Which Wallet trick should i buy?

[Guest]

I was thinking about buying the mirage wallet because you dont have to palm the card and it just goes straight into the wallet. But i also want to slim fire wallet. they both are about the same price. I dont know which one should i get and why?

[Guest]

Two suggestions:
Buy a Mullica wallet if you want to do card to Wallet without palming.
And... start to work on palming. It's not as hard as you think and is an incredibly powerful tool. All the old time card magicians would have a card selected, and then palm it out of the deck so that they could let the spectator shuffle the cards. That's WAY better than any false shuffle you can do yourself. There is so much good information on palming available, but you certainly can't go wrong by getting Mike Close's Video Tape on the subject.
Oh yeah, there are other approaches to do a card to wallet without palming. Gaetan Bloom's Intercessor Gimmick and the Fiedler Flyer Gimmick invented by Lubor Fiedler come to mind. (I've probably misspelled one or both of those names, and I apologize to the gentlemen if I did.)

[Sean Piper]

This might be a good spot to ask about my 'Real Man's Wallet'.

I've owned this beautiful prop for close to two years, and very rarely perform it because it just doesn't feel comfortable loading the card.

For those that use it, do you keep the wallet in your hip pocket or your back pocket, and right or left.

I predominantly use a one-handed top palm to steal the card into my right hand, but card decide on the best pocket to load to.

Any thoughts...

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

I have my Real Man's Wallet in my back right hand pocket. I have no trouble loading a card in from there.

-Jim

[Guest]

I use a KBM Wallet and like to keep it in my inside coat pocket on the left side, because I palm and load with my right hand. I believe it was John Cornelius that came up with the idea of having a pocket inside your coat sewn in on a slant. It's much easier to load that way than if the wallet is sitting straight upright. I had a seamstress put such pockets in my coats and even a couple of inside pockets in vests. Helps a lot. Generally, getting comfortable with a move also just has a lot to do with practice. What feels awkward at first is less so when you've done it a lot.

[Guest]

To PRmiracle

Let me share a little wallet routine I've been doing recently that you might like. It's done with the KBM Wallet, which stands for the Kaps/Balducci Mullica Wallet. One side has a zippered compartment which is gaffed for loading a palmed card as you go for the Wallet, and the other side has a checkbook, which is, in fact the Mullica Wallet Insert. So you can do either routine or both. What I'm going to tell you about is a routine for getting two cards into your wallet with no palming. One is signed, and the other is not.
For the unsigned card, I keep a 4 of diamonds in the zippered compartment of the wallet, and the deck I'm using is missing the same card. I also have a credit card in my wallet which has the Fiedler Flyer Gimmick set up for the 4 of diamonds. So, I get the first spectator to choose a card by sliding the credit card into the deck and I spread it out so he can glimpse the card right next to the Credit Card. When I put the credit card back in it's slot in the wallet, all the dirty work is done and the gaff is safe. I then have a second spectator choose and sign a card. I control it to the top and then reopen the wallet, doing the standard Mullica steal of the card. But, I first open the zipper compartment and remove the 4 of diamonds. Then, I remove the check book from the wallet and take the signed card from down behind the check register. I like the fact that using the credit card gives you a reason to get the wallet out and into play without triggering that it's going to play a part in the magic. You just get it out to take out the credit card, right? Then, the wallet is right there handy to put the credit card away and ditch the gimmick. The taking of the first card from the zipper compartment gives you some time in between the steal of the second card and it's appearance in the check book which helps to cover the method.

[Mike Powers]

In case someone tries to find the wallet, it's the BKM rather than KBM and it's a good item which "swings both ways" i.e. loads via palming through a very clever guide and also has a Mullica insert.

As far as the Real Man's Wallet, if you palm with your right hand it seems that the natural place for the wallet is the right rear pocket. For a bottom palm to left hand I'd go for the left rear.

Mike

[Pete Biro]

Getting back to the original question "Which Wallet trick should I buy?" -- BUY THEM ALL... just like the rest of us! :D

My personal favorite (right now) is the hip pocket wallet (no envelope). I bottom palm with left hand and wallet is in left rear trouser pocket... soooo easy... no reset, just close it and put it back.

For years I used the Kaps wallet from Ken Brooke using a no palm method (that I teach in a lecture) that allows you to nip the card off the bottom of the deck from a glide position.

But now I find I can do the bottom palm so much more naturally and never get caught, I use it.

[Mike Powers]

I agree with Pete about the bottom palm. You can do it easily while the deck is being burned.

BTW The Real Man's Wallet's cool feature is that the card ends up inside the snap open compartment where the photographs are kept. It's under a sheet of clear plastic as a photo would be. Clever design and practical for daily use since it's a normal billfold rather than a bulky wallet intended for a jacket pocket.

Mike

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies people. Okay ive being doing some research, thinking and listening to what you guys have to say. What im gonna do is buy the mirage wallet AND the slim fire wallet. Which one i will get 1st im not sure. I will buy one then another 2 or 3 weeks later i will buy the other one. Which one do you guys think is better the slim fire wallet or the mirage wallet

[Guest]

I just looked at mark masons heatwave wallet.
for 40 Dollras you get a fire wallet combined with a card to wallet.

I don't know if it is good to combine them or not, but the concept is cool( kaps on fire is similar)

Just a thought
:)

[Bill Duncan]

I just don't understand why you would combine a fire wallet with card to wallet.

It seems to me that it would be kind of hard to convince your audience that the wallet their signed card magically appears in is a "normal" wallet when they've only a short time ago seen flames leaping out of it.

[Guest]

Bill, I understand your point, and I wonder myself. I just like that you can buy one wallet, and not need to buy them seperately. Smethings reallydo not need to be combined though, I agree.

