"My Card"
A Giant Card Effect
By Rupert Howard, A.I.M.C.

Effect--
The performer asks two members of the audience to assist him, one being asked to stand on the left and the other on the right. The conjurer now picks. up a pack of giant cards, and asks the assistant on. his right to take one. (The card is not forced.) He now hands the pack to the assistant on his left, giving him half to hold in each hand.

Turning his back to the audience he asks the chooser of the card to hold it up so that everyone in the room or hall, except the conjurer, can see it. The chooser is now requested to place his card on top of the pile of cards held in the other assistant's left hand. This assistant now places the other pile of cards on. top of the chosen card, and squares up the pack.

The performer hands a stick of charcoal to the. drawer of the card, and asks him to trace in the air with it the words: "MY CARD," at the same time. thinking hard of the chosen card. After this has been done the other assistant is asked to run through the pack till he reaches the chosen card; on doing so he finds the card, on which the words MY CARD are written in large letters. If desired the chosen card may be initialed at the start of the effect, as the actual card which was-freely taken is the card on which the writing appears.

Working--
This effect depends on a fake made of thin sheet tin, cut in the words, MY CARD. The front of it is painted black, while the back, on which three needle points are soldered, is coloured to match the backs of the giant cards used. At the commencement this fake is on top of the pack where it is not noticeable. The card is now freely chosen. The performer then puts the top half of the pack into the assistant's left hand, and the other half into his right hand. When the card is to be returned to the pack the conjurer takes care that it is placed on the cards in the assistant's left hand, and so on top of the fake. The trick has now been effected, and it only remains to carry out the business with the charcoal, and then to disclose the writing.

Since I designed the above method of working, my friend, Mr. Eric P. Wilson, has suggested the use of a fake consisting of two cards stuck together. Before they are fastened together a stencil is cut from one, and this stencil is pasted on the other. The stencil, of course, is of the words MY CARD. Needle points are fixed in the stencil, and the working is the Same as in the other method.

As to the Giant Cards, those known as the "Jumbo Cards" are recommended as besides being of fairly stiff substance one gets the advantage of a full pack of fifty-two and the Joker.