The Genii Forum

Lordy, this is brilliant.

If you've not seen it, it's OOTW with a set of 24 postcards. 12 are boring pics of holiday locations. 12 are sepia 1920 ish french erotica. Just topless, nothing overtly rude.

You explain about a study which tried to get people to predict which side of a computer screen an image would appear on. Left or right. Unsurprisingly, people couldn't do it. However, when the images were erotic, people could (allegedly).

(this is all true - http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/s ... the_future)

Anyway, it frames OOTW in a brilliantly clever way, is a fun routine, and thanks to the ever delicious Jon Armstrong has an awesome method. It teaches (with permission) his Out of This Blah Blah Blah method for the effect.

This is just so clean and clever and eliminates the switch half way through dealing and the associated clean up.

Of course, for a puritanical, religious right audience, this wouldn't work. But for anyone not offended by sepia boobs, it is just brilliant. Brilliant.

Can't wait to test this out. It arrived this morning and I am over the moon happy with it.

FWIW the method to 'out of this blah blah' was shown to Jon Armstrong by me and at least at one time he made that clear in his credits.

I took an idea from Martin Gardner published in epilogue (shown by Bob Neale), added a shuffling sequence, eliminated a peek, and re choreographed the switch sequence.

Armstrong added a line or two to justify why some cards were being touched as opposed to others.

In mean, if you care about such things.

Brad Henderson wrote:FWIW the method to 'out of this blah blah' was shown to Jon Armstrong by me and at least at one time he made that clear in his credits.

I took an idea from Martin Gardner published in epilogue (shown by Bob Neale), added a shuffling sequence, eliminated a peek, and re choreographed the switch sequence.

Armstrong added a line or two to justify why some cards were being touched as opposed to others.

In mean, if you care about such things.

I *do* care. Especially when my Dinosaur Arm Buddy (tm) is involved.

The credits in the instructions read:

It is his (Armstrong's) variation on a Jeff McBride switch first described in Color Guard published in Steve Beam's Semi Automatic Card Tricks Volume 8 page 214.

yeah, that's the way it was written up in that big out of this world book. That packet switch is my choreography. Jeff had an interesting and viable version of it as well, but his involved different packet placements and the performer changing his stance. It works, but I'm not nearly that physical of a performer.

I taught Jon my handling and gave him permission to use it and teach it with credit given.

I told him that Jeff had a handling of the trick as I try to include all references when teaching a trick.

Oh well

Hitting up the horror nights this fall? Sadly I won't be at the genii event. Be sure to ride the transformers ride. it rocks.

The artist formerly known as mrgoat says: "This is just so clean and clever and eliminates the switch half way through dealing and the associated clean up. "

If anyone could be bothered to actually READ what a dead guy called Paul Curry wrote about the trick,to his mind, the switch half way through is a strength. It is all in the book.

But - hey - this version might still be great.

I came up with handling purely from exploring the Marin gardner idea at the heart of it. The original is still far better and far stronger. This newer version is clever, and while I have no doubt Jon could make it entertaining and amazing for real people, it really is piece designed to appeal to a magician's sensibility. We go nuts for it because we like the method. Gardner's principle is genius. I just prettied it up a bit, designing it to hopefully fly by the people who knew what to look for.

It was part of a three phase routine I took to show at my first 52 convention in Buffalo. this was the year chuck smith and earnest Erick were there. weber had given me an early pack of his and Dean's New World order deck.

This handling was the first phase. Daryl's out of this hemisphere was the second. And then I used the rest of the pack for the kill. (to be honest I can't remember which phase was first and which was second.)

Anyway, the three phases taken together played well for its purpose. The first two really set up the third. I wanted the first two phases to interest them, perhaps fool them. But more demonstrate I knew some older stuff and I knew some obscure principles and could make them work. Then I hoped to genuinely fool them with the use of gaffs.

for the most part, it worked as I hoped for.

and now you know - the rest of the story

Bruce Bernstein's excellent' Separation Anxiety' is worth checking out.
He doesn't tip Out of This Blah Blah Blah but does reference it and credits Brad Henderson (and Jon Armstrong).
http://www.brucembernstein.com/product.html

it's easy to see how the credit got dropped as the idea made its way into several forms released by different people.

I like this.

What is the history of Out Of This World effects that use something other than playing cards.

One would be Lebanon Circle's From Hell.

Are there others?

Many a good trick has been killed by improvement. Especially vulgar improvement.

I have come across a couple more of these type of effects ...

White Star by Jim Critchlow, which uses pictures of Titanic passengers and Another World by Rob Zabrecky, which uses photos of Harry and Bess Houdini.

White Star has been out for several years.

Another World is a recent release.