FREE MAGIC TRICK - Angela's Premonition Card Trick

Another in my series of free tricks designed to get your feet wet. They are simple but effective tricks such as the kind you might find in a magic book in your local library.

If you are not a magician but want to learn, please read my blog entitled So you want to be a magician - START HERE. There is some important information that you must agree to before walking the path of the conjuring ways.

I don't know who to credit this trick to other than a colleague of mine, Angela. I'm calling it Angela's Premonition. If you know, please let me know so I can credit the creator of this trick. I've got a feeling the creator has been lost in the annals of time.

First, I'll quickly relate to you how Angela presented this trick to me and then I'll teach it to you. My boss Eric threw a little party at his house. Eric has been reading my blog and knew that I was into magic. So he ambushed me into doing a few tricks. Angela jumped at the chance to show us a trick she knew. I hate to say it, but Angela's trick fooled me badly.

This trick requires no sleights and uses the "one ahead" principle.

The Effect

Angela grabbed a packet of 10-14 cards from the top of the deck and dealt the cards face down onto a table in a random pattern. She asked the spectator to tap the 7 of Diamonds. She picked up the card that was tapped being sure NOT to show or flash it to the spectator. She then asked the spectator to tap the Queen of Clubs and then picked up that card. Angela then announced that she was picking up the 2 of Hearts and picked a card from the table. She then laid down the three cards, one at a time, onto the table showing that she now held the 7 of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs and the 2 of Hearts.

Angela then repeated the trick with the same pile of cards only this time they were different cards. She seemed to have a premonition of what card the spectators would tap!

The Secret

This trick requires no sleights, no trick cards, no duplicates and no stacked deck. It simply uses a "one ahead" principle that is used throughout magic. You may have guessed it already. I watched Angela do it four times before I figured the secret out. Of course, Angela should have followed the cardinal rule of magic; never repeat a trick!

After picking up the packet of 10-14 cards, Angela takes a peek at the bottom card. In the above example, Angela saw that the bottom card was the 7 of Diamonds. She dealt the cards in a random pattern on the table BUT she dealt the last card, the 7 of Diamonds, farthest away from the spectator. Angela remember exactly where she placed the 7.

Then she asked the spectator to tap the 7 of Diamonds. Angela later explained that she has never had anyone tap the last card dealt and to place it furthest away. Sure enough the spectator would always tap a card from the middle.

When you pick up the tapped card, be sure not to show it. This card will not be the 7 of Diamonds - if it is, the trick is ruined - time to bail out! Simply look at the card. and ask the spectator to tap whatever card you just picked up. Repeat the procedure again for the second card. Lastly you announce, "Now I'm going to pick up the 2 of Hearts" or whatever the last card you picked up was. You pick up the 7 of Diamonds from it's known location.

TIP: You may want to review them first and rearrange them in your hand so that the spectator doesn't see you reveal them in a different order than they were picked up. Perhaps say something like, "Let's see what you tapped." Perhaps moving the top card to the bottom a couple times and then lay them back down in the order they were picked up. I'm sure with a little practice you'll come up with a clever way to reveal the cards that obfuscates the secret.

Hopefully I explained that clearly enough. You've simply got a peek at one of the cards so you are "one ahead." That's why you have to pick up the last card. The spectator is fooled into thinking that they actually tapped the correct card as you requested them but you were just telling them to pick a card that you already held in your hand. This trick will perplex you friends so I say give Angela's Premonition a try at your next gathering of friends.

Stacked Set-ups: Stacking the Deck for Mulitple Effects

I'm surely not the first magician to discover a method for stacking multiple preset tricks in a single deck; a method I've dubbed Stacked Set-ups. However I can't find any information about deck stacking other than sequential stacking methods such as the Si Stebbens or Eight Kings. Sequential stacking or memorized decks serve a different purpose than the Stacked Set-ups I have employed here. I'm simply setting up multiple tricks in a single deck in a fashion that doesn't look like I've stacked the deck.

I stumbled upon this technique after practicing a series of new tricks. Each night, I would put away the deck into the case with various card packets on top so that next practice session, I would just grab the top cards and work through each trick.

The interesting by-product of that practice regimen was that I found a method of running through a series of tricks, each requiring specific cards, in a way that gives the illusion of working with a normal, shuffled deck.

Let's take a closer look at the problem that I am solving. Just as I've seen many other magicians, in my magic carrying case I have several decks of cards. Each deck has a purpose. A haunted deck, an ace assembly, a deck with gaffs, a deck with two 6 of diamonds, and so on. Most of these decks are setup for one trick. Switching packs between tricks raises suspicions amongst your spectators and isn't terribly practical. So how about packing several complimentary routines into a single deck by stacking the set-ups?

