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R Y A N S C H L UT U TZ
“You can c an’’t use up creativ creativitityy. The The m ore you you us use, e, the more m ore you you ha havve” Maya Angelou
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INTRODUCTION In this Volume we will dive much deeper into the concepts of False Anchors. As you will discover, the routines are highly interactive and more complex in structure. The three effects included touch all aspects of performing. “Boxy Waltz" is ideal for strolling magic. “Before the Th Thought" is something ing I mainly do socially and it slays. Lastly, “The One with the High Five” currently closes my parlor show. Enjoy. Ryan Schlutz August 2018
TAB L E OF TABL CONTENTS 1. Boxy Waltz.....................................................5 2. Before The Thought....................................17 3. Box Switch............................ itch...................................................26 .......................26 4. The One One Wit With h The High High Five Five.......................29
“Somewhe “Som ewhere, re, so som m ething incredible isis wait wa iting ing to be known” k nown” Carl Sagan
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B OXY OXY WA W AL TZ Discussion With some effects, certain things just fall into place during the process of developing them. This was not one of those effects. I fought tooth and nail for every inch forward and part of the difficulty was my own self-imposed restrictions. I have found that the best creative moments come through restrictions. If you restrict your possible methods, you force your brain to take the road less traveled and find new solutions. I have always loved the traditional “Anniversary Waltz” effect. When I was working restaurants and encountered a couple who were on a date or married, chances were they saw me do the traditional “Anniversary Waltz”. Even though I love the effect, my biggest issue was how I needed to get into it. At some point I needed to secretly add two gaff cards to the deck - a double backer and a double facer. I either had to put the deck back into the box where I had the gaff cards and take the deck back out under the guise of “doing one more” or I needed to palm the cards into play. Both methods worked, but deep down I hated them. Which brings us to Boxy Waltz. In this method, I have ditched the need for the double back card. Here, I openly introduce the double face gimmick right under their noses as part of the effect. What I enjoy most is that the double face card is no longer a one punch knockout ending. I get to exploit the gaff card for two very magical moments before we get to the ending - a one, two punch if you will (I started boxing for exercise a lot lately if you had not noticed).
How For this effect, you will need a double face gaff card. For our example, let’s say we are using a 2C/9D 2C/ 9D gaff gaff.. The card wil willl be left left behind in the card case as you you take out the rest of the cards. If your card gaff is on bottom of the deck, simply hold it back with your left index finger as you remove the deck with your right hand.
The Effect Th This eff effe ect br breaks do down in into 3 sep separate mo moments: 1) The fir firs st sele selec ction ion ju jumps int into the box, 2) The second selection switches places with first selection that was in the card box, and 3) The two selections are signed and merge back-to-back for the impossible anniversary waltz ending.
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Set-up Although the setup is minor, it might seem like a lot, so I suggest that you follow along with a deck of cards in your hands. When I am performing, I will usually get into position while I am talking with the spectators after I have just concluded the previous effect. You need to get two pseudo mates on the bottom of the deck face to face. I use the black nines because they are hard to tell apart from each other. Yo You wil willl als also o ne need to to ge get th the ca cards tth hat match your do double fac facer on on th the to top an and bottom of the deck. The card that is first seen when you open the card case should be the card on bottom. When you take your cards out of the case, take a quick mental note of which side of the gaff is facing up (In this example, the Two of Clubs is on bottom, the Nine of Diamonds is on top of the deck, and inside the box, the gaff is Two of Clubs side up). First, shift the black nines to the face of the deck in any order. You can do this in the open with the deck tilted toward yourself. Then, cull the Two of Clubs and Nine of Diamonds to the top of the deck making sure the two is on top. You can also openly shift the cards to the top. Turn the deck face down into Dealer’s Grip and Half-Pass the bottom nine. Lastly, Double Undercut the Two of Clubs to the bottom (Picture 1). Th This sounds lik like e a lot lot, but done casu sua ally lly, it only takes a few moments. Depending ing on the group, you can sometimes break it up with shuffles. For example, after you shift
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the black nines to the face you would
casually give the deck a face-down Overhand Shuffle, retaining the nines on the bottom. After a beat, shift the Two of Clubs and Nine of Diamonds to the top and continue with the rest of the set-up.
First Selection Yo You are going ing to for force the bottom card using an ingenious method created by Gary Ouellet. Swing cut about half of the deck into the left hand and hold a pinky break between the packets. While still keeping the break, spread the cards and ask the spectator to touch the back of any card. You need to guide the spectator to make their selection near the middle of the top packet so that you don’t reach the break, which would expose the reversed nine. Once the spectator has touched a card, outjog it and square the deck while still keeping your break (Picture 2). Place your right thumb at the back between the break and extend your right fingers around the front of the selection (Picture 3). Squeeze your fingers and thumb together as you pick up all of the cards above the break and turn your right hand over (Picture 4). Timed correctly, it should look as though you simply lifted up the deck at the selection to show it to everyone. The left hand packet is pivoted face up into Dealer’s Grip using the left thumb (Picture 5). Finally Finally,, place the right hand’s hand’s packet face up on top of the left hand’s packet (Picture 6). At this point you should have the Two of Clubs at the face followed by the two black nines face to face and the Nine of Diamonds on top
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of the deck. The beauty of this force allows you to force the Two of Clubs without showing the back and also returns the deck to its starting positio Next, Next, you you are going to use a J oel Givens move to cause the card to vanish. Secure a break under the top two cards, the Two of Clubs and the face down nine beneath it. Sidejog the double which will expose the other black nine in the process (Picture 7). Grip the double from below by placing it into your palm (Picture 8). Turn your right hand face down onto the deck and secretly drop the double off onto the deck. Pretend that you still have a card in your right hand as you place it over the box and mime pushing the card into the box. Turn your right hand over to show that the Two of Clubs has vanished. Before you set the deck down, give it an overhand shuffle as follows: grip the deck so the left thumb holds back the bottom few cards and the left fingers hold back the top cards cards (Picture (Picture 9). Essentially Essentially, you are stripping out a middle section of the deck and shuffling it onto the left hand's cards. This action will bury the now face up Two of Clubs near the center of the deck and retain the Nine of Diamonds on top of the deck. After the overhand shuffle, set the deck down and pick up the card case. Give it a slight shake so that the audience can hear the card. Open the box and remove the card, displaying it vertically, being careful to not accidentally flash the other side (Picture 10 & 11). Put the card back into the box by slightly tilting tilting it towards towards yourself. yourself. (Picture 12). 12).
