Effect:

A small tube of Advil is displayed. It is sealed. The magician displays the receipt for the medicine. It vanishes. In his hand now is a few loose Advils. The spectator then breaks the seal on the tube of Advil and opens it to find that the pills are not in there. Instead, the receipt is found there in place of the pills. Everything is examinable.

Method/Preparation:

It’s a simple matter to unseal and reseal these tubes of medicine. Very carefully start to peel off the pull tab. Normally, this is just ripped off around the lid, and you open up the tube to get your medicine. However, in our case we’re going to slowly and steadily peel the tab. As you start to peel it, you’ll feel it break loose from the body of the wrapper one “click” at a time.

Slowly pull it all the way around the tube until you get to the very end. Leave the last half-inch-ish attached. At that point, you can safely remove the lid without removing the strip entirely. Take off the lid; dump out the drugs and put in whatever your load is, in our case, the receipt for the pills.

Take a moment to look at the images above to get a sense of this process. Once you’ve loaded whatever you’re going to load (e.g., dollar bill, receipt, card, etc.), replace the lid. Then slowly, but surely reseal the tube by carefully lining up the “teeth” from the strip to the “teeth” on the rest of the tube’s label. Get in there closely and look at it carefully as you reseal.

If you get the teeth lined up perfectly — this is easy to do since we didn’t remove the strip entirely — when it’s later reopened by the spectator, it’ll have that oh so satisfying ripping sound that sells the illusion of it being truly sealed. Once you’ve got the teeth all lined up and the strip is resealed, run your thumb around the tube starting from the part that remained connected, all the way around to the pull tab. The idea, here, is to get out any possible air bubbles and to make sure the adhesive really re-sticks itself. This will further aid in the illusion of it truly being sealed.

That’s part one of the prep work. Well, technically, it’s part two. Part one is to go to your local gas station — that’s the most common place to find these tubes o’ drugs — and purchase at least two tubes. However, pay for each one as a separate transaction. You want a single receipt for each one. So if you buy ten at once, you’ll have ten receipts and an annoyed cashier.

The idea is that you have a duplicate receipt with the same time and date stamp. If you do the transactions quickly enough, you can get two identical time stamps. Obviously, buying ten will not end up with ten identical time stamps, but you’ll get a few with one time stamp and few more with a different time stamp. If the system that prints the receipts records the seconds (in addition to the minutes and the hour), then you’ll need to cover it with your thumb during the performance. Alternatively, you can just ignore the time and only mention the date, or you can ignore both. We’ll discuss this more during the presentation.

Typically, the receipt will be wider than the height of the tube, so you’ll need to fold it over first. Then roll it up. I just roll it around a Sharpie. It’s about the perfect diameter. See the images below for clarity. Once you’ve opened the tube per the previous instructions and dumped out the pills, you can place your rolled up receipt inside and reseal as described.

Part three of the preparation is the rattle gimmick. Have another tube of Advil that has not been tampered with and either tape it to your arm under your shirt sleeve, or use a rubber band. This way, when you shake the tube that’s loaded with the receipt, you can give the illusion that the pills are in the tube as long as you’re shaking it with the hand that has the tube up the sleeve.

Step four is to get a few Advils and put them in a thumb tip. You’ll need a deeper thumb tip than you may be used to. Look at the image below to see the thumb tip I use. You can get a sense of the height (i.e., depth) of it by looking at it relative to the tube of medicine. Put the loaded thumb tip in your right pants ticket pocket.

The Vanish

The vanish I use is an old cigarette vanish. I roll the receipt up to be roughly the shape of a cigarette. I say “roll,” but in reality, it’s mostly folding. Then for the last “fold,” I roll it up like a cigarette. I hold it in my right hand between my first and middle finger just like you would a cigarette. Note: the two images below are kind of upside down. This only to give a better angle of the position of the receipt.

 

Then as I start to place it into my left hand, I secretly shift the rolled up receipt to right thumb clip.

While in thumb clip position, the receipt is placed in the left palm without actually letting go.

The left fingers close around the receipt as the right hand moves away to the right giving a very powerful retention of vision that the receipt is in the left closed fist.

The right hand dies: it just drops to your side. Next, draw attention to your left hand as you casually ditch the receipt in your right pants pocket. At the same time, load the thumb tip onto your right thumb. Depending on your pants, this can usually be done without having to put your hand in your pocket. You can just stick your thumb in your pocket as you let go of the receipt inside of the pocket. You can also load the thumb tip from this same position, again, depending on the style of pocket and where the ticket pocket is.

However, even if you have to put your hand  in your pocket, this is no big deal. The illusion that the receipt is in your left hand is very convincing, so there’s no reason for them to care about your “dead” right hand. Once the tip is loaded on your right thumb, slowly open your left hand one finger at a time. While all attention is there, casually remove your right hand from your pocket.

Once your left hand is fully open, bring your hands together and brush them in that universal gesture of “washing your hands of it.” Of course be careful not to expose the thumb tip. Next, you’ll ask the spectator to pick up the tube and shake it. As she does this, load the thumb tip into your left fist. This is easy. They’re all staring at the tube. When she shakes it and no sound is heard, pause, and say, “listen.”

