Chan Canasta Forces A Word

In researching the book Chan Canasta: A Remarkable Man, I came across another version of Canasta’s famed book test, one in which he used a word constructed from letters called out by members of the audience. A video of this routine, as performed on a Dutch television show, has now appeared on You Tube. You will find it at the link below. Thank you Gaafman.

Chan Canasta on Dutch TV

While the routine does not compare to Canasta’s Great Book Test it does show Chan demonstrating some of the skills that made him the first genuine psychological magician of the modern age. Chan billed himself as the psycho magician and there was a genuine element of psychology used by Canasta in his performances. Some of that can be seen in this video.

If you watch the video you will see that the starting point of the routine is Canasta asking members of the audience or panel to call out letters so that they can create a word. The word he wishes to create is Sprak. Let’s see how he goes about it:

“First of all, let’s start. Let’s make up a word,” says Canasta. “I go to the blackboard and I shall ask members of my panel and you ladies and gentlemen in the theatre to shout, to call out, any letter of the alphabet that you wish. Will you please do so, go ahead?”

A member of the panel calls out A. “Faster,” says Canasta, writing it down. Very quickly now we hear the letters K C and P and Canasta writes them down in no particular arrangement on the board. And then he does something very interesting. He shouts out S and writes it down with the other chosen letters. It is the first letter of the word he will force. The fact that he called it out seems to go by unnoticed.

“Who else?” asks Canasta and the letters Y and G follow. “Too many says Canasta but someone else shouts out O. He does not need another vowel. It might confuse matters. So he writes it in a smaller font and away from the rest of the letters.

Canasta recaps and writes the letters down a sccond time, in a line.

“We have here S P C K A Y G”

He completely ignores the O. Note that as yet he cannot make the word Sprak from the letters on the board. “I don’t think a word can be made out of it can it, in Dutch?” he says. But he leads the audience in the direction of his force word by appearing to try to make a word from those on offer.

He writes down S P A K, leaving a space. And then says, “R perhaps instead of C.” He openly inserts an R in the space to make the word Sprak. This is a very clever ruse. It sounds plausible “R perhaps instead of C” but provides the key to him creating his force word.

“Sprak is alright? Is that a word?” The panel tell him it is and that it means 'spoke.' Apparently unsure he asks if the spelling is correct. He is assured it is.

He underlines the word on the board. “Let’s take the word sprak and let’s make that our word.”

Canasta’s attitude to the creation of the word is interesting. At the conclusion it might be obvious that the word had to be forced. But Canasta always acts like any word could be chosen. Similarly he suggests that three cards that will be used to arrive at a page could be put in any order.

A common theme in Canasta’s presentations was that ‘whatever you want will be’ but you have to want it enough. And when he failed, as he sometimes did, the audience simply thought they didn’t want it enough. But next time they would try harder. Next time Canasta would succeed. It was all part of Canasta’s enduring charm.

Have fun studying the rest of the video and noting how careful Canasta is with his words. How he always appears to give the audience a chance to change their minds while in reality locking the doors on all other possibilities except for the outcome he intends. Every performance is a master class in psychology.

The Trick That Can Be Explained

EFFECT: Spectator shuffles the deck while performer takes a small envelope from his pocket and places it on the table. The spectator is asked to cut the deck into three piles and then choose one of them. The top card of the chosen pile is turned over; it is the King of Spades. The envelope is opened. Inside is a playing card. It too is The King of Spades.

METHOD: This is nothing more than a simplification of Ted Lesley’s excellent Kismet Connection, a marketed trick that you will also find explained in Ted Lesley’s book Para Miracles.

When I first saw Ted perform this trick I thought immediately of Dai Vernon’s The Trick That Cannot Be Explained. To my mind Ted’s use of the Will de Sieve gimmicked card meant that the Vernon effect was at last within the reach of ordinary mortals. Anyone could shuffle the deck, cut it and you had a chance of predicting the identity of the top card. This is because it is very likely that the Will de Sieve card will be cut to the top.

As mentioned before on this blog the Will de Sieve gimmick is a card that has a slightly raised centre portion. It is described in Greater Magic. A good way to make the card is by pressing a small coin, the size of a quarter, onto the face of a court card. If you shuffle this prepared card into the deck you will have no problem cutting the card to the top of the deck. The raised back creates a natural break. Even better, if a spectator is asked to cut the deck, there is a very good chance that they too will cut the prepared card to the top.

For this trick you need two prepared cards: the King of Spades and the King of Clubs. Both cards are marked on the back so that you know one from the other. In the envelope you have a King of Spades with the same back pattern as the deck you are using. This is all you need to perform a very reliable version of Vernon’s miracle.

HANDLING: Give the deck to the spectator and ask him to shuffle it. Take out the envelope and place it on the table. When the spectator has finished shuffling tell him to place the deck on the table. Look at the back of the top card. If either of your gimmicked cards is there you can proceed straight to the revelation.