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Th The tilt ilt not onlyhelps lps to prevent fla flashing ing, out it also lso adds a disc iscrepancy that is hard to explain. It will make it feel as though the card is going back into the box the same way it came out, but in actuality, the card is getting flipped over. The time misdirection after this discrepancy is the key to making the effect so strong. Second Selection For the second selection, you will need to force the Nine of Diamonds (which should currently be on top of the deck) and control it back to the top. There are many ways to do this, but I find Robert Moreland’s handling of the classic Riffle Force to be incredibly efficient for this. With the deck held in dealer’s grip, riffle your thumb down the edge of the deck as if you are about to execute a standard Riffle Force and have the spectator stop you somewhere. Be sure to make your riffle small enough to not flash the face card of the upper packet. Once they stop you, grasp the upper packet of cards at the left edge with your right thumb (Picture 13). Lever the top half over so that it is pinched between the right thumb and fingers (Picture 14). Next, push up on the left edge of the top half with your left fingers until the right thumb grips the back side of the packet (Picture 15). This rotates the top half 360 degrees so that it ends in a modified straddle grip. It is crucial to not flash the face card of the top packet. Once you are in the ending position, push the top card up with your right thumb as you raise your hand to display the second selection to the spectator (Picture 16).
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Th The next sequence is a visu isual glit litch that Robert added to make this move so versatile. The top and bottom cards of the right hand packet will be secretly switched as you go to square the deck. It is definitely discrepant, but I have found that discrepant moves are actually the most visually fooling and often look better than the real action you would execute without the move. As you show the top card around to people, curl in your right fingertips (Picture 17). As you bring your hand down parallel to the deck, square the top card with the deck using your right thumb. At the same time, extend your right fingers and outjog the bottom card (Picture 18). Remember to keep your straddle grip on the top half while doing this move to aid with the alignment of the two moving cards. Touch the face of the outjogged card to the left fingertips as you bring the top half down with the rest of deck. The friction of the left fingers will outjog the card (which they think is the selection) (Picture 19 & 20). Now square the deck and leave the apparent selection outjogged. Make a comment about doing something different with the second selection as you slowly square the card into the deck. Make sure that they see the back of the card going into the deck. This false anchor makes the reversal stronger.
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Again, this might seem like a lot, but it all happens in one fluid motion. At this point, the Two of Clubs is reversed in the deck and the double face card in the card case is set to reveal the Nine of Diamonds. Have the second spectator imagine their card turning over inside the deck and then ask them for the name of their selection. They will say the Nine of Diamonds, but when you spread the deck, the Two of Clubs will be seen face up because the Nine of Diamonds has switched places with it in the card case. At this point, you will want to look slightly confused and the spectator will probably say that the Two of Clubs should be in the card case. Shift the Two of Clubs to the top of the deck and then reach for the box to now show the Nine of Diamonds inside the box. Take the double facer out of the box and hold it sidejogged on top of the Two of Clubs for a couple of beats.
Final Phase - Anniversary Awesomeness At this point, you have already performed two separate effects, which slowly bring the double facer into play. The strength of Anniversary Waltz depends greatly on how strongly the spectators believe the cards were separate before they fuse. I believe that this routine does a great job of keeping them apart for a long time to enhance the fuse. The position of the cards from top to bottom should be the Nine of Diamonds side of the double face card face up, followed by the real Two of Clubs face up, and then the real Nine of Diamonds face down. The next part should be done fairly casually, but you will need to control your spectators. It will look as though you have them sign both cards separately, but they will actually be signing each side of the double facer. You need to make sure the double facer is signed on a table surface and that they do not pick up the card since that would expose the gaff. Holding the double facer in your right hand and the Two of Clubs sidejogged on the deck (Picture 21), comment that it is getting a little confusing with the cards jum jumping ing back and for forth and so signing ing them will ill help. lp. Grip the Two of Club lubs sidejogged underneath the Nine of Diamonds (Picture 22). As you hand a marker to the first spectator, push the Nine of Diamonds forward with the thumb and pull
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back on the Two of Clubs with the fingers as you turn your hand over (Picture 23 & 24). This is a standard monte move. Drop the Two of Clubs (actually the double facer) onto the table for the spectator’s signature. Keep your index finger on the card as you ask them to sign their name large across the face. Keep your finger there until they start signing. This is a subtle, nonverbal way to make sure they sign the card on the table. While the Two of Clubs is being signed, Top Change the real Two of Clubs with the real Nine of Diamonds on top the deck. Hold the real Two of Clubs between the middle finger and thumb and get a pinky break under the Nine of Diamonds. Rest the Two of Clubs on top of the Nine of Diamonds and grip the Nine of Diamonds with your right ring finger and thumb. Next, apply pressure to the Two of Clubs with your left thumb and slide the Nine of Diamonds out (Picture 25). Since this happens while they are signing the card, make sure to execute the change casually so that there is no heat on your hands. Hold the Nine of Diamonds in the right hand face up and slide it under the Two of Clubs on the table to pick it up. Immediately, do a similar monte move from earlier but this time, you do not need to switch the position of the cards. Simply turn your wrist over and table the double facer to show the Nine of Diamonds.
