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My Favorite Card Tricks: Henry Harrius

By Henry Harrius - Thursday, April 28, 2022

We asked some of magic's greatest minds to share with us their favorite card tricks. This week is the turn of Henry Harrius. You may know him from his products, Cube in Bottle, Rubik's Dream, and Magnet-0. Over to Henry:

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My favourite card tricks. This is a really tough question!

As a reputable professional magician, my spectators have already set a certain expectation on how strong my magic should be. Being known for my Rubik's cube magic and magic on various social media platforms, I have to have a repertoire that is strong enough to live up to their expectations. I have a very clear mindset to separate “magic for formal situations” and “magic for casual situations”. To me, my formal magic includes my commercial shows and my walkaround strolling magic. They are my thousand-timers and usually have been performed for more than 10 years. Every detail is well thought out. This is what my clients are paying for and they deserve the best of the best. On the other hand, I treat my casual magic as another artform. It’s like a “hobby” side of me. They are usually tricks that I would always carry with me and I would perform all the time when I go to a bar or anywhere. Very often, they are very practical and easy to carry. With that in mind, I am happy to share with you my top three favourite tricks and how differently I would choose to perform them in different situations. If someone were to hand me a deck of cards, the first trick I will do is…….

Ambitious Card + Mystery Card Box To perform ambitious card and many more strong signed card materials, I ALWAYS carry a mini sharpie on my key chain. My version of ambitious card is very traditional, with multiple phases and ends with Vernon’s Bent Card Handling. It is very cliché but ambitious card ….. DOES KILL! I also perform Ambitious Card when I do table hopping and in that case, I usually end this with my creation Mystery Card Box (those who have been to my lecture would know!). The signed card would appear inside the playing card box far away from me. For impromptu situations, I also have a sleight of hand version that serves me really well throughout the years.
Back in Time / Triumph + Timeline Jay Sankey’s Back in Time is my FAVOURITE triumph I have ever learnt. I have been doing this for more than 10 years. It’s unbelievably good! Most magicians overlook this effect and treat it as another triumph. However, It is much much more than that! Your spectators genuinely feel the “back in time” experience and this experience is far beyond any normal card trick. It ticks all the boxes. Deceptive, convincing, any deck, anytime and can be done stand up without a table. What more can you ask for? For many years, when someone hands me a deck of cards, this is one of the top tricks I always perform. Then about 2 years ago, my good friend Kieron Johnson sent me his Cube in Bottle effect “Isolated”. In the tutorial, he teaches a REALLY GREAT Triumph. In the realm of triumphs, I think that’s the BEST I have ever seen. I don’t want to say too much, but that’s now become one of my top things to perform casually. When Patrick Kun was developing his fantastic app “Timeline”, I introduced him to this triumph. I believe it also becomes one of his favourite things to perform too. So from now on, I can hit the audience super hard with this triumph together with Patrick Kun’s Timeline. On a side note, let’s take a moment to appreciate how great an app timeline is. Recently, due to Covid 19, I have found out I almost forgot most of the tricks I can do with my phone. However, I still remember how to use Timeline as it’s too simple and too easy to use. Magicians seem to complain about its price but they are overlooking the impacts and experiences it can give to the spectators. In fact, the app is so good that I am willing to say I am actually glad there is one less person owning this app!
Two cards transposition/ David Williamson’s Torn and Restored Transposition Whenever you have a duplicate, you have yourself a bloody miracle! Two cards transposition is simple, direct and easy to understand. Generally, I perform this trick mostly on strolling situations as I prefer not bringing out a deck when I’m not working. I always secretly keep duplicates in the deck during table hopping. No one would ever suspect and that’s how I can start this miracle anytime. Torn and Restored Transpo by David Williamson is another beast of its own. Multiple phases… plus a bloody amazing ending where you restored the card. It's one of the best card tricks in the world…in my opinion. There are many torn and restored card effect in the world but let’s be honest...Torn and Restored Transpo is the only thing that I am using and actually performing.