Two Eds are Better Than One: Volume Five

March, Vol. 2

When I got near the end of my reading for March, I came across an effect I liked a lot, "Clipped Card to Case."

Effect

John and Marsha each select a card. You take them and "lose" them in the deck. You ask John to name his card. You lift the face-down deck a few inches above the table and drop it. John's card appears face up on the top. Marsha now names her card. You find it in the card case.

Method One

The card case should be to your left. The flap should be pointing away from you, opening upwards.

Marlo presents three methods for this effect. The first one doesn't work. Neither of the next "methods" shows how you get the initial conditions necessary to perform the trick. The fix for Method One is easy.

Control the two selections to the top.

Do triple turnover to apparently show an X card on top.

Turn the face of the deck toward the spectators, so they can see an X card on the bottom.

With the deck still facing the spectators, it's easy to get a break for the ensuing double lift by lifting the triple with your right thumb and letting one card spring off.

Push the double a bit to the right. Take it near the top right corner with your index and middle finger on the face, and the thumb on the back and do a stud-type double turnover. Lower the deck back to a horizontal position. At this point, Marlo says the top card is an X card. It's not; it's the second selection. Marlo wants us to take the top card and bury it in the deck. We must change his procedure a bit.

The simplest is to just do a second deal, show the card is the X card, and bury it. If you take a break under the double as you complete step 5, it's easy to do a push-off second deal.

However, as you've just gone to the trouble of "proving" you haven't gotten their card to the top, why ditch the top card? Might someone think, "What's the top card now?" I'll get back to this after I finish describing the method.

Immediately after pushing the top card into the deck, use your left thumb to upjog the top card a bit—just enough to clip the upper right corner of the card between the ring and little fingers. Get the little finger as far under the top card as possible. The tip of your right middle finger should go to the upper left corner, essentially lateral palming the card while it's on top of the deck. (Marlo's instructions tell you to clip the card between the middle and ring fingers. I found this too difficult, hence my modification.)

Hold the deck about 6" above the table, being careful to keep it parallel. Ask John to name his card. When he does, snap your left fingers over the top of the deck and simultaneously drop the deck—the top card will instantly change from a face-down card to John's face-up selection. Move both hands to the table edge (better to conceal the clipped card) as you lean forward to look at the change.

Pause a beat, and move your left hand to the rear of the card case. Your right hand, sliding on the base of the little finger and palm, moves to the front of the card box and slides the clipped card underneath the card case as the right fingers move to open the flap of the case. When the case is opened, the right thumb enters the case; the right fingers, under the case, support the card as the right hand draws the card from under the case and the right thumb appears to pull the card out. The illusion of the card coming from the case is perfect.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no reason to show the top card and bury it into the deck. As Marlo mentions in his discussion of methods two and three, what is required to make this trick work is to get the two selections to the top of the deck, with the second card reversed.

In his explanation of his next two methods, Marlo just starts with the two cards already in position. I assume he realized that he couldn't come up with a method for getting there that was any better than he used in Method One.

A KM move would easily reverse the second card, but I think it's harder to justify than what Marlo used in Method One. If anyone has a better idea, please leave it in the comments.

April, Vol 2.

In April I found a trick that I liked—much to my surprise. The effect is hardly unusual; it is a two-card transposition. The method would probably have fooled me had I not already read it. The surprise was it used a method I previously abhorred, although I knew I was being irrational.

The method that I have always avoided is "Tilt." When I first became aware of it, I couldn't imagine being able to fool anyone with it. Over the years, I was fooled by it several times, but I attributed that to superior skill on the part of the magician that fooled me. Eventually, it occurred to me that I might be mistaken about my evaluation of that sleight.

I almost missed this trick, as it takes only one-third of a page to describe. On learning it, I happened to remove the Queen of Hearts. As I looked at it, I immediately envisioned the "hook" I would use as I performed the trick.

Tilt and KM Move Transpo

The hook that I decided on for the trick was to do it for my wife—and possibly for married couples I was friends with. So, to begin…

Method (as performed for your wife)

With the deck face up, remove the Queen of Hearts as you explain, "When I was a young man, I was looking for a woman to spend the rest of my life with."

Put the Queen on the table, in front of you.

Spread the deck and look for one of the black Jacks. Say, "I got the impression you were looking for the same thing." Put the Jack face up on the face of the deck. As you square the deck, get a "Tilt" break under the Jack.

Pick up the queen, turn it face down as you say, "The idea of a soulmate seemed unlikely to me, but I kept it as a special one—so it would always be easy to find." With that, put the Queen face down into the Tilt break (apparently into the middle of the deck). As you square the deck, get a pinky break under the face-down Queen.

You will now switch the Jack for the Queen with a move Marlo calls the "KM Move with Reverse Fingering." (Harry Lorayne calls it the "Illogical Double Lift." I think it's the better name.) Push the double to the right with your left thumb at the left side of the double. Take it with the right fingers and move it so its left side is touching the right side of the deck. Now raise the right side of the double, as if you are about to turn it over bookwise onto the deck, but don't turn it more than 15 – 20 degrees. At the same time, turn the left hand palm-down, on top of the double, so that the queen is at the bottom.

With the left hand still palm down, move it towards your wife and use your left thumb to push the bottom face-down Queen in front of her.

Briefly take the deck into your right hand, so that you can take it back into a left-hand mechanic's grip. Then cut a couple of small packets from the top to the bottom to centralize the reversed card.

Say, "After a few dates, I realized that I was the man you were looking for." Spread the cards, to show the face-up Jack. "And I also realized that you were, and will always be, the Queen of my heart." Indicate that she should turn her card over, for the big finish.

If you wish to do this for a married couple, I'm sure you'll be able to adjust the patter, so it still entertains.