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CreativityTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:26 Hello, my name is Patrick Page and I'd like to take a moment to explain to you
00:32 what this videotape is all about. The title explains most of it, how to reveal
00:37 a selected card. Now at the outset let me explain that this tape is not designed
00:43 for the out-and-out beginner, although the beginner will certainly learn an
00:47 awful lot from this tape. It is also not designed for the card expert who does a
00:52 Pharaoh shuffle at the drop of a hat. But somewhere in between those two, there's a
00:56 large group of magicians. One section they've been around for years and years
01:00 and years and they're always interested in learning another method of revealing
01:04 a card. It's for them. But there's another group who have sort of, how can I put
01:10 this, they've been into magic, if I can use that phrase, for maybe two or three
01:13 years. They love it, they eat, sleep and drink it. They know hundreds and hundreds
01:19 of tricks. When someone says show me a trick, they don't know what to do. This
01:23 tape is designed for them. This will show them what to do. Now all you require for
01:29 this is very little more than one deck of cards. You do not have to be able to
01:36 force a card for any of the effects, but you will require the ability to control
01:41 the card. In other words, have a card selected, return to the deck and you must
01:46 be able to control it to the top or the bottom of the deck. Now because there
01:50 will be many beginners buying this tape, we will at the end of the tape show a
01:55 couple of methods of controlling a selected card. But at this point let's
01:59 get down to trick number one.
02:03 Because this tape is about how to reveal a selected card, that is exactly what
02:12 we're going to show you. We're going to dispense with having the card selected,
02:16 return to the deck, control to the top. If we did that for every effect, the tape
02:20 would last a year. So we're going to assume that you've had the card selected
02:24 and controlled it to the top of the deck. In this instance we have the three of
02:27 clubs on top of the deck. From there on you just shuffle the deck, give it an
02:31 overhand shuffle, keeping the three of clubs on top of the deck. And I think
02:35 that even a raw beginner could manage that much. Having done that, you square
02:39 the deck up on the table, place both hands behind the deck and all you have
02:43 to do is clap your hands. What makes that work is very simple. The card is on top
02:51 of the deck and after you've just shuffled the deck, leaving it there, you
02:55 place the deck on the table and sort of square it up. Now I'll do this at an
02:59 angle so you can see it, but as you square up the deck like that, the two
03:03 thumbs lift up this card at the back and bend it. So you've now got to bend more
03:08 at the back than anywhere else. So it's in this position and all you have to do
03:14 is place your two hands behind it, clap hard and the card will flip over. Now
03:19 there's a couple of things I should point out here and that is it to make it
03:23 work every time, to guarantee it working every time, your hands should be touching
03:29 the table. If they're up off the table nothing will happen. They've actually
03:33 got to be touching the table and you clap your hands very sharply behind the
03:37 deck. The other thing is that don't do it of as cups and saucers and bottles
03:41 around on the table because believe me when you do that there's a tendency to
03:45 hit anything that's on the table because you're never sure how far your hands are
03:50 going to separate. So when you do it make sure there's nothing there for you to
03:53 hit. Clap your hands, the card will flip over. Sometimes you get lucky and it
03:58 flips over on top of the deck but not very often. Now this was actually shown
04:02 to me, good God it's exactly 25 years ago, in Chicago by Jack Pyle. Jack taught me
04:10 how to do this and he had a slight variation in that if he was doing it to
04:15 a woman he would ask the woman to place her hands like this on that side of the
04:20 deck. The girl would be facing him, she should hold her hands like that and he
04:24 clap hands and the card will flip over and land on her hand. I'm quite sure
04:29 that's a variation on a Matt Shuline trick and as Jack lived in Chicago and
04:33 so did Matt Shuline I think I'm pretty close to the truth.
04:38 This next item is the creation of Paulie Paul, an American card manipulator,
04:50 wonderful card magician and this is one of his little quickies and it's
04:54 something that I seem to have known all my life. I've done it thousands of times
05:00 and I use it actually as a climax to another card trick that I do but the
05:04 effect is very simple. You say to the guy what was the name of your card? He says
05:08 the two of hearts. You say watch and the two of hearts jumps to the top of the
05:11 deck. Oh where did that go? Ah there it is.
05:16 For this effect you have to control the card to second from the top of the deck.