A lot of magicians shy away from tricks that take a lot of set-up in favor of tricks that can be performed with any deck of shuffled cards. That's a valid argument. But that perspective rules out a lot of killer card effects.

Let's look at my accidental solution. I have been working on four great tricks loaded up in a single deck of cards. The tricks are Weighted Aces, Pip-Thru (using a gaffed card), Jumping Geminis and an in-the-spectators-hand transposition. This sequence provides about 15 minutes worth of material package nicely into a single deck. The scripted sequence also has benefits of polishing the presentation so that all four trick flow smoothly.

Here is the order of the Stacked Set-up deck:

Weighted Aces
A-H, A-S, A-D, A-C randomly placed in the deck

Pip-Thru
2-S (to be forced), 3-S, 3-S gaffed

Jumping Geminis
K-D, K-S, 10-H
4-C randomly placed in the deck

Ultimate Transposition
6-D, 6-D

Biddle Trick (closer)
Doesn't require set up so I just do a real shuffle and perform the Biddle Trick.

To recap, the top-loaded cards in order are:
2-S, 3-S, 3-S, 2-S, 3-S, 3-S gaffed,K-D, K-S, 10-H, 6-D, 6-D

The rest of the deck is random including the cards I pull out of the deck as needed such as the 4 of Clubs for the Jumping Geminis trick. Locating and removing certain cards from the deck implies a randomness that eliminates the need to do a lot of false shuffles or cuts between tricks.

I begin by executing a false cut and then spread the cards face up on a close-up pad. I invite the spectator to look over the cards as I find and remove the 4 Aces. Because most of the deck is in a random order they have little reason to think differently. I turn the remaining cards over and perform the Weighted Aces.

After the Weighted Aces I discard the Aces and retrieve the pack of remaining cards. The next three cards are already queued and ready to go. I force the 2 of Spades from the top and do the Pip-Thru effect. This effect ends with an obviously gaffed card so I discard a double and I'm loaded for the next routine.

Next is the Jumping Gemini trick which requires a 4, a 10 and two Kings. Again, I spread the remaining deck face up, locate and remove the 4 of Clubs. The spectators again sees the cards face up in apparently random order. I take the 4-C and patter about the "4 Card Trick" as I gather in the spread cards and turn over the deck. The I deal what appears to be 3 indifferent cards, face down, from the top of the deck as I remark "this is also called the trick with 4 cards."

There are two 6 of Diamonds next in the sequence at the top of the deck for the Ultimate Transposition.

Finally, a do a real shuffle and finish with the Biddle Trick or Ambitious Card Routine which has no setup.

This may seem an obvious method of working through several tricks that require setup. However there are some subtleties that hide the setups. Not every trick requiring setup would work in a Stacked Set-up. However, it does allow you to carefully script and sequence 4-5 tricks for maximum impact. I'm going to be devising other Stacked Set-ups and I'll report back.

I would be curious if you have run into any resources on this subject or if you come up with any killer Stacked Set-ups that you would like to share.

The Artistry of Manipulation

Manipulations have always seemed so magical to me. My first recollections of real magicians were silky smooth billiard ball manipulators. Manipulation routines seem to have a theatrical flow; sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, always artistic.

With manipulations, there is no silly banter, patter or punchline. In fact, most routines have no words at all. Manipulations sequences can have moments of playfulness or humor. Mostly, the sequences are graceful and poetically executed. Expert manipulators often opt for musical accompaniment to facilitate the mood and rhythm of the presentation without the need for words.

I guess what sparked my recent interest in manipulations was watching magician Angela Funovits perform a standard, yet beautifully executed card manipulation routine on a youtube video.



My daughter and I were mesmerized by the video and it reminded me of how captivating a manipulation routine can be for an audience. My daughter, who is not all that interested in magic, grabbed a deck of cards and started performing one handed card fans.

The closest I had ever came to manipulations were some card flourishes I recently learned and an Adams multiplying ball set from my youth. While I am interested in card manipulations, I had seen some billiard ball manipulation routines from the likes of Romaine and Cardini and that really left me in awe.

You hear a lot of the magicians of today speak of Cardini with great reverence. Deservedly so as he created so many of the manipulation effects used by today's masters. Check out Cardini's routine which goes from cards, to cigarettes, to matches, then balls, to silks, and back to an endless flow of cigarettes. If I could, some day, perform a small fraction of what Cardini did I would be one happy manipulator. So I set out to gain some proficiency in billiard ball manipulations.



