T. Nelson Downs was a unique character in the history of magic. His story is well known: learning to manipulate coins while working as a telegrapher in an Iowa railroad station, developing an entire act with coins, his meteoric rise to fame. Less known is Downs skill with cards. In retirement, Downs focused his full attention on close-up card magic. His close circle of fiends included Dai Vernon, Faucett Ross, Sam Horowitz, Eddie McGuire, and Eddie McLaughlin, and through the post, he badgered them all for new ideas to keep his now-idle hands busy. By 1932 the elaborate stationery Downs used during his professional career had been replaced by blank pieces of paper that he sometimes decorated with a self-portrait. Using a soft pencil he would shade a specific area and the blank space in the middle formed his likeness complete with hat and coin. This three-pager, written during the depth of the depression, started off with a comical suggestion for combating unemployment.

Joshua Jay shares some extremely strong and off-beat magic this month. Not the least of which is some work from Brother John Hamman on culling Cards. In addition, Diamond Jim Tyler shows how to make your card box play music, Luis Otero contributes a stunning coincidence effect with cards that could close any close-up set, and Ryan Schultz teaches a useful utility peek move.

It isnt done often, so it raises the question, can you perform escapes for children? David Kaye says, yes. But there are several elements that need to be included in an escape for children that arent always included for adults. Jens Bj?, a magician from Denmark, agrees and offers a routine he uses regularly for children: an escape from ropes with a story.

As with any specialized field, the escape act has its own requisites. To begin with, if you have a medium or large-scale escape act, you will probably need an assistant. After all, someone has to roll on equipment, help guide spectators while they are restraining you, strike the props, cue the music, lights, curtains, and so on. All of this is very much along the same line of duties of a traditional magicians assistant. There is, however, one other extremely important person that is an absolute essential part of the escape show: Ladies and Gentlemen, the most important assistant to any escape artist: The Rescue Technician.

The engagement is almost never really over when youve performed your last piece and taken your last bow. Right after youve completed a great show is the best time for making new contacts, cementing relationships, and leaving your audience members ?a.k.a. future clients ?with the best impression possible. Youll be repaid many times over for the time and effort youve put in. Not only will a system for such contacts save you time in the long run, it will earn you repeat bookings and help you improve the quality of everything you do.

The performer has a female spectator choose a card and secretly write down its suit and value on a small piece of paper, which she then folds and marks with the first letter of her first name. While shes doing that, her card is put face down into the middle of the face-up pack. The performer hands the deck containing the reversed selection to a male spectator. The performer spears the folded piece of paper with a long needle, sets it alight, and lets it burn to ashes. He rubs the ashes on the underside of his arm and, mysteriously, the value and suit of the selection become clearly visible on his skin. The performer reminds the female participant that she had also written her first initial on the paper. He retrieves the deck from the male spectator and spreads through the deck to the face-up selection. This card is removed to reveal it has the female spectators initial burnt into it!

Members of the audience freely create a two-digit number, which just so happens to be the exact same number thats on a lottery or bingo ball in your possession. And all you need is an old billiard ball, its shell, a piece of paper, and a dry-erase marker.

The Bends is a disease in which the performer continually bends over behind his or her magic table, often disappearing, in search of props for the next effect. Many performers today choose to work out of attach?ases or suitcases that are placed on a low table or chair. This can lead to the magician hunching over the suitcase with its lid blocking the performer from the audiences view. Audiences often feel that the magician is "doing something sneaky" back there, and in many cases, they are absolutely right.

Pyrrho of Elis is identified as having been the first skeptic philosopher. Having traveled with Alexander the Great on his conquest of the East, and after studying with the Gymnosophists of India and the Magi of Persia, Pyrrho returned home and declared that everything is unknowable and certainty is impossible. What, exactly, prompted him to take this philosophical position is unclear: perhaps a bitter evening at the blackjack table.