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Cardboard

creations

Toby Hudson

Copyright 2015 by Toby Hudson

All rights reserved. No part of this book

may be reproduced in any form without

written permission from the author.

For further information, please contact me

at: cardtrick212@gmail.com

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

PLAYING CARDS

Out of Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Vanishing Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The Choice is Yours . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Radish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Buried Treasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Simple ACAAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BILLETS

ThinkTank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lunch at Gerris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Memory Lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Think Ink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A Simple Peek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Introduction Ill begin by saying that Im not very good

at introductions, so Ill try to keep this

brief. What youve just invested in is a

small book of some of my favourite ideas

and effects from performing magic and

mentalism for over 5 years now.

As Im mainly a close up kinda guy, all

the effects within these pages use playing

cards and billets, items that are readily

available. I know there are already

hundreds of effects of this nature

available already, but I hope Ive explored

some new ideas and concepts.

I hope you enjoy these pieces and take

the time to practise and perfect them as I

have and experience the wonder that

mentalism can have on people.

Id like to thank everyone at the Magic

Lounge in Sheffield for taking me in 3

years ago and exposing me to the world

of magic. Steve Brownlee, Roger Curzon,

Russell Hall, Brandon Ellis, the list could

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go on and on and I couldnt have come

up with any of this stuff without them.

Thanks guys, it really means a lot.

Id also like to thank my mum, dad and

sister for enduring all the tricks Ive shown

you over the years (even the crappy ones)

and pushing me to always do what I love.

Best wishes,

Toby Hudson x

April 2015

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Routines

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Out of focus

Effect

The spectator is shown a card and asked

to commit it to memory. He then closes

his eyes and the Mentalist proceeds to

replace the card with a mystic black haze,

wiping away any memory of the card!

Presentation

Someone is asked to come up on stage

and assist the Mentalist. His name is

Roger. He is asked to close his eyes.

You know how it is when you go into

a room and completely forget what

you were going in for. Its natural, us as human beings have a way of

filtering out information that isnt vitally important to us so we can

concentrate more on other things.

However, some people who have

experienced amnesia claim that they

see sort of a black haze and they

cant remember anything because of

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it. A weird concept, I know, but I

want to try something with just that

idea.

A deck of cards is removed and a card

chosen at random. The card is shown

around. (e.g. 7 ) Richardson is then

asked to open his eyes and lock the card

in his mind. The card is placed in full view

and the subject is asked to close their

eyes again.

Ok, so what I want you to do is keep

the card you saw locked in your

mind. Imagine all the intricacies on

it, see it all clearly in your mind.

Now, imagine a black haze starts to

cover the card. You try and look

around it but you cant. It keeps covering the thought until it has

completely gone. As you look at the

black cloud, its get closer and closer to you until

The Mentalist taps the subject on his

forehead. He awakes with a start. He is

asked what he remembers seeing. All

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Richardson says is that he can remember

a black mist and he claims he has no

recollection of the card. Mysterious

Credits

This effect is based on a routine of Patrick

Redford called The Forgotten. It really is

an excellent routine and I recommend you

track down his DVD Glemme for some

good presentational ideas and great

thoughts on amnesia effect in general.

I think that the basic handling at work here

can also be credited to the effect R.G.M

from Luke Jermays booklet 7 Deceptions.

Another highly recommended product.

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Concept

In its most basic form, what youre doing

is showing the spectator a completely

black card and making it appear as

though the black is just in their mind. Its a

bold idea, but used with a lot of hidden

subtleties, can really appear like amnesia.

Id also like to add that this routine will still

work if for some strange reason, the

volunteers name doesnt happen to be

Roger.

What you need to do is make up a playing

card with a regular back and a completely

black face. You could print one up on a

computer, or do what I do which is take a

blank card and a sharpie and get to work.

This has the added bonus of looking quite

rough, and cements the idea of it being a

cloud.

Set up by placing the 7 followed by the

black card on top of the deck face down. I

always use the seven because it allows

you to supposedly make them remember

the card again afterwards if you so desire

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it. I dont always use this last phase as I

dont always think its needed, but if you

want to use it, go ahead.

Performance

Begin by getting someone up on stage

and talk about the cloud that people with

amnesia suffer from. If you really want to

go all Derren Brown on them, talk really

fast and tap his shoulder every so often. If

any mentalists are in the audience, this

may throw them off the method and

believe you really are using suggestion.

