Magic tricks info

Israeli whist is a variant of whist popular among Israeli soldiers and travelers.

After the cards are dealt, the players place bids in order to decide which is the trump suit. A player’s bid consists
of which suit he wants to play as trump and how many tricks he is about to win (anywhere from 5 to 13). A player may pass on his bid. The player declaring the most tricks wins, and his suit is played as trump. Then, starting from the highest bidder, a second round of bids occurs where each player has to declare how many tricks he is about to win (anywhere from 0 to 13). The last player to declare is not allowed to make such a declaration that will sum all declarations to 13, (the actual number of tricks), effectively forcing at least one player to lose the round. Play then commences.

At the end of the round, the number of tricks is summed for each player. A player must win exactly the number of tricks he declared. If he succeeded, he scores the number of tricks he won squared plus 10. If he fails, he loses 10 points for every difference between his actual result and his declaration. A player who declared zero tricks gains 50 points if the sum of all declarations was below 13 (an ‘under’ round) and 25 points in the event that the sum of all declarations was above 13 (an ‘over’ round).

Nigromancy (Greek nigro, “black”; manteia, “divination”) is black magic, in particular, the summoning of denizens of Hell. The term was often used interchangably with “necromancy” (divination through the dead) in mediaeval sources, however it properly relates to the summoning of demons and demonic varieties of goetic magic.

The term ‘Goetic Magic’ was used by the Neoplatonists (Plotinus, ca 205-270 CE, and his followers) to mean magic used for profit, and it was divided into “natural magic”, magic that exploits the magical properties of natural objects; and “demonic magic”, which is concerned with the coercion of spirits.

Reading The Cards is a magic effect in which the magician shows the bottom card of the deck to the audience, announcing its name. He then puts the deck behind his back and brings it forward again, showing a different card on the bottom, and announces the name of the new bottom card. The trick becomes more amazing as more cards are “read”, and is even more impressive if the audience is allowed to shuffle the deck first.

Method

Before performing the trick, the magician secretly notes the bottom card of the deck. Then, he puts the cards behind his back and turns the top card face up. While showing the bottom card to the audience (and announcing its value) he notes the value of the top card which is facing him. The next time he puts the deck behind his back, he moves the top card to the bottom (turning it over in the process, so that it will face the right way) and turns the new top card face up. Again, he announces the value of the bottom card while seeing the value of the face up top card. This can be repeated as long as is desired. When the magician desires to stop, he will move the face up top card to the bottom (turning it over) and leave the top card face down, and make one last announcement of the bottom card’s value. All of the cards are now facing the same direction and there is nothing for the audience to find if the cards are examined.

Literature

• Professor Hoffmann, Modern Magic ISBN 0-486-23623-4

A Pantriagonal Diagonal magic cube is a magic cube that is a combination Pantriagonal magic cube and Diagonal magic cube. All main and broken triagonals must sum correctly, In addition, it will contain 3m order m simple magic squares in the orthogonal planes, and 6 order m pandiagonal magic squares in the oblique planes.

A proper pantriagdiag magic cube contains exactly 7m² + 6m lines that sum to m(m³ + 1)/2.

For short, I will reduce this unwieldy name to PantriagDiag.
This is number 4 in what is now 6 classes of magic cubes. So far, very little is known of this class of cube. The only ones constructed so far are order 8 (not associated and associated). Is order 8 the smallest possible for this type of cube?
This cube was discovered in 2004 by Mitsutoshi Nakamura.

See also

Magic cube classes

External links

• http://homepage2.nifty.com/googol/magcube/en/  : Mitsutoshi Nakamura’s Magic Cubes and Tesseracts
• http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/  : Harvey Heinz All about cubes

Card manipulation (or card magic) is the illusion of magic using a deck of playing cards. Card magic is commonplace in magic performances, especially in close up magic or parlor magic and street magic.

Playing cards became popular with magicians in the last century or so as they were props which were inexpensive, versatile, and easily manipulated. Although magicians have created and presented myriad illusions with cards (sometimes referred to as card tricks), these illusions are generally considered to be built upon perhaps one hundred or so basic principles and techniques. Presentation and context (including patter, the conjurer’s misleading account of what he is doing) account for many of the variations.

Card magic, in one form or another, likely dates from the time playing cards became commonly known — towards the second half of the fourteenth century — but its history in this period is largely undocumented. One may surmise from the practice of how other everyday objects have been pressed into the service of conjurers across cultures and the ages that card magic developed spontaneously and roughly concurrently in different parts of the world, if not always synchronously. However, compared to sleight of hand magic in general and to cups and balls, it is a relatively new form of magic.

Card manipulators performing card fans and other manipulations, which require the individual cards to flow smoothly across each other, some people like to use a Zinc stearate-based powder (marketed as “Fanning powder”). In card manipulation fanning powder is applied as a means to lengthen the life of the cards and to make the friction between each more consistent throughout the life of the cards.

Though Manipulators tend to have personal preferences on the types and brands of cards used based on their own experiences, the overall favorites almost always have an “air cushion” or small dimples on the finish of the card. These hold air, much in the way the dimples on a golf ball, and allow the cards to glide over one another easily. However over time they can collect oils and dirt which make the cards harder to use in Manipulation. Applying Fanning Powder to card beforehand helps slow this as well as repel moisture that may build up on the hands through extended performances. Also some Manipulators may keep their decks in card protectors or clips to further extend the life of their cards.

Notable card manipulators

• Lance Burton
• David Copperfield
• Allan Ackerman
• Cardini (Richard Pitchford)
• Lennart Green
  
• Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser
• Guy Hollingworth
• Robert Houdin
• Ricky Jay
• Simon Lovell
• Ed Marlo (Edward Malkowski)
• Jeff McBride
• Darwin Ortiz
• Jerry Sadowitz
• Josh Sadowsky
• John Scarne
• Juan Tamariz
• Dai Vernon
• Roy Walton
• Michael Ammar

See also

• Card marking
• Sleight of hand
• Trick deck
• Flourish
• Card throwing

Tricky TV is a fast paced modern magic show for CITV. Presented by top children’s presenter and magician Stephen Mulhern - the show features magic on the street, wicked wind ups and teaches a number of tricks step by step. It has been nominated for a BAFTA in Nov 2006

The show is produced by The Foundation, the same company that makes Finger Tips, Globo Loco and Holly & Stephen’s Saturday Showdown which also starred Stephen.

Tricky TV was first broadcast in the 4pm slot on ITV from September 2005. Creative consultant was Paul Andrews (Magician). The show’s executive producer was Vanessa Hill for The Foundation.

The show featured magic tricks ranging from making a tank vanish to making an entire football team appear. The wicked wind-ups included a gorilla that came to life and a cinema with exploding popcorn and unstoppable drinks machines.

Tricky Quickies is a cut down version of the show which has a duration of 5 minutes.

Series 2 of the show is being shown on ITV 1 on Saturday Mornings from Oct 13th 2007

There was also a Tricky TV spooky special aired at 4.00pm on the 31st of October on CITV.

There are lots of differant parts to the show such as Beat the Cheat ,Wicked Wind-Ups and a Big Trick.

The Coin walk is a type of coin trick in which a coin is flipped over the fingers to create the illusion of a coin walking across the back of the hand. It is one of the most famous coin manipulation tricks. It is also known as the coin roll, knuckle roll, and the steeplechase.

