You count five cards from one hand to the other then throw two of the cards away. EIGHT times you do this, yet each time you are still left holding five cards. You then throw five cards away... and you are left holding two! Finally you throw these two cards away but.... you are still left holding five cards, which you then throw away and take your well-deserved bow.
Required:
28 playing cards, and the ability to perform the Buckle Count. The Buckle Count is described on page 84 of Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets Of Card Magic - written by Lewis Ganson. A brief description is at the end of the performance and patter.
Set-up:
Place the 28 playing cards into your left side jacket pocket. Performance and patter:
“Thank you very much indeed and good evening. I’d like to start off by showing you all a trick.” (Reach into your pocket and remove the 28 cards with the faces against your fingers).
“Well, actually it’s a trick about a trick. Because many years ago I saw a guy do an amazing thing with a few cards. He counted them. He had (perform the Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He took the five cards and he threw away 2“ (toss 2 of the cards high into the air one at a time). “Now to my amazement and everybody else’s, he still had (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards. It didn’t matter how many times he threw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air), he always had (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards. “
“Now at this part of the trick I was as baffled as you were and I too forgot to applaud. So I thought wouldn’t it be great if I could walk on here this
evening with these 5 cards, throw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and still be left with (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards, but then again you must have seen the trick where you throw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and still have (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.“
“Now let me ask you a question right, all those who have seen the trick where you throw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and you still have (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards say aye! (Here you raise your palm up hands from waist height to chest height in a quick gesture – like you would if you wanted an applauding audience to applaud louder – this results in part of your audience shouting out, “Aye!”).
“All those who haven’t seen the trick where you have 5, throw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and you still have (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards say aye!” (Here you repeat the above gesture, which results in another part of your audience shouting out, “Aye!”).
“All those who couldn’t care less whether I throw away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and still have (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards say aye.” (Here you repeat the above gesture again, which results in ALL of your audience shouting out, “Aye!”). “I can always tell when it going to be a good night or a bad night...good night! So what’s the use of me standing here with these 5 cards, throwing away 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and still having (Buckle Count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards? What would be good would be to take the 5, throw away 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (toss 5 of the cards high into the air one at a time) and be left with (Buckle Count, but buckling on the count of 1 this time) 1, 2 rather than throw away 1, 2 (toss 2 of the cards into the air) and be left with (normal count) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cards!” Throw all 5 cards high up into the air and strike a pose - looking at your right hand, which is still held above your head having tossed the cards away, and with your right foot bent at the ankle and slightly off the ground (your weight being on your left leg) - this being an ‘applause please’ pose which tells the audience that the routine has finished. Note: The whole routine is performed at a very brisk pace, and with attitude. From start to finish it lasts just 75 seconds. If you check out my website www. waynedobson.co.uk Video Vault, Royal Variety Show, there is a version of the routine and you will be able to study the timing of each and every phase.
The Buckle Count
The Buckle Count is used here to initially count the 28 cards as five, yet it appears like a very natural count and the cards appear to be counted from one hand to the other individually. The way this is achieved is by holding the packet of cards in the left hand, with their faces toward the audience. Your left thumb is ready to push off one card at a time into the right hand.
The first three cards are counted from the packet into the right hand, without reversing their order, to the count of 1, 2, 3 until you reach the count of 4. Just before this point you ‘buckle’ the bottom (face card of the packet) by pulling down on its upper right corner with the tip of your forefinger.
This will create a gap between the buckled lower card, at its lower right corner, and the remaining cards. You now simply take this remaining packet with the right hand, as a single card, to the count of 4 using the same rhythm as with the previous three cards counted across. You are now left with only one card inthe left hand, which you count across to the count of 5.
NAILED
This routine was inspired after seeing Roy Johnson perform a card stab that I believe goes back to Milbourne Christopher.
Effect:
A card is selected, signed and returned. The deck is cased and dropped into an envelope. A six inch nail is now thrust through the upper half of the envelope and held by a spectator. You attempt to guess the card that was selected, but fail. Taking everything from the spectator, you rip the nail away only to discover that it has impaled a card. Not any card, but the actual signed selection! Required:
much bigger than it usually is – you’ll see why later. You also need a six inch nail, a Sharpie pen and a long DL envelope (110 x 220mm) with the flap on its narrow end.
Set-up:
The cased deck is in your inner left (lower) side jacket pocket, the six inch nail is in your breast pocket and the envelope and Sharpie pen are in your inner right (upper) pocket. Obviously, you can house them in whichever pockets you have.
Performance:
With a man standing on your right and one on your left, introduce a cased deck of cards and hand it to the person on your left. Ask him to take the cards out of the box, have a look at them and confirm that it is just a regular deck. Take the cards from him, asking him to hold onto the box for the moment. Now hand the cards to the other spectator, asking him to shuffle them and then return them to you. Now have him remove a card (no force) and sign his name, or initials, on the face of his card.
Have the card returned and control it to the top of the deck (using your favourite method). Turn to the other spectator and ask for the box back. Insert the cards so that you can see a small portion of the top card (the signed selection) in the area where the half moon cut-out is on the card case. You now close the flap of the card case, but secretly insert it underneath the top card.
Hold onto the cased deck in your right hand, as your left hand goes inside your jacket and removes the envelope from your inner right (upper) pocket. Hand the envelope to the person on your left asking that he take a look at it. Pass the cased deck into your left hand, as your right hand removes the 6” nail from your breast jacket pocket, explaining what it is, and hand it to the other spectator to take a look at.
Now for the only ‘move’ in the routine... pass the cased deck back into your right hand, and hold it between your thumb (which rests on the back of the
signed selection through the half moon cut-out) and your fingers on the front of the case. Your left hand takes back the envelope from the person on your left. Your left hand and your right forefinger open the envelope and you place the cased deck inside, but do not release your hold on it with your right hand just yet.
With the cased deck inside the envelope, though only inside the upper part at the moment, pull upward with your right thumb and this will draw the signed selection out of the card case for about an inch. Pin the card only to the front inner wall of the envelope with your left thumb, gripping it also with the left fingers from the outside of the envelope. The moment you have the selection pinned against the inner front wall of the envelope, allow the cased deck to drop to the bottom of the envelope.
With your right hand, take back the six inch nail from the person on your right and thrust it through the envelope in such a way that you know it has also passed through the centre of the signed selection. Once the nail has passed through the envelope and card, reach in front of the envelope with your left hand and grab the pointed end of the nail. Next rotate the nail so that the flat end is pointing at the audience. Pass the nail to your right hand and have the person on your right hold the pointed end of the nail for the moment, as you patter how fair the selection procedure was etc.
Finally, take everything from the spectator - holding on to the pointed end of the nail with your right hand. Grip the cased deck, through the envelope, with your left hand and simply pull downward on the envelope, as your right hand raises the nail up a little. As the envelope is ripped completely free of the nail, pocket the envelope in your left side jacket pocket, and the nail is now seen to have a single playing card impaled on it.
The back of the card is facing the audience, but you now rotate the nail again - holding onto the flat end with your left hand as your right hand reaches forward and drags the card off the pointed end of the nail. It only remains to have the spectator on your right confirm that it is his signed card and... you’re done!