UNDER THE STAIRS. Copyright Dean Atkinson 2004. conjuring tricks to amaze your friends and annoy the neighbours
Effect
The performer riffles through the deck requesting that a spectator calls stop at any time she likes. The card that is thus stopped at will be remembered as the selection.
The performer proposes that with a simple snap of his fingers this card will magically rise to the top of the deck. He snaps his fingers and turns over the top card revealing it to be a Jack. The spectator is asked if this was her card to which she replies that it is not. Never fear, the Jacks will be used to locate the whereabouts of said card and the remaining three of them will rise visually to the top bringing the selection with them. The first jack is turned face down and inserted into the end of the deck. The deck is now given a gentle riffle and another face up Jack appears from nowhere on the top. It is noticed however that these Jacks have failed to bring with them, the selection. The Jacks are now placed, for safe- keeping, with the first, stuck out the end of the deck.
With these cards still in place the performer cuts the cards bringing a completely new card to the top. Maybe this could be the selection? It is turned over and discovered to be yet another Jack. Something’s up! The performer points out that there could not possibly be more than four Jacks in one deck and so he sets aside the previous jacks by thumbing them face down to the table. The fifth Jack is now placed beneath the spectators palm so we can keep it under lock and key for later. The deck is placed aside and the first four jacks are picked up in the hands. A magical gesture is made over these cards and they somehow transform into the three of a kind that correspond with the original selection.
The card between the spectator’s palms is revealed to have somehow transformed into the selection itself.
Method
This is arguably the hardest trick in the booklet. This coupled with the fact that it also requires a face- up/ face- down set up means that I very rarely perform it. I am including it here as I think it has tremendous impact and is an example of good design structure. I would also love to see someone else work it up and show to me at some point.
The set up from the top down is as follows;
Face down Jack/face down X card/three face- up Jacks/face down Tens/
A fourth finger break is taken blow the lowermost card of the set up, a Ten. This card is then riffle forced upon the spectator. In the execution of this force care must be taken not to expose the face up nature of the cards above the force card. For this reason the riffling process must begin at a point lower than the set up with the cards being split, as per normal, within the secret break. The force card is on the face of the packet you split in the right hand and it is displayed to the spectator for her to memorise it. This packet is much smaller than it should be so you have to make sure you keep the packet angled up at all times during the showing of the face card and then angle it and the deck downward when replacing the packet on top.
The Ten has now been forced and the pack is still in the same order. The riffle force is the only force that will work here as the set up needs to be the same before and after the card has been selected.
You now talk about how you are going to make the selection rise to the top of the deck. Snap the fingers and turn over the uppermost Jack. This is revealed to be the wrong card. No matter, you will use the other Jacks to advantage. These cards will help you locate the whereabouts of the card in question. You talk about how the Jacks are a bit like Jacks in the Box and how the deck itself will project them to the top bringing the selection with them. At this point you grasp the first Jack by it’s right long side and revolve it face down. The Jack is now placed face-up into the end of the deck
Note that the card must be angled quite considerably to the left for the following actions to be effective.
The left fingers now establish a break below the top card of the deck and pass this card quickly to the bottom. It is possible for a pass to be executed as the out-jogged card is angled slightly to the left enabling the correct grip to be established. To the audience it appears as if the remaining three Jacks have appeared instantly on top, face-up to boot. You spread these face-up cards to the right somewhat to see if they have brought the selection with them. They have not but you use this action to get a break beneath the sixth card from the top of the deck. This is the third of the Tens. The cards are pushed back over to a squared position and a break is maintained beneath them. You will now carry out a version of the Daryl emergency change to switch the Jacks for the Tens as follows. Grasp the six card packet between the thumb and fingers of the right hand and start to move them to the right.
As the cards start to clear the deck the deck itself is flipped over on to them but the packet stays face-up in as much that the Jacks remain face-up and the Tens remain face-down.
