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If I were asked the difficult question…”what’s your favorite magic book”, the answer would probably have to be “The Dai Vernon Book of Magic”. If one was strictly a card or coin guy there are so many other great choices it makes one’s head spin. Hugard, Jennings, Bobo and Roth come quickly to mind. I love The Dai Vernon Book of Magic for several reasons. First there is some interesting history. And in Chapter Two “The Vernon Touch” is
itself worth more than the price of the book alone. Gold! The effects taught here are a perfect mix of cards, coins, balls and rings. All effects teach fundamental and valuable sleights. Everything is clearly described by Lewis Ganson and the accompanying photographs are perfectly illustrative. I have spent a lot of time in this book since August and the beginning of my return to magic. I have presented about 35 effects so far this year for magic Friday. The effects I choose usually come from classic books I already own. If you count the Tarbell Course as a single source, I suppose that would be my most valuable resource. But if you want to consider density, The Dai Vernon Book of Magic packs more power, knowledge and practicality into its 140 pages than anything else I know of. Again, if you want to talk strictly cards or coins, etc. there are certainly better resources. But for practical fundamentals and variety, Gotta go with the DVBM.
For months I have been working on “Three Ball Transposition”. When I began working on it I had never seen the effect performed. Recently I saw Johnny Thompson perform his handling Silent Mora’s version of it on the internet. Thompson is such a great
performer. His patter is pretty straight forward. The effect is presented as a demonstration, more or less. Thompson manages to mystify his audience while putting them through fits of laughter. Surely, this is the most powerful combination possible in magic. Not being blessed with such a sharp and quick humor, I try to script my performances as a story when appropriate.
I love the way many Vernon manuscripts describe the “basic sleights” before getting into the meat of the routine. So I played along. I worked on the basic sleight for “Three Ball Transposition” before reading any further. After a week or two I felt comfortable with the move. So I read on. I soon realized the “basic sleight” must also be mastered while…doing something else. This took another 7 to 10 days before I felt confident with that. As I continued reading I discovered another move that would vex me. A sort of Han Ping Chien deal using balls. I was beginning to feel discouraged but pressed on all the same. After a few days I felt I was ready to begin putting it all together.
In the mean time, I found some beautiful 1” diameter marbles on Ebay. They were just the right size and visually stunning. Cheap too! But now I had a new problem. Vernon recommends rubber, plastic or wooden balls for this routine. Mine were glass. They talked a lot. But the script I was writing for the routine was inspired by the marbles. If I changed the prop I would have to change the premise and motivation of my presentation. I would just have to come up with a handling that keeps the marbles quiet when necessary. After a few weeks of working with them I hammered out a successful method. I even found a way to make the “talking” work in my favor and add an audible component to the illusion. I was now ready to start putting the routine together. And again after a couple weeks of practice and writing I had a unique and pretty (I hope) presentation of Dai Vernon’s “Three Ball Transposition”. This whole process was an on again / off again affair and took about 8 months from first reading to first performance.
Results: The first performance was fine mechanically but a little weak in presentation. Overall the performance was pretty good. This is normal with a lot of the effects I do. Especially stuff like this. That is, effects I have never performed before. The second performance was better and even scored an average of “9” on the “Magiscale”. I often poll my students. I tell them the reason is to separate the cream so next year they only get the best stuff. The truth is it’s easy to know the difference between an astounding success and epic fail. But it’s harder for me to determine whether an effect is a”6” or a “9”. Just inexperience I guess. Anyway, during the third performance I think I “flashed” a ball at one point. One or two folks may have seen something. Watch Those Blasted Angles! This performance came in at about “8.5”. During the 4th performance there was a tiny but audible “clink” where none was welcome. Oh well, I’ll just have to get over that one and stay hyper-aware of my angles. It was an otherwise good performance. They gave me an “8”. The fifth and last performance of the day was cleanly executed, but I think the delivery was a little off. I scored an “8”.
All through the day I was more unnerved than I expected to be by the proximity of the two net-holding spectators. Their eyes are only inches away from the action. And the angles are a bit tricky. This was not a problem for me doing Jim Tyler’s ring and string routine a few months ago. The sleights in that routine are not exactly easy, but they are beautifully camouflaged. The helpers can be as close as they want. But for “Three Ball Transposition” the heat is seriously on.
