My friend Steve Friedberg has been a long-time supporter of The Magician’s Ltd Cookbook . In particular, he particularly enjoys performing Peter Duffie’s fantastic Travel Agent effect from the book. Steve has a great variation of Peter’s trick, which I’m happy to share here (with Peter’s permission) that turns the trick into a great impromptu “Anniversary Waltz” type effect.

You’ll need to have The Magician’s Ltd Cookbook at hand to understand my instructions for this one:

Select a couple from the audience and ask them how long they’ve been together. Tell the lady that she reminds you of a very special card from the deck. Spread through, upjog the Queen of Hearts (facing you) and ask her if she has any ideas which card you’re thinking of.

Regardless of her guess (and in Steve’s experience, most women say the Queen of Hearts here), square up the deck and openly display the Queen of Hearts. Give the Queen to the lady, and invite her to sign the face of the card. As she does that, find the King of Hearts and bring it to the top of the deck. Don’t make a show or move of it, just do it. Once she has obliged, turn the Queen face down on top of the deck (the King of Hearts remains below it).

At this point, Steve shuffles off the top block of cards off (keeping the King and Queen of Hearts together), then overhand shuffles the remainder of the deck, and finally cuts the deck in half. The Queen/King combo will now be situated together near the middle.

Next turn your attention to the guy and suggest that you also have a card for him. Let him guess his card and eventually remind him that since his partner has the Queen of Hearts, he must, of course, have the King of Hearts. As he responds, run through the deck and cut the Queen/King of Hearts to the top. Execute a double turnover to show the King and then turn it back face down and ask him to sign the back of the card, keeping the signed card on the table.

Steve then suggests to the man that he, most likely, will have dated several women before finding his wife/girlfriend…or, as he says, “your queen.”

You can now continue with Peter Duffie’s Travel Agent effect from The Magician’s Ltd Cookbook .

There’s a trend in magic that I’m seeing a lot lately and it’s to do with people who I call Mentalist Triumph Cutters.

Many magicians that I see perform Triumph say something like, “The cards are shuffled face up into face down. So, some are face-to-face, others are back-to-face and some are even back-to-back.” It’s not bad that those magicians say this, but it is bad that they say where they’re going to cut at the exact same time they they cut the cards.

This is obviously just a timing issue that can easily be fixed. The best way to fix this is to simply cut the cards before you announce the condition of the cards, or do as I do and not hit the three conditions straight away – just cut a few times without necessarily aiming to show the audience all three states.

Does it really matter? Well, I’d hazard a guess that most Triumph routines have a lot more important things to fix than this, but since it’s such a small idea that can be easily fixed, I think it’s worth considering for your next Triumph performance.

The great thing about having hundreds of people learning The Groove Electric Switch is the feedback that I’ve received. I’m excited about the number of people working on my move and would like to offer a few more tips. So here are my top five tips for mastering the Grrove Electric Switch.

1. Be patient
As with all of sleight of hand magic, in particular card magic, patience is a good thing. The move is well within the reach of the intermediate student of card magic. Once you see the mechanical action, as David Regal calls it, you will see the inner workings. Be patient and go slowly to see what is happening with the cards. The speed of the fan closing is not important till you learn the mechanics of the switch. I would say that the move is learnable in a day and doable within in a week. Mastery comes very soon after that, so be patient!

2. Use a good deck
This will make the move much easier to make sure that you have a well broke in deck. You don’t want right out of the box freshness until you get it down. If you do you will drop the switched out card on the floor. You want a deck that fans well and has that new card feeling but not with all the slickness of a fresh pack.

3. Learn the production
To get the actions correct do the switch without a card out-jogged from the pack. Another words, do the switch but you are not switching out anything. You are actually doing the production idea that I mentioned above. This will give you the basic feeling of how the switched in card moves and how it goes into place.

4. Don’t spotlight
Don’t attempt to perform the face up switches until you get the basic down first. The move is invisible if you have the cards edges titled back a little. If their edges are pointing down too far towards the floor it is more visible till you get the speed up. If you tilt it back so that the edges are pointing towards the spectator’s line of sight if he were to be looking at your hands then he would just see the edges of the fanned cards. The spectator can see that there is a card out-jogged and after you complete the switch with the edges titled back a little and bring the deck back down they will never know that you just switched out the card…right in front of them and if you really think about it…without touching it! Once you get the speed up to par then this will fly right under their noses.

5. Learn the DASSUP and study the move
The DASSUP puts the card in the exact position that created the Groove. Once you get the DASSUP down and you get the card in just the right position you will see how obtainable this move is to learn. Once you see that the position of the card to be switched in is very important you will be able to modify it to the size of your hands. If the card is sticking out too far at the beginning of the fan then it will stick out of the bottom of the fan. If it’s too far in then you will not have enough room to complete the move. Study the move; study what the action of the fan closing does to the card and you will be well on your way.

There are hundreds of effects that you can do with this switch. Some you can apply right to the effects you currently perform. You will see that after playing with the switch and performing it you will develop your very own Grooving creations. I hope these tops help you own the way to mastering the Groove Electric Switch and good luck.

Probably due to its interesting methodology, I have had a few questions about how the Groove Electric Switch was devised. So I thought I would give a bit of history about how the Groove was born, then in a few days time I will share with you some tips on learning the switch.

The Groove Electric Switch was developed after discovering this neat looking square up idea that I was toying with. This square up took a selected card and then by squaring and doing an all around square up the card ended in a position to steal it away with either a lateral palm or a Tenkai palm. This square up is DASSUP, which stands for Doc’s All-Around Square Up. The acronym has one too many S’s and not enough A’s but it really sounds cool… What’s up? DASSUP!

So this steal was neat and I wanted to be able to get this stolen card on top of the pack and create a control out of it instead of a palm. The square up steal was shown to the Sleight Club, a local meeting of magicians in North Carolina. I wish I could talk more about Sleight Club but we all know the first rule, don’t talk about Sleight Club. OK, this is really not the first rule, however we are a very secret group that you will probably see more of in the future. The guys really liked it. After showing this to Scott Robinson, who is the head guru and co-founder of the Sleight Club, told me to make sure to show this to Steve Beam as he might be able to help with the control idea.

I showed the idea to Steve at a convention. After demonstrating the steal idea, I shared the control idea with him. After seeing it he said that there needs to be some kind of squaring or something to cover the right hand depositing the stolen card back on the deck. He mentioned the idea of using a fan of the cards. I messed around with this for a long time and couldn’t get it to feel right (that was doing the steal then depositing it on top, then finishing up with the fan). There was still some movement of the right hand that really did not look very natural.

Then one day I just did the fan before stealing the card out. And that really got the creative juices flowing. A production led to the switch that led to the controls, the effects and the Groove Electric Switch was here! The move is such fun that I promise you will come up with something after learning it!

In a few days I’ll share my top five tips on learning the Groove Electric Switch.

I can be quite pigheaded (leaving me more susceptible to the swine flu, I suppose). When I get set in my ways, it will often take a lot to alter those views. But as recent events prove, it is not impossible.

Back in February, I had the honor of performing at one of the biggest annual conventions going: Columbus, Ohio’s MAGI-Fest. It was an amazing time. The magic was spectacular and the people were even better. It also gave me a chance to meet up with old friends I hadn’t seen in a while. One of these was Aaron Fisher. You may recognize him as the creator of Aaron’s Rod, one of the best Hot Rod finesses extant (MAGIC magazine, 1998).

Aaron informed me that he has a new DVD on the market, Search & Destroy. It’s a slow motion sandwich routine. That’s it. A sandwich trick. I love sandwich tricks as much as the next guy, but a whole DVD just to teach it? I love supporting friends by buying their products even if I don’t actually want them, but this was pushing the limits; I already had four other Aaron Fisher products that taught the damn trick (both in print and on video) so the last thing I needed was another one. And again, a whole damn DVD just to teach it?! I smiled, gave Aaron the cash and mustered up my best fake, “Gee, I can’t wait to watch it!”

Great, another DVD to add to my still-shrinkwrapped collection.

After returning home, I went about my normal life. A few days later, I found myself needing to do some tedious and mindless work, so I figured I would pop in Search & Destroy to play in the background. This would also allow me to look like I gave a damn the next time I hooked up with Aaron, “Hey man, I watched the DVD right away. I loved that part where you made a joke about that funny thing.” But something unexpected happened. Within minutes of popping the DVD in, I went from passive listening to active watching. It turns out that the DVD case was quite misleading. Normally I’m not a fan of misleading advertising, but this was a pleasant surprise:

The DVD has nothing to do with a sandwich trick, it is no less than a complete course on how to be a close-up magician.

