IV. POLÍTICA COMERCIAL
2) M EDIDAS DE POLÍTICA COMERCIAL
to you, glimpse the top card and note the face card in the apparent process of squaring the pack. Either one could be the predicted card and, if this is the case, there is no need to form a row on the table. In fact, this break occurred when Vernon first demonstrated the trick for Lewis Ganson in front of Al Koran and Fred Lowe.
Ganson said to Vernon: "You wrote a prediction on a cigarette paper and placed this on the table. Al Koran shuffled the pack (and made a thorough job of it!). You told him to turn over the top card - which happened to be the Six of Hearts. You then told him to turn over the cigarette packet which had been out of your reach since you wrote the prediction. Al himself read what you had written - 'The Six of Hearts.' It was a knockout."
If your predicted card is not on top or bottom, bold the deck face up on your upturned palm and instruct the spectator to cut the cards and complete the cut. Determine the identity of the cards now on top and bottom. This procedure has allowed you four chances and, as Gansen wrote: "It's surprising how often this can happen. However, we are not dependent on chance, and if luck is not with us our actions so far seem to have little importance, as we have merely displayed the pack, had it cut and displayed it again.''
Having the deck cut while face up is logical, because the cards are now spread in a face-up row across the table. Martin Gardner made this suggestion in the description of Joe Berg's A Miracle - Maybe: ''As you arrange the spread, find the (predicted) card and expose it slightly more than the other cards. Then to throw the spectator off guard, spread the cards at some other point so that another card is even more exposed. The spectator is now invited to move his hand back and forth over the row with his forefinger pointing at the cards, then to place his finger on one. On more occasions than the laws of chance would indicate, he will touch the card you have predicted.
If any other card is touched, you must quickly devise a fair-seeming method to count or spell, or somehow logically use the indicated card to reach the predicted card.
Berg's version requires you to force a card which the spectator does not look at. Rather, he marks it on the back and then shuffles it into the pack which is later spread face up on the table. (I have performed Berg's trick often since I first found it. I prefer to allow a free selection, then position a key card above it before the pack is spread face up.)
Gardner wrote: "Remember that in all these cases you have a leeway of three cards. That is:
FACE-UP PREDICTION 27
"1. You can begin the count (or spelling) on the card which you slid forward, and end the count on the originally chosen card.
"2. You can begin on the card, finish the count, then take the next one.
"3. You can ignore the card slid forward, beginning your count on the next card, then after the count take the next card also."
In
The Feints and Tempsof Harry Riser
(1996), Ed Brown explained The Poker Lesson; part of Riser's gambling demonstration required a process similar to that used in Face-Up Prediction. Brown wrote: " ... in that detailed instructions are impossible ... you have to use the circumstances that arise in order to create the effect." The reader can be assured that this trick can always be brought to a successful conclusion and, invariably, will be one of the most acclaimed tricks in any routine with cards.Although
it
may be daunting when it is first attempted before an audience, as Stewart once said to me, "You just do it!"The Book Of The Dead
Marketed
by
Abbott}, 193 9tewart discovered The Transposed Cards in Walter Gibson's Popular Card Tricks
(1928) and became instantly fascinated with the principle that resided within. This was his first release to take advantage of the Transposed Cards principle, and he came up with a dandy. The ads had stressed there was no forcing, calculation, memory work, alternative conclusions or additional accessories used, and claimed: ''The principle is so unique that you will amaze yourself."
As used here it isn't applicable to regular playing cards; the pages must have the same design or wording on each side so each has the same appearance regardless of which side is up. However, it dearly has great value in card tricks as will be proved further on.
Harlan Tarbell was impressed with it and said: "It completely fooled me. I intend to feature The Book Of The Dead in all my programs." Although it is a transposition of two pages in a book, Tarbell planned to make it up for stage use with cardboard tombstones.
For modern use, it may be appropriate to assemble it using the names of rock stars,
prematurely deceased, with the date of death and the title of an outstanding record of each. The performer should determine how macabre he dare be with a particular
audience.
Two other of Stewart's discoveries employing the Transposed Cards principle appear later in this volume: The Tenth Variation and Split Second. Both are brilliant inventions.
-0-
Two persons freely make mental selections of names on certain pages of a loose-leaf book. The magician handles the book briefly and manages to transpose the mentally selected pages.
At the magician's request, two volunteers step forward to assist him. We will call them Brown and Jones. Each is given two blank sheets of paper. Brown's are coloured and Jones's are white.
Each writes a number on one of his slips, any number less than 25. These numbers are 28
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
29
chosen secretly. Brown writes an odd number and Jones an even number so there can be no possibility of them using the same number.
A loose-leaf notebook, opening at the top, is on the table. One cover is clearly identified as the front, possibly by having the manufacturer's name on it, or some other imprint. The pages, fifty in number, are piled beside it. Each page bears the name of a different famous person, what he was noted for, and the year he died. Both sides of each page are identical.
Let us suppose the number written by Brown was 17 and Jones wrote 10. While the magician's back is turned, they place pages in the notebook equal to the total of the numbers they have written. In this case there will be twenty-seven pages to be placed in the notebook. Brown and Jones may select these pages from anywhere in the pile and
mix them about as much as they please before inserting them in the book. As the pages
are lettered with the name on both sides, it is impossible to get them upside down. The remaining pages are concealed.
At this time, the volunteers note the name of the persons on the pages whose positions in the book correspond with the numbers they have chosen. Brown may find that the name written on the page seventeenth from the front cover is William Shakespeare. Jones might read Victor Hugo's name on the tenth page. Each writes the name he has found on his remaining slip.
The magician is handed the book and he turns his back for a few brief seconds. Not a question is asked. Facing his audience again, the magician hands the book to a third volunteer whom we will designate as Smith.
Brown is requested to hand his numbered slip to Jones for which he receives Jones's numbered slip in return. Brown opens Jones's slip and announces the number, which you will recall was 10. Smith counts to page 10 and reads aloud the name thereon, William Shakespeare, the name Brown had secretly noted at the number on the slip now held by Jones. This is verified by his reading aloud the name on his second slip which he has retained.
Jones reads out Brown's number, which was 17. The name at that number is Victor Hugo, the name secretly noted by Jones at the number on the slip now held by Brown.