05:21 Well that's very simple all you do is bring it to the top of the deck as
05:24 before come up here and just shuffle one card off the front onto the top so the
05:29 selected card is now second from the top. You can now give it another shuffle
05:32 retaining both of those cards on top of the deck. Now if you run the tape back
05:37 you'll see how this works but you just ask the name of the card they say it's
05:40 the two of hearts so you riffle the deck. Now you hold the deck like this take
05:44 hold of it middle finger and thumb and you turn the top card over. Now note
05:51 the position of the little finger here it's on top of the deck and all you do
05:56 is just push that top card off and clip it between the little finger and the one
06:00 next to it and as you turn the ten of clubs face down on top of the deck that
06:05 pops up automatically. We'll do that again just one more time for you. Riffle
06:10 the card say there oh dear where is it gone?
06:16 [Music]
06:19 This time after having had the card selected and returned to the deck you
06:25 shuffle the deck and you say to the guy look I want to make sure your card isn't
06:30 on top of the deck is it in either spades and he says no he says on the
06:33 bottom of the deck the king of diamonds he says no so you said him what was the
06:36 name of your card and he says the queen of clubs and you ribbon spread the deck
06:39 and there in the middle of the deck the queen of clubs is reversed.
06:45 [Music]
06:47 This time you bring the card second card from the top in this instance it's a
06:52 queen of clubs again you bring it second from the top and you can give the deck
06:58 an overhand shuffle keeping it there if you like. You ask if the card is on top
07:03 of the deck and you turn the top card face down on now this is only an excuse
07:08 for you to get that queen of clubs because you turn over the top card and
07:12 you say is that your card on top of the deck and you lift it off but you've
07:16 lifted off the queen of clubs with it underneath it so you say is that your
07:21 card on top of the deck and they say no and you say look it's not on the bottom
07:24 either is it and you turn the deck over onto that four of diamonds and show this
07:29 card on the bottom now at that point the queen of clubs is here so after he tells
07:35 you that this is not his card you give the deck one complete cut turn them
07:39 face down and you say what was the name of your card and when he named his card
07:43 the queen of clubs your ribbon spread the deck and there's the queen of clubs
07:47 reversed in the center of the deck.
07:50 [Music]
07:58 After you have had the card selected it's returned to the top of the deck and
08:01 you shuffle the cards. Give them a good mix up lots of mix ups if you do fancy
08:08 over riffle shuffles that you can do that as well then you ask a spectator
08:12 to name his card and this instance he would say the two of clubs so you start
08:17 dealing the cards off the top of the deck one at a time and spelling t-w-o-o-f-c-l-u-b
08:26 two of clubs.
08:27 [Music]
08:30 All you have to do here once you have controlled the card selected card to the
08:35 top of the deck you have to peek at it now there's many many ways of doing that
08:38 but I do it nice and easy I bring the deck up remember this is the card on top
08:43 bring it up and say now look your card can be anywhere in the deck and as I say that I
08:47 just spread that last card and get a peek at it which in this instance is
08:50 again the two of clubs all right so you have to bring the two of clubs to a
08:55 particular position well it's very simple all you do is spell two of club or
09:00 whatever you can add the s on or not it's up to you and as you spell it you
09:04 just run one card off shuffle one card off so there's t-w-o-o-f-c-l-u-b and put
09:12 the rest on top so the card is now at that position you can now keep
09:17 shuffling it and just retain that top stock all the time and all you have to
09:21 do is spell the card out t-w-o-o-f-c-l-u-b and in this instance we've got an s.
09:29 There are many different ways of doing the spelling card trick there must run
09:33 into dozens and dozens and dozens but the method I've just shown you is the
09:37 actual method I use there is a slight variation and that is instead of
09:42 spelling the actual card if you can find out the person's name without actually
09:48 asking him maybe find out from someone else let's assume his name is Robert
09:52 you've got the two of clubs on on top of the deck so as you're talking I'm all
09:57 you have to do is spell Robert r-o-b-e-r-t drop them on top of the deck
10:02 now you can do any kind of shuffle as long as you retain those cards on top
10:06 of the deck and you ask him his name spell out r-o-b-e-r-t and the next card
10:13 of course is his card you can make it land on the last card of his name last
10:17 letter of his name rather it's a nice variation and you can also use his wife's
10:22 name if you want to
10:26 you
10:28 when I first started doing card tricks which is a long long time ago there was
10:39 an effect that was popular at the time called the card through newspaper where
10:44 you're the newspaper and I selected playing card penetrated the newspaper I
10:48 could never get on with it very well so I came up with a variation instead of
10:52 using a newspaper I actually used a book in this case it's called in a film
10:57 studio studio and the idea is to place the deck on top of the book and you give
11:00 it a tap and the selected card penetrates the book the selected card of
11:07 course is control to the top of the deck and what happens is that you hold the
11:11 deck in this position thumb here two fingers at the bottom and you peel that