By the opinion of the high school students in my classes, today’s Magic Friday came in at an average of “8.2”. Not bad. I am not overly hung up on these numbers. But I am comforted by the knowledge that I have taken a classic and advanced (to me at least) piece of magic, wrapped it in my own presentation and performed it reasonably well. I also find great encouragement in the knowledge that once I zero in on the natural rhythm of this effect I can make it a “10”. If the great Johnny Thompson can present this effect as a perfect “10” in his own hilarious and wonderful style, that tells me the effect has “10” potential. Now I must find a way to make the effect a “10” in my own style.
You’ve heard it said that the harshest conditions cannot dampen a pure heart and courageous spirit. That’s how I started Magic Friday off today. It was a story about an ancient Mayan Kingdom. It was about oppression, courage, redemption and freedom. Anyone familiar with the Tarbell Volumes 
would have instantly recognized “Rising Card Escape”. This effect always appealed to me but I never worked on it, much less perform it. It has (in my view) all the elements of quality card magic. A card is freely selected and returned to the middle of the pack. After showing the top and bottom cards to be indifferent, the pack is then placed back into the box. A handkerchief is used to tie the card case to the performer’s hand. The card is then seen to penetrate the card box and rise up its full height out of the pack. I’ve never seen it performed but it seemed to me to be a strongly visual effect. Recently I have been itching to do an effect with a full deck of jumbo cards. After rejecting a number of interesting card effects I remembered “Rising Card Escape”. I tried strapping the jumbo deck to my hand to see if it would work. It did! So I set down to adapt this effect to jumbo cards.
The first hurtle was how to deal with the pass. Naturally, classic, turn-over and their like were right out. Next, I tried the “Simplified Pass”. I didn’t like that because it involved shuffling cards after the selection was returned to the deck. 
(Something I try to avoid). In fact, that reminded me of something I recently read in Ian Kendall’s wonderful column in MUM. A “Hindu Control”. Perfect. Many thanks Ian!
Next I tried a rough version of the trick on my 11 year old daughter. She liked it, but saw right through it. Dilemma: Be casual, never “prove” anything. On the other hand casually showing the cards on top and bottom to be indifferent wasn’t strong enough to power up the magical moment. If I was going to do this effect for Magic Friday I would have to fix this problem. So after a little thought, a top change and a double lift I felt I had the mechanics down for an effective “Rising Card Escape” using a jumbo deck.
It took a little longer than I thought it would to become natural with the basic sleights using a jumbo deck. But after a couple of days I felt pretty good about them. The real struggle was the storyline. Why would the signed (labeled) card rise up through the card case anyway? Was the card hypnotized? Nah. Should I go science? “…The card has a positive charge and will be repelled by…” Nope. That didn’t feel right either. How about a “Houdini” card that can escape? No. Too done! This is always the hardest part for me. I never was much of a story teller.
Anyway I settled on a story of humility, courage, persecution and yes, life after death. Although it’s a Judeo-Christian value I clothed the story as an ancient Mayan folk tale. The two black jacks (which were removed at the beginning of the trick)
served as the jailors. After the card was lost in the deck one jailor was positioned at the front of the jail and the other at the rear. This was my solution (and justification) to demonstrate the chosen card was not on the top or bottom but indeed lost somewhere within the deck.
So how did it go? Frankly, not so good. When it was time for the first performance, I was still having trouble with my own script so I decided to forgo the storyline and do the trick straight. It went okay, but as I feared, it was emotionally barren. Later, while my students were working, I went over my lines. Memorizing them and fine tuning the script with the action.
The second performance would include the script. This performance turned out to be messier than a train wreck but not quite as pretty. I began the routine by screwing up right from the start. The top change was damn sloppy, and at least two people saw what I did. Fortunately since there is no transformation in this effect, it would be difficult to know what was effected or even why. All the same, no excuse. It was still fumbularity at its worst. I also forgot to show the two black jacks as the top and bottom cards. Without this
subtlety, all mystery would be sucked out of the magical moment at the end. I also couldn’t get the card to rise at first. After a painfully long time I had to adjust the pack tied to my hand. After that it started to budge and then rise. Eventually I discovered the label with signature was not placed flat against the surface of the card. This caused it to buckle and hang up inside the card case as it started to rise. And as a smelly little bow on an otherwise odiferous package, I stumbled all through my own script. Yep, all in all pretty sucky presentation. Without question, the worst performance I have ever subjected my students to. But wait, there’s more.