Place your left thumb over the opening of your closed left fist and shake your fist. They’ll hear the Advil inside of the thumb tip. Don’t worry about the sound of the pills against the plastic of the thumb tip. I’ve tested it, and it sounds exactly like a fist full of pills without the thumb tip. The thumb tip just makes it a little louder, but the sound is the same. After the sound has registered with them, slowly pour the pills into your right hand (concealing the thumb tip, of course) or ask them to hold out their hands so you can pour into their hands. After that moment sinks in dump the pills from your hand to the table (or have her dump them from her hands to the table).

Ask her to open the Advil tube. While she does this, load the thumb tip back on your right hand (or left if you prefer). Casually hook your thumb(s) into your pocket(s) and unload the thumb tip. Have the spectator remove the seal, lid and receipt. Have her check the date and time. Point out that the date is the same (more on that in the presentation section below).

You’re done, and you end clean.

Presentation:

Magician: Things are so expensive these days. Gas prices, medical bills, groceries, etc. It gives me a headache, but I can’t even afford a headache.
Spectator: What do you mean?

Magician: I’ll show you. Look here’s a receipt for some Advil. I had a headache at exactly 2:30 in the morning last Friday. [Point out the date and time on the receipt.] It cost me $4 bucks! I don’t have that kind of money
Spectator: Maybe you shouldn’t have quit your day job.

Magician: Maybe not. Anyway, by the time I bought the pills and got home, the headache was gone, so I never opened them. Here they are (take them out of your pocket and shake them).
Spectator: You’re weird.

Magician: Your face is weird! I kept the receipt so I could take them back to the store, but they won’t take medicine back.
Spectator: All sales are final!

Magician: Yep. I guess I don’t need this (i.e., the receipt) anymore. [Make it vanish. More on that later.]
Spectator: Wow. You’re magical.

Magician: I know. Right? Listen . . . [Shake your closed fist. Pause. Dump out the pills.]
Spectator: That gave me a headache. Can I have one?

Magician: You’re funny. Would you mind opening the Advil tube? Just rip it open. What’s inside?
Spectator: The receipt.

Magician: Wow! Can I see that? That gives me a headache too. See . . . it gave me a headache at exactly 2:30 AM, last Friday. I guess I can’t shake this headache.
Spectator: Thanks a lot. Now I have a permanent headache last Friday at 2:30 AM too.

Alternate Ideas:

When I first figured out how to open and reseal these tubes, I had a totally different idea in mind for how to use the concept. Over the years, I’ve had several different ideas as well. Below is a short list of a few of them.

Lazy Shopper

Rather than swapping the receipt, you can swap a five dollar bill. The presentation would be slightly different of course.

Magician: I don’t have much time these days. I’m always running around like a headless chicken. It gives me a headache, which is weird since I’m a headless chicken. But I don’t even have time to buy drugs for my headache.
Spectator: Stop whining so much.

Magician: Sorry. When I’m too busy to buy medicine, here’s what I do. I sit at home and cause the medicine to come to me. Of course, I don’t steal it. I send the money to the store.
Spectator: I don’t believe you.

You then perform the same effect as previously described, but with money instead of the receipt.

Much Simpler

The above two effects (receipt and five dollar bill versions) appeal to me because they have a somewhat reasonable story line. However, this next idea is more direct with less story and even less props. You start by borrowing a dollar bill. You then say that this trick is so amazing that it’ll give you a headache. As you say this, you’ve removed the tube and started shaking it. Place the tube on the table. The spectator can shake it if they want.

You then vanish the dollar bill using your . . . wait for it . . . favorite method. Have them open the tube to find that the dollar bill is inside the tube with the medicine. To do this, roll up the bill in the same way that you’d do the receipt. Then carefully unseal and open the tube. Dump out the pills. Load the dollar bill in. It will unroll enough to fit the inner diameter of the tube. Then put the pills back inside the tube right inside the rolled up bill. You’ll be able to fit all ten back in there. However, it will be too tight, and you won’t be able to hear any noise when you shake it. So only put 9 pills back in, and it’ll sound just fine.

The advantage of this is that there are no loose pills, no rattle box and no thumb tip (unless that’s your “favorite method” for vanishing the bill). Also, you can memorize the serial number of the bill in the tube, and miscall the serial number on the borrowed bill. Have someone write down the serial number as you “read” it. Of course you’re really reciting the memorized one from the tube.

If you want to get even more clever, you can get a handful of sequential bills from a bank and scratch off the last digit of the serial number thus giving you several bills with the exact same serial number. Then when you borrow a bill, you can switch it for one of your bills. Then have them read the serial number as someone else writes it down. This will, of course, match the one in the tube. Of course, with this method, you can have several tubes prepared so you can repeat the effect multiple times throughout a night of strolling. Remember, each time you perform it, you destroy the seal, so you’ll need a fresh one each time.

In this scenario, you can either do the switch as mentioned above to have the serial number read by the spectator. Or you can just memorize the serial number as suggested earlier. You’ll only need to remember one serial number since all the tubes are loaded with duplicate bills.

Cards

You can also fit a card in there as well. However, you’ll have to fold it in half as shown below.

