THE TUNED DECK

Jesse Mueller listens to the cards.
THE TUNED DECK
By Richard Robinson
"Very few people are aware of it, but the cards get quite excited when it's time for a card to be selected. In fact, if you listen very closely you can hear all of them shouting Pick Me, Pick Me."
The magician fans the deck and asks the spectator to remove any card, look at it, and replace it in the deck.
"Of course once a particular card has been selected, the rest of the cards quiet down. However the selected card usually keeps yelling Me Me Me." The magician shuffles the deck, then holds it up to his ear.
"In fact, the only way to quite the card down is to take it out of the deck for an encore. Ah, there it is."
The magician riffles the edges of the cards next to his ear, stops, cuts the deck and asks the spectator to take the card cut to. The spectator does so. It is the selected card.
The Tuned Deck so impressed John Northern Hilliard that in 1938 he devoted an entire chapter of 'Greater Magic' to the effect and routine. Hilliard credited the trick to well known card trick inventor Ralph Hull who claimed he had been doing the trick for years and not one magician had ever figured out the secret.
In fact, the effect was the invention of Jesse A. Mueller and published in The Sphinx magazine in March of 1916. Unlike Hull's routine which went on long enough to put even the most enthusiastic audience to sleep, Mueller's handling was quick and to the point.
Although Mueller titled the trick 'Obtaining Possession Of Card By Its Sound,' sound has nothing to do with the working of the effect, at least as far as the magician is concerned. The following is from Mueller's original instructions.
Setup

One corner of the card is trimmed slightly then re-rounded. Above nail scissors are used. Three or four small trims made, since these scissors do not match the curve of the corner.
The corner can also be trimmed using the precise hair trimming scissors used by barbers and hair dressers.
The bottom card has its original corner. The corner above has been trimmed slightly. The top corner is significantly re-rounded and can be used to practice the handling as Mueller suggests. Take any card from the pack, I would suggest using a 4, 6 or 8 spot, and strip from one of the edges a very thin crescent. This card is your indicator and can not be detected if cut right.
Location Move

Grip the deck in the hand, backs up cards up. Curl the first finger down behind the deck. Place the thumb on the top, stage left corner of the deck. The thumb now presses on the corner, pulling it back against the pressure of the first finger. The thumb relaxes slightly, allowing the cards to escape one at a time. When the corner short card is reached there will be perceptible break in this riffle. Cut the cards at the break.
Handling

With the corner short on the face of the deck, fan the cards and ask a spectator to remove a card from the deck and look at it. As the spectators looks at the card, in this case the 7 of Hearts, square up the deck, the corner short card keep in position as the face card of the deck. As the spectator to put his selected card on top of the deck.

With the selected card on top of the deck, cut the deck and complete the cut. This puts the corner short, this case the 3 of Spades, on top of the selected card with those cards now buried in the middle of the deck.

Give the cards an over hand shuffle, only shuffle the top few cards of the deck back on themselves. Bring the deck up next to the ear, then riffle the corners, stopping at the corner short. Cut the deck and drop the selected card on the table, claiming to have found the card but sound.
Mueller's Presentation
Keep the card on the bottom of the pack and have a card selected and replaced in the pack after the pack is divided so the indicator comes on top of the selected card.
The cards may then be shuffled any number of times. Taking care that the half of the pack with the indicator in it is held in the right hand, run the thumbs of each hand over the upper edge of each half at the center, running the halves into one another. By this method of shuffling the indicator always falls in back of the selected card.
Hold the pack in the right hand and place it to the ear. Run the thumb of the right hand over the edge of the pack and when you pass the indicator the next card is always the selected card. You know when you pass the indicator by sense of touch.
I would suggest in getting familiar with this card that you make the first indicator for practice by cutting a half circle about the diameter of a quarter from the card.

OFF HAND OVER HAND

Doug casually false shuffles the deck.
OFF HAND OVER HAND
By Doug Edwards
To those watching this appears to be a quick, overhand shuffle. The movement of the hands resembles a normal overhand shuffle, however the order of the cards remains unchanged. Performed unstudied, without looking at the hands, this is very effective.

Hold the deck in the right hand, firmly held by the thumb at one top corner and the first finger at the adjoining long corner. The remaining fingers rest lightly on the end of the deck.
The tip of the fourth finger brushes against the corner of the deck, the pressure of the pad of the finger tip levering out the middle portion of the deck.

