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 INTRODUCTION

Forget The Magnificent Seven and The Famous Five, instead... prepare to encounter Six
Masterpieces from the fertile mind of Wayne Dobson.

The six jaw-droppingly good routines in this book were originally destined to be either
marketed, as individual tricks, or unleashed on the unsuspecting magic world in the
form of, what would have had to be, a high priced DVD. However, in these times of
economic uncertainty, rather than put you to all that expense... Wayne has saved you a
small fortune by publishing them all in this little book, which has cost you a fraction of
what just one of the tricks would have cost as a marketed item.

To do this, he has had to put his thinking cap on and adapt all six routines so that you
will be able to perform them with props that you either already have, will be able to
buy or can make at very little cost.

My personal favourite is Once upon a Time - a routine which truly has a fairy tale ending!
Wayne has cleverly built the prop for this item into the book itself.... genius!

Settle down now, fasten your safety belts, extinguish those cigarettes and enjoy the
company of; Best Friends, Amnesia, Only Joking, Every Time, Perspiration and Once
upon a Time.

Stephen Tucker, April 2011.

 BEST FRIENDS
Required:

Two standard fake coins. I use a 10p that has a tail on each side and a 1p that has a head
on each side. You’ll also need three more coins of different value to the double sided
coins. I use a £1.00, 50p and 2p. Finally, you will need one of your business cards on the
back of which you write the prediction: “I will get the 10 pence and my best friend
will get the 1 pence.”

Set up:

Your prediction card is placed in the middle of the table, prediction side hidden, and
the five coins are placed just in front of it.

Presentation:

Position a spectator to your left, who we will call spectator A, and a spectator to your
right, who we will call spectator B.

Start by saying that for the purpose of this experiment the two spectators will have to
imagine that they are best friends. If you are able to actually invite two best friends up
to help... all the better. Ask spectator A if they would like to be heads or tails? (whatever
the answer, spectator B will be the opposite).

Ask spectator B If they would like to go first or second? (whatever the answer, spectator
A will be the opposite).

Note:

Whichever spectator decides to be tails, you ask them to look after the prediction.

Whichever spectator is elected to go first is asked to gather up the five coins in one of
their hands and then cup their hands together, shake the coins around and toss them
onto the table.

Note: Let’s assume that spectator A is tails, spectator B is heads and spectator A has
been elected to go first.

Spectator A pockets the business card, without looking at your prediction, then gathers
up the coins, shakes them between their cupped hands and tosses them to the table.
They are asked to slide the coins that have landed on heads towards spectator B and
keep the coins that are on tails. You ask them to pick up those that are on tails and
keep repeating these actions until only one coin remains on tails. It will be the 10p.
They leave that coin on the table before them. Spectator B is now asked to gather up
the remaining four coins and repeat the above actions, but this time they eliminate
all the coins that show tails each time until just one coin remains showing heads. The
coin remaining on heads will be the 1 pence coin, and they leave that coin on the table
before them.

All that remains to do now is to ask spectator A, to bring the business card from their
pocket and read, out loud, your prediction! Remember that they previously eliminated
all the coins other than the 10p, which is lying on the table before them.

They will read out loud... “I will get the 10 pence and my best friend will get the 1
pence.”

Obviously if spectator B is elected to be tails then spectator B reads out the prediction.

AMNESIA
This routine was inspired after seeing ‘Fill in the Blank Transpo’ by David Regal in his
wonderful book Constant Fooling.

Required:

One blank faced deck of cards, two Sharpie pens - one red and one black - and some
re–positional glue.

Preparation:

On one of the blank faced cards sign your own name, using the black Sharpie pen, then
place this card face up third from the top the face down deck. On the back of the top
card of the deck place a small amount of re-positional glue.

Presentation:

Spread the deck face down, being careful not to expose the face up card third from
the top. Have a card freely selected and ask the spectator to look at the card and then
think of it - this will get a smile due to the fact that its face is blank. Say to the spectator
that you are getting “nothing”, then ask them to turn the card face up. On seeing the
blank faced card, you comment that the reason you are getting nothing is obviously
because their card is blank - in fact, you say, all of the cards are blank - turn the deck
over and display the deck of blank faced cards - being careful again not expose the
reversed card.

