• Due to ongoing issues caused by Search, it has been temporarily disabled
  • Please excuse the mess, we're moving the furniture and restructuring the forum categories
  • You may need to edit your signatures.

    When we moved to Xenfora some of the signature options didn't come over. In the old software signatures were limited by a character limit, on Xenfora there are more options and there is a character number and number of lines limit. I've set maximum number of lines to 4 and unlimited characters.

I'm sharing a bit of my "A" material here because the this section needs some juice.

I'll give my own anecdote revolving around this exact method.

Camping with friends who know I have an interest in magic and have seen me on very infrequent occasions do the odd simple card trick (and one amazing mind reading effect in which I simply took advantage of the situation). They asked for a couple of card tricks, and I did only one, very simple in which I pull out two cards that are then matched by the cards they deal down to. Then they ask for something impressive and I said to do that I need to tell them a story (mind you, this is all completely made up on the fly, presentation-wise).

To start the story I said they needed to cut the deck, so I set up Cross Cut. Then I launched into a full five minute discussion on Houdini and how sometimes the most impressive people are foiled by the simplest of things, and I related the story of how when Houdini was performing one of his many jail escapes he found himself unable to pick the lock only to find after a long time of trying that he had been fooled by the fact that it hadn't been locked. (The story may be apocryphal, and I can't find details).

I embellished that story and wove it into something mysterious. Then, when everyone agreed that Houdini was impressive and the simple jailer who nearly foiled him was also impressive, I leaned back with my hands far from the deck and said, "But is it any more impressive that without touching the deck since you cut it I know that you cut to the nine of clubs?"

I got the campfire equivalent of a standing ovation.
 
Lithrael said:
I don't perform any myself but once I was watching a Penn & Teller BS episode, they said go pull a card from a deck and I did, from a deck that had been sitting at the back of a drawer in the living room, and it was their card. I'm pretty sure I screamed.
Click to expand...
Geller relied on something similar in his tv specials.
 
My personal favourite was very impromptu.

Some friends and I were travelling on a ferry and I went for a walk, saw some playing cards for sale in the concession, and bought a blue deck and a red deck. Mainly, I was thinking I might want to kill some evenings playing poker or something when we got to my friend's cabin.

But the topic of magic tricks came up while we were eating on the ferry, so I said, hey, if you have a deck of cards, I know a trick. Nobody had cards. Somebody remembered there's cards for sale at the concession, so I said, Hey, I'll pay for them, go buy a pack, bring it back, I'll do a trick.

While one guy was off buying the deck, I unwrapped the two I just bought and glimpsed at them under the table. Yep, they were in order. Red queens in my left pocket, blue queens in my right pocket. Ready to go.

They brought the brand new (blue) pack to the table, completely sealed. I asked them to unwrap the deck, shuffle it. I told them to glance at the deck to ensure they were well shuffled. I then palmed the blue queens in my right hand, placed it on the deck and said, "Your majesty, please send all your cards to the top," and lifted up my hand.

I asked for one of them to pull the top four cards off. All queens.

Total. Silence.


I explained the trick, and I think they did appreciate that the best part about it was that it was pretty much made up on the spot. It's why I appreciate James Randi's pen-in-the-beltbuckle telepathy sketching.




Oh, there's one more they talk about. I did a disappearing hankie in a magicians egg the next morning when we were making breakfast. Then I showed them how the trick was done, and redid it slowly, showing the hankie getting stuffed into the egg.

Meanwhile, I'd palmed a real egg.

So the prestige on that one is that after they saw me stuff a magician's egg, I cracked 'it' and made an omelette.
 
Senex said:
Ok, i get it now. There is a payoff there.

How's this for a trick that requires absolutely no skill. You hand someone a deck to shuffle. They shuffle. They hand it back to you. Literally, in less than a second you can have the black and red cards divided in your hands. Welcome to the world of gimmicked decks.

You can't beat the shortcuts. I'm old and wise. Trust me.
Click to expand...

The power of this effect is that the SPECTATOR divides the cards. Clearly the magician cheats.
 
Mr Salk said:
The power of this effect is that the SPECTATOR divides the cards. Clearly the magician cheats.
Click to expand...

If the magician cheats clearly he has failed.

Here is more "A" material I forgot about and used for the first time last Saturday in many years and I received a hell of a reaction. It's more of a stunt than a trick but it's entertaining. Many times I say I discovered the secret of odd abilities on the internet. In particular after using the time honored method of stopping my pulse but tell my nurse sister I stopped my heart using meditation methods I learned on the internet. She has flipped out and screamed at me to stop. This time I tortured her by saying I learned some chiropractic maneuvers on the internet. Yadda, yadda... I walk behind my nephew and go "1,2,3 and then twist his neck to a thunderous crack. My sister turned white. What I did was have an empty water bottle under my armpit for a long time waiting for the right moment when I squezzed the bottle as I twisted his neck. I then say it is important I do the other side of his neck for safety sake. This trick works particularly well when you tell people you studied animal chiropractic on the internet and then twist their cat's head as you squeeze the hidden empty water bottle.

