The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks-Cover - Umclidet

TAKE any court card face downward and place a sixpence on the
center of its back. Hold the coin firmly with the thumbs and press
firmly and evenly with the fingers from underneath all around the
card. The shape of the coin will be clearly impressed on the card, a
rim, imperceptible to the eye, being left on the face of the card.
The cards may be freely shuffled by a spectator and the prepared
card will pass unnoticed, yet you can find it instantly by squaring
the pack and cutting. After a card has been chosen simply cut at
the prepared card, have the selected card returned on top of the
lower half and drop the cut fairly and openly on top. You have
simply to square the pack, cut at the locator card and riffle shuffle,
leaving the chosen card at the top to be dealt with as you please.
Or you may hold the pack as for the Charlier Pass, relax the
pressure of the thumb and the pack will always break at the
prepared card.
Chapter Contents
The Fourteen Pack
R. W. Hull
THIS pack is so arranged that after a spectator has shuffled it
and then, while still retaining it, has thrust the Joker into it
anywhere, the cards above and below it, or the two cards above or
below, will always give a total of fourteen if their values are added
together.
The cards must first be set up, then their backs and faces
prepared. For the set-up make four piles of cards in order from A
to K with the suits well mixed in each pile. From the first draw out
the top and bottom cards, A and K, putting them together; then
the Q and 2, Jack, 3, 10 and 4 and so on. Each packet will give six
pairs totaling fourteen, and the four 7's making two more pairs
you will have twenty-six pairs with the Joker being the odd card.
Place the pack so arranged face down on a table. The back of the
top card must be polished and its face roughened: the second card
must have its back roughened and its face polished; the third,
back polished, face roughened, and so on throughout the pack.
Finally, roughen both sides of the Joker. For the process of
polishing see p. 95, for roughening p. 104.
A pack so arranged and prepared may be handed out to be
shuffled overhand without fear since the pairs cling together. If a
spectator prepares to dovetail shuffle, stop him under pretense of
not wishing to have the cards bent. Now if the Joker goes in
between two rough surfaces it will push the cards above and below
it out a little on the opposite side, in this case the card above it
and the card below will always total fourteen; but if it goes in
between two smooth cards, the two cards above or below will total
fourteen.
Whether all this trouble merely to force one number is worth while
is for the reader to decide for himself.
Chapter Contents
Telepathy?
EFFECT. The performer fans a borrowed pack of cards with the
faces towards himself. He borrows a pencil and puts any mark or
initial a spectator may call on one of the cards. He shuffles the
pack and asks the spectator to call the name of any card that
comes into his mind. He fans the pack, locates the card named
and hands it out. It bears the mark or initial that was called. No
other card in the pack bears any mark.
WORKING. This
depends on the use of a
'thumb writer'. The
borrowing of the
pencil, the pretended
writing and the return
of the pencil, merely
built up the effect
psychologically.
Nothing is written at
that time. The card is
marked at the moment
when it is found in the
fan and withdrawn
from the other cards.
Thumb writers of various kinds from the thumb-tip to the tiny
flesh-colored metal bands fitting over the ball of the thumb, can
be had from the magic dealers. Ingenious performers will find
many uses for this gimmick.
Chapter Contents
The Whispering Envelope
Jordan
TAKE an envelope of thin paper, insert a red card and show that
it is quite opaque. Return the card to the pack and have someone
shuffle it. Take the pack and count the cards to see that there are
fifty-two, but as you do so run all the red cards to the bottom.
Turn your back and holding the cards behind you spread the black
cards and have one freely chosen. Put the pack aside. Pick up the
envelope, hold it open, address side downwards and parallel with
the floor. Have the card inserted face down, press it well into the
lower left corner of the envelope, moisten the flap and fasten it.
Fold the right-hand end of the envelope over as far as it will go
and also the top. Let the spectator hold the envelope by the top
right-hand corner. Strike a match and set the lower left corner
alight, holding the match for an instant close to the corner when
the index of the card will clearly show to you.
When the envelope and the card are destroyed proceed to read
the person's mind with the usual hesitation, getting first the
colour, then the suit and finally the value.
Chapter Contents
Great Psychic Card Feat
THIS trick is purely bluff but with proper presentation can be
made very effective.
