The Spectators Card Is Produced!

JAMES G. THOMPSON, JR., a bank president who loves

magic very dearly, has said that if a magician knows a hundred
ways of locating a card that a spectator has chosen, and only one
way of revealing it, the effect to the audience is that the magician
knows only one card trick. On the other hand, if the magician
knows one way of finding a card and a hundred ways of revealing
it, the effect is that he knows a hundred tricks.
I am in complete accord with this aphorism. Let me assume that
the only way you know to find a card that a spectator has looked
at is by means of a key card. A key card can be made as simply, as
by "crimping" up the corner of a card. With this crimped, or bent-corner,
card on top of the deck, the magician shuffles the deck,
bringing the crimped card to the bottom of the deck.
The cards are fanned before a spectator, or ribbon-spread on the
table, and a card is taken out and looked at by a spectator. The
magician brings the deck together, cuts it in the center, and has the
spectator replace his card on the top half of the deck. The other
half, the bottom half, of the deck is dropped on top of the chosen
card. This places the crimped card on top of the spectator's card.
To find the spectator's card all the magician need do is to cut at the
crimped card, and the card on top of the deck is now the chosen card.
At this point the magician could just turn over the top card and
show that he had found the selected card. That would be a revelation
of sorts, although a dull and undramatic one. It could be
revealed by means of apparatus inside a balloon, or it could be
made to float up through the air in seeming defiance of the laws of
gravity. In the case of that remarkably skilled performer John
Scarne, the card can be found in the magician's mouth. The card
can be torn to pieces, burnt and then restored, or it can be magically
transformed from an incorrect card to the correct one.
I will consider this last effect, since it is pretty and one that is
easy of execution.
When the chosen card has been brought to the top of the deck
a card is selected from the middle of the deck and shown to the
audience as though the magician thought that this indifferent card
was the selected one.
When the audience rejects it as incorrect, the magician seems
surprised and drops the incorrect card face up on top of the deck as
though puzzled by his seeming error.
Not long at a loss, however, the magician picks up the incorrect
card and rubs it on his sleeve. Instantly, visibly and magically the
face of the wrong card changes to the correct one!
This is a fine effect and one that is easy to do.
With the chosen card second from the top of the deck, and the
indifferent, incorrect card face up on top of the deck all that it is
necessary to do is to use the right hand to double-lift the two top
cards and lift them off the deck as one card.
The deck remains in the left hand with the thumb at the left
outer edge of the cards. The right hand holding the two cards as
one by the bottom corners as in Fig. 1, sketch 1, at the very tips of
the middle finger and the thumb, buckles the two cards slightly
as in sketch 2.

Next the card(s) is moved gently back and forth on the left coat sleeve, as in sketch 2.
The left thumb runs down the side of the deck making a sharp sound. At the moment the cards
emit this sound, the right forefinger tip presses down on the center of the buckled card(s) (see
sketch 2). The two cards are flipped over as the grip is transferred from the middle finger to the
forefinger and thumb. The forefinger has moved over so that it is just above the thumb (see Fig.
2, sketches 1 and 2). The unexpected sound from the deck of cards provides a division
of attention just as you turn the two cards over, and the effect to
the onlooker is that the indifferent card has visibly changed into
the selected one (sketch 2).

