Hey,
How about this for a card effect; A person picks a card and puts it back in the deck. The deck is put away and the magician takes out an etch a sketch board. After turning the nobs a couple times an image apears, it is their card!! I am really interested to know if this has already been created (if so, by who?), I Have a method/ idea but I need someone to help with the gimmick. Any Thoughts?

I've never heard of anything like that... Sounds good.

Thanx,
there can be a way to have 4 cards picked, and also this can be done totally impromptu!

Nice idea! A remote controlled, motorised Etch a Sketch would be fun to own too! Maybe you could put a Etch a Sketch "Shell" around asmall laptop or palm device. Great for kids shows.

I love the idea. I'd love to see it and perform it.

It really depends on how you want to perform it if you want to have it draw it visible in front of the spectator I am fresh out of ideas, but you could just f**** a card and then pretend to draw it or say that you made a prediction earlier. Hope this helps

Moyle

Nice idea, but I was thinking more of an impromptu effect, where the spectator sees a blank etch a sketch and then magically the magician draws the selected card!

That's good, but drawing a card on an etch-a-sketch is pretty tough, and it would take way to long. The spec would get pretty board...

See that is why one has to build an electronic etch a sketch, that has four reset card drwaings inside of it, and when the magicican turns the nob, it starts to draw it!!

That's a pretty complex way of doing things..

If you know how an etch a sketch works, its easy to get it to draw a particular preset shape...

(Found on a quick internet search)



Inside is aluminium powder, this sticks to pretty much everything.

When you shake an etch a sketch, it just sticks more aluminium powder to the screen. When you turn the knobs, it just scratches off part of the aluminium powder which creates the line.

You could just use the shape of the card cut out of plastic to rub against the back of it, and remove the aluminium powder, which would form an impression of the shape. Sure as hell a lot easier than making it electronically draw it.

Then you just have to come up with a way of pressing the shape against the screen from the inside, which should be pretty easy to do. I can think of a couple of ways off the top of my head.

I just made up that method, so I have no clue if it would actually work.

Or yeah, you could go for the mechanical method : http://neil.fraser.name/hardware/etch/

Thanks for that site, but your method sounds easy but seems very messy!

I think that if you did it that way, the spectator might get a glimpse of the method.

This would be a BAD THING.

All exposure is bad.

If you practiced with your etch it really wouldn't be that hard to draw just a rudamentry number and suit i.e. if it was the 5 of diamonds you could just draw 5 and a diamond. This way your range of cards you could do it with would increase to the whole deck and it would be completely impromptu and the drawing would be relatively quick. Not only that you could play it off like you are being posessed by the etch and it is making you control the knobs or you are reading their mind or something like that.

Moyle

I don,t know, maybe this is what your looking for.

From Hank Lee;s Website:

So, Mike Bent strolled into my office the other day with an Etch-A-Sketch under his arm. I dared to ask Mike "What's new?" So, he showed me.
He handed me the Etch-A-Sketch and told me to make a completely random drawing. To make it even more random, the drawing was done with the board upside down so I couldn't see the screen.

While I was doing my drawing, Mike stood with his back to me, holding a small sketch pad and a marker. He thought and drew and drew and thought.

I finished my drawing and turned the board over. Mike immediately showed what he had drawn.

Both drawings matched exactly!! miracle of mental magic!

Mike Bent's Catch-a-Sketch is a great routine. Perfect for kids and adults. Easy to do, it comes with special gimmick, full instructions, patter and routine. Supply your own Etch-A-Sketch (available at all toy stores).

Details

Price: $ 19.95

You could use an easier prop: Magna-doodle instead of an Etch-a-Sketch. I think you can pick up the mini-ones for about a dollar, and the full-size ones for $15 or so.

Manoj