LIMITLESS - Antonio Romero · COVER DESIGN Sansón y Dalila BOOK LAYOUT Belén Romero - Sansón y...
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Prologue Anthony Blake LIMITLESS MORE THAN 50 EFFECTS USING THE ROMERO BOX
Transcript of LIMITLESS - Antonio Romero · COVER DESIGN Sansón y Dalila BOOK LAYOUT Belén Romero - Sansón y...
Prologue Anthony Blake
LIMITLESSMORE THAN 50 EFFECTS USING THE ROMERO BOX
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Master of the art of wit.
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TITLE Limitless. More than 50 effects using the Romero Box.CREATED BY Romero Magic.
COVER DESIGN Sansón y DalilaBOOK LAYOUT Belén Romero - Sansón y Dalila
FOTOGRAPHER Concepción JuradoPRINTED BY Sansón y Dalila
TRANSLATED BY Fernando Rosal.Madrid, July 2014.
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LIMITLESSMORE THAN 50 EFFECTS USING THE ROMERO BOX
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4 Index
6 Prologue
8 Foreword
10 The Box
11 Basic technique.
12 Loading cards.
14 Types of effects.
I•15 Romero Box Classics
16 Card prediction/mind reading.
19 Torn and restored card.
23 Card at number.
25 Do as I do.
28 Double coincidence.
II•31 Transpositions
32 Card to card box.
35 Signed card to card box.
38 Card to any location.
41 Card to cell phone.
43 Houdini’s scape.
45 Two card transposition.
47 Transposition with a twist.
III•49 Coins
50 Coin through card box.
53 Copper-silver transposition.
55 Copper-silver finale.
IV•61 Mentalism and other mysteries
62 Business Card revelation.
65 Divination of the serial number of a bank note.
67 The magazine test.
70 The newspaper divination.
4 Index
6 Prologue
8 Foreword
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71 The matches.
73 The living/dead test.
75 The puzzle.
76 Open prediction.
81 ESP coincidence.
V•83 Transformations and strange phenomena.
84 Transformation of a card into another.
86 Transformation of a business card.
86 Transformation of a coin.
86 ATM.
87 Paper to bill. The money making machine.
88 The stapled card.
89 The creation of a card.
91 Alice’s tunnel.
91 Tricks with pictures.
91 Tricks with drawings.
91 The rubber bands.
92 Tempus Fugit.
93 Romero’s Paella.
VI•95 Utilities and alternate box configurations:Romero Box Tool and double flap.
96 Switching cards.
97 The vanishing card.
98 Forcing a piece of paper.
98 Forcing a key.
99 Double Flap
101 Romero Box Tool
103 Card throu card box.
105 The close-up sub trunk.
VII•107 Bonus: The “same same but different” principle.
VII•113 Shop
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I’ve known Antonio for a very long time, even before he start-ed his professional career in MAGIC, the art we’re both so passionate about. I had just ar-rived in Madrid when he was already a part of the group formed by great names such as Juan Tamariz, Camilo Vázquez, Antonio Ferragut… all foremost members of the “Escuela Mági-ca de Madrid”(1) of which we both became part of. I saw him advance in the art and show us his cleverness and inventive-ness. His “Transparent Cups and Balls” is a true work of art, a must for any magician who likes Cups and Balls and a won-derful routine for anyone who loves magic.Some years later, already a full time professionalmagi-cian, he performed in a crazy magic event I organized in Ma-drid’s Harlequin theatre every Thursday. We called it “Magic Thursdays”, and once again he astonished both magicians and laymen with his ideas, show-ing his “good aim” by hitting a selected card with a rifle and pinning it to a piece of wood… as all of the cards were stream-ing from a card fountain. It was simply amazing.
Prol
ogue
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Some time later we met after one of my shows at the Amaya theatre. Polite and elegant, as always, he showed me his last invention. The Im-post-it-ble: A tool that allows the magician to secretly know what a spectator has written in a Post-it note. And again, it was such a clever idea. I started using it every-where. Theatres, at the street, atprivate shows… it worked as a charm! Professional magic cre-ated by a professional magician. You will by now understand why, when he called me again to tell me he had a new crea-tion, I was eager to meet him as soon as possible. He came home for lunch, where Javito (Javier Núñez) my secretary and stage technician (and my most trust-ed person) and me where wait-ing for him. He brought out a pack of cards, removed it from its case and let magic start. What an invention!
I don’t want to foretell the many uses Antonio’s creation has. I will just hint that I use it both in stage and Close-up sit-uations. I find out cards, force them, do the invisible deck with a borrowed deck, a great Word-search puzzle prediction,and an extremely long etcetera. The
possibilities of the Romero Box are so many, he’s had to write this book. Make the most of his endless wit, for Antonio is a bottomless well full of creativ-ity. Read this book thoroughly, as it’s full of truly impossible ef-fects, as well as tiny details that really help to make a difference. Study the effects, perform them and you’ll be regarded as a great magician. Look after them, re-hearse them and I assure you, you will make miracles.
Anthony BlakeP.E.A. Dunninger Memorial Award
2003
(1) Madrid’s magical school, a “school of thought” created in the 70’s by some of the most important magicians in Spain, whose manifesto greatly influenced Close-up magic.
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ForewordI couldn’t start this book without thanking before all the friends that have helped me through this magical adventure. First and foremost, there’s Greca de Blas, whose endless patience and price-less collaboration have been key to the Romero Box’s develop-ment. This couldn’t have happened without him, his support and his generosity. THANKS GRECA! I should also thank Belén Rome-ro, my patient sister, always ready to give me help and warm sup-port, the very intelligent David Bravo and his awesome designs, Angel Simal, whose accurate advice has helped me greatly, Lau-rent Vadel, who did a great job translating the book into French and to all of the magicians who, with their tricks and ideas, have contributed to the making of this book. And, last but not least, the amazing Rafael Benatar. Your advice and unquestionable friend-ship give me a much needed support in every project I undertake.
I’ve been a professional magician for many years. I’ve had to per-form in a wide variety of conditions, in front of many different audiences. And, as the great Ortega y Gasset (1) said, “I am the sum of myself and my circumstances”. And, although circumstances can affect the way you perform an effect, or the way you execute a certain trick, magic always comes first to me. I think the effect is sacred. You cannot mess with magic in your show. I cannot think of a magic show as a comedy show. I love to have fun and entertain the audience, and comedy is an element of my shows. But if I have to decide between magic and comedy, I will always choose magic. It’s in my DNA. It’s a personal choice. This “school of thought”, added to the exigencies of professional magic performance, always makes me try to find the best methods for the effects I perform in terms of magical impact and practicality. The Romero Box is a perfect example. An object that the audience perceives as common, a card box, will not raise any suspicion, thus making it the perfect weapon for a magician.
I love gimmicks. They always add value to my magic and, what’s even more important, they give me tools I can use to create my
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own routines. My drawers are full of them. Some I haven’t even used. Some others I’ve toyed with, without ever fully understand-ing them. And finally, there’s a few I’ve extensively used. But I know they’re there, full of possibilities, waiting for a spark to ig-nite in my brain and make me rush to my room, open the drawer, look at a gimmick and say “That’s it!”. The Romero Box fits this category. It’s a gimmick full of possibilities that will always be there, waiting for you in order to help you make that magical idea in your mind become reality.
The Romero Box has many possibilities. It will help you to per-form tricks with cards, coins and many other objects. It’s also a very useful tool for mentalism and it’s specially designed to exchange one or several cards, a feat that solves many problems commonly found when performing close-up magic. In this book you will find a huge variety of tricks. In many cases, they will be accompanied by tips on how to use the Romero Box in a way that will make it go unnoticed by the audience.
The Romero Box has taken its first baby steps as a magic tool. I’m sure that, little by little, people will come with new ideas. To-day we can communicate in many ways, and the communication range is practically limitless. The Romero Box is not an excep-tion, as day by day its applications grow thanks to the generous contributions of many magicians who share their experiences and ideas. If you wish to become part of the community, please visit www.facebook.com/RomeroBox where any idea about the box will is welcome. There are many contributions already, and I hope there will be more coming in the future. I value and welcome all of them. You never know the moment in which an idea, or a simple comment, will become the seed that opens a new window full of magic in our art.
Antonio Romero
(1) José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher and essayist, was the main exponent of perspectivism and ratiovitalism theories.
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The boxThe Romero Box is, essentially, a change box inside of a card case. It works in the same way a standard change box does. If you take a close look at the inside of the box, you’ll see a flap. This flap can adhere to the top or bottom of the case, which allows you to hide cards, or other tiny objects, between the flap and the box. In order the fit a regular deck of playing cards plus the flap and the extra cards, the case has been slightly expanded. And now, in or-der to help you to understand better the explanations of the tricks, we’ll name the different parts of the box.
The Romero Box’s face is the side of the box where the Bicycle logo, with the Ace of Spades, is printed. I named it this way since you can see the face of the Ace of Spades, since I wanted to use terms akin to card magic.
The Romero Box’s back is the side of the box in which the back of a bicycle card is printed.
Flap. It’s the internal piece, made of cardboard, that can adhere to the face or the back of the box. It has three magnets inside, placed in specific positions so that the flap with always adhere
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in the same position, and with more strength to the top than to the bottom. This creates a “Raymond tube” effect, which I call the “slide” effect. This means, if I place an object such as a coin under the flap, the top side of it will always adhere to the edge of the box and only the bottom part will “open” due to the presence of the ob-ject. This prevents the flap from opening on the top and revealing its presence to the onlooker. Due to the magnet setup, you should know that the flap has a “right” placement. You cannot turn it up-side down or rotate it.
Basic technique
The drop. This is the Romero Box’s most basic technique. Es-sentially, you will just drop the box onto the table, parallel to the floor, from a certain distance. When box hits the table, the flap will tilt and fall from top to bottom, switching from face to back or vice versa. The working of the Romero Box’s flap is very similar to the one of a Chop Cup ball. When you hit the cup, the ball falls. When you hit the Romero Box, the flap falls. The side that hits the table must be the one where the flap is not adhered to. The impact of the fall will make the flap fall and stick to the opposite side of the box.
You should get used to the way the box works. In order to do so, place a card inside of the box and drop it so that the flap hides the card. It will seemingly disappear. If you turn the box upside down and drop it again, the card will reappear inside of the box. Note that the flap can hide more than one card. Not only that, you can use other objects such as bank notes, business cards, slips of paper… it even works with coins! A single coin can be hidden be-tween the flap and the inside of the box.
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The grip. This is the best way to handle the Romero Box. It looks fair, natural, and facilitates the execution of the drop in a natural way. Just hold the box between your index and thumb by the sides, near the bottom.
