One
Daniel Madison

These are Daniel Madison's 2005 lecture notes titled One. This instant PDF download teaches 11 effects each of which I will describe for you now.

Cameo - This routine is an impromptu 3 phase sandwich effect.
Phase 1: A card is selected (can be signed) and placed on the table. The spectator then selects two more cards which turn out to be the red queens. The queens are placed into the deck out jogged, one near the top and one near the bottom. The selected card is also placed out jogged in the deck face up. The two queens are pushed into the deck leaving the selection protruding. Then the two cards on either side of the selection are shown to be the two red queens.
Phase 2: The deck is shuffled and the selection still between the queens is placed into the cut. The two queens are waved and the selection appears between them.
Phase 3: The selection is once again shuffled into the deck. The two queens are also mixed into the deck, face up. The selection is again sandwiched by the queens and the card is shuffled into the deck again and the queens are left on the table. The tabled queens are then revealed to be two black two's and the selection is sandwiched between the queens in the magician's pocket.

This effect is definitely one of my favorite sandwich effects next to White or Wheat. The effect utilizes a new sleight by Daniel to invisibly control a card to the bottom. This sleight is a bit tricky for me to do smoothly, but if performed correctly it is a very clean invisible way of switching a card. The other moves in the effect are pretty standard but the way they are structured into the routine is very unique and makes the effect very fair looking. I would say this effect has an intermediate level of skill required, but if enough practice is put into it, this routine will become one of your favorites as it has mine.

Lapse - This effect is an impromptu two signed card transposition.
Two spectators each select a card and sign them. The first selection is placed in the magician's back pocket and the second selection is lost in the deck. The spectator is asked to say stop as the magician riffles the deck in hope of finding their selection. The card the spectator stops at turns out to be the first selection. The magician reaches into his back pocket to reveal the same signed card that the spectator called stop at. Finally the stopped at card is shown to be the other selection.

Lapse uses a very common sleight in a way that I had never thought of using before which I now find to be quite useful. The effect also used a variation of the Riffle Force that Daniel calls the Emotion Force which eliminates the need of a break and is just as easy and just as simple as the riffle force. I think this effect can be mastered more quickly than many of the other effects in the lecture notes because the sleights used to accomplish the effect are all basic moves except one, which you can very easily get around if you think a little bit.

Monte Sonata - This effect is a gaffed 2 Card Monte without the use of a deck. Two cards are openly removed from the deck and shown to the spectator. The two cards are openly switched a few times and the spectator is asked to guess which one is which. The cards are turned over to show they are two different cards.

This isn't one of my favorites from the notes. I think that they grip on the cards and the switches look very unnatural, and to end clean you have to do some extra work which to me also looks pretty unnatural. The gaffs used are very common gaffs which most magicians will probably already have. The notes also explain an ungaffed version of the effect which is more difficult but also has an opportunity for another revelation.

Selective - This is basically a card at any number effect. The magician writes down a prediction and the spectator is asked to name a number between 1 and 30. The card at their number is revealed to match the prediction.

Selective is meant to be the first effect of a two effect routine, you can perform Selective on its own but it is no where near as powerful with combined with the follow-up effect Heritage. The effect used a force known as the Raining Force which if kind of a mix between a biddle count and the "Ultimate Card Switch" in Ninja. I think the effect is very, very easy and should be able to be performed with little practice.

Heritage - This effect is meant to be performed after Selective. The spectator shuffles the deck and the magician introduces 4 cards (different color and/or back design) of a 5 card poker hand. The spectator is asked to name a number then deal out that number of cards to the table and place that card into the center of the 4 cards. The selected card is shown to be the missing card of a straight flush.

This effect is amazing. The spectator shuffles the cards and the spectator selects the card themselves without the magician ever touching the deck. I think the method used for this is very, very clever and is not that difficult to perform, in fact there are only 2 sleights used in the effect. I personally am not comfortable doing one of the particular slight in the way that it is used, but once I get that down I will most certainly be performing this effect on a regular basis.

Complete - The magician introduces a 5 card poker hand in an envelope which he says is the hand that one him his last game, the faces are not shown. The spectator shuffles the deck and is asked to select 5 cards from the deck and try to correctly pick the ones from the poker hand. The cards are shown to be random cards and the magician says he won the hand by bluffing and reveals that the 5 cards in the envelope match the 5 selections.

When you boil down Complete to just the mechanics, it's really just a force, but the presentation of Complete really makes it an outstanding effect and will get MUCH greater reactions than if you just forced a card showing that it matches a prediction. The force/switch used in the effect allows the 5 cards to be switched without the deck present which is a neat idea in my opinion.

One Eighty - The magician places an envelope with a note in it on the table and brings out a deck of cards. The spectator selects a card from the deck and signs the back but does not look at the face of the card. The card is shuffled back into the deck and the deck is placed on the table. The magician says he is going to suggest a card on the spectator. After the performer tries to suggest a card upon the spectator, the spectator names the card they think that they signed in the deck. The deck is spread and the card that was named is outjogged and turned over bearing the spectator's signature. The spectator reads the prediction from inside the envelope which reads "You will sign the four of clubs" on the top half. The bottom half reads "the card you thought of is inside the envelope." The magician empties the envelope showing the 4 of clubs inside.

