I love card tricks with entertaining story lines. Two that I do all the time are the "Cannibal Cards" and Brother John Hamman's "Twins". I am well aware of course of "Sam the Bellhop" and there is one called "A Night at the improv" on one of the ETMCM DVDs. I have an extensive collection of card material but somehow the tricks with a consuming storyline like the ones I have just mentioned are few and far between. I am interested to hear about tricks that others recommend.

Several Card Warp offerings have a storyline.

Stan Kate and Edith

Gypsy Curse

...i think you should check out the ron bauer series.

My impression is that audiences can take approximately one of these type of effects in any given session without growing weary.

Colour Monte has a very good and entertaining story.

My top three are your two, and Peter Samuelson's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Get a copy of "Theatrical Close Up" and live happily ever after.

Dai Vernon's "Cutting The Aces" has a nice punchline.. I'm a little iffy on the initial set-up, but you can mask it in various ways or seque into it from a previous trick..

My favorites are the ones you make up yourself.

I've always liked and had great audience response from "Cardsharp and the Four Gamblers" by Harry Lorayne.

Many of David Regal's effects have storylines. My favorite is Journey to Love from Constant Fooling Vol. 2.

-Dave

Scott Grossberg's chip and a chair based on Holdem.
If you like Sam the Bell Hop You will enjoy Scotts presentation and story line to fit todays time
vinny

Another good one is "King of Club Entertainers" from a set of Chuck Smith's lecture notes I have. Similar to Sam the Bellhop story line.

Ron Bauers Owed to Poker Dan rocks - and comes with not only a great story but an lyric that goes along with the effect!

I think my favorite card story line is Triumph. I had a killer story line, (Based on Dai Vernon's Story) and actually used to use it in my paying gigs. The people loved it. I would do one version of triuph,(The story was that I performed for a guy and he shuffled the cards face up and down) where only one card was selected, the deck was shuffled face up and face down, the deck was given to a spectator, I moved onto another effect, and after, I would get back to it, and it was fullly "restored". Then I go onto a full suit triumph where I talk about the guys brother who I also performed for, and not knowing it was his brother, he did the same thing, except he didn't even put the card back into the deck. So, I found out just the suit of the card, and made a few magical gestures, and all the spades turned face up, in order, from ace to king, with their card missing. It got great reactions.
A short and crappy explanation of it, but it went great. You would have to see it for yourself.

Cannibal Cards, NFW....

I either love or hate stories with effects. There are those such as the Hamman Twins effect and Cannibal Cards where the cards essentially come alive and act out a story that is obviously fictional. Those kinds of effects (at least the good ones) can be really cool.

The ones I don't like are the bogus stories made up to "motivate" an effect, like the antagonistic spectator in Triumph. These kinds of stories are patronizing, cliched, just plain dorky, and rarely pulled off very well. Magicians should strive for meaning and relevance by making their routines more real, not more artificial. It is a certain fact of theater that fantasy/fiction can be more real than a "real world" bogus story.

The frog prince trick from Michael Close has a great story to it. It is almost an entire play in that there s a hero, villian, problem, resolution and happy ending. I have never performed it but it has a great presentation.

'The Wide Boy' by Ken Brooke is magnificent entertainment.

'The Joker is Me' by Wayne Dobson is also superb, and can be worked as a story effect in cabaret. Wayne used to work it front of stage with just the spotlight on him; the patter was generally for adults (and not the vicars tea party) but it received tremendous applause. It also came across well on TV!

Be aware though that generally storyline effects need the right conditions; the basics of which are being able to be heard, and no interruptions; if you are working commercially. These 2 aspects alone can kill the effect stone dead!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Vinny. I appreciate it. - Scott

Somebody mentioned Sam the Bellhop. This trick IS a storyline. The trick involves telling a humorous story while displaying each of the cards of the deck and has been around since the early 20th century. It was brought back to life in the 1950s and 60s by Frank Everhart, who performed it at the bar of the Ivanhoe restaurant in Chicago. It then went into disuse for several dozen years because it was a story but not a trick. Recently a number of magicians have brought back this gem by adding lots of false shuffles and false cuts, thereby making it magic rather than just a story with cards. I think Malone's version is outstanding and is available on his L&L DVD. Another entertaining example is Doc Eason's bar version, which also employs false cuts and shuffles and is available on one of his Aspen DVDs.

This trick has plenty of audience appeal.

Good luck.

If you really want to go out on a limb get "Sam the Call Girl" from Magic- Notes.com. It can't be done at corporate events (unless you have some morbid reason you'd like to be fired), but it certainly plays well in certain "other"
situations.

Eugene Burger's INQUISITION storyline for card warp is certainly a sweet addition to the collective!

Peter Samuelson's twin brother (he of last name Samelson) actually wrote CLOSE UP THEATRE, that is, of course, before the body snatchers co-opted a new name for him.

Pal Gene