More years ago than either of us would care to admit, my pal Gene Anderson and I worked together on a routine he was putting together using the Si Stebbins Stack. Gene has honed and polished his presentation over the years, and has also published it. He sells it at his magic lectures and you can get a copy directly from him Gene at gene4864@earthlink.net, or even better, just send a check for $6 to Gene Anderson, 3309 Isabella St, Midland, MI 48640. If you’re not in the U.S., better check with him first to see how much shipping will be. Gene would be the first to admit that he’s not really a card magician. But this routine is one of the strongest things I’ve ever seen done with a deck of cards. To lay people, who see this, Gene is a GREAT card worker. And, it’s fooled a lot of magicians who should know better.

            My contribution to Gene’s routine was to suggest the ending. The effect he uses as the final phase was created by Nick Trost. Nick wrote it up in his TOPS column about 1970. One year, when I was performing close up at the annual one-day magic convention in Galion, Ohio, Nick was in the audience. I performed this effect, and afterwards Nick not only complimented me on it, but also wanted to know where it came from! When I reminded him that it was one of his own creations, we both had a good laugh. (I wish that I had created so much strong magic that I might forget one of my routines.) That also reminded him to include it in his book: The Card Magic of Nick Trost published in 1997. It’s called the Automatic Lie Speller and you can find it on page 155.

            What I want to address here is the body of Gene’s routine, prior to the Nick Trost ending. While I love the routine, there are some distinct advantages gained by doing it with a memorized deck instead of the Si Stebbins setup.

            Gene’s full patter is in his booklet, and I encourage you to get it from him. It’s a delightfully simple way to present a series of card revelations and it’s based on the senses of sight and sound. It begins with the old saw: The hand is quicker than the eye. The routine is in five phases. In phase one Gene quickly has a card selected and he openly looks through the deck, claiming that he doesn’t see one particular card. Of course the one he names is the one the spectator is holding. He repeats this two or three times. It’s fast and very strong for magicians and lay people alike. First, he dispels any idea of a stack with a quick Haymow or Erdnase False Shuffle. (Later I’ll explain my apparently unique handling of this.) A spectator takes one card, and Gene cuts the deck at this spot. However, the cut is done quickly and smoothly and at the same time that the spectator is showing the card around. I’ve Gene seen fool some knowledgeable card magicians because they don’t see the cut of the cards. Now when Gene looks through the deck, the card adjacent to the selection is right on the bottom of the deck. Since the selected card is one higher in the Stebbins stack, that’s the card he names. This is just as fast and easy with a memorized deck, of course. And, Gene cannot openly spread through the deck because that would reveal the red black alternation of the cards. With a memorized deck, like the Aronson stack, this is not a problem. So, in my handling, I initially spread the cards face up, commenting that they’re already well mixed, but to be sure, we’ll shuffle them some more. Then I do my handling of the Erdnase shuffle.

            As soon as the named card is confirmed, Gene retrieves the card and replaces it on either the top or bottom of the stack. This is repeated two or three times, working very rapidly.

            The second phase of the routine is actually just like the first mechanically; it’s just that Gene apparently determines the identity of the selected card by listening to the deck as he riffles down it with his thumb. Apparently he does not look at the cards at all. Actually, as the card is being shown around, Gene cuts the deck at the spot where the card is withdrawn, and glimpses it as he brings it up to his ear. With the deck along side his ear, Gene makes a big show of not looking at the cards at all. Of course, with the brief glimpse, he can determine the selected card. The strength of this phase is very much dependent on convincing the audience that the cards are not looked at. Timing is critical. Practice the cut and glimpse action and bringing the deck up to your ear so that it is all one continuous action. Gene also does this phase two or three times, working very quickly. I recently saw Gene do this for a group of very knowledgeable magicians and afterwards one confided to me that they thought he was doing a classic force!

            In phase 3, Gene shows that he can determine how many cards are in a cut off portion of the deck. Ostensibly it’s done by listening to the sound of the individual clicks made when the packet is riffled next to his ear. This phase is quite strong, but requires some quick calculating. Gene simplifies things by cutting the cards himself, and, by cutting near the center of the deck. I’m not going to explain the calculations used to determine the number of cards in a packet when the deck is in SS order. I am going to suggest that if you have a memorized deck, this becomes much stronger. First, you can have a spectator cut off the block of cards for you. It can contain any number, but when you site the bottom card of the packet, its stack number tells you instantly how many cards are in the packet. Gene will cover the thinking time by riffling down the packet with his thumb fairly slowly, and if he’s not ready, he will riffle through a second time. It’s still a strong effect in his hands, but if you’ve already memorized a deck it can be much stronger and certainly a lot easier to do.

