...from a shuffled deck in use.... Paul W. Cummins July, 1996 Part OneTABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Personal Triumph Counting On It The Trick That Never Happened. The Invisible Card The Workingman’s Wild Card Prevarication Detection , Overtwist Old Faithful Bar None Casebreak Visual Retention Bottom Deal & Ace Production The Pasteboard Substitution Trunk Mystery Flasher PIPS! The Bottom of the Barrel The Multiple Selection Routine 11 14. 18 21 23 24 25 27 28 30 32 36Nee INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE ‘This manuscript and its companion (Part Two) are a compilation of card and some coin effects that have served me well over the years. The concept behind the title of the manuscripts is that all of the card effects (with the exception of one, which requires a duplicate card) may be performed without any prior preparation or pack prearrangement - from a shuffled deck in use. Frequently it is necessary to make a quick run through the deck and cull a couple of cards, but I have always been able to cover those times with a bit of patter. It is also frequently possible to cull the cards for one effect while performing another. Additionally, many of the effects in these two manuscripts do not require any set up at all. In that these are lecture notes, you will find that many sleights are not described. Some sleights are not even referenced, as I consider them to be in the standard arsenal of every cardician (¢.g., the double lif), Where I use a specific sleight because I think it fits the effect the best, then I have mentioned that sleight and included a reference for it (¢.g., the Stuart Gordon Double Lif). Where the sleight is original, I have included a description (¢.g., the Spinning Double Lift). You will notice that I control selected cards almost exclusively by means of the Side Steal (to the top) and with Spread/Prayer Cull techniques (to the bottom), with an occasional Jog Shuffle control when it fits the effect the most naturally. If you do not currently perform these sleights, I highly ‘recommend that you leam and practice them and add them to your arsenal, ds they are invaluable. Some of the effects in these manuscripts have already been published, but in such a wide variety of places that I feel justified by including them here. On the back of this page you will find a list of which effects may be found in which publications. All of the previously published material has been revised or completely rewritten for these manuscripts with the exception of Smoother Stevens in Part Two. It is my sincere hope that you find some effects in these manuscripts that are useful to you, especially in performance. Most of them have been in my repertoire for over 10 and 15 years. T also welcome your comments - good, bad, and ugly! # may be reached at the following ‘snail’ and email addresses: Paul W. Cummins 3703 Foxcroft Road Jacksonville, FL 32257 USA peummins@jaxnet.com \~ so, have fun with the effects, as I continue to do, and if you're ever heading to my neck of the woods, drop me a line and we'll get together. Paul W. Cummins July 15th, 1996A few of the following effects have been published after their appearance in these manuscripts. Others have previously been published. Although each has been revised or rewritten by me, the original publishers have all graciously given permission to include them here: Counting On It, The New York Magic Symposium Collection 3, Stephen Minch, 1984 The Workingman’s Wild Card, Apocalypse, Harry Lorayne, November 1990 Prevarication Detection, “52, The Journal of Card Magic” (webzine), Rob Gregory-Browne, Editor/Publisher, http://litle.fishnet.net~rgb/52/, October 1996 Bar None, Precursor, William Miesel, XXXVI, 1992 Casebreak, The New York Magic Symposium Collection 4, Stephen Minch, 1985 Visual Retention Bottom Deal & Ace Production, published as Plausible Possibility, Apocalypse, Harry Lorayne, September 1984 Flasher, Apocalypse, Harry Lorayne, July 1992 PIPS!, MUM, May 1996, Volume 85, Number 12FASDIV, Part One 1 PERSONAL TRIUMPH Every cardician has a favorite handling of Dai Vernon’s wonderful Triumph effect. I personally perform four versions depending on the performance situation. The following handling has some salient points that I think can enhance any version of Triumph when it is performed on the table and on a mat. I have been using it unchanged for about 15 years at the time of this writing. Taking a shuffled deck in use, have a card selected and control it to the top of the deck. Use a control that involves some shuffling (e.g., a simple jog shuffle); or, if you use a pass or side steal, give the deck a few tabled rifile shuffles maintaining the selection on top of the deck. The position of the selection in the deck should appear random. Patter, “...there are many ways to shuffle cards; I first learned this way...” Demonstrate an overhand shuffle, using a jog shufile to maintain the selection at the top, “.. this is called an overhand shuffle because one hand is over the other. It shuffles them, but only in clumps... the next shuffle you’re likely to learn is this shuffle...” Perform an in the hands riffle shuffle with cascade (or ‘bridge’) maintaining the selection on top, “...I’m sure many of you shuffle this way. It’s a much more thorough shuffle, but for instance if you were playing cards, too many people can see too many of the cards as you shufile... ‘Now if you go to a casino, you'll see the croupiers shuffle like this...” Perform a tabled riffle shuffle and square the deck. “...they shuffle this way for two reasons: first, no one can see any of the cards....” Perform another tabled riffle but don’t square the deck; leave it telescoped for about a half inch. “...and second, they're very well shuffled - almost every card is shuffled into another...” Ribbon spread the deck face down from the outer right comer of your mat to the inner left corer. Use your right hand to domino turnover the elongated spread, then scoop up the deck, turn it face down and square it on the table. Of course, retain the selection on top during these tabled rifles. Don’t leave out the elongated spread and tumover as it serves two purposes. First, spectators simply love it and will be very impressed! Second, it gives them a visuat dynamic, which you will shortly reinforce, about what happens to the cards when they are table riffled. A byproduct of this presentational piece about shuffling is that the selection is momentarily forgotten and every layman will be convinced that the selection is shuffled honestly into the deck. Undercut half of the deck to the right and tum it face up. Take each half and ribbon spread them in a small arc from the outer comers of the mat to their riffle shuffle positions in front of you. The spread on your right is face up. Square the spreads. “..’ll shuffle as a croupier would; however, Ill turn one half face up and leave one face down so that you can see just how mixed up they get...”, and riffle shuffle as follows: drop a2 FASDIU, Part One ‘small bed of cards, 8-10, from your left thumb, then shuffle normally and evenly. As you near the top of each half, you should have more cards under your right thumb than your left. Drop that block of right hand cards under the top left face down card. Telescope the deck about 3/4 of an inch. With your right hand move the elongated deck forward on the mat and ribbon spread it toward you - this is where you'll reinforce the visual dynamic referred to earlier. Note that since there is a block of cards at both the bottom and top of the elongated deck you must make this a tight ribbon spread; in fact, don’t even spread the bottom or top blocks. Once the cards are spread, hold your hands with their palms facing one another on each side of the spread and as you patter, “...you can see what’s going to happen here...”, gesture with your hands as if pushing the elongated spread together. Scoop up the spread by digging your right fingers underneath its outer end and bringing your right hand toward you. Do not tum the cards over. ‘Square the deck, setting up for a strip out shuffle. “Block Transfer” the top card to the right hand packet and prepare to strip out the right half (see Darwin Ortiz at the Card Table, Ortiz, p. 68 for an excellent description of a strip out shuffle with a block transfer). ‘At this point I air out the deck using an original technique, to wit: squeeze the long sides of the deck with the thumb and second and third fingers of each hand such that the top card, and those below it, bow upwards in the middle along the length of the deck. This squeezing action is very similar to how you prepare a deck just prior to the Cascade flourish but executed on a tabled deck. [As you release the pressure, keep a light grip on the long sides of the cards. Enough air will have been allowed between them to facilitate a clean strip out. So, strip the right half forward and to the right and, lifting the front long side of the left half, slide the right half under the left, jogged slightly to the right. What follows is another original finesse: cut a smal] packet of 5-10 cards from the bottom of the right jogged half and place them square onto the top of the deck. These will be face up cards. Continuing, cut all the jogged cards out from under the upper half and perform an up the ladder cut with this half. The up the ladder cut simulates a running cut, and although your audience will apparently see many different face down cards, you are actually showing them the same face down card by virtue of the mechanics of the up the ladder cut. After the shuffle, strip out, and up the ladder cut, you should have, from the top, the face down selection, about half the deck face up, and the remaining half deck face down. I now do Daryl’s famous six packet display (see Secrets of a Puerto Rican Gambler, Minch, p. 60) - but I've added what I think is some helpful theory and one useful throw off to Daryl’s original finesse. When performing Daryl’s original display, both hands moved in unison - forward, then toward you, and then to the middle. Six packets were displayed in a neat 2 X 3 packet matrix alternating face up and face down cards. They were then picked up in unison - middle, near, then forward packets. To my mind, this choreography is clinical and pre-practiced, and looks that way. Since the whole point of the triumph effect is