As a professional magician, I often think to myself, what’s the best card trick I could perform? What would amaze a spectator? I polled nine hundred magicians to figure this out. The clear winner was ambitious card. Just learning the tricks below you will have the most powerful card tricks ever created and blow some minds.
1. Ambitious Card.
2. Chicago Opener.
3. Card Under Box.
4. Out Of This World.
5. Card To Pocket.
6. Biddle Trick.
7. Anniversary Waltz.
8. Twenty One Card Trick.
9. Triumph.
10. Multiple Selection.
If you just learnt these ten card tricks, they would set you for life as a magician. The first card trick I saw was the ambitious card. I remember the feeling the trick gave me shivers down my spin; I had to know how it worked. It looked impossible, like pure magic. To me, the card rising to the top of the deck was a moment I will never forget. That’s what the perfect card trick is. The OMG what just happened moment. You will learn below where to find the best magicians to learn from for each effect, and also the history behind the effect.
Ambitious Card.
Coming in at number one, the ambitious Card has to be my favorite to perform and also to witness. It requires sleight of hand, mis-direction and performance skill to achieve something special.
The Effect.
A playing card is selected, placed back into the middle of the pack. The magician clicks his fingers, wiggles his toes, and the card jumps to the top of the deck. They then repeat this, each time getting more and more impossible. Until finally the selected card is left with a clear glass block in the spectator’s hands unbeknown to them, leaving them shocked.
The ambitious card originated from French magician Gustav Alberti. The trick became famous amongst magicians because it was the trick that fooled Houdini by Dai Veron. The bests version of this trick is performed by Daryl Martinez doing his Famous Ambitious Card Routine and Tommy Wonder Dai Veron
2. Chicago Opener.
Coming in at number two Chicago Opener or otherwise know at Red Hot Mama. The effect was originally invented y Al Leech called Card Trick No.1.
The Effect.
A card is freely selected and placed back into the deck. The selected card is the only card with a different backed colour. The magician repeats the effect a second time, only to fail. The magicians tryst to get out of trouble (classic magic plot) he looks down at the card that has already changed on the table as it becomes the second selection.
Check out a few performances below
3. Card Under Box.
Card under glass is an impressive effect. I first saw this performed by Doc Eason on his DVD Bar Magic Doc Eason Volume 1 and then updated Doc Eason Card Under Glass (2 DVD set) by Kozmomagic – DVD
Card under box came later when I witness James Brown perform card under box and Daniel Chard links below
The Effect
A freely chosen card, which can be signed, vanishes from the deck multiple times, appearing under the card case, inside the card case and finally the entire deck jumps into the case!
4. Out Of This World.
Out of this world was created by Paul Curry in 1942. There is a story that dates back to World War two where the trick was performed for Winston Churchill who asked to repeat the trick multiple times there for delaying some kind of raid (so the story goes) https://magicbypost.co.uk/blog/news/the-trick-that-fooled-churchill
Check out the worlds greatest OUT OF THIS WORLD HERE.
5. Card To Pocket.
Every professional magician will perform card to pocket. It can be very scary to perform card to pocket for the first time as you will have to learn misdirection, sleight of hand and psychology to perform it correctly. This trick can be mind blowing with multiple phases.
6. Biddle Trick.
The Biddle trick is named after its creator Elmer Biddle published in 1947 as the Biddle move.
The Effect.
A card is selected, placed back in deck, and then shuffled. The magician draws several groups of five cards off the face of the deck and asks spectator which group contained his card. The cards are spread showing only four, and the selected card is produced from the pocket. In the early sixty’s the Biddle trick got updated into a more refined handling, where the spectator hold the card and the selected card travels from the packet to the deck check out the below performance.
7. Anniversary Waltz.
In the UK this has become the most popular card trick to perform at weddings for the bride and groom. It’s perfect for bringing them together and giving away as a gift at the end of your gig.
Effect.
The two cards are placed separately into the deck held by the spectators and signed. The two signed cards, instantly jump together, next to each other in the deck. The two signed cards are again displayed and placed between the woman’s palms. Suddenly, the two signed cards magically fuse into a single card. Great effect and a real life worker.
8. Twenty One Card Trick.
Every magician under the sun has performed the twenty-one card trick at some point. It’s a classic for a reason. Personally I love this effect if you can get people engaged enough to follow what you showing them. There are three versions that are super powerful. There is one clip below of Bill Malone performing the Twenty-One Card Trick.
The effect.
The game uses a selection of twenty-one cards out of a standard deck. They shuffle these and the spectator selects one at random. They then deal the cards out face up in three columns of seven cards each. The player points to the column containing their card. They pick the cards up, and we repeat the process three times, at which point the magician reveals the selected card.
For a more detailed look into the Twenty-One Card trick check out Wikipedia
9. Triumph.
This is one of my all-time favorite tricks to perform. Usually performed on a table it’s an impossible magic trick to follow. A magician called Dai Vernon created the effect and after named it triumph because he thought there would be no better card trick.
The effect. Have a spectator select a card from a shuffled deck. They place the card back into the deck and shuffled again. You split the deck turning one half face up and the other face down and shuffle together. You now explain to the spectator you are going to find the card in the face up and face down mess. You say some magic words and show all the cards are now turned the same way. All the cards except one card the selected card.
10. Multiple Selection.
The Multiple Selection could be the ultimate card trick. The magicians can have over twenty card tricks selected by twenty people and they find each card in its own unique way. It requires great skill and sleight of hand to perform.
Thanks for reading. If you just learn these ten card tricks, you will have some amazing magic at your fingertips.
Thanks for reading.
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