The right hand does not pause. Once the cards have been turned around,
the hand immediately returns to the deck and drops the
two cards as one onto the deck. The left thumb then pushes the
top card, the correct one, off the deck onto the table.
The deck is cut, getting rid of the indifferent card, and the
audience can then examine the selected card and the deck to its
collective heart's content, and no clue can be found as to how this
amazing transformation took place.
Fast, easy, and truly magical in effect, this is the kind of card
location that makes a lasting effect on any audience.
Requiring but one tiny bit of preparation is an astonishing card
location which has come to be known as the card through the
handkerchief. Many means have been devised to get the seeming
effect of a card being able to penetrate a piece of cloth. None of
them are quite so astounding in appearance as a method conceived
by Dai Vernon and Wallace Galvin.
A card is selected and replaced in the deck. The magician shuffles
the deck to a fare-thee-well and then places the deck on the table
or on the floor. Next he plucks a pocket handkerchief from his
jacket and drapes it over the deck of cards. Pausing, he says, "I'm
sorry, I forgot to let you . . . " As he speaks, he lifts the handkerchief
off the deck and drapes it over his left arm as shown in Fig. 3,sketch 2.
"Lift up the top two or three cards, will you please?" the magician
requests a member of the audience. One does so, and looks at
the faces of the cards, making sure that the chosen card is nowhere
near the top of the deck.
With the audience convinced on this important point, the magician
proceeds. He again drapes the handkerchief over the deck
as in Fig. 3, sketch 1. Next he wraps the playing cards in the cloth.
When they are completely encased, he mutters a cabalistic spell over
the deck, and then plucks the handkerchief by its opposite corners.
The handkerchief lifts free of the cards, and the chosen card is seen
to penetrate right through the cloth of the handkerchief!
An awe-inspiring effect, which is the reason that it has survived
as one of the classics of magic.
The only thing needed besides a deck of borrowed playing cards
and a handkerchief is a small ball of wax or a tiny bit of scotch
tape. The tape is rolled on itself so that it can be stuck to the very
center of the handkerchief, and still have a sticky surface facing
downward (Fig. 3, sketch 1).
Thus prepared, the card is chosen from the deck and controlled
by the magician to the top of the deck by using the crimped card.
The pack is placed on the table and the handkerchief thrown over
it. As this is done, the magician smoothes out the cloth, seemingly
anxious to rid it of wrinkles, really in order to press the sticky
scotch tape down on the back of the top, chosen card on the deck.
This is the point where he "remembers" that he has forgotten
to show the top cards in the deck. Taking the handkerchief by its
corners as in Fig. 3, sketch 1, he picks it up and drapes it over his arm. This picks up the chosen
card and carries it, hidden, along with the cloth (sketch 2).
Of course the spectator can now look at the top cards on the deck and not find the one that he
selected! When the spectator has checked, the magician then drapes the cloth over the deck
again, which replaces the chosen card on top of the deck, in a cloth sandwich (Fig. 4, sketch 1).
Next the performer drapes the handkerchief as shown in sketches 2, 3, 4. It will be found that
with the deck covered this way, all that is necessary to do is pull corners A and B sharply.
The handkerchief lifts up toward the performer and the chosen card,
stuck to the handkerchief, revolves, turning face up. It is this turning
motion which can be seen by the audience which gives the
illusion that the card is coming through the cloth! (Sketch 5.)
This must be tried to be appreciated as words do not convey the illusory value of this turning
motion.
One of the classical methods of producing a chosen card is to
throw the deck of cards at the ceiling, whereupon all the cards
fall to the floor but for the chosen one, which remains stuck to the
ceiling! (Fig. 5, sketch 5.)
From Herrmann the Great to Max Malini, from Malini to Matt
Shulien, this trick has proved its effectiveness. It is great for advertising,
since the trick is so astonishing that people leave the card in
place, sometimes for years, pointing it out to visitors as a trick done
by whoever performed it.
In one freak case Alexander Herrmann threw a deck at the ceiling
of a room in a bank in Springfield, Massachusetts; fifty years
after Herrmann's death the card was still stuck to the ceiling! The
ceiling was a high one, and therefore inaccessible, and so the card
stayed on and on, advertising the prowess of the long-dead performer.
Max Malini, great self-publicist that he was, knew well the value
of this trick and therefore did it on every occasion.
Jay Marshall, surely one of the brightest comic-cum-magicians
in show business today, has been nice enough to allow me to write
up his handling of this perennial classic.
In the past the subterfuges used to make the card stick to the
ceiling have ranged from soft sticky wax to objects like thumbtacks.
In Marshall's routine, however, scotch tape is employed and
used very subtly indeed.
If a length of scotch tape is rolled around the thumb adhesive
side out, a ring will be made all of whose perimeter is sticky. This
means that the ring can be stuck safely on the suit jacket, at the
side, on the right. A series of card tricks may be performed, and
when the spectator or the magician feels that the time has come to
close the performance, the magician can "remember" just one more
trick he'd like to do.
The deck is ribbon-spread and a card is selected by a spectator.
This gives ample time for the magician to slide the middle finger
on his right hand through the ring of scotch tape on his side. The
reason for forming the ring on the thumb is to make sure that it is
big enough for the middle finger to slide in and out easily (Fig. 5,
sketch 1).
The cards are scooped up with the left hand, and squared up by
the right, but the right middle finger, with the sticky loop around
it, is kept out of sight under the deck, as shown in sketch 2.
The deck is cut, the crimped card is placed on top of the chosen
one and the deck is cut randomly a few times, and then at the
crimped card. The chosen card is now on top of the deck.
The deck is held in the right hand, hiding the ring of tape
(sketch 3). The left hand double-lifts the top two cards and shows that the chosen card is
seemingly not on top of the deck.
The deck is turned over and it is established that the chosen card is not at the bottom of the deck.
But while this is being done the middle finger presses the ring of scotch tape onto the top, chosen
card on the deck as shown in sketch 3.
The left hand double-lifts the top two cards and shows that the chosen card is seemingly
not on top of the deck. The deck is turned over and it is established that the chosen card is
not at the bottom of the deck. But while this is being done the middle finger presses the
ring of scotch tape onto the top, chosen card on the deck as shown in sketch 3. The finger is
removed
from the loop of scotch tape. The deck looks like sketch 4.
The deck is turned over and held higher than the spectator's eye
level, the right hand is held palm up, the deck lying on the hand.
Now the arm is lowered, and the deck is thrown as flatly as possible
at the ceiling.
The chosen card sticks to the ceiling and the other fifty-one
cards rain down around the performer (sketch 5). A miracle has
occurred; an advertisement of the magician has been left for all to
see; the end of the performance is indicated by the shower of falling
cards, and the magician has shown his prowess by means of a
wonderfully effective and yet easy trick to do.
Surely few tricks satisfy all these conditions!
David Devant, a great English magician, once said that he could
do but eight tricks well. With those eight tricks he became one of
the world's greatest magicians. Although there is a slight exaggeration
in his statement, it is essentially true. If the beginning magician
were to concentrate on the three card revelations in this chapter, and add a few of his own
he would have in his hands a truly great series of card effects, and one that could well make his
reputation.

Enjoy !
From The Magic Man