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Richard Wiseman’s quirky antics in this video challenge your powers of observation. Can you figure out the trick?

 

There isn’t much to say about this latest video from expert cards man, Jason Ladanye. He controls all four kings through over a dozen false shuffles, and delivers cards with the crisp precision of a Vegas card shark. I’m not even gonna’ give him grief for the stack of Bicycles next to his £200 magic mat, I mean just look at those one handed rifles. He’s very very good, but, of course, we already knew this. 

Ladanye’s DVDs, books, and blog, are all very useful resources for the amateur card magician, but I’d advise you not to use any of his shuffles in an actual casino unless you’e sporting a pair of fake kneecaps. He’s also now offering one-on-one training via Skype for $100 an hour. That might sound costly (because it is), but the reviews have been stellar thus far. 

There is an art to telling bad jokes. The deadpan delivery, the slightly-too-long pauses, the feeble explanation, they’re all vital to delivering a quip that invokes not laughter, but a long weary sigh as your audience realizes that you have wasted vital seconds of their life. You have, in essence, killed a tiny part of them with your words. It’s like being an evil wizard.

It’s in this manner that sleight-of-hand maestro, Patrick Kun, just committed mass murder in a trick video that opens with a clanger so deliberately bad I physically winced.  

He then followed it up with a really cool trick that actually has me considering picking up a micro-deck. The sleights are easy to follow on a second viewing, but the trick is crazy smooth the first time round. The slow-burn reveal of the switched card box is such a good way to open the routine too.

Kun makes his living performing live, hawking goods in slick ads for the likes of Coca Cola, and selling his own magic tools and accessories, including a really swank cardistry/performance deck called Mirage that I may just add to my collection.  You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

I know what you’re thinking: David Blaine’s totally going to pull a card out from under his skin, or swallow a beer bottle, or regurgitate an ant farm by the end of the video, but no. This brief six-minute video from KTLA is just a couple solid card tricks and an honest chat with Blaine about his childhood to promote his show at the Dolby Theatre in LA. While Blaine never loses the deadpan, stone-faced exterior, it’s still nice to see him just do a card trick without any expectation of bodily harm, even though I waited for that final stinger every time he took a sip of water.

When David Blaine says he’s only showing up to “try a few classics”, you should definitely take that with a grain of salt. And when he asks you if you want to see a card trick or needle-and-thread trick, know you’re going to get both. Such is the case when Blaine made an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last night, who proceeded to sew his mouth shut before fanning out a normal deck of cards for a trick, as you can watch in the video below.

(Content warning: If you don’t like needles or seeing needles poking through skin, you probably shouldn’t watch this video.)

We actually got to see this trick performed in front of us when Blaine appeared for an interview at the 2017 Genii Convention (though the audience was asked beforehand not to share the details of the trick on social media), and our faces were just as thunderstruck as the cast and crew of The Tonight Show.

So, uh, yeah. Oh, and stick around for the end, because Blaine can’t just end a routine with a “simple card trick” like this.

If you want to see more of that (you know you do), David Blaine’s 2018 North American tour kicks off on May 6 in San Diego, and currently has tour dates scheduled up until July 14. Get your tickets here. 

I may not personally believe in spiritualism, but I can still appreciate good magic, regardless of where it’s performed. Take the above video from David Lion, who recently performed at a gathering of the Legendary Souls members in California. Lion keeps one hand in his pocket during the entire trick, yet ends up pulling out the exact card the spectator picked out with their mind. \

For more of what David Lion calls “Lionism”, check out his YouTube channel for his take on hypnotism, mentalism, and magic.

Dovid Robatnick was diagnosed with Atypical Parkinson’s disease back in 2013, and he thought his career in magic was over. Rather than let it destroy his dreams, he buckled down, rethought his approach to his work, and has continued to practice magic despite his debilitating condition. He created Slow-Motion Magic as a way to chronicle his journey in living Parkinson’s and to bring awareness to a wider audience. In his latest video, he’s teamed up with a youngster named Seth to perform a neat card trick after opening with some updates on a recent Parkinson’s fun run he took part in. 

For updates on Dovid’s work, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel for his latest exploits, check out Dovid’s Patreon to see more information about his project, and visit the Michael J. Fox Foundation to learn more about Parkinson’s and what you can do to help. 

I’m going to be honest with you here, folks. I’m still early enough in my magic-writing career that I’m not entirely convinced that mentalism isn’t witchcraft. Whom, the debut trick release from mysterious magic consultant and presumed citrus enthusiast, Mark Lemon, lets you pretend to do all that creepy weird mentalist stuff while essentially performing a fairly basic card trick. A perfect starting place for a neophyte like me.

