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Titanic By Adam Grace (Left Handed Version) The Effect: A card is selected and returned to the middle of the deck. Half of the deck then passes through the table, much in the same way as the ship named “The Titanic”, sunk in the ocean. Next, another group of the remaining 26 cards pass through the table, leaving only 13 cards in your hand. Lastly, the remaining cards pass through the table leaving only one survivor that did not “sink”. It is the spectator’s card. That card is transformed into a handful of ice cubes! The Setup: You will need to be sitting at a table, preferably one with a table cloth. For the bonus effect, you should have a cup of ice in your lap, between your legs. I prefer to use fake ice cubes which are available at craft stores. Knowledge of the Bluff Pass is helpful. Note: I am left handed and I hold the deck in my right hand. I understand this can be quite confusing if you are right handed… now you know how I have felt all of these years. :)
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Method: “One of my favorite movies is this little flick that came out a few years ago. Not many people saw it and it did not do very well at the boxoffice.” You smirk as you comment, “ Maybe you saw it… Titanic? Well, this is the story of the Titanic. This deck of cards will play the role of the mighty ship that could not sink and the table will play the role of the deep, blue sea. Now we need the Hero of the story.” You will riffle the cards in order to have one selected. Here is the sequence: Your deck is in a right hand Mechanic’s Grip and your left hand holds the deck from above. Your left thumb is holding a break under the top card. Now, you rifle down the edge with your right thumb until the spectator says stop. (See Pic)
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Before you show him his selection, say, “Did you stop me about in the middle of the cards?” The left hand removes the top half of the cards, keeping a break under the top card with your thumb. With your right hand, tip the deck upwards while pushing the chosen card out to expose it to the spectator. (See Pic)
At the same time the left hand will come back, towards your body, and drop the top half of the cards into your lap, except the top card which is being held by the thumb break. (See Pic)
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(MISDIRECTION NOTE: Since the right hand, showing the spectator’s selection, is held at eye level, this should provide enough misdirection to successfully drop the cards in your lap.)
Say, “Remember the hero card.” Now perform a Bluff Pass with the remaining card in your left hand. Here is how it happens. Make sure that the front of your left hand is tilted down towards your audience and your body is turned slightly to the right so that the spectator can only see the top of the card that is held in the left hand. To the spectator, this one single card should appear to be half of the deck. 5
Your right thumb pulls the selected card back so that it is even with the rest of the right hand’s deck. The right hand lowers and the front edge of the deck is tilted down in order to have the correct position for the replacement of the left hand’s card. Simply place the left hand’s card back on top of the right hand’s cards while maintaining the same position with the left fingers. (See Pic)
The Bluff Pass should just look like you placed the top half back onto the bottom half and buried the selection in the middle. (Practice this and find the best angles. After you have the angels down, just relax and perform the sleight without giving it any thought. The audience won’t even notice the move if you act as though it didn’t happen.)
The selection is now second from the top. 6
NEXT PHASE The next few moves are part of one fluid action intended to make half of the deck appear to be a full deck. Let’s get started: Your left hand, still in position from the Bluff Pass, bends the deck, putting space in between every card. This will look like the beginning of the Waterfall flourish. (See Pic)
The right hand regrips the cards, with the right thumb on one side and the fingers on the other side, in the ‘expanded form’ seen in the picture. (See Pic)
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The left hand momentarily releases the cards, and lets them spring open. (See Pic)
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Then the left hand regrips the cards again to hold the expanded form. (See Pic)
Finally, the left hand places the “expanded” cards into the right hand Mechanic’s Grip. It is the right hand’s job to hold the expanded cards open. The expansion and regripping of the deck happens very quickly. Practice this until you can do it in about three seconds. You will be able to cover this action with patter and eye contact with your audience. You can now show the cards fairly freely as long as you don’t show them directly from the side view. The audience will think you have replaced a card in the middle and you are still holding a full deck. Guess what?? You are one step ahead of them! 9
NEXT PHASE Say, “The movie was over three hours long, so for sake of time I will sum up the whole thing in three minutes.” With your left hand, remove the top card and hold it on the table, vertically, saying, “First, the ship hit a giant iceberg.” Ram the single card into the deck, while make a crashing sound and throwing the single card sailing into the air. This now leaves the spectator’s card facedown on top of the deck. “Next, the ship began to sink.” The left hand approaches the deck from above and takes them, holding them with your fingers to the front and the thumb to the back, by the edges, and maintaining the expansion illusion. The left hand moves down to the table, with the cards, and rests there, so that the front, short edges of the cards face the spectator. The right hand covers the deck as in (See Pic).
