Potpourri (1-2) by Nick Conticello

Author and collector Doug Edwards said:

"I know a good trick when I see one, and KNOW-ALL NEALE is a good trick! It's impromptu and direct. And I like A COUNT, A BILL as well. The divination of the three digits comes as a complete surprise. Two real winners."

Tarbell Course contributor Nick Conticello returns with a new selection of close-up magic designed to be performed for small groups of friends or acquaintances.

1. Know-All Neale: 3 coin divination with fourth coin kicker

2. A Count, A Bill: Based on "It's the Principle " (Bob Longe, Sept. 2001 Linking Ring) with bill used to select three digits. Presented as a gambling expose. Performer divines three freely chosen digits.

3. Ace Hummer Place: 12 cards, randomly mixed face up and face down. Eight end up face up and the four Aces face down.

4. Sum Hummer Variations: Performer divines the sum of some randomly reversed cards. Variation of Charles Hudson's "Sum Hummer."

5. Vernon's IBM Trick, Simplified: Can be done over the telephone.

6. Isolani: Two face up cards eventually sandwich a predicted card.

7. A-10 Prediction: Two freely chosen cards are totaled to count down to a third card in the pack, which the performer has predicted.

8. The Homesick Card: A mentally chosen card returns to its original position despite the mixing of the packet it is in.

9. Zen-Chronicity: Two cards, randomly chosen by the audience and buried in the deck by the selectors themselves, somehow end up in symmetric positions in two different packets.

BONUS EFFECT: 10. Klepidoptera: An offbeat take on Dave Forrest's version of the Butterfly Effect, which is completely impromptu and uses an idea described earlier in this book. The performer predicts a selected card and the sum of four randomly chosen digits.

1st edition 2016, 21 pages.

After seeing several effects from this ebook, author and collector Doug Edwards said:

"The stuff you do with a shuffled deck and one or two key cards borders on the miraculous!"

1. TEN-IS MATCH: The performer removes ten matching pairs from the deck. These are mixed by both the performer and spectator and divided about in half by the spectator. Yet somehow all the pairs line up. Based on ideas of Howard Adams and Gene Finnell.

2. TALONS OF THE HAWK: Two volunteers each think of a card from a group of ten. The packets are lost in the deck by the volunteers themselves. The performer finds both selections with a pair of elimination shuffles. Designed as a continuation effect after TEN-IS MATCH, or can be done with a borrowed, shuffled, incomplete deck. Inspired by Max Maven's The Hawk, but vastly different in method.

3. TALONS OF THE BAT: A variation of TALONS OF THE HAWK.

4. KAGI NO KAGI: (Key of Keys) A trick designed to baffle other magicians. Spectator selects a card from a shuffled pack in a manner designed to nullify any key cards. Nonetheless, the spectator finds his own selection. A clever way to position a card for Karl Fulves' Oracle revelation. The control is a mix of Aronson's UnDo Influence and Conticello's CAFE Control. Based on an idea of Geoffrey Scalbert.

5. NYC, IT'S YOUR CARD!: A presentation of KAGI NO KAGI for a lay audience. A freely selected card is found by spelling one or more of New York City's five boroughs. Inspired by Bill Nord's The Magic of Manhattan.

6. CONTROL AGENT 99: The performer removes two face down cards from a shuffled deck, which he says are predictions of two separate events in two different ways. Two volunteers each cut off a packet of cards and note the face card, then replace the packets onto the deck themselves. After the pack is cut, the performer extracts a small group of cards from which he produces one selected card. The performer explains that he knew which card was selected because it was between two Nines. The prediction cards are turned over to reveal the other two Nines! The performer points out that 9+9=18. The other spectator takes the talon and counts to the 18th card. It is the second selection! Uses the Aronson UnDo Influence and a simple version of the Marlo Prayer Cull to set the pack.

7. Bonus Effect: MISANTHRO-PIC: A spectator thinks of a character in a certain classic film and spells that name to select a card in a small packet. The selection is lost in the packet but the performer divines the chosen character and shows he has predicted the chosen card's final position.

8. THE WIDDERSHINS CUT: Conticello's popular sleightless four-way false cut is reprinted from The Shadow Placement with a new refinement. This cut is useful for several effects in this ebook.

1st edition 2016, 22 pages.
word count: 7827 which is equivalent to 31 standard pages of text