Discoverie 1C I(arl Issue No. 1

John Scarne Power Play This is a version of a classic match- ing effect with cards. The trick is something of a curiosity in that the magician doesn't know how the trick is done until the spectator tells him how it's done.Two royal flushes are removed from the deck. The magician arranges one poker hand in a certain order. The spectator ar- ranges the other in a random order. As the cards in the two hands are turned up, it is seen that they match card for card all the way through.

Tricks of this kind are usually pat- terned after Hen Fetch's "Symbo- logic," and almost always make use of an extra card and the one-ahead (or one-behind) principle. The fol-

lowing trick does not use extra cards or the one-ahead principle.

Here, the only cards in play are the two poker hands. There are no extra cards, no one-ahead, and no gim-

micks or preparation. All cards are in view at all times.

Use any deck. Explain to the specta-tor that you want to use two royalflushes of the same color. Ask him toname either red or black. Say hechooses black. Remove the royal flushin spades. Don't concern yourselfwith the order of the cards in the roy-al flush. Just remove the five cards asyou get to them and drop them into aface-down heap on the table.

Then remove the other same-colorroyal flush, in this example clubs.Drop them into a face-up heap on thetable but here you must rememberthe order of the cards. Just rememberthe values as you drop them to thetable. Say the order is A J-10-Q Kfrom back to face. Turn this heapface-down.

Remark that good poker players de-velop the skill of anticipating how theother fellow is going to act. As yousay this, pick up the royal flush inspades and arrange these cards inidentically the same order as the clubgroup, in this case A J-10-Q K fromtop to bottom. Square the spadeflush, turn it face-down and drop iton the table in front of you.

As yet you don't know how the trick

is going to proceed, but the spectator is a-bout to inform you of the procedure. Pickup the club flush. Hold it from above withthe left hand in Biddle grip. Explain that youare going to deal his cards into a row on thetable in a sequence that he dictates.

Ask him if he wants the top or bottom card.If he says top, deal the top card to the table,face-up, at your far left. For his secondchoice, ask him if he wants the top or bot-tom card. Say he wants the bottom card.Openly remove this card and place it face-upon the table to the right of the first card.

Proceed in like manner with each of the re-maining three cards. Say the spectator pickstop-bottom-top. Simply remember the se-quence that the spectator chose for the fivecards, in this case top-bottom-top-bottom-top. Of course the last is always `top ' since itis a single card.

There are now five club cards in a face-uprow on the table.

Pick up the spade flush. Hold it in left handdealing grip. Deal these cards from left toright under the spectator ' s cards, but in do-ing so, follow the instruction the spectatorj ust gave you. In this case, deal a top, then abottom, then a top, then a bottom, and thenthe last card. Of course, from the audienceview, you are merely dealing the five cards inorder from the top of the packet. Deal yourcards from left to right directly under thespectator 's cards.

There are now two rows of cards on thetable, a row of face-up clubs and a row offace-down spades.

Point to the leftmost face-up card. It is anace. Turn up the leftmost card in the mag-ician's row. It is a matching ace. Repeat thisprocedure from left to right, showing a per-fect match on every card.

Scarne 's bottom deal for a small packet is de-scribed in Swindle Sheet #8 (1991). An ultra-simple bottom deal for a small packet was in-vented by Neal Elias and will be described inthe next issue of Discoverie.

Martin GardnerShortArmed

(This strange little stunt has seen print in anon-magic book, but is not well-knownamong magicians. It is ideal for those occa-sions when the goal is to put someone in atemporary trance state for the performanceof an offbeat magical effect. While in thetrance state, the person 's arms are shorter! )

Tell a person to stand in front of a wall andstretch out both arms until the fingertipstouch the wall. Say you will now shorten hisarms. Ask him to put his arms behind hisback for about a minute, then reach out totouch the wall again. His fingertips are now afew inches away from the wall. I think it

's a

matter of suggestion. At the start he stretcheshis arms hard. The second time he doesn 'tstretch so hard. Anyway, it 's a strange effect.