Yo You are now holdin lding g their supposed signed Two of Club lubs, but in realit lity is the real Nine of Diamonds. Place your right hand card sidejogged on the deck and pick up the signed Nine of Diamonds with your right hand, putting it sidejogged on the other Nine of Diamonds. Grab both cards by the sides with your right hand and tilt them towards towards the spectators spectators (Picture 26). 26). Th The next movement is a wellll-choreographed sequence. Pla Place the side idejog jogged cards back on the deck for a moment so you can gesture with your right hand for both of the spectators to hold out their palms (Picture 27). As they go to extend their palms, square up the cards with the deck and only lift off the double facer. Casually turn the double facer over to show it is two signed cards and move forward to place it onto the palm of the spectator to your right. Hold the card in place and use your left hand to guide the other spectator's hand on top of the other spectator's hand to sandwich the double face card between their palms. Now, relax and let your presentation sink in before the final reveal of them opening their hands to find that the two cards have become one.
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Additional Handling Th This handlin ling, which ich you might lik like, elim limina inates most of the setup in the previou ious handling and has fewer steps. Leave the double facer in the box and get the matching cards to the top of the deck. Make sure the top card matches the card first seen when the card box is opened. Let’s assume that you are using the same cards from the previous handling and that the Two of Clubs side of the double facer is face up. Riffle force the Two of Clubs on the first spectator but with a slight change. Once you lift off the top packet of cards, place them on the bottom of the deck so that you are holding a squared deck with the Two of Clubs on top. Turn over the Two of Clubs by using fake double turnover mechanics (when you do a real double turnover later, you want the actions to match). After you show the Two of Clubs to the spectator, turn it back face down and sidejog it to the right with your left thumb in preparation for a Rub-a-Dub vanish. Place the Two of Clubs above the cardbox and execute the Rub-a-Dub vanish. Lift your hand to show that the Two of Clubs has travelled to the cardbox and replace it back reversed in the box like in the previous handling. Repeat the same riffle force actions from above to force the Two of Clubs and then actually execute a double turnover to show the Nine of Diamonds. Turn the double face down and sidejog the Two of Clubs in preparation for a fake Rub-aDub. Hold the Two of Clubs (they think it is the Nine of Diamonds) over the card box and palm it with your right hand as you rub the card like before. They will expect the card to vanish, but when you lift your hand, it will still be there. Rub the card once more as if something went wrong. Stare at the card for a couple of beats before you turn the card over to show that the Nine of Diamonds has turned into the Two of Clubs. Holding the deck in your left hand with the face up Tw Two of Club lubs side idejog jogged, show the Nine ine of Diam iamonds ins inside ide the card case. Now you can continue the effect just like above to have both of the cards signed for the Anniversary Waltz ending.
Optional Clean Up At the end of the routine, the real selections are on top of the deck which is very convenient. Depending on your audience, you could palm off the top two cards and pocket them as you put the deck on the table. Some spectators want to check the deck for duplicates which is great because once they see there are not any, they are more fooled than those who did not even think to check.
"If your dream only includes you, it's too small" Ava DuVernay
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BEFORE THE THOUGHT Discussion Th This effe ffect loo looks an and sounds im impossible ible.. Th The deck is shuffle ffled d “wash style” le” on the tabletop by the spectator. Without you touching the deck, they freely remove several cards (roughly 8-10) from different spots. Then without seeing any of the cards they removed, you set a small envelope onto the table. The spectator looks at their cards for the first time and thinks of one of them. All of the cards are now put away. Despite these very fair conditions, the card they are thinking of matches the one card in the envelope you set onto the table before they even looked at the cards they could have selected from. Th The co core of of this this eff effe ect is ba based on on Bo Bob Fa Farmer’s Ts Tsunami Prin Princ ciple iple.. Th The Ts Tsunami Principle is based on the math that if a spectator chooses a small pile of eight cards, then statistically there is a 99.24% chance that at least one of them is Ten, Ja J ack, Qu Queen, Kin King, or or Ac Ace. If you we were to to ha have your sp spectator th think ink of of th the hig highest card in their hand, you would be almost 100% sure that they are thinking of a Ten, Ja J ack Qu Queen, Kin King, or or Ac Ace. Bo Bob Fa Farmer ha has sev several wa ways to to us use th this in infor formation ion an and I have explored and published many other ways throughout my years in magic. But, it is one of those principles that you find yourself returning to time and time again. I believe it is because no one has yet found the perfect method or routine that uses it. I think that I have personally scratched the itch in the back of my brain with the following following routine. routine. I am particularly excited about this method because the selection procedure is incredibly open and fair. Because everything is so open and fair, False Anchors work strongly. Right at the moment when the spectator relaxes, you throw in the tiny condition of selecting a high card. Timed correctly and done casually, this restriction hides in plain sight and almost feels logical. Now, enough stalling on my part... let’s get into the method.