Then roll it up and put it in the tube. You’ll be able to fit all ten pills in there as well. The first picture below shows the inside with only 7 pills. This is just for clarity’s sake so you can see the card. The next picture shows all ten pills. When sealed up, you can hear the pills rattle just fine.

Again, with this effect, you use the same premise . . . this trick is so good it’ll give you a headache. I know John Bannon and Jay Sankey both have used similar lines in their own work. I’m pretty sure that’s where I got the idea to use it with this effect.

The advantage of using the card is that you can do a simple double lift vanish or some other move that requires no extra props. You just need the tube and a deck of cards.

Photos

Of course, you can tell the story of your ex-girlfriend/ex-boyfriend and how much of a pain in the neck they were. Thus you always carried Advil with you. Old habits die hard; you’ve still got some in your pocket. In this case, you pretend to “realize” that you have it in your pocket. Then you tell the story of what a pain s/he was. Then show a picture of them . . . tear it up and/or vanish it. A nice touch with this is that you can have something written on the back of the photo . . . a note from your ex, or something like that. Of course you  put it on both photos: the one in the tube and the one you’re going to vanish. This is as close as you’re gonna get to signed object to Advil tube.

For this, all you need is the tube in your pocket, and a picture in your wallet. This kind of thing is perfect for more casual performances. If you wanted to do it strolling, you can have several pictures in your wallet (assuming that you’re going to tear one up each time you perform). Then have several tubes in your pocket.

Experimenting

As you can see, this idea has a lot of potential. The best thing to do is experiment with several different objects that you may be interested in loading in the tube. Just buy a tube and rip it open. Don’t worry about saving the seal. I mean . . . save the baby seals, but don’t save the Advil seal in this case. Then just try rolling up stuff and seeing what’ll fit and what won’t. You might be able to fit small coins from other countries. Also, magic & novelty shops sell miniature coins.

You could put matches in there and cause them to vanish from a match book or matchbox. Maybe you could figure out a way to do a Tic Tac/Advil transpo where the Advil ends up in a sealed Tic Tac container and the Tic Tacs end up in the Advil tube.

Stuff a few super soft sponge balls in there. Then at the end of a sponge ball routine, the sponge ball vanishes, but in its place is a red pill, or the tube itself. I like the symmetry of the red pill and the red sponge ball.

Load it will small dice and patter about how taking drugs is always a gamble. On and on and on and on. Take some time to experiment and find out what fits your personality and style.

I’ve also played around with producing the tube. Maybe causing a dollar bill to magically turn into the pill tube. You can still start the routine off by saying that this effect is so good, it’ll give you a headache, but you never show the pills. Then you perform the effect and cause the object to vanish,  or rather: transform into the pill tube.

Another untapped idea is the wrapper around the tube. It actually unrolls. See image below.

I’ve experimented with writing a prediction on there (on the inside), or trying to hide something rolled up in there. I’m not sure what or how yet, but once you get something in there and re-roll it and reseal the pull tab, it should stay in place and can be handled with no problem. You can even glue it a little if needed to make sure it stays in place.

The Rattle Box

The rattle box (i.e., the tube strapped to your arm up your sleeve) is only needed in effects where the tube is pre-loaded with no pills in it. The only example of that above is the original effect where the pills trade places with the receipt. The rest of the effects do not require it. However, you may not even need it then. The fact that it’s sealed may be enough.

For me, however, I prefer the rattle box. I want to make sure that all things point to “This bottle is a legitimately sealed, untampered-with tube of Advil.” I have experimented with wearing the thumb tip that has the pills in it while shaking the tube. It actually works and even sounds right. However, it’s very awkward to hold the tube and properly conceal the thumb tip. I’ve played around with different grips, but never quite found one that worked for me. I like the simplicity of forefinger on top of the tube, thumb on the bottom and just shaking it.

You can, of course, feel free to experiment and see if you come up with something that’s comfortable for you and your style. In fact, I encourage it.

Multiple Repeat Performances

As you’ve seen, there are versions of this listed above that can be done by simply carrying around the tube and maybe one other item. For example the photo version only requires the photo and the tube. The dollar bill version only requires the tube if you borrow the bill, etc.

Although it’s a huge impossibility to have an object appear in a factory sealed tube, if the tube wasn’t sealed, it would still be a good effect, especially if the spectator holds the tube the entire time. So, if you want to carry a tube around with a dollar bill loaded into it, you can be able to repeat the effect without having to carry around a bunch of tubes. In this case, you’ll not be able to use the serial number because as soon as you remove the bill from the tube, they’ll want their bill back.

They think the one in the tube is theirs. You could, of course, be prepared with a bunch of duplicate bills in your wallet if you wanted to use the duplicate serial number idea mentioned earlier. Since this is not a sealed tube, but merely a tube with a lid, you’ll need to do something to make sure they “know” it’s the same bill. You could use a torn corner switch.

Then each time you perform, you have a new corner and new bill to load into the tube because you gave away the one in the tube, but you got a new one from the spectator. This is the one you vanished a moment earlier. This does mean, however, that you’ll have to carry around the loose corner where ever you go.

