Best Trick With A Duplicate Card

[Bob Farmer]

About the only trick I could recall quickly, is the classic transposition using a duplicate card. It's a great trick, but I'm wondering if there are others as good.

[Joe Mckay]

Hey Bob,

I sent you an email. My version of a trick by Nate Kranzo from his Mene Tekel DVD.

I thought I should email you it since it is not my trick to teach on here.

[Bob Farmer]

Joe: I look forward to reading it. Thank you.

[Joe Mckay]

There is also a Jay Sankey trick I like.

Check out Head Spin.

It is on page 441 of Volume 1 of The Definitive Sankey.

[Joe Mckay]

Another good trick - also by Jay Sankey - is to draw an image on the face of the card and then do an Erdnase change to change that image. The classic example is drawing a ship and a bottle, and then doing the Erdnase change to apparently insert the ship into the bottle.

[Joe Mckay]

The Reformation by Guy Hollingworth is another (although probably not what you are looking for).

Also - Dr Daley had a burned and restored card that used a duplicate. I remember seeing a handling in the Mnemonica book by Juan Tamariz. But I don't own that book anymore. So the details are a little hazy.

[Joe Mckay]

Don't forget Between Your Palms by Alex Elmsley as well.

I am really fond of this handling by Mike Rogers that makes sneaky use of a Himber wallet.

https://www.stevensmagic.com/1995/mike-rogers-signed-card-to-wallet/

[Joe Mckay]

The Universal Card Scam by Guy Hollingworth uses a duplicate card to allow you to burn a signed card and make it reappear anywhere.

It is genius.

Any trick using the Torn Corner switch is about as strong a trick you can do with a duplicate card. So that is worth remembering as well. You can also look at Gaetan Bloom's Intercessor as well.

[Joe Mckay]

You have Chicago Opener (Red Hot Mama) as well. Although that uses a different coloured back.

The same with The Two Card Trick by Bro. John Hamman.

[Q. Kumber]

I'm pretty sure that John Mendoza kept a duplicate card in every deck.

[MagicbyAlfred]

I'm partial to planting duplicates on people during walk-around when circumstances permit. Then circling back, forcing the counterpart, palming it off, giving them the deck to shuffle, going into my pocket to "get the card box" (ditching you-know-what) so the deck can be placed in the box to prevent any "sneaky stuff" or "sleight of hand" (ha ha). Then handing the boxed deck to the spec to hold. Two effects then ensue: First, a vanish, and second - I believe you can guess...

Don't know if that's the "best trick with a duplicate card," but it works quite well for me. But then, I'm a little crazy.

[Bob Farmer]

Those are all great suggestions--thank you, guys. The Mike Rogers routine is fabulous.

[MitchSchneiter1]

Scott York also has a routine similar to the Mike Roger's effect utilizing a duplicate and Himber wallet called Escape from Bulgaria. It was included with his marketed Passport wallet.

[Joe Mckay]

That trick was printed in GENII magazine as well.

[Richard Kaufman]

"Escape from Bulgaria" is one of the best card to wallet effects I know.

[erdnasephile]

^^^That was the first trick I thought of when I saw the title of the thread. (I wish it had not been mentioned....nothing to see here...)

(Q is right: John Mendoza wrote several times that he always had a duplicate in every deck).

[Bob Farmer]

Genii Volume 58 (Nov 1994 - Oct 1995)

[Philippe Billot]

Genii Volume 58 (Nov 1994 - Oct 1995)

No. 8, June 1995, page 577

[Philippe Billot]

In Ibidem no. 15, december 1958, if you do Marlo's Trick entitled Oil & Water - Water & Oil - Oil & Water but if you have a duplicate of the red Jack instead of the fourth Jack, you have a very good Oil an Water with always the SAME Jacks in one side.

[erdnasephile]

BTW, the reason why John Mendoza kept a duplicate card (usually a 9) in every deck was so he could perform his version of "Between Your Palms" and "Vice-Versa" (The Book of John, pg 27 and John Mendoza: My Best, Vol 3)

[erdnasephile]

Forgot to mention Mendoza's Bendix Bombshell routine (John: Verse Two)

[Bob Farmer]

Excellent references. Thank you all.

[Richard Kaufman]

There are so many incredible card tricks in print that do not require the use of a duplicate card, WHY would you do a trick requiring a duplicate unless you are trying to fool another magician?

[PapaG]

There are so many incredible card tricks in print that do not require the use of a duplicate card, WHY would you do a trick requiring a duplicate unless you are trying to fool another magician?

Hypothetical Possibilities by Gary Kurtz?

[Bob Farmer]

To answer Richard's question: I'm working on a new project that uses a special deck and some special gaffs and I'm considering including a duplicate card.

[Spellbinder]

Reason for using a duplicate card- in one of my tricks, I have the spectator sign the chosen card and then when it is finally found, I give it to her to keep. Now I am apparently missing a card from the deck, so I take one of the two Jokers and transform it into the missing card (minus her signature) so my pack is almost fully restored. All that remains is to take the last Joker and make it multiply so I have both Jokers again and all 52 cards. It makes sense to the audience and a good mystery becomes even better.

[Grippo's Wish]

There are so many!!