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How A potential solution to the above routine would be to force a high card (such as an Ace) into the spectator's pile. However, I wanted this to be hands off and have all of the cards chosen freely. You could also use a marked deck to see what they pick or to see what cards are missing from the deck. You could clock the deck to see what is missing, but that would require you going through all the card’s faces, which weakens the overall effect and would take too much time to accomplish. I wanted a way to do it instantly and without the need to see what cards the spectator selects or the need to see the faces of the remaining cards in the deck. Th The simple system I develop loped uses a series ies of edge marks to determine ine what card is missing from the deck. However, thanks to the beauty of the Farmer’s Tsunami Principle, we do not need to account for all cards —just the high cards. You will see that I mark the Aces, Aces, Kings, Kings, Queens Queens and Jacks J acks from from the top of the deck down down (Picture 28). The side of the deck is broken into four sections with the orange lines indicating the start and finish of each section. Let's break down the first section: The first four lines near the top of the deck indicate the Aces in CHSD (Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds) order. The first orange line is a Club, the second black line below it is a Heart, the third line below that one with a dot is a Spade and the last and final orange line near the bottom few cards of the deck is a Diamond. They are staggered like a staircase to help you
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quickly determine which one is missing. It is even easier to tell if a Club or Diamond is missing because you can see whether or not the top or bottom orange line is missing since they are staggered. I have experimented with all different kinds of systems, but the current system I have just described has proven to be the quickest and most reliable. The second set of marks are the Kings which follow the same system as the Aces. The Ki King ngs s are then followed followed by the Queens Queens and then the Jacks J acks.. I do not bother to keep keep track of the Tens since the odds of them choosing a Jack, J ack, Queen, King, or Ace are much higher. If you are nervous about this, simply increase the number of cards that the spectator chooses. I have performed this effect a countless number of times and still have not had to use a Ten. At the end, I will cover how I would handle the routine if a Ten is chosen.
Marking the Deck Originally, I used a sharpie marker to mark the edges, but you need to be extra careful in doing so because it is very easy for the sharpie marker to bleed onto the face or back of the card. If you do use a sharpie marker, make sure it is fairly dried out. I have since discovered Dual Tip Fabric Markers by Colore (Picture 29). These markers are perfect for edge marking decks because they don’t bleed and are also amazing since you can write on paper and it doesn't bleed through (that’s helpful for a lot of tricks outside this one). As you saw in Picture 28, I start with the Aces near the top edge of the deck and stagger them downward with a little overlap. For the first mark, I recommend a color that is bold yet easy to tell apart from black. I originally used pink, but strangely enough, I found the pink marking looked black in certain lighting. If you use the Colore markers, I recommend using the fine tip side to carefully color only on the edge of the card. Once I mark the Club, I hold the Heart card in my hand next to the Club to help line up my next mark (Picture 30). Continue this for the Spade and Diamond for each of the four values to ensure they are all spaced out correctly. Make sure you mark both sides of all of the cards so that no matter how the card is turned, the marks are in the same position.
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Routine Since the deck is heavily marked on both of the sides, do not hand the deck to your spectator. Instead, have them wash shuffle the cards on the table. Not only is this this an incredibly fair way of mixing the deck, but it also hides the edges of the cards. Before the wash shuffle, start by giving the deck a riffle shuffle without pushing the cards flush. Spread them out to show the mixed condition of the cards (Picture 31). State that this is one way to shuffle a deck, but an even better way is how the casinos do it. While the cards are still interlaced, start to swirl them around via a wash shuffle (Picture 32). Invite the spectator to continue the wash shuffle as you turn your head away. After a few moments of them shuffling, ask that they start setting aside a face down pile of about 8 or so cards. Once they are finished, instruct them to put their hands over their cards so that you can not see anything as you gather the deck and square it. You now have the important job of secretly reading the edge marks to tell you which card they are going to pick. The key to getting the quickest read of the marks is to start at the top (Aces) and then work your way down. This helps because as soon as you get a “hit,” you can stop looking. For example, if you see that all four of the Aces are still in the deck, you can move down to the Kings. If you see that the first orange line is missing and the remaining King marks are there, you know that the King of Clubs is missi issing ng.. You might might also see see that a Queen Queen or Jack J ack is is mis missi sing ng,, but it does not matter because the King is the highest card missing. Have them pick up their cards, look them over and think of a card. After a beat, tell them to actually think of the highest card so that it stands out which will allow you to focus clearly on it and because
FALSEANCH0RS higher cards are much easier to mentally send. This will leave them feeling that they could have thought of any card. After the spectator has thought of their card, have them put their pile back into the deck by dribbling the deck between your hands and having them toss the pile back in. Th That is is th the basics ics of of th the concept fo for th this effe ffect an and is the situ ituation ion that ha happens most often. But, another scenario is also likely to happen. It is very possible that they could get two or three Aces in their pile in which case you need one extra step to figure out what card they are thinking of. For example, if they had two Aces in their pile, you would ask them to think of the highest card and then would ask them to remove it and put it in their pocket or under the under table. After that, you would have them place the other cards into the middle of the rest of the deck. Now, a simple glance at the side of the deck would tell you which Ace they kept. It is important to practice and get comfortable with both scenarios so that you do not stall and cause suspicion during the middle of the effect.