References

• www.coinmanipulation.com

Blue Magic can mean one of two things:

• Blue Magic diamond
• Blue Magic (band) is a soul quintet.
• A type of magic in the Final Fantasy video game. See Final Fantasy magic.
• Blue Magic (song) is a song from rapper Jay-Z’s album American Gangster.

In a Pandiagonal magic cube, all 3m planar arrays must be pandiagonal magic squares. The 6 oblique squares are always magic. Several of them MAY be pandiagonal magic.

Gardner called Langman’s pandiagonal magic cube a ‘perfect’ cube, presumably not realizing it was a higher class then Myer’s diagonal magic cube. A diagonal magic cube has 3m plus 6 simple magic squares.

A pandiagonal magic cube has 3m pandiagonal magic squares and 6 simple magic squares (one or two of these MAY be pandiagonal). A Perfect magic cube has 9m pandiagonal magic squares.

A proper pandiagonal magic cube has exactly 9m² lines plus the 4 main traigonals suming correctly. (NO broken triagonals sum correct.)

Order 7 is the smallest possible pandiagonal magic cube.

See also

• Magic cube classes

References

• J.R.Hendricks, Magic Squares to Tesseracts by Computer, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-0-9
• J.R.Hendricks, Perfect n-Dimensional Magic Hypercubes of Order 2n, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-4-1
• Harvey Heinz: All about magic cubes

A Pantriagonal Diagonal magic cube is a magic cube that is a combination Pantriagonal magic cube and Diagonal magic cube. All main and broken triagonals must sum correctly, In addition, it will contain 3m order m simple magic squares in the orthogonal planes, and 6 order m pandiagonal magic squares in the oblique planes.

A proper pantriagdiag magic cube contains exactly 7m² + 6m lines that sum to m(m³ + 1)/2.

For short, I will reduce this unwieldy name to PantriagDiag.
This is number 4 in what is now 6 classes of magic cubes. So far, very little is known of this class of cube. The only ones constructed so far are order 8 (not associated and associated). Is order 8 the smallest possible for this type of cube?
This cube was discovered in 2004 by Mitsutoshi Nakamura.

See also

Magic cube classes

External links

• http://homepage2.nifty.com/googol/magcube/en/  : Mitsutoshi Nakamura’s Magic Cubes and Tesseracts
• http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/  : Harvey Heinz All about cubes

The Colour of Magic was the first Discworld computer game and so far the only one adapted directly from a Discworld novel.

Following the plot of the book fairly faithfully, it was a text adventure released in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.

It can be played on modern computers with the aid of an emulator program, or on-line with a web browser.

External links

• The Colour of Magic computer game
• Playable version online - requires Java (Sun)

Ed Marlo (born Edward Malkowski in Chicago, Illinois, October 10, 1913 - November 7, 1991) was a legendary cardician.

One of the most notable names in card magic. Marlo himself coined the term cardician, a term which has since been used for magicians who only perform card magic. His first publication in 1938, Pasteboard Presto, was an unheralded thunderbolt which merely hinted at the bulk of work which was to follow.

The many sleights he created have changed the face of card magic. One notable example is his Snap change, used in David Blaine´s Street Magic special.

Marlo wrote over sixty books and manuscripts, and contributed over 2000 tricks in the field of card magic. He did not limit himself to cards as he also authored works on coin magic and dice magic. His most famous works are “The Cardician” and “Revolutionary Card Technique”, the latter of which was originally published as a series but later compiled into one weighty tome.

He also wrote a series of private manuscripts that were circulated only among the top card magicians of the era. Titles included “Riffle Shuffle Systems”, “Patented False Shuffle”, “Faro Controlled Miracles” and others. They are extremely rare and highly sought after.

See also

• List of magicians

External links

• Chicago round table (with Ed Marlo footage)
• Biography
• Bibliography
• Andi Gladwin’s article on studying Edward Marlo

Anthony Owen is a British magician and television producer. He has worked on many TV shows such as “Dirty Tricks,” and almost all Derren Brown television shows as Executive Producer or Television Producer. Like magician Ali Bongo, he also works as a Magical Advisor on a number of TV shows, helping to invent and develop tricks.

He is a former President of the Northamptonshire Magic Club and a former Gold Star member of the Inner Magic Circle before he resigned following his involvement in a television programme that revealed the secrets of magic tricks.

External links

• Official website
• Magicweek profile

Michael Ammar (b. June 25, 1956) is one of America’s best-known close-up magicians, and is famous within the worldwide magical community.

Ammar was born in Logan, West Virginia, and is the youngest of four children.

His interest in magic began when he read a comic book and noticed an advertisement which read “500 tricks for 25 cents!”. Ammar sent his quarter and received a catalog. He began ordering tricks and practicing. Before long, he had a full magic show, complete with doves and a teenage assistant. The community, small as it was, supported him and booked him for local shows for schools and birthdays.

While in college at West Virginia University, Ammar developed friendships with others involved in magic. He began to publish his ideas in the early 1980s, and performed for Johnny Carson, as well as at the Magic Castle.

In 1983, Ammar entered the FISM magic competition and was awarded the Gold Medal for Close-Up Magic. In doing so, he became the second American in the history of the competition to do so.

After winning at FISM, Ammar travelled west and became friends with the great Dai Vernon who became Ammar’s mentor throughout the following years.

He has produced over forty video titles, also books and magazines. In 1999 The Magic Magazine named him one of 100 most influential magicians of the century.

See also

• List of magicians

External links

• Michael Ammar’s Official Site
• WVU alumni profile
• Magic awards Ammar has won
• Documentary about Ammar on lecture tour

The vanishing bird cage, also known as the flying birdcage, is a classic parlour magic effect that was invented by French magician Buatier De Kolta. The trick has also been used by magicians Carl Hertz, Harry Blackstone, Sr. and John Mulholland.

The magician displays a bird cage, holding it between both of his hands. The cage is rectangular, about six inches tall by six inches wide by eight inches long, and made of wire on all six sides. Often there is a bird, though in modern performances of the act it is usually fake, inside the cage. The magician will offer the cage for inspection by an audience member, but he will never actually release his grip of it. Then, without covering the cage, the magician makes a sudden motion and the cage (and anything inside) vanishes from sight.
A variation of the trick was featured in the 2006 film The Prestige.

Method

The bird cage is designed to collapse if it is not supported from both ends. Two of the opposite corners of the cage pull away from each other so that the box becomes somewhat of a tube, about 18 inches long and only one or two inches thick, that resembles a bundle of wire that is thicker in the middle than at the ends. An elastic cord attached to one end of the cage runs up the sleeve of the magician’s jacket so that when the cage collapses, it is drawn up his sleeve and hidden from view. As a living bird is likely to be injured or killed when the cage collapses, fake birds are most commonly used in modern presentations of the vanishing bird cage.

References

• Hay, Harry. Cyclopedia of Magic. (1949) ISBN 0-486-21808-2

Blackstone’s Card Trick Without Cards is a magic trick. As the trick requires only that a card is thought of, it does not require the use of a deck of cards.

Method

A spectator is instructed to think of any card (other than the joker). The magician then gives the following instructions:

• Take the card’s face value (with aces counting as 1 and royal cards counting as 11, 12 and 13 respectively)
• Double it.
• Add 3.
• Multiply by 5.
• If the card the spectator is thinking of is a heart, add 1.
• If the card the spectator is thinking of is a spade, add 2.
• If the card the spectator is thinking of is a diamond, add 3.
• If the card the spectator is thinking of is a club, add 4.