Wow. I LOVE this effect. Daniel teaches a very effective psychological force which will work the majority of the time. The great thing about One Eighty is that even if the force fails, the effect can still be accomplished. He teaches a move of his known as the 180 placement which is what makes it work 100% of the time. The sleight is not very difficult at all; I got it down after about 30 minutes of practice. The other 2 sleights are very common and easy to do. This is my personal favorite effect from the lecture notes.

Father Figure - A Zippo lighter is placed on the table. The magician explains to the spectator that on the back of it is an engraved playing card that he/she associates with his/her father and asks them to guess what it is. The spectator guesses incorrectly and the lighter is revealed to say "king of spades." The magician then pulls out the card that the spectator named and on the back of the card is written "king of spades."

This effect and method of Father Figure is similar to that of One Eighty. Although the effect uses a Zippo, you can use any object you want that you can write or engrave a playing card on. Daniel teaches another good physiological force which actually works for two cards which is pretty cool. The difficulty of Father Figure is slightly easier than One Eighty because one of the sleights is not used in Father Figure which makes it much more angle friendly. Although the angles are better, there is one scenario that would not let you end clean, but with a little imagination you could figure something out.

Fatal - A card from a different color deck with the performer's signature is introduced and placed on the table, the face is not shown. The spectator is asked to select a card from the deck and sign its face. The selection is placed on the table next to the odd back card. The performer points out the differences in color and design and of course the signature. The spectator's card is placed on top of the deck and vanishes, the magician deals through all the cards showing that it has gone. The spectator picks up the odd back card the magician signed and their signature is found to be on the face.

This effect is my second favorite from the lecture notes. What's great about this effect is that the spectator's signature really is on the same card even though the card has been in clear view throughout the trick. The sleights in the effect aren't difficult but there are quite a few of a certain move/sleight to accomplish the trick and make it look fair, I think you will understand more clearly what I mean if you buy the notes and read the explanation. Another strong point of the effect is that you can very easily add one tiny thing to make the effect have an instant reset.

Scripture - A card is selected from and returned to the deck. The spectator is asked to write down their selection on a piece of paper. The magician shows that their card has vanished from the deck and has appeared in the pen they used to write down their card.

I personally think that Scripture is a little bit bland. It's like most other revelation effects; a card is signed, vanishes, and appears somewhere; there isn't really any variation besides that actual place that it appears. Even though the effect isn't top-notch, I very much like the idea of a card appearing in a pen. Immediately after reading through the effect I thought of ways I could use the revelation. For example, you could have a card sandwiched between the jokers and use a pen as a "magic wand" and make the card disappear, only to re-appear inside of the pen. Or maybe have a card selected and placed into a packet of cards and have the rest of the packet disappear and think up some patter to have them appear inside of a 12 pack of pens. I think this effect has a lot of potential to become a reputation maker, but a bit too simplistic the way it is presented in the lecture notes.

Under The Influence - The magician says he will perform a four card revelation with the 8's, but will give him/herself a break and remove two of the four cards at the beginning and will perform the four card revelation with only two cards. The magician produces two cards which turn out to be the two kings. He waves the two kings and four 8's appear. The two 8's that were on the table are revealed to be the four kings.

I think the effect of Under The Influence is a very good one, but there are a few cons which bring the overall trick down. The trick requires a very specific stack which is impossible to set up without suspicion unless it is the first effect in your routine or if you switch decks. Also, since the effect uses a few gaff cards you don't end clean at the end of the effect which is not good at all because the spectators will definitely want to examine the cards. If those things could be resolved, I think the effect would be much, much better.

The PDF

The PDF files is 2.53 Megabytes in file size. The dimensions of the pages are 8.27 inches by 11.69 inches. 31 pages total; 55 black and white photos labeled as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. The PDF is password protected and will not let you edit or print the document. One complaint I have is that there are a few minor typos in the PDF. This will most likely not bother many people but I have OCD and go absolutely nuts over this lol.

Conclusion

Overall I think these lecture notes were a very good investment. The price is only 7.5 British Pounds (GBP) which is about 14 or 15 dollars which I think is very reasonable. Besides the 11 effects, you also learn I think a total of 6 new sleights including card forces, psychological forces, controls, and switches. The material in the PDF is geared towards an intermediate level magician, but with fair amount of practice, I think some of the material might be suitable for a beginner.

Thank you for reading.

I purchased this downloadable e-book thru Paypal and was disappointed to find the download is not printable. Two e-mails to Daniel Madison have gone unanswered.
Would like to purchase additional material from him but only if it is built to
allow printing. Very disappointing that he will not respond to e-mails inquiring
about his various products or if a printable "One" is available.

Woody

Thanks for the great and very detailed review.

This sounds like it's worth taking a look at...

I might have to pick this up. Where is it for sale?

Ben

Its for sale at http://www.danielmadison.co.uk