Once the packet is flush with the deck the left fingers re-grip it and the right hand can let go. At this point the deck is turned completely over so that the out-jogged card is face-down. At this point, in the original Daryl move there is a brief pause after which the deck is revolved to show a different face. If we were to do this now the Tens would show and it would appear as though the Jacks had instantly transformed into them. Instead of that we will use the concept of the move as a delayed switch. The deck stays exactly where it is and the left thumb pushes over the first of the Tens underneath. The right fingers move around the front of the deck and take the face down card, which everyone assumes to be a Jack. The left thumb then thumbs over the other Tens one at a time as the right fingers take them on top of one another. These cards are now inserted below the existing out-jogged Jack and allowed to be squared behind it. The deck is now turned over and a Jack is again seen. The audience have no choice but to assume the other three Jacks are behind it. The actual Jacks are face down on top of the deck.
You now explain how you will have to resort to manual labour to find the selection as the magic Jacks do not seem to be responding. A break is now taken beneath the top two cards (Jacks) and they are double undercut to the bottom of the deck. This action serves as your trying to find the card yourself.
The Top card (final Jack) is now turned over to which you express some concern. There are not meant to be five Jacks in a deck! The Jack is turned face down and so is the deck. You will now carry out a top change to exchange the Jack for the next card (selected Ten) This action is covered by the left hand moving to the table to unload the out-jogged cards thereon.
The hand moves to this position seconds after the top change has been made and the actual exchanged card, which is held at the right fingertips, is placed to the right of the now tabled packet. The spectator is asked to place her hand on to the single Jack (selection). At this point the left wrist turns palm up again and another Jack is seen at the face of the deck! To create yet another interesting display of ‘All Jacks’ you could also carry out the old move of tossing the entire deck minus the top and bottom cards, which are held back due to friction, from the right hand to the left. During this a few more Jacks will be seen giving the illusion that Jacks are appearing from nowhere. For what reason this is happening I don’t know as it has absolutely nothing to do with the trick but it looks good and its funny. .
Let us talk for a moment about the current audience assumption. The audience believes that the small pile of cards upon the table contains four Jacks and that the card in between her hands is a fifth card that matches one of these Jacks. The reality of the situation is that the pile consists of three Tens with one single Jack at the face and the card between the palms is actually the selection.
What you will now do is transform the apparent Jack plie into three of the Tens. This is accomplished by means of my packet snap change described in more detail in the lecture. You may also remember how I discussed a way of switching cards in preparation for this move by means of the my face up addition switch. This switch is described in detail during the explanation for the effect Money described earlier in the booklet. Suffice to say that the four card packet on the left side of the table is now picked up and held face out to the audience. A Jack shows on he face re-enforcing the earlier illusion that the packet consists entirely of Jacks. The mechanics of a Marlo snap change are now executed. The packet is held by the fore and index finger on the face (towards the bottom of the cards) with the thumb on the back. The index finger is now pulled downwards and in the same action the face card is pulled around the back of the packet.
The other cards fan out naturally creating a perfect illusion of a four for four change. The major exception to this particular handing of the move is that there are more than two cards in play. Although the basic handling is almost exactly the same the illusion of this change is much greater than usual. Because of the previous switch and the nature of it’s delayed action you appear to have done a lot more than you actually have with the snap change The psychology of the audience is that these cards are all Jacks and so the transformation of them into three Tens is most deceptive indeed.
The Tens can now be flopped backwards and on to the secret card in order that this card be tidied up somewhat. The entire packet is then dropped face up on to the deck. The Jack will then become dissolved into face down cards. You ask the spectator if these cards remind her of her previous selection. She hopefully says yes and discovers this card beneath her hand. This final moment should not be considered an anti-climax by the way as it is arguably the strongest part of the entire routine.
This routine can be found between the pages of my lecture Notes
'Conjuring Tricks to Amaze Your Friends and Annoy The Neighbours'
I own full copyright on the published routine but please feel free to use the effect.
Notice how I put all of the photos at the top of the post (completely out of sequence to boot) so that only serious people would bother to skip back and forth. In the explanation I describe this efffect as something I very rarely do. A Lot has changed in the two years since I wrote the booklet. I have made quite a few design changes to Under The Stairs and now use it ALL the time. Please think of me when you perform it and credit me correctly if any of your magic friends ask who it belongs to.
The notes can be purchase through my website or by emailing me on dean.atkinson@themagicstore.com.au
This routine along with a couple of others from those notes will be included on my DVD (Magic Without Rabbits) to be released later this year.
I intend to post a few more here fopr your own pleasure though.
