Enchantments : magic for cards and hands

494 Pages·2004·21.96 MB·English

by  Wesley James, Tony Dunn, Debbie Murray

Matt Field provided much advice and assistance in the editing of chis
book in an earlier form, which greatly benefited the present volume.
Max Maven, Harvey Rosenthal, Peter Duse, Paul Gordon, Alan
Shaxon, Michael Weber, Jim Cuthbert, Nick Ttosr and Gene Matsuura
all aided with historical and bibliographic details. George Dailey did
yeoman labor in researching information on Herbert Milton. And Noel
Coughlin, Jason England and Newell Unfried lent welcome and vigilant
eyes to the galley proofs. All these men gave generously of their time and
knowledge, and the author and publisher are more in their debt than this
simple note of thanks can express.
Copyright O 2004 by Wesley James and Stephen Minch.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Con-
ventions. Published in the United States by Hermetic Press, Inc., Seattle.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN 0-945296-45-2
First Edition
654321
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: FORGERY, PACKETS & PRINCIPLES
SECTIONO NE:F ORGERY
Forgery
SECTIONW o: ACE EFFECTS
Trapped Ace Surprise
Catch-Ace-Trap-ee
April Fools' Aces
Ace and Three-Card Vanishes
Ace and Four-Card Vanishes
Catalytic Progressive Aces
SECTIONT HREEP:A CKETE FFECTS
Below Zero Minus One
The Spread Displacement
The Marlo Flexible Count Grip
The JEHHFOC~o unt
Semaj-Novrec Masked Packet Reverse
Snap Reverse
Turn Me Down Why Don't You
The James Gang
The Marlo-James Multiple Shift
Quick Three-Way, My Way
Small Packet One-Handed Top (SPOT)P alm
New FAces of 1 2 3 4
Spread ATFUS
Hyper-Warp
SECTIONF OUR:T WO PRINCIPLES
The Sigma Principle
A Sleight Case of Murder
Vanishing Eleven and Placement
PART TWO: TECHNIQUES
SECTIONO NE: PALMING
Palming.. .
Named Travelers
Secretly Disordering the Deck
WJ Bottom Palm
Holdout Holdup
The Coughlin Palm Replacement
The One-Handed Daley Switch
Chameleon Colors Revisited
De-Flourished Ossip Slip Cut
SECTIONT WO: LIFTS
Naturalness: The Double Lift-and More
WJ Two-Step Double Lift
The WJ Two-Step Double Lift Hit Variation
A Stuart Gordon Turnover Variation
The Unload Subtlety
My Ambitious Card Routine
The Moveable Card Pass
Coming Up in the World (a.k.a. The Load-Up Move)
The WJ Side Steal
The Simulated Shuffle-a Palm Cover
The James Palm Transfer
The Speed Load-a Wallet Loading Technique
SECTIONT HREEFA: LSE DEALS
Deals
Bottom Dealing
Follow That Card I1
P.K.A. Cheating
Fair Risk (Spectator's Open Prediction)
Second Dealing
The Moon is Made of Blue Cheese
Sympathetic Blacks
Marlo's Future Reverse-Broken Form
The Krenzel Square Reverse
Etude for Dealers
The Option Second Deal
The Countervailing Motion Principle
Miscellaneous False Deals
A Hand Too Few
Miscellaneous False Deals (Continued)
Theory Thirds
Fourths, Fifths, etc.
The Undifferentiated Middle
Adding Differentiation
Miscellaneous False Deals (Concluded)
Theoretical False Deals
Summary
SEC;TIONF OUR: SHUFFLES
False Riffle Shuffles
The Zarrow Shuffle
WJ on the Zarrow
The Tabled Winnipeg Cut
I'll Put Money on It
Color Triumphant
The Merlin Push-Through
The Strike Push-Through
The Crand-bler's Prediction
SECTIONF m:B IEPA SS
The Pass
The Basic Position
The Edge Pass
The Squeeze Pass
The Pivot Side-Jiggle Pass
The Diagonal Pass
The Automatic Pass
The Anomalous Pass
SECTIONS IX: TOOLBOX
Low Lateral Palm
The Position
The Deal-Out Subtraction
Low Lateral Control
Low Lateral Conversions
Add-Backs
Standard Add-Back
No Contact Add-Back
Bottom Add-Backs
Low Lateral Steals
Low Lateral Switches
The Christ-Annemann Alignment Displacement Sequence
Four-as-Four (Hiding Two, Faf-Two) Counts
The Faf-Two C Count
Splay Grip
West-Townsend-James (WTJ) Count
Turnantula
The Egress Vanish
A Refinement for the Bluff Shift
The Bluff Shift as a Control
The Bluff Shift as a Rime Force
PART THREE: MENTAL EFFECTS & GAFFED METHODS
SECTIONO NE:G OINGM ENTAL
Mental Magic
The Vibratory Prediction
The Intention Force
The Kick-Off Switch
Blushing Leaper
Brownian Movement (The Sequel)
The Veeser Concept and Alignment Insurance
Ham and Ace Sandwich
Divine Miraskill
A Vision or a Dream?
mo:
SECTION SERIOUSLGY AFFED
Why Not?
Wishuffle
Birthday Aces
Watch the Wild Ace
SECTIONT HREE:G ENERALT IPS
The Hands
Breaking in the Cards
Routining
Closing Comment
PREFACE
INDIANS UMMER is a warm but bracing time in New York. Dreams are born as
young men, returning to school, remember the freedom of the past summer and
the discipline of a school year just beginning. It was at just such a time that I
gave my first professional magic performance. The year was 19 57.. .
Autumn was desperately trying not to succumb to winter but losing the fight.
The streets of New York were gray and gloomy. The air was filled with an omi-
nous foreboding that the first snow would soon be falling. A strange depression
had filled my days since returning to New York's bleak and lonely streets from a
series of shows at a nightclub in Winter Park, Colorado, where snow and minus
thirty-four-degree weather had already become the norm. I put aside my close-
up pad. The year was 1982.
Many of the magic brethren never noticed my absence. My light had never
shone that brightly. Besides, much of the joy of magic is in what's new, not
what's gone. Am'ba Magia!
Why did I walk away? Why indeed, when the roster of magic is filled with
men like Dai Vernon and Tony Slydini, who lived long lives devoted to magic.
In spite of the angst, were they not happy and fulfilled by their passionate love
of magic?
Let me not be melancholy, for I have embraced magic fully and been kissed by
her tactile delight. I, too, have effused and rejoiced at a new discovery. Many the
