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
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(Click topics to go to specific pages)
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 Man’s 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
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 – Chanin’s Disarrange ... 114
Chanin’s Disarrange – Jack Chanin’s Handling of the Bluff Shift ... 114
It’s 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 Webb’s Work on the Chanin Production ... 124
Mental Thoughts – Chanin’s 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
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
The Nagual – Thoughts on Videos Vs. Books... 168
Issue 23 – Return to Palm Magnet ... 169
Poor Man’s 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
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!
Effect: Instant card to pocket.
Required: Seventeen cards. One is a 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.
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
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 think…because 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 let’s 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 door…a 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).
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 I’m 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 hand’s 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."