The trick is essentially a card-based version of the classic children’s board game, Guess Who. Your audience member picks a card and you guess which face is on it. With one hundred percent accuracy. Because the deck is marked. I mean, it’s basically just cheating at Guess Who and I’ve been doing that for years. If you want to see how the trick works, there’s a video up on the Ellusionist site that you can access with a password that also happens to be the founder of Ellusionist’s first name. Pro tip: You can find that here. It rhymes with, uh, prad. 

Whom comes with two gimmicked decks, complete with a hidden crib sheet on the tuck boxes. It’ll cost you a smooth US$19.95 plus shipping. 

Note for Genii readers: the password is the same as for previous videos, but in all lower case. Not a Genii reader? Here’s how you can fix that. 

We here at GeniiOnline have been faithful disciples of Steve Valentine over the past month, dutifully passing on his wisdom when it comes to pulling coins from bread buns, changing the color of silk handkerchiefs, swallowing canes and making good tricks even better. This time we’re going to leave it to the man himself, who has written a companion piece to go with the video above:

I started Magic On The Go to teach, celebrate and create a home for as many forms of GREAT magic as possible. Also to preserve brilliant effects and techniques that are getting lost in time. My goal is to build a massive online database of magic, all filtered and curated to bite-sized playlists that point toward whatever aspect of magic interests you most. The best part is, it’s happening, we are getting there, with hundreds of videos already posted and accessible.

So, we have simple beginner material, beginner only in the aspect that it’s physically easy to do, the effects are always powerful – see my Lazy Magician’s Card Act. Also we have more professional routines. Effects that take a little more practice, and of course give you even more powerful results. ROYALLY FLUSHED is one such routine.

The first full close up card sequence I published on magicinthego.com is Royally Flushed, my take on the now classic Paul Harris effect RESET. I’ve streamlined the switch sequence and added a kicker ending. The moves are simple and basic yet take some practice, but check the effect to see how strong it is.

As a child growing up in magic Paul Harris was one of my greatest influences. His whimsical, entertaining approach to card magic was a breath of fresh air. The idea of using cards more as objects and producing visual moments of strange was awesome inspiration to me. I still use his Vanishing Deck and Whack Your Pack routines in every show I do.

One of Paul’s classic effects is RESET. If you know it, then you know it’s an awesome trick, with a simple, easy to follow plot that visually packs a punch. It’s really fun if you perform it alongside Brother Hamman’s similar effect, THE UNDERGROUND TRANSPOSITION. In fact, UNDERGROUND or RESET are the versions I use when I have no time to set the deck for Royally Flushed. Oh, and if I can remember my gaffs, I’ll also have R. Paul Wilson’s brilliant RICOCHET available. So that’s four methods for essentially the same effect. Each with their own strengths and advantages. I have used each at different times. Which kinda brings me to my point.

I’m a huge believer in knowing multiple methods for all my routines. Why? Because you never know when a situation can take a left turn, and you always want to be prepared. You are used to doing something in a tux with your own cards, you may get a request with someone else’s cards and you’re in jeans (see my C2P Cards To Pocket Collection) or you’re doing a great version of the Flashback Book Test and someone challenges you to ‘do it with my book’ (see BOOKED). Or someone has seen you perform your killer finale trick three times in a row, and they are now following you around the party. You’ve seen these peeps in strolling gigs, I nickname them ‘Klingons’; they watch from a short distance to try and catch the method. Being aware of them and also switching up methods is half the battle, and the good news is that you already have your presentation and gags, just apply what works to the other routine. Same goes for your favorite gaffed card routine, do you have a non-gaffed version? It’s worth being prepared, trust me.

I was once asked to do the cards to pocket routine at a party (someone had seen my live show), but NO ONE had cards. So I ‘improvised’ by borrowing 10 business cards, luckily I had worked this out ahead of time, along with some extra variations, advantages that only occur with business cards. I was able to use most of the gags from my show and the creative ‘improv’ nature of using their business cards gave the routine a greater personal kick, and made it look even harder, when, in actual fact, it’s way easier.

So, just for you chaps and chapesses at Genii, please feel free to add my ROYALLY FLUSHED to your repertoire, it’ll be up on the site for a week. Of course this and so much more are always available at MAGICONTHEGO.COM

Cheers!

Steve. 

Okay, so I’m gonna have to take issue with that “Pokémon started out as a card game” thing. I think you’ll find that the Pokémon Trading Card Game was first published in October 1996, over a year after the release of the original Pokémon Red & Blue on the Game Boy. Even then, the concept of the game actually dates back to 1989 when game developer Satoshi Tajiri began – oh, no, wait. It was a setup for a card trick. My mistake. Please continue. 

That cool Pokémon Go themed trick was performed by the very talented Harapan Ong, who, according to his bio, isn’t in the business of tricks, but in the business of miracles. I dunno if I’d describe it as miraculous, but his Instagram account is pretty cool. 

Actually, while we’re on the subject, why would you even want to catch a Pikachu in the first place? Wouldn’t it make more sense to catch a Pichu and train him up until, ah, forget it.