793.8 The Paperback Edition

I finally finished the paperback edition of 793.8. This book is starting make some waves and has had nothing but positive praise from everyone who has read it. You can now get a print copy of it. If you’ve already purchased the PDF, you’ll be able to get the paperback edition at a discount equal to what you paid for the PDF. The details are on the website: 793.8: Where is The Magic?

793.8 is one of the freshest and most powerful books about presentation for magicians that I have read in a very long time. Your thoughts on connecting with an audience are so powerful that they literally woke me up to being a better performer. Thank you so much for this fantastic work.
— Richard Sanders

Jeff Stone has quietly published a series of excellent magic books that are well-worth your time and money. His latest one, 793.8, is all that again, but raised to another level. His deepest interest is to help you tap into the magic in your magic—those moments of deep, true astonishment. Between Jeff’s thoughtful essays and excellent routines, you will find yourself inspired to create more magical magic. Highly recommended.
— Lawrence Hass, Associate Dean of McBride’s Magic & Mystery School and author of Transformations: Creating Magic Out of Tricks.

My Lovely Assistant

At this point, this one’s somewhat old news, but just in case you haven’t heard, I’ve officially taken over the daily operations of My Lovely Assistant. I approve the reviews, products and reviewers. So if you’d like to become an official reviewer and get free product, I’m the gatekeeper. The process is simple:

1. Go to My Lovely Assistant
2. Create an account
3. Start writing reviews of products you already own
4. After you’ve written 5 or 6 reviews, email me (jeff@magicreviewed.com) expressing interest in becoming an official reviewer
5. We review your account, and approve (or not) you.

That’s it. We’re just looking for quality reviews and regularly posted reviews. Good luck!

Introduction

This effect comes straight from a dream I had a while back. There is something about having a spectator commit to a card by writing his/her name on it, or in this case folding it.

Effect

A deck of cards flows into use. You (the magician) turn around (back facing the participant). You instruct him/her to turn the cards face up, cut the cards & complete the cut. He/she is asked to do this “cutting & completing” several times until she finds a card of her liking. When she does, she is instructed to take that card and fold it into forths, so the back design is showing (card face becomes hidden).

Your spectator is then instructed to place the folded card underneath her left hand. She is now asked to cut and complete the cards again a few times with her right hand until she see’s a card she’d like to reveal to the magician and stop. Finally the magician turns around and through mental telepathy the folded (committed) card is revealed.

Method and Set up

Si Stebbins stack and a peek- pretty simple.

The psychology behind this effect, from my personal perspective lies in the way the card is chosen and committed to. How often do we actually have a spectator chose a card then fold it into forths before hiding it?

This out of sight, underneath the spectators hand scenario creates a clearly impossible situation. Additionally the reason behind having the participant cut the deck again- is so that the card she allows to be seen will “reveal” (psychologically) everything about the card that is underneath her hand. It’s a ruse, but this becomes the motivation behind everything that is happening.

The Peek

The Peek:

There are 2 different points/moments where you can use a peek to find out what the folded card is. The first one is a Jeff Stone contribution; where the magician turns around after the “reveal” card is chosen/stopped at. The deck is given a quick (face up) ribbon spread on the table, and just by locating the only two cards that are next to each other (the same color)- the card that sits on the bottom of (or below) will give you the identity of the folded card (via the si-stebbins stack). This of course is done very casually and smoothly while recapping upon what has transpired. After the spread, turn the cards face down and shuffle the deck a few times thus getting rid of the “set-up” evidence.

• I personally don’t shuffle the cards until after the revelation. I think it’s running when not being chased. The best scenario would be to go right into an effect which only uses a few cards, because clearly the deck is now incomplete/ruined (in the spectators mind). Which totally justifies a quick shuffle followed by removing a few cards such as the 4 aces etc.

Note: Jeff Stone has informed me that this will also work with the 4 Kings set up.

The second peek is an idea given to me by the ever so amazing Derrick Welling; which is quite clever. After the spectator has folded the “committed” card, you say something like “Ok you’ve got that card folded & hidden away?” at the same time very casually turn your head as if to make sure, and peek the now exposed face up card, which sits on top of the deck. You turn back around and then follow through with the (instructed) cutting/completing/reveal card sequence. In this case you obviously don’t need to spread the cards face up, you can simply turn the cards face down and slowly, very magically reveal the folded/hidden card.

• There is plenty of time misdirection in play using this peek. Also as you peek make sure your spectator doesn’t “see” you looking at the tabled card. Peek “it” before you make eye contact with her, or better yet simply use your powerful peripherals- be ultra sneaky.

