BY

RYAN
PLUNKETT
&

MICHAEL
FELDMAN
“A New Angle
is full of thoughtfully constructed routines that
will not only entertain and fool, but will naturally inspire you
with creative possibilities.” — DANIEL GARCIA

“A New Angle strips the dust off of a forgotten gem—

something that delighted and deceived you when you first
saw it utilized. Ryan and Michael have taken this angled
artifice and have added their creativity to it. This book is
worth studying—ryou will be inspired to grab your old deck
and make something new!” —Jim KRENZ

“Plunkett and Feldman have helped wipe the dust off a widely
unused tool. The results: a strong collection of fooling card
magic.” —Jarep Koprr

“This is the real work on an overlooked principle. I was

delighted with the routines, and the thought that Michael and
Ryan have put into this collection.” —JosHua Jay

“They smoked me even when I knew they were using

strippers. Imagine when I didn’t 1” — TYLER WILSON
 ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
A NEW ANGLE

“Great ideas that turn a classic into a miracle.”

—MARrcus EpDIE

long overdue. It won’t collect dust on your

“A New Angle is

bookshelf—just like your stripper deck will no longer be

hidden away in your drawer. Diabolical stuff.”
—STEVE REYNOLDS

“Feldman and Plunkett have cut every corner to bring you the
most cutting-edge angles on the stripper deck. A round every
corner just more awesome with a tapered side of awesome!
is
I thought this book was about strippers? What am I going to

do with all the old crinkled one dollar bills I've been saving?”
—RiIckYy SMITH

“Ryan and Michael have put together superb collection of

a
work dedicated to rediscovering and developing a very old
tool. It’s inspiring to see what they did with what the magic
world has deemed pedestrian and obsolete. This project
invites you to work through the material proposed and search
for your own angle in other overlooked places.”
—Pi1ro VILLANUEVA
 FOREWORD BY

LANCE PIERCE

2017 |
MAGIC, INC. |
cuicago
 NEW
ANGLE
BY

RYAN
PLUNKETT
&

MICHAEL
FELDMAN
 Copyright © Magic, Inc. 2017
ISBN 978-097-29263-31

By Ryan Plunkett & Michael Feldman

Foreword by Lance Pierce

The Authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.

Published by Magic, Inc.

Chicago, Illinois

www.magicinc.net
Alexander “Sandy” Marshall, Publisher

Edited by: Susan Palmer Marshall & Pedro Nieves-Bosque

Trick Editor: Danny Rudnick

Photography by: James Murphy

Readers: Lee Benzaquin, Nathan Colwell, James Sanden, Theron Schaub, Pix Smith, Tyler Wilson

Book design by Heather Wood

www. Heather WoodBooks.com

Printed in the United States by Sheridan Books, Inc.

1357910 8 6 42
First Edition

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER: 2017901442

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Plunkett, Ryan, author. / Feldman, Michael Aaron, author. / Pierce, Lance, foreword author.
A New Angle / by Ryan Plunkett & Michael Feldman; foreword by Lance Pierce
Chicago, IL: Magic, Inc., 2017.

p- cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-097-29263-31 | LCCN 2017901442

Summary: A collection of new fooling card magic routines using a forgotten gem,
the Tapered (AKA Stripper) Deck.
LCSH Card tricks. Magic tricks. BISAC GAMES
| |
/ Magic.
LCC GV1549 .P58 2017 | DDC 793.8/5—dc23
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the following with their assistance

on the preparation of this manuscript: Chris Alonzo, Lee
Benzaquin, Edward Boswell, Tony Chang, Nathan Colwell,
Frank Fogg, Harapan Ong, Lance Pierce, Theron Schaub,
Pix Smith, James Sanden, Tyler Wilson, the Chicago Magic
Lounge and the Magic Garage.
 CONTENTS

FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
1 THE BASICS
1 Sides and Ends
13 The Cut

18 HOW TO CUT CARDS

TRICKS
24 Collect Yourself |
Ryan Plunkett

38 Shavings: Dual Thought |

Ryan Plunkett

40 Shuffleupagus |
Ryan Plunkett

49 Shuffleupagus Redux |
Ryan Plunkett

53 Shavings: Pseudo Riffle Stacking |

Nathan
Colwell

55 Shavings: Out of This Spread |

Frank Fogg

58 Shavings: A Satisfying Sequence |

Ryan Plunkett

60 Stay Stack: An Introduction

64 Twin Peeks |
Ryan Plunkett
 16 The Nearly Final Countdown |
Ryan Plunkett

19 Ode to Rusduck |
Ryan Plunkett

84 Shavings: The Complete Faro Control | Michael

~~
Feldman

87 Color Shift |
Edward Boswell

93 Shavings: Rotator Shifts |

Nathan Colwell

100 Hofzinser’s Suit Selection |

Nathan Colwell

110 Shavings: Cutting High |

Michael Feldman

12 Triumph: An Introduction
13 Trick Play |
Brian O’Neill

122 The Hallucinogenic Shuffle |

Ryan Plunkett

131 Flash Triumph |

Ryan Plunkett

138 Shavings: A Tactile Location | Lance Pierce

140 The Law of Conservation of Bullsh=t |

Michael Feldman

151
Shavings: The Incomplete Strip-Out |
Harapan
Ong

157
EPILOGUE
159 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
160 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
161 INDEX
 \

A NEW
1

ANGLE
1

\
 FOREWORD
~—
Magic offers many pleasures and a good number of them have
nothing to do with learning a new trick. I've observed not only
from my own experience but also from others’ that magic offers
many vivid and vibrant opportunities to meet really wonderful
people and, over time, build an assembly of friends that is actually
a treasure—one that would rival any collection of gold and jewels
in any emperor’s palace.
If, like me, you've been lucky enough to have been around for
a little while without getting hit by a bus (I assume that if you're
reading this book you're quite alive, but I'm still fervently looking
for some wood to knock on at the moment), then perhaps you're
blessed to have met not only some of the elders of magic but also
many of the younger members as well—those who always bring an
edge of excitement and a fantastic energy to anything that interests
them.
book you now hold. It’s a product of two
Take, for instance, the
of my youngest friends with whom I’ve been singularly impressed
for some time: Michael Feldman and Ryan Plunkett. Each is likely
a genius in his own way: Michael being a talented lawyer and Ryan

mastering the craft and art of theatre design. Each has delightfully
engaged me, challenged me, and fooled me.
There. I said it and I am not ashamed.
you can imagine my intrigue when both Ryan and Michael
So

approached me and said they wanted to share something they'd

been working on together.
What could it be? Either of them is capable of coming up with
4 A NEw ANGLE

things that would make me feel guilty that I don’t practice more or
apply myself harder. Did they have something completely new for
me . something before unseen?
. .

No and yes. You see, the first thing they said is that it’s work with
a stripper deck. I'm happy to call it the “tapered deck,” but re-
gardless of the name, yes, we're referring to the tired, over-worn
prop that sits discarded in magicians’ drawers all over the world.
I stopped for a moment. When was the last time I'd handled one?

Too many years to easily count. I know [own . . . a few.

My reflections quickly turned to excitement because I knew if
Michael and Ryan had been collaborating on ideas with a tapered
deck, then they had to have come up with a pretty good routine for
it—a truly different way to use this old tool.
It wasn’t a routine they offered me to see. It was an entire col-
lection of thoughts, principles, and routines. This is one of the best
things about magic (aside from wonderful friendships): once in a
great while, someone (or someones) will take something nearly ev-
eryone knows and make you wonder why you didn’t give it more
credence.
Many of the ideas you'll find here are pretty danged good. You
can give them little practice and put them in your repertoire with
very little effort. So, yeah, this is a book that fecls complete. But
there’s something beyond that. Ryan and Michael haven’t just of-
fered up some very nice ideas, effective routines, and fine thinking.
They have moved the horizon on the tapered deck. After you work
through what's here, you'll no longer see the prop in the same way
again. Ifyou're inclined to the same sort of radical behavior, you
too will try to find other subtleties, avenues, and approaches that
go beyond theirs.
If you breeze through this book only seeking things that will tit-
illate you in your quest for something new, it will likely do that
 FOREWARD

for you. If, however, you're open to changing your perspective on

something old, it will serve just as well there. My personal hope
is that on some level this book will also teach a valuable lesson: in

magic, things are never done. They're never finished. No tool or

idea goes extinct as long as we have able members who are willing
to see them in different ways.
is
This the crux of my admiration for these two men. It
also high-
lights where much of my current fascination lies: in those who
seem just about ready (and sometimes downright determined) to
take the reins of magic for the next generation to come.
I used to wonder how I could effectively do what I could to make

sure magic was better for my having been here and worked on it.
I
It felt like a heavy responsibility and, to be sure, still have no idea
how to answer that question. But there is some solace. I know that
whatever I do, magic will be just fine because a few young and bril-
liant practitioners will make it better in any event,

—LANCE PIERCE
 INTRODUCTION
~N—

This project was born out of obsessions. Ryan had spent so much
time working behind the magic counter at Magic, Etc. in Fort
Worth, Texas, pitching Svengali and stripper decks, that he be-
gan to discover hidden and bizarre possibilities with these magic-
shop staples. He became obsessed with the things a tapered deck
could do.
Ryan’s obsession is also contagious, and it has inspired many
friends to join his exploration of this deck. That’s exactly what hap-
pened when we first met in Dallas. We'd been sitting across the
table from each other for about an hour when Ryan said, “Here,
I've got something for you.” He performed “Shuffleupagus” (which
you can find on page 40), and Michael’s mind exploded. Michael
loved the concept of shuffling a deck to give it more order. It also
completely fooled him.
Not only did this session strike up a friendship, but also the real-
ization that maybe this prop deserved a revival. Since then, we have
been on a mission to bring the tapered deck out of hiding and back
to its rightful place among the most versatile and diabolical tools
in the magicians’repertoires. Some of our friends have been kind
enough to contribute their work, too, and throughout you'll find
effects and ideas from various creative thinkers.
A New Angle represents our efforts to shine new light on a
prop
that’s been confined to the dark, forgotten corners of magicians’
magic drawers for decades. Stripper decks are old; they have been
around for centuries. They are also incredibly common—there have
been reported sightings of them in Target and Walmart stores, na-
8 A New ANGLE

tionwide. So it’s strange that it is so difficult to find anyone using

them well.
Most of us got a stripper deck when we first started out in magic.
But then we learned all 101 tricks that came with the instructions,
and in just a few days, weeks, or months, we graduated to bigger,
better, more interesting techniques, and we chucked the stripper
deck away to be forgotten.
The core problem is that we move on from stripper decks before
any of us bother to explore the world of mind-bending hurt we
could put on our audiences if we but only unlocked the potential
of this deck combined with a little subtlety and little sleight of
hand. Only rarely do card magicians think to combine gimmicks
with sleight of hand. Therefore, stripper decks are often sold as a
substitute for skill rather than a supplement. But thinking of gim-
micks and sleight of hand as alternatives cuts your potential in half.
It’s like having white and black paints without ever realizing that

you can mix them to make infinite different shades of grey. The
most effective magic does not come from choosing whether sleight
of hand is better than gimmicks or vice versa. It comes from taking
the best parts of all the tools available to you and combining them.
A New Angle explores the breadth of magic available with a strip-

per deck, and incorporates sleight of hand, stacks, mathematical

principles, as well as other methods. It
is a collection of ideas and
effects designed to show how much more you can do than merely
“strip” out cards. In fact, reversing cards and stripping them out is
the deck’s most primitive use, and magicians have been doing it
for almost 250 years.? But in that time plenty of smart people have
1 If memory serves, Trick #2: Yank a selected card from the centerof the pack
and shout, “Was that your card?” had a striking resemblance to Trick #98: Yank
a selected card from the center of the pack and shout, “And that was your card,
right?”).
2 The earliest mention that we have been able to find is: Edme-Gilles Guyot,
 INTRODUCTION

done a great deal of lateral thinking to open up greater potential.

The common thread may be the taper in the deck, but ‘stripping’
cards out is only one of many uses for this deck. So we’ll refer to
the deck by a name that more accurately describes what makes this
kind of deck unique: the taper.
Atapered deck is not just for getting control over a single se-
lected card. It’s not just for removing the black cards from the red,
or the face-up from the face-down cards. It can hide any number
of cards in the deck, up to and maybe even beyond half the deck. It
can give you control over a selected block, create a break for you,
simulate other gimmicked cards, unshuffle the deck, offer you a
glimpse of a card, and much more. In this book, we’ll explore this
wide variety of options.
Another convenient benefit is that you can do most of the tricks
in your regular-deck repertoire using a tapered deck because the
taper does not usually interfere with non-tapered deck tricks.’
Then, when it comes time to bust out some new miracles, you
already have the tool in your hands. Unlike many gaffed decks that
are one-trick wonders, the tapered deck is more like a memorized
stack—a tool that is always at
the ready to unleash, but which can
stay dormant while you perform your other material. You have the
ability to turn the “gimmick” on and off at a moment’s notice.
Nouvelles Récréations Physiques et Mathématiques (Paris: Gueffier, 1769). He describes
two tricks only; the discovery of the chosen card by the reversal of the deck and
stripping apart of the two colors at a single stroke. Subsequent writers have, for
the most part, simply repeated these two tricks. See also: Hugard and Braue,
Miracle Methods No. 1: The Stripper Deck (Alameda: Jean Hugard, 1943), 5, and John
Northern Hilliard, Greater Magic: A Practical Treatise on Modern Magic (Minneapolis:
Carl Waring Jones, 1938), 454.
3 Two notable exceptions are little-finger counts and breather crimps. Ifyou're
using a tapered deck, be careful that your little finger doesn’t accidentally count
more cards than you expected as a result of the taper. Similarly, if the cards are
thoroughly mixed, it will be harder to cut to a breather due to the shorter edges
on some of the cards.
10 A NEw ANGLE

The routines in this book use the taper in ways you might not ex-
pect. The impression that you are doing all of these miracles with a
normal deck of cards crucial. If a spectator suspects you're using
is
a gimmicked deck, the game is already over. “Trick deck” is enough
of an explanation for many laypeople who will use it to simply
dismiss all the miracles they’ve seen. As with a memorized deck,
it’s critical that you are able weave back and forth between actively
using the gimmick, and allowing
it to lie in wait.
Some of the tricks herein are dead simple. Others take practice.
Still others require that you build your own gimmick. But we’ll
walk you through everything you need to know. Hopefully, it will
also give you ideas to jumpstart your own creativity. This book ex-
plores the untapped (and, in some cases the already-tapped-but-
fantastic-and-worthy-of-emphasis-here) potential of an age-old
tool.
Our hope is that A New Angle will inspire more people to use the
tapered deck and stoke creativity for effects never before thought
possible.

— RYAN PLUNKETT & MICHAEL FELDMAN

 THE BASICS
~N—

SIDES AND ENDS

There are many common misconceptions about tapered decks.

Let's get rid of some of the peskier ones right off the bat.

First Misconception:
Tapered decks aren’t cut on both edges, only on one. The taper
can be on the left-hand side or the right-hand side, and it can be
tapered from top to bottom or bottom to top. For most effects, the
particular kind of cut is ultimately of little consequence, but dif-
ferent cuts may cause the cards to strip differently, which can be a
great advantage or a great frustration.

<> <>

zd» zx»

fig. 1,2,3,4

best to cut the card so that the deepest part of the

Generally, it’s
cut comes from the non-index corner. This helps to hide the taper.
Take a look at the first two examples above (Fig. and Fig. 2). Be-
1

cause the cutout comes from a space on the card that is blank, it’s
harder to see the taper than in the following two, where the biggest
12 A NEw ANGLE

chunk of the card comes from the space between the index and the
edge of the card.

Second Misconception:
Tapered decks don’t have to be tapered on the long edges. They
can be tapered on the short ends instead. Or they can be tapered
on both edges."
End-tapered cards work the same way as edge-tapered cards ex-
cept on the ends. If
the cards are tapered both on one edge and on
one end, a dizzying number of combinations arise, and each func-
tions differently. All of the iterations for a “twice-cut” deck share a
few things in common: If you flip some cards face up, the cards will
strip by either the edges or the ends, but not both. On the other
hand, if you rotate the cards 180 degrees, you can strip them either
by the edges or by the ends. Both ways work. However, the result
of stripping edges first and then ends can be different from strip-
ping ends first and then edges.
If all this is confusing, don’t worry. At the beginning of each trick,
we'll say how the cards should be cut. In almost all of these effects,
the deck is cut along one of the long sides so that less of the card is
cut away near the index of the card and the deeper part of the cut is
at the non-index corner. In fact, you can just assume that the deck
you need for each effect will be cut as the card in Fig, 1. If you need
a different cut, we’ll let you know specifically.

4 If you're interested in falling down that rabbit hole, Norman Beck has done a great
deal of work on these “twice-cut” decks. See: Jared Brandon Kopf, Two Paper Cuts
(Norman Beck, 2008). Of course, there are also other kinds of tapered decks,
such as negative strippers, belly strippers, and others.
6
Tue Basics

THE CUT

Third Misconception:
All tapers are not the same. In fact, there are a few variables. The
taper can go the entire length of the card (Fig. and 2), or it can go
1

less than the whole length (Fig. and 4). For the purposes of this
3

book, all the decks we'll use are tapered along the whole edge of
the card—none of the cards will be partially tapered as in illustra-
tion 2 and 4.
The taper can also be very deep (Fig. 5, 2-3 mm) or quite shal-

———\
| r 3

v v

7) a
A
|) b)
fig. 56

low (Fig. 6, less than one mm). Each has its use. Shallow tapers are
much harder for a spectator to spot. It’s safer to put a shallow taper
into a spectator’s hands, especially if she’s going to shuffle.
The tradeoff is that it’s harder to pull out a shallowly tapered
card. A deep taperis safer if you're going to pull out many cards. If
a trick involved stripping out 26 cards facing one way from 26 fac-

a
ing the other, deeper taper helps to ensure that you can strip the
14 A NEw ANGLE

cards cleanly and reliably. Any taper also becomes harder to pull
as the deck wears down. With practice, you can learn to pull shal-
low tapers with confidence. On the other hand, you’ll be surprised
how many knowledgeable magicians won’t see even a deep taper.
Laymen don’t stand a chance.

Terminology
There are so many ways cards can be cut and oriented so it will
be useful to have some clear terminology we all agree on.
We will refer to the orientation of tapered cards by where the
narrow or wide end is. For instance, a “narrow card” or “narrow
packet” is one with the narrow end closest to you. A “wide card”
or “wide packet” is one with the wide end nearest you. Likewise, a
“wide end-right packet” (or card) is one with the wide ends to the
right. A “narrow-end-left packet” (or card) is one with the narrow
end to the left. And so on.