Read that last sentence again. Sure, a sandwich trick is taught, but it serves only as a backdrop for Aaron to teach an amazing array of performance concepts that should be essential learning for anyone who picks up a deck of cards. I was simply astounded by not only how in-depth Aaron went, but how well he articulated his thoughts as well. Aaron doesn’t explain; Aaron teaches. He has clearly thought through every step of the trick’s development and performance, and then gone back and dissected each step into even smaller pieces to instill the Fisher touch. It’s simply remarkable. And all of this from what would normally just be another sandwich trick!

Applying the concepts taught on Search & Destroy will make you a better magician. Period. This is the new gold standard for one-trick DVDs – a genre I didn’t think even had standards.

Even though we don’t sell it here at Vanishing Inc. we want you to know about the best magic around. So head over to Aaron’s site and tell him, “Gee, I can’t wait to watch it!”

My recent post urged you to slow down a little when learning sleight of hand. When I made that post, I wondered whether I’d receive responses from move monkeys like myself who were concerned that they would get bored of learning just one move. And that’s exactly the response that several people emailed me.

But, there’s something I deliberately didn’t address: the difference between practice and play. I play with moves, tricks, concepts and ideas on a daily basis. However, along with those kind of play sessions I also sit down and practice. A practice session for me is when I sit down and focus on one thing in particular. I block out everything but the move or trick that I’m working on. This last week, for example, I’ve been practising the One Handed Top Palm with my other hand as I think it’ll be useful to learn it with both hands. I play with ideas for hours, but I’ve only been focusing on that one move in my practice sessions.

Just like practice, play is essential. As you get more experienced in magic it gets harder to do, but I urge you to try to play with ideas as often as possible. Playing with lots of moves, for example has its uses. As does playing with old apparatus (unless you’re Rich Aviles).

A lot of serious card magicians that I talk to are in a rush to learn too much too soon. They want to learn every sleight possible: first the Classic Pass, then the Dribble Pass, then onto Charlie Miller Cascade Pass before continuing with a Second Deal and a Bottom Deal. All of this in a few months.

I have a different point of view though. I take a single sleight and I work on it for a good few months. This gives me time to explore lots of descriptions on the move and ask lots of magicians for feedback and criticism. Most importantly, it allows me to concentrate and focus my practice sessions better than if I’m trying to learn too much at once.

Then, when I’m ready (normally when I’m getting proficient with the move), I start to fully research tricks that utilise the move and start playing around with my own ideas too. I think of this as the Royal Road to Card Magic approach; learn a move and then learn some applications.

If you’ve got a lifetime in magic ahead of you, I think this will be the best long term approach for learning magic effectively. Slow down, focus, experiment and enjoy. The end result will be an arsenal of effective, perfected moves as opposed to a large repertoire of poorly practiced and ill-used moves.

What will your chosen move for the next few months be?

The Five-Second Rule is that if food falls on the ground, it may be safely eaten as long as it is picked up within five seconds.

Based on this, I propose that magicians adopt the Two-Second Rule. It has nothing to do with dropping cards: quite the opposite in fact – it’s about holding the deck for too long.

I suggest that the rule is simply this … magicians should never be seen holding the deck with both hands (i.e. left-hand dealing grip with the right hand also holding in end grip) for longer than two seconds. Not only is it uncomfortable looking, I think it’s a tell for many people that you are about to execute a sleight, or are currently executing one (which for most people is the only reason to hold the deck like this).

The reason that this is bad is because a normal person doesn’t need to hold the deck with both hands. It’s not heavy, so unless you’re protecting it against some kind of crazy gravitational failure, you don’t need to hold the deck from above and below.

So, my plea is that magicians worldwide hold the deck and execute moves with both hands only in circumstances where they have motivation to do so. Such circumstances could be to square the deck, shuffle it, reposition it or move it from one hand to another (all acceptable covers for a move). But don’t dwell on it – move straight on to a grip that looks more natural for longer periods.

Follow the Two-Second Rule. And vote Gladwin at your local election.

Magicians love stuff. We have drawers full of stuff (you can read that either way). A new thing comes out on the market, we buy it. We have to know how it works, and how it differs from that other thing we bought last week.

