The Ultimate Crimp
Routines and Applications by Bob King
The Llltimate Crimp
Copyright 1993 O by Bob King Magic All Rights Reserved
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OON.ffNTS Introduction Putting in the Work Basic Routine
Impossible Location
I'll
Guess Your Weight
Instant Revelation A Cut Above (I) As a Force
A Cut Above (II)
11
Pinnacle Aces Revisited
L2
Far Out of Sight
L4
Under Your Spell
L7
Introduction [ first leamed the Breather Crimp in 1973, and since then, have fooled almost every magician I've used it on. [t has recently been published in a couple of places and is becoming fairly well known. However, despite this and the fact that I have been lecturing on it for three years, I still see only a few magicians using it. What I have tried to accomplish in this book is to illustrate by way of example, the usefulness of this great crimp. The Breather Crimp, when put into a card, is there for the life of the deck. It may be called into play whenever needed, but is invisible and no hindrance when not used. [t can even be secretly put into a borrowed deck with no fear of it being discovered later.
After becoming familiar with the crimp, the reader will discover many ways to use it in new tricks, or simply to make old tricks much easier.
A couple of the routines in this book have appeared in my other books. However, they have been redone since their original publication, so please don't pass them up. Several items have fooled some of the best card men around, and appear here for the first time.
Finally, each of these routines has been, or is being performed by me at the present time; they are professional routines and have been thoroughly audience tested. Have fun! Magically,
SJalL
gting
August, 1992
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Putting In The Work Take the card, into which you are going to put the crimp, face down, into the right hand. Place the left thumb onto the center of the back of the card. Place the first and second fingers of the left hand undemeath onto the face of the card, with their tips pressing up against the thumb. Take hold of one corner of the card with the right fingers. While pressing very tightly, the left f,rngers slide to the diagonally opposite comer. This will put a concave trench into the card, from the center to one corner. Re-grasp the center of the card with the left fingers and take another comer with the right hand. Do the slide to another corner, putting a second trench in. Do this same thing with the remaining two corners.
If you look at the face of the card, you will
see a star shape,
culmi-
nating in a dull point at the center.
With this card in the center of the deck, it can be cut to from the ends or the sides. [t can be visually spotted at the side of the deck when doing a faro-shuffle, or it can be located with any of the various one-handed cuts. One last tip. I have been known to put the crimp in a borrowed deck, right in front of the spectator, under the guise of straightening out a bent card.
Basic Routine Hand the deck out for shufflirrg. When it is returned, and while talking, casually cut the crimp to the bottom. The easiest way is to hold the deck from above in the right hand. Relax your grip and let some of the cards fall into the waiting left hand.
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If the crimp is not too close to the top or bottom, the deck will cut right to it. You will know by feel whether or not you cut to it. If not, simply place the right hand cards below the others and do it again. This time, the crimp will be centered and you can't miss. Have a card selected. Holding the deck from above in the right hand, the right forefinger swivels the top half to the left and into the left hand. Have the card replaced onto the left half and cleanly drop the other half on top. The crimp is now on top of the selection in the center of the deck. Place the deck onto the table with a long edge nearest you. The right hand cuts to the crimp and places these cards to the right in preparation for a riffle shuffle. The selection is now the top card of the left half. Riffle shuffle the two halves together, letting the top card of the left half fall last.
You have, in a very clean manner, controlled the card to the top, where it can be dealt with any way you choose.
Impossible Location Start with the crimp on the bottom of the deck. Have a spectator cut the deck into three packets. Tell him to peek at the top card of one of the packets and leave the card where it was.
Your next instructions depend on which pile he peeked the card from. If he chose the packet with the crimp on the bottom, have him cut this packet and complete the cut - thus burying his card. Have him, then, bury this packet between the other two. Should he choose either of the other two packets, have him place this pile onto either of the other two. Should he place it onto the crimp-pile, have him cut this pile as before and bury the whole thing into the other pile. If he places it onto the non-crimp pile, tell him to pick up the other (crimp) pile and place it onto all.
