Glossary of magic (illusion)

---

Ambitious Card Routine (ACR) - Card effect where a chosen card keeps on returning to the top of the pack.

Angles - People sitting at certain position in the audience can spot the secret. Usually extreme left or right or behind. If a trick is "angley" it can only be done with limited audience viewpoints. Example: The Balducci Levitation which can only be viewed a 45 degrees view between side and behind angles.

Bikes - USPCC Bicycle pattern cards commonly used by card magicians.

Black Art - It's difficult to see black on black which is usfeul for secret compartments or secret hiding places on stage or any situation where the outline of an opening needs to be concealed.

Bobo's - Bobo's modern coin magic. 20th C Book reckoned to be one of the most comprehensive on coin magic.

C/S - Copper and Silver. Effect with coins using different metal coins which change places.

Centre tear - Special way of tearing up paper so that the centre piece with the message is retained by the magician. (Prediction/menatlism)

Chop - Code word for a magnet (eg in a ring or in a cup)

Chop Cup- Cup with secret magnet used with a magnetic ball which can be made to vanish or appear at will using the magnet.

Cold(deck) - Switching in a stacked deck.

Change - Changing one card (or object) for another.

Charlier - One handed flourish cut or pass.

Classic force - Making a spectator choose a card by fanning them and timing the force card to land under their fingers.

Classic palm - Holding an object in the centre of the palm, gripped by the palm muscles lightly eg A coin.

Clean - A hand which is empty or the condtion achieved at the end of an effect where the magician has no supposedely vanished objects or gimmicked items in her hands.

Crimp - A bend in a card or cards which is used to locate them later. A gamblers move which can be used in magic, there are many different types.

CC/MC- Conjorer's/Magician's choice where an object is forced on a spectator by deciding if he takes or discards the objects selected.

Daub - Conjorer's wax. Used to stick things together temporarily.

Deal - To take cards off the top of the deck. Deal seconds (take the second card looking like the top) Deal Middles (take a middle card looking like the top) Deal Bottoms (take the bottom card looking like the top)

Dirty - A hand which is contains an object the audience should not know about or the condition at some point where the magician has "vanished" objetcs or gimmicked items in her hands.

DL - Double lift. Lifting two cards as one.

Effect - A magical happening. The proper word for a trick. Beginners do tricks. Magicians perform effects. Note the word perform.

Egg Bag - Utility bag oten made o black velvet with extra compartment which can be turned inside out to vanish an object or change one object for another.

Elmsley Count - A false count (often done with 4 cards) where two cards are counted as one while a card already counted is taken back so effectively one card is not seen at all in the count. Can be used to hide from view a face up card or a chosen card.

False transfer(pass) - An object is put or taken into one hand while being retained in the other.

False Shuffle/Cut - The deck is apparently mixed but in reality, the orginal order is retained.

Faro - A skilfull shuffle similar to the riffle where the cards mesh perfectly. Can be done as an in or out faro depending on the position of the top card.

Flashing - Exposing an object or part of an object momentarily during a secret move.

Flourish - A showy move which displays handling skills.

French drop - A take false transfer with a coin or small object.

Force - Where a card or object is made to be selected even though there appears to a free choice.

Glimpse - To get a secret view of a card or object. Eg the bottom card or sight the top one while looking through the pack to find another card. The top card may also be sighted by lifting slightly with the left thumb while misdirecting in some other way.

Glide - Pulling back the bottom card so the second from bottom can be dealt.

Gimmick/Gaffe - Secret part or object used to make the trick work.

IT/ITR - Invisible thread, Invisible thread reel. Thin nylon thread that you can't see is used to levitate stuff.

Impromptu - A trick that can be performed at a moments notice, usually with everyday objects and little or no preparation.

Invisible deck (brainwave deck) - Gimmicked roughed deck enabling the deck to be fanned and any card to be shown face up/face down.

Key/Key Card - Known card used to locate another.

Key Ring - Ring with a split in it as used in the linking rings efect.

Lapping - Dropping an object into one's lap to vanish it (done while seated).

Load - To secretly put an object into a location eg A ball under a cup or a rabbit into a hat.

Loaded - A Die which comes up the same number or an object which secretey contains another object ready for production.

Locator - Similar to a key, a card which can be found in some way. It may be long, short, thick, rough, smooth, crimped, daubed, marked, reversed, or simply known.

M5- Powerful Neomidium magnet used for PK effects, balences, stopping watches, and vanishes.

Manipulator - A magician with a showy sleight of hand act, often set to music, who produces cards/coins etc or multiplies balls in the air.

Mechanic - An operator who is very skilled at sleight of hand (usually with cards).

Mechanic's grip - A way of holding the pack in the left hand ready for dealing. The fore finger is on the front of the deck to help square the pack and control the cards. A lay person will hold the deck with the fingers all underneath or down the side.

Misdirection - Getting the spectators to cocentrate elsewhere when a move takes place.

Monte - Famous con game where three cards are thrown down and the mark has to find the queen/ace etc. Due to sleight of hand, he never wins.