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Karl Fulves

F0fl0iThis is a Follow The Leader effect which iseasy to perform. The only move is a virtuallyautomatic double lift early on. Thereafter theroutine is self-working. A novel angle in thisapproach is that reds and blacks are in ran-dom order at the start, but when they followthe leader cards, they do so in numerical or-der. This does not necessarily add to themagical content, but the strict numerical or-der lends an air of inevitability to the effectseen by the audience.

With the faces of the cards toward you, re-move any red ace thru five in mixed suits.Arrange them in the order 2-A-3-5-4 fromthe top down. Place this packet face-downon the table.

Arrange five blacks in the same 2-A-3-5-4 or-der.

Turn the black packet face-down and place itin left hand dealing grip.

Drop the red packet on top of the black pac-ket but establish a left fourth finger breakunder the red packet.

You will now do a variation of a Horowitzdisplay to show each of the five red cards.The right hand moves to a position over the

Ordecapacket in the left hand. The right hand takesthe top card by the ends. turns palm-up toshow the face (deuce), and turns palm-downagain. The right hand moves to a positionover the left-hand packet again. The rightthumb picks up the next card and adds it un-der the deuce. There are two cards in theright hand at this point. Turn the right handpalm-up to show the ace. Then turn theright hand palm-down again.

The right hand picks up the 3-spot and dis-plays it. Then the right hand turns palm-down.

The handling changes at this point. Theright hand picks up both cards above thebreak, turns palm-up to show the face of the4-spot, and turns palm-down again.

The right hand returns to the left-hand pack-et, drops the four-spot on the packet and im-mediately turns palm-up to show the five-spot.

The right hand, now holding four cards,turns palm-down and drops this packet onthe table in front of you.

Flip the left-hand packet face-up. Spread thefour face cards to the right to show fiveblacks. Square this packet and drop it face-down onto the tabled packet of reds. The or-der of the cards from the to down is red 4 -five blacks- four reds. From this point thehandling of the trick is automatic.

Deal the top five cards in a heap to the right.Deal the remaining five cards in a heap tothe left.

Turn up the top card of each packet. Each

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of these cards is a five-spot. Place them abovetheir respective heaps.

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Pick up a four-card packet in each hand.Openly exchange them. Slide out the bottomcard of each packet. Touch them to their re-spective indicators and turn them face-up.The card on the left is the red four. Place iton the red five. The card on the right is theblack four. Place it on the black five.

Exchange the packets. Take the top card ofeach. Touch these cards to their respectiveindicators and turn them face-up. Place thered three on the face-up reds, the black threeon the face-up blacks.

Exchange the packets. Take the top card ofeach heap. Touch them to their respectiveindicators. Shake your head. "These aren ' tready to go yet." Place the left-hand card tothe left side, the right-hand card to the rightside.

The face-down heaps have been reduced to asingle card in each. Openly exchange them.Touch them to the indicator heap and turnthem face-up to reveal the twos.

Pick up the cards placed aside. Exchangethem. Touch them to the indicators and turnthem face-up to reveal the aces.

The starting point for the move described atthe beginning of this routine is the Horowitz"Put Back Move" in The Pallbearers Review,pg. 456. At the end of that write-up is a noteon an application to a Follow The Leaderroutine, and "Following Orders" is the rou-tine in question. My application is to a dis-placement of a single card during a one-at-a-time display, though it should be obviousthat the idea can be expanded into other ar-eas.

Ed Marlo had a switchless switch that ac-complished a swithout of cards. Ken Bealehad a one-at-a-time display that used a relat-ed technique to conceal the fact that onecard in a group was double-faced, or that onecard in a group had a stranger back.

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The deck is then spread face-down betweenthe hands. The spectator indicates two morecards. These are outjogged. When turnedface-up, they may be a one and a nine. Heshould be nonplused because he was indeedborn on the 19th of March.

You know the spectator was born on the19th, so beforehand remove any ace and any9, and place them on top of the deck. That isthe preparation.

To present the trick, spread the cards face-up, keeping the top two cards concealedfrom view. Ask him to indicate which monthhe was born in. Remove a card whose valuecorresponds to the month, i.e., any 3-spot ifhe was born in the third month of the year.

Square the deck, turn it face-down andspread the cards between the hands. Havehim indicate two cards. Outjog them forabout a third of their length. Square the deckside for side and place it in left hand dealinggrip.

