E W O M B
Back to it! I heard that FISM was less than poor. I never myself felt magic was a good thing to
make a contest out of. I feel it pushes the art in the wrong direction. If magic was real, you could
see who could levitate higher, teleport farther, conjure up the baddest demon, etc. Really see who
could produce the most coins by real magic and the like. That would be fun.
Anyway, the young Turks are all doing a fancy multiple "robot" cut that I think Chris Kenner
popularized. (Im not disparaging Kenners great work in any way, but I hate the way the young
Turks try to do it.) Here is a picture
Last but not least, I am working on trying to do close-up manipulation to music and with a
spotlight on the hands and center table.
The idea to enhance that style of presentation is to make a miniature "Annunciator" which was a
stage prop from vaudeville.
The goal is to help the audience understand plots without spoken words, for a pantomime to
music act. My background is as a manipulator, so I want to have a close-up set that is close-up
manipulation. Only certain tricks lend themselves. Open Travelers. Certain coin pieces. Cups.
But, for a purse-frame routine, the audience won't "get" what it is. In a spoken act, saying, "A purse
without a bag" makes it clear. In my version, I'd have a little tripod and a stack of Show Bills in
miniature to put up on the tripod before each routine.
The Four Jokers -- as an example, it is an assembly using the four jokers and nine red-spot
cards. The title on the annunciator will help them understand that the trick is about the jokers in
particular. Yet, I don't want the title to give away the ending to the plot -- so I didn't call it the
Assembling Jokers. It will be fun to work all this out.
If anyone is interested, this style is fun. Remember Slydini's Paper Balls to Hat (not the over-
the-head thing), which he did to music? Just remember, not all tricks or moves lend themselves to
this. Everything must be burnable.
I carry this around as a packet trick. I have done so for many years. I believe it is a perfect trick,
and never fails to do for me what any magician wants from a trick - consistent impression. The one
trade-off is that it isn't done with a regular deck-hence the packet, yet the packet is actually made
of examinable cards, albeit special denominations. They are not gaffs, as in Wild card, for
example.
The set can be made up easily by buying two pinochle decks and taking out four matching red
spot cards and four matching black cards of a different denomination. That's it! I often give them
away AFTER the show, as a way of leaving a souvenir and a reminder that they aren't gaffs. While
there are routines that use Elmsley Counts that are done with regular cards, and you see one of
them twice, in this routine it is better to make up the packet trick.
This also allows you to go slower and make a miracle out of it. You don't have to worry that a
card player in the crowd has that kind of memory to spot a discrepancy. After this assembly, which
I lay out in a square, not a "T," or row, I always do a Twisting routine with the four red cards, having
put aside the four blacks, and after that I do Matrix, and use the same four cards with the newly
introduced coins. This is the premise behind one close-up set. Show the cards have magic
powers. Show the coins have magic powers. Do Matrix. End by doing a coin trick with the four
coins and an Odd Coin.
I might add that I also know other tricks that can be adapted to these cards. I can do monte,
Open Travelers, a variation on The Travelers to Pocket, by selecting cards from the set of eight.
The two pinochle decks will supply you with enough sets for a long time.
Effect: Jazz Aces, a Peter Kane famous trick, but done with the cards face up at the important
spots (when spectators used to say "How do I know those are really aces") even though you did a
pretty good secret addition or other switch. Here they are shown the card every time except the
last, and it vanishes visually.
Note that there are other advantages in this routine in the way of subtleties, and also remember
that you can learn this with just four red spots and four black spots from a regular deck now for
learning purposes only, and just pretend to yourself that they are dupes and get the proper cards
later after you've learned the routine.
Required: Four matching cards that are red, and four that are black. Two small envelopes, a wallet
with two compartments, or a document holder with two compartments. Or two small rubberbands.
Set-up: I used to start with the colors segregated, and then do a Braue Secret Addition, etc. as
usual, but then realized that if I had the odd card in place in each packet in position to be hidden by
an Elmsley Count, that it would be even more direct for the spectators.
So, put a red spot third from the face of the black cards and a black card third from the face of
the red cards, and put these in separate compartments of your wallet.
Performance: "Four red magic cards," you spiel as you Elmsley Count to show four matching red
cards. You can go slow and smooth since there are matching red cards with no chance of
someone seeing the same suit twice if you were using regular cards.
Put the face card, a red, FACE UP on the table, and then turn the three remaining cards face
down as a unit, and do a double turnover. Note that a red card shows, but hides the one black
card, so when you turn the double down and thumb off the top card and put it to the left of the face
up card on the table, that it is actually the one black card secretly in the red group, that goes down.
Turn over a single from the top of the talon, and the audience sees the same red card again,
although they don't know it. Turn this card down and thumb it into the third corner of a square, and
finally show by identical moves the final card and complete your square. This convincer was taught
to me by the great George Sands.
Now take out the black group and say "four blacks" as you face up Elmsley count (the secret red
doesn't show) and turn the packet face down. The top (red) card is thumbed face down on the lone
face up red card of your square. A double turnover to "prove" at this point would be redundant. I
agonized over this decision in the Seventies.
Turn over the remaining three in your hands, face up now, and spread them in a fan. Take the
face down card from the square from YOUR inner right, and put this red card on the face up fan,
also face up. As you close the spread, catch a left pinkie break above the lower most card. We're
going to do a Paint Brush Move. Your right hand in Biddle Position grasps the three cards above
the break. As the right moves to the right, use the left thumb to peel the top face card back on top
of the single in the left. in other words, the right hand draws out the two middle cards as one. A
black card shows in the right hand and hides another black squared beneath it. The left hand holds
a packet of two, supposedly three. A red shows at the face.
Perform the Paintbrush Move. When you pull back a single after the move, it looks like the red
card vanished, or changed into a black card. Visual Magic. Tweak the single in the right hand with
the tip of the left thumb. For some reason this is important.
Drop the right's single on the packet and do an Elmsley. Four blacks show as a convincer. Now
for some acting. Reach with your free right hand to the face down card on the "matrix" and rub it
on the face up red "corner card" - or leader pile, and MYSTERIOUSLY show the supposed black
card to have changed to red. Drop it face up on this leader pile with a flourish. You try to make
this part of the transposition seem MORE IMPORTANT than the vanish/change by your demeanor
alone. See Dai Vernon's essays on how to turn over a card in a mysterious way. Just turning over
the card falls flat in comparison to acting like something miraculous happened. This is one of the
most important secrets to doing magic for real people.
Repeat this sequence. Turn the packet in hand, the black cards, face down. A secret red is on
top. Thumb this card face down to the leader pile. Take the in hand cards and fan them face up.
Take the near left card from the square and put it face up on the fan. Close the spread, getting a
pinkie break over the lowest card. Draw out the middle two as one. Repeat the paintbrush change,
and Elmsley Count to convince. Finally, rub the face down card on the leader pile and turn up to
reveal its "change" to red.
Turn the in-hand packet, supposedly all black, face down and spread them while you patter.
Close the spread and get a break under two as you do. We are finally going to "prove" with a
double turnover before turning the double back down and thumbing the top card to the leader pile,
face down.
When that is done, we're ready for the finale. We ' re way ahead but must sell the impossibility of
the ending.
Spread the three cards in your left hand, the blacks, longitudinally face up in your left hand. In
the drawing the hand has been removed for clarity.
The patter while you pick up the last face down card from the square formation, which is the one
already black, which they think is red, is, "This red card has been here the whole time - from the
start of this experiment." Of course you can't show it, but set it face down on the near end of the
three spread black cards, face-up on your left hand. Rub this face down card on all the three black
cards.
As you turn it up to show that it has "turned" black, this is the first climax. Pause here to show all
black cards front and back to milk all you can here, ending with all four blacks on the table.
Now direct your attention to the one face down supposed black card on the leader pile, and rub it
on the three face up red cards in the leader pile. Show the "change" to red with even more
showmanship than you mustered on the last phase.
Give these cards away at the end of the show. They'll keep them a while, and your legend will
grow. If you don't give them away they think they are "trick" cards.
The title for this was given to me by the great Sol Stone. The great mentalist had a wallet with a
hole in it for mental work - the Dr. Jaks Wallet. This isn't for mentalism, and it isn't a wallet.
It is a purse, for coin tricks. A utility device. But it does have a hole in it. It is an alternative to
the purse frame. We as magicians often assume that spectators will get the cosmic joke of the
purse frame-a purse without a bag. Even after hearing that line, even, I have had spectators ask,
"what is that thing again?" Maybe the reason is based in the fact that not many people use purses
today.
Laymen, those people that a whole lot of magicians never show tricks to, favoring to show their
magician friends, don't get the surreal idea, and looking like something they've never seen, don't
get with the program.
So, I left the bag on the purse and cut a hole in it.
This doesn't make for a direct substitute for the purse frame. Not all routines for the purse frame
can or should be attempted with this. Upon experimentation, it turned out that OTHER tricks
suggested themselves.
Basic handling: Of course the side of purse with the hole is held facing down! To flash the holed
side, cover the hole with the fingers. When placing the purse on the table - again, hole side down.
In all cases we are using left fingerpalm position for the coin or other object to emerge. Could
be a small ball, or a billet but what is probably best is a coin, and the situation begs for the coin to
be marked by spectator with initials.
Performance: Pick a coin. Any coin. Here's a Sharpie. Put your initials on the coin, por favor.
Vanish the coin in your best way where the coin ends up in left fingerpalm. Simple "put" vanish.
Retention? The glass disc and hank and glass of water?
Pick up purse and put it on left hand, screening hand and concealed coin. Open purse. Reach
down in with right fingers and OUT the hole to grip coin from fingerpalm. Pull it through the hole
and up and out of purse. Attention is on coin.
Here, it can be mentioned that when you acquire a purse, get TWO so you have gaffed and
ungaffed matching coin purses. I usually don't lap, but you could, to ring in ungaffed purse. I just
pocket it - bring out the ungaffed one later.
See how the spectator's initials strengthens the whole trick?
Mercury fold with cards or other folded card tricks could be used here to great advantage, so
have fun.
Oh, no! Not another stooge trick! That's what I used to say. I still do, usually, except for this
one. I promise to never ever run a stooge trick again. I promise!
Effect: Put out a row of pennies. When you turn your back or leave the room, someone points to
ONE penny they choose, and wave their fingertip over that penny long enough for the penny to
absorb some of their aura. Everyone has one, don't they?
You come back and have the same spectator wave their fingertip over any objectanother coin,
say a nickel, would be fine. You now compare the residual "aura" on the nickel with the individual
pennies till you get a match! That's it!
Secret: A stooge! A stooge with a soda or beer can or bottle. For our example I've chosen a
Mountain Dew can. There are eight letters in "MOUNTAIN," so put out eight pennies in a row. If
Budweiser were in your stooges hand, nine pennies would work.
The whole secret is that your stooge and buddy or stooge and girlfriend or wife, or professional
stooge, just has to adjust their first finger to point clearly at the correct letter in, say. Mountain as in
the row of pennies that the selected one occupies. They pick the fifth penny, your stooge has the
first fingertip pointing at the "T" in Mountain. And so-on and so-forth.
The reason I choose to use pennies instead of matches, toothpicks, or swizzlesticks is that there
is another good penny trick where one penny is selected from a group and passed around for every
one to note the date, and returned to the group and placed in a hat or paper bag, or on a dish, and
placed behind your back. You feel for the warm penny, from everyone's body heat from handling
the coin.
The trick can seem similar enough in case you lose your stooge.
Be nice to your stooge. Even give money, a tip, in private of course. Insist. This way you keep
your stooge's attention.
T H E W O M B
I never believed I'd see the day. I'm nearing the end of a year already of FEEN-X. I plan on
binding the first year. First edition of fifty copies, and second edition of a hundred copies. And,
also to continue on with FEEN-X:2001.
In an era when way too many magicians are caught up in performing for other magicians, and
magic friends, I've been pushing the style of what works for non-magicians. There is a difference
as to what works for one group and not the other. I hope you are getting out and trying things on
real people.
When a magician shows me a trick, I try to suspend, and try to watch as if I were NOT a
magician. I don't interrupt, because I want to see especially if there may be a twist on the ending.
Most magicians don't do this. They interrupt. They need to let you know that they knew the
name of a move, and god forbid you try to show them something good to do on laymen, most don't
get that if it doesn't fool THEM, that laymen won't be fooled. Don't get caught up in this. Test out,
after your preliminary practice, on real people. You just don't get the same feedback from (most)
magicians.
The same is true with family and wives or girlfriends. I highly recommend NOT practicing or
testing on them. They will become familiar with certain principles over time, and from that point on
will not be giving you proper feedback. Familiarity breeds contempt.
And if a stranger doesn't GET a trick, go back to the drawing board. There may be something
not clear in presentation, procedure, or technique or handling that YOU did that needs work.
When a trick consistently works, leave it in the repertoire. If a trick always falls flat, take it out.
Then either dissect it and fix it, and reinstate it or drop it for good. Sometimes years pass before I
realize what was wrong with a trick and how to fix it.
Sometimes, and quite often, part of a trick works and part does NOT. This is an interesting
case. Often you can find a place in another trick that needs work, where the good part of the other
failed trick can be inserted, substitution style, and you end up with a hybrid that does work.
That probably sums up my method of recycling material as well as anything I've written on the
subject. Just keep trying to get your feedback from real people who don't watch magic a lot - such
as magic videos by the hour.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Oh, and by-the-way, if you should fool a magician with a trick, that doesn't automatically mean
that laymen will be even MORE fooled. Often, they won't even follow the plot.
It is like an "inside" joke. If you're not in on it, such as in the same line of work or in the same
circle of people, you don't even get it. Same thing here.
Unfortunately, the idea of magic contests, judged by magicians, is how many magicians are
getting into show biz.
Yet, there ARE good magicians working out there who don't associate with magicians and
conventions and their contests, who by honing their presentations for public audiences have a
more accurate feel for good magic. Amen.
This is a stand-up card piece. It is a "lick" for manipulators. It is a handling variation of a "move"
or "sequence" really, that was taught to me by Walter E. Cummings, who was at one time the chief
instructor of the Chavez College. He supposedly taught card fans to Channing Pollock, as well as
making Channing's first dove harness from a bra. Up till this time, apparently, Channing classic
palmed his doves from a profonde. I want to see footage of that early act.
Ho Ho. Merrr-ry Christmas and Happy Chanukah, and Feliz
Navidadand Quanzaa. I can't believe a year has passed.
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #12 100
Walter was my most important teacher, and he helped me with total generosity. I wanted to
change the routines, by keeping the great stuff and taking out parts that either I felt was redundant,
such as too many front-and-back palms, which Walter called "clearing the hand," moves I couldn't
do well, moves that flashed when even HE did them, and what I felt were too many color changing
fans that I didn't feel were magic but clever flourishesand too many of them.
Walter wasn't happy with my changes. He wanted me to do each and every routine by the book.
Cards, billiard balls, silks, cigarette magic...the works. I like to tinker and feel one man's move is
sometimes another man's poison. Often a move can be altered to fit a different magician.
The trouble with The Chinese Production is that at the beginning to this sequence, you have to
produce a block of about 20 cards, and keep them square and in motion so that the audience
thinks you have ONE card. This is a thick block. This will work on a big stage if you keep it
moving, but not small nite-clubs. Then you had to palm off half, or about ten cards, and act as if the
remaining block were ONE card. THENyou'd palm off all but really one card in your other hand,
and are finally really only holding one card in view which you drop in the hat. Finally, with crossed
forearms, you'd produce two fans from beside opposite sides of your face - a pretty picture.
Thirty years later I've solved it - for ME at least. I'm a real stickler at this work, so someone out
there should also feel a good "fit" with my sequence.
Begin with about half a deck. My first advantage is that here you are NOT implying ONE card (in
a block) but a bunch of cards. You can fan, shuffle, flourish.
To begin the sequence, bottom palm about a third of the cards face down in left bottom palm. I
always follow this with a swing cut and complete the cut, with the remaining visible cards. The right
hand takes all visible cards and as you turn to face stage right, FAN all visible cards with the faces
to the audience, and over your hat on the table.
Using your first finger, walk one card up the fan. This is the rear-most card. This bit of
business happens two other times in my act and is a trademark. It takes some practice, but
interestingly gets your first finger free and in position for split-work.
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #12 101
As soon as the card walks up, it is taken by the left hand, which is palming about ten cards, and
which now holds ONE single in view, too.
Perform a split-fan with your right hand, apparently tossing the whole fan into the hat, but
because of the split, only four or five drop, and the rest get backpalmed. Be sure to use only Bee
or another overall design and not cards with borders such as Bicycle. Also, ALWAYS practice at
finding a wall (with no mirror) or a tree or a curtain - something behind you instead of people.
Never even practice this surrounded - friend or foe...for the training! This is professional magic and
not to be treated lightly. (In other words, treat backpalming and splitfans secret.)
Immediately produce a single with your right hand, and move it with your right thumb so that it
covers the corners of the backpalmed cards. Pause. Now, drop both singles one at a time into the
hat, one from each hand. Produce the card in right hand first - from backpalm - and immediately
move your right arm across yourself and bend your right wrist so the face of the fan faces the
audience, and THEN go on to produce the left hand fan. There is a rhythm to the whole thing. I'm
producing lower, and not by my face. Too cute to too cool.
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #12 102
As you know. I'm not into lapping. At Slydini's peak, it was De Rigour, so I know how. This is a
piece for apre dinner. Waiting for the dessert and coffee, or waiting for the waitress to bring the
check - or to appear from wherever they go so you can ASK for the check.
Effect: NOT a WRAP! A roll of pennies in a wrapper are proven to contain pennies. Spill out
some and replace them, and then make sure that EVERYONE at the table hefts the roll to let the
weight convince them in a personal experience. Patter about the new metal used in the new
pennies. Smash the roll on the table. All that is left is a crumpled wrapper. Reach under the table.
