card calling

[Brian Marks]

I started to do card calling. I tried it out this past Saturday at a small comedy show I produce in NYC. It killed. Nothing I do on stage seems quite as effective and I havent fully worked out a presentation.

I have Osterlind's manuscript on his card system with the trick in it. Are there any other published versions of it?

[NCMarsh]

There are, and very strong ones at that:

"The Three Piles," Mnemonica, p. 85 which has a particularly strong dramatic structure.

"Card Memory," The Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy, p. 35 (also included in The Art of Mentalism 2). The routine has a different effect (the cards are being rapidly memorized rather than divined), but the technique and blocking is relevant to a multiple divination. Cassidy cites George Sands' "Extra Sandsational Perception" (which I believe is also the basis of the Piet Forton routine), the Nikola section of Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and the Baker routine cited below.

"A Miracle of Memory," Magical Ways and Means p. 104 (which, while it seems very difficult (I have not tried it) is the only method that can be done FASDIU without reconstituting stack)...the memory vs. divination note applies here as well

Piet Forton lectures on an interesting version, also based (if I remember correctly) upon the Sands piece. I don't know if it is published.

Chan Canasta has a routine which, I believe, is the foundation of the routine published by Osterlind (the foundation of the two card/pocket routine is also Canasta's). Canasta would have every member of a commitee withdraw a handful of cards, and would do card calling with all of them. The performance of this routine is availible on the dvd put out by Martin Breese. I understand that an explanation appears in the Britland book on Canasta, but I haven't read it.

The Canasta/Osterlind card calling is the climax of the divination sequence that I open my walkaround sets with. It is some powerful mojo.

Memdeck is much more secure in practice, and being able to glimpse the higher stack number and work backwards offers some practical advantages (the divined cards go face down onto the deck and the stack is reset).

To those who don't do this routine, ignore it -- not worth any attention ;)

best,

N.
IllusionArtistry.com

[Guest]

I originally learned the card calling routine from Ronnie Gann. I'm not sure where Ronnie got it from, but I'm sure it was Canasta who should get the credit. The whole secret to the routine is to make it appear you are calling out the cards as the spectator is concentrating on them. This is accomplised with the proper wording and leading your helper to the right cards. It is also common knowledge that a casual shuffle will leave most of the sequence in place making it easier to lead. That is one reason I prefer the Jumbo cards. They are almost impossible to shuffle thoroughly.

Richard

[NCMarsh]

I hope that what I've said about Canasta isn't read as minimizing Richard's very real contribution to this routine. There is, I think, a huge difference between knowing every card in a spectator's hand, and knowing which card the spectator is concentrating on. Knowledge of the cards in the hands is knowledge of a physical fact, knowledge of what is in another's mind at a given moment reaches an entirely different level of impossibility.

Richard creates the extremely convincing illusion that he is calling the cards as the spectator focuses on them -- and I think that is a significant contribution. The way he handles the final two cards is a very nice touch. It furthers the illusion of direct mindreading but also gives a final punch to give the routine a real climax.

N.
IllusionArtistry.com

[Brian Marks]

Originally posted by osterlind:
I originally learned the card calling routine from Ronnie Gann. I'm not sure where Ronnie got it from, but I'm sure it was Canasta who should get the credit. The whole secret to the routine is to make it appear you are calling out the cards as the spectator is concentrating on them. This is accomplised with the proper wording and leading your helper to the right cards. It is also common knowledge that a casual shuffle will leave most of the sequence in place making it easier to lead. That is one reason I prefer the Jumbo cards. They are almost impossible to shuffle thoroughly.

Richard

Your manuscript is extremly helpful as is your post.

I enjoy playing around with the effect especially in front of an audience. I have seen 2 well known magicians do it, both differently and both with strong outcomes.

I already do Canasta's 2 cards in the pocket routine. Tremendously effective for me.