The Magic Memories (219)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: European Magic History Conference (EMHC); Addendum to “A Trick Problem – The Four Question Marks”; “Four Card Phantom – Daley’s Spread-it Card Trick”; The Japan Grip or How to Eat a Burger; Righting a Wrong Plus; Unexpected Agenda… On This Day – “September 7 – An EZ Illusion”

These are The Magic Memories 219, gone online Sunday, September 7th, 2025, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

European Magic History Conference (EMHC)

A few days ago I returned from the EMHC in Riga, which was a great experience.

If you ever have a chance to visit Riga, the Latvian capital, I can highly recommend it. The historical center is compact and thoroughly charming and can be explored superficially by walking around in ca. 2 hours.

After that you may want to stay another one or two days to focus on whatever interests you, from architecture, museums, shops, restaurants and even magic, as we will see. Although Riga is not a gastronomical hot spot, with a little research you can find a few interesting restaurants (of course I did so – almost certainly I was the only one of this group to have done so! – and together with Steve Beam we enjoyed some Latvian highlights).

As for the conference itself, which was ably planned and managed by Dace and Enrico Pezzoli – she of Latvian, he of Italian origin –  I refer you to my friend Ian Isenbart’s ZZAUBER blog (in proper English!); he tells you everything you ever wanted to know (and more!), with lovely photos and informative text.

And best of all, there are no critical comments as you would expect from a stickler like myself, who finds faults with everyone and everything 🙂

Briefly, you will love reading his report by CLICKING HERE!

Addendum to “A Trick Problem – The Four Question Marks”

Here is the link to last month’s The Magic Memories 218 for quick reference, CLICK HERE.

Both Marco Lippolis and Claudio Imperiale wrote in to mention that the four cards initially shown could have a different colored back. Yes, good idea. However, I seem to have failed to mention that the four cards with the question mark on the back are blank-backed cards with a question mark, so as to better display the mark, of course. This de facto makes them have different-colored backs 🙂

Also, I apologize for failing to emphasize the fact that the last four paragraphs describe an impromptu method to do “The Four Question Marks”. So, I will expand on it below, as this is truly practical, and it is an excellent trick that anyone with average skill can do.

Four Card Phantom – Daley’s Spread-it Card Trick

The following item is my interpretation of Note 323 in Jacob Daley’s Notebooks –Volume 1, transcribed by Frank Csuri, with an introduction by Dai Vernon, published by The Gutenberg Press (Karl Fulves).

Quote:

Note 323. Daley’s Spread It Card Trick: Get three cards different colors suit and whether performer will count card to be forced on top of deck card to be forced second from bottom. 1) False count the three cards on top of deck as four and square up on table. 2) Riffle force card second from bottom and side steal. 3) Do Vernon’s spread move and first card represents color –last suit – third kind of cards and second card is actually thot of card.

Unquote.

I swear this is the original note – see the screen shot below if you do not believe it:

Maybe you would like to decipher just what the effect is to begin with, then find an elegant and deceptive method to accomplish it, and eventually come up with an intriguing presentation before you read on.

Here is my take. Let us discuss one thing after the other.

Effect

At the outset four cards from the shuffled deck are placed face down on the table. A card is selected, signed, and then lost in the deck. The cards on the table are turned face up one by one: the first tells the color, the second tells the suit, the third tells the value, and the fourth is the signed selection!

Method

Ask a spectator to shuffle and cut the deck – remember to always have the cards shuffled before you have one chosen (or forced… if possible), as this is not only a communicative action, it also makes the proceedings to follow look more above-board – this is a concept.

(Note on how to study magic: Open a new note in your notebook titled “Having a Card Selected”; in a sub-chapter make a list of “Details of Handling” and start to gather all subtleties, bits of business, gags, etc., with different sub-titles, that pertain to this subject – start with the concept above; next make a list of all the ways you know of having a card selected; next make a list of the strategies you know that prevent the spectator from forgetting the card; next a list of all ideas pertaining to having the card signed, etc., etc.).

Take the shuffled deck back, turn it with its faces toward yourself, look at the bottom card (e.g., KH), which is going to be the force card, and then put three cards, one after the other on the face of the deck: First, a Diamond card (“your card is a red card”), second, a Heart (“… and it is a Heart card”), third, a King (“… and it is a King – your card is the King of Hearts!”). The text between quotation marks is of course only thought-of and serves as mnemonics for the order of the cards to take out.