Give the spectator the red Sharpie pen, as you take back their card and position it face
up on the face down deck for them to sign its face. Due to the re-positional glue on the
back of the original top card of the deck their signed card will stick to the top card of
the deck. Once they have signed the card, leave it face up on top of the deck and cut
the cards, completing the cut, to centralise their signed card.
You now turn the deck over and spread the cards face up to reveal a face down card
in the middle, which the spectator presumes is their card. This card is slid out from the
deck and the spectator places a finger on top of the face down card - this card is really
the one you signed before the trick began. There will be a natural separation in the
cards at the point where the face down card was slid out from.

You now say that you will also sign one of the cards, and simply sight the third card to
the left of the natural separation - a blank card with the chosen card stuck to the back
of it - and you slide out this card(s) and sign it yourself with the black Sharpie pen.

Once signed, this card(s) is picked up and displayed, as you re-cap the situation. You
then place your signed card into your pocket and, once inside the pocket, your fingers
slip between the two cards and separate them. With your other hand, make a magical
gesture over the card the spectator has their finger on. The hand in your pocket is, by
now, holding onto the rear card only of the two, and you now turn this card over before
bringing it out of your pocket and into view.

Everyone will now see that you are in fact holding the spectator’s signed card and,
when they finally turn over the card they have been keeping their finger on, the card
they have... is your signed card.

Everything can now be examined!

ONLY JOKING
Required:

One double faced card that is the same on both sides, i.e. the queen of clubs - you get
a whole bunch of these in a regular double faced Bicycle deck. You will also require
one regular blue backed queen of clubs, four red backed jokers and, finally, some re-
positional glue.
Set up:

On the table, before you, deal the four jokers into a face up pile followed by the regular
face up queen of clubs followed by the double faced queen of clubs and on the upper
surface of the double faced card put a small amount of the re-positional glue. Turn the
packet of cards face down and hold them in dealing position in your left hand.

Presentation:

Explain that you will show them something with just a few cards. Deal the four top
cards (face down, red backed jokers) into a face down row on the table before you. This
leaves you holding what appears to be a single face down blue backed card, but it is in
fact the face down blue backed queen of clubs with the double faced queen of clubs
secretly hidden beneath it. This card(s) should be handled as if it were only one.

You now explain to the spectators that they have to guess what card is in your hand.
However, you add that you will give them a clue by saying that it is one of the four
queens. If they guess that it is the queen of clubs – brilliant! However, if they don’t... just
say that they are wrong and it is in fact the queen of clubs. Either way, turn over the two
cards, as one, to show the face of the queen of clubs.

You now explain the four red backed cards on the table are in fact a full set of queens
- clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. You ask that they now point to which one of the
four they think is the queen of clubs. Whichever card they point to you pick it up and
place it face down on top of the face up card(s) in your left hand. Their chosen face
down card (actually a joker) will now stick to the face of the double faced queen of
clubs - making the top card(s) a double card that can now be shown on both sides and
will look like a regular queen of clubs. Separate the double card from the single face up
queen of clubs below it, turn the double face up and two queen of clubs will be seen,
and can be shown on both sides. It appears that the spectator guessed correctly!

You then say that you were so sure that they would choose the correct card that you
didn’t even bring the queen of hearts, the queen of spades or the queen of diamonds
with you as... the remaining three red backed, face down cards on the table are all...
jokers! As you say this, you table the two queens and flip the three tabled red backed
cards face up to reveal the jokers!

Note:

You can, if you prefer, replace the four red backed jokers with four red backed blank
faced cards. If you do this, the effect is more similar to Phil Goldstein’s B’Wave, but
without the aspect that the named, or in this case ‘pointed at’ queen has a different
coloured back to the other three cards.

The patter here is simply...“I was so sure that you would choose the queen of clubs that
I didn’t even bring the queen of hearts, the queen of spades or the queen of diamonds
with me!” As you say the final few words, you turn the three red backed, face down
cards on the table face up to reveal that are all... blank!

EVERY TIME
A few years ago, I discovered this little gem in a set of lecture notes by Bob King. I made
a slight adaption to the routine to make it hands off, and I then added a second phase
to the original routine to give it an extra finish. This effect is not ideal as a set piece, but
when the moment is right, it is a killer! It is probably the nearest thing to pure mind
reading that you will ever find!

I have performed this both to laymen and magicians and it ALWAYS registers really
well. In fact, I am always amazed at just how many magicians are totally unaware of this
principle.

Required:

12 of your business cards, with blank backs, and you must be wearing a wristwatch that
has a second-hand (sweep hand).

