Visible Card Changes?

[Guest]

While I am familiar with many sleight of hand card changes, both that can be done standing and while seated, I was wondering if anyone was familiar with some of the gaffed versions that have been on the market. I sort of remember seeing a couple of different face up visible card changes in the past couple of years, but can't recall the names. If anyone can help me with these names and give a brief review. Thanks in advance.

[Guest]

I'm pretty sure that Mark Wilson marketed one, and I know there's one called "blink" on the market. I've seen demos of a few gaffs, and frankly was never impressed. You're better off doing a wink change, or even a good erdnase. Seriously, the gimmicks don't add a great deal; stick with your sleight of hand.

[Guest]

Bob Swadling has a great changing card on the market. I am not sure if they still sell some but I remember selling tons at the store I used to work at. You just throw it in the air and they see it change. Its really fun to play with, but defenitaly not as clean and satisfying to do as a sleight of hand changing card effect.

[Guest]

As for card changes, it doesn't get any better than Ed Marlos Snap Change.
As for gimmicked versions, the best card change I've seen actually isn't a complete card change:

It is a card vanish based on Alex Elmsleys Point of Departure (P.O.D.). It's called Holy P.O.D. and is described in the Winter Extra of Richards Almanac, 1983.

The gaff is quite easy to make yourself, and it's a fooler. You could easily make this into a card change instead of a vanish. (Actually, it started out as a card change, but in the version described in the almanac, Ken Krenzel changed it into a vanish).

[Pepka]

I collect color changes, mostly non-gaff. IMHO the best non-gaff changes are.....Mard Desouza's shapeshifter, Marlo's snap change, and the Erdnase/Houdini color change. I also do the Bilis electric double lift with the 2 cards back to back, this produces a mid air change, pretty spiffy.
As for gaffed changes, if you can find Zapped, by I'm not sure who. You can see a demo on the Shade movie website.
Pepka

[Matthew Field]

Harvey Rosenthal's excellent "Covered Visual Snap Change" is in the new Precursor Volume XC.

Matt Field

[Guest]

I agree, Marlo's Snap Change is awesome (anyone ever see the tape where he uses it to change a xard into a box of matches?). But I also think that the Wink Change is one of the most beautiful changes ever, and the Ross Bertram's Pivot Change is worth looking into. I'm also working on two of my own changes...... I'll submit them to Genii if I'm willing to part with them.

[Bill Duncan]

With so many amazing ungaffed card changes I find it hard to bother with gaffed changes.

On the ungaffed list, besides the Shapeshifter, Snap and Sleeve changes I favor the Marlo Aerial Change.

The only gaffed card change I have seen thats worth carrying the card around is the moving pip card that Mike Ammar used to sell at his lectures. All by itself, its impressive to watch but with Michaels signed card handling its amazing.

[Guest]

Here's a short article I wrote a couple months ago on another message board. It's been edited slightly.

Commonly referred to as simply "the Erdnase change," S. W. Erdnase's first method for a two-handed transformation (The Expert at the Card Table, 1902, p. 151) is wonderful. Many magicians have excellent variations on the change; Jay Sankey is currently getting attention for his revisions. I feel the biggest improvements have been made by Larry Jennings (Richard Kaufman's Jennings '67, 1997, p. 122) and Alex Elmsley (Stephen Minch's The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, 1991, p. 137).

More interesting than the change itself is its history. Several magic historians, including Richard Kaufman, Stephen Minch, and Reinhard Mueller, theorize that "the Erdnase change" does not even belong to this mysterious man. Several published records credit the change to Harry Houdini.

Enough with the first transformation; onto the others in Erdnase. All six of the two-handed transformations are fairly well-known, and all are worth your attention. The one-handed transformations are more difficult, but success with them is not impossible.

A newer change which has caught my attention belongs to Don England. The "Visual Retention Color Change" (Don England's T.K.O.'s, 1980, p. AC) is incredibly visual, and not very difficult. The underlying principle has great potential and is undiscovered by most magicians.

Ed Marlo's "The Snap Change" (Marlo's Magazine, Volume 2, 1977, p. 158) is another very popular transformation. Its popularity is well deserved, as it is fairly simple and incredibly visual. There are, however, angle problems, and the clean-up can be difficult.

Marlo's "Face Up Startler" (Marlo's Magazine, Volume 2, 1977, p. 259) is very clean and visual. It has been made popular by Bill Malone in recent years.

Marc DeSouza's "Shapeshifter" (The Trapdoor, No. 48, 1995, p. 862) is widely used. It is easy to execute and produces a visual change, but it is easily figured out by wise laymen.

