What is the Fully Automatic Card Trick?

The best way to answer that is to watch Caleb’s brilliant performance on Penn & Teller Fool Us. For your viewing pleasure I have included the video here.

If you can’t be bothered to watch the video, the routine is one in which the spectator does all the work. Cutting, shuffling, dealing, etc. And yet amazingly a card which is selected in an extremely fair-looking manner is not only located, but then shown to have been predicted in advance in several killer ways. It’s a very strong routine which will play for a good 5 or 6 minutes. The routine taught is just fractionally different from the one on Penn & Teller – but not in a way which changes the overall impact of the effect.

What do you get?

You get a very clever deck of cards, some extra cards which will allow you a degree of customisation, and a link to a 35 minute online explanation. In fact, amusingly, my review copy didn’t come with the link. Whilst I know this is a Fully Automatic Card Trick, I did think that some explanation would be helpful! Thankfully the kind people at Murphy’s Magic put me straight! The whole thing comes neatly packaged in an attractive cardboard box.

The explanation is simply shot – just Caleb at a card table talking you through it. We often talk about the merits of live v. studio performances. Well in this instance, the performance takes place in your own room, since he essentially walks you through what to do with your deck. Unfortunately, because of the way USPCC print decks, you have to reverse the order of your deck before you try to follow his explanation. I twigged that because of previous (similar) items I have looked at – but if you do it straight out of the box it won’t quite work!

What do we think?

There are many excellent features of this routine. You end essentially clean. And he even suggests a method for being able to carry on to other routines with a normal deck. That is sweet.

It really is self-working – in the sense that if you carry through the instructions it will all play as expected. However, it is worth saying that you WILL need to practise this. You will need to be completely confident with the procedure, and without tipping the method, there are one or two things you will need to keep your eye on while the spectator is handling the cards.

None of this is in any sense deal-breaking. But I would definitely urge you to really familiarise yourself with this before you try it out for real – don’t assume because it is ‘self-working’ that you can do it without any practise. You wouldn’t, would you?

As has been mentioned, you end clean. But if you wanted to perform the effect again (not that you would – to the same crowd) you would need to go through a significant reset. Not complicated, but significant – not the sort of thing you could carry out in the middle of gigging. In fact if you wanted to use this as part of your performing set, I would probably suggest setting up several decks – with different reveals.

It wouldn’t be suitable for general walkaround since it really requires a table for the various displays. I think this would be ideal for a formal close up show or a special occasion. Or as a nice party-piece when you have folk round to dinner!

The explanation is clear and straightforward, and I really appreciate the extra cards they have supplied to enable you to customise the effect to some degree.

So all in all we think this is a great trick. The performing conditions are the biggest limitation – but if it fits the context in which you perform we would suggest this is a great buy.

You can pick up the Fully Automatic Card Trick from the Merchant of Magic for £26.99 (at the time of writing).

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

Caleb Wiles – Fully Automatic Card Trick – review

4.4 / 5 Reviewer

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The post Caleb Wiles – Fully Automatic Card Trick – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Armchair Mindreading – Caleb Wiles

I recently picked up a copy of Caleb’s High Spots book so was pleased to see first item on disk was his. Spectator freely cuts to a card in the deck then shuffles their cards (and puts the rest of the deck out of sight in the card box). You then successfully read your spectator’s mind and reveal their card. Some set up required but a really sneaky method which you will love to perform.

Self Control – Simon Aronson

It’s quite rare for me to be completely fooled by a magic trick – but I didn’t have a clue what was going on here. Encouragingly neither, apparently, did James Went or Liam Montier when they explained it! There is a mathematical principle at work but it is not as ‘procedural’ as this kind of effect sometimes is. It looks very fair and is a real fooler.

Rising Card – Daryl

This is a really visual rising card effect which pretty much works itself. It looks great and is very easy to work. As Liam comments on the introduction, it is rare for a self-worker to be so visually impressive. You have to try this one out.

Memory Opener – Sal Piacente

A pseudo-memorised deck routine – nicely constructed with three phases. I feel like Ryan Schultz overplays this in performance but it is a great effect. There is a set up required, but it would (as its name implies) make a great opener because of that.

Casino Clock – David Solomon

Solomon’s twist on the classic ‘Clock Trick’ (you can find it in The Wisdom of Solomon) with a slight gambling theme. It brings it out of the ‘puzzle’ category and gives it a bit more justification. If you can deal cards you can do this one and there’s a nice (and very cheeky!) extra ‘prediction’ which makes the effect even stronger.

Quadruuple Matchup – Nick Trost

A brilliant example of Trost’s cunning – the spectator has a very free selection and yet manages to locate 3 cards which form a set with your prediction set down earlier. You can work it from a borrowed shuffled deck. Love it. (Well worth checking out his books if you like this).

The Stapled Card – John Scarne

This is a really clever routine where a chosen card swaps places with a joker and ends up stapled to another joker. There’s a lot of magic going on here – far more than seems possible for a self-worker. We liked it last week when we read it in Liam’s Shazam and it is still good!

Devestation – Geoff Williams

This really does look completely fair – the spectator seems to make all the decisions to choose and lose a card (with a borrowed and shuffled deck) and you can still locate it. Uses a principle you probably read about in your first magic book, but so well disguised this is a genuine killer! This goes straight in to my impromptu set.

Impossible Divination – Larry Jennings

A classic from Jennings 67 – this is almost entirely hands off, and yet you manage to locate a card selected by the spectator from a borrowed shuffled deck. It shares many of the strengths of Devestation, but feels slightly more procedural to me.

The Red and The Blue – Alex Elmsley

In this clever effect from Alex Elmsley a card chosen by you and the spectator swap places by magic – or rather the decks containing them do! And the set up is accomplished by performing the venerable ‘Do as I do’ effect. Not only does the ‘Do as I do’ set you up it creates a routine which builds together nicely.

Final Thoughts

It is hard to make absolute comparisons, but I felt the material on here was slightly stronger than the material in volume 2. There are some cracking effects which require nothing in the way of sleight of hand allowing you to concentrate on the presentation. As the quote from the legendary Dai Vernon (which appears on the cover) says: “In magic, today as always, the effect is what counts. The methods used are always purely secondary.” Well you get some GREAT effects which require very little technical effort. If you’ve got an ounce of performing skill you will be getting some brilliant reactions from this material.

Highly recommended and available from MagicShop.co.uk (with thanks to BBM who kindly supplied our review copy).

And as our summer competition we’re offering you the chance to win all 3 volumes of the Ultimate Self-Working Card Tricks series – so what are you waiting for?

The post Ultimate Self-Working Card Tricks Volume 3 – Review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.