Loading cards
Most of the tricks start with several cards already prepared and hidden inside of the Romero Box prior to the start of the trick. But you might also need to hide cards under the flap in the middle of a routine. There are two methods for this:Adding the flap into the deck. You can remove the flap from the Romero Box and add it to the deck. This will allow you to place
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the cards you want to hide between the flap and the top of the deck (or the bottom, if you wish). Just by placing the deck back into the Romero Box, the flap will return to its position, trapping the de-sired cards against the inside of the box and hiding them. You will have to be careful of placing the flap in the right position, taking care not to invert the polarity of the magnets. This method is not only very useful for many tricks and effects, it also allows you to show the inside of the box, or have it examined by the audience, as the flap will not be present and there will be nothing inside it.Loading the card into the box. You can place the flap of the box (the one used to open and close it, not the Romero Box’s flap) as a guide, inserting it between the back of the box and the Romero Box’s flap. You can palm a card and load it into the box as if it was a kind of Mullica wallet just by preparing it and placing the box in your pocket, or any other suitable place.
Types of effects
I have divided the tricks possible with the Romero Box depend-ing on where the audience perceives the effect is taking place. This is where most of their attention will be focused on.
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Direct effects. The effect takes place in the box itself. For exam-ple, a torn and restored card.
Indirect effects. The effect is possible thanks to the box, but doesn’t seem directly related to it. A clear example of this is when you get rid of gimmicked objects you have used for an effect, such as changing gaffed cards for regular ones.
No matter what you do with the box, you will need to use it as a mere tool, a completely non-important object. Actually, one of the great advantages of the Romero Box is the fact that it is a change box, but also a very common object in the eyes of your au-dience. A card case in the hands of a magician should not raise any suspicion. This will be one of our main weapons when using the Romero Box.
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Romero BoxClassics
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Card prediction/divination
One effect, two different methods. These two tricks will have a great impact on your audience. The feeling of fairness and clarity is absolute. In the first effect, the presentation talks about a pre-diction. In the second one, about a divination. The last option is more subtle, as there’s a psychological factor that moves the box to the background in the mind of the spectators.
As the classic saying goes, “This tricks alone are worth the price of the book”. As much as I think this is true, it would be unfair to some other great effects you’ll read later on.
¬ EffectsA spectator shuffles the deck. The magician spreads the cards on the table, and asks a member of the audience to remove a card and, without looking at it, insert it into the card box. There’s two things you can do now. Proving that you had predicted the selec-tion beforehand, or reading it from the mind of the spectator.
¬ The predictionSet up the Romero Box, hiding your prediction card face down between the flap and the back side of the box.
Tell your audience you’re about to make a prediction. Write the identity of the card you’ve set up inside of the box on a slip of pa-per. If you wish, you can use a duplicate of the card with a different color back. Just place the card in plain view on the table.
Remove the deck from the Romero Box and hand it to a member of the audience. Ask him to shuffle the deck. Retrieve it and spread it face down on the table. Ask the spectator to remove one card from the spread. Tell him that you want to be as fair as possible, so you prefer him to just place the card, without looking at it, inside of the card box, “out of your reach”. Hold the deck in preparation for the drop as he inserts the card on the box. Execute the drop as
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you toss the box onto the table. The flap will fall, hiding the select-ed card and allowing the predicted card to be seen inside the box. Sometimes, thanks to inertia, the predicted card will slide halfway out of the box. Try to get this to happen every time, as it’s an add-ed subtlety that makes it even more difficult for the audience to suspect a switch.
Don’t ask the spectator to remove the card from the box yet. Take your time to remind the audience that the cards were shuffled. As you talk, casually turn the spread face up so that everyone can see all the cards are different, and that they are mixed. Emphasize the fairness of the selection.Now tell your audience that you made a prediction before the trick started. Take the Romero Box and let the predicted card slide out of it. Ask the spectator to look at his card. Show your prediction. It will match the spectator’s card.
You can also ask the spectator to remove the card from the box himself, but that could end up “messing” the effect, as the box or the card could slip from the spectator’s hand and fall. A possible solution would be for you to hold the box and letting the spectator remove the card from it.
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It’s very important to justify the insertion of the card into the Rome-ro Box. I usually say something like “I don’t even want to touch your card” or “I don’t want to see the card”. That’s usually enough, as it makes sense for the audience. Just don’t make too much out of it, just mention it and the audience will find it logical. Actually, this is an effect I usually perform in magic conventions, in the dealer’s room, and it works perfectly for magicians. When I show them the prediction they are usually very surprised, and have no idea of how the trick is done.
¬ Mind readingYou can use the same method to apparently “read” a spectator’s mind and find out his selected card. There’s an advantage to this presentation, as it includes a subtlety that helps the box to go unnoticed by the audience. Once the spectator has inserted his selection into the card box, tell him you will try to magically discern its identity. After seemingly concentrating for a few seconds, tell the audience you couldn’t make it, so you will resort to mind reading. Ask the spectator to remove the card from the box, stare at it and try to “send” it to you. Pause for a second, look at him and name the card.
The subtlety is in the fact that you seemingly fail to discern the card when it is inside of the box, so you need to read it from the spectator’s mind. This makes it completely logical for him to remove the card from the box in order to look at it. Now the Romero Box has become a background element for the trick and is not important at all, since the selection is out of the box before the effect. Mind reading happens between you and the spectator directly, and the Romero Box might as well not have been present at all.
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Torn and restored card
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world’s easiest torn and re-stored card. Or the world’s easiest torn and restored business card. Or bill. Or… well, torn and restored something.
¬ EffectA member of the audience selects a card, which is then torn in four pieces. The pieces are inserted inside of the card box, which is left on top of the performing table. The magician snaps his fingers and, when the box is opened, the selection has been magically restored.
¬ ExplanationIt’s quite obvious now that you know how the Romero Box works. Place a card between the flap and the back of the box. Force a du-plicate of the card on a spectator. Tear it in 4 pieces and ask him or her to place the pieces inside of the box. Execute the drop on the table. The card will be restored as the duplicate comes into view and the pieces are hidden between the flap and the box.
As you can see, this is one of the “direct” effects I was referring to earlier. The box could raise some suspicion, so you’ll have to care-fully construct your routine. I’ve done this effect many times in or-der to analyze the reaction of the audience regarding the box, and surprisingly they have not been as suspicious of it as I thought.
Here’s an alternate handling that helps you to free the box from that suspicion, as well as eliminating the need for a force. I have to tell you nevertheless, this effect is much better if the card is forced. Remember, one of the Romero Box’s features is that it can actu-ally be examined. In order to do so, just remove the flap from the box and place it in the deck.
We’ll use two duplicates of the Queen of Hearts for the explana-tion. Place both Queens in the middle of the pack, with the flap between them. You will tear one of them, and the second one will be the “selection”. Place the deck inside of the Romero Box.
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When you’re ready to perform, remove the deck from the Romero Box and tell your audience you will perform a classic great illu-sion, in close-up format. As the great stage magicians do, you will cut a lady in half and the restore her. But before you begin, you would like them to examine all the elements. Hand the Romero Box to a member of the audience and ask him to examine it. They can be as thorough as they want, since the flap is not in the box, but in the deck.
As the box is examined, cut the pack so that the flap ends up sec-ond from the bottom. In our case the situation, from the face of the pack, will be: Queen of Hearts, flap, Queen of Hearts.
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Once the box has been examined to the audience’s content, tell them that the only difference between a box used in stage illusions and the card box is, well, that this card box is the exact size so that a pack of cards fits perfectly. Hence the “card box” name. As illustrating this silly joke, insert the deck into the box so that the face card, in this case the Queen of Hearts, will contact the back of the Romero Box. This will effectively load the duplicate into the Romero Box. Remember, the polarity of the flap’s magnets must be correct if you want it to adhere to the box. You’re ready to present the effect.
Remove the deck from the box. Tell your audience you need a lady to “volunteer” for the experiment. There are two things you can do. You can either take the Queen of Hearts, presenting “her” as your “beautiful assistant”. Or you can force it on a spectator. I think the best option is the force, as the effect will become much more impossible. The audience is used to the idea of the “beautiful lady assistant”, and this justifies the fact of using the Queen, but I strongly recommend you to force it.
You can throw in some “false clues” in order to deceive your au-dience even further. A good idea is to prepare some details on the duplicate card that you will load into the box. For example, an im-aginary name for your “assistant”, or maybe something else, like
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the drawing of a flower or a diamond. Before tearing the card, you can tell your audience that he name of your beautiful assistant is… and then write her name just like you did in the hidden du-plicate. You can then add that she likes flowers, or diamonds, and draw whatever you chose to draw on the duplicate card. Remem-ber that you will tear this card in four pieces, which means it will be difficult for the audience to remember the exact drawing.
This effect can be done with different items, such as your business card. It’s a very strong and direct effect for your audience. Try to construct your routine so that the Romero Box goes unnoticed by the audience. There’s a saying in Spain, “he who searches… makes great findings!”
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Card to number
You can use the Romero Box for a very simple card to number routine. This can be a trick in itself, or part of a routine.
¬ EffectThe magician states that he wants to “generate” a truly random number. The reason for this is, if he asked a spectator to merely name a number, it might seem the result is random, while actually not being so. That’s because the spectator could be influenced by his state of mind, name a statistically common number, or have been subtly influenced by a psychological ruse on the magician’s part.
Explain you audience that you’re about to create a truly random number. In order to do so, a member of the audience will shuffle the deck and spread it on the table. When he’s done, three specta-tors will each remove a card and, without looking at it, will insert their selection into the card box. This makes it impossible for an-yone to know the value of each card and, of course, the result of their addition, which makes the result a completely random one.
Once they’re done, have somebody select a card from the deck. The card is lost and only then one of the spectators removes the three previously selected cards from the box and add up their values. Another spectator takes the deck, and counts cards up to the cho-sen number. The card at that number is revealed, and it is the selected card. ¬ ExplanationChoose a number, for example 17, and remove three cards that add up to it. I recommend you not to use picture cards, as some spectators will have problems knowing their value. I also try to avoid the aces. Let’s say that you remove a 7, an 8and a 2. The suit does not matter. Place the three cards, backs up, between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. You’re all set.
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Proceed as per the effect’s description. Once the three cards select-ed by the audience are into the box, execute the Drop. This will get rid of the actual selections and load the ones you need for the trick.
In order to get the last selection to the 17th position, spread the deck in your hands, secretly counting the cards in groups of four. Once you’ve gone through four groups of four cards, just ask the spectator to place his card into the deck at that point. Don’t make a move out of it, you’re just placing the card in a random position into the deck. Be natural. The card is already on the 17th posi-tion. Perform any shuffle that does not disturb the position of the selection, and your favorite false cut. Place the deck on the table. Everything’s ready, so you can just relax and enjoy.
This is one of those wonderful tricks in which everything’s ready before the audience knows what’s going to happen. The right thing to do, regarding proper magical construction and always from my humble point of view, is to tell the audience what you pretend to do when the deck is on the table, after the “moves” have been done. You can tell your audience about the random number you want to create, but never tell them what will happen before the cards are set on the table and everything is ready for the effect’s resolution. As you can see, using the Romero Box is completely logical in this trick. Although the effect is easy to perform, it has a very strong impact on the audience.