Jingle Jingle. Bring up your hand with the "missing" pennies. Stand up. You're clean.
Required: A roll of new pennies. A matching wrapper. Enough extra new pennies to fill your loose
fist. The number is not crucial. It just has to look like a lot."
Set-up: Everything in a left pocket.
Performance: Nearing the end of the meal, get everything out on your lap. A cloth napkin such as
used in a good restaurant really helps.
Make sure the extra wrapper is crumpled up nicely. Bring up the rolled pennies as you say,
"Have you noticed the metal in the new pennies?" Open the wrapper and spill out a few and heft
the roll and say "They're a little heavier, for one thing." "See?" Let the others heft the roll. Palm the
crumpled wrapper from your lap with your left hand, or use your right and then Imp Pass (see
Slydini or David Roth books) into the left hand. Upon getting the roll back, put it in your left, for
cover, and replace the loose pennies and fold the top shut.
"Seriously, this metal is unusual because when I do THIS..." and during this line you have
PRETENDED to place the roll into the left hand without flashing the crumpled extra wrapper, but
you REALLY did a Tenkai Palm with the roll in your right, lapped it nearer yourself than the loose
pennies on your lap, on the cloth handkerchief near your knees, and then proceeded to make a
magic gesture or "pass" over your simulating left hand. Slap the left down HARD, and lift to reveal
only the wrapper.
Lean forward till your right shoulder butts the table edge. Reach back and get the roll of pennies
off your lap and reach forward toward your ankles. Lift one ankle and push the roll in your sock
after lifting the lower edge of the pant leg. Get the pant leg back in place. Now use the right hand
to gather as many as possible of the loose ones on your lap, jingle them, and come up and spill
them on the table.
Covering patter here is, "...they go to a garage in Detroit and immediately come back, but
because of the rotation of the earth, end up HERE. (Jingle Jingle)
Stand up. Show napkin clean. Pull chair back. Gather loose pennies and crumpled wrapper.
Exit stage right.
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #12 103
M E N T A L T H O U G H T S
On "Any Card at Any Number," the best illusion of this feat from the audience's point, is to use
two professional stooges. There.
Another way would be to use one stooge (think of the saving) and have that guy or gal "pick"
both the number and card. Double duty.
Another way for one stooge is to use a Forcing Deck. All cards alike. The one stooge comes
into play when the DECK IS EXAMINED. "Yup. Looks perfectly normal to me...and by-the-way,
how about a raise, boss?"
So, today, for Xmas, as promised - no stooges! But, we do come back to a Forcing Deck. 51
cards alike. One odd card at the face, which you have to keep there during any and all cuts and
shuffles.
The ANY CARD part is a slight fudge. It isn't called out by the audience. Instead, a number is
called out. 14, let's say. Deal down to the fourteenth card and that is the freely selected which just
HAPPENS to be a force card, of course. After being shown to the committee of one, it is FAIRLY
replaced. The deck is shuffled by YOU but make it look thorough. Don't watch your hands. At
several squaring-up moments, let the odd face card flash to different parts of the audience briefly.
Now any number is called. Deal down to that number. Set that card aside - maybe in a
wineglass - back to the audience for suspense, and pocket the deck. Go into your buildup. Reveal
the card as if it were a miracle.
When you retrieve the deck from pocket to put the miracle card back, switch in a regular
matching deck that was also in that pocket, which is missing the force card of your forcing deck.
When the card is replaced you have a regular complete deck which you leave in view. Later in the
show do another card feat that allows audience to handle it. At end of show, give it as a souvenir.
ORcardmen - develop a broad casual LIGHT second deal for stage or platform. They call any
number - first to GET a card. This is fair procedure and a feint for the later dirty work which will look
the same. When card is returned after being noted and remembered, control it to the top. Since
this is mental work, don't use fancy sleights but something you can do as you look away from your
hands. Any number - a different one now - is called again. Second deal till you get to one less
than the number. Fairly deal the selection on the number. Build it up into a miracle.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the year. Yes, I'm trying to push magic in a new direction. Mainly I'm
trying to show that there is more than one way (such as a current fad) to skin a cat. And, I'm trying
to get people to not be followers of trends as much as to try to find "off trail" methods and subtleties
that work for YOU, instead of going word for word and move for move and gimmick for gimmick on
some trick you saw and liked. There is more satisfaction in this approach, and it lessens the risk of
magicians seeming more alike than different...which is bad for the perception of magic by the
world. It has been said that 98% of magicians do the same 2% of the tricks. Actually there are an
infinite number of tricks possible.
Feen-X: 2000 Issue #12 104
T H E W O M B presents..
A CHRISTMAS STORY
1949 A.D. Somewhere in the Pacific. An island an unknown number of miles from FIJI. Lowell
Thomas documents a tribe he dubbed The Cargo Cult. They have built bamboo airplanes and
runways and watch the sky endlessly for signs of the great metal bird sent by the Sky Father years
ago to return and accidentally drop goodie in their laps yet again.
2000 A.D. Deep in the jungle called New York, in a clearing, a similar phenomenon is
occurring. A tribe gathers and waits and recounts the tale of a Great White Spirit who descended
from the sky and made many of the elders into stars. One day the Spirit vanished, yet the tribe
waits for His return, and hone their new variations on old card tricks. Lowell Thomas III has
dubbed them The Card Tricks Cult.
They tell the legend to the young initiates, and dream of the day when a jolly elf with white hair
and a twinkle in his eye, who can talk even faster than the tribal elders, will drop from the sky and
utter the immortal words, "Kid, Ill make ya a star!" The young brave will show the Spirit his
handling variation on the Ellis Stanyon Switch, and the Spirit will announce, "It'll appear in Friends
of the Great White Spirit Volume NINE, but first we must add one teensy Faro Shuffle!!"
And everyone will live happily ever-after and visions of Sugar Plums will dance in their heads.
The End
Copyright 2000 Gregg Webb
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 105
Welcome to the real new millennium. Newcomers need to be advised that you'll get used to the
non-slick look of this rag. It was deliberate, so that I could stay on schedule as one man.
Bear in mind that the material will be good. I decided to make the illustrations only enough to
convey the idea. Forgive the typos. Onward and upward!
Effect: Miracle-monger shows two spoons cleanly, one at a time, and bangs each on the table to
prove solidarity. One begins to get soft and rubberybut the performer stops and lets it chill out
and it returns to normal and is set aside as a "control."
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 106
The second spoon starts to get warm, and then HOT. Then IT starts to get rubbery and wobbly
like the first, but then this one goes even farther by starting to droop until the bowl end seems to be
just hanging on by a minute amount of molten metal and then drops off entirely. The handle part is
set down...too hot to handle. After everything cools, all objects can be examined.
Required: One spoon that has been bent back and forth until it breaks completely. A matching
spoon that is left intact.
Also, a modicum of acting ability. A tad.
Performance: This is self-contained. No refills. Make the items up once and you're done. I like
this for the same reason that I tend to like coin routines with no gimmicked coins. Also, many
routines of this kind either required the right amount of stressing but not breaking, or involved an
extra piece that had to be lapped, sleeved, or palmed off. This is direct and ends clean.
The second drawing shows the beginning situation. The gap between the two parts of the
broken spoon is concealed between the left first finger pad and ball of thumb of the left hand. The
2nd spoon, ungaffed, is between the left first finger and second finger.
Sometimes my opening line is "No, I'm not going to play the spoons - I want to show you how Uri
Geller bent spoons with his MIND," and sometimes I just use the second half of that.
Take the bowl of the regular spoon with your right hand and slide it out of the left hand AWAY
from yourself. Use your right thumb to push the spoon forward so that your grip is more on the
handle as you turn the spoon over to read "Made in USA" on the back. I credit this to a James
Randi procedure. Bang the spoon drum fashion on the table to enforce solidity.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 107
Put that spoon back in the same grip in the left, remove the right for a blink, ..and here comes a
subtle bit of business. You will draw out the same spoon AGAIN and gripping the bowl from the
front and drawing out AWAY from yourself hides this. This must be practiced to be very smooth
and it feels like the rope count in Prof. Nightmare. Don't look at your hands, and also, after the
switch, there is a fake finger movement of the left second and third fingers, AS IF READJUSTING
THE GRIP, yet nothing really does happen. It is just a very minor flutter or twaddle of those two
fingers, but you aren't looking at this.
By now you've turned the SAME spoon as before - which the audience thinks is the OTHER
spoon - over, and again read "also Made in USA" and proceed to bang on the table, really again,
but the viewers think you are repeating the procedure with the other spoon.
Now, a pretty thing, and something you know as a trick with a wand or pencil to make it look
rubbery and wobbly by way of an optical illusion. Adjust your grip of your right hand on the regular
spoon about in the middle. By moving your right hand up and down fluidly, and in a straight path,
continuously, and varying the tightness of your grip until it is "just right," you will create the illusion
of the regular spoon getting all limp and bendy. You'll want to practice and perfect this, because
what we are doing is causing the REGULAR spoon to behave in a "supernatural" way before we
even get to the other set!
Say something like, "It gets very warm and starts to melt...BUT, if I stop at this point, it goes
back to normal and I'll leave this for later comparison as our CONTROL."
That use of the rubbery wand or pencil is a big part of making the whole thing play in Peoria.
Second Spoon: Without even moving your grip you are ready. "Same thing with this one," you
say as you appear to do the same thing with this spoon as with the first. Remember, you have two
separate parts held as one, with the gap held pinched strongly between left first finger and thumb.
First move your left hand up and down with very little wobble because you maintain strong
pressure in your pinch. Progressively release pressure and the "wobble" becomes more
pronounced.
"If I think 'Melt Melt'...LOOK!" Relax your pinch even more and the handle droops and the bowl
droops on the other side. With care, you can see to it that you retain more control over the handle,
so that the handle stops sagging, but the bowl end droops even more. A gently rocking action to
the hand causes the bowl end to swing to and fro as if held by only a thin strand of metal. Actually
it is just an illusion caused by the now very weak pinch. The left second finger can help prevent the
handle end from falling.
Saying "it is getting very hot now - pure suggestion - you finally let the bowl end fall to the table.
"Look...it is still melting, but it'll cool off quickly now" is a likewise suggestion.
Drop the handle as if it is hot. SUBTLY rub your left fingers and blow on them and give the hand
a little shake - all without overacting (less is more. Practice and rehearse this.) and you are done.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 108
I performed this at a college, and a science professor came up and asked me "Where do you
hide the battery for that spoon trick?" And I looked at his eyes and face carefully to see if he was
pulling my leg. Not.
He wanted me to know that he didn't believe it was REAL, but he went for a science explanation.
What? I had a battery hidden in my pocket big enough to melt metal? Wires to my fingertips that
nobody saw? This told me that he didn't catch the real work at all. A non-scientist asked me, "Are
you altering time and space or not?" If you must know... it was later than when I started the show,
and earth had hurtled probably thousands of miles through space since the start of the show.
This particular routine was still new. I judged the trial a success and know it will just get better
with time as I live with it and hone it.
I don't like to put the work in honing something until I really believe in itbut this is a keeper and
it suits my way of handling that other methods don't. It is more like a good coin routine now. I think
that is the main personal reason for liking it.
Combining two good ideas that haven't been combined before is one way to create/innovate, or
improve, when lacking the true cosmic jolt that always reminds me of Christopher Walken in The
Dead Zone.
This involves The Bluff Shift. I rarely used it. I watched some of "the guys" do it. Then, I was
thinking about a touch Jack Chanin showed me, which Paul Rosini showed him, and which I
suspect Paul saw in Stanyon's...and which I'll run with next issue, and I started playing with my
deck and by accident this occurred. My next question was "Is this in print?" My grapevine says no,
so here it is. It solves what I always thought was what was missing in the Bluff.
Proceed as per the original. Riffle down till she says "STOP" and lift the upper and prefer the
lower for the selection to be taken and noted. While she is memorizing the funny symbols they
print on cards, lower the upper half back onto the lower half. Next, just lift the top card only with
your right hand. Watch your angles so the back and not the edge of this card is what is seen, and
similarly watch the angle of the left hand so that she can't see the edge and realize the supposed
half-deck looks too thick. Have the selection placed on the 51 cards in your left - supposedly only a
half deck.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 109
The right hand which supposedly holds a half-deck also, but in point of fact holds just ONE,
comes near the left and use your right second fingertip to slide the selection towards yourself about
an inch and a half. Then, set the right's single ON the left hand's portion, either in Marlo's TILT or
Vernon's DEPTH ILLUSION - the moves being so similar that I suspect both men were channeling
Christopher Walkin, who may have had a flash of something with playing cards but made no sense
out of it while Marlo and Vernon BOTH at the same exact time KNEW cosmically what the flash
meant.
The front of the single, the outer narrow end, touches the deck and the near end is kept up about
a quarter inch. It is held that way by left's pinkie and ring finger on the right and thalnar muscle on
the left. This gives the illusion that the protruding selection is about a half-deck's distance down,
now, in the full deck.
Actually it is second, but the illusion is sound. Pro cardmen I've shown this to agree that this
touch is worth it. Push the selection in slowly. It is second - good for ambitious card or almost any
trick can be adapted to this situation.
I do a wrist turn to show bottom card. This is where I lose the tilt. Turning the deck face down, I
show the top card to be indifferent. Proceed from there. Chanin's DISARRANGE next month.
In returning to Hit and Run, I'll review. If you'll recall, this first ran in Meir Yedid's MAGIC TIMES.
Then it ran in GENII as Coins Across 2000. Those versions were before I got the idea to do this "In
the Hands." (No table).
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 110
Next came a seven coin version that became my favorite and also an eight coin version that is
only for magicians. The original handling was with six. All I have added here is a odd coin, to the
seven coin version. The audience is only aware of four coins and the odd one. This is different
from the popular 3-Fly but in the same vein, and I like Hit and Run better. I recently was asked to
do walk-around at a auto dealership. I just did this new handling over and over as I mingled with
the customers. I DO have some ideas on alternate endings for 3-Fly but that'll be another day.
Effect: Four coins across one-by-one to join a odd coin.
Required: Seven matching coins and a SMALLER odd coin. I use a real China cash coin, but any
foreign-looking coin smaller that the matching seven will work. Susan Bs are good for the seven,
or halves. I am also working on using quarters.
Set-up: Begin with four coins in right classic. Three are in view in a stack, and the "cash" is on top.
Keep the faces and not the edges aimed at the viewers' eyes.
The work: Biddle (false) Count the visible coins into the left in this manner. First peel the small odd
coin. Next peel the first half dollar. Now, as you peel the second half, steal the first half back
under the stack. The odd coin isn't affected because it is smaller in diameter and doesn't
accidentally get stuck (and accidentally also go with the stolen coin). Peel the remaining two
halves one-at-a-time. The last one is the same coin as the first half peeled just seen again. With
practice and smoothness, the audience thinks they saw 5 - including the odd coin, go into the left
hand. Actually there are four coins including the "cash." That is - three halves.
Work the cash coin out of the loose left fist and take it cleanly with the right hand. Say, "This
one has the magic power."
Make a small toss action with the left fist, then open the left hand to therefore have only three.
First surprise. Let one of the halves from the right classic fall on the cash with a clink. Second
surprise. Put the left thumb on the fan of three. Put the right thumb on the loose half and cash.
Turn this hand palm up, with the base of thumb hiding the three halves that remain in right classic.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 111
Move the first finger of both hands up and on top of the respective fans of coins. The drawing
shows this with the left. Also do this with the right hand. Next, put the thumbs below their fans and
lever each hand's fan over away from yourself. And, next, repeat the turnover AGAIN with the right
hand, to bring the cash coin again to the bottom. This keeps it out of the way for traffic reasons to
come.
It should go without saying that this entire trick happens low, even lower than waist level if you
see you are surrounded.
Palm one half in the left, classic style, as you make a loose fist and tossing gesture. Let another
coin fall from right classic to produce another clink in the right. Show two coins in a fanned
condition in the left - thumb on top. One coin in Kaps et al Subtlety. The right shows two halves
and the cash. Turnover both hands' fans of coins as before. Then turn over the right hands coins
AGAIN to bring the "cash" to the bottom.
Repeat this again - the whole thing. Then AGAIN. This time the left hand classic palms three
and you have to separate the fingers and thumb briefly during the little "toss" gesture to imply ALL
have done gone! Fan all four PLUS odd coin -5 total- in the right...turn over the coins as before...
and peel/count all five singly into the left hand in a real peel count, and all the while there are three
coins in left thalnar concealment (Kaps et al) and this real count looks like the false count at the
head of the trick.
Take all coins to your left pocket and take cards out of a right pocket. Do a card trick.
I reinvented the wheel! Sol Stone says that when I reinvent the wheel (think I've invented
something only to find it was already invented) at least I reinvent good wheels.
This time it was Bound and Gagged in October. It turns out that the injogged card in the Trevor
Lewis Move was Ken Krenzel's addition to the seminal move which didn't have an injogged card.
Both were from Apocalypse.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 112
Next, and again Ken Krenzel, virtually the exact trick as Bound and Gagged appeared in
Richard's Almanac. So, really my only contributions are the handling variation on the Trevor
Lewis/Ken Krenzel Move where I turn the cards UNDER and away when the original turned up and
over. Mine saves just one movement, and also feels more illusive to me. Also, the use of my
variation on Flushtration from Running Monte suits me better than the precursor - yet is only a
variation. And finally, the use of the subtlety of a dribble force on myself which I consider an Ortiz
idea, when picking out the random card and two jokers (?) is minor but I still like it.