Reveal Using Wallet Yo You ca can re reveal th the th thought of of sele selec ction ion in in many ways su such as v ve erbally lly saying ing the card or writing it down as a prediction. But, since the selection is so fair, I wanted the reveal to be equally as fair. The following may seem overkill, but it is a one time setup and is justified by how powerful the effect is. Since you know that the spectator wil willl think of a Ten, Jack, J ack, Queen, Queen, King King,, or Ace you you could have have all those outs in your wallet. I purchased a cheap bi-fold wallet from Walmart that has a middle divider in the cash part of the wallet. The divider helps create four outs in the cash part of the wallet and the side pockets under your ID and the credit card slots make two more additional spots for four more outs (Picture 33 & 34). To To de delay lay the reveal in the routine ine, I pu put th the cards in inside ide of a small blac lack en envelop lope that perfectly fits a playing card. My good friend Caleb Wiles first introduced me to these envelopes which you can find on Amazon as “#17 Mini Gift Card Envelopes (21 1/ 16 X3 11/ 16).”
To To set up the walle llet correctly, we’ll walk through the Kin Kings fir first. st. Pla Place each Kin King face down into an envelope. Then, in one corner of the envelope, mark the suit of the card with a pencil by using the first letter of the suit (Picture 35). Place these four black envelopes in CHSD order in the top left of the wallet. Do this same set-up for the Queens, Queens, which which go into the top right, right, Jacks J acks in in the bottom left, and finally finally the Tens in the bottom right. Put the Aces in the pockets under the ID and credit cards - two in one and two in the other (Picture 34). With this set up, it only takes a second to retrieve the correct card you need without flashing any other envelopes. For example, if you needed the Ace of Diamonds, you know that the Spade and Diamond are under your credit cards and the Diamond is on the bottom. Once you figure this out in your head, it is easy to pull out the Diamond envelope without exposing the Spade. The same goes for the cards in the cash part of the wallet. If you needed the Queen of Hearts, you would open the wallet toward yourself at the Queen section which would cause the envelopes to separate and allow you to pull out the correct envelope. It is important to practice a couple times and find the correct rhythm for removing each envelope. The key is pacing and being smooth. If you had one envelope in your wallet, it would take a couple seconds to get it out - these actions should mirror that.
FALSEANCH0RS Presentation Idea: Bill and Ted I always found the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure to have the best time travel logic. At one point in the movie, they need to steal a set of keys, but they are low on time. So, they say that they will steal the keys later that day and hide them behind the sign they are standing next to. Sure enough, the keys are behind the sign. I’ve just always thought that this is a cool moment of time travel and I thought that it would make a cool plot for a trick which this routine fits perfectly.
Preparation For this version, you need a card with a sticky back. You can use a piece of double sided tape, but I have found that 3M repositionable spray glue is the best because it does not reflect light as much as the double sided tape does. You only need to apply a small amount of glue. To do this, I recommend taking a scrap card and cutting a hole in the back which should be approximately the size of a nickel. Use this prepared card as a stencil to spray the back of another card. This will allow you to only have the part you want to have the sticky residue.
Presentation Bring up the Bill and Ted story that I mentioned previously and how you believe the movie got time travel more accurate than most movies. The sticky card should be hidden in your lap if you are sitting or in your pocket if you are standing. After the deck has been wash shuffled by your spectator and they have thought of a card, palm the sticky card and add it to the remainder of the deck as you square it up, making sure to keep the sticky card on top. Quickly glance at the edge of the deck to see what card is missing. Tw Two diffe ifferrent situ ituation ions could occur depending ing on what cards you spot are miss issing ing: lf only one card of the highest cards is missing, such as an Ace (e.g. the Ace of Clubs), ask the spectator to choose the highest card in their hand by cutting the packet so the card is at the face of the packet. After they commit it to memory, swing cut the top half of the deck into your left hand and ask the spectator to place their packet on top. Drop the right hand’s packet on top of the deck to complete complete the cut. This procedure places their selection on top of the sticky card. Th Then, state that you have something ing very important, if not inc incredibly ibly dangerous in your wallet. Remove the envelope that matches their selection from your wallet.
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If two or more of the highest card is missing (e.g. three Aces), ask the spectator to choose the highest card in their hand and hold it against their chest. Open the deck in the middle and have the other cards put back. A quick glance at the deck’s edge will tell you what Ace they kept. Then, state that in
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FALSEANOHQRS your wallet you have something very important, if not incredibly dangerous. Remove the envelope that matches the selection. State that you think it would be safer if their card was put back in the deck. Swing cut the top half of the deck into your left hand and ask the spectator to place their selection on top. Drop the right hand’s packet on top of the deck to complete the cut. Th The re reason fo for sa saying ing all of of th the dangerous bit bits s is is be because once th the selec lection ion is is ba back in the deck, you ask if they know what the envelope is. The spectator will not know and I will usually give them some comedic guesses. Regardless of their answers, state that "It is a paradox. And, from what I've read, they seem like a big deal. One
minute from now, I am going to ask what card you chose and if you believe that I had the ability to travel back in time back to this morning when I put this envelope in my wallet so that I could put the card you just thought of in my wallet. ” This is why this effect is incredibly “dangerous" because according to what you just told your spectator, you could have just potentially caused a paradox. How could the spectator have chosen a card that was never in the deck? Of course, this is only dangerous if their card is in fact in two places at the same time. Then, clearly and slowly turn the deck over and spread it. Ask the spectator if they see their card as you slide through the cards by moving the face card to the right followed by the second card and so on until you reach the end of the deck. Thanks to the sticky card, their selection will be hidden. Considering the selection was just put back into the deck, this is a very surprising moment and at this point all attention is on the envelope. Say, "Well a paradoxical event did not happen so I suppose I can finish the effect." Ask Ask what their selection was and miraculously reveal it is the card inside of the envelope from the start.
Further Thoughts If you would like, you have the ability to get extra hits since you know other high cards in their hand. For instance, if they had the Queen of Hearts and the King of Clubs in their hand, you could say that you felt them look at the Queen but ultimately chose the King. Or if they have two Kings in their hand, you can really play up the fact that they probably struggled to decide which King to pick. The last bit to cover is what to do if they pick a Ten. If you look at the side of Th the deck and see all the cards still there, then you know that they most likely have a T a Te en as their high card. Simply run through the deck and see which of the Tens are in the deck. If you see three of the Tens, you can figure out which one is missing and therefore know what their selection will be. If you don't see any Tens or only one or two, you know that they have more than one. In this case, have them remove the highest card of their choice and hold it against their chest. T chest. Th hen have them place the other cards into the middle of the deck
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while you keep a break. You must now peek at the cards they they ju jus st put back during a recap explanation of what just happened. State that the cards were shuffled and at the same time, cut to your break. Then, say that they chose random cards as you thumb off 5 cards from the top of the deck. Explain that they looked at their cards and choose one while you quickly flash the faces of the cards to yourself to see what tens were returned to the deck. After that, by using the process of elimination, you can tell what card they picked. You can then continue with your patter, using one of the approaches above. Also, my friend Madison Hagler gave me an idea that would work really well well in this routine. At the moment where you said you were going to time travel, you can use a thumb tip flash device to give a moment when the time traveling traveling may have actually happened. I think this is a great bit.
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BOX SWITCH Discussion Imagine being able to have any card fairly chosen from the deck, set aside in the cardbox, and without any special gimmicks or gaffs, the card could be switched with your force card. Box Switch allows you to do just that. At its core, Box Switch allows you to exchange any card that the spectator chooses for a predetermined card of your choosing. It is a powerful tool that can be used for many routines. I taught a double out using the card box in False Anchors 2 that was actually built off of this idea, i love using it as an alternative to a normal force. It looks very clean to widely spread the cards on the table, have any card slid out from the spread, and once you put it inside the card box, have it be switched.
How Yo You need to keep the cello llophane on your box for for this switc itch. Start with ith a for force card inside the box with the face of that card touching the part of the box with the half-moon cut out (Picture 36). Have a card selected by the spectator and in the action of putting it into the box, slide it into the cellophane. To do this, you must hold the cardbox with your left hand with the flap open and facing down. With your
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right hand, hold the spectator’s selection face down by the short end and push down lightly with your thumb. The pressure of the thumb will cause the other end to become concave, therefore making the left corner stiff. Place the left corner of the card directly underneath the box and slide it in at a slight angle to align it with the box. Once the card and box are aligned with each other, slide the card all the way flush as if you were putting it into the card case. Drop the card case to the table for a moment, but quickly decide you want to make it more fair. Pick up the cardbox and slide the card out (the one that you placed inside at the beginning) for half of its length. Drop the box back to the table to convey a feeling of complete fairness. Note: Th The
mo moment of of pic pick king ing up th the bo box and sli slid ding ing the ca card ou out is is co complet letely forgotten by the end of the trick because it is a “non-moment.” The spectators will erase what happened from their memory since the action of sliding the card halfway out of the box is complete justification for picking up the card box. What they remember at the end of the effect is that a card was placed halfway into the box and was never touched again. When it is time to reveal the card, pick up the box from above in you right hand. Lift the box flap up with your middle finger to cleanly show that only one card is inside the box. Ask for your spectator to take the card, but as soon as their hand almost touches the card, allow the flap fall. Once the card is fully removed, the box flap will hide the card that is inside the cellophane.
‘Be you yourse rself; lf; every everyon onee else els e is already tak taken” en” Oscar Wilde
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THE ONE WITH THE HIGH FIVE Discussion
Th The ide idea for for this effec fect came about a few few years ag ago while ile attending ing the Magi-F i-Fest convention in Columbus, Ohio. Creativity at magic conventions is bursting at the seams to a point where random ideas for tricks get tossed out all the time. One night, I said to a group that I had an idea where multiple spectators would rip a deck in half, mix all the pieces randomly together, choose two pieces at random, and despite the complete fairness, both pieces were from the same card. After which, the group replied, “No way. ” I was about to laugh it off and say that I was just kidding, but then the idea for this effect came to me fully formed. Funny enough, I had no way to truly test the idea then because as you may have noticed when you opened the book, I needed a specially manufactured metal gimmick. I had no way to make the gimmick myself. For years I asked friends and people who worked with metal, but I could not get anyone to make it. That is until one random night out when I was chatting with a friend who I did not see often. He mentioned a metal shop in town he used and that was the solution to my problem. As you can imagine, describing a magic gimmick to professional metal worker is pretty comical because from their point of view, it is a useless paper weight no matter how many times you tell them to trust you. The supplied metal gimmick allows you to create identical tears in any card of your choosing. Naturally, the gimmick is inspired by the genius Gaetan Bloom and his “Intercessor” gimmick. Gaetan’s gimmick should be given a medal and if you have never seen it, I recommend you pick it up immediately. While the concepts of each of our gimmick are similar, the intended uses are very different. How For this effect, you will need a one-time preparation of three different things. The gimmick, the pre-torn cards, and the box (which is not a playing card box, which we might normally think of). By the way, the box is the true hero of the effect. It plays a role within the routine that naturally creates a very funny moment and enough misdirection to sneak a dancing giraffe onstage (I bet you are now trying to imagine what a dancing giraffe would look like - trust me it is hilarious).