I trust the simplicity of this effect doesn’t stop you from giving it a try, you just might be surprised by exactly “who” it fools and how impressive it plays.

The Dream

Originally in my dream, the method required no peek or set-up. The spectator could shuffle the deck as much as desired, and the effect could still be accomplished. Of course this would be the perfect scenario, but as of yet, the following method is the best I’ve developed. If you formulate another method to accomplish “Commit and Reveal” please let me know, I’d love to hear what you imagine.

As always have fun

Warmly
Brad “Scarnecky” Gordon

Effect:

You borrow 3 one dollar bills and crumple them up into a ball. They keep magically jumping from your pocket to your hand. Then at the end you’re left with two of the bills merging into a single two dollar bill.

Method:

This is a standard “two in the hand, one in the pocket routine.” For the unfamiliar, the basic idea is this:

• Three bills (wadded up into balls) are on the table and a fourth is secretly hidden in your right hand. A two dollar bill is wadded up in your right pocket.
• Grab two of the bills with your right hand placing all three (apparently only two) bills into your left hand as you quickly close your fist as you say, “two in the hand.”
• Then pick up the remaining bill from the table and apparently place it in your pocket, but actually finger palm it as you say “and one in the pocket.”
• Show that there are three in your left hand (apparently the one from the pocket has magically returned).
• Place the three from your left hand onto the table and repeat, but slightly different . . .
• This time, however, leave the bill in the pocket for real. But finger palm the $2 bill.
• Again show that the third ball has magically reappeared in your left hand.
• Drop them on the table and repeat, but slightly different . . .
• This time, pick up one bill and place it and (secretly) the $2 bill into your left hand as you say, “one in the hand.”
• Then pick up the two on the table and legitimately place them in your pocket as you say “and two in the pocket.”
• You then reveal that the two bills came back, but they merged together as you open your hand and reveal a $1 and a $2 bill

Notes:

For those familiar with the standard two in the hand, one in the pocket plot, you’ll see some advantages to this handling over some of the others. For one, most handlings like this with a kicker ending require you to do an unnatural looking vanish when putting the bills in your hand for the final time. Also, the versions that require switching an object like this are often awkward as well. In this case, it’s simple and magical.

Further, the nice thing about this is that you can give the two dollar bill back to the spectator and let them keep it. It doesn’t cost you anything, and $2 bills are relatively easy to come by. Just ask your bank. As you hand the bills to the spectator you can “apologize” that their bills are now merged together. The beauty of this is that they’ll likely want to keep the bill because most people think that $2 bills are very rare. Further, they probably won’t spend it, but instead, tell their friends about the magician who made their borrowed $1 bills merge together. You might consider putting your contact info on a sticker on the $2 bill.

Also, it’s possible to crumple up a $2 bill in such a way that it can look close enough like a $1 bill. That being the case, you don’t need a fourth $1 bill to perform the effect. You just need the $2 bill and nothing else. When secretly loading into the left hand, it will blend in with the $1 bills and you don’t draw attention to it. It’s all about the number of objects going from 2 to 3. As long as you can keep track of the $2 bill during the performance, you can still perform the entire trick without the extra $1. Keep a pocket full of crumpled up $2 bills in your right pocket and you can do this any time. Just borrow three bills and go.

Coins

Of course, you can use coins instead of bills. You’ll just need to secretly have a quarter and a half dollar on you and you’re good to go. Borrow three quarters and do the effect as described above. Then at the end, you have to modify the handling a little bit to avoid the coins clinking together when there’s only supposed to be one coin in your hand. So you’ve just made the three quarters appear in your hand the second time. You’ve already ditched the extra quarter in your pocket and secretly finger palmed the half dollar in your right hand.

This time say that you’re going to change it up a little bit. You’re going to do one in the hand and two in the pocket. Then, with your right hand secretly hiding the finger palmed half dollar, you pick up one quarter at your right finger tips as you say, “one in the hand.” Then with your left hand, grab the other two quarters from the table and place them in your left pocket as you say “and two in the pocket.” Then with a shake of your right hand, you bring the quarter into your hand and let it clink against the half.

The sound will catch them off guard. It appears as if the coins have jumped from the pocket back to your hand. They’ve already seen it happen twice; now they’ve heard it. However, when you open your hand, you show that two of the borrowed quarters have merged into one fifty-cent piece. You end the same by letting them keep the coin.

