The Genii Forum

Tom Stone has an interesting solution to the Chicago Opener in the Feb. Genii. But shouldn't the original trick be credited to Al Leech who published it first under a different name?

Certainly Everhardt and Jim Ryan would have been aware of the Leech book published by Magic Inc. of Chicago.

Ryan Matney wrote:Tom Stone has an interesting solution to the Chicago Opener in the Feb. Genii. But shouldn't the original trick be credited to Al Leech who published it first under a different name?

Certainly Everhardt and Jim Ryan would have been aware of the Leech book published by Magic Inc. of Chicago.

He published it as "Hot Card Trick No. 1" in 1950: http://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php ... ago_Opener

There ya go!
I wish Leech would be credited for this trick as he deserves full credit and he is generally underrated anyway!

Ryan Matney wrote:But shouldn't the original trick be credited to Al Leech who published it first under a different name?

Yes, I messed up, and I don't really know why.

Leave Tom alone ... He's working on another column.

Just lately I have been becoming a bit of a fan of Al Leech, particularly after reading his legacy book. I really like his material.

So TS is going to be in charge of the new Magicana... awesome...!

Using the line: "I won't find your card, but your card will find itself..." First reveal as usual. Yeah I know it's a bad word play on that self help/discovery thing.

Following up from what Tom observed at the end of his column - that as you spread the cards around on the table they can include the odd backed card already there... 'oh there it is'...

What if you slide out the face down first selection from the tabled spread deck and miscall it, then use that to scoop up the card on the table and hand them both cards? At that moment they don't know you already knew the identity of that second selection.

No, Tom is not the new editor of Magicana.

I recently came up with a stand up version of Chicago Opener that is being released by my buddy Scott Alexander on his new stand up card dvd. I always loved the effect but wanted to do it in a comedy club/ stand up setting and now have a solution to the problem. Now the effect plays to the back of the house and fixes some staging so that it actually plays in a stand up situation. I haven’t seen what Mr Stone is doing but as a giant fan of his work I’m sure it fantastic

I was misreading Tom Stone's routine to imagine the cards spread faces out to the audience. The first volunteer touches the card they want. You then add a blue card for a display... anyway back to misreading other stuff

Tom Stone wrote:

Ryan Matney wrote:But shouldn't the original trick be credited to Al Leech who published it first under a different name?

Yes, I messed up, and I don't really know why.

What a gentleman Tom is no drama and takes immediate responsibility because he actual does care about credits. It’s happens even to the best of us and Tom is one of the best of us. I’m still really working hard and his amazing Benson burner that really is a showstopper. I saw him close the Palace show at the castle with that routine and was blown away at how he made a close up trick play SOO big on a stage and as a closer. I know this topic was about Chicago opener sorry to get off track but when Toms name comes up that memory is literally burned in my mind.

I love a Doc Eason interesting routine by linking
the colour changing deck effect with the effect of "Chicago Opener." That is, after showing that all the cards have changed from blue back to red back, we have a blue back card to perform the effect of "Chicago Opener" right then. The result is great for a sequence show. You can find it in his great collection of 3 DVD volumes “Bar Magic.”

I saw it on a Michael Ammar tape in the 90s called Red Hot Mama.