One item that seems to appear every few months is a new way to carry the stuff that we have. You have no doubt seen these contraptions. The Assassin Pouches, the Pro-Carriers—you know what I’m talking about. I can see how some of these products are useful to a working professional. However, I like to keep it simple so I usually just carry a deck of cards. If you’re like me, you probably look for innovative ways to carry those 52 pals. Below you will find my top five products for carrying a deck of cards.

5. Engraved Metal Case – $18.00
4. Mulholland Brothers Case – $38.00
3. Home-made Duct Tape Case – About $2.00
2. Body Harness – $175.00
1. Preferred method: Left Pants Pocket – FREE

Although, I must say, the harness is a very close second.

I’ve recently been experimenting with Marc Oberon’s “Master Deck” and thought I’d share some thoughts with the hope that it helps potential purchasers make a decision on whether the deck is suitable for them. I also hope that my thoughts will assist those that already own the deck, with some tips on building such a gimmick into your routine.

For those that don’t know, the “Master Deck” is a moderately-gimmicked, completely-stacked, yet almost-examinable deck that allows you to locate a named card in seconds. Marc uses the deck for a guerrilla-style sequence in his act where he locates five or six selections with a crescendo and it’s pretty amazing to see someone find so many named cards at that speed.

On the surface, this is like a memorised deck without the memory and I’m sure many people will consider it as such. However, on closer inspection it’s a little less versatile than your average mnemonic stack. The main similarity is that with the “Master Deck” you are able to find any card in the deck, but the main difference is that you don’t actually know its location. This means that it opens you up to just a small number of the functions of a memorised deck.

When thinking about uses for the deck one might be tempted to say that the possibilities are endless. And they probably are. Marc Oberon’s deck gives you the ability to get any named card under your control and with the exception of six or seven short effects, you’re left to come up with the rest yourself. For some, this is a great thing, but for others who aren’t so interested in experimenting with an idea, I think this might be a little restricting. I heard on the grapevine that Marc will be releasing additional routines using the deck in the future, so that will probably help anyone who purchased the deck and doesn’t want to create their own tricks with it.

Due to it’s very nature (and intended purpose), I can’t imagine using this deck for a trick that doesn’t start with the words “Just name a card” and end with the revelation of that card. Some of the examples that Marc gives mostly cover the obvious applications of such a deck (Ambitious Card, basic card revelations etc) and then border very slightly on the more esoteric. But, by the nature of the deck being “name a card and I’ll find it,” I have to question how many of these effects that you can really feature in your act. I agree with Joshua Jay who on his Close-Up Up Close DVD set rightly points out that the more times you find a named card in succession, the lesser its impact gets. This isn’t a problem that Marc needed to solve when creating the deck, it’s a problem that all users of the deck need to solve for themselves and find a way to structure their use of the deck so that each revelation is stronger than the last and that they find the optimum number of times they use it in a routine.

On a similar note, I guess the important consideration to any user of this deck is that by using more than two or three, “you name a card and I’ll find it” tricks is to dispel the audience’s thought that you’ve purchased a special deck of cards that does just one type of trick. It’s the advanced magician’s equivalent of a layman buying a Svengali deck and only performing in tricks that use the Nine Of Diamonds! That means, to really get the most out of this deck, I think you’ll need to find a way of either switching in the gimmicked deck and/or intertwining other effects around it.

A definite plus for the deck is that it’s certainly possible to find quite a view effects that could be performed with the deck that don’t actually use it’s secret mechanics. Of course, one must hope that you wouldn’t compromise your performances by finding tricks that merely fit your routine in method and not in effect. These are, I guess, the same limitations that apply to a memorised deck, but the fact that the “Master Deck” is gimmicked adds a number of small complications that might require a little imagination to solve.

And one final thought: while the advertising proudly states that the deck removes the memorisation from a memorised deck, I don’t think that’s its only appeal. For the most part, it also removes the skillful estimation that is often required to perform the same tricks that you’d use the “Master Deck” for. And to me, that’s a massive plus for anyone that wants to spend the time working such a trick into their act because many people learn a memorised stack and that get disheartened to learn that they can’t perform this kind of instant card location without spending an additional few months perfecting their estimation skills.

Are you using the “Master Deck?” If so, maybe drop us a comment below to share any of your thoughts or experiences!