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Do as I do
Dear reader, I am about to confess a sin. I have never performed the next effect in front of a “real audience”. The structure is not completely consistent. I have only tested it in front of my patient family. This means I should say this is more an idea than a tested, solid routine. But every time I have performed it for an audience that’s used to magic, we’ve all had a great time. So I couldn’t resist the urge to include it in this book. As you will see, this is not a trick that’s been tested for many years in front of innumerable au-diences, as some magic catalogs would say. But I think it’s worthy of your consideration, so I though you should at least know of its existence. I hope you accept my most sincere apologies as, if you like the effect, you’ll have to put some work into it.
¬ EffectAsk for the collaboration of a member of the audience. Tell him you’d like to perform a simple test, then hand him a card box and a Joker. The magician then takes another box and Joker. The spec-tator is asked to do exactly as the magician.
The Joker is inserted into the box, face up. The box is then turned over, once, twice, three times. All the moves are done at a very slow pace, so that the spectator can easily follow the instructions. When the box is opened and the Joker removed, the spectator’s card is face up and the magician’s one face down, or vice versa. All the actions are repeated, and the result is always the same. You can then continue with a classic routine in which the spectator always ends up doing the same as the magician does, but getting the opposite results.
¬ ExplanationI will show you some of the moves I use, so you can use them as a base in order to create your own routine. The idea is based on using, besides the two Jokers and a regular box, the Romero Box and an extra two-sided Joker. Place the two-sided Joker between the flap and the back of the Romero Box.
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Give the regular box and one of the Jokers to a member of the au-dience. Take yourself the second Joker and our mutual friend, the Romero Box. Tell the spectator mimic each and every move you make. Take the Romero Box, with its back looking up, and place the Joker, face down, inside it.
Turn the box over so that the face is looking up. Remind the spec-tator that he is to match all your actions. Hold the box between your thumb and index in the box’s center and rotate it clockwise a couple of times. The spectator should do the same.
Turn over the box one more time. Execute the Drop, letting the box fall on the table. Snap your fingers and take the box again and rotate it clockwise a couple more times. Remove your Joker. It will be face up. The spectator removes his Joker, which will be face down.
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Tell him you will repeat the experiment, and ask him to focus so this time he can “get it right”. Insert your Joker (remember, it’s a double facer) in the Romero Box (which should be face up). The spectator inserts his Joker, face up, into his box. Play with the turns and rotations, but do not activate the Romero Box’s flap. End up with the box face down, and remove the Joker. Again, your will be face up and the spectator’s will be face down.
Once again, insert your Joker into the face down Romero Box and ask the spectator to insert his Joker, face up, into his box. Turn over the box and execute the Drop, exchanging the double face Joker for the regular one. Turn over and rotate the box as much as you want, and have the spectator mimic you. End up by removing your Joker (now it’s the regular one) from the box. And again, it will be facing the opposite side from the spectator’s. You can now subtly show the back of your Joker.
Another idea would be to hide a duplicate of a previously selected card inside of the box instead of the double face Joker. This card should be facing the opposite way from the Joker you will later insert into the Romero Box. The idea is, the spectator’s Joker ends up face up, but yours is face down, when actually you will be showing the back of the duplicate. But the audience is never aware of this throughout the routine. This leads to a strong ending when the Joker transforms into the card that was previously selected by a member of the audience.
Well, these are some basic ideas. Starting from here, you should be able to develop your own routine. If you come up with more ideas, please let me know. Collaborations are always welcome.
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Double coincidence
The following effect is a double coincidence in which the spectators are the stars. They do everything for you. This trick has some ad-vantages and some issues. It’s like a classic joke, “What would you like, good news or bad news first?” I’ll start with the good news. It’s an awesome effect. There’s no better way to describe it. Now for the bad news. You need two Romero Boxes. A blue one and a red one.
¬ EffectThe magician takes out two decks, blue and red. He asks for the help of two volunteers from the audience, each one getting one of the decks. The cards are removed from the boxes and shuffled by the spectators. Then the magician asks them to spread the cards in front of them. The first spectator is asked to point to a card on the spread, take it and insert it into the box without looking at it. The second spectator does the same with one of his/her cards. When the cards are revealed, they are a perfect match.
¬ ExplanationI have said it before, and I’ll say it again. This is an awesome effect. I have done it for magicians who didn’t know about the Romero Box, and they were completely astonished. I’ve performed it in front of very different kinds of audiences, always with great suc-cess. This is a trick you can enjoy, since you can just put the em-phasis on presentation. It is an ideal trick to perform for couples, making it the perfect wedding trick. When I present it in these oc-casions, I usually talk about the “chemistry” between lovers, about their future together, or use any of the typical love topics.
The preparation is very simple. Place any card you want between the red Romero Box’s flap and its back. Let’s say it’s the 3 of Hearts. Then take the 3 of Hearts from the blue deck, and place it between the flap and the back of the blue Romero Box. You’re ready to sow the seeds of love for couples all around the world…
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Remove the cards from the Romero Box. I will now reveal a little secret. You might think I’m being too bold, but I will confess that I do what I’m about to tell you without any remorse, in fact, I even do it for magicians. I hand the Romero Boxes to the spectators, and ask them to remove the cards from them. I even tell them to make sure they don’t leave any card inside. But I’m always watch-ing the spectators, as I don’t want them to drop the box on the table and accidentally activating the flap. You might think it’s a little risky but, even though by now you’ll be seeing Romero Box-es everywhere (at this point of the book, I even dreamt of them), the audience is not aware of its existence. And, although you cannot ask them to examine the box, they can handle it. They won’t notice it’s not a regular box. And, if they are the ones who remove the cards, it’s obvious that the box is a regular one, and that there’s nothing left inside it.
Now comes the most delicate part of the routine. Each spectator has to insert their selected card into the box. You will use pres-entation to justify this. Once a spectator touches a card, tell him: “I don’t want anyone to see the card, not even touch it until the end of this experiment, so that no one can exert even a tiny bit of influence upon you two”. That’s it. Take the box and let him/her insert the card inside. Then execute the Drop as you let the box fall onto the table. Have the second spectator do the same. Everything flows in a very natural and logical way. You’re all set.
Remind the audience of what has happened so far. They took the cards and shuffled them themselves. Then they selected a card. But please, please don’t say they “freely” or “fairly” selected a card. Talk-ing about “free” selection is for ignorant magicians. The audience does not know about “free” or “fair” choices. If you mention it, you’re only hinting the fact that there could be “non-free” or “non-fair” choices. And by that I mean forced cards. Just ask each spectator to select a card and continue with the effect. And, one last thing. Don’t let the spectators “spoil” the effect by revealing the cards them-selves. You should do it. Ask them to hand you the cards face down, or place them face down on the table and proceed to the revelation.
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There’s numerous ways in which you can present this effect. You could have the participants select a card from each other’s deck, as a kind of “Do as I Do”, but between them. You could also have them select two cards each, making it a quadruple coincidence, but I really think you shouldn’t go that far. Don’t abuse your magical powers!
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Transpositions
II
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Card to card box
As you get familiar with the Romero Box, you will start thinking of the many possible effects you can do with it. And, if I tell you about an effect where a selected card appears inside the card box, I bet you won’t be sur-prised. But, before you start playing with the idea, I urge you to continue reading. I will show you a subtlety that will make the audience less suspi-cious of the Romero Box after such a direct effect.
¬ EffectA selected card disappears from the deck and magically reappears inside the card box.
¬ ExplanationAs I said before, a subtlety will help the Romero Box to stay on the effect’s background. The card will go into the box, but sand-wiched between two Jokers.
For this effect you will need four Jokers and two duplicate cards. Place one of the duplicates between the two Jokers, then take the three card group (Jokers facing up) and insert it between the Romero Box’s flap and its back. The three cards will remain hid-den inside the box.
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If you take two Jokers and place them into the box, when you exe-cute the Drop the two Jokers will disappear between the Romero Box’s flap and its face, and the three cards hidden between the flap and the back will be the visible ones. For the audience, the Jokers are the same ones, but now with a card between them. This tiny detail makes the presence of the box a completely different issue for your spectators. The Romero Box is not an important part of the effect. The fact that the selected card appears between the Jokers is very different to having the card just appear inside of the box. For the audience, the jokers are far more important than the box itself.
In order to make the selected duplicate disappear from the deck, well, as the classic books go, “use your favorite method”. But don’t worry, if you don’t have one I’ll share mine with you.
You will need the duplicate card, and an indifferent one. You will turn the indifferent card into a short card. Just cut the card on the short sides. I recommend cutting just a little bit from both the top and the bottom. You will then stick the duplicate card’s face to the back of the indifferent card (in the picture, the 2 of Clubs) in one
of the short sides. So, if you look at the cards face up, the indifferent short card will be on top of the forcing duplicate. One more suggestion, use double sided tape to stick the cards. And you know the saying, “practice makes perfect”.
Place this double card in the center of the deck. If you riffle the cards with your thumb, starting from the face, on the side where the two cards are not stuck, it will be very easy to stop at the duplicate because of the step created by the short card. Ask the spectator to look and remember that card. You just forced the duplicate, but there’s more.
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If you ribbon spread the deck, the duplicate will remain hidden under the indifferent card. I don’t know who invented this ancient gimmick, but I would like to thank him, as his invention has given us magicians plenty of miracles and happiness for our audiences.
All the pieces we need for this small miracle are ready. Riffle the deck and ask a spectator to atop you. Show him the duplicate forc-ing card. Openly show two Jokers and insert them into the box (a member of the audience can do it). Perform the Drop. Spread the deck and show the selected card has vanished. Let the spec-tator remove the jokers form the Romero Box and show that the selected card is now between them. Well, just a second. Actual-ly, you’d better remove those jokers yourself (after showing your empty hands) since the spectator’s timing could ruin the climax. Remember, audience members are not used to removing Jokers from card boxes!
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Signed card to card box
That’s right, we’re going to do exactly the same effect… but, this time, with a signed card. There’s a moment in every magician’s life where you’ve just had enough duplicates. Actually, maybe it’s because as we get older… we need new challenges. And what better challenge than trying to make the same transposition using a signed card? Seriously, every time I come up with an effect, I always try to think: ¿Would it be possible to…? Well, the following effect is the answer to one of these questions. Could the last effect be done with a signed card?
¬ EffectA signed card appears between two Jokers inside of the card box.
¬ ExplanationYou will need four jokers. Place two of them face down between the flap and the face of the Romero Box. Loose the other two in the deck.
To start your performance, grab the deck and tell your audience you need to remove two very important cards from the deck. Take the two Jokers and place them on the table, face down. Do not show them, or tell the audience which cards they are. This will justify the fact of taking them later on (you take them because you want to show them to your audience).
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Ask a member of the audience to select and sign a card. Then ask him to replace it in the deck. Control the selection to the top. Ask the spectators if they know the identity of the cards you left on the table before. When they say they don’t, grab the two Jokers with your right hand, place them on top of the deck and turn them face up. As you do, your left hand secures a break under the top card (the signed selection). Now you will apparently square the Jokers on top of the deck, but you will take advantage of this moment to load the selection under them. Take the three cards in your right hand in Biddle position.
In order to show the two Jokers to the audience, your left thumb peels the top Joker on top of the deck, slightly outjogged, then your right hand deposits its two cards as one on top of the first Joker. Square the three-card packet. Your spectators think you’ve just shown them the two Jokers. Since they didn’t know their identity, it’s normal for you to take them, while actually loading the signed selection between them. Your left hand deposits the deck on the table, then grabs the Romero Box, face looking up.
