Great Expectations

This is part of my show about magic. And it is a combination of several effects. I was trying to have a similar handling leading to better and better results.

First phase: A card is selected and the prediction matches. This is a fairly good trick. I have two cards selected and throw in a little magicians choice. Not that that matters, but it keeps a certain consistency within the "Handhabungsgestalt" of the whole routine.

Second phase: This is where it gets interesting. "Monarch's Quartet" by Larry Jennings. I substituted the Jinx Switch from something I came up with, as I never felt good about the Jinx Switch. But this certainly breaks the expectation of the spectators. And it elevates the effect from a sheer improbability to an impossibility.

Third phase: Harry Anderson's "Gang of Four" really breaks the mold here. You tear the card, which always so something that people remember. The pieces change. The element of fail brought back full circle. This certainly plays so well.

Please excuse my patter. I was not able to translate my script properly, but you can see how the tricks built on top of each other.

As said in the beginning, this is part of my show about magic. The basic theme about the show is that magic is more than just a bunch of tricks. It's about taking several principles and turning them into deceptive performance pieces. A chapter is all about how expectations can generate awareness and confusion. This card routine is demonstrating that breaking the expectation can be more rewarding than meeting the expectations.

Gray's Binary Code by Karl Fulves

Die Kunst zu Zaubern by Alexander Adrion (German book)
Page 206

Personal Comment: Consider this a free trick. As there is nothing left to hide here. If you do exactly as I did in the video you'll end up on the Ace of Hearts. It's self working, it's mathematical... it's not bad. I took the German title for this trick as I am working from the German book. I got no original material. So if anybody knows... Shoot!

Difficulty Self Working

Unclosed Prediction by Tom Craven

Apocalypse by Harry Lorayne
Volume 12, Number 8 August 1989
Page 1672 et seq.

Personal Comment: As an Open Prediction sort of good I guess. But then there would be no reason to take out the mate beforehand. So I guess it is a mate routine then... and this is the main issue... the routine doesn't know what it wants to be.

Difficulty 2/5

I Predict by Jim Molinari

Apocalypse by Harry Lorayne
Volume 8, Number 5 May 1985
Page 1065

Personal Comment: Very nice little trick. But I feel, as much of an impact as this could have have this is more for the fellow magician. There are so many little thing to throw off magicians that you know who Jim Molinari had in mind when coming up with this handling. But it's a good trick and the method is really, really clever. No setup, little work. Good one. Bravo.

Difficulty 3/5

Palmist's Prophecy by Roy Walton

The Complete Walton - Volume 2 1988
Page 80 et seq.

Personal Comment: I like it. I really do. I'd change the presentation a little bit. Here is how: I would let the audience cut off a certain portion of the deck and then I would turn over the prediction that has been set aside to find out how many cards have been cut. Then the counting can start. But either is fine.

Difficulty: 2/5

Mira Skill by Steward James

The Jinx Issue 24 by Theodore Annemann

Page 147 et seq.



Personal Comment: Talk about an oldie. This trick was published in 1936 yet feels new. Many, many version have popped up since then. But the simple prediction variation still seems to be the best way to go.



Difficulty Self Working

Color Guessing

Personal Comment: In the video it looks like I just name the color I turn over. This is not the case. I should have made sure to call out the color first and THEN turn it over. But the trick is good. Nothing spectacular about it, but it is a nice self working trick. So who knows where this was published first?



Difficulty Self Working

Fogel's Triple Prediction by Maurice Fogel

Mastering the Art of Magic by Eugene Burger 2000
Page 148 et seq.

Personal Comment: I am sorry to give you such a bad video. I was a bit absent minded when I did that. But you get the main idea. It's a really good effect. Even though it's self working. The reverse counting is needed, but Eugene Burger has a nice way to include this drawback into the routine making an extra effect of it. Also Eugen Burger actually misses on the last card (he get's the color wrong) making this effect that much more "mental". I like that. Mentalism is certainly not my cup of tea in terms of doing it. But I love every single approach to make magic much more mysterious by wrapping it into the cloth of mentalism.

Difficulty: Self Working

Necronomicron by James William Sarles

Pallbearers Review by Karl Fulves
Issue 1, Number 1 November 1965
Page 1 et seq.

Personal Comment: First entry in Pallbearers Review and a good one. If you would put the in one of the common dealers advertisements you would say: Prediction is actually written down before the spectator picks a card, no force, impromptu, no switch of the billet. While I don't see this in the repertoire of a full time pro I can see this turn into gold in a hobbyist act. I sort of like it. J. W. Sarles is the mentor of Karl Fulves and having this being the first trick in the series is a great little thank you towards his teacher.

Difficulty 1/5