-Dan

[Bill McFadden]

I bought Mason's Mirage Wallet when it first came out. Good concept, but if you mishandle the feke, you're burned. Also had anxiety over the durability of the elastic hook-up, and that the wallet itself didn't look authentic (in a modern sense).

For my money, the best are the Real Man's Wallet and the Mullica (depending on the routine). They don't resemble props in any way. The Steve Draun handling for loading the card does work, even in an Ambitious sequence. Biro's utilization of the bottom palm "cop" is simple, and you never get caught.

I use my Red Cross blood donor card for the slide - thin plastic, even thinner than a Bicycle card. The selection ends up sandwiched between the donor card and my driver's license. You could also use your SAM Membership Card for a slide, but as Mike Rogers used to say, it's kind of dorky to carry magic society membership cards around in your wallet.
;)

[Bill Mullins]

Originally posted by Bill McFadden:
You could also use your SAM Membership Card for a slide, but as Mike Rogers used to say, it's kind of dorky to carry magic society membership cards around in your wallet.
;)

I know -- that's why I carry mine in my pocket protector, next to my small slide rule.

[Guest]

my small slide rule

Ah! The classic dork (aka nerd).

Not to be confused with the now-extinct modern dork (who carried an electronic calculator).

Or the post-modern geek (carries a PDA).

Or the super-geek (multiple phones, beepers, PDAs, electronic repair toolkits all carried on a Batman-inspired utility belt).

[Guest]

Depending on where I am (and how hot it is!) I use a Jerry O'Connel Basic wallet or a wallet which is gaffed a la Real Man's Wallet. I also have a Mirage wallet but haven't audience-tested it yet.

The O'Connel wallet is a long jacket wallet with an "external" loading method, into a zippered compartment - the other works the same as the RMW.

One tip I have for the RMW-type wallet is to have the flap of the poppered compartment open in your pocket. This will act as a natural guide into the compartment. When you remove the wallet, do it slowly, so that you have time to "pop" the flap closed. Apologies if this appears in the instructions to the actual RMW!

Also, I have found a useful method for ensuring the gaff doesn't stick with the Mirage wallet - when you go to remove the "card", wiggle it around and open up the pocket slightly. This does two things - it loosens the gaff and cements the illusion that the card is held tightly in the pocket. When the actual card appears, the "snap" therefore seems natural.

As for whether to palm or not, I use the Jennings Immediate Bottom Placment, as mentioned above, to control the (signed) card to the bottom. It's easy to cull this away in your right palm as you reach forward, offering the spectator to shuffle the deck with your left hand. Act casually and they won't suspect the palm.

Also, as the palmed card has its back outwards, there's an inherent advantage when you load it into a wallet. When removing the card, the spectator will see the back of the card first, then the (signed) face, heightening the magic.

Mark

[EdAndres]

What a great thread! Pete you made me laugh out loud with "Which Wallet trick should I buy?" -- BUY THEM ALL... just like the rest of us!"

Now that's funny!

[Bill Mullins]

"Which Wallet Trick should I buy?"

You shouldn't buy a wallet trick; you should
buy a Paddle Trick.

[Tom Dobrowolski]

Also get Pat Page's excellent video on "Card To Wallet". An INVALUABLE lesson in card to wallet. It costs less than many of the wallets available and contains a lot of good thinking on the card to wallet effect garnered from years of experience performing for real people in real world situations.

[Pete Biro]

Unique Studio (Harry Stanley) in London, used to sell "Koran's card wallet" -- an ingenius setup.

The wallet was at the rear attached to a clip on your belt. Deck "behind my back" to find card... slip card out and into wallet and release it from the clip or hook (forget which) and it, on an elastic, is pulled up next to your inside jacket pocket... and the rest is obvious.

Alan Alan (same city) would do it by putting deck behind his back and shoving the card way up under his arm, it would just stay there... and then he would go into inside jacket pocket area, grab card and stick into a Seabrooke-style wallet/envolope combo.

Me? Nowadays I don't mess with wallets, just pull card out of either my pocket or unzip the pants and.... (depending on audience, etc.)

:eek:

[Andy Hurst]

Well I for one am glad I've read this thread. For years I used a wallet called "The Double up" wallet which was put out by the Supreme Magic Co. I had featured the card to wallet in my stand up act for at least 5 years and the routine always worked really well for me, and because of the way the wallet loaded I didn't necessarily have to wear a jacket.

I have been hunting for a replacement wallet for the last 3 years because my double up wallet after so many shows wore out and was looking rather beaten. I had drawn blanks all the way until I read Mark Powell's post and he mentioned the O'Connell wallet. It was one I'd not heard of despite my ongoing search. It turns out that it loads in a very similar way to the double up wallet so I was able to order one last night from Wizard Craft.

Andy :D

[Mitch Dutton]

Guys - Pete was right when he said to unzip your pants... The first time I ever saw the card to fly was while I was in college. Irv "Mr. Fingers" Weiner was appearing at the school, and to build the audience for that night's show would stroll around campus doing tricks. I was headed to class and here comes Mr. Fingers - rushes up to me, I pick a card and ZAP! HE UNZIPS HIS FLY, yanks out my card, and is gone! It floored me! In the right situation... it kills! --Mitch

[Pete Biro]

Yatthireeee..... and when I first started to do the trick I could put a curl in the card the longway... tsk tsk... :D :eek: :D

[Mitch Dutton]

Is there a name for that move, Pete? On second thought, I don' wanna know...

[Pete Biro]

Immediate Palm Placement Grip with acquitment. :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Pete McCabe]

I'm working on a wallet that magically produces the money you need to buy all the other wallets. The advertising slogan will be "The last wallet you ever need to buy."