FOR YEARS I RESISTED PERFORMING  the ambitious card effect. It’s such a good trick that everybody was doing it but I found that the magical impact was such that I could just not leave it out of my close-up programme.

The  routine I finished with is part classic, part Vernon, part Pat Page and for the closer I succumbed to the Jerry O’Connell wallet which is great but again everyone is doing it. I then changed to the Paul Le Paul nest of envelopes which I first saw performed by Vernon but again it’s difficult to do table to table which is a problem the wallet overcomes.

I then came up with the card in a pocket watch which is different, spectacular and a great finish using the Kaps dodge with the loose folded card in the watch prior to the shuttle pass. I use this today but I also use a really solid version which I present just once, perhaps for the top table or the Booker’s. Again this is in the philosophy of Etienne Pradier’s signed card in wine bottle which logistically is difficult to do at every table and so strong that you want to keep it as the highlight of your performance.

What I now do as a special one off is to force a card, have the spectator sign with a big signature with a  Pentel pen on the card and then go into the standard ambitious card routine.

But for the climax I palm the selected card with a gambler’s cop and hand the pack to the spectator to shuffle thoroughly, turning away from them as this is done, But with the card in my left palm I hold it flat against my left thigh and  fold it three times with the card facing out whereas normally the card is folded with the back out. Jack Avis taught me this folding idea as I couldn’t handle the |Mercury card fold which only folds the card into quarters.

So now you have the card folded in your left finger palm and say “Watch! Watch! Watch!” and as you do this you pull the Hunter type pocket watch on a short chain from your inside jacket pocket and hold it in your left hand. I then have a lot of nonsense with a mock hypnotic bit and then swing the watch, into the right hand still holding the end of the chain in the left hand.

Flip the watch open and show the folded card which is face out and can be identified and with the vestige of the spectator’s signature in view. Shake it a la the Kaps bit, have it identified and then tip it into the left hand and hand it to the spectator as a souvenir. The routine management that makes this so strong is that in the normal version with the card back out the climax does not occur until after the switch. In this version the climax to the effect comes as you open the watch and they actually see the face of the card and the signature inside the watch. This is the Wow time! Tipping the card into the left hand for the switch is really an aftermath. I’ve done this for years and it’s very strong.

I must give credit to Jerry Sadowitz who also devised this dodge and published it in The Crimp magazine. It’s absolutely true that I came up with this in a session with Jack Avis and neither of us had any knowledge that Jerry had published his idea. I fully acknowledge the unwitting duplicity in this idea which often happens in magic and to which I refereed in an earlier blog. Nevertheless, full credit to Jerry and to the sheer power of this very strong, a little more ambitious climax to a classic effect.

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts