WOLFGANG RIEBE

A FEW TRICK DESCRIPTIONS TO WET YOUR APPETITE!

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CONTENTS

Below is a concise list of contents under chapter headings. This should give you an indication of the huge amount of tricks, tips and theory that is covered in the book.

Some trick 'descriptions' have been included after this to 'wet' your appetite!

CARDS

3,4,5 OF SPADES
A card is freely selected, and the magician asks for two chances to find the card. The card was the Five of Spades. The magician removes the Three of Spades; it is the wrong card. Then, he shows the Four of Spades; it is also wrong! In order to make up for the poor show, the magician places the Three of Spades on top of the Four of Spades and rubs the middle pip of the Three of Spades onto the Four of Spades below, changing it into the Five of Spades, the selected card!

BENDING CARD
Imagine a bending card that doesn’t use magnets or extra bits that you pull back. It can even curl up on a table or in the spectator’s hand. The cellophane is removed from a cigarette box or even from your card case. A card is removed from a deck and slid into the clear cellophane wrapper. An unlit cigarette is now held close to the cellophane, and the card and cellophane curl up as if heat has been near both. Yet the cigarette is unlit! What is more, you don’t need the cigarette or cellophane. You can simply put the card into a spectator’s hand or let it lie on the floor. By concentrating, it curls up!

CARD TO WALLET (HANS TRIXER)
For those of you who never met Hans Trixer, he was a Dutch magician living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and we became friends in Cape Town. He was such a great magician and a true gentleman. Back in 1993, he gave me permission to market this trick, and I still have him performing his version of the Gypsy Thread on tape. It’s a difficult effect to describe in print, but what a simple, direct and powerful variation of a classic. A freely signed and selected card appears in a paper wallet. Yes, the wallet is a sheet of paper openly folded into the shape of a wallet right in front of the spectator! Plus, their signed card appears in it! It's as direct as that.

VOODOO
The idea for this effect came to me while looking through a magic catalogue and seeing a trick with a similar theme advertised. I am not aware of any other trick, similar or identical, to the one I am going to describe. Nevertheless, should there be something along the same vein available, I have combined another effect into this one so that it is indeed different. The magician has two sealed decks of cards, from which a spectator freely chooses any deck. The chosen deck is now shuffled, and any card is selected from it and placed face-up onto the table. Now, the magician starts speaking about voodoo and the power it entails. A figure is now drawn onto a piece of paper, as in the diagram further on. This is now lit with a match, and it disappears in a flash. The remaining burning match is then pushed into the magician’s closed fist, where it vanishes.

During all this time, the duplicate sealed deck has been lying on the table, untouched. The spectator himself now removes the cellophane shrink-wrap covering the deck and removes the cards. Then, he looks for the duplicate of his previously chosen card. When the card is found ― say, the Five of Clubs ― this card has a voodoo shape burnt out of it! Yes, it is true! In a sealed deck! The spectator’s card is the only one with the voodoo figure burnt out of it. The spectator can examine everything before and after the trick!

CLOSE-UP GENERAL

BLACKBEARD'S GOLD
Here is a nice story line for a simple trick, which results in a great routine that will appeal to audiences of all ages. The idea came to me while visiting Blackbeard's Castle on St. Thomas in the Caribbean. The magician tells the story of Blackbeard the pirate and how he had to hide all of his stolen treasures. One day in his quest for a remote island to hide his latest treasure, he came across a very primitive cannibal tribe where the witchdoctor of that tribe taught him how to hide his gold in an easy way. The magician now shows an old piece of rusty chain that he drops into his closed fist. He now picks up some small bones, which were given to Blackbeard by the witchdoctor, and proceeds to shake them over his closed fist. Upon opening his fist, the rusty old chain has changed into a new, shiny, solid gold chain! Thus, Blackbeard was able to leave his treasures lying around everywhere disguised as old rusty metal, but with the help of the mystic bones, he could change everything back into gold again. This is one of the reasons why no one has been able to find any of Blackbeard’s treasure to date. Pirates and treasure have always fascinated people for many years, and it is a topic that interests many. So just the topic alone will have the audience intrigued in what is about to happen.

GAMBLER'S DREAM
Imagine being able to predict the roll of dice, the cards being dealt to you, or the score you are going to get on a one-armed bandit! Yes, it is possible. So your audience will really be attentive and intrigued if you can correctly predict all the above. For a magician, this effect will seem really simple, but for a layman, this is one effect they will talk about for many years to come.In effect, the magician correctly predicts the total arrived at on a pair of dice, the cards dealt to a person in a poker deal, and the score on a one-armed bandit.

INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY
Here is an incredible effect that will add a new era to the photographic development industry! Yes, I know that everything is digital today, but for the older generation and the hard core photographers who still believe in film, this will be a hit. I have added this trick together with the previous “Ink Paper to Money” trick, as they apply the exact same principal, and you can refer to the previous photos to make everything clear in this routine. Imagine this: You show a small, black, photo film capsule, from which you remove a roll of film. Now, in the open light, you pull a piece of unexposed film out of the roll, thus exposing it and rendering it useless... or not?

Now, you cut about one frame size off of this film and let everyone examine it to make sure that there is nothing on that piece of film. Once everything has been checked, you place this film frame back into the black photo capsule, seal the capsule with the lid, and give it to a spectator to hold. Now, you take out a pile of blank cards that have various holiday destinations written on each card, e.g. Rome, Paris, Munich, etc. You explain to the audience that, on your recent trip around the world, you took some photos, and the film which you just exposed to the light and supposedly ruined contains pictures of you in various cities. The single frame you placed into the capsule could be a photo of you in any city. You want a volunteer to select any card from the pile so that a city can be chosen.

After shuffling the cards, the spectator is asked to freely select one. Let us say that he chose Paris. Now, the spectator who is holding the black photo capsule is asked to open it and remove the piece of film. This is done, and when the frame of film is held to the light, it has clearly changed into a photo negative of you standing in front of the Eiffel Tower! This trick totally blows away any spectator because it is just impossible to comprehend how you can accomplish this, especially if you have photographers in the audience who know something about film and the development thereof. If you are looking for something totally different and totally new, this is the trick for you.

WATER TO TEA
Wow, a water-to-tea trick! You don’t need to be a magician to do that! True, but what about doing it magically? Recently, I had a group of friends over for tea and was wondering how I could add some magic to the occasion without pulling out any obvious magic props. Well, here is what I came up with. You show a glass teacup and pour plain hot water into it. You now cover everything with a hanky, and then pour some tealeaves into your closed hand. The tealeaves disappear, and when the hanky is removed from the cup of water, the water has changed to tea!

KIDS MAGIC

ELEPHANT BALLOON
For me, this must be one of the cutest and most effective balloon sculptures to make. It looks very difficult and impressive, but in fact, it is relatively simple to do. Every time I have made this one, I have had several requests for more, and the initial reaction is always, “Ah, how cute!”

COMEDY BELLS
You sure are getting your fill of comedy items in this book. What I am about to describe to you, I am really proud of and can say that these bells are entirely original to myself. Furthermore, they are just as funny, if not funnier, than all of the other comedy items, e.g. break-a-way wands, fans, guns, etc. What is more, come Christmas time when you have to theme a nice Xmas show, these are ideal, and because they are my own idea, no one has seen them before, thus giving you something original. Also, no one will expect crazy things to happen to him or her. I will explain each bell separately.

THE MAGIC BUNNY
The magician shows four cards, each with a picture of a rabbit on it. Three are black, and the other rabbit is red. The magician now takes one black rabbit card, turns it around and places it on a card stand, thus leaving him with one red and two, black rabbit cards. Of the three remaining cards, he now turns over the red rabbit and one of the black rabbits, leaving one black rabbit facing the audience. Now, the cards are mixed up and shuffled around. The magician now asks the children which of the two face-down cards is the red rabbit card. Whichever one they choose, they are wrong. After a bit of by-play, the last card is also shown to be a black rabbit card; thus, all three cards in the magician’s hands are black rabbits. When the card on the stand is turned around, it has changed into the red rabbit!