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In each of these cases, the crimp winds up on top of the selection in a most fair manner. From here, you rnay proceed any way you wish; you may want to have him cut the cards any number of times before you do the
dirty work.
I'U Guess Your Weight (Revised) EFFECT: A spectator cuts off an unknown number of cards. The performer proves that he can cut off any amount by cutting offthe exact same number as the spectator. After all cards are replaced, the performer takes a quick look at the faces of the cards. The spectator names his card, and the performer not only tells him how far down in the deck it is, but cuts off that very number and turns over the selection. a Breather Crimp and place it at the bottom of the deck. Shuffle 24 cards below it and you are ready. Spread the cards for a selection, making sure that it comes from the top half
METHOD: Make
of the deck. While the card is being shown around, grasp the deck in the right hand from above. Relax the fingers and the bottom half, below the crimp, will fall into the waiting left hand. Have the selection replaced onto the left hand cards and drop the other half on top. Turn your head away and ask the spectator to cut off a packet of cards- caution him to take less than half. Turn to face him as you explain that since you limited him to half the deck, you will face him as you explain that since you limited him to half the deck, you will do the same for yourself. Deal the top 26 cards into your right hand, reversing their order. Place the rest of the cards down. You now claim that you didn't have to count off 26-you could have simply cut off that exact amount. Noticing that the spectator looks doubtful, tell him that you will prove it; drop the cards in your hand onto the balance of the deck.
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Ask the spectator to count his cards so that you may prove your claim. As soon as you hear the amount, quickly cut to, and including, the crimp. Count these cards back onto the remainder and you will find that you have the same amount as the spectator. Have the spectator place his cards onto all. The selected card will now be at a position 2 cards further down in the deck than the number he cut off earlier; if he cut 16 originally, his card will now lie 18 cards down. Also, the crimp will be directly above his card. Spread the cards face up and scan them as though you were memorizing the cards and their positions. Square the cards face
down. Ask for the name of the card, ponder its whereabouts and announce its position in the deck. Assuming it is 16 down, you would say something like: "...so, if I cut exactly 15, your card would be right here." With that, cut to the crimp, count the cards off to the side and turn over the next card to end.
Instant Revelation This great effect, given its worst scenorio, is still a miracle to the laymen. In appearance, someone merely thinlcs of a card and you name it; its that clean.
You will need the crimp 27th from the bottom. You can start with the crimp on the bottom and shuffle 26 cards below it in small groups, or you can set the deck up ahead of time. While your head is tumed, ask someone to cut off a group of cards-less than half. Have them look through these cards and merely think of one. Caution him not to think of a picture card they are too hard to transmit. Now, have him remove and hide a number of cards equal to the number of the card he is thinking of; in other words, if he were thinking of the four of spades, he would remove and hide four cards.
as
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Tell him that it doesn't matter if his card is among those he hid. The rest of his cards are returned to the top of the deck. While pattering, you casually give the deck a Faro shuffle as follows: Holding the deck edge on as is normal for a Faro, let the deck separate at the crimp so that it and all the cards above it go into the right hand. Shuffle these cards into the others so that the crimped card winds up second from the bottom (out shuffle).
Now, do the usual waterfall squaring of the deck by bringing the right hand over the deck, fingers at the out end ofthe outer packet and thumb at the inner end of the inner packet and bowing the cards so that they cascade down into the left hand. You will find that the surplus cards at the top fall as a block. As they fall, the left little finger catches a break under them as the deck is squared. The number of these cards is equal to the number of the mentally selected card.
As you spread through the face down cards, you simply count the number of cards above the break. While doing this, patter: "Even if I were to look through these cards, I wouldn't know if your card was among them or among those you have kept." You now know the number of his card and will now use an old chestnut to determine the suit.
Tell him that you think his card was a "cherry" colored one. If he says yes, tell him that you think it was a heart. If he says yes again, quickly blurt out the whole ntrme of the card and watch his face. This is the best scenario.
If he says that his card was not a "cherry" colored one, you reply that there are black cherries too! Go through the same procedure as above, except use the black suits.
