of four might make this task easier), and as you square the deck, obtain a left little-finger break under those cards. With your right hand, grab all the cards above the break and drop them onto the table. I use the word "drop" because although you are going to create a pile, it's better if the pile is not too neat- so drop each of the successive packets askew, jogged slightly to the right of the previous packet. This way, the pile of cards will be spread a bit. (This sloppy, casual approach will help prevent audiences from sensing that you are counting or setting up something.) After dropping the first eight cards onto the table, drop two more pairs of cards (so far, a total of twelve cards). Thumb off a group of four cards and drop those on top of the tabled pile, then two more pairs of cards, followed by another batch of four cards. Lastly, thumb off three more cards and drop them (for a total of twenty-seven cards on the table). Memorizing this sequence (8, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 4, 3) is not too difficult and is worth the effort. To justify these actions, after you have dropped a few batches of cards as described above, ask a spectator to stop you whenever he likes. One of three scenarios will occur: 1. The spectator stops you just as you finish dropping all twenty-seven cards: Ask him to take the card he stopped you at (the top card on the tabled pile). Better yet, invite him to remove any card from that pile. 2. The spectator stops you before your sequence ends: Say, "You can take the card you stopped me at or any card before or any card after. "As you say that, finish dropping the rest of the cards of the sequence. 3. The spectator hasn't called stop by the time you've finished dropping the twenty-seven cards: Simply stop after you've dropped the last packet of the sequence, and tell him, as an afterthought, "You know what, take any one of these cards, "as you gesture toward the pile on the table. Once the spectator has looked at the card he chose and shown it around, ask him to place it on top of the pile on the table. Bury his card by dropping packets of cards on top of his card, in a fashion similar to what you did before. Drop the last packet of cards in the middle of the spread of cards. Gather up the spread of cards in such a way that anyone who is watching closely will see that the last packet you dropped in the middle gets buried somewhere in the top half of the deck; that is, they get shoved into the cards at the right end of the spread. Pick up all the cards from the table, in order to square them, but "accidentally" leave a few from the bottom behind. Pick these up and shove them haphazardly somewhere into the bottom half of the deck. These last subtleties, although not crucial, are designed to make everything seem casual, sloppy, and random (and yet the selection is still exactly where you want it). Square the deck. The selected card is now twenty-sixth from the top/twenty-seventh from the bottom. Execute an overhand shuffle, running bunches of cards until you are near the middle, where you run off cards singly; once you have passed the center, you go back to running groups of cards until the shuffle is complete. 62 After this shuffle, the selected card is now 62 This is Charles T. Jordan's red/black overhand shuffle from his book 7hirty Card Mysteries (19 19), page 13. 138 s.c.a.a.n.
twenty-seventh from the top/twenty-sixth from the bottom. This shuffle is important because, after the card is returned, someone could estimate that it is very close to the middle of the deck. After this shuffle, it would seem that the card could be almost anywhere in the deck (even though its position only shifts by one card). Place the cards into the case, making sure that the faces are toward the thumb notch. Ask your spectator to name a number up to thirty. When asked to name a number "up to thirty", people tend to pick numbers in the twenties (most often the high twenties). I don't mind restricting the range of numbers because it increases the cha~ces of getting a direct hit. By applying the secret shift described in ''A.WA.C.A.A.N", by feel and sight you can easily shift up to four cards from the top to the bottom, or vice versa, to reposition the chosen card as you remove the deck from the box. By combining these moves with the option to count from the top of the deck or from the bottom, you can position the card for any number from twenty-two to thirty as seen below. And for the numbers twentyfive to twenty-eight you do not need to transfer any cards, and the spectator can remove the cards from the box (think of this as getting a free ride). 22: Transfer four cards from top to bottom. With the deck face down, ask the spectator to count twenty-two cards. His card will be the next one. 23: Transfer four cards from top to bottom. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it. 24: Transfer three cards from top to bottom. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it. 25: This is a free ride. Counting from the bottom up, ask the spectator to count twenty-five cards, and his card will be the next one. See the note on page 26 about the best way to count from the bottom up. (Alternatively, you can transfer two cards from top to bottom. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it.) 26: This is a free ride. Counting from the bottom up, the spectator can count straight to it. (Again, see the note on page 26.) 27: This is a free ride. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it. 28: This is a free ride. With the deck face down, say, "Oh, you picked a big number. To speed it up, count two cards at a time. "Instruct the spectator to count two cards at a time, dropping pairs onto the table. At the end of the counting, the top card of the pile will be the chosen card. 63 (Alternatively, transfer one card from bottom to top. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it.) 63 This procedure appeared as "A Curious Count" in The Pallbearers Review (October 1968), page 210. While contributed by Fred G. Taylor, he did not claim it and the inventor is unknown. I learned it from Juan Tamariz. repertoire 139
29: Transfer two cards from bottom to top. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it. 30: Transfer three cards from bottom to top. With the deck face down, the spectator can count straight to it. Because of the popularity of the free-ride numbers, many times you won't need to make any adjustments. It's exciting when this happens-just remember to keep your cool. ENDNOTES: When you need to remove cards to arrive at the correct number-such as the three cards you transfer from the top to bottom when the number is twentyfour-instead of transferring the cards, you can just retain the three cards inside the box as you remove the rest of the deck from the case. Once in a blue moon someone might call for a lower number, like eighteen. In such cases, ask another spectator to name another number up to ten and combine the numbers. If both numbers added together still produce a number less than twenty-two (although it has never happened to me), ask a third person to name a number up to ten and combine all three numbers. To justify this lengthy process say, "There's no way I could have predicted the total of three freely chosen numbers. " 140 s. c. a. a. n .
repertoire 141
lucky 13 B y nature, I am very messy. As a teenager, my room was a disaster. Every time I walked into my friend's room I mocked him for being so organized. I used to tease him with, "Where's all your stuff?" And, of course, he could answer that question better than I could. The truth was that I admired him for being neat. Over the years I got much better and learned to keep my environment clean and organized. I function better when my place is tidy; it calms my mind and allows me to focus. There's something pleasing about getting things in order. Is that why "Triumph" is such a great plot? After all, it is about going from chaos to order. The same with "Out ofThis World"-magically organizing all the cards by color. What appeals to me about "Lucky 13" is that it has that same quality. Several people pull small groups of cards from different parts of a shuffled deck, and those packets are randomly stacked. Mter a spectator is asked to name one of the four suits, the performer turns the cards over, and they are the thirteen cards of the chosen suit-in numerical order. 64 64 This is basically "Suit Selection", a plot that has been attributed to Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser. See Non Plus Ultra, volume II (2013 English-language edition) by Magic Christian, page 358. repertoire 143
PREPARATION: This trick has the same problem as "S.A.C.A.A.N." (see page 51): You have to hold out thirteen cards while the deck is shuffied. Again, if you hand the deck to someone for shuffiing, he might realize the deck isn't complete. It's the same problem-and we will use the same solution. You start with thirteen cards of the same suit, e.g., Hearts, in numerical order (ascending from Ace through King) on top of the deck. PERFORMANCE: Turn the deck face up, spread through the cards, and get a break above the King of Hearts. With your left hand, take all the cards below the break (all the Hearts) into a gambler's cop as you place the rest of the deck onto the table and spread the cards. Clench the copped packet behind your knee as you adjust your seat. Let your audience mix the cards face up in a casino-style "wash" (this disguises the thinness of the deck), and then add your stack to the deck- all as described on page 53. Square the cards and turn them face down. It's time to perform a classic force. The most common way to prepare for this is to cut the deck, obtaining a little-finger break between the halves (above your thirteen-card stack). However, as I will describe, I prefer to perform a casual overhand shuffie and then obtain the break above my bank of cards. This looser, more chaotic approach reinforces the notion that there's no chance you could have maintained the order of these cards. Start the overhand shuffie by using your left thumb to pull off about half the deck and let those cards rest in your left hand (this half contains your stack of thirteen cards on top). With your left thumb peel off one card, injogging it about half an inch. Continue to shuffie off the rest of the deck in bunches. Square the cards with your right hand and obtain a left little-finger break below the injogged card (directly above your bank). Although the ·spectator will be grabbing a batch of cards, the technique is basically the same as a standard classic force. As you spread through the cards, ask the spectator, 