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PRECURSOR LXVI This is PRECURSOR LXVI and is published in November 1998. PRECURSOR is edited by William P. Miesel and is published by unikorn magik. The editorial offices are at 2215 Myrtle Street, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16502-2643 (phone 1-814-454-8802). PRECURSOR will be published more than three times a year, and it will be sold for $21.00 (U.S.) for three issues. Outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, three issues are sent Air Mail for $25.00 (U.S.). Michael DeMarco's "Easy Opener" is a very strong opening effect. It requires an eight-card stock that would not be easy to set up during a performance so using it as an opener really simplifies matters. This effect contains three interesting surprises leading up to a strong climax, so why not get your performance off on the right foot. Tom Craven gives us "Colorfull," another one of his amazing discoveries of a selected card utilizing a stacked deck. Marty Kane's varied "elimination" tricks have received quite a bit of popularity among some of my readers, and I hope that they get a kick out of "Match Between Magicians." "The Joker Between" is an intriguing, but extremely simple, "color separation" trick that Joe Rindfleisch and Mark DeSousa showed me in the Precursor Suite at this past Original Close-Up Convention in Batavia. They had been collaborating together on it that same day. "Nickels To Dimes" started out as just a gag but Jerry Mentzer has gotten such a good reaction at magic club meetings with it that it has become a regular part of his entertainment when he is on a lecture tour, either before or after the lecture. It is especially effective when there are a good number of newcomers in the audience. Shaun Robison's "On The Lily Pad" is his presentation of Sid Lorraine's "Prince Charming" from Chronicles #34. This routine uses a playing card that is folded into an origami jumping frog. The simplest form of this fold can be found in Mike Close's "Frog Prince" from Worker's Number 2. The description of the "Jumping Frog" can also be found in most of the books on Origami; e.g., the works of Robert Harbin, Sam Randlett, and Robert Neale. In Precursor LXIV, I published David Drake's "A Subtle Ace Prediction" and I totally misinterpreted the instructions that he sent. I thought that there was paragraph missing so I made an addition and as a result, the trick that appears there (even though it works) is not what David intended. If I tried to just make a correction, it would confuse the matter even more so here is the correct explanation of David Drake's trick, "A Subtle Ace Prediction - Revisited." We're sorry David! "Three Assistants" by Tom Hubbard is his handling of the "One Way Faces" principle, working with three spectators. "Kan't Kill A King" is a one-at-a-time vanish and reappearance of the four Kings that Joshua Jay now performs in all of his walk-around engagements. We are going back a bit over forty years for another trick out of the past. In the spring of 1957, the Dai Vernon Book Of Magic was in the final stages of preparation before its publication that 1
summer. The first Linking Ring ads for the Dai Vernon Book Of Magic appeared in August 1957 in Mike Kantor's and Max Holden's advertisements. All that spring there was a lot of speculation about what tricks were to be included. One of the rumors circulating among Cardmen was that "Mac" McDonald's "Seven Card Monte" was to be included. The method involved was totally unknown except to Dai Vernon, Fawcett Ross and their close circle of friends. Ed Mario heard about the effect and on June 8, 1957, he sent the first version that he developed to Neal Elias and on July 8, 1957, Neal Elias sent his first method back to Ed. Those two historical methods from the notebooks of Neal Elias are included here and it goes without saying that these two Cardicians did not make use of gimmicks. William P. Miesel July 1,1998
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Hope you enjoyed the "Cardician's Prayer" which was enclosed with Precursor LXV. The idea was also used for a Magic Collectors edition which was given out at "Yankee Gathering VII" which was sponsored by the New England Magic Collectors Association. Sometimes it's fun to "adapt" ideas. Guess that was one of the original objectives of Precursor, "ideas for adoption and adaption". Ed Eckl
EASY OPENER This is a variation of Steve Jones' "Steal, Switch, And Reverse" from his book, Cards For All Occasions. Set-Up: Remove the four Kings and the four Queens from the deck, turn the Kings face down and fan. Place the Queens face up between the Kings alternately so that there is a face-down King on top and a face-up Queen on the bottom.
Figure 1
Square up this King/Queen stock and place it on top of the face-down deck so that the Queens are face up and everything is ready for opening your performance. 1. Remove the deck from its case and give it a couple of riffle shuffles under the stock and then follow up with a false cut. Hold the deck face down in dealing position in the left hand. 2. Say, "We are going to have four cards selected. As I riffle down the corner of the deck, call out 'Stop,' but stop me near the bottom of the deck so that there will still be enough cards for three more selections." Riffle slowly, starting near the center of the deck so you will be stopped about a dozen cards up from the face of the deck. 3. The right hand comes over the top of the deck and flips all of the cards above the thumb break face up. Retain a left little finger break between the face-up upper packet and the facedown lower packet. 4. Call attention to the face-up card on top of the deck, referring to it as the first selection. Drop two cards from above the break and then transfer that break to over these two cards. Cut off the top packet above the break, but hold back the face-up selection with the left thumb pulling it on top of the lower packet. This selection ends up above a face-to-face King and Queen. Table the upper packet face up on the close-up pad. 5. Triple turnover the top three cards, at the natural break, face down on top of the small packet. This switches a King for the selection on top of the face-down packet. 6. From the rear, the right hand pulls out the bottom half of the packet as in the start of a Hindu Shuffle. Place the stripped-out lower packet on top leaving it in-jogged about an inch or so. The right hand comes over the top with the thumb at the inner edge and the forefinger comes to rest