Pulling
There are numerous ways to pull out tapered cards. For instance,
with edge-tapered cards, you can strip everything out with an ac-
tion that mimics the Hindu shuffle. With cards tapered along their
long edges and one or more reversed, you'll be able to pull out
the rotated cards by gripping the edges of the deck at each end.
When you grip the edges of the deck, your thumb and fingers can
only contact the point where the cards are wider. Fig. 7. They don’t
touch the narrower cards, so they are not pulled along.
As you pull the cards apart, they’ll separate with the narrow
packet moving forward and the wide packet remaining behind. If
you're right handed, this means the narrow packet will be in your
left hand and the wide packet will be in your right. If you rotate the
deck end-for-end, it will change which cards end in each hand. It is
 THE Basics 15

fig. 7

very important to keep track of the orientation of your cards when

you're working with a tapered deck. If you forget which way you
set the cards down, or if you rotate the deck left instead of right
when you go to shuffle on the table, the ending of your trick will
be more surprising for you than for your spectators.
We will return many times throughout this book to this “Hindu-
shuffle method” of stripping out the cards.
You can also strip the cards in the action of preparing for a tabled
riffle shuffle. Set the deck down on the table with some wide-end-
right cards and some wide-end-left cards. Grip the cards from
above as you would normally to separate the cards for a tabled
riffle shuffle. If you pull the whole deckto the right with your right
hand, and the whole deck to the left with your left hand (rather
than actually cutting the cards as you normally would for a shuffle),
16 A NEw ANGLE

the wide-end-right cards will strip into your right hand and the
wide-end-left cards will strip into you left hand.
The same types of techniques work with end-tapered cards, but
there’s one method in particular worth mentioning here that is
unique to end-tapered cards.
Hold the deck in dealer’s grip in your left hand and bring the
right hand on top in end grip. Contact the short edge at the outer
right corner of the cards with your right little finger. Then contact
the short edge at the inner right corner of the cards with your left
little finger. By applying pressure on the edges of the deck with
both little fingers and pushing to the side, you can secretly side-jog
a single reversed card (or an entire block). Fig. 8. If you are right
handed, your third finger will strip out any wide-end-right cards.
If you are left handed, your little fingers will strip out the wide-
end-left cards.
fig. 8
 THE Basics 17

Faros
You can change which cards strip into which hand with a tapered
deck and a difference in the faro shuffle. If you rotate the top half
to faro, it will work differently than if you rotate the bottom half.
And, of course, if you're holding the deck with the wide end to-
ward yourself to start, different cards will strip into each hand than
if you started with the wide side away from yourself Even though
.

in and out faros will not affect which cards get stripped from each
other, there are differencesin the relative positions of cards before
the strip out.
The tapered deck is a simple tool with the potential for very
complicated results. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
 HOW TO CUT CARDS
~N—

One of the primary reasons that the natural habitat of a tapered

deck tends to be a long-forgotten desk drawer is
that many magi-
cians grew up in an era of horribly produced and obviously gim-
micked factory-made decks that even a layman could identify from
a stray glance across the room. Many great magicians have ignored
the stripper deck because the only ones that used to exist were
made of cheap plastic, felt awful in their hands, and looked obvious
to anyone. If you're going to work on quality tapered deck mate-
rial,
it pays to acquire a
quality-tapered deck.
There are a variety of options ranging from buying a single high-
quality deck; to $50 for a paper cutter, cardboard, and some tape;
and even a $4,000 professional card trimmer. Each option is dis-
cussed below.

Purchase
The first and simplest way to get a good quality tapered deck is to
buy one. For a long time, there were precious few places that sold
good quality decks. This, however, is starting to change. There are a
few magic dealers that sell decks that look good and work well. But
be discerning. Many of the standard wholesale or dealer decks still
aren’t worth your time; the taper istoo obvious tobe effective, the
cards are too low in quality, and the back design frequently looks
like someone handed the next door neighbor’s three-year-old a red
crayon and asked him to draw a playing card from memory.
You can buy them from one of the few high-quality dealers
around. Of course, even if you find a dealer who sells a high-quality
 How 10 Cut CARDS

tapered deck you're likely to have only one option. There probably
won't be different depths of
the taper available. There also probably
won't be end strippers, let alone decks stripped along their edges
and ends.
The easily accessible decks on the market are typically standard-
cut decks. If you want to really experiment with advanced taper
work (as we'll quickly venture away from the standard tapers into
more interesting territory), you'll need to learn to cut your own
cards.

Card Trimmer
The Cadillac of tools for tapering a deck is the card trimmer.
Most look like an extra-heavy paper cutter with a giant pair of scis-
sors stuck to the side, though they come in a variety of other forms
as well. What they all have in common is
a solid, flat block with a
sharp blade on one side and a plate on the other to hold each card
in place in exactly the same way for each cut. On almost all high-
end models, you have control over the width of the cut fractions to
of a millimeter. Some also come with separate attachments to cut
belly strippers, negative strippers, and regular-tapered strippers.*
There are very few people making good card trimmers today.
Joe Porper is probably the best-known manufacturer of high-
quality trimmers, but he’s made only limited number and theyre
very difficult to find. Some are surprisingly expensive ($1,000 to
$4,000 or even more). So it’s worthwhile to check out some of the
less expensive options for starters.

5
are
In this book, we limiting the material essentially to traditional tapered (side-
tapered and end-tapered) strippers. If youre interested in negative strippers, belly
strippers, or other similar work, there are many resources on the market to help
you on that journey.
20 A NEw ANGLE

Stripper Jig
The Stripper Jig is much like a full-fledged card trimmer, but the
blade isn’t attached. Instead, it’s a rig for holding a card in position
so that you can precisely cut the card with a razor, knife, or scissors.
Though it’s possible to make or 3D-print something like this
yourself (depending on your skill level with new-fangled technolo-
gies), we highly recommend the one by Eoin O’Hare. Fig. 9. It’s
excellently made, precise, easy to use, and (at least as of now) avail -
able from a number of magic dealers including Eoin himself.
It’sstill not cheap, coming in at around $600, but it’s more ac-
cessible and affordable than many other trimmers on the market.

fig. 9

Paper Cutter
You can make a decent card cutter with supplies from your local
office supply store without spending hundreds or thousands of dol-
lars (and without a 3D printer). This kind of cutter won’t allow you
 How 1o Cut CARDS 21

the fine-grained control or variability, but it’s a major step up from

factory-cut decks, especially if you prefer a deeper taper.
First, pick up a paper cutter. This can be a wheel cutter, a slide
cutter, or the more traditional swinging cutter. The important
thing is to get one that’s well made so that there’s absolutely Zero
variation in where the blade meets the card from cut to cut.
Next, buy a few pieces of stiff plastic (about 1/8 or 1/4 of an
inch thick). A local acrylic supply store should carry something
suitable. Out of one corner, cut a rectangular section that is ap-
proximately two by three inches. You'll use this piece as a guide
for cutting the cards. Glue, screw, or otherwise mount the acrylic
to the paper cutter at an angle so when you place a playing card in
the cutout, only a small sliver hangs over the cutting edge. Fig. 10.
fig. 10
22 A NEw ANGLE

Hold each card in place precisely and maintain the same pressure
on the card and cutting arm for each card so that the cuts will be
as uniform as possible. You'll want to cut one card at a time. If you
try to cut more, the pressure of the cutting arm will come down
on the cards unevenly and give you a cut you won't be able to use.
(We know this first hand from trial and error.)

“Bathroom Strippers”
“Bathroom strippers” are impromptu, roughly shaved cards that
you can taper in a few minutes using a piece of broken glass, a nail
fileor any other rough surface. This was normally done in the bath-
it
room, away from witnessing eyes. As cool as is to be like Profes-
sor Vernon, we don’t recommend picking up broken glass from the
floor to scrape over your cards to impress your friends. Bathroom
strippers were only ever meant to create a taper so subtle, that the
only practical use would be in a back-alley game. You're much bet-
ter off taking the time to taper a deck properly.

Rounding Corners
When cutting your own decks, the biggest tell with a badly
tapered deck is a poorly rounded corner. If the corners are sharp,
it’s easy to spot even a shallow taper. If the corners look normal,
even a deep cut can be deceptive. So, in addition to cutting the
edges, you'll need a way to round the corners.
Corner rounders come in two forms: a scrapbooking-style punch
(Fig. 11) and a pliers-style punch (Fig. 12). In either case, the prop-
er punch has a 3mm diameter. Once you cut the cards and round
the corners, you'll be surprised how much better
it looks, and you
6 More information on these (possibly apocryphal) decks may be found in: Lewis
Ganson, Dai Vernon’s Inner Secrets of Card Magic (London: Harry Stanley’s Unique
Magic Studio, 1961), 70.
 How 1Oo Cut CARDS 23

fig 11,12

might even have trouble telling your own tapered decks from nor-
mal decks.

Now that you know why we’re here, how to make tapered decks,
and some basics about what a tapered deck can do for you, let’s
open the floodgates and dive into some miracles.
 COLLECT YOURSELF

Ryan Plunkett

The tapered deck allows you a couple of major advantages over all
those ‘norm-ies’ doing “The Collectors” with their all-the-same-
width decks. First, the control to get the selections interweaved
between the Aces is almost hilariously simple. Second, you get a
startlingly fair display of the Aces all by themselves before the se-
lections suddenly appear between them.
“Collect Yourself” is a perfect introduction to the tapered deck
because it shows how the toolbox available with a tapered deck can
improve effects that are already in your repertoire.

EFFECT: Three spectators select cards. The cards are lost. The
deck is shuffled. Then, the Aces appear with the selec-
tions interspersed among them.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

SET-UP: Start with the deck in face-up dealer’s grip with the
four Aces on the face of the deck and the narrow end
of the taper nearest you. Rotate all four Aces around
so their wide ends are closest to you. Next, turn over
the three uppermost Aces side-for-side so that you
have a three-Ace packet face down with the wide ends
nearest you on top of a face-up Ace with its wide end
also nearest you. Place this all on top of the remainder
 CorLLECT YOURSELF 25

of the face-up deck with its narrow end nearest you.

Finally, take one indifferent card from anywhere in the
deck and place it on the face, keeping its narrow end
nearest you. Turn the deckface down side-for-side and
you're ready to go.

From top to face, the order goes like this:

47 face-down cards (narrow ends nearest you)

A face-down Ace (wide end nearest you)
3 face-up Aces (wide ends nearest you)

A face-down card (narrow end nearest you)

CHOREOGRAPHY:

Spread the cards and ask Angel to touch a card. Raise the left-
hand half of the deck with the card Angel touched on the top and
show
it around to your spectators. Fig. 13. Eventually, you're going
fig. 13
26 A NEw ANGLE

to cull two selections and, after the first card is culled, the bottom
of the right-hand spread will be vulnerable. So, to be consistent,
display all three selections with the left hand. Speaking of culling
... you should do that now. Cull Angels selection as you reassem-
ble the spread, and continue spreading for Jessica to touch a card.

Show Jessica her card using your left hand in the same way you
showed Angel’s card, keeping Angel’s culled card hidden under the
right-hand spread. Cull Jessica’s selection as you reassemble and
continue to spread the cards for Rose to touch a card. Repeat the
process, showing Rose her card with your left hand, keeping Angel
and Jessica’s cards hidden under the right-hand spread.

Don’t cull Rose’s card. Instead you will reassemble the deck with
the selections together in the middle and in-jog the remainder of
the deck directly above them. Here’s how it works:

As you reassemble the deck, push your left thumb in-between

the two already-culled cards and the half of the deck in your right
hand. Fig. 14. As you do this, keep your left thumb on top of Rose’s

Sig. 14
 COLLECT YOURSELF 21

fig. 15

card, which is still slightly jogged to the right of the left hand’s
culled cards
part of the deck. This will allow you to insert the two
directly above Rose’s card while your left thumb keeps the top sec-
tion of the deck separate. Fig. 15. Grip this top section of the deck
in end grip with your right hand and dribble it on top of the left-
hand packet, starting slightly closer to your body, then moving for-
ward so you maintain an injog. Fig. 16.
fig. 16
28 A NEw ANGLE

When you're ready to continue, pull up on this jog with the right
thumb and immediately transfer that break to the left little finger.

control the selections

You will now to
the top of the deck with
the Mahatma Control: In short, use the left thumb to lever the deck
into position for an overhand shuffle.” This automatically steps the
top half of the deck above the break. Fig. 17. Pick up only this top
half with your right hand and shuffle it onto the bottom of the deck
in an overhand shuffle action. This brings the selections to the top
and centers the Aces.

Sig 17

Because the Aces are tapered in the opposite direction from the
rest of the deck, they are convenient to access. You have an auto-
matic step where the wide edges of the Aces hang over the narrow

7 “Mahatma Control” see: Hal Merton (contributor), “Three New Passes,” Mahatma,
Vol. 5 No. 2, Aug, 1901,495. (Hal Merton was the stage name of Walter G.
Peterkin.)
 CoLLECT YOURSELF 29

fig. 18

ends of the other cards. With the deck face down in your left hand,
push down on the reversed cards with your right thumb, creating a
break above the Aces. Fig. 18. Take the top half of the deck (which
has the selections on top) and in-faro it into the bottom half of the
deck (which has the Aces on top).** This weaves the selections in-
between the Aces. This is particularly disarming because the step
from the stripped cards makes the cut very easy and nonchalant. ®
There is no indication that you studied precisely where to break the
deck. There is also no need to look to make sure you have the right
cards. You can feel it.

8 Edward Marlo, The Faro Shuffle (Chicago: Magic, Inc., 1958).

9 Inaninfaro, the top and bottom cards change. Don’t worry. We never remember
which one is which, either.
10 We highly recommend that you get rid of as much “chalant” as you can whenever
you are performing sleights.
30 A New ANGLE

Status check time. From the top of the deck down:

Face-down Ace (wide end nearest you)

Face-down selection (narrow end nearest you)
Face-up Ace (wide end nearest you)
Face-down selection (narrow end nearest you)
Face-up Ace (wide end nearest you)
Face-down selection (narrow end nearest you)
Face-up Ace (wide end nearest you)
Rest of the deck (narrow ends nearest you)

To produce the Aces, all you need to do is flip

over the top card.
Push over and get a break under the top card with your left little
finger. Snap your right hand above the deck (or make any other
magical gesture) and sharply drop your left hand, thereby allowing
the top Ace to flip over side-for-side, rotating around the heel of
your left hand. Fig. 19. This is Looy Simonoff’s Flippant Change,
fig 19
 COLLECT YOURSELF 31

fig. 20

but with only one card instead of two." At this point, it’s easy to
produce the remaining three Aces. Simply dribble the cards, hold-
ing them by the lower-left and upper-right corners, and the other
Aces seemingly materialize underneath the first. Fig, 20. For this
part, make sure to riffle by the corners, not by the front or back.

Pick up what appears to be all four Aces with your right hand,
and, after spreading the deck on the table, dribble the Aces be-
tween your hands just as you did a moment ago. Because of the way
the cards are tapered, you get a very clean show of just the Aces.
The selections stay hidden, falling individually beneath each Ace.

11 Looy Simonoff’s treatment was originally published in: Harry Lorayne, “Flippant,”
Apocalypse, Vol. 1, No. 9, September 1978, 103.

12 The deeper the taper on the cards, the better this works. This dribble sequence is
an idea shown to Ryan by Edward Boswell.
32 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 21

Snap your fingers and spread the Aces to reveal that they have
trapped three cards.” Out-jog the selections you come to them.
as
Fig. 21. Turn the whole packet side-for-side, showing that the cards
sandwiched in-between are the three selections. Fig. 22.

13 This time, snapping is the only suitable gesture. There is no alternative. Why?
Because we say so.
.

.
 CoLLECT YOURSELF 33

Bow to thunderous applause."

TWO, TWO, TWO TRICKS IN ONE!

A few years ago, Syd Segal created a kicker ending for “The Col-
lectors” plot that’s even easier to do with a tapered deck." This is
the same as Syd’s handling, but the tapered deck makes it easier to
get the necessary breaks. We include this sequence with Syd’s kind
permission.

Begin by displaying the three selections face up, interlaced be-

twixt the four, face-down Aces. In the offbeat following the reveal,
square the Aces and selections into the left hand, leaving the selec-
tions outjogged. Fig. 23.

14
FART
Actually, this is a close-up trick, so that’s pretty presumptuous. Instead, we recom-
mend that you politely acknowledge your spectators’ reactions and, sneakily, plan
your next move.
15 Simply Sydney. Syd Segal and Dan and Dave Buck. (2008), DVD. See also: James
Swain, “Finale for The Collectors,” Genii, Vol. 64, No. 1, Jan. 7, 2001, 80-81.
34 A NEw ANGLE

This next sequence must be performed casually so as to not

arouse suspicion.'* Hold the four Aces face down in dealer’s grip
with the three selections out-jogged face up. Slightly thumb off the
top Ace, and grip its edge between your right thumb and fingers.
Move this Ace forward, and, as you do, turn over the left-hand’s
cards side-for-side on top of the right-hand’s Ace with the selections
landing flush on top of the single Ace. Regrip the entire packet
(both the Aces and the selections) with your right hand and flip it
end-for-end, holding the whole packet in left-hand dealer’s grip.
Fig. 24. Done smoothly, and without any “chalance,” by the time
Jessica, Rose, and Angel gather their wits about them and look back
fig. 24

$F
* Ned

LT

FB

3F F

oy

16 You might try whistling a casual tune or donning some sunglasses, especially if it’s
nighttime and you're inside.
 COLLECT YOURSELF 35

at the cards, it
will appear that the three selections are out-jogged
face down between the four Aces.” In fact, three of the Aces are
face down, out-jogged from the three selections with one Ace on
top. You're now locked and loaded for a minor miracle.

With your right hand, pull what are apparently the three selec-
tions from in-between the Aces and lay them individually atop the
tabled spread, leaving a larger space between the rightmost card
and the middle one. This helps to hide the unload move you'll do in
a moment. Your spectators will think the three cards you laid out
are the selections. Fig. 25.

Sig: 25

Turn the packet over in your left hand, end-for-end so that it

is face down. Because of the orientation of the bottom card (an

17 Remember your sunglasses and whistling.

36

fig. 26

Ace), it’s
simple to use your little finger to pull down on the auto-
matic step to create a break above the one card. Transfer the packet
into right-hand end grip, and take over your left hand’s little-finger
break with your right thumb. Extend left
your open hand palm-up
as you ask Rose to hold out her hand. As
you gesture, drop the last
Ace (the bottom card, below the break) onto the table with the
other Aces in the space you've left. Fig. 26. You will need some
 COLLECT YOURSELF 37

strong misdirection for this, so put all your focus on Rose’s hand.
After the unload, place the three selections on her palm. Make
your third favorite magical gesture; then reveal that there are now
four cards on the spread—the four Aces.

When Rose turns over the cards in her hand, she’ll find the selec-
tions. She’ll also gasp. Fig. 27.

18 It’s hard to clap with cards in your hands.

 SHAVINGS:
DUAL THOUGHT

Ryan Plunkett

From time to time throughout this book we’ll throw

you some
bonus items. These are interesting principles and ideas that aren’t
full-blown new effects, but are powerful tools that can
improve
other effects. They're like the shavings off your tapered deck—
significant to what you can do, but a small piece of what required is
to create great magic. Here's the first one.

Juan Tamariz’s effect “Blown Away” (AKA “Neither Blind Nor

Stupid”) was groundbreaking when
a classic today.
it
was first published.” It’s still

Many magicians shy away from the trick because

dealing the whole deck into two piles is very procedural. The ta-
pered deck comes to the rescue if you want to perform a trick
using the underlying method, but without the long process. Juan
Tamariz’s routine takes advantage of the
process and turns it into a
presentation. This approach allows you take this underlying meth-
you see fit.
od out and apply it to any presentation

Arrange the deck so that all of the red cards are on top of all the
black cards. Rotate the red cards 180 degrees so the
taper in the
red cards has the opposite orientation from the black cards.

Spread the deck between your hands, and ask Angelica to pick
any card, making sure she takes from the red half. Ask Becky to
19 “Blown Away,” see: Harry Lorayne, Apocalypse, Vol. 10, No. 7, Jul. 1987, 1369.
 SHAVINGS: Duar THOUGHT 39

take any card, making sure she takes from the black half. Put Angel-
ica and Becky's cards back in the deck, reversing their orientation.
They can go in anywhere. Now, Angelica’s red card has the same
orientation as the black cards and Becky’s black card has the same
orientation as the red cards. You (or anyone else) can legitimately
shuffle the cards as long as the orientation doesn’t change.* When
you're ready, strip the cards apart and hand each spectator a half
of the deck to shuffle. When the deck is
reassembled take a glance.
Angelica’s card will be the only red card amongst the black, and
Becky’s the only black amongst the red. You now know both cards.
Use this information wisely, young Padawan.

Of course, you don’t have to split the deck into red and black
cards. You can divide by evens and odds, round and sharp, Spades/
Diamonds and Hearts/ Clubs, or any other system that suits you.
Best of all, if you have
one-way back design, you won’t even need
a
to look at the faces of the cards to identify the selections. The one
card facing the wrong direction in the top half and the one card
facing the wrong direction in the bottom half will be the selected
cards.

