THE PIERCED CARDS

By Robert Harbin


All that is needed for this trick is a deck of cards, a bodkin, a length of ribbon and a paper bag. With that equipment you will have an effect which may be performed impromptu and which I am sure that you will like because it is so effective. There are so few card tricks which are big in effect that I am certain that you will welcome this one.
The effect is not new but previous methods for performing the trick have always needed special cards, or a prepared bag, and having the cards forced. In this case you use any bag, any cards, and any ribbon, as well as any bodkin.
Two cards are freely selected from the deck and returned and the cards are shuffled. The cards are then dropped into an examined paper bag. A ribbon is threaded through the bag with a sharp bodkin. The bodkin is removed and the ends of the ribbon are handed to spectators to hold. The bag is opened and the center of the ribbon is pulled up so that the audience can see that it actually goes through the bag. The ribbon is pulled back into the bag. The bag is shaken so that the cards further are mixed inside the bag. The paper bag is torn away and the two chosen cards are found to be threaded on the ribbon.
The pack is first shuffled and two cards are chosen. The choice is entirely free for it does not make the least difference what the cards are. The paper bag is passed for examination and left in the bands of the spectator.
When the cards are returned to the deck they are both passed to the top. The deck is shuffled so that the two selected cards are not disturbed. Finally in the shuffle, slip one of the cards to the bottom of the deck. At this moment, a chosen card will be found at both the top and the bottom of the deck.

The paper bag is picked up with the left hand grasping one side of the mouth of the bag. The cards, which have been held in the right hand, are dropped into the bag. That is, all the cards are dropped into the bag but the top and bottom cards which are retained between the fingers and thumb. You have done this sleight before in other tricks. It depends upon the friction of the fingers to hold the two outside cards as the grip on the pack is loosened. This is shown in illustration number 1.

The two chosen cards are passed between the lingers of the left hand. Illustration 2. The cards are shaken about. The bodkin is then pushed through the bag and through the cards as is shown in illustration 3. The ribbon is then drawn right through so that the bag is at the middle of the ribbon. The center of the ribbon is pulled up out of the mouth of the bag. Remember at this point that the left hand still grasps the chosen cards.

The ends of the ribbon are given to two spectators--one on either side of the bag. By this time the cards have been released by the left hand. The mouth of the bag is gathered together and the cards shaken again. Then the bag is torn off the ribbon and the two chosen cards are found to be strung on the ribbon.

Too much emphasis cannot be given to the fact that the cards finally found on the ribbon actually are the cards which a moment before were so freely chosen. You may wish to have the cards marked by those choosing them. In order that the freedom of selection may better be noted, you may wish to give the deck to each person to hold in his own hands as he makes his selection.

At such times as you show the trick as an impromptu effect, you will find it very easy to get the cards, ribbon, and paper bag. You may not find it quite so easy to borrow a bodkin. On such occasions you will find it perfectly possible to make a hole through bag and cards with the small blade of a penknife and then use the point of the knife to push the ribbon through the hole.

When you do the trick, having brought your own materials, you will find it advisable to use a fairly strong ribbon, though not more than three-quarters of an inch wide, and a fair size paper bag. The bodkin, which should have a sharp point the more easy to impale the cards, will, of course, be threaded by the ribbon before the performance.

With proper presentation the effect can be built into magic which will long be talked about. As everything which may be seen is so fair, the patter should stress right up to the end that the magician "has done nothing." When the bag has been threaded on the ribbon and the spectators have hold of the ends and actually the trick is all over--then is the time for the magician to say, as strongly as possible, just what he plans to do. That, by the way, is the best time for a magician to make his promises--after he has reached a point where it is impossible for anything to go wrong.