SILK IN XAMS CRACKER VANISH
This must be one of the most powerful and effective silk vanishes I know. This idea I developed when working on a Xmas-themed act. I have never seen it done; thus, see it as my original trick. A silk or any other small object is placed inside a Xmas cracker. The cracker is closed, and attention is drawn to the prop in which the hanky must appear. When the cracker is now pulled open, there is a loud bang, and the silk has disappeared.

MENTALISM

BOOK TEST OUTDONE
The mentalist has numerous books lying on the table. These include soft cover as well as hard cover novels, general knowledge books, etc. A spectator is called onto stage to check that the various books are indeed all different and that they are not all the same book with a different cover. Also, the spectator is asked to mix up the books. Once this has been done, he is instructed to stand in front of the table with his back towards the table, facing the audience, and now to mix the books up even further behind his back. The logic here ― and this is what you tell the audience ― is that the volunteer cannot see the books and thus cannot be influenced.

You, the mentalist, are standing in front of the volunteer the whole time so that you cannot see how he is shuffling up the books either. Once the books have been mixed up to the satisfaction of both the volunteer and the audience, you proceed to give the volunteer a ballpoint pen. You prove to him and the audience that it does write by writing on a piece of blank paper. Now, you ask him to pick up a book off of the table behind his back. You offer to let him change his mind as often as he wants. Once he is happy, you ask him to open up the book anywhere, keeping it behind his back. Then, you tell him to take the ballpoint pen with his free hand and to try to draw a cross across one of the open pages of the book. All this is done behind his back. Once he has done this, he must close the book and bring it to the front.

At this stage, you recap what has taken place. The volunteer shuffled the books behind his back, selected any one, opened it on any page and drew a cross across the page, all behind his back. Now, the volunteer is asked to open the book again and to look for the page on which he drew the cross. Once the page has been found, the book is checked so that there are no other crosses on any other page. It is confirmed that this is the only cross. Once everyone is happy, the spectator looks at the word where the two lines of the cross intersect.

Here, you can see that the two lines intersect exactly over one word, namely the word “Nothing.” Before the effect began, you had an envelope hanging from the ceiling or even had just given it to the volunteer. The spectator now opens this envelope. Take note that you never touch the envelope after the effect has begun. The assistant now confirms that there is one piece of paper/card inside the envelope, which he removes. And there is written the word “Nothing.”

CONFABULATION OUTDONE
Many years ago, a routine by Alan Shaxon known as Confabulation appeared on the market which involved the prediction of a car, its colour and its price. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times at the London Magic Circle on a Monday night. What a great guy! He also personally gave me his 'Confabulation' that I will always treasure. Then, another method was brought out based on the one-ahead principal, where the colour of the car is forced by using playing cards with pictures of cars on them. I liked this idea, but there was just something about the routine that didn’t gel with me, although I found it much simpler in working than the original Confabulation. On that note, I must add that I do perform Confabulation right up until today, and I think it is one the best tricks ever. However, the setup does take time, and hence I came up with this easy solution for the days I felt lazy and adapted the trick to suit myself.

A spectator is asked onto stage. You give him a clear, brandy goblet, a pen and a note pad to examine, all of which are genuinely normal. You now explain that you are going to ask him to think of a car that he would like to own as well as the colour it must be, and then you will discuss the price. He keeps the glass; you take the pen and note pad from him. You now ask him only to think of the car. It can be his favourite car or even a car that he hates. The important thing is that he must think of just one car. You now pick up his thoughts and write the name of the car onto the top sheet of the note pad. This you fold up and drop into the glass. ONLY NOW does the spectator reveal the name of the car. Now, you ask him to think of a colour that he would like the car to be.

