John Bannon - Beyond Fabulous.pdf - J - animga

BEYOND FABULOUS

John Bannon

Effect: The four Aces are placed into different parts of the deck. The magician tells a

tale about four magicians discussing the "Mystery of the Four Aces." The first one says it

depends on surprise. The deck is spread face down to reveal a face-up Seven. The

magician deals down to the seventh card and finds the Ace of Clubs. The second

magician agrees, but says the surprise should be more direct. The deck is spread face

down a second time to reveal a face-up Ace of Diamonds. The third magician casts a

magic spell, then spells and deals to the Ace of Hearts. The fourth magician explains

that the "mystery" is about "total mastery of the cards." He separates and eliminates

cards several times, until there are four piles on the table and only one card in his hand.

This card turns out to be the Ace of Spades. Then the top cards of the other piles are

turned face up to reveal the other four cards (Ten, Jack, Queen, and King) comprising a

Royal Flush in Spades!

Set-up: Cull the Ten, Jack, Queen, and King of Spades and place them in the following

order from the face: Ten of Spades, Jack of Spades, indifferent card, Queen of Spades,

indifferent card, indifferent card, indifferent card, King of Spades, rest of the deck.

Remove the four Aces and place them in the face-up row in this order from left to right:

Ace of Clubs-Ace of Diamonds-Ace of Hearts-Ace of Spades. If you are conversant with

secret culling techniques, this minor set-up can be made when you cull and remove the

four Aces at the outset.

Method: Say, "I once saw a bunch of magicians sitting around discussing the secrets

and mysteries of a trick using these four Aces." Point out the face-up Aces on the table

and hold the deck face up in your left hand. Casually spread nine cards by quickly

pushing over three units of three cards each with your left thumb. Momentarily take

them into your right hand, which then flips them sidewise to the left (book-wise) and onto

your left thumb which prevents the packet from falling flush with the talon. Now your

right hand grasps this packet from above and by the ends and places it directly below

the Ace of Clubs.

Continue spreading cards and after about eight cards have been pushed over, watch for

a Six or Seven. Suppose you sight the Seven of Clubs. As soon as it comes into view,

spread the Seven of Clubs just enough to obtain a left pinky break below it. The rest of

the left-hand cards should be more or less squared. Flip all the cards to the right of the

Seven face down sideways on top it. When they coalesce and drop, immediately pick

up all the cards above the break in a right-hand Biddle Grip. Place them face down

directly below the Ace of Diamonds. Unknown to the audience, the Seven of Clubs is

face up at the bottom of this squared packet.

Spread another nine cards into your right hand and repeat the flip-over used earlier for

the first packet. Place this nine-card packet face down directly below the Ace of Hearts.

Square the remaining cards, flip them face down, and place them directly below the Ace

of Spades. To make the next actions lucid, the four packets are designated A, B, C, and

D (from left to right).

Say, "The mystery always began by losing the Aces into the deck.” Pick up Packet A and

fan it face down. Hold the fan in your left hand as your right hand picks up the Ace of

Clubs and inserts it face down and above the third card from the bottom of the fan. Push

it flush, square up, and hold the packet face down in your left hand.

Pick up the Ace of Diamonds, show it, and place it face down on Packet A. Pick up

Packet B with your right hand and drop it face down onto Packet A, thus "burying" the

Ace of Diamonds. Continue, "Each goes into a different place." Pick up the Ace of

Hearts with your right hand and place it face down on Packet C, then drop the left-hand

cards on top to "bury" the Ace of Hearts. Finally, pick up the Ace of Spades with your

right hand and place it face down on Packet D. Place the larger, combined portion on top

of Packet D to "bury" the Ace of Spades.

This procedure should be done quickly and with certain nonchalance, giving the

impression that it does not matter how the Aces are lost; the process seemingly

haphazard and without design. The pick-up and reassembling process may seem a little

confusing at first, but practice will make matters clear.

At this stage, the reversed Seven of Clubs is about fifteenth from the top of the face-

down deck. Bannon centralizes it by performing a Charlier Cut with one hand, cutting at

the natural back-to-back break. This maneuvers the reversed Seven of Clubs to the

bottom. He then tables the deck and asks a spectator to perform a single, straight cut.

Pick up the deck and hold it face down, saying, "One magician thought that the secret of

this mystery was surprise." Ribbon-spread the deck face down from left to right to reveal

the face-up Seven of Clubs in the center. Grasp the left end of the spread with your left

hand and slide it to the right until your left thumb contacts the face-up Seven of Clubs.

Retain the squared cards (including the Seven of Clubs) in your left hand and use them

to flip all the cards still spread to the right face up. When these cards turn, they are

caught by your right hand, which squares and tables them face up.

Say, "The surprise is that the face-up card isn't an Ace." Pick up the portion with the

Seven of Clubs on top and hold it in a dealing grip. Continue, "This is an indicator card."

Apparently take and transfer the Seven of Clubs to the face-up tabled portion. In reality,

grasp the top two cards from above and by the ends with your right hand, and then

transfer this "double" as a single card. Continue, “It seems to indicate that something

went wrong. Actually it indicates that I'm to deal to the seventh card."

