Gordon,
You"ve just taken the wrapper of a brand new pack of 52 and you have given it to the spectator to shuffle and mix,you take the pack back and,what 3 card tricks would you perform? Lets say its a one to one situation.
Steve.
P.S. You can try a few longer words this time,Im feeling confident!

Surely I havent stumped you Gordon?
As for me,I would show.
Dr Daley"s Last Trick
Triumph
Collinspell.
Steve.

Hi Steve,

I thought you'd understand from my embarrassed silence that I can only do tricks that used gaffed cards. Well...maybe not. I've actually been tracking down some of my notes to check on what some of my own tricks are actually called.

All the tricks on your list are ones that I've performed at one time or another, though I don't think I could do Collinspell at the moment without consulting the Elmsley books. Way back when, I used to find the aces using jog shuffles (with the last being an apparent mistake, ala Cutting the Aces, that counts down to the right one), following this with the basic Marlo ace-assembly in Tarbell (Easy Aces, I think), following that with Twisting the Aces, and finishing up with Triumph, and sometimes Cervon's Trapped, which was in the first issue of Genii I ever got.

If I have table, these are the ones I'm apt to do now: Rhythm Aces, which is an unpublished Spectator Cuts the Aces of mine; a basic ace-assembly using Hartman's Secret Subtraction; and The Wish Sandwich, which is a sandwich effect I put in print a couple of years ago in some lecture notes. I like the idea of having only one card selected during the set, and having that be the finale.

With no table: a color-change routine that starts with a side-steal, continues with a Midnight Shift, and ends with a Houdini change; The Standing Challenge, which I put in print in Aaron Fisher's The Paper Engine; and The Wish Sandwich.

If I have an attentive audience, and I know I won't be interrupted, I perform a refinement of One Gone South, which was my solution to Stewart James's 51 Faces North problem. James was very attentive to the value of planning even short impromptu sets, and some of my favorite parts of the James books are when he details what tricks he performed at certain social occasions. The entire point of 51 Faces North is that it takes the idea of a three-or-four-trick set even further--not only do the effects get better, they actually set up each other, leading to a finale that's otherwise impossible. In my opinion, the exploration of the different ways effects can work with each other is James's most enduring work, and one which I'm sure we'll all catch up to eventually.

A few hours ago, I happened to give a performance for laypeople, and as I was tired, a few effects reared up from the past: the Gardner/Marlo Poker Routine, Vernon's Emotional Reaction, and Carlyle's Homing Card. Also, speaking of being tired, though the ace assembly mentioned above is in Tarbell, it's actually called Ed Marlo's Simplex Aces. Easy Aces is in Frank Garcia's Million Dollar Card Secrets.

Thankyou Gordon.
They would make a very nice routine.
Im surprised so few people perform Alex Elmsleys "Collinspell" its a stunning impromptu trick that has a bit of everything,4 magical vanishes,humour and tension.
Its probably my favourite lenghty impromptu trick.
Thankyou
Steve.

Yes, I used to do perform it, too...and thanks to this exchange, I think I'll get it up and running again. By the way, since I bet no one's going to asks me about my favorite videos (as if I'd only think books are worthy or something) I'm going to start a new thread about how much I like the Elmsley tapes.