11:16 bottom card off until it sticks out at an angle like that it's for those of you
11:21 who know it's a sort of Kelly bottom replacement move or the Ovette master
11:26 move I don't know who invented it but you can peel the card out so it's
11:30 sticking out at an angle from the deck and that is actually done at the moment
11:34 you pick the book up you turn the book over to show that side and as you point
11:39 to the book that's when you do that so as you're pointing to the book this card
11:44 is already out you now turn the book down and you turn it down onto that
11:51 card so if I do it this way onto the camera you will see exactly what happens
11:55 there's a card as you point to the book this hand comes over the book drops on
12:01 top of the card and these fingers grab hold of the card underneath the book so
12:06 the action again and remember this is a trick for people not for a television
12:10 camera because I'm sure that you actually can see the moment although you
12:14 don't you don't actually see what's happening but as you point to it you do
12:18 that and you separate the hands and the card is trapped behind there I'll do it
12:24 one more time this way on you point to the book you drop the book onto the card
12:28 and separate the hands you now place the deck on top of the book give it a tap
12:34 and as you tap it your fingers release the card from underneath so you get that
12:38 effect and the selected card penetrates the book now there is another way of
12:43 presenting this effect the method is exactly the same it's just a subtle
12:47 difference in doing it and that is it you still do this pointing and you still
12:51 load the card underneath but instead of placing the deck on top and knocking it
12:55 through what you do is you drop the book onto the table place the deck on top and
13:01 you ask a spectator to tap the deck and he taps the deck and you lift the book
13:05 up leaving the selected card behind on the table now although I've been using a
13:10 book let me add you can use anything a large envelope a wallet a menu card is
13:16 something that I use quite a lot if I happen to be in a restaurant type
13:19 situation the large plastic type menu cards are perfect for doing it
13:34 now we come to a thing called the Australian count you'll find out why
13:39 it's called the Australian count in a moment but it uses one one two three four
13:46 five six seven eight nine ten eleven cards and this is the part that reveals
13:56 why it's called the Australian count you put one down on the table and one under
14:01 the packet one down one under one down one under and you keep on doing this
14:08 down and under count or the Australian count and you're actually eliminating
14:13 the cards one at a time until you finish up eventually with just one card left in
14:17 your hand and that of course turns out to be the selected card as before the
14:28 selected card is on top of the deck now we're going to count off 11 cards and we
14:32 want the selected card to be right in the center of those 11 cards in other
14:36 words the six card from the top or bottom and the way I do it is that
14:40 remember the selected card is on top as you start accounting and you count six
14:45 cards one on top of each other in other words you're reversing the position one
14:49 two three four five six but from now on they go underneath seven eight nine ten
14:56 eleven if you do it right and your timing is right no one will ever notice I'll do
15:02 that again look there's one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven
15:08 cards and no one will ever notice so the seven of clubs which is a selected card
15:12 is right in the center so if you do the Australian count starting off with one
15:17 down and then one under and you continue doing that the card that is left in your
15:23 hand at the very end will be the selected card so when you reach that
15:27 card it's simply a question of saying what was the name of your card and when
15:32 he says the seven of clubs you have another miracle
15:37 don't let the simplicity of this next effect put you off I can guarantee its
15:51 effectiveness it's not the kind of trick that you do as an icebreaker to prove
15:55 how clever you are it's ideal in a party situation now when I say that you don't
16:00 necessarily have to be at a party you could be in a restaurant but you want a
16:04 situation where everyone's in a happy outgoing good pleasant mood that's the
16:10 right time to do this particular trick as always you've had a card selected and
16:15 in this instance we're going to use this card which is the queen of clubs so you
16:19 have the queen of clubs return to the deck you cut it into the middle you
16:22 shuffle the cards you cut the deck you do whatever you want to do and you say
16:27 you're going to try and find their card by dealing the cards turning them over
16:31 one at a time and you're going to stop when you come to their card so you start
16:38 off dealing the cards and turning them over until you reach this point and you
16:44 say the next card I turn over will be your card now they know that their card
16:52 is the queen of clubs and they can see the queen of clubs sitting here so they
16:57 know that this card cannot be their card but you make out as if it is and you can
17:03 bet them the price of a drink if you like or some fun thing like that but
17:08 eventually say all right the next card I turn over will be your card and you take
17:11 hold of the queen of clubs and you turn it face down that is it like I said don't
17:18 turn your nose up it is at it is very very strong the how is very simple you
17:24 have the card returned to the top of the deck and you remember the card that's on
17:29 the bottom of the deck and all you have to do is cut the bottom card on top of