smile has forced its way onto my sullen face as a beautiful new move left a tingle
in my hands and a thrill in my heart.
I never walked away from the goddess magic. I don't believe that possible-at
least not for one such as I, who truly loves her. I walked away from her other
jealous suitors, from the fight for her hand, which cannot be won. I walked away
from the indefensible war that rages between those who love her too much and
themselves not enough, but who fight petty battles for her honor. The goddess
is a slut who will spread her limbs to all, but yield her heart to few.
With that view expressed, you may wonder why this book? If I walked away,
why re-enter the fray? The answer is simple: I am not back to fight; I am back
to love. I am not back to argue, I am back to embrace. If I am resigned to one
idea upon my return, it is a notion well expressed by the Nez Perct Indian Chief
Joseph, considered by many the greatest military strategist who ever lived.
"I will fight no more, forever."
INTRODUCTION
MAGICI S a many-splendored thing. It is a performing art and an academic
discipline. Both can be enjoyable pursuits. Neither can exist without the other.
Magic can also be a wonderfully engaging hobby. Hobbyists, like sports fans,
are true devotees; they are important, perhaps even essential, to the vitality of
our art, though they are not players themselves. Their tastes influence magic,
their creativity feeds its repertoire and their dollars contribute to its viability
as a livelihood. Still, however much they dream, hobbyists with rare exception
do not share the considerations of the professional. On the other hand, many
professionals, concerned with the need to put food on their family table, sac-
rifice their technical and creative growth to more pragmatic considerations.
This book is not written from the hobbyist viewpoint. I certainly hope and
expect that many hobbyists will find this book an enjoyable read and a hand-
some, often referred to, addition to their libraries; but that could not be my
principal focus. This work may open the eyes of a few, but I fear some hob-
byists will find it too serious, too detailed, too analytical. I won't apologize.
While I no longer perform very often in a professional capacity, my mind-set,
and therefore perspective, remain that of a professional performer, and a seri-
ous one at that. Having been a full-time professional, it is difficult to divorce
myself from the attention to detail so critical to professional success. This
book, therefore, should find its greatest favor with the professional-who
should appreciate the attention to details-with the serious hobbyist-who
may enjoy my analytic approach-and with the amateur who aspires to
become professional-who will, hopefully, find this book revelatory. For all
such individuals and other intrepid souls, read on; know that this book reflects
my love of both the art and crafi of magic.
+
xii ENCHANTMENTS
PERFORMANCE
THE ART OF MAGIC
Magic that is not designed to be publicly performed is an educational exercise
at best and mental masturbation at worst. Magic that cannot be performed is
essentially a puzzle. I would seriously question a sonata written for a piano with
112 keys; such a piece could not be performed because no such instrument
exists. Like music, magic must bepeformed to be art; therefore, an effect must
be practically performable to be magic.
For some this will seem to be preaching to the converted, but examine your expe-
rience for just a moment. How often have you read effects, even whole books,
that have no point and no hope of finding one? Can an effect that requires deal-
ing through a deck three times ever be practically performed? Can twelve cards
be passed off as four in a close-up routine? Such material is born of individuals
being clever for the sake of cleverness; they are clever pipe dreams. I can appre-
ciate a clever idea as readily as the next fellow, but I wouldn't offer such fare as
magic. Such material is not, nor can it be, magical and will not be offered here.
Having stated my position starkly, I hasten to add that such fare can be amazing.
The world is full of amazing things that are not magic. When I'm not pursuing
magic these days, among other things I design computer software and electronic
devices. I assure you, what my software does and what my circuits do is amaz-
ing-in many instances, clever and amazing. They are not magic. So, taking
nothing from the cleverness of any of these creations, I don't confuse them with
performable effects and, I strongly recommend, you don't either. That's why you
won't find any here.
Performability alone is no assurance that one's efforts will produce magic. An
effect must be "magical" at its core. If being amazing doesn't automatically
quali? an effect and being amazing and performable doesn't completely fill
the bill either, what then is required? Magicality comes from a special place;
to be magical an effect must speak to the human experience. It must touch an
emotional, aesthetic or primordial chord in the spectator. That can only happen
in today's world, burdened by magic's poor public image, if the performing
magician creates a receptivity in the spectator and then delivers more than a
"trick"-an experience.
Most spectators want very much for this to occur but we must work to accom-
plish it. The desire of our audiences to embrace what we do is a double-edged
sword. It has lamentably allowed many very poor performances to be inflicted
on an uninformed public, who do their utmost to cooperate and respond posi-
tively. This has encouraged an enormous amount of bad magic to survive. As a
result, many very poor magicians continue cheerfully along, believing that the