You can also do the photo version, however, you’ll need to have multiple copies of the photo in your wallet. The nice thing with the photo, you have the built in “duplicate” if you have a little note on the back of the photo — you’ll need this on all of the photos.

Final Thoughts

Stuff like this make my mind go in a thousand different directions. I’m assuming you guessed that after reading this effect. Take the time to play around and experiment with this idea. I’m sure you’ll find a ton of ideas that fit you. Good Luck!

I bring this up, a) because it’s funny, and b) because there is a lesson here, I think. The lesson is the fourth and final in the Know Your Audience series. Things get lost in translation even when both people are speaking the same language. In this case, the “audience” I’m referring to is the person who hired you to do your gig. Take a moment to make sure that you both are on the same page regarding things like: date and time of event, fee, required equipment, etc. Make sure they know what you actually will be doing.

I was once hired as one of several entertainers at an outdoor party at a huge home owned by a very rich lady. When the gig was over, the owner of the home gave me a piece of her mind and told me how upset she was that she didn’t see me perform at a single table. She said that all I did was just stop by a bunch of different tables and talk to people. Long story short, she thought I was a musician and that I’d be playing a song at each table.

In this case, I can blame the agent who got me the gig. He didn’t communicate clearly with the owner. However, ultimately I’m the one hired, and I’m the one leaving the impression on the owner, so I should have made sure my agent knew what he was talking about. Make sure that everyone is on the same page. This includes your customers at the table you’re approaching as well.

Take a moment to make sure they know why you’re interrupting their meal, party, etc. Make it clear to them yourself, and also work with the host to make sure that they are spreading the word that there is a magician in the house.

You don’t want to end up wit a deck of cards vanishing up your spectator’s nose, so take some time to communicate properly with all parties involved, and make sure that you not only know your audience, but that your audience knows you.

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: MOVE YOUR AUDIENCE! Stop with the mindless droning on about what prop your holding and what you’re going to do with it, and where you’re gonna stick it. I’ll tell you where to stick it! Your audience members are not morons. You don’t need to say, “I have here a deck of cards.” Are you serious!?

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: MOVE YOUR AUDIENCE! For the next 30 days, I want you to take one effect in your current repertoire, and stop . . . and think . . . Think about what you’re saying, when you’re saying it, why you’re saying it. Make sure that your words have meaning and aren’t simply stating the obvious. As many of you may know, this is the final issue of Stone Cold Magic Magazine. So I thought I’d go out with a bang. I may ruffle some feathers, but this subject is near and dear to my heart. Why can’t our magic be moving and beautiful and emotional and meaningful? The answer is: it can!
This is why I wrote 793.8. My mission for that book is to solve this problem: too much of magic has no meaning. I’m not even opposed to “adventures of the props” as a way to present. What I’m opposing is a flurry of narration of every move and every breath you take. I’m opposing statements that are so obvious that by making them, you’re calling your audience members idiots/fools/etc.
What’s the point of saying, “I have here a pen. Take this pen and sign this card.” Why!? How ’bout saying something like: “Would you mind signing your name on the card” as you simply hand them the pen. Find these problems in your presentation and eliminate them.

Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

Effect

A dollar bill is folded in half lengthwise. It is sandwiched between two credit cards. As the bill is pushed through the two credit cards, it emerges on the other side inside-out. This is repeated a time or two. Then the bill ripped in half showing that half of it was inside-out.

Credits

This is, obviously, just Cardwarp with different props. As far as I know, there are only two other published sans-cards version of this effect. The Cardwarp Tour by Jeff Pierce is, as far as I know, the most comprehensive study of the effect, its origins and its variations. In that book, there are a handling ideas using a dollar bill, but in most cases, the dollar bill is used as the magic “portal” where the card turns inside-out.

The two effects that do not use playing cards are Warp 9 by Mike Powers and Inside Out by Richard Osterlind. The Powers version uses a dollar bill as the portal and a business card as the object to be warped. Osterlind’s effect is the only one where the bill itself warps. However, it’s a completely different kind of effect and method. It’s a routine using a single bill that ends with a mis-made bill. Having said all that, I’m 99.999999% confident that the effect you are reading is original with me.

Method

First, a note: pink strips of paper on the credit card in the images below have nothing to do with the effect. They are just there to obscure my credit card number.

Moving on: start by having a dollar bill pre-torn in your wallet ready to go. Remove two credit cards from your wallet and the bill and show it on both sides, concealing the tear. Fold it in half length-wise, keeping the torn side toward you (see image below).

Holding the bill in your right hand with your thumb over the tear, use your left hand to place the two credit cards in front of the bill to the left with the front-most (i.e., closest to the audience) card down-jogged and left jogged. Having the cards jogged like this gives more of a screen to prevent the next move from flashing.

Slightly roll your right thumb upwards to release the bottom part of the bill below the tear. With the left thumb, open the bottom half of the dollar bill (see image below – note: the front-most card is removed from the image to clearly show the relationship of the rear-most card and the dollar).

Next, align the bill so that it is fully hidden by the card nearest you. Place the front-most card on top of the bill thus sandwiching the bill between the two credit cards (image below – note: the bill is slightly jogged to the right for clarity only).

