I would have to say that my favorites have all been mentioned.

1. Twisting the Aces (any examinable variant), immediately followed by...
2. Dr. Daleys Last Trick
3. Masque
4. Color Monte (most people's first packet trick)

I have been performing Masque for years and by far gets an awesome reaction since it can involve multiple spectators.

My version of Oil and Water with 4 black cards and 4 red cards. All can be examined before and after the effect. If I ever get the time to write my book this will be in it.

Paul, You mentioned "Ode to Poker Dan". Is this examinable? Is the gaff disposed of during the trick? Is the handling such that the spectators won't want to handle the cards?

Thanks for your input.

"A Rebours", an oil-and-water-ish trick using normal cards from "The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Vol 1"

Twisting Aces--someone said Twisting isn't really a packet trick..... looks like a packet, smells like a packet, feels like a packet....

Transmutation, from George McBride's "Best of Osmosis"... one part ambition, one part Daley....with a surprise at the end

The correct title is "Owed to Poker Dan," and you can find out a tad more about it (although, granted, not enough to answer your questions) here:

http://thinklikeaconjurer.com/all24rbps/poker/pokercover.htm



L-

Whoops, sorry about that. You're correct Lance. I should be more careful.

The best examinable packet effect I know of is made by Hippie Torrales. I found it in Apocalypse volume 13 number 3 called "Queens' Tour." It's a very magical effect!
The effect is 4 red back queens change to blue back queens. Those queens change to blue back aces. The aces change to red back aces and the blue back queens are produced from four different pockets!!

Page Three of this thread and no one has mentioned anything by Brother John Hamman. What is this world coming to? My vote goes to "The Gemini Twins" and/or "The Pinocle Trick", with consideration to "The Two Card Trick" and "Mystic Nine" and possibly the strongest trick possible with a small number of cards isolated from the deck...The Signed Card. (alhough it does involve a selection)

Also necessary to note: Larry Jennings' KVJ Oil and Water and Ambitious Classic, and Harry Anderson's "Final Monte".

How can you go wrong with Harris' "bizarre twist" (with Cross' handling)?

Also, you can't get any stronger with package tricks than Ortiz' Jumping Gemini.

Ambitious classic is also a killer.


But at the end of the day, I have to go with Re-set (with a lil'twist to it) and Jumping Gemini.

I've seen Gemini Twins on Ammars ETMCM vol. 3 but wasn't that impressed by the performance and didn't bother to learn it.
Have I got it all wrong and missed out on a real gem?
How well does this effect play to laymen when you perform it?

Thanks

Mine would probably be Paul Harris' Cros-twist - bizarre vanish routine.

Oh yeah! How can I forget about 'Bizarre Vanish?' I like that effect. I really like 'Twisted Sister,' and let's not forget 'Red Hot Momma.'

Curtis

I agree that Bro Hamman was a very great influence in this area. In fact the book by Richard Kaufman and the tribute issue of Genii are veritable treasure troves of this kind of material.

But I would be concerned about putting a packet of cards that had been used in most gemini count routines in the hands of the punters. This would include The Twins and Ortiz' Jumping Gemini.

That count produces a certain effect from a packet of cards and a free examination of them would allow the audience to develop an explanation for what they had seen. The explanation would not be that something impossible had just occurred.

Now, it is possible to produce the effect of Dr Daley's Last Trick with the Gemini Count. Since you're using four Aces only, the packet is examinable at the end. No problem.

If you want to hand out the packet for Bro Hamman's The Twins, I suggest you take a look a Bill Malone's work with this in the "On The Loose" videos. While he does do the routine sitting down and his clean up depends on this, you can fairly easily substitute something else to clean up when performing on your feet.

Back to Bro Hamman and how he managed packet magic. There is a tip in the Kaufman book that is worth the price of entry. Apparently, the reverend brother used to stack a deck with the packets he intended to use in a performance, taking them off the top in program order and returning them to the bottom when finished. Now that sure beats repeatedly pulling sets of cards out of little vinyl wallets and putting them back afterwards.

Wow, I can't believe I've only seen Paradigm Shift mentioned twice.

This is the trick that I'm constantly asked to perform and it ends perfectly examinable (in fact, it's part of the routine).

I hope this hasn't been mentioned because it was forgotten about and not because you all aren't familiar with it. Amazing, amazing effect.

for a demo : http://www.calmagic.com/paradigmshiftmov.html

Also, I underestimated Gemini Twins based on Ammar's performance on ETMCMs, but took the time out to learn it anyway. To my surprise, it's now my second most requested effect.

Gemini Twins hits HARD. Learn it; it's worth the time.

Yup, Gemini Twins is a real crowd-pleaser. I love doing it.

Maybe I'll have to give it a go then. To me when watching it the method just seemed glaringly obvious but maybe I'm watching through magician's eyes so I'll have to get some laymen's reactions and see how it really plays.

I'm still not sure the cards could be examined afterwards though... wouldn't this just give away the whole effect?

Thanks

Hmmm. Either waving the aces or reset. Although I don't do many packet tricks. I saw paradigm shift a long time ago and it floored me. I need to pick it up.

Michael

Gemini twins with Malone's finish
Temptation by Gordon Bean
Shenanigans by Aldo Colombini

Obi Wan

My point exactly. If you hand out the Twins packet at the finish, the punters will see something other than they expect, and could fairly readily deduce how it was done. As I said earlier, this also applies to Jumping Gemini, another of may favourite pieces.

It's one of the reasons for referring to the Bill Malone thing. It is a lovely get away.

Lind, I'm afraid you're right. The title to the thread does indeed specify "EXAMINABLE packet trick", and thus it would be fair to assume that the cards will be examined in the end. (Shame also on those who suggested more than one "trick".)

That said, the Brother Hamman effects (with the exception of "the Signed Card") are not responsive. As you point out, they are designed to exploit the mystery created when the cards are NOT plunked into the hands of the spectators. Frankly, there are myriads of better endings imaginable than "Here, check these out and find nothing".

The Hamman effects do have many of the practical attributes of EXAMINABLE packet tricks, in that the cards handle exactly like ungimmicked cards, (no weird lighting or viewing considerations, no finding the "proper end", no reliance on stickum or goo) they are readily available in a regular deck, and they can be placed in the spectator's hands during the effect (but no examination allowed, for presentational reasons)For those reasons, I think they may be of interest to those seeking EXAMINABLE packet tricks.

Regarding the "Gemini Twins", read what Kaufman says about the differing effects this trick has in the minds of different spectators. The impact the trick has will vary from person to person, depending on suggestibility. Believe me, I have met people who will swear that throughout the Gemini Twins, they saw No Duplicates. Imagine the effect on these people. They know there are only four cards, and they came from an ordinary deck, but they have seen the cards have eight different faces. The same is true of the Pinocle trick. The same is not necessarily true of "improvements" some have made.

If you've got grabby audiences, you can try handling the effect the way I do: Introduce the concept of matching pairs of cards, but Never say "identical" or "duplicates". Say something specific in concept, but vague in the particular, like "This is the story of four cards that hung around eachother so long they began to resemble eachother..."

Have a spectator hold out her hand, and promise not to move. You then proceed with the routine, dropping the clearly single cards onto her hand. With each phase, the suspense will increase. I conclude by saying "And that's the story of the one, two, three, four cards...the end" I am dealing the cards onto the deck as I say this, and then give the deck one cut as I say "the end". During the applause, I give the deck a quick sloppy faro, and table it. Anyone so possessed can now pick up the deck and examine it.

The same approach works for the Pinocle trick.

Hope you all try it.