The spectator then tells the magician the number the spectator is now thinking of. The magician then names the card.

Secret

The series of mathematical manipulations results in any given card producing a unique number. The multiplication by 2 and 5 means that the final number is ten times the card’s value, plus a fixed 15 (for the addition of 3 and the multiplication by 5) and an additional suit-dependent figure. Thus both suit and value are readily identifiable.

Literature

• Harry Blackstone, Blackstone’s Tricks Anyone Can Do ISBN 0-8065-0862-0
• John Scarne, Scarne on Card Tricks ISBN 0-486-42735-8

Trick may refer to:

• Trick (film), a 1999 American movie
• Trick (TV series), a Japanese TV/movie series
• Trick, an illusion or act of misdirection, especially a magic illusion
• Trick, in a round of play in a trick-taking card game
• Trick ending, a totally unexpected turn of events which alter the plot of a work

Special kinds of tricks:

• Confidence trick, an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons usually with the goal of financial or other gain.
• Hat-trick, in sports, succeeding at anything three times in three consecutive attempts.
• Skateboarding trick, a maneuver performed on a skateboard while skateboarding.
• Stop trick, a simple film special effect.
• List of bike tricks, a maneuver performed on a bicycle while biking.
• Tricking In video games, things done in-game that were not intended to be done by the games creators, such as Glitches, Jumps, Launches, and Collections. A notable game for tricking is HALO which has thousands of fansites and communities which revolve around tricking, such as HIH

See also

• Trix (disambiguation)
• Tricky, English rapper, producer, and musician
• Tricking, a sport involving the combination of gymnastics with various martial arts
• Trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted infection, often called trich
• Trick-or-treating, an activity for children on Halloween

The Sleeper, or Throwdown is one of the most common yo-yo tricks. It is a required state before many other tricks can be performed. The essence of the trick is that the yo-yoer throws the yo-yo with a very pronounced wrist action so that when the yo-yo reaches the end of the string it spins in place rather than rolling back up the string to the thrower’s hand. While the yo-yo is in the “sleeping” state at the end of the string, the yo-yoer can then execute other tricks like “around the world” or the more complex “rock the baby.” When the yo-yoer decides to end the “sleeping” state, he/she merely jerks the wrist and the yo-yo “catches” the string and rolls back up to the hand. Most current players use ball-bearing yo-yos with low response, requiring a “bind” for the yo-yo to return.

The dove pan is a classic magic effect in which a magician produces a dove from an empty pan. The illusion continues to be performed by professional and amateur magicians.

The effect consists of a shallow pan made of brass or aluminium and a matching lid which has a very deep rim or shoulder all around that fits inside the pan when closed. The pan is usually no more than ten inches in diameter and roughly 2-3 inches deep. Dove pans are a common item at magicians’ supply stores.

In presentation, the magician demonstrates that the pan is empty and then fills it with a small quantity of a volatile liquid which is ignited. Often, the magician will place other items in the pan (e.g. cracking an egg into it) before setting the fuel on fire. To extinguish the fire, the magician slams the lid onto the pan. When the magician removes the lid, a dove flies from the pan which is shown to be otherwise empty.

Method

The gimmick of the dove pan lies in the design of the lid. The deep shouldered rim of the lid conceals an additional pan (or liner) that fits snugly into the main pan. When the lid is placed on the pan the liner is deposited inside of it, resembling the main pan when it was displayed empty. The liner, when fitted into the lid, may be loaded with birds (or anything else the magician wishes to produce) before the trick begins. The magician must not show the underside of the lid to the audience while performing the trick.

References

• Hay, Harry. Cyclopedia of Magic. (1949) ISBN 0-486-21808-2

Jeff Sheridan (b. 1948, real name Jeff Mazzio) is an American magician who specializes in street magic. Sheridan began working in New York City around 1967. He authored the 1977 book, Street Magic.

Sheridan is best known for his incredible card manipulations, which are world class, and is considered an expert on this subject. He is known for his avante-garde style of performance which included training in being a mime. He is a pioneer at making a living at magic purely by working the street, and was well known as the Central Park magician performing at the Walter Scott statue in NYC in the late sixties.
He is also a magic inventor, creating for the major U.S. toy company Milton Bradly’s Magic Works line of magic, as well for the Tenyo company of Japan. Sheridan is well known in the magic community, now lectures on the circuit as well selling his DVDs. He was a teacher of Las Vegas magician Jeff McBride and Seth Kotkin who used the ideas and tricks taught by Sheridan to later become known as David Copperfield.

The Coin walk is a type of coin trick in which a coin is flipped over the fingers to create the illusion of a coin walking across the back of the hand. It is one of the most famous coin manipulation tricks. It is also known as the coin roll, knuckle roll, and the steeplechase.

References

• www.coinmanipulation.com

In a Pandiagonal magic cube, all 3m planar arrays must be pandiagonal magic squares. The 6 oblique squares are always magic. Several of them MAY be pandiagonal magic.

Gardner called Langman’s pandiagonal magic cube a ‘perfect’ cube, presumably not realizing it was a higher class then Myer’s diagonal magic cube. A diagonal magic cube has 3m plus 6 simple magic squares.

A pandiagonal magic cube has 3m pandiagonal magic squares and 6 simple magic squares (one or two of these MAY be pandiagonal). A Perfect magic cube has 9m pandiagonal magic squares.

A proper pandiagonal magic cube has exactly 9m² lines plus the 4 main traigonals suming correctly. (NO broken triagonals sum correct.)

Order 7 is the smallest possible pandiagonal magic cube.

See also

• Magic cube classes

References

• J.R.Hendricks, Magic Squares to Tesseracts by Computer, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-0-9
• J.R.Hendricks, Perfect n-Dimensional Magic Hypercubes of Order 2n, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-4-1
• Harvey Heinz: All about magic cubes

Blue Magic can mean one of two things:

• Blue Magic diamond
• Blue Magic (band) is a soul quintet.
• A type of magic in the Final Fantasy video game. See Final Fantasy magic.
  
• Blue Magic (song) is a song from rapper Jay-Z’s album American Gangster.

MAGIC SPIRITS is a German producer of various vodka brands.

Beginning in 1991 sales of Magic Crystal vodka increases up to 13,5 mio. bottles per year. Magic Crystal vodka is produced in 37,5% vol. (75 proof) and 40,0% vol. (80 proof). Further there is Black Magic vodka with 56% vol. (112 proof) which is a winner of a silver medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition 2005 in London. Additional there is vodka Magic 78 with 156 proof and Magic Crystal Citrus vodka.

External links

• MAGIC SPIRITS — The official site for Magic Spirits

The Twenty One Card Trick is a magic effect in which the magician deals twenty one cards onto the table, into three face up piles of seven cards each, and asks the spectator to think of any of the cards shown. The spectator is not supposed to tell the magician which card is being thought of, but tells the magician which pile the card is in. This is done three times, and the magician is able to tell the spectator which card they were thinking of.

Method

The cards are dealt into the piles one at a time, like when dealing out hands in a card game. Each time they are dealt out, after the spectator indicates which pile contains the thought of card, the magician places that pile between the other two. After the first time, the card will be one of the ones in position 8-14.

