Why Triumph Is A Great Routine..

[Joe Mckay]

I have played around some more with this handling and it feels/looks very nice.

Cheers again, Bob!

A handling I like is Simply Shuffled by Steve Beam. In that handling you start with a card already reversed at the bottom of the deck. I like that approach since I would rather preset a reversed card than have to worry about reversing it during a trick. Why make life difficult?

Also - Max Maven has this lovely concept of "ecological magic". Where you use a card that is left reversed in the deck at the end of one trick as the set-up to a follow-up trick. So you are using the second trick to "clean up" the first trick.

That is lovely thinking.

As such - a useful thing to do is to make a list of tricks where you are left with cards reversed in the deck. And then another list that require a card secretly reversed in the deck. You then go over both lists and find nice combinations.

I never really got round to doing this in a systematic way since I have taken a bit of a break from card tricks over the past few years.

And speaking of clever clean-ups for tricks. I want to give another shout out for the sneaky way that Johnny Thompson does this when performing Triumph.

One other thing about the Goodwin/Jennings display. What if we make the faro shuffle a perfect one? That way (before the trick) we can take a memorized deck - upjog every other card - and then perform a Triumph routine using the Goodwin/Jennings display.

Since you are using a perfect faro shuffle - you will be back in memorized deck order at the end of the trick. I am not a mem deck guy myself - so I haven't gotten round to working out the exact details.

Also - what about combining a gaffed deck with the Goodwin/Jennings display? The Bammo Card Walloper by Bob Farmer comes to mind. I don't have the deck with me at the moment. So I am not sure if the gaffed cards would work with this display. But there is probably a gaffed deck out there, somewhere, that would gel nicely with this display.

[Joe Mckay]

One gaffed deck that comes to mind is the Invisible Deck.

I remember the Triumph effect that makes sneaky use of this gaffed deck by Bob Farmer/Michael Close/David Ben/Michael Weber. They snuck it into print in Apocalypse magazine hidden behind a pseudonym.

So the concept here would be a triumph routine, using the Goodwin/Jennings display - that ends with a freely named card facing the other way.

Doing triumph with a freely named card is an approach of Jerry Sadowitz as well. He has a great handling for that effect. Although Darwin Ortiz argues in Strong Magic that doing triumph with a freely named card actually weakens the effect. So that is a point of view worth considering as well.

[Joe Mckay]

A friend asked me for my handling. So I have spent some time reconstructing it since I had forgotten the details.

Here are the details:

1) REVERSE 3RD CARD FROM BOTTOM OF THE DECK.

2) SPREAD DECK AND HAVE A CARD TOUCHED. APPARENTLY FLIP OVER THIS CARD. IN FACT YOU DO THE GOODWIN TWO TON TURNOVER MOVE (TURN ALL THE CARDS ABOVE THE BOTTOM CARD). IT SHOULDN'T FLY - BUT IT DOES SINCE THE END POINT OF MOVE IS SOUND. AND THE SPREAD OF CARDS COVERS THE THICKNESS OF THE TURNOVER.

3) THE CARD ON DISPLAY IS A FORCE CARD AND HAS A HIDDEN BACK. THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF THE MOVE. BUT WE ARE GOING TO USE IT TO SET UP FOR THE GOODWIN/JENNINGS TRIUMPH DISPLAY INSTEAD.

4) DISPLAY THE SELECTED CARD AND TURN FACE DOWN.

5) CLOSE UP THE SPREAD - KEEPING A BREAK ABOVE THE SELECTION.

6) CUT ALL THE CARDS ABOVE THE BREAK AND TURN OVER.

7) STRADDLE FARO THESE INTO THE APPARENT FACE-DOWN HALF. STRADDLE FARO MEANS THEY ARE WEAVED INTO THE "FACE DOWN" PACKET.

8) DO THE GOODWIN/JENNINGS DISPLAY AS TAUGHT BELOW

9) RIFFLE THROUGH THE FACE-UP CARDS.

10) AFTERWARDS - SECRETLY SLIDE THE BOTTOM CARD (A FACE DOWN CARD) OVER TO THE FACE-UP OUTJOGGED CARDS.

11) TURN DECK OVER - AND RIFFLE THROUGH THE FACE-DOWN CARDS. BEING CAREFUL NOT TO EXPOSE THE BOTTOM CARD.

12) SQUARE UP THE CARDS - THE SELECTED CARD IS NOW SECOND FROM THE BOTTOM.

13) TOSS THE DECK INTO THE OTHER HAND - HOLDING BACK THE TOP AND BOTTOM CARDS (THIS IS A HOFZINSER MOVE).

14) TALK ABOUT THE DECK BEING FACE UP AND FACE DOWN AS YOU PLACE THESE TWO CARDS FACE DOWN ON TOP OF THE DECK.

15) CUT THE DECK IN HALF - AND OPENLY PLACE THE BOTTOM HALF REVERSED ON TOP.

16) THIS CUTS THE SELECTION TO THE MIDDLE OF THE DECK - AND RIGHTS THE REST OF THE DECK.

17) NOW SPREAD THROUGH THE CARDS TO SHOW THE DECK IS ALL THE SAME WAY - APART FROM THE SELECTION.

[Bob Farmer]

Because the display is so convincing, and with my handling can be done with no preparation, I do the effect without a selection. I want to focus on the sheer impossibility.

[MagicbyAlfred]

I am late to this party - fashionably so, I would hope.

To address the OP's original query, I use the in-the-hands so-called "Slop Shuffle" method. More often than not when I am performing walk-around magic, I do not have the luxury of a table. So that's one good reason I use that method.

Another reason is that it fits my patter/story line perfectly, which is that immediately after I shuffle the deck to "lose" the selection, a drunk seizes the deck from my hands and says, (slurring his words) "Here, let me shuffle the cards for you. Now let's see how good you are - find my card now, Mr. Magician." This sets up dramatic tension and allows for the magician to ultimately "Triumph," which is, after all the abiding theme of the trick. (If I do happen to be working at a table, I still use the slop-Shuffle,but take the opportunity to do Daryl's brilliant display)

As to the question of whether it is done as a display of skill or a "magical" effect, for me it's MAGIC all the way. I am a believer in, and generally try to stay true to, Robert-Houdin's observation: "A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician."

[performer]

One little known advantage of the Tipsy Trick/ Slop Shuffle version is that it can be used for quite large audiences. I have done it in small theatres, night clubs and other stand up venues. In those circumstances it has gone over quite well.

[webbmaster]

I love to "move" too, but have you ever tried Cheek-to-Cheek ? You could then go into Monte with 3 cards so you can put the gaff deck away, or take out 4 Aces and do Twisting the Aces after putting the gaffed deck out of sight and out of mind. All the routines explained above are great too, and without any gaffs of course.