Simon Aronson's Undo Influence

[Oli Foster]

I've just been re-reading Simon Aronson's Try The Impossible and was struck by the cleverness of his undo influence. I tried out Prior Commitment and was as impressed that it worked as the person I tried it on.

You've basically got a very deceptive way of controlling two cut-to selections to predetermined positions in the pack. I like spelling and 'placementy' type of effects and was wondering about other applications for this type of principle.

Something that may put some people off is the necessity to spread through the deck after the cards have been selected. Weighing up the handling, you might decide that there are simpler procedures that negate this step, with an equal feeling of the selections being lost in the deck - but it's so clever, I'm sure there must be loads of other effects where this would come into its own.

One thing that Simon touches on is the idea of crimping the two keycards, meaning that you could have two cards cut to and replaced before cutting the deck into thirds and replacing those thirds in a different (the required) order. Following this with a riffle shuffle that retained the critical positions seems like a very deceptive way of fixing whilst seemingly losing two selected cards.

It also seems that you could alter the positions of the two keys before the selections so, for example, one of the selections could be found by spelling the spectator's name etc. I enjoyed 'Twice as hard' but (and I might be alone here) I think that a double ACAAN might actually be less strong than a single revelation. And if you were doing a single revelation with the same handling,you could have the card named and, if we're spreading, simply cut it to the right position!

Notwithstanding, there's surely a good application in this type of effect - perhaps combined with a further mathematical principal/stack. Has anybody else explored this?

Cheers

[Steven Keyl]

This is a principle that has gone largely unused, but not by me. I've used the 'Divide and Conquer' routine often. Since you're not preparing any cards in advance (as in Prior Commitment) it can be done as an impromptu piece and it seems absolutely impossible. In order to get two cards into necessary positions I've worked out a faro handling.

As far as coming up with additional routines I think that this is a principle that could be used to great effect by magic creators. I'm at a loss to figure out why more magician's haven't latched onto it.

[Bob Farmer]

See "Satan Is My Buddy" in the Annemann Genii issue.

[Daniel Fishman]

This principal is essentially published way before, and in almost the exact detail with a few variations by Mike Powers. It was a separate marketed effect that was widely sold. "The P.M. Principal"

Since then, the "SD" Principal is also a variant and worthy of your time and study. You can find this in books by Jon Racherbaumer, John Bannon, and I believe Dave Soloman.

Also note worthy is "Square" by Patrick Reford. There is a great use of these kind of principals and a wonderful "Effect" that will fool the hell out of anyone, even the most knowledgeable magicians.

Hope that gives you a few more angles to work on.

Catch you later,
Daniel

[Eric Fry]

Running the cards from hand to hand, I crimp two cards from a borrowed deck that has been shuffled by a spectator. The crimped cards start out in their correct places.

I false-shuffle the deck after the selections have been made, followed by a cut that sets up the "undo influence" situation.

I think I prefer it as a mind-reading effect over a prediction effect. I find the first card, and Spec A finds Spec B's card, with a little unnoticed help from me.

Obviously, there are other ways to achieve a two-card mentalism revelation. But this one involves very economical sleights and a well-hidden underlying principle.