MEMORIZED DECK MAGIC
Loomis additions to Louis Histed and Simon Aronson's
Histed Heisted
The Second in a series of articles by Dennis Loomis
The topic this time is Simon Aronson and Louis Histed’s
effect Histed Heisted. This has become
one of my favorite stand-up mentalism demonstrations. It requires only a
deck of cards, an envelope, and a pair of scissors, and so requires little
room in the prop case. But, it plays “big” and can be used in good-sized
theatres as well as much smaller venues.
It
is not my intention to describe the working of the effect. For that, you’ll
need to consult the book Bound to Please
by Simon Aronson. Briefly, here’s what happens in the original Louis Histed
routine. A deck of cards in introduced and small packets of cards are passed
out to several spectators. Each one shuffles his packet and then mentally
selects one of the cards from his packet. The cards are collected by one
spectator who shuffles the entire deck and returns it to the performer. The
performer reads off the cards, in their shuffled sequence, pausing from time
to time to read the minds of some of the spectators until all of the cards
mentally selected have been revealed. It’s a baffling routine, but Simon realized
that what it needed, for dramatic satisfaction, was an ending. His solution
to this was to have a prediction sealed in an envelope. He reveals the final
card thought of by opening the envelope and having the prediction read aloud.
It is the selected card. This addition takes a very good effect into the
miracle class, in my opinion.
Bound to Please - Simon Aronson $28.00
However, the envelope with the prediction cannot be put on display
at the beginning of the routine. It is produced from one of your pockets
right at the end and just before it’s opened and read by a spectator. I also
do not like routines where the spectator is “in charge” at the climax. This
handling requires that a spectator read the prediction. (Obviously you cannot
do it yourself.) Some may do a good job of this, but many will not. And, for
larger venues you will have to get a microphone to the spectator, or have
him come to the stage so that he can use the mike and be heard. I would rather
be alone center stage for the climax of my routines whenever possible.
I think I’ve solved both of these problems nicely. The envelope
is placed on display right at the beginning of the routine. It can be hung
on a clip on the curtain, or clipped to the microphone stand. The prediction
inside is not written. It's a card from a different deck, and needs
only to be removed from the envelope and displayed. I realize that in larger
venues the people way in back may not be able to see the card, but they
do know that the folks up front can see it, and that establishes for them
that it is correct.
And, there are actually two envelopes, one large and one small.
The smaller one is sealed within the larger one. At the end of the routine,
I cut open the large envelope with the scissors and withdraw the smaller
one. I show the inside of the large envelope to the people in front. Then the small envelope is cut open and a single playing
card. It is the card that the spectator mentally selected. To accomplish this,
one of the traditional tools of the mentalist is used, the double envelope.
In fact, three of them are used for the routine. (See Notes One and Three
for alternatives that eliminates the nest of two envelopes.) You need to
be able to show any one of five playing cards at the climax of the routine.
In Histed Heisted, the fifth spectator will
be looking at the following cards: 9S, 7D, 7H, 10C and 4C. These are cards
5, 15, 25, 35, and 45 in the Aronson Stack. You need to be able to display
any one of them. To accomplish this, the 9S is in one side of one of the
small envelopes, and the 10C is in the other side of the same envelope.
This envelope is, in turn, placed into one side of the large double envelope.
The second small envelope has the 7H in one side, and in the other side
is a double face card with the 4C and 7D back to back. The double face card
comes in the normal double face deck of Bicycle Cards.
During Histed Heisted, you will,
at some point find out which card that spectator five thought of. At that
point, you just make a mental note of it and ask the spectator if he/she
would mind waiting until the end as you have something special in mind for
them. After all of the other cards have been identified, you now come back
to this spectator. You remind them of the envelope that you put on display
at the very beginning, and cut off the appropriate end to access the appropriate
inner envelope. It’s withdrawn, and the large envelope shown empty. You now
cut off the appropriate end of this small envelope. Three times out of five
when you perform the routine, the card accessed will be a normal playing
card with a back. You can withdraw it and handle it freely, even flashing
the back. Twice in five performances, you will access the double face card.