'lire you a righty or a lefty?" Once he answers, say, ((Great, pull out a bunch of cards with that hand." (It's a good idea to ask him to remove the cards with his dominant hand, because this prevents him from grabbing cards with both hands from different parts of the deck.) Time it so that he grabs a big group of cards directly beneath your break. He has a (somewhat) free choice as to how many cards to remove, which helps to disguise the force. The best scenario is that he takes thirteen or more cards, so if he takes fewer, encourage him to take more. (It's okay if he gets a few non-force cards from below the bank-but not from above.) ((Please don't look at the cards yet, and place them face down onto the table." (You may need to repeat the warning to not look at the cards.) Once he removes a group of cards from the middle of the deck, you will have some cards in each hand. As you say, ((You could have taken any of these cards, "turn both halves face up. This gives you a chance to show, once more, that the cards are well shuffied, but more importantly, by looking at the cards in your left hand, you can see if your spectator removed 'the entire bank or not. If he did take all thirteen Hearts, then have four more people take random groups of cards (about six cards each) and place them onto the table. These cards are not forced, so you can adopt a looser approach with the selection procedure, with spectators removing 144 lucky 13
bunches of cards from anywhere in the deck. This helps make the first selection seem fairer in retrospect. However, if you do see a few Hearts remain in the left hand, turn the two halves face down and combine them, obtaining another little-finger break between them. Turn to a second spectator, and force the rest of the stack exactly where the first spectator left off. You want to make sure the rest of the stack cards are chosen by the second spectator, so if he only takes a few cards, encourage him to remove a larger group (the first spectator and he should each take seven cards minimum- again, it's okay if a few e'xtra non-force cards from below the stack get taken, but not cards from above). Once the first two spectators have taken the thirteen Hearts, let three more spectators pick small groups of cards and place them onto the table. There are now five piles on the table. Set aside the remainder of the deck. If the first spectator took all thirteen force cards, tell him to place his packet on top of any other packet. If the first spectator only took some of the Hearts bank, tell him to place his pile on top of the second spectator's pile, and as soon as he does so, say, (.11ny pile you want." Of course, it's too late for him to change, but you want to create the illusion that the piles are being assembled randomly. The combined pile can go on top of any of the other three piles, so you say, ((Put that pile on any of these." This combined pile can go on top of either of the last two. Finally, that combined pile, obviously, has to go on top of the last pile. At the conclusion of this assembly sequence, the top thirteen cards should be all the Hearts in numerical order. ((7hese are more cards than we need. ''Ask a spectator to deal thirteen cards into a facedown pile and hand you the rest. Show the faces of the cards he gave you; they will all be of various values and suits. Say, ((You took random cards from various places in the deck." Showing these cards acts as a convincer that the thirteen cards on the table should also be a mixed bunch. Add these discarded cards to the remainder of the deck, and hold on to the cards. The thirteen-card packet sits prominently in the middle of the table. 7n a deck of cards there are four suits. Every person here might have a favorite suit. In black, we have Clubs and Spades, and in red, we have Diamonds and Hearts. " Point to a woman and ask, ((For example, what's your favorite?" I have discovered that when rushed to give an answer, people are very likely to choose the last suit they heard, because it is the freshest in their memory and the easiest to recall. 65 Experience also teaches us that many women are drawn to red suits, especially Hearts, so if you use the phrasing above, you have a much better chance of getting a woman to name Hearts than if you had merely made a direct request like, (Name any suit." However, if she doesn't name Hearts, the phrasing above (especially ((For example'} gives you an out. Her answer only serves as an example, and you then ask other people, (.11nd what's your favorite suit? And how about yours?" At some point someone will say, "Hearts." 65 Daniel Kahneman writes at length about similar ideas in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, which I highly recommend. repertoire 145
