Frankey Transpo

This is a groovy little effect boys and girls. A new angle on the two card transpo. I’ve only recently developed this idea. I struggled to come up with the right handling, but finally I figured it out and have now tested it in my most recent gig. It got great reactions. Here is the effect without hype:

Effect:
A free selection is removed from a face up deck. The face up selection is clearly (no doubles) placed face down in the spectator’s hand. Let’s say, The Ten of Clubs.

Another card is shown, Let’s say, The Six of Diamonds. Don’t blink, because instantly the Six changes into the Ten. The spectator then looks at the card in his hand (you don’t touch it), and it is the Six of Diamonds.

Super visual transpo.

Method:
The secret to this effect is cryptically found in the name itself. Take “Jay Sankey” and “Frank Garcia” and what move comes to mind? Likely you’ll think of “Topper.” This is Garcia’s move where you outjog a card in the center of the deck, but under the guise of giving the spectator a peak at the center card from the deck, you actually show the top card. It’s a killer switch, and undetectable if you do it right. If you’re not entirely familiar with Topper, we’ll be covering the specific points in just a moment.

So what’s Sankey have to do with the move. Well, first of all he is mostly responsible for its popularization. Also, he developed a variation of it where you remove the top card (apparently the center) under the guise of removing the center card. Jay, being the risk taker that he is, created an effect called Selective Memory which uses his variation of Topper from a face up deck.

This effect can be found on his DVD set Secret Files. Believe it or not, in this effect of his, you are switching the middle face up card with the top face up card, and it goes undetected because of the handling Jay created.

I took this a step further and tried the idea of placing two duplicate cards on the face of the deck. So now when the top face up card is switched with the middle card, there is absolutely no visual discrepancy.  Add to this one of my all time favorite moves, Brad Gordon’s B’Lip, and you have a supervisual transpo.

Frank Garcia’s Topper:
Hold the deck in Left hand dealer’s grip. Spread through the cards, face down, and forward jog any random card; then square up the pack. You should be holding the deck as in Figure 1 at this point.

Next, with your right fingers, you are going to push the jogged forward card flush with the deck. At the same time, your right thumb will contact the top card and slide it forward. See Figure 2. Also, note that figure 2 is not technically accurate, but I wanted to show the position of both cards. In reality, the center card is pushed flush before the top card is slid forward.

As you are sliding the top card forward, you are also tilting the left hand up and showing the face of the deck, and thus the jogged forward top card, to the spectator. See Figure 3. They think it’s the middle card that was jogged forward a moment ago.

You then tap the top (apparently middle) card back flush with the deck. See Figure 4. That’s basically Topper. There’s a bit more to it, but it won’t be used in this routine, so I’d encourage you to study Frank Garcia’s material for further details.

Jay Sankey’s Variation on Topper:
Perform Topper as described above, but at the point where you jog forward the top card, completely remove it, and place it face up on the table. As your right thumb slides the top card forward, your right fingers grab it from underneath. See Figure 5.

Then you sort of flick your right hand forward so that card is now face up. See Figure 6. You then just lay it down on the table or in the spectator’s hand. You’ve just switched the unknown forward jogged card from the middle of the deck with the known top card. This is a great force because the spectator can freely touch any card, and you apparently very fairly remove that card from the deck, but you really remove the top (force) card.

Brad Gordon’s B’Lip:
This is one of the best color change I’ve ever seen.  A card is shown, and in the blink of an eye it changes visibly and instantly to another card.

Hold the deck in the left hand dealer’s grip.  Turn the top card face-up.  As you do, get a left pinky break beneath the second card.  The position is that you have the deck in the left hand, and you are holding a left pinky break beneath two cards which are back-to-back.

With the right hand, pick up the double from the outer right corners.  As you do so, arch the cards (remember, the audience thinks this is one face-up card, not two back-to-back cards).

Figure 7 shows the arch.  Hold the arched double above the deck about four or five inches.

Now here comes the knacky part: quickly open the right hand releasing the pressure on the double.  The cards will fall to the deck, but they will flip over sideways like a book, and by the time they land on the deck, the other card from the double will be showing.

This makes for a killer color change.  The move is basically a squeeze-then-release-thing.  It takes some practice to get the feel, but it’s fairly simple.  You’ll like doing this move; it’s brilliant.

Putting it all Together:
Start with a pair of duplicates on the face of the pack. Let’s say two Six of Diamonds. That’s it.  Next, spread the deck face up and ask the spectator to name any card. Let’s say it’s the Ten of Clubs. When she does, get a left pinky break below the card below their named card; then jog the named card forward and square up. In the example we are using, you would get a break beneath the 2 of Spades. See Figure 8.

Next with your right hand, show the spectator how to hold her hand out palm up as you say, “hold your right hand like this.” Then turn your right hand palm down and say, “hold your left hand like this above your right hand.”

As she is adjusting her hands, you perform Topper and place the face up Six of Diamonds on to her right hand face down as you ask her to sandwich the Ten (actually the Six) between her hands.

You’ve just openly and boldly placed the face card of the deck into her hand face down while pushing her Ten flush into the deck. However, because you have another Six of Diamonds still on the face of the pack, there is no visual discrepancy. Plus, you perform the move at the very moment she is adjusting her hands. The timing and misdirection are perfect.

Position Check:
You should be holding a face up deck with a left pinky break in the middle. Directly above your pinky is an indifferent card, and directly above that is the selection, in this case, the Ten of Clubs. On the face of the deck you have the Six of Diamonds.

