The Smiling Mule

[Guest]

Recently while reading L.I.N.T. I came across a routine that was inspired by 'The Smiling Mule' by Roy Walton. The phase allegedly drawing inspiration is as follows: Two sandwich cards are place in the center of the deck. A card is named. The two sandwich cards will sandwich the named card. Well, the two sandwich cards then sandwich the other 50 cards including the selection. So the effect sort of succeeds.
There's more but the second half of the effect is credited to Nelson's Pass the Sandwich.

Could someone give me a quick synopsis of the effect? And a reference. During a quick web search I saw that it was on Mike Close's Volume One of the Very Very Close tapes.

Thanks in advance,
Rich Kameda

[Bill Duncan]

There's a cute sandwich item on one of Daryl's Card Revelation vids where you have card selected and sandwich it by openly and quickly placing the face up jacks on top and bottom of the pack. After the gag you make good by tossing the pack and holding back the top and bottom cards and the selection between them. It's a nice quickie and easy to do.

From the description you offer it would seem you could turn the deck face up after the gag to show that the named card was actually in the center of the deck and then cull it and do Pass the Sandwich.

If you're asking what Pass the Sandwich is:
A card is touched in the center of the pack and left protruding as Jacks are positioned face up on top and bottom of the pack.
The card is pushed flush and then the face up jacks vanish only to be found in the center of the pack on either side of the selection. It takes it's name from the technique used to create the effect... a classic or riffle pass.


cheers
bill

[Richard James]

Rich...

Could someone give me a quick synopsis of the effect? And a reference.

A synopsis, Roy's effect is basically what you already mentioned. But, after the 'joke' phase, the named card really DOES appear between the sandwich cards in the centre of the deck!

A reference, you'll find Roy's full description on page 175 of The Complete Walton Volume One, which is a bound collection of his earlier works.

For the record, the original booklet containing the effect was called - That Certain Something.

[ February 17, 2002: Message edited by: Richard James ]

[Alpen]

Probably the best version that I've seen of Walton's Smiling Mule is a version that I saw John Carney do, and I believe that it's on his tape Up Close and Far Away.

[Guest]

I love this trick, I use it everytime I work professionally. It has everything, an amazing effect, comedy, no set up, reasonably simple moves and the potential to really add your personal touch to the effect.

It is a great example of using comedy as misdirection as you do the move right after they laugh.

Magic at its best

[Rafael Benatar]

An interesting aspect of the trick is that you make a promise that, by itself, is quite impressive. You don't really fulfil it right away, but at the end they will be satisfied and might remember just that: that a card named appeared between the two Aces.

[Carl Mercurio]

A great effect. I use it all the time.