Giobbi's Invisible Card Routine Done With The Aronson Stack

 
    This month, we’ll look at a version Robert Giobbi’s very entertaining routine: “The Invisible Card.” You’ll find it on page 523 of Volume 3 of the “Card College” series of books. The routine has a very funny premise, and is also strong magically. In the original version, the deck is in random order, and you need to glimpse a card and then force it. Later, you’ll need to do a couple of Biddle steals. In this variation, the force is eliminated, but the deck is stacked. I use the Aronson Stack, and this explanation will assume that. You can, however, do this routine with any memorized deck.

            The routine leaves the deck in memorized stack order, so it can come prior to any other routine you’re planning with a memorized deck. And, doing this effect first helps to sell the random order of the cards. Begin by false shuffling the deck. Then, place it face down on the table in front of a spectator and ask that he cut the cards. If he does not do so, ask him to complete the cut as well. Point out to him that the card now on top of the deck could be any card, since he had a free choice to cut the deck wherever he wished. He can take that card, as his selection, or he can cut the deck again if he prefers. When he’s happy with the card, have him take it, look at it, remember it, and show it to other members of the audience. Caution him not to let you see it. As he’s doing this, pick up the deck and glimpse the bottom card. It’s probably best to use the all around square glimpse for the purpose. Next, undercut approximately half the deck, and hold a break below the card that you just glimpsed. The spectator’s card is one card “higher” in your memorized deck stack, so remember the card the spectator chose. For this example, lets assume that you glimpsed the 7D. That tells you that the spectator chose the 8C. (In Aronson stack order.) Ask the spectator to put the card face down on the table. Then state that you want to lose it in a small group. Cut the deck at your break and table the top half. Now remove four cards from the top of the deck and place them onto the spectator’s card. If all is well, the four cards you placed on the selection will be the 3S, AD, 7S, and 5S. (Numbers 17-20 in the Aronson Stack.) Have the spectator shuffle the packet of five cards, and when they’re mixed, he can hand them to you. Turn the packet of cards face up and cut the selected card to the center of the packet. You will now establish the comedy premise of the routine by explaining that you will try to determine which card is the chosen one by watching the spectators face as you ask a series of question. Explain that the spectator must do his best to keep a “poker face” and he must also answer no to everything that you ask him. Follow Giobbi’s routine to milk the fun out of this. When ready, you place the packet of five cards onto the half deck that you’ve been holding all of the time. The half-deck is face down, with the five-card packet face up on top. You then peel each card off into your left hand, one at a time. Each time you ask the spectator whether the card he sees is his card. He answers “No” each time. As you pull the third card (the chosen 8C) into your left hand on top of the two cards already there, hold a break under the 8C. As you come back to get card number four, you Biddle steal the 8C to the bottom of the entire packet, and come away pulling the fourth card into your left hand. After the fifth card is legitimately taken into your left hand, it is holding a group of four face up cards. The right hand is holding the half-deck in biddle position and the cards are face down except for the 8C which is face up on the bottom. Place this half-deck onto the other half of the deck that has been sitting face down on the table. This puts the selected card face up into the face down deck. You now finish the routine as in the Giobbi original except for one difference. After you take out the “Invisible” card, the packet of cards is shown to contain only four cards. Turn them face up to show that the selected card is no longer there. At this point, casually rearrange the cards into memorized deck order, as if just displaying the cards freely. Turn this packet face down and place it onto the deck on the table. Finish as in the Giobbi routine, by pretending to pick up the invisible card, and tossing it into the deck. It lands upside down. As proof, spread through the deck and show the 8C reversed in the center. Remove it and place it on either the top or bottom of the deck. The deck now needs only to be cut once, between cards 1 and 52, to return it to memorized deck order. If you keep a short card at position 1 or 52, this is easy to do.

            In Simon Aronson’s later book: “TRY THE IMPOSSIBLE,” on page 175 is a trick also called “The Invisible Card.” As in the Giobbi effect, one card becomes invisible and reappears reversed in the deck. However, in Simon’s version, the card is randomly selected by a spectator who simply names any card. Also, the card vanishes from the full deck, not from a small packet. Simon replaces the Biddle steal with another procedure for “vanishing” the card. I recommend that you also study Simon’s routine. There are two good reasons for doing so. First, you may prefer Simon’s handling of the effect. I like my version of the Giobbi routine a little better, because the original comedy premise is lots of fun, and because the vanish of the selected card from the small packet is much faster than looking through the entire deck. But, the other reason to look up Simon’s trick is that he has a great line that you can use in any of the versions outlined here. I’m not going to tell you, because I think you should have “Try the Impossible” in your library if you’re going to do memorized deck magic. The line is the sixth line of text on page 176.

            If you don’t have a copy of “Try the Impossible,” you can order it from Loomis Magic.

    Next month we’ll be looking Stephen Minsch’s “Eyeless in Gaza.” This is a full act with a deck of cards; the magician is legitimately blindfolded from start to finish. The original effect had it’s own stack, but we’ll see how to do it with the Aronson stack instead. That way, you can reset it quickly and easily without learning a new stack.

            As always, I'm happy to hear from other magicians that do memorized deck work. If you have any ideas, tips, or full routines that you'd like to contribute to this series, drop me a note at:

            deloomis@mindspring.com

UPDATED OCTOBER 15, 2004