Necessity
Is The Mother
This
item is actually two, but, as they both have
to do with the same trick, I have lumped them
together. A favorite of mine during my long
early career as a "semi-pro" in Northern Ireland
was the Rising Cards. My Jumbo mechanical deck,
made by Willmann, I got on a swop from Edgar
Benyon who, with Hubert Lambert, was responsible
for my training in magic. The deck lasted until
the day that a Greek waiter named Marc threw
it with a plastic houlette down the stone stairs
at the back of the "Bagatelle". It was an accident,
I assure you, not by order of the management.
In Northern
Ireland, it was not always advisable to finish
with the "Your Majesty, please rise" caper for
the last card, owing to peculiar religio-political
disputes and yet, it was difficult to think
up something just as effective. But, I managed
it and you will read how.
Also,
being than a magical purist, I actually switched
the Jumbo deck the cards were chosen from for
the mechanical job-and often did do in cabaret.
What follows is the switch of decks and then
the Rising Cards finale as I performed it.
The card-rising
stuff was on a little table all on its own.
At front was the plastic houlette (it was made
from bits of plastic a friend pinched for me
from Short & Harland's aircraft and cigarette-lighter
factory during the war). This was covered by
a 36" square opaque scarf. At the rear of the
table under the scarf lay the mechanical deck.
On top
of the scarf at the left rear lay the other
deck with the four force cards on top. The last
two cards forced, for reasons you will presently
see, were the Ace and 2 of Diamonds.
When
these four cards had been forced, the pack was
replaced in its original position on the table.
Then the scarf was removed from the houlette
with a lifting movement from the front. The
part of it that had originally covered the houlette
was doubled back over the rear of the table,
covering the ordinary Jumbos. This move was
accompanied by suitably "unveiling" patter which
got enough little titters to keep attention
from the careful covering of the deck.
When
I had lifted and suitably admired the houlette
as my own workmanship - "Early Celtic...I made
it at 3 a.m." etc. - I lifted the right rear
portion of the scarf as a flap and folded it
over onto the left side of the table. The mechanical
Jumbo deck was thus revealed and the genuine
Jumbos completely concealed under folds of scarf.
I made
sure, of course, that the face of the faked
deck matched that of the other, in case some
bright soul noticed; so it was then only necessary
to take the mechanical deck, drop it into the
houlette and proceed with the rising.
From
the drawings you may get the idea that this
can't be very illusory since the scarf would
seem to outline the decks beneath. In practice,
like a lot of these things, such is not the
case. The natural draping of the scarf into
folds provides more than enough camouflage.
On
now to the finish of the card rising. When the
performer has asked the THIRD card to rise,
it comes up half-way and stops, but it is the
3 of Diamonds, where as the chooser now declares
his card was the Ace. The magician asks the
LAST selector to name his card. It was the 2
of Diamonds. As the card now rises right out
of the pack, the performer states that this
is the way that cards have to economizing on
the rising-fuel. Holding up the 3 of Diamonds,
he says, "Everyone knows that the 3 is made
up of the Ace and the 2!" And, with that, he
separates in each hand, the Ace in one and the
2 in the other. 
Like
it? The two cards are cut with a sharp razor
as shown in the sketches. They are then fitted
together with a couple of spots of Melrose applied
to the Diamond indices of the Ace preventing
any slight displacement they might suffer in
the rising action.
One final
touch delights me, that is, to ensure that the
INDICES change too. Actually, of course, those
of the Ace don't have to change. Scratch out
the index of the 2 and change it to a 3, so
that the card is a 2 at one corner and a 3 at
the other. By accordingly changing your hold
just as you separate the two cards, you can
be sure that even the closest spectator won't
notice anything fishy.
I assure
you that this gets as much applause and interest
as the "Rise, Your Majesty" lark. It has the
added advantage of being one of these offbeat
tricks suddenly thrown in which tend to get
much more applause than any trick whose climax
is anticipated by the earlier shenanigans.
|