By the way, and while on this topic - I am in the middle of trying to the exact same trick with the
Jokers SEEMING to have odd colored backs. Therefore I already know that the joker that is put
face down as a supposedly random prediction...needs to be a joker with the SAME colored back as
the rest of the deck. Later we'll use Flushtration or Lewis/Krenzel/Webb to make it seem like both
JOKERS have, say, BLUE backs and selection and deck proper have RED BACKS. I don't have
any more details yet but believe it is possible. Selection will have to have odd back but this kept
secret - and that means FORCE! I'll let you know if I solve this.
And, now onto another topic.
What I've been dying to write about is John Edwards on the show "Crossing Over," on the Sci-Fi
Channel, and which seems influenced by the hit movie "The Sixth Sense."
First of all, I doubt if many magicians have even noticed what an impact this is having on the lay
public. First of all, HE'S GOOD! Second of all, the show does not use the FCC law of running a
disclaimer - and no one is complaining. And, I don't think that WE should complain, either. Maybe
we can learn something from this. By-the-way, the show instead runs a "Claimer" which goes,
"What you are about to see is REAL. John Edwards has had no previous contact with those he
reads." And, no one is complaining.
Second of all, methodologically speaking, he's using a mix of methods, and maybe the ushers,
who we don't see too much of but who must be there, may be bugged. The green room may be
bugged. Questionnaires may be handed out before the show, as in Faith Healing gatherings. Mr.
Edwards may use the old gag of hiding in the parking lot or in the men's room preshow to get some
tidbits. He may use the occasional stooge. Who knows and who CARES?
He is ALSO, beyond any of the mentioned techniques, good at cold reading and just plain
keeping things rolling.
What we can learn from this is that too many magicians and mentalists are afraid to claim that
what they do is real. At least "on stage" or during the show AND EVEN just THEREAFTER, I don't
think there is any reason to tell the audiencein effect - "Listen...this isn't real."
Because what has been going on is that magicians have been so scared of being accused of
cohorting with the supernatural, that they have been over-disclaiming. They've altered the magic or
mentalism show into exposes of how con men operate, or claim that behavioral science is what is
at play.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #13 113
People who do CARD TRICKS are telling their audience - in essence, "What is fooling you is the
science of double-talk and trickery that con men use." To me this is not magic, and for the art to be
going that way worries me. People are learning good tricks - better than ever. But the
presentations are more and more prone to avoid the claim - ON STAGE and DURING THE SHOW,
that what is happening is magic. Can this be because too few have the acting ability to get in the
skin of someone who really is magic?
If that is the case, a good antidote are the Harry Potter books. I'm serious. And, after the show
is over, when you are off stage and out of character, you don't have to claim it's real. And do not
give advice, especially medical advice. Don't bilk people.
But, on stage or during a show, learn to act like a magician. Even, take poker routines, I am
beginning to think the plot of gambler Vs. magician is the best way to go. Get the best of both
worlds. You get to mention skill when you explain what the gambler did to try to win, and yet the
magician wins because of MAGIC.
Remember, somewhere around eighty-some-odd percent of the public believes in "powers"
anyway...and you're not going to change them by swearing that what you do is NOT REAL.
Tribute to BOB McALLISTER
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 114
Jack Chanin was one of the truly great magicians and also very underrated. I would put him in
with Vernon, Slydini, Al Flosso, and other names we equate with greatness. Personally, until I saw
David Roth in the early seventies. Jack had been the only magician who made everything seem like
real magic and not "tricks." I was very lucky to have gotten to know him.
This, his handling of the Bluff Shift, is an example of his ability to understand what was lacking in
a trick, from a spectator's possible point of view - and fix it.
What you do is proceed as with the normal Bluff Shift until you have one card in your right hand
which the viewers take to be a half-deck. You might find it advantageous to hold a pinkie break
under the top card from the startthen riffle down the left side of the deck with the left thumb until
they yell "Stop!" Pick up the break under the top card with the right hand's ball of thumb, which is
already in place because of the position of the right hand in Biddle Grip - arched above and slightly
to the right of the deck for support during the riffling-down procedure of the left thumb.
Lift the top half-deck, with the break, for the selected card to be taken and noted. As they're
looking at the card, kiss the half-decks and let everything drop from your right except ONE card
(the one above the break).
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 115
The prior break allows there to be no fumbling or fidgeting during the dropoff.
Extend your left hand with 51 cards. Keep this hand low and angled so as to minimize the view
of the edge of deck that is really too thick. Have the selection replaced and set the right hand's
card, supposedly a half-deck, on the deck making 52.
Here's the Chanin Disarrange. As soon as the right's single card hits the deck, and while the
right hand screens the deck momentarily, the left thumb nudges the entire top half of the deck to
your right. Then the right hand is taken away and the left hand is extended to show the condition of
the deck.
This position with the extended hand and the too half of deck stepped to your right must be
allowed to sink in. Then, after you mention that their card is "about in the middle," you square the
deck up in a deliberate manner. You've controlled their card and can go into any conclusion you
wish depending on your plot.
The plot thickens! Stephen Minch just appeared in my lavalamp. Better than the crystal ball and
it saves on phone bills. He realized-instantly-that the idea was good, and Stephen is also a Jack
Chanin fan, but by working on this idea with deck in hand and having a "clear light" experience,
FOUND an improved handling.
Backtrack to the point in the procedure when the spectator just selected their card after your
riffle-down and "Say Stop." While they memorize their card, and as you secretly drop off all but
one card from the right hand group, onto the left half, KEEP A PINKIE BREAK there, between the
two half-decks. Maintain that break while they replace their card on the left hand's 51. Lower the
right hand's single and as soon as it lands on the deck, and while the right hand still screens but no
longer touches anything, straighten in a relaxed way the entire left hand including the left pinkie,
and the half deck above the pinkie break will ride to the right.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 116
This way there is no left thumb movement necessary and I agree that this is an improved
handling on the Chanin Disarrange. Wait - Stephen just disappeared from my lava lamp!
- feen -
MENTAL THOUGHTS - THE BEST KIND
So how do we respond to the challenge of being asked about the "Crossing Over" show on Sci-
Fi? John Edward is the name of the man who talks to the dead and conveys their messages to the
living. If you're not watching and studying this guy, I think you should!
And - I don't think we should knock him. I don't think we should adopt the stance, "He's some
kind of con-man!" When the public does believe in "powers" it is good for all of us. That's a fact.
What we can do, to show that we too can do what HE DOES, is to revive all the Living and Dead
tests that were popular at one time and then went out of favor when magicians began to think it
naughty to make such claims and implications. This is an original piece and related to The
TWITCH that I ran last year.
Effect: Living and Dead test. The "dead" billet moves in an eerie way...perhaps as if haunted.
Required: Three pieces of paper folded in half. A pen with a cap. Regular old invisible thread (no
reel) and tape or glue.
Set-up: Attach one end of the invisible thread to one billet, and the other end to the cap of the pen.
Put the cap on the pen and all three billets under the clasp on the pen. This is your carrying mode.
A briefcase or whatever box or even hat you work out of. This also involves a table.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 117
Just a brief study of this picture will explain the motivating power of the billet. As the cap of pen
falls, and lands on the knees and stops, it pulls the thread and attached billet and makes it move
just a bit and then stop.
Performance: Take out your set, and remove the billets. Ask for the initials of a dearly departed
and YOU write these on the attached billet and fold it just once. Get living people's initials for the
other two billets (controls) and fold these loose papers the same way. Put the cap loosely on the
pen, and go to put it in your pocket. After you are over the edge of the table, let the cap come off
the pen. By now you have to have your OTHER hand steadying the DEAD billet. Let's say your left
hand is on the billet and the right is putting the pen away. The pen is now minus the cap, which
dangles by the thread several inches below the near edge of the table.
When you are done putting the capless pen away in a coat or pants pocket, bring the right hand
above the table too, to mix the billets briefly - almost monte fashion. Here are the details. Slide the
DEAD - threaded - billet with your left fingers and another one with your right, exchanging them.
Keep pressure on the DEAD slip until you can pin it also with your now free right hand. Now your
LEFT hand is free to move to the left and one-handedly exchange the two ungaffed billets in two
moves. You are done, except a brief buildup which also gets their eyes up to your face.
Say, "Let's try to get a sign that everything is ok with your loved one," and LET GO with your
right finger pressure. The pen cap will fall, pull the thread, and cause the billet to move across the
table for several inches and stop when the cap hits your knees.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 118
Open the billet showing it is the departed one's initials.
At the very least, you could use that presentation around Halloween - and if you are squeamish
about the plot, you could use ESP symbols. Have them pick one to experiment with verbally, draw
it on the gaff billet and put two other symbols on the two loose billets and proceed after talking
about telekinesis.
To end, take the billets to a pocket and retrieve the cap along the way.
I don't set out to invent magician foolers, but this one can if your cronies know Presto Change-0
by Thomas Bearden in Bobo's "New Modern Coin Magic" and we were lucky to receive Mike
Skinner's handling in "Genii."
I like it but feel I must tinker! The original uses three coins and one of these is a C/S coin. Since
there is already a gaff, I added a gaff and came up with a two coins only version. Most of you will
recall the first coin trick I ran in FEEN-X #1 called The Odd Coin." This uses the same "move" as
in that trick.
The tradeoff here is that you can't hand out the coins at the end, but I didn't feel comfortable
doing that anyway since you are holding out one coin. Mine only uses two coins and a subtlety at
the end. A fake show. Both coins are C/S coins. SASCO, Inc. sells a set called The Special Set,
which includes a silver head with a copper tail and a silver tail with a copper head. That's the
perfect combination.
Set-up: Both coins silver sides up on left hand.
Performance: Lift up one coin about an inch and drop it making a clink. Immediately close your left
hand, turning over both coins, and immediately open the left. Now two copper coins show.
Change-O Presto! It looks just like the other trick, if for magicians, or just plain good if for laymen.
Repeat several times.
Next, lift one coin and let it drop, but turn it over with a slight right wrist turn, so it lands the
opposite of what it was. As soon as it lands, close the hand again and open turning both coins in
the process, and now there is a copper coin AND a silver coin showing.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 119
The drawing shows the left hand with one copper and one silver showing. What you are about to
do is turn over the two coins as if doing a ribbon-spread turnover, by curving the left fingers. The
coins rise up and flop over towards yourself. The hand doesn't even have to close all the way. To
do this several times, you jostle the coins into the position shown again. It will take you a while to
BELIEVE that this fools laymen. They think they see one copper and one silver! (They DO.)
Deluxe routine: Also have two Chinese coins in right classic palm throughout. To end, take both
C/S coins with your right and fingerpalm them. Now, on going to drop with a clink into the left,
actually let the Chinese coins fall from right classic. Open the left, do the turnover move as before
several times. Take them with your right to the ditch. (Pocket.)
To order this coin set, send $23.00 including postage and handling to SASCO, Inc.
403 East Pennsylvania Blvd.
Feasterville, PA 19053
ASK FOR: Copper/Silver Coins - THE SPECIAL SET
Tell them Groucho sent you.
The Back Room has been changed to the Nagual in response to my recent re-reading of the
Carlos Castaneda books. More about that later.
Right now I want to complain about an infomercial called JAWDROPPERS by a guy named
Larry Anderson. The tapes, being sold to the public, give away a lot of good stuff and lm P. O.'d.
But, my way of fighting back is to keep on tinkering and inventing so that we can ride a wave of
new tricks and dodges that are not on "THOSE TAPES SOLD ON TV."
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 120
Another effect of exposure of "tricks" is that Im convinced more than ever that flourishes are
good for us to ourselves to do to separate ourselves from those who just buy tricks or tapes. You
cant buy the ability to flourish well except with blood sweat and tears that we already paid. Dont
buy into the crap about dont flourish, because youll give away the fact that you dont just buy
tricks and do them verbatim.
Onward and upward. Books about magic that aren't about tricks but about what magicians and
wizards and sorcerers ACT like that I've been reading: by Anne Rice -"Servant of the Bones" and
"The Witching Hour." By Mircea Eliade - "Shamanism." By Joseph Campbell - "The Animal
Powers" and "Masks of God. By A.J. Rowling - "Harry Potter, et al.
Carlos Castaneda - Ten books in all. My advice, read some Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade
first. Thendon't start at the beginning but skip ahead to The Eagle's Gift. All the rest were
prologue, even to some extent "Eagle's Gift," but after that and starting with "The Fire From
Within," he starts on almost the pure science of sorcery.
"The Art of Dreaming" and "The Active Side of Infinity" continue on with sorcery as an exact
science and how it works. At times you will think they're real. I know of no other books that explain
in detail how a real sorcerer actually accomplishes things. A physics lesson on what sorcerers do
and see and think and believe.
Between you and me, I think Castaneda was drawing on some books on shamanism in Tibet
before Buddhism arrived there that are only now being translated into English by associates of
Snow Lion, which has moved to Ithaca, NY, from Tibet.
Finally, Happy New Year, and many thanks to all my subscribers and those who give me
encouragement and moral support (and help on credits) David Roth, Charles Reynolds, Stephen
Minch, Richard Robinson, Richard Kaufman, and Meir Yedid.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #14 121
I left this out in hopes of making the effect clear cut, but realized too late that it plays an
important role in the routine, and needs to be in there. It is a different and original way to show
ONE COIN IN EACH HAND - SEEMINGLY on both sides.
This would be done several times in the routine, at the beginning, and after each color change
except the last one.
Take one coin in each hand. Note, both hands perform this move simultaneously. Each is held
with, say, a copper coin on its palm. Close both hands. Turn over both hands. OK?
Insert the thumbs into their fists, and they contact the coin in each that is now in Fingertip Rest.
Straighten out each hand, palm down (this turns the coin over again) and each thumb holds its
coin pressed against the respective fingers. Then to end, pull back both hands' middle, ring, and
pinkie fingers for better viewing.
That's it. Practice to make it smooth. When done, put both coins together and then back on the
left hand to continue. It is a real fooler when done casually. I have it in other routines that use C/S
coins, also.
Final note: When getting new C/S coins - the illusion is better after the new copper darkens from
tarnish, ..so leave them out on a shelf open to the air as much as you can.
While you work with this routine, also look up issue #1 and review "The Odd Coin - The trick"
with the extra small magic coin because you can do these coins for both.
PS-The move can be done with the Chinese coins in classic palm if you use Kaps/Malini Subtlety
and work low.
ADDENDUM TO CHANGE-O PRESTO
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 122
JACK CHANIN - An Ace in life's false shuffle
In Jack's shop in Philly was a framed photo of Paul Rosini, Jack's very good friend. It was
signed, "To Jack, an Ace in life's false shuffle." There is another famous photo which was taken at
some convention, and every famous magician of the day - a who's who of magicians including the
greatest names of all times, around Jack as he was demonstrating something. The caption read,
"The man they all watch."
In the last issue, I ran a card item of his. That got me thinking about the man who taught me a
great deal but I was too young to realize how rare his gift really was. At the end of this issue I will
run some anecdotes. The body of the issue will be devoted to his coin move TV or Television Coin
Production, which lately has become known as just The Chanin Production. Next will be his work
with DAUB, which he pronounced DUB, and which isn't talked about much these days, but opens
doors to unusual feats of card magic that most guys don't use because they don't know the REAL
WORK on daub if they heard of it at all, although there was an era when it got mentioned in books
a lot.
And so, without further adieuxThe Odd Coin section is proud to present - drum roll - Another
look at the Chanin Production.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 123
First, I would like to describe the way Jack got into this in his stage act in the late sixties. He
would throw a silk over his right shoulder and introduce four coins that he held in his left hand. He
would pretend to take the coins with his right hand, but would really only take two and leave the
other two secretly in the left hand. Use fingerpalm. The left would take the silk from the right
shoulder by the middle and one-handedly jostle the silk into a draped condition over the left hand.
The coins from the right hand were placed into the silk, in the middle, seemingly, but the two coins
in the right were actually fingerpalmed. The left hand closed and gathered the silk as if holding the
coins there.
It must be noted that Jack had his own method of palming coins, the Chanin Coin Concealment
- from the private files of Chaninbut we mortals are using fingerpalm. Trust me. A French
pamphlet on coins has recently reinvented Chanin's wheel, but let's go with fingerpalm.
The right hand would grab a hanging corner of silk and pull the silk out of the left hand revealing
the vanish of four coins. The left hand, being careful so as not to flash, grabbed another adjacent
corner of silk and showed the silk on both sides by crossing and uncrossing and always keeping
the backs of hands to the audience. Then the left hand dropped its corner and instantly ducked
under the silk to the middle.
At this point, the left hand is draped with the silk, and has two coins in fingerpalm. The right
hand lets go of the silk, and too has two coins in fingerpalm.
Reaching through one thickness of silk, the right fingers grip one of the coins out of left
fingerpalm and lifts several inches. The now free left hand descends and grasps the front hanging
corner and lifts it up and over and towards yourself to reveal the first coin.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 124
Chan Jack, Chanin in his Chinese makeup, would put the first coin between the teeth to hold it.
Next, the left hand, still concealing one coin in fingerpalm, does a mirror image of what
happened last. It reaches through one thickness of silk, grips one coin out of the right hand and
this coin is revealed as in the second drawing. This coin also goes between the teeth in Chanin's
stage version. Everything is repeated again and you end up with four separate coin productions.
We are always told not to put objects in the mouth (ever since we were little kids), but Chanin,
on stage, with coins no one was going to have to handle, in character, felt that the effect was
clearer that way. In other words, he didn't resort to going to the pocket.
Lesser mortals realized that if you went to the pocket that you could use just two coins, and by
bringing the same coin out again from the pocket, that the audience would think there were four
seen but two used. This approach is not as clean, but led to the realization that you could continue
two more times, and produce something big or different. A cigarette and a cigarette lighter. A
small Chinese coin (different from the beginning coins) and then a big Chinese coin. Lou Tannen
produced a wad of bills.