When the cards are dealt out the second time, the selection will be the third, fourth, or fifth card in the pile it ends up in. In picking up the piles, the magician places this pile between the other two again. This ensures that the selection will now be one of the ones in position 10-12.

The third time the cards are dealt out, the selection will be the fourth card in which ever pile it ends up in. On the third deal, as soon as the spectator indicates which pile contains the selection, the magician knows that it is the fourth, or middle, card in that pile. If the magician gathers up the piles again, as before with the pile containing the selection in the middle, the selection will be the eleventh card in the 21 card packet.

Literature

• Professor Hoffmann, Modern Magic ISBN 0-486-23623-4

External links

• A Brief Analysis of the Twenty-One Card Trick and Related Effects by Justin Higham

Magic hour may refer to:

• Magic Hour (album), by Cast (1999)
• The Magic Hour, a syndicated talk show that starred Magic Johnson
• “Magic Hour” (Charmed episode)
• Magic hour (photography), the period after sunset, prized by cinematographers such as Gordon Willis, during which scenes register on film with captivating light and color effects.
• Magic Hour (music), a defunct indie rock band from Boston, MA, featuring Wayne Rogers (guitars, vocals), Kate Biggar (guitar), Naomi Yang (bass) and Damon Krukowski (drums).

The cut and restore rope trick is a magic effect where the performer will cut a piece of rope, tie it together and then magic away the knot leaving an untouched rope.

The performer sometimes asks a member of the audience to try to perform the trick with him on stage, and they are inevitably surprised to find that the magician’s rope is restored at the end of the trick while their rope is not.

Method

There are two ways this trick is commonly performed. Both methods involve misdirection of the audience to suggest the rope is cut in two when it is in fact not. This is usually accomplished by looping the rope in the palm of the hand while showing two additional rope ends to give the illusion the magician is holding 2 separate pieces of rope.

The additional ends either come from one end of the rope which was cut as though it was the middle (the simplest way to accomplish this is by tying an ordinary square knot between one end of the rope and its midpoint, then making the cut in the short end), or by palming an extra piece of rope of the same type.

Rodolfo, named Gács Rezső at birth (Budapest, 1911. May 16. - Budapest, 1987. January 25.) magician.

“Watch my hands, because I’m cheating” - he said, and one wonder came after the other. Unnoticeably nipped small objects from the pockets of the audience, read their minds, and used more then 5000 magic tricks. He was the greatest Hungarian magician known, and was mentioned with the greatest magicians of the century in a book in the USA.

Rodolfo was born in Budapest as the son of a Nagyfuvaros street typesetter on May 16th 1911. His parents named him Rezső Gács. A Chinese bead vendor taught the young, “marveling at the world”, “have a finger in every pie” kid his first magic trick. The next day, while he was showing off his fresh knowledge to his friends, he caught the eye of the famous Hungarian actor Arpad Odry as he was walking by. Arpad Odry, who himself liked magic tricks and by the way happened to be the President of the Hungarian Magicians Association took the young kid with the skilled hands under his wings. The training of the artist who become world famous under the name of Rodolfo was long and extensive. For years they only took up the basics and have not stepped forward to the advanced knowledge. He started his career in 1930 at the Capital City Grand Circus, Budapest, and the news of his talent soon arrived to foreign lands where he also became well know. He entertained audiences in London, Lausanne, Paris and Berlin among other cities. Later he thought his knowledge at the Artist Academy and other renowned institutions. He also wrote a book on his magic art and have made a magic kit that become many children’s favorite game. Magic wasn’t only a career for him but a life form. Even after the age of 70 he still practiced 4 hours every day in front of a 6 feet mirror, making sure that every movement was perfect. He was a humble artist - and nothing proves that more than the fact that he performed with the same perfection to the poorest audiences just as on the shiny stages and famous places. He practiced for every performance like his life depended on it. During the world war it seemed like he was a wizard as he was always able to get smile on the faces of crippled solders in the army hospitals walking from bed to bed. But his life was not wizardry but hard work, willpower, and struggle that at the end resulted in the magic, the miracle. His creed was, that: “The artist who is satisfied with himself, is not an artist anymore. He is dead.”

The Chinese Linking Rings is considered to be a classic of illusion magic. In the traditional effect, solid metal rings appear to link and unlink, pass through each other, form chains and other complex patterns and configurations. The rings may even be handed out to audience members for examination.

Ching Ling Foo was one of the early performers of the Linking Rings in the form we know today. Speculation about their origin has been made to Turkey, Egypt and the Middle East and as far back as the first century. A painting by Giacoma Mantegazza in 1876 shows a harem girl holding a set of rings above her head. Recent magicians who are known for their performances with the Linking Rings include Michael Skinner, Whit Haydn, Jeff McBride, Shoot Ogawa, Jim Cellini and Tom Frank. Christian Bale’s character, Alfred Borden, performs the trick in The Prestige. The number of rings used can vary from two to as many as ten or more. A standard set of commercially available rings typically includes eight rings.

In 1988, Japanese magician Masahiro Yanagida performed his miniature linking rings routine, the Ninja Rings, using four rings that were four and a half inches (or 11.43 cm) in diameter. Since then, the Chinese Linking Rings have also become a favourite performance item for close-up magicians.

A possible method

One method of performing this illusion would be that the magician appears to show several separate and solid rings, but some of the rings are gimmicked, for example:

1. A key ring: A ring with a small gap, concealed by the magician’s hand. (Some key rings have a secret mechanism for closing the gap mechanically.)
2. Linked rings: two or more solid rings already linked together. They cannot be separated.

The ability to show that the rings are all separate and solid is usually done using a false count. The illusion of the joining and unjoining of the rings is achieved by sleight of hand and optical illusion. Performers strive to make the penetration of one ring by another appear smooth, plain, and clear.

Rings

A quality set of eight linking rings can be obtained from a supplier of magic props. Most consider eight (8)-inch diameter rings to be the smallest size suited for stage performance, while twelve (12″) inch rings are common; 15″ rings are also available, but rarely seen in use. Larger sizes are often constructed from stainless steel tubing for the best combination of durability and weight. Professionals may wish to have a set of larger-diameter rings for use on a stage, or a ‘close-up’ set of rings in the 4-5 inch (10-13 cm) range.

Many magicians are very concerned with the ring tone that the rings make when clinked together. In particular, the clank that a key ring makes (because it is not solid) can give it away to the audience.

See also

• List of magic tricks

References

• Whit Haydn, Comedy Four-Ring Routine, DVD
• Harlan Tarbell, Tarbell Course in magic.

In mathematics, a magic hypercube is the k-dimensional generalization of magic squares, magic cubes and magic tesseracts, that is, a number of integers arranged in an n x n x n x … x n pattern such that the sum of the numbers on each pillar (along any axis) as well as the main space diagonals is equal to a single number, the so-called magic constant of the hypercube, denoted M_k(n). It can be shown that if a magic hypercube consists of the numbers 1, 2, …, n^k, then it has magic number

<math>M_k(n) = \frac{n(n^k+1)}{2}</math>

If, in addition, the numbers on every cross section diagonal also sum up to the hypercube’s magic number, the hypercube is called a perfect magic hypercube; otherwise, it is called a semiperfect magic hypercube. The number n is called the order of the magic hypercube.