20 For suggestions on how to ensure your spectator doesn’t change the orientation of
the cards, explore Out of This Spread, on p. 55.
21 A Padawan, or Jedi apprentice, is a Jedi trainee who is apprenticed to a Jedi Knight
or Master. Padawan means “learner” in Sanskrit. See: Hill, Amelia. “Padawan—7Jedi
Apprentice.” Thoughtco.com. https: //www.thoughtco.com/star-wars-glossary-
padawan-2958053 (accessed May 11, 2017).
22 This idea of having the two halves of the deckrotated from each other so that a
selection can be taken from one half and returned to the other, all without revolv-
ing the card in the process, originated from Annemann, see: Theodore Annemann,
SH-H-H—! It’s a Secret (London: L. Davenport & Co., 1934), 12.
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS
Ryan Plunkett

“Shuffleupagus” was inspired by a routine by Roger Smith.» In

Roger’s words, “The magician removes a brand-new deck from its
case . . He spreads the cards fairly showing the new deck order and
.

removes the
advertising cards. He picks the case up and very fairly
inserts the cards into the box and hands them to the spectators. He
then makes the mysterious sign of darkness in
the air. The spectator
opens the cards and finds them completely shuffled.”
The routine was done by secretly executing three one-handed
shuffles in the action of picking up the card box. This was a fasci-
nating plot with an understandably unreliable solution that rarely
fooled anyone. The tapered deck provides a practical solution for
what once was considered a pipe dream.

EFFECT: Two spectators each shuffle half the deck and then
shuffle their halves together. Nevertheless, when
spread, the cards are almost perfectly separated—red
and black. Slightly disappointed the trick wasn’t per-
fect, the magician suggests waiting a second longer.
When he spreads the cards again, they’re not just sepa-
rated by color; they're in new-deck order.

23 “The One Handed Faro Miracle,” see: Roger Smith, Necromancer, Vol. 1, No. 6,
Jan., 1971, 5.
24 This routine also owes credit to Chris Alonzo, Tony Chang, and Pix Smith who lent
helping hands along the way.
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS

Pass Go. Collect $200.

A tapered deck.

The best method to get the deck set up for this ef-
fect is to shuffle into it. You could stack it so that the
red cards (in a palindrome from Ace to King and then
King to Ace) are mixed in with the black cards in the
same palindrome setup with the red cards oriented
one way and the black cards oriented the other way.
Or, you could decide not to waste your time figuring
out where every card goes and just do this instead:

Set up the cards in new deck order, from face to back:

Ace-King of Spades
Ace-King of Diamonds
King-Ace of Clubs
King-Ace of Hearts

Set the deck face down in position for a tabled shuf-

fle, wide end to the left. Cut the top half of the deck
to the right (Hearts and Clubs). Rotate this entire
half (Hearts and Clubs) so that its wide end is to the
right—the opposite orientation from the bottom half.
Each half of the deck will have 13 red cards on top of
13 black cards.

Rotate the Diamonds so their taper is opposite from

the Spades (Diamonds wide-end right and Spades
wide-end left) and shuffle the Diamonds and Spades
42 A NEw ANGLE

together with a single riffle shuffle, ensuring that a

black card falls first and last. Rotate the Hearts so their
taper is opposite from the Clubs (Hearts wide-end left
and Clubs wide-end right) and shuffle the Hearts and
Clubs together with a single riffle shuffle, again mak-
ing sure a black card falls first and last. Place the right
packet (Hearts and Clubs) back on top of the left. Fi-
nally, switch the Ace of Spadeswith the Two of Spades
so that the Ace won’t be on the face of the packet the
whole time, which might arouse suspicion.

When you're done, it should look like Fig. 28.

CHOREOGRAPHY:

You should hold the deck so the wide end of the Ace of Spades
is closest to you. Spread through the deck face up in your hands
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS 43

in clumps, showing the cards mixed. An uneven spread will bet-

tabled-ribbon
ter hide the pattern in the cards. The evenness of a
spread would make the pattern much more noticeable.

fig. 29

Find the center of the deck—between the King of Spades and the
King of Clubs. Down-jog the face-half of the deck, Fig. 29, then
place the deck back on the table with your left hand maintaining
the step. Fig 30. The top half should be stepped to the right.
fig. 30
44 A NEw ANGLE

Separate the two halves of the deck at the step as if you were go-
ing to shuffle them together. The top half goes to Rachel, the spec-
tator on your right; the bottom half to Leah, the spectator on your
left. Offer to let your spectators shuffle, making sure they maintain
the orientation of the cards as they shuffle. As you push the left half
of the deck toward Leah, strip the cards into two piles, separating
the reds from the blacks. It will look as if you've simply cut the
deck in preparation for her to do a riffle shuffle. Do the same for
Rachel: push the right half of the deck toward her, stripping the
cards as if cutting for a tabled shuffle.

Leah and Rachel then shuffle their packets, basically re-weaving

the cards you stripped out just a moment ago.

As you take the first half back from Leah, mention that after

every shuffle you should always cut the cards. You’ll now strip the
a
cards in the action of slightly flourishy cut. Strip the cards apart,
then turn the right-hand packet face up, turning it toward you.

fig. 31
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS 45

Fig. 31. In a continuing motion, allow the left end of the face-up
packet to touch the table before levering it back over, face down on
top of the left-hand packet. Fig. 32.

fig-32

If you don’t like this flourishy cut, you could also strip the pack-
ets apart and simply toss the red packet on top of the deck, giving
a little spin so that it rotates 180 degrees and changes orientation.
it
It does matter which half you turn over and place on top. For the
left-hand spectator (Leah), you'll need to turn over and place the
right-hand packet on top. These are the red cards.

Next, you'll do the same process with the packet you get back
from Rachel. Again,
itmatters which half you turn over. For Ra-
chel’s pile, you turn over the left-hand packet and put those cards
on top. Again, these will be the red cards.
46 A NEw ANGLE

Public Service Announcement: For the pile from the spec-

tator on your left, the right hand’s cards go on top. For the pile
from the spectator on your right, the left hand’s cards go on top. If
you get confused, itwill always be the red packet.

You will now shuffle the two halves together yourself. Each half
has 13 red cards on top of 13 black cards so, if
you shuffle evenly,
the deck will be split perfectly into red and black. As miraculousas
this would be,it would take away the motivation for the real punch
at the end. So shuffle a bit unevenly so that a few of the red and
black cards are still mixed into the center of the deck. You will also
want to make sure that the Ace and Two of Spades (in the left half)
drop first, so they will be at the face of the pack.

It’s time for the first revelation. Suggest waiting a few seconds for
the deck to settle. Ribbon-spread the deck across the table to show
that the cards are almost completely separated, but that there are a
few in the middle still mixed up. Fig. 33.

Look a little disappointed as you gather the spread from off the
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS 47

table, and, in a moment of toying with the cards, switch the posi-
tion of the Ace and Two on the face of the pack so that they are in
the correct order.” Place the cards back down in front of you so
that the Spades strip out into your left hand. Then, in the action
of an absent-minded cut (as if you're moving the cards out of the
way), strip out your left-hand packet and place your right-hand
packet on top.

Mention that maybe the cards will finish separating by waiting a

few seconds longer, then spread the deck to show the cards are not
merely separated red and black, but they’re in new deck order. Fig.
34.

fig. 34

25 This can be done in the action of squaring up the cards from the face-up ribbon
spread, where you seemingly leave a card behind on the table by accident. This
adjustment can also be taken out completely, if you want to risk leaving the Ace of
Spadeson the face of the pack from the start of the routine. A good way of hiding
the Ace is by starting your Red/Black shuffle with your right hand so that it is
not on the face of the pack the whole time. Then continue on with the routine as
normal.
48 A NEw ANGLE

Some performers may prefer to perform the trick “error free” by

eliminating the “mistake” of the cards not separating completely by
colors. If that’s the case, then with a very subtle alteration to the
handling you can get rid ofit. All you need to do is shuffle evenly
instead of offsetting the shuffle.
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS
REDUX

Ryan Plunkett

This version of Shuffleupagus is not an improvement on the origi-

nal; it’s a compromise. The original “Shuffleupagus” is a formal
performance piece. It requires a full deck stack, a table, and two
spectators. This alternate “in the hands” version is designed for
more off-the-cuff and informal performances. It is straight to the
point and helps lead you into other material. However, it doesn’t
come with quite as many features as the tricked-out model before.

EFFECT. As a result of taking the “deck sorting” plot off the

table and into the performer’s hands, the effect
changes somewhat.

The magician shuffles the cards, shows them mixed

and then shuffles some more. He places them in the
box so Leah or Rachel can shake the box, pretending
to mix them. But when the cards are removed from
the box, they're in new deck order.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

SET-UP: The deck starts in European new deck order, which is,
from face to back:
50 A NEw ANGLE

Ace-King of Clubs
Ace-King of Diamonds
King-Ace of Hearts
King-Ace of Spades

Spread the cards with the faces toward you and split the deck in
half—between the King of Hearts and the King of Diamonds. Turn
both hands inward in preparation for an in-the-hands riffle shuffle.
Fig. 35. By turning both hands inward, the orientation of the ta-

fig-35

per in the right-hand half will be opposite from the left-hand half.
Genuinely riffle-shuffle the cards together. Because the cards were
originally in European new deck order, the Clubs will shuffle into
the Hearts and the Diamonds will shuffle into the Spades, giving
the impression the cards are thoroughly mixed.
 SHUFFLEUPAGUS REDUX al

Follow this genuine shuffle with your second favorite false riffle
shuffle. Turn the cards face up and casually spread through the cards
in clumps to show Leah and Rachel that the cards are mixed.* Give
the deck another couple of false shuffles of your choosing. Now you
can use your favorite if you want.

Strip out the cards in the action of one Hindu shuffle: Grip the
deck from above with your right hand at the very back end of the
deck, fingers on one long edge, thumb on the other. Grip the deck
with your left hand from below with the fingers on one long edge
and the thumb on the other, gripping the very end of the deck
(opposite your right hand). The left hand carries its
cards forward,
stripping out half the cards. Fig. 36. Reassemble the deck with your
right-hand packet on top and place it
in the box.

fig. 36

26 Don’t forget your sunglasses. This joke just won’t die.

52 A NEw ANGLE

Ask Leah to shake the cards to continue the shuffle. When she
removes the cards from the box, they’ll be in new deck order.

BONUS Because you end in European new deck order, you

1:

can quickly shuffle into Mnemonica stack.”

BONUS 2: (The Bonus Strikes Back) You also end in stay stack, and
there are some fascinating ways to combine stay stack and a tapered
deck, which we’ll get into little later on in this book.

27 Juan Tamariz, Mnemonica (Seattle: Hermetic Press, Inc., 2004), 14.

 SHAVINGS:
PSEUDO RIFFLE STACKING

Nathan Colwell

Riffle stacking is hard. Very few magicians actually do it well. A ta-

pered deck can speed up your efforts to join those hallowed ranks.
The taper can allow you to feel and hold back cards much more
easily.

For instance, set up the deck as follows from top to bottom:

The Aces (wide ends nearest you)

23 Black Cards (wide ends nearest you)
4 Red Cards (narrow ends nearest you)
1 Red Card (wide end nearest you)
3 Red Cards (narrow ends nearest you)
1 Red Card (wide end nearest you)
3 Red Cards (narrow ends nearest you)
1 Red Card (wide end nearest you)
3 Red Cards (narrow ends nearest you)
1 Black Card (wide endnearest you)
Rest of cards (narrow ends nearest you)

Turn the Aces face up onto the deck without disturbing their ori-
entation (side-for-side). Table the deck so the Aces have their wide
ends to the left. Press down on the natural step formed by the red
cards with your right thumb to split the deck and cut the top half
to the right.
4 A NEw ANGLE

Begin riffle shuffling the two halves together until your left
thumb feels a click. The click happens because the reversed cards
act as short cards. As soon as you feel the click, release all but the
last three cards in the right hand. Next, release four cards from the
left thumb and continue along this vein until the Aces are placed
every fifth card.

This may sound difficult, but because the reversed cards act as

it
short cards only requires releasing cards from the left and right
hands alternating and feeling for the short cards.

Square the deck and spread to show that the Aces are now stacked
for five hands.

You can take it even further, using the taper in the deck both for
stacking and for moving cards.

Strip the cards with the left hand under the cover of an Up the
Ladder Cut. This places the Aces on top of the deck, in position for
two hands of poker, where the first position gets the Aces. To show
the Aces, you can deal the cards down in two piles, starting with
the Ace being dealt to your spectator and the next card to yourself.
Once the last Ace is dealt to your spectator, you should be left with
a pile of three face-down cards. Place the deck onto this face-down
pile and point out the Aces that have been dealt.

Want to take it even further? Well now you can: after the cards
have been dealt turn the deck face up and show that the cards are
sorted into red and black.
 SHAVINGS:
STH AW TRY (3 6
ouUuT OF THIS SPREAD

Frank Fogg

There are numerous ways a tapered deck can strengthen an

Out-of-This-World-style effect. In “Out of This World,” which
Paul Curry popularized in his Out of This World booklet, the specta-
tor somehow able to separate the red cards from the black cards
is
while dealing the cards without looking at the faces Paul Curry
mentioned that Harry Blackstone as well as others used a stripper
deck to allow a spectator to shuffle before getting into the effect.
Frank Fogg’s idea was to bring the effect back to its tapered-deck
roots, but with a new take on how the plot develops. Instead of
dealing the cards from the deck, your spectator can select cards
(seemingly) at random from throughout the deck and still end up
with only one color.

With a tapered deck, if you set the red and black cards to have the
opposite taper orientation, you can allow your spectator to shuffle
the cards before an Out-of-This-World effect as long as she doesn’t
rotate the orientation of any of the cards during the shuffle. There
are many ways of doing this. You can either make an overhand-
shuffle or riffle-shuffle gesture to subtly encourage her to do one
or the other since neither a standard riffle shuffle nor a standard
overhand shuffle will rotate the orientation of any cards. Or you
can set the cards up for
a
tabled riffle shuffle, so all she has to do is
28 “Out of This World,” see: Paul Curry, Out of This World (New York: Self Published,
1942).
36 A NEw ANGLE

riffle them together. Remember, you are in control.”

When you take back the deck, strip the cards out in the action of
a tabled cut somewhat like an Up the Ladder Cut.* Despite your
spectator’s laughably futile attempts to mix the deck, you have re-
turned it to its original setup.

Faro the 26 red cards into the 26 black cards with reversed taper
orientation and, as you cascade the cards, apply pressure at the
outer right and inner left corners so that half of the cards (all one
color) are sidejogged.* Spreading the cards in this position makes
use of the “Ribbon Spread Hideout” to hide half the deck instead of
just one card.*»®

29 If, onthe other hand, your spectator does rotate some of the cards—or if she
drops them all over the floor because she claimed she knew how to shuffle, but
apparently not as well as she thought—just play it cool and do a different routine.
Save this trick for a more deserving spectator (i.e., screw this person and their
terrible shuffles).
30 “Gamblers’ False Cut,” see: Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue, Expert Card Technique
(Minneapolis: Carl Waring Jones, 1940), 78.
31 is
If you have a tapered deck that tapered on both the end and the side, you can
side-jog one color of cards from a squared pack using the end taper and you don’t
need to perform the controlled cascade.
32 For a widely accepted attribution of the “Ribbon Spread Hideout,” see: Charles W.
Nyquist, “The Ribbonspread Reverse,” Hugard’s Magic Monthly, Vol. 6 No. 3, Aug.
1948, 453. However, for purists, the move dates back earlier than Nyquist, to
sometime in the 1930s or early 1940s and is attributed to Dai Vernon, see: Jacob
Daley, Jacob Daley’s Notebooks (Fair Lawn: Gutenberg Press, 1975), item 80 (n.p.).
Many magicians have since published variations and ideas with it.
33 The idea of hiding multiple cards using the “Ribbon Spread Hideout” dates back
to Ed Marlo and Alex Elmsley’s “Ultra Mental” (later known as “Brainweave”),
see: Ed Marlo, Faro Controlled Miracles (Self-Published, 1964), 52. Combining the
“Ribbon Spread Hideout” with a faro control to hide half the cards dates back to
Bob Bridson in the early 1950s in England and Ed Marlo in the United States.
For Marlo’s work, see: Stephen Minch, The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Vol. 11
(Tahoma: L&L Publishing, 2003), 338.
 SHAVINGS: Out OF THIS SPREAD

No matter which cards your spectator touches, they will all be

the same color because all of the visible cards will be one color (the
rest are hidden under the spread).

You can turn over the ribbon spread, which will show the cards
fully mixed. Then, strip the colors apart again and you can seem-
ingly pick cards at random throughout the deck, ensuring that they
are all the opposite color from your spectator’s by taking them all
from the half of the deck with that color.

Reveal that your spectator’s cards are all one color and yours are
the other, and stick your best Olympic dismount.
 YE
TAVINGS
TOA CNT TORY oe

A SATISFYING SEQUENCE

Ryan Plunkett

This technique allows you to secretly reverse a selection while the

deck is out of your hands. Of course, putting a tapered deck in a
spectator’s hands may seem dangerous, but it’s much safer than you
might think. If you are concerned, you can always use cards with a
very shallow taper, minimizing the chance anyone will notice.
Start with the deck in
left-hand dealer’s grip with the wide end
nearest you. Hand the cards to spectator 1, directly across from
you, making sure not to change the orientation of the deck. Say,
“I want you to spread the deck and have somebody select a card.”
After spectator 2 selects a card, keep an eye on her to make sure
she doesn’t rotate the selection and change its orientation. Turn to

spectator 1, the person holding the deck, and tell her to hand the
pack to spectator 3 to have the selection returned. When specta-
tor 2 returns the selection, it will be reversed because the action
of spectator 1 handing the deck to spectator 3 across from her will
naturally reverse the orientation of the deck. If you find this con-
fusing, try it out. It makes sense in practice.
If all has gone according to plan, when you receive back the deck
(which has its narrow end nearest you) from spectator 3, you will
now have a selection reversed somewhere in the middle (its wide

34 Many magicians have independently invented this idea and the history of the move
dates back to one-way back designs, even before the tapered deck. Though this
isn’t the newest idea, we felt compelled to include it because it’s just so darned
sneaky.
 SHAVINGS: A SATISFYING SEQUENCE 39

end nearest you). There are, of course, any number of devious ways
to take advantage of the situation. For instance, you are now in the
perfect position to perform a modified version of Ricky Smith’s
“Cherry Control.”
To modify the “Cherry Control” for a tapered deck, begin with
the deck in deep dealer’s grip. When you move the deck to the
fingers, maintain pressure on the card (which has its wide end
nearest you) between the heel of your left hand and your left little
finger. Once the deck clears this card, you are in position to con-
tinue the “Cherry Control” as usual.

[INSERT FURTHER MIRACLES HERE AS YOU SEE FIT.]

35 Ricky Smith’s “Cherry Control” first saw print in Penumbra, Issue 5 (2003), 13.
Argentinian magician Salvador Sufrate published a very similar move in
his lecture
notes, The Magic of the La Plata Magic Center, Vol. 2 (2002).
 STAY € 7 AN IT 6

AN INTRODUCTION

Stay Stack: it neither stays is it a stack. In the immortal words

nor

of Linda Richman from Coffee Talk, “Discuss.”

Stay stack is not a particular order of the deck. Many differ-
ent orders can be a stay stack. Even within the context of a single
routine, the precise order can change. What is
consistent in a stay
stack is that the deck is a palindrome. In other words, the deck is
the same backward and forward like the word civic, the number
19022091, or the phrase: “Dammit, I'm mad,” which, incidentally,
isthe phrase that comes to mind whenever someone accidentally
shuffles your stack. In a deck of cards, the stay-stack palindrome
could look something like this:

AS2H 3C4D 5S... 5C4H 3S 2D AC

Because no two cards in the deckare the same, the palindrome is

made up of mates rather than identical cards.
This arrangement unlocks some fascinating possibilities. First
and foremost, if you do a perfect faro shuffle, the precise order
of the deck will change but, overall, it will still be a palindrome.
You're skeptical, so go ahead and try it. See? How crazy that?
is
Once you break the deck in half (26 and 26) you can start the
weave wherever you want. In other words, there can be blocks
left over at the top and bottom, yet you'll still be in stay stack. It
doesn’t need to be a perfectfaro, only a perfect weave.

