Pages from precursor no 4 39157

A MAGAZINE OF INNOVATION WILLIAM P. MIESEL

PUBLISHED BY

unikorn magik

P R E C U R S O R

IV

This i s PRECURSOR IV and i s p u b l i s h e d in A p r i l 1984. The e d i t o r i a l o f f i c e s a r e at 2215 Myrtle S t r e e t , E r i e , P e n n s y l v a n i a 16502. PRECURSOR w i l l be p u b l i s h e d t h r e e t i m e s a y e a r , and i t w i l l be s o l d f o r $4.00 (U.S.) p e r i s s u e , o r t h r e e i s s u e s f o r $10.00 (U.S.).

O u t s i d e t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s and C a n a d a , i t w i l l be s e n t A i r m a i l f o r $5.00 p e r i s s u e , o r t h r e e i s s u e s f o r $ 1 3 . 0 0 , p a y a b l e in U.S. funds . " Y e n t a O u t f i d d l e d " i s a r e a l gem from Mel S t o v e r .

I t p r o b a b l y won't g e t t h e a t t e n t i o n i t d e s e r v e s because of t h e t r o u b l e i t seems t o be t o make i t up. I t t o o k me a b o u t f o r t y - f i v e m i n u t e s t o make up a deck from some o l d o n e s I had around t h e house t h a t were a l s o used t o make up Bruce Cervon's " D i r t y Deal" and Roy Walton's "Colour Magic".

The p r e s e n t a t i o n and r o u t i n i n g have been developed e n t i r e l y by Mel S t o v e r . The f i r s t phase i s an e l a b o r a t i o n of Karl F u l v e s ' "Stopped Twice" from IMPROMPTU OPENERS. Mel b r i n g s t h e i d e a of t h e b a c k s m a t c h i n g i n t o p l a y a l o n g w i t h t h e m a t c h i n g f a c e s . T h i s c a n f u r t h e r be t r a c e d back t o Al L e e c h ' s " R i g h t , Wrong, R i g h t " f r o m SUPER CARD MAN STUFF. The second phase is a fine matching effect that has been developed from the "Gilbreath Principle".

Early work along these lines had been developed by Walt Rollins and presented in his lectures during the early and middle sixties under the t i t l e "Reverse Stack Systems".

I thought that the one-way backs were the best idea, but I found it difficult to find the reversed cards in the spread.

Also the cards could be turned during a r i f f l e shuffle, so I think that the best solution is to pencil dot the corners of the four cards.

They w i l l be easy to find, but only if you are looking for them. All manufacturing, reproduction, and commercial rights are reserved solely by Mel Stover.

Al Thatcher has contributed "Quadruple Count Down". This routine has derived from Larry Jennings' "Impossible Countdown", which can be found in his 1967 LECTURE NOTES ON CARD AND COIN HANDLING a n d a l s o

i n LARRY JENNINGS ON CARD AND

COIN HANDLING, which was published by Jeff Busby in 1977. A comparison between t h i s routine and that of Larry Jennings w i l l show so many differences that the two t r i c k s w i l l appear to be v i r t u a l l y d i f f e r e n t .

There are as many versions of "Triumph" as there are magicians, and a couple of y e a r s ago, "Triumph" w i t h a "Color-Changing Deck" c l i m a x was a l l t h e r a g e .

There ought to be no excuses l e f t for o f f e r i n g yet a n o t h e r v e r s i o n , but t h i s method i s so e x t r e m e l y s i m p l e and d e c e p t i v e t h a t I d i d n ' t t h i n k i t should be completely ignored.

The ideas in t h i s routine came about during a pre-MagiFest session I had with Nick Trost and Dom Cervas.

Del Copley i s p a s s i n g on a f i n e l o a d i n g move w i t h c o i n s t h a t should f i n d i t s way i n t o many coin r o u t i n e s . J u s t t h i n k about i t ; how do you load two c o i n s into a change purse, undetected, and without them talking?