Insert the three cards into the box, then execute the Drop. This will effectively hide the packet holding the selected card between the flap and the box’s back and, at the same time, bring into view the two Jokers that the flap was hiding. To sum it up, you’ve in-visibly switched the Jokers with the sandwiched selection for the other two.
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Tell your audience you will make the selected card travel invisibly and appear between the Jokers. Make a magic gesture. Pause for a second, and say you forgot to do something. “I must make the Jokers become magical, and for this we need the magic breeze”. Remove the jokers from the box, which are the ones that were hid-den there before the trick started. Hand the to a spectator and ask him/her to blow at them in order to “make the magical”. Take advantage of the moment to have him examine the Jokers and see that there’s nothing between them. As the spectator’s blowing, turn over the Romero Box so that the back is looking up. Ask the spectator to insert the two Jokers into the box, face up.
Perform the Drop as you let the box fall onto the table. Make a magic gesture. Slowly take out the Jokers and show that the signed selection is now between them. As you can see, the “magical breeze” excuse turns this trick into a small miracle. So it is really magical.
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Card to any locationo¡
I’m going to have a hard time trying to explain this idea. It’s sim-ply wonderful. It’s one of those moments when I thank destiny for making me a magician and letting me enjoy those small moments where surprise and wit get together to form something amazing. Get a drink, play your favorite music and prepare yourself to enjoy this moment.
Let’s start by saying the Romero Box is a very useful tool if you want to exchange a piece of a card for a different one. There are many tricks in which the magician tears a corner of a selected card, then later uses that corner as proof that the card has trav-elled, been restored or whatever the effect is. It’s obvious that you can use the Romero Box to insert the torn piece and the exchange it for a previously prepared one. Just with this idea there are a lot of effects that you can do. So far so good, one more utility for the Romero Box. But dear friend, on October 15th, 2013 I get a message on the Romero Box’s official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RomeroBox) from Edu Torralba:
Edu Torralba’s card to anywhere: Let me tell you about a trick I do using your Romero Box. “Card to anywhere”. A spectator selects a card, remembers it and then tears one of its corners. You announce that you will restore the card, without even touching it. In order to do so, the card and the torn corner are inserted into the empty box. You say that, if everything goes as planned, you will have finished this part of the show and will take a pause and have a bite, taking out a canned snack. Then you take a hanky, pass it over the box as you make a magic gesture and… surprise! The card hasn’t been restored. Instead, only the torn corner remains, as the rest of the cards has vanished. You hand the torn corner to the spectator and open the canned snack to reveal that the rest of the card, whose cor-ner matches perfectly, has appeared inside.”
Thank you so much, Edu! The principle under this trick is a true gem. Let’s analyze it. I can tear off a card, place it into the Romero
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Box, make only the torn piece remain and use that piece as “proof” that the rest of the card has gone somewhere else. In order to do this, you just have to prepare a piece of a duplicate of the card you will later force on a spectator and hide it into the Romero Box. Then, using the Drop, you will switch both the forced card and its torn corner for the one you’ve prepared beforehand. The rest of the card that corresponds to the switched corner is ready to appear somewhere else. When you’re about to “prove” that the cards has been restored, instead you show there’s only a piece left, the rest of the card is gone. The audience will think the piece inside of the box comes from the card that was torn a moment ago. But, my dear friend, this piece is from the card we’ve prepared. And what I like most of this method is that you can actually present it as the typical “magician in trouble” plot. This justifies checking the authenticity of the card that appears at the end with the corner that was “left” in the box. I have always thought it was a little bit “weird” tearing a corner of a card just to use it as proof later, but thanks to this idea everything is justified as, apparently, we’re just fixing a previous failure. Well, now that you know this little gem of an idea, this is the effect I’ve used it in.
¬ EffectThe magician shows a matchbox. He opens and empties it, then gives it to a member of the audience and asks him/her to open it only in case of emergency. Then the magician announces he will try the famous “sawing a lady in half” but, instead of using a lady, he/she’ll use a playing card for the experiment. A card is selected, torn in four pieces which are then inserted into the card box. With a snap of the magician’s fingers, the box is opened but, instead of a restored card, a single piece of the selection is found. Looks like something went wrong. Since it seems to be an emergency, the magician asks the spectator holding the matchbox to open it. The selected card is inside of the box, restored except for a missing piece. The audience checks that the piece left inside of the card box matches the restored card found inside of the matchbox.
¬ ExplanationThere’s only one thing remaining in order to do this trick, and that
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is switching the matchbox we emptied in front of the audience for the one with the folded card inside. This is a nice idea, a subtle way of showing the audience the matchbox is empty without saying so. Removing all of the box’s contents is way more subtle than saying the box is empty, something that would inevitably invite the spec-tators to question if that is really the case. My way of switching the box is using the “crossing the gaze” switch, as taught by the master of masters, Juan Tamariz, in his amazing “The five points of Magic”. I do the switch with the excuse of taking a rubber band from my pocket, which then I use to “seal” the matchbox. But you can use any kind of switch. Or don’t do any switch at all. Just show the box, don’t open it, and place it in the spectator’s hands. Or you can have the matchbox in front of the audience for the entire show, never say-ing anything about it until the final trick. You could also place the folded card inside of an unsuspecting audience member’s pocket. Or you could… well, I guess you get the idea.
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Card to cell phone
In the same line as the previous effect, taking advantage of the “torn card piece switch”, I had the idea of an effect which mixes the virtual world with reality or, if you prefer, hardware and software. The intention is to have an effect that does not only happen in the cell phone, something that might make your audience think an “app” is doing the whole work. Instead, in this effect a real object and the phone interact, empowering the final effect.
¬ EffectA member of the audience selects a card. The card is torn in half, and the magicians explains how every tear is unique, since there can be no two cards torn in the same way. The two halves are then inserted into the card box.
Then box is then dropped on the cell phone. When the card box is removed from the top of the phone, half a “virtual card” is seen on its screen. The box is then opened to reveal only half card remains inside. One of the halves has gone inside the phone. The remain-ing “real” piece is placed on top of the phone by the spectator, who checks the two halves and sees that they match perfectly.
Finally, the magician removes the card from inside the screen, turning the virtual card into a real one again and handling it to the spectator, who once again sees both halves match.
¬ ExplanationYou will need to get an app for your cell phone able of doing the “virtual” part of the effect. There are several apps in the market that will allow you to easily do so. And, depending on the type of mobile phone you have and your knowledge of the apps for show-ing pictures it has, you could do it yourself.
What you need is, basically, a real size picture of the piece of card that matches the one you will prepare inside of the Romero Box, and a way to make it appear and disappear from the screen. Re-member that the box will help you cover the apparition of the card,
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and the “removal” from the screen has become a staple in smart-phone magical effects.
The basic method is the one we used in the previous effect. Place the other half from the card that will appear in the smartphone’s screen into the Romero Box, hidden under the flap. Place the half that matches the picture under the smartphone. Force a duplicate of this card and tear it in half. I think it’s better not to tear it in a straight line, but slightly diagonally.
Place both halves of the torn card into the Romero Box. Take out your phone. Execute the Drop on top of the phone. Show that there’s only half a card in the box, and that the other half has become “virtual” and entered the phone. Show that the real piece and the virtual one match. This is a fantastic moment. I deserve you treating me to a nice cold beer, if we ever meet, just for that. End the effect by “extracting” the half card from the phone. Ob-viously, it is the piece you had hidden under it. Let the spectator check that the halves match.
You could use your business card instead of a playing card for this effect. Don’t hesitate to hand your spectator the torn card. He’ll never forget you, and you telephone number. And… don’t forget about the beer if you ever meet me.
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Houdini’s scape
Mi dear Mago Antón is one of the magicians I respect the most. He is well known for his original, creative and extremely personal magic. He is one of those magicians that make illusionism a better art, constantly creating new ways of creating magic for our audiences. He sent me this trick, and believe me, if you present it well, your audience will have a blast.
¬ EffectThe magician talks about the famous Houdini. He asks for the help of a participant, who will act as Houdini for an unusual exper-iment. In order to do so, the magician asks him/her to provide an ID, which is then introduced in the card box. The box will act as a kind of trunk, similar to the ones that Houdini used to escape from. The magician explains how Houdini was able to survive a fall from Niagara´s falls. He was introduced into a trunk, which was then thrown into the river and drifted all the way up to the falls. Even after falling from such heights, Houdini escaped unharmed. The magician drops the box from a significant height and removes the “unharmed” ID, proving the spectator, just like Houdini, is able to recreate such a feat. But one of the most amazing abilities of Houdini was to escape from any room, no matter how secured it was. That’s why legend said he was able to go through any wall. As a way of proving that, the magician shows the empty box and places it in the middle of the table. He then takes the spectator’s ID, places it under the table and hits it. When he removes his hand from under the table, the ID is no longer there. The card box is opened and the spectator’s ID is found inside. Houdini did it again.
¬ ExplanationThe use of a borrowed ID is what makes this trick such a powerful one. Nobody could ever think you could have a duplicate of some-body’s ID. And they’re right, since you don’t have one. The secret that makes this trick possible, besides the Romero Box, is the fact that ID’s are very similar on the back, since there’s no picture in it, just data. With good audience management, the spectator’s Id can be substituted with yours without anyone ever noticing.
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That’s exactly what happens in this effect. Because of the story you’re telling, and thanks to the timing of the exchange, it’s very easy to “hide it in plain view”.
Place your ID between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. Do it so that the picture is looking towards the inside. Ask for an ID and start telling the story. Look at how presentation will cov-er what’s about to happen. First you talk about Houdini falling from Niagara’s falls. This helps you to do the Drop and switch the spectator’s ID with yours. You’re just telling something, nothing magical happens so when you remove the ID from the box the au-dience will not focus their attention on it. It has become a “prop”, and one they’ve already seen, so they won’t look at it. Tell the rest of the story. You right hand takes the ID (it’s yours now) and goes under the table. The left hand takes the Romero Box, shows its “empty” inside and drops it on the table, executing the Drop once again. This time you drop it on the other side in order to free the spectator’s ID from the flap. Hit the table with your right hand and leave your ID on your lap. Show your empty hand, then open the Romero Box and let the audience give a round of applause for Houdini’s success.
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Two Card transposition
You can use the Romero Box for several transposition effects. I hope the one I’m about to show you will serve as a reference for your own creations.
¬ EffectA card is shown and placed into the card box. Another card is placed on the table. The magician drops the card box on top the tabled card. After a magical gesture, the two cards change places. The card on the table is the one that used to be in the card box, and vice versa.
¬ ExplanationIn order to perform this easy card transposition, you’ll need two pairs of duplicates. For greater clarity, I recommend you to use contrasting cards, such as two seven of hearts and two nine of spades. Hide a seven of hearts inside of the Romero Box. Place it face up between the flap and the back.
Place the two nine of spades, followed by the seven of hearts on top of the deck.