Toward the beginning, as a young man was signing the card, I had a visit from two of our assistant principals. One of my colleagues told them about “Magic Friday” and it was clear they were interested and even excited to see some magic and how the students positively respond to a 10 -15 minute entertainment break after a long week of school. Of all the gin joints and all the Fridays and all the classes, why in the name of everything that is holy did they have to be present for this stinker? Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t alert the authorities and have me charged with performance art abuse! Hackney mimes rejoice!
On the other hand, I am happy to report that I was able to pull everything together and the rest of the performances were astronomically improved. Passed Magic Friday effects like “Silk in Egg”, “Card in Orange” or “Silver & Glass” were enthusiastic “10’s”. Today’s later performances of “Rising Card Escape” scored about a “7”. (This of course doesn’t include the train wreck described above). If this effect, (when properly performed) scores a “7”, I am confident that with some more work on the script, more mirror time and a few more performances I can bump this effect up to at least a “9”.
I was prepared today to perform “Invisible Deck” just in case “Rising Card Escape” did not work out for some reason. After the fiasco of the 2nd performance I nearly dumped the effect all together. It’s funny. I was stubborn to perform my jumbo handling of “Rising Card Escape” before it was 100% ready. And I paid dearly for it too. But it was that same pig-headed stubbornness that told me not to give up and whip this thing into shape. It felt like I was breaking a horse, but before the day was over the effect surrendered to my handling and even purred a little. I look forward to working out the rough spots and putting some spit and polish on this routine. I believe I can make it an astounding winner with the right presentation. If I am wrong, I hope I will have the wisdom to put it down and work on something else. But for now I believe in the effect.
For Magic Friday it was another wonderful effect from the good Dr. Tarbell. Card in Orange. I did this one only a few times in the old days. I suspect my performance of it was jerky and lacking in naturalness. At any rate, I have always loved the
effect. Back then I had no Classic Pass. I accomplished the “free selection” by some other means. (Probably a stab). Even tough my classic pass is less than perfect, (must continue working on that), the misdirection involved with tossing the orange around is more than enough cover. Card in Orange is such a beautiful illusion. I kept the mechanics identical to the form as it originally appears. I only changed three things.
First: The patter had to be changed. That goes without saying and should almost always be the case. Blasted hard to do sometimes, but if I don’t, it’s harder for me to be creative and make a routine my own. As frustrating as it can be, it has always been worth the effort.
Second: I wanted to allow the spectator to inspect and shuffle the cards before selecting one. Thanks to “The Vernon Chronicles” it’s not a difficult matter. This is not necessary but I figured it would sell the effect more powerfully. I may be wrong on this. After all, I’m not performing for people who know about forcing and passing. I may be over thinking this one.
Third: I wanted something a little more dramatic when it came time for the card pieces to take flight from the handkerchief. So I pulled out my old brass fireball launcher. (I forget what it’s really called). It was in bad need of oil but still in pretty good shape. Since I would be performing “semi-close-up”, I decided to paint it flesh tone. I was using a steak knife as a pointer (used later to cut open the orange) and wanted it to seem I was using it as a magic wand. That is, since I couldn’t make the special effect come from the spectator, I wanted the fireball to come from the pointer/knife/wand.
Three out of the five performances were terrific. During the 4th performance I was not paying attention. When I handed the torn corner to the spectator she said “But this was not the card I picked”. I just bulldozed my way through the routine anyway and of course as a result the card that was found in the orange was NOT the selected one. For the most part everyone thought this was part of the routine. This is understandable since I do so many effects that have a “sucker” finish. (I NEVER let a spectator feel like a “sucker” I always put the joke on myself). That group didn’t seem to mind my error and expressed enthusiastic bewilderment and appreciation anyway. (?).
During the final performance I had trouble getting the fireball thrower to work. After the 2nd non-blast I just used both hands and fired the thing. Of course the audience knew I was in possession of some kind of device but it was also clear that it had nothing to do with the working of the illusion.
There are three lessons here for me today.
1. Pay attention!
2. Do a bare-handed fireball production. (Less to fumble about with).
3. Figure out if allowing the spectator to handle the cards before the effect is worth the extra step. I will have to do some research to determine the answer to this.
Mishaps aside, (and important lessons learned) everybody enjoyed “Card in Orange”. Especially the performer.
