”Six. Impossible. Things.” by John Bannon

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as [u]six impossible things[/u] before breakfast.”

Alice in Wonderland

Hello everyone! Today I am going to be reviewing John Bannon’s latest lecture notes “Six. Impossible. Things.” These notes are a companion to his latest DVD set “Bullets After Dark”. I did not get the DVDs since I already had “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and wanted the ease of reading the notes to review something quickly. The notes are available from John Bannon’s website (www.johnbannonmagic.com) for $15 (including shipping in the U.S.).

The notes contains 10 effects, all using cards. John autographed the notes on the title page to me, so I thank him greatly for that. The notes are 63 pages and chock full of great magic from cover to cover. I have yet to try any of these effects out on an audience but hope to soon. With that, let’s get started.

Overall, the descriptions of the effects are well done, and John describes the subtleties of them well. The tricks are from no sleights needed to some sleights needed. The first five effects can be used as a full routine which will interest many.

Counterpunch - A spectator chooses a card, let’s say the Ace of Diamonds, and loses it into the deck. The performer says he will have some help to find the selected card, and as he spreads the deck, the four aces are face up in the middle of the deck. He says that the selected card will vanish from the deck and join the four aces in his hands. However, the spectator points out that he selected an ace. With this in mind, the magician then shows that three of the aces have vanished, and all that is left is the selected card!

John describes this as a “sucker trick” and a good one at that. Throughout the notes, John uses the term “leading spectators down the garden path” to show how the audience is led to believe that the trick is going one way, but then it ends in a completely different fashion, a “deeper, layered kind of surprise.” This first effect captures this brilliantly. Great clever thinking to begin the full routine.

4 Faces North - The selected ace is inserted face-up into the deck. The deck is split into two halves and shuffled with one half face-up and one face-down. It is immediately spread to show that all of the cards are face down except for the four aces!

This is a version of “Last Man Standing” from “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. Featuring the Goodwin-Jennings display, this is a very convincing triumph routine.

Watching the Detectives - The two black jacks are removed from the deck, and the spectator chooses his favorite ace. They are then placed in different places in the deck: one jack near the bottom, the ace in the middle, and the other jack near the top. Losing them in the deck, the magician says that the two jacks will find the selected card by ending up on either side of it. Picking up the other three aces that were discarded before the effect began, the magi reveals that they are the two jacks on either side of the selected ace!

This is probably my favorite effect in the notes. It has the true garden path feel and reminds me of a stage effect transposition but with a deck of cards! The handling is true genius and fools even yourself as you do it. This is great!

New Jax - The selected ace between the two jacks are cut into the center of the deck. The spectator selects a card and loses it in the top half of the deck. With a flourish by the magi, a card flies out of the deck. However, instead of being the selection, it is the ace! The selected card is shown to be between the two jacks!

Continuing on the last effect, more surprise is added in the routine. It’s a good effect but not as strong as the previous one in my opinion. I’ll have to try it out on an audience to see what they think.

Full Circle - As a conclusion, the jack-ace-jack sandwich is reconstructed, and the other three aces suddenly appear in the sandwich as well!

When you’re cleaning up and it appears that you’re done, you have one last surprise to pull out. I really like this since it is unexpected and brings the routine to a close.

Four-Fold Foresight - Sixteen random cards are taken from the deck and are shuffled face up and face down into each other. The spectator shuffles them, and the magician forms the cards in a grid on the table. The spectator then “folds” the cards into each other to mix them up further. After this is done, the magi refers to a folded up piece of paper on the table. When the paper is unfolded one fold at a time, it is shown that the magician predicted the exact final states of the cards!

This is one of my favorite uses of the “folding” principle first explored in “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (my other favorite is “Degrees of Freedom” from there). The cards seem hopelessly mixed up, but you have complete control over how they end up. The prediction structure is also great with the folded paper.

Origami Poker Revisited - 12 court cards are taken from the deck and shuffled thoroughly like above. In the end, the cards that are face- up form a royal flush!

This is similar to Degrees of Freedom in DMF, but I don’t like using only 12 cards. Using 20 in Degrees seems more impossible to me and also has a great presentation to use. The original Origami Poker in DMF used 16 cards. This is still very clever, and you may like it.