You require a red lead pencil and an exact imitation of it, made of
wood with the point painted red. Explain to a spectator that you
are going to have him mark a card under such conditions that he,
himself, will not know what card he marks. Take the red lead
pencil from your pocket and mark several small red crosses on a
piece of paper to show him what he is to do. Put the pencil back in
your pocket, and hand him a pack of cards in which you have
already marked a card with a small red cross. Have him shuffle the
cards and then hold them behind his back face up. Tell him to cut
the pack anywhere he pleases and, if he likes, to cut-the pack
again. Point out that neither he, nor anybody else can possibly
know the card now on top of the face-up pack. Take out the fake
pencil, hand it to him and tell him to put a small red cross on the
top card. Take back the pencil and put it in your pocket. Have him
cut the cards, turn them face down and shuffle them, then bring
the pack forward. You can pretend to look right through the cards
by par-optic vision and name the card with the red cross on it.
Having marked the card yourself you have no difficulty in naming
it. He searches the pack and finds that very card marked with a
red cross. Casually bring out the red lead pencil and leave it on
the table.
Chapter Contents
Card Stabbing
A CARD having been chosen, returned to the pack and the cards
shuffled, it is discovered by a stab with a dagger although the
cards after being scattered are covered with a newspaper.
The newspaper is prepared by having a duplicate of the card
concealed in a pocket made by pasting a duplicate piece of
newspaper over it. After the cards are spread on the table or floor,
lay the newspaper over them in such a way that the card pocket is
not directly over any of the cards. A blindfold is tied over your
eyes and the dagger is handed to you. Look down the sides of
your nose, locate the pocket and after moving the point over the
paper in gradually smaller and smaller circles, suddenly plunge it
through the paper and the concealed card. Take off the blindfold
and tear away the paper, destroying all evidence of the paper
pocket.
Chapter Contents
Miracle Card Location
Vernon
PUT a small quantity of gambler's daub, red or blue, on the flap
of your own card case in such a position that the case cannot be
opened naturally without some of the daub being smeared on the
thumb. Ordinary lipstick may be used for red cards, and eyeshadow,
the grease variety, for blue.
Hand the prepared case to a spectator to remove the cards. When
he pulls out the flap, a small quantity of daub will have been left
on the ball of his thumb, so stop him and suggest that he use his
own cards. Have him spread them in a row on the table, pick up
any card, note what it is, return it to the pack and shuffle the
cards as thoroughly as he likes. You leave the room as be does
this. On returning you locate the card easily by the daub mark on
the back. Use a small quantity of the daub, a few experiments will
quickly indicate the right amount.
Chapter Contents
Miracle Location Club Version
Vernon
A PREARRANGED pack and a small dab of gambler's daub on or
under a waistcoat button are required. To present the trick the
pack should be false shuffled and cut, or at least a series of
straight cuts made. Several spectators are allowed free selection
of cards but each time a card is drawn you make a light smear
with the daub taken on your second finger-tip from the waistcoat
button on the card above. Four or five cards may be taken and the
pack handed out for their return and shuffled as much as the
spectators wish.
To locate the cards you have merely to find the cards marked with
the daub and pick out, in each case, the card following it in the
system used. Place these cards face down on the table. When you
have them all, pick up the packet and hold it with the backs of the
cards to the spectators. The drawers are asked to call their cards
in turn and you pull each card slowly from the packet and show it.
The same system can be used effectively as a mediumistic stunt.
Chapter Contents
Telepathic Selection
James Maxwell--Magic Wand, March 1920
THIS is the first description of a carbon card and since the
invention has been claimed and sold by so many since the date it
appeared, this belated credit should be given.
To prepare, take a spare card,
either the Joker or the plain card
usually supplied with a pack. Soak
this for some time in water and
carefully peel off the back, then
dry it with blotting paper placed
between the leaves of a book to
keep it flat. Cut a piece of carbon
paper slightly smaller than the card
and gum this to the prepared back,
the tracing side outwards. Next
take a court card from any spare
pack and with a razor blade cut on
the line that encloses the picture
along the top and bottom and one
side, so that the center of the card
will open like a book, the uncut
left side acting as a hinge.
Paste the prepared back on top of this card, leaving the central
flap quite free. Fit a small piece of thin white paper between the
flap and the carbon sheet, adding a dot of gum at each corner.
This paper can be used for two cards but must be renewed for
each performance. This card is on the top of the pack which is
used as a rest when the name of the card thought of is written.
When you take the pack and run through the faces it is necessary
only to lift the flap and read the impression. The prepared card
can then be palmed and disposed of. Methods for using the card
are left to the reader.
