I saw someone make a pencil disappear just last weekend; that trick worked really well in getting everyone's attention, too.

Posted July 31, 2008 9:00 AM by John L

Implications? Them's vacations imps take.

Posted July 31, 2008 9:47 AM by Kip W

Except when it's Rachmaninoff

There are ways around this. (Ways that may not be original.)

Posted July 31, 2008 9:57 AM by Kip W

I know a good card trick you can do with just a deck, but people keep screwing it up because they don't know the difference between rows and columns.

Posted July 31, 2008 10:19 AM by Tom

John L -- I saw that same trick. As did millions of others, according to the news.

Posted July 31, 2008 10:20 AM by Adam Lipkin

Platitudes! That's the opposite of plongitudes!

Posted July 31, 2008 10:26 AM by Effie Nell

Out-of-the-blue cross-reference:
if this posting interests you, you may enjoy
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.

Posted July 31, 2008 10:30 AM by joel hanes

I rather enjoyed the disappearing pencil trick, but I wouldn't recommend trying it at home.

Posted July 31, 2008 11:28 AM by G D Townshende

I rather enjoyed the disappearing pencil trick, but I wouldn't recommend trying it at home.

Posted July 31, 2008 11:28 AM by G D Townshende

Oops. :/ Sorry for the double posting. It didn't look like my computer had responded.

Posted July 31, 2008 11:29 AM by G D Townshende

I'm convinced I know how the pencil trick works, but I've been having trouble eliciting a volunteer from the audience...

Posted July 31, 2008 1:23 PM by Skwid

I've been living in a cave. What's the pencil trick?

Posted July 31, 2008 1:42 PM by TexAnne

I've been living in a cave. What's the pencil trick?

It's a reference to the Batman: The Dark Knight movie.

Posted July 31, 2008 1:54 PM by James D. Macdonald

Yo, Tom @#4! Welcome to Making Light!

Would that be the Atlas, Bible, Goose, Thigh trick?

If people keep screwing it up, then it isn't quite a good trick yet. You might check out Magic and Showmanship by Nelms (a book that I recommend to everyone anyway) for a sleight-of-hand method of performing a similar trick.

Or, improve your handling so that folks do know the difference between rows and columns, or so that whether they know or don't know the difference doesn't matter.

Posted July 31, 2008 2:00 PM by James D. Macdonald

TexAnne @12
Are your new digs a cave?

I haven't seen the new Batman movie either.

Posted July 31, 2008 2:14 PM by Magenta Griffith

#13: Oh, right. Thanks, Jim. I keep meaning to see it, but apparently the matinees in my new town cost $6.50. (As opposed to the evening price of $7.25. I foretell a great deal of Netflix in my future....)

Posted July 31, 2008 2:17 PM by TexAnne

A Neat Vanishing Pencil Trick.

Lbh'yy arrq: 1) N pbva. 2) N crapvy. 3) Gebhfref jvgu cbpxrgf.

Lbh'er fgnaqvat. Fubj gur pbva gb rirelbar. Gryy rirelbar gung lbh'er tbvat gb znxr gur pbva qvfnccrne. Ubyq vg va lbhe yrsg unaq, jvgu gur unaq va n svfg, onpx hc, nebhaq jnvfg yriry.

Gnxr gur crapvy va lbhe evtug unaq. Vg'f lbhe zntvp jnaq. Envfr vg uvtu va na nep (gur rknpg nep jvyy orpbzr boivbhf va n zbzrag), naq ybjre vg gb gnc gur onpx bs lbhe yrsg svfg, juvyr pbhagvat "Bar." Xrrc lbhe rlrf svkrq ba lbhe yrsg unaq. Ercrng gur zbir naq pbhag "Gjb." Zbivat rknpgyl gur fnzr nf orsber, envfr gur crapvy naq chg vg oruvaq lbhe evtug rne. Qb guvf ng gur fnzr fcrrq nf lbh'ir orra qbvat rirelguvat fb sne, naq jvgu lbhe nez sbyybjvat gur fnzr nep. Oevat lbhe abj-rzcgl unaq qbja, naq pbhag "Guerr."