Now then. Start to remove one of the out-jogged cards by bringing the right hand ar-ound to the front of the deck. The back ofthe hand is toward the audience and acts as a

screen. The left forefinger pushes the lowerof the two outjogged cards flush with thedeck. At the same time, the right thumbpulls the top card of the deck straight for-ward, off the deck, and turns this card face-up. Drop it to the table.

Only one outjogged card shows, reinforcingthe idea that the first outjogged card washonestly taken. Repeat the above action tosimulate the take of the other outjoggedcard. Arrange them in proper order and askthe spectator if this perchance corresponds tohis date of birth.

DB credits the basic idea to Victor Comello.The above write-up is from notes of 1979.

Darren BradleyQuick Predict

Somewhere along the way Mr. Bradley musthave won a Nerves of Steel contest because ittakes a certain deep courage to get away withsomething like this. You must know thespectator's date of birth before you start.Without revealing this knowledge, ask forthe month he was born. He says March.March is the third month, so a three spot isremoved from the deck and placed face-upon the table.

Cold CashFor this little known bet a spectator isasked to close his eyes and hold hishands palm up. A coin is balanced onhis right forefinger and another on hisleft. He is asked to guess which coin isheavier. After he makes his guess, heopens his eyes and discovers that al-though one coin appears to be decided-ly heavier, the coins are in fact identi-cal in weight.

Beforehand, put a quarter on an icecube so as to make the coin cold. Havethe spectator close his eyes and extendhis hands. Balance this coin on thespectator's forefinger, and anotherquarter on his other forefinger.

The cold coin appears to be muchheavier.

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WaltRolbne &Howazd Wiast

Han Pink CheatAccording to Bobo 's Coin Magic, the HanPing Chien move was introduced to the ma-gic fraternity in 1914 (though it is said thatthe move dates back to an earlier era.) Thefollowing trick is a nearly self-working ver-sion.

Needed are two paper cups, six coins and aring. It adds to the atmosphere if coins andring are exotic in appearance, though neithercoins nor ring are gimmicked.

One of the paper cups is gimmicked. Thebottom has been removed. Nest this cup intothe other cup. Drop the coins inside anddrop the ring on top of all.

Remark that you found a strange ring in anantique shop. Pour coins and ring onto thetable. Lift out the inner (bottomless) cup andhold it in the left hand. The left little fingeris curled under the cup. Put the other cup onthe table.

Drop three coins into the ungaffed cup.Drop the other three coins into the bottom-less cup. Drop the ring on top of all. Thecoins and ring stay put because the little fin-ger acts as a stop.

"The coins follow the ring." Grasp the un-gaffed cup with the right hand.

The left hand lifts its cup, Figure 1. The lefthand then dumps its coins onto the table atthe exact, spot occupied by the right-handcup. Just as the coins and ring leave the left-hand cup, the right hand lifts its cup out ofthe way, Figure 2.

Place the left hand cup on the table. Dropthe three visible coins back into the left handcup. Drop the ring into the right-hand cup.Pick up the right-hand cup with the righthand. You are now at the position of Fig. 3.

The right fingers squeeze the cup. This willkeep the three coins in place inside the cup.Pretend to dump the coins and ring onto thetable at the exact spot occupied by the left-hand cup. As this is done, the left hand liftsits cup out of the way, Figure 4.

Place the right-hand cup on the table. Gath-er the three coins and drop them into thecup.

Slip the ring onto the right forefinger. "Thecoins follow the ring. Watch." Wave the fin-ger over the left-hand cup. Then drop thering into the right-hand cup.

Pause for dramatic effect. Then crumple theleft-hand cup. At the same time dump all sixcoins and the ring out of the right-hand cup.

This is a gag that can be used to open a close-up performance with a group oflaymen. Needed is a blank card about the size of a business card. If none isavailable, one can use a piece of paper. The card is placed before a lady who isseated at the table. The writing on the top of the card says, "Please turn meover." She does. The writing on the other side says, "Thank you." It's just sillyenough to guarantee a laugh.