that cards are haphazardly mixed, this pre-practiced cutting works against any spontaneity and instead suggests control. The last thing you want to suggest is control over any of the cards!FASDIVU, Part One 3 So, try this choreography: 1. With your right hand cut about twenty cards (four or five above where the halves meet back to back) and place this portion to the right and forward, angled at about 10 o’clock. Do not let go of these cards, 2. Now with your left hand, cut about two thirds of its packet forward and to the left, also angled but at two o’clock, Hold onto this packet too. Continuing, cut half of the right hand cards toward you and to the right... cut half of the forward left hand cards into the middle of the table... and cut half of the right hand cards into the middle of the table, yaw The hands should move right hand, left hand, right, left, Tight in a slappy manner, plopping their packets about the mat as if haphazardly. Additionally, the packets should not be aligned north to south or east to west. You get the same display - but without the pre-practiced air about it. You should not be looking at your hands or the mat while you make these piles, “...so if I made a bunch of piles, I might cut to face up or face down cards...” looking up at your audience, “You can even tum a group over because it doesn’t matter WHICH cards face which way...” Here you pick up the middle packet of the left row (that is, if you have cut them out evenly!) with your left hand from above and by the sides. Turn your hand palm up and down once or twice, supporting the patter line, and finally flop them over Onto the outer left face down packet. Pick this combined packet up with your left hand and the middle packet of the right row with your right hand. Place the right hand packet onto the outer right hand packet, lifting both. Place the left hand packet onto the inner left packet, also lifting both. Place the tight hand cards onto the inner right hand packet, lifting both again. Table the left hand cards forward of your right hand and its packet, and finally, place the right hand packet onto the tabled packet to finish the display. Again your hands work independently of one another - as if it didn’t matter which packet you picked up under which packet. All the activity in the previous paragraph should take place in the time it takes to utter the patter line with which the paragraph starts. Continue, “..just as long as...” Here cut the deck at the back to back point, taking the top half to the right “...some are face down...”. Flip the left half face up “...some are face up...” Use a closed riffle to shuffle the halves into one another - keeping the face down selection on top. “...and they’re all good and mixed!” Pick up the deck and turn it over in your hands a few times. Say, “...now, I’ve got to figure out which card is yours, find it, and then straighten out the mess I’ve made...” Stop flipping the deck over when it is face up in your hands with the face down selection on top. “...and I do that just like this...” Execute your fastest classic riffle pass. Ribbon spread to show all the cards face up except for one - the selection,4 FASDIU, Part One rata adeeb This is a rather long, patter-laden Triumph routine. In a few ways, it goes against the popular grain: although I’ve included much of the descriptive patter I use when performing this routine, there are others who swear by Vernon’s original story patter (see Stars of Magic, Tannen, p. 23). There is also a lot of proving in the above routine and two shuffles instead of one. I cannot suggest that you do the routine exactly as I have described it, but I do recommend using some or all of the finesses: airing the deck before the strip out, setting up the visual dynamic before squaring the deck, performing an up the ladder cut just after the strip out, and using the haphazard, plopping cuts to perform Daryl’s great display. COUNTING ON IT This effect is the brainchild of Bill Herz, who showed it to me in March of 1984. The method described here is 100% original, and I have used it since then with terrific success. Apparently others have been enamored of the effect too, but created their own methods! Versions in print of which I am aware are listed at the end of the article. Have a card selected from a shuffled deck in use and control it to the bottom of the deck. Tuse a straight Prayer Cull (see MLN.T. 1 1, Marlo, p. 232). Hold the deck for an overhand shuffle and pull off the top and bottom cards counting to yourself "two." Run 6 more cards, mentally counting to eight, and pause, asking your spectator to, "...think of a number between 10 and 20...". Continue running cards and injog on the mental count of 13. Outjog on the count of 17 and shuffle off. Square the deck without disturbing either jog, then push the out jogged card into the deck using any technique for obtaining a break above it (see J.K. Hartman's Friction Jog, Means and Ends, Hartman, p.13 for a simple but excellent technique). Your situation ghould be as follows: you have a pinky break above the bottom 17 cards, the 13th card from the bottom is injogged, and the bottom card is the selection. To add a little time misdirection