...over the weekend a friend of mine came to visit and seeing as the she knew I’d been reading up on magic and such she asked for a demonstration I did a few basic card & coin tricks (a couple of maths ones and two...well a pretty much self working ones)

Anyway she seemed reasonably impressed and I’d been practicing a force and a method to find it again. So I decided to give it ago (as I was sure she'd be much more forgiving than a total stranger) I forced the card and then asked her to shuffle the deck then pretended to look for her card and 'accidentally' finding the wrong one. Looking rather confused I promised I’d find her card by making it jump from the deck to the card I picked out.
I looked around for something to act as a spacer between the card and the rest of the deck and picked up my phone placed it down asked her to think hard about her card and gave the deck a quick tap...looking a little more smug I lifted up her card and pronounced it the card she picked (only it wasn't) I pretended to act a little upset at not getting it right (paused for a little while) then picked up my phone (just at the height of her "ha...you got it wrong" moment) I turned my phone over to show a full picture of her card and then spread the deck to show her card gone suffice to to say by the end she seemed very impressed and has demanded that I show her some more next time

Sorry for the poor explanation but am still enjoying the feeling so I probably rushed it

Good one! Did you have an explanation as to what you had magically accomplished? Or were you puzzled by the event? (from the spectators view)

I told her that maybe I didn't hit the deck hard enough, that it sometimes happens and it might take me awhile to get the card back

she seemed happy with it too

Sounds good!

Congratulations! It's such a wonderful thing about magic that it brings joy both to audience and to the magician.

Here's to your enjoying many more such feelings!

:cheers:

Nice!

So was it a camera phone and you had a photo of the card you forced displayed on it? I have been looking for some way to incorporate my video iPod into a routine; since it's capable of displaying photos (and the perfect size to cover a deck of cards) this might be perfect.

Congrats again on a magical success.

Great use of technology!
I did a similar effect with a video phone showing the chosen card rising from the deck but much prefer your take.

Mike

First, congratulations on your performance!!

I checked the manual for my mobile phone, apparently it can also do video. I got the following idea which might be good or might be really really impractical. Here it goes:

I'll try to film the force card being slid under the phone coming to a halt with the top index corner in view with some of the rest of the card showing as well. This would have to be 1:1 so I can claim the phone is an x-ray device that shows the card for what it really is, the "chosen" card that has disguised itself.

I could then practise the timing of moving the phone over the card so it looks exactly right, making the card seen through the phone. I have a fold-out phone with a relatively large display, so it could look really good.

I will film it against my trouser leg so I could use it anywhere.

If it works well, I will get back to you here, but you might never hear about it again ;o)

Michael

Hmm... First off, my phone doesn't do video, it can just catch several pictures in a row.

Experimenting with just a picture instead is disappointing... I can easily slide it into place while hiding the display of the phone, the alignment is easier than I thought it would be. The problem is that my phone is rather thick and there is a lot of frame around the display. This hides more of the card than I expected, and it really doesn't look very cool.

Perhaps an iPod which is relatively thin and using the video instead of a picture will make this look really great, but alas, I don't have one. If anyone else gives this a 10 minute try, please let me know how it turns out! You'd have to record the video and then upload it to the iPod I guess?

Well, if we don't experiment we don't learn!

Michael

I think the iPod will be perfect because it just fits onto a deck of cards so well! Michael: Yeah, I'll have to record it with a camcorder and then load it onto the iPod. I could just do a still photo on the iPod, but the idea of video is intriguing; I'm going to try and film it this weekend.

Josh the Superfluous, it took me a second to get the ironic point of your tag line about quotations and citations. Good one! Though, as a teacher who has to strive mightily to get students to give proper citations to the authors whose work they borrow, it also makes me wince. I think it's great that so many writers of magic books are careful to cite the sources of the tricks they write about. Peter Duffie, for example, is very good about this and tries to be as precise as he can.

Glad you liked it. I made up the pompous quote, so no actual writers were hurt during the making of my joke.

Really cool to have someone remind us from time to time that the magician
needs to enjoy it as well
the phone trick is nice. I used to perform this a while back when I had a camera on my cell phone :-s

-Matt

That's right, Matt - if you love what you do as well, it really does show on the outside! xkimo, well done and congratulations on your performance. It's refreshing to hear of someone who is learning their magic methodically, practicing diligently and then proceeding to perform material that they're comfortable with. Too often this procedure is completely disregarded by amateurs. Here's something else you may like involving your phone:
Have the card discovered INSIDE your phone, folded up, in the battery compartment.
Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks for the feedback and ideas guys it's most appreciated am really glad I found this place have learned a lot since joining (and was going out of my mind wanting to tell someone what I'd managed to do hehee

I love the idea of an x-ray phone, your timing would have to be spot on (maybe not for me to try just yet then
Saying that while I was doing this trick, I noticed that its almost criminal how much time you have to play with while doing tricks (what with directing their attention this way and that)

am looking forward to learning a lot more stuff now...back to the books for me then

thanks again

yeah I though about trying to get it inside the phone...had two major problems though: battery compartment not big enough and I couldn't think of a way of doing it with just the one deck

Would love to see a signed card end up there though... maybe have someone txt message you their chosen card and have it actually appear in the phone (i need to go shopping for a better (bigger) phone I think

Hehe that's dedication! Out of interest, what are you reading at the moment?

Regards

Chris

that's a good question *looks on desk* ...The Royal Road to Card Magic, Modern Coin Magic and a shed load of ebooks (mainly stuff that I've seen and wanted to know how it worked) and two random off the shelf teach your self magic books
I just go through them and learn what I need to do what I want to...am not sure if that's the way I should be doing it but it gives me an incentive to practice a lot more as I have a goal in mind

am open to suggestions if anyone knows of any good thing practice routines or anything

I'm still working on the Video iPod version. I have noticed that, with a protective silicone jacket on the iPod it's the PERFECT size to slip a card into, between the iPod and the sleeve on the back side.

I like using my cell phone to reveal a selected card, and have been doing it for almost two years now. I like to have a picture of the back of the card on the sub-display and a picture of the face on the main display. I also have about a dozen different pictures of backs in the phone and four or so force cards, so I can repeat the effect with different decks.