Make a mental note of this person, but keep asking until you have asked several people for their favorite suit. Then say, ((Everybody, call out your favorite suit. " Creating this deliberately chaotic moment helps bury the memory of the individual responses. Continue with, ((Good. Now, everybody think of your favorite suit." (With luck, people will forget you asked some individuals to name suits and only remember this request.) You will now use a timing force to "randomly select" a person who is thinking of Hearts. Here's how. Point your forefinger toward someone who is far away from the person you want to force. Ask another spectator to tell you when to stop as you slowly move your finger horizontally across the room. Move your arm at a steady pace, and as soon as you notice the spectator's lips start to move, indicating he is about to speak, pick up the speed a bit, so that by the time he says, "Stop," you are pointing directly at the person you wish to force. (This is all very similar in concept to a dribble force.) Ask, ((Which suit do you like?" This implies that you don't know which suit she named (Liar, liar!). Often, when you are first surveying the crowd, more than one person will say, "Hearts." Use that to your advantage with the timing force. When you are pointing at the first force person, say, ((Would you like me to use this person, or should I continue?" If they say, "Continue," then force a second "Hearts person". Once Hearts is chosen, take the cards you've been holding and very slowly-in order to build up suspense and create anticipation that the card at the face will match the chosen suit- turn the pack face up. There is not a Heart on the face as expected, and this creates a somewhat awkward moment. Break the tension by saying, "Because you chose Hearts, I made sure this card is not a Heart. "This will get a good laugh. With your right index finger, slide over the face card and allow it to fall onto the table, revealing the next card. "This card is also not a Heart. "Slide another card off and say, "Not a Heart. " The audience will start to realize you are not joking with these statements. As you continue revealing cards one at the time, pick up speed while continuously saying, ''No Heart, no Heart, no Heart ... "until you are rapidly shooting cards onto the table in a blur. The audience will react to this frantic display- showing in this way that all the Hearts are missing from the deck is very powerful. For the second climax, pick up the thirteen-card packet and deal the cards face up one at a time: King, followed by the Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, and Eight. Stop and reveal the rest all at once by spreading the remainder face up on the table. The cards are purposely revealed in descending order from King to Ace, because, arranged in this fashion, it takes the audience a little longer to realize they are in order. They anticipated this packet would be all Hearts, but they did not expect them to be in order, hence this third climax builds gradually. ENDNOTES: Here is an alternative way to force the suit. Right after you add the stack to the top of the deck, cut three-quarters of the deck and complete the cut, so that the bank of Hearts is in the middle. Give the deck to someone in the audience and ask him to lift off about half the pack and to look at the face of the card he cut to. If he cuts 146 lucky 13
anywhere near the middle, he will cut into your stack. Ask him to remember the suit of the card he cut to and to keep thinking about this suit. Later, you go back to him and ask, ((Which suit are you thinking of" It will be obvious if he cuts within your bank of Hearts or not. If you detect that he cut off way more than half the pack and is nowhere near the middle, you can further instruct him to, ((Drop some cards and stop somewhere in the middle. "If he cuts too shallow, you can say, ((Cut a bit deeper. "If this fails, hand the deck to a few other audience members, and ask them to cut the cards and notice what suit they cut to, until you are sure you have a "hit". Then use the timing force described above to choose a "random" person and ask him, ((Which suit are you thinking of" repertoire 147
echo I often carry two decks with me during walk-around gigs. This allows me to perform many coincidence tricks, which is one of my favorite plots in card magic. A few years ago I did a gig in Mexico, and I used a psychological fan force to make a guest mentally select a particular card. For the big finish, I secretly turned that card face up in the pack and handed him the deck. When he named his card out loud, I realized that my fan force failed; at this point, he was holding a deck with an indifferent card reversed in the middle. Bummer. To recover, I removed my other deck of cards (which was in Mnemonica) and produced his card via the techniques described in "Mnemonicosis". 66 Now I had two decks in play and one card was still reversed in the deck he was holding. So I improvised the following trick: I knew the reversed card was the Two of Clubs, so with the other deck I forced that card on someone else, who showed it around, and then openly inserted it face up into the middle of my deck. Jokingly I spread through my cards and said, "Look, your card is the only one face up in the middle." I was immediately confronted with protests until I said, "Oh, I am not referring to my deck. I am talking about his cards," and I gestured toward the cards he was holding. The trick got such a great response that I kept performing this plot regularly, and I have added refinements and improvements to it since that performance in Mexico. 66 This can be found in Mnemonica (2004) by Juan Tamariz, page 97. repertoire 149
