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Howard Albright's
TOM, DICK AND HARRY
EFFECT: Three spectators from audience assist... Tom, Dick, and Harry. (Harry brings his hat along.) Any deck shuffled and Tom has free choice of any card, which is shuffled into deck. Next, Dick chooses a card, which is shuffled back into deck.
Performer takes an unprepared envelope from his pocket and removes a blank card therefrom, writes something on it, and seals the card in the envelope which is placed in Harry's hat for safe keeping, the hat being set, mouth up, on Harry's head. He holds it there, with one hand, and the deck is placed in his other hand.
Now, returning to Tom and Dick, performer says he will count 1-2-3 and on the third count both are to shout out name of card each one chose. The fun comes when both men call out the same card... say, the Queen of Hearts.
Harry is asked to find the Queen in the deck; in order to have use of both hands performer removes envelope from the hat and hands to either Tom or Dick, and the hat is clapped on Harry's head while he looks through the deck. Performer steps away while this is done and eventually Harry announces that the Queen of Hearts is not in the deck, whereupon Dick is asked to open the sealed envelope and read the message, which says: "Harry has the Queen of Hearts ON THE BRAIN." Harry raises hat off his head slowly, and the Queen of Hearts is ON TOP OF HIS HEAD.
A good showman will find plenty of places to work this up with humorous patter. It has the necessary elements of surprise and mystery and comedy.
ROUTINE: The deck is shuffled by anyone, and Tom has a free choice. As the card is returned, performer controls same by his favorite method. (I crimp the lower half, have card returned on this, drop up half on top, false shuffle, and cut to crimp, leaving the selected card on the bottom, as in Frank Lane's Book).
Now, the card is glimpsed and the same card is forced on Dick, and subsequently brought to the top in the shuffle.
The deck is in performer's left hand and with right hand he reaches into his vest pocket and removes an envelope from which he extracts a blank card. The envelope is rested on top of the deck, while he lays card on top, and writes the message. Card is then replaced in the envelope and sealed.
There is a small daub of wax or diachylon on the face of the envelope, and as pressure is applied to seal same, this causes the selected card to adhere to the address side of the envelope.
Envelope is now picked up and placed in Harry's hat, sitting on the short end, so part of it protrudes outside hat. At this time performer loosens the card with a flip of the finger and it drops down flat in the hat, which is now set, mouth UPWARD, on Harry's head; and he is told to hold it in that position with one hand while the deck is placed in his other hand. (This is a funny predicament for a spectator to be in, and a lot of fun can be had at this point if performer works it up.)
Now, according to effect, performer says he will count 1-2-3, and on "3," Tom and Dick are to shout out the name of the card which each one chose. Of course, they shout out the same card, which is a surprise to them, and gets another laugh.
Harry is told to look through the deck and find the card, which he CAN'T, as he only has the use of one hand. (More laughs.) To relieve him, performer takes the hat off his head (by holding high enough so he can't see down into it), removes the envelope, and hands it to Dick; but before leaving, he claps the hat on Harry's head and AT THE SAME TIME urges him to look through the deck and find the card. (This prevents him from removing the hat prematurely, since both his hands are employed with the deck.)
Of course, he must admit he cannot find the card in the deck, so Dick is asked to open the envelope and read the message written there, which is: "Harry has the Queen of Hearts on the brain." Nobody knows just what this means until Harry is directed to lift his hat, when the card is seen balanced on the hair of his head (unless he has a bald head, in which case the card will slide off the dome to the floor... which will be funnier still.)
The card in the hat cannot be felt when the hat is placed on the head. (Try it and see.) So Harry never knows it's there until the last minute. Besides, he is kept busy and has no chance to investigate the hat before the climax. Performer makes it a point to see that he doesn't doff the hat while envelope is being opened and the message read.
More laughs can be gotten out of this by introducing the assistants to each other as "Tom," "Dick," and "Harry" as they come up to assist... and calling 'em by those names.
Swell little stunt, Howard--it's O.K., and thanks for it--I've read all your books and enjoyed them all--and I enjoyed hearing this trick of yours. I suppose you wondered, folks, why Howard kept looking down in his shirt front all the time he was doing this trick. Well, there's nothing to it. It's simply that the doctor told him to watch his stomach, HA HA--I'm screaming.
Next we have with us a man whom you fellows in America have never seen before, but whom you have heard of and read of, and learned from, time and time again. I consider him one of the, if not THE, most widely read and most thoroughly posted men on Magic today. When he gives you something, you know it's good, and he's going to give us all something today. Can you guess who 'tis?--Well, boys, it's none other than
ELLIS STANYON, OF LONDON, ENGLAND
ELLIS WRITES: Thanks boys, I appreciate your silent applause, for I realize that while you read, the applause MUST be silent. I have prepared three new tricks for you. They are all original and I trust you will gain from the reading of them. I won't waste your time. I'm glad to co-operate with Frank in this most novel magic treat, so here goes. My first one is entitled:
EGG, HANDKERCHIEF AND WINE-GLASS COMEDY... Next