Three Ball Transposition

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.

Rising Card Escape

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.

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.

Sidewalk Shuffle

Back in the day “Sidewalk Shuffle”, created by Martin Lewis, was one of my staples. I think I first saw it performed by Doug Henning on one of his TV specials around 1977.
When ever I performed “Sidewalk Shuffle” I always followed it up with “What’s Next”. (Affectionately referred to by my buddy and me as “Dots Like Hell”). A genuine slice of magical cheese to be sure. But it plays so well after the “Shuffle” that I can’t imagine not performing these two effects together. So that’s what was on the menu for this Magic Friday. Sidewalk Shuffle followed by “Dots”.
The funny thing is, for years I was performing Sidewalk Shuffle all wrong. I followed the directions and my handling was correct. No problem there. My timing was fine and people were amused and baffled. So what was I doing wrong? It was my performance. I “looked” like an amateur. It never dawned on me until recently that my performance of the effect was amateurish. Last year God jerked a knot in my tail and set me right on a number of issues. This led to the re-ignition of my passion for magic. Fortunately, my thinking now is more objective than it was 20 years ago. (We may define “objective” as not tequila infused).
One of the problems with my performing was that I didn’t trust myself. And it must have been obvious. Without realizing it I was not performing the effect. I was watching it. While holding up the jumbo cards I would hold them a bit to the side so I could also see what was happening. Although nobody criticized me for it, I must have looked ridiculous at worst and unconfident at best. Nobody enjoys a trepidatious(?) performer. No, an accomplished and professional performer would be confident to the degree that there would be no need to even glance at the cards.
It’s simple really. It is the essence of Dai Vernon’s greatest gift to magic. Naturalness. If I were really telling a story about being hustled in the big city I would be focused on the story and the audience, not the cards. And so, this would be the only way for me to perform the effect. I had trouble remembering the initial set up, but once I got started, it all came back to me like a flash. (Muscle memory is a wonderful thing)! After a few hours rehearsing, I was ready to perform. What a joy it is to perform with confidence! Instead of obsessing over whether everything was on track or not, I was enjoying the faces of my audiences. This is far more entertaining to me than watching my own hands! As an added bonus, being focused on the spectators’ reactions makes it astronomically easier to fine tune the timing. During the 3rd performance there was a malfunction. Operator error actually. During the second phase I replaced the blank card on the bottom instead of the top. This of course led to a misalignment that could not be surreptitiously repaired by the time I realized something was wrong. So I was forced to stop right there and jump right into “Dots Like Hell”. That audience knew that something was wrong,
but I performed the silly dots trick with so much enthusiasm that when I was finished the audience all but forgot my slip up and was satisfied with another “Magic Friday”. The rest of the performances that day went as smoothly as the first two. I’m actually happy I goofed. It reminded me that although there is nothing like performing with confidence, one should never lose sight of the invisible hyper-awareness necessary for performing quality sleight-of-hand. Balance Grasshopper! This is another example of the practical lessons I have been learning since August. And the real beauty of it is, I have a willing and skeptical audience in front of whom I can work out these sorts of kinks. It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship. They get 10 to 15 minutes of free entertainment every Friday and I get the opportunity to test, perform and refine my skills as I build a quality repertoire. I should have done this 20 years ago. But I was not ready. I believe God had something else in mind for me between then and now. Oh yes. But that is a whole other story…

Tales From the Book of Thoth

As mentioned last week, “The Princess, the Sword, the Jewels & Everything” came about from working on “Cops & Robbers” (Expert Card Technique by Jean Hugard) and reading Stephen Minch’s “The Book of Thoth”. The result was a unique and successful bit of “bizarre” magic, if you will. That being done, I found two effects in Minch’s book that appealed to me. One is called “Towering Prediction” and the other is “Lunar Fating”. I decided I would perform both for “Magic Friday”.

“Lunar Fating” is a very pretty effect. At first I passed it over since it deals with a top stock. I don't remember ever performing a card effect involving a stock. It always seemed like too much preparation and too little flexibility. But I was intrigued by the effect and the aesthetically pleasing visual at the conclusion. (Not to mention an unexpected revelation). Minch tells us this effect is an adaptation of
Harry Lorayne’s “Coincidently Yours” from his book “Close-Up Card Magic”. But in order to feel confident in the effect I had to work on my false shuffling. I’ve never been great at false shuffles. That’s because I never spent enough time to make one look natural and convincing. I remembered there was a beautiful false riffle shuffle described in “Stars of Magic”. This is part of Vernon’s legendary “Triumph” routine. Adapting this shuffle to tarot cards was not difficult. I also polished a fantastic false overhand shuffle I learned from Ian Kendall in his marvelous series “Basic Training” in MUM. (Dec. 2009). And now, the greatest secret I have learned in magic. I learned it years ago, but I never tire of being reminded of it. Give no attention to the slight. Broadcast no indication that something important is happening. Casualness wins the day. And that is what I did. I briefly showed the tarot cards as I mentioned they were the same ones we used last week. (Which were thoroughly examined at that time). I false riffle shuffled 2 or 3 times (and a few running cuts) very casually as I explained that I discovered something unusual about the cards and called for two helpers. Once my helpers were in place I momentarily asked them if they had their psychic mojo on etc. During this short by-play I (again casually) did 2 false overhand shuffles while looking at my helpers. My goal was to make it look like I was toying with the deck before beginning the trick. I must have been successful because this routine played BIG. I am so glad to have put aside my prejudgment of stock routines. As a result I have acquired a beautiful routine that leaves a very strong impression.