If the King of Spades is on top you say, ‘You gave the cards a good shuffle? Good. Because this morning I also shuffled a deck of cards. And I placed it on the table. And I took the top card. I didn’t even look at it. I promise. And I put the card in that envelope. Turn over the top card of the deck. What is it?’

The spectator turns the card over to reveal the King of Spades. ‘Okay, now reach inside the envelope and remove the card. Turn it over. Let’s see if I’ve been lucky.’ It’s the King of Spades, a perfect match.

Now for the second scenario. Let’s assume that the top card of the deck is the King of Clubs. In this case you alter the patter slightly, saying, ‘You gave the cards a good shuffle? Yes. Good. Did you notice anything odd about the deck? No? Well, there’s actually one card missing. Because this morning I also shuffled that deck of cards. And I placed the deck on the table. And without looking I took the top card and slid it into this envelope. Let me show you.’

You open the envelope at fingertips and slide the card out face-down onto the table. ‘They say like attracts like. Let’s see if that’s true.’ Turn over your prediction card to reveal the King of Spades. ‘Will you turn over the top card of the deck?' They turn over the top card and discover the King of Clubs, the mate to your card. A spooky coincidence.

To clean up put both cards back on top of the deck, palming away the duplicate prediction King of Spades and returning it to your pocket as you put the envelope away. If you don’t want to do any sleight of hand, it is easy enough to steal the card away under the envelope as you chat to the spectators.

MORE HANDLING: Of course the spectator won’t usually shuffle one of the gimmicked cards to the top. You will know the situation as soon as he puts the deck on the table. If no gimmicked cards are there, ask him to cut the deck and complete the cut. This gives him another chance of bringing a gimmicked card to the top. If that happens, proceed as described earlier.

If there is still no gimmicked card on top, ask him to cut the deck into three piles. This gives you a couple of more chances of him cutting a gimmicked card to the top. As soon as you see that one of the piles has a gimmicked card in position, use Equivoque (Magician’s Choice) to force that pile.

This is actually the best outcome. The spectator has shuffled the deck, cut the deck, divided it into three piles and then chosen one of them. It looks like he has made a lot of choices. This makes the prediction look all the more impressive.

If you are unlucky enough not to find either of the gimmicked cards on top of any of the three piles, then this is definitely not the day for you to go gambling at the race trick. But you can still bring the trick to a successful conclusion.

You now cut each pile once and complete the cut, saying, ‘Okay, you’ve shuffled and cut, now it’s my turn.’ Having a more delicate touch than the spectator you will have no difficulty in bringing one of the gimmicked cards to the top of one of the piles. You might even bring both of them to the top of different piles. Use Equivoque to force that King pile, saying, ‘You have one more decision to make.’ Finish by revealing your prediction. It’s still a very strong trick.

Do check out Ted Lesley’s original handling. It takes a little more preparation but it is very good. When Ted rediscovered the Will de Sieve gimmick I think he found one of the best devices a card magician could ever hope for. It makes absolute miracles possible.

NOTES: Nikolai Friedrich gave a good tip on the Will de Sieve gimmick in his Sympathetic Decks routine (Genii, December 1997 ). Make the card it into a short card. It increases the chance of it being cut to when required.

The Trick That Cannot Be Explained

The Trick That Cannot Be Explained is described in Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. The author, Lewis Ganson, having witnessed the effect said to Vernon:

‘Dai, I saw the effect. You wrote a prediction on a cigarette packet and placed this on the table. Al Koran shuffled the pack (and made a thorough job of it!). You told him to turn over the top card – which happened to be the Six of Hearts. You then told him to turn over the cigarette packet which had been out of your reach since you wrote the prediction. Al himself read out what you had written – The Six of Hearts. It was a knockout.’

He was trying to persuade Vernon to describe the method in the book. Vernon’s reluctance, as anyone who has the book will know, is because the method depends on a series of outs. The effect never plays the same way twice. And Vernon admitted he got pretty lucky when Koran shuffled that Six of Hearts to the top of the deck.

Which brings me to June 1978 and I’m watching Lewis Ganson give a lecture at a convention in Newcastle. He takes a pack of cards and gives it to a spectator to shuffle. And while this is happening Ganson writes a prediction on a slip of paper. The shuffle finished the top card of the deck is turned over. Unbelievably, it matches the prediction.

For a minute I thought I’d just seen Vernon’s legendary card trick and that Ganson too had got lucky. I was wrong. This wasn’t Vernon's once-in-a-while miracle, it was Ganson's works-every-time miracle. And Ganson explained it during his lecture which is why it amazes me that no one seems to know about it.