Set up:

On the back of each business card you write one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock etc.
all the way up to twelve o’clock. You place hours one to six in your left pocket and hours
eight to twelve in your right pocket. The back of the seven o’clock card is actually left
blank, as you will start the routine by actually writing seven o’clock on it.

You must now spot a spectator who is wearing a watch with a second-hand. Once you
spot someone, you need to make a simple mental calculation as follows... if, when their
second-hand is on four o’clock, your second-hand is on nine o’clock you remember
that they are -5 (five hours behind you). Or... if their second-hand is on eleven o’clock
and yours is on five o’clock, you remember that they are +6 (six hours ahead of you).

Presentation:

When you feel that the time is right, you ask the spectator if they are wearing a watch
and, if they are, does it have a second-hand? (You know they are and that it does... it just
sounds as if you didn’t already know). Remove the blank backed business card from
your breast pocket and, without them seeing what you write, write seven o’clock on it
then fold it in half and then in half again (with the time hidden inside) and, finally, place
it under their watch.

You now ask them to think of any hour of the day.... two o’clock, twelve o’clock... ANY
of the 12 hours.

You now ask that they turn away and, when the second-hand on their watch reaches
their thought of hour they are to say, “Now!” When they do say “Now!”... glance at your
watch and, if your secondhand is on six o’clock and they are -5 you know that they are
thinking of one o’clock. You would now casually place your hand in the appropriate
pocket, retrieve the correct card by counting to it and then quickly fold it in half and
then in half again (with the time hidden inside) and, finally, remove your hand from
your pocket (holding the card in a finger palm), as you ask the spectator to turn around
again.
You now look them in the eye and ask them to remove the folded card from under
their watch and to place it onto your empty hand, which you hold out palm up. You
now concentrate, look them in the eye and... reveal their thought of time, i.e. one o’clock
– I PROMISE you that they will be absolutely amazed! It is at this moment, under the
misdirection of the revelation, that you perform a fake transfer of the card into the
hand that is secretly finger palming the folded business card with the correct time
written on it.

As a final kicker you now apparently return the same folded card to them, they unfold
it and discover that you somehow wrote the exact hour that they thought of... before
they even thought of it!

Obviously, if by chance they thought of seven o’clock, there is no need to steal the card
from your pocket etc. as you have an absolute miracle on your hands! Best of all, this
will happen at least once in every twelve performances, but in reality I have found that
seven o’clock is thought of surprisingly often!

PERSPIRATION
Required:

Three small coin purses, approximately 50mm x 50mm. I use Jerry O’Connell’s single
coin purses available from: www.topsecretmagic.co.uk or... some banks give customers
similar plastic wallets. At a push... you can use three coin envelopes. You also need five
coloured discs. I use five x half-dollar sized Chinese coins – one red, two yellow and two
blue. Finally, you need three coloured stickers one red, one yellow and one blue – about
the size of a five pence coin.

Preparation:

Cut a small hole in the rear of one purse (about a quarter of an inch in diameter and
near the bottom centre). On the back of each purse, at the centre, place a coloured
sticker, but stick the red sticker on the back of the purse that has the small hole in it.

Set Up:

In the purse with the hole you place one red, one blue and one yellow coin. In the purse
with the yellow sticker... place the yellow coin, and in the purse with the blue sticker...
place the blue coin. Pop the yellow purse into your left pocket and the blue purse into
your right pocket.

Presentation:

Start by removing the three coins from the purse with the hole in it – keeping the side
with the hole and red sticker hidden. Ask the spectator, whilst your head is turned, to
slip any one of the three coloured coins into the purse – which you are still holding
onto. Ask them to close the purse and to then place one of the remaining two coins
into their left closed fist and the other in their right closed fist. When they have done
this you turn back and, as you patter, you raise the purse and see what colour coin is
inside. If you see that the coin in the purse is the red one... place the purse down on the
table - with the sticker/hole underneath.