Again, you read his mind(?),write down the colour, fold it up and drop it into the glass. Only now does the spectator reveal the colour to everyone. Lastly, a price must be agreed upon. You show the spectator a number of price tags. He randomly handles one and checks that it is a normal price tag. Each tag has a different price. Now, you predict the price he will choose, fold this up and also drop it into the brandy goblet. The price tags are shuffled up in full view of the audience, and the spectator has a free selection. Each tag has a string at its end, and the tags are covered by the mentalist’s hands, with only the strings protruding. The spectator pulls any thread. Once the price tag has been chosen, he may even change his mind and pull another one. Fine; so now the car has been chosen, the colour named and a price selected. The spectator himself now removes the slips of paper from the goblet, unfolds them and reads to everyone what is written on them. Each one is CORRECT! Each item has been 100% correctly forecast by the mentalist!

FRED OUTDONE
When I first originated this effect, it sold for £35! In fact, if you love close-up, this will become one of your favourite "mental" table-hopping routines in no time at all. I have enjoyed fooling magicians with this version of the Fred trick and, to this day, still use it regularly. The magician asks a spectator to think of a card, and then he will name the thought-of card. So, the spectator thinks of his/her card only, and after a while, the magician says that the name of the card is, "FRED." Everyone, of course, groans at the weak joke, but then the magician asks the spectator to name his thought-of card, e.g. the Nine of Clubs. The magician now confirms that the Nine of Clubs is FRED, at the same time removing the deck of cards from the card case and showing that all of the cards have names written on their backs

The cards are shown at random, and the spectators clearly see that all of the cards have different names written on them. At this point, the magician makes his audience aware of the fact that he said, “FRED,” before the spectator mentioned the name of his/her card, the Nine of Clubs. When the Nine of Clubs is found in the deck, it is turned over, and not only does it have “FRED” written on the back of it, it is the only blue-backed card in the deck! Take note: AT THIS POINT, THE ENTIRE DECK CAN BE SHOWN AGAIN. THE WHOLE DECK IS RED BACKED, EXCEPT FOR THE FRED CARD! THE ENTIRE DECK CAN BE CASUALLY HANDLED. NO ROUGH OR SMOOTH PRINCIPLE IS USED. ANY SPECTATOR CAN NAME ANY CARD. THE TRICK CAN EVEN BE REPEATED IMMEDIATELY. IT’S GREAT FOR TABLE-HOPPING SITUATIONS.

GOLF PREDICTIONS
Picture this: You ask someone to name the number of shots/putts he will need for each of the eighteen holes, regardless of recommended PAR, on a particular golf course, e.g. for hole number 4, he will need 3 strokes; for hole number 16, he will need 5 strokes, etc. To cut a long story short, you correctly predict the total number of strokes for each hole as well as the final score.

STAGE

ACES IN GLAS
The magician shuffles the four Aces into a pack, places the pack into a tall-stemmed glass and holds the glass at the stem. Every time he brushes a silk past the glass, the Aces appear visually, one at a time, in front of the deck.

CRAZY CROSSWORD
The magician shows a large crossword puzzle and asks the audience a number of funny questions whilst filling in the crossword. Finally, a spectator is called onto stage and given a crossword book from which any page is chosen and a question selected. The answer to this question is sealed in an envelope that the spectator opens.

STUNG CARDS OUTDONE
Do you remember the “Stung Sucker” card trick with the bee? This must be one of the first tricks I learned as a youngster. Initially, I used it in children’s shows, and eventually it took an honorary place in my cupboard, where the cards collected dust over many years. I changed it that in the end you can show the final card on both sides, without your fingers covering the 'tell-tale' bit! great to fool magicians!

TORN & RESTORED NEWSPAPER
This is a classic, one of the oldest and most popular effects around, yet few magicians perform it, as the setup, working and handling are often very clumsy and difficult. The routine and setup I am about to describe to you came about while I was trying to come up with a flashy and different way of presenting this effect. I also found that most restorations were slow, and any fast method involved metal clips and other non-practical methods. Here is what I believe to be one of the fastest and most visual newspaper tear restorations in the world today, and there are no large bulges at the end of the trick. The newspaper is flat and can be shown on both sides once restored! Martin Breese of London says, “…of the fastest restorations I have ever seen!”

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