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. Karl Fulves

ATheoryof Space(When The Book of Numbers was in prepara-tion, several of the tricks were demonstratedfor Harvey Rosenthal. He remarked that themove associated with "A Theory of Space"and related material was similar to somethingTom Ellis had worked out. Since the Ellismove wasn't yet in print, I delayed publica-tion of this trick. The Ellis move was de-scribed in "Super Rise " in The Pallbearers Re-view, pg. 721.)

"The theory of space says that two objectscan't occupy the same space at the sametime. If you have had the experience of hav-ing your mother-in-law move in with you,I'm sure you will agree that there are excep-tions to the theory. This is another excep-tion."

You then do the trick where your predictioncard, placed at a precise location in the deck,turns out to be a card later chosen by thespectator at that same location.

Use any deck. Take a card from the deck,butdon't show its face. "This is a prediction ofsorts. I'm going to reverse it and place it at aprecise location in the deck." Place the deckand the prediction card below the level of thetabletop.

With the cards out of the view of the audi-ence, turn the prediction card face-up andinsert it just above the bottom card of thedeck.

As you square it into the deck, obtain a breakabove this card. Thus, you are holding a leftlittle finger break above the bottom twocards as the deck is brought into view.

The left thumb riffles to the midpoint of thedeck. Lift this packet off with the right handand place it on the table.

Ask for a number from 1 to 10. Say that 5 isnamed. Grip the cards from above with theright hand. The right thumb takes over thebreak. The left thumb pulls 4 cards off intothe left palm. The 5th card is flipped face-upand outjogged, Figure. 1. The right handmoves to a position over the chosen card.The right middle finger pushes the chosencard out a bit more, Fig. 2A. At the sametime, release the two cards below the break.

The left hand turns palm-down, a kind ofwrist-turn action below the right-hand pack-et. The left first finger pulls the chosen cardflush with the packet, Figure 2B. The sup-posed chosen card is then thumbed off ontothe table, Figure 2C.

This next adds to the deception. Turn bathhands palm-up as you say, "You chose thenumber five and the two of hearts." Turn theright hand palm-down and drop its packetface-down onto the left-hand packet.

There is a packet of cards sitting on the tablethat you placed there at the beginning of thetrick. Drop this packet onto the supposedchosen card.

"I too chose a number. My number also hap-pened to be five." Turn the packet in handface-up. Count four cards to the table. The5th card is seen to be face-down.

"And I too picked a card. I chose my cardbefore you chose yours, but it turns out that

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I too chose the two of hearts." Turn theface-down card over to reveal the 2H.

Of course the audience suspects there isanother 2H at the bottom of the half-deckon the table. If they don't grab those cards,the clean-up will nullify suspicion. Dropthe face-up packet in hand onto the face-up cards on the table. Then pick up theother half deck, turn it face-up and drop iton top of all.

A transposition can be achieved with nochange in handling. Pick a prominent cardlike the ace of spades. Show it and remarkthat you will place it in a precise locationin the deck.Lower the deck below the levelof the tabletop. Insert the AS face-up abovethe bottom card. Bring the deck into view.

Go thru the handling of "A Theory ofSpace" just as written. The transposition isautomatic.

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Torn Sellers

The Finder Pencil(One of the challenging problems in magic isto cause mysterious movement of an inani-mate object. Tom Sellers invented a methodthat is impromptu, uses borrowed objects,and gets the job done in a most convincingmanner.)

This is designed to pick out a certain card, ora number, from a row placed on the table.This pencil makes the discovery in a mysteri-ous manner.

Required: A pencil and a ring, the ring beingabout one inch in diameter.

Method: Lay out the cards in a row on thetable. Now slip the pencil through the ringin such a manner that the pencil is supportednear one end by leverage. Hold the ring bythe first finger and thumb as shown in thedrawing.

You can now make the pencil point to aforced card, or any card named. If you raisethe thumb slightly the pencil will sway to theright; if you raise the forefinger slightly, thepencil will swing to the left. With practiceyou will be able to make the pencil move toany point desired with accuracy that seemsuncanny. The slightest movement of the fin-ger and thumb causes the pencil to swaybackwards and forwards.