Gregg Webbs work on the Chanin Production
O.K.! First off, billiard balls work great with this move. I use just two and the pocket dodge. My
big advantage that I found that I want to claim, is a difference point of focus. I CHANGED THE
TIME AND LOCATION of the Magical Moment.
Everyone I know lets the moment of production be the instant the silk is lifted up and over the
wrist, which allows you to see the next object.
A stickler for trying to find small ways to be different, and improve, my routines sometimes yields
dividends.
What I do now is this. Much earlier, when the silk is still draped over the hand, I push the coin
up and wiggle it slightly as if something is MATERIALIZING under the silk. I look there, and I
adopt a surprised look. That becomes the magical moment, and lifting half the silk up and over and
onto my forearm is just so we all can see what it is. Now, and I think I'm right, the old way leaves
the door open for the audience to think that somehow the coin is slipped into place at the instant
that the silk is pulled back. In all of my sleights I avoid methods where the secret move and the
magical moment takes place at the same time. Therefore, when I'm not doing that really, I don't
want the audience thinking that is how it is done. Even if they're wrong, audiences often think they
have a solution and besides they have heard, "The hand is quicker than the eye."
I'm currently using this approach, love it, but beyond that I can tell you I'm using one Chinese
coin, a C/S coin, and a giant Chinese coin. The C/S coin allows me variety without traffic problems
in the pocket. Enjoy playing with a routine ready to be new again.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 125
Jack Chanin used blue carbon paper for daub. He called it "DUB and when I corrected him
with "dawb" as the pronunciation, he shook his head and repeated "DUB, so ok, its DUB. Fine.
His two main ways were a piece stapled to a piece of cardboard for a pocket and a piece as
shown on the bottom of the shoe right in front of the heel piece, where there is a depression which
doesn't hit the floor when you walk. Today use double-stick Scotch tape, easily available.
Daub like this is used with BLUE backed cards. It is a marking system. When a fingertip is
pressed on the carbon paper at any time prior to using it (just watch what you touch - or better yet,
don't touch anything with that finger until you do the daub trick) you get a faint amount of dark blue
carbon paper ink on that digit tip.
How to use it? Have blue backed deck with borders shuffled. Have the deck tabled, and then
have deck cut into two parts. Have the "cut to" card taken and memorized. Point to the top of the
lower half to indicate "put it back." Then point to the lower half and selected card now there on top
and ACTUALLY TOUCH the selection on the corner, half on the blue design and half your fingertip
width on the border. Be consistent about where you press.
After the spectator replaces the top half, have them take the deck and shuffle. This procedure is
so different from most card controls that spectators notice and it takes card tricks to another level.
How to end? Fan the deck and hold the faces to the spectator. You'll see your "DUB." Remove
a whole group from that area of the fan. You don't want to have to look too close at the cards at
this time. Discard the rest of the deck. Fan the small group, faces to viewers. Now spot the card
from the back. "Is your card among this group?" is your line. Now, as you close the group, catch a
break and sideslip and hold the cards from above with the palming hand, and hand the cards to
someone on your left WITH THE PALMING. This is the most disarming way!
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 126
As soon as you let go, say "Shuffle them up" as you mime an overhand shuffle. Then - reach
for the bulk of the deck that you discarded earlier to the table, with the palming hand, and pick up
about ten cards. Let the palmed selection join with the ten or so odd cards and overhand shuffle
these as if further demonstrating what the other person should be doing.
Give these to a spectator on your RIGHT. Cause the selection to "pass" from one to the other
spectators, through thin air. Show your hands clean. Briskly take the arrived at packet, turn it face
up and fan it and out jog the selected card and put the fan back in the spectator's hands. See how
he controlled the situation? This shows how magic happening in the spectator's hands is not
always the best, for a group. Maybe one-on-one magic, but not for a trick like this. If you allow the
spectator to end this miracle, they can stall, fumble, be obtuse, or otherwise ruin the TIMING of the
end to the feat.
I hope this solves the mystery about what strange goop DAUB is and lets you know how easy to
get. To end this, note how the mark is not dark. After the shuffle, it looks not like a fingerprint but
like a smudge OF THE PRINTING INK of the blue back design of the playing card itself. Also, few
seem to be using daub so now is a good time to slip it in.
We should all mourn the passing of Bro. John Hamman. One way would be to read Kaufman's
book on his work and keep it alive. There are items and ruses in there that no one is using that are
truly inspired and inspiring. Go through it again. See FINAL ACE ROUTINE.
Meir Yedid is editing and will release tapes on the works of Jerry Andrus. Get them!
Also, word is that David Roth's EXPERT COIN MAGIC will be reprinted and re-released. Yay!
You young guys who read and who like coins HAVE to get this.
Continuing my list - even adding a new section to the RAG, of literature on the mood of magic,
not tricks: J.G. Frazer's THE GOLDEN BOUGH is a must. Also, a movie you should revisit is
DRAGONSLAYER which has the best acting on the part of the old sorcerer that I can think of.
Don't worry about the tricks. The acting!
Jack Chanin of course helped popularize the Three Shell Game. He had variations that killed.
He sleeved so well I never caught him actually doing it. His work with cigars was scary.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #15 127
He could do thimble moves with a shotglass and did. I will revisit his magic at a future date. He
had a unique top change.
He could pickpockets. Magicians watched him do the cork balls with amazement. His children's
show was unique. His long rope trick still fools me. In his stage act as Chinaman Chan, Jack had
a part where he lit a borrowed handkerchief for real. He crumpled it while still burning in his bare
hands and opened it out to reveal a burned beyond help handkerchief - then restored it. What a
lesson in magic.
In New Hope Pennsylvania, he removed his ear for a little old lady (and for my benefit), and
made it look real. He pulled on his real ear and made it look sort of rubbery when it was still the
real thing. He had a rubber ear in his hand. He turned his head just the right amount when he
peeled this rubber ear off, showed it to the lady and put it back on. Palming the ear, he turned his
head as he seemed to adjust the by now real ear. Then he ended with a kind of change-over with
a shopping bag he held from the opposite hand, and reached around to adjust the ear a little more
with the clean hand.
Jack made extra money as a Crazy Waiter. During the meal he'd be rude and do odd things
like eat peoples' food (then a real waiter would fix things and smooth over) and he did things like tie
a empty coffee cup to a corner of a napkin so it could fall off the saucer then stop. And he'd say
rude funny things. I often wondered if a young Don Rickles ever saw Jack as the Crazy Waiter.
At the end of the banquet, the Master o Ceremonies would introduce the Crazy Waiter, and
everyone would laugh knowing the whole thing was a "put on."
A little history. Jack wore a gypsy hoop EARING before anyone I knew. I had an ear pierced
and at Syracuse University I was the first guy (anywhere - so I'm told) wearing one earring because
of Chanin. Most students at the time at SU were from the New York City area and many copied me
and went home, taking the one earring thing for guys to the Big Apple area. Then it slowly grew,
but today when you see a guy with a pierced ear and one earring - thank Jack Chanin.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 128
They say nobody is perfect, but who says a card trick can't be perfect? This is my "take" on Jim
Steinmeyer's 9 CARD PROBLEM. The name itself invites us to try variations. It appeared in the
NEW INVOCATION, and was discussed by Richard Kaufman in MAGIC Magazine before he
moved to GENII. GENII Magazine ran two variations on this by David Regal. These two versions
had "kicker" endings.
I decided to eliminate the kicker endings approach because those involve forcing the card. I feel
the fair selection improves the trick over the kicker endings which to me add novelty yet scream
"FORCE!"
While not a major miracle such as the card ending up in Fort Knox or something - it is the type of
thing that you can use when you just want to say, "Want to see a great card trick?" It has no
explanation. I can't figure out why it works. This situation makes for infectious enthusiasm. That's
why I like it.
Let's begin by shuffling your deck and have the spectator take out nine cards without looking at
them. Set the deck aside.
Fan the nine cards and have a card selected. Then have it memorized. As you close the fan,
catch a pinkie break beneath the top TWO FACE DOWN CARDS. For the return, just lift the two
cards above your break, and have the card replaced on the left hand's group.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 129
Drop the right hand's two cards on top of all to end this phase. The audience thinks the card is
at a random number in the middle. Really it is third from the top. I can't think of a more casual
control for this spot.
In Regal's versions, he asked the spectator to either lie or tell the truth in the middle phase. I
decided to simplify this to "I want you to lie about the name of your card. Don't forget its true
identity, but for now LIE. Call out the name of any other card in the whole deck."
Let's assume the call is Six of Clubs for the lie. Deal into a pile, one at a time, spelling S-I-X.
Drop the rest of the cards on top. Pick up all nine cards. Now deal two singles as you spell O-F.
Drop all the rest on top. Each time you drop the talon on top of the dealt/spelled cards, actually
say, "...and the rest get dropped on top."
Finally, pick up all and spell singly C-L-U-B-S and drop the talon on top and pick up all. A note
here is that if Diamonds is called as the lie, when you spell Diamonds singly, you will be left with
one card only as your talon. I've found it best for consistency to hide this fact by still saying "and
the rest go on top" and not letting the number be obvious just to avoid any confusion.
You are done except for the opening of the champagne. "You lied about the name of your card.
But... if I spell TRUTH, we'll find the REAL card that you picked." At this point, because of a kind
of higher math that I don't fathom, their original card is in the MIDDLE. (No matter what card they
name when lying! Perhaps the principle is Roaming Inverse Sets, which I also don't understand.)
No matter. I only need to be a pasteboard jockey. In fact I enjoy not knowing how this works.
Since TRUTH spells with 5 letters, it will spell whether you go from the top or bottom, so I give
them a choice. If from the top deal facedown. If from the bottom, hold the packet in a glide grip
and pull the cards out from the bottom, face down. You don't have to do a glide, just use that grip.
Set the card aside face down when you get to the "H" in truth, so you can turn over all 8 other
cards before revealing the selection.
What is really great is that this is one of the few tricks that improves with repeating. When you
do repeat, use a different spectator and 9 newly selected cards.
A good punch ending after several repeats is this. After it is in the center after the lie spells, fan
the cards towards yourself and glimpse the true selection (center card) and while closing the fan
face down, get a break under the center card. Do a Leipzig side steal palm and then take the rest
in Biddle grip with your right.
Slide out the top card, which is an X card from the eight, and turn it towards yourself and
MISCALL it the name of their true selection. This fact alone, that you know the name, gets a tiny
surprise, but plow on by setting the now seven cards with your right hand, keeping the palmed card
concealed, and set the left hand's X card on top of this tabled pile. Turn them all over quickly and
spread them to show eight cards. Their true card is missing. Produce from pocket.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 130
This will definitely be my last piece involving Pseudo HPC. I still think it is a good idea. It takes
good palming, but that is the point. If you can palm correctly, for laymen you don't have to prove or
lap if you can stay casual till you clean up to a pocket and move right into a card trick by bringing
out a deck and even refusing to talk about the previous coin trick by acting as if it wasn't really
anything worth discussing. And maybe promising that the card trick to come is really something
special - a showpiece.
Effect: Three matching coins on the left and three on the right and a Chinese coin or any odd coin
in the middle.
You seem to do a very clean HPC. Three have traveled to the right from the left. Right hand
shows six coins plus odd coin.
The double-hop part means that you immediately repeat the supposedly same trick, except this
time ALL SIX end up in the LEFT HAND and the right hand only has the Chinese coin. It didn't go.
I use the patter that it pushes the other coins away this time.
Required: Nine matching coins. An odd coin. The ability to palm.
Set-up: All in a right side pocket.
Performance: Classic palm three matching coins and bring out all the rest in a loose fist. As you
arrange them on the pool table or where-ever, keep your right hand busy by using it to help make
the three-one-three arrangement. Hint: Keep contact with the end coin on each end of the display
right up till you start to pick up coins.
Pick up three coins in each hand. Then take the odd coin into the right hand. Gently slap down
the left hand's three and then lift to show and then pick them up again but classic palm them. Keep
this left hand in a loose fist even though you are in classic.
Don't do HPC. Pretend to! Really gently slap down three coins and the odd coin keeping three
in right classic.
Try to emulate your best real HPC move but on a real good day when you really nail the illusion,
or even a little better than that as if your hands don't come quite as close. This is not really "magic
for magicians," but your guide for yourself. What is at play here, is that HPC itself, although we like
it ourselves, doesn't look perfect all the time. (I should mention here that in REAL HPC work, I
never use the "Thru the Table" theme at all anymore but instead go for "Coins Across" to the other
hand. The same holds for Pseudo HPC and the WHY is that I feel it is more visual, more direct,
and eliminates the need for lapping which I avoid, and the need for sitting in some cases - plus just
the question in spectator minds of just what's going on "down there?")
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 131
Pick up all four coins with your right hand, pretend to make a little magical "toss" to your right
with your LEFT hand at your right hand, and open your left as wide as you can and then relax that
hand (which classic palms 3) and let the coins fall from RIGHT classic into your loose right fist with
a clink. Then let all 7 coins fall from right hand to table.
Immediately use your left hand and right hand to arrange the coins 3-1-3 again for a repeat.
This keeps the vulnerable left hand busy which looks better than just hanging out still, while
palming. Pick up all coins as before, three in left (now has total of six) and four with right. Classic
palm the right's three matching coins and leave the odd coin loose in right fist.
Make a toss towards your left with your right fist. Let a clink sound with your left and let SIX spill
out of left and only the odd coin fall from right which then has to act empty (relaxed). This situation
is good, because the right hand can seem occupied by turning the Chinese coin over several times,
and then picking it up by its extreme edge.
FEENdish Thoughts: Other ways to clean up. Take odd coin and palmed coins to a right pocket
where you have a different kind of "odd" coin for another coin trick using an odd coin. This goes
back to my idea last year of a different "odd" coin (unusual foreign coins) for each effect giving
reason to dodge to pocket. To hide the noise in the ditch, pick up the six on your left with your left
hand again and let them fall to table theatrically again during any talking of ditched coins. If you
want to proceed with four coins and an odd, take two away with your left to a left pocket. For a
routine with five coins and an odd one, with one of the matching coins a secret, take two to the left
ditch, and drop one and palm the other back out.
This doesn't have to be done as a Living and
Dead Test, and could be more normal such as
with symbols, nine of them on a card, spectator
thinks of one and draws it on one billet and draws
the other eight symbols on the other billets but I
am exploring Living and Dead Tests for a way to
counter or do "almost" the same thing John
Edwards is doing on the SciFi channel's Crossing
Over show.
At colleges, students are talking about that
show. They take it for real. If we can't do it too,
we will be told ours are tricks and not real
like on Crossing Over.
Still, I must caution you about going too far
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 132
I'll try to show how far to go get in this explanation. And, I repeat that I don't think we should get
into saying Edwards is a fake. I think we can say We can do it too, since we are magicians. The
whole thing is, just don't get sucked into a discussion bout this stuff after the gig. For me it is
always when Im trying to get in my car to leave a gig that I get waylaid by someone who is
obsessed. "I sense that everything is just fine for your loved one is about as far as I'll go. No
stock tips, no speaking in tongues, no stigmata, no advice.
Effect: Living and Dead Test (or symbol test).
Required: Paper, pencil, string.
Set-up: None.
Performance: By now you will recognize this as another application of the pen or pencil suspended
on a string with a slip knot so it balances from the middle and is horizontal, that I described last
year, and is credited to Bob McAllister, who gave me permission to describe my changes. His,
called Houdini's Seance, used a table knife and a double strand of sneaker lace. It was a card
trick.
I substituted a pen or pencil and one strand of simple string with a slip knot. You could see the
methodology with Bob's method but not with what I'm describing.
Newcomers - be advised that this is perhaps the second strongest feat in mental work. Get a
piece of string, make a slip knot, put the pencil in, pull it tight and adjust carefully the balance. The
idea is to hold the very tip of the string between ball of thumb and pad of second finger with all
fingers held straight and together.
Set the pencil spinning or rotating, as per drawing. It will spin one way, stop, spin the other way,
and stop, etc. and etc. less and less until it stops.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 133
AS IT is slowing down to just about stopped, you take over and with a tiny rolling action of the
ball of thumb, you alter the outcome so that the pencil point is aimed right at the correct billet. Easy
to learn if you put in even the smallest amount of practice.
Tear a sheet off of a pad of paper and fold in thirds one way and tear into three strips. Square
up the three strips and crease and tear three ways again. You'll get nine billets. Notice that the
middle one in the first drawing has NO straight sides, while the others DO. This is the secret - a
very old secret with hair growing on it, but perfect for us in this slot. Hand the billet with no straight
edges - just four "tears" - to the person to put the initials of the dearly departed. Have living initials
put on the other eight billets and use other spectators for this to speed the process. Have all billets
folded in quarters and mixed. As you arrange the 9 papers in a circle, note the one with no straight
edges. That's it.
Proceed with the pencil bit soon after saying, "If everything is fine with the departed on the other
side, GIVE US A SIGN!"
After the pencil miraculously points to the right billet, open the others first. Leave the pencil on
the table still pointing at the right billet while you do this. Then open the "Dead" billet.
If you feel lucky, try to guess the first name from the initial if you dare. May the spirit of Chan
Canasta be with you!
The little bit of work on this is to think of the vowels. If "J" is the initial as male or female. Then
start through the vowels in order Jah, Jeh, Ji-, Jo-, Ju- etc., as if trying to sound it out or connect.
Actually you watch the sitter to look for telltale eye or body language. (A nod of the head is good).
Don't let it seem obvious. Watch out of the CORNER of your eye. Or skip this part entirely if you
aren't comfortable with risk.
The billet test with psychokinetic pencil is good enough.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #16 134
T H E L I B R A R Y - Not tricks but themesambiance. Ann Rice has a new book, MERRICK.