Riverboat Poker - The magician shows the spectators a set of run-up formulas that were used by his great grand-uncle, a famous card cheater. Using the formulas, the magi stacks the four aces face-up into the deck and demonstrates how he can deal the aces to himself. Placing all of the cards face down now, the magician deals out five hands with the spectators eliminating one of their four hands each round. After the draws, the spectators’ hand has three aces (depending on luck, this could be a full-house), but the magician shows he can truly cheat by having a royal flush!

This routine is written in the same way several routines in DMF were written in: a first-person point of view from Bannon’s friend who is shown the effect and method by Bannon. I really enjoy this style of writing and hope that Bannon continues to use it. Onto the trick, it is a great one. What I really like is the presentation given by Bannon as he goes an extra mile to have the spectators be involved and interested in what happens in the effect. This is a presentation-based piece that you will get great reactions from!

Play It Straight (Triumph) aka The Bannon Triumph - A card is selected from the deck, and the magician shuffles the card face up and face down. The magician then realizes that the card was never replaced in the deck, but when he spreads the deck, all of the cards are face down except the twelve cards of the suit of the selection that are face up in order! The card is then revealed by determining what is missing in the sequence!

This is Bannon’s masterpiece, first appearing in “Impossibilia” which is now out of print. I learned this off of the Impossibilia video, and when I first saw it, I was dumbstuck. The shuffling sequence is utterly convincing, and the climax is a true surprise. I love this, and you will too.

Einstein Overkill - A spectator cuts a small number of cards off of the deck and places them out of sight. The magician then deals cards down until the spectator says stop. The magi makes three predictions about the cards in relation to the spectator’s pile, and all of the predictions turn out true. It is then shown that the spectator cut to an ace, and three cards that were discarded during the effect turn out to be the other three aces!

This is an alright effect, based off of the trick that fooled Einstein, but it doesn’t really appeal to me. It’s math based and a bit confusing, and though it finds the four aces, I have enough effects that do that (one of my favorites is Trait Secrets from DMF). You may like it though.


Overall, this is a great set of lecture notes with material you will use. I think this is as much of a companion to Dear Mr. Fantasy as it is to Bullets After Dark since it has the same style and type of material. I might have to get the DVDs at some point to see how Bannon presents the material, but the notes are just fine to learn from. At $15, you definately can’t go wrong, and you will get great tricks to use. Thanks for reading!

I still remain,
Despite my most strenuous objections,
A close-up kinda guy.

Bill

Nice review Bill. I agree most part but just do not agree Einstein Overkill. I performed it and fooled magicians badly with it. So you might want to perfect it and try it again sometime.

Best,

Bill,

Are there any "setups" involved in the routines you reviewed?

Besides Bannon Triumph, all effects require either no setup or minimal setup (up to 8 cards, if I remember correctly).

A great little book of material. A steal at the price.

I really enjoy doing the poker demo, probably one of the best gambling demonstration (among the impromptu semi-automatic ones).

Pierre

What about level of skills needed, using DL as easy to Pass as difficult.
Thank you

Most Bannon's materials requires at most intermediate skills.

BTW, if you do not have Dear Mr Fantasy yet, I'd suggest you get DMF before this new one. DMF is full of easy to master materials with minimal set up.

I agree with KLG.

Regarding DMF, Bannon is very good in setting the stage for setting things up (examples such as the Line of Sight control and overhand run-up procedures come to mind). His overhand run-ups are pretty slick, so I would say that you get the most out of it if you understand the basic terminology. With that being said, he also provides the overall set-up so you can just do it by hand if desired.

I've made no secret that I am ambivalent about the re-release of this book. One big reason why is that Bannon's put the work in so that some truly "impossible" effects are nearly self-working. This friggin' book is great. The more advanced you are, the more you'll get out of it (multiple shifts, anyone), but it's a great book for anybody with, again, a basic understanding of card magic. I wouldn't recommend it as a beginner's book, but it's a great treatise on routine construction and setting up effects in the context of performing other effects (Secrets & Mysteries of the Four Aces).

I love Bannon's work!

For anyone here who hasn't seen Bannon's video from the 1980s, his Triumph can be used along with Vernon's Triumph. You have 2 spectators select a card. You lose one in the deck and reveal it using Vernon's Triumph. Then you say you'll do the same with the other spectators card that was lost in the deck. They say "But you didn't put it back, I still have it." You then reveal that card with Bannon's Triumph. A nice punch in the gut after seemingly screwing up.