It wasn’t until much later that I found Ganson has been using this principle for a long time. He described it in the May 1954 issue of The Gen magazine. See Ganson’s Mickey Fin routine. And now, I’m going to describe it to you because it is just too good an idea not to know about and if you try it just once in front of your magic buddies you will be thankful that the genial Mr Ganson chose to give it away.

METHOD: It’s easy. You use a rough and smooth forcing pack. And yes you actually hand it to the spectator to shuffle. Best to indicate that you want them to give it an overhand shuffle but don’t be scared because it really does work. The pairs of cards will stay together. After a short shuffle the top card is almost certain to be a force card. Marking the backs of the force cards will help. If you don’t see your marked card on top, have the spectator shuffle again or give the deck a cut. Sooner or later you will end with a force card on top. Which is why your prediction is always correct. You can even write ‘The top card will be the six of hearts’ something that even Vernon couldn’t do.

Now no doubt, like me, you're thinking wouldn't it be great if it didn't use a trick deck. True. Except Ganson did use a trick deck and it looked bloody brilliant. Still, magicians are lazy devils who expect to work every miracle with only a deck of cards and the lint in their pockets. So next post I'll describe a different approach that is somewhere between 'gaffed to the hilt' and 'can't be bothered.' See you shortly.

Chan Canasta's Book of Oopses

Which card? That was the question posed by Chan Canasta on the cover of the Radio Times (8^th Jan, 1960). This novel interactive trick was used to promote his new series of psycho magic on BBC television.

Having thought of a card, readers were asked to turn to page 9 for the results. If you click on the photo you should get a better view of the cards. And having chosen one you can read Canasta's prediction in the very next paragraph of this article.

'Yes,' says Chan Canasta 'you probably chose the five of spades on the cover. If you didn’t, however, don’t worry. The eight of clubs and the ace of clubs - or even the seven of diamonds - were also likely choices.'

Note Canasta’s well chosen wording. He never actually said that he would guess the card you thought of. He merely asked you to think of one and then turn to page 9. You may or may not have thought of the five of spades. You’d be damned impressed if you did. But if you didn’t, Canasta brushes the error away as if it didn’t really matter. And leaves you with the feeling that any mistake was your own.

In 1966 George G Harrap & Co published Chan Canasta’s Book of Oopses, a small 48 page volume of interactive tricks. It was billed as 'a collection of thrilling experiments in which the book itself plays the part of the mind-reader.'

Each double page spread was comprised of a set of instructions on the left-hand page and a diagram on the right-hand page. Following the instructions you chose one of the items on the opposite page; a playing card, a symbol, a number or word. When you'd made your decision you turned to the back of the book and looked at Canasta's predictions. Hopefully he would be right. But if he was wrong he offered a humorous and delightful apology and said 'Oops.'

Canasta was very clear about the nature of the tricks, saying in the introduction ‘Well, in many cases the working of the trick is certain, depending on logical or mathematical principles that are cleverly concealed. In other cases, the tricks are of a psychological character, so designed that they are successful only about 80 per cent of the time.’

‘Thus you see the Book presents a kind of challenge to you and to itself. When it fails - Oops! - it shrugs its page sadly and admits failure. But, when it scores a hit the effect is nothing short of miraculous, giving you an eerie feeling that it possesses some occult and incredible powers. This, in fact, is true in a sense. The psychological tricks are planned so that you are led unconsciously along certain mental paths without realising it.’

Original copies of the book are highly sought after and have been selling for around $200 on the internet. But now Martin Breese has reprinted the book and offered it at a much lower price. The original was printed on a sort of black cartridge paper, inadvertently making it difficult to copy, but the reprint is a good one and made on harder wearing glossy stock. You can find the reprint on Martin Breese’s website.

At least one of the Oopses seems to be based on something Canasta performed on television. I’m talking about Oops 10 which is entitled Making a sentence of nonsense. The reader is asked to choose four words from ten on offer to make a simple sentence.

On his show Canasta had tried a very similar trick in which a panel of celebrities did the choosing. In The Budget magazine for February 1960 Gus Southall wrote:

‘Then on to a mass experiment with four sets of large cards each bearing four words. These were shown quickly to the panel and the studio audience who were invited to compose a sentence from them which should agree with one previously written down by Canasta. Unfortunately it was a total failure.’

Obviously not the most successful of routines but Canasta had tried it on an earlier show, where it had also failed, so he seemed keen on it. When I met Canasta in 1996, I asked him about the trick and he told me a story that had been told to him by film actor Michael Rennie.

It appears that Rennie had arranged to take his mother out to dinner but she was reluctant to go. The reason was that she was a big fan of Canasta's and didn't want to go anywhere until she'd seen his television show that evening. Rennie, reluctantly, is forced to watch the show with his mother. He was not impressed, the show was the usual mixture of hits and misses. One routine in particular was a spectacular failure, the one that Gus Southall later reviewed. The celebrity panel were shown words on cards and asked to choose some and arrange them into a sentence. They did. But when Canasta's prediction was revealed it was utterly wrong.