So, you now know that the blue and yellow coins are in the spectator’s hands, but you
don’t know which one is in which, so the wording here must be delivered correctly! Say,
“Concentrate on the colour of the coin in your left hand.” Look at them and hold
your palm down right hand over both of their fists in turn. Stop with your right hand
hovering nearer to their right hand then say, “Yellow!” They will either open their left
hand and show that you are correct – in which case you now know the blue coin is in
their right hand, and can now reveal it! Or... they will shake their head in which case you
say, “I didn’t say the yellow coin is in your left hand. I said yellow because I could
feel that the yellow coin is in your right hand (touch their right hand with your
right hand) and the blue coin is in your left hand.” They will now open both hands
to show that you are correct. You then pick up, from the table the purse with the red
sticker on its back, open the purse and show that the red coin is inside, but as a kicker
finish... turn over the purse and allow the red sticker to be seen (keeping your thumb
over the small hole).
If, however, you see that the coin in the purse is the yellow one... place the purse into
your left pocket (where the purse containing the yellow coin is). You now know that
the blue and red coins are in the spectator’s hands. Say, “Concentrate on the colour of
the coin in your left hand.” Look at them and hold your palm down right hand over
both of their fists in turn. Stop with your right hand hovering nearer to their right hand
then say, “Red!” They will either open their left hand and show that you are correct
– in which case you now know the blue coin is in their right hand, and can now reveal
it! Or... they will shake their head in which case you say, “I didn’t say the red coin was
in your left hand. I said red because I could feel that the red coin is in your right
hand (touch their right hand with your right hand) and the yellow coin is in your left
hand.” They will now open both hands to show that you are correct. You then remove
the ungimmicked purse (with the yellow sticker on its back) from your pocket, open
the purse and show that the yellow coin is inside, but as a kicker finish... turn over the
purse and allow the yellow sticker to be seen. The purse can now be examined.

Finally, if you see that the blue coin is in the purse, do the same as above, but pocket the
purse in your right pocket etc.

ONCE UPON A TIME

Simon Aronson’s trick ‘ Shuffleboard’ is, in my opinion, one of the best card tricks I
know! Although I understand the principle, it is one of those tricks that I really enjoy
performing because I just can’t believe it works! Quite a few magicians have offered
their versions of it, but I still feel that Simon’s original is the strongest and most direct
version. It is so easy to understand and it’s really puzzling.

What I offer here is not an improvement (If It’s Not Broke, Don’t Fix It!) it’s just that I have
made everything ‘Hands off’ to suit my physical abilities and made the prediction so that
the spectator can do the unfolding. I have also slightly modified the choreography.

Set up:

From a regular deck you need the following 25 cards: 16 red cards and 9 black cards
– 8 of the black cards are spades (spot cards) and the 9th is the seven of clubs. Shuffle
the 25 cards then place them face up on the top of the rest of the face down deck. Cut
out (or photocopy both sides of ) the illustration near the back of this book then fold it
in half three times. Table the deck, with the 25 face up cards on top, next to the folded
prediction.
Presentation:

Spectator A is on your left and spectator B is on your right. Explain that you want each
of them to have 26 cards - half of the deck- but to save having to deal off the 26, you
have placed 26 cards face up on top of the other 26 face down cards. Ask spectator A to
pick up the deck, spread through and remove the upper 26 cards. Have him hand the
face down half to spectator B. Have them both thoroughly shuffle their cards and, once
they have finished shuffling, they are to place their cards face down in front of them.

You then ask them to each cut their cards into two approximately equal face down
piles, and they must then turn either one of their packets face up. You ask them to swap
their face up piles and to shuffle their new packet of face up cards via a table riffle
shuffle (you can demonstrate if you like) into their face down cards. You then ask them
both to cut their cards into two piles again and then turn either of their piles over and
swap them again with each other before shuffling their new cards into their respective
halves.

You now ask spectator A to turn their packet of cards completely over and to give it
to spectator B. You ask spectator B to shuffle the two packets together. You now ask
spectator A to unfold the prediction once and to read out loud what is on the left-hand
page. It will say... “There will be 25 face up cards”.

Ask spectator B to deal through the deck, discarding the face down cards, and deal the
face up cards into the centre of the table, counting them out loud – there will be 25!

Ask spectator A to read out the right-hand page of the prediction. It will say... “In the
face up pile there will be 16 red cards”. Ask spectator B to deal through the face up
cards separating the red cards from the blacks and counting the red cards out loud
– there will be 16!

Ask Spectator A to unfold the prediction once more and to read the left-hand page,
which says... “All the black cards will be spades”. For a split second it looks like you
are right, but the seven of clubs will be in there and will be pointed out. You now ask
spectator A to read the small print on the right-hand page and it says... “Except for”.
You now get them to unfold the prediction completely, and there will be a big seven
of clubs! After the applause has died down you say, “And they all lived happily ever
after.”

C Copyright Wayne Dobson 2011

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CREDITS:
Writte n By S T E P HEN TUCKER Designed By ANDREW GREEN