Welcome to Cardopolis 36 where you’ll find some thoughts on the history and practise of card magic. This issue goes out to paid subscribers. Subscription for a year is only $35, and you get an issue every month. That’s less than the price of a coffee per issue. There are two or three Free Issues per year. And there’s an archive of 30 or so issues available to everyone, featuring dozens of card tricks. If you haven’t subscribed, you can so here.
This issue month we look at some counting and dealing tricks. They are largely sleight-free leaving you to focus on the presentation. We have a detailed look at Bob Hummer’s Fantastric, one of the most impossible looking locations of a freely selected card you will ever see. Once you understand the simple principle, you can vary it to suit your needs and wrap it up in any kind of presentation. There’s also a slimmed-down version of the trick called Tripping The Light Fantastric.
And Then There Was One is an absurdly simple take on a classic effect that comes in many guises. The usual effect involves predicting which of several objects a spectator has selected. I first came across the plot and method in Jack Yates’ Match Miracle from Minds in Close Up (1954). Others like Paul Curry and Martin Gardner have contributed to this idea. On my Cardopolis blog, you’ll find The Chalice from The Palace based on a Cyril Tomlinson routine. Go to the blog where it’s free to read.
Also included is a full deck version called X-Communicardo (Thank you John Wick). This shows how to turn the 1 in 5 prediction into 1 in 52.
But let’s begin with Alpha Bet This is a dealing trick inspired by Chris Capehart’s marvellous Countdown routine that he performed on Penn & Teller Fool Us. I’ve taken a slightly different approach to the method, used alphabet cards, and added a touch of novelty. You can customise it to suit yourself. Hope you enjoy it.
ALPHA BET
As mentioned earlier, this came to me after I’d watched Chris Capehart’s very entertaining performance of his Countdown routine on Fool Us. There are earlier versions of this trick, notably John Mendoza's A Reading, published in The Mendoza Series of Personal Instruction (1979). But Chris really showed how entertaining a counting trick can be.
Chris’ performance similarly inspired Bob Farmer who wrote an entire book on the topic. See Bob Farmer’s The Counting Feint 4.0 which also explains Chris Capehart’s routine. You can find it at Lybrary.com.