Thanks. Welcome back. I will check it out. No longer have the book but it is in my local magic club library, so I will have to wait a while longer. There are quite a few little gems hidden in the self working series...but the last time I read this book was when it was first published.

Paul.

I agree. With a bit of reworking, it's possible to perform miracles with the gems hidden in the series. It's strange to see that what really counts in magic is the right mix of sleights, subtlety and misdirection. Dai Vernon is, in my opinion, the paradigm. But I digress...

andrea

I have also wondered about that... Anybody ?

thanks,
Sjiwi

Can't remember the name of the trick now, but it is a Vernon subtlety. From the "Inner Secrets" series, you have a spectator run through the deck 'til they come to a card they like, hold it up to their heart(?), then cut the cards so the selection is buried, and return the deck to the performer. Performer runs through the deck and reveals the card. Doesn't sound like much, but Roger Klause has been killing people with it for years, as have I. We have different presentations from each other, and from Vernon, but ALL the versions I'm familiar with are great. The difference is the presentation the trick is clothed in, the method is simple, direct and unchanged from version to version. This trick allows you to go almost anywhere you want, and is completely self-working, non-slieght, and killer. I have fooled hundreds of magicians who should know better, or who claim to have read the book it is in. Look it up, then find a presentation that suits you, and you will have a trick that will be with you forever. By the way, this plays, as is, beautifully for the ladies, a rarity in card magic. I have done this as the only trick of the night, when asked to "do a trick for us," and been reminded of it 6 months later, it has that strong an impact!

Best, PSC

Paul,

I think, but I may be wrong, that you're talking about "Emotional Reaction"?

Paul

Paul,

Quite right! That would be the trick, though, as I mentioned, there is more than one way to play it. In fact, the way that I do that trick is different enough that you would not recognize it if you saw me do it! Play with the thing for a while, you'll be amazed what you might come up with...

Best, PSC

Ok, it's Emotional Reaction from Inner Secrets. Thanks to Paul Chosse, I read the book again and I found a discrepancy, when the spectator puts his pile on top of the packet on the table, and then cuts the combined packet. Doing as it is described, the effect doesn't work. Am I wrong on this, or not? IMHO, you have to do a little adjustment...
Can you help me?

Thanks in advance.
Andrea

Hello, antonuccio,

You ask the spectator to cut his packet before he place it on the tabled cards.

This cut makes a miracle. When I didn't know this trick, Mr.Yoshizawa (Creator of Tenyo's Flash Dice) showed me this. When he asked me to cut the packet, I shouted "Impossible!".

As Mr.Chosse told you, Emotinal Reaction is really a strong trick both for magicians and laypeople.

Hideo Kato

Thanks for your kind reply, Hideo. It's an honour for me to speak with you! What I still wonder is that the instructions, as written by Lewis Ganson, are correct or not. I think that Ganson was wrong when he described the "inner" workings of the effect. Maybe I'm wrong...

Best regards,
Andrea

I guess you misunderstood from the following phrase by Ganson.

As the second assistant cuts off a packet of cards, instruct the first assistant to place his cards on top of those still on the table. (But before he does so,) Stress that he must be careful not to let you catch a glimpse of the selected card, then asy quietly "Cut your cards to make certain".

Parenthesized words are added by me. Mr.Ganson's explanation for this part was not so good that antonuccio misunderstood.

Hideo Kato

I think the best self-working card trick for me is 99% (at least that is what a fellow magician called it).

This one is a beauty because the spectator handles the cards and all you do is a move and spread them out and you pick there chosen card. The only thing I did was have them sign the card so they can't say it wasn't there card.

I think you are absolutely right. Thanks for the support, Mr. Kato. You are a true gentleman of magic.

Best,
Andrea

I really love performing Gambling demonstrations and John Bannon's "Lessons are Extra" is a great, almost self working effect. It's on "Smoke and Mirrors" so check it out.

Dominic

I would also have to go with

Play it straight by John Bannon
Daryl's Untouched

Joe

I recently purchased "Karl Fulves Self-Working Mental Magic: 67 Fullproof Mind-Reading Tricks" and in it is An effect called "Sleight of mind". It's a mental miracle as far as the audience is concerned and it plays great. I got the book at a used bookstore for $3.45 Canadian. This thing's priceless!

Later,
Dominic

Yes it is the same effect - I think the patter is different?

The greatest self working trick I have ever seen is JC Wagner's Super Closer. There is a lot of work involved in it, but I think it's 5 minutes of some of the the best selfworking magic out there. They get fooled again and again and again. Truly is genius.

What you use for an opener should be
STRONGLY dependent on what impression
you're trying to create. The first effect
you do will be the one that establishes
the tone of the rest of the show. I've
always been fond of opening with the
original version of Triumph.

OOTW or any effect that involves a lot
of dealing is a bad idea-- wait till they
know you're good and then they'll have
the patience to sit through a dealing
effect.

I've always felt that one of the most
overlooked books in magic is "Scarne on
Card Tricks"-- even has a version of
Rosini's Double Reverse...

Steven Youell

My votes are :

1. Lazy Man's Card Trick
2. Untouched
3. Further Than That (Although I believe for this trick to be a TRULY strong card trick that you MUST shuffle the cards before hand, so knowing a good false shuffle or top-stock card control is imperative).

Although I never use it as an opener, my favorite sleightless card effect is Paul Curry's "A Swindle of Sorts." I've been doing it since the mid-70s when Jules Lenier first showed it to me. It is so devious that it gives you a warm and glowing feeling inside. It reflects Curry's devious mind: you tell a lie (sincerely, of course) then demonstrate the lie, then enlist the spectator's help to prove the lie is true.

The effect is that 13 cards are shown to be in numerical order. You show that if you reverse any two during a deal, the sequence is broken. You then show that if, on the next deal, you reverse the same two cards, the sequence is right again. The looks the spectators give you seem to say, "How dumb do you think I am? Of course if you reverse two cards, the sequence is broken! And, of course if you do it again at the same place, the sequence is set right." You then humbly apologize for demostrating something so obvious. Next, you tell the spectators that you are going to reverse three sets of cards (out of their sight) in the sequence and deal the cards face down onto the table. The spectator is to stop you three times during the deal, whenever they get the urge. When they stop you, you give them the fair choice of reversing the two cards on the top of the packet, or the card in your hand with the one on the top of the packet, and you continue. When all cards have been dealt, you explain that if they have managed to stop you precisely at the three places where you previously broke the sequence, the cards will be back in order. But, if they have failed, even once, the cards will be in a mess. You let the spectator himself turn over the tabled cards to see they are in numerical order.

I get great reaction with this one. It's a dealing trick, yes, but a short one, so it's not boring, and the spectator is engaged because he has to say "stop." Also, you are so darned fair and deliberate about the whole procedure. Truly, this is the effect I most enjoy doing, and there's not a single sleight in the whole thing!

You can find it in "Paul Curry Presents".