36 If that didn’t make any sense to you, either (1) don’t worry about it, or (2) ask the
to
Internet tell you who Linda Richman is.
 STAY STACK: AN INTRODUCTION

Now here’s an even better tip: if you add a Joker to the bottom
of the deck, you can cut wherever you want (or do any false shuffle
that cuts the deck) as many times as you want. Then, give the deck
as many straddle faros as you want. When you cut the Joker back to
the face (or top) the deck will still be in stay stack (palindrome).”
The math here is somewhat complicated, but however it works, it
rocks.
Stay stack is new concept, of course. There is a fountain of
not a
work published on it, ranging from its introduction in The Cardiste
by Rusduck to
Phil Goldsteins excellent release, Redivider, and no
doubt others will continue to publish phenomenal work on it in
the future. There is also a wealth of information about stay stack
in Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz. Though this stack has been around
for many years, it’s rare to see it used in combination with other
principles. It’s even more rare to see it combined it with a gimmick
like a tapered deck.

SHUFFLING INTO STAY STACK

It could not possibly be easier to get into stay stack from new deck
order. That’s not an exaggeration. It actually could not possibly be
easier. Why? Because new deck order is already in stay stack.

From top to bottom, American new deck order looks like this:

Ace-King (Hearts)
Ace-King (Clubs)
King-Ace (Diamonds)
King-Ace (Spades)

37 “The Stay Stack,” see: Paul Swinford, More Faro Fantasy (Connersville: Haley Press,
1971), 22.
62 A NEw ANGLE

The values are already a palindrome with Hearts matching up

with Spades and Clubs matching up with Diamonds. From new
deck order, Hearts/Spades and Diamonds/ Clubs are essentially
pseudo-mates in much the same way you'd set up an Invisible Deck.
You can faro as many times as you want and the deck will still be
a palindrome with the Ace of Hearts corresponding to the Ace of
Spades and the Seven of Diamonds corresponding to the Seven of
Clubs. Fresh out of the box, it’s pretty easy to recognize that there
is apattern to the deck, but after two or three faros, the order is

pretty well disguised.

Stay stack works even if you don’t have a complete deck. The stay
stack will still “stay” if your deck is 50 cards, or 48, or 8 (as long as
there are an even number of cards, and all the cards you have are
mates).

If you'd prefer to have a stay stack with true mates, you can do
that as well. From new deck order, switch the positions of the Clubs
packet and the Hearts packet, retaining the order within their suits.
This sets up your stay stack so that all of the cards correspond to
their true mates: Two of Clubs to Two of Spades, King of Hearts
to King of Diamonds. If you use Mnemonica, then you know that
stay stack is
part of the process of shuffling into Mnemonica from
new deck order. After the fourth out-faro shuffle, simply pause the
sequence for shuffling into Mnemonica. You are now in stay stack
and can do any of the routines in
this section.

If you want to go to a crazy extreme to hide the pattern in the

stack, take the top half of the deck and shuffle it thoroughly (Hearts
and Clubs). Then spread them on the table and match the remain-
ing cards, one at a time, in palindrome order. Then, why not, give
 STAY STACK: AN INTRODUCTION

it a few faro shuffles. Shuffling from new deck order is enough for
us, but hey, you don’t have to listen to what we say. I mean, you
are listening to us by reading this book . not literally; it’s not an
. .

audio book. At least not yet . . but figuratively. Figuratively you're

.

listening to us. Unless you decide not to

..

Let’s move on.

 TWIN PEEKS
Ryan Plunkett

“Twin Peeks” allows you to instantly know the card your spectator
peeked at as you riffle the corner of the deck. It uses two different
rarely used principles: a tapered deck and a stay stack. It is also
much easier than you might think. There’s no memorization and
you can master this move in minutes. First, we’ll explain how the
move works. Then, we’ll explain how to get into and out of the
correct position.

REQUIRED. A tapered deck.

First, arrange the deck in stay stack.

Take the bottom half of the stack (cards 27-52), turn them face
up end-for-end, and perform an out faro (the top card of the deck
does not change). Both sides of the deck will now show a card back.

Grip the deck as you would for a Hindu shuffle, but instead of
beginning the shuffle, push down on the side of the deck with both
thumbs and push up on the opposite side of the deck with your right
middle finger. Fig. 37. This will ensure that the alternating pattern
of the stripped cards creates long and short cards at the right side
of the deck (if you are right handed). Fig 38. Because of the faro
shuffle, all of the mated cards are face-to-face throughout the deck.
 Twin PEEKS 65

fig. 37

to
Hold the deck in your left hand at chest height, ready riffle the
corner of the cards so that Mandy can say stop on a selected card.
This is the standard spectator peek position. Because ofthe alter-
nating orientation of the tapered cards, when you riffle the cards,
Mandy will only see cards that face her, and the cards that face you
will stay hidden. Again, you're probably skeptical so go ahead and
try it.
fig- 38
66 A NEw ANGLE

Once Mandy calls “stop,” the glimpse is easy. Shift the upper sec-
tion of the deck (above the break) slightly to the right. Because of the
face-to-face mates, you will be able to see the index of the mate to
Mandy’s card. Fig. 39.Ta da! The easiest-to-read marked cards ever.

TWO METHODS OF
GETTING IN AND OUT:
There are two ways to secretly get into position for “Twin Peeks.”
This first approach is for when your spectators’ attention is on the
deck. It’s more involved than the second approach described on
pages 71-73, but it can withstand greater scrutiny.

38 A very similar idea may be found in: Juan Tamariz, Mnemonica (Seattle: Hermetic
Press, Inc., 2004), 138, where you determine which card a spectator has chosen
by sighting neighboring cards facing you. However, in Tamariz’s version, the spec-

tators know that the cards are mixed face up and face down. The advantage of the
tapered deckis that it allows you to get the same information secretly, adding yet
another layer of deception to an already powerful principle.
 Twin PEEKS 67

The second method is faster and more straightforward, but re-

quires misdirection. If your spectators are looking at the deck,
they're likely to catch you. This second technique is fast enough
that it’s fairly easy to cover in the moment of lowered attention
between tricks, especially in informal settings, but it’s definitely
not burnable.

1. UNDER FIRE

Getting In:
Begin with the deck in left-hand dealer’s grip, wide end nearest
you. This orientation will become important once you're set up
for “Twin Peeks.” Starting with a deck with its wide end nearest
you, your spectator will only see the cards’ faces when you riffle
for the peek. If you begin with the opposite orientation (narrow
end of the deck nearest you), the spectator will see all backs when
you riffle for the peek. That would be magical, but probably not
quite the effect you're going for.

The first step is to half-pass the bottom 25 cards. The 25th card
is right below the mates in the middle of the deck. Perform the
half pass, but keep a little-finger break above the face-up packet. A
half pass turns the cards over side-for-side, so the taper will still be
oriented the same way throughout the deck.

The next step is to cut the deck exactly in half (26 and 26) in
preparation for a faro shuffle. To do that, you will need to move
your little-finger break up by one card. There are many ways to do
this. Perhaps the best is to use the right little finger to very slightly
side-jog the card immediately above the break. Fig. 40. Then let go
of the break, bring your little finger around the side-jogged card
68 A NEw ANGLE

fig 40

and pull down on it to create a break one card higher, above the
side-jogged card.

Once you have a break in the middle of the deck, reach over and
cut off the top half with your right hand as in Fig. 41, with your
right fingers on the left long edge of the deck and the right thumb
on the right long edge of the deck. Both halves will appear to be
Sig. 41
 TwiN PEEKS 69

fig. 42

face down because you only half-passed 25 cards, leaving the top
card of the bottom half face down.

As you separate the two halves, relax your right hand back to a

more natural position. This rotates the top half of the deck, revers-
ing the orientation of the taper (the top half now has its narrow
end nearest you). Do an in-faro (changing the top card of the deck).
Fig. 42. Now you're all set.

Using this setup, every card is now in perfect position, except

for the top and bottom cards which should be mates of each other.

Getting Out:
Here’s how to get out of the “Twin Peeks” position and back into
re gul ar stay stack.

The basic elements of returning to stay stack from this position

10 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 43

are a strip out and a half pass. However, you will need to rotate the
deck first so that when the left hand strips out cards it will carry
the original bottom half of the deck forward.

As you talk, rotate the deck 180 degrees. Then grip the deck in
position for a Hindu shuffle and strip the cards as if you're doing a
cut. Fig. 43 (exposed for clarity). Carry the bottom half of the deck
forward in your left hand. Place the top half of the deck (in your
right hand) on top of the bottom half (in your left hand).

Half-pass the 25 reversed cards and you're back in stay stack with
the taper in the top and bottom halves oriented in opposite direc-
tions.
 Twin PEEKS n

2. ON THE OFFBEAT

Getting In:
First, reverse the orientation of the top 26 cards so the top half
of the deck has its wide end nearest you and the bottom half of
the
deck has its narrow end nearest you.

Use the step between the two halves created by the opposite ori-
entation of the taper to catch a left little-finger break in the middle
of the deck (26-26). Reach into the break with your right hand and
drag the top half of the deck to the right, using your left thumb to
hold the top card in place, like a traditional slip cut. Fig. 44. As you

fig. 44

do, hold a break beneath the top card with your left little finger.
Once the top half is slipped out, use your right index finger to slip
the bottom card of its half further to the right. Fig. 45. Use that
card to lever the rest of the top packet cards over, turning them
face up side-for-side. Fig. 46. Finally, place the last card that you
12 A NEw ANGLE

fig 45,46

are still holding in your right hand on top of the deck, face down.
Split the deck exactly in half at the break without changing either
half’s orientation. Do an in faro (where the top card changes) and
you're in position for the peek.

Getting Out:
To get out of this position and back into stay stack, just reverse
the process.

First, grip the deck in position for a Hindu shuffle. Strip out the
cards with your left hand, as if performing a cut, and place the right-
hand’s cards on top, retaining a break between the two halves.

Reach into the break with your right hand and drag the top half
of the deck to the right, using your left thumb to hold the top card
in place, like a traditional slip cut. As you do, hold a break beneath
the top card with your left little finger. Once the top half is slipped
out, use your right index finger to slip the bottom card of its
half
further to the right. Fig. 47. Use that card to lever the rest of the
top packet cards over, turning them face up side-for-side. Fig, 48.
Finally, place the last card that you are still holding in your right
 Twin PEEKS 13

ig. 47,48

hand on top of the deck, face down. As before, the top and bottom
halves’ orientation will be opposite.

The amazement can now continue.

SUBTLETIES:
There are two useful subtleties you can throw into either method
for getting into “Twin Peeks.” These subtleties show off the backs
of the cards to counter the idea that you've set up the deck with
face-to-face cards.

This subtlety allows you to spread the cards between your hands,
showing all the cards face down, as you set up for the peek.

At the stage in either method when you interweave the cards for
the faro, alter the way you cascade the cards. Rather than cascad-
ing with pressure on the front and back of the deck so they fall
squared, apply diagonal pressure from the outer right and inner left
corners of the extended deck so the cards fall sidejogged. Fig. 49.
14 A NEw ANGLE

fig 49,50
Leave the cards sidejogged about a quarter of their width as you
apparently square up the deck. Fig. 50.

In this position, spread the cards very loosely between your

hands. Fig. 51.* The face-up cards remain hidden under the spread,
showing only card backs.

You can motivate this action saying something like “normally, I'd
spread the cards out for you to choose one, but in
this case, I'll have
you just look at one card.”
39 “Bizarre Shuffle,” Jerry Andrus, New Directions magazine, No. 4, Aug. 1986.
 Twin PEEKS

Now, you can fully square up and continue with “Twin Peeks.”

This subtlety allows you to casually riffle the corner of the deck,
showing all backs.

Once you get into position for “Twin Peeks” and fully square up
the deck, you can still riffle down the outer left corner of the deck
with your left thumb. This will only show backs. Fig. 52.

fig. 52

This is another opportunity to show card backs before going into

a move that utilizes face-up cards. It can be very disarming.
 THE NEARLY FINAL
COUNTDOWN
Ryan Plunkett

Here’s an effect using “Twin Peeks” without the need for stay stack.
Using stay stack can add another layer to this effect, but it isn’t
necessary.

EFFECT: Mandy peeks at any card she wants. In this case, she
sees the Four of Clubs. The magician gives her half
the deck and takes half for himself. He announces that
his own personal favorite card is the Four of Spades.
Mandy and the magician each deal cards in their halves
until reaching the magician’s favorite card. Lo and be-
hold, Mandy’s card is at the same position in her pack.

= FE
== = faa]
= A tapered deck.

You can perform “The Nearly Final Countdown” from

stay stack or from a shuffled deck. With stay stack,
your card and Mandy's selection will be mates and you
will know Mandy’s card in advance. From a shuffled
deck, the cards will not be mates, which highlights the
randomness of the coincidence effect. Either way you
choose to go, the handling is identical.

‘We teach the effect here using stay stack for the sake of
clarity. Your selection and Mandy’s will be mates.
 Tue NeEarRLY FINAL COUNTDOWN 11

Li BHD LY
LAPHY:

Use one of the two methods to get into position for “Twin Peeks. »

Riffle thecorner of the deck, and ask Mandy to call out “stop.”
When she does, drag the cards above the break slightly to the right
to get your peek. Fig. 53. Remember that card, in this case: the
Four of Spades. Now you know she’s peeked at the Four of Clubs.

Next, grip the deck in position for a Hindu shuffle. Strip the
cards as if you're doing a cut. Hand the stripped-out half to Mandy.
Whether you used the “Offbeat” or “Under Fire” method to get
into position, do not rotate the deck prior to the strip-out. In ei-
ther case, you hand Mandy the face-down half and retain the mostly
face-up half for yourself.

Ask Mandy to look through her cards to see if her selection is

in the pack she is holding. Use this moment to correct your cards.

If you used the “Under Fire” method, half-pass everything under

the top card.

fig. 53
18 A NEw ANGLE

If you used the “Offbeat” method, pinch the back-right corner of

the deck with your left thumb and fingers, thumb on top, fingers
underneath. Peel the top card to the left with your left thumb and
peel the bottom card to the right with the right fingers. Use the
bottom card to lever the rest of the cards onto the top of the top
face-down card, turning them over face down, side-for-side. Final-
ly,place the card remaining in your right hand on top of the packet.
These are the same movements as we described in the “getting out”
section for the “Offbeat” method.

While Mandy is looking through her cards, announce that your

favorite card is the Four of Spades (this is the card you peeked at in
the beginning of the routine).

Place your half of the deck face up in your left hand. Mandy’s half
should be face down in her hand. Then you and Mandy deal cards
off the top of your respective packets simultaneously (yours face
up, hers face down). When you reach the Four of
Spades shout, “Ah
Ha!” or “Stop!” or something equally dramatic.®

Ask Mandyto announce the card she thought of. Have her turn
over the card in her packet that was at the same position as the Four
of Spades in your packet. It will be her card: the Four of Clubs.

Bow to thunderous applause.

40 We begrudgingly admit that being overly dramatic at this stage is not (strictly
speaking) necessary for the method. However,it is highly recommended. And you
should know that we’ll be quite disappointed in you if you're not.
41 The amount of thunderous applause you receive will be directly proportional to
how dramatic you are in calling “Stop.” Remember, we're watching.
 ODE TO RUSDUCK
Ryan Plunkett

Ah, the incomplete faro control.” There’s nothing quite like it to

polarize magic readers into those who want to read nothing else
and those who want to hurl this book across the room. Luckily,
using a tapered deck and stay stack helps us forge new ground that
can make everybody happy.
The combination of the three techniques in this effect allows you
to not only position a card (using the incomplete faro) and identify
the selection (using stay stack), but also allows you to keep track
of everything in a new way (using a tapered deck). So let us now
introduce to you the bizarre love child of stay stack, the incomplete
faro, and the tapered deck.
Buckle up for a wild ride.

EFFECT. The magician riffles the corner of the deck and Betha-
ny peeks at
a card. After the cards are shuffled and cut,
the magician not only determines the identity of the
card Bethany chose, but also its exact location in the
deck.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

42 “Incomplete Faro,” see: Edward Marlo, Faro Controlled Miracles (Self Published,
1964), 5.
43 We provide a new method for performing the incomplete faro control without
the extended deck in the next shaving,
80 A NEw ANGLE

SET-UP. Set up your cards in stay stack. Hold the deck face
down in left-hand dealer’s grip with its narrow end
nearest you. Get ready to blow some minds.

CHOREOGRAPHY:

fig 54,55
Lift up exactly half the deck with your right hand and turn it
face up, side-for-side, so that the orientation of the taper does not
change. Fig. 54. Weave the cards together for an out faro, which
keeps the top (face-xup) card on the top of the deck, but do not
push the cards square. Instead, hold the face-up half in left-hand
dealer’s grip with the face-down half interweaved and extending
out from the front of the deck. Fig. 55.

You are now in position for a modified version of Ed Marlo’s in-

complete faro control.“ Riffle the outer corner of the front packet
(facing Bethany), and ask Bethany to call stop. Open the deck a bit
wider for her to see her card, in this case the Five of Diamonds.
Fig. 56. As you do, catch a left little-finger break in the bottom-

44 “Thought Exchange” is a similar effect, using a stacked deck and an incomplete

faro control to learn the position of a peeked card, see: Pit Hartling, In Order to
Amaze (Self Published, 2016), 72.
 Ope TO Rusbpuck 81

fig. 56,57

back half of the deck—the part you are actually holding in dealer’s
grip— between the two cards that are sandwiching Bethany’s selec-
tion. Fig. 57. This reads as complicated, but it’s actually surprisingly
€asy.

Allow the deck to close, but keep your little-finger break. Bring
your right hand up to the out-jogged packet, cross over the deck
to grip the left edge of the front packet with your right hand and
strip those cards out, rotating them clockwise in the process. Fig.
58. Turn your right hand’s cards over, side-for-side, onto the face

fig. 58,59

of the deck so that all the cards are face up. Fig. 59. Finally, at the
little-finger break complete the cut, then table the deck face down
82 A NEw ANGLE

with the long edge toward you. At this point, the cards are stepped
in three packets. Fig. 60.

fig. 60

You are now in an interesting situation: the top card of the deck is
the mate of the selection. For instance,ifthe top card is the Five of
Hearts, Bethany’s selection will be the Five of Diamonds (if you're
using true mates). Also, the number of cards in the top packet is
the position of the selection in the second packet. For example, if
there are 12 cardsin the top packet, the Five of Diamonds will be
12 cards down in the second packet.

There are a number of ways to make devious use of this infor-

mation. Even the most direct is amazing. Cut off the top packet of
cards—this is effortless because of the step in the deck created by
the reversed tapers. Remember Figure 60? If you don’t, it’s right
there. Look again. Turn these cards face up and spread them be-
tween your hands. Note the top card (the Five of Hearts). Boom!
Now you can reveal Bethany’s selection. BUT WAIT! Don’t just let
the cat out of the bag, There’s so much fun you can have with a cat
in the bag. Count the number of cards in the packet (12). Now you
know how many cards down Bethany’s card is in the second packet.
 ObpE TO Ruspuck

order to build some drama, use the cards spread between your
In
hands to help you improvise some patter to lead you to Bethany’s
selection. For instance, if
there are mostly red cards, you might say
“These cards tell me quite a bit about what your selection might be.
These are mostly red cards, which tells me your card is likely red.”

If there are mostly black cards, you might say, “It’s actually quite
easy to look at just a few cards and guess what card you must have
chosen. These are mostly black cards, so the balance of probability
says your card must be red.”

This is good place to be creative, and provides a great opportuni-

ty to put your own presentational stamp on the trick, whether you
want that to be tongue-in-cheek, magical, bizarre, or Joshua Jay.

Square up the spread packet and hold it face down in your left
hand. Pick up the remainder of the deck off the table and place
on top of the cards in your left hand. If you haven’t changed the
it
it
orientation of the packet in your hand, will be the same direction
asthe bottom packet. Now, you've brought the middle block to the
top and you know the position of Bethany’s card.

Announce that you know Bethany’s card is the Five of Diamonds

and that it is 12th from the top. Depending on how you've pre-
sented the rest of the trick, the premise can be intuition, magical
ability, or a lucky guess. Count down, show the Five of Diamonds
at position 12, and sign some autographs.