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Cut and maintain a break over the group. Use your left thumb to riffle the top left corner of the deck until a spectator stops you. Cut at your break, thus forcing the first nine of spades. Turn it face up and insert it into the Romero Box. Try to be as fair as possible. Place the box on the table, but do not execute the Drop. The black nine will be clearly seen in the box.
Take the deck back and perform a double turnover. Show a red seven. Do another double turnover, then apparently place the sev-en on the table (it’s actually the nine of spades). Take the Romero Box, and let the audience take a last look at the nine of spades. Execute the drop as you let the Romero Box fall on top of the tabled card. The nine of spades will become the seven of hearts. Show that the card on the table is now the nine of spades.
As I told you before, there are many transpositions you can do with the Romero Box. You can use color changes, switches, use more cards (Aces to Kings, for example). Just ask yourself, could I…? and the answer will be: Of course I can!
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Transposition with a twist
Since we’re dealing with transpositions, I will now show you an effect with an extra surprise. It’s one of those little twists at the end that audiences really love. ¬ EffectThe magician shows the four Aces to the audience. He then places the red ones into the Romero Box. The black Aces are placed un-der the box. After a magical gesture, the conjurer announces that the Aces will change places. But, instead, when the cards in the box are removed they are the red Kings. The cards on the table are turned over, and they are the black Kings.
¬ ExplanationPlace the two red Kings into the Romero Box, face up between the flap and the back. On top of the face down deck, place the two red kings and the four Aces in red-black order.
Take the deck. Spread the first 6 cards of the deck. Separate the first four as you take a break under the sixth card. In other words, take the two black Kings and the black Aces and hold a break un-der the two red Aces.
Make a gesture with the four cards and tell your audience you’ll be performing a trick with 4 Aces. Square the cards for a second, then turn over all the cards on top of your break.
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You will now appar-ently show the four cards you will use are, indeed, the four Aces. In order to do so, spread the top three cards to the right, leaving the fourth Ace squared with the pack. Be careful, since the
two black Kings are hidden, face up, under the fourth Ace. In the eyes of the audience, you have just taken four cards and turned them face up.
Take the two read Aces and place them into the Romero Box. Leave the Romero Box on the table, but don’t do the Drop.
The black Aces will be on top of the deck. Remember, the black
Kings are hidden under them. Square the Aces and Kings and turn them face down, as if you were performing a kind of double turnover. Leave the two top cards on the table. These are the black Kings.
Take the Romero Box and show the red Aces in it. Toss it over the tabled cards, executing the Drop. Show that the cards in the box are now the red Kings, and that the black Kings are on the table.
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Coins
III
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Coin through card box
This is an extremely visual effect, which can either be a standalone one or part of a longer routine. I love to perform it for fellow magicians, as every time I do it I manage
¬ EffectThe magician show a coin and an empty card box. The coin is placed on the table. The card box is dropped on the coin, which penetrates its walls to appear on the inside. The coin is removed from the box and handed to the spectator for examination.
¬ ExplanationOne of the characteristics of the Romero Box is the fact that there’s a small magnet hidden in the center of its face and back. This allows you to perform a variety of effects, including the one just described. In order to perform this effect you will need a “mag-netic” coin, which means that the coin must be attracted by a mag-net. The coin doesn’t have to be magnetic itself, it’s enough if a magnet attracts it. You should know that the strength of the mag-net’s attraction over an object depends not only on the magnet’s strength, but also on the object’s mass. This means you will find some coins are more attracted to the Romero Box than others. It depends on the quantity of ferric material in the coin. Another feature of the box is the fact that, since the flap also has a magnet, when it adheres to one of the box’s sides the magnetic strength of that side grows, since the power of both magnets adds up. This makes it perfectly possible for an object that doesn’t normally ad-here to one side the box becomes attracted after the flap switches to that side. We’ll see how this helps us for this effect later.
Besides the magnetic coin, you will need a non-magnetic dupli-cate coin. I use two half dollars, one of them is attracted by mag-nets and the other isn’t. Place the non-magnetic coin inside of the Romero Box, hidden between the flap and the back.
Show your audience the half dollar. Then show them the empty
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box. Before I continue with the explanation, allow me to share with you a little subtlety that will help you to show the “empty” box without saying so. We’ve already discussed how a natural way of showing an object is empty, and has nothing inside it, is to re-move all of its contents in front of the audience, thus virtually proving it is now empty. For example, showing a matchbox and removing all of the matches from it it’s much better than showing an empty matchbox and telling the audience it’s empty. And since the first option is more natural, it will be the better choice most of the times. Remember, good magic is made of a myriad of small details and, as the saying goes, strength is in numbers. If we apply this principle to this trick, we could start with a deck of card inside of the Romero Box, then remove the cards and ask a spectator to make sure there are no cards left in it. We’ve “shown” an empty box without saying so.
Place the magnetic coin on the table, or on your hand. You can also place it in a spectator’s hand, something I actually prefer since magic done in the hands of a spectator is always much stronger. We are empowering the trick by adding another detail to our small army.
We will now use the “magnetic characteristics” of the Romero Box to our advantage. If you place the box on top of the dollar without doing the Drop, even if the box is touching the coin the magnet will probably not be strong enough to adhere the dollar to it. So you will probably be able to take the box again and prove the coin is still there. This will most probably happen but, if your coin happens to adhere to the box even if you touch it with a non-flap side, don’t worry. You can do this: Place the box on the coin, but slightly off-center. Maybe a little bit closer to the top. Since the magnet is located in the box’s center, the coin won’t be directly under it and most probably won’t stick.
Let’s continue with the effect. I like to do it at the count of three. For one and two, I take the box, show the coin is still there, then place the box back. At the count of three, I drop the box on the coin,
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making sure the center of the box aligns with it. This will cause flap to switch sides, freeing the non-magnetic coin and enhancing the power of the magnet in the face, effectively sticking the mag-netic coin to it.
Take your time. Enjoy the effect. Grab the box with by the long ends your right hand, and show how the coin has gone inside by dropping it on the table. In a continuing motion, your right hand places the box on your left hand in a kind of mechanic’s grip. This will make the magnetic coin contact the base of the left fingers. The right hand takes the coin and hands it to an audience mem-ber. The fact of placing the box on the left hand in order to take the coin makes it an “in-transit” action, as Ascanio would say, which means the audience will not notice it. One more detail for your army.
The right hand takes back the box and places it face up on the ta-ble. Simultaneously, the left hand retains the coin in finger palm and turns palm down, hiding it from view. The trick is over. Relax, and take your time to thank the army of details that helped you to achieve this small miracle. !
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Copper-silver transposition
I have always loved Harry Houdini’s substitution trunk. He was the creator of the effect, and used to perform it with his later-to-be wife, Beatrice Rahner. Using the Romero Box you will be able to perform a different, much smaller version, a few inches from your audience.
¬ EffectThe magician shows two coins to the audience. A copper and a sil-ver one. The silver coin is placed on the table, and the copper one inside of a card box. The box is placed onto the tabled coin. When the magician lifts the box, the copper coin is on the table and the silver one in the box. An instant transposition!
¬ ExplanationThis trick is based on the same principle as the previous one. We take advantage of the “magnetic characteristics” of the Romero Box. You’ll need a magnetic expended shell. In my case, I use a half dollar magnetic expanded shell. Actually, the coins don’t have to be the same size, like a half dollar and an English penny. You can use any combination of coins you want.
In order to have a shell that will be attracted by a magnet, you can buy a magnetic shell from your favorite dealer, or just attach a thin metal sheet (for example, a piece of a razor blade). That’s how I do it. Following the effect’s description, we’ll use two copper coins, a silver one and its expanded shell.
Place the silver coin between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. Place the shell on top of the copper coin. You’re ready to go.
Show the empty box to your audience. Show them both coins, actua-lly what you show them as a silver coin is, in fact, a copper coin with an expanded shell on top. Place the coin-shell combination on the table. Put the copper coin into the box.
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When you’re ready to do the effect, drop the Romero Box on top of the tabled coin. What will happen is that the shell will adhere to the box at the same time the flap covers the copper coin inside it and simultaneously frees the silver coin that was hidden beneath it. Lift the box, showing that the coin under it is now a copper one. The shell if stuck to the box, away from the spectator’s view. Show that the coin in the box is a silver one. The transposition is complete. All the details I explained in the previous routine can be applied to this one as well.
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Copper-silver finale
I’ve already shown you a lot of different tricks and applications for the Romero Box. At this stage of the game, I don’t have to tell you how useful this box is as a tool. It helps to solve the problems you find when thinking of an effect. I am absolutely in love with fakes, gimmicks, techniques and theoretical principles. I think they are the most intelligent choice regarding magical “investments”. As the saying goes, “Don’t give me a fish. Show me how to fish”. This is the main reason I love these things. They allow me to solve prob-lems in the process of creating new effects and routines, effects that my restless mind thinks of constantly (and my mind is really restless). The fact of having a huge toolbox with plenty of choices eases my brain. There’s nothing like a good principle, a good tech-nique and a good gimmick. Tricks are tricks, and they are often a closed, tiny little universe. One that has been imagined and ex-plored by others. Of course it’s great when you’re given a complete-ly built and furnished house. But I prefer bricks, beams and plans so I can get to work on my own creation. The Romero Box is a powerful tool for your magical arsenal, and it can become useful in the most unexpected moment. This trick is an example of that. I will use the Romero Box to solve a problem in a precise moment of a routine. The box has no importance during the rest of it, and its use helps us to end it in an extremely clean fashion.
¬ EffectA classic coin routine in which a silver and a copper coin exchange places several times.
¬ ExplanationYou will need a copper-silver coin and three regular coins, a copper and two silver ones. Place a silver coin into the Romero Box, hid-den between the flap and the back. Then insert the second silver coin and the regular copper coin into the box. Place the copper-sil-ver coin in your left hand, in finger palm position. The silver side should be facing up (you should be able to see it). You’re ready to perform the routine.
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Take the Romero Box on the long sides with your left hand and shake it, making the coins in it rattle. You can shake the box in this position without activating the flap, as long as you do it twist-ing your wrist from left to right and vice versa. Just a tiny detail, the back of the box should be facing your audience. We’ll see why in a second.
Tell your audience that you’ll use two coins for the next trick. Ask a spectator to hold up his hand. Tilt the box and let the two coins drop into the hand. If the back of the box is facing down when you tilt it, the two coins will slide over the flap, thus preventing it from falling and revealing the hidden coin. And, once again we’re using the idea of proving the box is empty by removing its contents.
Let the spectators examine the coins as much as they want. Once they’re satisfied, take them and place them over your right hand’s palm. Place the silver coin so that it’s ready to be classic palmed.
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You will now perform a kind of shuttle pass, as you apparently transfer the coins from your right to your left hand. The right hand turns palm down, as it drops the copper coin and retains the silver coin in classic palm. Simultaneously, the left hand turns palm up, taking the copper coin and opening to reveal the copper-silver coin with the silver side up. To your audience, it should look like you just transferred the coins from hand to hand.
