Prime Cut

This DVD is the first of our “Street Magic Series”. It
contains two blockbusters that are truly amazing, yet easy
to do.

Prime Cut

Here’s the effect. Ask anybody to just name any one of the
52 cards. Their choice is totally free they can name any
card. Imagine, the victim cutting the deck EXACTLY at the
card they just named! It’s AWESOME.

The effect is a classic. It was perhaps the best effect in
Juan Tamariz’ book Mnemonica. Many performers attempted to
learn this method but found it takes months of work to
master. Even when mastered, during many performances you
were forced to use “outs” to bring the effect to a
successful conclusion. Those who took the time to master the
effect however found that the reaction from their audiences
made the effort worth it.

Prime Cut uses an amazing method that is so easy that
anybody can do it with 100% accuracy in just a couple of
hours. It works every time and your audience’s reactions are
always through the roof. Why…because there are no “outs” as
in all of the previous methods for this killer effect. Once
you’re forced to use an “out” the effect and therefore the
audience reaction is lessened.

Prime Cut will put the power of the best card trick “on the
street” in your hands the day you get this amazing DVD.

Skill Level: EASY

Phone

Simply the best trick over the phone…EVER! Here’s why. The
effect is direct.

    * You just call the victim.
    * It’s the victim’s own deck.
    * They shuffle and cut.
    * Then they think of one of the cards.
    * You tell them what card they’re thinking of.

The effect is a real skull cracker that goes right to the
center of their brain!

Phone is a diabolical solution created by Eddie Fields. It’s
hard to believe an effect this deadly could be absolutely
dead easy to do. But it is, in fact it’s self-working!

Skill Level: Very Easy

MY COMMENTS:
To control someone to cut to a card that they just freely
named is an awesome feat that even those who don't like
doing card effects may be tempted to do, because it's a very
simple and very direct demonstration. A card is named and a
spectator inexplicably cuts to the named card. It's that
direct.

The genesis of this effect was a piece from Juan Tamariz'
Mnemonica. If you're not familiar with this book, it's a
massive book on learning and using memorized decks. Paul
Harris, Bob Kohler, and Paul Vigil brainstormed to come up
with a version that required an easier memorization
technique and required no outs for David Blaine to use on
his Drowned Alive special. Unfortunately, the live footage
preempted us from seeing David perform this for Kobe Bryant
and the Lakers. We'll just have to take their word that the
Lakers were freaked out by it.

If you already know a memorized stack, then you'll find that
the technique for getting a spectator to cut to their chosen
card is diabolically easy. If you don't know a memorized
stack, this tape teaches you a very easy stack that makes
locating the chosen card quite simple. Be warned, though.
Unlike other memorized deck stacks, you will not be openly
spread the cards for examination with this stack, nor use
them (at least in the stack) for as many other routines as
other stacks can. But it's quite workable and easy. And
there's a clever technique for showing the cards as randomly
mixed, even though it's a very obvious stack. Also, the
explanation given uses a pair of breather cards to help with
the location of the selected cards, but there are other
techniques you can use instead.

Honestly, I don't recommend this stack. You can certainly
repeat this effect over and over again, but I highly
recommend that any mentalist who works with cards learn a
memorized stack. Joyal's Six Hour Memorized Deck is
probably the easiest and certainly better than this one. I
do suggest, that if you don't know one, use the one here
temporarily. It can be learn quickly and performed while
you seek out and learn a more effective one.

Can it be applied to index cards, Tarot cards, or other
non-playing card cards? The technique to get the
participant to cut to the card requires a fairly easy card
technique. The participant must grab the cards from above
and grab the short ends. So it depends on how long the
cards are. 3 x 5 cards should work fine. Other cards,
though, may need to have some handling changes made, but it
is very possible.

Lastly, about Prime Cut, the move that really caught my
attention is that cut force. It's so diabolically easy
(ooh, I hate overusing that phrase, but it applies here)
that I can't believe it's original with this effect, however
the knowledgeable card guys I know thought it might be
familiar but couldn't think of a reference. So, until
informed otherwise, I must assume this technique to be
original.

As to Phone, which is a classic Eddie Fields' effect, it is
quite good but it is also quite procedural. The spectator
cuts the cards into three piles, turns one face up, and
remembers that face up card on the bottom. That face up
stack is then sandwhiched between the other two, given one
or two cuts, and then riffle shuffled. Finally, the
participant deals the entire deck and reads aloud all the
face-up cards. The performer names the chosen card after
this procedure.

As is pointed out in the DVD, there are no key cards, no
counting, and no mathematically formulas. It is extremely
clever (Eddie Fields always was), but you must have the deck
dealt out one by one. This is time consuming. Fortunately,
this is done one on one, so there's no audience to watch and
be bored, but it is still lengthy. And the procedure is one
you must make sure is done correctly or it will not work.

But Phone is just a bonus. The real gem here is Prime Cut.
And it's one of those technique that may seem very obvious
to the experienced card worker (or mentalist, perhaps), but
it's highly effective and well-worth knowing. Definitely
recommended.