Holding the top of the ripped portion of the bill against the rest of the dollar with your right thumb, grab the two cards with your left hand from the left side and pivot them around into the front of the bill. The ends result is the secretly unfolded part of the bill is sandwiched between the two cards, and the rest of the bill (still folded length-wise) is behind both cards (image below – note: the right hand is removed for clarity and because it’s holding the camera).

Immediately slide the rear-most (i.e., closest to your) card to the right about a half of an inch while maintaining the right thumb on the tear. Transfer everything to the left hand placing your left thumb across the entire tear, keeping it flat against the bill and cards (image below).

With the right hand, grab the rear-most card and slide it out to the left; show it on both sides, and place it on top of the bill. The situation, now, is the two credit cards are sandwiching the dollar bill which is folded with the top part (i.e., above the tear) of the fold toward you and the bottom part (i.e., below the tear) of the fold is folded toward the audience. The secret nature of the bill is, of course, hidden between the credit cards (image below – note: the cards are spread for clarity only).

This whole series of actions only takes a few seconds. Now you are in position to push the dollar bill through the portal (i.e., the credit cards). As it emerges on the other side, it will appear to be turning inside-out between the cards. Push it back and forth as many times as fits your presentation. When you’re just about to finish, you can do the somewhat standard corner display where you bring the center of the bill to the corners of the credit card showing both sides clearly with the bill inside-out (image below).

After that moment has sunk in, bring the bill back to being parallel to and sandwiched in the cards. Push it all the way to the left again. Pull it slightly farther out of the cards, just to the point where the tear is no longer hidden inside the cards. However, it’s covered by your left hand. You want to make sure that you do this so that the tear is outside of the card on the audience’s side. However, just before the tear would expose itself, fold the bill toward the audience and up against the front-most card (image below – note: this is a very “exposed” view. The dollar should be facing the audience, and the opening between the cards would actually be on your left concealed by your left fingers).

Then unfold it while keeping your left index finger in front covering the tear with the left thumb directly behind the left index finger behind the bill. You’re in position to tear the bill. With the right hand, pinch the two cards together and tear back toward yourself as the left hand tears forward. If done properly, this will tear the bill exactly at the point of the original half-tear. Immediately spread the two cards to reveal the other half of the bill between the cards. This makes a nice display of the two halves one folded one way and the other folded the other way.

Below is a video of the entire handling. Note that this is not a “performance” but rather a slowed down walk through of the handling from the audience’s perspective.

Presentation

This kind of effect, with these props lends itself to interesting presentation ideas, so let’s take a look at a few.

The Scam

Pull out your debit/credit cards and make the claim that you don’t need to go to an ATM to get money.

However, since I’m not at my bank’s ATM, there’s a transaction fee of a dollar.

Get the prepared dollar out of your wallet, and set it up as directed above. Then claim that as you push it through, a $20 bill will come out the other side. However, as you push it through, a $20 doesn’t come out. Instead your dollar gets turned inside out.

Maybe this is one of those scam ATMs that just steal your account number and PIN.

In anger, you “try to take the bill back,” but it “accidentally” rips as you take it out. In this presentation, if you choose to do the diagonal display, you’ll want to take on the attitude of confusion like you’re trying to figure out what the heck is going on, so you start moving it around trying to “figure it out.” Then when you display it at the corner of the cards, you look just as confused and surprised as everyone else.

Tricky Bank Teller

This is similar to the The Scam, but this time it’s the bank teller trying to scam you rather than the ATM. Simply claim that the teller tried to convince you that he was giving you two dollars instead of one. The idea of this is similar to the old gag where you claim to have two quarters in your pocket. You pull out one quarter and say, “one.” Then you put your hand (with the quarter) back in your pocket. You come out with “another” quarter and say, “two.”

This is a gag often used when entertaining children. With the dollar bill, you claim that “here’s one dollar,” then after pushing it through you claim that here’s the other dollar. After the teller did this a couple of time (you claim) you tried to grab the bill to look at it, but it “accidentally” ripped. With this presentation, you would leave out the diagonal display.

Notes

The length of a credit card is about a half inch longer than half of the length of a dollar bill. This allows plenty of cover when pushing the bill through the cards. You’ll never be able to accidentally push the bill too far.

Also, since the dollar bill has a border, it’s okay if the bill peeks out a little bit on one side before you effect the change. It will just look like the bill is sticking out with nothing weird happening.

The advantage of this version over the original is that you probably already have two credit cards in your wallet, and you probably already have cash in your wallet. If you’re planning on doing this effect, you already have what you need. Just pre-tear one or two bills, and you’re all set.

One quick tip: when performing this, make sure that the raised numbers on the credit cards (i.e., the front of the cards) are on the outside. You want the back of the cards to be on the inside. It makes sliding the bill through much easier. The tear won’t snag on the raised numbers, and it’s just a much better surface in general . . . less friction.

Lastly, you may want to consider doing a restoration of the bill at the end. Before reading Osterlind’s effect, I also had the idea to use a mis-made bill. My idea was this: after tearing the bill in half and letting that sink in, I would then tear each half in half again, length-wise. Then using a bill switch, restore it, but it would end up as a mis-made bill.
I also considered just doing a bill switch with the two ripped pieces (without ripping them further). If you use The Scam presentation above, you could end with a bill switch that changes the torn $1 bill into a torn $20 bill (or a restored one).