Your right hand takes the copper coin and holds it in the finger-tips. Remember, you’re holding a silver coin in classic palm. The left hand holds the copper-silver coin in the exact same position as the right hand, always showing the silver side. Stress the appar-ent fairness of the situation. A silver coin in your left hand and a copper coin in your right hand.
Close both hands. As you do so, exchange the two coins on your right hand. Just let the silver coin drop from the classic palm and palm the copper coin, as per the standard palm change. At the same time, the left hand turns over the copper-silver coin as it closes, leaving the copper side up. Make a magical gesture. Open your hands and show that the two coins have transposed.
Tell your audience you will repeat the trick. Close the hands, re-peating the moves you did before. As they close, the left hand turns its coin over, showing the silver side, as the right hand performs the palm change. The coins change places once again.
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Offer your audience to do it again, but this time in the hands of a spectator. Grab both coins with your right hand, making sure that the copper-silver coin, silver side up, ends up on top of the copper coin. Place the coins on the spectator’s palm so that the copper-silver coin ends up sliding slightly towards his/her thumb. Ask the spec-tator to close his hand into a fist and turn it over.
Use the classic excuse of fetching “magic powder” from your pocket in order to leave the palmed coin in it. Take the imaginary pow-der and dust it over the spectator’s hand. Then tell him you will take one coin from his/her hand. Immediately insert your thumb and index on the spectator’s fist and remove the silver-copper coin, which will be copper side up. The spectator will believe you took the copper coin from his/her hand, when actually it will still be in the hand. But everything looks perfectly copacetic, and no one will ever notice the subtle discrepancy.
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Tell your audience you want to be as clean as possible, so that there’s no suspicion of sleight of hand whatsoever. Thus, you will place the copper coin into the card box, out of your reach. Execute the Drop, the hidden silver coin will replace the copper-silver one. Make a magic gesture. Ask the spectator to open his hand. The copper coin will be in it. Slowly let the silver coin fall from the card box. The coins switched places again. The coins can be examined.
You might think that using the card box is a little bit “forced” in the context of this routine. But think about it, you’re trying to be as fair as possible and eliminate any possibility for sleight of hand. You say you don’t want to touch the coins, and that makes it natu-ral to use the same card box you removed the coins from at the be-ginning of the routine. Try it, you’ll see it makes for a great ending in a copper-silver transposition routine.
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Mentalism and other mysteries
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Business card revelation
This is a very commercial trick. You could use it as a way of hand-ing your card to people.
¬ EffectThe magician hands his business card to a spectator, who then in-troduces it into the card box. The deck is shuffled, and a card is se-lected. The magician waves his hand over the card box and, when the business card is removed, it has the selected card written on it!
¬ ExplanationWrite the name of a playing card in one of your business cards. Place the prepared busi-ness card between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. You’re ready to perform.
When you’re ready to begin, take one of your business card and show it to your audience. Talk about its design, or some detail that makes them look at the card and prove, in a subtle manner, that there’s nothing written on it. Introduce the business card into the Romero Box and execute the Drop as you toss it on the table. Take the deck and force the card whose name you wrote on the hidden card. Open the box and re-veal the message. These are the bare bones of the effect. Let’s see some details we can use to make it stronger.
Place a duplicate of the forcing card next to the business card with the written message hidden inside of the Romero Box. We will change the order of events in the trick. Start by forcing the card. After that, show the business card and place it, together with the “selection”, into of the Romero Box. Execute the Drop. When the card with the message is revealed, the selected card is also there. This is a nice psychological ruse. The chosen card is a “testimony” of the honesty of the box. Since, apparently, the same card stays
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into the box, the spectator is less prone to thinking of a “double switch”. For the audience, the card was selected randomly and acts, indirectly, as a testimony.
As you’ve already seen, I always try to go “one step further”. Let’s enter the world of séances and psychic phenomena. Take the du-plicate of the forcing card and tear one of its index corners. Place the torn corner into finger palm position. Hide the written busi-ness card and the torn card into the Romero Box. Take the deck and force the duplicate of the torn card. Show a regular business card. Tear a corner of the selection, trying to make it as close as you can to the one you tore before. Switch the torn corner for the palmed one, and place that on the table. Insert the regular busi-ness card and the just torn selection into the Romero Box. Exe-cute the Drop. Tell your audience you will try a little psychic ex-periment. Take out a lighter from one of your pockets, ditching the extra corner in the process, then burn the torn corner that’s on the table slightly. Make sure you burn it on the non-torn side, so that any member of the audience will later be able to prove the corner matches the card that comes out of the box.
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Proceed to the effect. Remove the selection from the Romero Box, altogether with the business card, now with the written message. The card will still be torn, and apparently undisturbed. Don’t ask a member of the audience to check that the corner matches. That’s not the effect. What we achieved with the tearing is empowering the quality of the selection as a testimony. No one will ever doubt that’s the same card that was chosen a moment ago. Even if you didn’t switch the torn corner the effect would work, as the audi-ence should feel no need to check its authenticity. You used the torn corner and fire to add some drama to the presentation and, in the way, you were able to divert the audience’s attention from the card box. If you prefer, you can burn the torn side of the corner if you decide to previously burn the torn side of the card hidden in the Romero Box.
My good friend and amazing magician Felipe Otero told me a very intelligent idea that you might find useful. Instead of using your own business card, you could use one belonging to a spectator. You will need to get ahold of a business card from an audience member previous to your show, and write the identity of the force card in it. When you perform the effect, select that person as your helper and ask him/her to hand you his/her business card. The message will appear on the spectator’s business card, making a switch even more unthinkable. If you add the subtleties previously explained, you’ll have a small ready to go.
Last but not least, I would like to say that the selection doesn’t have to be a playing card. The message that appears in the busi-ness card could be a mysterious drawing or symbol, and the object that goes with it into the box could be a photo, a drawing…
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Divination of the serial number of a bank noteA classic effect in mentalism: The divination of a bank note’s serial number. There are many versions of this trick in magic literature but, surprisingly, I rarely see anyone performing it. I hope this simple, direct approach to the effect encourages you to add it to your repertoire. ¬ EffectThe magician asks a member of the audience to take a dollar bill, fold it and place it into the Romero Box. The magician concen-trates and finds out the bill’s serial number.
¬ ExplanationObviously, you have a dollar bill pre-folded and hidden between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. You must already know that, if you execute the Drop and switch the spectator’s bill with yours, whose serial number you must have memorized, the trick is done.
Now let’s see some details that can make this trick even better. The first thing we need to do is to justify the use of the Rome-ro Box. That’s easy, just tell the person holding the dollar bill to introduce it in the box so that you cannot see or manipulate any-thing. I suggest you the use of the same ruse explained in “Card prediction/mind reading”. After trying to “read” the numbers, tell your audience you cannot make it and that you will need someone to mentally send them to you. The spectator recovers the switched bill from the box, and you proceed with the mind reading, reveal-ing the previously memorized number.
You can also use a little gag in order to help you. Ask the owner of the bill to choose a second helper from the audience. Ask that person if he/she prefers the first three or the last three digits form the bill. No matter what he/she says, and as a way of stressing the impossibility of what will happen next, ask the second spectator to
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think of any three-digit number. Then ask him to remove the bill from the box and check if the number he was thinking matches the digits he selected on the bill’s serial number. It won’t. Tell your audience how difficult it is to randomly find out just three digits in a serial number. Now ask the second spectator to memorize the three digits he wanted from the bill and place it back on the box. Your task now is clear: read the three digits from the spectator’s mind.
If, by any chance, the three digits the spectator thinks match the ones in the bill’s serial number, you have a real miracle in front of you. Sell it to the maximum and finish your show right there. What could you possibly do after such an effect? Anyway, I don’t think that will ever happen. But maybe, just maybe…
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The magazine test
This is one of those “Packs small, plays big” tricks you would see in a magic catalog. We will use the Romero Box in an indirect way, making it play a secondary role in the audience’s minds. This is a great example of how the Romero Box is a very useful tool for one of mentalism’s fundamentals, the billet switch. I won’t say anything else right now, let’s go straight to the…
¬ EffectThe magician asks a member of the audience to think of a number between one and a hundred. After writing it on a slip of paper, he/she folds it into quarters and places it into a card box. After that, the magician shows a magazine and hands it to a second spectator. That person has to retrieve the slip of paper from the card box, go to a secure place where no one can peek at what he’s doing, read the number on the slip and go to that page in the magazine. He/she is to memorize some drawing, headline or any part of that page that draws his attention. The magician concentrates and reads the spectator’s mind.
¬ ExplanationI think the trick is explained in the first lines of its description. You have to switch the slip where the spectator freely writes a number for a different one in which you will have previously writ-ten a force number. You’ll have to ask the first participant to think of a number lower than the number of pages in the magazine.
Select a page with a picture, or a headline that clearly stands out. Write the number of that page in a slip of paper just like the one you will hand to the first spectator and place it between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. Once the first spectator has introduced his slip of paper into the box, execute the Drop and switch it for yours. Let’s see some subtleties that will bring this effect to “greater heights”.
Let’s start with the magazine. I recommend using a catalog. Hard-
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ware stores usually have catalogs with DIY or gardening tools with a myriad of objects. And many times, the page is full of different models of the same article. For example, twenty different kinds of barbeques, but barbeques nevertheless. Or maybe many different models for ladders. The spectators think there are thousands of objects in the catalog, and they’re right. When you ask the second spectator to think of any object in the “thought of” page, in our ex-ample it will always be a barbeque. When reading his/her mind, you will say he’s thinking of a barbeque, but won’t specify the brand or model. The catalog I use has a page full of parasols, of every size and color. What do you think I “read” in the mind of my spectator?
Let’s talk about the selection of your helpers. The first one writes a number on a slip of paper and then introduces it in the box “so that no one can see what’s written on it”. The use of the Romero Box is completely natural, and no one will question it. It’s just an object that isolates the paper from the world.
But you need to justify the participation of the second spectator. The million dollar question is: Why does a second spectator have to
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take the paper and read the number? The answer to such a valua-ble question lies in presentation, as we’ll have to use it in order to justify the method. There are several ways of solving this problem. Let’s see an example.
At the beginning of the experiment, tell your audience you will need two people whose personalities should be completely differ-ent. One of them should like gambling, casinos and such and the other one should believe in the supernatural, or in psychic abili-ties. As you can see, you can use your imagination and dress this as much as you like. The first person, because of his way of think-ing, will be perfect for selecting a completely random number. The second one, thanks to his open mind for psychic abilities, will be better suited to send you his/her thoughts. That makes for a per-fect justification.
One more detail regarding the choice of spectators, make sure they’re sitting far away from each other. Keep in mind that the second one reads a number the first one didn’t write.
One more thing, when you ask the second spectator to take the slip from the card box and read it, ask him to go somewhere where no one can see him/her. Tell the spectator that you might have memo-rized all the pages in the magazine, or al the objects in the catalog. Just to make sure, you want him/her to look at the number and make sure no one else sees it. The number must remain unknown for everyone else.