March 29, 2004

[Guest]

Thank you all for posting your ideas, suggestions and references.

The purpose of this topic is that I want to end a Ambitious Card routine with a change of an X card to the selection; a change of one single card to another, not a packet. (Disregard the signature factor, I have that worked out via Williamson's 'peel off signature'). As I mentioned, I could use a sleight of hand method to accomplish the change, and if I did, I would probably lean towards Looy Siminoff's "Flippant" change. Also, I want to be able to do this surrounded so methods with good angles are important.

In reference to the Erdnase change, I have abandoned that one for Harry Levine's "Hurricane Change," (Trapdoor) which I think is a lot better.

I do have a fairly big library, but don't have everything. I don't have Don England's 'TKO' - is the "Visual Retention Color Change" gaffed or regular, good or bad angles? I don't have any of the Marlo Magazine's past Vol. One.

Any pointers to where I can find your references to the following (to those that didn't list them)?
Marlo's "Aerial Change" and the "Wink Change"

However, I want to explore some of the following marketed visible changes before resting upon the above. For instance, Mark Mason's "Blink" I think I have seen - believe it's an acrobatic card, not sure, though. Thanks to Eric Leclerc for mentioning Robert Swadling's "Changing Card" which I have not seen nor seen any reviews, but think it's only available in Europe? Eric, if you could mention the pros and cons of this I would apprecate it. And finally, there is Lubor Fiedler's "20 Second Change Card" which I haven't seen either. So if any of you wonder-filled people have some opinions/reviews of the said marketed card changes, you will help my quest.

Thanks again!!!

[Bill Duncan]

Originally posted by mr.e:
Any pointers to where I can find your references to the following (to those that didn't list them)?
Marlo's "Aerial Change" and the "Wink Change"

The Marlo Aerial Change can be found in Card Finesse a book that every self respecting card worker should have under his or her pillow...

It's not angle proof by any means but for the times when you can managed the spectators it's worth the effort. I end my AC routine with it for a hands off face up rise from the center of the pack to the top.

Here's a different handling that will work as a change of one face card to another:

Have a spectator insert the selection into the spread pack and leave it outjogged. As they do take a break one card UNDER the selection.

Square the pack and as you push the card flush suggest that if the cards were face up it would be easier to see what is happening as if the thought just occurred to you.

Perform a turnover pass to the break and casually dribble the cards. As you square the pack you'll setup for Marlo's change.

Drop the cards from a height of about 14 inches and as they fall into the dealing hand the face card will change to the selection.

One other touch:
I clean up by spreading the cards ans loading the stolen card into the middle of the spread as I resquare rather than moving the card to the "back" of the deck. It's better covered and even seems to fool magicians.

[Guest]

Mr. E,
Don England's change is ungimmicked. Here is a video I filmed of it. http://www.obsolite.com/magic/visualret ... change.avi

Also, Gardner's wink change was published in Epilogue, No. 21, July 1974, pp. 2-3. I believe it may have appeared earlier in The Hierophant.

[Adam Brooks]

RoatC, you do that change extremely well. I was fortunate to see Don England do it when he and Kevin Kelly kicked a midwestern tour years back.

Just beautiful...

[Guest]

Thanks, Adam. Unfortunately, the card is warped in that video, which is very obvious. Perhaps I'll retape it sometime. :cool:

[Pepka]

All of the changes mentioned are great. But I think we forgot 2 KILLERS! They are ungaffed. Cornelius's winter change, in his book is beautiful. Fingers widely spread; looks like real magic. Also check out the lesser known change by Jose De Latorre. I don't know the name but it is in Magicana of Havana. I only have seen one person do this well, my friend Frank Bianco. It is amazing when done changing a red ace to a black one. all you do is cover the corner pip with your finger, and wipe down and it visibly changes. Frank really amazes me with this every time I see him do it.
Pepka

[Chaz Misenheimer]

Glad to be reminded of the Jose De La Torre color change routine. I saw him lecture years ago, and that routine was unbelievable. I checked and I found the routine in his book, Real Magic. It was really one of the most magical things I've ever seen.
In the same book, was a color change by Steve Dusheck. Its great for one spectator and not too hard, but has severe angle problems.

[Richard Kaufman]

There are many great visual color changes: no one has mentioned several of Vernon's which appear in print--they are among the finest of their kind.

Geoff Latta does the best damn color change I've ever seen: none of this fancy schmancy crap with gaffs (which I love to watch) and funny sleights (which I love to do). Just a plain steal off the rear of the deck and an addition to the front. Pure magic.