Muggle/mark - Non magician or subject for a con game.

One Ahead - Principle often used in mentalism where the magician writes down the name of an item previously discovered instead of the current item he is trying to guess.

Out - An ending to a trick that the magician uses if the trick goes wrong.

OOTW - Out of this World. A popular self working card effect with a stunning finish.

Overhand shufle - A shule where the cards are dropped rom one hand into the other in small random groups.

Palm - To hold an object in the hand secretly.

BP - Back Palm (Held on back of the hand) FP - Finger Palm (Held in the fingers) CP - Classic Palm (Held in centre of the hand) TP - Thumb Palm (Held in the crotch of the thumb)

Pass - Secret move to transpose the halves of a pack eg to bring a card to the top.

Patter - The words magicians use in their act, often for misinformation and misdirection.

Peek - Similar to a glimpse. To obtain a secret look at a card or object.

Profonde/Pochettes - Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes/productions etc. Not a popular method today.

Pinch - Vanish done by snapping coin from lengthways in the finger tips to edgeways, incorparating a ROV element. Also a vanish used by carring a sponge ball from pinched between fingers to a palm.

PK - Psychokenesis. Ie moving things around usually done with threads or strong magnets.

Pull - Device on elastic which pulls object up sleeve or under jacket.

Pull through - Concluding move to a riffle shuffle where the two halfs are pulled through each other and not mixe at all.

Routine - Combination of moves in an effect or effects in an act which blends the magic and can help to mislead an audience by the sequence of events with appropriate misdirections.

ROV - Retention of vision vanish. Put vanish for a coin.

Raven - Magnetic Pull device used to vanish a small coin or magnetic object

Readers/paper - Marked cards which can be read from their backs.

RRTCM - Royal Road to Card Magic. 20th C book by Jean Hugard often cited as the best text for beginning card magic.

Riffle - To let cards come of the hand creating a noise. Also riffle shuffle.

R/S - The use of rough or smooth compounds on cards which makes them stick or slide easily.

Rough - Card or cards which have been treated with spraymount type glue so they stick together unless seperated quite firmly.

Run - Taking the cards off singly during an overhand shuffle which can be used to stack the deck.

SAS - Scotch and Soda. Modern effect where a Centavo gimmick is magnetically locked in a shell dollar causing the disappearence of the Centavo.

Servante - Secret shelf or compartment behind magicians table.

Silk - A silk handkerchief.

Shell - A hollowed out coin or ball which fits over the real object allowing vanish and reproductions.

Shell game - Con game with walnut shells and a pea where the muggle has to guess the shell with the pea in. Due to sleight of hand he never wins.

Sleeving - Dropping an object up a sleeve to vanish it.

Sleight - A secret move.

'Slicks - A highly polished card or cards which are more slippy.

Slide - A tube to get an object to an impossible location. Eg Marked coin to ball of wool or object inside nested boxes.

Slip - To retain top or bottom cards or both during an overhand shuffle

Sphinx Principle - Two mirrors at 90 degrees and with their apex/join facing the audience can be used to relfect the side curtains/walls which are the same pattern as the back curtains/walls enabling an object to be hidden behind the mirrors.

Sponge - A sponge ball.

Stack - A prearranged deck or part of the deck of cards. Or to rearrange while overhand shuffling

Steal - A slight to obtain an object secretly eg Stealing a ball from under a cup or stealing a card from the pack.

Stodart Egg - Hollow egg used in vanish or production of a silk.

Strippers/Stripper deck - cards are wider at one end, enabling a reversed card to be located. Also known as Biseauté cards.

Stooge(or shill or stick) - Audience member who is actually planted as part of the act and who acts in a cooperative manner.

Sucker effect - A trick where the spectator is lead to believe he has worked it out, only to be proved very wrong.

Svengali/Svengali deck - Gimmicked deck where every other card is the same and also short. Can be used for forcing and many other effects.

Swami Gimmick - Small writing device hidden under the nail used to "predict" what a spectator says by writing it seceretly after she says it. (mentalism)

Switch - To change one object for another. Eg Bobo switch for coins or Gypsy switch which uses a silk handkerchief.

Talking - Not the words spoken, but an inadvertant noise made by the props which can give away the trick.

Topit - Jacket with secret receptacle to vanish things. Often a large pocket sewn into lining.

'Tourniquet - Another term for a French drop

T&R - Torn and Restored. The magician rips something up into many pieces (eg playing card/paper etc) and then "restores" it. The method lies in switching in a new undamaged item.

TT - Thumb tip. Plastic thumb cover for vanishing and reproducing small objects. Can be used for small liquid/powder (eg salt) vanishes and appearences.

Woofle Dust/Magic Dust - Excuse for going to a pocket to get rid of a vanished item.

Zig Zag - Popular stage illusion where a girl contorts herself in a cabinet giving the illusion she has actually been cut into seperate pieces.

Zombie - An effect with a floating ball. Zombie type/zombie gimmick - a secret rod to make an object float usually under cover of a cloth.

---