Ubyl Onanan! Gur crapvy'f inavfurq!

Jnvg n zbzrag sbe sbyxf gb abgvpr vg oruvaq lbhe evtug rne. Be, vs ab bar abgvprf vg, jnvg n zbzrag gura cbvag vg bhg. Gnxr gur crapvy naq jnir vg nobhg n ovg. Ybbx ng gur crapvy.

Juvyr rirelbar vf ybbxvat ng gur crapvy, ynhtuvat, naq bgurejvfr qvfgenpgrq, chg gur pbva va lbhe yrsg unaq vagb lbhe yrsg gebhfref cbpxrg, gura erghea lbhe yrsg svfg gb gur fnzr ybpngvba vg jnf va orsber.

Ntnva, gnc gur onpx bs lbhe yrsg svfg jvgu gur crapvy, pbhagvat "Bar" gura "Gjb" gura "Guerr," rknpgyl nf orsber. Qba'g fgvpx gur crapvy oruvaq lbhe rne guvf gvzr. Vafgrnq, ba guerr, bcra lbhe yrsg unaq naq Jbj Tbyyl! gur pbva unf inavfurq! Pbby! Fubj obgu fvqrf bs lbhe unaq, svatref jvqr ncneg. Vg'f ernyyl tbar!

Posted July 31, 2008 3:00 PM by James D. Macdonald

James @ 14
People screw it up because of a breakdown in communication. You deal out four rows of four cards (face up). Tell someone to pick one and keep it to themselves. They tell you what row it's in. That's where the problems start, because no matter what, someone will get rows and columns confused (I even explained what I meant, but I guess I know a lot of stupid people) and this botches up the rest of the trick.

After that, you pick up the cards, but make sure the four cards in the row your victim selected are on top of the deck. This time you deal them out so the first four cards form the first column (columns are down, rows are across). Ask your victim again what row it's in. The first card in that row should be their card. If it isn't, somebody screwed up somewhere. The rest is just showmanship.

Pick up all sixteen cards (order doesn't matter now; you know which one is theirs), and deal them out in a cross shape:
 |
- -
 |
Like that, where each line is a card. Do four of these. Now ask your victim to pick two of them. If the ones they pick contain their chosen card, remove the two they didn't pick. Otherwise, remove the two they did pick. Then ask them to pick one of the two remaining crosses and do the same thing. Then in the last remaining cross, do the exact same thing with individual cards until you're left with just the chosen card. Hopefully, your victim will be amazed and love you forever.

Posted July 31, 2008 3:33 PM by Tom

By the way, maybe "someone always screws it up" was an exaggeration. On reflection, it's more like "one time, someone screwed it up", but that sounds less impressive. Also, I'm not new here, it's just my first time commenting.

Posted July 31, 2008 3:34 PM by Tom

I'm just sad that so few bars these days have good, branded swizzle-sticks. One of my very best bits of table magic years ago (at one of the early Archons in St Louis) was a simple paddle move with a hotel swizzle-stick...

Posted July 31, 2008 6:09 PM by Fred A Levy Haskell

No swizzle-sticks and no Gibsons. What's the world coming to?

Posted July 31, 2008 6:27 PM by James D. Macdonald

"Maybe the psychic energy does flow through my hands" (on spoon bending)

Posted July 31, 2008 7:14 PM by Branko Collin

For a real sensation one performs the pencil trick ... without a pencil.

(Although one only does this at the Magician Trials.)

:-)

Posted July 31, 2008 7:24 PM by Michael I

This reminds me--Jim, that card trick on your webpage...Where'd you find that? Or did you program it yourself?
It baffles the heck out of me, and I love it.

Posted August 1, 2008 1:21 AM by JimR

Oh son of a...
I just did it again and figured it out.
Someone tell me I'm not dumb...cause I sure feel it.

Posted August 1, 2008 1:24 AM by JimR

joel hanes @7: Second the recommendation. Fifth Business was my introduction to Davies' writing, and after that I had to inhale as much as I could find.