Of course, you can do this without the stack, but you’ll only
know the position of the selection, not its identity.
 SHAVINGS
SET AY
TRY 43 &

THE COMPLETE FARO CONTROL

Michael Feldman

/
Now that we've taught you a trick using the incomplete faro, let’s
fight aboutit.
The incomplete faro control is a controversial move. Even the
authors of this book have fought about it on more than one oc-
casion. Ryan thinks it is a fascinating and incredibly useful move
that unlocks some wonderful effects. Michael thinks it raises more
suspicion than any effect can overcome. So if youre not a big fan of
the incomplete faro, you might enjoy Michaels solution. Seriously,
this is the one thing that convinced Michael he could add some in-
complete faro work to his repertoire. Try it out.
It’s pretty simple to use a tapered deck to mimic the function of
the incomplete faro, without all that ridiculously suspicious elon-
gated deck stuff. It’s simple, but not easy. It will take some practice
to learn to strip out cards while holding a break. It will take even
more practice to learn to do so smoothly. But once you do, you
can convert any incomplete faro tricks you're already doing into
tapered deck tricks without the elongated deck.

Here's how it works:

In essence, by reversing half of the cards, the

tapered deck allows
you to faro the cards together squared and then strip them back
out, just like the extended faro, but not extended.
 SHAVINGS: THE COMPLETE FArRo CONTROL

Hold the deck with its wide end nearest you, cut off the top 26
cards, rotate their orientation so their narrow ends are closest to
you and faro them into the bottom 26. Whether you use an in faro
or an out faro will depend on the particular routine.

Square up the left edge and then riffle the outer-right corner of
the deck for the spectator to peak a card. This riffle shows every
other card (just like in the incomplete faro) thanks to the alternat-
ing stepped pattern created by the taper.

Hold a left little-finger break where the spectator peeked (just

like in the incomplete faro).

Strip the two halves apart, while holding the break in the back
half (just like in the incomplete faro).To do this, slide the left little-
finger break up to the halfway point in the deck to make room at
the back of the deck. Fig. 61. Grip the deck from above with the

fig. 61
86 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 62

right hand, thumb on the left long edge, fingers on the right long
edge, taking over the break with your right fingers. Fig. 62. The
smaller the break, the easier it will be to strip the cards apart. Strip
the cards in an action resembling a Hindu shuffle. Place the right-
hand’s cards on top of the left-hand’s cards and retake the break in
the right-hand’s packet with your left little finger.

You are now in the same position you would be if you had per-
formed the incomplete faro control. If you cut the cards above the
break to the bottom, the selection will be at the 26th position.

Go forth, do good magic, and stop looking ridiculous.

 COLOR SHIFT
Edward Boswell

There are figuratively billions of methods out there for color-

changing decks. The wonderful thing about this method is that un-
like most color-changing decks, where you can only show one or
two cards of the starting color, “Color Shift” allows you to freely
show many, many cards both before, and after, the change.

EFFECT. Denise selects a blue-backed card and returns it

to the
blue-backed deck, which the magician shuffles. Sud-
denly the entire deck changes to red except one card:
Denise’s selection.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck that is half blue and half red. Actually,
it’s 26 red cards and 24 blue cards. This will change the
deck from red to blue. To change from blue to red, use
26 blue cards and 24 red.

SET-UP: Place all 26 red cards with their wide ends nearest you
on top of the 24 blue cards with their narrow ends
nearest you.

CHOREOGRAPHY:

Spread the top half of the deck and have Denise select a card.
Let’s say it’s the Four of Hearts. Be careful not to spread more than
half the deck or you will reveal the blue cards. Fig. 63.
88 A NEW ANGLE

fig. 63

Take Denise’s Four of Hearts (which has its wide end nearest
you), rotate it 180 degrees and replace it in the squared-up deck,
making sure it goes into the lower half of the deck (the blue half).
The Four of Hearts should now have its narrow end nearest you
to match the orientation of the blue cards—which also have their
narrow ends nearest you.

Split the deck exactly in half to prepare for a shuffle. Because

you've just placed a red card into the blue half, you can split the
deck into two 25-card halves. The top half is comprised of 25 red
cards. The bottom half is comprised of 24 blue cards + the red se-
lection. Perform an out-faro shuffle (maintaining the original top
card of the deck). This ensures that the bottom card of the deck is
blue. Because the top card of the bottom half is blue, shuffle so that
the faces of the cards are toward your spectators. Be sure not to let
the audience see the blue-backed card on top of the bottom packet
 COLOR SHIFT 89

as you shuffle. Fig. 64 shows the position of the cards before squar-
ing up the faro, with the red selection in the blue half.

Dribble the cards with your fingers at the extreme outer-right

corner of the deck and thumb at the extreme inner-left corner.
Dribbling this way will show only red cards. Fig. 65.

fig. 65

Next, you will steal the bottom card ofthe deck in preparation
for a color change. The steal happens in the action of an all-around
square-up.

Grip the front of the deck with the middle, ring, and little fingers
curled around the front, fingertips on the face of the deck. The
90 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 66,67

index should be finger-curled in on top of the deck, and the right

thumb holding the back edge of the deck. Move your middle, ring,
and little fingers forward, separating the bottom card from the rest

of the deck, much like the Kelly Bottom Placement or the clip
shift.** Fig. 66. Next, begin to turn the deck clockwise, taking it
into the left-hand dealer’s grip, keeping pressure on the bottom
card with the right fingers. Fig. 67. As the deck falls into the left
hand, the bottom card moves into right hand, flat palm. In a con-
tinuing action, wave the right hand over the deck, dropping the
palmed blue card on top, creating the illusion that the deck has
changed color.

Dribble the cards with your fingers at the extreme outer-right

corner of the deck and thumb at the extreme inner-left corner.
This will now show only blue cards and one, single red card: the
selection. Fig. 68.

Grip the deck in position for a Hindu shuffle and strip the cards
as if you're beginning the shuffle. Fig. 69. Continue to take packets

45 This was originally called “A New Glide,” see: Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue,
Expert Card Technique (Minneapolis: Carl Waring Jones, 1940), 123.

46 Surfaced. Chad Nelson. (2008), DVD.

COLOR SHIET 91

=> © oo
92 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 70

of cards from what remains in the right hand. Most of the time,
you'll see only blue cards, but sometimes the red selection shows
up. That’s ok.

To finish, spread the top half of the deck showing all blue cards
except one red card. Turn the red card over, showing that it’s the
selection, the Four of Hearts. Fig. 70.

To reset, reverse the orientation of the red card, return it to the

red half, and cut the red cards to the top. Then, reverse the orienta-
tion of the bottom-most blue card, and the deck is reset to perform
this trick again.

Now, politely ask Denise to buy you a whiskey. Never work for
free.
 SHAVINGS:
ROTATOR SHIFTS

Nathan Colwell

With tapered deck, it’s all about the orientation of the cards.
a
Most of the time, you can build in opportunities to openly rotate
the cards into the position you require, flowing seamlessly from the
choreography of the routine. Sometimes you’ll need to do it se-
cretly. A rotator shift is a move that secretly rotates the orientation
of a packet of cards. It can be a single card, a small packet, or half
the deck. Think of a rotator shift as you would think of any move/
subtlety pair. Sometimes one is
the right choice and sometimes is
it
the other. It is up to you to make that distinction.
Nathan has a handful of shifts that are worthy additions to your
toolbox. He builds each shift based on pre-existing techniques,
which he repurposes to rotate a packet of cards. Each rotator shift
has two parts: (1) the rotation and (2) the square-up.

METHOD ONE

This first shift is based on a combination of Juan Tamariz’s

T.P.C. (Tamariz Perpendicular Control) and Ross Bertram’s TeBe

Change.
Begin with the cards you wish to rotate on the bottom of the

47 “Tamariz Perpendicular Control,” see: Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way (Madrid: Edito-
rial Frakson Magic Books, 1988), 52.
48 “TeBe Change,” see: Ross Bertram, Bertram on Sleight of Hand (Pomeroy: Lee Jacobs
Productions, 1983), 150.
94 A NEw ANGLE

deck. Hold the deck in right-hand end grip and catch a right-
thumb break above the packet you want to rotate. Brace your left
little finger against the lower-right corner of the deck and your
left thumb against the upper-left corner. Apply diagonal pressure
between your left little finger and thumb. Move your left thumb
and little finger at the same time in opposite directions. Curl your
left thumb inward as you extend your left fingers outward to touch
your right fingers. Fig. 71.

fig. 71

Position Check: The bottom packet is perpendicular to the

top half.

Adjust your left hand to re-grip the left side of the deck with all
four fingers on the bottom of the deck (touching the face of the
lowermost card), and your left thumb on top of the deck (touching
the back of the uppermost card). Fig. 72. Use your right-middle
finger to rotate the top packet clockwise, coming flush with the
 SHAVINGS: ROTATOR SHIETS 9%

fig. 72

bottom packet. When the top packet rotates, you will need to be
sure your right thumb moves out of the way so the back corner of
the top packet has room to rotate clockwise to be flush with the
lower packet. If you do this in the action of placing the deck on
the table, the smaller adjustments become smaller elements of the
larger action.

Alternatively, you can bring your right thumb to your middle

finger, causing the lower cards to spin counter-clockwise. This
means you will have no overt motion, but this version is more
prone to flashing. If you choose this method, square the front edge
with your right fingers to help provide cover.

This shift is based on Nathan’s own (never before published)

Long-Fingered Half Pass, though this version only rotates the bot-
tom packet and does not turn the cards upside-down. This shift is
designed for the angles that are common to walk-around situations.
96 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 73

Start holding the deck in right-hand end grip. Catch a right-thumb

break above the cards you wish to rotate. Grip the cards below the
break in left-hand straddle grip, with your left index finger at the
extreme right edge of the front of the deck and your left little finger
at the extreme right edge at the back the deck. Fig. 73.
of

Move the left fingers backward and down causing the bottom
packet to spin vertically, with the face toward the left. From the
fig. 74
 SHAVINGS: ROTATOR SHIFTS

back, the two packets will make a T formation and your fingers
will appear abnormally long. Fig. 74. To square the two packets,
turn the top half clockwise and down to meet with the lower pack-
et. This method may seem exposed, but it is actually well covered
for cocktail angles.

You can also perform this technique without the straddle grip,
maintaining the bottom half in dealer’s grip in your left hand and
rotating the top half and bringing it down to meet the bottom half.
Fig. 75. While this method is slightly more likely to flash, it’s less
likely to raise suspicion when executed properly because you hold
the deckin a natural position at all times.
fig. 75

This method is useful because it allows you to rotate the top

block of cards rather than the bottom block. It is based on a
98 A NEw ANGLE

Lennart Green shift published in Guy Hollingworth’s Drawing

Room Deceptions.”

fig. 76,77

Execute the actions of the pass until you are in the position de-
picted in Fig. 2 on page 123 of Drawing Room Deceptions (briefly
catch a little-finger break below the cards you want to rotate).
Reach over with your right hand and lift the upper packet using
end grip. Push your left hand forward slightly so the front-right

fig. 78

49 “Regarding the Shift One, Variation Three” (also called the “Float Pass”), see: Guy
Hollingworth, Drawing Room Deceptions (Pasadena: Mike Caveney’s Magic Words,
1999), 122.
 SHAVINGS: ROTATOR SHIETS

corner of the
packet pushes into the divot in your right hand just
below your right little finger. Fig. 76. From the front, your hands
hide the bottom packet from view. Fig. 77. From this position, you
can hold the bottom packet securely and secretly between the divot
below your right little finger and the heel of the left palm.

Once you are in this position, use your fingers to openly rotate
the upper packet as if it is the whole deck. Use your right hand to
bring the top packet forward, then grip the back of the packet with
your left fingers, rotate the packet and square up. Fig. 78 shows this
action.
 HOFZINSER’®S
STEW. TECH
SUIT
SFT
HN
SELECTION OD)
RY
A

Nathan Colwell

Why did Hofzinser have so many problems?® Well, we keep trying

to solve them long after he’s gone. Here’s a great solution to help
him pick out a suit.
If you're not familiar with this particular problem of Hofzinser’s,
here’s the plot: Betty selects a chunk of 10-15 cards from the deck.
She then selects one card from that chunk, the Nine of Hearts.
The cards in the packet Betty chose are all different, but when
the magician places the Nine on the face of the packet, all the cards
suddenly become the remaining hearts: the whole suit, Ace-King.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

SET-UP. Collect the 13 Heart cards and reverse the orientation

of this packet so the deck has its narrow end nearest
you and the Hearts have their wide ends nearest you.

Alternatively, cull the 13 Hearts to the bottom of the

deck and rotate the cards’ orientation with your favor-
ite rotator shift.s

50 Actually, Hofzinser didn’t hand these problems down through the ages. Ottokar
Fischer coined the problems in writing and memorizing Hofzinser’s magic.
51 Rotator shift sold separately. Not really though, we already explained it.
 HorziNsSER’S SuiT SELECTION 101

Hand the deck to Betty to shuffle. Make sure Betty doesn’t change
the orientation of the cards as she shuffles. As discussed earlier in
“Out Of This Spread,” there are a variety of ways to ensure this.
Take the cards back and hold the deck face up in left-hand deal-
er’s grip with its narrow end nearest you with the wide end of the
13-Heart packet nearest you. In the action of splitting the cards for
a faro shuffle, reach over the deck with your right hand and strip
out the packet of Heart cards, then faro the Hearts into the middle
of the deck. This puts an indifferent card in-between every Heart.
This should not be a studied action. Perform it like a normal cut
and shuffle.

Square up the deck and turn it end-for-end so that the Heart

packet hasits narrow end nearest you and the deck with its wide
end nearest you. Ribbon-spread the cards onto the table in front of
you. Ask Betty to remove a group of 10-15 cards from the center of
the spread. Because of the faro, you have a 27-card block for Betty
to choose from. As long as Betty doesn’t choose from the top or
bottom 13 cards, everything will work out fine.

After Betty removes the packet, ask her to count the number
of cards she is holding (being mindful that she does not alter the
order). You will use this moment of distraction to make a small
adjustment with the remaining Heart cards left in the deck. This
adjustment allows you to end clean. Do as follows:

Square up the deck keeping the original top section on top and
the original bottom section on the bottom (Betty is holding the
102 A NEw ANGLE

fig: 79

middle section she removed). Reposition the deck in front of you

so that the wide end of the Hearts is to the right and the remainder
of the deck has its wide end to the left. In the action of giving the
deck a cut, strip out the Heart cards (which have their wide ends
on the right) and place them on the bottom of the pack. Fig. 79.
Then, hold the deck in left-hand dealer’s grip with its narrow end
nearest you and the Hearts with their wide ends nearest you.

This reversed orientation of the packets causes a natural break

making
it
easy to catch a left little-finger break above the remaining
Hearts. Use this break to perform a half pass, rotating the Hearts
side-for-side face up on the bottom of the face-down deck. Regain
your left little-finger break above the face-up packet that has its
wide end nearest you. You actually want your break to be one card
higher so the cards below the little-finger break are all the Hearts
plus 1 indifferent card.® Perform a full cut at your break.

52 You can use the technique for moving the break up one card described above in
the “Under Fire” method of getting into “Twin Peeks,” p. 67-70.
 HorziNsER’S SuiT SELECTION 103

Perform this whole adjustment casually as you are reassembling

the deck.

Position Check: You should now have one card with its nar-
row end nearest you on top of a packet of Hearts with its wide end
nearest you, then the balance of the deck on top of everything else
with its narrow end nearest you.

Place the deck down to your left, face up. This will allow you to
access the deck quickly for the clean up later on.

Take the selected group of cards back from Betty and turn them
face up side-for-side so that the orientation remains the same
(Hearts with their narrow ends nearest you and indifferent cards
with their wide ends nearest you). The cards Betty selected will
affect your next steps.

The face-up packet of cards could be in one of four states:

1. There may be a Heart on the face of the packet and an indif-

ferent card on the back.
2. There may be a Heart on back of the packet and an indifferent
card on the face.
3. There may be a Heart on the face and the back of the packet.
4. There may be an indifferent card on the face and the back of
the packet.

The ideal situation is that Betty hands you an even number of

cards with a Heart card on the face of the packet and an indifferent
card on the back. That packet would look something like this from
face to back:
104 A NEw ANGLE

H,X,H,X,H, X,H, X, H, X, H, X

If you end up with this possibility (No. 1), you're done. No need
to adjust.

However, if you end up in one of the other three possibilities,

you'll need to make some small adjustments. Essentially, you want
to create possibility No. 1.

If there is a Heart at the back of the packet (No. 2), simply move
the Heart to the face.

If there is a Heart on the face and at the back (No. 3), you need
to move the Heart at the back of the packet to the face. This will
leave you an indifferent card on the back and two Heart cards on
the face.

If the packet has an indifferent card on the face and the back (No.
4), reverse the order of the two cards at the face, so that the new
face card is now a Heart, followed by a two indifferent cards, fol-
lowed by the balance of the pack. From face to back, it will look
like this:

H,X,X,H,X,H,X,H,X,H,X,H,X

Once the cards are oriented properly, make some comment

about them being a good mix, flip the packet face down end-for-
end and hold it in dealer’s grip. The packet still consists of Hearts
with their wide ends nearest you and indifferent cards with their
narrow ends nearest you.
 HorFzINSER’S SUuiT SELECTION 105

The next step is to force a Heart card from this packet.

Since the packet you hold is in mostly alternating order, you are
already set up for a very convincing force. Deal the cards one at a
time and have Betty call out stop. As you deal, remember which
cards are Hearts and which are indifferent cards. An easy way to
do this is to remind yourself with each deal which card is which.
As you lay the indifferent card from the top of the packet onto
the table, think “Hand.” The force card is in your hand. As you lay
down the next card, think “Table.” The force card is on the table.
As you deal each card switch back and forth thinking, “Hand. Ta-
ble. Hand. Table,” until Betty calls stop. Whichever you're thinking
as she stops you, reveal the force card in that location. If cards
were displaced to the face, be sure you have them call stop before
you reach those cards—where you won’t be sure which cards are
Hearts and which are not.

Point out that Betty stopped you on a Heart, and lay

it face up on
the table maintaining its orientation. Show that one card before or
after would have been different cards and different suits. Be sure to
maintain the orientation of the taper of each card.

Drop the cards in dealer’s grip onto the tabled cards and turn the
whole packet face up, side-for-side so that the orientation of the
taper remains the same (Hearts with their wide ends nearest you
and indifferent cards with their narrow ends nearest you). Pick up
the selected card and place it on the face of the packet with the
same orientation as the other Hearts (their wide ends nearest you).

Next, you'll transform all the cards in the packet into Hearts,
followed by a quick series of casual proofs. Square up the packet,
106 A NEw ANGLE

fig 80, 81

turn it end-for-end, and bring it up to chest level, facing outward,

pinched between your left index finger, middle finger, and thumb
at the lower-left corner of the packet. The wide end of the hearts
should now be on top. Fig. 80. This looks like the fingertip-peck
position. Use your left thumb to bevel the cards to the right slightly
(the rearmost card should be half an inch to the right of the front-
most card). Use your right index or middle fingers to riffle the up-
per right corner of the cards by pulling back toward you. Because
they're beveled widely, this shows indifferent cards. However, if you
were to square the cards against their left edge and riffle the cor-
ner again, the packet would magically show only Hearts because of
the alternating orientation of the taper in the packet. Fig. 81. Since
magic is what we're going for here, go ahead and do that: square the
packet and riffle again, and your spectators will do a double take.
This is a cool display, but don’t overdo it. Once is enough.

At this stage, you've already revealed the effect, but you're not
clean yet because there are still indifferent cards in Betty's selected
packet and there are still Hearts in the deck. In the next few ac-
tions, you will again display that all of the cards are now Hearts, as
well as get ready to switch the indifferent cards for the Hearts on
top of the deck.
 HoFzINSER’S )
SUuliT SELECTION 107

fig. 82

Bring the packet back to being face-down, rotate the packet 180
degrees so that when you strip the cards apart in a Hindu-shuffle
action, the Hearts will strip into your right hand (i.e., the Hearts
will now have their wide ends nearest you). Strip the cards apart
and show the face of the right-hand packet, revealing a Heart. Fig.
82. Replace the right-hand packet on top of the left-hand packet,
holding a left little-finger break. Continue with a legitimate Hindu
shuffle using only the Heart packet.