In either case, should they say no when you nirme the first suit, quickly say ".. just kidding, I know it was the..." Here, you name the number and the other suit.
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As I mentioned earlier, even in the worst scenario, you receive only two negative replies and then you make it seem as though you knew the card all along.
A Cut Above (l) A VISIT WITH LARRY JENNINGS, contains a great trick which was the inspiration for this effect. I wanted to be able to show all four aces after their removal from the deck; this was not possible in the Jennings version. Begin with the aces spread throughout the deck and the crimp on the bottom. Run though the deck, up-jogging the aces as you come to them. On the fourth ace, you add an indifferent card to the back of the aces using Marlo's Unit Upjog (see my book MORE MAGICIAN FOOLBRS for a complete description). The left hand strips out all five cards as the deck is tabled face down. Spread the four aces, face up, keeping the extra card hidden at the rear. Hand the spectator the first two aces of the same color, square the remainder and turn them face down in the left hand.
If all of this is done smoothly, anyone would have to swear that you have just two aces, the szrne as the spectator. Have your helper place one of his aces onto the deck and cut it to the center; this places the crimp above his ace. Take your top card, calling it an ace and place it on top of the deck. Cut to the crimp and complete the cut; this brings his ace back to the top.
You now explain that each of you will now bury the other's remaining ace.
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With that, the right hand takes your two cards, as one, from above and gives a flash of the face ace. Casually, drop these two onto the deck and have the spectator cut the deck and complete the cut. There are now three aces below the crimp. Take the spectator's ace into the right hand. As the left thumb riffles up your side of the deck, the right prepares to apparently throw the ace into the near side of the deck. Actually, after a few riffles, the left thumb simply lifts up at the crimp and the right hand throws the ace into the break. Square the cards and then ribbon spread them on the table to show no breaks or control of any kind. Square the cards and position them for a riffle shuffle.
Ask the spectator if he will allow you one shuffle to find all four aces. Time it so that by the time he answers, the following shuffle is complete. The right hand cuts to the crimp and places these cards to the right of the others. Shuffle the two packets together, letting the top four cards of the left packet fall last. Thank your helper for allowing you that shuffle and turn up the top four cards to end.
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As A Force The force of a card, when completely successful, is one of the most devastating weapons in the arsenal of the card magician. Using the BREATHER as o force is not only fool-proof, but is so casual in handling that it cannot possibly be suspected. In addition, if the card forced is the crimp itself you not only know what card was chosen, you also have complete control of it.
This force used to rely on visually locating the card to be forced and then holding a break at that point. Using the BREATHER allows you to have the deck shuffled and go right into the force; this, and the fact that you are going to force the card face up, puts your audience at ease and makes the force much easier. Start with the crimp anywhere in the deck. Hand the cards out to be shuffled. Take back the cards, locate the crirnp and bring it to the bottom. Cut about two thirds of the deck to the table and place the balance on top; the crimp is now about one third of the way down in the deck.
Table the deck in front of you, face up. You are going to cut packets off the deck to form a new pile, but the timing of the patter accompanying these cuts is crucial. Cut about a quarter of the deck off to the side while pattering: "As I cut these cards..." Cut another quarter onto the first as you say: "..just tell me when to stop."
Now, cut to the crimp and place these cards onto the others. Trust me! Most times, they will say stop right here. If not, don't panic; you have one more shot at it.
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If they do stop here, the force card is the next card in the original pile and the logical choice for selection. If they don't say stop, simply cut another packet, and at this point, if they don't stop you, give up card magic. In this case, you would remove the top card of thosejust cut. The advantage of forcing a card face up is that they seem to feel more in control of the selection, when in fact, just the opposite is true.
I have fooled many magicians by doing this force and then removing another deck from my pocket. I handle this deck exactly as I would an ULTRA MENTAL or a BRAINWAVE deck. After showing a duplicate of their selection face up in my deck, I hand the deck out to be examined. Needless to say, this blows them away!
If you want to force
a face down card, you must have the force
card directly beneath the crimp. Follow the above procedure with the deck face down.
