My last gig was for a company that do online poker. At each of the table settings they had a cheap paper deck of cards, so of course EVERYONE asked.."yeah, but can you do anything with THESE cards?"

I made a joke about how fussy I am about the quality of the cards I use, they have to be able to do pretty things like fan nicely etc. but I would show them a trick using the cheapie cards just to satisfy their curiosity. I did a two card selection, "find one the easy way one the hard way" routine, where the hard way is to do a fancy cut, spinning packets from hand to hand etc. before revealing the selected card on top of the deck.

Now, the only thing that ever goes wrong with this flourishy cut sequence nowadays is that sometimes the top card becomes dislodged and falls from the deck as its flying through the air, which isn't a problem for this trick, as its the card I'm after anyway. This time however, something interesting happened - the card became dislodged from the deck, fell on the floor next to the table and NOBODY NOTICED!

So, I stick my foot on the card and start to improvise. I show an indifferent card, do my best magician in trouble act and shrug it off. I change indifferent card into second selection and then say "hey, I think I know why your card was so difficult to find...its under my shoe."

People look down, freak out, and I smile like I meant it all along...

Which got me to thinking, I wonder if there may be a practical way to do this in real world working conditions...only on purpose Perhaps a lapping move done standing? I figure the worst that could happen if one was caught would be "hey, you dropped a card"...followed by "that's just my special shuffle. I usually do it a few times a night..."

Anyone got there first on the "card under shoe" plot? I would love to hear about resources etc.

Cheers,
David

It's not quite what you're asking for, but it's relevant...

http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=795

Knowing Penguin, it's probably an old trick they repackaged and put out as an overpriced download :-P

If you're going for something like that, I'd buy Mark Mason's Shoe-t.

Neat effect, that is.

It's in Spanish, but here's a YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguP1f7u14M.

There is Paul Gordon's Magicians Insurance 'Card Under Shoe' Policy. Here is the description of the effect from his website.

Effect: A card is chosen from a (regular) deck of cards. The magician tries to find it, but fails! However, he produces an insurance policy that guards against these problems. The policy is turned over to reveal all 52 cards; it has to be one of these!? Sighs & groans! He opens the policy to reveal the 2D. Nope! He opens it again to reveal the 4C. Nope! Finally, he reads the front of the cover which urges the spectator to contact the company and quote the policy number. On closer inspection, the policy number (and we LOVE this bit) magically reveals the whereabouts of the card; under the magician's shoe! EASY to do; with a handling (signed card) for the advanced performer!

Can be, unlike other versions, repeated! Great news for professional magicians!

Also Bill Goldman's "Gone Fishing"

Yeah, it's a re-packaged Mercury Card Fold with Shuttle P***. And why did Jay's left arm suddenly palsy up before he took off his shoe. I've been doing this with an old aspirin tin for a looooong time.

FWIW

That's horrible!!! Not to mention that a card (or anything for that matter) from your shoe is just gross.

Agreed! I do a lemon out of my shoe but more so as a gag as they know it really wasn't in there. Never been into the card to shoe...but hey...if the shoe fits!

As recently as three years ago Johnny Ace Palmer was using a card-to-shoe in his walk-around set; he did it when we worked a Christmas party together.

Then again, knowing Johnny, it's probably not gross when he does it.

;)

I've been playing with a handling that uses the return of the second selection as misdirection for a lapping move, really just working on the same effect that happened spontaneously that night.

An easier (possibly more magical) handling would be to have the cards selected and load an indifferent card. Control selections to top, find one and change it secretly for the other as you discard it to the table. To find the second selection you go down to the shoe, put the X on the deck and DL to show the first selection again. Second selection is on the table; thus you found a card and it reappeared under your shoe.

Or maybe this muddies the effect. Hmm...

It's one of Johnny's bread and butter tricks.

Also, many "paid" performers do card from mouth.

As far as the "Tin Idea" I enjoy Matt Firman's "Mint Surprise"