Mouse Trap
This effect is commercial and
funny. The original idea belongs to Terry Lagerould and I saw it published in the AUSTRALIAN MAGIC
MAGAZINE several years ago. Here the plot remains
the same but the handling has changed. The idea
of also having the "cheese" caught in the trap
was suggested by Bruce Goldstein.
EFFECT:
The magician explains how to make a mouse trap
with several cards. With the trap, he captures
the "mouse"! (Really the A
)
REQUIREMENTS:
Have a duplicate of any card (say the 5
)
with a bunch of small holes in it as shown in
Figure 1.
SET UP:
With the deck face down, from top to bottom
you have: the regular 5 followed by the 5 with the holes.
PERFORMANCE:
Take out the A saying that it is a mouse.
In fact, it has the pointed nose (indicate the
point at the top of the Spade character) and
a tail (indicate the base of the Spade character).
Take out any pair from the deck (say the two
red 9s) saying that they represent the mouse
trap. Leave the three cards face up on the table.
Say that you need cheese for
the trap. Give the deck a False Cut and then turn over the top card (5), show it and then place it
face down between the two face up 9s. When you
make holes through the card, take care not to
punch the white border so you don't have to
worry about spectators seeing the holes on the
top card of the deck. (The holes will not show
when punched in the colored design area.) In
case you are a "worried-type person", keep the
deck tilted slightly upwards.
Bring the sandwich on top of
the deck and secretly add the holed 5 beneath the three cards held
in the right hand. The left thumb slides off
the top face up 9 onto the deck which is held
in the left hand. Then the left thumb slides
off the face down 5 onto the deck. Place the last two cards as one
on the top keeping a little finger break between
them and the deck. Double Undercut
them to the bottom saying that you must now
set the trap for the mouse inside the house
(the deck).
The right hand takes the A and places it face down on the bottom of the
deck. Turn the deck face up and keep it in the
left hand as you would to perform a Hindu
Shuffle. The right hand pulls out and
takes the bottom half of the deck leaving the
bottom card in the left hand (Figure
2) which ends up below the top half which
falls directly onto it. The cut portion is then
placed on top of the left hand cards directly
on top of the A. Automatically, the A and the holed card end up
between the 9s.
Spread the deck face down between
the hands showing the "sandwich" in the middle.
Table the four card "sandwich" and turn over
the face down cards between the 9s to show the
A captured by the trap along with the holed card
and say that although trapped, the mouse was
able to eat some cheese!
NOTES:
- At the end of the trick, the regular
5 is on top of the face down deck. I leave it
there and proceed with other effects without
bothering about it; I don't think it's necessary
to eliminate it.
- Although I do not feel it's necessary,
you can force the 5 to a spectator instead of
finding it apparently causally, with the
cut.
