I've been thinking of doing magic with unusual things and I was wondering if there is any magic you can do on a PC. I think I read somewhere that 'Tricks' by David Ben has some tricks using computers, is this true and does anyone else recommend this book? Or is there anywhere else where there are 'PC' tricks?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers.

If you're talking about using technology to help you do tricks then I think it's a good idea and I've always wondered how much you can do.

If you're talking about computer magic (where computer might say pick a card, etc) then I wouldn't think it's that fascinating to be quite honest.

Alex Elmsley had a package out some years back ,that had a some very good effects on using your pc.I'll have to look through my Magic and Linking Ring magazines again to tell you the name of this package.
Andre

Penguin magic has something with a CD Rom. The demo video looks kinda cool but it is not my cup of tea and I can not tell you if it is good or not. It is called Magic Interactive by Haim Goldenberg.
I got the link on an e-mail a while ago and I don't know if they still have it.

I have seen some tricks sent on emails before. for example there is the one where you have five cards on the screen, you pick one (mentally) and press submit. magically the card you picked disappeared (or something like that anyway). If that is the sort of stuff you are on about then there must be something about on the net as they are going around.

personally I am not impressed as it is obvioulsy a computer program so in my mind cannot be magic. from a non magicians point of view (as I was a few months ago) then I was always more impressed with humans doing magic as it seemed much more magical than a computer program. Plus with a computer program you could redo the trick as many times as you wanted and figure it out pretty easily.

The software from Penguin is different as you still perform the magic you just use the computer as a platform. The Demo video is pretty cool but again as I said it is just not for me. Check it out maybe you like it.

I found this site that predicts a card you picked mentally. http://www.petrix.com/magic/ I've also seen sites where you pick time and the computer asks a couple of questions and tells you the time. Use google or alltheweb for more sites. I think you could apply a few mentalist selfworking type tricks to a computer. The tricks would probably be along the lines of mentally pick something ... Math tricks would also be good candidates. With a computer you have to limit the amount of information the computer gets from a user to work.

Click here for some great online tricks

Ron Jaxon

This link's appeared in the Secret Session before under Google Finds Your Card. It's computer magic and mentalism at its best - http://www.krazydad.com/bondoogle/

Stephen Tucker from the UK had a really interesting prediction effect (in one of his 1999 lectures) with a 3.5' diskette, may be worth checking out.

Wow, I really liked the google card trick!
Really cool

I am a programmer, and I know that you can do anything with a software, so it's not magical for me. And also for laymen, because everyone knows that everything is possible with computers. But I think that you can use the computer in some original way to help your effects. For example, you can have a JPG of a forced card as your screen saver. Set it to came up in, let's say, 5 minutes. Schedule the time of your trick, and let the computer perform the magic and find the card of the spectator... then, palming the real card, put your hand on the screen, touch the mouse so the screen saver goes away, and reveal the card as you have take it out of the screen


Davide

PS: I'm going to create a similare effect with Magicap
where the cap is lost into the monitor, you move it inside the monitor with your hands, and then take it out and over the pen again

There is an ONLINE POLYGRAPH that will reveal a chosen card. Best part is the spec works the mouse so there is no obvious sign of any trickery. I have used this with a Marked Deck and really blew them away because they freely selected a card (no force) and I never saw it and they showed it to NO ONE but the PC revealed their selection 100% everytime!

IPOLYGRAPH

You need the instructions to make it work HERE

This is one of my favorites in an office or a home with a PC.

I saw 1 that is done with the micro**** word , it is quite funny, but I don't know how to do it, it was done by my friend

Not impressed

I downloaded a program called 'the psychic rabbit' for my treo 600 (palm pilot bascally) phone. It is the layout 7 cards and the rabbit removes the one you selected type of trick. I used it once as a quick trick "for something diffrent" in the middle of other tricks. It worked well. But they were not overlly impressed. Just something that was good for a really quick hit in between more serious card work. Nice to have just to catch people off guard. But if I had to load it on my PC? I doubt I would have reason to do that. Seems pretty contrived. Like hey come over here in front of my monitor, ok now wait for a minute while I load this thing up... seems a bit weak. Oh just found the link to the Magic Rabbit software http://www.freewarepalm.com/misc/thepsychicrabbit.shtml

I like playing with Metascope, but have not used it with anyone other than wifey.
Peace,
Parson

I find computer magic mathmatical and boring, the only ones I've come across are the 'click which pile your card is in' type of tricks and of course, it gets it :-/