Haven't read it yet. Did you know Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST is about a magician? In another
play Shakespeare uses "Odd Bodkins" as an expletive, such as 'Great Caesar's Ghost!' That is
from Scott's DISCOUVERIE of WITCHCRAFT 1584. Let me check Shakespeare's dates. By the
way, who originated "Great Scott!"? Was it Reginald Scott? Was it Shakespeare?
T H E G R A P E V I N E - Ricky Jay's B'Way Show (extended with more storytelling and other
forms of entertainment) is back on. I guess soon.
S N A P P Y C O M E B A C K S - a new section. If someone is giving you a really hard time, try
this. "If you put your brain on the edge of a razorblade, it would look like a B-B rolling down a four
lane highway!" Too strong? It is from an old song. I didn't write it. I'll do more of these as I dig
them out.
T H E N A G U A L - Today I want to mention how well Richard Kaufman is doing with GENII.
Also, look back a few issues at the Phil Goldstein offering in his "The Other Month" column called
FOURTHRIGHT. It is a truly great card piece. Must read.
By now the ROTH coin book reprint should be out. Also talk of a David Roth interview in GENII.
From another publisher, CARNEYCOPIA by John Carney has been reprinted.
Finally, try to find Mickey Hart's DRUMMING AT THE EDGE OF MAGIC. By the way, let's add
more ceremony to a magic show. Drums instead of an MC. Incense instead of an MC. Dancers
instead of an MC. (Exotic Dancers.)
I'm actually thinking about this formula for a Sunday morning magic show as an alternative to
Chapel or Church. Certainly not for everybody. Reverend Webb's Snakeoil Temple of the Blinding
Light.
Ill keep you posted.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #17 135
The four quarters are taken away and then the leader card lifted to reveal a fourth penny. Next, the
matrix effect is repeated to cause the pennies, the "interest", to assemble at the main bank branch.
Finally, you pick up a piece of imaginary dust at the four corners where the pennies WERE, and
display (?) them as you explain that those are interest earned by the interest.
EFFECT: Four quarters are laid out for a
standard Schneider type MATRIX effect. The
patter is to the effect that your bank has four
branches and you can deposit your money in
any of the four branches and yet, like magic, if
you make a large withdrawal at one of the
branches, all the money arrives there instantly.
The difference in this plot is that each time a
card is lifted to show a quarter has vanished, a
penny is seen under that card instead of
nothing. This is down two more times until all
quarters have assembled, and there are three
pennies resting where they used to be.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #17 136
Required: Close-up mat! Four quarters, four pennies, four cards, and four pieces of imaginary
dust!
Set-up: All coins in a side pocket. Mat on table. Cards on mat.
Performance: Show the cards as you talk about your four bank branches. Bring out one quarter at
a time with a penny hidden under each held between thumb and first finger. The penny is a secret.
Set down the two coins as one, making a matrix square, as you repeat this three more times.
Setting the quarter with hidden penny down silently is not hard given the mat.
Perform matrix the Al Schneider way, stealing one (taking care for silence) and then all coins are
covered with the other cards.
During each Schneider Pick-up move, care must be taken to get the quarter each time and leave
the penny in place on the mat. There is a "check" necessary to spot that the penny hasn't gotten
picked up with the quarter.
When done with the Matrix assembly, the leader quarter still has a hidden penny. Begin to cover
that spot with a card as you remove all quarters. Lift the card to reveal the last penny.
Repeat the matrix with the four pennies. Finally, the bit of tongue-in-cheek play with the dust
particles at the end is charming and reminds the audience that this is all "let's pretend" anyway and
for fun and not to take things too seriously.
Here I'm putting spin on some David Regal work. One version was in STAR QUALITY by Harry
Lorayne, and a streamlined version in CLOSE UP AND PERSONAL, from Hermetic Press. In
streamlining even more, I've arrived at something that plays like Slydini's Paper Balls to Hat.
Essentially, by the use of subtle false counts, I imply that three cards (X cards) go on each Joker
(Four Jokers used). Actually only two do, but with a Stanyon Count make the spectators see four.
One vanishes by virtue of a Findley Tent Vanish, after which there are now in hand THREE CARDS
only. Follow this line of reasoning. If you really had four cards, and could really make one vanish,
you would, in one scenario, be left with THREE CARDS. In most assemblies the Ace or Queen or
Joker has GONE, but you have one indifferent card that has apparently returned in a transposition
effect from the leader pile to make four. This obeys the law of conservation of energy and matter,
but transpo effects are often confusing to lay folk.
When the Jokers are seen at the end to have assembled, THEN it may seem surreal to the
viewers (where did the three missing cards go from the leader pile?)
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #17 137
I'd rather leave them with that mystery (a good thing in the right light) than confuse them with a
transpo effect each time, and deprive them of the more magical experience of seeing four cards
become three when one "vanishes!"
Required: Four matching Jokers. Nine red spot cards. A coin.
Set-up: Four jokers face up on top of nine face down reds.
Performance: Done to music. Spread over the four jokers, and keep spreading till they see some
face down cards, but don't let it be obvious how many you have. Now lift the spread to your chest
level so they can see some red cards, but again, crucial to not give them time to count. Lower the
spread again, and as you close it, catch a pinkie break under the first three reds below the again
face up jokers.
Pick up the seven above the break as a block for the normal Braue secret addition sequence,
peeling and levering over onto the deck face down, with the first three Jokers. Drop the block
remaining on top. Spread over the last face-up Joker, as a single and turn it face down. Now
spread over four supposed Jokers, but get a break under the next (top) card of the remainder, so
that when you square that you can lift really five cards as four. Flash the face - a Joker will show,
and set these down on the table.
The next sequence is to lay down four piles of two cards each but by subtlety making them look
like three cards each. Here's how. Spread over three cards from the packet. As you square and
lift, just get your pinkie tip between the second and third, so that you can lift at the break and really
have only two. Do this three times making a row of piles, first one to your right. On the fourth one,
don't even spread the two cards left, but just riffle the ends with your right thumb before setting
down.
Pick up the five card pile with supposedly four Jokers. We are about to use Daryl's Rising Crime
Display but I added a Flushtration concept of Bro. Hamman's. Each time a card is peeled, both
hands do wrist turns before the next peel, flashing lots of Jokers and punching the illusion, in
context here, flash the face Joker and lower your right to peel top card into left. Flash the face card
of right packet and flash face of card in left. Lower hands and peel again. Flash faces of both
packets and peel again. Finally you hold a double. Drop this as one, after another brief flash, onto
the left hands cards.
Now use your right hand to lift the pile at the left, and flash the face as your left hand does a
one-handed deal of its top card (a red card) to the table. Lower the right hand's packet of two
(supposedly three) red cards, onto the card dealt to the table.
Repeat this sequence, moving to your right as you put cards from the left under piles on the
table, repeating the Rising Crime/Flushtration each time, but each time you have fewer and fewer
cards to count. You always have one more than you imply, the right always ending with a double
card last to drop on the left hand's cards.
Finally, for the pile on the right. You flash the double with your right, lift the tabled packet (2
Jokers!) with your LEFT hand and put the double under the left's cards and square as these go to
the table. PUT THE COIN on this end pile as a paperweight. This is like the hat in the
aforementioned Slydini routine.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #17 138
We're almost done. Pick up the left pile. False count as four with Stanyon count or Elmsley 3-
as-4. Put the top card in position for Findley's Tent Vanish. Perform this move, pretending to take
the card with flat right hand as card really falls, under cover, onto the left packet. Make a crumbling
and vanishing gesture to the packet at the right with coin. Immediately show only three red cards in
left and leave face up and spread on table. The tent vanish looks good, but it is THIS part that
punches the idea "it IS gone!
Repeat this with each pile working to your right. Finally dramatically show the four Jokers under
the coin, to end clean.
I've been having fun with this, and upon checking with some of the gods of magic history, so far
we haven't located it. Still, it is so obvious (to me), but I strive to find things that may have slipped
through the cracks.
All this is the Vernon 5 Card Psychological Force, then mix the cards but knowing where the four
of hearts is. So, the spectator herself finds the card she WAS ONLY THINKING OF!
The force works if you make them think about their choice. "Take your time. Don't rush.
Andtry to make it hard for me" (Dont just say "think of a card." That doesn't work.)
Contrive to get the four of hearts in a different spot than it was. Your strong endings are when
the first "pointing" with the left hand gets it, or when it is the last one eliminated. If the first try is a
miss, continue with "and now point to one with your RIGHT hand. If this is a hit, have them pick up
both and mix. Have them hand you one. Play this as either they handed you the force card and
play this up, or if they keep it, toss away the one you are given and play it as that they knew to
keep the right one (have them mix behind their backs). If both are misses at first, repeat. If they hit
on the third try ...YOU MUST GO ON TO A FOURTH WITH THE OTHER HAND and do the mixing
bit ...then hand you one. It would be a discrepancy to stop after three. See why?
In any case, very strong stuff. I love it! This epitomizes the direction I'm going. No gaffs, no
real routine, no procedure from the viewer's POV. Just grunt it out. Put it in the middle and if it
fails, who cares? ESP-not an exact science. Don't end on this. Chan Canasta would have loved it.
Thanks to Charles Reynolds for teaching me Hobson's Choice in general years ago.
T H E L I B R A R Y - I finally found the last Carlos Castaneda book for my collection and study.
My dreams are getting clearer and more vivid. Also, I am more convinced that Castaneda was
aware of ancient Tibetan meditation (BEFORE Buddhism) called bonpo or dzogchen clear light
dreaming, before anybody else.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #17 139
On to magic books, CONCERTOS FOR PASTEBOARD from HERMETIC PRESS by German
and Swiss cardmen, is very good and I'm learning a lot.
S N A P P Y C O M E B A C K S - If you are ever in the mood to show a little disrespect towards
astrology if you hear someone going on about horoscopes or the like, say, "Did you hear what
Houdini said about what sign your moon is in?" 'AINT NO ROCK A QUARTER OF A MILLION
MILES AWAY GONNA TELL ME WHAT TO DO!'
T H E N A G U A L So l keep trying to show you things you can actually use on laymen. There is
so much being published, like an avalanche, and yet very little written is clean enough, or easy
enough to remember or practical, for me. If I read a card trick and it gives me a headache, I know
it isn't for me. Same with coins. I rely on classic palm and fingerpalm exclusively. Hardly even use
thumbpalm much. I always spot the "funny thumb" when other guys do it. I figure laymen aren't
dumb. Mental-wise -- I don't have a good memory on my feet. It has to be simple and more and
more I'm finding the plot of predicting to be weak and getting spectators to "have the power" is
much more efficacious and takes the curse off the whole performance.
Well, Jaroff, Kurtz, and Randi are going after John Edward and CROSSING OVER on Sci-Fi
channel. Larry King doesn't help. Well, lve been writing about this since January, and very few
magicians and especially magazines sensed a "story" there when I mentioned to them that
something was brewing - till now! Now, since the TIME article, it is. If asked - some lines to use. "I
think he CROSSED OVER THE LINE - as a humorous line." "There is a FCC law that says he
should have run a disclaimer - FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY, and not intended to
foster a belief in the supernatural." The problem is and always has been that this whole magilla ties
in with religious beliefs. If you say it isn't possible what he does, you attack religion at the same
time - which says there are powers that be.
"WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GET INTO AREAS OF DEATH, OR ADVICE, and especially
MEDICAL ADVICE - we're just supposed to stick to demonstrations that don't get personal. We're
supposed to entertain with it and not get into areas that affect people's lives. No stock market
advice - no stigmata - no conjuring up the dead. It is not an exact science." These are lines to
think about that don't say "HE'S a FAKE," because if you say that, you offend people -- because
80% or more of the population believe in some religion. Also, thinking of the field of magic, I still
say it is good that people believe in "powers" or where would we really be? So don't say "HE'S a
FAKE" outright.
But remember in your own work to not get too personal.
Also, it will be interesting to watch this unfold. I predict (aha) that Randi, et al, will come off as
people with sour grapes.
People in their ignorance will hear Randi's side as being anti-religion and beliefand most people
need belief. It really is a tricky area and we're seeing history of the battle between white and black
magic before our very eyes.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 140
IMAGINE doing a Matrix and then being able to change the coins at the end to large coins, but
without having to "steal! That's what we are about to do. It is SELF-CONTAINED. All the bugs
have been worked out.
To keep the routine from getting too long, the Matrix has been reduced to a triangle, hence the
prefix 'Tri-' in the title. Therefore, three small coins are used, and three cards, and at the end of the
routine, the small coins change to three large coins.
Required: Three quarters. Three English pennies. Three cards. A close-up mat.
Performance: The three quarters and one English penny are in a right pocket. The cards are in a
left pocket with two English pennies.
When ready to perform, reach both hands into respective pockets. Classic palm the English
penny with the right hand and bring out the quarters held loosely. Put them on the mat and
arrange them into a triangle that points away from yourself.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 141
There are two coins close to you, and the single coin is farther away. This is your performer's
view. A. B. and C. are also the order the coins will be covered.
Reach in your left pocket with your left hand and classic palm one English penny and bring the
other one out hidden under the three cards. Next we'll count and show the cards. Hold as shown,
which is conducive to Kaps/Malini Subtlety to hide the load coin in right palm.
Take one card with the left hand, and do a wrist turn to flash the other side. Care must be taken
to not turn too far and expose the load in LEFT palm. Return to normal palm-down position and
slide the card UNDER the stack, YET ABOVE THE CLIPPED COIN UNDER PACKET.
Since the right is clipping the coin by its extreme right side, just relax pressure and the left side
droops so card can enter between card and coin. Repeat this two more times, until all three cards
have been taken from top, shown on other side, returned to normal, and slid under packet but
ABOVE load coin under packet. This is easy.
Now packet and hidden coin must be positioned for the Matrix deal and steal, with an extra
feature of loading a "LOAD" coin under the first card at A. while also stealing away the quarter for
Matrix.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 142
Here is how to re-grip. Encircle the cards with the left second finger and thumb, around the long
sides, from above. Still controlling the large coin with the right hand, slide around to the right
narrow end.
To load and pick-up simultaneously, move to above quarter A. Pick up quarter between second
finger and thumb tips of left hand. Deal top card held by right narrow end, and load coin from below
onto spot A as you move left hand cards and stolen quarter slightly to the left to make room for
card and load coin on table. Next, move to over spot B. Dead the next card AND deposit stolen
quarter next to quarter at point B. Finally put last card over quarter at spot C., to end this phase.
You have an English penny in each classic palm. An English penny is under card at spot A. Two
quarters are under card at spot B., and a quarter is under the card at spot C.
Phase TWO - The next part is fairly standard Matrix procedure with only the added difficulty of
having a coin in each palm to keep concealed and the large one under the card at spot A. Put your
left hand on card C., and your right hand at card B. Do the standard Al Schneider pick-up move at
spot C., with your left, and just snap the card at spot B to reveal two coins. It looks as if the coin at
C has jumped to join the one at B. Put the card and concealed quarter under the card in the right
hand and lower these as a unit over the two quarters at B, avoiding coin-talk.
Put your left hand, still palming its final load, on the card at spot A. Again put your right, still
palming ITS final load, on the two cards at spot B. Do the pick-up move with your left, lifting card
and hidden load coin, from spot A. The right hand lifts both cards as a unit at point B, to end this
phase.
Phase THREE - Put the left hand's card and concealed load coin under the two cards in the right
hand, and use the left thumb and fingers to hold the three cards and load coin briefly while the right
hand re-grips so that the right thumb is on top of cards and right fingers under cards and holding
load coin by pressure up against the bottom of the cards. The right still has a load in right classic
palm but concealed by Malini/Kaps, et al, Subtlety. The left hand also has a load classic palmed.
Use the tip of the left first finger to steady one quarter as you use the cards in right hand to
scoop one quarter up onto cards. Scooping towards yourself helps your angles. Next it will seem
as if you dump the scooped quarter into your left hand. in reality the first switch-in takes place.
The right thumb holds back the quarter and really the load coin on your right fingers' side of the
cards drops into cupped left hand - its load (for later) still being concealed with classic palm and
Malini/Kaps Subtlety. The left does a wrist turn and rubs coin on mat and lifts to reveal - the first
English penny as a surprise!
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 143
The right hand has to now alter its grip.
What the drawing above shows is how the right second finger has swung around the side of the
cards to clip the quarter, which frees the right thumb.
What happens next is that the side of the cards we see in the drawing AND the quarter, are
lowered to face-down. The FAR side of the cards in the drawing is now on top. Move the thumb
around so that IT is on top, too.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 144
The situation is quarter under cards, held by second finger. On top are the thumb and first
finger.
To end this adjustment, the right first finger can now move out and around cards to underneath.
The thumb has stayed on top, and underneath, all fingers together now hold and screen quarter for
when that side gets flashed during upcoming moves.
We are now in position to use the cards in the right hand, and the quarter hidden underneath by
the right fingers, to scoop another quarter up from the mat with a help from the left first finger which
acts like a "stop" and keeps the quarter from sliding as it is scooped. The quarter will actually stay
in place on the cards as you pretend to dump it into the left cupped hand. The quarter is held in
place by the right thumb. The right hand is almost palm down now.
As the left turns almost palm up, to "accept" the "quarter," its concealed English penny is
screened by Kaps/Malini Subtlety. The left does a wrist turn to palm down on the way to the mat
and lets the English penny fall to left fingertip rest. This coin is rubbed on the mat and the hand
lifted to reveal surprise ending # 2.
Now a dodge which breaks the rhythm and gets us into position for the final load. The left hand
picks up the final quarter, and rubs it on the mat and lifts to show the coin VANISHED. This is an
application of a move I always credit to Paul Gertner. All that takes place is that on the way to the
mat, the left hand classic palms the quarter before the rubbing action. After the vanish, the quarter
"reappears" on the mat underneath the cards held by the still palm down right hand. All you have
to do is release the quarter just held-back by the right thumb against the cards before the previous
dumping to left hand (fake) action. Lift the cards, and turn the right hand palm up, to reveal the
surprise reappearance of the quarter - actually a dupe.