People remember this one.
 
Last edited:
Senex said:
If the magician cheats clearly he has failed.
Click to expand...

Magicians cheat by definition. Effects are often much stronger when the participant does the handling. Clearly a magician shuffling the cards can cause all manner of effects with his sneaky-sleights and trick-cards. Being the hero of the plot is less memorable than allowing a personalized act of apparent psychic ability.
 
A true story I did last week. I was in a queue of people waiting their turn for coffee. When my turn came I told the 3/4 asleep crowd behind me to "watch this." I showed my hands empty, picked up the cylindrical sugar dispenser and poured a fair amount of it into my fist. I put my hands together and then opened them wide showing my hands were now empty. I made another fist and poured the seemingly disappeared sugar into my coffee cup and picked the cup up and walked away. One second after turning my back I am completely "clean." The coffee drinkers were amazed.

hint :thumbsup:
 
Senex said:
A true story I did last week. I was in a queue of people waiting their turn for coffee. When my turn came I told the 3/4 asleep crowd behind me to "watch this." I showed my hands empty, picked up the cylindrical sugar dispenser and poured a fair amount of it into my fist. I put my hands together and then opened them wide showing my hands were now empty. I made another fist and poured the seemingly disappeared sugar into my coffee cup and picked the cup up and walked away. One second after turning my back I am completely "clean." The coffee drinkers were amazed.

hint :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Well, how though???
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Well, how though???
Click to expand...

My hint was too subtle? I used a thumb tip.

I've used this A material trick recently with the son of a friend who played an off beat card game like Magic the Gathering. He had a special case for his cards. I asked if I could look at his cards and I secretly palmed one in my lap after I read what it said. I took out a pen and paper and wrote a "prediction" on a piece of paper. I wrote what my purloined card said on it and placed the predictive piece of paper in his special card case. I had cleverly placed the stolen card face down underneath the case in front of me with the corner of the case a bit off the table assuring me I could grab the hidden card at the same time as I could pick up the case.

I shuffled the cards and handed them to him and told him he could cut the cards as often as he wanted. I then told him he needed to count them one at a time on the table. After he started I told him he could stop at any time. As misdirection I moved awkwardly and varied my cadence and raised my voice at the word "stop" and spoke in other suspicious ways. After he stopped I said he could add another card or as many as he wanted if he felt manipulated.

When he was satisfied with where he stopped, I picked up his card case with the prediction inside it and the predicted card held hidden under the case face down. I tossed it on the pile of dealt cards and did more distracting chatter. When he lifted the case to check the prediction inside it left the card I had hidden under the case as the top card he dealt. The last card he dealt was my prediction!

A minor miracle.
 
The one I always do, that I have practiced the moves so it looks really good, is this:

I take my wedding ring off and put it in my left hand between my thumb and middle finger, show it to the audience. I talk about how the ring symbolizes the unbreakable bond between my wife and I, yadda yadda, bound forever...Then I grab it with my right hand (in the French style), ostensibly hold it in my fist and watch it as I rise my fist slightly above eye level and then open my right hand; poof, the ring is gone. I then talk for a second or two about how the ring is always with me and it never leaves my ring finger . . . yadda yadda. As I'm talking, I nonchalantly bring my obviously empty right hand over the very top of my left ring finger, as if I'm putting on the ring. I make sure they see the bottom of my ring finger has no ring, then slide my right hand down the ring finger with a flourish; voila, there's the ring, as if it never left.

It's a simple trick, some risk of exposure but if I keep talking and misdirecting them to look where I want them to look (what left hand? do I even have a left hand?) and move deftly enough . . . well, I haven't failed to get a "WTF" type of reaction when I do it.
 
xjx388 said:
The one I always do, that I have practiced the moves so it looks really good, is this:

I take my wedding ring off and put it in my left hand between my thumb and middle finger, show it to the audience. I talk about how the ring symbolizes the unbreakable bond between my wife and I, yadda yadda, bound forever...Then I grab it with my right hand (in the French style), ostensibly hold it in my fist and watch it as I rise my fist slightly above eye level and then open my right hand; poof, the ring is gone. I then talk for a second or two about how the ring is always with me and it never leaves my ring finger . . . yadda yadda. As I'm talking, I nonchalantly bring my obviously empty right hand over the very top of my left ring finger, as if I'm putting on the ring. I make sure they see the bottom of my ring finger has no ring, then slide my right hand down the ring finger with a flourish; voila, there's the ring, as if it never left.
Click to expand...

That's brilliant. It's personal to you and requires no set up. Brilliant. But it sounds like you need to practice.

For my lazy drinking "A material" readers I offer this. You go to Lou Tannen on line and get some "loops." You can float a ring under a person's nose at point blanc range. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Hard work and practice is for the other guy.
 