For Rennie, who was perhaps watching Canasta for the first time, this was a total shock. He turned to his mother and said, 'You made me stay in for this? He was completely wrong.'

'No,' said his mother 'he wasn't wrong. They were!'

Which perhaps tells us a little about Canasta's enduring charm. I asked Canasta about the routine and how he had intended to make it work. It was clear he didn't have a specific method in mind, just hope that his persuasive powers might bring about the right result. 'It might have worked,' he said, 'but whether it worked or not, I knew it would fill seven and a half minutes.' Filling the time must have been a major consideration when you're the sole artiste on a weekly television series.

I hadn't known about the Book of Oopses when I met Canasta. T.A. Waters told me about it and, later, Peter Lane kindly loaned me his copy. It was years before I managed to get hold of an original copy of my own. I think Oops 10 in the Book of Oopses is a version of the routine he used on his television shows. It's a wonderful effect. Maybe one day it will work.

PRINCIPLE X

In 1978 I attended the IBM convention in Hastings. It was a memorable convention for three main reasons. It was the year I met Phil Goldstein and his alter ego Max Maven, who blew everyone away with a unique brand of card work and mentalism. It was the convention I got to watch David Berglas give one of his incredible card performances part of which involved named cards being found at thought of numbers. This at a time when the legendary Berglas Effect was uppermost in my mind. I wrote about it in The Mind and Magic of David Berglas.

The third reason that convention was so memorable had to do with another card problem that bore the mysterious title Principle X. Bobby Bernard had told me that he too had an impossible card trick like The Berglas Effect. One that he had worked on for many years. One that he had shown to several luminaries in the magic world. He had described it to me. And the conditions did indeed seem impossible. Now, not to be outdone I think, Bobby Bernard decided it was time to perform Principle X.

In the convention hotel lounge he took my deck of cards and demonstrated what was to be done. He would ask me to shuffle the cards. Cut them and remember the face card of the upper packet before replacing the cut. Then I was to shuffle the cards again until I had no idea where my card was. Sounds good, yes?

Having demonstrated what he wanted me to do he handed the cards back to me and then walked across to the other side of the hotel lounge saying that he didn’t want to be accused of getting a glimpse of my card or estimating the cut. He moved away a good distance, easily about 30 feet, and seemed to make no effort to watch what I was doing.

So, with the deck in my own hands, I gave it an overhand shuffle, a cut, noted the face card of the upper portion, replaced the cut portion and shuffled again. I admit I did not try to be awkward. I used overhand shuffles. I didn’t deliberately try to outfox Bobby. I wanted to see this trick work.

I called to Bobby and he returned and took the deck from me. He placed the deck behind his back and asked for the name of my card. I told him, let’s say it was the Six of Spades. Then he asked me to name a number. Let’s imagine it was 19.

Bobby fiddled with the deck behind his back and then brought the cards forward and handed them to me. With the deck face down he asked me to deal to the 19^th card. I dealt the cards onto Bobby’s hand. When I reached the 19^th card he asked me to name my selection again. I turned the 19^th card over. It wasn’t the Six of Spades.

Bobby looked surprised. ‘Maybe it’s the next card’, he said. I turned it over. It wasn’t the Six of Spades either. Principle X seemed to have been a failure. ‘How far out was I?’ said Bobby. I turned the next card over. This card was the Six of Spades. Now I didn’t know what to make of the trick. Had I seen a near miracle of a fluke?

Bobby did assure me that the effect usually worked, that he had performed it successfully many times and had a stack of notes on the workings of Principle X at home. But he didn’t repeat the trick. I was reminded of a satirical essay in Jon Racherbaumer’s Hierophant that advised if you want to fry your fellow magicians attempt a trick that cannot possibly work. They’ll spend weeks trying to figure out what might have happened if all had gone right. I wondered if that’s what Bobby had done.

Despite my reservations I did spend a long time thinking about how Bobby’s Principle X might work. Stephen Tucker and I discussed all kinds of methods. How an extra card might be pulled from a card index behind the back. Or how an inefficient overhand shuffle might leave a card in roughly the same position. But at that time we didn’t have any solutions that could meet all of Bobby’s conditions. And I still don’t have any now.

You might wonder why I’d give the trick any credence but some months later I was at Bobby’s apartment in London and looking at the close up apparatus he had collected over the years. And there, in a cabinet, was a small leather bound book. It wasn’t new. It was clear from its appearance he'd had it some time. And it had a lock on it like a miniature version of a Goldston Locked Book. Except this wasn’t any magic book I recognised. Bobby smiled as he handed it to me. The title of the book was embossed in gilded letters on the front. It said, ‘Principle X.’