If it is important that you force the crimp while the cards are face down, you have two options. You can, on your third cut, allow the crimp to drop off the cut-to packet and remain on the original pile, or you can put the crimp into the card while it is face up. This way, instead of cutting to the crimp itself, you will cut to the card above it and it will remain on the original pile. Over the years, I have found that this is not a psychological force. It is completely mechanical and if timed properly with the patter, never fails. One final point. The face down version of this force, being so disarming, is perfect to use in any triple prediction where you need to use the one-ahead method.
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A Cut Above (lt) In the January-February, 1984 issue of RICHARD'S ALMANAC, Larry Jennings offers his version of this trick, whereby you are able to show the foces of the aces before cutting them into the deck. I felt that there were too many unnecessary moves, so this is the result of my thinking. You will need two aces with a fake index at one end; two of the gimmicks from Bro. Hamman's FINAL ACE ROUTINE are perfect. Find the two regular aces, corresponding to the fakes and place them on top of the deck. The remaining four cards are distributed throughout the deck with the fakes going first and third, reading from the face of the deck. That is, a fake is about a quarter of the way from the face, followed by a regular ace a quarter of the deck further on etc. The crimp is on the bottom of the deck.
Run through the deck, up-jogging the first four aces. As the left hand strips these cards out, it tips them back toward you and places them face down on the table with the fake indices nearest you and to the right. Table the deck in front of your helper. Take the top ace with the right hand, fingers on the back and thumb covering the lower right comer on the face. Turn the hand palm up, showing the face of the card and hand it to your helper. Have him place the card onto the deck and cut it to the middle. Take the next card the same way (the thumb will cover the fake index), show its face and place it onto the deck. Cut to the crimp and complete the cut. Show and hand the next ace to the spectator and have him cut it to the center of the deck. You now do the same to the last card as you did with the second. Do your magic gesture and tum up the top four cards to show the aces. To finish, the left hand comes over the deck, takes it and turns palm up. The right hand takes the face up deck and ribbon-spreads it on the table. Only the fake indices will show and the deck appears normal.
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Pinnacle Aces Revisited Heruy Clrist's "PINNACLE ACES" is one of my favorite routines. However, I never felt that the revelation of the last ace was in keeping with the theme of the rest of the trick. Using the BREATHER CRIMP puts new life into this classic. Have the crimp on the bottom and any seven spot card about twenty cards from the face of the deck. Produce the aces any way you choose and lay them out, face up, from left to right in CHSD order. Spread tluough the face up deck, counting, silently, nine cards. These cards are flipped face down onto the left thumb so that they are separated from the deck. They are then taken with the right hand and placed onto the ace of diamonds.
Spread again until you see your seven. As the right hand takes all the cards above the seven, the left little finger gets a break beneath the seven. The right hand cards are flipped over onto the seven, and immediately, this hand takes all those cards, including the face up seven, offthe deck and places them onto the ace of spades; these cards are face down with a face up seven beneath them. Spread
off about half of the remaining cards and place them, face
down, onto the heart. The remainder is placed onto the ace of clubs. You are explaining that you will lose the aces in different parts of the deck. Pick up the packet on the ace of diamonds and one hand fan it, face down, in the right hand. The left hand picks up the ace and casually inserts it fourth from the bottom of the fan. Square the cards and take them into the left hand. Pick up the ace of spades and place it onto the left hand cards.
Page 13 Place the packet which was on top of this ace onto those in your left hand.
The right hand takes the ace of hearts and tips it face down onto its packet. Do this so that it falls slightly jogged to the right. Drop all the left hand cards onto this packet and pick the cards up with the right hand. As the cards are placed into the left hand, it is an easy task to get a little finger break beneath the ace which is jogged to the right. The right hand tips the ace of clubs onto its packet. Cut all of the cards above the break onto the ace of clubs. Follow by cutting half of the remaining cards onto those just placed to the table. Finally, place the rest of the cards onto all.
