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The
TRICK
BRAIN
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
One of the most important of the effect classifications is that of identification. Primarily this division has to do with the discovery of an identity—discovering the identity of a selected card, of an object, of the specific color of an object, of the specific person who performed an action, of a hiding place and other similar selections of specific objectives. This means that the performer, usually through some implied special power, selects the identical object previously selected by a spectator or a group of spectators. The selection, of course, need not be limited to inanimate objects. Neither is it necessarily limited to material things at all. Abstractions such as words or moods or ideas may be positively identified as well.
Unquestionably the greatest mass of tricks which belong in this category are those in which a previously selected card is discovered. But to limit this effect classification to card tricks alone would be narrowing the field too much.
And how are these discoveries made possible? They can be identified by: Some method of marking the object individually, By some type of key which locates the subject desired, By mathematical formula or other arrangement, By some form of spying, Through the assistance of confederates, By forcing the selection of a particular object, or by the performer's delaying of his commitment until the spectator's choice has been made known, after which the performer arranges his choice to correspond.
The matter of marking, alone, is a considerable field. The mark may be of any type so long as it is detectable through one of the five senses. It may be seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled.
For instance: Cards may be marked so that each is separately identifiable from the back. Or they may be marked so that the identity may be discovered by the pattern at the edges. Or they may be nicked or crimped. Marks may be placed on the back that are not visible to the naked eye at all. Some cards are marked with luminous paint that can be seen only through a dark eye shade. Rough spots that may be felt mark other cards. Light smears of color, technically called daub, are used for identifying particular cards or for revealing the identity of each individual card. Variations in the finish of cards, whether ivory, air cushion or linen, also supply means of identification. The shape of the object is a detectable mark, such as strippers or cards with special rounded corners.
The mark field is almost limitless. For example, the use of a diagonal thumb scratch or pencil mark along the edge of a deck will immediately reveal which card has been disturbed from the order when the mark was made. Even the card which is printed on light stock and which becomes transparent when held to the light is a marked card.
So also are cards that are thick or thin or weighted as to balance. A bit of salt or a particle of rubber, placed upon a selected card and upon which the other half of the deck is put, will serve as markers.
But is must not be imagined that the use of marks is confined to the card field alone. A spectator is asked to place a coin in one hand and hold it above his head while the performer is out of the room. When he returns the performer is able to select the hand holding the coin because it is whiter than the other. In another case, in the identical trick, the mark is psychological. The spectator will incline his head or otherwise subconsciously indicate the hand holding the coin. Or if he doesn't some sympathetic spectator will.
Sometimes this mark is indirect. When the magician fans a deck of cards and holds it before a spectator's eyes for a mental selection, he has a very good chance of identifying the card ultimately. He fans the cards in such a manner that when they are held up for selection the fan is just below the line of sight from the performer's eyes to the spectator's. The cards are held but a couple of feet from the spectator and he is given only a few seconds to make his selection, perhaps five seconds. As he fans the cards the performer notes the wider breaks in the fan. He watches for the look of momentary concentration in the spectator's eyes as the selection is made mentally. At the same time, in closing the fan the performer makes a break at the widest break in the general vicinity of where the spectator's concentration seemed to occur. Usually the card above this break is the mentally selected card.
But if the performer fails he still has the stratagem of delaying his commitment until the spectator's choice has been made known. Suppose be selects the card above the break and places it in his pocket.
Now he asks the name of the card. The card he selected proves to be wrong. Perhaps the performer located two or three cards on either side of the break, in which event he knows where it is. If even these are wrong, the magician can say that there must be some mistake. He thumbs through the deck, locates the called card and brings it to the top. Meanwhile he is explaining that the reason he thinks there is some mistake is that the called card is not in the deck. The called card is palmed off and in the act of apparently taking the card from the pocket—the card previously placed there—he substitutes the one just palmed off.
The look of concentration in the spectator's eyes is a mark, even though of momentary duration.
A number of colored tags is given to a spectator to make a selection. The desired tag is handed to the performer behind his back. The performer is able to identify the specific color because the little pasteboard reinforcing eye, pasted about the hole in the tag, has been separated from the tag. This separation is made on a different side of the hole to correspond to each color. If the performer is able to insert his fingernail from the top, the color is red. If on the right side, the color is blue. If on the bottom, the color is yellow. If on the left side, the color is green. And if the eye is tight all around, the color is white. Location of the mark supplies the identification.
When colored crayons are used in the same manner the performer resorts to spying. He scrapes off a bit of the crayon onto his fingernail, then changes hands with the crayon.
