Series of Unfortunate Effects by Chris Mayhew & Five Academy

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Dealing with a mix of wacky personalities, including eccentric magicians and crazed card collectors, Chris and Ben go on a quest to learn the real secrets of magic.

After witnessing an amazing magic trick performed by the world-famous Lee Asher, Chris enlists his friend Ben’s help to discover the secret.

They soon discover though that learning the secrets to magic aren’t as easy as they once thought. Chris and Ben need to help Lee find something he’s looking for before he’ll share the secret with them. In order to do that they have to go through magicians Jeff Hinchliffe, Glenn West, and Chris Westfall, while avoiding destruction at the hands of crazed card collector Bill Abbott on a wild adventure filled with laughs and great card tricks.

TRICK LIST

1. Lu Lu Lemon (Chris Mayhew) Based on Paul Harris’ La La’s Lu Lu, the magician openly isolates a face-down card among a fan of face up cards, then sets the packet aside. While displaying a different packet of cards, the magician asks the spectator to freely name any card they see. In a feat of ultra-coincidence, the original face down-card proves to be the exact card the spectator chose.

2. Colour Changing Deck (Glenn West) A series of clever colour changes carefully blended together to create a visually eye-popping routine. As a special bonus, Glenn teaches his refined handling of Ed Marlo’s Snap Change.

3. Wide Open Travelers (Glenn West) Like Ed Marlo’s The Open Travelers, four aces travel invisibly from the magician’s hand to the table. Each Ace’s journey becomes more impressive and impossible than the last. Did we mention only four Aces are used!?!

4. Detour on 51st Street (Ben Train) A pseudo demonstration of shuffle tracking. Two jokers randomly mixed into the pack swiftly find a selection lost earlier in the routine. This will have your spectators convinced you’re a professional gambler when it comes to tracking cards.

5. Harmony (Jeff Hinchliffe) Inspired by Dai Vernon’s Triumph, cards are shuffled face up and face-down creating a chaotic mess. A spectator picks a card, then the magician claims he can divine subtle pieces of information about the selection from simply mixing the pack. After a handful of shuffles, the selection is revealed face up among the rest of the face-down cards. As a kicker to prove an ultimate display of skill, the cards are turned over to reveal they are now all in new deck order.

6. Oil and Water (Jeff Hinchliffe) A fast-paced multi-phase routine where four red cards are fairly mixed with 4 black cards, but they keep mysteriously separating. Each phase escalates to an impossible climax that the spectators won’t see coming.

7. Training Wheels (Ben Train) A whimsically fun handling of an Ace production where the magician visually splits the Four of Spades into the four Aces in one seamless motion. So amazing and easy, people will want to chop off your hands to perform it.

8. Hold ’em Seductively (Chris Westfall) A Texas Hold ’em themed transposition based on Paul Harris’ Seductive Switch where the magician trades his lousy cards for better ones using his magical powers. After witnessing this routine, your friends will think twice before playing cards with you again.