My Favorite Card Tricks: Michal Kociolek

We asked some of magic's greatest minds to share with us their favorite card tricks. Well, Michal is not one of them, but we're such nice guys (and he actually knows a thing or two about cards - see some of the work Michal released here), we decided to give him a chance to share his three favorite card tricks. It's a one-off, and next time we'll be hosting a true artist in the magic field! Over to Michal:

HANDS-OFF MIRACLE
I'm a big fan of magic that happens out of the performer's hands. There are quite a few tricks of that kind spread around the magic literature, although many of them might feel a bit too procedural (and those tricks are usually my own).

But, if you want one of the most clean, direct, and fooling hands-off tricks that exist, one trick comes to my mind immediately – Denis Behr's “The Dark Force” from his wonderful Handcrafted Card Magic - Volume 3. It's worth the price of the whole book, and you get so much more.

An honorable mention goes to So Sato's Bath “Towel Mentalism” from his The Secrets of So Sato, written by Richard Kaufman. It's such a fooler! Be sure to check it out as well.

COLOR CHANGING DECK
A sandwich trick with a color changing deck surprise? What's not to like? Doug Conn's “Chameleon Sandwich” from Tricks of my Trade — The Magic of Doug Conn, written by Paul Cummins is such an underrated, hidden gem. This can be your new close-up closer, it's that strong (and oh so easy!). So, don't wait, get Joshua Jay's PRISM Deck and give this one a go!

An honorable mention goes to Darwin Ortiz's “Greek Poker” from Darwin Ortiz At the Card Table. It's a super strong routine, but it's not the easiest (compared to it, Doug's trick is practically self-working), but if a strip-out shuffle with block transfer is your thing, you will love it. (Although Doug's book is out of print and might be hard to obtain, you can still get his 2-DVD set directly from him here.

THINK OF A CARD
This is probably my favorite plots, and there is so much great stuff out there! That was a hard one, but here it goes. If you're a memorized deck user, you probably know this one already. But if you're still deciding between the Aronson or the Tamariz stack, this trick is literally worth putting the work into memorizing one. (And it's stack-independent, so make up your mind already!)

The trick I'm talking about is Steve Ehler's “Three Card Location”. All I can say is WOW. First published in Allan Ackerman's Las Vegas Kardma, can be also found in Andrew Wimhurst's Jiggery Pokery.

An honorable mention goes to a trick from one of the sexiest men I know – it's Ben Train's “The Trinity Concept” from Anteater Consortium. It's a three card location that doesn't use a memorized deck, which will also fool the pants out of any pants- wearers!