The Genii Forum

Can anyone tell me the date this was first published? Memory (which is starting to falter) puts it around the late eighties in "Magic" magazine.

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I believe it is May 1993 issue of MAGIC

"The Nine Card Problem" In Richard Kaufmans "Inner Workings".

Paul.

You may want to check Steinmeyer's original version, "Remote Control", in the New Invocation, Feb. 88.

And David Solomon's 7 card version in "Solomon's Mind" is quite elegant.

Raj

Thanks Raj but it was just the date Mark gave me I wanted for a reference. I found the information is also on, of all places, Jim's web site, duh!I should have thought of there first.

Peter Duffie also has a nice twist on it in "Deck Direct" (1998).

Thanks to both of you.

Paul.

A much earlier use of the same principle can be found in ABBOTT'S ANTHOLOGY OF CARD MAGIC VOLUME THREE compile by Gordon Miller. The trick is "Miracle Mix-Up" by Jack Yates (pp. 58-60).

It uses a full deck. The spectator shuffles the deck, selects any card replaces it and then loses it using the value, color and suit.

Thanks Bob, that's more than I wanted to know lol.
But... I must get those Abbott books sometime!!!

Regards,
Paul.

The trick is getting disseminated into the real world.

How does one put the Genii back into the bottle?

(And shame on Frauenfelder, who is something of a magic enthusiast, for only thinking that kids will like this.)

[quote="Bill Mullins"]

How does one put the Genii back into the bottle?

/quote]

Publish the trick in as many places as possible. It will then be ignored by all magicians (and magician wannabes.) Wait 25 years. Miraculously, no one will have any knowledge of this trick or the principles it employs.

Considering how long ago I first published the trick in MAGIC, I'm surprised that it's taken so long--two decades!--to seep into the mainstream. Jim generally isn't bothered by that. What bugs him is people who publish it without asking, as if it's public domain. I was very careful to ask him for permission before including it in Knack Magic Tricks.

Still, it's such a GREAT trick, that it will get out. There are equally great tricks of a similar ilk that are still secrets. :) SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

The little trick certainly got the attention of one Larry Jennings when he published his handling "Getting To Nine" in the July 1993 issue of Magic, An Independant Magazine for Magicians. His version has been in my repertoire for years.

Playing with oracles?

Bob Farmer wrote:A much earlier use of the same principle can be found in ABBOTT'S ANTHOLOGY OF CARD MAGIC VOLUME THREE compile by Gordon Miller. The trick is "Miracle Mix-Up" by Jack Yates (pp. 58-60)..

Those three anthologies were compilations of older material -- manuscripts, book and magazine contributions -- that Abbott's had produced years before. In the case of Jack Yates' "Miracle Mix-Up," it was originally released as a manuscript (I think sold by Yates himself), in 1953. I presume Abbott's purchased the American rights some time after that.