Sam The Bellhop

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Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 22nd, 2002, 12:23 am

Are there any Sam The Bellhop routines with good stories and clever use of the cards? Most of the ones I see seem to be 50 years out of date and make little sense.

I am currently making a musical themed one about my first agent (Jackson Five, Queen, U2, Neil Diamond, Nightclubs etc.)

I thought I might have a selection choosen at the start and then tell the story of the first time I performed this trick, throwing the cards away as I go leaving me with the selection and Four Kings (using the old and rude four king good trick line)

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ori ashkenazy
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby ori ashkenazy » October 22nd, 2002, 3:16 am

I do a story in...HEBREW...
Lot's of wordplay.

I have a card selected and the story is told as I ask them to stop me when I reach their card. I tell the story with the entire pack. (minus 1)
Their card is found, after a run of all the cards, inside the cardbox that was on the table/floor the whole time.
This ending gives an entirely different taste for the trick.
If you do it at all, Please Please Please do it well!

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Matthew Field
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Matthew Field » October 22nd, 2002, 10:01 am

Two more recent routines are in print by David Regal and Simon Lovell.

Matt Field

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Steve Bryant
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Steve Bryant » October 22nd, 2002, 11:57 am

Also by Doc Eason (I think!) and Chuck Smith. Chuck's is the only one I know where the routine is actually a card trick; it locates a selected card.

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Pete Biro
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Pete Biro » October 22nd, 2002, 9:39 pm

I always thought the best would be a really shuffled deck and you ad lib a story, making it up as you go along... not easy, I am sure, but someone must do it that way. :p
Stay tooned.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » October 22nd, 2002, 9:44 pm

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
I always thought the best would be a really shuffled deck and you ad lib a story, making it up as you go along... not easy, I am sure, but someone must do it that way. :p
I could be wrong, but I believe Simon Lovell mentioned that he's done this at least once...

-Jim

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Andrew Martin Portala » October 23rd, 2002, 3:08 am

[QUOTEI always thought the best would be a really shuffled deck and you ad lib a story, making it up as you go along... not easy, I am sure, but someone must do it that way.
] [/QUOTE]
Jeff McBride does that but only in fun.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Curtis Kam » October 23rd, 2002, 11:52 am

I think that's Doc Eason's approach, and it's brilliant. The routine starts out ala Bill Malone's popular handling, where the deck appears to be shuffled, but the cards somehow magically come out in order, and then, just when the audience is getting the idea, he apparently screws up and really mixes the deck (good place for some of Lennart Green's false mixes) and then is forced to "ad-lib" his way through the remainder of the deck.

It's the best of both worlds, and inherently believeable.

If it's not his idea, it's mine now!

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Curtis Kam » October 23rd, 2002, 12:16 pm

Oh, and Nicholas, here's a couple:

All the number cards: the combined age of the Rolling Stones

4,2 & 8 = "fortunate" (nonmusical, but people like it)

King vanishes, or pops out ala Benzias slip cut: "Elvis has left the building"

A,A,A,A, 4, 3,3,3,3: "Couldn't see the for-est for the trees" (the kind of thing agents say, at least the ones I know)

There are more, and I'm sure Mr. Pierce has plenty of ideas along this line, as well as time on his hands, judging from the "David Copperfield impregnates..." thread.

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Lance Pierce
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Lance Pierce » October 23rd, 2002, 12:35 pm

Originally posted by Curtis Kam:
There are more, and I'm sure Mr. Pierce has plenty of ideas along this line, as well as time on his hands, judging from the "David Copperfield impregnates..." thread.
Well, you know, I always try to...heeeey...wait a minute!

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 23rd, 2002, 3:40 pm

Originally posted by Matthew Field:
Two more recent routines are in print by David Regal and Simon Lovell.

Matt Field
Where is Regal's routine? He is the master of good scripts....even if he does write for Everybody Loves Raymond ( i hate that show)

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Pete Biro
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Pete Biro » October 23rd, 2002, 4:04 pm

Regal has moved on to other shows after Raymond, and as of last weekend was not on any particular show.. "Working harder without a job" was his line. :cool:
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Pete McCabe » October 23rd, 2002, 5:22 pm

Regal's script is in Constant Fooling. I can't remember which volume, so buy them both. Besides he needs the money.

Somebody here on the forum mentioned that Ed Marlo borrowed a shuffled deck and did the trick with that, ad-libbing the entire story. Apparently he lucked out turning over a joker for the last card so he could finish with a line about "some joker who believed the whole thing."

I saw Doc Eason in the downstairs mini-theater at the Castle, (during the time when the Close Up room was being remodeled). As he launched into his version he asked Eric Mead -- inconspicuously waiting to follow Doc -- if he wanted to do the work, so Eric handled the cards and Doc spoke. At a few points in the routine Eric produced the wrong card, and Doc had to adjust his story on the fly, and/or Eric had to magically change it into the right card. It was hilarious (and more magical than most because of the work in fixing the mistakes).

At a convention Jerry Andrus once told of a routine he would do about car trouble, and a repeating line about not having a bumper jack, and after the last line about never leaving home without a bumper jack he stood up and produced a chrome bumper.

In my file of Interesting Ideas I'll Work On Some Day is a version of this where you introduce the idea and then start the routine, only the cards come out in new deck order. Then halfway through, you miss a card and so everything the follows is off by one card. The idea being that you'd start with comedy as the audience recognized the new deck order, then more comedy after you messed up, multiplied by the audience not only knowing what was coming next in your story but by knowing exactly what wrong card was going to appear.