I never got to peek inside that locked book and for me Principle X remains a mystery to this day. But, like The Berglas Effect, it got me thinking. And while meeting the original conditions of the trick seems impossible there are a number of ways that a pseudo version of the trick can be performed. One of them has already been described in this blog. Take a look at The Bogus Effect posted previously on this blog. Forget the shuffling and replace it with some cutting. Now you have a trick in which the spectator cuts to a card, notes it, cuts the deck several times and yet you can take that deck behind your back and bring the card to any named position.

If you prefer not to use a trick deck use a crimped card or Will de Sieve gimmick (Greater Magic) in which the force card will cut to the face of a packet. The spectator unknowingly cuts to your force card. He can shuffle it back into the deck. But you’ve prepared the force card so you can find it again when the deck is behind your back. Now it is a matter of being able to insert it at the named number as quickly as possible. A good riffle count and a low number would help!

Principle X has provided me with food for thought for many years. I hope it keeps you entertained too.

NOTES

Visitors to Ken Brooke's Magic Place, in London's Wardour Street, will recall the excitement they felt when they saw a book entitled The Magic of Fred Kaps lying on the counter. As soon as they saw it, visitors stopped whatever they were doing and picked up that book. And then laughed when they flipped through the book only to discover that all the pages were blank.

BLACKSTONE'S CARD AND NUMBER

The following trick is the subject of an interesting thread on the Genii forum about a performance of Harry Lorayne’s that is currently on You Tube. The trick in question begins at 00.32 on the video.

The footage is from The Secret World of Magic, a show I helped develop with Objective Productions, in which magicians Ali Cook and Pete Firman toured the world in search of great magic. They certainly found it. Harry Lorayne is one of my favourite performers. I remember a sensational lecture he gave in Liverpool back in April of 1980. He did four hours of material and then many of us retired to Paul Stone’s house for even more. His energy is boundless. And he is one of the greatest showmen with a deck of cards you will ever see. His lecture included the trick you see performed on The Secret World of Magic. Lorayne published his handling as Numero Uno in his 1980 lecture notes. I thought it one of the highlights of the evening.

The premise of the trick and its wonderful kicker has caused much comment and yet has been in print for over 70 years, hidden in plain sight as is the case with many good things. It is Blackstone’s Card and Number described in Greater Magic. See page 461 in the section on Prepared Cards.

I’ll outline the trick the way the trick is described in Greater Magic and then talk about an added twist later that I described in the Not The Berglas Effect manuscript. To do the trick you need a key card that you can cut to. When you cut the cards the key card will be the face card (the lowest card) of the packet you have cut from the top of the deck.

Blackstone used a bellied card in a narrow pack but any key card you can cut to easily will work. A Will de Sieve key card with the raised area on the face (Greater Magic) works well as does a bridged card or breather crimp. Harry describes his own impromptu handling in his lecture notes and, I believe, in his book Personal Collection. Place this key card seventeenth from the top of the deck and you are ready to begin.

False shuffle the deck, leaving the key card in position, and then spread the deck across the table and have a card selected from the lower two-thirds. This is easy to do if you spread those cards more widely than the upper portion of the deck.

Gather up the deck as the spectator remembers his card. Cut the deck at the key card and have the selection returned on top of the lower portion. Drop the cut packet back onto the deck ostensibly losing the selection but really placing it directly below your key. False shuffle again before placing the deck on the table. The selection is now the eighteenth card down in the deck.

Ask another spectator to call out a number between one and twenty, adding, ‘A large number, please, to make it difficult.’ Seventeen or eighteen are often called. I’ll describe what happens if they aren’t in a moment but let’s deal with the optimum outcome first.

If seventeen is chosen, say, ‘Seventeen. That is difficult. But I’m going to cut seventeen cards from the top and the very next card will be yours. Watch.’ Rub your fingers together as if preparing your fine tuned digits for work and then cut at the key card, so the key is at the face of the upper packet, and place the cut packet aside. ‘That’s it. What was your card? Queen of Spades? Look.’

Turn the top card of the talon over to reveal that you have cut to the selected card. ‘Queen of Spades. Seventeen cards from the top.’ As soon as the effect has sunk in the spectators will have some lingering doubts about your claim to have cut exactly seventeen cards. Make the most of this. This is where the kicker to the trick takes over and provides you with the most beautiful finish.

Look at the spectators as if sensing suspicion. ‘I can see some doubts. Let’s count them.’ Hand the cut packet to the spectator and ask him to count the cards one at a time to the table. Count along with him, controlling the tempo of the count so that it ends as dramatically as possible, ‘fifteen, sixteen, seventeen!’ It is hard to find a better finish for so little effort.

