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by Cameron Francis The two inspirations for this routine were McDonald's $100 Routine Routine from Dai Vernon's Vernon's “Further Inner Secrets of Card Magic" and Jerry Sadowitz's This Never Happened To The Other Fella from “Cards Hit”. Effect: A card is selected by a spectator and kept face down on the table. We'll say this card is the Jack of Diamonds. The magician claims that this is a “magic card” and will be used later. He then removes the the four Aces from the deck as well as 12 indifferent spot cards and proceeds to perform a super clean Ace Assembly. Assembly. The magician offers to repeat the experiment under more stringent conditions. The Ace of Spades is placed in the magician's pocket. Three face up Aces are very fairly cut into the packet of face down indifferent cards. The packet is flipped face up and spread across the table. The spectator is asked to rub his “magic card”, the Jack of Diamonds, on the backs of each of the face down Aces. This done, the face down cards are turned over, revealing them to be the other three Jacks! The magician removes the four Aces from his pocket! The Aces and Jacks may be completely examined.
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Preparation: You need: ! !
One normal deck of cards Three Double Faced Aces: Ace of Clubs/Indifferent card, Ace of Diamonds/Indifferent card, Ace of Hearts/Indifferent card (these are standard McDonald's Aces gaffs)
Run through the deck and remove the normal Ace of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, and Ace of Clubs. Put them in your right pocket. Cut any court card to the top of the deck. We'll assume it's the Jack of Diamonds in this case. Turn the deck face up and drop the three double faced Aces on face of the deck so that their indifferent sides are showing. If you want to perform a few other tricks before this one, you can have the D/Fs inside the card case. Do a few tricks and then put the cards into the box, being sure you slide them in so that the face down deck goes on top of the three gaffs. Do another non-card effect and then pull all of the cards out of the box for one last card trick. The gaffs are loaded on the bottom of the deck and you are ready to perform. Performance: Phase 1 1. Spread through through the deck deck with the the faces toward toward you, you, being careful careful not to exposed the double faced (D/F) cards at the face. Up-jog the Ace of Spades and 3 Jacks. Strip them out, positioning the AS on the face, and place them face down on the table saying, "I'm going to have you select a card in a moment, but there are a few special cards that I don't want to you select so I'll place them aside for now." now." 2. Slip cut the top card card of the deck deck (the Jack Jack of Diamonds) Diamonds) into into the middle middle and hold a break between the halves. Riffle force to the break and thumb the JD onto the table. Ask the spectator to take a look at the card and hold onto it as it will be called upon later.
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3. Turn Turn the deck face face up and spread over the three three "indifferent "indifferent cards" cards" at the face, being careful not to flash their backs. Keep spreading and up-jog nine other indifferent spot cards as well. Strip them out, keeping the D/Fs at the face. As you square up the packet, get a pinky break under the third card from the face of the packet. 4.
Say, "I suppose you're wondering what the mystery cards are. I'll give you a little hint. They're Aces." Plop the four face down cards on top of the packet and flip over the seven cards above the break, maintaining a break below them. Spread over the top three showing four Aces. Flip over all seven cards above the break, turning the “Aces” face down again.
5. Deal the top top three face face down cards cards into a row on the table table moving from from left to right. These are the three Jacks. Flip the fourth card, the Ace of Spades, face up and place it under the row in the classic T formation (Fig. 1). 1). 6. Spread the remaining remaining cards cards between between your hands hands to show twelve twelve spot cards. Drop the top three cards on the table next to the AS. These are actually the D/F Aces. Place the AS face down on top of these three cards and square up the packet. Jacks
Fig. 1
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7. Place three three face up cards cards in a fan on on top of each of of the three three face down down cards. 8. Pick up the the three face face up cards on your left. left. Slip Slip the face down down card third third from the top of the packet. Give the packet a spin and then Elmsley Count, placing the last card on the bottom of bottom of the packet, to show four indifferent cards and no Ace. Turn the packet face down and place it on the table back in its original position. 9. Repeat step step 8 with the middle middle packet. packet. As you pick up the the last pile on your your right say, “Just in case you missed it the first two times, I'll do it again with the Ace of, uh...” Turn the face down card toward you so you can see the face of the Jack and then say, “... the Ace of Diamonds.” Then slip the face down card into the face down packet and perform the vanishing sequence from step 8. This miscall really helps sell the fact that the face down card is indeed an Ace. 10.Flip the leader packet face up and spread the cards to show four Aces.
Phase 2 11.Say, 1.Say, “Now we're going go ing to try this again. But this time under more stringent conditions.” Place the face up AD, AC and the AH on top of each of the three face down packets on the table. 12.Put the AS in same pocket as the other three Aces. 13.Pick up the packet on your right. Cut the bottom face down card to the top. Drop this packet onto the center packet. Pick up the combined packet and drop it onto the packet to your left. Flip the entire packet face up and spread it across the table. The spectators will see twelve indifferent cards with three face down cards scattered among them. Everything looks as it should. 14.Have the spectator pick up his Jack and tap the back of each of the face down cards with it.
