Newsletter 3 - Lost & Found

Cut Thrust and Deal

A Good Hand

Bob Farmer is a devious fellow. Every now and then he sends an email to a circle of cardicians with his thoughts on a trick that currently fascinates him. A few weeks ago it was a trick about a poker hand. It sparked the following idea which is a bit rough and ready, different from Bob’s and closer to something of Peter Kane’s. Check it out here:

When I put a trick together I’m usually looking for an efficient and relatively easy way to accomplish it. Hence the use of the Henry Christ Force. You could use any force. But for now the Christ Force gets me to a position where the stack is controlled and I can try out the routine and see if it hangs together. The bulk of the routine is fashioned along the lines of the Magician vs Gambler plot, double lifts and turnovers being used to switch the cards. The get-ready for the double lifts need work and that’s something to think about. I like the way the lifts enable the secret addition of an extra card to the tabled packet so that the four-of-a-kind transforms into a Royal Flush.

Lost & Found

Shiv Duggal sent me a story and trick for the Cardopolis Newsletter. It’ll be appearing in an upcoming edition. The trick required a gimmicked card and Bob Farmer recommended Dustin Thomas in the US as someone who could make such a thing. When the cards arrived, great work speedily delivered, they started another chain of thought.

I was thinking about the way such a card could be used in a stabbed in the deck effect along the lines of Annemann’s The Magic Thrust. The basic notion I was considering is the spectator stabs a Queen into the deck and it ends up next to a previously selected card. Here’s what I came up with:

File it under ‘interesting use of that principle’ until something better comes along. A few things did come along. Not sure they are better but one or two might make an appearance in a future newsletter. Meanwhile, here’s a breakdown of how Lost & Found works:

There is still some finesse to add to the routine. For example, maybe the spectator cuts the fake card to the face of the deck. Two ways to overcome that. The first is to edge mark the card and only stop the cutting when you know it is not on the face of the deck. The second is to turn the deck face up holding it at the inner end and turning it away from you. As opposed to taking the outer end and turning it towards you as shown in the above video. You’ll see instantly whether the fake Queen is at the face of the deck. If it is, cover the QH index with your left thumb and spread the cards between your hands instead of on the table.

Running Cut

As you have probably deduced from the previous routines, I’m fond of running cuts. Lost & Found uses a running cut as a control. They are useful if you want a slick look to the handling and the ability to control the cards. Here is a false running cut that retains the full deck order. It basically consists of a couple of breaks and the steal of a packet during the cut:

Heist

Heist, the podcast series, presented by Sir Michael Caine comes out this week. I wrote the pitch for the series with my friend Alexa Conran (The Real Hustle). We’d been working on similar projects for quite a while and Russell Finch of Somethin’Else productions took it to Audible who, to our surprise, offered Sir Michael Caine as the host.

I consulted on the show for producers Richard Ward and Jessica Beck who did an amazing job tracking down various people connected with the cases and conducting interviews. Not an easy job considering that Coronavirus shut down production for a while and Sir Michael Caine had to do half of his pieces remotely.

Alexa and I did not meet Sir Michael. If we had, I would certainly have asked what he remembers about Cy Endfield’s card work.

David