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A Pain in the Ace：  You push a selected card into the middle of the deck – it rises to the top. You push it back into the middle and flip over the top card. Unfortunately it’s not the selection. It’s an Ace. You – or a spectator – give the deck a fair cut to bury the face up Ace in the middle. Upon spreading the deck all four Aces are now face up together in the middle – but there’s one face down card caught in the middle. This proves to be the awkward selection.

The ROLEX Gang： You remove the four Aces then place a random card between them. The card vanishes. You place another random card in the middle of the Aces and again the card vanishes. A spectator selects a card – it might be a Queen (it will be a Queen!) – and this is placed in the middle of the Aces. “A very stubborn lady，” you say， as the Queen refuses to vanish. Instead， the Aces change into the four Kings – her four chaperons!

Garden Path II： A card is selected and placed face down on table. The spectator deals three packets of three cards and discards the rest of the deck. The top card of each packet is turned face up， and the performer uses the information on each card in an attempt at divining the name of the selection. But he fails. The packets cleanly are placed together with the three reversed cards still in place. You hold the packet and tap it with the selection whereupon the three reversed cards visibly change into the three mates of the selection.

Inside Out： In the book Alternative Card Magic (See CardZones)， I included a trick called， ‘Inside Job’. I have since published a couple of variations. However， this is the first that requires no significant set-up.

New Hue View： An outgrowth from a previous effect of mine called “A Piece of Fred” that appeared in Obsession. Both this and the previous effect are inspired by an， as yet， unpublished Fred Robinson concept along with a Charles Jordan Riffle Shuffle principle. This is better performed for other magicians.

Between Queens： The two black Queens are placed together face up in the deck. The deck is flipped face up and spectators remember both the face card and the card at the rear. The deck is turned face down and immediately spread， revealing one face down card is now caught between the Queens. This is one of the selections. The other selection is brought out your pocket.

Bad Influence： For red cards are placed on the table beside four black cards. A spectator chooses a pile， then chooses any one of the four cards. The selection is placed back into the packet， then both red and black piles are placed together. The spectator eliminates all but one card. This is his selection. Finally the other cards are now turned over revealing them to be all red cards. The selection is now the only card of its colour!

More Convivial： A card is selected then returned to the deck. You make three attempts to find the card and fail each time. So， you perform some magic with the three cards you did find. Finally the chosen card turns up completely unexpectedly.

Card of Darkness： A face up wrong card changes into the selection – influenced by the powers of darkness.

Deal Steal Collectors： The Walton Collectors. Here， the cards are immediately dealt off the deck the moment they are placed on top， thanks to the Benzais Deal Steal.

Counting the Maze Way： A short while back Gene Maze sent me an intriguing effect where you dealt four hands of cards. Each hand was numbered 1-2-3-4. Spectator 1 counted one card， spectator 2 counted to the 2nd card， and so on. Each spectator turned over their card arrived at to reveal four Aces. This is an extension of that idea.

Mini-Hellraiser： A fast moving Elevator routine that finishes in the hands of a spectator. This is a short version of my Hellraiser routine from Obsession and is useful where no table top is available. See Effortless Card Magic for further Hellraiser thoughts.

An Imposition： Random cuts of the deck reveal the suit & value of a selected card. With no further manipulation of the cards， the spectator himself locates the card. This is a different approach to my “The Impromptu Imposition” that appeared in the late Ellison Poland’s excellent Second Addendum (1994) to his classic Wonderful Routines of Magic (1969).

Crime Suspect： A spectator locates his card without knowing how.

Three Down – One to Go： After a card has been selected and lost back into the deck， the spectator cuts the deck into three face up piles. He may have cut to his selection， but the spectator must not tell you. You remove the face card from each pile and mix these three cards as you ask the spectator if， indeed， you were lucky. He confirms that one of the three cards is his selection. The three cards are replaced in the deck one by one and all squared. You spread the deck revealing his card is now face up. No， you didn’t secretly reverse when you mixed the three cards!

Suit Yourself Too： A variation on Roy Walton’s “Suit Yourself” (Devil’s Playthings and Complete Walton Vol.1). Roy based his trick on Karl Fulves’ Self-Duplicating Set-up (Epilogue – also see “Replica Poker， More Self-working Card Tricks).

Ulti-Print! You show 4 cards with backs but no faces. One of these cards is reversed – this is the magic catalyst that does the magic. What happens to the catalyst， happens to the others too. The catalyst suddenly prints a face. Then the three other blanks all develop faces. The 4 cards are counted one by one both sides being seen. There are no extra cards. Originally distributed as a packet trick in the 1990’s.