A MAGAZINE OF INNOVATION WILLIAM P. MIESEL
PUBLISHED BY
unikorn magik
P R E C U R S O R
XLIV
This is PRECURSOR XLIV and is published in April 1994. The editorial offices are at 2215 Myrtle Street, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16502. PRECURSOR will be published more than three times a year, and it will be sold for $16.00 (U.S. ) for three issues. Outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, three issues are sent Air Mail for $19.00 (U.S.). In PRECURSOR XXXIX I ran David Ben's handling of the "Diagonal Palm Shift." David showed me his handling of the "Diagonal Palm Shift" at Close Encounters in Rochester, I took notes on it, and when I got home, I wrote it up. I did write it up correctly, but apparently the description was not clear enough because Ed brought it along to the Collector's Get Together in Cincinnati, and I changed everything to clarify it. Of course, these changes were made without my notes, and it was all wrong even though what is there does work. As a result, I am rewriting David's handling of the "Diagonal Palm Shift" and I hope I get it right this time. One further note, quoting a letter from Karl Fulves. "Re the 'David Ben Diagonal Palm Shift' in PRECURSOR XXXIX, this is one of the many fan steals Slydini did with expert ease. For all I know, he and Dr. Daley might have doped this out between them." Pete Lentini's "Alien's Archives" is a "Color Changing Deck" and the change at the climax is very surprising. It fooled a lot of people at Buffalo at the "Original Close-Up Convention." David Solomon's "The Card To Case - Once More" follows the general pattern established in Mario Magazine, Vol. 4. The one problem that David has not been able to overcome is the fact that the spectator invariably feels the "double" card and thinks that they became stuck together by accident and will separate them, completely destroying the illusion; so the performer is obliged to do the Australian Deal himself. I met Wije, who is actually Wijendran Namasivayam, at the 1993 Stewart James Weekend. He is a young magician from Toronto, and he did some very skillful Card Work. "Card Thru The Hand" is a cute quickie in which a peeked card is found when it penetrates the performer's right hand. Michael De Marco's "Pass The Basket" is another version of "The Collectors." From all the versions that have appeared, "The Collectors" must be considered a classic. Roy Walton's original method appeared in Abra #1203, and that same method appeared as "Finders Keepers" in his first book, THE DEVIL'S PLAYTHINGS. Ed Mario published many versions starting in Hierophant, and the effect just took off. This variation features very little finger movement and appears very clean. "Peek Prediction" by Al Thatcher is a non-faro version of a standard faro premise that is really sped up by using a partial deck. Some very practical ideas here. "Coins Across - Assistant To Assistant" by Mike O'Dowd is an effect that Mike has
performed many times at the Forks Hotel in Buffalo. Mike mentions that he performs this trick when he can't fine a glass to perform his "Coins To Glass," which, by the way, will appear in the third Forks book when it comes out. By the way it has an inconsistency near the end, but this could very possibly make reconstruction impossible. My "Encased Collectors" is an extension of Gene Maze's "A Simple Case Of Dealing" from PRECURSOR XLII. The main thing here is not to deal too slow that it is obvious that there are no face-down cards on top of the encased deck, but it does not have to be ultra-fast, either. Just get into a nice rhythm, and once the seven cards are in a spread on the table, the surprise should cover the discrepancy. "You Take It From Here" by Norm Houghton is, as Norm says, not a trick, but a series of ideas in search of a trick. Please read the article and if you get any further ideas please let me know. Just to let you know, I got a routine from these ideas, and it will appear in the next PRECURSOR. This is how PRECURSOR started. William P. Miesel October 1, 1993
When I started the final work on this issue of PRECURSOR, I was amazed to see the above date on William's editorial. He had worked very hard and had gotten several issues on disk before sending them to me. I think I had three unpublished issues on my computer at one time. This is the last of those. Just received issue XLV. This issue is on schedule, being published in early April, 1994. And speaking further of William, I just noticed that on the back of the dust jacket of the first volume of the reprinted Ibidem there is a reproduction of a signature "Bill Miesil". Have I been spelling it wrong all these years? William tells me that the children's show "Xuxa" on the Fox network occasionally has magicians on the program. I haven't found the show on my cable network, so I can't comment any further. You might want to take a look at it, though. I talked to Ron Zollweg the other night. He had written a letter to Tony Giorgio of Genii, and he had sent me a Xerox of his carbon. He remarked how difficult it was to read such a copy. And I had to cast my mind back to the time in 1983 when I moved and lost the original of an issue of PRECURSOR. William had to send me a Xerox of his carbon, and I had to retype the entire issue from that. I've not lost another PRECURSOR manuscript since then. But ... I've lost ever so many goodies in the meanwhile, the latest being a dictionary of strange words. It is somewhere in my office at work or in my house. I don't think it is anywhere in between, but I can't be certain. Ed Eckl
DAVID BEN'S DIAGONAL PALM SHIFT
This is a corrected version of David's version of the "Diagonal Palm Shift" that appeared in PRECURSOR XXXIX and is a card control that is based on Paul LePaul's "Automatic Jog Control" from THE CARD MAGIC OF LEPAUL and from some notes in the DALEY NOTEBOOKS. 1. Whatever effect is being performed, it is begun by having a card selected from the deck by any means desired. As the selection is taken, the deck is squared up. 2. As the spectator is looking at his selection, give the deck a face-down Pressure Fan in the left hand.
Figure 1
3. Take back his selection from him and hold it face down in the right hand with the thumb on the back and the forefinger on the face. Look away, tilt the right hand back, and show the face of the card to the audience. 4. Lower the right hand and insert the selection into the center of the fanned deck, angling the card to the right or towards the back of the fan. This is shown in Figure #2.
Figure 2
5.
The right hand comes over the top of the fan to the left side of it and