Chapter Contents
Mental Masterpiece
Annemann
BUY a pack of
Bicycle Cards, the
case of which contains
a replica of the back
design of the cards.
Cut this out of the
case. Split one of the
cards and to its back
paste a piece of good black pencil carbon paper cut to size, the
prepared side of the carbon paper downwards. Paste around the
quarter-inch white edge of the cut-out card case and lay the
prepared carbon card on it. With the pack inside put the case
under heavy pressure to dry. To use this faked case put a card
with but few spots, such as one of the 2's, on the face of the pack
and put the pack in the case so that this card is next to the carbon
paper. Anything written on a piece of paper placed on the back of
the case will be reproduced by the carbon on the face of the top
card. The pencil used should be a hard one and not more than
three inches long so that the writer is induced to bear down
heavily.
To present the trick, or rather a trick, since the fake can be used
in many ways, invite a spectator to step forward. Tell him to
merely think of any card in the pack, he can change his mind as
often as he likes till he fixes definitely on one card. Merely as a
matter of precaution and as a means of helping him to concentrate
on the card, hand him a piece of paper and a pencil and ask him
to write the name of the card. Casually take the pack and place it
under the paper as a support. Turn away while the writing is done,
telling him to fold the paper and put it in his pocket. Take back the
case and the pencil and impress on the subject that he must
concentrate his thoughts on the card while you run through the
pack. Take this out with the cards facing you, read the impression
on the top card and after the proper amount of hesitation and
searching, take out the card and lay it face down on his
outstretched hand. Have him take out the paper and read the
name of the card then hold it up for all to see.
Chapter Contents
Automatic Second Deal
Vernon
TO ACHIEVE a perfect second deal, make a small hole in the
corner of a card at the point at which the ball of the thumb lies
when the pack is held in position for dealing, in the left hand. This
hole must be just large enough to allow part of the ball of the
thumb to touch the card below when the prepared card is placed
on the top of the pack. With the card thus placed the left thumb
can push off two cards evenly. The lower card is then pulled out by
the tip of the right second finger (the first finger acts as a shield)
and is seized between the thumb and second finger and dealt on
to the table, the left thumb simultaneously pulling back the
prepared card to the top. It is this pulling back of the top card that
makes the deal so deceptive.
To give a demonstration, have the faked card sixth from the top.
Turn up the inner index corner of the top card and miscall it as the
prepared card. Deal five cards very rapidly, then take off and show
the prepared card, covering the hole with the finger and thumb.
Replace it on top and say you will deal seconds again but more
deliberately, then deal as described above, throwing the cards face
down or face up as your fancy dictates and every now and then
showing the top card still in position. With a minimum of practice a
very convincing demonstration of second dealing can be made.
Chapter Contents
Magicardo
THIS trick is performed with a pack that has a hole cut
lengthwise through the center of the cards. The slit is about two
and a half inches long and about half an inch wide, so that a card
can be pushed through it if turned endwise. It is cut slightly nearer
to one end than the other. If the pack is set with all the slits
coinciding and one card is reversed the end of that card must
protrude slightly when the pack hangs on a ribbon passed through
all the slits. That is the secret.
When any card has been freely chosen, simply turn the pack round
before the card is replaced. Thread a ribbon through the slits,
throw a handkerchief over the pack and then give the two ends of
the ribbon to be held. The end of the chosen card will protrude
above the others. Reach beneath the covering and find the
protruding card, separate the pack at that point and push the card
right through the holes in the cards on one side of it or the other.
Push the pack together and bring the card out upright like the
others. Remove it from the ribbon and show that it is the chosen
card. The card may be marked and several may be used at once.
Chapter Contents
Stereotyped--Reading the
Cards
A SPECTATOR shuffles the cards and takes one. You feel it with
your hands behind your back to get the vibration? With a piece of
chalk you draw a correct picture of the card on a slate or
blackboard.
The cards are prepared beforehand by tracing the indices with
Carter's red ink for the red cards and any good black ink for the
black suits. You moisten the tip of right forefinger and when
pretending to feel the card simply press the finger-tip on the index
and so get an imprint of it. This can be read under cover of
handling the chalk if you finish the trick using a slate or a
blackboard.
Editor's Note--Dr. Bates of Freemont, Ohio, was the first to show
this trick. He used indelible blue and red pencils to trace the
indices.
