"SAFE" STRAIGHT TRIUMPH

George Graham first saw this effect performed by Frank Garcia at NYCAN '89 in Buffalo, N.Y. A version later appeared in John Bannon's Impossibilia (L&L Publishing;1990). In the version presented here, all sleights, crimps, peeks, etc. have been eliminated and a pseudo-mentalism patter substituted.

EFFECT: A shuffled deck is shown and a card is selected from it. The deck is then cut into four piles which are shuffled together in a face up/face down manner. The performer is then able to determine the color and suit of the chosen card: when the deck is ribbon spread, ONLY the cards of the suit of the selected card are seen to be face up....and in sequential order!

SET-UP: Top to bottom of face-down deck.... Hearts, in order, from Ace to King; Six of Clubs (which has been corner shortened) and the remainder of the deck.

PRESENTATION: Ribbon spread face down deck from your right to left. Turn over entire ribbon spread and scoop the now face-up deck with your left as well as right hand. Show the face up cards commenting that they are well shuffled. Turn the deck face down and have a card (from the top 13) selected.

Holding the face down deck in your left hand, riffle the inner corner upward with your right thumb until you hit the shortened card. Cut off the packet ABOVE the shortened card and place it face down to your right. Cut three more packets of about the same size and place them in a row to the left of the first one. The packets are now on the table in this order....4---3---2---1.

Comment about creating a "mess" as you turn packet #2 face up and riffle shuffle it into packet #1. Ribbon spread these cards to show an actual face up/face down mixture has resulted. Turn this entire packet over and riffle shuffle in packet #3. Finally, turn this packet over and turn packet #4 over before riffle shuffling them together. Ribbon spread to reinforce the face up/face down mix.

Square the deck, turn it over and place it to your right. For all intents and purposes the trick is now over. All that remains is for you to sell it with your "mentalism" patter.

PATTER: "You have chosen one card from this deck. I am going to make a fearless prediction that your selection is a cherry-colored card. Is that correct?" (Spectator will confirm.) "Well, you see, I really didn't take any chances. If you had said 'No', I merely would have asked you about Black Cherries! But now that you have indicated that you have a RED card I do have to make a commitment.... Diamond or Heart..... hmmm.....let me see....I'll say it's a Heart. (Again, they will confirm.) Well, that was a 50-50 chance. But now comes the part I can't do....one out of thirteen. I only know of two ways to tell, for certain, the particular Heart that you have selected. One is to rudely reach over and grab it from your hand. The other is to look through the deck and see which Heart is missing, which is what I think I'll do." Ribbon spread the deck from right to left which will make all the face up Hearts face the spectator. Begin counting the Hearts noting which one is missing. ("Hmmm....the Seven seems to be missing.") Avoid the temptation to point out that the cards are in Heart-only, face up order. The spectator's discovery adds to the impact! ENJOY!!

Four Joker's Magic Shop
45 Main Street
P.O.Box 38
Tonawanda, NY 14150
(716) 693-7930

Do As I Do Effect

This is a very good coincidence trick. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

EFFECT- With two different decks, both the magician and the spectator pick the same card.

EQUIPMENT- Just two decks with different back designs and a spectator.

DIFFICULTY- About a 2 out of 10. Very easy.

WHAT YOU DO- Take a deck and give a spectator a deck. Tell them to shuffle and cut as much as they want to. You do the same. When you are done, secretly look at the card on the bottom and remember it. (Let's assume it is the 5 of spades). Then trade decks and tell them to pick a card out of the middle and remember it. You also pick a card from the middle of your deck, but don't remember the card. It has nothing to do with the trick except misdirection. Tell them to put it on the top and cut the deck and put the top on the bottom. You put the irrelevant card on top. Then trade decks again. Tell him to find his card. You look through the deck. The card below the 5 of spades is their card. Tell them to put their card face down on the table and you do it too. Flip over both cards and "magically" the cards are the same.

From: Adam Kosberg

More Easy Stuff by Adam Kosberg

Trick One

First, get a deck and a spectator. Shuffle the deck as much as the spectator wants you to. Have them pick a card out of the middle and memorize it. While they are doing that, secretly look at and memorize the bottom card. Then have them put it on top and they can cut as many times as they want to. Then, start dealing the cards face up. When your memorized card pops up, secretly put the next card in your pocket. Then give them the deck and tell them to find their card. When they can't, pull their card out of your pocket.

Trick 2

Get a deck and spectator. Shuffle and cut to the spectator's desire. Once again, memorize the bottom card. Have them put their card on top and cut to their leisure. Turn the cards face up and glide them against the table so all cards can be seen.(You know what I'm talking about.) The card to the left of your memorized card is theirs.

I Don't Believe It

EFFECT- A spectator picks a number between 5 and 10. The top card then becomes their number!

SKILLS- You must be able to do the double lift.

PREPARATION- Put a seven as the second card before the trick.

HOW YOU DO IT- Ask a spectator to pick a number to pick a number between 5 and 10. About 80% of the time they will pick 7. If not, see the note. Tell them not to say their number. Tell them to turn over the top card, which isn't a seven. Tell them to tell their number. Execute a double lift and the card is a seven!
Note: If they didn't pick 7, at least the top card changed.