Say that you will place a few cards aside: Still holding the deck with the faces toward yourself, apparently count off four cards from the face of the deck into your right hand, in reality take only three. Use a false take that reverses the order of the cards, or else arrange the cards in reverse order as you place them on the face of the deck.

Put these three cards – apparently four – face down on the table in a packet, more or less in front of you and oriented at eleven o’clock, this being a Morphological Position (Sharing Secrets, p. 80) that will later facilitate the Transfer Move.

The order of the three cards in the tabled packet is this, top down in the face down packet: any King, any Heart, any Diamond; the KH to be forced rests on the bottom of the deck.

False shuffle the balance of the deck retaining the bottom card. Force the KH on the bottom of the deck, have it signed, and then control it to the bottom, maybe by means of the Versatile Control. Similar to the “Endless Loop” from Card College Vol. 5 (p. 1269).

In the action of picking up the tabled packet, with the card still outjogged, secretly add the selection from the bottom of the deck to the top of the three tabled cards by means of Dai Vernon’s Transfer Move. You end up by setting the deck with the protruding x-card aside to the left, and holding the four-card packet in your right hand in End Grip. 

Take the packet in Dealing Position, and then immediately count the cards face down on the table in a packet, thus reversing their order, explaining that these cards contain all the information needed to find the spectator’s card.

As a text I say, “I have some good news, and some bad news. Which one would you like first?” This creates interest and also serves as a strategy of Invisibility by asking a Clouding Question.

Ribbon-spread the deck, leaving the x-card protruding for about two-thirds of its length. 

Turn the first card of the packet face up, “This card tells me the color – it is a red card, correct?” When the spectator acknowledges, push the protruding card in the spread a little more into the spread.

Continue, “The second card tells me the suit – it is a Heart, correct?” As soon as the spectator agrees, push the protruding card yet a bit more into the spread, so that it now only protrudes for about a quarter of its length.

Turning over the third card comment, “This card tells me the value of your card – it is a King, correct?” Once more the spectator will have to agree.

Push the protruding card all the way in, so that it is now lost within the spread. 

Say, “So, your card must bee the King of Hearts!”

After a brief dramatic pause turn over the last card, revealing it to be the previously selected and signed card.

Alternative handling: Force the bottom card with the Hindu Shuffle Force, using all subtleties, then slap right hand packet with selection on bottom on top of the packet in your left hand, retaining a break between the two packets. Do the Erdnase-Vernon “Post-peek Overhand Shuffle Control” to bring the selection to the bottom, and follow up with the Combination Shuffle and Cut Control (Unexpected Agenda – February 8).

From here proceed as per above.

You may entirely avoid the control phase by side-jogging the selection to the right, and then directly side-stealing-transfer-moving it from the center of the deck on top of the tabled packet.

The Japan Grip or How to Eat a Burger

As you know I am obsessed with terminology and a firm believer that you cannot fully understand whatever it is if you cannot name it.

I was the first to create a terminology for the map of the hands, the deck, a playing card and the card case, I mean such a detailed one (rough attempts had been published long before me, of course).

You will find these terms associated to detailed illustrations in the covers of the Card College books (starting in 1992) as well as in the multi-media PDF-ebook Introduction to Card Magic(2012). For your convenience you can see and download an extract from said publication relating to the various maps of hand, deck, card, and card case by CLICKING HERE.

Although I am a declared fan of Slow Food, as opposed to fast food, I do appreciate that simple food, which can be prepared relatively quickly and easily, does have its intricacies and fascination. Unfortunately, fast food in gastronomy, similar to magic (!), is all too often interpreted in an uninspired and untalented way.

Recently I stumbled upon an article discussing details of handling of hamburger eating and immediately recognized yet another affinity gastronomy has with magic: Japanese scientists have found how to correctly grip a burger to optimize its consumption.

This is done in two steps.

