HIDDEN TREASURES - part 1
There are a bunch of unpublished and seldom shared secrets in the world of cards, and a ton of other relatively unknown ideas and moves you seldom see or hear about.
In this first post of several on this topic I'm talking about some examples from the latter category. My aim is not to divulge any specific details, but to hopefully stir some creative juices and encourage the discovery of new ideas.
Over the years I've been lucky enough to spend time with some great card men who've shared with me some incredible techniques and ideas with cards, many that have never been published. Just from the world of card cheating and gambling moves there are plenty of moves that are simply not known or used in magic. Whether unpublished and safely hidden for years to come, or buried in print and seldom seen, they all share something in common. They sit high on my list of inspirations with a pack of cards. I'll save my thoughts on several obscure andor unpublished cheating techniques for another post/topic, which I imagine will take a little more room to write about.
But from the world of magic there are some equally interesting moves that fit the "seldom talked about" category. The first three items on my list are:
Undo Influence (published in Try the Impossible)
Permanent Deck Principle (published in A Book in English)
The best card control I know (unpublished)
When I discovered each of these I was reminded of the as yet untapped potential buried within a pack of cards. For me they each had great importance in that regard. When I sit down in front of a pack of cards, with my notebook to hand, I am hoping to discover something new, and these ideas remind me that it is possible.
No. 1. Undo Influence.
I remember reading for the first time the Undo Influence principle in Simon Aronson's book Try The Impossible. But before reading the actual workings of the principle I had the wonderful (and pretty rare) feeling of being completely fooled by the principle in the effect Prior Committment, as I performed the effect for myself. Whenever I read a new book on card magic I hope for that feeling again. Although it is said that there is nothing new under the sun, there are still plenty of ideas and effects that each of us have not yet discovered, and some of those will change the way we approach our craft. When I first read the effects in Try The Impossible using UI, as much as I liked them, I immediately set about exploring its application in effects I already performed, and to ideas more suited to my own requirements. Although I've explored many ideas using UI, some of my favourite uses continue to develop through trial and experimentation. I've recently developed two new routines using the idea. My first take on the principle was published in 2014 and a clip of the effect can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/110543468
No. 2. Permanent Deck Principle
On page 267 of A Book in English, by Woody Aragon you can find The Permanent Deck Principle. Woody offers a range of ideas and uses for the principle but as yet I've not found a use that I feel makes the most of its power. The Red/Black idea on page 303 is one of my favourite applications in the book, but there is clearly much more that can be achieved using this brilliant principle. Perhaps the most exciting thing about these types of principles is the thought that their best uses remain not only unpublished but almost certainly undiscovered as well. I perform a gambling routine using the idea in an unusual way, that I plan to publish at some point.
No. 3.
This third was a control shown to me several years ago. Its creator, I had never heard of, and I suspect I am not alone. As it is unpublished I will not go into detail about the mechanics other than to say it is one of the most flawless examples of sleight of hand I have ever seen. When I was introduced to the sleight, I had no idea what happened. I asked to see it again. Then again. After watching it several times to try to understand the mechanics, I gave up. I had no clue. A selected card was clearly left in the middle of the deck, and with NO visible moves it was on top of the deck. The control of a single card, has been the subject of books, and no doubt the lifetime pursuit of many great card men, yet in thirty years of reading, watching and performing card magic I had never seen anything like this.
Then, to make things worse, the person demonstrating the sleight, showed me another original control created by the same magician. It was just as good as the first one.
Yet both are unpublished!
THIS is something that excites and inspires me about card magic. That concepts and sleights like these can exist, and remain known to or used by relatively few in the field, or in the case of the latter, shared only in person, and largely hidden away... I am reminded there is MUCH to be discovered. So each time I sit with a pack of cards to try to discover something new, I like to begin by reminding myself of principles and moves like these, and to think that there are 10 more just as good or better just around the corner, waiting.