After careful research I decided to purchase World Class Manipulations with Jeff McBride Volume 1 DVD. This DVD is a bit odd in that it focuses on three forms of manipulation and none involving cards. However, that DVD seemed to get the highest compliments by manipulators. The three forms taught are coins, billiard balls and thimbles. The coins might be useful, the thimbles would be throw away material and the balls would be the meat and potatoes.

I purchased an inexpensive set of Vernet multiplying balls and was all set to immerse in billiard balls. Unfortunately, the many Magic Cafe posts about purchasing quality billiards, such as the Fakini silicone balls, proved true. I could work on some dexterity and sleights but if I'm to be serious about billiards, the expensive Fakini balls are in my future.

Out of morbid curiosity, I watched the thimble section of World Class Manipulations. I mean, come on, do kids even know what a thimble is? I hadn't seen one in decades. And they're so small, how could they "play big" as they say in magic. They just seem corny.

However, after watching McBride rattle off a few thimble routines I was amazed. Thimbles have a magical quality unlike anything I had seen. The appearances and vanishes are so convincing. Sure they may be a dated household item but the moves were so cool and smooth. There are not a lot of thimble routines to be found but I did find a dated, but well down Gary Darwin routine.



I immediately purchased a set of Vernet thimbles and unlike the multiplying balls, I really like their thimbles. The set has four white, nested thimbles and four multi-colored, nested thimbles for a total of 16 thimbles.

I've been having a blast practicing a handful of thimble manipulations. I've found that using a few sleights, I can improvise hand movements that provide a variety of artful presentations. Now if I can just stop the thimbles from occasionally flying off my fingers at high rates of speed it will be interesting to see where this unexpected school of magic takes me.

REVIEW: Packet Tricks & The Color Monte

Marketing Fluff

"Show three cards; one with a blue spot and two with a red spot. Explain that this is a game for gambling, and whoever finds the blue spot wins a dollar, but if that person is wrong, he must forfeit a dollar. Then explain that you were once taken by this game, and show how you were taken, losing three dollars because every time you thought you picked the blue card, it was red. So, you accused the man of not even having a blue card. He showed the bottom card as blue, so you lost another dollar! So, you said that if it was the card on the bottom, it couldn't be the one on top, but again, you lost another dollar! It is then showed as the center card as well, and by then, there's been six dollars lost. So, you said that you thought he was using more than three cards, but were proven wrong and lost another dollar. So, the gambler gave you another chance, double or nothing. He showed you that one card was red, another as blue, and all you had to do was name the color of the third card. Red, right? Wrong again! It's not red, nor is it anything anyone would expect!"

Degree of Difficulty

Beginner to moderate. This trick is a series of moves using one of the most basic sleights in all of card magic. Each sequence is very easy to pull off. The difficulty is in remembering the story (or patter) that motivates the routine. Practice 10-20 times and you should have it down and ready for showing your pals.

What's a Packet Trick?

A packet trick is a small set cards for a specific trick. Packet tricks are very easy to tuck away in your pocket so that you are always ready to entertain. Packets usually have specially made cards called "gaffs" of "gaffed" cards. Packet trick are usually inexpensive and provide a big impact so you have every reason to buy one. I would suggest Color Monte as a killer packet trick.

You'll probably want to find packet tricks that have Bicycle rider-backs if you use the popular Bicycle playing cards.

The Effect

The Color Monte comes with 3 cards. Instead of normal faces, two cards have a red diamond and one card has a blue diamond (or so it would seem).

This is a "follow the card" trick where you tell the spectator to keep an eye on the blue card. Unfortuately for the spectator, that blue card is elusive and hard to find. Then the red card becomes hard to find. At times, it appears that all cards are red or all blue. Finally, a red card is turned over and a blue card is turned over. The spectator is asked to guess the color of the last card. The spectator will most certainly be wrong as it is neither red or blue!

Overall: 8/10

For under $6 you get the cards, access to the private forum for this effect, a performance web video, and a instructional web video featuring Jay Noblezada. Jay is an excellent teacher and covers the set up and all of the sleights required.

REVIEW: Born To Perform Card Magic with Oz Pearlman

Marketing Fluff

"This DVD will start you at the beginning of card magic and take you to a working professional's level. You'll progress faster than ever before by focusing on the most powerful moves. This is a complete course in card magic without the filler. There's no reason to spend hundreds of dollars buying a set of 3 or 8 or 10 DVDs when you can learn the core skills (the ones that get used over and over again in thousands of tricks) on one DVD. This is that DVD."

"...once you've mastered these key moves you'll be able to perform anytime, anywhere, with just a regular deck of cards. Imagine how it's going to feel to have that power to entertain. This is a technology that changes you. It's like riding a bike, learning a new language, or flying an airplane. It's freedom... with a deck of cards."


