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Mnemonica Contents
Introduction—Simon Aronson xvii
Preface xix
Contributors xxiii
PART I
Chapter One—The Memorized Deck: a Bit of History 3
The Key Card 5
From Ace to King
5
The Mathematical Deck 5
The Rosary Deck 6
Non-periodical Numerical Decks 7
Disguised Arithmetical Decks 7
The Mnemonic Deck 7
The Mnemonic Deck with Added Properties 8
Tamariz’s Mnemonica 10
Chapter Two—Tamariz’s Mnemonica (Structure) 11
1. The Order of Mnemonica 13
2. How to Attain This Order 14
First Method: With Faros 14
Second Method: Without Faros 16
Third Method: Direct Setup 16
3. Specific Properties of Mnemonica 17
4. From Mnemonica to Stay-stack 19
Chapter Three—Ultra-Rapid Memorization 21
Questions and Answers 23
1. The Auditory Method 24
2. The Visual Method 25
3. The Muscular Method 26
4. The Conceptual Method 26
5. The Security Method 27
Chapter Four—Tricks Specific to Mnemonica—Tricks with Stay-stack 29
1. Super Poker 31
2. Aces, Kings—and Other Poker Hands 34
3. Everything in Order—an Outstanding Climax 35
4. A Grand Bridge Deal 35
5. Other Tricks 36
Chapter Five—Specific Tricks with the Mnemonica Order 37
1. Deal of a Complete Suit 39
A. The Heart Suit 39
B. Other Versions for Producing the Heart Suit (Cuesta and Tamariz) 41
C. The Club Suit 42
D. The Spade Suit 43
E. The Diamond Suit 43
SPELLINGS 44
2. Spelling a Thought-of Card 44
3. Spelling the Color, Value, Suit and Card 45
4. Spelling Four Cards and Four Aces 46
GAMBLING DEMONSTRATIONS 48
5. Any Poker Hand Called For 48
Pair 48
Two Pair 48
Three of a Kind 48
Low Full House 49
Middle Full House 49
Four of a Kind 49
Straight Flush (Including a Royal Flush) 50
Resetting the Stack 51
Other Deals 52
Observations 53
A General Presentation 53
6. Rummy Exhibition 54
7. Blackjack Exhibition (Jim Krenz) 54
8. Flushes and Pluses (Routine by Áriston) 56
9. Back-to-back Deals—After Dai Vernon’s Formula (Cuesta) 60
10. Poker Demonstration for Eight Players 62
OTHER TRICKS 64
11. Controlled Pairs 64
12. The Three Hours (Aronson and Riobóo) 65
13. Prediction à la Kruskal (Antonio José Arenillas) 68
14. A Strange Coincidence (Ángel San Frutos) 69
15. The Good Fortune Routine 71
Chapter Six—Tricks with the Whole Stack 77
FIVE CLASSICS
79
1. Divination 79
2. Any Card at Any Number 82
A. The Classic Method with the Pass 82
B. With a Different Back (Mago Antón) 83
C. Impossible Conditions (Mago Antón) 84
D. With False Dealing 84
E. With the Tamariz Perpendicular Control (TPC) 85
3. The Three Piles
85
First Variation (With a Medium) 87
Second Variation (Ideas) 88
Third Variation (A Classic) 88
4. Obedient Cards 88
5. Total Memory 89
A. The Classic Version 89
B. My Version—Triple Threat Memorization 90
THREE CROWN JEWELS 91
1. Prediction 91
A. The Hofzinser Method 91
B. With a Regular Deck and Two Jokers 92
C. With a Regular Deck, Without Jokers 93
D. With a Stranger Card 93
E. A Stage Version: “The Joker” 94
2. All of a Kind
94
3. Mnemonicosis (Tamariz on Ideas by Marlo and Vernon) 97
A. Mnemonicosis
98
B. Card Control
99
C. Mnemonicosis Over the Phone
101
EIGHT MORE JEWELS 102
1. Flying Through Thin Air 102
2. Cards to Pocket 104
A. With Ray Grismer’s Shuffle 105
B. With the Zarrow Shuffle 106
3. Sha-la-la-la-la (A Multiple Musical Location) 106
4. Memorized Brainwaves 111
Variation I: With a Waxed Card (Antón López) 112
Variation II: With an Ungimmicked Card 113
5. Coincidence with Two Decks and Three Cards 113
6. Control in Chaos (Aronson and Riobóo) 116
7. Carbuquillo 119
8. Cutting the Aces or Any Four of a Kind 123
A FEW DIRECT ONES 124
1. The Direct Production of Cards Called For 124
2. Rising Cards
125
3. Double Color Change 127
4. Reversed Cards (Mago Antón and Tamariz) 128
5. Cards Called For to Pocket 129
A. One Card 129
B. Two Cards 130
6. Thought-of Card to Pocket (with an Added Advantage) 130