There is nothing more satisfying than casually and subtly nailing a heckler… well almost nothing. I mean it’s hard to beat taking a bath in a tub full of chocolate milk while midgets feed you chocolate chip cookies. But besides that, nothing is more satisfying than a good “gotcha” with a heckler.

Case in Point:

I had a gig not too long ago that was a strolling corporate function. It was up in the mountains at a beautiful campsite right here in lovely Utah. With each group that I approached I opened with a variation of Jay Sankey’s “Die Hard Opener.” The basic premise is simply that a card is chosen, shuffled back into the deck and then you cause “their selection” to fly out of the deck into the air, and you catch it.

However, when you show it, you’re “wrong.” It’s not their card… just a magical phrase like “top change” and suddenly it is their card. It’s a very good opener, and the psychology behind it is brilliant. I’ve always loved this effect.

So I’d successfully performed it about 15 or 20 times without a hitch… the timing was great. Right about when they were thinking, “crap… did he really screw up?” The card was changed and I was Mr. Miracle. It was like that time that I was fishing in a lake of diet coke catching fish with meat hooks and chicken beaks for bait … ah good times.

But I digress … The point is this: On the 21st time I performed it, when I got to the point where the card was “wrong” some smarty pants guy said, “They actually pay you for this?” I had just done the switch right as he said that. The magic happened, and I showed the selection, and simply said, “Yes, The DO pay me for this.”

It was Awesome. The guy’s jaw dropped, the audience laughed and cheered, and he even sort of apologized by saying, “Wow. That was good.” How sweet is that. I mean it’s not as sweet as a forest fully of hollow chocolate Easter Bunnies and sour gummy worms being eaten by invisible insects, but still it was sweet!

I gotta go. I can hear someone playing Stairway to Heaven on the Banjo.

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: You are on the same team as your audience. When I was actively marketing myself as a performer, the above letter was sent out to my mailing list of potential clients. It was part of a bigger effort to keep the magical moments of life at the top of the mind of my potential clients. This particular letter is very much about teaching the audience to properly play their role.

Spectators don’t necessarily know this. We’ve all met the spectator who narrates the entire trick as he tells us how everything is done. It’s not entirely his fault. He believes that his job is that of debunker. He wants to disprove any claims (outrageous or otherwise) that we as magicians make. He’s just playing the wrong role and doesn’t know it.

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: Educate your audience. For the next 30 days, focus on making very clear what your audience’s job is. Do this politely, of course. You can do this by openly saying this directly, or you can show them by your actions, or a combination of both. I want you to stop and figure it out on your own, but your job is to make sure that the audience knows that their job is let the feeling of astonishment happen, and then after it happens, let it wash over themselves until they’re buried neck-deep, yet comfortably. Teach your audience and your world as a performer will change.

Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

Advanced Selection

Rather than waiting until it’s time to do the routine to have the cards selected, have them selected in advance. While you’re doing your show, assuming you use cards, the spectators will be handling cards. Whether it’s a selection, a mystery card, a couple of Kings for a sandwich routine, the four Aces, etc., the spectators are handling cards. Rather than putting the four Aces or two Kings, or whatever back in the pack after the effect, ask various spectators to hold on to the cards for the “Big Finish.”

This saves a ton of time in two ways. First, it normally takes time to put the Kings or Aces or whatever back in the deck, so you save a few seconds there. But, of course, the big savings is at the end during the MCR routine. You don’t have to have a single card selected for this routine, because they’ve been in the possession of the spectators the entire time.

So to be clear, let’s say you’re working a group of 7 people. You do a sandwich routine which involves two Kings and a selection (let’s say 5 of Diamonds). When the trick is over, don’t put the 5 or the Kings back in the deck. Rather, let the person who selected the 5 hang on to it. Then give one of the Kings to “Bob” and the other one to “Jill” as you tell them to hold on to them until the end.

Let them know that you’ll need them for the grand finale. This will build suspense and mystery. Next up, you perform an Ace Assembly (yuck). At the end, give an Ace to “Judy”, “Billy”, “Jack” and “Doug.” You’ve done two card tricks, and already 7 people have a card for the big finish. This speeds things up, builds suspense and is much more efficient. Also, if your card set involves more cards than this, feel free to have spectators hang on to more than one card.

One Control

When you’re done with your set of card effects and you’re ready for the grand finale, build it up. Tell everyone to take a good look at their card again and remember it. Then rather than taking the cards back and controlling them one at a time, fan the deck out and place the selections up-jogged in different parts of the fan. Square up and perform Marlo’s Super Simple Multiple Shift — I believe that’s the name of it.

This is a simple method to control all 7 (or however many) cards to the top (or bottom) of the deck all at once. With that done, you’ve take little time at all to get where you need to be. You didn’t have to bother at all with a selection process. Further, you didn’t really have to bother with taking the cards back. You just quickly up-jogged their cards so that they could “get one last look.” Two seconds later the cards are “lost” in the deck and you’re in the position you need to be to begin the revelations. Now you can go right into your revelations with a much more attentive audience.

One at a Time? No!

