In the Works: Mega 'Wave

I've been perusing some products by John Bannon, and on his "Bullet Party" DVD (look for a review soon), he teaches a great packet effect called "Mega 'Wave." I immediately liked this routine and wanted to add it to my strolling sets. In fact, it's one of the best packet effects that I've seen in a while with a fantastic, entertaining plot that serves four revelations.

Do the Wave
You bring out two sets of four cards. The first set consists of cards with red backs. We'll say, for example purposes, that these are the four jacks. The second set consists of four cards with blue backs which is wrapped with a band (apparently to prevent you from doing anything sneaky with it). The cards in the second, blue-backed set are not shown.

You ask a spectator to name any of the four jacks in the first set. No "funny" business here. The jack that he names is the one that you will use. You then demonstrate the difference between "sleight-of-hand" and "mentalism." After simply counting the cards in the first packet, the named jack is found to be reversed in its set of four cards. You attribute this to "sleight of hand."

For the mentalism aspect of your presentation, you take the banded set (which has been in plain sight the entire time), remove the band, and show that the named jack is reversed (face-up) in the middle. But wait, you then show that the named jack is the only red-backed card among three blue-backed cards. The three blue-backed cards then turn out to be jokers. And for the fourth whammy, the "jack" that you managed to turnover in the first set isn't a "jack" but a card with a written message that you can use for humor or promotion.

Strong and Clean
This is a fantastic effect. At the end, you're clean and everything can be examined. The effect isn't hard to learn and perform for those with basic card skills. If you can perform the classic "Biddle" card trick and execute an Elmsley count, you've got all the skills that you need.

I worked this one up yesterday (I made one small alteration to the handling and added a bit of misdirection at a key moment) and performed it for my regular clients last night at my restaurant. The effect got a great response the eight or so times that I performed it. But I think it was during the third performance where I made a huge mistake. But even with this gaff on my part (which will probably never happen again), I was still able to bring the effect to a revelation. It wasn't a strong revelation, but I was still able to offer a bit of amazement.

I will definitely be using this one. By the way, a related book also called "Bullet Party" teaches most of the effects offered on the DVD set, but unfortunately, doesn't include "Mega 'Wave" (you can read my review of the book here).

More Reading:
Bullet Party (Book) by John Bannon
Royal Scam - John Bannon
Review: Duplicity by John Bannon