Simply pull out the card with the appropriate face showing and place it onto
the envelope. This conceals the other card face on the back and you can handle
and display the envelope and card quite freely. After using this method for
a while, I came up with a different method which requires just one double
envelope. It's described below.
I’ve got one other touch on this routine to share. As you know if
you do the effect, you create the impression that each spectator gets a small
random number of cards at the beginning. But that’s not true. Each spectator
participating must receive exactly five cards, and you simply sight count
the groups as you pass them out. This is not difficult, but in my practices
and once in a performance, I accidentally gave a spectator an extra card.
This throws off the routine, and problems can result. I lucked out in the
show I had the error creep in and only one card thought of could not be
properly determined. Perhaps this added a touch of believability. But, I
did not want this to ever happen again. And so, I used a card punch to mark
every fifth card in the stack. Those cards are the bottom card of each of
the packets I point out. Now, as I’m passing out the packets, I feel the
bottom card of each group, and I know that I’ve gotten exactly five cards.
This makes for confidence during the performance.
If you do not have a card punch, I recommend that you
visit the Web Site of James Riser at: http://www.jamesriser.com
He
makes and sells two excellent punches. And I’m sure you’ll enjoy browsing
his site. He makes many wonderful magic props, including some of the nicest
Cups and Balls you’ve ever seen.
If you don't want to use a punch, there are other ways to mark a
card so that you can identify it by touch. See the section on “locators”
on Daryl’s Encyclopedia of Card Sleights videos for a bewildering array of
choices.
The double envelopes that I use were designed many years ago for
an effect I marketed called The Triple Prophecy Box.
If you would like a sample of the envelope along with a set of instructions
on how to make it up, send $10.00 to:
Dennis Loomis
621 Victoria
Court
Bay Point,
CA 94565
I can accept either a personal check or a money order. I’ll send
it out, First Class, when I receive your order. If you prefer Priority Mail
shipping, include an extra $4.05. You may want to go ahead and order my
effect: Mentalism 101. For $25.00, with free shipping, you'll received a
gaffed deck of cards, an instructional DVD, and a sample of the double
envelope. On the DVD are very clear instructions on how to make the envelope.
You can read about it here:
Mentalism
101 - Dennis Loomis $25.00
The double envelope has numerous uses in magic and mentalism, of
course.
NOTE ONE
If you like, you can eliminate the outer double envelope by using
a Himber Wallet. Simply put one double envelope in each side of the wallet,
and put the wallet on display at the beginning of the effect. It’s nice to
open the wallet up and show the envelope inside when you first put it on
display. At the climax, just open to the appropriate side of the wallet and
remove the envelope within.
NOTE TWO
If you do not wish to purchase a full deck of double face cards,
it’s easy enough to make the 4C/7D up yourself. Since no one will handle
it other than you, it’s not really necessary to split the cards. Just glue
the normal 4C and 7D back to back and use the double thickness card.
NOTE THREE
I
used to do this using just one double envelope and four special cards. For
this version, the second spectator selection is removed from the envelope
at the climax of the routine. That spectator will receive these five cards:
KC, 5H, AH, 10D, and 9H. These are cards 2, 12, 22, 32, and 42 in the Aronson
Stack. In one side of the double envelope is a double face card with the
KC on one side and the 10D on the other. On the other side of the double
envelope is a special 3-way card. It also is a double facer and has the 9H
on one side. On the back of the same card is a double ended card with the
AH on one end, and the 5H on the other. If the spectator thinks of either
the AH or 5H, the card is displayed, but the lower 1/3 is covered with your
fingertips. This can be done because the center heart pip is “mutual” to both
the Five and the Ace. I had Neil Lester of Cards by Martin produce a batch
of these cards, mostly for my own use. But, if you'd like to get one, here's
a link to the page:
Histed Heisted Special Card $2.00@
NOTE FOUR
If you do not own a copy of BOUND
TO PLEASE, I recommend it very highly. In it you’ll learn the full
workings of Histed Heisted, of course,
but there are many other wonderful card routines. And, this book is the
logical starting point if you wish to begin your journey into the wonderful
world of memorized deck magic. Simon’s complete stack is explained, along
with the mnemonic associations used to memorize the deck in the first place.
