Hi folks -

I'm not much of a gambler or card sharp but I do find card tricks fascinating - especially the more visual ones.

So, a question - are there card tricks that are more mystical than others? Or is it all a matter of performance style, etc.?

Cheers

I also like very visual magic with cards. My "Blankety-Blank Cards" from The Wizards' Journal #38 ( https://www.magicnook.com/WizJournal/WJ-38ALL.htm ), are shown to be blank on both sides, all 52 of them. Spectators can handle them and look for card faces and backs, but only those who truly believe in magic can cause any card they merely THINK of to appear with the color back of their choice (red or blue - let's not get crazy!). Once you "show them how it's done," you hand the blank cards to the spectators and they make the next thought-of card appear on a blank card, front and back, all by themselves.

Another example is Spellbinder's "Incalculable" in The Wizards' Journal #39 ( https://www.magicnook.com/WizJournal/WJ-39ALL.htm ), in which regular playing cards are used just to generate large random numbers that when added up purely as numbers come to mathematically improbable results every time.

In "X Marks the Spot" by Al-Quadir Marsh, from The Wizards' Journal #35 ( https://www.magicnook.com/WizJournal/WJ-35ALL.htm ) you use a regular deck of cards from the Dollar Store, to perform an "Invisible Deck" type of trick and the Spectator gets to handle the cards. Instead of just turning a freely chosen card over in the invisible deck, the spectator marks it with an invisible (imaginary but indelible) marking pen "X" on the back of his imagined chosen card. When the invisible deck is made visible, the spectator checks all the backs of the cards and the only one having a real indelible "X" mark on the back turns out to be the chosen card just as he imagined it.

These are the types of card tricks I find fascinating and can use to entertain and fascinate others because they are very visual in performance.

I personally like tricks that have fooled famous people. This is a great fall back for having anything to say. I use it as a crutch and a way to challenge the person to see if they smarter than the famous person.

Ambititous Card routine. Dai Vernon had the King of Cards Harry Houdini sign his name. My favorite version however is Tommy Wonders ambitious card with ring box. Tommy said buy 200 packs just to practice the finisher.

Out of this World by Paul Curry. This fooled Winston Churchill

Paul Green Jeopardy.

Do As I Do. Fooled Steve Jobs

There are a number of gaff decks that really can blow someone's mind. I am not sure if you want a normal deck or just something that makes someone amazed. If you never saw an invisible deck, you should get one. There are some really simple mentalism tricks and you can learn Sti Stebbins.

There are self working card tricks and some that require sleights. Depending on your skill level, you can do more impressive card tricks. Can you palm a card, or get a break?

Regardless, I would say there are unsaid things that matter like posture. The way you shuffle, or false shuffle. The way you deal out a card. There is a certain level of elegance that comes with practice.

I think the size of audience matters too. My daughter did a card trick in front of an audience with rather weak patter. The person on stage was blown away. The audience was not at all. They barely knew what was going on.

One of my favorites is the color/rainbow aces. You show two piles of aces, then by the end you are left with a small pile of jokers and a larger pile of aces, each with a different colour back. Wild Card is another fav.

I think most card tricks can be made more or less mystical depending on your presentation. Take Triumph for example. Vernon’s original presentation is about righting a heckler’s attempt to mess with him but I’ve seen presentations of this trick that are much more magical.

Hello Jack of Hearts

What you call "performance style", is what old timers call "PRESENTATION". (It's NOT WHAT YOU DO, IT'S HOW YOU DO IT!)

I learnt about that recently while watching a documentary about Dai. Apparently Houdini had claimed that he could figure out any card trick that was shown to him three times. Dai showed him his ambitious card routine seven (I think) times and Houdini was still baffled! All learn't from Erdnase's Expert At The Card Table too if I remember correctly.

Jim I love the idea of this effect. Does the article include all I need to perform this effect, all sleights and their tutorials if needed?

I have been doing card magic for just over 2 years now so can do most of the basic sleights, how difficult is this effect to perform for an amateur/intermediate performer?

Thanks

You should check out the card effects by Paul Harris. Many of his routines are very organic and quirky, with plots that are unique to the card magic world. I also like a lot of Jay Sankey's card effects, which can also be more "mystical," like having a half dollar burn through a deck to land on a chosen card.

This is the kind of question that belongs either as a PM (Private Message) or, since I always publish my e-mail address, as a REALLY private e-mail. But to answer your question briefly, out here in the open, YES. AND FURTHERMORE, we continue to correspond with our customers by private e-mail if anything in the instructions is not clear. This guarantee ends the day that I die, or the world ends, or the Internet comes crashing down worldwide... whichever comes first. If by amateur/intermediate performer you mean a lazy performer who doesn't like to practice and wants automatic magic out of the box and everything taught by video with no reading... forget it. This isn't for you in that case.

Jacques, what do you mean by "mystical?"

If you mean a card trick that appears to be psychic in nature, there are plenty. For example, if you have a way to know the card chosen (either because you caused the choice or have a way to determine it after the fact - there are many options), you can have the participant spread the cards on a table and hold a pendulum over the cards until it swings over one in particular. The chosen one. Or you can use contact mind reading to do the same. A Ouija board could spell out the value and suit. You could go into a trance, contact your spirit guide, look in a crystal ball, whatever.

If you want something a little more focused on the participant, take a look at Gemini Twins.

If you know any cartomancy, tell a fortune with cards. That's not a trick, but is very mystical and makes a very strong impact if you are at all good at it.

The 9 card trick (there are variations of it out there, but they all work essentially the same) is a wonderful one. I learned it from an article by Peter Marucci years ago. I also discovered that if you use a Marseilles tarot deck, this trick will work with the suits of Challices, Coins, Wands, and Swords. But you will need to remove the trumps. They don't spell out properly.

I hope that at least these ideas spark some thought. Let us know if you like any of the suggestions, please.

-Patrick

That should say "chalices." Only one L.

-Patrick

Patrick,

Yes, that is what I mean (thanks, and apologies for the delayed response, all).

So many card tricks just come off as bar challenges to me that I have a hard time telling whether it's the nature of cards or the performer's chosen style.

I'm not into Bizarre, per se, but I do like the examples you've given - using a crystal, etc. I also like "visual" tricks for the same reason. I find sponge balls more mystical than jumping through flaming hoops just to confirm a card selection (no offense intended whatsoever to anyone who prefers that style).

Check out this performer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtaalH-vE9U&feature=youtu.be

In this case, much of what he is doing is fairly basic card work, but he doesn't present it as series of "I'm so clever" card tricks. He uses the tricks to illustrate stories. Not really mystical, but certainly more meaningful this way.

-Patrick