Magic Tricks

The DVD that you get (or, presumably, the video you download) is extremely short, just under eight minutes. Here's the effect.

With one hand, you produce a card out of thin air, displaying it as a joker. You transfer the card to the other hand. Once again, the first hand produces a card, apparently out of thin air, and passes it to the second hand. A third joker appears in the same way and is passed to the second hand. Finally, a fourth joker appears, at which point the three cards in the second hand are shown to be aces--and so is the joker in the first hand.

As Chris Randall presents it, the effect takes about a minute, and there is no patter. The magician simply starts producing jokers and then reveals the aces. It's simple (meaning that the spectators can see clearly what is happening) and direct.

This trick is pure sleight of hand. There are no gimmicks, either supplied or needed to construct. As presented, it cannot be done entirely impromptu, though I think with some imagination and additional effort, I could perform the effect if you handed me a sealed deck of cards. In fact, I'd prefer it that way.

The effect isn't trivial, and I'd suggest that an intermediate skill level with sleights is probably the minimum. If you're still struggling with Elmsley counts or double lifts (or don't know what the first one is), wait a little while before trying this effect.

Despite its short length, the video provides adequate instruction. A significant amount of practice is required, and angles are an issue. You cannot perform the effect surrounded. That said, the move is adaptable. The video presents it also as a color change, and I can think of other applications.

I like the effect and the move. I would have preferred to have more included in the video in the form of other applications (say to an ambitious-card routine), but I should think that anyone who is capable of learning the move is also capable of figuring out some applications.

I should add that you don't necessarily end clean. As I noted, there are no gimmicks, so the aces can be handed out for examination, and there is a brief mention of how to end clean, but greater attention to that point could have been included. (In fact, that's why I prefer to be handed a full deck of cards. I use it to perform another effect first and in the process prepare for this effect and for the clean ending.)

In short, I think anyone magically creative (and I'm not especially so) can adapt what is here to a more powerful effect, one that is part of an act.