And where the heck is Latta lately, anyway?

[Guest]

Has anyone seen the "spin change" thingy at Ellusionist? Mr. Christian is selling the downloadable instructions for this very visual change. I don't know who is credited (or deserves credit) for this, but I'd be willing to bet that it's pretty old.

[Chris Aguilar]

I could be wrong, but I believe Brad is selling the "Bertram Change". And I think Oz Pearlman also sells it as an instant download over at penguin magic. Nice looking change, but angly. It's also taught very well in the Earl Nelson issue of Genii from a few years back.


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[Ryan Matney]

All of this reminded me of a visual ambitious card sequence that I worked out a long time ago. I later learned that I had essentially reinvented Dave Solomon's variant of Draun's Midnite Shift. I think he called it the eclipse change. but I'm not sure...

There's a couple of differences I had that made it more a sequence for an ambitious card routine so I'll describe it briefly as I can for anyone interested. Anyone that knows the Midnite shift or has Steve Draun's book should be able to follow. Credit to Mr. Solomon for the variation.

This proceeds after a couple of phases making the selection rise to the top of the deck. Then...

1. Insert the selection face up into the middle of the deck and leave it outjogged for half of it's length. "Explain that the card really doesn't rise to the top, in fact it changes places with the top card, but you can't see this happen because all the cards look the same from the back. But, what if you left the top card face up this time?" Turn the top card face up and leave it square on the deck.

2. Spread the deck between your hands down to the selection which is still outjogged, say, "I'll make it even harder by leaving it face-down." Flip the selection face down and leaving it slightly unsquared with the lower potion because as you square the deck you side jog the selection in preperation for a side steal. The spreading of the deck and leaving the selection unsquared makes it very easy to push out.

3. Your right hand is squaring the deck from above and clips the upper right corner of the selection between the right third and fourth fingers. The card is pulled further out until it clears the deck and pivots into position for the midnite shift. Execute the midnite shift as you square the deck end for end. The face up card on top visibly changes to the selection.

You can now turn the double face down and continue the routine or follow up with the pop up card as I do to end the routine. You would have shown the card visually rising from front and back.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Geoff Latta does the best damn color change I've ever seen: none of this fancy schmancy crap with gaffs (which I love to watch) and funny sleights (which I love to do). Just a plain steal off the rear of the deck and an addition to the front. Pure magic.

Mr Kaufman, is this even more beautiful than Mr Latta's colour changes utilizing the pass?

Regards
Ben

[Richard Kaufman]

Yes, his palming is far better than his pass.

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Yes, his palming is far better than his pass.

And yes, that says a heck of a lot.

-Jim

[Guest]

The change sold on ellusionist is basically the same steal as in the snap change, but covered differently. And just as a response to Shapeshifter being "easy to figure out", if you do it right, it's not. Also, I think some of the changes Paul Harris is so fond of work better then we as magicians like to think. The Flop Change is actually very effective (and sounds like it might work for the application you have in mind). I'll have to look into those books mentioned earlier, though....

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Yes, his palming is far better than his pass.

I've heard of some incredible accounts of Mr Latta's colour change with a pass. I couldn't imagine how good this would look.. it must be the ultimate vision of beauty.....

[Richard Kaufman]

A color change done with a Pass is fast, and startling, and surprising, but it is NOT beautiful.

Passes that involve palming can, however, be wonderously beautiful.

[Guest]

Oops sorry Mr Kaufman excuse my english.. my post didn't read out as I wanted... the "ultimate vision of beauty" was in reference to the side-slip colour change... and if this looks better in comparison to Geoff's pass, it must be crazy!

I'm in total agreement with your last post.. :o )

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
... Passes that involve palming can, however, be wondrously beautiful.

How can a color change that involves openly covering the card(s) be visual?

Use of the pass or side-slip can effect a card change where the transformation registers apart from any handling. There is a demonstration of this in action online associated with a video for a pass tutorial called (as best I recall) One For The Road. Notice how the audience does not register the change till the performer announces it.

Again, agreed, not as much ballet as magic.

[Richard Kaufman]

Many well-done color changes where a palmed card is added to the face of the deck can be done so that it does not look as if the hand has actually covered the deck.

[Pete McCabe]

Jonathan:

I think you can create the effect that you wave your hand over the card, and it visibly changes. In other words, this is what the audience will "see". I think, if you do it right, the fact that the card is entirely concealed doesn't register.

This is one of the relatively few situations where "narrative" patter can be a good thing, if what you're narrating is different from what is actually happening, then it can affect the way the spectator perceives the event.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Many well-done color changes where a palmed card is added to the face of the deck can be done so that it does not look as if the hand has actually covered the deck.