[Bob Coyne]

There are so many incredible card tricks in print that do not require the use of a duplicate card, WHY would you do a trick requiring a duplicate unless you are trying to fool another magician?

Same reason you'd use any gaffed card -- it can make the effect more deceptive and direct. A good example of that is the Scarne effect Switchcraft with the card transposition and the beer glass. It's a great effect for laymen (as seen in the TV commercial below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtsS463t6RQ

[Richard Kaufman]

But I don't use gimmicked cards, either.
If I was performing on a regular basis, I would use double-faced cards for "McDonald's Aces," and that would pretty much be it.

[Jonathan Townsend]

There are so many incredible card tricks in print that do not require the use of a duplicate card, WHY would you do a trick requiring a duplicate unless you are trying to fool another magician?

The Bendix Bombshell routine mentioned earlier seems a good answer. The effect justifies the method.

We get two lines of thought about this, each with merits so perhaps we are going to disagree about this point. The first, mentioned in "erdnase", what Harry Lorrayne has been demonstrating and writing about for years, and more recently where we get the term From a Shuffled Deck In Use (FASDIU). There are books where routines describe adding cards to the pack and removing these extras later. Expert Card Technique has a fine first item in the Stranger Card section where a card gets added and destroyed leaving the pack intact. All well and good until a card gets signed, removed...
The other side of the discussion argues that the performer has all the resources of our craft available and should choose what to prepare for the occasion. I. E. choices in available methods are not so heavily weighted by personal aesthetics as by practical concerns for setting up and performing the show. All well and good until an important customer asks to see a specific effect which secretly uses something not currently prepared for use.

[Paco Nagata]

Definitely, "Red Hot Mama" by Al Leech and "Between Your Palms" by Alex Elmsley are amongst the best "duplicate" card tricks ideas.

"The Expert Card Technique" has a lot of interesting ideas like "The Torn and Restored Card" as Jonathan pointed out, in the Stranger Card section, as well as "A Stranger in the House" or Annemann's "The Ghost Card." However, as Hugard itself pointed out after the description of Annemann's trick:
"As with all stranger card tricks, this trick in not worth two snaps of a finger done with the conjurer's own pack: done with a borrowed deck, it becomes a memorable feat."

I have enjoyed a lot adding secretly a duplicate card to a borrowed deck, as my people starting to think that maybe I were a real magician.

Please, let me share a little personal "transposition" idea:

Let's consider we are going to perform the classic transposition card trick... You do a DL and show for instance a 5 of Spades. Then, put the card(s) again on the top and take the top one without showing it, for instance a 7 of Hearts. Next, suddenly, you crumple it with your hand! So that people see the back of the 7H crumpled and thinking that it's the 5S.
People don't expect you do such a thing judging that it is a borrowed deck!
(Well, your friend may forgive you if you pay for it!).
Then, you continue with the "transposition effect," so that everybody freak out!

While people are freaking out examining the transpposed cards, you palm the top card, which is the other 7H. Then, you take the crumpled 7H with the other hand saying:

"Sorry about that... Let's try something..."

You put the crumpled card under the hand that have the other 7H palmed, and do a sudden and quick movement stampping the palm on the table at the same time you take the other hand away carrying the ruined 7H (inside the fist), and putting the fist on the other spread hand, so that you do a gesture as if you were ironing the spread hand with the fist.

At this point you say:

"I crumpled the card just because I took with me a magical tool that it's perfect to solve this problem."

So then, you take your fist to your pocket, and as you get rid of the ruined duplicate you take out a little toy with the shape of an iron or a rolling pin.
Finally you use it "magically" on the spread hand...

I have presented this show several times with a borrowed deck getting great reactions.

(Sometimes I still carry a random card along with a little rolling pin toy in my pocket...)

[federico luduena]

"Card to Wallet - Himber Note Pad", by Dan Tong. Found in Jerry Mentzer's Card to Wallet - The Book. It's a routine comprised of several effects. Really strong and practical.

[Bob Farmer]

Dan Tong has some great ideas--I'll check that out.

[Zig Zagger]

If memory serves, Bill Goldman's "Monkey in the Middle" (one heck of a sandwich effect!) is accomplished by employing one duplicate Joker. It doesn't get any cleaner!

[Bob Farmer]

I've worked out a way of doing the Red Hot/Chicago Opener without a duplicate card. Stick a square Post-it Note on the card and write on it: "This is the card!"

[Zig Zagger]

Nice!

Along these lines, I've once used a Post-it note (either signed or MY CARD written on it) to mark the Ambitious Card (with a DL) at the outer edge. Then have the top card pushed into the deck, peel off the protruding Post-it from it, stick it back on top of the deck, do your magic gesture and show that the AC has returned underneath the sticker.

[magicfish]

Torn and Restored Transposition- Williamson.

[magicfish]

I also like Bro. Hamman's The Doppelganger Card.

[freddiesmagic]

Casanova Card is also a really interesting idea based on duplicates and card to spectator's wallet. Definitely worth a look with really inventive ideas. Can't remember who it was by but there is a DVD on it out there.

By the way I run a magic blog for beginners and amateurs if anyone has any feedback or ideas for me it would be very much appreciated

https://freddiesmagic.com/blog/