Degree of Difficulty
Easy to Moderate. This DVD is targeted to someone with NO prior card handling skills to someone with some basic skills looking to round out their arsenal. This is a great choice for beginning card magic because covers the foundational skills required for sleight of hand card magic.

Teaching
Oz Pearlman is a great, young mind in magic and has solid teaching skills to pass on the knowledge. He covers each sleight in great detail and demonstrates several times from different angles. The lone exception is the Classic Pass which he goes over slowly, but only once. Pearlman recommends using outside resources to perfect this difficult maneuver.

Oz expertly demonstrates each routine for real spectators on the streets of Vegas. His performances will provide the motivation for learning the routines once you see how people react.

Quantity of Effects
There is a book you can buy that is considered by many to be the ultimate reference for card magic. The book is called Royal Road to Card Magic and can be found for $10. You'll get much, much more material than you would get on this 30$ DVD. However, I don't recommend doing that. Buy this DVD first and get then Royal Road to Card Magic as a reference guide to expand your card magic vocabulary once you've master the sleights on this DVD. You'll learn faster and with less frustration.

This DVD is like a beginner Lego set. All the essential blocks to build some small but impressive Lego creations. It starts with a selection of card handling techniques beginning with how to hold a deck of cards. You're going to learn the language of card magic; the grips, the breaks, cuts, forces and controls. Plus you'll learn just enough eye candy flourishes to give the illusion that you're an old hat at card magic. Plus you'll learn four full routines that make use of your new found skills.

The run time for this DVD is over 104 minutes. Here's the low down.

Fundamentals:

• Mechanic's Grip, Biddle Grip, Pinky Break, Thumb Break, Dribble to Secure a Break, Swing Cut, Swivel Cut, Double Lift, Top Palm

Controls:

• Classic Pass, Hindu Shuffle Pass, Double Undercut, One Handed Top Palm, Elmsley Count, Spread Cull, Swing Swivel Cut

Forces:

• Hindu Shuffle, Riffle Shuffle

Flourishes:

• 2 Handed Thumb Fan, Le Paul Spread, Springing the Cards, Erdnase Color Change, One Handed Thumb Fan, Hot Shot Cut [Daryl], Pendulum Cut [Hooser], Trinary Cut [Acer]

Routines:

• Ultimate Transpo, Two Card Monte, Biddle Trick, Ambitious Card

There is enough material here to keep a beginner busy for weeks or even months of practice. The routines are intermediate skill level so you won't learn and perform these in one day. I beg you not to perform these until you've practice each one dozens of times.

Quality of Effects
The routines that Pearlman selected are versions of some of the classic routines in card magic. Each routine has the potential to blow the minds of your spectators. I've used these routines dozens of times and they are potent.

The Biddle Trick is perhaps the easiest to learn and execute. The spectator makes a free choice from the deck. You slide the card up to give the spectator a view of their selection without taking a look yourself. You square up the deck explaining that you can use estimation techniques to locate their card. You narrow the selection down to four or five cards and ask the spectator to hold the pack. You show the five cards to the spectator and ask them to not to say anything. Once all five are shown you ask the spectator if one of the five cards was their card...indeed it was! Then you guess which one is the card...only you're wrong. You guess again...wrong! Things are looking bleak. Ultimately, the chosen card turns out not to be one of the 5 cards because it has disappeared. Only 4 cards remain in your hand. Their card, the missing card, turns up in the deck in the spectators hand upside down! This is a killer trick.

The Ultimate Transposition is another trick that happens in the hands of the spectator. The spectator is holding a 6 of Diamonds. You're holding a King of Hearts. Somehow they change places from your hand to theirs!

The Three Card Monte got it's start as a confidence game that street hustlers use to lighten the wallets of gullible people. Of course, magicians have ethics and don't hustle people but it makes for a great magic trick. This is a Two Card Monte that will leave you spectator laughing. This is a "follow the card" trick. Just when you think you know which card is which, they switch places in an impossible fashion.

For the newbie magician, an Ambitious Card Routines (commonly referred to as a ACR) consists of a very simple plot; place a signed card in the middle of the deck and it magically rises to the top of the deck. Each sequence in the ACR seems more impossible than the one before. Like the famous Cups and Balls routine, magicians have created many variations and climaxes over the years. This is a basic ACR but very fun and amazing for your audience and challenging to a beginner.

Production Quality
Solid production values. The DVD menuing is excellent. The angles are great.

You're also going to see these routines performed on the streets of Las Vegas for real tourists getting big laughs and eye popping reactions.