7. A Card Vanishes Instantly 132
OTHER BEAUTIFUL TRICKS 133
1. Sympathy (Tamariz’s version of a classic) 133
First Variation—Through Pencil Reading 133
Second Variation—With a Nail-writer 133
Third Variation—With a Billet Index 133
Fourth Variation—Using a Pass 134
A Presentation—Muscle Reading (Oscar Hugo) 134
2. A Star is Born 135
3. The Stop Trick 137
A. First Version (With the Second Deal) 137
B. Second Version (With Other False Deals) 137
4. Face to Face (Marlo and Tamariz) 138
5. A Grand Triumph (Camilo Vázquez) 139
6. A Predicted Triumph 140
7. The Theft of the Century 141
8. Royal Location 142
9. Double Prediction (Zingone and Tamariz) 143
10. Exact Location (Jordan, Clive and Tamariz) 145
11. Cards from Pocket Stop Trick (Ramblar) 147
12. Named Card from Pocket (Ramblar) 148
13. Card to Number in Pocket (Ramblar) 149
14. Card to Wallet (Ramblar) 149
15. Assembly of Selections in Poker Hands (Leipzig and Tamariz) 150
MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS 151
1. A Special Idea: the Eight Mnemonicas 151
2. Stay-stack with Mnemonica 156
3. A Card Index 157
4. An Assortment of Very Beautiful, Loose and Simple Ideas 157
5. An Idea for Magicians: Mnemoncia and Strippers 161
THE ART OF IMPROVISATION WITH MNEMONICA 162
1. To Introduce the Subject 162
2. The Techniques 163
3. The Effects 164
Chapter Seven—Tricks Specific to Mnemonica Using Stay-stack 165
1. The Missing Card (Marlo and Tamariz) 167
2. Prodigious Memory (Evans, Hull, Annemann and Tamariz) 168
3. The Rite of Initiation (Luis García Soutullo) 169
A. Tamariz Version with Faros 170
B. Tamariz Version Without Faros 171
PART II
Prologue to Part II 175
Chapter Eight—Tricks Unique to Mnemonica Using the Half Stack 177
1. Incredible Card Control 179
2. Total Spell (Dr. Jacob Daley) 182
First Version (Classic and Daley’s) 182
Second Version (Tamariz) 182
Third Version (Tamariz) 182
3. Spelling to Four Cards 184
4. Spelling to the Four Deuces 185
5. Colors on Parade (Based on Scarne, Ascanio and Simon) 186
To Reassemble the Stack 187
A Good Routine 187
Another Routine 187
Scarne’s Concept 188
Alternated Sequence from Normal Mnemonica Order 188
Color Separation (with a Divination) 188
6. Two Stories 189
First Story (with the Top Half of Mnemonica) 189
Second Story (with the Bottom Half of Mnemonica) 190
Chapter Nine—Tricks with the Half Stack 193
ONE TO BEGIN WITH 195
Memory Jumble 195
THREE CLASSICS AND A SEMI-CLASSIC 197
1. Weighing the Cards 197
2. Total Memory 201
Version with Faros 201
Version with Deals (Antifaros) 203
3. Sense of Touch—and Other Senses 204
I. Sense of Touch 204
II. ...and Other Senses 206
a. Eye-scan 206
b. Fine Eyesight 206
c. Subtle Hearing 207
d. A Spectacular Routine 207
4. A Card and a Number (Gombert, Baker and Tamariz) 207
Variations 210
FIVE ACES 211
1. Any Cards Called For (Jordan and Tamariz) 211
Mago Antón’s Variation 214
2. Come and Go 214
Variation 218
3. The Liar—a Classic (Dalban, Nyquist and Tamariz) 218
4. Answering Computer 220
Other Presentations 222
A. The Trip 222
B. The Labyrinth 222
C. Hangman 223
5. T.N.T. (Finley, Jordan and Tamariz) 223
THREE COINCIDENCES 226
1. The Miracle (Chesbro, Thompson and Tamariz) 226
2. Telescopic Coincidence 228
3. Stop at the Same Time (First Version) 230
FOUR DIRECT ONES 231
1. A Gambling Demonstration 231
2. Card to Wallet (Daley and Tamariz) 234
3. The Reversed Card 234
4. The Selection Between the Aces 236
FIVE DIVINATIONS 237
1. Fingerprints and “Cardprints” 237
2. Double Divination 239
3. Jumbled Divination 240
4. Mnemonicosis with a Half Stack 242
5. Spectator Misses, Magician Hits 243
A Different Climax 244
FIVE ASSORTED ONES 245
1. Half Sympathy (a Classic with Tamariz Variations) 245
2. Pocket Calculator (a Classic, Variation by Mago Antón) 245
3. Tell Me Who You’re with and I’ll Tell You Who You Are 246
4. Bingo! 248