17:33 the top card that's all you don't even have to know what their card is so when
17:39 you start dealing them out face up all you got to do is wait until you come to
17:44 the card that you remember which in this instance was the five of spades so you
17:48 know that the next card is their card so you carry on dealing but separate it
17:53 slightly from the others so that you can get hold of it easily stop and say the
17:57 next card I turn over is going to be your card when they go ha ha ha you turn
18:01 over the nine of spades
18:05 this is one of those effects where after you've had the card selected in return
18:17 you have to talk to the spectator when I say that my reason for talking to the
18:22 spectator is sort of misdirection to put him off his guard and I talk about
18:26 gambling what I usually sit them as I usually sit them that I personally I'm a
18:31 gambler I gamble all the time do you have a gamble and no matter what he says
18:35 I give him the deck he shuffles it and to find his card you show both hands
18:39 empty reach into your pocket and come up with the selected card which can be
18:44 assigned card and there is no palming
18:50 this effect was shown to me by Alcoran in the very early 1950s I don't think
18:59 it was original with Al and I've seen many variations on it since in print but
19:05 none of them were ever quite as clean I don't think anyway to get down to the
19:10 method the card of course is controlled as always but this time it's controlled
19:14 to the bottom of the deck and what you do is once you have it on the bottom of
19:17 the deck as you do the similar move to the one we used to make the card
19:22 penetrate the book this thing here where you peel off the bottom card and it
19:27 slides out at an angle there now once you've done that you're in this position
19:32 once you've done that your hands come back to your body here and what happens
19:38 is that that single card goes inside the jacket and the deck goes outside the
19:42 jacket now you have to be able to do that without looking so it does take a
19:47 little practice but you can get the feel of it eventually as you come back the
19:51 card goes inside the deck is outside and you say I'm a gambling man do you have a
19:56 gamble and in that action you've pushed the card inside your jacket now I'll do
20:02 that again in slow motion that goes in there now the hand comes upwards right
20:09 and your little finger this little finger is on the corner of that selected
20:13 card as the hand comes up and you say I'm a gambling man do you have a gamble
20:19 that action of coming up has pushed the card inside your jacket do you
20:24 understand that I hope so I'll do it again you're in this position you come
20:28 back the card was inside and say I'm a gambling man do you have a gamble and he
20:33 says no so you shuffle the cards given to him you're as clean as a whistle you
20:36 reach inside outcomes a selected card my misdirection for what it's worth is this
20:43 business of saying I'm a gambling man do you have a gamble
20:46 I'll used to be in the same position and I forget his words I can't even remember
20:51 his words but the action was it from there as his hands come up he flicked
20:55 his bow tie straight and then give the person the deck that is the card inside
21:02 the pocket with no palming
21:06 [Music]
21:13 the effect we're going to do now is very very old a hundred years old at least
21:18 has been in 10,000 different books on car tricks every one of you sitting
21:24 there looking at this video tape probably knows it already and you're
21:27 probably wondering why I'm doing it now well there is a reason let's explain the
21:32 effect first card is shuffled returned returned the deck shuffled into the deck
21:37 and all you do is drop the deck on the table and the selected card turns over
21:42 on top of the deck I'm sure you all know it the method is very simple the selected
21:48 card is on top of the deck and as you take hold of the deck you push that card
21:52 half an inch off the deck bring it up to this position and if you give it a
21:55 slight push as you drop it the card will turn over it so the the air catches as
22:01 it falls and turns the card over as I said before I have got a reason for
22:05 showing you this effect and that is it quite a lot of the work I do is done in
22:09 a banquet situation where you've got ten people sitting around a great big table
22:13 it's full of dishes wine glasses bottles wine candelabras vases of flowers and
22:19 whatever and there just isn't room to do it on the table a there's no room and if
22:24 there was room to people around here wouldn't see it but there is another way
22:27 and it was shown to me a thousand years ago by Bobby Bernard and that is it
22:32 instead of dropping it on the table you do it from one hand to the other like
22:36 that so you see it can be done in the hands there is one point that if when
22:42 you're doing it it's the same as before you push the card off the side of the
22:46 deck but it's important to do it downwards don't do it throwing it across
22:50 it can be done and you can do it but it's dodgy and although the card turns
22:55 over it tends to jump around all over the place whereas if you do it from an
22:59 upward position it will turn over more or less on top of the deck in your hand
23:03 almost every time
23:06 [Music]
23:28 we're going to take a short break now from revealing selected cards to talk
23:33 about controlling a card now this videotape is not about controlling a
23:38 card but we do realize that quite a lot of people may not be too well versed in
23:43 many of the methods of controlling cards so we thought we'd slip a couple of
23:46 methods in here right in the middle for those people who may be the beginners so
