Hi everyone,

When I was in high school (5 or so years ago), the deputy headmaster had a favourite trick that he saw performed in a street environment. He must have seen this trick performed at least a couple of years back, earlier than the 'David Blaine' era of 'street magic'.

The trick is as follows: 3 blank cards and 3 dice are used. The magician places a blank card on the table. A spectator rolls a die (to determine a random 'positioning' of the die) and the magician places that die on top of the card. The magician repeats the same procedure with the two other blank cards and two dice.

When the magician taps his wand over the 3 dice, it is found that the spots at the bottom of each dice vanish and are 'transfered' onto the blank cards. E.g. if a 3-spot was the bottom face of a die, then the 3-spot on that die vanishes, and reappears on the blank side of the card underneath.

Now...my humble question is: has such a trick being published? And if so, where I could purchase the manuscript/DVD/book to learn this trick.

Otherwise, I will have to conclude that it is an unpublished trick and I'll have to come up with a method of my own...

Thanks,
MDew

It's not exactly as you described, but check out Doug Conn's routine "Coincidice"

In his version, dice are rolled one at a time and he counts off cards from a deck and places the card he arrives at under the die. He repeats this for each of the dice. When the cards are turned over it is revealed that the value of each card matches it's corresponding die.

Okay, it seems that such a trick has not been published...

Dave, thanks for the reference!

No, it only means you haven't searched long enough nor hard enough. You might contact the deputy headmaster (if still alive and contactable) and ask him where he got it from.

Meanwhile, don't let that stop you from coming up with a method of your own. If you decide to publish your method, tell your story by way of citing your sources as best you can if you still haven't found anything, but the trick did not spring up out of nowhere.

Well, the deputy headmaster told me he saw it performed on the street quite a few years back, so he would have no knowledge of where the magician who performed it is.



Of course, of course. But yes, I do need to be careful about giving credit when it is due.

If he has any idea what the magician's name was, either his real name or his performing name, it is quite likely that he could be found.

I haven't seen it before, though. That doesn't mean anything.

And of course, it's highly likely that the person is remembering the effect not exactly as it happened, you've probably heard people describing some of your own effects in an exaggerated fashion (which is why it is always better doing several effects than one alone).

It sounds neat, though I've not come across the effect or seen it advertised in over 40 years in magic. Though seen a couple of dice effects where spots disappear. The fact this effect is memorable means perhaps it is worthy of duplicating. Which seems reasonably straight forward. A starting point I imagine, requires three loaded dice...

More important is a story/reason for the magic to happen or its about illogical as milk appearing in a light bulb.

Paul.

Bill,

I'll see if I can get in touch with him. But my expectations are that he wouldn't remember the magician's name. However, it is still worth a shot.

Paul,

I suppose one reason for the magic is simply saying that this was a favorite trick of one of my teachers.

Perhaps one approach to flesh the presentation out is to say that my teacher held a gathering of students every fortnight, and one of the topics steered towards the topic of what their favorite magic trick was...some people mentioned doves, others talk about levitations, vanishing the Statue of Liberty and what not. Lastly, my teacher talked about this dice + card trick that fooled the heck out of him. It must have been a good trick because he still remembers it for so many years.

In its basic form, its a penetration effect. Like coin in bottle, this time spots on dice penetrate the face of blank cards. Perhaps this might help with the research...

Is there really any logic to any magic other than making money appear?

Terry

Yes, actually, there is a great deal of logic to magic.

Magic is not chaos. It has a set of rules that are, perhaps, unwritten, but they are definitely there. Magicians and laymen know these rules by instinct.

Cause and effect is one of the rules. The magician waves a wand, somethingh happens. The occurrence may not be logical, but the event, itself, is. If this rule did not exist, then why would we be waving our wands or saying our magic words, anyway?

I think Darwin Ortiz made this point clear in Strong Magic when he said that magic is primarily a violation of physics, not logic. Certain conclusions are drawn from certain premises, whether those grounds conform to physical reality is of no concern.