Card Manipulations - Volume 4

By Jean Hugard

This is volume IV of Jean Hugard's fantastic handbook “Card Manipulations”, which includes simple instructions for a variety of fantastic tricks. Card manipulation is an element of magical illusion concerning the creation of effects through sleight of hand techniques that involve playing cards. It is commonly employed in magical performances, particularly in street magic. Jean Hugard (1872 – 1959) was an Australian professional magician. By the end of his life he had gone blind, having lost sight in both eyes as a result of cataract-removal operations. Despite his handicap he continued his work with magic at his home in Brooklyn, New York. Contents include: “The Gambler's Top Palm”, “The Change Over Palm”, “With Small Packet of Cards Only”, “With the Pack in Hand”, “New Top Change”, “Replacing Palmed Cards”, “Using a Table”, “On Bottom Deck”, etc. Other notable works by this author include: “Show Stoppers with Cards” (1948), “Royal Road to Card Magic” (1948), and “Houdini's 'Unmasking': Fact Vs. Fiction” (1957). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this classic volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on card manipulation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Obscure Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528768146

Book preview

CARD

MANIPULATIONS

by

JEAN HUGARD

Volume 4.

Copyright © 2018 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Card Manipulation

Card manipulation is the branch of magical illusion that deals with creating effects using sleight of hand techniques involving playing cards. Card manipulation is often used in magical performances, to great effect, especially in close-up, parlour and street magic. Some of the most recognised names in this field include Dai Vernon, a Canadian magician with considerable influence, specialising in sleight of hand, Ed Marlo, an American born magician who referred to himself as a ‘cardician’, and Alex Elmsley, a Scot who was notable for his invention of the Ghost Count or Elmsley Count, creating various mathematical card tricks, and for publishing the mathematics of card shuffling. Before becoming world famous for his escapology act, Houdini billed himself as ‘The King of Cards’.

Cards have a long and illustrious history, they were first invented in Imperial China, and specimens have been found dating back as early the ninth century, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Female players were some of the most frequent participants, and the first known book on cards, called Yezi Gexi (presumably written in the 860s) was originally written by a Tang era woman, subsequently undergoing additions by other Chinese scholars. By the eleventh century, playing cards could be found throughout the Asian continent. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), characters from novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards. Playing cards first entered Europe in the early fourteenth century, probably from Egypt, with suits (sets of cards with matching designs) very similar to the tarot suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also known as disks or pentacles). These latter markings are still used in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese decks. Playing cards were first formalised into something closely resembling our modern deck in the seventeenth century, but the joker was only introduced by the USA in the 1870s.

As props, playing cards have only become popular with magicians in the last century or so, largely due to their inexpensive nature, versatility and easy availability. Although magicians have created and presented myriad of illusions with cards (sometimes referred to as tricks), most of these illusions are generally considered to be built upon one hundred or so basic principles and techniques. Presentation and context (including patter, the conjurer's misleading account of what he is doing) account for many of the variations. Card magic, in one form or another, likely dates from the time playing cards became commonly known, towards the second half of the fourteenth century, but its history in this period is largely undocumented. Compared to sleight of hand magic in general and to cups and balls, it is a relatively new form of magic. Common manipulation techniques include ‘lifts’, where one or more cards (normally known to the audience) are selected and identified as part of the illusion, ‘false deals’, which appear to deliver cards fairly, when actually the cards are predetermined or known to the performer, and ‘side slips’, a technique generally used to bring a predetermined card to the top of a deck. Passes, Palming, False Shuffles, False Cuts, Changes, Crimps, Jogs and Reverses are also commonly utilised manipulations.

Card Manipulations No. 4

CONTENTS

Part I.—SLEIGHTS

1.The Gambler’s Top Palm

2.The Change Over Palm

a.With Small Packet of Cards Only

b.With the Pack in Hand

3.New Top Change

4.Replacing Palmed Cards

a.Using a Table

b.Without a Table

c.On Bottom Deck

d.Adding a Single Card to Deck

e.Large Packet of Palmed Cards

f.The Same — Another Method

g.Packet from Right Hand to Bottom of Deck

h.The Same — Another Method

5.Notes on the Pass

6.Substitutes for the Pass

a.Break and Overhand Shuffle

b.The Riffle Return

c.Reversed Card as Indicator

7.Useful Moves

a.To Reverse the Bottom Card

b.To Transfer Bottom Card to Top

c.A Gambler’s Move

Part II.—TRICKS

A. Novel Reverse Discovery. Nate Leipzig

The Rising Pack

To Make a Spectator Become a Magician. H. Lloyd

Torn and Restored Card with Borrowed Deck

The New Spell

The Automatic Speller. Mylon Clayton

A Reversal of Form

Royal Marriages

Effective Poker Deal

Two Card Control. Audley Walsh

Card in Pocket. Dr. Jack Daley

Everywhere and Nowhere. Simplified Procedure

An impromptu Stand for Cards

Using a Short Card

With a Borrowed Deck

Without Duplicate Cards

Expanding and Diminishing Cards

Part III.—FLOURISHES

One Hand Shuffles

a. A Variation of the Charlier Pass

b. Three Cut Shuffle

c. Five Cut Shuffle

d. The Multiple Out

SECTION 1—SLEIGHTS

1. TO PALM A NUMBER OF CARDS FROM THE

TOP

Palming is probably the weakest spot in the technique of most card workers, both amateur and professional. The most common faults being the manner in which the hand is brought right over the deck, taking off the required cards with a perceptible grabbing action, at the same time telegraphing the movement by throwing the thumb straight upward and, finally, the removal of the hand with the cards in it without any reason at all having been given for the whole action. Under these circumstances it would have to be a very innocent spectator who did not suspect that some cards had been removed from the pack.

To palm cards perfectly the action must be so covered that a spectator who keeps his eyes fixed on the performer’s hands can detect no suspicious movement. This is not so difficult as might be imagined, and the method that follows is well within the reach of any card handler with a minimum of practice.

I do not know who originated the move, but it has been in use amongst some experts for years, and the general belief is that we are indebted for it to the same source from which have come many of the most subtle card sleights — the gambling table. Hence I have dubbed the move—