The Card Magic of Nick Trost is coming back! Normally, I time these reviews for the weekend right around the release. However, since it’s one of my favorites, I jumped the gun on Sunday with a re-review of the book. I saw intel that suggested it would be out on April 15, but it’s still not out, so… 🤷At least we know it’s coming and can hold out hope that it will be soon. The timing of the release wasn’t my big mistake though.
Jim Sisti, professional performer, author, and all around nice guy, was kind enough to contact me and let me know that it’s not Penguin who bought the rights, but Murphy’s! That’s significant, because it means you’ll be able to get this book from your favorite magic dealer, and not as an exclusive from Penguin. I believe Murphy’s is running behind on this one, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be re-released soon! 🤞
Once you get your copy, check out these tricks:
Eight-Card Brainwave (p. 199)
Spectator’s Card Trick (p. 119)
The Observation Test (p. 17)
Lost & Found (p. 136)
Automatic Lie Speller (p. 155)
Intuition (p. 161)
Ten-Card Poker Deal - Trost Routine (p. 109)
That ought to get you started, but I’d love to hear some of your favorites, too!
Nick Trost vs. Nick Trost
After I published my review, I got a lot of questions about the difference between The Card Magic of Nick Trost and his Subtle Card Creations series. I think this is as good a place as any to address that subject:
The Card Magic of Nick Trost is a ‘best-of’ the author’s previously published material from when he first started printing tricks in 1955 through 1994, covering nearly 40 years of magic! Many of his best marketed effects were described, including many of the packet tricks released in partnership with L&L Publishing, like Maxi-Twisto. It wasn’t really intended to encompass all of his creative work - it was a curated look at his body of work.
However, The Subtle Card Creations series is a 9 volume set outlined by Nick before he passed in 2008, and is primarily sourced from his 21 notebooks. As you would expect from a 9 volume set, this is more like “the complete Nick Trost” than the 1997 L&L single volume.
Many of the Subtle Card Creations routines were never previously published, but bear all the same goal of maximum effect with minimum effort. That’s not to say that there are no previously published effects, just that many were previously unpublished. All of the tricks cover similar territory to The Card Magic of Nick Trost in terms of the effects and methods, but there are many, many more variations.
I don’t want you to think that the Subtle Card Creations books are filled with fluff - far from it! But, as with any expansive offer, it’s not just the cream of the crop. You’re getting a TON of volume, and there are quite a few gems, but also some lumps of coal.
Frankly, the volumes in question are not really comparable, and there’s no overlap. My recommendation is that you start with The Card Magic of Nick Trost, then if you decide you like Nick’s style, expand your library to cover the Subtle Card Creations books. Your up front investment is minimal, you get to see some of his best work, and you can go slowly over time. There’s no rush.
In case you haven’t seen my review of Volume 1 of Subtle Card Creations, here it is:
How do you like your magic?
Whenever Nick Trost’s name comes up, inevitably people start to ‘take sides’ about the type of magic they prefer. To help all of us get to know each other a bit better, vote in the poll below about your preference! 👇
Back to EDC
Eight-Card Brainwave (explained in the aforementioned The Card Magic of Nick Trost on page 199) is one of my favorite small packet tricks. As great as it is, I’m always on the lookout to move a trick from a “card trick” to something else, especially one that can be part of your everyday carry.
In this case, Eight-Card Brainwave is a very magical way to give out your business card. Obviously, your business cards probably don’t have ‘faces’ on them, and the ‘backs’ are all the same color. But, you can have an ‘X’ on blank side of your business card and present a choice of cards to the card recipient.
Plus, there is the significant upside that you can give away the card and simply replace it from a bank of cards in your pocket should you find yourself performing this in a walkaround type environment.
I can’t claim credit for the use of business cards - it’s something I read in Jerry Mentzer’s Close-Up Cavalcade. It’s a trick called “‘X’ Marks the Spot,” and if you own that book, you can read it on page 151. It uses six business cards, and it’s a cool adaptation for the Olram Subtlety. Reading it, however, led me down an interesting research rabbit hole.
According to Magicpedia, Nick Trost published the first version of his Eight-Card Brainwave in 1970. Back then, it was called “The Odd-Colored Back,” used only six playing cards, and was published in Nick’s “Conjuring with Cards” column in The New Tops, Vol. 10, No. 8 (August 1970). He later marketed it as a standalone effect in 1976.
Why is this interesting, you ask? The Mentzer trick I mentioned above was published in 1973, three years after the original Trost write-up. However, Mentzer doesn’t mention Trost in the credits, but he was obviously familiar with Trost and his column.
The year before (in 1972), Mentzer published Card Cavalcade, and in it he includes a Nick Trost trick (“Jumbo Two Way Split”, p. 57), pointing out that it’s “a variation of an original idea by Stewert [sic] James which appeared in The New Tops…” So, he was familiar with both Trost and The New Tops, yet he doesn’t say anything about Trost’s “The Odd-Colored Back.” In fact, here is his entire lead-in to “‘X’ Marks the Spot”:
“In many respects this trick is similar to several effects using specially printed playing cards which have been marketed in the past. The use of the performer’s business cards in what seems to be a totally impromptu test is, perhaps, the most magical of all.”
Eight-Card Brainwave has stood the test of time and is now considered a classic, but perhaps at the time, it wasn’t as well-known, so Mentzer didn’t think to credit Trost as an inspiration. Or, like many effects, the Olram Subtlety was being applied by many magic creators in a lot of different ways, so this was an instance of independent creation. Maybe someone else has information on the origins of each or the interaction between the two. If so, I’d love to hear from you!
How Far Would You Go?
A year ago this week, we were looking at Bend It Like Geller - a history and exposé of Uri Geller’s psychic phenomenon. After the episode aired, I was very surprised to get a call from Mr. Geller while on vacation in Washington D.C.
He was very kind, but you can’t talk about Uri without questioning how far is “too far” to go with magic without issuing a disclaimer. Many of us (myself included) are OK with a theatrical performance that lacks a disclaimer. However, it seems like the main issue is one of ensuring that your audience understands that you are a performer, and not the real deal. Or at least, that your audience should understand that you’re a performer.
It further occurs to me that most of the tumult around disclaimers and/or claims revolves around mentalism. It’s very rare that someone performing Eight-Card Brainwave will have anyone offering to start a new religion with them or asking them to help find their long-lost family pet for a fee. So there’s an element of believability that many magicians feel require a disclaimer.
Bruce Bernstein shares an interesting take on this in his book Unreal. The essay is entitled “Disclaiming Disclaimers,” and if you have access to it, I encourage you to check out his thoughts. One interesting dynamic he brings up has to do with “card cheats.”
“I also remember discussions with a very famous card man and skeptic who felt that psychic entertainers should use disclaimers, but that card workers, who couldn’t do what they claimed to do “legitimately,” e.g. super card memory, middle deals, etc. didn’t need to use a disclaimer.”
Interesting, right?! We don’t often think about it in that context, but it makes sense to me that if people are performing magic, but selling it as sleight-of-hand, is it any different when they sell their services to a casino as a consultant?
What do you think? How do you handle disclaimers in your performances?
In case you want to see what I thought about the book, you can check that out here…
A Mini Review
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