First, turn over the burger so that the upper part of the bun, which is a bit thicker than its lower counterpart, is now underneath and can better absorb the meat’s juices and the sauces. To execute the turnover imperceptibly as you innocently converse with your meal companions, you may want to apply any of the techniques described in “Chapter 53: Turnovers” from Card College Volume 4 – I advise against using the “Through-the-fist Flourish Turnover”, especially when devouring a jumbo specimen, and instead recommend the “Wristwatch Turnover”, which works particularly well if you wear a smart watch. Simply point to its display and make a guileless and truthful remark, such as, “Oh, I just got an offer to work for a major Casino in Las Vegas. I’ll call them back later, as I now much prefer to enjoy this delicious hamburger with you folks.” This strategy of invisibility (see “Invisibility”, Sharing Secrets, p. 60) will effectively cloud the secret maneouvre of turning the hamburger upside down.

Second, and once the hamburger has been turned, support the inner end of the burger bun with both thumbs, while steadying its outer end with your little fingers. Let the remaining fingers rest evenly spaced on the top bun. Hold the burger with gentle pressure—and take a bite. (In Burger College, a possible upcoming book project, I will call this the “Upside-down Burger Straddle Grip”…).

I am confident that Eugene Burger would have liked this… which reminds me of my first visit to Chicago, many years ago, where I went to see Eugene perform at the tables of a restaurant, the name of which escapes me.

But what I will always remember, is that after he finished work we went to a place across the street to have some kind of dinner. And guess what: It was a burger place! So, when the menu came, listing at least two dozen different hamburgers, I could not resist saying, “Eugene, I didn’t know you also own a restaurant!”

Righting a Wrong Plus

Marco Lippolis wrote in and reminded me of two performance pieces I had discussed in past The Magic Memories, one is “Righting a Wrong”, the other “Muttenz-Chicago Opener” (the latter can be found in The Magic Memories 173 & 177). About this Marco had to say, “I have switched to your latest version idea of Chicago Opener plot. I never told you, so I’m doing it now: It is fantastic! And solves many problems the original may have.” How could I not mention this 🙂

I had (almost) forgotten about these two items, and upon rereading them thanks to Marco, I realized that I had discussed “Righting a Wrong” in three different The Magic Memories.

Upon rereading the articles, I still liked what I wrote, and since the discussion is not only trick-based, but also contains polyvalent thoughts, I thought that some of you might appreciate having everything together in one document to study, or to send to friends.

Therefore, to read and download the PDF with the collected comments on “Righting a Wrong”, CLICK HERE – happy reading 🙂

Unexpected Agenda… On This Day – “September 7 – An EZ Illusion”

In The Magic Memories 218 I started a new feature titled “Unexpected Agenda… On This Day”, the idea being to focus on the entry in Unexpected Agenda that would coincide with the day the relative blog went online, and then offer some additional comments. Based on the multiple positive reactions I received, I will continue it here.

This first Sunday in September of this year 2025 falls on the 7th September, “An EZ Illusion”.

Again, to save you running after the book, here is the page as a courtesy – CLICK HERE to see the PDF.

The entry in and of itself provides enough food of thought for one day, plus the reference to the entries in Secret Agenda (NOV 16 to 18) is more than enough.

However, there is so much more – here are just three points of departure:

1. The set of paper-money has to be carried somewhere. Thinking about this will open several doors. If you put the set in a wallet, which is a most logical and practical way of storing it, it forces you to think about the type of wallet (classic breast type, hip-pocket style, color, material). Maybe you received it together with a letter in an envelope… or you store the set folded in a money clip (this clip could have other uses, such as being a shiner), etc.
2. Researching optical illusions will open a new infinite universe, as there are so many different categories of optical illusions, let alone items within each of these categories. Expanding the definition of “optical illusion” will also lead you to ambigrams, etc. Or simply adding “Mirror” to a first search with “categories of optical illusions” will again open up a new dimension. This is really like fractals, infinite. If you do this activity only for a practical reason, then it will be “work”, but if you look at it as part of your life (because magic is part of your life), then it will be pure joy, and you will grow in the process. The joy and the growth will then be felt in each of your performances. This is the way to artistic magic… one of the many ways…
3. Once you have changed the papers to money, could you do something with the bills, or one of them? Or maybe you set one single piece of paper with a particular illusion aside before the transformation. Once the bills have made their appearance and replaced (where?), what could you do with the paper you set aside, or with the illusion depicted on it?

As I am writing this, I have more ideas than I can (and want!) to write down. Hope you find this inspiring yourself.

That’s it for today, folks; I look forward to continue our discussions in The Magic Memories 220, scheduled to go online on Sunday, 5th October 2025, at 0.07 o’clock sharp!

All the best!

Roberto Giobbi