Finally, place your right hand’s cards back on top of the left-hand

fig- 83
108 A NEw ANGLE

packet. Spread off the cards above the break into a small fan and
show these to the audience. Fig. 83. They will all be Hearts. You
will now show the same group of cards as
if they are the bottom
half of the packet. Replace this fan to the bottom of the packet,
in-jogging the topmost Heart. Turn the whole packet over side-for-
side and spread off to the injog showing all Hearts. Be careful not
to spread past the injog, or you will end up revealing the cards that
did not, in fact, magically transform into Hearts.

Relax and treat this as essentially the end of the effect. If you can
genuinely feel the effect is over, your audience will relax as well. In
the moment of lowered attention that follows, half pass the cards
below the injog (the indifferent cards).

Position Check: In your left hand, you should have a face-down

packet of indifferent cards with their narrow ends nearest you un-
derneath a packet of face-up Hearts with their wide ends nearest
the extreme right
you. Hold this packet in right-hand end grip by
side of the long ends (the same position you would use to hold the
cards for a Hindu shuffle).

fig-84
 HorziNSER’S SUIT SELECTION 109

Now, it’s time for the clean up. With your left
hand, pick up the
deck that you placed aside earlier. In an action similar to a top
change, the packets from both hands come together. At this time
you are going to simultaneously ditch the indifferent cards and
steal the remaining Hearts. Because of the orientation of the cards,
when the right-hand packet comes together against the rest of
the deckthe indifferent cards will naturally fall onto the deck. At
the same time you ditch the indifferent cards, grip the end of the
Hearts (which have their wide ends nearest you) in the deck and
strip them out from underneath the falling indifferent cards. Fig,
84. The packet should seem as though it touched the deck for just a
moment. Take the cards in your right hand and spread them cleanly
on the table, showing all the Hearts.

53 This clean-up sequence was developed with the aid of Jeremy Griffith.
 SHAVINGS:
CUTTING HIGH

Michael Feldman

One of the most under-utilized benefits of tapered cards is that

it helps you cut to any card you want. If you reverse one card,
you have a permanent step to cut to. If you reverse four, you have
got the cleanest Ace-cutting routine ever. If
you reverse half the
deck, you can
of cards.
use
it like a Svengali deck to cut to any one of a bank

There are many ways to use this. You could have the black and
red cards with opposite orientations, and always cut to a red card.
It can also help you be more precise in certain techniques. For in-
stance, ifyou false shuffle half of a memorized stack and a spectator

truly other half, you can faro the shuffled cards togeth-
shuffles the
er and no matter where you cut, one of the cards in your stack will
either be the card directly above or directly below the cut. You can
use this for effects like “Weighing the Cards” or other estimation
tricks, but the weakness is that you have to check the face packet,
and if the stacked card isn’t there, you have to peek at the top card
of the bottom packet. If you're already using a tapered deck, you
can guarantee whether you cut the stacked card to the face of the
top packet or the top of the bottom packet.
Maybe the most interesting: If you faro high cards (8-King) into
the low cards (2-7), leaving the Aces out, you can cut a high card or

54 None of us claim credit for this idea. Many, many people have independently
discovered it. Therefore, we assume it must be Marlo’s. After all, that’s what he
would have wanted. R.L.P.
 Suavings: CurtTtING HIGH m

low card at will. If you demonstrate to a spectator how to cut the

cards (so she always cuts a low card), you can also always beat her
at cutting for a high card. And, since the Aces are out of the mix
(to keep the numbers even), you can put a breather in all four. That
way, once you strip out all the cards and reshuffle so the orienta-
tions are all the same, you can cut to all four Aces in a nice kicker
for the routine.
There may be more efficient ways to do a “cut for high card”
routine. Okay, there are definitely more efficient ways. But this is
a fun idea to play with and hopefully it will be a starting point for
someone reading this to come back and fool us all badly.
 TRIUMPH:
AN INTRODUCTION

DON’T SKIP THIS SECTION. We saw you roll your eyes. Don’t
even pretend you didn’t. But before you flip past, hear us out.
Obviously, there is no shortage of “Triumph” routines in print.
You almost certainly perform one already. Maybe two. Possibly 20.
It’s also a bit of an obvious use of a tapered deck. Simply shuffle
face up and face down, reverse a selection, strip out the
cards, turn
them over and you're done, right? Well... Yes.** We suppose that
would work, but we think you deserve better than that.
Each of the routines in this section has a quirk. Each uses the
taper in a way you're probably not expecting. And each adds some-
thing to your understanding of “Triumph” as an effect. So don’t just
look at the word Triumph and yawn as you skip the next 25 pages.
Wait until you've finished the pages. Then you can yawn. It’s tiring
to take in all that awesome-ness, isn’t it?

55 Ooh, look! We just gave you a bonus routine. Don’t worry . . . no charge.
 TRICK PLAY
Brian O’ Neill

“Trick Play” is a pair of effects back to back. It is a blend of Alex

Elmsley’s “Brainweave” and Dai Vernon’s “Triumph.” is also a
It
perfect example of how the tapered deck can be the glue that holds
a sequence together. Each move sets up the next, and the first rou-
tine is preparation for the second.

EFFECT: Vanessa thinks of any card fromspread. After one

a
shuffle, one card has magically reversed: Vanessa's se-
lection.

The cards are then thoroughly shuffled face up and face

down, but when the cards are spread, only one card is
reversed. And guess what? It’s a “Get Well Soon” card.
No, just kidding, It’s Vanessa’s card again.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

CHOREOGRAPHY PART 1.

Begin with the deck in dealer’s grip with its wide end nearest
you. Grip the top 12 to 15 cards from the front end with your

56 “Brainweave,” see: Stephen Minch, The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Vol. 2 (Taho-
ma: L&L Publishing, 1994), 338-345.
57 “Triumph” originally saw print in: Dai Vernon’s “Triumph,” Stars of Magic, Series 2,
No. 1 (New York: Stars of Magic, 1946).
114 A NEw ANGLE

fig 85,86

right hand to do a one-handed fan. Fig. 85. Fan the cards facing
Vanessa and ask her to think of any one of the cards. Fig. 86. Rather
than returning the cards to the deck the way you picked them up,
reverse the orientation of the packet by bringing the end that was
at the front to the back of the deck. Fig. 87. Close the fan with
your left thumb, squaring up the deck and reversing the packet in
Sig 87
 Trick Pray 115

the process. Hold a little-finger break under the rotated packet.

You should now have a 12- to 15-card packet with its narrow end
nearest you on top of the deck (which has its wide end nearest you)
with a little-finger break in-between.

Do a “three-quarter” pass: Hold the deck in

both left-hand deal-
er’s grip and right-hand end grip.” Insert your left little finger be-
neath the packet, and grip the packet between the left little finger
and the left ring finger. Drag the packet to the right underneath the
right hand, and pull it around the edge of the deck to the bottom,
turning it face up in the process. Fig. 88-89.

fig. 88

58 “Ackerman’s Opener,” see: Allan Ackerman, LasVegas Kardman (Sacramento: A1-

Multimedia, 1994), 100.
59 “Vernon’s Creeping Reverse,” by Dai Vernon, see: Richard Kaufman, Jennings ‘67
(Washington, D.C.: Kaufman & Company, 1997), 141.
116 A NEw ANGLE

fig- 89

Cut off slightly more than half of the top of the deck and do a
faro-like weave of the cards. Begin the top half’s weave part way
down the lower half of the deck, sandwiching the face-up pack-
et in the middle of all of the face-down cards. Cascade the cards,
applying pressure on the corners of the deck so that when the cas-
is
cade are
finished, the cards side-jogged rather than square. If you
perform the faro shuffle by inserting the top half of the deck into
the back of the bottom half, the pressure for the cascade should be
at the outer-right and inner-left corners. If you perform the faro
shuffle by inserting the top half of the deck into the front of the bot-
tom half, the pressure should be at the outer-left and inner-right
corners. In either case, the face-up cards should be side-jogged to
the left. Begin to square up the cards, but don’t push them flush.
Instead, leave the cards side-jogged about 1/2 inch. (See footnote
39.)
 Trick Pray 17

Perform pressure fan. Because of the side-jogged cards, the fan

a
will show only face cards to Vanessa, but you will see both backs
and faces. The faces you see are those from the bank of cards you
showed Vanessa at the beginning of the trick. As you're fanning the
cards, ask Vanessa to name the card she was merely thinking of. As
she does, spot that card in the fan and raise it up out of the deck.
Fig. 90.

Timing is important here. From Vanessa's perspective, it should

appear as if one card has been reversed the entire time. If you wait
too long after fanning the deck to identify and raise the selection,
the method will become apparent. It will looklike you're hunting
through a bank of different cards to show it as Vanessa’s selection.
On the other hand, if Vanessa names her card as you're fanning the
deck and you raise one reversed card immediately after completing
the fan, it will seem like the selection was just difficult for her to
see because of the way the fan was spread.
118 A NEw ANGLE

Pause
at this point. This is a complete effect, in and of itself. Don’t
sell this short. Seriously. Stop reading, put the book down, and go
do something else for a few minutes.

Not kidding, Put the book down for a bit.

 Trick Pray 119

That’s the kind of separation you need to create.

Because the previous effect sets up the next one, there is a ten-
dency to want to rush right into the next trick. Audiences can sense
“performing mode” and “non-performing mode.”® If you rush or if
you never exit “performing mode,” it becomes more apparent that
you think of both pieces as
a single trick, and Vanessa is more likely
to be able to backtrack and figure out what happened.

These effects can be linked in your mind, but they should not
be linked in your spectators’ minds. In this case, Vanessa merely
thought of a card, and that card was the only one reversed in the
deck. That’s a minor miracle, right there. Relax. Exit “performing
mode” for a moment and create some separation between these
linked effects. Then, you can begin the second piece of “Trick Play”
as its own effect and the audience won’t think that part of the meth-
od for the second trick actually happened during the previous one.

Close up the fan, remove the selection, and turn it back on top
of the deck face down, turning it over side-for-side. The taper of
the face-down selection will be in the same as the face-up cards in
the deck, but the opposite orientation of the rest of the face-down
cards.

Place the deck on the table in position for a tabled riffle shuffle.
Strip the cards apart as if separating the cards to begin the shuffle.

60 This concept was first published by: Rafael Benatar, “The Performing Mode The-
ory,” MAGIC magazine, Vol. 10 No. 5, January 2001, 21. See also, “The Crocodile,”
Pit Hartling, Card Fictions (2003), 70.
120 A NEw ANGLE

fig. 91

Because of the orientation of the tapers, the face-down selection

will move along with the face-up cards, disguising that they are
reversed. Fig. 91. There will be a gap between the face-down selec-
tion and the rest of the face-up cards, so be careful that the face-up
cards don’t flash. Turn the actually face-down half, face up. Shuffle
the two halves together, one half openly face up, the other half se-
cretly face up beneath the selection.

Perform any series of cuts or displays from your 11th favorite

version of “Triumph” to present the deck mixed and to center the
selection.

Spread the deck to show that all the cards are facing the same
direction except for the selection.

Finally, lecture Vanessa on the nuances of whether it’s better to

show a face-up deck with a face-down selection or a face-down
 Trick Pray 127

deck with a face-up selection. Whatever position Vanessa takes, be

prepared to argue the other side.

Bow to Vanessa’s thunderous applause and wonder whether she’s

more impressed by the trick or by the depth of your knowledge of
the subtleties of the best way to reveal the selection.
 THE HALLUCINOGENIC
ot HI
5
UIF IF IL ES

Ryan Plunkett

This is a serious piece of strange. There is a very real moment in

“Hallucinogenic Shuffle” where your spectators may think they're
hallucinating. As the magician shuffles the pack, more and more
cards slowly turn face up until the deck is mixed face up and face
down. It really is one of the freakier things you can see a deck of
cards do. Try this one out with cards in hand and you may end up
fooling yourself.
The idea was born out of a conversation between Ryan and
Michael at a magic convention. At about 5:00 a.m., with only three
or four magicians left in the lobby, Michael and Ryan were still
trading tricks. It was in that delirium that Michael shuffled a ta-
pered deck, thinking everything was fine, only to discover the cards
were face up and face down once he spread them on the table.
Michael fooled himself with that one. But it turned into one of the
most interesting and serendipitous discoveries he'd ever had with
a deck of cards.
Essentially, a tapered deck can act as a Svengali deck for any set
of cards, in any orientation, and you can undo it at any time. You
can hide cards in a shuffle, hide cards in a dribble spread, and many
other fun things, some of which we’ve already described. Seriously,
you owe itto yourself to try this one right now with cards in hand.
Get a tapered deck, take 13 cards, turn them face up, end-for-
end, and faro them into the top quarter of the deck. The top 26
cards will then alternate in orientation as well as being face up
 THE HALLUCINOGENIC SHUFFLE 123

fig. 92

and face down. Make sure there’s a face-down card on top. Place
the deck on the table in position for a tabled riffle shuffle with the
deck’s wide end to the left and the wide end of the face-up packet
to the right. Cut the top half of the deck (the interlaced half) to the
right and the regular half to the left. Do an “open” tabled shuffle—
with your thumbs at the outer edges. Fig. 92. You will only see
face-down cards! What?! Seriously?! How is that possible?! If you
need, take a moment toreassemble your brain from its mushy state
on the floor.
Michael and Ryan have both come up with bizarre applications
for this principle. The “Hallucinogenic Shuffle” is Ryan’s. Michael’s
appears later in this book—“The Law of Conservation of Bullsh*t.
»

FECT. While the magician performs

a
series of very standard
shuffles, more and more cards mysteriously appear
face up until the deck is thoroughly mixed face up and
face down.
124 A NEw ANGLE

Claire selects a card from the mixed-up deck. The ma-

gician continues to shuffle the cards face up and face
down. With the deck on the table, the magician then
dead-cuts to Claire’s selection. Next, a moment later,
the deck is spread to show that all the cards have right-
ed themselves.

REQUIRED: A tapered
P deck.

Dd Fri aa]
1 sey

Begin with the deck in

face-down dealer’s grip with its
narrow end nearest you. Turn approximately 13 cards
face up, flipping them end-for-end (thus turning them
face up and reversing the direction of the taper). Do
an in-faro, interleaving the packet (which has its wide
end nearest you) face up between face-down cards. It
is important for a face-down card to be on the top of
the deck.

Set the deck in front of you so the face-up cards have

their wide ends tothe right and the rest of the deck has
its wide end to the left. Fig. 93 (audience’s perspective).

Jig: 93
 THE HALLUCINOGENIC SHUFFLE 125

With the deck in face-up dealer’s grip (and its narrow end near-
est you as described in the setup above), spread over about 16-20
cards, showing all the cards face up. You can even riffle your left
thumb down the outer edge of the portion of the deck that is still
in the left hand. Because of the steps created by the taper, only face-
up cards will show. Reassemble the deck and place it on the table
with its wide end to the left (the hidden face-up packet has its wide
end to the right).

Now you’ll do a shuffling sequence that appears to be totally nor-

mal, but will cause more and more face-up cards to appear until
the deck appears thoroughly mixed, face up and face down. Dur-
ing this sequence, it’s important to have an open and exaggerated
table riffle. This way, the audience can see the cards clearly and will
notice what is happening, Tabled cascades also enhance the illusion.

Cut the top half of the

deck to the right (this is the face-up/face-
down interleaved half) in preparation for a shuffle. Shuffle the cards

together on the table, keeping the right thumb at the extreme right
end of its half like in Figure 94. Because of the steps in the inter-
woven half of the deck, the shuffle will only show face-down cards.
When you've shuffled the cards together but haven’t squared them
fig. 94
126 A NEw ANGLE

fig 95

up, grip the extended deck with your right hand at the right end in
a sideways-overhand grip and dribble the cards to the table. Fig. 95.
Only face-down cards will show. Square up the pack.

With the deck in this configuration, the more you move your
thumbs to the left of their corresponding halves during the riffle,
the more face-up cards Claire will see during the shuffle. Start with
your thumbs on the far right end of the deck and with each subse-
fig. 96,97
 THE HALLUCINOGENIC SHUFFLE 127

quent shuffle shift your thumbs further to the left, moving from the
right, to the middle, and finally to the left, over the course of three
or four shuffles. Fig. 96-97.

More and more face-up cards will appear each time until the
audienceis seeing all 13 face-up cards. In the beginning, it’s impor-
tant that each time you cut the deck to shuffle, you cut at the right
end, leaving a face-down card on top of each half. Later on, when
it’s clear there are many face-up cards, it’s not as important.

To make this display even more convincing, do a cutting proce-

dure that actually adds more face-up cards. Pick up the entire deck
with the right hand in sideways-overhand grip and raise the left
end of the deck up so that the deck is perpendicular to the table.
Bring your left hand over, mirroring the position of the right hand,
and grab the bottom half of the deck. Rotate both packets inward
so the tops of each packet remain touching, and position them for
another shuffle. Fig 98. Essentially, you are reversing the left-hand
half of the cards. This adds more face-up cards to the mix. Just
trust us, it does. Ribbon-spread both halves back toward you—to
fig. 98
128 A NEw ANGLE

emphasize the shuffled nature of the cards. Fig, 99.Then square and
shuffle up again.

fig- 99

WE lu Re RA LA aTEsl
:

———

Re
=
:

Now, you'll have Claire select a card. Spread the cards between
your hands. She can pick either a face-up or a face-down card. It
.

doesn’t matter. Whatever she picks, turn it over side-for-side in the

action of displaying the card.

Continue the shuffle procedure as described above. On your last

shuffle, when you bring the hands together, do not cut the deck.
Instead you will strip it apart. The deck should be held perpen-
dicular to the table, with the left thumb at the top and the right at
the bottom. Strip the deck, the left hand carrying its packet to the
right, Fig. 100, thereby placing your left-hand’s cards the table with
your palm-down left hand, Fig. 101. Slap the right-hand packet to
the left. If your arms are crossed with both your palms oriented
downward, you are good to go! This positions all the tapers such
 THe HALLUCINOGENIC SHUFFLE 129

fig. 100, 101

that they are aligned perfectly with all the cards facing the same
direction, and leaves the selection face down.

Shuffle the cards together. You then have two options. You could
just spread the cards to show they have righted themselves except
for the selection. If you've ever performed “Triumph,” you know
how powerful that ending can be.

Or,
you could decide not to be a wuss and perform it the way Ryan
does: spot the selection, as it is the only selection slightly jogged in
the deck. Even though the taper is not reversed, there will still be
a slight step on the selection since it is face down. Fig. 102. Use the
natural break, deft hands, and little bit of luck to cut directly to the
face-down card, revealing Claire’s selection.

fig. 102
130 A NEw ANGLE

One of three things will happen. Either you cut the cards and
Claire’s selection will end up face down on top of the pack or face
down on the bottom of the pack. The third option is that you miss
it entirely. If this happens, simply square up the deck and try again.

By the time you initiate the cut, you will know whether you've
hit it or not. Follow through and complete the cut. If the selection
ison top, take the single card away from the pack and continue on
If
to your revelation. it ends up on the bottom of the pack, turn the
entire deck over revealing Claire’s selection on the face.

Make a moment of this. This should be treated as an effect.

Once that has sunk in, spread the deck to show that the cards
have all righted themselves. Panic will ensue.

Deep Cuts: Harapan Ong, brilliant magic creator himself,

a
suggested that you can do this effect backward, as well. If you start
with a deck mixed, face up and face down, you can use the same
techniques described in this effect to make it appear that the cards
are slowly getting more and more ordered until there is only one
reversed card remaining: the selection. That's just too good an idea
not to mention here.
 FLASH TRIUMIPE
Ryan Plunkett

This routine is based on an idea Tony Chang showed Ryan at a con-

vention in 2014. With Tony’s permission, Ryan has expanded on his
idea to create a routine more in his own style. It requires no set-up
and can be done on a moment’s notice.*

EFFECT. The deck is genuinely shuffled face up into face down.

Bethany selects and remembers any card she sees in
the pack.

