EFFECT

While remarking on a tale about the famous Harry Houdini, the magician innocently demonstrates a swindle that the renown magician once performed, separating the two black aces into different parts of the deck. Lo and behold, the two aces are found side by side. The spectators are skeptical of a very suspicious move that the magician has made, and challenge the magician to repeat himself. The magician befuddles the audience a second time, yet the suspicious move still raises eyebrows. The magi offers to perform the hoax a final time, and to eliminate all suspicion, deposits one of the aces in his pocket. At the conclusion, the two black aces have again found themselves in the deck, and the card in the magicians pocket is an indifferent card.. Houdini's famous Black Ace Hoax has struck again!

SET-UP:

Remove the two black aces (the ace of clubs and the ace of spades) from an ordinary pack of playing cards.

PRESENTATION: (With Patter)

While playing with the cards, ask your audience if they've ever heard of Houdini's Famous Black Ace Hoax. When they respond that they haven't, you place the two black aces face up on the table, and start the following story: "Before the great Harry Houdini was famous, he was traveling on a train from Chicago to New York, and found himself in the embarrassing situation of only having one dollar in his pocket. At one of the train stopovers, he got off the train and happened upon a group of men shooting dice on the floor. Houdini saw an opportunity to add to his wealth, and asked the men if any of them had ever witnessed the miracle of the "Black Ace Hoax". The men indicated that they had never seen it before, and would like to see it performed."

At this point, cut the deck into two face down halves, and pick up the two black aces, displaying them to your audience. Suit your action to the following patter: "Harry said, it's really quite remarkable; you place one of the black aces on this half of the deck (suit action to words) and the other ace goes on this half of the deck." The position that you are in now is that you have two halves of the deck, face down, in front of you, with a face down Ace on the top of each half. "Harry then picked up one half of the deck, placed it on top of the other, and by magically blowing on the deck, caused both aces to join each other in the middle of the deck."

At this point, when you pick up the first half of the deck, and as you are about to deposit it upon the second half, you slide the black Ace on top of the cards in your hand, and simply place it on top of the ace that is on the top of the cards on the table. You want to do this with some speed, and act as though you think that this very obvious ruse has fooled your audience. It won't, which is exactly what you want (That's why it's called a "hoax"). At this point, the cards are all face down on the table, with the two black aces next to each other, somewhere near the center of the deck. Pick the deck up and begin dealing cards from the BOTTOM of the deck, turning them face up as you deposit them on the table. Eventually you'll come to one of the black aces. With a flourish, turn the next card over, which will be the second black ace, and say triumphantly: "...And there they are, the two black aces, joined in the middle of the deck." Since you are acting as though you have just performed an amazing feat of sleight-of-hand, and since it is very obvious to your audience that you simply placed the two aces together, they will fall right into the trap that unfolds with the rest of the story: "...Some of the men watching Houdini thought that they had detected some trickery, and challenged him to do it again. Harry again separated the deck into two face-down halves and placed one ace upon each half." As you are squaring the deck to turn it face down into two halves, notice and remember the top card of the half of the deck to your left. For the sake of illustration, we'll call this card the five of hearts. Place the first Ace on top of this half. Display the second ace, and, as you are about to place it on top of the half of cards on the right, drop the ace onto the floor. "...As Harry was placing the aces on top of the cards, he accidentally dropped one. As he bent over to pick it up, one of the scalawags watching him picked up several cards from one half of the deck and put them on top of the other ace."

Here you simply suit action to words. After you finish bending over and picking up the second ace, you act out what the scalawag did, picking up a small packet (5 or 6 cards) of cards from the half of the deck to your right, and drop them on top of the cards 'to your left. "...Harry, unaware of what had just transpired, placed the second ace on top of this half of the deck (the half to your right), and by magically blowing on the deck, caused the two aces to come together once again, in the middle of the deck." Duplicate your actions of the first time you put both halves of the deck together. That is, pick up the half of the deck on your right, slide the black ace that is on top of it, off of that half of the deck and onto the other half. Again, you do this with some speed, and act as though the audience is not aware of this move. At this point, unbeknownst to the audience, both black aces will be in the middle of the deck, separated by several cards. The five of hearts will be below the first black ace. Here you again deal from the bottom of the face down deck, one card at a time, until you come to the five of hearts. Once you see the five of hearts, you'll know that the very next card on the bottom of the deck is one of the black aces.

At this point you do a sleight known as the "Glide", also called the "Slide" in some circles. For those of you unfamiliar with the Glide, an explanation follows: Holding the face down deck from above, in the left hand, you place the tips of the four fingers on one long side of the deck, and the tip of the thumb on the opposite long side (see illustration #1). With the second finger of the left hand, slide back the card that is on the bottom of the deck approximately 1 inch (illustration #2). With the finger tips of the right hand, reach under the deck and slide off the card that is second from the bottom of the deck (illustration #3 and 4). This is facilitated by the fact that you've just slid back the boftom-most card. Performed correctly, this merely looks as though you have dealt the bottom card of the deck. The boftom-most card may be held in this position (The Glide Position) as long as you want, until you are ready to deal it. To continue: You've been dealing cards from the bottom of the deck, one at a time, until you came to the five of hearts. Upon dealing that card, you know that the next card on the bottom of the deck is one of the black aces. You perform the "Glide", sliding this card backwards, and continue to deal the second card from the bottom of the deck down onto the table, until you deal the other black ace. Since you've been holding one ace in the "Glide" position, all you need to do is slide it forward, deal it face up on the other ace, and you now have both aces together. Place the remainder of the deck that is in your hands, face up on the table. The effect to the audience is that you have merely dealt cards as before, from the bottom of the deck, and eventually came upon the two aces back together in the deck. As a packet of cards were dropped upon one of the aces by the spectator, this will immediately mystify them.

At this point you continue with your story: "...and Harry showed that- the two black aces had magically come together in the middle of the deck again. At this point the men watching him loudly accused him of cheating, and claimed that he couldn't possibly perform the same effect again. Houdini said that he'd be willing to try, and proceeded to do just that." Suiting action to words, after the two aces have been shown together, you pick them up from the scattered cards on the table. In the process, secretly secure one extra card behind the two face up aces. (Therefore, in -reality you are @g up three cards, with an indifferent one on top, then two black aces). Ask one of the spectators to gather up all the cards on the table, and turn them face down, cutting the deck into two separate halves. While they are doing this, you'll have time to do your mischief: You now have three cards face up in your hands. The boftommost card is indifferent the next two above it are both aces. Take the ace that is on top in your right hand. Square up both the cards in the left hand, so that they appear as only one card. Hold both hands up for your audience to see. It will appear as though you are only displaying the two black aces. "...Harry said that he'd do it one last time for them. He took one black ace and placed it face down on top of half of the deck, and placed the second black ace on the other half of the deck." Suiting the above words to the action, show the two cards in your left hand as though it were only one ace. Place both of these cards on top of the half of the deck to your left. Show the ace in your right hand, and as you are about to place it on the half of the deck to your right, you drop it on the floor, again. "...as Harry was placing the aces on top of the deck, he dropped one on the floor again. While he was bent over picking it up, the same scalawag in his audience reached over, grabbed the ace that is on top of the left hand pack of cards, and hid it in his pocket." At this point, reach down, take the TOP card from the deck on your left and put it in your pocket (the audience will believe this to be one of the aces). Bend down, and retrieve the black ace that you dropped on the floor, and place it on top of the deck to your right. At this point the audience believes that one half of the deck has a black ace, and that the other black ace is in your pocket.

"...Harry was unaware of the trickery of his audience, and, as before said that he'd merely blow on the two decks and make the black aces come together in the middle of the deck." At this point the audience is unaware that one of the black aces is on top of the half of cards to your left, and the other is on top of the cards to your right, while an indifferent card is in your pocket. Here you do the exact same move as before, picking up one half of the deck, sliding the black ace on the top of that half down onto the ace that's on top of the other half (trying to do so quickly and suspiciously). Blow on the deck, then slowly start dealing from the bottom of the deck, one card at a time, until you come to the first black ace. Pause for dramatic effect, and turn over the second black ace, to the astonishment of your audience. "...Harry came to the first black ace, pulled off the next card, turned it over, and revealed the second black ace. At this point the man who thought he'd stolen the ace pulled the card out of his pocket only to find that it had changed into the (here you name whatever the card-is). And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the origin of the world famous Black Ace Hoax." After showing the two black aces together in the middle of the deck, you simply reach into your pocket and display the indifferent card that is there.

This effect reads as though it were long and involved, but you will find that it actually only takes about two minutes to go through the entire routine, once you've mastered it. Because of the hoax- within-a-hoax that constitutes this routine, you will be delighted with the stunning effect that it has on the audience. Take the time to learn the effect well, and you'll have a routine that you can do with any deck at any time without any advance preparation.