looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

A place where beginners can participate, ask questions, and post their views. However, beginners typically ask a lot of questions about sources, tricks, books, and so on. In fact, all magicians are interested (or should be) in the provenance of tricks, ideas, and related matters. This department will service these needs.
oliver m
Posts: 27
Joined: May 29th, 2008, 12:16 pm

looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby oliver m » May 26th, 2010, 7:44 am

Hi guys,

I'm writing up a routine that uses the Jinx Switch and I'm wondering what I should put as a reference for it. It's mentioned in the Art of Astonishment books but I understand that it goes back a lot further than that.

any help would be most appreciated.

thank you in advance,

Oliver
Oliver Meech
www.olivermeech.com

Jim Maloney
Posts: 708
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 12:00 pm
Location: Central New Jersey
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jim Maloney » May 26th, 2010, 8:15 am

It was described in "The Jinx", #36 from September 1937.

-Jim
Books and Magazines for sale -- more than 200 items (Last updated January 10th, 2014. Link goes to public Google Doc.)

oliver m
Posts: 27
Joined: May 29th, 2008, 12:16 pm

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby oliver m » May 26th, 2010, 12:01 pm

Thank you Jim! So is that where the name of the move came from, or is it just a coincidence?
Oliver Meech

www.olivermeech.com

Jim Maloney
Posts: 708
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 12:00 pm
Location: Central New Jersey
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jim Maloney » May 26th, 2010, 12:09 pm

Yes, that's why it's named "The Jinx Switch". The actual switch is not named in the Jinx...it's just described as part of a trick called "Call Your Hand".

FYI: All issues of the Jinx are available for free over at the Learned Pig Project.

-Jim
Books and Magazines for sale -- more than 200 items (Last updated January 10th, 2014. Link goes to public Google Doc.)

Philippe Billot
Posts: 1820
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: PARIS - FRANCE

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Philippe Billot » May 26th, 2010, 2:28 pm

Marlo have a variation named Olram's Jinx Switch in Marlo's Magazine, vol. 5, 1984, page 178.

skmayhew
Posts: 99
Joined: October 6th, 2008, 3:58 pm

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby skmayhew » May 26th, 2010, 7:15 pm

And the move belongs to Annemann?

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 26th, 2010, 8:27 pm

It's an old move from the gambling table.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

Jonathan Townsend
Posts: 8704
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jonathan Townsend » May 26th, 2010, 10:36 pm

Is this the pack in one hand and card (or packet) in the other exchange?
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 26th, 2010, 10:37 pm

The packet is on the table and you put the deck on top of it, leaving a packet in your other hand.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

opie
Posts: 501
Joined: March 14th, 2008, 10:43 am
Location: austin tx

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby opie » May 26th, 2010, 11:06 pm

The Jinx says that you drop your dealt hand onto the deck and strip off the cards on the bottom at the same time.

I learned a similar move from a gambler, when I was a kid. It is a bit different than that described in Jinx. As your fellow players are picking up their hands, instead of dropping the hand on the deck, you drop the deck onto the hand, as you steal and spread the hand from the bottom.... That move was included in my "juvenile" booklet, Magical Ramblings of an Idle Mind, put out by Abbotts, back in 1965. .... opie

Jim Maloney
Posts: 708
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 12:00 pm
Location: Central New Jersey
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jim Maloney » May 26th, 2010, 11:08 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:The packet is on the table and you put the deck on top of it, leaving a packet in your other hand.


That's the older sleight (Leipzig used something similar in his "Five Hands"). The Jinx switch has the packet being switched out ending on top of the deck, not the bottom.

-Jim
Books and Magazines for sale -- more than 200 items (Last updated January 10th, 2014. Link goes to public Google Doc.)

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 26th, 2010, 11:11 pm

F**king middle age!
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

opie
Posts: 501
Joined: March 14th, 2008, 10:43 am
Location: austin tx

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby opie » May 27th, 2010, 1:19 am

It is probably more 16th/17th Century than Medieval ..... or were you referring to my age?...Seriously, friends of my dad knew the move well...and used it.....tsk tsk...opie

Jonathan Townsend
Posts: 8704
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jonathan Townsend » May 27th, 2010, 7:37 am

What distinguishes either from a hop?

Any thoughts on moving to the word "citation" in place of "credit"?

Jim Maloney
Posts: 708
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 12:00 pm
Location: Central New Jersey
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jim Maloney » May 27th, 2010, 8:05 am

A hop is the same as a pass or shift. No relation to the switches mentioned.

-Jim
Books and Magazines for sale -- more than 200 items (Last updated January 10th, 2014. Link goes to public Google Doc.)

opie
Posts: 501
Joined: March 14th, 2008, 10:43 am
Location: austin tx

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby opie » May 27th, 2010, 9:09 am

Jonathan, like Jim said, there is no hop in the move, just a table of the deck and steal of cards from the bottom as it happens...No credit or mentions sought.

I was ten when I learned it and knew that my dad's gambler friends did not invent it....

I doubt if they knew who Leipzig was, but they knew Erdnase and only mentioned his name in a whisper, if at all. They were surprised to learn that I had Expert at the Card Table and told me that some people have paid thousands of dollars for copies of the book. I believe I paid a dollar for my copy....Virtually all of them learned their cards and dice handling from somebody, rather than any written sources....

Dad did not approve of his friends showing me the card and dice moves, which made the lessons all that more interesting. More than once, Dad would caution me about even thinking of getting into the rackets, and Grandma, who was a lay Assembly of God Preacher, would call me a witch and tell me that I was damned to go to hell....

I loved my childhood....Magic was the cement that held my wondrous worlds together.

opie

Jonathan Townsend
Posts: 8704
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jonathan Townsend » May 27th, 2010, 9:58 am

Thanks, for some reason I was under the impression that a hop is a discrepant transfer action where a card or cards is swapped for others from the bottom of the pack.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

Jim Maloney
Posts: 708
Joined: July 23rd, 2001, 12:00 pm
Location: Central New Jersey
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Jim Maloney » May 27th, 2010, 11:30 am

The gambling move that Richard and Opie are referring to, by the way, can be found in "How Gamblers Win", which was reprinted by Magicana not too long ago.

-Jim
Books and Magazines for sale -- more than 200 items (Last updated January 10th, 2014. Link goes to public Google Doc.)

opie
Posts: 501
Joined: March 14th, 2008, 10:43 am
Location: austin tx

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby opie » May 27th, 2010, 1:35 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:Thanks, for some reason I was under the impression that a hop is a discrepant transfer action where a card or cards is swapped for others from the bottom of the pack.
-

Suits me....personally, I am not a card fan.....tsk tsk...opie

Marwan MERY
Posts: 2
Joined: May 25th, 2010, 4:33 pm
Location: Paris, France
Contact:

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Marwan MERY » June 3rd, 2010, 4:38 pm

With a Steve Forte preface if I am not mistaken

Justin Wheatley
Posts: 51
Joined: June 4th, 2009, 12:32 pm
Location: Lawrence, KS

Re: looking for a credit for the Jinx Switch

Postby Justin Wheatley » September 20th, 2010, 7:37 pm

Jonathan,

It is a discrepant transfer action, although the card comes from the top, not the bottom.


Return to “Reference Room”