Root:

Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root is . . . challenge yourself. I love other areas of magic but I’ve only performed just a few different types. Mostly I do mentalism effects and card effects with a small handful of “other” things. The problem is that I pretty much suck at coin work. I have a few effects in my repertoire that are coin effects I can do, but very few. Further, most of the card magic I do is not very visual. It’s good and powerful I think, but just not visual. Further, my mentalism repertoire is several different ways to accomplish the same thing . . . read a mind or predict the future.

So as you can see, my repertoire is very narrow. I’m not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing. However, I remember as a young budding magic enthusiast, there were effects that I loved that were much more visual (e.g., ball and vase, pencil through frame penetration, linking rings, et al.). Somewhere along the way, I lost my way. I’m not suggesting that we all need to perform the ball and vase. However, I am suggesting that we get back to our roots (hence the name of this monthly column). For me, one way to get back to your roots is to challenge yourself to learn a style or genre of magic that you don’t normally do.

This is where my non-card show comes from. I’m constantly debating the kind of material I want in this act. I’ve added some visual effects like a growing dollar bill, a dollar bill changing visually into a credit card, and lots of other things. I’m still working on finding the right mix of material. It’s been a challeng to find material that I feel I could learn and fit into my personality. The beauty of this is that it’s got me looking at effects I would never have done otherwise. This causes me to study and learn about these effects, how they work, why they work, etc.

Branch:

Let’s build our branches. I offer you the same challenge. For the next 30 days, look at your overall repertoire and find an effect or two that just doesn’t “fit in” with your current arsenal. Maybe you never use ropes . . . try adding a rope trick. Maybe you mostly a coin guy or a mentalist . . . try a card trick.

Maybe you’ve never done magic with keys . . . try that. The point is to find something that’s out of your comfort zone and go after it. Challenge yourself. You’ll find yourself learning more about our art and learning more about yourself. You’ll become a better magician overall.

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

The hottest new trick came out today. Every magician in the world is running around frantically trying to get a hold of the trick somehow. One magician ran up to me waving his arms around and screaming, “Oh my gosh like, totally did you like hear about like the hottest new trick that came out today?” I said yes because (of course) everybody knew about the hottest new trick by Jeff Stone.

I decided to find out more about this trick so I drove downtown to the magic store and parked on the street because the parking lot and the whole mall were packed full mobs of people chanting, “Jeff Stone, Jeff Stone, Jeff Stone”, and walking through the crowd was Jeff Stone himself waving around a couple of coins and an index card. He was looking right at me and started to walk towards me.

When he reached me, he reached his hand in his pocket and pulled out four coins and another index card and handed them to me. I bet your wondering “Why you?” Well, I’m Jeff Stone’s son cause I’m awesome like that.

Gems and Rubble Gone For Good

A couple of issues ago, I announced the death of the Gems and Rubble column at the same time as the birth of my new site, Magic Reviewed. Let’s just say that my inbox got a little hot from all the flames I got. I shouldn’t say that.

They were all nice emails, but they were expressing their concern about the disappearance of the column. So I left it in place for a while. Then I watched the traffic . . . and it was weak at best. Just not a lot of people reading it.

However, the traffic at Magic Reviewed skyrocketed and has continued to climb the whole time, so I finally severed the ties. All of the reviews have been completely removed from Stone Cold Magic Magazine. All of my reviews are now found at Magic Reviewed.

Let’s all bow our heads in a moment of silence as we mourn the loss and celebrate the reincarnation of Gems and Rubble in the form of Magic Reviewed.

Sankey Magic and Stone Cold Magic Team Up

If you’re a fan of either of us (Jay or Me) – I now you’re out there – then you’re gonna love this. Jay and I collaborated on a really cool gimmick that is an excellent gimmick for restaurant workers. Jay says it all in the YouTube Video below.

Check it out. Then go to his site and order a copy of it:

Infiltrator by Jay Sankey & Jeff Stone

Enjoy the June 2012 issue . . .

Effect:

A selected card instantly vanishes while trapped between two Jacks. The same card then appears face-up in the face-down deck! This is one of the strongest, most magical close-up card effects I know of. The audience sees the selected card up until the last moment and then it’s gone! There are no “excuses” or questionable actions; just a clear, piercing “Illusion.”

To Perform:

1. Place the Jack of Clubs and the Jack of Spades face-up onto the table about nine inches apart. Place the face-down deck onto the table below the two Jacks. Direct a spectator to cut the deck into two stacks. Take, with your right hand, the face-down card which the spectator cut to and show its face to the audience. Turn your head aside to reassure your audience that you didn’t get a peek at the card.