Another nice thing about this is that the

cloud you mention actually exists, so if

they were to go home later and Google it,

(which they wont) they would find that

many amnesia sufferers do claim that a

mysterious black haze blocks off their

memories.

Anyway, have them close their eyes. Now,

for the first time, bring out the deck. Its

very important NOT to say well use a

deck of cards for this effect. To the

audience, it will be clear youre using

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playing cards, but if the helper knows,

they might get confused as to why they

didnt see a card.

Just say something like well use these for the experiment and remove the cards. Pick up a double and hold it quite close to

the spectators face. Tell him to open your eyes and commit whatever you see to

memory. Holding the cards near his face is nice because when he thinks back, he

might just remember the blackness and

nothing round the edges.

If you are afraid they may speak out that

theyve seen something unusual, just add

in the line at the start I dont want you to talk now until the end of the trick to let the

full amnesia take effect. However I find its not always needed. The next part is

just presentation and how convincing you

can be supposedly inducing hypnotic

suggestion.

Place the double on the deck, take off the

top card singly and show it around. Talk

about the cloud covering the card (Note:

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At this point, you can refer to it as a card)

and as you do, let your voice get louder

and louder. Then, pause a beat and tap

the participant on the head.

Dont hit him TOO hard, just maybe a little

more forcefully than normal. Usually at this

point, his eyes will snap open and hell

look somewhat confused. This is perfect.

Quickly ask him use one word to sum up what you saw. He will either say black or better yet nothing. Ask him what he

remembers seeing.

What you want to do here is twist

whatever he says slightly to make it

appear as though the black was only in

his mind. For example, if he says the card was completely covered in black you could say so it was covering your view, almost as if you cant remember the card at all? As you do, nod your head and he will nod too, making it appear as though

thats what he saw.

The clincher is when you pick up the card

from the table and say so you dont

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remember seeing the 7 at all? He will invariably say no so congratulate him

and send him to his seat. If he looks

worried make sure to tell him that the

amnesia wont affect him anymore and

that he has no worry of forgetting anything

again. (Note: If you want to continue with

the second phase, dont show him the

card.

Phase 2

If you want to, you can bring the card

back. Have him close his eyes again and

imagine the cloud lifting. Have him call out

what colour he thinks the card is. He will

say red 9/10 times, but if he says black

use the line no, I think thats the BLACK cloud blocking your view again. He will then, of course have to switch to red.

Hearts is the most commonly chosen suit.

Whichever suit he says, dont say

anything. Then have him call out a value

from 1 10. Psychologically, 7 is the most

common response. If he says a number

considerably lower, just ask him to try

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again. 3/4 of the time youll get the card

bang on, whereas other times youll

maybe get the suit wrong, or off by one or

two.

Whatever he ends up with, congratulate

him and say something about as its your

first time, you cant be expected to get it

bang on. Show him the card and send

him back to his seat.

Alternative

This is quite a bold and cheeky way to

have him remember the card again. As

soon as youve tapped him and hes

opened his eyes, start talking about the

cloud. Then say so you dont remember seeing this card? Here, all youre doing is showing him the card. He will say no.

Place it back down and have him close his

eyes again.

Spend a minute or so talking about the

cloud lifting to allow some time

misdirection to unfold. Then say to him

thinking back now, what card did you see? Of course now he will say 7 and

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you can send him off to his seat. You

showing him the card briefly flies past the

audience and they wont remember it,

even if they watch the effect multiple

times.

Final Thoughts

I really like this effect, and it really plays

well with audiences big and small. I

always have the black card in my pocket

so that I can whip it out whenever I want

to do this effect. It also leads nicely into

any other psychological effects that you

may do in your repertoire.

You can also frame this effect as

forgetting an important piece of

information. You can have a business

card which has the black face. The

spectator closes their eyes, and you write

something like their name on another

business card. You can show it around

and then switch for the black card and

show it to the spectator. Then, you can

frame it as them forgetting their name or

any personal information. I havent really

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tested this idea fully, but hopefully you

can see the possibilities this idea could

have if developed.