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Now, you say, “It sank very slowly… only half the ship disappeared under the ocean.” Push against the table with both hands and let the spectator see the card “sinking. You are just releasing the ‘expanded’ cards with the left hand and letting them fall onto the table. (I like to act as though I am pushing very hard on them.) When you remove both hands, the spectator will see that half of the cards have vanished. Let this moment sink in. The left hand picks up the tabled cards and squares them in the right hand. Now the left thumb gets a break under about 13 cards. Let go with your right 11
hand. The left hand now holds all of the cards while maintaining the break. (See Pic)
The right hand reaches under the table, picking up the lapped cards on the way, and pretends to extract them from beneath the ocean. “Half of the ship is just floating beneath the vast ocean… leaving the top of the mighty ship bobbing above the surface.” The right hand brings the cards from under the table and lifts them to eye level, fanning or spreading them. At almost the same moment, the left hand slides backwards, off the table, and allows all of the cards that are below the left thumb break, to fall into your lap.
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(MISDIRECTION NOTE: The right hand, displaying the “sunken” fan of cards, should provide enough misdirection for you to lap the cards below the break.)
The “sunken” cards are now dropped on the table and discarded over to the side. NEXT PHASE Now you are setup to do the exact same thing again… that is… setting up these cards for the “expansion illusion”. This time you must bend the thirteen cards and regrip them, providing enough space between each card so that it looks like half of a deck. (See the following 3 pics) 13
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Using the same angles as before, display “half the ship” to the spectator and say, “It didn’t take long for more of the ship to sink.” Drop the remaining talon onto the table, cover with your hands, and pretend to push half of those cards through the table, just as in the effect before. NEXT PHASE Tablespread the cards so that the spectator can see that only twelve or thirteen cards remain. Square the tabled cards. Just as before, the left fingers contact the front short side of the cards, while the left thumb forms a break under the top card only. (The spectator’s card.) 15
Next, your right hand reaches under the table, retrieving the lapped cards along the way. Pretend to fish around for them. Your right hand brings the cards above the table, about eye level, as you slide the left hand’s cards backwards and lap the remaining cards except the top card held by the thumb break. Drop the right hand’s cards onto the table with the rest of the “sunken” cards. NEXT PHASE Now you are only holding one card. You must work quickly to avoid getting busted at this point… so move with purpose right into this phase. Keep the card tilted so that the spectator cannot see how many cards are in your hand. The right hand joins the left, just as before, and covers the card. Now you will pretend to push the last few cards through the table. “Finally, the entire ship sank into the depths of the ocean… except one person survived.” Remove your hands slowly so that the final card is visible. Reach under the table with your right hand and produce the remainder of the cards, dropping them on the table. 16
At the same time, your left hand reaches into the cup, between your legs, and scoops up a handful of ice. Your left hand stays hidden under the table. You are ready for the climax. CLIMAX Say, “Let’s see who our hero is…turn it over.” Let the spectator turn over the “hero” card and say, “I just saved you three hours.” Say, “But I know what you're thinking… he dies at the end of the movie, right?” Now, you’re ready for the big ending. Turn your body to the left and get the card from the spectator. Lay the card on the table. The next series of actions happen together, in one fluid motion. The right hand, palm down, covers the card that’s lying on the table. That hand sweeps the card towards the edge of the table. Your left hand, with the ice, comes up from the under the table and meets the right hand. (See Pic)
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Your right hand will actually sweep the card off of the table, but your left hand comes up from the edge of the table and apparently meets the card. In reality, the spectator’s card is falling to your lap and your hand, full of ice, is coming into view. (See Pic)
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Your body turns frontward and both hands dump the ice onto the table. (See Pic)
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The surprise from this will be great. Say, “Well, actually, he froze to death.” That’s basically it. After a few times, you will master the moments in this routine. Once you do, you will find that this will become one of your favorite card tricks. It’s the perfect “Dinner” trick and you can even perform it “impromptu”... as long as you remember to secretly get a cup of ice from the bar first. Have fun, Adam Grace Conjuror.Community (This trick was originally published in 2003)
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