Card on Celing

[Guest]

Hello,

I have noticed every now and then a signed card on a ciling... After seeing this a few times i created my own metod of doing this feat of putting a card on a celing. However I would like to know a better way to accomplish feat. Because my method uses to many slights and is not "sure fire"

-KJ Maginnis

[Bill Duncan]

Because my method uses to many slights and is not "sure fire"

Wow! Really?
What moves does your version use?
Most handlings I'm aware of only use one...

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by KJ:
slights and is not "sure fire"

Hey, any sleight that can stick a card to the ceiling is one i want to know. The only methods i have seen in use involve stuff to keep the card there. :)

[Michel Huot]

There is a few places where Mike Ammar published that. Don't remember it's on what tape but it's there somewhere. All you need is a control and a little something extra + a rubberband. Also, J.C. Wagner as a version that I never tried but looks good. It puts the money on the table...well on the ceiling. It's in his book THE COMMERCIAL MAGIC OF J.C. WAGNER published by L&L publishing written by M.Maxwell. Check it out.

[Gerald Deutsch]

There are 3 consideration I take into account when I do this effect:

1 I don't want to ruin the ceiling.
2 I want the cards to scatter so I don't put a rubber band around the deck.
3 I always have an "out"

I use a loop of scotch tape - that is a strip which I fold backwards (that is the sticky side out) into a loop. When I'm ready to do the trick I get the loop on the middle finger of my right hand.

I force a card (that way if I miss, I have a duplicate planted somewhere) and then I hindu shuffle the deck holding the deck between my right thumb and index finger (so that the middle finger with the tape is free) and then ask for the card to be returned and I hindu shuffle it to the top.

I turn the deck face up and my middle finger (with the tape) is against the back of the selected card. I leave the loop on the card.

I then regrip the deck holding it by the short ends between my right thumb and middle finger (face of the deck facing my palm) and toss the deck straight up with the deck parallel to the floor TWISTING MY HAND AS I DO SO THAT THE DECK IS REVOLVING AS IT HITS THE CEILING.

When the deck hits the selected card will stick and the other cards will all scatter.

(Again, if I should miss and the card doesn't stick - which is rare - I produce the duplicate from a spectator's pocket - where I may have planted it - or somewhere else and quickly gather the scattered cards so the original - with the tape on its back is not found by a spectator.)

[Guest]

I used to use that method of scotch tape when I was a kid. It was described in "Classic Secrets of Magic" by Bruce Elliot.

I hated picking up the cards afterwards. After doing a bloody miracle I felt it was a bit of an anti climax to have a great wonder worker such as myself having to scrabble around on my knees picking up cards.

Nowadays of course I wouldn't have the energy to pick up the cards.

Granted there is something spectacular about the cards flying all over the place. However, nowadays I would stick to a rubber band. Sacrifice of spectacle for convenience.

I am puzzled about your assertion that you do not want to damage the ceiling. Doesn't scotch tape do precisely that? I will admit that scotch tape seems to stick far better than any other substitute I have ever used.

[Gerald Deutsch]

Generally scotch tape won't damage a ceiling if the card is removed soon. Wax will do damage.

I often did this trick for clients in my office and I followed the routine that appears in Scarne On Card Tricks - that is, I never took the card down and I found that no one ever looked up. So when I wanted to do the effect I would force a duplicate, have it shuffled back, control it, palm it out and toss the deck to the ceiling (BEING CAREFUL NOT TO LOOK UP AT THE CEILING UNTIL AFTER THE TOSS.)

(Unfortunately, you still have to bend to pick up the cards - but it's good excercise.)

[Guest]

Ah! Now I understand. I never took the card down. I would leave it there for months. Of course the ceiling would be damaged from the scotch tape. The tape would keep the card up there for months and even years.
It is not an easy thing to get the card down from the ceiling. Enough exercise is taken in from picking up the cards from the floor!
I like the Scarne variation.
You have got me all nostalgic. I should resurrect this trick once more.
This reminds me. Wasn't there an Anneman stunt where you got a postage stamp to stick to the ceiling?
Oh, I had better not. One bit of nonsense is enough, I think.