"Mirabill" ebook by Bill Cushman
Suggested Retail USD$15.00
Available from Outlaw Effects
In a Blink: 8 Out of 10

I make no secret of the fact that I began to take magic and mentalism seriously as fields of study only in my late thirties. I quickly became beguiled by self-working card tricks, but not the usual “which pile is it in?” dealing routines. No, I mean effects whose mechanism is so buried away and counter-intuitive that on running through them myself for the first time, when the revelation came, I was at a loss to explain the outcome without resorting to spreadsheet and seriously Joined Up Thinking.

I first read about the principle underlying Mirabill in Arthur MacTier’s book “Card Concepts”. Originally discovered by Stuart James, the concept is a strange mathematical oddity, acknowledged and put to good use in this short manuscript.

The effect concerns the spectator dealing out pairs of cards from a genuinely shuffled deck and the coincidental colour combinations of each pair. You make a prediction about the outcome, the spectator deals out pairs of cards until all are spent, she then opens the prediction, and discovers that you were right. It’s a lovely little concept because it’s genuinely hands off. You can use a borrowed deck and never touch it. You could do it over the phone, over email, MSN, whatever you like.

The method is very simple indeed, but where this manuscript really succeeds is in the depth of knowledge Dr Bill brings to the basic effect. After running through the method, what you’re paying for is the juicy presentational ploys, additional angles, and twists – pages of them.

If you’ve always assumed self-working means obvious, you may be in for a surprise.

"Mirabill" ebook by Bill Cushman
In a Blink: 8 Out of 10

Material: 8
A classic self-working card trick on steroids.

Quality: 8
Obviously deeply researched and presented from a position of knowledge and experience.

Illustrations: 7
There are no illustrations in the body of the manuscript. The cover, however, with its strange imagery reminding me of Hieronymus Bosch and Robert Crumb, is very interesting.

Presentation: 8
The presentation is clear, detailed and easy to follow.

Jon Thompson