The reason the trick garners such strong reaction is that it delivers a result that the audience care about. The number of cards in the cut packet is a nagging question they would like answered but might be too polite to ask. It would play entirely differently if you just counted off those seventeen cards before revealing the selection. But if you wait until the audience start to wonder about the honesty of your claim and demand to count those seventeen cards themselves, well, this is an entirely different situation. It is a strong trick with a touch of humour and echoes Henning Nelms’ thoughts about good magic being that which delivers upon the expectations of the audience.

Let’s backtrack a moment and deal with the other numbers. If the spectator calls out eighteen you change your patter to, ‘Eighteen. Okay, I’m going to cut the cards and your card will be exactly eighteen cards from the top. The eighteenth card should be right about here.’ After you’ve revealed the card and sensed the audience’s doubts you say, ‘I know what you’re thinking. If this is the eighteenth card, then there must be seventeen cards over there.’ Play up to the suspicion about your claim and then have a spectator count the cards as before.

Now we come to the biggest stumbling block of the trick. What happens when a number other than seventeen or eighteen is called? If you’ve done your job right it’s unlikely that anyone will call out a number that is not in the teens but it still presents a situation that looks troublesome. Blackstone provided the simplest and best solution. If, for example, the spectator chooses fifteen, you say, ‘How do you count cards? Like this?’ And you demonstrate by dealing off two cards to the table. Pick them up and put them back below the deck, as you say, ‘That’s not what I’m going to do. Watch. Fifteen, coming off the top.’ Then cut to your key card in the most impressive manner you can. If you want to know how Harry Lorayne deals with all contingencies in Numero Uno, buy his books!

SPECTATOR DOES BLACKSTONE’S CARD AND NUMBER

Here is the tiny twist on the routine that I mentioned earlier. It was inspired by the work of David Berglas. As described in The Mind and Magic of David Berglas, he uses the bridge to force a card on a spectator. He has a bridge half way down the tabled deck, invites the spectator to make a cut and almost unfailingly they will always cut to the bridge. My friend Chris Power uses the same forcing technique but holds the deck in his hand while the spectator makes the cut. It rarely misses.

This technique for forcing the cut is described in Expert at the Card Table as a crimp. Erdnase says, ‘…many an unsophisticated player has unconsciously cut into a crimp and aided in his undoing. If the deck is placed before an innocent player so that his hand naturally seizes the ends, the chances are in favor of his cutting to the opening.’

As described by Erdnase, put a bridge in the deck so that the spectator will lift off the top seventeen cards. The Will de Sieve ridged card works just as well if you press the coin on the back of the card so that the impression is raised on the card’s face.

In performance you control the selected card to the eighteenth position as before. Now choose a spectator who looks like they might have a light touch. A number is named, let’s imagine it is fifteen, you deal some cards to the table to bring the selection to the correct number, saying, ‘Is this how you would normally count cards?’ When the spectator says yes, drop the deck on to the dealt cards and then place it on the table, saying, ‘Well, I don’t want you to do that. I want you to cut fifteen cards. Do you think you can cut exactly fifteen cards?’

Imagine you are Chan Canasta building up the impossibility of it all. ‘Because I think you can. But you have to be sure. You have to want to cut exactly fifteen cards, no less, no more. That’s a deck of fifty-two cards. Imagine what those fifteen will look like. Shall we give it a try?’

With the proper guidance from you the spectator will cut to the bridge. First reveal that she has cut to the selection and then, as in Blackstone’s presentation, reveal that she really did cut fifteen cards. You’ve created a mini miracle with a card and a number that will be long remembered.

THE MAGIC OF FRED ROBINSON - BOOK REVIEW

I first read about Fred Robinson in Will Dexter’s book Famous Magic Secrets, an inspirational book to a teenage conjuror. Fred was one of the many curious characters portrayed by Dexter in the chapter about The Magic Circle. Fred was the burly rail worker sitting in the corner of the club dealing seconds and bottoms from the deck to the amazement of even the most expert magician. It was decades after the publication of Dexter’s book that I first saw Fred in the flesh and he looked pretty much the same as I’d imagined him, an ordinary looking guy, now silver haired and peering down spectacles that perched precariously on his nose. He was sitting a table dealing second and bottoms and middles from a deck while everyone, including me, looked on in admiration. This was at The Marlborough Arms pub, a favourite venue for magicians in years gone by because it was just around the corner from The Magic Circle headquarters when it was location in Chenies Mews.