Is this appearance of not covering the deck due to a different method of palming and adding the card onto the face or just due to subtle handling and finesse?

[Bob Coyne]

How can a color change that involves openly covering the card(s) be visual?

It's the difference between "visual" versus "visible" in a literal sense. The covering is part of the overall visual effect and the result is that the eye registers something magical/impossible as happening. I think the covering by the hand actually enhaces the visuality of the effect by providing a magic gesture and focusing attention.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Bob Coyne:
... I think the covering by the hand actually enhances the visually of the effect by providing a magic gesture and focusing attention.

There was a fellow who visited Tannen's on some Saturdays who did the traditional sidesteal and color change VERY well. When has hand came over the deck, then came down.. his fingers spread, there was what amounts to a retention of vision. The color change motion registered as one natural action, pretty much what is suggested in the Vernon Tribute to Leipzig.

He also did the classic palm vanish with that same kind of natural touch and got a retention on it as well. His name is Al Looey (sp??).

[Guest]

It's been my experience that if the fingers open at the instant that the palmed card is placed on the deck, that this "persistence of vision" effect is it's strongest. The card appears to visually change with no or very little cover whatsoever. Paul Cummins showed me a very visual card change from side steal in which the first finger of the covering hand is bent inward and contacts the corner of the palmed card. The covering hand almost seems to float over the deck and not contact it at all. It's a very visual and startling change.

[Pete McCabe]

I've been playing around lately with using the Ross Bertram Tebe color change with a full deck. (Not a new idea, I am sure.) This is another change that, if you can accomodate its angle restrictions, creates a strong impression that the deck is never fully covered from view.

[David Acer]

Some guy named Michael Ammar put out a gimmicked card change in the early eighties called "Visually Yours," but it's been off the market for so long, I doubt you could find one that's intact anymore.

As far as sleight-of-hand color-changes go, DeSouza has another change (in addition to Shapeshifter) called The Cover Change that I use all the time. You can find it in "DeSouza's DeCeptions."

Jerry Andrus also has a lovely change on one of his three "Lifetime of Magic" videos (when are these coming out on DVD?), where you wave your hand over the face of the deck and the card changes as you wave. The technique does not involve palming, but you need a pretty big mitt to pull it off.

Regarding techniques that have already been discussed, you won't find a prettier sleight-of-hand change than the Erdnase Change (First Method). And by the way, there's a killer trick using this in the recent Sankey Genii issue in which a ship and a bottle are drawn at opposite ends of a card, then the ship is gently, visibly pushed into the bottle.

Shapeshifter looks amazing, and I was impressed by Oz Pearlman's execution of Ross Bertram's change on his recent card DVD. It's angly, but it's beautiful.

Finally, Don England's "Visual Retention Color Change" is terrible. Don't look it up. Really. There's no point in trying to find it. No matter what you've heard about it. It's awful. Seriously. Don't waste your time. And I heard it gives you Crohns. I'm not just saying that to keep it a secret either. I'm trying to help you.

[Bill Duncan]

Michael was just up here in the great Pacific Northwest kicking butt and taking names as usual.

We were talking about the Visually Yours card Sunday at The Mecca Of Magic one day convention in Tacoma. The fellow who made them has apparently dropped off the magic radar.

The next best card change effect I've seen is Doug Conn's Pip Trip (from his Tricks Of My Trade CD/book). It look almost as good as the mechanical change possible with the Visually Yours card and "feels" like there's no cover. Besides that the Swiss/Latta effect "Point Blank" is worth the effort to master.

[Guest]

It's been talked about in another post but certainly appropos here: The Eidectic Change. Yum.

I had one in LR in '86 or '87 I called the Fling-Down Change. Easy as falling off a log. Hold a back to back double by the extreme right edges about a foot above the squared deck. Fling it downward so that it rotates downward off the fingertips, flips over and lands on the squared deck. I've taught a gibbon to do this.

[Guest]

Oh, and in the same issue I had a lovely effect of penetrating a bottle cap using Roth and Latta's Karate Coin #2. Not that it has anything to do with card changes but I thought Mr. Acer might get a chuckle out of it.

(Relax--I doubt if I was the first to think of it either, chum!)

[Pete McCabe]

Dan,

Sounds like the Fling-Down change would be a great addition to an ambitious card routine. Tilt the card to 2nd, then turn the card face up. "I'll drop this card face up, and when it hits the top card of the deck, you'll see the Ace rise to the top."

Thanks for sharing.