Five-, six-, seven- and eight-dimensional magic hypercubes of order three have been constructed by J. R. Hendricks.

Marian Trenkler proved the following theorem:
A p-dimensional magic hypercube of order n exists if and only if
p > 1 and n is different from 2 or p = 1. A construction of a magic hypercube follows from the proof.

The R programming language includes a module, library(magic), that will create magic hypercubes of any dimension (with n a multiple of 4).

External links

• Hendricks material compiled and posted before his death
• Magic Cubes - Introduction by Harvey D. Heinz
• page about J. R. Hendricks
• Magic Cubes and Hypercubes - References
• An algorithm for making magic cubes

See also

• John R. Hendricks
• magic hypercubes
• Nasik magic hypercube

Les Cents tours de Centour was a French language children’s television show made in Quebec. Its stories revolved around Verbo, a genie with magical power who was trying to recapture Centour (another genie who had escaped from the same land as Verbo).

The show’s foremost purpose was language acquisition, which was conveyed by the way Verbo would do magic: when he needed to perform a trick, he would ask his talisman (named “Memo”) for a formula (always in the form of “it is a [subject], it is a [object], it is the [subject] of the [object]”.) He would then close his eyes and repeat, asking the children at home to do the same.

Centour on his part would perform magic by reciting similar formulas while shaking his magic wristband (which looked like a gaudy wristwatch).

Memo’s constant companion was Picot Cotton, a young human male whose family was often the target of Centour’s tricks.

The Detachable Thumb (unknown originator) is a very simple close-up illusion.

Effect

The performer appears to remove the end of his own thumb; moving it back and forth along his hand or lifting it up.

Method

There is no particular secret to this illusion: the performer simply holds out one hand sideways with the palm out and the tip of the thumb folded down behind the hand. Then he places his other thumb bent so that the tip appears to be connected to the folded-down thumb with the forefinger bent to cover the joint.

Credits

There is no known originator of this trick, and it is likely to be among the oldest tricks in the world.

Known variations

• Meir Yedid (USA) has created “Finger Fantasies”, a multitude of variations in which his fingers disappear and reappear in odd ways.

Three-Handed Whist, also known as Widow Whist, is a variant of the trick-taking game Whist.

“Widow” whist is named because of an extra hand that is dealt just to the left of the dealer. This extra hand is called the “widow” and players may have a chance to use the widow instead of their own hand.

Card Rank

A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

♣ are trump.

♠, ♦ and ♥ are not.

Order of Play

1. Everyone cuts the deck and high card is dealer.
2. Deal out 4 hands, with the “widow” always being the first hand to the left of the dealer. Each hand should have 13 cards.
3. Now, the person just to the left of the dealer has first choice at the widow. If the first person to choose has a good hand, he/she just passes it to the next person on their left.
4. If someone takes the Widow, that person needs to collect 4 tricks total for that round. Otherwise, only 3 tricks are needed to break even.
5. After taking the widow, that person’s hand is passed to the left (unless you are back to the dealer, in which case you are done). If someone else would take that rejected hand, they only have to get 3 tricks. Please note that if someone else rejected that hand, it’s doubtful that you would want it. However if your hand is bad enough…  :)
6. Play begins with player to the left of the dealer.

• Every game of widow is played “high”, meaning you want to collect as many tricks as you can. There is no “granding” process like in 4 player Minnesota whist.
• Each player is for him/herself. No teams in 3 player widow whist.
• The person who originally picked the widow can choose to keep his hand instead. However, that person still has to get 4 tricks because he/she picked up the widow.

Taking Tricks

Similar to 4 handed, the person who leads lays down a card from his/her hand. Everyone must follow suit if they can (in clockwise motion). If you don’t have the suit, lay down any other card. Highest card of the lead suit takes the trick, with the exception of the clubs suit. Clubs are trump and will always take any other suit. Whoever takes the trick leads the next one. Play continues until all cards are gone. Dealer moves one to the left.

• NOTE: You MUST follow suit if you can
• A rule variation: some people play if you don’t have the lead suit, you MUST play a club if you have one. (i.e. Hearts was lead, you have no hearts. With this rule in place you would HAVE to lay a club.

Scoring

• You can get negative scores!
• If you picked up the widow, you get 1 point for every trick over 4. (i.e. 2 tricks = -2 pts, 4 tricks = 0 pts, 5 tricks = 1 pt)
• If you didn’t pick up the widow, you get 1 point for every trick over 3. (ie 4 tricks = 1 point, 5 = 2 pts)

Magic Box may refer to:

• Magic Box (album), a 1996 album by Bel Canto
• The Magic Box (film), a 1951 British movie.
• The Magic Box, a fictional place in the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• The Magic Box, a television show which aired on TLC in the mid-1990s. The show taught viewers how to read.
• Magic Box (TV), first private TV channel of Turkey.
• A device used on sailboats to adjust the side-to-side angle of the sail.

Blue Magic can mean one of two things:

• Blue Magic diamond
• Blue Magic (band) is a soul quintet.
• A type of magic in the Final Fantasy video game. See Final Fantasy magic.
• Blue Magic (song) is a song from rapper Jay-Z’s album American Gangster.

MAGIC SPIRITS is a German producer of various vodka brands.

Beginning in 1991 sales of Magic Crystal vodka increases up to 13,5 mio. bottles per year. Magic Crystal vodka is produced in 37,5% vol. (75 proof) and 40,0% vol. (80 proof). Further there is Black Magic vodka with 56% vol. (112 proof) which is a winner of a silver medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition 2005 in London. Additional there is vodka Magic 78 with 156 proof and Magic Crystal Citrus vodka.

External links

• MAGIC SPIRITS — The official site for Magic Spirits

The Twenty One Card Trick is a magic effect in which the magician deals twenty one cards onto the table, into three face up piles of seven cards each, and asks the spectator to think of any of the cards shown. The spectator is not supposed to tell the magician which card is being thought of, but tells the magician which pile the card is in. This is done three times, and the magician is able to tell the spectator which card they were thinking of.

Method

The cards are dealt into the piles one at a time, like when dealing out hands in a card game. Each time they are dealt out, after the spectator indicates which pile contains the thought of card, the magician places that pile between the other two. After the first time, the card will be one of the ones in position 8-14.

When the cards are dealt out the second time, the selection will be the third, fourth, or fifth card in the pile it ends up in. In picking up the piles, the magician places this pile between the other two again. This ensures that the selection will now be one of the ones in position 10-12.

The third time the cards are dealt out, the selection will be the fourth card in which ever pile it ends up in. On the third deal, as soon as the spectator indicates which pile contains the selection, the magician knows that it is the fourth, or middle, card in that pile. If the magician gathers up the piles again, as before with the pile containing the selection in the middle, the selection will be the eleventh card in the 21 card packet.

Literature

• Professor Hoffmann, Modern Magic ISBN 0-486-23623-4

External links

• A Brief Analysis of the Twenty-One Card Trick and Related Effects by Justin Higham

In a Pandiagonal magic cube, all 3m planar arrays must be pandiagonal magic squares. The 6 oblique squares are always magic. Several of them MAY be pandiagonal magic.

Gardner called Langman’s pandiagonal magic cube a ‘perfect’ cube, presumably not realizing it was a higher class then Myer’s diagonal magic cube. A diagonal magic cube has 3m plus 6 simple magic squares.

