Mark Leveridge Magic

A Wrinkle On - The Caught Card

STUART BOWIE

Stuart is one of my closest magical friends and we often get together for magic sessions. On one such occasion he showed me his handling for THE CAUGHT CARD which I liked and he gave me his permission to pass it on to you.

There are two alterations to the original. The first concerns the way of getting the court card secretly to the top of the pile of cards instead of in the middle as the spectators believe.

Having had the cards examined he takes them back and openly arranges them FACE UP with the court card in the centre. He squares the pile and holds it in the palm down right hand, fingers along the front short edge, thumb at the rear. (This is the position for doing a Biddle Count.)

The left hand comes over to the cards, palm up, and the left thumb slides off the top indifferent card to the left where it falls onto the left palm. Then the left hand returns to the pile to apparently thumb the court card on top of the indifferent card already in the left hand.

In reality, the left thumb slides the court card off to the left but the right fingers ensure that the original indifferent card is regripped square with the last indifferent card. As soon as the court card is clear of the right hand and lying in the left palm, the right hand drops the two cards it holds as one on top of the court card and the pile is squared and turned face down.

To the audience you simply appear to have shown that the court card is trapped between the other two indifferent cards, but in reality the court card ends up on top of the face down pile.

The second handling change comes right at the climax of the trick. Stuart is ready to do the release of the court card, but instead of placing the cards down on the table or holding them himself, he gets a spectator to turn one of their hands palm up and places the pile of cards into their fingers so that the fingers grip down one long side and the thumb is at the other. When he then pulls the ribbon, the two indifferent cards come away with the ribbon and the court card is left displayed in the spectator's fingers. This is very effective and looks quite dramatic!

DAVID LANG and TIM DECKER

David called with a handling change for THE CAUGHT CARD which he and his friend Tim Decker had worked out together. They did not like the initial way of getting the court card secretly to the top of the pile so here is their alternative.

Firstly, they hand out the ribbon and say they would like to show a card trick! This gets some puzzled looks to start with! Then the three cards are brought out and placed out face up on the table.  A spectator is asked to to make a pile of the cards so that the court card is in the centre. 

Picking up the pile, the cards are counted from the right hand to the left to show indifferent card, court card and then indifferent card, the court card naturally ending up back in the centre.  The pile is then turned over as they comment that the spectators probably want to see the backs too. The count of cards from the right hand to the left is then apparently repeated. 

However, in reality the top two cards are pushed off as one into the left hand. Then as the left hand returns to the right to take the next card on top, the original bottom card of the two in the left hand is retaken by the right hand as it gives up its card. The left hand then comes back and takes the final card on top of the pile. This puts the court card on top of the face down packet where it needs to be. 

This little count is rather like an Elmsley Count only done with three cards instead of four and performed smoothly is very deceptive. Now the rest of the routine can be followed as per the instructions.