John Bannon's Queenpins

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webbmaster
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John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby webbmaster » September 18th, 2017, 1:52 pm

I really liked John Bannon's Queenpins in the July issue ! I want to mention that the originator of the handling described at the end under Interlock is Tomas Blomberg who I was lucky to meet at the old Tannen's, who under the name Topas won the manipulation prize at FISM one time for his appearing sunglasses and wands and bells and finally a fender guitar ! Then another pair of sunglasses ! So I think of him as a standup, but now is a good thinker of close-up ! You may try to find his sunglasses act on line - worthwhile that.

Anyway, the card trick in question reminded me for some reason of Paul Harris's Grasshopper which I had forgotten and now looking into again. Any similarities to the Queenpins may take a while. I'll try to report on that sometime soon. Regards, Gregg

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Alfred » September 19th, 2017, 3:06 am

webbmaster wrote: ...Tomas Blomberg ... who under the name Topas won the manipulation prize at FISM one time for his appearing sunglasses and wands and bells and finally a fender guitar! Then another pair of sunglasses! ...


Gregg, as far as I am concerned, I'd say that they are not the same person!

On an other note, Tom Stone's approach to Tomas' interlock principle should not be dismissed. In fact, in my experience, Stone's looks very organic and thus more natural than Tomas', which requires more handling to accomplish the task. Each procedure has its pros and cons, so I guess it's a personal choice.

Should anyone be interested, it is possible to build a nice routine by combining several of the approaches that John Bannon credits at the end of the column... ;)

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby webbmaster » September 20th, 2017, 1:49 pm

Hi Alfred, thanks but as I mentioned I met him at the old Tannen's and he and his teacher/coach Eberhart Reece (sp) and the winner of the next FISM went to dinner with Charles Reynolds so I had a chance to get to know him...enough to hear Franklin, the guy who won the year after Tomas call him Tomas. Plus I've followed other of his mentions in-print over the years. I think its the same guy (for one thing he put on weight - don't we all...he was very trim in his standup sunglasses act days.). I could be wrong. Anyway, the interlocked handling is the one I liked because you seem to see more of each card.

By the way, any thoughts on the similarities to Paul Harris's Grasshopper ? Regards, Gregg

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Richard Kaufman » September 20th, 2017, 2:53 pm

Tomas Blomberg is NOT Topas. I know both of them.
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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby AJM » September 20th, 2017, 3:40 pm

I've never met either of them - however even I know they're not the same person.

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Jonathan Townsend » September 20th, 2017, 4:23 pm

Yes, there's some similarity of effect and method in Harris's Grasshopper and Bannon's recent item.
Grasshopper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maXF-wafPy4

Greg - have a look at Larry Jenning's "Visitor" in Expert Card Mysteries. In effect: A freely selected card is placed between two face up Queens and the sandwich isolated into half the pack - set aside on the table. The other two Queens are shown - then the selection appears (and is shown) between them. A moment later the selection vanishes. The set aside packet is spread to show the selection back in place between the two face up Queens. Folks might want to ask Bob Farmer for a little help on the "isolated" packet for a nifty count/display by way of the last page of his Turnantula item. I'd like to see that vanish of a sandwiched card... also the Lefler cardcase item.
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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Alfred » September 21st, 2017, 2:39 am

webbmaster wrote: By the way, any thoughts on the similarities to Paul Harris's Grasshopper ? Regards, Gregg

Well, I'd say that they are conceptually different. As pointed out by Jonathan Townsend, Jennings' The Visitor and Harris' Grasshopper share similarities: the basic premise is the transposition of a selected card from two court cards to the other two. That's what I call a symmetric transposition.

However, Queenspins (as well as the predecessors credited by Bannon) is built around an asymmetric transposition, which in my opinion is another beast: the effect upon laymen has an unexpected ending and the handling has to be extremely refined (in terms of naturalness) in order to fly by. As an aside note, my favourite asymmetric transposition is Arturo de Ascanio's El Juego de Dolores (also known as Hotel Mystery) followed by Gabi's corollary.

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Mark Tams » September 21st, 2017, 7:30 am

As an aside note, my favourite asymmetric transposition is Arturo de Ascanio's El Juego de Dolores (also known as Hotel Mystery) followed by Gabi's corollary.


Where are these two items found?

Thx!

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Alfred » September 21st, 2017, 11:37 am

Mark Tams wrote:Where are these two items found? Thx!
"El juego de Dolores" can be found in "The magic of Ascanio - Studies of card magic" under the name "Dolores's Trick".
Gabi's version was first published in his book "Secuencias" and later republished in "La depuración constante de lo mismo".

Hope this helps!

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Mark Tams » September 21st, 2017, 2:07 pm

"El juego de Dolores" can be found in "The magic of Ascanio - Studies of card magic" under the name "Dolores's Trick".
Gabi's version was first published in his book "Secuencias" and later republished in "La depuración constante de lo mismo".

Hope this helps!


I may have too much gringo in me for these. :o

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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Jonathan Townsend » September 21st, 2017, 8:37 pm

Is that the trick with "but when the hotel detective knocked on the door..."?

for the asymmetric transposition - folks might like Bill Goodwin's work on that plot:
https://www.artofmagic.com/products/off-balance-transpo
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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby Ryan Matney » September 26th, 2017, 6:54 pm

Bannon's trick is actually based on Luke Dancy's "Royale With Cheese" which was released as a download through Penguin. Personally, I think Bannon's handling is the best version of this trick to date.
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Re: John Bannon's Queenpins

Postby webbmaster » September 27th, 2017, 9:27 am

As far as the Tomas thing...I think we did go to a restaurant with Tomas and Franklin and Eberhart Reece (sp) but I suppose somewhere along the line I connected Tomas Blomberg with Tomas as being the same guy. Well, that's embarrassing.

Back to Grasshopper, and Alfred, I didn't mean they were the same. I just meant that one somehow reminded me of the other.

Also, thanks Jon about the similarity (in a kind of 'reminds' me of the other kind of way) with The Visitor. Meanwhile, back to the Queenpins, at the end when the supposed 2 Queens are put on the deck and double-undercut...I've been using a Turnover Pass (still enthused by Richard Kaufman's classic video) to make them 'disappear' only to be found in the desired condition - two face down between - in the middle. It has a certain 'feel' to it I'm liking. Regards, Gregg


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