Fred’s work was impeccable. And unique too because he didn’t deal cards like any magician. He dealt them like an ordinary bloke. You were never aware of him positioning the deck in the mechanic’s grip. He didn’t sit bolt upright in his chair as if he had a rod of iron down his back the moment he picked up the deck. And he didn’t attempt to play the part of the smart alec gambling expert. He handled the deck like a layman and dealt as if about to play a game of brag or whist with friends rather than give you a lesson in crooked gambling. Only the outcome of the deal, a winning hand, indicated that some chicanery was afoot. Dai Vernon considered him ‘one of the all time greats with cards.’ You could understand why Vernon liked Fred’s work. It was so natural and so perfect. His image and handling belied any suggestion of skill

Fred Robinson died in 1986 and although he was editor of Pabular magazine for many years he left little behind in the way of a coherent magical legacy, just the odd item printed here and there and an intriguing video tape marketed by Vic Pinto in which he and, I think, Jack Avis anonymously demonstrated but did not explain some false dealing and other gambling tricks.

Peter Duffie, one of Fred’s friends, thought it was time to put the record straight and gather together all of Fred’s expert card techniques into one book. That must have been around 1987, back when I was working with magic publisher Martin Breese. I remember Pete approaching Martin with the idea for the book and Martin commissioning it for publication. Pete spent a long time contacting Fred’s friends, and fellow card workers and collating as much information as he could about the tricks and techniques he had used throughout his life. He did a marvellous job.

At one point, because of pressure of business, ownership of the book transferred from Martin to Chris Power and JJ of Opus Magazine fame. But for one reason or another they never got around to publishing it. Peter’s manuscript lay idle for a decade at which point I helped get it back into the hands of Martin Breese who with Peter Duffie began the process of putting the book back together. It was the first time I got to read the material. What a treasure house it was.

It still took several years for the book to be published but the time was not wasted and Peter and Martin took great pains to make sure it was the best book it could possibly be. Finally it is here, one big handsome volume filled with Fred Robinson’s superb magic, a tremendous tribute to one of Britain’s finest cardmen. For those who didn’t know Fred Peter has provided an excellent biography, one made possible through the generous help of Fred’s family and in particular his daughter Annabelle who provided much information and even family photos. There are affectionate and informative tributes from Fred’s friends, notables such as Roy Walton, Darwin Ortiz, Jerry Sadowitz, Walt Lees, Max Maven, Simon Lovell, Barrie Richardson, Bobby Bernard and Patrick Page. Dominic Twose, a pupil of Fred, recalls the lessons in card handling that he had. And Dai Vernon provides a foreword.

The book contains all the moves that card workers will want to know about. Here are Fred’s second, bottom, middle and Greek deals upon which Fred built his reputation as a master of sleight of hand. There are four versions of the pass including his legendary riffle pass. There are counts, palms, double lifts and colour changes. And Fred Robinson’s gambling routines.

There are tricks too. One of my favourites is Fred’s Rising Cards as described by Patrick Page. This would fool you. It could easily have been a marketed trick. Then there are Fred’s handlings of classic plots like Cards Across, Dunbury Delusion, Do As I Do, Daley’s Last Trick, Out of This World and many more. And some excellent coin items and a smattering of stand up magic. The one thing that draws them all together is simplicity. Fred didn’t go in for complicated magic. He once told Francis Haxton that he never found anything in Marlo’s books. And when you read this book you can see what Fred meant. The tricks are all simple and direct. The moves are invisible. The outcome is magical. Fred performed his magic in the same deceptively natural manner than he executed his false deals.

Martin Breese has done an excellent job in the production of the book. It is a big heavy tome of 284 pages, features dozens of items and is clearly illustrated by Paul Griffen and Roy Johnson. But the kudos must go to Peter Duffie because in Peter you have an author who really understands the techniques he is describing. Peter’s false dealing and work with the pass is extraordinary. You can be sure that when he describes Fred Robinson’s middle deal you are getting every last detail.

If natural handlings and straightforward magic is your bag then you will certainly enjoy The Magic of Fred Robinson. You can buy it from Martin Breese here. And if you want to see what Peter Duffie’s handling of some difficult material is like, then this You Tube trailer is a great starting point. It will give you an idea of the skill level that can be achieved when the mechanics of a sleight are thoroughly mastered and combined with the naturalness of execution that was at the heart of Fred Robinson's philosophy of magic.

STEVE FORTE GAMBLING PROTECTION SERIES DVD - REVIEW

Steve Forte has an almost supernatural ability with cards. It was at the Gambler’s Book Shop Shop in Las Vegas that I first heard his name. They were showing a series of four video tapes that Steve had produced. As I watched Steve’s incredible dice and card work on the monitor an old guy next to me said, ‘That’s the real deal.’ That old guy was Dai Vernon.

At that time I was researching material for The Secret Cabaret television series. Sebastian Cody, the executive producer, and I spent a lot of time watching those tapes. They were the finest crooked gambling demonstrations we had ever seen. We wanted Steve to be part of the show but for one reason or another that never happened.

