Price$20.00
Media TypeTrick
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJul 30, 2006
Strange Travelers
Paul Harris
(Based on 1 review)
Effect
You show someone a batch of twenty cards... all different.
You give her ten of the cards to hold.
You now have her just think of one of the remaining ten cards. She never says a word. No one except her knows what card she's thinking of.
These ten cards are counted again. Strangely... there are now only nine. The one card she'd been thinking of has vanished! She's still only thinking of her card; it's never been named out loud!
She counts the other ten cards she's been holding; ten cards you haven't touched since the beginning. But now she has eleven cards! The strange traveler has arrived... her thought-of card is now staring her in the face!
Strange Travelers is a streamlined version of a classic effect that was Nate Lepzig's favorite over 75 years ago. Other variations have come and gone. David re-discovered this hidden gem, and the rest is history.
And the really good news: Blaine's favorite effect is extremely easy to do.
No palming. No difficult moves. Just a simple elegant handling that just about anyone can learn.
Complete with Paul Harris' revised gimmick and routines, which includes a version where you start and finish with a normal deck.
Strange Travelers: David Blaine's favorite effect, his actual deal closer, can now be yours.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
As many of you may know from reading my other reviews, I've spent many years working on the cards-across plot. Aronson, Harlan, Daryl, Maven… I've learned them all.
I have certain criteria that I believe make for a good cards-across routine. You can read them in my review of Double Crossed. Some day maybe I'll write a complete synopsis of my findings.
One can hardly go wrong when you begin with a version created 75 years ago by Henry Hardin and add some brilliant, modern improvements from Paul Harris.
This version satisfies all of my criteria for an excellent routine. I tried to find a weak point. There are some, but they can easily be "erased" with proper choreography and scripting.
There's one more thing this version has going for it: many pages of variations and "Travel Tips". They cover all the options, whether you want to do this as a packet trick or with a full deck, standing or seated, table or no table. Paul has put a lot of work into this booklet, including a special "Anytime Travelers (with a shuffled almost-normal deck)," complete with plans for a special card box to facilitate adding the feked cards without going to your pockets.
Bravo!
I have certain criteria that I believe make for a good cards-across routine. You can read them in my review of Double Crossed. Some day maybe I'll write a complete synopsis of my findings.
One can hardly go wrong when you begin with a version created 75 years ago by Henry Hardin and add some brilliant, modern improvements from Paul Harris.
This version satisfies all of my criteria for an excellent routine. I tried to find a weak point. There are some, but they can easily be "erased" with proper choreography and scripting.
There's one more thing this version has going for it: many pages of variations and "Travel Tips". They cover all the options, whether you want to do this as a packet trick or with a full deck, standing or seated, table or no table. Paul has put a lot of work into this booklet, including a special "Anytime Travelers (with a shuffled almost-normal deck)," complete with plans for a special card box to facilitate adding the feked cards without going to your pockets.
Bravo!