Another type of identification involves the use of several colored sticks in a metal case. The sticks are tapered at one end so they will only go into the case in one way. Two methods are used. In one, the selection is a matter of balance—the red, white and blue all balance in different directions. In the other a small magnetic compass is used. The location of the deflection of the compass, deflected by a bit of metal hidden within the stick at a different location for each color, betrays the color.
The magnetic deflection principle, with the compass hidden in a little "telescope" through which the performer "looks", or concealed within the hand, betrays the order in which a number of numbered blocks is arranged within the box.
Holes drilled into various colored or numbered objects permit identifying without seeing by the depth to which a pin or other similar object may be inserted.
The use of a key is an old device in magic. This key may be almost anything. In cards, it may be a known card placed above or below or at a known mathematical relationship from the selected card. Or it may be a thick or thin card, or narrow, or wide, or long, or short. Or it may vary in dimension or shape in any number of ways. The key may be a card bearing any type of mark. Some key cards even have clips or little pieces of wood attached to them. One type of key is a pair of cards hinged together. The selected card is placed between them.
If the selected card, even though its identity is not known, is held in a definite relationship to such a key card, or to a key location, the matter of identifying it individually presents no difficulty. In many cases the exact identity is unknown until it is discovered and turned over. In other cases the card is glimpsed, or even deliberately looked at under the guise of going through the deck for some other purpose.
When a card is removed from a definite order in a predetermined arrangement, its identification is comparatively easy. This arrangement may be by means of a formula such as the Si Stebbins or "eight kings", or it may be in an apparently haphazard, but previously memorized order. The arrangement may be mathematical, as in many of the mathematical card tricks. Or the arrangement may be a temporary and extemporaneous one, as with the diagonal scratch along the edge of the deck, as mentioned before.
Mathematical arrangement is just a short step from identification through mathematical formula. The old Twenty-Seven Card trick utilized mathematical formula. Twenty-seven cards are laid out in three rows. The spectator mentally selects a card and indicates which row it is in. This is repeated three times, at the end of which the performer reveals the selected card. The formula always brings the mentally selected card to the same location, if the rows are picked up in the proper order. An improvement of this trick made it possible to produce the card at any number. This is possible by varying the order in which the rows are picked up.
The ancient latin card trick which made use of the formula—mutus, cocis, dedit, nomen, and its substitutes—is also an arrangement method of determining identities. In this case the cards are laid out in ten pairs. Without mixing the cards, one pair having been looked at, the cards are laid down on the table apparently indiscriminately. Actually the cards are laid down to the formula, each pair of cards being placed to correspond with each pair of letters in the formula. When the spectator indicates the rows his cards appear in, the performer picks up the cards at the pair of letters common to the row or rows. These must be the spectator's cards.
Another formula method is that in which a selection is made from a group of numbers, names and the like. Then the spectator selects from another group of cards those upon which appear the selected number or name, concealing the other cards. By means of a formula the spectator can identify the spectator's choice from the cards in his possession.
But such formula tricks are limitless. These include identifications of numbers selected on watches, cards arranged in variations of the watch formula and even colored panels.
Marks need not necessarily be limited to the specific object used. They may also appear on an accessory used with the trick. One method of discovering which of three cards placed on a tray has been looked at is made possible by hairs built into the edge of the tray. When the cards are placed on the tray they are slipped beneath the hairs. But when the spectator replaces the one he looks at the card goes on top of the hair. Thus, the selected card is plainly marked.
Hairs are used for marks in an identification trick where three small pyramids are concealed beneath as many small covers. One pyramid has no bristles. Another of a different color has one bristle sticking from its lower edge. And a third of a different color has two hairs. The covers are big enough to conceal the pyramids but not sufficiently large to cover the bristles which protrude beneath the edge. In this way the performer can tell which color is under each cover.
Another trick uses small metal discs, each of which is of a different color. One of these is placed in a small brass case the cover of which screws on. The performer can identify the color inside because each of the discs is of different thickness and the screw cover, stopped by the disc after it has been screwed up so far, indicates which disc is inside by means of a mark. Similar to this is a box with three compartments, marked, 'one—two—three." A rod is placed in one of the compartments and the cover is closed. But the bottom of the box is on a fulcrum. When the rod is placed in a compartment it presses the bottom down. A screw on the outside indicates which compartment has the bottom depressed.
Somewhat similar is a ballot box into which one of three colored balls is placed. The color is identified through the handle of the box. The balls being different in size, the distance the handle may be pushed in indicates which ball is within.
A small clock dial, built into a small case, indicates the hour by means of a small hand. This hand is set and the box is closed. A screw head on the outside of the box, which is fastened to the spindle of the hand, indicates the setting.