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Thinktank

Effect

Three spectators each think of a different

thought and write it down. Somehow, the

Mentalist manages to divine all three,

before showing that he knew way in

advance what each of them would pick.

Presentation

Three mini slips of paper are shown, with

a number 1, 2 or 3 written on each. They

are mixed and three spectators (Brandon,

Nathan and Gaz) take a card each and

remember their number. The slips are then

torn up.

Ok, so right now each of you is

thinking of a number. If you thought

of number 1, think of a simple

geometric shape like a square or

circle, nothing too complex like a

star. If you thought of number 2,

think of any playing card for me, but

not an ace as theyre too easy.

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Finally, if you thought of number 3,

think of any two digit number from 1

to 50 for me. Please, no decimals or

recurring fractions.

Each spectator writes their thought down

on a billet. These are unmarked and

completely normal. The Mentalist is blind

folded and is handed the billets.

He proceeds to correctly divine all three

thoughts perfectly, (e.g. 19, triangle and

Q ) before giving a short but extremely

specific character reading on all three

participants.

However, I have to admit something

to you. I had a feeling as to what

your thoughts were going to be a

week ago. I gave you (indicates

spectator 1) a deck of cards 2 weeks

ago, and I asked you to bring it

along with you tonight. Could you

please get it out?

The spectator takes out the deck, and with

shaking fingers, removes the card from

the box. He is asked to count down to the

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19th card. It is turned over. Sure enough,

its the Q , and scrawled across the face

of it, is the word TRIANGLE in big black

lettering. The Mentalist never handles the

deck, and it is completely ungimmicked.

Credits

If you havent already guessed it, this

effect makes use of the brilliant Hoy

Principle by David Hoy. Some noteworthy

effects using this idea are Daves Pin from

Michael Murrays book A Piece of My Mind

and Luke Jermays Touching on Hoy from

Coral Fang.

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Concept

The basic idea at work here is the famous

Hoy Principle by David Hoy. What this

means is that all three participants are

actually thinking of the same thought

without realising it.

To set up, take a deck of cards and write

the word triangle across any card. Lets

say the 2 . Then place this at position 36

in the deck. It doesnt matter what card

and what number you use, as long as you

know them. You can then put the deck

away and send it to a participant of the

effect weeks in advance.

You will also need a small stack of

business cards that are blank on one side.

Draw a medium sized rectangle in the

middle of each card. In one, write the

number, in this case 36, and in the other,

write the card, in this case the 2 .

Place these two cards on the bottom of

the business card stack face down in any

order. You will also need five mini slips of

paper. On three of these, draw a big

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number 1 on it, and then write 2 and 3 on

the other two. Make sure the ink doesnt

bleed through. Youre now ready to

perform the effect.

When ready to perform, place two of the

slips that have a 1 on them on your lap so

you can access them easily.

Performance

If you saw the presentation at the start,

its should be clear that I dont really have

a set presentation for this effect.

Sometimes Ill talk about premonitions and

act serious about it, or sometimes Ill

present it as a exposing the psychics

routine and do it quite tongue in cheek.

Its up to you really.

To begin, introduce the effect and say

that youll need three random thoughts. Show the three slips of paper freely and

have them examined. As this is

happening, get the two slips in your lap,

ready to be palmed. Youll now perform a

simple switch to swap numbers 2 and 3

for the ones on your lap.

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Switch

Take the slips back so that number 1 is on

top. Hold them face down and get a break

under the top slip. Youre going to let the

two below it to slip onto your lap as you

place the two palmed on top.

Bring your hands together and as you do,

briefly dip your hands below the table and

drop the two slips below the break onto

your thighs. Bring your hands back up as

they meet and drop the two palmed slips

onto the other hand.

Grab all three with your right hand and

spread them on the table. To the naked

eye, it should appear as though you just

transferred the slips from one hand to the

other and spread them on the table. Little

do they know the slips now all have 1

written on them. What fools they are.

Performance

Spread them out on the table and have

the spectators take one at random and

remember the number. Make sure to tell

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them not to show anyone else what

number they got. This will ensure no one

will see that all are the same. Take the

slips back and dispose of them.

Now follow the presentation written at the

beginning. If you word is as shown, then

all three of the participants should be

thinking of triangle. Each of them also

thinks that the other two are thinking of a

card or a number.