Deal six cards face up onto the tabled portion, then turn the seventh card face up to

reveal the Ace of Clubs. Place it face up to the table Pick up the tabled portion with your

right hand and flip it face clown onto the left-hand cards. Say, “The deck was handed to

another magician, who said, 'I think mysteries like this should be direct. If I want an Ace

to turn face up, I'll simply do this.'" Snap your fingers over the deck and ribbon-spread it

face down from left to right to reveal a face-up Ace of Diamonds, adding, "There it is.

And you can't get much more direct than that!"

Place you left hand at the left end of the spread as you did earlier and scoop up all the

cards to the left of the face-up Ace of Diamonds (including the Ace of Diamonds). Leave

the spread to the right on the table as you square the rest. Deal the Ace of Diamonds

face up to the table, then place the left-hand cards onto the tabled portion. Pick up the

assembled cards and square up. The preceding action has the same result as a straight

cut.

While holding the deck face down in your left hand, say, “A third magician took the cards

and said, 'I prefer to be more mysterious. I like to pass my hand over the cards and cast

a magic spell.'" Wave your right hand over the deck, then add , “Do you know why we call

it a magic spell? It's because we can now spell to an Ace." Deal eleven cards face down

to the table and audibly spell A-C-E-0-F-H-E-A-R-T-S. Turn the top card of the dealt

portion face up to reveal the Ace of Hearts. Toss it face up onto the other Aces.

Continue, "The deck was handed to me. By the way, if you think about it, the revelations

of the Aces were progressively more difficult, more puzzling, more magical. There are

fewer and fewer Aces to find.” As you utter this innocuous line, spread the top four cards

into your right hand, casually flash their faces, and place them on the bottom of the deck.

Do not omit this displacement. Pick up the dealt cards with your right hand and drop

them on top of the deck, continuing, "There is only one Ace left to reveal, but I decided to

show them something even more bizarre."

Table the deck face down and cut off at least twenty cards with your right hand, holding

them in a Biddle Grip. Say, "Some magicians can cut to the Ace." Show the bottom

(face) card and ask, "Did I get it?" When the audience says "no," spread the cards with

the faces toward the audience and ask, 'Was I close?" The audience can see the Ace of

Spades in the spread. Close the spread and hold the cards face down in your left hand

in readiness to perform a Backward or Reverse Faro.

You will repeat this Reverse Faro three times. Each shuffle begins by outjogging the

first card. The next card stays where it is, then the third card is outjogged, the fourth

stays where it is, the fifth is outjogged, and so on until you reach the last card. Strip out

the outjogged cards with your right hand. You are now holding about ten cards in each

hand. (The exact amount of cards in each packet will vary, depending on the initial

amount of cards cut off.) You always discard the left-hand portion; however, ask the

spectator to point to one of the portions.

Eliminate the right-hand packet by using equivoque. Example: If they point to the right-

hand portion, say, "Okay. We will discard this one and keep the other one.” If they point

to the left-hand portion, say, "Okay, we will keep this one!” Place the eliminated packet

on the table to your left. Thereafter, place each eliminated portion to the right of the

previous one to form a row. In other words, deal the discarded portions from right to left.

By the way, the top card of the first discarded packet will be the Ten of Spades.

Repeat the Backward Faro and ask the spectator to choose. Eliminate the right-hand

portion and table it. The top card of this portion will be the Jack of Spades. Repeat the

process a third time. The discarded cards will number only three. The top card will be

the Queen of Spades. This leaves two cards, the King of Spades (top) and Ace of

Spades (bottom). Take the Ace of Spades in your right hand, the King of Spades in your

left hand. Eventually table the King of Spades and say, "Believe it or not, I knew that we

would end up with the last Ace!” Place the Ace of Spades face up at the left end of the

row.

The audience will assume that the effect is over. Say, "I repeat: I knew this would

happen. I knew this would happen because I have complete mastery over the cards.”

Successively turn the top cards of the other tabled packets face up to reveal a Royal

Flush in Spades. Say, "That is a poker hand hard to beat!”

Links: Henry Christ's Ace trick is familiar to well-posted cardmen. According to Howie

Schwarzman, it was slated for the original Stars of Magic series but the series stopped

before it could be included. It was later given to Schwarzman, who published it in

Professional Card Magic ( 1961) under the title, "Henry Christ's Fabulous Ace Routine."

Henry Christ told me that the method for secretly reversing a card given on p.50 of that

book is incorrect, a claim corroborated by others. Unfortunately, Christ never published

his reverse, but others subsequently reinvented and published it. What purports to be

the actual method used by Christ was published in Karl Fulves' Epilogue No.20 (1974)

as "H.C. Aces." A similar routine (with minor embellishments) was published in Frank

Garcia's Exclusive Card Miracles (1980) as "Henry Christ's Pinnacle 4 Ace Trick," p.

59. Finally, Alex Elmsley's method, "Arab Roto-Pack," was published in Stephen

Minch's The Collected Works of Alex Elmsl ey, Volume II (1994), and p.365. Bannon's

method, in part, is based on Christ's motif and Simon Aronson's "Meditations on the

Christ Aces" from Sessions (1982), p. 112. (Bannon borrowed Aronson's procedure,

which eliminates the need for displacements and undercutting. Aronson controls the

number of cards composing the third packet, which permits more flexibility in

determining outcomes.) The last part integrates Lin Searles’ "Moracle," published in

Pallbearers Review (Volume 6, No.9: July – 1971).

John Bannon - Beyond Fabulous.pdf

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