Shaking the package indicates which of two lead pencils is wrapped in a piece of paper. One of the pencils has a concealed rattler. Like a colored stick trick mentioned before, the balance of the casket indicates which of three mummies is placed in a small casket.
A bit of wax smeared on the face of a card which is placed upon a selected card, or smeared on the back of a card upon which the selected card is placed, will cause the selected card to adhere. Identification is simple because it is merely a matter of finding the two cards stuck together.
Somewhat similar in basic principle to the ballot box trick mentioned above is a trick performed with marbles. Here the selected marble is given to the performer behind his back. The magician identifies it by means of a small panel of metal, bakelite, cardboard or some similar material. This panel has a hole. One marble will fall through easily. Another will just fit the hole. And another is much too large.
Tests in which the performer selects a particular name, such as a living or dead test, are numerous. Often these are made possible through subtle marking methods. Frequently the performer will give the spectator who is to write the dead name a piece of paper he can identify unmistakably. This identification may take many forms but one of the most common is to distinguish the individual sheet by the way the edges are torn. In other tests of the same character, all of the spectators get soft black pencils except the one who is to write the dead name. The latter is given a hard pencil.
Luminous paint has been used for identification. In one trick a coin is placed on the back of a mirror, or on a card, while the spectator concentrates upon its domination. When the performer is given the mirror he takes it to a dark place. The full-sized outline of the coin is visible as a shadow upon the glowing card.
A daub of luminous paint is placed on each page of a book. When the spectator opens a book at a page of his selection, the luminous paint will store up luminescent energy while the spectator concentrates. The magician merely selects the page whose luminous paint spot glows.
There are so many ways of marking a card, and a key card is really a marked card, that to attempt to list them all would be an impossibility. Previously I mentioned that a marked card is a card that may be individually identified by any of the five senses. We have discussed at some length cards that are detectable by sight. A few methods of marking for detection by feeling have been mentioned—particularly those with roughened surfaces. But extra smooth surfaces are also distinguishable by feeling, distinguishable because of their smoothness or because they slide more freely than the normal ones. Many performers mark cards by embossing them with the fingernails. A slight pressure with the point of the nail on the front of the card will raise a distinguishable bump on the back.
I mentioned above that a key card was really a marked card. If its identity is known, whether by the face or through some special mark, it comes within this category. Some key cards have embossed marks on the back. One type is embossed by pressing it upon a half-dollar. Another has a part of the back design in double thickness. Still another has one or more corners broken, or even torn off.
Locations or places, are also keys. Such places may be at the bottom or top of the deck, or at a place marked by a jog or a break. Control is the method of keeping the selected card at known places. While the performer may not know the identity of the controlled card, he does know that it is the selected card.
The identity of a selected card may be discovered by bringing it to the top or bottom and by managing a surreptitious glimpse of its identity. There are many sleight-of-hand moves for accomplishing this. But the identity may be seen in a mirror also. This may be an ordinary mirror located at a strategic spot. Or it may be a thin sheet of metal foil glued to the back of a playing card, behind which the chosen card is placed. The chosen card need not be placed immediately behind this mirror. All that is necessary is that the unknown card be placed somewhere in the deck so that its identity may be flashed in the mirror during the handling.
The mirror may also be one of those reducing mirrors in miniature, palmed in the hand. Or the identity of the card may be flashed in the highly polished blade of a knife that is plunged into the edge of a deck and used to lever up a card that the spectator is asked to remember. Very tiny mirrors, called shiners, are stuck to the palm of the hand holding the deck. Other mirrors are built into partly opened matchboxes, and flattening and polishing a spot on a finger ring creates others.
A small celluloid box, built to contain a die, makes it possible to discover which side of the die is up. While not completely transparent, the cover permits the spots to show through when the die is held so it is against the top.
Some boxes into which are placed colored blocks or discs have sliding panels that permit of a secret view of the arrangement. Another box, made to hold a pack of cards, has a corner that pushes to one side, exposing the index of the bottom card.
It seems hardly necessary to go into detail on methods of forcing a spectator's choice. In connection with cards, the conventional combination of controlling a known card, spreading the deck and timing the offering so that the known card seems to fall into position for the spectator's selection, is still the best method, although it is not certain even in the most skillful hands. There are many varieties of mechanical forcing packs. And there are also many varieties of manipulative expedients such as the riffle break combined with slipping the known top card to the top of the lower section.
One type of dice force is in the use of a box which allows the dice to rattle around but which does not allow them to turn. This box is reversible. By noting the totals of the dice in their original positions and by reversing the box in the act of shaking it the ultimate total may be calculated. The fact that the spots on any two opposite sides of a dice always total seven is the clue. Simply multiply the number of dice by seven and deduct the number of spots first noted.