at this point, I usually ask the spectator if she likes the number she’s chosen or if she’d like to change numbers. When the spectator has decided upon a number, ask her to name it. The idea here is to get a break above that number of cards very quickly. For the numbers 12, 13, 14, 17, and 18 the break is obtained almost instantly. For 11, 15, 16, and 19 the deck must be quickly spread and closed. I'll describe what to do for each number in a moment, but for now assume the spectator says, "..thirteen.." Drop the pinky break, push down on the jogged card, and obtain a new break there. Say, "...all right, I'll cut exactly 13 cards from theFASDIU, Part One 5 deck..." Regardless of the number chosen, perform the following cut: pick up the deck from above with your right hand, your right thumbtip maintaining the break. Swing cut the top third of the deck into your left hand; place the cards below the break onto the left hand cards but outjogged for half their length; place the remaining right hand cards on top of all but even with the lowermost third. Immediately place your right second finger against the left long side of the outjogged group and begin to pivot that group clockwise around your left second finger. When the outjogged packet is about to clear the deck, nip it between your right first and second fingers and pull it out. Table the left hand cards to your left and take the right hand packet into left hand dealing position. Count the cards to the table slowly, letting the suspense build, but hold onto the last card. At this point people almost forget they have chosen a card because they are so impressed that you have cut exactly the amount of cards they designated just a heartbeat after they announced it, so say, "..and what was your card?..." When they name it, drop the card you hold face up onto the tabled pile and say, *...how did you know it was 13th?.." My experience has been that 12, 13, and 17 are chosen more often than the other possible numbers, and I've arranged the procedure to capitalize on that. Fairly frequently, the spectator will say “seven,” to which I simply reply, “...[’m sorry, a number between 10 and 20...” The spectator will almost always say “oh!, okay - seventeen,” which works out perfectly, as you'll see. The simple method for each number follows: If any of the following numbers are chosen, then DROP YOUR BREAK. 11, Pull up on the injog; quickly spread the deck and say, "any reason you chose eleven?" and obtain a new break one card below the existing break. Go into the cut, 12, Pull up on the injog and go into the cut. 13, Push down on the injog and go into the cut. 14, Push the card above the jogged card slightly to the right with your pinky, then get a break above it. Go into the cut. - 15. Push down on the injog and spread quickly while asking, "any reason you chose 152" and get a new break two cards above the existing break. Go into the cut. If any of the following numbers are chosen, then SQUARE THE JOGGED CARD. 16. Spread quickly and get a new break one card below the existing break while asking, "any reason you chose 16?" Go into the cut.FASDIU, Part One 17. Go into the cut. 18, Push the card above the break slightly to the right with your pinky; then get a break above it. Go into the cut. 19, Spread quickly asking, "any reason, etc..." and get a new break two cards above the existing break. Go into the cut. Although this may seem complicated, it is actually very simple once you realize what you are doing from a logical standpoint. For numbers ten and twenty, you may use the old line, "...1 said between 10 and 20..". but I prefer to spread quickly and obtain a break above the appropriate cards. Avoid thumb counting at all costs; it looks exactly like what it is - and you are not supposed to have to count. I've tried using crimps too, but they are not as expedient as the jog and breaks. Finally, you will rarely miss, but if you do it will be by one card. I have missed, and these are two outs I've used successfully: assume the spectator says 13 and you count 13 cards to the table but still hold one! Don't pause or skip a beat, just ask for the name of the card, drop it face up onto the pile and say, "How'd you know it was thirteen down?" Or, if the number is 13 and you get to your last card on the count of 12, again, don't pause or skip a beat, just take it into your right hand counting "12" then turn it face up with a flair and toss it onto the pile, triumphantly counting "13!" Other versions of this effect in print that you may find of interest are: Count Me In (Gary Plants) Precursor, Miesel, October, 1989 How Did You Know (Randy Wakeman) Randy Wakeman Presents, Wakeman, p. 29 Sybil, The Trick (Chris Kenner) Out of Control, Kenner, p. 157 Re-Count Demanded (Randy Wakeman) Apocalypse, Lorayne, March 1993, p. 2193 Kick-Counting On It (Jon Racherbaumer) © MO, Racherbaumer, June 1993, p. 21 Count on the Variation (Roger Klause) Apocalypse, Lorayne, February 1996, p. 2609 THE TRICK THAT NEVER HAPPENED Many years ago when Roy Walton’s Cardboard Charades (circa 1971) came out, I played with and performed his ‘Time Travelers’ from that book, What a wonderful and original plot for a card