2. Place the Jack which is on your left, face-up onto the palm of your left hand. Drop the selected card face-down onto this face-up Jack. Take the remaining Jack with your right hand. As you take this Jack, extend your right hand towards the audience and give the card a snap. The instant that the hand moves forward to snap the card, the left thumb gets beneath the two cards in the left hand and flips them over. This reverses the order of the cards, putting the selected card face-up on the bottom while the Jack is now face-up on the top.

In a continuing action place the Jack from your right hand face-up onto the two cards in your left hand. To your audience you have sandwiched the selected card face-down between the two face-up Jacks. Your actual position from the top down is: face-up Jack, face-down Jack and face0up selected card. This “reversal” is a very easy thing to get away with. Do it casually and you won’t have any trouble with it.

3. Grasp the packet of three cards from above with your right hand, thumb at the back, fingers at the front with the right hand arched above the cards. Form a break between the top two cards and the bottom card with your right thumb. Slide the three cards back towards your body so that the top edges of the cards rest between your left second and third finger. You are about to “cop” the bottom card in your left hand.

4. With your right hand move the top two cards forward at the same time moving the left hand back to the edge of the table, letting the table edge conceal the exposed corner of the “copped” card. Place the two cards as three squared face-up onto the table. In a continuing action your right hand picks up the right packet from above and places these cards over the face-up card concealed in your left hand. This is done undercover of a “squaring up” motion.

5. Place the face-down packet onto the tabled face-down packet. Direct a spectator to hold his forefinger against the top of the deck.

6. The next series of action will very convincingly show two face-up Jacks and a face-down card sandwiched between them. Place the cards, still squared, into your left hand. Grip the cards from above with your right hand in Biddle grip position as your left thumb presses on the face of the top card, sliding it off and placing it still face up on the bottom of the “stack.”

Immediately turn over the two cards in your left hand and slide the top face-down card to the bottom of the stack revealing a face-up Jack. Your patter line here is, “Your card is trapped face down between the Jack of Clubs and the Jack of Spades.”

7. Next you are going to let the back ends of the two cards snap off your right thumb, sounding three distinct snaps. Here’s how. With the cards held against the left palm held in place by your left thumb, grip the cards from above with your right hand, thumb at the back, forefinger curled on the face of the top card and the remaining three fingers at the outer narrow end. Your right thumb separates the two cards at the inner end pressing firmly against both.

Your left little finger presses against the bottom right corner of the lower card. Your right thumb slowly moves up letting the bottom card snap off the left little finger. The bottom card then snaps off the thumb, and finally the right thumb snaps off the top card. To your audience it looks and sounds exactly as though you had riffled off three cards.

For the final convincer, lift up the back edge of the top card. With your right thumb and forefinger, slide our the bottom face-down card about half an inch towards yourself. Then square the cards up again. This appears as though you pinched the face-down card out from in between the two face-up cards. Your audience should now be convinced that you have, beyond a shadow of doubt, three cards.

8. Now for the “vanish,’ of the sandwiched card. Position the two cards so that they are in the classic palm position in your palm up, left hand. Place your right hand palm down directly over your left hand, trapping the cards between the two hands.

Twist the right hand to the left and the left hand to the right, each hand retaining one card, both hands being palm down. Let the two Jacks drop to the table face-up. Then slowly separate your fingers to show your hands empty.

Toss the two Jacks out for examination. You have just performed a miracle, vanishing a card under impossible test conditions. For the final climax have the spectator who had his finger on the deck this whole time spread through the cards. This reveals the selected card face-up in the face-down deck!

Suggested Presentation of Patter:

I am going to show you an ‘Illusion.’ You appear to have cut to the Four of Hearts and your eyes see me place it between two other cards (cop card). The Jack of Clubs (counting action) and the Jack of Spades. You can hear the three cards (snap move) and you can feel the three cards (pinch move).

But as I mentioned before this is all an illusion and your card was never really here at all (perform vanish).

Finish routine by having spectator discover the face-up card in the face-down deck.

Don’t neglect the point of having the spectator place his finger onto the deck. This gets the spectator more involved plus adding to the impact of the effect.

Time out For this Station Break

Note From the Editor:

This version of the effect is a lightly revised from its initial publication in Transformations: Creating Magic Out of Tricks, Allentown, PA: Theory and Art of Magic Press, 2007, pages 83-90. To purchase a copy, please go to Theory and Art of Magic.

I highly recommend this book, and I am very grateful that Larry was willing to reprint this excellent effect here in my humble rag. This effect (as with everything else in this wonderful book) really illustrates the power of a solid presentation. [Read a Full Review]