Nick Conticello – Potpourri: A Collection of Impromptu Sleightless Mathematical Tricks

Author and collector Doug Edwards said:

“I know a good trick when I see one, and KNOW-ALL NEALE is a good trick! It’s impromptu and direct. And I like A COUNT, A BILL as well. The divination of the three digits comes as a complete surprise. Two real winners.”

Tarbell Course contributor Nick Conticello returns with a new selection of close-up magic designed to be performed for small groups of friends or acquaintances.

1. Know-All Neale: 3 coin divination with fourth coin kicker

2. A Count, A Bill: Based on “It’s the Principle ” (Bob Longe, Sept. 2001 Linking Ring) with bill used to select three digits. Presented as a gambling expose. Performer divines three freely chosen digits.

3. Ace Hummer Place: 12 cards, randomly mixed face up and face down. Eight end up face up and the four Aces face down.

4. Sum Hummer Variations: Performer divines the sum of some randomly reversed cards. Variation of Charles Hudson’s “Sum Hummer.”

5. Vernon’s IBM Trick, Simplified: Can be done over the telephone.

6. Isolani: Two face up cards eventually sandwich a predicted card.

7. A-10 Prediction: Two freely chosen cards are totaled to count down to a third card in the pack, which the performer has predicted.

8. The Homesick Card: A mentally chosen card returns to its original position despite the mixing of the packet it is in.

9. Zen-Chronicity: Two cards, randomly chosen by the audience and buried in the deck by the selectors themselves, somehow end up in symmetric positions in two different packets.

BONUS EFFECT: 10. Klepidoptera: An offbeat take on Dave Forrest’s version of the Butterfly Effect, which is completely impromptu and uses an idea described earlier in this book. The performer predicts a selected card and the sum of four randomly chosen digits.