            I always have the top card in my Aronson Stack belly or scallop shorted. This makes it easy to cut the deck back to starting order at any time. So, in the first two phases the deck gets cut several times, and is apparently shuffled. Just before I go into phase three, I just cut the cards at the short and I’m all set.

            Again, some of the strength of this phase is that you do not apparently look at any cards. While I have a spectator cut the packet off for me, I misdirect my glimpse at the bottom card. As I reach out to take the packet from the spectator, I ask him if he can tell by the weight how many cards the packet contains. As I finish the question, I have the packet in my hands, and as he responds, all eyes go to him briefly. At this moment I get my glimpse and continue bringing the cards right up alongside my ear. I mimic Gene’s action of not looking at the cards as I “count” the clicks.

            Gene will sometimes repeat this phase, and the second time he again cuts the cards himself and tries to cut exactly ¼ of the deck. Since he will probably only be off by a card or two, the calculations are quite simple. I almost always repeat this phase and again have a spectator cut off a packet and hand it to me. Again, no calculations are required; your memorization work pays off with an effortless performance.

            In the fourth phase, Gene now shows that he can locate any card named by listening to the sounds the cards make as he again riffles them alongside his ear. A spectator names any card they wish, Gene picks up the deck, listens, and then announces that the card is number 22. (Or whatever.) If you’ve tried to do this with the Si Stebbins deck, you know that the calculations are a little tricky. Again, the memorized deck makes this so very easy to accomplish. I usually give the deck another Haymow shuffle before this phase, and then cut at the short card. So now when a card is named, I simply name its stack number as the location and then count down to it. No glimpse is required, of course. Gene will often repeat this phase, and I do too. But the second time, I do it a bit differently.  I take out a pocket-handkerchief and blindfold myself before the spectator names the card. I then name the stack number, and count the cards down onto the table still blindfolded until I get to the card. I drop the rest of the deck to the table to free up one hand. The free hand removes the blindfold (its just on with a single knot) and holds it up as the other hand holds up the card to show that it’s the one that was names. Perfect applause position.

            That phase may destroy the stack, but it’s a small price to pay for this routine. I usually end right there anyway. If it’s necessary, I can count the cards from hand to hand, retaining the stack order, but it’s much more dramatic just tossing them onto the table willy-nilly while blindfolded.

            Gene, as mentioned above, concludes with the Nick Trost “Automatic Lie Speller.”

            I believe that I originally learned the Haymow shuffle from Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue. I’ve done it for years, and was rather surprised, in discussing it with another magician that I was doing it differently. I checked Gene’s instructions and also the Royal Road again, and indeed, what I’m doing is somewhat different. I don’t know how I fell into this action. Perhaps I read the instructions wrong in the first place. But, it works just the same even though it looks quite different. For completeness, here’s how I do it:

 The deck is held in the left hand dealing position and a bunch of cards are pushed off the top into the right hand. The number is unimportant, but I push about half of the deck. The left hand is raised until it’s just above the right hand and the right fingers push a small block of cards from the top onto the bottom of the left-hand packet. This is probably six or eight cards, but it’s not important. The left hand is lowered back to its original position, and the left fingers push a small block of cards onto the bottom of the right hands cards. Again the left hand is lowered and the right hand pushes off a small block of cards onto the bottom of the left-hand cards. If you’re pushing off roughly the same amount of cards each time (except for the first time, of course) then the packets in the hands remain about the same size and you can keep going as long as you like.

            When you stop, if you have a corner or belly short in your deck, you can easily cut the deck back to starting order. This is not necessary for the first two phases of the routine. You will want to do that for the third and fourth phase.

            Like Gene, you can end with another kind of effect. The bad news is that you can’t do the Automatic Lie Speller with a memorized deck, but the good news is that you have your choice of dozens of great routines with, for example, the Aronson stack. If you would like to do something similar to the Trost Routine, I would suggest Aces Awry from Simon Aronson’s latest book: Try the Impossible. It’s another spelling effect where you spell to a selection (in this case, an ace that is forced.) But, along the way you also find the other three Aces.

UPDATED OCTOBER 9, 2006