This will be brief and to the point as I don't wish to overwhelm those on my mailing list but Philip Sweeting on his website www.bicycle-cards.co.uk has commented for his readers as follows: “As regular readers will know, I continue to be a great fan of good Magic Books, and so I am delighted to point you in the direction of Martin Breese – who stocks (and publishes) some excellent stuff. As I was perusing his site earlier I noticed a ‘free trick’ by Peter Duffie (this is a regular feature on Martin’s site) – and the current one is a really neat and self-working idea which is themed on Sherlock Holmes. It strikes me this may be very topical at the moment with the BBC’s recent series. Just follow the link to ‘Free Trick’ on the Martin Breese website. Enjoy…”
Well as I hadn’t read this free trick for myself I decided to have a look at my own website and I did and went to the section which is called Free Trick and both Peter Duffie and Aldo Colombini very kindly contribute material from time to time to this space.
I thought the trick, which is called IDEAL HOMES, is really great and this is what happens.
A deck is shuffled and then cut a couple of times.
You spread the deck between your hands and have a card freely selected by a spectator who places the card directly into his pocket without looking at it. The performer turns to a second spectator and says, “You will now discover the secret identity of the hidden card, first the suit and then the value. However, you will need some help to do this, so let’s call upon the greatest detective of all time, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. He will help you to identify the suit.”
You hand the deck to the spectator and ask him to spell the name S-H-E-R-L-O-C-K by dealing one card for each letter in the name into a face down pile on the table.
You turn over the top card of the tabled pile to indicate the suit.
Next, you say, “OK, so that’s the suit taken care of, but the value is much more difficult...even for Mr. Holmes. I think we will need to use a little ‘magic’ now.”
You now ask the spectator to spell the word M-A-G-I-C in the same way as before, but dealing into a separate pile.
You turn over the top card of this pile heap to indicate the value.
You finally announce both the value and suit together thus completing the name of the card then ask the spectator to remove the card from his pocket. It will prove to be that very card.
For an instant repeat of the trick you use the two words “CARD” and “DISCOVERY and say to the spectators that it is really a card discovery, so let’s use those very words and see what happens? And once again a freely selected card in the spectator’s pocket is revealed.
Full instructions for this trick are provided free as you will see. Some of the best things in life are free. I should read my own website more often! Martin Breese
PS if you have ordered SALE items and have not yet heard from us then do not worry, John is gradually working through the very long list of emailed orders.