Overall: 8/10

For a beginner to intermediate magician or for an introduction to card magic I doubt you'll find much better instruction. The marketing fluff goes a bit far...you won't end up being a card pro but you will, with enough practice, have the power to entertain. I cut my teeth on this DVD - it was my first magic DVD. Many, many DVDs later and I still go back to this one to brush up on technique.

The Ultimate Magic Showdown: Books versus DVDs

Warning! This blog is sure to offend. Feel free to gently flame me to a crispy crunch in the comments section.

What's better for learning magic; books or DVDs? This debate rages on at places like the Magic Cafe and Penguin Magic Forums. The real winner of that debate is both books and DVDs. It all depends on your learning style. If you like books better, good for you. If you like DVDs better, like me, then I think that is just dandy!


Okay, enough of the fair and balanced crap. I am now going to bloviate from my highly opinionated brain matter. DVDs are really the better choice for most magicians, especially beginner to intermediate mages. And this is blog site is for beginners to intermediate mages. Don't fall victim to magic snobbery that would have you believe differently. Boldly put, I'm going to make the irrefutable case for DVDs over books.

Book Are Not Evil

I like books. I love books. There are a few good things about "classic" books. I'm specifically referring to the great tomes that have stood the test of time such as Royal Road to Card Magic. Many are relatively inexpensive and you get a lot of information. They can be taken places where a DVD isn't always practical or welcome - in bed with your wife or on the toilet for example.

Before the relatively recent invention of motion picture technology, there was one thing you could do with a book that you can't do with all the technology in the world; record the thoughts of the great masters that either lived before the ability to capture moving pictures or were just never captured on film or video. Magicians that now live only in legend can only be read about. Imagine if we had David Devant's Our Magic on DVD with him actually teaching us his methods? So much of the art that wasn't written down has been eternally lost.

But even the best books provide an inferior learning experience. Check out this seminal text from the description of the Overhand Shuffle from Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue:

"...seize the lower half with the right hand between the top phalanx of the thumb, at the middle of the inner end, and top phalanges of the middle and ring fingers at the middle of the outer end."

Say what? Prepare to spent a lot of time figuring out where your phalanges are in relationship to the deck! Okay, enough said about that patently inferior book technology.

DVDs Rule the World

Books are great reference materials but there is almost nothing you can do with book that you can't with a DVD. On the other hand, there are a LOT of things you can do with a DVD that you can't do with a book.

Keeping It Real

With DVDs you can observe real magicians performing real effects to real people, for real reactions, under real conditions and probably getting paid with real money! Usually you get a performance followed by a teaching session. You can watch the performance over and over to see the trick performed at speed and from the spectators view.

Lights, Camera, Action

DVD producers frequently film the instruction from multiple angles sometimes at the same time. The magician can perform the trick mulitple times at differing tempos. When viewing an actual magician you get a spactial representation that you cannot get from a photo or drawing. You can see the angles of the arms, legs and body as the move is demonstrated. You can observe the artful movements; a swish of a hand in an elegant manner as the body turns slightly to catch a good angle relative to the spectator.

The magician can also perform variations of the trick or routine - sure you can write about variations to a routine in a book with some success - but it's not easy to write or read. If you can't visualize one step of the literary interpretation you're pretty much hosed.

Lastly, you can slowdown, speed up, rewind, jump around to different chapters with the touch of a button. Put down that dog-eared text!

I've Got Rhythm

DVDs allow you to watch actions combined with timing and patter. Sorry but you can't effectively show timing with a book. Take Greg Wilson's Napkins Spongeball Routine from the On The Spot DVD. The performance shows Wilson repeatedly using misdirection on a spectator along with the clever vanish of the napkin balls during the "offbeat." Wilson confesses that he can't describe the maneuver using words. You could write a book on this technique but you would never learn it because you could never accurately describe the patter, eye contact, body position relative to the spectator, the arm and hand actions, the speed and the timing of the move.

Non-linear Thought

The thought process of writing is so different from the thought process of performing sleight of hand magic. There is no live person to react to in a book. There are no natural missteps that can be talked about and corrected. When you write a book, you've got to brake down so many little things into a linear set of steps.

The problem is that sleight of hand is not linear. You have multiple actions happening in concert to form an overall effect. When a magician authors a book or article on magic, the process takes him or her out of their element and into a flat, formless space.

I'm not suggesting we have a book burning. In fact, you'll get my Modern Coin Magic when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. However, some people need not defend magic books as the only method of learning with such a religous zeal. Other than person to person, a good DVD will always be a better way of learning a new school of magic.

Flame away my friends!