This is perhaps scary information to some. On some level the government allowed me to teach children in the past. I believed the worst thing a child could call me was "boring." I performed magic tricks and feats of mentalism fairly often in the classroom. Believe me, I always ended by saying there is no real magic.

I used to perform this once ahead trick frequently. The trick was you get the students to write a question that are placed in a bag. You pretend to pick the questions randomly out of the bag. You need a student accomplice to admit the first question you answer was theirs. You hold up the paper to your head and give an answer, like "your aunt will be fine." I usually trusted this to upright girls.You open up the piece of paper like you are just acknowledging your previous prediction. Now you know the next question. You would think no way in hell this would work even on a sixth grade class. It works.

I tried to be intellectually stimulating. Sometimes you need to cheat.
 
Senex said:
If the magician cheats clearly he has failed.

Here is more "A" material I forgot about and used for the first time last Saturday in many years and I received a hell of a reaction. It's more of a stunt than a trick but it's entertaining. Many times I say I discovered the secret of odd abilities on the internet. In particular after using the time honored method of stopping my pulse but tell my nurse sister I stopped my heart using meditation methods I learned on the internet. She has flipped out and screamed at me to stop. This time I tortured her by saying I learned some chiropractic maneuvers on the internet. Yadda, yadda... I walk behind my nephew and go "1,2,3 and then twist his neck to a thunderous crack. My sister turned white. What I did was have an empty water bottle under my armpit for a long time waiting for the right moment when I squezzed the bottle as I twisted his neck. I then say it is important I do the other side of his neck for safety sake. This trick works particularly well when you tell people you studied animal chiropractic on the internet and then twist their cat's head as you squeeze the hidden empty water bottle.

People remember this one.
Click to expand...

OK, I repeated myself and will make it up to you . I will tell the secret to making your pulse stop which is crazy brilliant. I saw Kreskin do it many times. This trick works brilliantly for me because no one really knows when I'm serious. I tell people I learned this meditation secret on the internet. You have a nurse, or someone everyone feels capable of taking your pulse, and then after they say they reliably are reading it, you shut it off. You look like your failing by doing it. I have given family members incredible stress with this trick. Very dramatic stuff.

This is as simple as it gets. You have a racquetball or tennis ball under your armpit. When you put pressure on it your pulse in your wrist can no longer be detected.

Simple.

It may scare your more naive family members.
 
Senex said:
...
I used to perform this once ahead trick frequently. The trick was you get the students to write a question that are placed in a bag.
Click to expand...
My dad used to occasionally do a trick when we were little kids, birthday party or family get together.
He asked the kids a question.
“What is the name of your pet?”, for example, but it could be anything.
He wrote it on a piece of paper, tore it off, folded it up, put in a pot or something. All the kids named their pets.
One kid got to jumble them up and another picked one from the pot.
The papers in the pot were set on fire! Cool!
My dad then rolled up his sleeve and rubbed the ashes on the inside of his forearm. The name of a pet would magically appear...
the one revealed on the remaining paper when unfolded.

Know it? It always worked with us and everyone was amazed.
 
Cheetah said:
My dad used to occasionally do a trick when we were little kids, birthday party or family get together.
He asked the kids a question.
“What is the name of your pet?”, for example, but it could be anything.
He wrote it on a piece of paper, tore it off, folded it up, put in a pot or something. All the kids named their pets.
One kid got to jumble them up and another picked one from the pot.
The papers in the pot were set on fire! Cool!
My dad then rolled up his sleeve and rubbed the ashes on the inside of his forearm. The name of a pet would magically appear...
the one revealed on the remaining paper when unfolded.

Know it? It always worked with us and everyone was amazed.
Click to expand...

Yes, but do you really want it spoiled?

Another simple explanation.

Soap
 
I used to know a few tricks but, while the “wow that was amazing!” reaction could be fun, I didn’t really like the whole dynamic and certainly didn’t think it worth the time and effort required. I might still have a gimmicked deck of cards somewhere that was very simple (every other card was identical and had slightly tapered edges) and which could be used for a surprisingly large number of tricks. I probably only used it twice, despite how good the reactions were.

Possibly the best and easiest one I know is one of those “only actually works 90% of the time” things.

Say you’re going to demonstrate something. Get a piece of paper, write something on it that nobody else can see. Fold it in half and give it to your subject to hold. Tell them that you’re going to ask them a series of questions and they have to answer as quickly as possible without thinking. You then ask “what’s 2+2?”, the instant they say “4” (even as they’re saying it) you ask “what’s 4 + 4?”, and keep going until about 16 + 16, whereupon you change to “name a vegetable”. 90% of the time they say “carrot”, and you get them to open the bit of paper on which you have indeed written “carrot”.

It’s stupid, but it does work. And it’s fun, because everybody knows how it must be done, but they’re still impressed. And, of course, the whole “rapid fire” thing means it has in-built excitement and tension, which gets the blood flowing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom