Going Mental

Today’s “Magic Friday” event was a real change of pace, I must say. Last week I did Vernon’s “Fingerprint Trick” and got a huge response with it. In order to keep things fresh and interesting I try not to do two card tricks on consecutive Fridays.
I am currently working on two beautiful Dai Vernon effects. “The Ace Assembly” (An earlier version of “Slow Motion Aces”) and “Silk and Silver” using the Cervon opening. Although I’ve never seen them performed, I can tell these are pure, beautiful and elegant effects. But they do involve some pretty hairy sleights. I am making reasonable progress with both, but they will require a lot more work before I can do them justice.
So all week I have been going through my collection of books trying to find the right trick for Friday.
In all my years of doing magic as a kid and as a young man I don’t recall ever doing a mental / psychic effect. With the exception of a trick called “Tarot Thought”. It’s a nice trick involving 5 tarot cards and 5 envelopes. Long story short; the spectator’s thought of card is divined from within an envelope behind the magician’s back.
I haven’t done that one for many years. Although it’s a good trick, I quit doing it because I felt it lacked directness. There were too many instructions for the spectator to follow. But now for some reason I thought a mental effect would be fun for a change. That is if I could find one that I could make fit my own style. By Tuesday I narrowed it down to two effects. Both of them are from Tarbell #4. I finally settled on “Himber’s Transcendental Book Test”.
In a nutshell; three books and two assistants are called for. Each assistant picks a book and some pages are randomly determined. The page numbers are added and subtracted to determine a page and line number in the third book held by a spectator. The Magi then becomes an actor and goes into psychic mode, gets some visual impressions, and after a bit of by play recites the arrived at line in the book. I was intrigued by the effect but not really excited about it. But the clock was a tickin’ so I figured I’d just give it my best shot and see what happens. There would be 5 performances as usual. But I had those blasted rising cards handy just in case…
1. The “Book Test” turned out to be a dud.
2. I turned out to be a dud. Or
3. I just plain chickened out.
I had three concerns about the trick. The first was that there might be too many instructions for the volunteers to follow. All my favorite magical authors warn against tricks that require too much concentration on the part of the audience. That makes perfect sense to me. Personally, I would rather be entertained than be put through a series mental calisthenics. I was also worried it might smack of a math trick. There’s nothing magical about counting articles into various piles, adding the year of your birth, multiplying by 12.7 and integrating the result along an inverted parabola. Yawn. My third concern was the fact that the proper working of the trick requires some quick counting, arithmetic, reading and memorization when only a quick and casual glance is allowed. I’m not the sharpest hammer in the woodpile so I was a little spooked by that last part.

So how did it go? It was great! I was as blown away by the response as my students were by the effect. I really didn’t expect this trick to play that well let alone pack such a powerful punch. In fact, I may have to look into one or two more mental effects. Who knows, Maybe I could apply some Vernon-osity to "Tarot Thought". Once again, where I was hesitant and ready to chicken out, I instead pressed forward and trusted my gut. And once again, the payoff was HUGE.
Acting!
Amazing!
Thank You!

The Fingerprint Trick

Many years ago I purchased “The Vernon Chronicles” and “The Dai Vernon Book of Magic”. I don’t know whether I was intimidated by the slights required, suffered from a lack of vision or just plain lazy, but I did not do much work at all from them. Maybe I thought I would become a better magician just by having them in my collection.


Fast forward to last August. I am so thankful that I had the wisdom to acquire these books. (If not the motivation to work from them). For the past 5 months I have been studying these and a few other books. Of course I knew and understood who Dai Vernon was and his standing in the magic community. But I never fully appreciated his genius until this year and my reimmersion into magic. For the past few weeks I had been working on “Ace Assembly”, an earlier version of Vernon’s “Slow Motion Aces”.


I felt like I needed a good 4 Ace trick in my repertoire. Since I was a kid I have been doing the version found in Bruce Elliot’s “Great Secrets of the Master Magicians” It’s a good trick. But I loved the idea of the aces traveling one at a time. Once I started working on it I realized this was going to take some serious time. I would continue to work on it but in the mean time what to perform on Friday? The Fingerprint Trick is in the same book and while I skimmed the effect earlier I looked a little more carefully into it. It did not take long for me to realize how strong this one could be. No freaky sleights, interesting plot and of course the “Vernon Touch”:
That is, straight forward and above board (seeming) handling. I had a few days to work the trick out and write my own script for it. I added a simple prop for 3 reasons. To create more interest, involve more spectators and most importantly, as a cover for the world’s clumsiest classic pass.
The first performance I totally screwed up. I lost count during the turning cards phase. It was no disaster since the chosen card was found as one of the five Candidates. I brought a back up just in case. The Rising Cards. I thought briefly about temporarily chucking The Fingerprint Trick and doing something easier. But in the end I decided to continue with my original plan. I’m glad I did because the rest of the performances were amazing! I did not expect the shouts at the final revelation of the chosen card. This is another winner! I love it! I am really learning to build effective routines from classic books and make them my own. There just is no feeling like that of artistic accomplishment!

Clean Cut

In 1977 I saw Mark Wilson do the color changing pocket knives on his wonderful show "Magic Circus". I thought for sure it was done with some kind of shell gimmick. Nevertheless My next order to Tannen's included a set of knives.

When I got them I was surprised and pleased. I still have them today. I never really built a routine around them but used them as a quick "impromptu" type effect. The problem, I felt was there was no real finish. Eventually I modeled a miniature knife. For a finish I would crush a knife down to size. I had a couple of other ideas which I never pursued. The color changing pocket knives eventually drifted out of my awareness. Until recently.
There they were in my dusty old trunk with all that other stuff. I found a basic routine by Harry Lorayne in Tarbell's #7. The routine was sharp, direct and I liked the pace of it. There is a good finish but it requires a third knife. At one point a handkerchief is introduced and used.

I liked the idea of using a handkerchief, but the handling did not fit my style. Eventually I worked out a different handkerchief switch based on an old Dai Vernon move using coins and a handkerchief. But in the end I decided that for me the routine was stronger without a handkerchief. This left me right back where I started. How to finish? Then it came to me. I incorporated a sweet move I learned from Patrick Page. This move is a clever card vanish that can be used to cleanly dispose of any small object. Patrick Page credits to move to Max Malini. This allowed for a surprise and very clean finish for the pocket knives.
It was fun watching my students almost figure out how the trick was done when I threw in a very "casual" move from Harry Lorayne's writing in Tarbell #7. He credits the move to Russell Barnhart. If you do the pocket knives look this one up! It is one of little subtleties that if done properly, throws off the wise and the clever. Together with the clean and surprising finish I am very pleased with the routine I have stitched together. After the appause died down I flat out asked my classes..."Is this one a keeper?" To which I received many "Thumbs Up".
Its been 20 years since I fooled around with the pocket knives. Now I've got a strong well-paced routine with a surprising and clean finish. All made possible by Mark Wilson, Harry Lorayne, Russell Barnhart and the great Patrick Page. Thank you gentlemen!