The other effect was “Towering Prediction”. It’s an old principle. Nine cards are laid out and the spectators make a series of jumps. One card is removed after each jump. Finally, if instructions are followed, everyone ends up on the same card. I saw Kevin Spencer perform this last summer in a wonderful stage show. Spencer’s version involved travel destinations. It was extremely well presented and played powerfully. I think I also remember David Copperfield using this principle on one of his television specials in the ‘80’s. Since I have a “Smart Board” in my classroom, I scanned in some tarot cards a made a “PowerPoint” with the cards fading out after each jump. It looked great. I even worked it out so each class would wind up at the end on a different place and card than the other classes. (Teenagers talk to each other).

Results: I expected “Towering Prediction” to be the big winner today but I was wrong. All audiences unanimously preferred “Lunar Fating”. I understand why, it’s a beautiful routine, but I really expected my audiences to be totally blown away by “Towering Prediction”. It was successful, but not as strong as I thought it would be. I must rethink my presentation. I believe some people suspected that the effect was mathematical in nature. I need to find a way to make the number of jumps seem more random. One possible solution might be to present the effect in the light that although everyone has endless choices of directions and combinations of jumps, everyone will (by psychic means) choose the very same paths. It’s worth a try.
To conclude, Stephen Minch’s wonderful little book “The Book of Thoth” has provided/inspired at least 3 very successful bits of professional level magic. In fact, there is one more effect from that book I am looking at. Until then…

The Princess, the Sword, the Jewels & Everything

It’s been said that great scientists do their most powerful work before their 30th birthday. Einstein himself will tell you that science is first and foremost a creative and imaginative endeavor. So a real concern I had as I threw myself headlong back into magic last summer was whether or not I still had the imagination and creativity I once enjoyed.

As is the case with most magicians, when I was a teenager I spent countless hours alone in my room coming up with all sorts magical ideas and solutions. Most of them of course were impractical at best. But what fun! There were even a couple that served me well. One of these that stand out in my mind is something I performed for as long as I had doves. After producing a dove from a handful of multi-colored ribbons, the ribbons were turned white and the dove, rainbow colored. Oh, the many hours spent painting a live dove with food coloring. There is probably nothing that looks more like mental illness than a magician working out a solution to a problem! At any rate, this bit of business was only a small part of a 12 minute choreographed routine from back in the day. But people who saw me perform all those years ago remember this more than anything else I did.



Today’s magic Friday sampling was an effect I had unintentionally created over the past two weeks or so. To begin, several months ago I started working on “Cops and Robbers” from “Expert Card Technique” by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue. This is a beautiful effect with a very strong visual component. Four kings are placed face down on the table. A selected card is cut into the deck. The deck is dropped onto the face down kings. The deck is immediately spread and the kings are now face up in the middle of the deck with the chosen card sandwiched between them. I wound up putting the trick on the back burner as I was having difficulty with on of the sleights. Then last week, quite by accident, I ran across a book by Stephen Minch I purchased 20 years ago. It’s a 45-page book of card magic using Tarot cards
called “The Book of Thoth”. I had completely forgotten that I owned this book. As I read through the book a thought came to me. “Why not do Cops and Robbers with Tarot cards?” As soon as I began working on it I decided I wanted a double climax ending. This called for an entirely different handling and forced me to clean up my top change. Soon the thing took on a life of its own and looked nothing like “Cops & Robbers”. Here’s the effect.



A tarot deck is given for examination and mixing. Upon receiving the deck the magician removes (among others) the 4 Knight cards. The patter revolves around a super thief known only as “The Magician”. The performer searches the deck and produces “The Magician”. This card is shown and buried into the deck. The four knights are then placed in different parts of the deck which is then cut one time. A spectator freely selects a card from the deck and marks it. The chosen card is placed face down in front of the spectator and a small sword is placed on top of it. The performer removes the top card from the deck, shows it and explains that it is really “The Magician” in disguise. This card is then cut back into the deck. After a magic pass or gesture with the sword, the deck is spread. The knights are seen to have magically gathered together and reversed face up in the face down deck. Between the 4 face up knights is a face down card. (Presumably, the magician). This prisoner card is turned over to reveal… the spectator’s chosen and marked card! The sword is removed from the spectator’s card on the table, the spectator’s card is turned over revealing that it has changed into… The Magician.