Preparation of the Gimmick Prepare the metal gimmick by first attaching it to a playing card (Picture 37). Use a piece of packing tape to fix the gimmick to any extra card like a cover on a book. To perfectly tear a card, place a card into the gimmick and line it up with the card that you had previously taped to the gimmick. This makes sure that you tear each card in the same place every time. Grab the gimmick with the card inside with one hand and the card you are tearing slightly above the gimmick’s tearing edge with the other hand and slowly apply pressure to follow the edge of the gimmick to recreate the same tear pattern on the card (Picture 38). A good tip for tearing the cards is to work in a slow and controlled manner. I would recommend tearing a few junk cards to practice before you tear the cards actually needed for the trick. After you get the hang of using the gimmick, tear two different cards and make sure the edges of one card line up with the edges of the other card. While you can get a perfect match, I would not worry too much about it. If you can get it reasonably close that is all that matters for this routine.
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Preparation of the Pre-Torn Cards Yo You will ill need to tear ten duplic licate cards (Pic Picture 39 & 40 40)). You onlyneed to do this once (or until the cards wear out) because you will use the same duplicate cards for each performance. You can either purchase a one way deck or purchase ten identical decks to get enough duplicates. The latter is my preferred method because with ten decks, you have matching duplicates of every card which can be useful for other reasons outside this effect. Once you have torn your ten duplicate cards, stack them into individual matching piles. Take one of the smaller pieces and add small lines to the four corners on the back of the card using a pencil (Picture 41). Then, take one of the large pieces and add pencil dots to the four corners on the back of the card (Picture 42). You also need to mark the rest of the large and small torn pieces in a discrete way so that you can easily identify them from the other random tom cards during the routine. I think it is important to note here that only two cards are marked in all four corners while the rest are marked with a single mark. You can mark these cards all differently depending on what deck you are using. For red bicycle cards, take a white marker and color in the face of the angel on the bicycle. Th The white ite marker I use is a “Sharpie Fine ine Poin Pointt Pain Paintt Mar Marker’’ which ich you can fin find on Amazon. My good friend Kevin Reylek told me about these markers and they work so
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well because they perfectly match the white used on the back of the cards (In the pictures you see in this book, I am using a False Anchor deck which is marked by coloring in one of the tops of the anchor). anchor). Regardless Regardless of what deck you use, you need an easy way to identify your prepared cards. Th The marks will ill make sense in context of the routine.
Preparation of the Box Some of you might still be wondering why I chose the name for this effect. Well, it is because of the method I use to bring the torn cards into play. Th The box serves two purposes which ich I described earlier - a great joke, but more importantly, a way to add your prepared pieces to the audiencetorn pieces in a stealthy way that will completely fly by your audience (mainly due to the laughter from the joke). Originally, after handing out the cards to be ripped by a majority of the audience, I palmed in my pre-torn pieces as I collected the cards. It worked, but I wanted a cleaner method, which is why I came up with the “High-Five" method. I can not begin to tell you how funny the moment created by this method is in my act. Essentially, you want to purchase a small box and disguise it like a present as seen in Picture 40. Then, you want to cut a large square section out of the the back of the box big enough for your hand and part of your arm to fit through (see Photo 43). I did not do this in the pictured box, but make sure to leave a couple inches of the box that you don't cut on the bottom. This extra bit of box will prevent your pre-torn pieces from accidentally sliding out the back. When you are
FALSEANCH0RS ready to perform the effect, stack your smaller prepared pieces on top of the larger pieces and place them together as a face down unit inside the box. Yo You are now ready to perfor form the routine ine...
Routine Handling the Box At the beginning of my parlor act, I walk on stage holding the box and set it aside. Th This routine ine is the third ird effe ffect I perfor form which ich gives the audien ience plen lenty of time to build curiosity on what the contents of the box could be. I believe the suspense of not knowing what is inside increases the high five joke tenfold. Either way, you need to have easy (and preferably visible) access to the box. When it is time for perform the effect, mention to your audience that it is time for a game. Pick up the box and display it to the audience being careful not to flash the hole in the back. State that, "The winner winner of the game game wins wins what is inside inside this box box and I really outdi outdid myself myself this this time because it it is a really really goodprize." prize." Immediately, you will get interest since most of them will truly want to know what is inside the box. Give the deck of cards you are using a quick shuffle and then hand out roughly eight cards each to six different spectators in the front row while keeping at least one card for yourself. Look each spectator spectator in the ey eyes es (a quick scan making sure not to be creepy) to build a connection and then state the simple rules of the The winner needs to be the the fastest fastest at ripp ripping ing the cards in in half. half. ” Using one game. “The of the cards you kept for yourself as an example, have them all hold one card in a horizontal position and instruct them to rip the card like you are doing - in half (Picture 44). The first person to rip all of their cards and hold them up will be the
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winner. However, the real challenge is to keep them neatly in one pile since we will need to use them later. I found out the hard way in a parlor show the im importance of telling them to keep the torn pieces in a single pile. I did not mention that detail in my first show and pieces went flying everywhere! After counting down or giving a "ready, set set, go!" go!",, it only takes a few moments for a winner to be found, but the excitement in the room really builds during the race. Once a winner is found, ask for their name as you pick up the prize box, stating that they have won what is inside. Ask if they want to know what is inside, then quickly ask if the whole audience wants to know what is inside. You will get a big “yeah!"from everyone. Hold the box from the bottom with your left hand and put your right hand through the opening in the back and out the top quickly so the lid goes flying away as you say, “You won a HIGH FIVE!” FIVE!” (Picture 45). Here is a YouTube video showing the High-Five Box at a event I worked: https:/ https:/ / tinyurl.com tinyurl.com/ ybbczt bbcztg gz. During the joke, be aware that the prepared pieces are still in the box. By simply tilting the box forward, you will ensure that they stay in the box. Here is where the box really shines for me. While still keeping the back of the box facing away from the audience, retrieve the spectator's torn cards starting with the
spectator furthest to your right and putting them inside the box through the hole in the back of the box. These cards will camouflage the fact that cards were already in the box in a moment. As you move to the next spectator, casually rotate the box so the back hole faces the audience. They will see cards in the box, but they will assume they were from the first spectator. Take the second spectator’s pieces and place them on top of the cards in the box. Continue to collect the remaining spectator’s cards one at time placing their cards on top of the cards inside the box. Volunteer the winner to join you on stage with some audience encouragement. Casually and openly retrieve all the loose pieces from inside the box (with the hole in the back of the box facing the audience). What makes this so clean is that the audience can see you pull the cards out and then afterwards, seeing only an empty box. The entire box sequence is one giant False Anchor.