A pandiagonal magic cube has 3m pandiagonal magic squares and 6 simple magic squares (one or two of these MAY be pandiagonal). A Perfect magic cube has 9m pandiagonal magic squares.

A proper pandiagonal magic cube has exactly 9m² lines plus the 4 main traigonals suming correctly. (NO broken triagonals sum correct.)

Order 7 is the smallest possible pandiagonal magic cube.

See also

• Magic cube classes

References

• J.R.Hendricks, Magic Squares to Tesseracts by Computer, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-0-9
• J.R.Hendricks, Perfect n-Dimensional Magic Hypercubes of Order 2n, Self-published 1999. ISBN 0-9684700-4-1
• Harvey Heinz: All about magic cubes

Stuart Macleod (born July 4 1980) is a Scottish magician.

Macleod was brought up in Peterhead, and graduated at the University of Aberdeen with an MA in both Philosophy and Psychology. He is one half of Barry and Stuart (who also go by the name 2magicians).

He has won the Young Magician of the Year for Scotland twice. Along with Barry Jones, Macleod used to perform street magic in Aberdeen. The pair have since moved to London after producers at Objective Productions saw their own video, which resulted in the making of their first TV show called Magick for Channel 4.

In 2005, Macleod performed in Dirty Tricks and When Magic Tricks Go Wrong, both for Channel 4. At Christmas, he presented, along with Jones, a look at the miracles of Jesus in The Magic of Jesus.

In 2006, MacLeod performed with Barry Jones in Tricks From the Bible, where they were performing magical tricks from the Old Testament.

Anaxilaus of Larissa was a physician and Pythagorean philosopher. According to Eusebius, he was banished from Rome in B.C. 28 by Augustus on the charge of practicing magic. Anaxilaus wrote about the “magical” properties of minerals, herbs, and other substances and derived drugs, and is cited by Pliny in this regard. Some believe his exceptional knowledge of natural science allowed him to produce tricks that were mistaken for magic.

References

Magic hour may refer to:

• Magic Hour (album), by Cast (1999)
• The Magic Hour, a syndicated talk show that starred Magic Johnson
• “Magic Hour” (Charmed episode)
• Magic hour (photography), the period after sunset, prized by cinematographers such as Gordon Willis, during which scenes register on film with captivating light and color effects.
• Magic Hour (music), a defunct indie rock band from Boston, MA, featuring Wayne Rogers (guitars, vocals), Kate Biggar (guitar), Naomi Yang (bass) and Damon Krukowski (drums).

Jay Sankey is a Canadian close-up magician and creator of magic effects who has been active since the mid-1980s. David Copperfield performed Sankey’s trick “Airtight.” Sankey also develops tricks for Criss Angel. Many of Jay Sankey’s effects are currently being sold at magic retailers such as Penguin Magic.

He is also known as a stand-up comedian and authored a book about the art of stand-up, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy in 1999. However, he is best known for the many magical effects which he has published to help magicians develop their craft. His most famous works include his “Revolutionary Coin Magic” and “Revolutionary Card Magic” DVDs.

Sankey is featured in Spellz, a TVO Kids program that he co-hosts with Bridget Hall.

In 2007 Jay won 3rd place in The Magic Woods Awards for Best Book - Beyond Secrets

See also

• List of magicians

External links

• Jay Sankey’s magic website
• Interview with Jay Sankey
• Q&A with Jay Sankey

In mathematics, a bimagic cube is a magic cube that also remains magic if all of the numbers it contains are squared.

In 1934, Cazalas attempted but failed to construct a bimagic cube. David M. Collison apparently constructed a bimagic cube of order 25 in an unpublished paper, but it was not until the year 2000 that John Hendricks published an order 25 perfect magic cube whose square is a semiperfect magic cube. It has order 25 and magic constant 195325

On January 20, 2003, Christian Boyer discovered an order 16 bimagic cube (where the cube itself is perfect magic, but its square is only semiperfect magic). This was rapidly followed by another order 16 bimagic cube (where the base cube is perfect and its square semiperfect) on January 23, an order 32 bimagic cube (where both the base cube and its square are perfect) on January 27, and an order 27 bimagic cube (where the base cube is perfect but its square is semiperfect) on February 3, 2003.

Boyer’s 16-cubes thus became the smallest known bimagic cube, and his order 32 cube became the first known perfect bimagic cube.

See also

• Magic cube
• Trimagic cube
• Multimagic cube
• Magic square
• Bimagic square
• Trimagic square
• Multimagic square

Thomas Nelson Downs, also T. Nelson Downs, (March 16, 1867 – September 11, 1938) was one of the most famous manipulative magicians renowned for his coin tricks. Downs was also known as “The King of Koins”.

Biography

Born in Marshalltown, Iowa, he was the youngest of six children in the family of Thomas and Cordelia Downs. His family moved to Iowa from the New York state. Downs’ father, the Marshall county superintendent, died when his son was not even a year old.

Downs never took any training in magic; all his tricks were self-taught. By the age of 12, he became an expert in card and coin manipulation. He further mastered his skills by the age of 17, when he took a job as a railway telegrapher and had plenty of time to practice with coins.

In September 1895, Downs decided to quit his telegraphy job and launch a career in magic. At first, he toured Iowa with his partner, Sam Spiegel, a mandolinist. By 1897, Downs concentrated only on the coin tricks—a rare specialization at that time, and established himself in vaudeville, which was a popular avenue for magicians.

The success of Downs career allowed him to get booked into Tony Pastor’s New York theater, and to London’s Palace Theater soon after that.

At the peak of his career, Downs traveled frequently, and performed at royal courts. While performing his tricks, he could palm up to 60 coins at a time. One of his most famous tricks was “The Miser’s Dream”, in which he seemed to pull countless coins out of the thin air.

In 1912, at the young age of 42, Downs decided to retire in Iowa. After moving back to Marshalltown, he rarely left the area. Not quite comfortable with idle retirement, Downs kept busy by opening a vaudeville house on Main Street, a few blocks from his own home at 7 S. 3rd Ave. He also sold a line of magic equipment. Many visitors, other magicians, streamed to his home to share gossip and the latest tricks as well as to brush elbows with the famous sleight of hand artist. The most famous of these visitors included Chung Ling Soo (William Robinson), Mrs. Harry Houdini, and Dai Vernon.

Downs wrote several books on magic before and after his retirement. His first book, Modern Coin Manipulation, was published in 1900 and is still issued in reprints today. His other books include The Art of Magic and Tricks with Coins.

Downs was married twice. He had a son in his first marriage with Nellie Stone, who died in childbirth in 1895. He subsequently married Harriett Rocky on June 3, 1905.

He retired around 1928. In 1935 he was honored with a testimonial dinner.

Death

Downs died on September 11, 1938 in Marshalltown, Iowa. He had suffered a stroke, which paralyzed his left side. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Marshalltown. His gravestone reads “King of Koins”.

Legacy

The Historical Society of Marshall County features a display about Downs in its museum.

References

The Twenty One Card Trick is a magic effect in which the magician deals twenty one cards onto the table, into three face up piles of seven cards each, and asks the spectator to think of any of the cards shown. The spectator is not supposed to tell the magician which card is being thought of, but tells the magician which pile the card is in. This is done three times, and the magician is able to tell the spectator which card they were thinking of.