You now state that you will deal with the ace of diamonds first and that you will cause one, and only one, card to turn face up in the deck. Ribbon spread the deck face down and look surprised to find the seven face up. Take all the cards to the right of the seven, tum them face up and table them. As you explain that the seven is actually a locatercard, do the following: The left hand scoops up the spread from the left. As the cards settle into the left hand, you get a little finger break under the seven and the card below it. The right hand takes these two cards as one and places them square onto the face up portion placed down earlier.
Explain that since the card is a seven, you will count seven cards to find the ace of diamonds. From the top of the face down cards, deal six cards face up onto the face up portion of the deck. Turn up the seventh card to show the ace of diamonds. Place this ace aside.
Turn the rest of the cards face up and place them onto the others. Turn all the cards face down. Snap your fingers over the deck and do a ribbon spread to show the ace of spades has tumed face up. Square all the cards to the right of the ace and place this ace with the other.
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The rest of the spread is squared and placed onto the other half (you have secretly cut the deck at that point).
You now claim that you will spell to the ace of hearts. Dealing cards into a face down pile, spell A-C-E-O-F-H-E-A-R-T-S, tuming up the ace on the final letter. Place this ace with the others. You will now set up for the mind-blowing ending to this routine. The left hand is holding the major portion of the deck. The right hand picks up the ten dealt cards (the top card of which is the crimp), and overhand shuflles them onto the others, running the first card singly. This places the crimp on top of the ace of clubs.
Claim that you believe that the ace of clubs is about eleven cards down. Quickly, cut to the crimp, count the ten cards to the table and tum up the eleventh card to show the ace of clubs.
Far Out of Sight Vernon's "OW OF SIGHT, OW OF MIND" is a trick I've been doingfor years. It hasfooled most of those witnessing it. The BREATHER CRIMP and the speciol shuffle I have developed not only malrcs it easier, but impossible to reconstruct. Pay attention to the detail, including the important patter, and have a miracle whichwill serve you as long as it has me.
youwill
Start with the crimp on top of the deck. Begin an overhand shuffle by undercutting about half the deck with the right hand. Shuffle eight cards onto the crimp, injog the next card and shuffle off the rest. Settle the cards into the left hand and lift up on the jogged card getting a break beneath it. Double cut to the break and you will have the crimp nine cards down.
Page 15 The right hand, holding the cards from above, allows all the cards below the crimp to fall into the left hand. The right hand onehand fans the nine cards and shows them to a spectator, asking him to mentally select one. The fact that you appilrently just took a random number of cards is very disarming.
You must now control the nine cards back to the top. One way is to push them into the center, get a break above them and double cut to the break. I do it the way Vernon did: The packet is placed, from the front, into the center of the deck. As the cards are pushed into the deck, they are jogged diagonally with the help of the right forefinger from above. The left little finger then straightens out the inner right comer, causing the packet to protrude from the inner end of the deck. The right hand takes all the cards above this packet and places them into the center of the deck.
This next shuffle sets the nine cards in groups of three without using any jogs, as in the original. The top three cards are shuffled into the left hand. Throw the rest of the cards onto these. Shuffle three cards into the left hand and then throw about half the deck. Follow by shuffling the rest of the cards, running the last few (at least three) singly. The result is that, from the face of the deck you will have three of the nine, then half the deck, then another three (the first of which is the crimp), then the balance of the deck, ending with the last three.
You now pretend to be trying to get the name of their card, and then decide that they didn't get a long enough look at it. You are going to narrow it down to three cards. Turn the cards face up and relax your grip on the deck so that it opens at the crimp. You can now get a break above the BREATHER. This is done as you explain that you will have them take another look at their card. caution them not to say a word when they see it.
With your head turned away, begin spreading the cards. Here, you let the first three cards go by and then, start silently counting the cards.
Page 16 When you reach ten, stop and ask if they have seen their cartl. If they say yes, close the deck, drop the break you have and get a new one under the cards already spread. Ifthey say no, continue to spread until you rgach the break, let three cards go by and start your count to ten; stop here and ask the same question. If they say yes, get your break at this point.