Now you need to readjust your break from below the indifferent card to be below the selection. I just riffle of the indifferent card with my right thumb, so that I’m now holding a break directly below the selection.

Next you will regrip the deck in the right hand’s overhand grip while maintaining a right thumb break below the selection. See Figure 9.

The Visual Transpo:
Your next goal is to get the selection to the top of the deck while keeping the Six of Diamonds on the face of the deck. There are million different ways to do that. I’ve played around with several ideas. The one I keep coming back to is to simply swivel cut out a portion of the cards above the thumb break; then drop the remainder of the right hand cards on top of the swiveled-out portion. See Figure 10.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a face up deck with the Six of Diamonds on the face and the Ten of Clubs on the back or on the top. Now, I regrip the deck in right hand overhand again. Then using my left thumb, I  thumb the Six of Diamonds to the left and revolve it around and under the deck.

I then turn the deck over end-for-end with my right hand. This leaves me in position with a regular face down deck. The Six of Diamonds is face up on top, and below that is the Ten of Clubs. I know that sounds like a lot of moves, but it’s very straight forward and flows well and only takes a second.

I do all this while I’m saying to the spectator something like, “You got to pick a card, the Ten of Clubs. Now I’ll pick one. I’ll just use the Six here on the face of the deck.” Something simple like that just gives you some logic and reasoning for your actions.

You are now in perfect position to The B’Lip Move.

Wrapping it Up:
Once you do The B’Lip Move, you’ll be left with the Ten of Clubs face up on top of the deck. It’s a super visual appearance of the card that the spectator “knows” is in her hand. You immediately have her open her hands to see that she now has your card.

Alternate Idea #1:
You can do this with signed cards, but you have to modify the patter slightly. The set up in this case would be to have the two sixes on the face just like the original handling. However, the second six (not the one on the face) has been presigned by you.

Then during the performance, before you have the spectator select her card, you mention that both of you will be picking a card and signing it. You then say that you’ll sign yours first.

I’ll say something like, “I’ll just take the lazy way out and make this card on the face my card.” You then sign the six on the face. Make sure that it looks like the original pre-signed one, and that the signature is in the same orientation as the one on the Six below it.

Next, have them name their card as you spread the deck. When they name the card, cut the spread at that point and have them sign the card while it’s on the face. Do not hand it to them; just leave it on the pack. Have them sign it nice and huge.

Now jog it forward as you replace the right hand’s portion of cards that has your card (Six of Diamonds) at the face. You now have a nice display. Hopefully their signature was big enough that it’s showing on the out jogged portion of the card. You can clearly gesture and show the cards to be in two separate places.  See Figure 11.

From this point, you proceed as in the original handling. If your signatures are close enough, then the visuals on this are even more amazing than the original handling.

Alternate Idea #2:
Rather than a signature, you can use shapes. I like this idea, but it does require a bit of stretch to create any sense of logic as to why you are writing shapes on the cards, but here’s how this works.

Pre-draw a square on the second six. Use the diamonds as a guide so that you can duplicate the square in performance. See Figure 12.

During the performance, ask the spectator to name any shape. Odds are they will say a square, especially if you say, “name a simple basic shape.” If not, ask them to name one more shape. Now the odds really go up that they’ll name a square. I’ll tell you what to do if they don’t, but for now, let’s assume that they name a square.

If they name the square first then you say, “Ok. I’ll draw a square on this card.” You then draw a square on the Six that’s on the face of the deck. Remember to use the diamonds as the reference points to match the other square.

Have them name a second shape. When they do, ask them if they are sure or if they want to name a different shape. Whatever they name, either your or they can draw that second shape on their selected card. Then proceed as in Alternate Idea #1.

If they name the square second, you’ll say something like, “Great, you’ve named a circle and a square. I’ll draw a square on this card, and we’ll draw a circle on a card that you select.” Then proceed as above.

If they don’t name a square at all, then I say something like, “Great, you’ve name a circle and triangle. Pick either of those shapes and you’ll be putting one of them on your card. For my card, I think I’ll draw a square.” Then proceed as above.

One other point is that you can draw the two squares to be ever so slightly not-perfect so that they pass for rectangles, but could still pass for a square. This can really add to the fairness of the effect. If she names square, you draw the slight rectangle/slight square on the card and joking comment about how your square …”isn’t quite square is it. Oh well, I’m a magician, not an artist.”

This ups the odds of her naming a shape that matches, and the “fact” that the Six of Diamonds with it’s quasi-square appears to never leave the face of the deck really seems to be legit.

I love the shape idea because it adds another level of fairness that really strikes out the idea of a duplicate. Remember, the spectator named any shape, and that’s what you drew on the card, so how could it be a duplicate. This shape idea can be used in any transpo effect, or any case where you are using duplicates.

Final Thoughts:
Note that there are a couple of downsides to the alternate ideas. First, if the cards are signed or marked, you cannot reuse them, so it’s definitely not for strolling magicians. Also, in the signed/marked versions, you draw attention to the face card sooner than I would prefer to in this routine.

If nobody cares about the face card, then when you do Topper there is no heat at all. However, if attention is drawn to the face card, you run the risk of increasing the chance that someone is watching too closely. Try them both out and see what you like best.

Finally, rather than simply spreading the cards, I use the Spread described in Paul LePaul’s A Flourish and a Pass. In his book, The Card Magic of Le Paul. It’s also been referred to as the Hop Spread, and is uncredited in Paul’s book. Anyway, the point being that this spread makes it much easier to get the break under the indifferent card when spreading.

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