CARDOPOLIS 46

LARRY JENNINGS AND THE LOST MONARCHS

This is Cardopolis 46, a newsletter devoted to the history and craft of card magic. It’s the end of a chilly November and we are now hurtling towards what professionals will hope is a busy Christmas.

This month we have a couple of Larry Jennings items. The first is Larreverse. This is such a good move to know. It enables you to secretly reverse a card in the deck. We’re going back to the first Larreverse trick Vernon described in Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic (1967). The trick wasn’t given a name, but it is a very effective, simple, and direct card at number stunt.

Still with Larry Jennings, I discovered an interesting trick of his in a letter from Francis Haxton to Stewart James which I’ve called The Lost Monarchs. Haxton saw Dai Vernon perform and explain the routine when he came to England with Jay Ose in September of 1964 to do lectures arranged by Harry Stanley. Haxton wrote that Vernon had described the trick as being from ‘a young fellow at the Castle of whom we would hear more in years to come. I think he said his name was Larry Jennings.’

Ande Furlong is a name you might not know but his Ande’s Aces has been reprinted a couple of times and was noted by Fred Braue in his Notebooks as ‘This ingenious four-ace trick is self-working.’ It put me in mind of Peter Kane’s Royal Flush Flash (A Card Session with Peter Kane, 1976) and I’ll explain why by giving an additional handling for this pleasing card display.

In the last issue we looked at some card coincidence effects. In a roundabout way this led me to a video of Max Maven performing an excellent card prediction trick that I don’t believe he ever explained. The method will be obvious. There’s no sleight of hand or gaffed cards and yet it is not easy to do. Despite this, I think the effect will pique your interest.

Let’s begin with a similar effect, The Stolen Fiddle. I mentioned this trick in the previous issue. It is a coincidence effect that lies somewhere between Mel Stover’s Yenta Outfiddled, and Lennart Green’s The Stolen Cards.

THE STOLEN FIDDLE

Lennart Green’s The Stolen Cards is lovely presentation for Nick Trost’s Rainbow Miracle. I liked the concept of a deck of assorted cards, and it led me to a different idea. The presentation revolves around a story that the spectator has talents that might land them a job in casino security.

The main difference between this version of the trick and others of this type is that the spectator chooses the two starting cards and it is a free choice.