We'll deal with the third altemative in a moment. First,let's assume they have said yes to the first or second inquiry. You are going to double-cut to the break during the following IMPORTANT PATTER: "I don't know how many cards I showed you in the beginning...l5...20...it doesn't matter. The fact is that you are the only person in the world who knows the name of your thought-of card." Believe me, the reference to 15 or 20 cards works; they always remember my having shown them more than nine cards. Ok, should they answer no to both queries, you know that their card is one of the three at the top of the deck seen yet. Square the cards as you make some comment-not like, "Well, it must be in here someplace." While saying this, casually shuffle ten cards onto the top of the deck in two or three groups. Regardless of which of the above actions takes place, the result will be the same; there will be ten cards on top of the deck followed by three cards, one of which is their thought of card. What follows will take a bit of practice, but it is important that it not appear studied.
Table the deck in front of you. You are going to take cards from the deck and place them into your left hand until you have dealt ten cards. This must be accompanied by patter so that it does not appear that you are counting. This is not easy, so I suggest that you say exactly the same thing each time. Choose a couple of sentences which take the same time to say as the dealing of ten cards. I always say the following, which takes exactly ten cards to complete. I don't have to count. When I finish the following patter, I have taken ten cards.
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"I'm going to deal cards into my hand until I get the feeling I should stop." (exactly five cards have been dealt into my left hand) "At that point, I'll stop dealing and we'll see what happens." (five more cards have been dealt)
Without missing a beat, deal the eleventh card, but you do two things here. First, lift its back end just enough so that you can get a glimpse of it, and as you place it onto the other ten cards, you back-jog it slightly. Take the twelfth card, glimpse it and place it onto the others, aligned with the majority. Get a break under the jogged card. Paffer to the effect that you feel you should stop here. Ask for the name of the card. Since you know the names of the top two cards, and have a break under two, it is easy to reveal the selection by doing a double turnover or turning up the top card.
If you did not
it must be the top card of those still on the table; this is the one you turn up. see the card he ntunes,
This explanation has taken a lot of space. The trick is not nearly so long. Don't pass this up, or I'll fool you with it some day.
Under Your Spell EFFECT: The spectator cuts to any card in the deck, and after remembering it, buries it in the middle of the deck; all of this is done while the magician's back is turned. The deck is then placed underneath a handkerchief. Each time a card is brought from under the hank, the spectator silently spells a letter of the narne of his card. Suddenly, the magician declares that the spectator has spelled the last letter on the card now held by the rnagician. Of course, the magician is right, and when told the name of the card, he turns the one in his hand around to show the very same card.
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METHOD: First, the deck
must be set up in Sy Stebbins order, or any arrangement whereby one card keys you to the next. The crimp is on the bottom of the deck. You will also need a rather large hanky. Hand the deck to a spectator and turn your back. Have them cut a rather large portion from the top of the deck to the table. He is then to look at, and remember, the top card of those in his hand.
Next, he cuts his cards, burying the selection in the center. The crimp is now directly above his card. He now buries this packet in the middle of the tabled packet by lifting some cards from the packet on the table, dropping his packet onto the cut-to portion and dropping the cut-off portion onto all.
It would appear that you could have no information about his card or its whereabouts. On the contrary, the bottom card of the deck tells you the name of his card (next card in the set-up) and the crimp is waiting to help you locate this card. Pick up the deck and hold it in left hand dealing position. As you reach for the hanky, peek the bottom card. Drape the hank over the deck, and the moment it is covering the deck, do a one-handed cut, bringing the crimp to the bottom and his card to the top.
Explain that for each card you bring out from under the hank, he is to silently spcll a letter of the name of his card. Caution him not to forget the word "of," and not to tell you when he has completed the spelling. Reach under the hank with the right hand and bring out cards from the bottom. Silently spell the name of the spectator's card, the name of which you got from peeking the bottom card earlier. Continue bringing out cards until your spell brings you to the last letter of the name of the card. On the last letter, bring out the top card and hold it back toward the audience.
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Tell the spectator that you feel that he has stopped his mental spell on this card. He will agree, and after he names his card, turn the one in your hand around and watch the look on his face; I guarantee you will be gratified.
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-NOTES-
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