Those four video tapes, The Gambling Protection Series, have now been re-released on DVD and I have no hesitation in recommending them if you have any interest in how card cheats work. The first three episodes contain incredible material on false deals, shuffles, cuts, switches, gaffs, peeks, palms, holdouts and every other possible way of cheating at cards whether you are playing blackjack, rummy, bridge or poker. What makes them outstanding is not just the range of material covered but Steve Forte’s incredible skill. Every sleight is performed expertly and with the ease and nonchalance you would expect if you were trying to cheat at a game.

The fourth volume of the original set was the one that perhaps created the most comment from those who saw it. It focuses on dice cheating and contains the most extraordinary demonstrations of controlled dice shots that you will ever see. It’s breathtaking stuff and a far cry from the rather contained demonstrations that magicians had been used to seeing. Here Steve throws dice right through the air or bounces them off the sides of the craps table and still they come up sixes. Wonderful stuff.

If this DVD set contained just these four tapes I would recommend it. But there is an extra disc of material in this set. The first item on the disc was produced as a pilot show called Invisible Thieves. Once again you’ll be treated to some of the cleverest cheating methods ever put on tape. There is also a terrific tour of Steve’s Gambling Museum where he and Jason England talk us through some of the items he has on display there. It is a truly amazing collection. And Steve’s knowledge of crooked gambling is every bit as impressive as his skill with cards and dice.

Steve Forte isn’t a magician but he did once give a dealing demonstration on a TV show called Hidden Secrets of Magic, produced by Jim Steinmeyer and Frankie Glass, two of my friends from the production team on The Secret Cabaret. It was good to see that they finally managed to get Steve Forte on a show. That sequence is also included and it’s a great opportunity to see how Steve stages an entertaining crooked gambling demonstration and admire the ease with which he is able to execute the mechanics.

Finally, there is footage of fifty-two different gambling sleights that have never appeared before. These are drawn from Steve’s archive of material, an archive that was intended for future publication. The sleights aren’t explained but there is a commentary from Steve Forte and Jason England, and in some cases slow motion footage, that will have you pressing the rewind and pause button because you won’t believe your eyes when you see some of the material. The deck switches in particular are stunning. And the Elliott Second Deal has never looked better. I think it's one of the fairest looking seconds you could ever hope to use and, since Elliott was a magician, it should be of great interest to his fellow conjurors. This item alone is worth the price of the set.

The bottom line is that if you have a serious interesting in crooked gambling then this DVD set is absolutely indispensable. It is a three DVD set, jam packed with material and presented in a box designed by Dan and Dave Buck. For a hundred dollars it is a bargain. Buy it here.

POSTSCRIPT

It wasn’t until years later that I finally got to meet Steve Forte and see him work in person. My friend Gazzo made the introduction. Steve had kindly written an afterword for our book on Walter Scott, The Phantoms of the Card Table.

Steve still has that supernatural touch with cards and can still switch dice and bounce them off the backboard like a demon. He’s one of the few people I’ve ever met who can pick up a deck of cards, go straight into the most difficult of moves and not break a sweat while doing it. He is very serious about his studies. His knowledge is extensive. His collection of gambling paraphernalia is inspiring. But more than that he is an extremely nice and likable guy as passionate now about his subject area as he has ever been.

I asked him whether he, like most of the crooked gambling experts around, began as a magician. But he never was. He studied gambling not magic. He is the one of the very few contacts that magicians have with the real work of crooked gamblers. Which makes what he has to say all the more important for those interested in real scams and contemporary gambling hustles. I told him the story about Vernon and what he said in the Gambler’s Book Shop. And was surprised to find that the two of them never met. I thought that a great shame. I think Vernon would have loved his company.

NEWMAN MOND CUTS THE ACES

Jon Racherbaumer emailed to say that the previous post about Newman Mond reminded him of an Eddie Field’s stunt. Eddie would shoot a ball across the pool table so that it hit a deck of cards, cutting it into two packets right at the selection. This was a version of Sleight of Foot, the trick in which a few grains of salt are secretly placed above the selected card so that the deck will separate at that point when kicked. It is the first trick in The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and the originator was Herbert Milton.

Well, on the British Pathe website there is footage of Newman Mond doing a similar trick. He shuffles a deck of cards before placing it in the middle of the billiard table. Then he shoots a cue ball across the table so that it strikes the deck. The impact separates the deck in to four piles, each with an ace at the face. It’s an impressive looking trick.

One notable aspect is the shuffling of the deck. It makes me think that perhaps Newman Mond wasn’t using the old salt method. He might have used slick cards, Will de Sieve gimmicks or, as Racherbaumer suggests, breather crimps to ensure that the packets separate. Any pool players out there might want to try a few experiments.

Using Ask Alexander at the Conjuring Arts Research Center I discovered that Newman Mond was the pseudonym of A N Redmond, described in The World’s Fair as ‘the originator of magic on the billiards table.’ In 1937 he was secretary of The Bolton Magic Circle in England. If anyone has any other information about A N Redmond aka Newman Bond, please get in touch.