Clasificación del sentimiento

1. And just what, exactly, is the real difference between “Matrix” and “Sympathetic Coins?” To most of us, perhaps, very little indeed, with not enough left over to worry about. For others, however, well . . . It is true that “Sympathetic Coins” is normally performed with two cards while

“Matrix” most often uses four, but more than that, there is a difference of attitude. In “Sympa-thetic Coins” (at least in the best versions we’ve seen performed—Michael Skinner’s, for instance), the performer handles each coin in succession, causing them to vanish from his hands mysteri-ously. After each one, a card is then picked up to reveal that the coin is somehow beneath it.

“Matrix,” though, has a much more visual element to it, the coins seemingly jumping from card to card as they lay on the table, the performer merely covering them for a moment. The coins are never picked up from the table to make them disappear and the routine can be quite animated and lively. Take your pick. Strictly speaking, John’s routine seems to be a hybrid of the two con-cepts, using two cards, but still with the essence of “Matrix.” All this is mentioned for the ben-efit of those purists, historians, and verbophiles who perceive importance in these matters and without which their lives would cease to have meaning.

As you place the last coin on the table, pull your right hand away furtively, as if you were hiding a fifth coin there. You might even feign a classic-palming action for the knowing crowd. Pick up the cards with your left hand as you finish your sentence by saying “. . . and two playing cards.” Revolve the cards face down and take one with your right hand, with an attitude that might strongly suggest that you’ve just loaded a coin beneath it. Turn the card in your left hand over a couple of times to show both sides, but hold the right-hand card motionless and stiff.

Finally, as if begrudgingly, turn the right-hand card face toward your audience, pulling your fingers back as if you were sliding a coin up behind them to show the card. You are holding the card by its edge now, reminiscent of a standard coin ruse.

Place the left-hand card on the coin and shell, and the right-hand card suspiciously on the coin in the upper right corner, as if you put a coin down with it. Those who have been scrutinizing your actions will believe that there are two coins in the upper corner and will anticipate that the assembly will take place there.

Instead, pick up both playing cards with the respec-tive hands, your second and third fingers going beneath the cards, thumbs on top (Figure 1). With your right hand, you also clip the coin beneath the card as, with your left first finger, you lift the edge of the shell beneath its cover card and push it to the right. The shell will overlap the coin as in Figure 2.² Shake your hands (and the cards) slightly, then raise both hands straight up, lifting the cards to reveal the sudden journey of the first coin.

Show the faces of first the right-hand card, then the left. When showing the right-hand one, this time you do pull the coin back so you are holding the card by its extreme edge, the coin hidden behind your fingers (Fig-ure 3). When you turn the card face down again, slide the coin back beneath it to keep it hidden from view.

For the next jump, hold the right-hand card over the inner left coins and the left-hand card over the outer left half-dollar. Shake the cards again as you gently and silently lay the coin beneath the right-hand card onto the two overlapping coins on the table, itself overlap-ping to the right. With your left fingers, pick up the coin beneath their card in the

2. Note here that we are not using the Schneider/Dingle Pick-Up Move which has become some-thing of an unspoken requirement in this type of routine.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

same manner as before. After a proper time, lift both cards to show the migration of the second coin. Briefly show the faces of the cards again, pulling the coin behind your left fingers as you do.

Turn the cards face down again (sliding the hidden coin back beneath the left-hand card) and hold the right-hand card over the remaining coin on your right, the other card over the coins on your left. Shake the cards again as you pinch the single coin with your right fingers while laying the left-hand coin, again overlapping, on its stack.

Lift the coins to reveal all four at the inner left position.

To clean everything up, turn the cards face up, sliding the right-hand coin behind your fingers as before, and lay the cards on the table well in front of you (Figure 4).

The hidden coin stays behind your fingers when the cards are left on the table. Immediately bring both hands back to the stack of coins on the table, the coin in your right hand sitting idly in “fingertip rest position” (Figure 5).³ Place your fingers on either side of the stack and begin pushing the coins inwards between your hands, as if gath-ering them up (Figure 6). The shell will nest with the coin beneath it. Take the nested shell and the coin above it with your left hand as you pick up the remaining coin in your right hand (on top of the coin you were secretly holding there). Open your palm-up hands wide to show apparently two coins on each (perfect applause cue) and take your bow.

3. The Fingertip Rest: see David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman for the value of this all too obvious—and extremely artistic—piece of finesse. It allows moments of relaxation and a casual air which would not otherwise be possible.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Siegfried enjoying a lecture by John Cornelius at Darwin’s Club in Las Vegas (1980).

ears ago, when the masters were young, Ace assemblies were the rage. Vernon and Miller concocted several wonderful versions of the “slow-motion” assembly plot, “Mac” MacDonald per-formed his destined-to-be-classic MacDonald’s Aces, and Bob Stencel’s underground handling (not released until almost thirty years later!) amazed and confounded. The plot may be older than Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, but that seems to be where it began. Even in recent times, thinkers such as Daryl Martinez (“Diamond Bar” and “The Psychological Joker Assembly”) and John Bannon (“Mirage Assembly”) have explored the possible avenues, finding new approaches and lending a more modern fascination to what could be a timeworn trick.

Somewhere in all this, Ed Marlo typically did what no one else did. Rather than execute an assembly that relied on gaffed cards or consummate skill, Marlo published “Bluff Aces.” It was an apt title since no assembly really takes place.

Marlo put away his moves for the moment and constructed a routine that takes place mostly in the mind of the spectator. To top it off, he offered a surprising repeat phase that neatly cleaned everything up.

“Bluff Aces” appeared in one of the Ireland Yearbooks, which were released again by Magic, Incorporated a few years ago. Here is John’s handling:

To start, openly remove the four Aces from the deck and place them face down on top of the pack in Spade, Heart, Club, Diamond order (the Spade is the top card of the deck). Say, “Many people ask if it’s possible for a gambler to cheat with cards that are out of his hands. Well, I don’t know about gamblers, but I’ll show you how a magician might do it.”

Push off the four Aces face down into your right hand, without reversing their order. As you do, push three more cards from the top of the deck. Pull these cards back, holding a break beneath them with your left little finger as you flip the Aces as a group face up onto the pack. Immediately pick up all seven cards from above in your right hand (Figure 1, in which your right fingers cover the thickness of the