(Joseph Schmidt adds that the trick worksperfectly with a round pencil and a weddingband. The direction of movement can bechanged by gently blowing on the pencil.Try it with other objects, i.e., three padlocksand a skeleton key that opens only one lock,or three pieces of paper and a pen that picksout the dead-name paper. It takes a minuteto get the knack, but the spooky effect thuscreated is well worth the effort. KF)

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The Black SoxScandal

Baseball's Black Sox achieved fame throughsuperior play, and notoriety through the rev-elation that some games were fixed.

As you provide background on the scandal,remove 12 reds and 11 blacks from the deck.The balance of the deck is not used. Don'tcall attention to the number of cards taken.Ask a spectator to shuffle the packet.

Take back the packet. Deal 10 cards off thetop (again, without calling attention to theexact number). Ask the spectator to sort redsfrom blacks. Say there are 6 reds.

The new situation is shown in the second il-lustration. Pick up heap #3 and count onlythe number of red cards. Say this number isthree. "The Red Sox scored three runs. " Pickup heap #4. Count the number of blacks."The Black Sox scored four runs, so theywon by one run."

Use a black marker to write on a piece of pa-per that the Black Sox won the first game byone run. Make the writing large and clear soit is easily seen by the audience. This com-pletes the first round of play between the twoteams.

The two heaps are shown in the first illustra-tion. "The number of cards in each heap in-dicate the number of hits each team got. Inthis case the Red Sox got six hits. The morehits a team gets, the more chances they haveto score runs."

Deal a heap below heap #1 that contains asmany cards as are in heap #1.In this case, thenew heap will contain six face-down cards.Put the balance of the cards below heap #2.

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The Second Round of PlayHave the 21 cards shuffled by the spectator.Deal eleven cards to the table without callingattention to the number of cards dealt.

Follow the format of the first round exactlyas written. All is the same except the out-come: the second game will have been playedto a draw, both teams scoring the same num-ber of runs.

The Third Round of PlayHave the 21 cards gathered and shuffled.This time deal a heap of twelve cards. Theprocedure is the same, but the outcome isdifferent. This time the Red Sox will havewon by one run.

TheScandalEverything appears to be fair. Each team haswon a game, and one game was played to atie. This is about what one would expect in asituation involving approximately the samenumber of reds and blacks- a fifty-fifty splitin the outcome.

"But a piece of paper was found in the pos-session of a bookie who bet heavily on theseries. That piece of paper is what broughtabout the scandal because every game wasfixed." Remove a piece of paper from thecard case. The wording is shown below andis always the same. (KF)

"Bet the Black Sox +0 winthe first gable. The secondgalre is a tie. Red Sox win9arie num6er three."

HowardAdams

NuTriple Basic

(This clever trick appears in Mr. Adams' ex-cellent series, Mindespa.)Arrange a packet of mixed suits in the order6-A-4-7-3-8-5-2. The ace will count as onein the following trick.

The Lady cuts the packet, completes the cut,picks packet up and holds it face down. Sheturns the top two cards face up as a unit andleaves them face up on top of the packet.

Since card values will be added, the Ladyprograms the word ADD into the packet byspelling A-D-D aloud, moving a card fromtop to bottom of packet as each letter is recit-ed. The Lady then does the Down UnderDeal to 2 cards which she retains sight un-seen.

Man picks up the `Down' pile, holds it facedown, and does the Down Under Deal to 2cards which he retains.

A Third Party picks up the `Down' pile,holds it face down, and does the Down Un-der Deal to 2 cards, which he retains.

You now pick up the `Down ' pile (2 cards),turn the pair face up and show that they total9. Each pair of Lady's, Man 's and Third Par-ty 's cards will also total to 9.

(In this trick, where the spectator "does theDown Under Deal to 2 cards," what ismeant is that the spectator eliminates cardsvia the down/under deal until just two cardsremain in the hand. KF)

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In its ten-issue run, Discoverie will featurecards, coins, mentalism and close-up magic.On this go-round I had hoped to make useof color and graphics in different ways, butthe balance sheet still dictates otherwise: Fora publication that does not take advertising,the cost is prohibitive.

The larger magazines attract numerous read-ers who are drawn to non-trick material likeconvention coverage, advertisements andtrick reviews. Publications like Discoveriestand or fail solely on the basis of the qualityof the tricks they are able to deliver. For thisreason, contributions from readers are wel-come and necessary.