The magician riffles the cards in front of Bethany’s

eyes and, as they go by, she sees the cards are face up
and face down. Suddenly, in the middle of the riffle,
the cards all right themselves and face the same direc-
tion. With a snap of the fingers, the magician spreads
the deck again to show one card has turned the op-
posite direction from the rest of the deck: Bethany’s
selection.

REQUIRED: A tapered deck.

CHOREOGRAPHY:

Begin by shuffling the cards face up into face down, but in a par-

61 For more thinking on this plot, see: Joshua Jay, “Triumph in 211,” Magic Atlas
(Rancho Cordova: Murphy’s Magic Supplies, Inc., 1999), 96-98.
132 A NEw ANGLE

fig 103, 104

ticular way. Hold the cards vertically in right-hand end grip with
the long side of the deck toward Bethany and the faces of the cards
to your left. Your right thumb should be on top, fingers below.
Bring the left hand to the deck, mirroring the right hand’s posi-
tion. Use your left fingers to break the bottom of the deck and
take the bottom half into the left hand. Fig. 103. Rotate the tops
of both packets inward and perform a standard riffle shuffle. Fig.
104. This not only shuffles the cards face up into face down, it also
orients the taper in the cards so that the face-down cards have the
opposite orientation of the face-up ones. You can repeat this shuffle
procedure as many times as you like or give the cards an overhand
shuffle. Be careful not to turn the cards over side-for-side during
your shuffle.

Next, hold the deck in dealer’s grip so that the wide end of the
face-up cards is nearest you. In this position, when you strip the
cards, the face-up cards (which have their wide ends nearest you)
will come toward you and the face-down cards (which have their
wide ends furthest from you) will move away from you.

Pull down with the left-hand little finger to catch a break above
approximately the bottom 13-15 cards. Fig. 105. Next, strip out
 Frasa TrRiuMPH 133

fig. 105,106

the cards above the break in the action of a Hindu shuffle. Grip the
entire deck with your left hand, but only grip the cards above the
break with your right hand. Fig. 106. This action strips out all the
face-up cards above the break, but leaves the cards below the break
mixed.

Place your right-hand’s cards (the face-up cards from above the
break) in-jogged on top of the left-hand’s cards. Fig. 107. Reach
forward with your right hand, gripping the front of all of the lower,
forward-jogged half and flip it end-for-end, on top of the in-jogged
half. Fig, 108.

fig- 107, 108

134 A NEw ANGLE

Position Check: You have 13-15 mixed cards on top of the

deck and the rest of the cards are facing the same direction (face
up). Spread 10-12 cards to make it appear as if
the cards are still
mixed.

This whole procedure should feel like toying with a mixed deck,
turning cards face up and face down at random. It should not feel
like a studied procedure, but rather like youre making it up as you
go along.

Tell Bethany to touch any face-down card (in this case, the Seven
of Clubs). Turn the selection over side-for-side and out-jog it. This
reverses the orientation of the selection so that it will strip out
with the cards facing the opposite direction.

Push up on the bottommost face-down card with your left thumb.

Fig. 109. This should be fairly easy to do because the wide end of
the face-down card is furthest from you, exactly where your left
thumb contacts the side of the deck.

fig. 109
 Fraso TrRiumMPrPH 135

fig 110

Grip this raised packet with your right hand and use your left
thumb to peel the selection onto the left-hand’s portion of the
deck. Fig. 110. Dribble the right-hand packet back on top of the
deck to emphasize that the cards are still mixed (even though, in
reality, only a few cards are mixed).

Turn the entire deck over, side-for-side.

forward, holding the back of the deck with your

Shift the deck
left hand in a kind of rear-dealer’s grip. Reach over with your right
hand and slowly riffle the cards beginning at the bottom, display-
ing them to the spectator. Fig. 111. As you flip through the first
few cards, showing them mixed, say “It happens . right about
. .

now.” As soon as you say “now,” tilt the deck slightly downward
.

.
so that Bethany cannot see the bottom of the deck, and quickly rif-
fle to the section of cards that all face the same direction. Fig. 112.

62 Funk Soul Brother.

136 A NEw ANGLE

fig 111,112
From the side of the deck, you’ll be able to see where the mixed
section ends. It will seem as though the cards righted themselves
the moment you said “now,” in the middle of your riffle.

With your left hand, strip out the face-up cards (their wide ends
will be furthest from you) in a Hindu-shuffle action. The face-down
selection will be the topmost card of this packet and act as cover for
the rest of the face-up cards. Fig. 113. Once those cards are in dealer’s
grip, continue to shuffle off the remainder of the pack, maintaining
the Hindu shuffle. Spread the deck between your hands being careful
not to expose the face-up cards on the bottom of the pack.
fig 113,114
 Frasua TrRiumMprH 137

Once you square up the deck, get a break above the face-up cards
on the bottom of the deck. This will be easy to do because the
orientation of the taper in the face-up cards is opposite from the
orientation of the taperin the rest of the deck (note that Bethany’s
card will remain face down on top of the face-up cards just below
your break). Shift the deck back as if squaring up the cards and
leave the cards below the break in gambler’s cop, between the heel
of the left hand and the left little finger. Pull the top packet of the
deck forward with the right hand and turn it over end-for-end,
leaving it face up and coalesced with the cards in gambler’s cop.
Fig. 114.

Cut the deck to center Bethany’s selection, then spread through

the cards to reveal that all the cards face the same way, except
one- —Bethany’s selection. Fig. 115.
fig. 115
 SHAVINGS:
A TACTILE LOCATION

Lance Pierce

The tapered deck can act as an open index allowing you to imme-
diately locate any card in the deck by feel. This particular method
is based on work by Charles Jordan.

Arrange the deck in sets of four of a kind: four Aces on top of the
four Twos on top of four Threes, and so on, each set in CHaSeD
order (Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds). Arrange these packets
so they alternate as wide end nearest you and narrow end nearest
you: four Aces (wide end nearest you) followed by four Twos (nar-
row end nearest you), followed by four wide-Threes, and so on.

With this arrangement, when the spectator names a card, you

can locate the appropriate packet and thumb-count through those
four cards to
locate the one you want.® Cut the pack at that point,
and bring the cut-off portion forward to show that you have in-
stantly located it.

Of course, if you
know a memorized deck, this arrangement can
be even more powerful:

Split the deck exactly in half, placing the top half to the right and

63 This idea bears some similarity to more recent indexes, such as Daniel Madison’s
“Advocate.” However, using a tapered deck allows you to have an open index
rather than one hidden away in a pocket.
 SHAVINGS: A TacTIiLE LocAaTION 139

the bottom half to the left. Declare that you will instantly memo-
rize all the cards by glancing at small groups of them. Lift five cards
from the packet on the right with your right hand, barely glance
at them, and toss them face up to the center, with their wide ends
to the left. Lift five cards from the packet on the left with your
left hand, barely glance at them and toss them face up to the cen-
ter, with their wide ends to the right. Continue, alternating hands,
always taking cards by their left sides with either hand; you’ll be
through the entire deck in a matter of seconds. For the last two
takes, you'll have six cards in each packet, so just take them all.
Pick up the deck, turn it face down, and you now have the entire
stack in alternating narrow and wide packets ready to do
.well,
.

whatever you want. The top half of your stack is facing one way, the
bottom half of the stack is facing the other way.

When you're done, strip them out to restore your stack.

 ]rE LAW OF
CONSERVATION OF BULLSH=+=T

Michael Feldman

Michael has a penchant for tongue-in-cheek presentations, espe-

cially those that mock the stereotypes and. clichés in magic. “The
Law of Conservation of Bullsh*t” makes fun of the cheesy presen-
tations some magicians use to pretend to add meaning to a trick,
when they’re actually only adding bullsh*t. In this particular case,
it’s the “imaginary line” presentation that crops up so often in pack-
et tricks.
This effect is heavily presentation-driven. The patter is critical to
understanding the plot. As a result, this effect takes a slightly dif-
ferent form than the others in the book. We will provide the script
along with each step.

gs = Fi 2 wf
“The Law of Conservation of Bullsh*t” is a bizarre
effect. The plot is propelled by the tongue-in-cheek
presentation about an imaginary magical line. First,
one packet is shuffled face up and face down, while
the other, on the other side of the line, remains nor-
mal. But even after the packets change places across
the magical line, the messy packet stays on the same
side of the line and the normal packet is still on the
same side of the line.* The magician then places both

64 This is, effectively, a presentation for a Pass-The-Garbage plot, created by: Paul
Harris, Close-up Fantasies: Book I (Chuck Martinez Productions, 1980), 89 and
Paul Harris, “Traveling Triumph,” The Art of Astonishment: Book 2 (Sacramento: A-1
 Tue Law oF CONSERVATION OF BULLSHx%T 14

packets on the line and all the faces of the cards disap-
pear—Ileaving only backs on both sides of every card.
Finally, the magician wipes away the line to restore the
deck to normal.

Mary mixes half of the deck face up into face down, while the
magician shuffles the other half of the cards normally—face-down
into face-down.

If I draw between us, the “line of mysterious mystery,” and

our packets cross the line . . . You give your packet to Ashley
and place hers in front of you Then according to the Law
. . .

of Conservation of Bullsh*t, your packet still mixed . . is .

Spread to show her cards are still mixed and my packet still . . .

faces the same way. Show yours are all facing the same way.

No matter how many times you switch packets, your cards face
the same way and hers are mixed up.

So let’s push this bullsh*t further. What if we put both

packets on top of the mysterious line of mystery, what then?
Place both packets together in the center of the table. Well a wise
man once said, “Don’t cross the streams.” Dribble the cards
to show the whole deck face down, then turn the deck over and
dribble to show all backs on the other side too.

Multimedia, 1996), 185. Many other magicians have published work on this plot,
including: Darwin Ortiz, Scams & Fantasies with Cards (Sacramento: A-1 Multime-
dia, 2002), 174, and Mike Maxwell, “Spectator’s Triumph,” The Classic Magic of
Larry Jennings (Tahoma: L&L Publishing, 1986), 246.
142 A NEw ANGLE

Dribbling the cards one by one, each and every one has a back on
both sides.

And if you believe all that bullsh*t, then this really is im-
possible. After all, the mysterious line of mystery is just a
bunch of hand-waving bullsh*t.

You pretend to wave your hand across the imaginary line, and
wipe it away. Then, spread out the cards to show that they’ve re-
turned to normal; backs on one side and faces on the other.

REQUIRED: An end-stripped tapered deck.

Strip the cards along the end of the deck so that the
corner with the pip is the wide end and the deepest
part of the cut (the narrow end) comes out of the non-
pip corner.

SET-UP: Turn eight cards face-up side-to-side (reversing their

orientation) and faro them into the bottom of the deck
so that the bottom cards alternate face up and face
16

down, narrow end to the right and narrow end to the

left. Fig. 116.

fig. 109
 Tue Law OF CONSERVATION OF BULLSHx%T 143

If you want to get into this position secretly, half-pass

approximately eight cards; then split the deck in half
for a faro shuffle. When faro shuffling, make sure that
the original bottom half of the deck is perfectly weaved
into the other half with a face-down card on the face of
the deck.

= =D FOOD
ED AD LY
GRAP HY.

Phase 1: Pass the Mess

Begin with the deck in position for a tabled riffle shuffle with
the long sides toward you and the spectator, the short ends on the
right and left. One end of the deck will appear basically flush. On
the other end, you'll be able to see the eight reversed cards jogged.
Fig. 117. With the deckon the table, position the deck with the jogs
to the right.

Cut about half the deck forward toward Mary. Ask her to shuffle
her cards face up into face down. As you do so, cut about half of
Mary's cards to the left and turn them over side-for-side for her to
fig 117
144 A NEw ANGLE

important to cut and turn over

shuffle. Fig. 118. It is particularly
the cards in this way because the face-up cards must revolve side-
for-side rather than end-for-end, which might not happen if you
leave it up to Mary.

fig 118

Pick up the remaining cards for yourself and split the packet
to do an in-the-hands riffle shuffle, making sure the halves don’t
change orientation. The face-up cards should be in the left hand’s
packet. This puts the wide end of the taper on the face-up cards
on the right end of the left-hand packet—exactly where your left
thumb goes to
riffle the cards during an in-the-hands shuffle. The
taper will hide the face-up cards during the riffle so that all of the
cards appear face down. At the end of the shuffle, make sure there
are at least two face-down cards on top of your half.

Rotate your cards 90 degrees clockwise and place them into left-
hand dealer’s grip. This puts the face-up cards’ injogs at the back
 Tue Law oF CONSERVATION OF BULLSHx%T 145

right of your packet (the face-up cards have their wide ends to the
right).

Dribble your cards with the right thumb and forefinger at the ex-
treme right side of the cards. This shows only face-down cards and
hides the eight that are face up. Ask Mary to spread out her cards
on the table and show that they are mixed face up and face down.

If I draw between us the ‘line of mysterious mystery, and

our packets cross the line...

Draw an imaginary line separating your packet and Mary's.

Place your packet in front of Mary and take Mary’s packet, rotat-
ing it 90 degrees clockwise and placing it in left-hand dealer’s grip.
This again puts the face-up cards’ injogs at the backright of your
packet.

Then according to the Law of Conservation of Bullsh*t,

is
your packet still mixed and my packet still faces the same
way.

Dribble your cards again with the right thumb and forefinger at
the extreme right side of the deck, showing only face-down cards
and have Mary spread her cards to show them mixed face up and
face down.

No matter how many times we cross, the Law of Conserva-

tion of Bullsh*t applies.

Repeat the whole process, switching packets, dribbling your

146 A NEw ANGLE

cards and having Mary spread her cards to show that the cards on
her side of the line remain mixed and yours remain face down.

As you ask Mary to spread her cards, take the top card of your
packet and gesture toward Mary’s packet. As she spreads her cards,
showing that they are now mixed face up and face down, return
the top card of your packet to the deck, turning it 180 degrees in
the process, reversing the taper. The natural misdirection of Mary
spreading her cards psychologically hides this action, though it’s
not something you necessarily need to hide. It’s a small flourish,
but
it is important to set up the cleanup in Phase Three.
Repeat the packet exchange one more time, handing your packet
across the line to Mary and taking her packet back in dealer’s grip.
Have Mary spread her packet again, showing the cards face up and
face down. As she does so, cut your packet, lifting up at the ex-
treme right edge of the deck. This ensures that a back shows on
both the top and bottom of your half, which will be important for
Phase Two. Once Mary spreads her packet, dribble yours to show
all your cards are face down.

Phase 2: All Backs

So let’s push this bullsh*t further. What if we put both

packets on top of the mysterious line of mystery, what then?

Place your packet in the center of the table with the inj ogs at the
back right of the deck. Take Mary’s packet and place
it directly on
top of yours, making sure that the injogs line up at the back right
of the deck.
 THe LAw OF CONSERVATION OF BULLSH%T 1417

Well ...a wise man once said, “Don’t cross the streams.”

Pick up the deck and dribble it from the extreme right side,
showing all backs. Turn the deck over side-for-side, showing an-
other back, and dribble the cards again from the extreme right side
showing all backs.

Turn the deck over, hold it in right-hand end grip, and turn the
deck so it is vertical with what would be the faces toward Mary and
her buddies. Very slowly, dribble one card at a time from the verti-
cal deck into your left hand below. Fig. 119. The taper will make it

appear as if every card has a back on both sides.

fig 119
148 A NEW ANGLE

Dangerous Bonus:

There is one more display you can do. It looks fantastic, but our
experience has been that it’s hit or miss no matter how much prac-
tice you put in. As a result, this does not make it into actual per-
formances of this routine, but we include it here because it’s an
interesting principle with end-tapered cards.

After dribbling the cards from a vertical position, square the

cards up in your left hand and strip the cards apart about a half an
inch, a little more than the width of a standard border. Fig. 120.
From this position, perform a thumb fan and both sides of the fan
will show backs. Fig. 121. This works in much the same way as the
“Ribbon Spread Hideout.” The idea of hiding side-jogged cards in a
fan isnot new, but the end-tapered deck provides a smoother and
simpler setup than any of the currently published methods.

fig. 120,121
 Tee Law oF CONSERVATION OF BULLSH*T 149

Phase 3: Cleanup

And if you believe all that bullsh*t, then this really is im-
possible. After all, the mysterious line of mystery is just a
bunch of hand-waving bullsh*t.

Grasp the cards in right-hand end grip from the top and mirror
the same grip with the left hand from underneath. Fig. 122. Your
left fingers and thumb touch the extreme left edge of the deck
while your right fingers and thumb touch the extreme right edge
of the deck. In a hand-waving action over the “mysterious line of
mystery,” strip out the reversed cards with the right hand. Because
both packets will have
you rotated the top card during Phase One,
a face-down card on top.

fig. 122

YoE&P

&&
150 A NEw ANGLE

If you haven’t done the fan display, the cards that strip out in
the right hand will all be face up with one face-down card on top.
Return these cards to the bottom of the deck. As your left hand
takes over the whole deck, pull up on the top card of your right-
hand half with your right thumb to get a break under the top card
of that packet. As you bring the deck downto the table, perform a
half pass under the break. Spread the cards to show all backs. Then,
perform a ribbon-spread turnover to show the faces. The deck is
back to normal.

If you decided to risk the fan display, the cards that strip out
in your right hand will all be face down and the cards in the left
hand will all be face up with one card face down on top. Replace
your right-hand’s cards on top of your left-hand’s cards and, as you
do, pull up on the top card of your left-hand packet to catch a
break under the top card. As you bring the deck down to the table,
perform a half pass under the break. Spread the cards to show all
backs, and then perform a ribbon-spread turnover to show faces.
The deck is back to normal.
 TINGS
4&8
WOH RY oo

THE INCOMPLETE STRIP-OUT

Harapan Ong

Usually, the benefit of the tapered deck

the ability to find and
is
control cards from the middle of a squared deck. In this Shaving,
Harapan Ong shows how stripping cards from a deck that isn’t
square can be just as magical.

By stripping cards in the middle of a shuffle (before you square)

you can achieve some interesting and offbeat effects.

For instance, you can use this technique to simulate a knuckle-

busting piece of shuffle stacking, like this:

Set asideboth Jokers keeping track of their orientation. Have

the deck with its wide end nearest you and ask a spectator to call
“stop” while you riffle down the deck. Cut the deck at that point
(and complete the cut). Use Stewart Gordon’s double lift, which
rotates the double end-for-end. When you turn the double-back
face down, rotate it side-for-side. Take off the “selection” (indiffer-
ent card) and place it, outjogged, into the lower half of the deck. As
you do, rotate the “selection” so it goes back to its original orienta-
tion (as it was before the double lift).

The actual selection should be on top of the deck, oriented op-

posite from the rest of the deck—the only card with its narrow end
nearest you in a deck with its wide end nearest you. Place the deck
152 A NEw ANGLE

of cards on the table in front of you, with the out-jogged card to

the left, but as you do, cut the top portion back to your left hand,
and hold it in dealer’s grip. The selection should now be back on
top of the half you are holding.

Catch

ers
a little-finger break under the selection and place two Jok-
with their wide ends nearest you on top of the half of the deck
you are holding. Perform any sandwich-loading technique to posi-
tion the selection between the Jokers.

Cut the Jokers into the middle of their half of the deck, and place
this half of the deck down on the table to the right of the tabled-
packet, with its wide end to the right. The selection (which has its
wide end to the left) remains somewhere in the middle of this half
(and is sandwiched between the two Jokers).

Announce that you will shuffle the selection (which the specta-
tors believe is in the left half of the deck) in-between the Jokers in
the right half of the deck. Have them square their selection into
the left packet. You could simply shuffle the deck, square up, spread
the cards on the table and show that you succeeded. That might be
good for a first phase, but you can do much better. Instead, shuffle
the two halves together being careful not to actually shuffle cards
in-between the Joker sandwich—but don’t square them up. Then,
strip the selection (which has its wide end to the left) out of the
right half of the deck until it is flush with the left half of the deck
(which has its wide end to the left). Now, you can spread the in-
terlaced cards to show you have successfully shuffled the selection
from the left half of the deck in-between the Jokers in the right half
of the deck.
 SuaviNGgs: THe INcoMPLETE STRIP-OuUuT 153

This kind of “incomplete strip-out”is not limited to a single card.