effect! Over the years I lost the book and couldn’t remember how to reconstruct the method. In 1983 Lary Jennings published his take on Walton’s effect (see ‘Morlocks’ Revenge’ in The New York Magic Symposium, Collection 2, Kaufman, p. 56). Jennings moved the effect to the table from Walton’s in-hands version. Recently,FASDIVU, Part One 7 Darwin Ortiz has embraced the effect and taken it to great heights as a performance piece (see ‘Time and Again’ in Cardshark, Ortiz, p. 86). Darwin’s climax to the routine puts it in a different class from my version and those mentioned above, and although his is not impromptu, I highly recommend it as a formal showpiece. What follows is a personally technical rehandling of Jennings’ effect, based on Walton’s original and wonderful plot. This version satisfies my impromptu criteria and uses techniques (only three sleights!) with which I am comfortable. Taking a shuffled deck in use, ribbon spread it face up on the table and say, “..this is a point in time - a fully shuffled deck of cards..” Gather the deck, spread through it face up and upjog the, say, black cards. If there are jokers in the deck, upjog them with the blacks, When all the blacks are upjogged, strip them out and place them at the face of the deck. Ribbon spread the deck face down from the upper left comer of your mat to the lower right. Flip the ribbon spread face up, displaying the reds separated from the blacks. The reason for spreading face down from your left to your right and then flipping over the spread is that the resulting face up cards are facing your audience, not you. Gather up the deck and square it face up in your left hand. Lift up on what you estimate to be the facing 12 or 13 cards with your right thumb and obtain a left pinky break. Tur the deck face down, maintaining the break, and immediately shift the cards below the break to the top of the deck using the mechanics of Marlo’s Deliberate Side Steal (see The Side Steal Marlo, p. 5). Any ‘immoveable’ shift may be used here - Walton used a tumover pass in his original. ‘You will now have half of the black cards above and half of them below the red cards. Raise the deck to your left fingers as if to perform a faro shuffle. Faro-split the deck at or near 26, turn your left hand palm down, and deposit its half deck face up on the mat to the left. Flip the right hand cards face up into your left hand and spread off the top 8-10 cards, “...we'll start with the reds...” Square the packet. Place the ‘red’ half face up onto the mat in position for a riffle shuffle. Rifile up the near Jong side of the deck with your right thumb and split the deck after three red cards have dropped onto the blacks. Cover the left end of the deck during this riffle with your arched left hand poised as if to grip its packet after the deck is split for the shuffle. You will now do a two shuffle sequence that takes great advantage of displaying the red cards in the packet. You have split the packet. Place the top half to the right and flop the left half face down. Grip both packets and ribbon spread them from the far side of the mat toward you; the Tight spread will be face up reds and the left spread will be face down cards. Gather the spreads and flip both packets over - a red card will show at the face of the left hand packet. Zarrow shuffle the right packet under the top two cards of the left packet. This Zarrow is very safe, you can flash the top three cards of the left packet during the shuffle. ‘As you square up after the Zarrow, keep a break between the packets, Undercut the bottom packet to the left and flip it face down. The second riffle shuffle is a real one.8 FASDIU, Part One Use a closed shufile and make sure the two face up cards end up on top after the shuffle. Take advantage of the fact that this shufile is a real one by slowly squaring the deck. Go over this two shuffle sequence a few times and you'll see that by virtue of the way the halves are spread, flipped over, and shuffled, almost all of the red cards are exposed - in oth packets. The implicit reinforcement that all the cards are red is very strong. Place this packet to your right. Repeat the exact two shuffle sequence with the ‘black’ half deck. After the blacks are shuffled, patter: “..here’s another point in time - the reds are mixed up and down and the blacks are mixed up and down...” Pick up the black packet and execute a double lift, ostensibly turning the top card face down, actually tuming the top two cards face down. Deal the top card face down to the mat and drop the packet onto it. Repeat these steps with the ‘ted’ half deck. Say, “...our final point in time - the Ace of Clubs and the Ten of Hearts are at the bottom of their respective packets...”, naming the cards you buried beneath the packets. All the work is done and the rest is fun! Say, “...now let’s turn back the clock, to the point just before our most recent point in time...” Make a magical gesture and show that the Ace of Clubs and Ten of Hearts ( - or whatever those cards where) are back on top of their respective packets. Flip them face down. «if we tum the clock back again...” Spread the red packet face down from the upper left comer of your mat