In order to buy myself some much needed trick research and practice time, I've decided to post a bunch of my Magic Friday's from previous Street Magic (now MAGICIAN) issues. Hope you like them and check back next week!

June/July 2007
#1


What The Audience Sees:

”This week was so much fun! Jamie came into our office and asked a bunch of us to cut exactly ten cards from the deck he was holding. Three of us got to do it and we each tried to take only ten cards. After we all took our guess, Jamie counted the number of cards he was left holding (which should only have been twenty-two if we all succeeded) and ended up having twenty. We were pretty close! But then he told us all to look at the top card of the stack that we had cut off and each stack had a ten on top- the ten of clubs, hearts, spades, and diamonds! How did he do it? It was incredible!”

How It Went:

It was a great Friday! I have to say that I’m a real big fan of effects where the spectators win and, without question, the specs loved it as well. This trick has a lot of interaction, lets people try and do something different, and lets you make them all achieve something absolutely impossible and wonderful.

I also have to say that I’m a big fan of Bill Malone. Not only are his On The Loose DVDs some of my favourite DVDs in my collection but they are the only ones that my wife can stand watching. And that says a lot. He comes across as a genuinely funny and is extremely entertaining.

Doing this trick all day was really quite fun because I presented it as more of a game rather than a “Watch me blow your mind!” routine. People are laughing, talking, and generally having a great time. And in the end, they get to feel like they did something special- with a little help of course.

History:

David Solomon was one of Chicago’s “Inner Circle” that surrounded Ed Marlo. Consisting of such names as Simon Aronson, Steve Braun, and Bill Malone, these guys really took magic to a different level.

Best Lines:

”Lol, you’ve got 35 cards left?!??! We suck!!!... ... ...Holy $#%#!!” –this happened after realized they had al cut ‘ten’.

”LET ME SEE YOURS? YOU DID IT TOO? AND YOU? NOT YOU TOO?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” –this particular person reeeeeeeeeallllly liked it.

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done.. A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

”Hunh. Why didn’t I get a f#^&#& ace hotshot.” –uh, because you cut to ten? I think he was angry because couldn’t figure it out. 5/5.

My Rating:

I’m going to say 9/10. The only possible thing I can see holding this trick back is that it’s best performed, in my opinion, with three spectators and I can appreciate that that’s not always possible. It doesn’t have to be, by any means, but I think it plays best to a group.

If you’re reading this column for the first time, then you should know that I never review bad effects. I spend a good amount of my life researching effects that I know will play well, not only on Magic Friday, but also in my other life as a Professional Magician. So you’re going to see a lot of 8s, 9s, and 10s on these pages.

The JDG

Bill goes into this effect directly after a different one on his DVDs so he’s kind of ready to go. Since I performed this as a stand-alone on Friday I would preset the deck, obviously, and then do a bunch of double out faros (I’m just making terms up now) to keep the top and bottom intact. Basically, I would just split the deck in two and begin as if I were going to do a faro shuffle but made sure that the top and bottom’s were faro’d to the outside. Did that make any sense at all?

Closing Thoughts:

Bill Malone rocks and he sure knows his cards. If you haven’t checked out his DVDs you should probably start to think about taking a look.

Anything is Possible,

jamie d. grant
http://www.whatizit.net