23:53 let's start off with the first one assuming you've had a card selected the
23:56 guy's holding the card he's looking at the card so you start to shuffle the
24:00 deck like this and you offer this half and said will you replace your card so
24:05 we'll reverse this card and assume that this is a card that he has replaced you
24:09 now shuffle off the remainder of the deck on top undercut like that and his
24:14 card finishes up on top of the deck
24:18 now this is a very simple method of controlling a card but don't discard it
24:25 because of that don't discount it because of that what happens is you run
24:30 off a few of the cards you now offer the bottom half to have him replace his card
24:37 and again we'll reverse the card and assume that this is a selected card what
24:41 happens now is it the next card that you run off is run off half an inch back
24:46 it's not flush with the bottom half of the deck it's sticking out the back it's
24:51 called in jogging the card the remainder you shuffle off and sort of stagger them
24:58 all over the place now all you have to do now is place the right thumb in this
25:02 position and it will separate the deck at his card you don't do it as openly as
25:08 that what happens is that you just undercut the deck for the bottom half on
25:12 top and there is his selected card
25:17 now this second control is very similar to the in jog one in that you start off
25:23 by shuffling off some cards into the left hand again you offer this left hand
25:28 packet to have the card return so he returns the card which in this instance
25:33 is the three of diamonds so we'll leave it face down there and shuffle the
25:36 remainder of the deck on top of it but when you turn over the top card the
25:41 three of diamonds is on top of the deck this is a sort of false shuffle control
25:49 and as we said before you run off a few cards you offer the left-hand packet to
25:55 have the card return and we'll leave it face up this time it's the seven of
25:58 spades and you now apparently shuffle off the remainder of the deck onto the
26:04 seven of spades but what actually happens is as you come down to pull off
26:08 the first card the packet with the seven on top is lifted up and away with this
26:17 packet you know shuffled a remainder on top until you get to that packet and the
26:22 selected card finishes on up on top of the deck let me do that again you run
26:29 off a few cards into the left hand you offer the left hand to have the card
26:33 returned and it is returned on top of the deck now as you pull off the next
26:41 card this finger here the third finger lifts up the packet and takes it away
26:48 behind now it keeps hold of it in that position we're holding a break sort of
26:54 so that when you've run off all the cards that card lands on top of the deck
27:02 so there you have two methods of controlling a card they are both 100%
27:08 practical and I use both of them myself for many many different effects one
27:15 thing I'd like to say you only really need one method of card control so learn
27:24 both of them and decide which of the two you prefer and try practicing them
27:30 without looking at your hands or the cards okay that's over but while we're
27:38 having this little interlude this little break let me just mention one little
27:41 thing about palming cards because some of the effects in this videotape require
27:46 you to palm a card and this is something that frightens a lot of magicians
27:50 particularly beginners well let me give you one little bit of advice if you're
27:54 going to practice a trick where you have to palm a card do it to one person only
28:00 don't do it to a group of people do it to one person a friend your father your
28:05 mom your dad your son whatever and as I say this is just one little bit of
28:09 advice when it comes time to palm the card what happens is this he takes a
28:16 card he puts it back you sure and all the time you're talking and you're
28:19 shuffling the cards and you're looking at your hands but suddenly you look up
28:23 and say you will remember your card and as you say that palm the card because
28:28 what will happen is as you your concentrations on the hands and as you
28:33 look up to talk to the person opposite you you will find that they will look up
28:37 at the same time so as they look up at you palm the card okay now what that is
28:45 all about is very simple and that is that the best time to palm a card is
28:51 when the person is not looking so what you do is you make them not look so your
29:00 eyes are on your hand you come up to talk to him and as he looks up to see
29:04 what you're saying or listen to what you're saying you palm the card okay
29:08 that is lesson number one in misdirection see you later
29:16 you
29:18 one of the things I don't like about card tricks card magic magicians who
29:28 can't do card tricks is where they apparently make a mistake and then
29:32 rectify it now I grant you that there are instances where this is permissible
29:38 but in most instances it is not like when a guy says take a car put it back
29:43 and he shuffles the deck she's now I'm gonna take three chances to find your
29:46 card three chances to find a car they should get it in one now color changes
29:52 come into this category also and what usually happens is that the guy gets a
29:56 card selected puts it back shuffles it and then he said bank that's your card
30:01 and the guy says no and then he changes it to the correct one well I think that's
30:05 wrong if you want to do a color change to reveal a selected card and why not
30:09 after it's been shuffled back into the deck say look there's a card it's the
30:13 three of spades watch back and it changes to the selected card