A Four Ace Effect

EFFECT-A spectator makes four aces appear, ALL BY HIMSELF!!

PREPARATION- Before you start the trick, put the 4 aces on top.

DIFFICULTY- A 1 out of 10. EXTREMELY EASY, but very cool.

WHAT YOU DO- Put the cards in 4 semi-even piles. Make sure that the pile with the aces is on the far right. Tell them that because many tricks rely on the magician using sleights and cheating you will let them do absolutely everything. (And you will!) Tell them to pick up the pile to your left and put three cards on the bottom and put one on every other pile. Repeat that for all piles but remember: 1: Put cards from the top on other piles and 2: Go from left to right. Then, tell them to flip over the top card on all the piles. All will be aces. Tell them, "I guess there's a little magic in everyone."

A really cool card trick.....

This trick is a very "magical" trick.Before the trick, put all the red cards on top and all the black on the bottom. Now, ask a person to pick a card. You are going to have to decide if they picked a card from the top or bottom. Casually tell them to put the card in the part that they didn't pick it out of. For example, if they picked one from the top, tell them to put it on the bottom, and vice-versa. If you do this quickly, the audience won't question you. Now all you have to do is to look through the top or bottom and look for a break in the pattern and casually hand them their card.

By Adam Kosberg

Magic Color Separation

Effect: The magician takes out a deck of cards then shuffles behind his back or under a cloth. Next he asks a volunteer for help. The spectator takes the deck and without looking, tries to separate the deck by reds and blacks. Amazingly, after being done, the magician tells the spectator that he can feel the magic within the spectator. The magician then shows the deck to the audience and spectator-all the cards are separated, blacks from red.

Method: First, take a deck and divide it into 2 piles. One of red cards and one of black cards. Then put the piles back together so that there is only one pile, put the black pile on top. ( Make sure the reds and blacks stay together. Also, keep in mind that this separating must be done before the trick without the audience watching). Second, do a pretend shuffle behind your back or under a cloth-really just rifle through the deck slowly. Then, take a red card and a black card out of the deck and set them face up in front of the spectator. Give the decks, face down, to the spectator and ask them to put the cards they think are red, in the red pile and the cards they think are black in the black pile. ( Piles are determined by the cards that you set face up). Then, when they are about half way through the deck tell them to switch, so that now they are trying to put blacks in the red pile and reds in the black pile. They may think that doing this is impossible, but just say that you can feel the magic within them. Third, you must grab the pile that started out as the red pile when they are done dividing the cards. ( They will look at the black pile now...Now say something like-Let's see how you did. Show them the black pile which shows that the deck is half and half, divided-reds from blacks. Finally, say that they did a good job and that you didn't doubt them for a moment. Maybe even mention that you couldn't of done it better yourself.

Secret: Because of the organizing you did before the trick, it just works out that actually both piles will be divided, but you should probably only show one of the piles; as sharp people will figure the trick out.
Note: Remember to tell the spectator to switch because it makes the trick more mysterious and confuses the skeptics.

Royal Flush

Effect: Magician shuffles and cuts the deck. He then asks a spectator to find the five cards necessary to make a Royal Flush. Once found, the 5 cards are placed on top of the deck. Then, the magician says to make it fair, he will deal each poker hand one of the 5 cards. The five cards are placed face down to stand as separate piles. The other four cards needed to complete the hands are dealt. One hand is given to the magician and the other four are revealed. Upon revealing the magicians hand, he is found to have all the cards of the Royal Flush!

Method: Deck is shuffled and cut. The magician picks a spectator-(works best if when magician picks he asks-"Now, I need a volunteer who knows how to play poker") Next, magician asks spectator to find a Royal Flush. Once found, the cards are shown to the rest of the audience and then placed on top of the deck. While the spectator shows the audience the cards, the magician needs to palm four cards. After, the poker hand is on top of the deck, the magician acts as if squaring the deck, but actually places the palmed cards on top. Then, the magician says-" To be fair, I will give each of the 5 poker hands I make, part of the royal flush." Deal the five top cards off in a row from right to left. (The left most card will be one of the five cards of the Royal Flush.) Deal the next four cards on top of the leftmost card. Repeat this process with the remaining four piles. Use a magician's force so that you end up with the "real" flush. Allow the spectator(s) to look at each remaining hand. Then reveal your hand as the one that will win any poker game!!

Josh (TriksJoker)

Magician's Force

Let's assume you have dealt five hands of Poker. One of the hands is a Royal Flush. You know which hand this is so you want to end up with it. Cover two of the piles with your hands and ask the spectator to chose one. (Make sure you DON'T cover the hand you want to end up with.) Set aside whichever hand the spectator points to. Now tell the spectator to cover two piles and you will chose one. If he doesn't cover the pile you want, it doesn't matter which one you point to (and eliminate). If he does cover your pile, chose the other pile to eliminate. Now you have three piles left. You cover the two "other piles" and spectator eliminates one. Then the spectator covers the remaining two piles and you eliminate the hand you don't want. What is left is the hand you DO want!! This process looks fair to the spectator but is always under the magician's control. It may sound confusing to you at first, but try it with cards in front of you and see how easy it really is. This process also works with any group of objects that you want to "keep" a specific object and eliminate the rest.