Method

The cards are dealt into the piles one at a time, like when dealing out hands in a card game. Each time they are dealt out, after the spectator indicates which pile contains the thought of card, the magician places that pile between the other two. After the first time, the card will be one of the ones in position 8-14.

When the cards are dealt out the second time, the selection will be the third, fourth, or fifth card in the pile it ends up in. In picking up the piles, the magician places this pile between the other two again. This ensures that the selection will now be one of the ones in position 10-12.

The third time the cards are dealt out, the selection will be the fourth card in which ever pile it ends up in. On the third deal, as soon as the spectator indicates which pile contains the selection, the magician knows that it is the fourth, or middle, card in that pile. If the magician gathers up the piles again, as before with the pile containing the selection in the middle, the selection will be the eleventh card in the 21 card packet.

Literature

• Professor Hoffmann, Modern Magic ISBN 0-486-23623-4

External links

• A Brief Analysis of the Twenty-One Card Trick and Related Effects by Justin Higham

The Colour of Magic was the first Discworld computer game and so far the only one adapted directly from a Discworld novel.

Following the plot of the book fairly faithfully, it was a text adventure released in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.

It can be played on modern computers with the aid of an emulator program, or on-line with a web browser.

External links

• The Colour of Magic computer game
• Playable version online - requires Java (Sun)

A Pantriagonal Diagonal magic cube is a magic cube that is a combination Pantriagonal magic cube and Diagonal magic cube. All main and broken triagonals must sum correctly, In addition, it will contain 3m order m simple magic squares in the orthogonal planes, and 6 order m pandiagonal magic squares in the oblique planes.

A proper pantriagdiag magic cube contains exactly 7m² + 6m lines that sum to m(m³ + 1)/2.

For short, I will reduce this unwieldy name to PantriagDiag.
This is number 4 in what is now 6 classes of magic cubes. So far, very little is known of this class of cube. The only ones constructed so far are order 8 (not associated and associated). Is order 8 the smallest possible for this type of cube?
This cube was discovered in 2004 by Mitsutoshi Nakamura.

See also

Magic cube classes

External links

• http://homepage2.nifty.com/googol/magcube/en/  : Mitsutoshi Nakamura’s Magic Cubes and Tesseracts
• http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/  : Harvey Heinz All about cubes

Magic Island refers to various geographical locations in the United States.

• Magic Island (Hawaii), peninsula and neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Magic Island (West Virginia), an island in the Kanawha River

Other:

• Magic Island was also the name of an old-time radio program.

Stuart Macleod (born July 4 1980) is a Scottish magician.

Macleod was brought up in Peterhead, and graduated at the University of Aberdeen with an MA in both Philosophy and Psychology. He is one half of Barry and Stuart (who also go by the name 2magicians).

He has won the Young Magician of the Year for Scotland twice. Along with Barry Jones, Macleod used to perform street magic in Aberdeen. The pair have since moved to London after producers at Objective Productions saw their own video, which resulted in the making of their first TV show called Magick for Channel 4.

In 2005, Macleod performed in Dirty Tricks and When Magic Tricks Go Wrong, both for Channel 4. At Christmas, he presented, along with Jones, a look at the miracles of Jesus in The Magic of Jesus.

In 2006, MacLeod performed with Barry Jones in Tricks From the Bible, where they were performing magical tricks from the Old Testament.

The gambler’s palm is a card magic technique used to “palm” a card (to temporarily hide it during a magic trick).

In the gambler’s palm the playing card is placed in the hand lengthwise as in the magician’s palm, but is retained by pressure between the little finger and the right side of the thumb, which lies flat aganst the left side of the hand. The advantages of this palm is that the card is not bent while palming, and the hand may be laid flat on the card table.

Jonathan Goodwin (born February 20 1980) is a British TV escapologist, and brother of journalist and TV presenter Jane Harvey. He first appeared on Channel 4 TV programme Dirty Tricks and has subsequently appeared in TV specials The Seven Stupidest Things to Escape From, and Deathwish Live.
His signature is “lo-fi” escapes where he is apparently helped by his dad.

Goodwin caused a national outcry when his stunt, Cheating the Gallows, went wrong live on national television and he was hanged. Luckily he survived, suffering only minor rope burns.

Jonathan now appears on Channel 4’s Balls of Steel perfoming similar acts to what he did in Dirty Tricks

External links

• Goodwin’s website
• archive of Monkey Magic website
  
• Dirty Tricks website

Card manipulation (or card magic) is the illusion of magic using a deck of playing cards. Card magic is commonplace in magic performances, especially in close up magic or parlor magic and street magic.

Playing cards became popular with magicians in the last century or so as they were props which were inexpensive, versatile, and easily manipulated. Although magicians have created and presented myriad illusions with cards (sometimes referred to as card tricks), these illusions are generally considered to be built upon perhaps one hundred or so basic principles and techniques. Presentation and context (including patter, the conjurer’s misleading account of what he is doing) account for many of the variations.

Card magic, in one form or another, likely dates from the time playing cards became commonly known — towards the second half of the fourteenth century — but its history in this period is largely undocumented. One may surmise from the practice of how other everyday objects have been pressed into the service of conjurers across cultures and the ages that card magic developed spontaneously and roughly concurrently in different parts of the world, if not always synchronously. However, compared to sleight of hand magic in general and to cups and balls, it is a relatively new form of magic.

Card manipulators performing card fans and other manipulations, which require the individual cards to flow smoothly across each other, some people like to use a Zinc stearate-based powder (marketed as “Fanning powder”). In card manipulation fanning powder is applied as a means to lengthen the life of the cards and to make the friction between each more consistent throughout the life of the cards.

Though Manipulators tend to have personal preferences on the types and brands of cards used based on their own experiences, the overall favorites almost always have an “air cushion” or small dimples on the finish of the card. These hold air, much in the way the dimples on a golf ball, and allow the cards to glide over one another easily. However over time they can collect oils and dirt which make the cards harder to use in Manipulation. Applying Fanning Powder to card beforehand helps slow this as well as repel moisture that may build up on the hands through extended performances. Also some Manipulators may keep their decks in card protectors or clips to further extend the life of their cards.

Notable card manipulators

• Lance Burton
• David Copperfield
• Allan Ackerman
• Cardini (Richard Pitchford)
• Lennart Green
• Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser
• Guy Hollingworth
• Robert Houdin
• Ricky Jay
• Simon Lovell
• Ed Marlo (Edward Malkowski)
• Jeff McBride
• Darwin Ortiz
• Jerry Sadowitz
• Josh Sadowsky
• John Scarne
• Juan Tamariz
• Dai Vernon
• Roy Walton
• Michael Ammar

See also

• Card marking
• Sleight of hand
• Trick deck
• Flourish
• Card throwing

MAGIC SPIRITS is a German producer of various vodka brands.

Beginning in 1991 sales of Magic Crystal vodka increases up to 13,5 mio. bottles per year. Magic Crystal vodka is produced in 37,5% vol. (75 proof) and 40,0% vol. (80 proof). Further there is Black Magic vodka with 56% vol. (112 proof) which is a winner of a silver medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition 2005 in London. Additional there is vodka Magic 78 with 156 proof and Magic Crystal Citrus vodka.

External links

• MAGIC SPIRITS — The official site for Magic Spirits

Ed Marlo (born Edward Malkowski in Chicago, Illinois, October 10, 1913 - November 7, 1991) was a legendary cardician.