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15.Ask the spectator to slide out each of the three face down cards and turn them over, revealing that they are now the mates of the Jack. 16.Reach into your pocket, remove the four Aces, and deal then into a face up row on the table. Allow the spectators ample time to pick their jaws up off the floor before bidding them goodnight.
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IMPROMPTU FRIER by Cameron Francis & James Went
The talented Welsh musician and magician James Went sent me a terrific variation of Frier using completely normal cards. I tweaked the handling to eliminate a palm and this is the result. The basic effect is almost the same as the gaffed handling so we'll forgo a description of what happens and go straight into the method. Credit for this variation must also go to Daryl for his Diamond Bar assembly assembly from “Richard's Almanac”.
Preparation: Remove a red Jack and a black Jack from the deck and put them into your right pocket.
Performance: Phase 1 1. Say you need need a card selected selected but you don't want want them choosing choosing a few few cards you need later. Run through the deck with the faces toward you. Cut one of the two remaining Jacks to the face. Run through again and cull any Ace to the back of the deck. Up-jog three indifferent spot cards and the second Jack. Strip out the four cards and arrange them so the Jack is at the face. As you do this, secure a pinky break under the Jack at the face of the deck. Place the packet on the face of the deck, squaring it up, and then lift off all five cards above the break. Place them face down on the table. The order of this packet from the top down is: Jack, X Card, X Card, X Card, Jack.
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2. Force the Ace Ace on top of the deck via via a riffle force force and have the spectato spectatorr hold onto it. Mention that you'll get back to the selection momentarily. 3. Run through through the deck with with the faces faces toward toward you and remove remove nine spot spot cards and the remaining three Aces. Arrange them so the Aces are at the back of the face up packet. 4. Spread the packet, packet, displaying displaying the the indifferent indifferent spot spot cards. Be Be sure not to spread too far so they do not see the Aces at the back of the packet. Square up the packet and turn it face down. 5.
Deal the top three cards (Aces) face down into the leader position. Then deal three piles of three cards in a row above the leader pile.
6. Pick up the "Jack" "Jack" packet packet and perform Daryl's Daryl's Diminish Diminishing ing Count, apparently placing three Jacks on top of each of the three packets as follows: Hold the packet face down in right hand Biddle Grip. Using you left thumb, slide the top three cards, one at a time, into your left hand. Turn over the last two cards a one showing a Jack. Flip the double face down on top of the packet and deal the top card on top of the packet on your left. Now slip the top two cards into your left hand one at a time and turn over the last two cards as one displaying another Jack. Turn the double face down and deal this card on top of the middle pile. Slip one card into your left hand and flip over the remaining two cards as one to display another Jack (this is really the first Jack you showed). Turn the double face down and deal the top card onto the pile on your right. Hold the last two Jacks as one, flash the face of the double and then drop them on top of the leader pile. 7. Pick up the the leader pile. pile. Spread the the top three cards cards to the right, right, holding holding the last two cards as one. Take the top two cards into your right hand. Do a Squiggle flourish over each of the three tabled piles to activate the magic and then place the two right hand cards under the three cards in your left hand. Place the face down packet back into the leader position.
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8. Pick up the packet packet on your left. left. Slide out out the bottom card card of the packet, packet, flip it face up and place it on the table. Slide out the next bottom card, flip it face up and place it on the table. Take the top card into you right hand. Rotate your left hand palm up to flash the face of its card. Place it on top of the other two face up cards. Finally, snap over the last card in your right hand and place it on top of all. 9. Repeat step 10 for the next next two two piles. piles. 10.You will now perform a variation of Larry Jennings' Rhythm Count to apparently show four Jacks in the leader packet: Elmsley Count the leader packet, saying, “So if the Jacks have disappeared from the other packets, that means they are now...” Double turnover showing a Jack. Turn the double face down and deal the top card onto the table. Slide the top card into your right hand. Turn your left hand palm down to flash the face of the packet in your left hand to show another Jack. Turn your left hand palm down and deal the top card onto the one on the table. As your left hand is turning face down, flash the face of the card in your right hand to apparently show another Jack. Drop this onto the two face down cards on the table. Flip the last two cards as one face up in your left hand to show the last Jack. Turn the double face down and drop it on top of all.
Phase 2 11.Pick up the Jack packet. Spread the top three cards to the right, holding the last two as one. Take the top two cards into your right hand without reversing their order and gesture to the selected card which the spectator is holding onto, saying, “Now, we'll do it again. But this time we'll use your magic card to help us.” 12.Place the cards in your right hand under the three cards in your left hand and square it up.
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13.Perform another Diminishing Count, this time dropping each face down card on top of the three face up packets. 14.Hold the last two cards as one and place these cards into your right pocket. 15.Ask the spectator to turn her selected card face up. “An Ace! Very good. Remind me not to play cards with you. Tap it against each of the face down Jacks.” 16.Once she has tapped her card on top of each of the face down cards, have her turn over each of them over to reveal the other three Aces. 17.Remove the four Jacks from your pocket and deal them in a face up row under the Aces.
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Francis 2009