Take three business cards (careful not to

disturb your stack) and draw boxes in the

middle identical to the ones drawn earlier.

Hand one to each participant and have

them write down their thoughts in the

boxes. Again, caution them not to let

anyone else see what they write.

Blindfold yourself and take the three cards

face down. Mix them up and hover your

hand over them one at a time to pick up

the auras the cards are leaving.

You can now proceed to supposedly

receive the thought one at a time. Im getting a shape coming through here,

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quite pointy, a triangle maybe? Dont react anyone, dont give anything away. Next, the number. This is quite central, like 36?

And finally the card. Oh thats easy, the 3 .no 2 of hearts!

Remove your blindfold and say quick yes or no, did I get yours? Ask them one at a time in quick succession and they will all

say yes. Pick up the three cards and set

them on top of the stack casually. Relax a

little here and soak up the applause.

Pick up the business card stack and

transfer the top card to the bottom and

turn over the whole packet. Deal the three

face cards onto the table. This is

discrepant but will fly past the audience.

Even though youve just switched out two

cards, everything should appear normal.

Each spectator will see their thought and

what they presume are the other two

peoples thoughts.

Youre now going to do a quick

handwriting analysis and cold reading

(Note: see the end for an alternative for

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this) Ill just explain this briefly as it should

be pretty obvious. Begin by saying ok, the way youve all written and drawn your answer is very interesting to me. Well try this with the triangle drawer first. Dont say who you are, as this might give me a

clue, but what Im getting from you is

Give a brief reading with the usual

Barnum statements. When youre done,

move straight onto the second person

who wrote the number. As this is no one,

you can be as specific as you want as no

one can verify it. The same with the last

person.

Now ask each of them what percentage of the information that I just gave would

mean something to you? As all three got the reading with Barnum statements in,

their answer will differ, one maybe saying

Because youll get different percentages,

this cements the idea that all the readings

applied to only one person each.

Finally, all you need to do now is say that

you knew what they were going to pick

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and go into the final reveal with the deck

of cards. Make sure you NEVER go near

the cards so that any watching mentalists

dont accuse you of switches.

Alternative

Here is an alternative to the second

phase, the cold reading bit. After youve

revealed all three thoughts, all the face

down cards still say triangle so you can

have them mixed as much as possible, yet

you can identify which card belongs to

which person, as they will always get a

card with their thought written on it!

Final Thoughts

I know this might read a bit dull on paper,

but as long as you keep them captivated

and involved, theres no reason for them

to be. People love themselves, so as long

as you keep it centred on their thoughts

and ideas, theyll be hooked!

After showing this effect to a friend of

mine, they said that they liked it but they

thought that revealing that you knew what

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they would think in advance kind of ruined

the mind reading phase, as it was now

clear that you werent reading their

thoughts.

This is a good point, but I think that as

long as you focus more on the cold

reading aspect and less on the mind

reading. This shouldnt really pose an

issue, Make it look as though the mind

reading was just a casual extra to the

main event (the readings.) But if you just

want to reveal the three thoughts with no

deck ending, you can.

Finally. Im sure some pessimists out there

will be thinking what if a participant

doesnt pick the triangle? What if is all

goes horribly wrong? The simple answer

is that if youve built up good rapport with

your spectators beforehand, then they

wont try and trick you and they will go for

the triangle. Plus, what other shapes can

they choose? Theres really nothing to

worry about!

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Vanishing point

Effect

A deck of cards is borrowed and shuffled

in an extremely fair manner by the

participant. They then merely peek at a

card, yet the Mentalist can nail it every

time!

Presentation

The Mentalist asks for a participant to help

him with his next cardboard creation. A

deck of cards is borrowed from him (lets

call him Steve) and the cards split into

four random piles.

Ok, so you look like a smart guy.

You probably know all the tricks

using key cards and secret helpers and that sort of crap. So what Ive done is split the deck into four piles.

Pick em up on at a time and shuffle to your hearts contents.

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The helper does just this. He shuffles the

packets on at a time. The packets are

then gathered and squared.

Right, so Im going to turn my back and what I want you to do is lift up a

section of cards anywhere, peek at

the card, then slap the deck back

together and thoroughly shuffle. You

done? Good.

The Mentalist should have no inkling as to

what the card is. He stares into Steves

eyes.

Im getting a