Pages from precursor special no 4 39191

A MAGAZINE OF INNOVATION EDITED BY

WILLIAM P. MIBSEL

PUBLISHED BY

unikorn magik

PRECURSOR ... SPECIAL NUMBER FOUR

This is the fourth Special Issue of PRECURSOR, and it is being published in April 1993.

PRECURSOR is edited by William P. Miesel, and the editorial offices are at 2215 Myrtle Street, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16502.

PRECURSOR is published at least three times a year and regular issues contain at least twenty pages (usually more). The price is still $16.00 (U.S.) for three issues. Outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico the price for three issues sent Airmail is $19.00 (U.S.).

This Special Issue of PRECURSOR is going to be distributed to everyone who attends the Original Close-Up Convention and will then be mailed to all subscribers with PRECURSOR XXXIX. I am intending this issue to be a celebration of a number of things.

First, this is the fifth anniversary of the last Special Issue which was at the FFFF in April 1988.

Second, this coming June will be the tenth anniversary of PRECURSOR. The first issue appeared in June 1983, and we really intend to celebrate this birthday in PRECURSOR XL. Most importantly, I am celebrating my retirement from Loblaw's. Actually, this retirement came as a shock because it came two years earlier than I had anticipated. Briefly, the company that I worked for did not survive bankruptcy proceedings and no longer exists. In the company that took over, my job does not exist, and the job that was offered had a 40% pay cut. As a result, I am now making almost as much money to stay home and work on PRECURSOR and my book on Bob Gysel as I would working forty hours a week for a company and doing a job that I would hate. Now, let's go to the PRECURSOR Suite and have a good time.

In PRECURSOR XXXIII my first version of the "Backward Aces" that I called "Retarded Aces" appeared. This second version was devised about a dozen years later in the mid 1970's after the publication of "Seca Rouf" by Phil Goldstein in CARD TRICKS FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE CARD TRICKS. "Two Letters To Ann Landers" consists of a letter that I found in a recent Ann Landers column that I found very humorous and an attempt at humour on my part in the letter that I sent to her. Unfortunately, my letter to her has not appeared in her column, to my knowledge.

Twenty years ago, Ed Eckl became enamored with the "Ascanio Spread" and he worked out several routines, a couple of which he sent to Fred Robinson to be published in Pabular. For one reason or another, Fred chose not to publish "The Four Greek Kings" so as a result you now get the opportunity to read about this famous routine of Ed's here.

William P. Miesel

RETARDED ACES II In 1974, Phil Goldstein published his first lecture notes, Card Tricks For People Who Don't Like Card Tricks. His "Seca Rouf" in that booklet immediately brought to mind my earlier experiments which I released in PRECURSOR XXXIII, and I went back to work on this effect and the results are this second routine that appears here.

Second Routine The four Aces leave the Leader packet, one at a time, and travel to the other packets only to reassemble back in the Leader packet at the climax. I like to use this as a second phase in a routine that starts out with Dai Vernon's "Slow Motion Ace Assembly." See the Stars Of Magic and The First California Lecture for details of the original Vernon routine.

1. Take a thoroughly shuffled deck of cards and look through it and remove the four Aces and arrange them in a face-up fan on the table. The Ace of Clubs should be the face card of this fan, followed by either one of the red Aces, the Ace of Spades, and the other red Ace is the back card of this fan.

2. After removing the four Aces from the deck and arranging them on the table, close up the remainder of the cards and hold the deck face down in the left hand in dealing position.

3. Get a left little finger break under the top two cards of the deck. With the right hand, scoop up the fan of Aces from the table and add them face up to the top of the face-down deck.

4. Square up the Aces on top of the deck and with the right hand, from above, pick up the packet of six cards above the break and hold them in the familiar "Biddle" grip with the fingers along the outer edge and the thumb at the inner edge.

5. The right hand comes over the top of the deck while holding the Ace packet in this grip. The left thumb starts to peel the Ace of Clubs off the face of the Ace packet. When it is about half-way off the packet, the right hand moves upwards and the packet flips the Ace of Clubs face down onto the top of the deck.

6. The left thumb now pushes the face-down Ace of Clubs off the deck to the right and it is taken by the right hand under the Ace packet. The right thumb retains a break between it and the rest of the packet above it.

7. At the same time as the Ace of Clubs is being added under the Ace packet, the left thumb is peeling off the red Ace from the face of the packet. It is flipped face down onto the top of the deck.

8. Simulate adding it to the bottom of the Ace packet but instead of the right hand taking the red Ace, it actually drops the face-down Ace of Clubs, which is