Card in Orange

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.