Marucci's Bizarre Bazaar

Jack
by Peter Marucci

The magician shows three playing cards, face down.

“We are going to try to reach a spirit, “ he tells his audience.

He holds the three cards in a face-down stack in a Biddle Grip in the right hand.

“The spirit goes by the name of Jack. Not Jack Be Nimble, of rhyme fame,” he says as he turns the three face up to show the bottom card, the JC. He turns the three cards face down again and draws off, apparently, the bottom card.

“Not Jack Be Quick,” he says, as he turns the stack face up and shows another JC, which he puts on the card in his left hand. He has one card left in his right hand, which he turns face up showing it to be a third JC, and saying, “And not even Jack, who jumped over the candlestick.”

He squares the three cards face down in the left hand and takes the top card and, four times, moves the top card to the bottom of the stack, while saying, ”No, this is quite another Jack.”

He then takes the three cards in his right hand, face down, and shows the bottom card by turning the pack up for a second. “The Jack we are looking for is not a Jack of All Trades,” he says, as he draws off, apparently, the bottom card.

“He is not a Jack in the Pulpit, either,” the magician says, as he apparently shows the top card to be a JC and puts it on top of the cards in the left hand.

He then draws out the middle card with the right hand and shows it face up to be a JC. “And” he adds, “he is not a Jack In the Box.”

The magician places all three cards on the table face down and says: “We're not looking for Jack Daniels . . . “he says as he turns the top JC face up, “. . . and we're not looking for Jack and Jill,” he says, as he turns the second JC face up. “No, the spirit of the Jack that we are looking for is the spirit of Jack the Ripper”. The third and last card is turned up as he says “. . . and he's a real devil!” And the final card is now the Devil card from a tarot deck.

Preparation and working: You'll need three cards, two the same, preferably Jacks. And you'll need one blank-faced card with a back that matches the other two.

The two Jacks are tapered VERY slightly at one end and the Devil card is tapered, equally slightly, at the opposite end. The Devil card is put in the middle, so that when the Jacks are held at the inner, wide end, by the fingers of the right hand, the middle card can be slid out easily, and looks like it is the bottom card that is being removed.

This happens after the bottom card has been shown as a JC and the Devil card is removed, and is supposed to be the bottom JC. It is held, face down, in the left palm.

The right hand turns palm up to show the next JC (really, with another behind it) as the top card. This card (these two cards) are put face down on top of the card that is face down in the left hand.

They are then spread in a fan and the middle card (JC) is shown.

The cards are then squared and put on the table faced down in a stack. They are, from the top down, JC, JC, Devil.

The top card is turned face up, and the second card is then turned face up. Finally the last card is revealed to be the “magically” appearing Devil.

Second thoughts: There are two references to “apparently” in the text. This is in reference to placing, apparently, one JC on another, while in fact you are placing two JCs on top of the third card.

This routine reads more complicated that it actually is; for ease of learning, you might best try it with the cards in hand (it's easier that way!).

Finally, if the two cards aren't jacks, use different names for what they AREN'T. For example, if they are kings, you could say: “Not Old King Cole; not Nat King Cole; not even, speaking of music, Cole Porter. . . “

Peter Marucci