Act Accordingly

Introduction
by Jeff Stone

I became aware of Oliver Meech early 2009 when he sent me a copy of his book The Plot Thickens to review. I was immediately impressed with the quality of the book as well as the material. What follows is a segment from his latest book, Plot Twists. I felt that the content was perfect for the Roots and Branches section of the magazine. After all, isn’t that what this column is ultimately about . . . taking a concept or principle and learning to apply it? Because we’re hearing it in Oliver’s own words, taken directly from his book, we won’t be following the typical format of Roots and Branches Column.

Without Further delay, here it is in Oliver’s own words: Act Accordingly . . .

This is not a trick as such but rather an interesting way to link together other tricks into a routine that stands out from the standard card trick crowd. In other words, it’s a way to do card tricks without them feeling like card tricks.

There’s a burgeoning genre of magic effects which could be described as ‘art imitating life’. These are tricks where images of objects act as if they are real.

In Sankey’s “One-Car Garage”, for example, a drawing of a garage door opens to reveal a drawing of a car.

In many of these tricks the identity of the cards doesn’t matter, they are merely conveniently-sized pieces of thin cardboard. So why not do away with the faces altogether and develop a presentation about living drawings? Now you’ll no longer be remembered as someone who did card tricks but as someone who drew pictures that came to life. The drawings also provide an automatic internal logic to your effects, which should make them more memorable. Should you require a card to be signed for identification, you can just have the spectator draw the appropriate image instead.

Replace your usual deck of cards with a blank-faced deck of cards. Write ‘REJECTS’ on the card case and introduce them to the spectators by saying that since you go through hundreds of packs of cards you’re always on the look out for cheap packs. Bring out the cards and show the faces to be blank as you say that you wondered why they were so cheap.

Tell the spectators that since there are no faces to the cards you’ll just draw things on them instead.

You can now perform a set of ‘art imitating life’ card tricks. Some suggestions for tricks follow.

• “Mr. Stickman” by David Acer: a stickman jumps around the backs of cards. Similar effects have also been published by Mark Mason, Jay Sankey and Richard Sanders.
• “Close’s Clones 2” by Michael Close: pictures of clowns multiply. This could be adapted by drawing the clowns.
• “Measles” by Jay Sankey: spots on cards multiply.
• “One Car Garage” by Jay Sankey: a drawn garage door is opened to reveal a car.
• “A Stronger Magnet” by Jay Sankey: a drawn magnet attracts another card.
• “Fragile Harbour” by Jay Sankey: a drawn ship is put into a drawn bottle.
• “Tenacious Climber” by David Regal: a drawn puppy is repeatedly called to the top of the deck.

And a few by myself:

• “Ambitious Balloon”: a drawn balloon repeatedly rises to the top of the deck.
• “Handy Ring Transpo”: a picture of a ring changes places with a picture of a hand.
• “Flip A Card”: a drawn coin is flipped and lands the other side up (originally published in Online Visions).

You could also adapt existing tricks and their methods to the living drawings. Here are some other possible plots for which you can work out methods with a little thought. You can always create more by listing objects and thinking about what they would do if they were real.

• Superheroes who fly from one packet to another (a la Cards Across).
• Acorns which turn into oaks (using any Colour Change).
• Lions that eat gazelles (a la Cannibal Cards).
• Cards marked left and right which always stay on their correct side (a la two card transpositions).
• Wallets that travel to your pocket (a la Card to Pocket).
• Coasters that end up under their drink (a la Card Under Drink).
• Frogs that jump from card to card.
• Nails which bend when the card is bent.
• Glass which shatters when the card is hit.
• Shy stickmen who stand with their back to the audience until made to turn around.
• Soup that you slurp up.

Since most spectators have never seen a blank deck of cards before, you should probably let them examine it before you start doing tricks. Otherwise they may think it’s a trick deck. You can always palm on any prepared cards you need after they’ve returned the deck.

Alternatively, you could use double-blank cards and refer to them as index cards (or just use index cards!)

N.B. Obviously I’m not the first person to think of using blank cards. Gregory Wilson has done it (see “Point Blank” on his Pyrotechnic Pasteboards DVD), Arthur Tivoli has done it, etc. These are just my thoughts regarding the blank card idea.

As there are no card indices to remember, these tricks are good for children.

Give it a try. It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

Plot Twists is available at Oliver’s Store.

Now go study the classics, and go discover your true magical self.