The Magic Memories (138)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Revelation and Production of Selected Cards (10 methods); Ultimate wisdom (Charlie Brown).

These are The Magic Memories 138, gone online Sunday, August 20th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Revelation and Production of Selected Cards

In one of my my private notebooks I have a huge list of “quick ways to produce a selected card” after it has been controlled. In magic this type of trick is referred to as a “Quicky”, or “Quick Trick”. Wonder if this is still “politically correct”…

Following is a selection of ten items from my list, some explained briefly, some only referenced, so you will have to hunt for them.

As you will see, some are just interesting ways of turning over and displaying a card, others are clearly a quick effect to reveal a previously selected card, that has apparently been lost in the deck.

I hope you will like them, and also, I hope that they might trigger further ideas in your mind when you read and try to imagine how they look and how you might be using them in a trick you already do, or one you are going to come up with yourself. That’s the idea.

A Quicky is also the type of trick that comes in handy when you miss a Classic Force and you want to do a short trick with the wrongly selected card, before coming back to the trick originally planned.

An excellent ploy if your Classic Force just failed, is to immediately try to force the force-card to a second spectator, by saying, “And you also take a card, please.” And if you fail again, address a third spectator. But now, without missing a beat, you virtually “give” him the card from the hand-spread, “And another one for you – hold this face down, please… I’ll be with you in a minute.” Do this with self-confidence and panache, and you will be surprised at how well your audacity will be rewarded.

Now do a “Quicky” with the first two cards, and then the piece you planned using the force card held by the third spectator. This is just one practical use of a Quicky… (What would be other uses? Make a list!)

As you can see, having a small repertoire of quick tricks to perform at your fingertips is far more than just being able to entertain with some “eye candy”. (Definition of “eye candy”: People or things that are attractive to look at but are not interesting in other ways.)

Here is the list:

1. Eddie Fechter Turnover. Deck is face down in Dealing Position. Top card is bent lengthwise, left forefinger inserted at outer end under «bubble» – when pressure is released, top card flips over face up into awaiting right hand. Top card can be pushed forward to facilitate the move; outer right corner is seized between forefinger and middle finger – when left thumb releases pressure, forefinger is stretched out, making the card fly away.
2. Applause Card (Marconick). Selection is on top of deck, which rests on the table face down in Riffle Shuffle Position. Card is bent lengthwise concavely, so there is a tiny gap between the card and the remainder of the deck – visible only at the inner side. Say that the card will manifest itself, if it is applauded. Start the applause yourself, and when the audience has joined in, lower both hands resting them with their sides on the table, about 50 cm apart and behind the deck. Rapidly join the hands, producing one more «applause clap» – the air will make the selection flip face up on the table in front of the deck.(Flip Hallema comments: I think I have first seen it demonstrated by Marconick in a lecture by him, probably in the late sixties, early seventies. It suited his performing style as well: visual, direct. Maybe he published it too in Henk Vermeyden’s TRIKS magazine, in that period. I’ll have to look it up, but that will take time.I have used this effect very often as a climax to my acrobatic cards routine where a set of ace to five do their antics in the deck. The last of the cards, the five, is gone (it is already crimp-prepared secretly on top of a tabled four card packet).  I look up and say ‘Comedown you little bastard!’ Then I do the clap and immediately look down : the card jumps off the packet as if it had fallen from heaven like an asteroid.)
3. D’Amico Style Revelation. Selection is on top. Show an x-card on top by means of a Double Lift. When the double is again face down, snap the fingers, do the d’Amico One-handed Double Lift with only the top card. Immediately the right hand takes the card and snaps it with the face toward the audience, holding it next to the face.
4. LePaul’s Rapid One-hand Deal. Deck is held face down in Semi-straddle Position. Left thumb pulls/bends top card back towards little finger, which protrudes over the deck’s inner end. When thumb pressure is released, the top card shoots forward and lands face up on the table (p. 87 in The Card Magic of LePaul).
5. Palm-rub Production. Selection is palmed in the right hand, which then starts to gently rub the open left palm. The left hand is turned inward and back-up, taking the palmed card with it, and then the left thumb pushes the card «through the fist», magically producing it (Daryl in his DVD Encyclopedia of Card Sleights).
6. A Quick Sandwich, Pardon, Cocktail. The two sandwich cards are placed faces toward the audience in a tumbler, which is then swooshed over the remaining cards ribbon-spread on the table. Shake the cards inside the tumbler for effect, cocktail-style, and then slowly dump them out of the glass on the table, revealing that a face down card has now arrived between the two sandwich-cards: this is their selection!Alternative Effect. Instead of the selection appearing, a Joker can previously be shown between the sandwich cards, which now transforms into their selection. Or use the «Phantom Card» approach, not showing the sandwiched card at the beginning. (To switch out the sandwiched Joker for the selection you might want to use “The Kosky Switch” from CC4, p. 951. Or see the video Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, “Lesson 42 – Sandwich Techniques”, at 08:14, for several other methods which are not in the book.)
7. The Jumping Card Revelation. Selection is on top. Deck is held face down in Dealing Position. Turn the hand so the underside of the deck faces the audience. In this movement, the fingers of the left hand glide the top card backwards for about 1 cm. With the right middle finger snap the protruding card’s inner end – this will cause the glided (injogged) card to apparently jump out of the center of the deck into the air, where it is caught by the right hands and displayed (Fischer, Ottokar, Täuschungen mit Karten, «Der Kartensprung», p. 12).
8. Balducci/Christ-Force Multiple Production. Four-of-a-kind, e.g., Aces, are on top of face down deck. Using the Balducci/Christ Force procedure, done four times consecutively, end up with four face-up packets and one face-down card next to it – the four cards are the four Aces.
9. Gymnastic Aces. This can be found in The Card Magic of LePaul and is still one of the prettiest, most visual and magical productions of four-of-a-kind. Naturally, it can also be used to attractively produce one or several selected cards that have been controlled to the top.
10. The Master Grip. The selection is grabbed out of the deck, which is ribbon-spread on the table as it is turned face up (Card College 3, or video Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, “Lesson 25 – Breaks, Steps, Jogs”).

And should I really have to tell you that several “Quickies” put together will form a “Multiple Revelation Routine”?

Last, but not least, let me recommend two publications that are devoted entirely to Revelations of selected cards, most of them falling into the category of “Quick Tricks”; this will keep you busy for as long as you want:

• Thompson, J.G. JR., The Living End (1972), also available as an e-book from lybrary.com
• Marlo, Edward, Marlo’s Discoveries (USA 1946)

If you enjoy or would like to try your hand at some “research work”, take any book on card magic from your library, and then make a list of all the tricks therein where one or more cards are magically revealed.

Pay special attention to “Quickies”. Similar to practicing, such an occupation will yield many satisfactory returns and be immensly joyful. Try this as an alternative to spending time on the Internet or on Social Media…

Ultimate Wisdom

There is a cartoon where Charlie Brown and Snoopy are sitting on a pier, looking out into the sea. “Some day, we will all die, Snoopy”, says Charlie. And Snoopy replies, “True, but on all the other days, we will not.” CLICK HERE to see the cartoon (which I cannot reproduce here for copyright reasons).

Wish you all an excellent week!

Roberto Giobbi