My Favorite Card Tricks: Dominic Twose

We asked some of magic's greatest minds to share with us their favorite card tricks. This week is the turn of Dominic Twose, one of Fred Robinson’s only pupils and author of the popular book Impromptu Secrets. Over to Dominic:

Colour Changes

Every card set I do starts with a set of colour changes. I’ve performed the same sequence for years. Two of the changes were developed by Fred Robinson; I’ve never seen anyone else do them, but they are fully described in his book and on my DVD. My thoughts on the colour changes are described in another blog on this site, so check it out. Or not. I forgot to mention one hugely important aspect in the blog - a major advantage of this routine is that you don’t need a surface, so you can perform it under any conditions.

Cards Across

As a teenager I saw Johnny Paul on Paul Daniels’ TV show perform the cards across. It blew me away. Over time I worked out what I thought was his method. It was so ballsy, it took me a long time, and an occasion where people had drunk too much alcohol, to try it out. It got the best reaction of any trick I’d ever performed. With that reaction, I performed it whenever I could, until eventually I could do it when everyone was sober. It was my introduction to misdirection. Eventually I got to see a video of Johnny Paul’s handling – it was very different! Eventually I published my handling in Impromptu Secrets.

Spectator Cuts the Aces

There are many, many ways of producing the Aces, some flashier than others. For my character I’ve always preferred to let the spectator cut to the Aces. There are many great ways of doing this too, but I developed my handling years ago and am really happy with it, it is so clean. I follow it with a sequence of tricks with the Aces, which, depending on circumstances, may include Robinson’s handling of Daley’s Last Trick, my handlings of the Ace Assembly plot and the Christ Ace trick, and a wonderful effect by Giobbi, The Knowledgeable Cards. Again, my handling is in Impromptu Secrets.

There are other tricks I perform just as often as these – such as Carlyle’s Homing Card, Ambitious Card and The Changing Card - but they tend to be well known.