Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
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David O
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Location: Buffalo, NY Home of the FFFF!

Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby David O » December 21st, 2005, 9:04 pm

Holiday Greetings to All:

The title of James in Toronto's post ""You will fool yourself" dealing with the in the hand triumph display in John Bannon's excellent new tome got me to thinking...

...and this is always potentially dangerous, but perhaps not in this case. :eek:

I think most of us love to fool, and in my case, I love to be fooled, perhaps as much. :D

There are probably a truck load of close-up effects out there, that upon first run through, caused us each to do a double-take and say:

"What just happened here?"

or

"How the !@#$%! did I do that?"

A couple of examples that come to mind are the first times I played with Simon's (Aronson)classic Shuffle-Bored. Another would be the first forays into the Gene Finnel Free Cut Principle.

What are the effects that come to your mind that fooled you on your first run through? :confused:

Looking forward to your thoughts!(and new opportunities to fool ourselves) :genii:

:) ;) Happy New Year to ALL!!! :cool: :whack:
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

Albert Einstein

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David O
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Location: Buffalo, NY Home of the FFFF!

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby David O » December 22nd, 2005, 8:25 am

Non-card candidates:

Wonderland Bill, and the related originating illusions, such as Stargate and Paradox

Reality Twister by Paul Harris

The first time you got the Flash Unlink Link to work with Andrus's Linking Pins (OK, it may not have "fooled" you - but the feeling was the next best thing)

Lubor Fieldler's Blue Crystal

Terri Rogers' Blockbuster
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.



Albert Einstein


Jeremy Greystoke
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Location: Dublin, Virginia
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Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Jeremy Greystoke » December 22nd, 2005, 8:35 am

There's a final display/count sequence in Phil Goldstein's routine "Cry Wolf" (in print in his book Focus as well as in Pabular) that's very deceptive. It's a count of two Jokers as four that can be very convincing. I remember running through it with cards in hand and "fooling myself" initially...I had to backtrack to see exactly which cards were where during the count.

It's a flourishy snap-count and it's worth taking a look at...as Phil admits, it's a bit on the overkill side, but it's a good convincer that four Jokers are in play.

Jeremy

Vraagaard
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Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Vraagaard » December 23rd, 2005, 1:57 am

The 4 card layout in Dai Vernon's "Slow motion aces" where the 4 aces apperently is laid out on the table. It's the most honest and convincing lay out there exists in my opinion. It fools me bad everytime I do it, it really seems like the four aces are being laid in each individual pile honest and fair.

Oh, and I love the Clifton ring move, where the ring is secretly removed from the string. It's an all time killer move.

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 24th, 2005, 11:16 pm

For me it's Dr. Daley's last trick. I know it so well that I don't think about the moves anymore and I just lay dwn the cards. Because I'm not thinking it blows me away.

HighQ
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Joined: February 2nd, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Baltimore

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby HighQ » December 25th, 2005, 6:27 am

Al Stanger's Poker Machine still fools me a year later!

Frank Yuen
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Location: Winfield, IL

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Frank Yuen » December 25th, 2005, 9:25 am

Bill Goldman's effect Kona actually does let you fool yourself before learning the secret.

Frank Yuen

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 25th, 2005, 11:08 am

Larry Becker's "Will the cards match?" is a great one to foll yourslef and others, especially if you do it with one packet face up and the other packet face down because you can see the apparent random mixing going on.

PSIncerely yours,
Paul Alberstat
AB Stagecraft
http://www.mindguy.com/store

John Wilson
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Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby John Wilson » December 25th, 2005, 1:25 pm

Bannon's "A Timely Departure" from Impossibilia. I do that one for myself sometimes... :)

Richard Stokes
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Joined: September 11th, 2008, 8:18 pm

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Richard Stokes » December 26th, 2005, 6:29 pm

The Two Detectives (in Volume 3 of Giobbi's Card College) is a remarkable sandwich revelation.
I like the way the spectator is allowed to place the detective Jacks into the ribbon spread face-down deck.
Impossible to backtrack on this one.
The result baffles me , the performer, as much as it does the spectator.
Different versions of this trick exist (and John Bannon has also analysed it).
It relies on the incomplete faro control.

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2005, 4:57 am

Any of the tricks found in the first section of Simon Aronson's Try The Impossible based on his UnDo Influence certainly fit into this category.

Also, for the record, John Bannon's Timely Departure referred to above is found in Smoke and Mirrors.

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2005, 10:39 am

Crazy Man's handcuffs as learned from "Elastrix". I may be the only one, but I tried to do it repeatedly. Finaly I quit trying to do it, and just moved my hands as it instructed. Scared me to death, they just passed through each other.

Pete McCabe
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Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Pete McCabe » December 27th, 2005, 6:41 pm

All my favorites have been named already:

"Prior Committment," one of the applications of Simon Aronson's "UnDo Influence" principle, is in my opinion the greatest mathematical card trick ever. It's one of those tricks that even when you know how to do it, you have no idea how it works.

Anybody who likes "Timely Departure," which is another great trick, might want to try it using Gene Finnell's Free Cut Principle, which streamlines the selection process while removing the slight hint of mathematics from the procedure. Also try doing this trick with a marked deck, so that, as you are vanishing the cards, you can read their identities and announce them later.

But my favorite is Nick Brown's "Wonderland Dollar." It just looks completely magical, no matter how many times I do it.

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2005, 9:36 pm

"That's Impossible" from Exclusive Card Miracles by Frank Garcia. c. 1980 page 37.

"mazin', by golly!"

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 28th, 2005, 2:32 am

Jim steinmeyers 9 card problem from impuzzibilities. I use my presentation of the trick all the time to really floor people. It's also one of the few tricks you can repeat as people who have seen it before still can't believe how it works.

Jim Morton
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Location: San Francisco

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Jim Morton » December 28th, 2005, 8:56 am

Take Me to Your Leader (Lorayne's Close-Up Card MAgic) baffled me the first time I did it. Also the first time I encountered the Gilbreath Principle I was pretty well flummoxed.

Jim

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 28th, 2005, 1:21 pm

Another great Lorayne trick (that feels risky when you first try it) is the "STOP" trick.

PSIncerely yours,
Paul Alberstat
AB Stagecraft
http://www.mindguy.com/store
Supplying unique mentalism and magic world-wide

Guest

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Guest » December 28th, 2005, 9:13 pm

Remember, if you don't know how it works, then you have to follow the directions EXACTLY! Remember what happened to the Sorceror's Apprentice?

Seriously, it's not good to do a trick if you have no idea how it works; bad things can happen.

Randy DiMarco
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Joined: March 13th, 2008, 3:45 pm

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Randy DiMarco » December 29th, 2005, 1:11 pm

The initial Queen laydown sequence in Lou Gallo's "Only the Lonely" always fools me, even when I am performing the trick.

Edward
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Joined: March 13th, 2008, 9:06 pm
Location: California

Re: Tricks You Can fool Yourself (and Others) With...

Postby Edward » January 4th, 2006, 3:25 pm

"Dawn Patrol" by John Bannon fooled me the first time I got it to work. my reaction was, WOW!


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