There’s more to it than that really. The Tarot cards with their 14th century artwork facilitate story telling. So that’s what I did. Using some kid’s craft beads for jewels and other cards to represent a king, a princess and a dark tower the story really wrote itself. But was the effect itself direct? Magic should always be uncomplicated and direct, right? On the other hand telling a story using magic is nothing new. I’ve heard it called “bizarre” magic. Whatever it’s called, performing magic within the context of a story makes sense to me. It takes the pressure off the audience, and the focus off the “cleverness” of the magician. The story becomes the star and the audience gets to help tell it. Everybody wins. The problem is I was concerned about the magic getting lost in the story telling. I didn’t want
the “magical moment” to get watered down. I was also doubtful that the story I wrote for the effect would be interesting enough to create suspense and hold the audience’s attention. I decided the only way to find the answer was to go with my gut and try it out.



The first performance, in my view, was weakly presented. Also, the “Magician” failed to show up at the end as he was supposed to. I think he may have gotten lost during a triple lift. The second performance was much better. One knight got lost during the “facing” so only three knights showed up back at the castle with the prisoner. This had no ill effect the magic and actually added a bit of comedy…”The Knight of Cups must have lost a drinking contest with a serving wench. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him anytime soon”. During the 3rd performance I just plain forgot to face the knights all together. Everything else worked fine though. I just lost a nice visual component. Even though these first 3 performances came up a little short, there was enthusiastic applause when I reached “The End”. The 4th and 5th performances were dynamite! Everything came together as I hoped. After each performance I did something I had never done before. I polled my classes. I really wanted to know what they thought. So I asked them to rate the effect on a scale of one to ten. They were very honest and told me what they liked about it and what would have made it better. I didn’t think to poll the first group but the second group scored the routine at 8.8. The group that I forgot to face the knights for awarded me an average score of 6.8. I thought that was fair. The last two groups were all 9’s and 10’s! Some of them remarked that they really enjoyed the story! I felt like I had come up with a decent presentation but it played much stronger than I expected. Especially toward the end of the day once I worked out the rough spots got into the rhythm of the effect.



I’m so excited that most of my audience ranked my own effect right up there with the classics I've been performing. However I would not want to set everything I do to a full story. That would be contrived and probably pretty boring. But it reminds me that even the most simple and direct effects should have a recognizable beginning, middle and end. And best of all I’ve got a unique and powerful new effect that proves to me that there’s still some creativity left in these old bones.

Mentalosity

For weeks, no, months I have been working on Vernon’s “3 Ball Transposition”. The more I work on this effect the more I have to keep postponing it from “Magic Friday”. The progress continues but it’s going to be a while yet before I am satisfied with my ability in the handling and presentation.


I looked over the effects on my “working on” list and everything was either not yet performable or just didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. I noticed there was only one mental/psychic effect highlighted in blue in my repertoire spreadsheet. (Blue = successfully performed and ready at will, Green = work in progress, Red = would like to add to repertoire). I thought it would be worthwhile to add another mental effect. But what? There’s only one place to turn in times like this. Tarbell. About 26 years ago my Dad gave me all seven books in the Tarbell course as a present. Did I mention I've got the world's greatest Dad? These books are an absolute goldmine.



In Tarbell #5 I found a brilliant center tear bit credited to none other than Dai Vernon. The word genius is carelessly thrown around these days but in my humble view, Dai Vernon meets all criteria needed for that category of intellect.

Anyway, as much as I loved the routine, I wanted something bigger. Something that involved multiple participants. I certainly didn’t want to tear up and burn 3 pieces of paper one at a time. As I was rolling things over in my mind I thought of a nice “Epic Board” performance I saw a while back. I like the “one ahead” effect but didn’t want to mess around with a board. So after a bit of thought I worked up a handling using envelopes instead of a board. The next day it was off to Office Depot for envelopes, glue sticks, notepads etc.


The result was an Epic Prediction type effect. Instead of writing the predictions on an Epic Board, I wrote them one at a time on a pad and placed each of them in a numbered envelope. The three prediction envelopes in turn went into a larger manila envelope. Instead of using a selected card as one of the predictions I used that Vernon center tear business from Tarbell #5. An added bonus to this handling is that a spectator can remove and open the prediction envelopes. Something that cannot be done with an "Epic Board".



The audiences were all blown away by the 10 to 15 minute routine. I call this effect "Epic Three Envelope Prediction". Although I've never heard of anyone doing an "Epic" type routine in this way, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it. The most enjoyable part of performing this routine was "writing" the name of the departed spirit on a piece of paper while reading the flames of the center tear. When the performance was over some said it was the best thing I’ve performed for them so far. A very successful day!

However, a couple of people didn’t realize what had happened. Once they were hit on the head by a neighbor and told the predictions were written on the display (by a 4th student) AFTER the predictions were sealed in the envelope, they too were mightily impressed. There was a valuable lesson here for me. That night when I got home the mailman had kindly delivered this month’s MUM. (The magazine of The Society of American Magicians).

In it, columnist Charles Reynolds expounds on several crucial elements every successful magician knows. One of these elements is the importance of never letting the audience lose track of the effect…

“We cannot expect an audience to react to a magical effect
If it is not clear in their minds what the effect is, or if the
action leading up to that effect (the “moment of magic”)
is confusing and unclear.”

Wow! This was precisely the information I needed to be reminded of! The older I get the more convinced I am that there are no coincidences. There are instead growth opportunities all around us. The hard part is remaining aware and open to them when they present themselves.