to the middle of the mat, “...the reds will all be face down, like they were before I shuffled them up and down...” Pick up the black packet and continue the ribbon spread, running this packet from the middle of the mat (and starting on the top card of the tabled spread) to the inner right comer, “...and so will the blacks...” You've only one more point in time to defeat. “...And if we go back one more point in time....” Flip the ribbon spread face up slowly, “..the blacks and reds will all be mixed - as if we never did this trick at all...” Thanks to Mr. Walton’s wonderful originality, the effects build. The ambitious card sequence is magical, yet simple; the triumph effect in each packet is magical, and stunning; the blow-off with the deck fully mixed red/black is impossible! THE INVISIBLE CARD This venerable routine has been in my repertoire since the early 1970's, and I still perform it today. It was shown to me in a basic form by a fellow teenager named HowardFASDIU, Part One 9 Bash at a meeting of LM.P.S. (International Magical Performers Society, presided over by Amold Belais of Multiplying Pipe fame) in New York City. I have not seen or heard from Howard Bash for over twenty years, but I'll always thank him for starting me on this routine. Over the years and during countless performances, it has evolved, more presentationally than technically, into the following. Taking a shuffled deck in use, have a card selected and shown around. Hold the deck for a jog shuffle and chop off about a quarter of the deck. Extend that quarter deck for the spectator to replace the selection. Start to jog shuffle, running two cards onto the selection and then injogging the third. Shuffle off onto the injog. Hold the deck in dealing position in your left hand and lift up on the injog, creating a pinky break below it (and over the two cards above the selection). Ask, “.have you ever seen an invisible card...?” Ninety nine percent of the time the answer will be “no.” To which you reply, “...I’m not surprised, they’re hard to see...!” Should your spectator answer “yes”, then reply, “..I see, well some would say you're crazier than me...” In either case, continue with: “...’m going to try to narrow down the deck until I land on the card you're thinking of...” Cut the top half of the deck to the table (or into a spectator’s hand if no table is available), “...I don’t think it’s in this half, but I’m kinda guessing...” Begin spreading through the face down cards in hand and separate the spread when you reach the break. Push over the next five cards and flip them face up onto the left hand quarter-packet. Place the spread cards in your right hand underneath the left hand cards. “..J’ll take four or five cards here, and I’ll show them to you. Don’t tell me which card is yours; just let me know if it’s in this group or not, because if it’s not in the group - we'd do the whole rest of this trick for nothing...!” Take the left hand half deck into your right hand from above. You will peel the five face up cards into your left hand, naming each one as you peel it. Keep a left pinky break below the third card peeled, the selection, and remember its name. When peeling the fourth card, pick up the selection below the right hand packet (this is the Reverse Biddle). Continuing, peel the fifth card onto the left hand group. The most important aspect of all false counts is rhythm, and this one is no exception - the naming and peeling of the cards should be done in cadence and without pause, Ask, “...is your card in this grouy ‘Your audience will answer positively. Act a little surprised, “...it is? Well, so far..... so what...?” Motivated by the need to handle the small packet in your left hand, place the right hand packet face down onto the tabled half deck (or onto the half held by the spectator). This unobtrusive action centralizes the selection face up in the deck. Turn the small packet face down and count four as five using the reverse biddle again, to wit: Pick up the packet from above with your right hand and peel off the top card into your left hand, “one.” Peel the second card onto the first, “two,” but keep a left pinky break below this card. As you peel the third card and count “three,” pick up (or, Reverse Biddle) the second card counted. Count and peel the fourth card, and finally drop the last right hand card onto the left hand packet.10 FASDIVU, Part One em EE, Part One Regrip the cards in your left hand at the fingertips and raise that hand up to eye level so that you are looking right at the near, short end of the packet. Slip your left forefinger to the face of the packet and press up slightly. Use a sure grip with your left thumb and fingers on the long sides of the packet. Now bring your right hand over the packet from above and grip it by the ends. Let two cards riffle off your right thumb and bend the top two cards up briskly so that you can see into the packet. Look at the spectator, look back into the packet, and make a silent decision. “..would you hold out your hand palm up, please...2” She does. Keeping the top two cards of the packet bent up, twist your right wrist counter clockwise until your right forefinger can enter the packet. Pull