CARDOPOLIS 30

Sandwiches, Spreads, and Picnics

Welcome to Cardopolis Newsletter number 30. This issue we have a couple of sandwiches, some marked cards, a twist on an old U. F. Grant trick, and a bit of silliness.

Thank you again to everyone who supports Cardopolis. You can do so, for the price of a coffee, by using the button below:

SHIV DUGGAL 1959 - 2024

Earlier this year my friend Shiv Duggal died. It was completely unexpected. We had planned to travel to the Blackpool Magic Convention together along with Chris Power. The three of us go back over thirty years, often meeting at pizza places in London to discuss magic, movies, books, and comics.

Shiv had an encyclopaedic knowledge of card magic and an uncanny ability to recall obscure items. I consulted him often. I feel as if he has left midconversation. We would set ourselves card problems to be solved, sending videos back and forth to share our latest thoughts. The item that follows is one Shiv shared for Cardopolis.

DELAY ON THE LINE

In the 70s, I looked forward to the publications of Jon Racherbaumer. He had the inside track on Ed Marlo. One memory I have is of sitting in The Pancake Kitchen in Liverpool discussing Racherbaumer’s latest card revelations. The Pancake Kitchen was an American-style diner with telephones on each table, if you fancied anyone on a neighbouring table, you could call them. This idea never caught on in Liverpool and as a consequence the restaurant was mostly empty. Ideal territory for some card-wielding magicians to use as a base for long magic sessions.

I’d go there along with Steve Tucker, John Brown, and John Fealey. One session that stayed with me was experimenting with card changes that take place in a ribbon spread. There were a number of tricks around that time in which a card could, for instance, be changed as a ribbon spread was flipped over or remade. One of them was Ed Marlo’s Delayed Sandwich (Hierophant no 7, 1975). It inspired the following handling:

BLINK!

The first card trick I saw in which the entire deck turned blank was John Brennan’s Triple Chance, marketed by Repro 71 in 1973. It was, and still is, a terrific trick. There was an earlier, similar effect, by Horace Bennett and Alan Alan, marketed as Paleface Cards/Pasteboards.

The following idea came about when editing Peter Duffie’s Subtle Miracles (2004). Peter had a trick in that book called All Clear. It’s a very nice blank deck finish to a Pat Page routine. At the time, I’d been playing with a Vernon sleight and inspired by All Clear I came up with Red Alert (I’d also been playing the Red Alert computer game a lot!). Red Alert was included in Peter’s book. Here is another handling:

REVISITING CHEEK TO CHEEK

A few years after Dai Vernon released Triumph in The Stars of Magic, U. F. Grant released Cheek to Cheek (1948). This was a gaffed version of the Triumph effect. I dug out Cheek to Cheek and wondered what it would look like if I meddled a little with the method. This is practise video I shot but I think it has promise:

You can perform the trick so that one card is seen face down in the face-up packets as you cut them. I think that’s a nice touch. Then you turn the deck over and spread the cards to reveal the face-up selection. If you have no idea what’s going on, say so in the Comments section and I’ll make an Explanation video.

PASTEBOARD PICNIC

Around about 1973 I met Mark Lewis who was running a Magic Studio in Blackpool. The following year he was operating a Svengali deck concession inside Ripley’s Odditorium on the promenade. Today he’s wowing the judges of Canada’s Got Talent with the very same card tricks that I saw him do when we met fifty years ago. His favourite magic text is The Royal Road to Card Magic and it seems to have paid off.

Magician Peter Royal worked with Mark at the Odditorium, pitching Svengali decks and the Dutch Looper. He was a few years older than me, a very good entertainer, and would do anything to gather a crowd. I remember him standing on the concession table, doing the Charleston Knees dance move, to get visitors’ attention before they left the exhibition. I admired his self-confidence and it was no surprise that he went on to become a professional magician and street performer. He now lives in Canada.

Peter showed me a very funny stunt which I later published in Talon No 2 (1978) as Edible. I was reminded of it recently when a friend said they had a gig for Uber Eats. I told them I knew an ‘eating trick’ and sent them a video. It’s a silly gag, an extension of Edible, but they liked it, which is why I’m sharing it here. Might make a good TikTok gag for someone.

The method should be obvious. Spread the cards longitudinally one way and then the other on the table. Pick the double-spread up carefully and you’re ready to go. Relaxing your grip on the cards causes the vertical spread to collapse. Steal some cards as you put the deck aside, ready for the finale.

I recently learned that Jerry Andrus had suggested the double-spread arrangement to create a collapsing tower of cards in Kurious Kards (1973). See the section titled, ‘Some Ideas with Ribbon Spreads.’ In Talon I suggested you could use the stunt to set up a card-in-mouth trick. But the cards-from-mouth flourish also makes a comical addition.

FINALLY

I’ve mentioned Edward Victor in this newsletter before but now you can see a video of Victor, courtesy of The Davenport Film Collection, performing his Diminishing Cards routine:

I was surprised at how warm and friendly Victor was. I hadn’t really thought about him like that before. The routine is described, along with many other good things, in Rae Hammond’s book The Magic of Edward Victor’s Hands (1995).

That’s all for now. Do use the Comments section. I always reply. See you in the next Cardopolis.

David