Scoop this quarter up exactly as before, and again pretend to dump to left hand, again pinning it
to cards with right thumb. In this case, the English penny from right classic palm falls into the
waiting left hand, which rubs it on the mat and lifts to reveal the final change.
CLEANUP PHASE.
The still palm down right hand has the three cards held as a unit. On top, but hidden under the
right fingers, is one quarter. Under the -cards, held by the thumb, is another quarter, and in the left
palm is the third. Put the cards in the left hand, almost in dealing position. The left fingers take
over control of the quarter UNDER the cards. Maintain contact with the right fingers on the quarter
on top of the cards.
Now, slide the top quarter off of the cards, moving away from yourself. As this quarter clears the
cards, press it up against the right flat fingers with the right thumb, but in such a way, see
upcoming drawing, that the tip of the thumb is free and the pad of thumb way back by the joint is
what is pressing on the quarter. This is so that you can go directly to the first English penny, lift it
and put it on the second, and then lift these and put on the third. Now put the fingers flat on the
stack, loading the concealed quarter on top of the English pennies. Get your thumb under all.
Turn your right hand palm up. The English pennies effectively hide the quarter.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 145
Take the left hand cards and hidden coins to a left pocket and the right hand's coins to a right
pocket. The jingling of the right coins masks any sound of coin talk from the left pocket.
-FEEN-
T H E G R A P E V I N E - When last I mentioned the B'way extended version of Ricky Jay's
show, I said it was back on.
Now it is off again till (maybe) the fall.
K U D O S - Kudos to Max Maven and Phil Goldstein for his effect with batteries in the March
GENII! Truly an inspired piece of thinking! Imagine an object so common yet not used for magic
until now. Go look it up. That's the type of work that we all strive for, that idea that was under all
our noses, and hidden in plain sight.
T H E S P I N R O O M - I'd like to mention right here that I am playing with sleight of hand and
palming with a battery right now for a switchfor the aforementioned Goldstein routine from "The
Other Month" in GENII, but that doesn't mean I invented anything because I'm sure Max/Phil
thought of this method, too. The effect is the thing - I like to palm, so if I can beat this by palming
and switching, I'll be happier than with the bag. It is so astounding that it took till 2001 to have a
reason to be practicing with batteries. Thanks Max/Phil!
On another topic - The Bro. Hamman issue of GENII was great but I'm only working on
DOUBLE SURPRISE ELEVATORS and CHAMELEON BLUES. I know myself by now. About the
ELEVATORS - I don't lap but want to put spin on the trick by mentioning that I am still using the
trick. One way is to just stop after the change is shown to red cards...the Hearts. By this time, the
deck proper is in my pocket. It goes just fine ending this way. Also, am using DUPES for the
Spades cards, kept in four different pockets. The deck is put in another pocket before the
denouement of the red Hearts, and the dupe Spades come from four different pockets. When I
retrieve the deck, I thumb off the original 4 Spade cards and leave them in my jacket pocket, so
that when I put the Spades and Hearts from the trick back on the deck, I still have 52. Try this and
try that very good elevators trick! Thank you Richard Kaufman!
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #18 146
T H E L I B R A R Y - I just read the new translation of the fragments of Hericlitus that weren't
destroyed when the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. Don't waste your money.
T H E N A G U A L - I saw a special on TV about Monte. One new fact cropped up. You should
know this! We were always led to believe that how the shill (or 'stick') worked was that the Mark
saw the shill WIN money at just the right moment as the Mark came into range of "the gate," and
would figure, "Gee...money CAN be won here!" Wrong!
The real work is this - the Mark is allowed to see the shill LOSE because the shill was
(supposedly) following the WRONG CARD. The Mark was following the RIGHT card, the Queen,
and figures that if he were betting and playing, that he would be able to follow the right card. In
other words, he figures that the shill, who the Mark doesn't know is a shill, lost because he wasn't
smart or quick enough to follow the right card. And, the Mark is able to see that the one HE was
following was indeed the Queen. So he plays. And gets fooled when the sleights come in.
But, the way he is convinced to even decide to play is much more diabolical than what we were
always told. If you have an interest in how "cons" work, you'll sense that this IS the real work on
the psychology of the shill. It may seem just a tiny bit different, but after the first blush wears off
you'll see that the whole premise is different. It is like the difference between King Lear and
Hamlet. Or is it?
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 147
ANNOUNCING a slight change in FORMAT for the ol' ragazine. Everyone I know is so
inundated with card tricks, that I decided to make the policy be that IF the mental piece is a
mentalism thing with CARDS, that the Frying Pan section will be a non-card and non-coin item. I
think this is good because there ARE other props to have FUN with.
I already have planned a three-ball dodge, a leaf trick, a new and original rubber band thingee,
and moread infinitum (and beyond - as Yogi Berra would say.) Is EVERYBODY HAPPY?
While at first this might be seen as an attempt to gild a lilly, let me assure you that this is not so.
What this IS a way to set up for a second routine - a separate trick from the first - way before you
even begin trick #1.
I'll cut to the chase! You do one trick such as Matrix, but other tricks may do, and you are using
4 C/S coins, but you just don't ever flash the copper sides at all during the trick. This is very easy
in some tricks, which is why I'm using Matrix as my example.
After that trick is completely over, you do another coin routine which goes like this
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 148
Effect: Four silver coins are in the right fist. The audience saw these many times in the previous
trick.
You then reach into the left pocket and bring out four English pennies, which are jingled and then
VANISH cleanly. The English pennies are now in the RIGHT hand. Reach in your left pocket with
the left hand and bring out the missing four SILVER coins to end.
Required: Four C/S coins. Four silver coins. A John Kennedy sound gimmick, aka rattle device,
aka Coin Clink. This is worn on the left arm.
Set-up: Four silver coins in left pocket. C/S coins on mat silver sides up.
Performance: Do Matrix or Chink-a-Chink and only let silvers be seen. You're way ahead. AFTER
the cheering section has sat down, announce another feat.
Reach in your left pocket and palm AIR. Don't bring out anything! We're going to LIE! Miscall
your left fistful of air as "FOUR ENGLISH PENNIES: We've been using SILVER COINS, and now
a little something I learned from Merlin." Jingle the SOUND GIMMICK and THEY WILL BELIEVE
you at least have something in your left hand.
Drag out the vanish of the left hand "coins" with as much theatricality as you can muster, and
open your right hand to show the COPPER sides of the C/S coins.
Letting the left be seen clean, go quickly to the left pocket and bring out the real silver coins as if
they jumped there magically.
You'll be glad you did! Put coins away in respective pockets.
- FEEN -
This piece is very strong and even spooky. It also demonstrates how to get more out of a simple
piece than you or I used to think. This is evolution. I will teach you how to make it seem as if one
(or more) viewers "thought" of a card, when really it is only by implication and which is a very old
principle. This isn't ESP, but I characterize it as implied thought of card moves telekinetically or
magically from one place to another - very cleanly. I have come to be very intrigued by the use of
very few cards to work a trick with and then figure how to make a molehill into a mountain.
Effect: The Queen of Hearts vanishes cleanly and a random (?) card that was placed in full view
face down on the table is shown to be the missing Queen, and you are CLEAN. Also, it seems that
the Queen of Hearts was mentally chosen by one or more members of the audience.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 149
Required: A deck. A dupe Queen of Hearts. A table. An audience.
Set-up: Dupe Queen H at bottom. Other 4 Queens on top.
Performance: "This one is for the ladies, and it uses the four Queens which are the ladies of the
deck." As you deliver the opening line you spread over four face down cards - the Queens - and at
the end of the line, turn these face up and table them.
False shuffle, easy, maintaining the dupe Queen at bottom WITHOUT flashing it, and then false
cut. Say, "Keep one eye on the Queens and one eye on THIS random card," you spiel as you take
out the dupe Queen H from the bottom of deck and DON'T SHOW IT and put it face DOWN on the
table well away from the face up 4 Queens.
"I want all the ladies in the audience to think of their favorite Queen," is your next line. Now we
are about to steal one Queen - the HEART, by any of several moves. Pick the one you are most
comfortable with. Use either a Biddle Move (you should still be holding the remainder of deck.
Don't table it and then pick it up again.), a Herb Zarrow improved handling Biddle Move, which uses
a new grip, or a J.K. Hartman Secret Subtraction Move. That is the one I'm favoring lately. It is for
all the world the exact opposite of the Braue Secret Add-On Move (Braue Secret Addition). Some
versions of ATFUS will also work here.
In any case, holding a face down deck and face UP Queens, you eliminate one as casually as
possible. Put deck and the stolen Q-H in your left pocket. As soon as your left hand emerges,
Stanyon Count, or Elmsley Count the three remaining FACE DOWN Queens as FOUR. Note:
During the J.K. Hartman move, the 3 Q's end face down but if you use some other steal, turn the 3
Q's face down before the false-count.
Q-H dodge: It has long been known that ladies will mentally select the Q-H. Instead of picking
just one lady from the audience, and putting her on the spot and yourself at risk, DO THIS. Note
the part of the audience where there is the largest concentration of ladies, indicate that general part
of the audience with a gesture of your hand as you say, "Someone in this general area seems to be
thinking of the QUEEN OF HEARTSso I'll use that one for my demonstration."
Don't ask anyone to confirm or deny! Just plow forward. Act as if you could have used ANY
card, but just happened to want to use one someone was thinking of. Read on.
Take out one face down card from the appropriate place in the three card packet. By this I
mean that with the J.K. Hartman move, the Q-H would be on top, if it hadn't been stolen, so I pick
the top card. If you use a different sleight, dry run through your procedure to see where YOUR Q-
H ends up if you don't steal but do the procedure for real. Then, when you know, go for that part of
your face-down packet, without revealing that you only hold three cards total.
In any case, put the supposed Q-H in Findley Tent Vanish position. Perform the move, and
move your right hand above the "random" card on the table and make a crumbling action with your
right hand and finally reveal your right hand empty. Many magicians who don't get out much tell
me they don't like this move. They misunderstand the psychology and especially how strong this is
with a small packet that is already "short" one card yet was false-counted as four. The amazement
isn't supposed to come at this point. They'll just think, "How cute. He's just pretending (didn't really
take the card)." Although, and by-the-way, you CAN nail this move pretty good if you work at it.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 150
But, really, the first moment of true realization is when you SLOWLY and one card at a time,
reveal that there are only three Queens left and the Q-H is missing. Then, another MOMENT
happens when you slowly show your right hand EMPTY YET and STILL and slowly move to the
"random" card slowly turn it over to reveal the dupe Q-H.
End notes: Just ignore how almost all the ladies in the audience are nodding and saying "I
picked the Q-H, too!" Leave that alone. See? That wasn't really part of the trick. You could have
done it with any card. By refusing to "go there" and only taking applause for the teleportation of a
card, you leave them with more of an impression than if you try to get someone to admit. Just let it
go!
Also, the random card could be shown as indifferent, such as a three of clubs or some innocent
cardwhich later turns into a Q-H - the MISSING Q-H, but that complicates the plot a lot to a lay
audience. Just calling it a random card and only showing it face down is actually stronger. This is
yet again an example of how we have to fight to see a trick from the audiences POV, not our own
tainted magicians' way. Magically, we've been taught to have someone actually PICK or THINK of
and later confirm, or write down, or call out, etc., a card or the trick is weak. What I've done here is
show that by hardly doing anything I can actually create a very strong thing.
CLEAN-UP: Reach into left pocket, thumb off missing original Q-H and bring deck out of pocket
leaving Q-H IN pocket. Add the four Queens to deck and you have a complete deck for any other
trick with cards then or later in your evening.
- Feen -
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 151
GENII magazine will be running my routine with the Three Ball Trick, soon I hope. I submitted
about five years of stuff to Mr. Kaufman several years ago, and with the every-other-month format,
I've lost track of when each piece will appear. This sequence can be used as an alternate
beginning to that routine, when you get it, or other routines you know.
The premise to the GENII routine is "all in the hands," so you can mingle and not need the use
of a table. When others opt for using a spectator for help, with their hands, I don't. My pieces
usually depend on rhythm and flow, like a piece of music (and probably because of my
background as a manipulator) I would not ask a non-magician to sit in with my band if I was a
musician, I find lay audiences don't understand the flow and pacing of a trick and louse up that
part IF I let them. So I opt for having the magic LOOK like real magic, albeit in my own hands
rather than go for the "in THEIR hands" approach popular to many but me.
My work on this trick, this sequence being no exception, is strongly influenced by David Roth's
routine. He told me I could publish whatever I want as long as I credit correctly.
What usually happens in modern routines is that first some work is done with a single small ball.
This ball finally jumps to a pocket during which time you "load up" with more balls in various palms.
Then the ball multiplies to three, and then the one-in-the pocket and two in the hand jazz begins,
and this repeated numerous times and then some finale. In the upcoming GENII routine, I found a
way to begin with two concealed and one in view so I could move right into the multiplying. THIS
SEQUENCE today, is based on having THREE concealed and one in view, to eliminate yet
another early trip to the pocket. During the later sequence in standard use, there are plenty of
trips to the pocket, so I wanted that to be the only phase with visits to the pocket.
The drawing shows one ball in classic, one ball in pinkie-curlpalm, and one held by friction
between one ball and the thumb. This is based on the mechanics of the Oscar Pladek double-roll-
up move for the pickup at the top of fist by the right hand.
One ball is in view, as shown. This is an exposed view.
Effect: One ball is tossed to the waiting left hand. After a quick look, this ball is lifted and placed
on the top of left fist.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 152
The single is allowed to settle into the left fist, a slight squeeze is made, and the hand opens to
reveal TWO. These are picked up with the right and the left again assumes the thumbhole
up/loose fist position. One and then another ball are dropped into the left fist through that
thumbhole and the hand opens to reveal THREE BALLS which are dumped into the right hand.
The routine can begin for the middle phase, for you have a fourth ball concealed in the left loose
fist (in low fingerpalm).
Required: Four small balls. Wadded up tinfoil will do.
Set-up: Balls in right pocket.
Performance: Reach in your right pocket and classic palm one ball, pinkie curlpalm the next, get
the next one between the pinkie's ball and base of thumb and pick up the last at the tips of fingers
and thumb, and bring out. Toss/drop the visible ball to waiting left hand. Let it be seen a beat, and
then pretend to pick it up with the right. The left grips its ball in left pinkie-grip, and does a wrist
turn and becomes a loose fist - thumbhole up. The right drops ball #2 on the left fist and this ball
drops through into the left fist. Open left to reveal multiplication to two balls.
Next is like a Bobo Utility Move. Left retains one of two in left pinkie curl grip and one is dumped
to right hand. Left assumes a loose fist and right deposits the ball just dumped on the left
thumbhole, and this descends into left loose fist. This is followed by ball #3 released from right
pinkie grip. Left opens to reveal multiplication to three balls. A Bobo Utility Move is done, holding
one back in left pinkie curl grip and dumping two to the right hand which opens to reveal three balls
cleanly - ball #4 being released from classic for the long pause and show. You are ready to begin
the "to pocket" sequence. Drop two singly into the left, which has its secret extra one. The right
takes one to the right pocket (and palms it back out) while the left opens to reveal three (again-one
came back). That's it! Continue with your routine or look for my routine coming someday in GENII.
K U D O S - To Meir Yedid for his tapes on Jerry Andrus.
S C O O P - The same Meir Yedid will be producing a tape on Herb Zarrow HIMSELF teaching the
real work on the Zarrow Shuffle. YAY! Also, he'll be producing a tape on the long awaited magic of
Sol Stone. YAY!
T H E L I B R A R Y - In the book HANNIBAL, Thomas Harris reveals that the smart guy uses a
memory system based on an old Greek idea, The Memory Palace. He imagines a palace filled with
his favorite works of art, being a connoisseur of fine thangs, and anything he wants to remember,
he tacks MENTALLY to a piece of art that has an association for him.
S N A P P Y C O M E B A C K - "You can't fool a fool."
The NAGUAL section is proud to present a "true" story from the Private Files of Gregg Webb
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #19 153
"S P I E S L I K E M E" by Gregg Webb
This was bound to come out sooner than later, so why not sooner. This concerns a series of
events that happened after I was working at the United Nations in their film section (translating sub-
titles into five languages) and they found out I was also a magician and mentalist. I was swept
away one night and shipped in a box like a dog - in fact I was told to bark and whine if anyone got
suspicious during the whole trip to Berlin. Quarantine was such a pain!
My assignment was to do magic for KGB agents in the nightclubs. Magic was my cover, and I
was to use the distraction to drop mind-control drugs in the form of little square tablets, into their
drinks. My specialty became the Boston Box, for a coin trick, with the secret compartment recess
holding the pills for the denouement and encore.
In America, performing magic for regular people, they always thought the box looked like
something from the magic shop to make the coin trick happen. In Berlin, the KGB instantly
recognized it as a pill box and I had to go to great lengths to convince them that it was something
made especially to do coin routines with. Nothing like some healthy paranoia to get someone to
recognize a pillbox when they see one.
We weren't the only ones up to this. The Russians had discovered the Tannen Catalog, and had
it translated into several Balkan languages. One KGB guy, we used to call him Old Boris, used to
use the Pop-Up Tie for misdirection and then just slip in the Mickey. One other KGB-er, Vladimir,
used the blinking bow tie for his misdirection.
Another American used to dress up like a traveling Chinese troubadour and magician, and do
the long versions of the rice bowls and the linking rings with all the figures - Jesus on the cross, the
swing, the globe, the rose that opens, etc., until everyone fell asleep and then he'd just go around
and drop mind control serum into everyone's drink and then leave. People would wake up, finish
their drinks and by then he'd be back in another disguise and start talking them into switching sides
in exchange for a new identity and a home in a hippie commune in California and a lifetime supply
of tie-dyed T-shirts and bellbottom jeans, just for ALL their information on the woman's moves with
the invisible thread and anything they had on Uri Geller's real work, or at the very least becoming
double agents.
