The Adequate Blog

… last month I debuted a new trick at the local Society of American Magicians chapter (59 - Portland) as part of their Entertaining Card Trick Competition.  Shockingly… I won.

… so what did you do?

For many years I’ve been enamored of a bit known as the ‘card sword’ - a randomly selected card is noted by the audience, the magician loses the card in the deck, pulls out a sword, hurls the cards into the air and spears the selected one on the end of a blade to the general amazement and accolades of all.

It’s a big visual trick - makes a pretty picture - and would work pretty darn well in a faire setting.

So… like many fledgeling magicians, I figured the best way to do this trick was to buy someone’s version of it. I would like to mention right now how bloody expensive and / or impractical most card swords are. I mean seriously. The most common ’sword’ is really more of a big three sided spike made out of chromed tin which, when you look at it, is no more a sword than your average dust mop.

But, like a number of other “Holy Grail” tricks, I kept it filed away in the back of my head for a long, long, long, long time. Until last month.  This is where I need to bring in another piece of information.

I am in posession of a remarkably well-made foam mallet.

Said mallet is a holdover from my LARPing days in college - it’s about 3 foot long, with a big, double-ended ‘head’. It looks totally outlandish.  It is also completely ‘in scale’ with me, where the commerically available (and less than $300) card sword props were not.  The fact that it’s a cartoonish-looking hammer helps a lot.

So…a card was selected, lost in the deck, a strip of double-sided tape was openly applied to the face of the hammer. The cards were carefully… placed… on the flat side… of the mallet… the hammer was held out at arm’s length.  A gentle tossing motion, like flipping a pancacke… and

WHAM!

Cards. Go. Everywhere.

It was beautiful.

It also helped that the selected card was stuck to the face of the hammer at the end.  As soon as there is video or photos, I’ll post those.

Now, some theory to go along with the now-described practice.

• Magic is a visual art - this needed to be all about the pictures. Most of the things I do are a combination of sight gags and funny behavior on my part, but I wanted this to have some pretty moments. The point where the mallet strikes the cards, knocking them scattered everywhere is a very striking* visual.
• The opportunity for dramatic tension is immense. Just bringing the hammer out causes the audience to pause in that “Oh dear lord what is is about to do” way that works so well with my show.
• My dialogue** with the audience through all this is very self-aware, and it’s clear that my character isn’t certain what is about to happen… so this trick has “The Tobias Nature”.
• It’s amazing and very gratifying how much mileage a man with a deck of cards balanced on the end of a rediculous looking cartoony mallet can get out of a single, knowing grin at the audience.  Add a slightly deranged chuckle and it makes all the effort worthwhile.
• As with all my stuff, the physical motions have to couple with words and yes, acting. Putting words and acting with the smacking the cards out of the air extended the bit from 3 minutes to 5. Not quite enough to completely replace the Mongolian Pop Knot in my repertory, but darn close… perhaps when I work the kinks out of the White Tiger bit…

So there you have it. Idea to creation to refinement. I did this bit twice on Sunday of Faire in the Grove and it was well-received, garnering me my biggest hat for that event.  At Valhalla, we shall see if I can pull it off at 5000 feet. And if I can get my custom, inexpensive, period-neutral playing cards made and ready by the end of the month…

* no pun intended. No, honestly.
** I hate the term “patter” when it comes to my own show. “Spiel” I can work with, but not “patter”.