PERFORMANCE: You need two complete decks with contrasting backs, for example, one blue and one red. Have both decks shuffied by the audience. Retrieve the decks, and hold the blue deck in left-hand dealing position and the red deck in right-hand end grip (both decks should be face down). Obtain a little-finger break beneath the top card of the left (blue) deck. Introduce both decks as you gesture with them and say, 7 have red and blue cards. "During these gestures, bring the decks together briefly, the bottom of the right (red) deck contacting the top of the left (blue) deck, and steal the top blue card to the bottom of the red deck. The finger break makes this task very easy. Immediately after the steal, spread the blue deck face up on the table from left to right as you say, "These cards are all mixed up." Turn the red cards face up and note the bottom card, which is the only blue-backed card in the deck-we will assume it is the Two of Clubs. As you run through these cards, look for the red-backed Two of Clubs. (If is too close to either end of the deck, cull it to the middle.) Cut this Two to the face of the deck-this cut will also cause the blue-backed Two to get lost in the middle. It should seem as if you are just casually cutting the deck as you state, "These cards are thoroughly shuffled as well." Turn the cards face down into right-hand end grip. With your left hand, slide the bottom card slightly to the right, sidejogging it. Your right hand provides cover to conceal the jogged card. You need to add the sidejogged card to the face of the spread-out blue deck, and you will accomplish this in the action of squaring the spread. With your left hand, scoop the spread of cards from the left end. Simultaneously, lower your right hand until the red deck touches the right end of the spread. Once the left hand reaches the right hand, use your left fingers to pull the sidejogged card down onto the face of the blue deck. To prevent the audience from seeing that red-backed card, immediately turn the blue deck face down and place it onto the table, and then give the deck a complete cut- this will position the red card in the middle of the deck. Place the red deck onto the table next to the blue deck. The blue deck has a red-backed card (the Two of Clubs in our example) reversed in the middle, and the red deck has a blue-backed card (also a Two of Clubs) in the middle, but not reversed. Ask a spectator, "Do you prefer the blue or red deck?" It doesn't matter which. If he prefers blue, place the blue deck into its card box and hand it to him, saying, "Okay, please hold on to the blue cards. "If he says red, say, "Okay, we'll use the red cards, "as you place the blue deck into its card box and set it aside. Either way, you will end up holding the red deck. Turn the red deck face up and spread through the cards, saying, 'Tm going to ask you to pull out one of these, but please only pull it halfway out." When you spot the Two of Clubs, obtain a little-finger break above it, and square the deck. You are going to perform a face-up classic force. I know this might sound scary, but when you give someone specific instructions- like pulling the card only halfway out-you split his focus between merely selecting a card and the manner in which you want him to choose it. If you sense that the spectator is not going to take the force card, you could say," You know what, let's make it even more random," and, as an afterthought, switch to a sure-fire force like a dribble force or any force that is guaranteed to get the job done without flashing the back of the force card. 150 echo
Remove the "chosen card" from the deck, making sure not to expose its back, and turn the rest of the cards face down. Insert the selection back into the middle, so that it is obviously the only face-up card in the deck. Square the deck and ·respread the cards. "Your card is the only card facing up. " This statement will usually evoke replies such as, "But I saw you put it in face up." To these responses, reply, "Yes, but I don't mean in this deck. I mean the other one. "At this point, most audiences anticipate what is coming next. Although you have the option to let your spectator spread the blue deck, it is preferable that you handle this moment yourself, so that you can control the suspense and the timing of the revelation of the matching card. Since you, instead of a spectator, are handling the cards, you are sacrificing the fairness of this climax a bit-therefore, it's essential you handle the cards with extreme clarity and fairness. Open the box and, using your fingers as if they were tweezers, carefully remove the cards. At first, spread the face-down cards slowly, and then pick up the speed a bit to reveal the matching card. The way in which you spread the cards will help to build up suspense, and also indicate to your audience that something worthy of their attention has just occurred. This first climax- the revelation of the matching card- is strong enough to conclude the trick, so let this moment breathe for a while before moving on to the second climax. To conclude, explain that you didn't just make the chosen card turn face up in the other deck, but you also somehow managed to make those two cards switch places, so that the red card is in the blue deck and the blue card is in the red deck. Slowly turn over each card, and then drop them directly on top of their respective, contrasting spreads to visually reinforce the effect (pic. 1). repertoire 151