Finally, we come to the climax and most important part of the routine, the revelations. In my mind, the secret here is to build. Make each revelation more visible and/or more impossible seeming. That’s tip #1. Tip #2 is use revelations that reveal more than one card at the same time.

With a smaller group, this may not be needed, but if you have 10 or more selections, doing more than one selection at a time can save you time, and it often looks more flashy and more difficult. For example, you could use the classic revelation where you hold the deck and toss it from one hand to the other causing the top and bottom card to remain behind in your hand as the deck is tossed to the other hand.

Lastly, as a shameless plug, I’ll recommend my effect Triptych from my Gemstones DVD as a solution to quickly finding three selections. Further, from the same DVD, All Four One can also be adapted to the MCR routine allowing you to quickly find four selections.

In a routine like this, it’s more important than ever to look for time savers that won’t compromise the impact of the effect. I think the ideas offered here fit that bill. If you implement any of these ideas, please post a comment below to let us know how it went. Until Next Month . . .

I just recently had the strangest gig. I had a youth group leader who had some young men who were “believers” of Criss Angel. This may sound harmless at first, and maybe it is. However, the concern that this leader had was that these young men really believed that Criss Angel had real power and could do real “magic.”

If you’re a fan of Angel’s, you’ll note that he himself admits that he has no real power. So this youth group leader hired me to do a show/lecture to prove that Criss Angel does not have real power. Of course, I didn’t want to come across as an Angel-hater, so I structured the show to have three main phases:

1. Magic isn’t real
2. A mentalist Show
3. Brief lecture about magic not being real

Phase 2:

The show was pretty much my standard show with a few modifications. I tried out a couple of new effects from Sankey’s DVD, Hemispheres. Here are some of the effects:

• Lee Earle and Larry Becker’s “Ace Revisited.” – A book test with a dictionary
• John Archer’s Komedy Killer (my own modification of it)
• Finding Your Inner Superhero – An effect I created – basically a prediction of a chosen superhero

I did a few other effects, but they are ones I’m keeping to myself for now. Anyway, I usually do a different book test, but at this gig, I tried Larry Becker’s Ace Revisited and it killed. After the show everyone was talking about it.

The Archer thing I’ve been doing for years now, and this show, was the last show I’ll ever do it. I love the effect, but it’s just not playing the way I want it to, so until I can come up with a better presentation, it’s out.

The superhero bit has been a staple in my stand up act forever, and this particular show it played better than it ever has. The reason being is that I worked with a script/presentation consultant to improve the performance.

The Sankey effects that I did played well also. I just wanted to comment on the idea of constantly monitoring your show. This particular gig was a turning point for my show. There are new effects in and old effects out.

Phase 3:

In the final phase, I briefly talked about how many of the things I just did, as impossible, as they seemed, there was some trick to it. In addition to the practice, I used psychology, sleight of hand, gimmicks, etc. I then spent some time talking about the fact that even Criss Angel himself admits that he has no power. Part of the presentation included an interview with Criss on the Penn and Teller show.

So the point of all my ranting is that by taking this particular gig, my show was taken to the next level. First of all, I was able to get a new introduction to my show that has now served me well for a couple of shows. Time will tell if it will hold out, but I think it will.

Secondly, I gained a new trick-set that is better than my previous show. I was able to test some new patter that worked well and thus improved my show.

Finally, as much as I’m not really an Angel fan, I gained a new level of respect for him after listening to the interview. So keep on giggin’ and keep on trying new ideas, and constantly improve your show. What did you learn?

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: Your mind is your most valuable tool. The above essay was written for a college assignment years ago. I recently came across it and decided to add it to the magazine because it teaches a great lesson that we magicians can apply to our performances. First of all, if nothing else, it might make for an interesting premise for an effect.

Looking beyond that, I think the power of this is found in how we connect in our audience. When we perform, we connect with our audience via trickery, patter and costume. Why not other things? Why not with our mind? Or at the very least, why not use our mind to improve how we use trickery, patter and costume to connect with our audience.

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: Believe that you’re amazing. I know the world of magic is filled with enough ego already, and there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, especially in our industry. Try this, however: check your ego. Then believe that you have the most amazing performance, effect, show, etc. Don’t go around shoving it in people’s faces and rubbing their nose in it, just quietly believe it.

Don’t put yourself in denial either. In fact, you’ll want to do the exact opposite of denial. Take extra time to get feedback from filming yourself, or asking people, etc. Whatever criticism you get, DO NOT DISMISS IT. Just the opposite. Think about it. Ponder it. Really open your heart and mind to find the truth of critique that you receive.

That may sound like the opposite of “believing you’re amazing.” However, it’s not. When you tell yourself you’ve got a great show, and you really truly start to believe, your actions, subconsciously will try to play catch up with your brain. You will, on a very subconscious level start attracting things that will make your show better, so when you start believing in yourself, the doors will open and paths will clear and you will eventually catch up to where you think you are. Just remember step 1: check your ego before you do any of this.

Put this to the test in your next show. Tell yourself repeatedly that you will get a standing ovation. I’m not guaranteeing that you will. However, what will happen is that the more you tell yourself that, the more your mind will work on ways to head you down that path . . . just don’t forget step 1!