You could also use several magazines/catalogs, and force one. Or not force anything and know the headline/object in the force page of each magazine or catalog. As you can see, I provided you with the effect’s blueprints. You can make a building that’s as tall as you want it to be. And finally, an evil ruse. You can ask the second spectator to tear the selected page from the magazine, guide him through the tearing process, and give one of the torn pieces to a third member of the audience. The second spectator will unknow-ingly force the barbeque on the third one. Simply amazing.
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The newspaper divination
Since we’re talking about bill switches and mentalism, let’s talk about another classic effect. The idea of using the Romero Box for this trick came from my good friend Víctor Cerro, an amazing magi-cian and mentalist from Plasencia, Spain.
¬ EffectThe magician gives a newspaper to a member of the audience. A page is selected, then bent and torn into many pieces. The spec-tator selects one of the pieces and thinks of one word in it. The magician guesses the thought of word.
¬ ExplanationPrepare a piece of newspaper you will force on a spectator and place it in the Romero Box. You can use the same method as in “Divination of the serial number of a bank note”, previously ex-plained. Remember about the subtleties explained in it and apply them to this effect.
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The matches
Tricks of the kind I’m about to explain are always good entertain-ment, since spectators are always dazzled by them. Combine it with other tricks using matches and you’ll have a very “phospho-rous” routine.
¬ EffectThe magician shows some matches to the audience. Several spec-tators take one, or more matches and place them into the card box. The magician takes the box and shakes it near to his ear. After a little concentration, he names the number of matches in the box. The matches are removed from the box and they are exactly the quantity named by the magician.
¬ ExplanationThis trick, like many others, is possible thanks to the fact that the Romero Box’s flap is designed to act as a “Ghost tube”. Even if there are objects hidden between the flap and one of the box’s walls, the flap is adhered to the box’s upper edge, forming an in-clined plane that lets us hide objects beneath it without the gap showing on the edge. The result is a kind of “slope”.
Place 8 or 9 matches between the flap and the back of the Rome-ro Box. You should use wooden matches, big enough so that they don’t escape the flap from its bottom.
Take out some matches and have two or three members of the audi-ence take a few of them and insert them into the Romero Box. You will need to use several spec-
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tators, since you don’t want anyone to know exactly how many matches have been introduced into the box. Execute the Drop. Take the box and shake it next to your ear, as if you were able to discern its quantity merely by sound. Tell the number. Dump the matches over a spectator’s hand and have him count the matches. No one will regard the Romero Box as suspicious, its function as a “match containing device” will seem natural for them.
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The living/dead test
This is a classic mentalism effect, of which there are countless ver-sions in magical literature. One of the most successful ones, done with playing cards, was introduced to the magical community by Max Maven with the name Kurotsuke in the sixth volume of his “Video Mind” series.
¬ EffectThe magician shows three red cards and the Ace of spades to the audience. A member of the audience shuffles the four cards and places them into the card box. The magician asks for the help of four participants. They are to remove one card of the box each, and hold them out of the magician’s view. The spectator holding the Ace will represent a person who died under strange circum-stances. After several inquiries, the magician finds out who’s the “dead person”.
¬ ExplanationYou will need four duplicate cards of the ones you’ll use for the ef-fect. In this case, three indifferent red cards and the Ace of Spades. Hide them between the flap and the back of the Romero Box in a preset order, so that you know the position of the Ace of Spades. Let’s say we place it third from the top. You’re ready to perform.
Remove from the deck the cards that match the ones in the Rome-ro Box. Ask a member of the audience to shuffle them. Then ask him to introduce them into the Romero Box. The use of the card box is completely justified, since it’s really important that you don’t get to see the cards at all. And what better way to hide them from sight than placing them into the card box!
Execute the drop, switching the shuffled card for the ones in your prearranged sequence. Take the Romero Box and address the first spectator. Ask him to take a card and place it where no one can see it. He will take the first card. Repeat the same sequence with the other three spectators. Since you know the sequence of
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the cards, you will know who’s holding the Ace. The rest is up to you and your presentation skills.
You could also use five cards for this effect. It might seem that these are too many cards for the Romero Box, since the flap could stand out inside it because of hiding too many cards. But you will be holding the box throughout the routine, and it’s very easy to hide the flap from the spectators by controlling the position of the box. If you see the way I’m holding the box in the picture, you’ll see that the outer flap hides the inside of the box, making it very difficult for any spectator to see it. If you do this, and hold the box in the appropriate angle, it will be completely impossible for them to see. Try to perform this effect with five cards, use the subtleties I just described and there will be no problems. You could also use other elements besides cards, such as business cards or slips of paper.
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El puzzle
I’ve known Madrid’s David Redondo for many years. I’ve always liked his magic, intelligent and with plenty of great ideas. A rest-less magician and a Romero Box are always a winning combina-tion, the perfect ingredients for an explosive magic cocktail. Here’s an effect from David’s mind.
¬ EffectA spectator selects a card and tears it into four pieces. Several more cards are torn, and all the resulting pieces are mixed on the table. After the pieces are well shuffled, four members of the audi-ence select one piece each, and place it into the card box. The re-maining pieces are discarded, and the magician dumps the pieces in the box onto the table. They match the selection.
¬ ExplanationYou will need two duplicates. One will be the selection. Tear the other one in four pieces and hide it between the Romero Box’s flap and its back. Force the duplicate on a spectator. Let other mem-bers of the audience select some more cards. Tear all the cards in four pieces. You can even have the spectators tear the cards them-selves, just guide them so that the torn pieces resemble the ones hidden inside of the Romero Box. Ask the spectators to shuffle the cards like domino pieces, placing them on the table and mixing them with their hands. When they’re done, ask them to select one piece each and, without looking, place it into the box. Place the box on the table, executing the Drop and switching the selected pieces for the duplicate of the selection. Gather the unused pieces on the table and place them aside. Dump the contests of the Romero Box on the table, and ask the spectators to “recompose” the card by placing the pieces together. When they turn the pieces over, the pieces will form the selected card.
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Open prediction
I will now introduce a new use for the Romero Box. I’m talking about multiple outs. By this I mean having different possibilities in the box. I will give you an example. Logically, the simplest way of using the Romero Box is using two possible outs. The first one is hidden under the flap, and the second one placed inside of the box. Depending on the spectator’s choice, we can just show the card in the box, or execute the Drop and show the previously hid-den card.
Using this idea, you can use the Romero Box to easily solve many situations of this kind that happen when trying to find a method for a magic trick. You could also use double face cards, increasing the number of outs to four. You don’t have to use cards. You could use business cards with one message on each side. And if you use the double flap system, which I’ll explain in a moment, you raise the number of options to six. Now that you know the idea, let’s see an application.
¬ EffectThe magician show the card box and tells his audience that there’s a card inside. He takes a deck of cards and starts dealing cards face up onto the table. A spectator is asked to call for a stop at any mo-ment. When he does, the magician shows the card that he stopped at. The prediction card is removed from the box, and shown to the audience. It matches the one the spectator selected.
¬ ExplanationWell, you use multiple outs for this trick. Let’s take a closer look at how we can turn this effect into a miracle. You will need one or two flaps, depending on how many outs you want to have, four or six. Then you’ll need two or three double face cards, depending on the number of flaps, in order to have four or six outs. I will describe the effect using four outs, you will easily deduce how to do it with six if you add a second flap to the box.
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We’ll be using two double face cards. Ideally, you should choose “indifferent” cards. By this I mean cards that don’t stick out, such as Aces or picture cards. For example, we could use a card with the 4 of clubs in one side and the 6 of spades in the other. The second card could have the 7 of diamonds and 9 of hearts. And as I said before, you don’t have to use cards. You could write the names of the cards on business cards.
Let’s continue with the example. Place the 4C/6S card into the Romero Box , between the flap and its back, so that the 4 of clubs is looking up. Place the 7D/9H card into the box, with the 7 of Di-amonds looking the same way as the 4 of clubs in the hidden card.
Let’s see the possible outcomes.If the selected card is the 7 of diamonds, open the box with the back looking up and remove the card. Everyone will see the 7 of diamonds.
If the chosen card is the 9 of hearts, open the box with the face looking up. The card coming out of the box will be the 9 of hearts.
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If the selection is the 4 of clubs, execute the Drop and open the box with its back looking up. The 4 of clubs will show.
Finally, if the chosen card is the 6 of spades, execute the drop, open the box face up and show it.
Now you know how to get to all the possible outs in the Romero Box. Now comes the second part of the method. How to make the spectator stop at one of those four cards. I will explain two meth-ods. Let’s see the one in the effect’s description, dealing cards on the table.
You’ll need to prepare a small setup using the cards that corre-spond to the ones in the Romero Box. In our example, that’s the 4 of clubs, the 6 of spades, the 7 of diamonds and the 9 of hearts. From the top of the deck, the setup is: Four indifferent cards, 4 of clubs, indifferent card, 7 of diamonds, indifferent card, 6 of spades, indifferent card, 9 of diamonds, rest of the deck. That means, starting on the 5th card from the top, there will be one of our force cards alternating with indifferent cards. This means we control
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the spectator’s selection for the first 12 cards or so. If you want, you can repeat this sequence (alternating more duplicates of the cards inside of the Romero Box with indifferent card) on the rest of the deck. You’re ready to perform.
Show the card box to the audience, and shake it so that they can hear the card inside. Just tell them that there’s a card in the box. Don’t say it’s a prediction that will match a spectator’s selection yet. It’s not really convenient, since you’re alerting the audience about what will happen, and that could complicate things for you later on. Save the explanations until everything’s ready for the final revelation.
Take the deck and perform any false shuffle that does not mess your setup. Announce you will start dealing cards on the table, and tell a spectator he is to stop at any moment he feels like do-ing so. Start dealing cards as you talk. You’ll have dealt a couple of cards by the end of the explanation. Remember, the four top cards are indifferent ones. Continue dealing cards at a slow pace. You’ll get to the force cards. Usually, the spectator will stop you before the sequence is over. Depending on when he stops you, a force card will either be on the top of the deck, or on the table. Act accordingly and turn over the one that corresponds to one of the cards inside of the Romero Box. At this point, everything’s ready for the final revelation. Remind the audience about the fairness of the procedure and open the Romero Box in the right way to show your prediction was right.
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By now you must be wondering… what if the spectator doesn’t stop me before the sequence is over? If you don’t feel comfortable using a single sequence, you can prepare it two times. That’s why the cards in the Romero Box shouldn’t stand out. Just deal the cards on a pile, placing each card on top of the previous one. Since you have to deal seven cards to deal a repeated card, the audience won’t suspect anything.
One more detail. Before you start, you can cut and maintain a break on top of the setup. Start cutting small packets onto the table, asking a spectator to stop you. When he does, table all the cards on top of the break and start the dealing sequence form there. Since there are a lot less cards on your hands, the spectator will most probably stop you before the sequence is over. It’s a psy-chological subtlety that works like a charm.
Let’s go for the second method. It’s very easy to have somebody cut to a crimped card, especially if you use the breather crimp. You can crimp the four cards that correspond to the ones in the Romero Box. Place a small mark, like a pencil dot, in the back of the crimped cards so they’re easily recognizable. Loose them in the deck.
