n mnGnzine OF innovnnon LXVII
PRECURSOR LXVII This is PRECURSOR LXVII and is published in December 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 Sates, Canada, and Mexico, three issues are sent Air Mail for $25.00 (U.S.). "You Can Count On The Aces" by Michael DeMarco is a very perplexing coincidence effect in which the four Aces are produced in a manner that appears to be very fair, and the possibility of a force does not seem likely. The "Revolution Change" by Russ Polizzi is an extremely versatile sleight that can be used as a flash appearance of a selected card, a change of one card into another, a vanish of a card, or the secret righting of a reversed card at the conclusion of a trick. In appearance, it would seem to be a "Color Change," but it takes its action from the "Kelly-Ovette Bottom Placement" rather than a "Side Steal." Tom Hubbard's "Still Predicting" offers three different handlings where two cards predict a selected card. "A Not So Classy Classic" is just the first of a series of tricks under the above title that Warren Stephens is working on at this time. It is a transformation based on an age-old "Coin Fold." Marty Kane's "North Pole Rigamarole" is another of his card discoveries using Stewart Judah's "Elimination Deal" developed around an interesting story about Admiral Peary who played poker during his North Pole expedition. "Matchable Cards" is an effect that Nick Trost discovered among the "Ring Reports" in The Linking Ring. Thefirsthandling is a rather simplified version by Nick Trost. I followed up with three more handlings that are quite a bit more complex, but they do have some interesting aspects to them. If one of my readers is familiar with Jay Englee's handling of this effect, I would like to hear a bit about it. We have to thank Ed Eckl for talking his friend, Harry Hirschvogel, into releasing "Harry's Pop-Eyed Key Card" to the readers of Precursor. This is a favorite stratagem from the wellirrigated, fertile mind of Harry Hirschvogel. William P. Miesel September 7, 1998
In preparing a new flier for Precursor, I sort of studied the three indices from the first 60 issues and four specials of this journal. I found that we had published more than 600 tricks by 114 contributors, 72 reviews of selected books, journals, performances, and conventions, a multitude of miscellany, and a lot of "stuff ... or "stough" ... as Howard Lyons was wont to use as a descriptor. I think we've done pretty well. Ed Eckl
YOU CAN COUNT ON THE ACES The inspiration for this routine is the Bernard Bilis effect, "Pair-A-Nois," from Apocalypse, Vol. 1, #12. This routine requires a half-deck set-up on top of the face-down deck. Place an Ace face up on the table and on top of it, place any random card face up. On top of these two cards, place a pair of face-up Kings, followed by a pair of Queens, and then Jacks, Tens, Nines, etc. right down to a pair of face-up Deuces. Next place two more random cards onto the Deuces and finally, the other three Aces.
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Figure 1
This thirty-one card stock is now placed face down on top of the remaining twenty-one facedown cards, and then the deck is returned to its case ready for the beginning of the performance. 1. Remove the deck from its case and give it a False Shuffle. I strip out a block of cards from under the top five or six cards and Zarrow Shuffle those cards back under the top stock. I complete this sequence with a False Cut; I simply strip out the bottom block, pass it over the top, and return it back to the bottom of the deck. 2. Now, make the following request of a spectator, "Give me a number up to, say, twenty-four." Let's say, he responds, "Seventeen." 3. Count down that number of cards, aloud, in this case - seventeen, one at a time reversing their order, onto the close-up pad. This packet of seventeen cards should be counted near the rear of the close-up pad and a little to the right of center. Deal the next two cards, one at a time, face up in the center of the pad a couple of inches apart.
Figure 2
4. Call attention to the two face-up cards. In this case, the spectator thought of "Seventeen," and those two cards are a Five and a Six. If he thought of a different number, then those two cards would be different ones. 5. Add the values of those two cards together. Again, in this example, five and six add up to eleven. From the top of the deck, which is still face down in the left hand, deal face-down cards alternately on top of the two face-up cards, overlapping them for about half of their lengths, counting aloud up to eleven.
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6. Place the talon of the face-down deck onto the close-up pad to the left of the initial packet, which was counted off at the beginning. With the left hand, point to the two face-up cards on the bottom on the bottom of the two packets that were just counted off and say, "You stopped me on these two cards." 7. Pick up the initial counted-off packet of seventeen cards with the right hand from above, saying, "And you stopped me at this card, also." Point to the top card of the packet with the left forefinger. 8. While the right hand is still holding the packet from above, the left hand also takes it from below in dealing position. The left hand now assists the right thumb to get a break above the face card of the packet, one of the four Aces. 9. With the left thumb, peel off the top card of the face-down packet into the palm-up left hand. Extend the right hand, still holding the remainder of the packet, and point to one of the small packets with a face-up card on the bottom. Say, "Turn over that card you stopped me at." 10. As the spectator is turning the card that you pointed to face up, all attention will be on him and that card providing ample misdirection for the following switch. The right hand moves back over the left hand and the card it is holding. Drop the card under the right thumb break, square on top of the card in the left hand and hold the two cards squared as one. 11. The right hand replaces the packet in its place on the close-up pad and then goes back and takes the "double" card out of the left hand from above and drops "it" back on top of the packet. The right hand remains on top of the packet. 12. The spectator has just turned an Ace face up. Immediately turn the card just dropped back on top of the first packet, face up, and reveal the second Ace.