"Action Lapping" by David Ben i s a very c l e v e r and c l e a n l a p p i n g move, but i t t a k e s some p l a y i n g w i t h to get t h e f e e l of i t j u s t r i g h t .

But i t i s w o r t h while.

Tricks using because they shuffles.

I years, and i t

Faro Shuffles have been very much on the decline in recent years tend to be q u i t e b o r i n g if t h e p e r f o r m e r fumbles t h r o u g h t h e have seen Dom perform t h i s t r i c k a g r e a t many t i m e s over t h e has always proven to be an i n t e r e s t i n g t r i c k .

Back in 1981), I read Barry Govan's "J-A-W-S" in APOCALYPSE and was very t a k e n with the premise. I have always been very p a r t i a l to the "Homing Card" e f f e c t , so I worked out "The Joker Is a Joke" along these l i n e s .

This wraps up t h i s issue of PRECURSOR. The next issue w i l l contain some fine m a t e r i a l from David Ben, David Drake, and maybe you, if you f e e l you have something that is i n t e r e s t i n g and send i t to me.

William P. Miesel March 8, 1984

Well, we made i t r i g h t on schedule. Despite my delay on PRECURSOR I I I , which hopefully won't happen again, PRECURSOR IV w i l l be released o f f i c i a l l y at the FFFF Convention in B u f f a l o . Although t h e f i r s t i s s u e was not a v a i l a b l e for l a s t y e a r ' s FFFFer, i t was announced t h e r e , and t h e f i r s t s u b s c r i p t i o n s were accepted.

Now we'll get an idea of how successful t h i s p u b l i c a t i o n i s .

It'll be time for s u b s c r i p t i o n renewals. We've decided to increase our p r i n t i n g run on the basis of the f i r s t year's performance.

B i l l ' s happy about t h a t , so make him even happier by renewing your s u b s c r i p t i o n .

He's e n t h u s i a s t i c about t h e future of PRECURSOR. We think we've got something good going here.

Thanks to Howard Lyons for providing the i n s p i r a t i o n with IBIDEM. Ed Eckl 16 APR 84

YEHTA ODTFIDDLED The magician spreads a deck of fifty-three cards face up on the table, and the deck is seen to be arranged with the four suits divided and the cards running from the King down to the Ace from the face of the deck to the back. The Joker is on the back of the deck, and it has a regular blue Aviator back. The ribbon spread is flipped face down, and the backs, with the exception of the Joker, are seen to consist of eight various pictorial backs.

Obtain eight decks of Bridge Cards with pictorial backs, and assemble a complete deck made up of "mates" from various decks. "Mates" are cards of the same value, color, and backs. Take three "mates" from each of six decks and four "mates" from each of the remaining two decks. Pick your "mates" so that the backs are well mixed when the ribbon spread is seen face down.

The routine begins with the following patter lines: "This demonstration is about Gambling and the Science of Chance. I have found that most people don't know their odds from a hole in the ground. Suppose you were to pick one card from a full deck.

What are the chances of that card being a Spade?

Close, but in the long run you'd lose. The chances are thirteen out of fiftythree. Remember, a full deck contains a Joker. Now, while this gentleman is shuffling the deck, tell me: if you were to pick a card from this fifty-twocard deck, what are the chances that it would be an even card? ... I told you this was a tricky business. There are four more odd cards than there are even

I believe that from the above it is quite obvious that most spectators will answer the first question "four to one" and the second question "two to one"; both of which are obviously wrong.

After the deck has been shuffled, it is necessary to locate two sets of "mates" with different back designs. Suppose these are the red Twos with a Giraffe back and the black Jacks with a picture of the Taj Mahal on the back side.

Probably the best way to locate these necessary cards is to make use of their one-way designs. Stand the six unwanted giraffes upright and the other two on their heads. Likewise, follow the same procedure with the Taj Mahal. After shuffling, the four necessary cards can be spotted in a ribbon spread.