your right thumb and forefinger out of the packet toward you as if they held a card by the short end. Simultaneously, apply extra pressure with your left forefinger - the packet will literally, and audibly, SNAP shut. Indicate your right hand, “..this is the invisible card I was talking about when we started...” Place the invisible card onto the spectator’s outstretched palm. “...don’t drop it or we'll never find it.” Pause a beat or two and, depending on your audience, you can get a laugh out of a gentle tease of the spectator holding the invisible card, “.AfT have five cards and give you one, how many does that leave me...?” The spectator will answer “four.” “...exactly...which means I have four left...” Spread the packet and take the top two face down cards into your right fingers. Use your thumbs to move the top card of each pair in a circular motion against the back of the bottom card of each pair, visually demonstrating that there are only four cards in your hands, This is a strong vanish! Flip all four cards face up into your left hand and ask, “..are any of these your card..?” Your audience will respond negatively. Table these four cards (or hand them to someone). Pretend to pick up the invisible card from the spectator’s hand from above with your right hand. Tum your hand palm toward you, as if you were looking at the face of the ‘invisible’ card, as you say, “...good, then it must've been the....Four of Hearts...!”, naming the selection that you noted during the initial Reverse Biddle count. Although the audience knows you are putting them on at this point, they have been (time) misdirected from the fact that you looked at the five cards, and they'll be surprised that you know the name of their selection. Replace the ‘invisible’ card onto the spectator’s palm, “..I know this seems crazy but pick up the card and tum it over so it’s face up...” Mime for the spectator what you want them to do with your own hands. Then pick up the deck and lift off about twenty cards (or thirty, just don’t accidentally cut to the reversed selection). “...and slide it into the deck...” Let them pretend to slide the invisible card into the open deck. Plop the twenty cards back onto the left half “...s0 we can prove to everyone that neither one of us is crazy because if that’s where you put it....” perform a wide face down ribbon spread (or pressure fan, if no table is available), “...that’s where we'll find it..!!!"FASDIV, Part One 1 Although this is simple in effect and undemanding technically, it may be done anywhere with any deck in almost any condition. The by-play and participation with the spectator is fun and the effect is a fooler. In fact, laypersons actually see three effects: the vanish of their selection, the fact that you name the selection even though it is nowhere to be found, and the reappearance of the selection face up in the deck that has been out of play since the very beginning of the routine. THE WORKINGMAN'S WILD CARD My tendency is to shy away from gaffed cards and/or props; however, when hired to tablehop or do walk around close up I want to include Peter Kane's excellent effect: Wild Card. Over the years the following routine evolved. Although a gaffed set of cards is used, the routine allows you to begin and end with a 52 card deck, and the ‘changed’ cards may be inspected during the course of the routine if desired, The routine must be reset, but the resetting takes virtually 10 seconds; I have reset it, for instance, while walking from one side of a restaurant to the other. You will need a Himber wallet, three double faced cards, and ten duplicates. The double facers must have jokers on one side and, for the purposes of this description, each must have a Five of Diamonds on the other side. The ten duplicates are all, of course, the Five of Diamonds. The double facers should be made up from various decks of slightly different age; and the duplicates should be from different makes, colors and back designs. This serves multiple purposes for the working magician, First, by using different back designs and different shades of cards, you will almost always be prepared to do this routine with a borrowed deck! Second, the different back designs support the logic of the patter, Finally, by using different back designs and cards with slightly different shading, all the card§ truly look real and the idea of ‘trick’ cards will never enter the minds of. your audience - you get credit for the magic, not the cards. The general set up is as follows: place three Five of Diamonds duplicates face down on the table. They should have assorted back styles (.e., blue Bicycle Rider Back, red Tally Ho Fan Back, red Bicycle Rider Back). Place the three double facers onto the duplicates, all with their joker sides skywards. Place this group into one side of the Himber wallet, the jokers facing outward. Now close the wallet and open it to the other side. Take the remaining seven duplicate Five of Diamonds in assorted back styles and colors and place them into this side of the Himber wallet with the Five of Diamonds side facing outward. Close the wallet and pocket it, remembering which side of the wallet contains which set of cards.