Pages from precursor no 54 39167

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P R E C U R S O R

LIV

This is PRECURSOR LIV and is published in May 1996. The editorial offices are at 2215 Myrtle Street, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16502-2643.

PRECURSOR will be published more than three times a year, and it will be sold for $18.00 (U.S.) for three issues. Outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, three issues are sent Air Mail for $20.00 (U.S.).

"Collins Conceit" by Karl Fulves is a routine involving Blackjack hands that is achieved through the use of Stanley Collins' Ace Vanish from the "Collins Aces."

Jon Racherbaumer has taken the "Allerchrist Card Trick" from SCARNE ON CARD TRICKS, a pretty good card trick, and made a number of changes in handling and has come up with "Allerchrist Fix," a real stunner.

"Two For The Money" by Tom Hubbard presents some very interesting ideas on an impromptu card prediction.

One of the first tricks that any of us has learned was the "Incomprehensible Divination" from Howard Thurston's CARD TRICKS. In "The Most Incomprehensible Divination," Al Thatcher gives it new life by eliminating all of the calculations and taking away the appearance of prearrangement.

There are many versions of the "Cannibal Cards" and Nick Trost's "Bones About It" is a very simple and rather humorous version that could very probably be built into quite a production.

Warren Stephens' "All In A Flap" is a method of gaining information written on a card that is placed in an envelope.

In "The Melancardly Blues," Marty Kane causes the back of a freely selected card to go through a series of color changes. From the final paragraph, you might think that Marty is a doctor - right on.

Dan Block contributes "On The Palm Of His Hand." The effect that Dan wanted to create was the sudden appearance of a selected card on the outstretched palm of the spectator. In reading this it would appear that this is a "Sandwich" trick, but that is not the effect you want to create. It should appear as if the pair of Deuces is waved over the spectator's hand and the selection magically appears on the spectator's palm.

In his close-up performances around Toronto, Mike O'Dowd gets a lot of mileage out of the use of the "Side Steal."

Here he describes his "Side Steal Technique."

"Print Mint" by Barry Govan is a very simple packet trick that he has been selling in Australia. He gives it to PRECURSOR because the fake cards are easily obtainable and anyone can make it up from Bicycle fakes. Try it - it's simple and very good.

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In Aldo Colombini's "Any Face Will Do As Long...", the four Kings are produced in a cutting sequence and at the climax - the Aces are just there. This trick is very strong, but is quite simple with lots of room for improvisation.

William P. Miesel May 1996

ADDITIONAL CREDITS REFERENCED In January, I received a letter from Stephen Minch in which he cited two bits of information pertaining to the Joe Rindfleisch issue that he thought might be of interest to my readers. Quoting Stephen Minch: "Concerning Joe's 'The Cooked Deck.' strangely enough, I had a related notion, which I devised roughly fourteen years ago for Rick Johnsson, who intended to put out a book entitled SCHTICK, which he never managed. Eventually, I used the piece in a tribute issue of Magic Manuscript, Vol. 9, #2. September/October 1987, for Peter Samelson. I called it 'Melt.'

"Regarding Joe's 'Mutilated Cigarette,' the identical idea, with some excellent embellishments, was originally published by Tommy Wonder in the Pabular, Vol. 7, #4, May 1982."

Stephen Minch William P. Miesel January 12, 1996

It was nice to see the "Magicana" column in Genii. February 1996. p. 299. focused on Jerry Andrus. I was very fortunate to have met Jerry back in 1961 when he performed at that year's NYCAN convention in Binghamton, NY. I was sort of chief of that "do", and I still think it was Gene Gordon who convinced Jerry to come to Binghamton. Jerry was certainly the hit of that convention, both to magicians and to the "real people" who watched him perform close-up very informally in the lobby areas of the hotel and in the diner across the street.

I'm sorry that Tony Giorgio, the editor of "Magicana", missed a real point of the photo of Jerry in the box. The box is really a geometrically impossible object which could be expressed two-dimensionally, but it took Jerry to "make it real" in the three-dimensional sense. A wonderful achievement! Take a close look at the first photo. This illusion was also featured in an issue of Omni magazine.

The original drawing of this "box", I believe, was a portion of a drawing by M. C. Escher. A drawing of this object was submitted by Harry Hirschvogel through a letter to the editor of Genii in September, 1973, written by ... me!

Ed Eckl

COLLINS CONCEIT This variation of the Stanley Collins' "Ace Vanish," is used here to change two indifferent Blackjack hands into two natural Blackjack hands. Specific cards will be referred to in order to make the handling easier to follow.

From back to face, the packet consists of the Ace of Spades, Ace of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, Six of Hearts, and Six of Clubs. Square the packet and hold it face down from above in the left hand in position for the Glide.

1. The right hand approaches the packet, thumb on top of the cards, fingers below. The right thumb pushes the top card to the left about the distance of a white border, as shown in Figure #1.

2. The right fingers pull the bottom card, the Six of Clubs, out and place it face up on the table. The patter line is, "I played two hands of Blackjack the other night. These are the cards I was dealt."

3. Similarly, the right fingers draw out the next card, the Six of Hearts, and place this card face up on the table, overlapping the Six of Clubs.

4. The left little finger now glides back the bottom card, the Jack of Spades, of the packet about three-eighths of an inch; that is, slightly more than the top card was jogged. The situation is shown in Figure #2.

5. The right hand can now grasp the center two cards, the Jack of Diamonds + the Ace of Diamonds, remove them as a unit, and place the "double" card face up on the table, on top of the Sixes.

6. There are two cards remaining in the left hand, the bottom of which is slightly in-jogged, and therefore invisible to the audience. This is seen in Figure #3. As the right hand approaches the packet, the right fingers push the top card back flush with the bottom card. This "double" card is now turned face up and placed on the spread of cards on the table.

7.

The four cards seen by the audience in Figure #4 represent indifferent