Dethroned

Effect

Four Kings are shown and the deck is placed aside.  The four Kings vanish one at a time, and then reappear in a flashy manner.

Preparation

Remove the four Kings from the deck and place the deck aside. Place it in front of you and to the right.  Place it in a somewhat sloppy and not-so-squared manner.  Arrange the Kings with two reds sandwiching two blacks.  I usually follow The Coolest Ace Trick In The World with this effect.

Performance

Hold the packet of Kings face up.  Turn over a double face down onto the two other face up cards.  You’ve apparently turned over a single red Ace.  Next, turn the entire packet over.  You now have, from the top down, red face down, black face down, red face up, black face up.The audience thinks that only one card is face up.  Next, perform the glide to show the second from the bottom card (apparently the bottom card which the audience thinks you turned over a second ago).  (See fig. 1).

Figure 1

This next move is going to visually change the red King into a black King.  Here’s how:  Place the protruding face up King into the lower most crease of the middle finger of the right hand.  At the same time, the right middle finger gently touches the bottom card (face up black card). (See fig. 2).

Figure 2a

Note: figure 2a is the upside down exposed view; figure 2b is the normal view.

Figure 2b

Now quickly, but carefully push the red card flush with the deck, and at the same time, move your right hand back to the right bringing the black King into view.  Apparently the red King quickly becomes the black King.  Be careful not to drop the King with your left hand.

Now remove the black King as follows.  Grasp it from above by the outer edges with the right thumb and middle finger tips (see fig. 3).

Figure 3

Then with the right index finger on the face, snap the card face down by releasing the middle finger grip and pinching the card between the index finger and the thumb.  Then place the card face down on the bottom.  The situation is as follows:  from top to bottom, face down red, face down black, face up red (the vanished red) and face down black.

Now turn the pack face up and spread the bottom two cards to the left holding the back to back double in place with your right middle finger and thumb (see fig. 4).

Figure 4

Now with your right hand, place the double, black side up, on top of the deck as you draw attention to the two remaining cards in your left hand.  You’ll say, “let’s put this one aside for a minute, and we’ll just use these two.”  This ditches the “vanished” red card onto the top of the deck.

Now you have two Kings in your left hand.  Using the tent vanish, vanish one of the Kings: Hold the cards as in figure 5.

Figure 5

As the right hand comes over to apparently grab the card resting on your thumb, the card is simply released and falls flush with the card in your left palm.  Make sure your left thumb holds its position as you move your right hand away with the apparently palmed card.

Close your right hand and reopen it to show that the card (that was never there) has vanished.  Now you have a double (apparently only one card) in your left hand and a single card face up on top of the deck.  Next, transfer the double to the right hand.

Display the card (double) as shown in figure 6.  Then with the left hand, pick up the face up King from the deck and display it in the left hand the same way you are displaying your right hand double.

Figure 6

Now say, “We’re down to two cards.  Let me show you something interesting with the King of Clubs (or whichever King is showing in your right hand). If I place it on the bottom of the deck, it will actually rise to the top.”

As you say this, here’s what you do.  In an act to scoot the deck closer to you, place the double face down on the deck and slide it toward yourself.  Once you’ve moved it a few inches toward yourself, lift the top (single) card off of the deck (don’t show its face to the audience) and slide it under the deck.

Then riffle the back of the deck, and turn over the top card to show that the card apparently rose to the top.  You have now made it appear as if the face up card you were holding in your right hand just went from the bottom to the top of the deck.  This is your sneaky way of ditching the unwanted half of the double.

Now you have two cards left, and you’re going to vanish one of them by using my variation of the tent vanish;  I call it the open flap vanish .  It’s very similar to the original tent vanish, however, it’s done face up.

Now obviously  for a face up vanish, you can’t just let the card fall flush with the card in your hand, so instead of letting the card fall, you’re going to execute a one handed cut, or the Charlier pass.

Basically, you use your left index finger to push the card on your left palm up and over the top of the card in “tent” position (see fig. 7).

Figure 7

Then you let both cards fall flat on your palm.  All of this is done under guise of your right hand apparently grabbing the face up King and palming it.  You again squeeze the right hand shut then open to reveal the vanish.  You’re now left with a face up double in the left hand.

Now grab the double face from above with the right hand middle, ring and pinky fingers at the top, index finger on the back, and thumb on the bottom (see fig. 8).

Figure 8

Show the “last” King to the audience.  Shift the position of the index and pinky fingers to the outside edges of the deck and remove the thumb (see fig. 9).

Figure 9

Now reach forward in front of the deck and slide the double under the deck, and immediately flip it over into the left hand.  You were merely using the “last card” to pick up the deck.  Now hold the deck face down from above in Deep Overhand Grip with the right hand.

Using the left thumb, pivot the bottom card (“last King”) up and over the left edge of the deck and face up onto the deck (see fig. 10).

Figure 10

This displays the face up “last King” on top of the face down deck.  As you’re doing this, you’re recapping with the audience what has happened this far.  Now you are going to vanish the top card by using the Houdini Color Change as follows.  Hold the deck in left hand dealer’s grip.  Now cover the entire deck with your right hand.

As you do, your right finger tips will ever so slightly up jog the top face up King.  You want this to be as undetectable as possible.  Next, draw your right hand down to expose this slightly up jogged King.

As you expose this card, use the base (where the fingers and palm connect) of your right fingers to slide the second card from the top (the one below the face up card) down (see fig. 11).

Figure 11

It will remain concealed under your palm.  You will continue sliding it until it clears the face up card.  Then you will apply pressure slightly downward with your right palm.  This will cause the second card to kind of be palmed.  Then you will simply lower the “palmed” card onto the face up card.

You will then slide it forward as your left index finger squares up the up jogged face up card (see fig. 12).

Figure 12

Then you will remove your right hand to reveal that the last King is gone.  All you’ve done is placed a face down card on top of it. Now you are left with no Kings.  You can either stop here or you can quickly and visually reproduce the Kings in such a way that will even trip up the most skilled card men.

Reproduction

The deck is now stacked as follows two Kings on the bottom, two Kings on the top (the second from the top is face up).  For the first production, slip cut to reveal the face up King.  Place this packet off to the right. Now in your left hand is a small packet of cards with one face down King on top and two on the bottom.  Hold pressure on the top and bottom cards as you toss the pack to the right hand.

This will maintain the top and bottom cards in your left hand while the center of the deck lands in your right hand.  Place the right hand’s packet face up on the table next to the other King. Then simply turn over the two Kings in the left hand.  This is all done in less than a second. It’s very flashy.

Notes

The first King that you produced by means of a slip cut is in an interesting situation.  It’s face up on a face down deck, but this will slip right past your audience. In fact, you’ll even fool yourself if you’re not careful.  This leaves you in a position to do something with a reversed deck without having to reverse the deck because it’s already done for you.  I’ll leave the creating up to you.

Earlier I mentioned that I usually perform this after The Coolest Ace Trick In The World. You can find that effect of mine on Jay Sankey’s Underground Jam. It’s also the October 2007 Free Trick of The Month. It’s also available as an instant download for only $3.99 on StoneColdMagic.com.

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