But forcing a predetermined choice may be accomplished also by the use of the various changing devices such as the changing bag and basket and the adaptation of similar principles to more common objects.
Another frequently used device is to exchange a selected card for a known one. This exchange may be made by sleight-of-hand or mechanically of the mechanical methods the use of the double envelope or of the reversed tray are both well known. Many of the methods discussed under the transformation section are usable here.
An identity may be discovered by elimination. As an example, when a fan of six or seven cards is presented for mental selection the possible cards are separated to different parts of the deck and their exact locations are noted. Then, by fanning a section containing one of the cards and asking the spectator if he sees his card, ultimately, as all sections are shown, the specific card must be discovered. This is because the noted cards are the only ones from which the spectator could make his original selection. So the noted card in the section in which the spectator sees his card is the desired one.
There are many mathematical arrangements by means of which all but the selected one is eliminated.
Cards aren't the only types of keys. In an old mind reading trick I used to do as a youngster my brother and I used a key code. Someone would select a name, a thing, an idea or any other thought that could be conveyed in a single word. Then, when I returned to the room my brother would begin asking me, "Is it a book? A table? A man? Father?" and so on. Finally, I would stop him and tell him which of the things he repeated was the one selected. The method was simply a key. The word before the one selected was always a four-legged animal. Then we worked up a routine in which it would be the four-legged animal the first time, something made of wood the second time and some type of picture the third time.
People can be used as keys. There is a fairly well-known mind reading trick involving the use of the four aces that explains the principle. As Mrs. Fitzkee and I arrived at a party, we used to memorize the first four people with whom we talked. In the order these people were encountered they stood for diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades. Later in the evening I'd spread the four aces out upon a table and ask someone to select one of them audibly. Then I'd ask the person corresponding to the particular suit selected to go to Mrs. Fitzkee, who perhaps would be in some other part of the house not even aware that a trick was in progress. Upon being asked, Mrs. Fitzkee would tell the person sent that an ace had been selected and that it was the ace of—naming the suit corresponding to the person sent.
This has been used, of course, for years in connection with the telephone trick. A person would be given a telephone number and would be told to ask for Mr. , the named given being the key to the card selected.
Even a psychological subconscious movement is a key. This is the basis for the picking out of a particular person by contact mind reading or, as it was formerly called, muscle reading.
There is a wide field for the application of key methods in identification effects. Even this considerable area is extended when the stratagem is employed indirectly. An excellent illustration of the subtle use of a key is in the telephone card trick devised by Audley Walsh and Al Baker. Here a person is called on the telephone. He is asked to get a deck of cards and shuffle it thoroughly. Afterwards he is to cut the deck and note the bottom card. After he has noted the bottom card he is asked to transfer as many cards from the top of the pack to the bottom of the pack as there are spots on the noted card. Of course, in the case of a face card he is told to transfer eleven, twelve or thirteen for the jack, queen and king, respectively. Then he is asked to turn the pack over and name the cards in their order, starting with the face. After he has named several the magician tells him the card he originally noted.
The key is indirect. A number of cards corresponding to the spots on the card are transferred to the bottom. As the cards are read back, the magician writes them down in order, ignoring the first. When the number of spots on the card corresponds to the number in the order in which they are read, the card corresponding to the number is the selected card.
Indirect and subtle methods of marking are effective too. Consider the extremely clever method of marking devised by Dai Vernon. A bit of lipstick or eye shadow, depending upon whether the deck used has a red or blue back, is daubed on the flap of a card case containing a deck. The magician hands the case to the spectator and asks him to take out the deck. As he starts to do this, the performer interrupts him and tells him to use his own deck. Thus the spectator's finger or thumb is smeared with color which will be transferred to any card he takes.
I have said very little in this section about the use of confederates. This is because it is possible for the confederate to communicate with the performer directly, if there is time to spare. Or because all that is necessary is to arrange some key or code or other method of secret communication which will convey the desired information.
As an example of a simple code to convey the identity of a card:
The right hand conveys the value. Divide the front of the body into an imaginary clock. Wherever the fist is, corresponding to the hour, that is the value of the card. No indication by the right hand will mean a king. If the left hand is empty, the card is red. If it is holding something the card is black. A crossed knee means a heart-shaped suit. Thus, with something in the left hand and the knees crossed, the card is a spade. With the knees uncrossed, it is a club, that being the only other black suit. If the left hand is empty and the knee is crossed, the card is a heart. With the legs uncrossed, the suit is diamonds.
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