Magic Age Cards

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El Mystico
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Magic Age Cards

Postby El Mystico » April 6th, 2020, 7:37 am

I’m guessing everyone here is familiar with the old Magic Age Cards.
I’m looking for examples of where this has been stretched in different directions.
eg Gardner says Royal V Heath extended it to “Think of a drink”; and I think Eddie Joseph’s Starology is something in this area.
Any other examples spring to mind?
Thanks!

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Tom Stone
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Tom Stone » April 6th, 2020, 8:11 am

El Mystico wrote:Any other examples spring to mind?

Max Maven's "Racer's Edge" in the Violet Book of Mentalism/PRISM
My own "The Test" from my old ebook Gravel.

Q. Kumber
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Q. Kumber » April 6th, 2020, 8:35 am

I believe it was an Irv Weiner manuscript where I read that if you place the six cards in a semi-circle on a table and look away, asking helper to remove the cards with their number, when you turn back, with a glance, you can work out which cards are missing.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bill Mullins » April 6th, 2020, 11:48 am

The "Magi Cards" by Harry Hardin (Conjuror's Magazine Aug 1945) allows the selection of a one-syllable word, a two-syllable word, and a number.
The Magic Age cards take advantage of the fact that by adding any of six numbers, you can encode 1 of 64 numbers. "Magic Arithmetic" by Edmund Rowland (Wizard, Sept 1954) allows you to subtract or add. You use a different set of code numbers, and the range of numbers to be encoded can be extended.
Deland used the principle in "The Million Dollar Mystery," "Did The Devil Invent A Deck Of Cards?," and in his "Radio Mind Reading."
Charles Jordan in "Count The Cut" in Four Full Hands Of Card Tricks.
Stewart James in "Mentalscope" (Stewart James in Print: The First Fifty Years); "Double Time In Spiritland" and "Coloracle" in First Call to Cards; "Synchromagic," in the Pentagram, and in Case For Cards. James used the principle a number of times. Check the indices to the big black books.

Brad Henderson
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Brad Henderson » April 6th, 2020, 12:28 pm

The magic age cards dates back to the 1700’s and was the first magic trick printed in the UNited States. The original version was a list of popular aphorisms it was called ‘the impenetrable secret’ and was printed on Ben Franklin’s printing press. Ricky Jay wrote an entire monograph on it.

Punx has a version called the Psycho Bell cards - which were included with one of the three hardback books chronicling his work.

I came up with one based on a psychological test which predicted the persons full birthday.

Dan Harlan’s missing think is a clever one as it uses the graphic design to essentially do the math for you.

And my favorite was the Version released by Klamm - to which I bought the rights - originally called the Pollack Calendar by Ken Allen. The scripting on that is super clever and justifies the numbers on the cards being what they are.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bob Farmer » April 6th, 2020, 12:39 pm

A very sophisticated version will appear in the coming Max Maven Genii issue.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Max Maven » April 7th, 2020, 12:41 am

No idea what you mean, Bob.

Bob Stull (as in the watch) had a fascinating version that used triangular window cards, hence a lot of information. He had them printed up, but I’m not sure they were ever marketed. I have a set he gave me, but I’m not sure where they are at the moment.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bill Mullins » April 7th, 2020, 2:19 am

After seeing your bookshelves in the live lecture last week, I'm not surprised they may be misplaced. (One whole end of my basement is like that . . .)

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bob Farmer » April 7th, 2020, 8:38 am

Max: I worded that badly--a trick based on Zen Poker in part is coming up in Genii.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby El Mystico » April 7th, 2020, 9:53 am

This is great; thank you!

Edwin Corrie
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Edwin Corrie » April 7th, 2020, 11:41 am

I don't have it, but Galasso's "A devotione del signore" seems to be based on the Magic Age Cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S8XZHzlHaE
https://store.conjuringarts.org/product/a-devotione-del-signore-horatio-galasso/

Martin Gardner discusses a couple of versions in Chapter 6 of "Mathematics, Magic and Mystery", including ones with window cards.

Joe Mckay
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Joe Mckay » April 7th, 2020, 2:35 pm

I went down a rabbit hole once and uncovered some uses for this principle that combine them with Hamming codes.

https://web.northeastern.edu/seigen/11M ... 20Code.pdf

http://www.ms.uky.edu/~jrge/Papers/Hamming.pdf

https://mthsc.clemson.edu/misc/MAM_2014 ... mateer.pdf

Max Maven
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Max Maven » April 8th, 2020, 4:49 pm

A mysterious friend reminded me that the triangular trick I mentioned above was not from Bob Stull. Rather, it was from Bob Page, a very clever fellow from Southern California. The trick was called "Weighing Your Thought," and copyrighted in 1966. I still don't know if it was ever marketed per se.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Joe Mckay » April 8th, 2020, 6:43 pm

Phill Smith makes good use of the Magic Age Cards principle in this trick:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/6252

Andy over at The Jerx has some good ideas for Phill's trick as well.

http://www.thejerx.com/blog/2016/5/10/my-two-cents-voodoo-card-and-stegosaurus

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bob Farmer » April 9th, 2020, 10:49 am

I like the idea of getting the cues from the cards they don't use.

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Tom Stone
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Tom Stone » April 9th, 2020, 6:59 pm

Bob Farmer wrote:I like the idea of getting the cues from the cards they don't use.

I believe Max was the first to code the discards. In "Racer's Edge" (Violet Book of Mentalism/PRISM).

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Bob Farmer » April 10th, 2020, 11:08 am

I just read Max's effect: that is so good and so much better than the video above. Thank you Tom for the reference.

Joe Mckay
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Joe Mckay » April 10th, 2020, 10:26 pm

The Max Maven routine is great. Thanks for the heads up!

Max Maven
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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Max Maven » April 10th, 2020, 11:15 pm

Tom Stone wrote:
Bob Farmer wrote:I like the idea of getting the cues from the cards they don't use.

I believe Max was the first to code the discards. In "Racer's Edge" (Violet Book of Mentalism/PRISM).


Thank you for noticing, Tom.

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Re: Magic Age Cards

Postby Denis Behr » April 11th, 2020, 12:15 pm

Paul Swinford's "Color Coded Control Cards" are a (weird) related thing. Swinford also has the spectator pocket the cards which contain his number/card.., thus coding through the discards left on the table as well. However, he was unfortunately not able to come up with any good tricks using them, although he certainly tried: https://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/s ... yword=cccc


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