Even though I had no choice, it turned out to be fun doing magic, drinking in Nile spots, picking
up women, experimenting with drugsall for Uncle Sam and the U. S. of A. and national security.
Oh, I told the guy in the phony Chinese get-up that he should promise the KGB guys better
magic tricks! Ah, the Cold War days.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 154
BI-POLAR, the use of two groups of coins of differing COLORS for HPC, we credit to Harvey
Rosenthal. What I am adding to this is a variation on an idea I ran as ADDENDUM to Change-o
Presto. If you recall, that was my personal way of showing a C/S coin to be, say, silver on both
sides in a casual manner. What is needed here is only to adapt that move - a powerful thing - to
THREE C/S coins.
Let's learn it with the left hand. Three C/S coins are on mat in an overlapping row. Showing as
3 SILVERS. Pick them up so they are in about LEFT fingerpalm location - still showing silver.
Close the left hand and turn that hand palm down and now coins rest in FINGERTIP REST
position. Let the left thumb get in there now and press the coins against fingers. Straighten the
hand out flat, still palm down and this is when the secret extra turn happens. Spread the coins on
the mat and into another overlapping row (coming towards yourself) and the coins still show silver.
Practice this till it is casual. Rave on Webb.
Now to use this in BI-POLAR HPC.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 155
Effect: Three silvers on your left. Odd coin in center. Three coppers on your right.
HPC is performed. Viola.
Required: Three C/S coins. Odd coin. Three English coppers. Mat. Also...a John Kennedy Coin
Clink (sound - rattle- gimmick).
Set-up: Sound gimmick on left elbow. Sleeves up. C/S coins on your left showing silver. Odd
coin in center. Coppers on Your right.
Performance: Left turns silvers over and spreads them to show silver on OTHER sides
supposedly, and casually. Use the variation on the Addendum move taught above, here.
SIMULTANEOUSLY show the regular coppers in looks that mimic the fake move that you do with
your left hand. Not hard, a little practice is all. Now turn over the odd coin several times. Do your
pick-ups and gently slap left coins down, showing silver, and pick them up ready for HPC.
Meanwhile the right hand has palmed its Coppers. Perform HPC and the C/S coins drop out of left
COPPER SIDES UP (easy) while right only gently slaps down the odd coin. What shows on the
table is three coppers (C/S coins) and odd coin! ! ! Pick these up in right. You are way ahead.
Here I must stress that I never do HPC as a "through-the-table" type effect but as "Coins
Across." Why? Don't get me started.
NEXT - rattle the left fist. The sound gimmick sounds! Then show your vanish and left hand
cleanly empty. The sound gimmick adds a lot to this mystery. Then reveal your ending - all coins
in right - spread them on mat correct sides up (silver) with the C/Ss.
-FEEN- Fine
Celebrating the project by Meir Yedid on Herb Zarrow HIMSELF teaching the Zarrow Shuffle on
tape, I decided to run this piece that I've used as an opener for years at Corporate Luncheons
when I decide mentalism is in order. It is based on a spelling trick by Ted Annemann from
PRACTICAL MENTAL MAGIC. Years ago I switched the way of adding nine cards above the stack
to three Zarrow-type shuffles, adding three each time. Zarrowing under three odd cards, in other
words. I unfortunately forgot the name of Annemann's trick, but I'll give the bare bones of his. It is
simply a stack that if you were to put nine cards on top - many methods being possible - any card
from the stack will come up upon spelling its name.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 156
I actually had one spectator - a very successful person from Hollywood, fall out of his chair. I
know how strong this is!
First, the mechanics of my add-on nine cards Zarrow. Remember, I'm not using this as a false
shuffle sequence, but an add-on of three cards each time for a total of three shuffles.
Stack to be explained later, is on top. Cut the top half to YOUR right. Riffle shuffle, stopping at
three with the left thumb. Do the Zarrow move, and the right half unweaves and rides up onto the
left hand's bottom half with the exception of the three cards held back by the left thumb, which end
up on top of all. Square.
You've added three cards above the stack. Repeat this two more times. There are your nine
cards above the stack.
The stack: From the top down (face down deck) AC 6H JS 8H 9D QD
Performance: False shuffle. False cut. Deal your stack out in a row. ..face up. Have someone
think of a card. Turn aside as this is done. "I don't want you to think I was watching your eyes",
you spiel. Pick up the cards so they end in the same starting order on top of the deck.
"I'm a little psychic. Aren't we all? But, my thumbs are VERY psychic. Therefore when I
shuffle, my thumbs know just what to do." This patter gives the perfect reason for a somewhat
studied set of shuffles. "Ah - they did it."
"You've heard of magic spells. Most people don't know that that is a branch of magick that
actually spelling the name of what you want. What was the name of the card you mentally
selected. Sir?
Let's use the 8H as our example. Spell and deal face down in a pile one card for each letter.
Turn the final card face up with a flourish. This trick is hard to top.
A note: There are variations on this that allow more cards, but you have to stray from the
complete "Eight of Hearts" spell with the use of "of" and ending on the "s." I don't like those
versions and find them to be fudged versions of the spelling that don't ring true. The one I
mentioned above goes over strong and is easy if you have a good Zarrow.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 157
By the way, many amateurs lift and expose the Zarrow. If you look in the mirror, just remember,
DON'T lift. Someday I'll give m handling. First get Yedid's tape on the Herb Zarrow Shuffle.
Sometimes I come up with an idea for a gimmick and actually bother to make it up and test it.
This went over well with magicians and magiciennes. I never tested it on laymen. I should.
Maybe it isn't just a magician fooler.
What this is, is an attempt to make a rubberband like a rope gimmick. The magnetic kind.
Imagine really linking two big fat rubberbands. True.
At Staples Office Supplies, and I'm sure elsewhere, you can find thin rubberized magnets in
sheet form to stick to the back of a business card so someone can stick it on their refrigerator. Pee]
and stick. This stuff is thin enough to cut easily with a scissors and the adhesive is sticky enough
to stick onto a wide rubber band.
Cut two small squares of the rubberized magnet less than the width of your big rubberband. Cut
the band, and affix the magnets after peeling. You'll also need a regular ungimmicked band and
I've found that this one is best being the same color and not a different color. So, now we're ready.
Like Linking Ropes. You can do the Vernon move of supposedly rotating the gimmick band in your
hands but it is really mime and an illusion and the gimmick stays hidden behind the fingers. Also,
with a switch the same one can be shown clean, supposedly exchanged for the other, but really the
same one is shown again. Casual and bold, this will fool.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 158
All in all, this is good because it has a different look and feel from the rubberband moves going
around.
T H E N A G U A L - My friend Grandorf the Wizard told me, "You should put out Videos or
DVDs of your ideas! SLOWLY I TURN - STEP BY STEP!"
No, I'm against the whole video scene. Every bad magician at bad magic clubs has tapes up the
gazoo that were illegally duped in a lot of cases. Believe me, the "magicians" who learned from
tapes lack something: It is too passive. They don't remember credits and history. One guy showed
me "this thing I do, SHOO SHOO IN and SHOO SHOO OUT," which was our standard Vernon
double undercuts to move a card from the top to bottom and from bottom to top. They'll sometimes
remember the guy who put out the video, but forget the credits HE gave as to whose original idea it
was, and whose improvements over the years led to the present handling or presentational
variation.
I would like to get a DVD "burner" when they become available, though. To show how contrary I
am. I'd put performance only on the DVD and the teaching would be an accompanying manual that
would have text and no illustrations. Hah.
My reason is one that I rarely hear addressed. What about all the hobby magicians with kids?
Do we seriously think kids don't get their paws on the tapes when dad's away at work? Show their
friends too? And, yet, it doesn't bother me at all if a book on the real work is in a public library. I
guess I think that the active act of reading involves an investment of energy that I think separates
out the people too lazy and stupid to be good magicians anyway, and that videos don't screen out
anybody - not to say they can remember details.
And then, the next level is to create material and avoid the fads deliberately. I hope I'm showing
how much hasn't been done yet even though a lot HAS. Still room for new methods and dodges
and angles and presentational gambits, etc.
On to another topic, there is a biography of Stephen Hawkings that is not to be confused with "A
Short History of Time," but which I loaned and can't remember the title, which goes on to talk about
how he found out about how ESP is a hoax and how badly the Rhine experiments at Duke U. were
when he was fourteen, from having gone to some lecture. The lecturer wasn't named. Was Randi
speaking out about this that far back? I don't know. What was interesting is that Hawkings to this
day thinks those who do believe in ESP are stuck at an emotional and intellectual level of less than
a fourteen year old.
What Hawkings doesn't realize is that we all have ESP to some degree, doesn't everybody? Ha
Ha!
G R A P E V I N E - A rumour has it that a well-known magicians special had ALL stooges in the
audience. Yikes! Nobody on the hot seat.
Also, all boxes had their bases digitally retouched to seem thinner. Hasn't the old covenant with
viewers gone out the door?
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #20 159
L I B R A R Y - Well, Randi, et al, aren't slowing down John Edward at all. Now, a book by/about
him is out on the racks of bookstores. Maybe we mentalists have been being too politically correct.
I'll have to dream up more living and dead tests. Isn't that right. Great Grandmamma? Did you
hear something?
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #21 160
AS IN, "SLOWLY I TURNstep by step..." Everyone is taking off on the torn and restored card.
Guy Hollingworth's is the best. Copperfield's good. David Regal's and John Lovick's good. Paul
Harris's version important. Jay Sankey - Cardboard Contortionist. Let's not forget Derek Dingle's
as matrix and piece by piece restoration combined. Paul LePaul's. Kenton Knepper. Sam
Borland. Ben Harris has a new booklet out.
In the next three issues, I will be discussing three of my own spins. The first, this issue-will be
controversial. It comes out of my belief that the trick ISN'T really a CLOSE UP trick! This is based
on my enduring the performances close up by many versions and by many magicians, and that was
always my conclusion! It is - to me - a platform trick or play it to the whole room by stepping back
into a corner. Since I like standup manipulation, I also decided that the signing part was not
needed because in manipulation, it just has to look good while it is happening. In my view, if the
audience doesn't just get something out of watching the card be restored one piece at a time,
handing it out for proof at the end won't suddenly make them like it. I liken this thinking to when I
perform the Diminishing Cards Trick. I have never felt that l had to have the cards signed or
examined for it to go over. It is the mime and acting and postures and mugging, etc., that make it
go over - and it does!
Same thing here, "My gosh, Martha, he tore the card up and put it BACK TOGETHER!"
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #21 161
Then, it just gets dropped into the hat or the bucket and you go on. A dove trick, more card fans,
billiard balls or whatever you want. Plow forward to the music. (Next time, my spin on the Paul
Harris version. After that, my spin on what is possibly the best all-around version the Fred Kaps
with a way to easily add the piece-by-piece feature to the restoration with a signature on each full
side at the end.)
Finally, I saw a guy who was working on the Hollingworth for two years and still struggling.
Effect: Step-by-step restoration of torn-in-quarters card. FOR platform or with slight distance.
Card is not signed. Card is not examined at end.
Required: Supplied. To make more, white paper tape is required. Art supply store,
Set-up: See supplied. Piece #1 has two strips tape. All the rest have one strip. Note that only a
narrow amount of tape hangs off of a detached piece. The larger part of tape stays attached to its
piece
Performance: Before we begin, please note that FOUR'S work the best for this version because of
the white areas of the card being in the right places. First peel the long axis of #1, mime the
tearing action with dynamic tension. The bulk of the tape stays on #1 and only the sixteenth-of-an-
inch part protrudes past the edge of the supposedly torn edge. Then "tear" the short axis of #1 and
this piece has two pieces of tape still attached to it. Set this on your table, or even on brim of your
top hat. Proceed with #2, then #3, and then put them back together in reverse order. Join three to
four, two to three, and the last one has two edges to get right. Drop in hat.
Certainly a different "take" on the trick. Easy, so all focus can be on acting the tears out -
wobble each piece back and forth as if folding and creasing - EXCEPT DON'T REALLY DO THAT -
it might pull the tape off. INSTEAD - FAKE IT LIKE WHEN WE MAKE A COIN SEEM BENDY
LIKE RUBBER BUT IT IS FAKE - ALL ACTING AND ACTING WITH THE HANDS - COIN
DOESN'T REALLY BEND. SAME THING! And then the ACTING OUT WITH AMAZEMENT AND
WONDER AS THE PIECES 'RESTORE' and great achievement at the end.
Some people call this method "cheating" since they really go back together. If this is not your
cup of tea, look to the next 2 issues or look up all the other methods - or just start learning the
HOLLINGWORTH. It is in "Drawing Room Deceptions."
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #21 162
Bat. That is short for bag and mat. This is a utility idea designed to eliminate the need to carry
mat in lieu of carrying a bag of tricks. Why? Well, laymen have heard of a bag-of-tricks, but they
don't really "get" why we need this special "thingee" to do card and coin tricks on.
I think this idea may not be new, but I'll describe mine and why I went certain routes. I took
three rectangular pieces of felt big enough to do matrix on. I wanted enough thickness so that the
"give" of a mat would be there. Then I sewed three sides. I left one short side open.
I definitely am against draw strings. It interferes with the use as a mat. The use of three pieces
also causes this to be a "change-bag" for a number of tricks. So, carry your cards and coins in this
bag. You'll also have your gimmicks in your pants pockets.
So, try this out. A bag to carry stuff in is recognizable to laymen. Using IT to spread out flat to
work on makes more sense to THEM than carrying a close-up mat around. Certain good tricks
work better on a surface that gives, and visibility improves against a dark cloth surface.
-FEEN-
This is guaranteed to be my last oddball variation on HAN PING CHIEN. This is also as usual
NOT through the table, but hand to hand. It is also a Transpo HPC. The coins change places. I
ran a highly gaffed version using six C/S coins and promised a less gaffed version. This is it.
This is the least like HPC procedure that I've run, yet a good and interesting trick. Since I always
stress doing tricks for non-magicians, laymen don't know what proper HPC procedure IS, so won't
pick on that. Probably magicians would be fooled if you get it smooth.
Effect: Three coppers on left. Three silvers on right. Odd coin in the middle. Coins are picked up
three in the left - four in the right. They are slapped (lightly) down - first the left hand's coppers and
then the right hand's four coins.
Here the usual procedure changes. The situation now is that all 7 coins are on the table. The
left DID NOT pick up its coppers before the right (gently) slapped its coins down!
Next, the RIGHT hand picks up the coppers and inserts them into the left loose fist through the
thumbhole. The right hand proceeds to pick up its three silvers and odd coin. The odd coin is
worked out of the right fist and allowed to fall to the table. The left picks it up and works it inside the
fist. Viola! The coppers and silvers have transposed.
Required: Three C/S coins. One odd coin. Three English pennies and three half-dollars.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #21 163
Set-up: Three silvers in left fingerpalm. The rest on table with the C/S coins showing silver on the
right.
Performance: Proceed up to the point that you've picked up coins and then laid them all down
again. The right picks up the regular coppers and inserts them through the left thumbhole and
directly into left classic palm position. This is Gary Kurtz' move "Take Two" done with three coins.
There are silvers in left fingerpalm, there from the start. Right picks up four coins and works the
odd one out to fall to table. Left picks up and blow on left fist.
Let the three regular silvers fall from left AND the odd coin but keep the coppers concealed in left
classic. The right hand lays down its C/S coins with the copper sides showing.
Clean-up: To keep the hands busy, turn over the silvers and odd coin with the left hand. The
right hand does the Addendum Move of mine - from Change-0 Presto, and I explained last issue
how to do it with three C/S coins at once. Again, get it smooth and it looks casual.
T H E N A G U A L
I talked to someone who was talking to some New York rocket scientists/magicians, about a TV
special and the use of ALL stooges and digital touch-up to look more amazing. Thinner bases on
apparatus, etc.
These brain surgeons thought it was A-ok. How is that any different than using a double-sided
(C/S) coin? All that matters is that it entertains.
WRONG. It betrays the audience in TV land, and in the live audience there are no ones but
stooges. PartPARTof the entertainment is knowing or assuming that magic goes on
withoutWITHOUTWITHOUTspecial aka digital effects. Meaning - unlike a movie you can
assume that if you were there, you'd see stuff happening by magic NOT special effects. Part of the
wonder is HOW are they able to do THAT without special effects? MUST BE MAGIC.
As far as an entertainment - once it is the SAME as the effects used to make moviesDO WE
HONESTLY THINK THERE IS A COMPARISON. Are the sets costumes plots makeup writing and
acting anything close to even a bad movie? Don't we understand why Millie Vanillie had to give
back their award when it was found out they LIP SYNCHED because they can't SING?
In other words, if digital effects are used in a magic special, taking away the understanding that
viewers have that they are watching what MAGIC can do - or that what they see is what they could
see IF they were there in the live audiencedon't you think people would rather watch a movie? A
sci-fi movie! Much better if they are one and the same (meaning ENHANCED digitally).
But remember, one of the New York rocket science/magic EXPERTS didn't even notice that
BLAINE rose higher than possible with the Balducci. "He has big feet," he said. We're doomed.
Bottom line - magicians can't divorce themselves from the fact that WE watch because we are avid
magic enthusiasts. The public isn't to the point that we may think. If it became known and it
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #21 164
Maybe all is for the best. If that happens, and the public finds out - and this is more damning
than any expose yet then at least LIVE magic in person may get NOTICED. A live performer,
maybe less famous and not validated by TV, can honestly say Im doing magic. So-and-so
really cant without special effects. Which may or may not be really true - but a chance for the
underdog none-the-less.