Before there were teaching videotapes in ma-gic, there were teaching films. Commentingon the subject in the April 1949 issue of TheSphinx Wilfrid Jonson wrote, "Instructionalfilms will, at least, be a boon to those unableto read. " Watching youngsters seated at acomputer, their eyes fastened to the monitorscreen, one is inclined to ask if what they arelearning is mainly how to play solitaire. It isthe same with instructional videos; whateverthe merits of teaching tapes, they cannotmatch the interaction one achieves with per-sonal instruction.

The two agents on The X-Files charged withinvestigating strange doings represent the

dual nature of the investigative process. Hefavors supernatural causes, while she looksfor more rational explanations. In a review ofAnne Simon's book on the science behindThe X Files, Jerry Coyne wrote in the 10-10-99 NY Times, " I worry that the show 's pref-erence for the supernatural will feed the pub-lic penchant for the occult at the expense ofscience. Simon rejects this notion, claimingthat The X Files attracts students to science.Well, maybe, but how many budding UriGellers must we endure for each youngPasteur?" Geller was interviewed on the 10-19-99 tv show Entertainment Tonight. Heblames his loss of fame on his failure to bendspoons on the Johnny Carson show 25 yearsago. A new sensation comes along everytwenty years or so. Who will be next?

As we enter the new millennium, it mightbe appropriate to point out that some-thing is happening to Magic, that it ischanging from within, in directions neveranticipated, toward ends as yet undefined.

Karl FulvesBox 433

Two NJ07666

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Don NielenDrop Ceiling

A card is chosen and returned to the deck.The magician says that he 's been practicingthe famous trick where the deck is thrownupward and the chosen card ends up on theceiling. He still has a way to go, but he willgive it a try. So saying, he performs the wa-terfall shuffle, except that the palm-up handsprings the deck upwards in a vertical showerabout a foot in the air. The cards flutter tothe floor without touching the ceiling.

"That's what I mean. I have a ways to go,an-other few feet as a matter of fact." So say-ing, he raises his hand and removes the cho-sen card from the top of his head!

Method: Although a gag, the effect is puz-zling. What it comes down to is a force of,say, the ace of spades. There is a duplicateace of spades on top of the head from thestart. It is held in place with double-sidedtape or other stickum. The rest is build-upand presentation.

A friend wanted to do this trick but was hes-itant about the fact that one of the cards onthe floor was a duplicate of the card produc-ed from the top of the head. I suggested thathe spring the deck, look ceilingward, shakehis head, then say, "I carry a back-up for sit-uations like this."

A second deck is taken from the pocket (theduplicate ace of spades from this deck is thecard on top of the magician's head). Springthis deck into the air. Still no luck, but all isnot lost. Pluck the ace of spades from the topof the head.

Examination of the cards scattered about thefloor reveal no clue as to method.

Mich e1 EspositoTwo ofYou

You need two pocket dictionaries and twoshuffled decks of number cards. Ask Debbieto pick three cards from one of the numberdecks. Look over the cards, decide that twoof them are not likely choices, and discardthem by putting them into an envelope. Sayto Debbie, "I think your friend is going topick this card. Please remember the num-ber." Say the number is 23. This card alsogoes into the envelope.

Lisa looks at the top card of the other shuf-fled deck and opens a dictionary to thatpage. Debbie picks up the other dictionaryand opens it to the randomly chosen page, inthis case page 23.

Lisa reads aloud the first word on her chosenpage. Debbie reads aloud the first word onhu chosen page. Both words are the same.

Method: Have both number decks shuffledand placed on the table alongside one anoth-er. Pick up deck #1 and ask Debbie to chosethree cards. Return the deck to the table.

Take the three cards, pretend to study them,and put two of them into the envelope. Thethird card might bear the number 23. Slidethis card face-down into the envelope. Un-known to all but you is the fact that the en-velope is a slit envelope. The chosen cardgoes into the envelope and outside the slit,where it is dropped onto deck #2.

Hand Debbie one of the dictionaries. Haveher open it to the page indicated by hernumber card. Ask Lisa to look at the top cardof the second deck and open her dictionaryto that page. Each calls out the first word onthe page. They call out the same word.

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