5. How Many Reds? 249
Variant I 250
Variant II 251
TWO IDEAS 253
1. Mnemonica with the Spanish Deck or with Other Decks 253
2. The Half Stack with the Spanish Deck 253
...AND AN ENDING 254
1. Some Time Ago (Dr. Daley) 254
Appendix I—Tricks That Improve with Mnemonica 257
1. Neither Blind nor Stupid (Version for a Half Stack) 259
2. The Clock (a Classic) 261
3. Stop at the Same Time (Second Version) 262
4. A Curious Coincidence (Hofzinser?) 263
5. Triumph (Dai Vernon) 264
6. Mnabacus (Jack London) 265
Appendix II—About Order and Disorder 267
1. Tricks That Don’t Alter the Stack 269
2. Actions That Don’t Alter Deck Order While Appearing to Do So 270
Multiple False Cut 274
3. Resetting the Stack 277
A. Resetting One Card 277
B. Resetting Two Cards 278
C. Resetting a Group of Cards 278
D. Resetting the Stack After a Spectator’s Riffle Shuffle 279
E. Resetting the Entire Stack After a Spectator’s Overhand Shuffle 280
F. Resetting Stack After a Riffle Shuffle and an Overhand Shuffle 282
G. Resetting the Half Stack 282
H. Resetting the Stack After Several Hands of a Card Game 283
4. Setting Up the Stack in Front of the Audience 285
A. Setup from a New-deck Order... 285
With Faro Shuffles 286
With Antifaros 286
Justifying the Open Setting Up of Ace-to-King Order 286
B. From a Random Order 286
I. In One Stage 287
a. The Cardoso Method 287
b. The Nikola Card System 287
c. Between the Fingers 287
d. Stacking a Borrowed Deck 288
II. In Two Stages (Half and Half) 289
a. Memory Jumble 289
b. Biddle Style 290
c. Two-pile Divination 292
d. Divining One Card Out of Thirteen 293
e. Using the Methods for Stacking the Whole Deck 295
III. In Three Stages (A Half, a Quarter and a Quarter) 295
a. The Clock 296
b. The Imaginary Trick 297
c. Directly Behind Your Back 298
d. Using a Strip-out 298
e. Using the Methods for Stacking Half the Deck 299
Appendix III—Notes About “Any Poker Hand Called For” 301
Appendix IV—About the Structure of Mnemonica 315
Appendix V–The Antifaro Concept 319
1. For a Fifty-two-card Deck 321
Out-antifaro-1 321
Out-antifaro-2 321
Out-antifaro-3 321
Out-antifaro-4 322
Anitfaro-4 Pick-up (Two-handed) 322
Justifying the Antifaros 323
2. For a Thirty-two-card Deck 323
3. A Very Important Observation 324
Appendix VI—Useful Sleights 325
1. Glimpses 327
A. Glimpsing the Bottom Card of the Deck 327
B. Glimpsing the Top Card of the Deck 328
C. Glimpsing a Card in the Middle of the Deck 329
D. The Chorus-line Multiple Top Glimpse 330
E. The Chorus-line Multiple Bottom Glimpse 331
2. Finding Cards 331
A. With the Charlier One-handed Cut 331
B. By Estimation 331
C. By Riffling 332
D. Learning the Identity of a Selection Without Glimpsing It 332
3. Shifting the Position of a Card 333
FIRST OBJECTIVE: To Move a Card Without Altering Rest of Stack 333
A. With the Tamariz Perpendicular Control (TPC) 333
B. With a Slip Cut 333
C. With a Double Break and a Double Cut 334
D. With the Hofzinser Spread Cull 334
E. With Dai Vernon’s Triumph Shuffle 335
F. With the Zarrow Shuffle 336
G. With the Side Steal 337
SECOND OBJECTIVE: Pretending a Selected Card is Returned... 338
Multiple Divination 338
THIRD OBJECTIVE: To Exchange Two Cards... 339
A. With Multiple Cuts 339
B. With an Overhand Shuffle (Áriston) 339
FOURTH OBJECTIVE: To Gather Several Cards... 340
4. False Shuffles 341
The False Butt-shuffle 342
Other Kinds of False Shuffles 344
5. Deck Switches 346
A. Seated at the Table 346
B. Inside the Pocket 347
C. With Gimmicks 351
D. Other Switches 352
E. Switching Half of the Deck 354
6. Other Useful Sleights 354
A. The Corner Crimp 354
B. Counting Cards Secretly 355
C. Palms 356
D. Hofzinser’s Spread Cull 356
E. The Tamariz Perpendicular Control (TPC) 359
F. The Green Angle Separation 361
G. Lorayne’s “Great Divide” and Marlo’s “Fifth Objective” Culls 362
NOTE FOR SAILORS 364
Bibliography (with Commentary) 365