AT LAST, A REAL MAGICIAN - ISSUE 28

Stanley Collins and other Magical Geniuses

Welcome subscribers new and old. This issue offers a varied selection of card magic. As usual, they have their roots in history and reflect my interest in magic as a vehicle for creative thinking and problem solving. In this issue we re-examine tricks by Stanley Collins, combine ideas from Burling Hull, Bob Hummer, and Cy Endfield, and begin an ascent along Dr Jacob Daley’s Ladder. Along the way we’ll meet Dave Campbell and Jerry Andrus for some packet magic and a very strange balancing stunt.

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HE CAN DO EVERYTHING IN ERDNASE

When Sid Lorraine visited England in 1929, he made notes about the magicians he met. Not all those notes were complimentary. But of one magician he said, ‘At last a real magician. He has a Blackstone personality, beautiful speaking voice, wonderful sense of humour and is tall and handsome.’ He went on to say, ‘He can do everything in Erdnase’s book and oh what a knowledge of magic.’….’He’s the busiest magician in London. Makes a living out of Masonic work. Plays the biggest cabarets and hotels, such as Trocadero, Cecil, Savoy, etc. Saw his date sheet for this month and next. An average of two shows a night. He’s a bit of a devil from what I hear. He’s a bachelor but doesn’t live at home, that explains why I never found him at home when I called.’ …. ‘The first thing he asked me was about American patter. He said, “if the stuff Schulte writes is funny, I have no sense of humour.” Seems a very decent chap and according to Harry Leat he’s the only man in London who really knows magic.’ That magician was Stanley Collins.

I first noticed the work of Stanley Collins in Bruce Elliott’s Classic Secrets of Magic (1953). The book contains a detailed description of Collins’ Ace Assembly, a trick he first described in Magic magazine (October 1914) under the title Four Ace Experiment. If you’ve been in magic for a while, you are probably aware of some version of it. If not, then I hope you’ll enjoy the following. It uses the poker deal finish Mickey MacDougall applied to his The Four Aces (Greater Magic, 1938) but I’ve changed the method, made only three aces disappear, and streamlined it in various ways.

DR DALEY’S JACOB’S LADDER

Dr Daley described his Jacob’s Ladder in The Sphinx (September, 1951). It’s a version of the Elevator plot and, as is usual, requires the secret rearrangement of the principal cards. I don’t think I’ve done justice to Daley’s technique in this video. The cards should be held in a more vertical position which makes it better for stand-up work than as a table trick. But it’s a lovely idea and worth knowing. As usual, I have changed other parts of the routine. But I’m not alone in that and you might check out Harry G Franke’s version, Jacob’s Escalator, in Genii (Sept, 1967).

CARDWICH

The first sandwich trick I ever learned was One-Eyed Jack Sandwich from Harry Lorayne’s My Favorite Card Tricks (1965). Lorayne later said, ‘I think I’ve been credited with starting the “sandwich” craze. I don’t know whether I want to accept the credit – or the blame!’ Lorayne may have been overlooking the work of people like Al Leech from the previous decade, but it was Lorayne’s trick that made me think this was a problem worth spending time on. Here is another approach.

BEYOND BELIEF - DAVE CAMPBELL

Dave Campbell invented some wonderful magic. I’d admired his published work in magazines like The Gen but through Peter Duffie I got to play with a lot of Dave Campbell’s packet tricks, and they were insanely good. This was for Martin Breese who wanted to choose some to put on the market. One of them was You Won’t Believe Your Eyes which also went under the title Beyond Belief. You can currently buy a pdf of the manuscript from Lybrary.com.

Campbell used the core sequence in several of his packet tricks and if you are interested, I recommend you get The Dave Campbell Legacy written by Peter Duffie and available from International Magic in London. It’s a superb book full of practical and baffling magic.

The video here shows how Beyond Belief can be built into a full-deck routine, something that can be done with many packet effects. The explanation is only partial, but I hope it will steer you toward Dave Campbell’s inventive creations.

MONTE MYSTERY

This is cheeky. I first published Monte Mystery on the Cardopolis blog back in 2016. Cy Endfield had spoken about an idea he had for Bob Hummer’s Mathematical 3 Card Monte. I brought the spirit of Burling Hull to the table and came up with the following easy-to-do miracle.

If you are looking for good Svengali Decks, then I can recommend David Diamond in the UK and the Slim Card Co in Canada. Both can also supply Reverse Svengali Decks as used in The Bogus Effect described in Cardopolis 15.

BALANCING DECK - JERRY ANDRUS

During the 1970s, Bob Ostin and Joe Dignam regaled us with tales of Jerry Andrus. They had seen him lecture and were bowled over by his extraordinary innovations. One noteworthy stunt was balancing a platter of cards on the handle of a spoon that was sticking out of a teacup.

Bob explained the method, and we set about trying to make it work hoping to leave ‘floating’ islands of playing cards hovering above the café tables of Liverpool. John Fealey was part of that group and recently told me that, if you are careful, you could not only balance the cards, but you can make them spin. Recently I wondered where Andrus might have published this card stunt and I found the Balancing Deck in his 1973 book Kurious Kards. However, the trick there is to balance the deck on the forefinger not a spoon. In this video I’ve used a wine bottle. If you manage to balance the cards, or even spin them, on a spoon, vinegar bottle, or other everyday item let me know.

FINALLY

If you enjoy Cardopolis, share it with your friends. All feedback is welcome in the Comments below. The credits in Cardopolis relate to the original creators and routines that have inspired the tricks you find here. I’ve invariably made changes as anyone will to suit their favourite handlings and for that reason it is always worth checking out the original to understand the creator’s intent. Cardopolis is free but if you want to support it, you can do so using the Buy Me A Coffee button below. Happy card balancing. See you next issue.

David