Inside Magic

I have thought of a great effect. I’ll describe it and you tell me if you have seen or heard of it before.

It is very much like Bob Cassidy’s Chronologue but with a twist. Mind you that I have not yet developed a method of doing this effect but I?m working on it. If you have any ideas, I would be happy to publish them here or not according to your druthers.

Here?s the effect: A spectator is reminded that there seems to be a relationship between the days of the year and a deck of cards. Bob Cassidy has a great set of coincidences between the deck and a calendar year (52 cards in a deck / 52 weeks in a year, 12 face cards / 12 months, etc.)

You ask someone in the audience to state the name of any card in a normal deck. (As opposed to an abnormal deck).

She is also asked to think of adate with importance to her, and to name the date out loud.

She follows these instructions and then names her date and card. You ask her to inspect a calendar day planner. She does and is then directed to find her previously mentioned date.

She finds it and you ask, hypothetically, if she had named the day before or after the one she selected, would she have identified a different card.

“Nope,” she says. “There are no other cards written in the day planner.”

She then confirms that the card found on the date selected is her card.

That?s it. I?m thinking I might need to buy 365 day planners and force the card on the volunteer. Perhaps a peek deck on one side of the audience and the day planners on the other side. I am trying to figure out how to load just one piece of calendar date into an already bound day planner.

This would be a knock out if it worked. If you have any comments, click below and send me your thoughts. I publish the contributions as they come in. If you have an effect with out a method, you can send it to me as well and we’ll figure out a way.

Here’s My Method, Tim

Continue reading How Can I Do This Trick? A Challenge!

Daryl and Alison are Moving to Vegas

Easily one of my most favorite magicians to watch is Daryl. If you have not seen him in person, you should make it a New Year’s resolution to track him down and see him perform his show or lecture. His effects are always innovative and entertaining. I have seen him at the Magic Castle and sat one row from his close-up table. I have been doing magic since I was seven and have seen the gritty underworld and behind the scenes of the art and yet he completely blew me away (to split an infinitive and drop a clich? all at the same time). His style is so natural and calm that there is no hint that what he is about to do would be anything other than what was expected.

I got sidetracked. Sorry. Part of the IBM’s Virtual Ring 2100 is a mailing list for folks hoping to sell their new and used magic. Usually the pickings are pretty good. But because it is limited to those who receive the listserve for the Virtual Ring, it has a restricted audience. Daryl offered the following message on the board yesterday and with his kind permission, I’m reprinting it here. There are some fantastic bargains here and I encourage you to let others know about the list. It is the least we can do to help a fellow magician move.

Subject: Daryl’s Magic Moving Sale
From: “Daryl” <Daryl@FoolerDoolers.com
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 19:20:07 -0800
X-Message-Number: 6

Daryl’s Magic Moving Sale!!

Alison and I (and our 10 week old daughter Laura) will be soon moving from Las Vegas to Northern California. Rather than lugging this miscellaneous magic stock with us, I would prefer to make it available at rock bottom discount prices and pass the savings on to you. The prices are shown as suggested retail price / my sale price. In other words, $60.00 / $30.00 means the regular price is $60.00 but I’m offering it for $30.00!

I have a few of most of these items in stock, instructions are included
(where required), and unless…
Continue reading Daryl is getting ready to move — and invites you to his garage sale.