What is your favorite trick by Harry Lorayne?

[rage]

That clears it up. Thanks El Mystico.

[Harry Lorayne]

WHEW!!

[Bermini]

His version of 3 card monte.

[Jonathan Townsend]

How he shifts gears to get into performing mode so well and reliably. That's a trick I'd like to learn.

[Sammy Jackson]

I agree with Jonathon. I have only seen Harry do memory work and he is a wonderful performer. I am sure that his card magic is just as riveting. His books certainly are.

[Mats Kjellstrom]

I like 10 poker deal, very fun effect.
Plus, I do a trick with a faro shuffle by Harry, cant remember the name. A card is trapped between two card in the middle of the deck.

[Sammy Jackson]

There are so many good ones that it is hard to pick out a favourite. However I once heard Ken Brooke rave about the moving pencil trick in CUCM. In fact he raved about it so much that I thought that I had better check it out. It was every bit as good as Ken said it was.

[Richard Kaufman]

The Moving Pencil is a killer trick. Easily worth double the price of the book.

[Paul Gordon]

Ken Brooke used to dem The Moving Pencil if he had a copy of CUCM he wanted to sell. His dem & the trick always 'got' the sale!

Paul Gordon

[John Carey]

Some of my favourites:
One eyed jack sandwich
gambler vs magician
the moving pencil
big fella little fella
foursome
stop

[Harry Lorayne]

Good choices, John. Do you use my HaLo Cut when doing the One-Eyed Jack Sandwich? It fits perfectly. HL

[John Carey]

Hi Harry,

For the one eyed jack sandwich I use Martin Nash' handling using a slip cut from his jacks or better routine.

John

[Harry Lorayne]

I don't know that - try the HaLo Cut. HL

[John Carey]

Martins method works very nicely for me Harry

Best

John

[Harry Lorayne]

Haven't had a chance to check it out, John. Does Martin's method require a break or separation of any kind? Just curious. HL

[Philippe Noël]

Hi Harry,
Martin's method uses side steal to get rid of the x card.
A very good idea indeed because in that way the Magi can work with cards face down and never sees the face of spectator's card.
Still another approach to the "One-eyed Jack Sandwich" is Jon Racherbaumer's Eyed Jack Sandwich from Hierophant magazine. This time you need one atfus and a slip cut.

[Harry Lorayne]

Okay, thanks, but - sorry; c'mon, nowhere as good as the original. I don't want to do sidesteals or atfuses. One simple cut, apparently cutting the top cards to center, is all that should be necessary and all that the onlookes should see. So far, I've seen or heard of nothing that is as clean and "natural" as is doing my HaLo Cut at that point. Sorry. But, to each his own. Best - HARRY LORAYNE.

[John Carey]

Hi Harry,
Martin's method uses side steal to get rid of the x card.
A very good idea indeed because in that way the Magi can work with cards face down and never sees the face of spectator's card.
Still another approach to the "One-eyed Jack Sandwich" is Jon Racherbaumer's Eyed Jack Sandwich from Hierophant magazine. This time you need one atfus and a slip cut.

Thats not the Nash handling I use Phillipe.There are no side steals to speak of.
The selection is placed face down on your palm and the deck is placed on top.Right hand holds the deck from above and raises the hand to show selection.Then you do a slip cut from this raised position and the work is done.
It is a piece of cake and every bit as convincing as the Braue/Lorayne effect.

[Harry Lorayne]

Well, I'm lost. What you describe, if I understand correctly, is NOT my One-Eyed Jack Sandwich. It may be the same effect, but certainly not anywhere near the same handling. Am I wrong? HL (People have written that my One-Eyed Jack Sandwich started the "sandwich craze." I don't know about that, but if it did, I don't know if I want to accept the credit OR the blame! In any case, it seems that I did start "something," if you go by the above. And what is the "Braue effect"?)

[John Carey]

Hi Harry,

It is not the same handling, you are correct.
I saw Martin perform his handling with full credit to you on an old videonics video years ago when he was performing a whole series of sandwich stuff one after the other.

I read somewhere-god knows where that the late Fred Braue had a sandwich type effect that was similar to yours but nowhere near as clean as your handling.

I will do my best to track down this Braue reference for ya H.

Nice to have a freindly exchange on here with you without any of that crapiola that goes on over at the cafe Harry.

You do realise that some of those jerks deliberately set out to wind you up mate?

Take care and have a nice weekend.

John

[Philippe Noël]

Hi John,
You are right, Martin also has the handling you are talking about but then if you are surrounded people can see your slip cut that is why Martin uses the side steal when he is surrounded.
A good point for Harry is that the Halo Cut (Bottom slip cut with no break) is invisible even surrounded.
And what about the Braue reference?
In My Favorite Card Tricks, Harry says that:"This effect(One-eyed Jack Sandwich)is not original with me. Someone performed it for me some years ago. It didn't fool me and there was a move in it that looked like a move."
I suppose the person that performed the trick for you had read the trick named "The Prechosen Chosen Card" by Fred Brau and published in the Gen page 260 Vol. 17, N 10 of february 1962.