One of the most notable names in card magic. Marlo himself coined the term cardician, a term which has since been used for magicians who only perform card magic. His first publication in 1938, Pasteboard Presto, was an unheralded thunderbolt which merely hinted at the bulk of work which was to follow.

The many sleights he created have changed the face of card magic. One notable example is his Snap change, used in David Blaine´s Street Magic special.

Marlo wrote over sixty books and manuscripts, and contributed over 2000 tricks in the field of card magic. He did not limit himself to cards as he also authored works on coin magic and dice magic. His most famous works are “The Cardician” and “Revolutionary Card Technique”, the latter of which was originally published as a series but later compiled into one weighty tome.

He also wrote a series of private manuscripts that were circulated only among the top card magicians of the era. Titles included “Riffle Shuffle Systems”, “Patented False Shuffle”, “Faro Controlled Miracles” and others. They are extremely rare and highly sought after.

See also

• List of magicians

External links

• Chicago round table (with Ed Marlo footage)
• Biography
• Bibliography
• Andi Gladwin’s article on studying Edward Marlo

The Detachable Thumb (unknown originator) is a very simple close-up illusion.

Effect

The performer appears to remove the end of his own thumb; moving it back and forth along his hand or lifting it up.

Method

There is no particular secret to this illusion: the performer simply holds out one hand sideways with the palm out and the tip of the thumb folded down behind the hand. Then he places his other thumb bent so that the tip appears to be connected to the folded-down thumb with the forefinger bent to cover the joint.

Credits

There is no known originator of this trick, and it is likely to be among the oldest tricks in the world.

Known variations

• Meir Yedid (USA) has created “Finger Fantasies”, a multitude of variations in which his fingers disappear and reappear in odd ways.

Jay Sankey is a Canadian close-up magician and creator of magic effects who has been active since the mid-1980s. David Copperfield performed Sankey’s trick “Airtight.” Sankey also develops tricks for Criss Angel. Many of Jay Sankey’s effects are currently being sold at magic retailers such as Penguin Magic.

He is also known as a stand-up comedian and authored a book about the art of stand-up, Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy in 1999. However, he is best known for the many magical effects which he has published to help magicians develop their craft. His most famous works include his “Revolutionary Coin Magic” and “Revolutionary Card Magic” DVDs.

Sankey is featured in Spellz, a TVO Kids program that he co-hosts with Bridget Hall.

In 2007 Jay won 3rd place in The Magic Woods Awards for Best Book - Beyond Secrets

See also

• List of magicians

External links

• Jay Sankey’s magic website
• Interview with Jay Sankey
• Q&A with Jay Sankey

The Hummer card is a levitation magic trick in which, unlike many other levitation tricks, a regular playing card floats, hovers, spins and flies around the body of the magician in a seemingly impossible manner. The trick works for any form of card such as a credit card or business card. Due to this flexibility it is often used as street magic or a fancy way for a corporate magician to hand out his business card, and is very easy to work into almost any routine. The trick was originally invented by Bob Hummer and is often sold on mainstream magic sites.

It is often referred to as the Hummingbird card or and some dealers sell a rebranded version with a variety of different names, such as Hummer’s Whirling Card.

It is done by taping invisible string to the back of your ear (the string should be as long as from your right hand streched out to your left shirt pocket) and using magicians wax, tape or orthodontal wax to connect the string to the card you spin the card and control its movements with your head and by placing the string between your thumb and index fingers.

Three-Handed Whist, also known as Widow Whist, is a variant of the trick-taking game Whist.

“Widow” whist is named because of an extra hand that is dealt just to the left of the dealer. This extra hand is called the “widow” and players may have a chance to use the widow instead of their own hand.

Card Rank

A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

♣ are trump.

♠, ♦ and ♥ are not.

Order of Play

1. Everyone cuts the deck and high card is dealer.
2. Deal out 4 hands, with the “widow” always being the first hand to the left of the dealer. Each hand should have 13 cards.
3. Now, the person just to the left of the dealer has first choice at the widow. If the first person to choose has a good hand, he/she just passes it to the next person on their left.
4. If someone takes the Widow, that person needs to collect 4 tricks total for that round. Otherwise, only 3 tricks are needed to break even.
5. After taking the widow, that person’s hand is passed to the left (unless you are back to the dealer, in which case you are done). If someone else would take that rejected hand, they only have to get 3 tricks. Please note that if someone else rejected that hand, it’s doubtful that you would want it. However if your hand is bad enough…  :)
6. Play begins with player to the left of the dealer.

• Every game of widow is played “high”, meaning you want to collect as many tricks as you can. There is no “granding” process like in 4 player Minnesota whist.
• Each player is for him/herself. No teams in 3 player widow whist.
• The person who originally picked the widow can choose to keep his hand instead. However, that person still has to get 4 tricks because he/she picked up the widow.

Taking Tricks

Similar to 4 handed, the person who leads lays down a card from his/her hand. Everyone must follow suit if they can (in clockwise motion). If you don’t have the suit, lay down any other card. Highest card of the lead suit takes the trick, with the exception of the clubs suit. Clubs are trump and will always take any other suit. Whoever takes the trick leads the next one. Play continues until all cards are gone. Dealer moves one to the left.

• NOTE: You MUST follow suit if you can
• A rule variation: some people play if you don’t have the lead suit, you MUST play a club if you have one. (i.e. Hearts was lead, you have no hearts. With this rule in place you would HAVE to lay a club.

Scoring

• You can get negative scores!
• If you picked up the widow, you get 1 point for every trick over 4. (i.e. 2 tricks = -2 pts, 4 tricks = 0 pts, 5 tricks = 1 pt)
• If you didn’t pick up the widow, you get 1 point for every trick over 3. (ie 4 tricks = 1 point, 5 = 2 pts)

A double lift is a sleight of hand used by magicians in card magic.

Method

The double lift is one of the most effective, and most used methods by card magicians. Simply because when done right, it’s very unnoticeable, and can be incorporated into almost any card trick.The double lift, (or DL as it is often referred to by magicians), is the act of lifting up two cards from the deck and displaying them as one. Lifting three cards in the same fashion is called a triple lift.

References

• Hay, Henry. Encyclopedia of Magic. 1949. 2)

External link

• Double lift tutorial on YouTube

In mathematics, a bimagic cube is a magic cube that also remains magic if all of the numbers it contains are squared.

In 1934, Cazalas attempted but failed to construct a bimagic cube. David M. Collison apparently constructed a bimagic cube of order 25 in an unpublished paper, but it was not until the year 2000 that John Hendricks published an order 25 perfect magic cube whose square is a semiperfect magic cube. It has order 25 and magic constant 195325

On January 20, 2003, Christian Boyer discovered an order 16 bimagic cube (where the cube itself is perfect magic, but its square is only semiperfect magic). This was rapidly followed by another order 16 bimagic cube (where the base cube is perfect and its square semiperfect) on January 23, an order 32 bimagic cube (where both the base cube and its square are perfect) on January 27, and an order 27 bimagic cube (where the base cube is perfect but its square is semiperfect) on February 3, 2003.

Boyer’s 16-cubes thus became the smallest known bimagic cube, and his order 32 cube became the first known perfect bimagic cube.

See also

• Magic cube
• Trimagic cube
• Multimagic cube
• Magic square
• Bimagic square
• Trimagic square
• Multimagic square