Handling the Cards At this point, we have a stack of torn cards with our prepared torn cards on bottom. State that despite the randomness of the audience mixing the pieces, the halves are still relatively close to their mates and so you want to mix the cards up some more. Here's how that process should go: Hand roughly half the cards from the top to the spectator and ask that they shuffle those cards. You should shuffle the remaining cards as well, being sure not to mix the bottom prepared cards. Protect the bottom cards by spreading the cards until you see your first four corner marked card which indicates the start for the stack. Then, shuffle all the cards in your right hand onto the marked card.
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After you've both shuffled the cards, have them spread their cards from hand to hand and instruct them to separate their cards into two piles. You will do the same, but you must go to the second four corner marked card and hold those ten cards in your left hand with the rest of the cards in your right hand. Have them place either pile to the table as you place your right hand pile to the table. Next, ask them to shuffle their remaining cards and then to drop them on top of the cards already on the table. At this point, there should be two piles of cards on the table. Their pile contains a bunch of random cards while your pile has the long torn cards on top, followed by random torn cards, and ending with the smaller of the prepared torn cards. Pick up your pile as you have your spectator pick up theirs and swap your top 15-20 cards with their top 15-20 cards. Demonstrate by pushing over 15-20 cards off the top of your pile and handing it to them as they hand you a stack of cards as well (Picture 46). Make sure your cards go the top of their pile. Th The las last step is for for both of you to cut half of your cards tto o the table and to complete the cut by placing the remaining cards on top of the pile you both jus just cu cut to to th the ta table. le. Yo You s sh hould try to ro roughly estimate where th the fo force ca cards get cut into their deck. It is not absolutely important but helps later on if you can estimate roughly where the stack begins.
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Force of First Card Instruct the spectator to sit and relax because, in a moment, they are going to do exactly as you do. Pick your packet up and spread it to locate the pencil dot. Once you find it, get a break above it as you close the spread. Instruct the spectator that as you drop cards, you want them to stop you at some point. This stop force is made incredibly fair since you have a stack of ten cards to force from. Be sure to drop four small packets of cards to the table before you reach your stack of ten. Th The tim timing ing of of yo your wo words sho should end rig right as as y yo ou dr drop th the fo fourth pa packet of of ca cards and then you should start dealing cards one at a time. Normally, they will stop you on the third or fourth card. Since you have ten cards to force, be clear that they can have the card they stopped on or the one before it or even the card after it. Yo You ca can be be ex extremely carefre free at at th this p po oint int! Once a ca card ha has be been s se elec lected, set set it aside. Asking which card they would like happens in a friendly way, but I know the process can border on annoying as you point out the freedom they have in choosing. But, trust me - the moment is worth it when they do it back to you.
Force of Second Card Next, you want them to drop cards to the table so that you can stop somewhere. If you made it clear they should do exactly as you did, they will usually over exaggerate your actions in a funny way. These moments are always my favorite because it really unites the audience and makes myspectator look like like the star. star.
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Littl Little e do they know, but they got caught caught right in my web (*m (* maniacal aniacal laugh*). laugh* ). Have them drop packets until you see your marked cards. This is made a little easier if you estimated where the stack would start, but it is not critical. Once you say stop, they will usually ask you if you want “this card” or "that card” just like you did to them. You can get a joke in here by leaning back a little, looking at the audience, and saying, “That is a little annoying. ” Although you should be the one to pick the card, turn it back on the spectator and the audience and ask for their help to decide which one should be chosen. This way, at the end, you can honestly say that the spectator chose both pieces!
Conclusion After all the chaos of your audience ripping the cards and the mixing of the cards with your spectator, the next part seems absolutely impossible. Hold one piece in each hand with your arms outstretched to create distance between the pieces. As you recap what has happened, slowly bring each of the halves together until you line up the tears. The matching of the cards will get audible gasps from the audience. To finish the routine and get an applause cue, turn over each half to show a completely matching card. As the audience is reacting, quickly show the rips to the spectator, drop the cards to the table, shake their hand, and then break out into a dance.
"The cure c ure for fo r boredom bored om is curi cu rios ositityy” Dorothy Parker
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