Bound to Please - Simon Aronson $28.00
August 8, 2005
Histed
Heisted came up as a topic on the Magic Cafe recently. In response to what
several other posted, I shared the following. Some day I'll come back and
rewrite this entire article in a more coherent form, but for now, here's
the posting I did on the Cafe which contains some new ideas not mentioned
above:
I
think it's important, in Histed Heisted, that the audience thinks you are
just passing out random sized small packets of cards. The fact that each
spectator gets the same number of cards is a slight hint as to the method.
Simon's patter helps. Even though it's easy to hand out five cards to each
spectator, you should practice this a bit so that it's very fast and easy.
I push off a clump of three cards, and then two more quickly as I'm moving
to each spectator. For a while I used a card punch to punch the top card of
each group of five except the first. That way, I can check to see that I
gave exactly five to each spectator as I'm proceeding to the next. However,
I like to give the deck out to the spectator that shuffles the full deck to
keep, and if I plan to do that, the punch work is not a good idea.
I just keep the two extra cards in the box when I start, and when the
effect is concluded, I put the deck in the box, completing it.Then I give
it out as a present.
I've never had anyone pick up on the fact that the cards I'm calling out
are not the cards in my hand at the time. But there are two factors involved
here. You must be absolutely on top of your memorized deck so that there
is not the slighest hesitation as you call the cards. That would be suspicious.
And, of course this is ACTING. You have to be convincing.
The method on my web site allows you to put the envelope in view at the
beginning. I think it strengthens Simon's finale a bit, but his contribution
is the recognition that the effect requires an ending. (Which was actually
suggested to him by his friend David Solomon.) Doing it his way is still
much stronger than the Histed Original which lacks the ending.
As to whether it's dull or that it drags. The effect is not boring...
the performer might be. Work briskly and have fun with it and so will the
audience. It you are still struggling with the memorized deck, you're going
to be stressed out as you do it, and the audience will pick up on that.
The hardest part may be keeping track of the spectators when seating is
rather informal or haphazard. I try to get a look at the audience before
the show and figure out the ten people I'm going to use. I also find something
noticable about spectator number six. They may be wearing a bright color,
some unique piece of jewelry, etc. When the spectators from 6 to 10 raise
their hand, you don't have to count from spectator one, you can start from
6.
When you have formal theatre seating, it's very easy to keep track of
your helpers. But, occasionally you may find someone that doesn't want to
participate. This can mess you up, trying to remember the "gaps" in your
group of spectators as you look out at the first row of the audience. To
minimize this problem, don't tell the group what you are planning to do
in advance. Just say that you need several people to "Hold" a small group
of cards. Then walk out into the audience and pass out the cards. Most people
will instinctively just take anything that's handed to them. Don't ever ask
if they want to participate. Don't give them the choice and things should
go well.
Another little tip. It's easy to forget where you are in the routine,
especially when you first start to do it. You may be looking at two raised
hands, and you're not sure if you are in the "thirties" or "forties" if
you know what I mean. What I do to help with this is to keep the blocks
of cards I've already used in my right hand. So, I can tell by feel, that
there are thirty cards in my right hand, and twenty cards in my left, for
example. Since you're dealing with blocks of ten cards it's not hard to tell
from the feel where you're at if you have spaced out.
I like using the cross referencing principal (Or "Princess" principal)
with a memorized deck. The lack of any "crib" make the effect very clean
and allows you to focus on the presentation.
Of course, this effect, and all magic or mentalism routines should be
done for the appropriate audience. It's certainly not for a drinking crowd.
And it's clearly not a kid's trick. It's best for an intelligent audience.
If I had learned the Aronson Stack only to do this one effect, it would
have been well worth the effort.
Dennis Loomis
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UPDATED OCTOBER 7, 2006 |
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Copyright 2004 by Dennis Loomis