That book was part of a trilogy (the other books, The Manticore and World of Wonders; the latter was centered more directly on the magician). I liked his approach to trilogies. He didn't write one big book split into three parts; he wrote more-or-less independent stories centered on different characters related to the same events. He used this approach in some of his other books.

I wondered if John M. Ford liked him; Davies had an interest in theater, similar to what I had seen in Mike's writing. A lot of real wit in his work, too.

Posted August 1, 2008 4:16 AM by Rob Rusick

Did someone tell you that the way to be popular is to learn politics and join parties? No! The way to be popular is to learn parlor tricks and go to parties!

This was the punchline to an early Mad magazine spoof of 'Pogo'. Coming back from a visit with the big city cousins, Pogo introduces politics to the swamp. Everyone there is shown to be an analog of a real life political figure. It ends in tears (and a mushroom cloud).

The big city cousins show up at the end to view the devastation. Minnie blames Donald's speech impediment; he didn't say politics, he said parlor tricks!

Posted August 1, 2008 4:28 AM by Rob Rusick

Department of Good Timing:

Neil Gaiman's latest blog entry has a link to a New Yorker article about close-up magic that's well worth reading.

Posted August 1, 2008 10:03 AM by Paul A.

The 1902 "Bible" of card tricks mentioned in the New Yorker article is available as a PDF from erdnase.com.

I've also added a couple of other early books on card tricks here. (The Erdnase will join them a bit later today.)

Posted August 1, 2008 12:07 PM by John Mark Ockerbloom

That's a good article in the New Yorker.

I'll have to respond in some detail: rather that Trauma and You, Magic and Me.

My copy of Erdnase is right here on my desk. I just reached over and grabbed it. It's a 1945 printing, with notes by Professor Hoffman.

My life could have gone another direction: I was another of the kids and teenagers who hung out at Tannen's in the late 'sixties.

A longer post will follow, I'm sure. With Dr. Faustus, I say, " 'Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me."

Posted August 1, 2008 10:01 PM by James D. Macdonald

JimR @ #25:

You're not dumb. A lot of people have fallen for that trick.

Posted August 2, 2008 1:11 AM by Dan Blum

Rob @ 27: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for remembering that. I knew the line, but I had no idea from where. I was hoping to get to sleep tonight, and now I can.

Posted August 2, 2008 2:25 AM by rm

Jim:

Having read the New Yorker article with great interest and as a long-time fan of Ricky Jay, I look forward to your "Magic and Me" series.

I do exactly *one* sleight-of-hand card trick, learned from Bill Tarr's basic resource, but it's always a knock-out. The "real work" is presentation, just like they say.

Posted August 2, 2008 9:43 AM by Mark D.

BBC's The History of Magic: Close-up Magic:

• Part 1 of 6
  
• Part 2 of 6
  
• Part 3 of 6
  
• Part 4 of 6
  
• Part 5 of 6
  
• Part 6 of 6

Oh, and everyone: If you're in the Boston area, or can get to the Boston area, go see Le Grand David.

Posted August 2, 2008 10:14 AM by James D. Macdonald

Rob Rusick @ #26: Mike (Ford) liked Robertson Davies very much. So did his friend Jim Rigney (Robert Jordan), and the two of them turned me on to the Deptford Trilogy when they found I hadn't read any Davies.

Mike and Jim were also fans of Ricky Jay. Once when Mike and I went down to Charleston to visit Jim and Harriet, we all went to see Ricky Jay perform. The tickets were split into two pairs, one set much closer to the stage, and Mike insisted that I sit up in the closer pair. Jim was next to me, because Harriet did the same insistence thing, and we were both absolutely transfixed. Well, OK, when we weren't cracking up laughing. For years after, the phrase "the pachydermatous hide of a watermelon" gave me the giggles.

(Jay picked me as the audience person to be part of a trick. It involved a curious automaton and a card torn into four parts. I was in such fangirl transports that I could barely stand.)

Posted August 2, 2008 12:08 PM by elise

BBC's The History of Magic: Disappearances.

