The Magic Memories (211)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: The “New” Magic Memories; Two Videos from YouTube Channel – Roberto Giobbi on One-way Backs & The Horowitz Poker Demo; Card Case Force

These are The Magic Memories 211, gone online Sunday, January 12^th, 2025, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

The “New” Magic Memories

Good and bad news.

The bad news first: As I announced in The Magic Memories 210, I will drop this blog if I do not get at least 99 orders for The Magic Memories 2024 – The Complete File.

This was of course not put up with the intention of “selling” it as such, but its main purpose was – as I had made clear – as a way to see how many cared for this blog to continue to the extent of spending five Euros.

I did receive less than fifty orders (although it occurred to one single person from Germany, who shall remain unnamed but profoundly thanked, to order FIVE copies of the PDF instead of just one, noting in the comment field that five Euros are ridiculous and not enough… I mention this not so much for the money, but because this example shows great “out-of-the-box thinking”, something all of us – including myself! – should practice more, especially in these difficult times…).

The good news (at least for the few who are reading this): First and foremost I would like to thank those who have “bought” the PDF, telling me loud and clearly that they enjoy The Magic Memories, and that they would like me to continue. Special thanks to all those who wrote in with warm words: Even though I might not have answered, please know that what you wrote is deeply appreciated. It breaks my heart to stop sharing The Magic Memories with you.

I have therefore decided to stop the weekly blog… and change it to a monthly installment, call it The “New” Magic Memories, thirteen issues, including this one and this year’s #210.

To read The “New” Magic Memories you have two options:

ONE: Make a note in your agenda to go to www.robertogiobbi.com, and click “News”, or access the list of ALL blogs, as you have done up to now, only that now it will be once a month (first Sunday of each month) instead of once a week.

Below are the publication dates you may want to note – FIRST Sunday of each month, as always at 0:07 o’clock sharp (Central European Time):

1. TMM 210 – JAN 5
2. TMM 211 – JAN 12
3. TMM 212 – FEB 2
4. TMM 213 – MAR 2
5. TMM 214 – APR 6
6. TMM 215 – MAY 4
7. TMM 216 – JUN 1
8. TMM 217 – JUL 6
9. TMM 218 – AUG 3
10. TMM 219 – SEP 7
11. TMM 220 – OCT 5
12. TMM 221 – NOV 2
13. TMM 222 – DEC 7

TWO: I plan on sending out a “Newsletter” as a reminder – with a direct link to the current issue of The Magic Memories for comfort 🙂 – to all who have officially registered for the “Newsletter”.

For reasons of data protection I am not allowed to put your email in that list. Also, laws having changed several times in the past few years, it might be that you are not on that list if you have not actively subscribed in the past 18 months or so.

So, please make sure you are on that list, and there is only one way of being sure: Take 20 seconds of your time, go to the webshop right now, and then put your email in the appropriate field as shown in the illustration below – you cannot miss it, TOP LEFT of the “home” screen, right under the “funny man with the fan” (me!).

 

Two Videos from YouTube Channel

As I was putting some order in the material I have uploaded to Internet in the past decade, I noticed that two videos from my YouTube Channel had “zero” clicks, which means that they were not visible (for reasons only IT knows…).

I have corrected this, and you can now view them, if you have the correct link (it is below).

Roberto Giobbi on One-way Backs

Video one is me giving a short talk on the use of one-way-back cards. This video is part of an online lecture I gave for Brent Geris’ The Magic Apple.

If you watch the clip, you will notice that I refer to the Card College Playing Cards, which have a one-way back design; very clever, if I may say so, as the mark is absolutely invisible, but if you know where to look, it will stick out like a sore thumb, exactly the way a secret marking needs to be – Brent Geris sent a deck to all participants who had registered for the lecture (what a man!).

Obviously, all I say can be applied to any type of one-way deck, no need to have the Card College Playing Cards.

One-way decks are little-used as far as I can say, but have some wonderful uses. If you have access to Hugard’s (ed.), Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, you will find a whole chapter on the subject which should keep you busy for several days… or you might want to check the 57 entries in Behr’s Archives HERE 🙂

Ref. the Card College Playing Cards: These decks are now no longer available except from me, as far as I know (CLICK HERE). Only 10’000 decks of each color have been produced, crimson red and royal blue. This is the minimal amount you have to print in order to get the manufacturer’s (USPC) premium stock, the best they have. And indeed, the cards are of superb quality (they faro out-of-the-box).

Furthermore, the Card College Playing Cards are standard cut top-down, the contrary to down-up (also called “traditionally cut”). The traditional cut has been hyped by card experts such as Richard Turner, who uses Tabled Faros a lot, and for that purpose such cards are not only excellent, but also imperative.

However, if you belong to the remainder 98% of the magicians doing card magic, and do not rely on your expertise to do a Tabled Faro in your paid performances in front of real people, but still want to use a Faro, most of all a Partial Faro (the most useful and frequent of all the Faro variations), and if you do that Faro top-down (not bottom-up), as taught in Card College Volume 3 – in my opinion the best way of doing it – then you want standard-cut cards, not traditionally-cut cards. Card College Playing Cards are standard cut cards.

To watch the 12-minute “mini-lecture” CLICK HERE.

The Horowitz Poker Demo

The second video is me performing the “Horowitz Poker Demonstration”. Although this trick is also part of the video course Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction,  this recording offers some different angles.

The original idea of the trick is in The Daley Notebooks (note #611), and I published my interpretation of it in Genii magazine (Vol. 7, No. 8). For details and access to credits and sources see Behr’s Archives by CLICKING HERE.

To watch the “Horowitz Poker Demo” from the Magic Apple Lecture CLICK HERE.

Card Case Force

This came about as a misunderstanding when searching for a related item in Stephen Minch’s Ken Krenzel’s Ingenuities and looking at the illustrations of “Shoe-in” (p. 31/32).

Krenzel’s handling forces the top card of the deck introduced face down into the card case. He attributes the inspiration to one Harry J. Smith, who had published his “Automatic Seconds” in Annemann’s The Jinx 1935 – 36 Winter Extra (p. 88). Upon closer studying Krenzel’s and Smith’s methods, I realized that my handling has a few interesting points in favor, so I submit it here for your perusal.

The card you want to force starts out on the bottom of the deck. The left hand holds the card case from above in Side Grip, flap on the underside, as the right hand introduces the deck face down into it. Immediately the deck is pulled out about a third of its length, and as it is adjusted, so that about half of the deck protrudes, the right forefinger engages the bottom card and pushes it back into the card case; it does not matter if you get several cards.

By briefly changing the hold on the case, the case can be shown from all sides, the flap effectively hiding the pushed-back card(s).

Start dealing cards from the bottom of the deck – drawing attention to this fact, of course, maybe saying that in this manner nobody could see marks on the backs of the cards, if there were any – until the spectator calls ‘stop’, whereupon you take out the balance of the deck and show the bottom card, apparently their selection. To take the cards out of the case, it is a natural action to slightly tilt the card case opening downward and “shake” the cards out of the case into the awaiting hand – almost every layperson does it that way (and too many “magicians”, too…). As you shake out the balance of the deck, the hidden card(s) will slide flush with the remaining cards.

Now show the bottom card.

Drop these cards on top of those already on the table, reinforcing the idea that the selection came from the center of the deck.

This is an interesting approach at having a card selected, but should only be used once in the same performance.

Naturally, you need a good reason to introduce the cards into the card case, and I leave it to your ingenuity to come up with one 🙂

That’s it for today. Make a note to come back to The Magic Memories (212) – a palindromic number I might add – make a note in your calendar for Sunday, February 2nd, 2025.

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi