Take It Further Than That by Steve Pellegrino

First published in The Jinx in April 1941, Stewart James' Further Than That is still in professional magicians' repertoire 80 years later. Annemann published it in a special Stewart James issue of The Jinx and thought so highly of it that he featured it as the first effect on the front page.

How amazing can a self-working card trick be?

• If I only have time to perform one routine, I perform Further Than That.
• If I only have moments to impress a new client, I perform Further Than That.
• When I want to end my close-up set, I perform Further Than That.

It has been in the working repertoires of many great magicians, including Michael Skinner and Harry Loryane. Correctly performed, Further Than That contains five powerful magic moments tied in with an entertaining premise. However, there are three issues with the original effect that keep magicians away from the routine.

1. The 10-20 force is contrived. Here, the 10-20 force is justified and includes Michael Skinner's way of getting into it.

2. The deck looks stacked. I've built two strategies into the routine that take away the notion that the deck is prearranged, including the spectator cutting and handling the cards.

3. It needed a stronger ending than the royal flush. Some people don't know poker hands and don't connect with a royal flush. Therefore I've included three different endings involving the entire deck. My two original endings are described, along with a bonus third ending. One ending involves the remaining cards being in order, by suit, from Ace to King without a gimmicked deck.

The 5-Second Reset

For professional magicians, the reset time of an effect is crucial in deciding if an effect is going into their repertoire. Further Than That is an excellent walk-around, table-hopping effect that can be reset within a few seconds in front of the spectators as you're putting the deck away.

Also included is the original Stewart James routine from The Jinx.

1st edition 2021, PDF 20 pages.