Some day.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Chris Aguilar » October 23rd, 2002, 11:18 pm

Originally posted by Pete Biro:
Regal has moved on to other shows after Raymond, and as of last weekend was not on any particular show.. "Working harder without a job" was his line. :cool:
He's no longer on the "Life with Bonnie" show?

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 2:29 am

I may be going slowly insance but where in Constant Fooling is the Sam The Bellhop routine?

I like Ori's of having their card found OUT of the deck.

Ian Richards
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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Ian Richards » October 24th, 2002, 8:01 am

David Regal's card story effect "After Hours" begins on page 227 of "Constant Fooling volume 2".

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 10:15 am

As a matter of fact, I have just published a manuscipt of a seasonal, story-deck trick, with a card-to-wallet kicker ending, called "Apologies To Dickens." I am in the process of sending the first copies out to those who could help kick this into the mainstream. It's a good one.

Unfortunately, though I have been involved in magic for years, my relatively cloistered existence precludes me from knowing the exact mechanisms to activate in order to get something out there.

I would be happy to send a copy to either Richard, or Jon, or whomever is responsible for the honest look in Genii.

Maybe this one will work for you.

--Ron Giesecke

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 2:15 pm

Right. So I AM insane.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 2:41 pm

Just read the routine. Great Stuff!

:)

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 8:26 pm

Originally posted by Nicholas J. Johnson:
Most of the Sam the Bellhop routines I see seem to be 50 years out of date and make little sense.

I am currently making a musical themed one about my first agent (Jackson Five, Queen, U2, Neil Diamond, Nightclubs etc.) )
Hey, my nephew would say, "Jackson Five?!!! What, are you a hunderd years old?!!!" Try Britney, Christina, and Eminem....

Guest

Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 24th, 2002, 10:26 pm

Hey! I can't perform miricles! I got it down from 50 to 20. One step at a time!

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Shawn Preston » October 25th, 2002, 9:54 am

Carl Hein (of Heinstein shuffle fame) has a killer original version that looks fantastic in his hands (because he uses his shuffle). If my memory serves, he uses the whole deck as well as the advertising cards and the joker. Someday, if we're lucky he'll release it to us lesser individuals. ;-)

in the faith
Shawn
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. - Einstein

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 25th, 2002, 10:04 pm

I was never really impressed with "Sam the Bellhop" until I saw Bill Malone's presentation on one of his new DVD's.

His approach is first of all his hands are alays busy shuffling and cutting so that the deck truly looks random to the layman that despite that, the cards match the story, not the other way around.

He does so many false shuffles and cuts and flashy revelations throughout, that it seems impossible because he makes it look so effortless. I much prefer this technique to the other option of suposedly making up a story to match the cards as they're dealt.

As far as storylines go, Simon Lovell's "Who killed Miss Longlegs" or Regal's version may be preferred. But my key complaint is solved with Bill's approach in that it doesn't seem take forever to go through the story.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Bob Klase » October 26th, 2002, 10:51 am

Nobody's mentioned Eric Mead's Evening at the Improv. I don't remember where it's published, but I know it is.

I've seen Karl Hein do his and agree that it's one of the best.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » October 26th, 2002, 10:54 am

Michael Ammar features Mead's "Improv" rotuine on one of his "Easy to master" series, although, I can't remember which volume.

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Frank Yuen » October 26th, 2002, 7:33 pm

Christopher Carter has a version called (I think), "Jack Spade and other Mysteries". It has actual effects built into the story, besides just the telling of it, and culminates in finding the earlier selected card.

Frank Yuen

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Shawn Preston » October 28th, 2002, 11:19 am

Any idea where I can find Mr Carter's routine? Also for anyone interested Eric Mead's Night at the Improv routine is in the Aspen Bar Magic issue of Magical Arts Journal.

All the best
in the faith
Shawn
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. - Einstein

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby ori ashkenazy » November 11th, 2002, 5:11 pm

share, keep, share, keep...share!

One more presentation of mine.

Someone picks a card, remembers and places it back into the pack. The cards are shuffled (by me, of course - using my one hand false shuffle :) ).
I tell a story about a card cheat who deals croockedly. At the end of the story, the only card left in my hand is their card.
The kicker is this line: "and this is the story I tell with the faces of the cards...with the backs -- Now, that's an entirely different story".
Then I turn the deck face down to show that it's a rainbow deck. - tada. puff. bow.

I rarely do this trick now because:
1. I don't get many chances to work for magicians.
2. I don't like to be limited when I am working for audiences, (in terms of angles, and freedom of motion)
3. Also, for laymen this presentation diminishes from the effect of the trick, because laymen don't know what a rainbow deck is, and because of the weirdness of it they start to examine the cards instead of appreciating what they saw.
(funny, but the magician's props here are more interesting than the trick)

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Re: Sam The Bellhop

Postby Guest » November 11th, 2002, 11:03 pm

Okay,

My "Apologies To Dickens" story deck /magic routine is out there in limited supply (two dealers so far). Who at Genii would be the reviewer for this thing?

David Regal gave me a great quote on it. What a guy! I'm amazed at how accessible and down-to-earth some of these folks really are.

I know I'm excited about it all, anyway.


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