For instance, you can perform a full-deck “Oil and Water” effect in
the midst of a shuffle.

red cards (with their wide ends to the left) into the
Shuffle the
black cards (with their wide ends to the right). Continue shuffling
as much as you like, then in the middle of one of the shuffles, before
squaring up, grip the right half of the overlapping section with your
right thumb and middle finger and the left half of the overlapping
section with your left thumb and middle finger. From this position,
brace your little fingers against the outer ends of each half and pull
in opposite directions with your thumbs and second fingers as in
a normal strip-out. Fig. 123. When your thumbs and fingers reach
the outer ends of the deck (you'll be able to feel the stripped-out
cards square up against your little fingers), you can turn the deck
over and show that all the red cards are in the left half, and all the
black cards are in the right half.

fig 123
154 A NEw ANGLE

This kind of “incomplete strip-out” is not limited to single cards

or entire decks. You can also do it with a small packet. For instance,
you can perform a packet version of “Oil and Water.”

Remove four red cards (with their wide ends nearest you) and
four black cards (with their narrow ends nearest you) from the
deck. Legitimately shuffle the cards or have a spectator shuffle the
cards as long as they don’t change the orientation of the cards.
Spread the cards between your hands and have your spectator touch
any four cards. The only requirement is that the top card has its
wide end nearest you and the next card down should be outjogged
and have its narrow end nearest you. You can easily tell from the
cut in the card or the taper in the border. Close the spread with the
four selected cards outjogged. Grip the forward half of the over-
lapping section from underneath with your left thumb and middle
finger and the back half of the overlapping section from above with
your right thumb and middle finger. Brace against the front end of
fig. 124
 SHAVINGS: THE INcoMPLETE STRIP-OuUT 155

the packets with your left index finger and against the back of the
packet. Fig. 124. Pull forward with your left hand and backward
with your right. Strip out the out-jogged cards and show that the
spectator has successfully separated the red cards from the black.
 EPILOGUE
—~—

Inertia can get the better of any of us. Adding new material to your

a
repertoire can be daunting, especially when it involves fully gim-
micked deck, like the material in this book. It will always be easier
to rely on routines, tricks, and tools with which you're already
familiar, but the road to improving as a magician, or as a performer
involves stepping out of that comfort zone and practicing new prin-
ciples, new sleights, and new gimmicks in front of new spectators.
The virtue of the tapered deck is its versatility. It can unlock
brand new effects that were not possible without it,but it can also
simply improve the material that is already in your repertoire. It
can even sit passively in your hands while you perform the effects
you are already comfortable with in exactly the same way you are
used to performing them.
So here is our parting challenge to you: pick up your tapered
deck and perform with it. Even if you have yet to master the effects
in this book, even if you don’t think you ever will, just grab the
deck and perform. As you do, you may discover the tapered deck
makes some pieces of your regular repertoire easier, more effec-
tive, or more deceptive. You may find that some of the principles
in this book will come in handy if you find yourself in a tight spot
and need an out. A New Angle is designed to get you thinking about
the many ways the tapered deck can help your magic, and there’s
no better way to find out than to put it in your hands.
 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

~N—

RYAN PLUNKETT is a
Chicago-based close-up
magician who has been performing for the past two decades.
Ryan is also a highly sought-after magic consultant and magic
creator. A New Angle is Ryan’s second published work and fol-
lows his
debut book, Some Assembly Required. Ryan is aFounding
Ensemble Member of the Chicago Magic Lounge, a show aimed at
reintroducing the art of Chicago-style magic to local audiences
and to establishing a home for the Chicago magic community.

MICHAEL FELDMAN has been performing and

creating magic since he was 13 years old. He performs regularly

at the prestigious Magic Castle in Hollywood, Monday Night
Magic—New York’s longest-running Off-Broadway show, and
traveling the world on board Crystal Cruise’s luxury ocean
liners. Michael has published a book of his effects called The
Opposite of People. Additionally, Michael has released his break-

throughs and techniques with Dan and Dave, Blue Crown, and
MAGIC magazine.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

~N—

Edward Boswell

Nathan Colwell

Michael Feldman

Frank Fogg

Harapan Ong

Brian O'Neill

Lance Pierce

Ryan Plunkett
 INDEX

“A New Glide” (Hugard and Braue), 107, 132-133; Right Little-finger

90. Break, 67-68; Natural Break, 102,
A-1 Multimedia, 115. 130; Right-thumb Break, 29, 94,
Ackerman, Allan, 115. 96, 150.
“Ackerman’s Opener,” 115. See also Breather Crimps, 9.
Las Vegas Kardman Bridson, Bob, 56. See also
“Advocate” (Madison), 138. “Ribbon Spread Hideout”
Alonzo, Chris, 40. Buck, Dan and Dave, 33.
Annemann, Theodore “Ted,” 39. See
also SH-H-H—! It’s a Secret C

Apocolypse (Lorayne), 31, 38. Card Fictions, “The Crocodile” (Har-

Art of Astonishment, The (Harris), 140. tling), 119.
Cardiste, The (Rusduck), 61.
B Card Orientation
Benatar, Rafael, Modes:
119. See also End-for-End, 14, 34, 64, 101, 106,
“Performing Mode Theory” 124, 133, 137, 144, 151; Side-for-
Bertram, Ross, 93; Bertram on Sleight of Side; 24, 25, 30, 32, 34, 53, 67,
Hand, 93. See also TeBe Change. 71-72,78, 80-81, 102-103, 105,
Blackstone, Harry Sr., 55. 119, 128, 132, 134-135, 143, 147,
“Blown Away” AKA “Neither Blind 151; Stepped, 43, 82, 85.
Nor Stupid” (Tamariz), 38. Carl Waring Jones, 9, 56, 90.
Boswell, Edward, 31, 87. Cascade(s), 56, 73, 116; Tabled, 116.
“Brainweave” AKA “Ultra Mental” Chang, Tony, 40, 131.
(Elmsley), 56, 113. See also Col- “Cherry Control” (Smith), 59.
lected Works of Alex Elmsley, The Chuck Martinez Productions, 140.
(Minch) Classic Magic of Larry Jennings, The

Braue, Frederick, 9, 56, 90. See also (Maxwell), 141.

Expert Card Technique; Miracle Meth- Clip Shift, 90.
ods Number 1, The Stripper Deck Close-up Fantasies (Harris), 140.
Break, 9, 29-30, 33, 66, 68,72, 77, Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, The

84, 102, 136-137, 150; Little- (Minch), 56, 113.

finger Break, 67, 71, 81, 98, 102, “Collectors, The,” 24, 33. See also
115, 152; Left Little-finger Break, Segal, Syd; “Finale for The Collec-
28, 36, 71-72, 80-81, 85-86, 102, tors” (Swain)
162 A NEw ANGLE

Colwell, Nathan, 86. See also Drawing Room Deceptions (Holling-

Pass: Long-fingered Half Pass worth), 98.
Cull / Culled Cards, 26, 98, 100. Dribble (dribbling), 27, 31, 88-90,
Curry, Paul, 55. See also 126, 135, 141-142, 145, 147-148.
Out of This World, “Out of This
World” E

Editorial Frakson Magic Books, 93.

D
Elmsley, Alex, 56, 113. See also
Dai Vernon’s Inner Secrets of Card Magic “Brainweave”; “Ultra Mental”;
(Ganson), 22. Collected Works of Alex Emsley, The

Daley, Jacob, 56. See also (Minch)

Jacob Daley’s Notebooks. Estimation Tricks
Deck Order Weighing the Cards, 110.
Alternating Order, 105; CHaSeD Expert Card Technique (Hugard and
Order, 138; New Deck Order, 40- Braue), 56, 90.
41, 49, 51, 61-63; European New
Deck Order, 49-50, 52; Palin- F

drome Order, 134. Fan, 107-108, 119; Fan Display, 150;

Decks One-handed Fan, 114; Pressure
Color-Changing Deck, 87; Elon- Fan, 117; Thumb Fan, 148.
gated Deck AKA Extended Deck, Faro
73,79, 84, 126; Gimmicked Deck Extended Faro, 17; Faro Control,
AKA Trick Deck, 9-10, 18, 157; 84; Complete Faro Control; 84;
Memorized Deck, 10, 138; Mixed Incomplete Faro Control, 79-80,
Deck, 134; Squared Deck, 81; 84, 86; Straddle Faros, 61. See
Svengali Deck, 7, 110, 122; Ta- also Faro Controlled Miracles; Faro
pered Deck AKA Stripper Deck; Shuffle, The; “One Handed Faro
4,7-9, 11-12, 15, 17-19, 22-24, 33, Miracle, The” (Smith)
38, 40-41, 49, 52-53, 55-56, 58- Feldman, Michael, 3-4, 7, 84, 122-
59, 61, 64, 66,76, 79, 84, 87, 93, 123, 140.
100, 110, 112, 122, 124, 131, 138, “Finale for the Collectors” (Swain),
151, 157; Bathroom Strippers, 33.
22; Belly Strippers, 19, 22; End- Finger-tip Peck, 106.
stripped, 142, 144; Edge taper / Fischer, Ottokar, 56.
Edge-tapered Cards, 12, 14; End Flippant Change (Siminoff), 30-31.
taper / End-tapered Cards; 12, 16, Fogg, Frank, 55.
56, 148; Negative Strippers, 12, Full Cut, 102.
19; Regular Tapered Strippers, 19;
Twice-cut Deck, 12. G

Double Lift, 151. See also Gambler’s Cop, 137.

Gordon, Stewart. “Gamblers” False Cut,” 56. See also
 INDEX 163

Up the Ladder Cut Book 2

Ganson, Lewis, 137. See also Harry Stanley’s Unique Magic Studio,
Dai Vernon's Inner Secrets of Card Magic. 17.
Genii, 63. See also “Finale for The Col- Hartling, Pit, 80, 119. See also Card
lectors” Fictions, “Crocodile, The,” “In
Goldstein, Phil, 61. See also Redivider Order to Amaze,” “Thought Ex-
Gordon, Stewart, 61. See also Double change”
Lift Hermetic Press, Inc., 52, 66.
Greater Magic: A Practical Treatise on Hofzinser, 100.
Modern Magic, 9. Hilliard, John Northern, 9. See also
Green, Lennart, 98. See also Greater Magic: A Practical Treatise on
Drawing Room Deceptions (Holling- Modern Magic
worth); “Regarding the Shirt One, Hollingworth, Guy, 98. See also
Variation Three” AKA “Float Pass” Drawing Room Deceptions
(Green) How to Cut Cards
Griffith, Jeremy, 109. Card Trimmer, 19; Corner Rounder
Grips / Rounding Corners,
22; Paper
Dealer’s Grip, 16, 34, 81, 97, 104- Cutter, 18-21; Extra-Heavy, 19;
105, 113, 132, 146, 152; Face- Slide, 21; Wheel, 21; Traditional
down Dealer’s Grip, 124; Face-up Swinging, 21; Purchase, 18-19;
Dealer’s Grip, 24, 125; Left-hand Stripper Jig, 20.
Dealer’s Grip, 16, 34, 58, 67, 80, Hugard, Jean, 9, 90; Hugard’s Magic
90, 97, 101, 115, 144-145, 152; Monthly, 56. See also Expert Card
Rear Dealer’s Grip, 135-136; End Technique; Miracle Methods Number 1,
Grip, 16; Right-hand End Grip, The Stripper Deck

36, 94, 96, 108, 115, 132, 149;

Left-hand Straddle Grip, 96-97; I

Sideways-Overhand Grip, 127. “In Order to Amaze” (Hartling), 80.

Gutenberg Press, 56. Indifferent Cards), 25, 101-102, 104-
Guyot, Edmé-Gilles, 8. See also 106, 108-109, 151.
Nouvelles Récréations Physiques et Interlaced Cards, 33, 152; Interlaced
Mathématiques Half, 123.

H J

Haley Press, 102, 150. Jacob Daley’s Notebooks (Daley), 56.

Half Pass / Half-Pass, 69-70, 77, 102, Jay, Joshua, 83, 131. See also
108, 143, 150; Long-fingered Half “Triumph in 211”
Magic Atlas,
Pass (Colwell), 77. Jennings ’67(Kaufman), 115. See also
Harris, Paul, 140. See also “Vernon’s Creeping Reverse”
“Traveling Triumph;” Close-up Fanta- Jogs / Jogged Cards, 27-28, 129,
sies, Book 1; The Art of Astonishment, 143; Downjog (down-jogged), 43;
164 A NEw ANGLE

Forward-jogged, 133; Injog (in- ton), 28.

jogged), 26, 108, 133, 144-146; Marlo, Edward, 29, 56, 79-80, 110.
Outjog (out-jogged), 32-35, 81, See also
134, 151-152, 154-155; Sidejog Faro Controlled Miracles; Faro Shuffle,
(side-jogged), 16, 56, 67-68, 73- The; Ribbon Spread Hideout
74, 116-117, 148. Maxwell, Mike, 141. See also
Jordan, Charles, 138. “Spectators Triumph”
Merton, Hal (Walter G. Peterkin),
K 28. See also “Mahatma Control”
Kaufman & Company, 115. Methods
Kelly Bottom Placement, 90. Hindu-shuffle Method, 15; Offbeat,
Kopf, Jared Brandon, 12. See also 31, 71, 77-78; Under Fire, 67, 77,
Two Paper Cuts 102.
Mike Caveney’s Magic Words, 98.
L
Minch, Stephen, 56. See also
L. Davenport & Co. Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, The
L&L Publishing, 56, 113, 141. Miracle Methods No. 1, The Stripper Deck
Las Vegas Kardman (Ackerman), 115. (Hugard and Braue), 9.
See also Mnemonica (Tamariz), 61, 66.
Ackerman, Allan; “Ackerman’s Modes
Opener” Non-Performing Mode, 119; Per-
Lee Jacobs Productions, 93. forming Mode, 119; Performing
Little-finger Counts, 9. Mode Theory (Benatar), 119.
Long-fingered Half Pass (Colwell) See More Faro Fantasy (Swinford), 61.
also Half Pass Murphy’s Magic Supplies, 131.
Lorayne, Harry, 31, 38. See also
Apocolypse N

Necromancer, “The One Handed Faro

M Miracle” (Smith), 40.
Madison, Daniel, 138. See also “Neither Blind Nor Stupid” See “Blown
“Advocate” Away”
Magic Atlas (Jay), 131; “Triumph in Nelson, Chad, 90. See also Surfaced
211,” 131, New Directions magazine, 74.
Magic of the La Plata Magic Center, The Nouvelles Récréations Physiques et Mathé-

(Sufrate), 20. matiques (Guyot), 9.

MAGIC magazine, 119. See also Nyquist, Charles W., 56. See also “Rib-
Modes: “Performing Mode Theory” bonspread Reverse, The”
(Benatar).
Magic Way, The (Tamariz), 93. 0
Magic, Inc., 29. O’Hare, Eoin, 20. See also How to Cut
Mahatma, “Mahatma Control” (Mer- Cards: Stripper Jig
 INDEX 165

“Oil & Water,” 153-154. Sequence, 33-34, 113; Clean-up

Ong, Harapan, 130, 151. Sequence, 109; Dribble Sequence,
Ortiz, Darwin, 41. See also 31; Shuffling Sequence, 62, 125.
Scams & Fantasies with Cards SH-H-H—! It’s a Secret (Annemann), 39.
Out of This World (Curry), 55. Shifts
Overlapping Section, 153-154. Tamariz Perpendicular Control
—T.P.C. (Tamariz), 93; TeBe
P Change (Bertram), 93; Long-fin-
Pass-the-Garbage Plot (Harris), 140. gered half-pass (Colwell); 95
See also Close-up Fantasies, Book Shuffles
1
(Harris); Scams & Fantasies with Faro Shuffle, 17,63-64, 67, 101,
Cards (Ortiz); Classic Magic of Larry 116, 143; Faro Shuffle, The(Marlo),
Jennings (Maxwell) 29; Infaro / In-faro, 29, 69, 72,
Penumbra, 35. 12; Out-faro Shuffle, 62, 80, 88;
Pierce, Lance, 138. Hindu Shuffle, 14-15, 51, 64, 70,
Plunkett, Ryan, 3-4, 7, 31, 84, 122- 72,77, 86, 90, 107-108, 133, 136;
123, 129, 131. Riffle Shuffle / Riffle-Shuffle, 31,
Porper Joe, 19. See also 50, 55; False, 50; In-the-hands,
How to Cut Cards: Card Trimmer 50, 144; Single, 41-42; Standard,
Pulling / Pull Cards, 14. 132; Tabled, 15, 55, 119, 123,
143; Exaggerated Table Riffle,
R 125; Tabled Shuffle, 44; Open
Redivider (Goldstein), 61. Tabled Shuffle, 61, 123; Overhand
Ribbon Spread / Ribbon-spread, Shuffle, 28.
46, 57, 101, 128; Face-up Rib- “Shuffleupagus,” 40, 49.
bon Spread, 47; “Ribbon Spread Siminoff, Looy, 30-31. See also
Hideout,” 56, 148; “Ribbonspread Flippant Change
Reverse,” 56; Ribbon-spread Turn- Simply Sydney (Segal), 33.
over, 150; Tabled-Ribbon Spread, Slip Cut (Traditional), 71-72.
43, 61. Smith, Pix, 40.
Rotator Shift, 93, 100. Smith, Ricky, 59. See also
Rusduck (J. Russell Duck), 61. See “Cherry Control”
also Smith, Roger, 40. See also
Cardiste, The Necromancer, “The One Handed Faro
Miracle”
S “Spectator’s Triumph” (Maxwell),
Sandwich-Loading Technique, 152. 141.
Scams & Fantasies with Cards (Ortiz), Spread, 37, 46, 57, 74, 101, 113, 117;
141. Dribble Spread, 122; Right-hand
Segal, Syd, 33. See also Spread, 26; Tabled Spread, 35;
Simply Sydney Tabled Ribbon-spread, 43.
166 A NEw ANGLE

Square Up, 74-75, 83, 85, 89, 93, 99, Nor Stupid;” Mnemonica; Magic
101, 105, 116, 126, 136, 153. Way, The; Tamariz Perpendicular
Stars of Magic, 113. Control (T.P.C.)
Stacks TeBe Change (Bertram), 93.
Memorized Stack, 9, 110; Mne- Terminology, 14.
monica Stack, 52, 62; Mnemonica Thought Exchange (Hartling), 80.
(Tamariz), 52, 61, 66; Riffle Three-quarter Pass, 115.
Stacking, 53; Stay Stack, 52, 60- “Triumph,” 112-113, 120, 129. See also
62, 64, 69-70, 72, 76, 79-80; Stay “Flash Triumph” (Plunkett); “Spec-
Stack Palindrome, 60-61; “Stay tator’s Triumph” (Maxwell);
Stack, The” (Swinford), 61. “Traveling Triumph” (Harris);
Stripped Cards, 29, 64; Stripped-Out “Triumph in 211,” Magic Atlas (Jay);
Cards / Stripping Out, 15,153; “Triumph” (Vernon)
Strip Out / Strip-out,8, 16, 47, Two Paper Cuts (Kopf), 12.

51,70, 72, 77, 84, 101-102, 111-

112, 132, 134, 136, 149-150, 155; U

Incomplete Strip-out, 153-154. “Ultra Mental” See “Brainweave”

Stripper Deck See Decks: Tapered Up the Ladder Cut, 54, 56. See also
Deck Gamblers’ False Cut
Sufrate, Salvador, 20. See also
Magic of the La Plata Magic Center, The V

Surfaced (Nelson), 90. Vernon, “Professor” Dai, 22, 113, 115.

Swinford, Paul, 36. See also See also Dai Vernon’s Inner Secrets of
More Faro Fantasy Card Magic (Ganson)
“The Stay Stack” Dai Vernon’s “Triumph,” 113.
“Vernon's Creeping Reverse”
T (Vernon), See also Jennings 67
Tamariz Perpendicular Control (Kaufman)
(T.P.C.), 93.
Tamariz, Juan, 38, 52, 61, 66, 93. See w
also Weighing the Cards See Estimation
“Blown Away” AKA “Neither Blind Tricks