N E W P R O D U C T S - Kool-Aid has out a new product - Magic Twists. The powder is one
color and then you add water and stir and the color CHANGES! Check it out. In the same vein
remember dealer item THINK INKa clock reaction done with chemistry?
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #22 165
ATTENTION DAVID BLAINE clones! What better way to end a video edited show than to take
your shirt off and bleed for people? STIGMATTA! Hey, the effect is the thing. Therefore, I won't
give my method. Here's the effect. Blood or bruises spell out demon's names - right on your body.
Don't worry. I'll give some ideas towards methods which shouldn't hurt much.
FEEN-X and Gregg Webb accept no responsibility for pain or injury if you should fail to check
with a chemist before trying any ideas in the chemical methods section.
I divide the possible methods into three categories. Latex prostheses, chemical methods, and
digital effects - par for magic videos and TV shows by now. These ideas are presented purely for
speculative purposes only; they are NOT instructions nor are they intended for actual use.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #22 166
Latex prostheses: Hidden under latex "skin and makeup would be tiny hoses and tubes to carry
stage blood to areas of your body you wish to bleed from. These could run out the pant leg to a
special effects technician - pant leg being out of frame during taping, as well as the technician.
Chemical methods: These fall into the area of using specialized chemicals to create colors.
Again - ALWAYS think SAFETY first. DO NOT apply ANY chemicals to the skin without consulting
a qualified chemist.
Make-up effects: I left this out of my outline above. Paint the stigmata on with acrylic paint or
other suitable TEMPORARY methods. Put flesh colored makeup on top of the stigmata and while
writhing around under demonic influences, rub off the makeup from the acrylic stigmata image.
Digital effects: Easy but expensive.
In any case - watch the Blair Witch Project again for hints on "acting."
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
What is the sound of one coin clapping? A) A Koan. B) Okito Box. C) David Blaine. D) Gregg
Webb. Final answer?
Oh, I'm sorry. The answer was Gregg Webb, from his Okito Box not Boston Box not slot box
ROUTINE. This routine appeared in Gregg's (virtually unknown) first video, and an abridged
version, yet better and cleaner, appeared in New Pabular. Gregg's turnover move from the same
routine has appeared in Charles Reynolds OBSERVATIONS and EFFECTS by Magico, Inc., and
on the Internet and will appear in the GENII.
This concerns another move of Gregg's that allows you to get the sound of two coins dropping
into a standard Okito box, when you really have only dropped one in, and palmed the other.
I showed this to Charles Reynolds and Eric DeCamps recently and they liked it. Eric promptly
evolved a variation on this. This is one move from my long Okito Box routine which will run in "The
Book That Doesn't Exist."
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #22 167
It is easy. Have the box on table, lid to your LEFT, and two coins in hand in your right. Classic
palm one and drop the loose one on top of the open box but cockeyed to your right. Keep your
right hand in place to screen this secret move. This gives your first "clink." Now, with your right
thumb crook 'd out of sight beneath the right fingers, kick the coin INTO the box. This gives you
the second "clink."
Now proceed to pick up the lid and put it on the box. Proceed with the rest of your routine
(another coin escapes from box, etc.)
This is a utility move for cards. It is a switchout of a fair selection. By "fair," I mean it is not a
force, but some trickiness does take place at the time of showing the face of the card "stopped at."
Swing top third of deck to your left with the right first finger and take it in left dealing position.
Peel one card with left thumb from the right hand group and onto the left hand group - but catch a
left pinkie break under it. Ask a spectator to say stop. Peel another, but LOSE the pinkie break
you had, but regain a new pinkie break under the card just peeled. Continue peeling - and each
time ADVANCE YOUR "get ready" situation by losing the old break and gaining a new one for each
card peeled. When they say "stop," you'll always have a break under just one card in your left.
Assume always that you intend to use the NEXT card from the top of the right hand's group. Peel
this card to the left hand group, but keep your break in place and now you have a break under two.
Set down the remaining right hand cards, and do a double turn-over of the top two - as one, on
the left hand group. I get a break here, too. Ask them to remember the face card of your double
and flip this double face down on the deck. Use your left thumb to "thumb" down the top indifferent
card onto the table. This is the switchout. Assemble the deck so you have control of the
"selection.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #22 168
T H E N A G U A L
Why oh why do so many favor the tapes over a good magic book?
I think I have at least PART of the answer. AND - I have a solution! The big reason for some
almost HATING books is the tendency of a book to not stay open to the appropriate page, when
open on the table. See, we must use our hands to run through the recipes with "props in hand."
To see if we even "get" the trick or even like it. Try as I might, I can't just read a card trick without a
deck to handle as I go.
Yet, just when I have a card palmed and the other hand holding a break in two spots with two
different digits, the book starts to close. First a few pages go. Flip flip. I'm already ruined, but
since I have my "hands full" I can't stop it, and more go and then the whole book with cover slams
shut. This my friends is why so many hate books. Well, this and that some people are illiterate to
magic tricks written instructions.
My solution. I discovered this when trying to read Expert Coin Magic by Richard and about
David. (Cardini also liked to be called Richard). Mr. Roth's and Mr. Kaufman's book kept closing
up on me while I was in deep back-clip. FLASH! I got two bricks to hold the book open. Problem
solved. Hah! I'd never buy another video tape.
Lacking bricks, saw off two sections of 2 X 4. Lacking that, two stones. Or...two OTHER
MAGIC BOOKS! What a technology.
While on the same general topic, when you have to pretend that you put something into a
spectator's hand, while practicing, try putting a glove on your desk or table.
Try the brick idea and communicate with the dead great of magic.
- feen -
Speaking of videos - I've got some ideas for magic videos along the lines of the "sessions" that
used to take place. Have a group of magicians all show their "handlings" of a certain trick.
Tape #1 - Magical SURVIVOR. Encourage participants to punch each other in the face until one is
left standing.
Tape #2 - Magical CROSSFIRE. Encourage participants to all yell at each other at once. Whoever
is loudest wins.
Tape #3 - Magical JERRY SPRINGER show. Hire Jerry to do his show's format with magicians.
What fun!
Tape #4 - Magical PEARL HARBOR - put Russell Barnhart in a room full of Japanese magicians
and let them discuss magic and whatever pops up. Catch it all on tape!
But, NOOOO, magicians only want TRICKS!
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #23 169
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
First I'm going to review a trick I already ran because of some recent developments. Then I'll run
an original new trick using the same prop. I tested out the simplest version of silk and coin with
palm magnet (a penetration) on laymen for years and it always went well for walk-around and
mingle. But, recently I showed a group of magicians including some of the heaviest hitters in
coindom, and even the (THE) highest ranking guy in coindomand I got the best compliment I
think possible. "It looks like magic." "It looks like magic." "It looks like magic."
What this is my answer to RAVEN. I simply hate pulls and hookups. I decided I needed to just
classic palm a magnet - maybe attach it to a coin for better palming. This evolved into a bottle cap
as the easiest thing to classic palm if you palm the rough mouth of the cap. Felt over the magnet to
kill the noise.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #23 170
Of course you need a magnetic or shimmed coin. I took the shell from a gaff coin trick I don't
use and glued a magnet inside it. A small one. Finally I decided I needed a wand or something
like a wand to pick up after the vanish to give my palming hand something to do to seem "busy"
and holding something, which makes a palming hand look better. This evolved into the silk (grab
an end) and the silk suggested a penetration. Adding a DUPE coin, does NOT have to be
magnetic or shimmed or anything but normal - gave me my ending and turned the effect from a
vanish into a penetration. The reappearance of "the" coin under the silk immediately gives closure
to the trick. A vanish leaves a person wondering where it went. A reappearance breaks that line of
thought! A vanish of a coin on top of a silk, silk whisked away to reveal "the" coin under the silk,
and perceived as a penetration.
Effect: As a perfect icebreaker, you show your left hand to have a silk draped over it with a coin on
it. Wave your (almost) flat right hand over the coin, not even touching it, and the coin VANISHES!
Whisking away the silk, the coin is seen to have reappeared instantly on the other side of the
silk. Looks like MAGIC.
One interesting thing to me is that I still consider it a sleight-of-hand trick since I classic palm the
bottlecap and magnet and not some tape or stickum or PULL!
Required: Silk. Shimmed coin. Dupe coin. Palm magnet.
Set-up: Regular coin on left palm. Silk over this. Shim coin on top of silk. Palm magnet in right
classic palm.
Performance: Icebreak! Say, "Watch the coin," and wave your right hand over the shimmed coin
and of course it jumps to the palm magnet and vanishes. This part is every bit as good as RAVEN.
Grab a hanging corner of the silk with your right, and whisk silk away to reveal dupe coin on left
hand. Pocket silk and magnet and shim coin in a right pocket without looking. Focus on the left's
dupe coin.
Perform coin roll and some simple vanish and repro sequence to show you don't need the silk et
al. Put it away. Intro deck. Do Ambitious Card.
Until you make this up you won't know what you're missing.
This uses everything from the previous trick except you don't need the silk. You WILL need
some other props, easy to get. One consideration is that your shim coin must be a head side with
DATE.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #23 171
Effect: Show a coin, a piece of paper, a business card, a book and a pen.
Write the digits of the date on the coin in a column on the paper, then total it. A 1983 coin's
digits, added, would yield 21. Pick up the book, put the coin on the front cover of the book and
cover it with the business card. With a pass of your hand, the coin vanishes and appears down in
the book - at PAGE @ ! ! !
Required: Palm magnet. Shimmed or magnetic quarter. Dupe quarter with matching date. Book.
Business card. Paper. Pen.
Performance: Full patter: "The date on this coin is 1983. If I total the digits, I get "21". I learned
this from a Russian gypsy. If I cover the coin with this business card, and pass my shadow on it
the coin disappears and then reappears atpage 21."
Details: When ready to make your pass - the left fingers hold the business card at spot "X," to
keep card from moving. The coin is attracted to the palm magnet in right palm from the start, and
as you move hand away, the coin is dragged along under card until it clears card and jumps onto
palm magnet. Reveal the vanish with the left hand picking up card. By now the right hand has
picked up pen (like a wand, it gives the right hand a less suspicious nature to be holding
something), and point with it to the total on the paper and then pocket pen and magnet and shim
coin AS YOU ALREADY ARE OPENING THE BOOK'S COVER WITH YOUR LEFT HAND. As the
right hand emerges free from pocket ditch, it also helps find the coin that is the dupe that was
secreted IN the book at page 21 from the start.
I believe the origin of this move is Dai Vernon in Stars of Magic - Ace Assemblyfor the last
vanish. It is a standard color change with the emphasis changed from making a card change color
to making it look like you took a card AWAY from the face of deck or packet with palm down and
almost flat right hand. The right hand acts out crumbling and disintegrating the card it supposedly
took away. Actually the right takes nothing, instead, it leaves behind a card it ALREADY held
palmed ON the face card of deck or packet to "change" the look of deck or packet only as a
convincer that the right hand in fact took a card as it pretends to do.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #23 172
The main thing I have done is to routine this as an icebreaker, and I have changed the number
of cards initially palmed in the right hand to two...for a "convincer" touch. I'll include three endings
although I prefer using this to get into Ambitious Card, as you'll see. (My GOD, Martha! This is a
GREAT ragazine. )
Effect: Walk up to a group and say "Watch the Queen of Spades!" You seemingly take the Queen
off the deck and make it vanish. Then you remove the face card from the deck to show an
indifferent card. This disarms the possibility of reconstruction to include the idea that a card was
DEPOSITED to hide the Queen when you implied you took the Queen away. The Queen
eventually ends up on top of the deck when turned face down. I'll give three endings and explain
how to segue to Ambitious Card.
Required: A deck. A dupe Queen of Spades for just one version.
Set-up: Specifically designed as an icebreaker, when you want to "cut to the chase quickly," you
get ready for this BEFORE approaching your next victims. Walk-around stuff for mingle and do
magic with no table situations.
Deck is face up in the left hand, with a left pinkie break under QS. The right hand in Biddle
position already has TWO indifferent cards in its palm. In one case I'll describe, you need a dupe
QS in your right pocket.
Performance: You are about to PRETEND to take the QS away with your palm down right hand.
Actually, as you do this, instead just DEPOSIT the two cards from right palm. Then the hard part
begins. ACT as if you took the QS in your right hand, which actually has air palmed. SIMULATION!
Move a foot to the right of deck, and SLOWLY start a crumbling action. It should be noted that the
left pinkie maintains its break and now is under three cards of the deck which is face up. Finally
reveal the vanish. This is a strong vanish when acted out right. Next, remove the face card of
deck to show QS NOT THERE. BECAUSE WE DEPOSITED TWO, this is possible. Replace and
now the pinkie still holds its break under three.
With no fumbling to get ready, do a triple undercut to move the three face cards to the rear, and
turn deck face down. QS is now face down on top of face down deck. Now we're ready for our
options
ENDINGS: The ending I use the most is this. As soon as deck is flipped face down after the triple
undercuts, palm the QS. Say. "If I want the QS on top, I reach up, make it reappear and just drop it
on top when no one is looking." Reach up and produce from the air with these details. Move
quickly to straddle grip. Get thumb in between card and palm. Turn palm up and transfer grip to
middle fingers at far end and thumb at near end. Now card is held about three inches above palm.
We don't want to expose the palm position itself. Drop on top. Go into Ambitious card.
#2 - Double turnover to show QS not on top. Replace double and snap fingers and then
show QS on top. Go Ambitious Card.
#3 - Produce dupe QS from pocket, drop on top, go into tricks that take advantage of the dupe.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #23 173
I L O V E M Y S U B S C R I B E R S
I must announce that FEEN-X is changing its TITLE TO
THE BOOK THAT DOESN'T EXIST
Pretty much the same in format, but to allow for more detail on slightly and slightly more complex
moves and routines and subtleties.
I also must mention that it is SUBSCRIPTION TIME again.
Same as last year- $25.00 before Jan 1, 2002. $30.00 after that! Thanks to all for hanging
with me.
I plan to put each year of FEEN-X out in book form. You may get to see Jamie Swiss have a
field day with me!
And, then THE BOOK THAT DOESN'T EXIST will eventually be bound for each year into book
form.
Look for the title BOUND AND GAGGED for the FEEN-X's.
I'm working a drawing up of the "BIRD" hog tied and gagged for the cover.
I think you'll like the material I've been holding for this new RAG and new format.
In fact, you'll receive samples of the new thing free!
Checks to Gregg Webb please. 28-32 208th St.
Bayside, NY 11360
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #24 174
Imagine being able to do Point of Departure/Between the Palms by Alex Elmsley originally, but
now with thousands of variations...but with a THOUGHT OF CARD!
EFFECT: A card is taken at random by el mago, NOT SHOWN, but put between the palms of a
spectator. Five cards are dealt face up from a mixed deck, and another spectator simply thinks of
one and it vanishes and the card "Between the Palms" is seen to be the missing card! ! !
great man himself saw my trick QH THINGEE and then
immediately came up with a big improvement. This is part of my
Xmas present to y'all!
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #24 175
Required: A dupe 4H. A deck.
Set-up: From top down - 10D, 4H, AD, 7S, KD, rest of deck, dupe 4H at bottom.
Performance: False cut deck. Take out the bottom card without showing it and put it between
someone's palms, for later.
False cut deck well and deal your stack from right to left in a face up row. These FIVE cards are
the cards for Dai Vernon's 5 card psychological force. Have another spectator think of one card
thusly:
Take your time - think of one card.
I'll turn my head so I can't see your eyes.
Try to make it hard for me.
After you decide, don't change your mind.
This assures that they don't just think of the very first one their eyes hit.
Gather up cards - steal one. Charles prefers sideslip and palm and then cap the deck as you put
rest of cards away. I prefer the J.K. Hartman Secret Subtraction. Put deck away.
Charles prefers showing four cards - one missing. I prefer Findley's Tent Vanish after a false
count.
Get 2nd spectator to call out card. Show it is missing. Show card between palms of spectator #1
as the 4H, the card they should pick in Vernon's Psych force.
This is strong stuff. Some may find it risky because of the possibility of them not thinking of the
right card. I always have luck with this force. I believe in it.
Charles thinks there could be a system of "outs" developed. I favor take the risk, but plan several
sure tricks to follow - all of a mental nature. ESP is not an exact science in lay minds.
Even better is the notion of a Cerberic Routine, as coined by T.A. Waters. This means three
tricks that go together. Do each one up to right before the ending. Then review what .happened in
each experiment and reveal the endings 1, 2, 3. This one would be first - if it fails keep going. The
other two work!
The best place for this is one on one-an intimate setting. Most of us aren't full time pros.
Try it out, please. Let us know. If it fails, at the very least you got one card to vanish - alone an
effect. And reappear between the palms. Another effect. Perhaps with a group it would be better
to have everyone think of a card. Then get an "impression that you're "getting" 4H. Enough people
will nod. Go ahead and use it. An "out" of sorts to remember is, "I asked you not to change your
mind." Gently. It (the 4H) would have crossed their mind during the decision making process.
Feen-X: 2001 Issue #24 176
Well, Happy Holidays. Stay tuned for TBTDE. Enclosed sample first page. It won't by any
means be all Okito Box stuff. I only have one routine with it. The material will vary.
MANIFEST - 0
No lapping. No angle palms beyond an occasional Gambler's COP. No sitting at high tables. If
working at a dinner table height, it means standing at the end or corner. If sitting at a table, it
means coffee table height.
Also, walk around stuff. No table. An occasional standing piece for a whole room. Very few
gimmicks.
Thanks again.
Gregg Webb
28-32 208th street
Bayside, NY 11369

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Feen-X: January, 2000 - December, 2001 Table of Contents 1

Issue 1 Sweet Little Sixteen Instant Card to Pocket ................................................................... 6

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