In the book Million Dollar Card Secrets by Frank Garcia, he has 2 card stage magic sleights that sound very good. The 1st is called the Million Dollar Card Production. The only person that I have seen do this is Tim Wright. I have been working on this for some time, but cannot get the alignment 100% of the time. Can anyone give any tips on keeping the cards aligned?

The second sleight is the Eclipse Card Production where the card is supposed to seem like it materializes gradually from your hand. This I have not ever been satisfied with the look of appearance. It still looks like it is being pushed up. Anyone have any tips on this move to improve the visual appearance of the card?

Lastly, has anyone made the "Arroz con Pollo" or Chcken with Saffron Rice and Peas dish from the book? Is it delicious?

I saw Frank do the "Million Dollar Card Production" at a lecture in Washington, DC--and it was a treat to see it live by him. It looked terrific. I also saw Sakoh from Japan do it in the stage competition in Washington, DC at an IBM convention. This was before the Gold Medal was instituted. Sakoh won first place, of course. I was in the contest, too, and heard some of the other contestants say things like, "I don't mind losing to an act that good!"

You can view Sakoh's act with the card production from the Garcia book on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2ElQo9-3E

Two more points about Sakoh's act: He is one of the only card manipulators I've ever seen who does the fan productions the way Ganson recommended in _Card Magic by Manipulation_. Those of you who have read the Ganson monogaph will know what I'm talking about. Sakoh is also one of the first (and one of the few) that I saw doing "Fickle Fire." I think you'll agree that the ending of his act is pretty spectacular!

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

First I was like :|. Then I was like :O

So, this is the name of that production? I came up this indepndently about 10 years ago, lol. Recorded it on VHS as a funny idea to play with then almost never actually tried it out. Later on, then, I learned that a friend of mine used to do that in his manipulation act back in the 80's, he said he learned it from a japanese guy... Now I know who. Thanks for the link!

I think one of the strong points of Sakoh's act is the pacing. It starts out looking like a typical card manipulation act, but then progresses into something truly unique. I remember at the contest in Washington in 1977 that several of us were in the hallway warming up while other acts were on. I saw Sakoh practicing the effect where the armspread card flourish changes into a silk handkerchief--and I knew the rest of us might as well pack up and go home.

Entering the contests at a magic convention--national, international, or regional--is great experience. Not only do you get to see some great acts that you wouldn't otherwise get to see, but you also make some good contacts with other magicians. Another IBM convention where I was entered in the stage contest was New Orleans in the 1980's. That was the year that Levent won the junior division, but we all knew that if he had been eligible for the adult division, he would have won that as well. I've said before and I believe it is true--Some of the acts in the stage and close-up contests are better than the acts that are booked as feature acts at the conventions. At that same 1980's New Orleans convention, Johnny "Ace" Palmer was in the close-up contest doing the cups and balls routine that brought him international fame.

Entering a convention contest also motivates you to take a good look at your act and, because the contests set a time limit for an act, makes you pare it down to your absolute best material. I have at times entered both the stage and the close-up contests at a convention, and although I don't recommend entering both categories, I was proud to come in third in close-up at the 1977 IBM convention and got some nice comments from Bill Larsen when he described my close-up contest act in GENII.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I was there in the audience, Sakoh was only 21 years old at the time. His feature effect that had him win was his fire to card fan in both hands back to fire burning in the palms.

IMO he overdoes the fire in the hands effect on that video, but he's very god, yes,

I know this was from a few years ago, but no one addressed your problem about aligning the cards correctly. In the Garcia book, he has you release the pinky, then put the index behind the group before putting the crimp to hide the group. However, cards can still squirt out. First, only use a few at the end of a routine where you are producing single cards. Second, if you change when the index finger goes behind the cards, this should help with the aligning problem.

When you go to produce the card, the block of cards move front. Put the thumb on the corner as described. Then, instead of releasing the pinky first, put the index behind the cards, then release the pinky. Immediately crimp the cards and that should help with your alignment problem.

Mtpascoe, Thanks for your suggestions. Appreciated very much.

Keeping your third finger under the packet after the production helps keeps the whole thing under alignment. You don't want more than 7 or so cards left, then it becomes unwieldy.

The Eclipse Production never looked good to me. Even McBride's performance on his Art of Card Manipulation DVD still looked shaky.

Haven't cooked that rice dish but my mother used to make it and the recipe looks similar.

I agree. It does look shaky and I don't get the impression that a card is slowly appearing. It looks spastic and not smooth like a normal production.

The original Garcia directions never said to move the hand up and down in a jerky motion. Here is how described it. The parenthesizes are mine:

The right hand starts to move very slowly in a
c1ockwise rotating action, away from you. During this
action, the hand assumes the position as shown in the
illustration. (The illustration show the cards coming
into view as if you are producing them. The thumb
appears to be behind the packet.)

The right thumb comes down on the topmost
corner of the card and, (under the packet) by applying pressure and pushing
forward, you will discover that you can push out a single
card very slowly as the hand is in motion.


So it seems that the card comes slowly from the back of the packet as apposed to the typical method of it coming from the back.

In the Eclipse Production the card emerges from the front of the packet nearest the fingers, as opposed to the back of the packet as in the classic back palm card production.