Now got study the classics and go discover your true magical self.

Effect:

The magician, while performing for a small seated crowd, gives ten cards to someone on the far left side of the room. He then gives ten cards to someone else on the far right side of the room.

Magically 3 cards vanish from the “left” person’s pile and reappear in the “right” person’s pile. However, when the person on the right counts her cards, she only has 12, not 13. The magician then “senses” that someone in the middle of the crowd between “left” and “right” should stand up. When she does, she is found to be sitting on the missing card.

Method:

If you do cards across, you probably have already figured out a method to perform the above effect. I’m not going to go into any depth regarding the cards across method. There are so many methods in print that it’s best if you do the research and find one that fits you. I personally use Paul Harris’s Las Vegas Leaper. It’s my all time favorite method for this effect.

With that behind us, let’s focus on getting the missing card under the unsuspecting spectator. It’s simple . . . just put it there when nobody’s looking. This is the kind of thing that you set up well in advance of the effect happening. Use the other spectator for an effect where you need to come out to her and stand near her. It’s a simple matter to stand beside her and place your hand (holding the deck) on the back of her chair and thumb a card off the deck and between her back and the chair’s back.

This can be done to someone between your the two people that you’re going to use for the cards across effect later, or it can be done with someone sitting next to the person who will be “receiving” the cards. It’s up to you. If you’re performing for a group of people at a table, it can be anyone else (other than the two cards across people) sitting at the table.

Also, you don’t have to load it under a person you’ve used in a previous effect. Instead, while using someone for an earlier effect, slip the card onto someone else’s chair who happens to be sitting next to or near the person you’re using in the current effect.

Further, you can just do it casually early on in the show as you’re walking out amongst the audience and not using any particular spectator for an effect. Your goal is to have the card loaded well in advance . . . long before you perform the actual cards across routine. Also keep in mind that not all venues and set ups are appropriately laid out for this to work. You’ll have to kind of get a sense, based on the venue, as to whether or not it will work in that particular staging.

Presentation:

What makes this work is how you “sell” it. During the presentation where you are making your magical gestures that represent the magical traveling of the cards, you can glance at your “middle” spectator and say something like, “did you feel the card make its way past you over to her?” Anything like that can be used to set up the ending.

Then at the end when the “right” person only has 12 cards instead of 13, you can give the “middle” person a “look.” The hope is that the audience will catch on and get ahead of you. Either way, you simply say, “you really did feel the card, didn’t you? In fact, I think it didn’t make it past you.” Then ask her to stand up to discover the card.

If you’re performing it where the “middle” person isn’t really in the middle, but next to the “right” person or just somewhere else at the table, then you can use a different “line.” This time when you’re gesturing to make the cards travel, don’t say anything to the “middle” person about feeling the card. Rather, you can act as if you stumbled or mis-fired when you make your gesture. Look at the “middle” person and say, “I almost sent the card to you.” It’ll get a laugh, and everyone will assume you’re kidding. In fact, even if you weren’t going to have the card appear there and you were just doing a standard cards across routine, this line totally works.

At the end when the 13th card is missing, act as if you maybe screwed up. Then as a joking way to get out of your mistake, look to the “middle” person and jokingly say, “maybe I did send it to you.” Let that “sit there” for a minute as an awkward I-screwed-up moment. Then politely ask her to stand up.

Another line that works at the end when the 13th card is missing is simply, “I missed. Sometimes I miss.” Then look to the “middle” person and say “maybe I ‘hit’ you?” At this point, rather than looking at the “middle” person, you can look around the room at multiple people (or everyone, depending on the size of the group) and say “did any of you end up with the missing card?” Then have someone stand up. Then another. After each sits down have another stand up until you “find” the card.

Finally, a nice touch is to be aware of what card you slipped under your “middle” victim earlier. Let’s say it’s the Two of Spades. During the presentation, later, when you are making the cards travel, on the last card, say something like ” . . . and the final card I will send you is the Two of Spades.” Then when she (the person on the right) counts the cards and finds only 12, ask her if the Two made it. When she says “no” you can start looking around the room suspiciously. As you ask people if they have the Two of Spades, the effect becomes slightly more powerful when the “middle” person shows that not only did she end up with the card, but it was the Two of Spades.

Extras:

Rather than having only one card get stuck, you can have all three get stuck. The beauty of this is that during the procedure where you are counting out the ten cards for the “right” person, you can be extra super fair because you’re not hiding any extra cards. You can really milk this and build it up that you are only giving her ten cards.

Then at the end when she still has only ten cards, you can make a joke about “maybe I shouldn’t have been so fair about how I gave you those ten cards.” Then proceed as before to find the missing cards.

Lastly, the above joke can be used as cover for a standard (non “middle” person) cards across. When everyone is laughing about the fact that there are still only ten cards you can easily load on three more if needed.

Final Thoughts:

I know that it has become “the thing to say” in magic to say “don’t overlook this just because it’s simple,” but it’s so true in this case. This is the kind of stuff that will set you apart from other performers. You’re taking a simple idea that adds a little “something” to an effect, and it becomes something more. It becomes more memorable and unique. Give it a shot. You won’t regret it.