Chapter Contents
Thought Card Discovered
Devant
INVITE a spectator to think of any card and then remove it from
the pack, put it face down on the table and spread a handkerchief
over it. While this is being done take a small black pin, which you
had placed beforehand in the lower edge of your waistcoat, and
hold it, point down, between the second and third fingers of your
right hand. Put this hand on the handkerchief just over the card,
place your left hand on top of your right and have the spectator
put his hands on top of yours. Telling him to concentrate his
thoughts on his cards. Push the pin into the top right-hand corner
of the card, which will raise a tiny lump on its face. Then let the
spectator replace the card in the pack and shuffle freely. Quietly
drop the pin on the carpet. Take the pack and deal the cards face
up, and when you reach the marked card, the tiny protuberance
can be felt by forefinger. Note what it is but go right on. Accuse
the spectator of not concentrating. Spread the cards face up,
grasp his hand and sweep the other hand over the line of cards.
Drop it dramatically on the chosen one.
Chapter Contents
Impromptu Detection
THIS trick had better be done with a pack of well-used cards.
After such a pack has been thoroughly shuffled take it and secretly
draw your thumb-nail obliquely across one side, leaving a
scratched line. Hand the pack to a spectator to cut the cards while
he decides on any number under twenty. He then deals cards face
down to that number, note the next card and replace the dealt
cards on top of it. Finally he is to cut the cards again so that all
possible trace of his operations is lost. This is all done while your
back is turned.
You locate the card by the scratch. When the spectator first cut
the pack, the line is divided into two parts. When he counts off a
number of cards their order is reversed and the scratch on their
edges will slant the opposite way. All you have to do is to see that
all the cards with the reversed slant are in the same group, cut at
lowest of these cards and the next card will be the one noted by
the spectator. You can learn its identity by cutting so that it is the
bottom card of the top half and sighting it as you riffle shuffle.
Reveal the card in any way you wish.
Chapter Contents
Nine In Ten Detection
MARK any card with a pencil dot on the top left corner and the
lower right corner. If you are working with a borrowed pack you
can do this during some previous trick in which you have had
occasion to turn your back.
Hand the pack to be thoroughly shuffled. Take it back and fan it,
faces of the cards to the front to show it well mixed, spot the
dotted card and cut to bring to the top. Divide pack and riffle
shuffle, sighting the bottom card of the left-hand portion and
letting it drop first, and retaining the marked card on top of the
pack. With the pack face down on your left hand, seize about half
the cards near their inner ends between the right thumb and
second finger, the forefinger pressing down on the middle, lift the
cards, giving the end of the packet a rather sharp squeeze and put
it on the table. Take the remainder in the same way and drop
them on top. Apparently you have made a simple cut, really you
have made a bridge at the inner end of the pack while the outer
ends of the cards lie flat.
Put the pack face down on your left hand and invite a spectator to
cut and note the card at the face of those taken off. He can only
cut at the ends and in all probability will cut at the bridge. If the
dotted card is at the top of those remaining in your left hand you
know he has cut at the card you sighted, so you hand these cards
to him and let him shuffle as much as he likes. You can reveal the
card as you wish. If, however, he cut at another point, let him put
his packet face down, yours going alongside it. Cut both packets,
yours at the crimp, and in putting them together, see that the
bottom part of his packet goes on top of the crimp, then cut at the
crimp for a riffle shuffle and sight his card in the action. You will
not often have to do this, however.
Chapter Contents
It's Up To You
THIS trick can be done with any pack. Have the cards shuffled by
a spectator, take them and under pretense of finding out if the
pack is complete, count the cards face down on the table. As you
deal the second, third and fourth cards press the nail of your
second finger on the face of each card near the top right-hand
corner. A slight lump will thus be made on the backs of these
three cards in just the position to be felt with the ball of the left
thumb in dealing the cards. After the count the three marked
cards will be second, third and fourth from the bottom.
Allow a card to be freely selected and noted. Put the pack on the
table, the chosen card is placed on top and the pack cut by the
spectator, burying it. Tell him to deal the cards one by one into
two, three, or four heaps as he pleases. Infallibly this will bring his
card above one of the marked cards. Let him look through the
packets and hand you the one containing his card, face down.
Pretending you have to know just how many cards are in the
packet, deal the cards face down. When you feel the lump you
know that the card just dealt is the chosen one. Count the number
of cards you deal on top of it and you know its exact position
enabling you to reveal it in any way you please. Present the trick
as being dependent on an intricate mathematical formula.
Chapter Contents
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