Other possibilities are to abstract the four cards before the routine has begun and then add them on after the shuffle. Maybe you'd like to use a Stripper Deck and set the four cards in the opposite direction from the rest of the deck. They can then be stripped out when they are required. Again, others could shave the corners if they are used to working with a Short Card.

No matter how you do it, pick out two cards, seemingly at random, face down.

One of them should be a red Two (a Giraffe back) and the other a black Jack (a Taj Mahal back). Pick up the spread of cards, but in so doing get one of the mates of these cards to the top of the deck and the other mate to the face of

it.

Do not t r y to make a move out of t h i s pick-up.

Since two cards have been removed from the spread, i t w i l l now be broken.

Also remember that the cards have been shuffled, so it should seem apparent that you cannot know the order of any of the cards from the back.

Square up the deck, and hand i t to the s p e c t a t o r , s a y i n g , " S i r , 1 would l i k e you to d e a l the cards face down onto the t a b l e one at a time and s t o p at some random point.

Wherever the s p i r i t moves."

Notice the f i r s t card d e a l t .

If i t is a G i r a f f e back, pick up t h e Taj Mahal backed card from the pair that was removed from the spread j u s t moments before.

Turn t h i s card face up, and drop i t on top of the card that the s p e c t a t o r stops at.

"This card w i l l mark the spot.

Place the rest of the deck on top and give the deck to t h i s g e n t l e m a n . . . . Now, s i r , would you do the same t h i n g ?

Stop whenever you w i s h . . . . There? . . . F i n e , w e ' l l mark the spot w i t h t h i s c a r d .

Put t h e r e s t of the deck on t o p . . . . Now as we spread the deck, w e ' l l t a k e out the markers and cards at which you stopped." Actually, take out the marker and t h e card f a c i n g i t . "The chance t h a t t h e s e two backs are the same is one in eight.

The chance that these also match would be one in s i x t y - f o u r ; and if the faces match also . . . Wow! We need a computer."

Phase II

Take t h e s e four c a r d s , add the J o k e r t h a t was removed from t h e deck in t h e beginning, and place the remainder of the deck aside.

The r e s t of the routine w i l l be performed with these five cards. Hand these five cards to a s p e c t a t o r to s h u f f l e .

Take the c a r d s back, and t e a r the packet in half from one long s i d e to the o t h e r long s i d e .

P l a c e one s e t of h a l v e s on top of the o t h e r so that the torn edges of the cards a l l face in the same d i r e c t i o n .

These ten half-cards are false shuffled by the magician, the p i l e is cut by the s p e c t a t o r , and the top five halves are spread off the face-down packet.

Take t h e s e f i v e h a l v e s , t u r n them face up, and p l a c e them on the t a b l e . The o t h e r f i v e h a l v e s are placed in a p i l e face down next to the face-up h a l v e s . This p r o c e d u r e r e s u l t s in two p i l e s of h a l f c a r d s , one face up and one face down.

The order of one p i l e from top to bottom is the same as the order of the other from bottom to top. The remainder of the t r i c k works i t s e l f a u t o m a t i c a l l y .

"We are going to discard four pairs at random. You w i l l choose the cards to be discarded.

The idea is to match up the l a s t two cards.

To make i t completely random, w e ' l l s p e l l the words, 'Last Two Cards Match,' moving a card at each l e t t e r , and then e l i m i n a t e the top two c a r d s as each word is s p e l l e d .

Maybe the last two halves w i l l match. F i r s t the l e t t e r L from the word 'Last 1 . Your choice, which p i l e s h a l l I use? This one?

We move the top card to the bottom.

The l e t t e r A, e i t h e r pile?

This one?" Again, whichever p i l e they name, move the top card to the b o t t o m . "Now S, and f i n a l l y T. L e t ' s get r i d of a n o t h e r