ENDNOTES: Obviously, you can set up for this trick in advance. Simply remove the same card from each deck, and place the red-backed card reversed in the middle of the blue deck, and the blue-backed card in the center of the red deck, but not reversed. You, of course, forfeit the option to have a spectator shuffle the cards at the beginning. 152 echo
repertoire 153
afterword I was born with severe dyslexia, so I couldn't read or write until second grade. Neither my parents nor any of my teachers knew much about dyslexia, and so didn't consider it as a reason for my learning difficulties. I was blamed for being lazy and eventually, just "slow". My parents spent many hours helping me with my homework and eventually they gave up and hired several tutors to do the job. Finally, after hard work, I was able to read and write (with many mistakes), but once I attained the ability to read, I got hooked, and books became one of my passions. I love the experience you can have with a well-written book. I don't just enjoy reading, I love books as objects. I love how they look, feel, and smell (yes, books do have a great smell). So although I learned to read quite comfortably, writing remains a struggle, and forming grammatically correct sentences is still a challenge. I am envious of those who can write well. For many years I was convinced that writing a book might be something outside of my range of skills. Only recently did I conclude that if I can lecture about magic and verbally communicate ideas, methods, and theories, there must be a way for me to record them in a book format. Finally, I figured out how I could achieve that goal: All I had to do was befriend someone who is very good at writing. That someone is my coauthor, John Lovick. John didn't just help me write this book, he also made quite an effort to study the tricks and to make the explanations clear enough that even someone like Handsome Jack could follow them. Sometimes, John also had to use his psychic abilities to write things he knew I wanted to say but somehow had neglected to repertoire 155
mention. But John's most significant contribution was that by collaborating with me I learned how to write a magic book. I have been told that there are descriptions on the internet of me performing "Time Is Money" (see page 1) with two bills of different denominations. People often misremember tricks and add details that didn't happen, but which make the tricks sound more impressive. That might be what is happening here. But if someone did want to perform "Time Is Money" with bills of different denominations, here is a method that may or may not be legal. On page xii there's a painting of a gimmicked bill. To construct such a gimmick you would need to glue an odd-shaped portion from a one hundred-dollar bill (this portion is half the height of a full bill) on top of a one-dollar bill. As with many tricks involving money or paper, backlighting can be a problem with such a gimmicked bill, so be aware of your lighting conditions when using this. You would make similar gimmicks with five-, ten-, twenty-, and fifty-dollar bills as well (a total investment of $190), so that the trick could be done with whichever denomination the spectator were to provide. If you look closely at the painting, you will notice a crease pattern. That pattern, along with the explanation of "Time Is Money", is all you need to figure out how to perform the trick with two bills of different denominations. If you accept this challenge, good luck. I am in debt to my great friends who used their valuable time to help make this a better book. In no particular order, I want to thank Mike Vance, for his meticulous proofreading; Jamy Ian Swiss, Prakash Puru, John Graham, Tyler Wilson, Noah Levine, Laura Alexander, Angelo Carbone, and Marc Kerstein for proofreading, correcting mistakes, and making great suggestions; Jonathan Levit for his technical advice and computer wizardry; I also want to thank Denis Behr, whose wealth of knowledge helped me give proper credit to the creators who have inspired me, and his great databases-ConjuringArchive.com and ConjuringCredits.com- were invaluable sources of information. I am also indebted to three close friends who have directly and indirectly affected me and my magic: Yonatan Gat, Eran Biderman, and Shimshi. Their great influence and support were vital in helping turn the idea of this book into a reality. Finally, I want to thank David Blaine for the kind foreword he wrote and also for his great influence on my magic. I could have arranged this book by genre. No doubt there's a sensible logic to that approach, but I preferred to list them in the order in which I created them. To some degree, this book has a biographical undertone. I hope you find that this is not just a collection of effects followed by explanations, but that I am also sharing information that reveals secrets beyond the mechanics of the tricks. I intentionally avoided providing full scripts for most of the routines (providing only those lines that I find necessary for misdirection or technical reasons). I believe that if I had included full scripts, I would have led you down the wrong path by polluting your mind with my persona and attitude. It takes many years to find an authentic voice. I know this is true, because the search for mine was a long process (and is still ongoing). 156 afterword Asi Wind March 7, 2018