The open left hand is palm up under the cards. The right hand moves down, the fourth finger pulls away and the center section of the deck is released to fall onto the left palm.

The released stock rests on the left palm, the face of the stock tilted to rest against the left finger tips. The right hand at this point holds the front and back stock with a gap between them. The right hand makes a downward gesture, releasing the front stock which falls in front and on top of the center stock in the left palm.

The left fingers curl in to cause the cards in the left hand to fall forward against the ball of the thumb. Finally throw the remaining stock held in the right hand down onto the left palm where it lands behind cards already in the left hand.
The deck is now back in its original order.

GREEN'S CARD CATCHING

Cliff Green catches cards from thin air.
GREEN'S CARD CATCHING
By Richard Robinson

In the midst of manipulating a pack of cards the performer commences to catch cards from the very thin air, occasionally interspersed by catching a fan of cards. The hand is shown empty after every production. The cards are caught with the back of the hand towards the audience.
Setup
The slip color change sleight is the basis of the working, however the deck is setup so the use of the sleight is not apparent.

The cards are held in left hand. While holding the pack and appearing to square it up with the right hand, reverse half of pack so that the front half of pack are faces downstage towards audience and back, upstage half are faces towards performer.

Before working the trick, it is a good idea to give the deck a thorough shuffle so that each card produced varies in value and color from the previous one.
Manipulation

Keeping the downstage face of the deck held in the left hand directly at the spectators, the right hand moves to the face of the deck, fingers extended and together, as if squaring the deck. As the right hand blocks the view of the cards, the left first finger slides the back card of the deck towards the left wrist. The right thumb extends up, the stage right top corner of the sliding card

With the deck stationery in the left hand, the right thumb closes on the protruding corner of the card, clipping it in a thumb palm, and moves stage right away from the deck. By applying pressure on the clipped corner, the card will tilt up so that the fingers of the right hand can be momentarily spread apart. As the right hand swings moves downstage, the card is shifted to it can be clipped at its corners between the first and second fingers and third and fourth fingers.

With the card in front palm position, the hand swings up and out. As this motion is made, the thumb is inserted between the card and the palm of the hand, the third and fourth fingers release the corner they hold, and the card snaps into view, held by the thumb and first finger by one corner.

Green's Handling
Square up the doped pack. Show the right hand to be empty, calling attention to the fact that you are holding an ordinary pack of cads and during this slip a card from back of pack to palm of right hand.
Make an upward move with the hand, at the same time release card from third and fourth fingers bringing the thumb beneath the card and raising it. All this is done in one motion, the effect being that card is plucked from the air.
Place the card on the front of the pack, at the same time slip another card to the palm and produce it, continuing so with remainder of the reversed cards. With practice a number of cards can be slipped and produced in a fan. I find this trick has very good effect when cleverly executed. Performance Notes. This is an ingenious handling which is based on the presumption the deck is as it normally is with all the cards facing in one direction. The result is what might be termed an optical illusion, although certainly manipulation is involved. Cliff Green is best known for the first version of the Interlocking Card Production. Prior to a lengthy career in vaudeville, as a teenager he contributed 'Green's New Card Catching' to The Sphinx magazine in 1911.
Presen By Allmagic

MENTAL CARD WORK

Remarkable things happen and the audience wonders if the magician is involved in these perplexing events.
MENTAL CARD WORK
By Richard Robinson
One spectator selects a card at random, removes it from the deck and seals it in an envelope. Another spectator selects another card and writes the name of the card on a slip of paper. When the name of the card written on the paper is read aloud it turns out to be missing from the deck. In fact, it is the very card that was previously sealed in the envelope. Mental Card Work uses a variety of dodges, most of which you've probably run into in one place or another, although not necessarily in this combination.
Props & Setup
A deck of cards and one extra card from a similar deck. A note pad, pen or pencil and an envelope. Let's say the extra card is the Nine of Diamonds. The effect begins with the Nine of Diamonds from the deck and the extra duplicate both on top of the deck as the first and second cards. This can be done by having the two Nine of Diamonds in your jacket pocket, placing the deck in your pocket momentarily, then bring the deck back out with the two cards added to the top of the deck.