• Part 1 of 6
  
• Part 2 of 6
  
• Part 3 of 6
  
• Part 4 of 6
  
• Part 5 of 6
  
• Part 6 of 6

Posted August 2, 2008 4:58 PM by James D. Macdonald

BBC's History of Magic: Levitations

• Part 1 of 6
  
• Part 2 of 6
  
• Part 3 of 6
  
• Part 4 of 6
  
• Part 5 of 6
  
• Part 6 of 6

Posted August 3, 2008 2:47 AM by James D. Macdonald

I live 1/2 mile from the Cabot Cinema, home of Le Grand David. Come see me when you come see them!

Posted August 3, 2008 8:51 AM by Mark D.

A question about a mentalist: some years ago a friend with ADD showed me a DVD that had come in at work of a guy in the UK that was astounding--the best cold reading I've ever seen, and an amazing stunt where he got an ad agency to duplicate a prediction he made for what they'd create for a fictional ad campaign by controlling the route they took to the meeting and what went on outside their taxi on the way over. (There was also a fake "seance" in a normally disused lecture hall/courtroom under one of the bridges in London that looked like a minature of the lecture hall in Young Frankenstein.) Unfortunately I was without paper or PDA, and when I got a chance to call and ask he'd misplaced the disc. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

Posted August 3, 2008 2:02 PM by Bruce E. Durocher II

Bruce, 39: I remember the ad campaign segment! Given my TV-watching habits, it was on cable. It might have been on either right before or right after Mythbusters, but I can't swear to it.

Posted August 3, 2008 2:13 PM by TexAnne

#39 Bruce.

The guy is Derren Brown, he's a really good performer and famous for his mind trickery. He mixes suggestion with standard sleight of hand, showmanship in addition to really good people reading etc.

He's also spent a lot of effort into trying to debunk frauds, mediums and people who say they're psychic etc. so he does things like a really good "seance" where the person they contact is actually alive and well etc.

I'm a huge fan.

He started out as a card magician and published a dvd explaining his tricks, it's a dvd aimed at the magician community and you need to dig a little bit to buy it but it's not hard to get at if you just try a bit. For me seeing how the tricks are done doesn't diminish the 'magic' at all. The showmanship and presentation in addition to sleight of hand just makes it more facinating.

He sometimes upsets the press like when he had a stunt where he supposedly played live russian roulette on TV (with himself as the potential victim)

Here's him doing a card trick for Stephen Fry:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AewhMHhCmNQ

Here's the advertising clip:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg

A pickpocket type scam where he simply asks a random person for their wallet, house keys etc. and they give it to him:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TURhK90_8

Posted August 3, 2008 6:57 PM by Sica

Sica:

Thanks for the information! As an ex-SAM member I should be able to scare up the card magic DVD, but I'm uncoordinated enough that it's not an area of magic I've been that interested in--I'll have to think about it. It looks like he has one affordable book, a series that SciFi channel is carrying (and that Amazon has as a web video for $1.99 each), a DVD on psychic frauds and conmen that's PAL only, and a "book for the trade" at $339.00 over at Amazon...

Posted August 4, 2008 12:00 AM by Bruce E. Durocher II

Bruce - He's had tv specials and short tv series on Channel 4 in the UK for years now. So there's a bunch of dvd's of those available. You'll probably find more over on amazon.co.uk

The "book for the trade" one is out of print and just being sold second hand for very high sums it seems. I don't know what the price was originally, but the publicly available 'Tricks of the Mind' is great fun.

Posted August 4, 2008 4:56 AM by Sica

My humble effort at card magic. Plus! Added Otis Spann goodness!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhUXUDzBsOQ

Posted August 6, 2008 6:34 AM by Ev630

I said Spann. Spann, not Spam.

Posted August 13, 2008 5:32 AM by Ev630

Jim @14: Magic and Showmanship is another one of those books that is applicable to so many things other than magic alone: I've successfully used some of the pointers in there for public speaking, designing a presentation that actually kept people's attention, even sequencing music on a CD.

It's a treasure.

Posted August 18, 2008 5:16 PM by Joe McMahon

[ Spam deleted 61.88.131.159 ]

Posted September 15, 2008 1:04 AM by Tejas

Vacuous one-liner, pointer to what looks like a commercial site.

Posted September 15, 2008 1:37 AM by David Goldfarb notes probable spam