[Richard Kaufman]

Here's a little bit of technical finesse on the HaLo Cut that I've never divulged. I don't believe Harry does this, nor has it been published (unless by me and I've forgotten!).

The only place the HaLo Cut can really leak is from the front: the held-back card can be visible, separated from the upper half, as the lower half of the deck is pulled out by the right hand.
I always cover that by using the base of my left first finger to pull the outer end of the card inward.

I'm not injogging it, because the inner end of the card doesn't move--the card buckles downward slightly in the center. You'll find that with practice you can move the outer end of the card inward about a quarter inch. When your right hand moves away with the lower half, the left hand relaxes and the card straightens to normal position.

[Harry Lorayne]

John: Of course I realize it, but no matter. It's "therapy" for me!

Good, Richie, although I never find that necessary. It may happen automatically when I do it. I think what I do automatically is to lightly close my left fingers; that "coalesces" the original bottom card. Truth is, it happens too fast to be noticed. Best - HL.

[El Mystico]

Philippe;
The Braue Prechosen Card is almost a direct copy of Al Leech's Ace Sandwich from Card Man Stuff - 1953. It uses the same false cut at the end. That is the earliest veersion of the plot I've seen. But the HaLo cut is perfect for this effect - even though it wasn't used in Harry's original write up!

[Harry Lorayne]

You're absolutely right, Philippe. I did not suggest the use of my HaLo Cut when I originally published my One-Eyed Jack Sandwich back in the early 1960s. I did, brought it up to date, when I re-wrote it in THE CLASSIC COLLECTION (first volume). Best - HARRY LORAYNE.

[Larry Horayne]

If I told Harry once, I've told him a hundred times, Close-Up Card Magic was a steal at the original price of $10.00 -- it was worth ten times that, yes, even back when it was first published. These are not just card tricks, but complete routines. A working magician could easily 'live' off Harry's brilliance for the rest of his life!

[Harry Lorayne]

I just love incognito posts! Well, they're fine, but what's not fine is a "play" on my name. So, thanks anyway; you're right of course, but people are MUCH better off now with my THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 1, where C-UCM is updated, new ideas, etc., plus four other of my early books, and bonuses. But, again, thanks anyway. Best - HARRY LORAYNE.

[Philippe Noël]

By the way, I read again the Afterthoughts in One-Eyed Jack Sandwich and Harry tells us that: "It was Al Leech who originally permormed it(the trick)for me. I changed it, added the presentation and then discussed it with the late Fred Brau. Fred eventually put it in a magazine(The Gen) with a different presentation, etc..."
I think this way, the history of the trick is clearer.

[Mike Remington]

Harry Thanks for your books. Close-Up Card Magic is one which I keep coming back to year after year. I use Bill Simons Challenge Aces (without the challenge) from there to produce the four aces. In a formal close-up set, I close with a rainbow deck routine I came up with where the first phase is the HaLo Aces

[Harry Lorayne]

You're quite welcome, Mike - thanks for saying so. HL

[Vraagaard]

My top 3 list is 1) Halo Aces, 2) Rock 'n Roll Aces and 3) "The Best Darn Ever....linking card...." (long title).

Great effects among a multitude of great effects by mr. Lorayne.

[Harry Lorayne]

Vraagaard: What excellent choices! HL

[Harry Lorayne]

PS: That's a good about 15-minute close-up act right there! HL

[flynn]

I like his version of the the Torn and restored card that was printed couple months back in Genii. Its easier and more deceptive than J.C. Wagner TNR card.

[Harry Lorayne]

Flynn, that makes me happy! I've not received too much action on that particular item. HL

[Mike Vincent]

My personal favourite are, Controlled Spelling, apart from Harry and myself, I haven't seen a single magician perform this blockbuster effect.

The Card Shark and The Four Gambler's is a theatrical masterpiece.

I have used Foursome since the age of 15. Now I use my own version called 4play With Foursome, which is a Blockbuster. 4Play With Foursome

One of the first Four Aces routines I ever learnt was Take Me to Your Leader, which is stunning along with Saltless and Quinella, a beautiful two-card revelation.

The Lorayne's Poker Deal is a wonderful lesson in how to frame and present an effect for maximum impact. I often perform this back to back with Vernon's Aces.

There are many more routines from Harry's books not to mention Apocalypse that I still perform.

Mike Vincent
London

[SoMd]

Very nice presentation of Foursome. I also learned it when I was 15, about 30 years ago. Virtually my entire repertoire as a teenager came from Harry's books, and I keep doing a lot of them to this day. Thanks, Harry!

[Tom Fenton]

"Numero Uno'.

[Harry Lorayne]

Tom, you instigated a bunch of calls to me. People asking "How come Tom knows Numero Uno when it is 'performance only' on your DVD set." Well, I taught it in PERSONAL COLLECTION which is, sorry, out of print. And it is taught in my original (1980) Lecture Notes (which is where Tom learned it). HL