Ricky Jay

[walkinoats]

I apologize if this was already discussed.

During the Ricky Jay performance of Mc Donald's Aces in his show "52 Assistants," he displays all the cards before he places them on each of the queens. I think it is much better way to perform the trick. This is different then the way I perform it. I learned the trick from the Frank Gracia Stars of Magic booklet. In that version, you don't show the 3 extra aces when your placing them on the leader ace. Does anyone know if the method Ricky uses ever appeared in print?

thanks,

[Richard Kaufman]

The Ricky Jay handling is NOT in print to the best of my knowledge. The trick is actually Hofzinser's "The Power of Faith" from the mid-1800s. He did not designate a leader packet and of course the packets were not placed in a T formation (that's Vernon's idea). He allowed the spectator to choose which packet the Aces would collect in.

[Alpen]

Richard,
I had at one point heard that he was performing the trick straight out of Erdnase ... any idea on if and hows that is related??

[Dustin Stinett]

Mr. Jay uses much (but not all) of the recommended presentation for The Exclusive Coterie from Erdnase. However, he does not use the methodology described (he uses the aforementioned MacDonald's Aces method with some finery tossed in for good measure). As far as I am aware, he has been using this presentation since the 1970's. It's quite possible he was using it prior to then (I would really like to find out what he performed on his first Tonight Show with Johnny Carson appearance, which was in the late 60's).

Dustin

[Brad Jeffers]

See the Magicana section of the May 1987 issue of GENII magazine - Earl Nelson's "An Approach to the MacDonald's Aces". Although not EXACTLY the same as the Jay method, it is BASICLY the same. Mr. Nelson's handling is actually a bit cleaner and slightly more natural looking than Jay's (but not to the extent that it makes any real practical difference). The price you pay for the somewhat cleaner look, is that you must create a reason to pick up the leader pack once more (before you begin the vanishing sequence). The most obvious reason would be to hand the packet to a spectator to hold. If you work this way, the Nelson method is all you could ask for. If you aren't going to have a spectator hold the cards, it would be better to use Jay's method (which I prefer anyway). If you can't locate this issue of GENII, then just watch the video of Jay's performance over and over. You should be able to dope out the method with a little thoughtful study. The Nelson article is worth hunting down though. It contains a lot more information than just the stuff on the lay down sequence.