Finally, if you’re so unlucky that the spectator does not cut to a crimped card, you can do it yourself. The effect won’t be as amaz-ing, but it will be a really good trick anyway. You can find more info on the breather crimp in The Vernon Chronicles, volume one.
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ESP coincidence
Let’s take a look at another effect using the multiple outs princi-ple, using the famous ESP cards created by the famous (especially because of magicians, who so often name them) parapsychologists J.B. Rhine and Dr. Karl Zener.
¬ EffectThe magician shows a card box, stating that he’s placed a pre-diction in it. He then announces that he’ll try to manipulate the will of a member of the audience. After placing five cards with the Zenner symbols face up on the table, he asks a spectator to put his hand on top of one of them. The chosen symbol matches the magician’s prediction.
¬ Explanation You will need two double face ESP cards, with a different symbol on each one. Let’s say that a card has the circle and the cross, and the other one the wavy lines and the square. You must be aware that, right now, it looks like there’s no out in the case the specta-tor selects a star. Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to solve this little inconvenience.
Just like we saw on the explanation for the previous effect, pre-pare the Romero Box so that you know how to handle the box in order to show the four outs in it. You will also need five regular ESP cards. Show them to a spectator and arrange them in a row on the table, face up. The card with the star, which we don’t have on the Romero Box, should be in one of the row’s extremes.
Tell the spectator that you are going to manipulate his will. Unlike the “Open prediction” effect, this time you can talk about the prediction and tell the spectator you will be right from the beginning, since the method allows you to do so. Ask him to place his hand on any symbol. 90% of the times he won’t choose the star. In this case, you’re ready for the final revelation. Remove the mat-ching card from the Romero Box using the appropriate handling
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and show it to the audience. What if the start is selected? Then the trick becomes longer, and even more dramatic. Ask him to elimi-nate the selected card, in this case the star. Then have him place his hand on other card and remove it. Continue until only one card remains. Obviously, thanks to your powers the last card remai-ning will match the prediction in the card box.
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Transformations and strange phenomena
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TransformationsThe Romero Box is a perfecto tool for many transformation effects, with cards, small objects, etc. But remember, all these effects will fall into the “direct effect” category, and that means that you will have to be extra care-ful with presentation in order to minimize the chances of your audience being suspicious of the Romero Box. Strangely enough, the people don’t suspect the box as much as we, magicians, think it should. I guess the reason is the box is an object the audience perceives as “common”. In any case, anytime you perform this type of effects, you should always take this factor into account and use with magical intelligence the many possibil-ities the Romero Box gives you for change and transformation effects.
Transformation of a card into another
I think there’s no need to explain the method, since you already know very well how the Romero Box works. Let’s talk about de-tails. As in the “Card to card box” effect, where I recommended having the card “travel” between two other cards, thus minimizing the attention of the audience on the box, I suggest you the same method for this effect. You can get the box to the background in the audience’s mind if the cards changes between, say, two Jokers.
Another subtle way of making a card change is by adding a small detail to the card. Let’s say you know the name of an audience member. Write the name on a card and hide it into the Romero Box. Let the spectator select a card. Write his name on it, trying to be as close as you can to the card in the Romero Box. When the selection changes, the card it changes into has the same name written on it. The audience will focus on that and forget about the box. Think of it as being the director of your own movie, where you decide to do a close-up shot of the main character, or go to a dif-ferent sequence. You are the director and you choose to focus your shots on the places that suit your needs. Now that you know the “cinemagic” technique, which is useful in many situations, you can think of other ways to divert attention from the box.
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For example, you could insert an object into the box together with the card. Let’s talk about our previous example. Instead of writing the spectator’s name on a card, you could write it on a slip of paper. Prepare the card you want to turn the selection into, adding a slip of paper that matches the one you will use in performance with the spectator’s name on it. Have a spectator select a card and place it into the Romero Box, adding the paper in which you write his name. When the transformation happens, the new card will ap-pear together with the paper, which will look exactly the same. You could use the same idea for the transposition of two cards, using two cards and two slips of paper. If you switch the pieces of paper with the spectator’s names, it will look as if the cards had changed places. I leave the rest to your imagination.
You could also use a coin as a “testimony” of the change. You will need two identic coins. You can easily hide a card and a coin in the Romero Box. Hide your chosen card into the box together with your “lucky coin”. The idea is that, thanks to the charm on your lucky coin, the selected card will change into another. Have somebody select a card, and place it into the box with your “lucky” coin. When the card changes, the coin will still be there, since the audience will think it’s the same coin you introduced on the box a moment ago. This diverts their attention from the box and makes the effect more amazing, since only one of the two objects changes. Also, the fact that everything revolves around your “lucky” coin makes the box go unnoticed. As you see, there are a lot of ways of “moving to a different shot” on your movie and focusing attention on other objects, and away from the Romero Box.
To sum up, every time you want to make any kind of transforma-tion using the Romero Box, it’s easy to incorporate an external element in order to divert the audience’s attention. This, together with the fact that only one out of two objects placed into the box change, instead of having everything change, helps to make the effect much more puzzling, even for magicians.
Now that you know the theory behind this principle, let’s take it to
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practice. Here’s a few of the many transformation effects you can use the Romero Box for.
Transformation of a blank card into a business card
A great way to hand your business card. Extremely commercial. Don’t pass on it, you can always use a little promotion.
Transformation of a coin
Try it now! You’ll amaze yourself. I’m sure you can add this ef-fect to one of your existing coin routines. You can see an applica-tion of the coin switch in the copper-silver routine, previously on this book. There’s a little subtlety that you can use when you have coins in the Romero Box. Even if there’s a coin hidden beneath the Romero Box’s flap, you can shake it without making the flap switch sides. Just hold the box on its sides and shake it from left to right. This makes the coin move between the wall of the box and the flap without moving the later. Shake the box and don’t be afraid, the flap will not move. Using this technique you can show an empty box, place a coin inside, rattle it, then remove the same coin with any excuse before inserting it a final time before it changes. You will find more details regarding this on the “Cop-per-silver finale” trick.
ATM
It’s easy to change a 2€ coin into two 1€ ones, or a dollar bill into two half dollars, or any other combination you can think of. If you’re a restaurant magician, you’re lucky, as I love restaurant magic, I think it’s a unique school for magicians and a perfect lab in which to develop your routines. But speaking about the Rome-ro Box, there’s a trick than can make you earn a small tip. Hide two 2€ coins into the Romero Box. At the end of your set, ask for
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a 5€ bill. Tell your audience you’ve invented the perfect change machine. Fold the 5€ bill, place it into the Romero Box, snap your fingers and show how the bill has transformed into two 2€ coins. Then explain that the missing 1€ is the machine’s commission, which is used to promote the art of magic. The audience will laugh at the joke, and you’ll be 1€ richer. After performing on ten tables you’ll start to love this trick. But you should always be ready for anything. Always have a 1€ coin handy. If you see the owner of the 5€ bill doesn’t react well, make the 1€ coin magically appear, either from a spectator’s ear or by using your favorite method. This way you’ll always be able to return the 5€ in case of emergency.
Paper to bill. The money making machine.
Take a piece of paper and write “this paper is worth 5$” on it. Place it into the Romero Box. Just execute the drop and you’ll be able to change the paper into a real 5$ bill. Changing paper into money is always one the audience’s favorite pieces.
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Strange phenomenaThe next few effects fall into a different category. What seems to happen in these tricks is that strange things happen to objects introduced into the box. The effect is not presented as a transfor-mation, but rather as a change of state of the object in the box. In these routines, the box has no importance to the audience, as they don’t feel the object was switched for another. Instead, they think it’s the same object, only something happened to it.
The stapled cards
Several variations on the stapled cards effect have been published throughout the years. Usually, the magician has two cards magi-cally staple together. You can do exactly that with the method I’m about to explain, but I preferred to describe the effect using a play-ing card and a business card. As I said before, a little promotion always comes in handy..
¬ EffectThe deck is shuffled, and a card selected. The magician shows his business card and places it into the card box, together with the selection. Then the magician produces a staple, and puts it in the box with the two cards. The magician shakes the box and places it on the table. After a magic gesture, the box is opened and the business card is stapled to the selection. The cards are given to the spectator as a souvenir.
¬ ExplanationYou’ll need two duplicates. Staple your business card to one of them, and hide the two cards inside of the Romero Box between the flap and the back. Force the second duplicate on a spectator. Place the card and a second business card into the Romero Box. Show the audience a staple, and introduce it in the box. Execute the Drop and receive your applause.
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All of the subtleties I explained in the “Business Card revelation” trick can be applied to this effect in order to maximize its effec-tiveness. You could tear a piece of the selection to use it as a “tes-timony”. You could use you spectator’s card instead of yours, or… why not? You could staple together your business card and your spectator’s, or both of them and the selected card, or tear a corner of your business card, or… as you can see, there are many things you can do with this effect. Find your favorite way of performing it. I’ll give you just a one advice. Beware of multiple simultaneous effects. For example, adding also a message on the business card in this trick. This constructions are not easy to handle and can confuse the minds of your audience. If you do, you’ll lose one of the pillars of magic: clarity.
The creation of a card
I will now explain a trick in which a seeming mistake from the magi-cian turns into a trick. I have used playing cards to describe it, but you can apply it to many other elements. Just let your imagination fly.
¬ EffectThe magician tells the audience he’s going to make a prediction. He takes a card and places it into the card box. The spectator se-lects a card, the eight of diamonds. When the magician removes the prediction from the card box, it is the four of diamonds. The prediction doesn’t match. But then the magician tells his audience he’s a true professional and, as such, he always carries spare pips to use in case of emergency. He takes out some diamond pips from his pocket, takes four of them and introduces them back into the box with the four of diamonds. After a magic gesture, the box is opened and the card has become the eight of diamonds.
¬ ExplanationYou will need to cut some of the pips of spare diamond cards. Place a duplicate eight of diamonds hidden between the flap and the back of the Romero Box.
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Tell your audience you’re going to make a prediction. Don’t let an-yone see the four of diamonds as you introduce it into the Rome-ro Box. Force the eight of diamonds, then show you prediction is wrong. Take out the extra pips from your pocket, and place four of them into the Romero Box with the four of diamonds. Execute the Drop. Open the box and show that the card has changed into the eight of diamonds.
David Redondo, the great magician from Madrid, suggested me a slight variation on the effect. The magician puts a card in to the box, telling his audience it’s a prediction card. A spectator makes a selection from a deck of cards. When the card inside of the box is revealed, it does not match the selection. Let’s say the spectator selected the five of spades, and the magician’s prediction is the eight of spades. The magician puts the prediction back into the box, and asks the spectator for his selection. When he names it, the magician tells the audience he can try to mend his error. He just has to remove three spades from his prediction. He then removes the card from the box, waves his hand over it and the card changes into the five of spades. Not only that, he removes three spare spade pips from the box. As you can see, the difference with the previ-ously explained effect is that you’re removing pips from the card instead of adding them.
There’s another possibility, one that changes the effect complete-ly. You can “create” a card. You will need to use a blank card, and spare pips and indexes. The presentation consists of giving a spectator the elements he needs to “build” his selection. He then introduces all of them into the box and, after a magical gesture, the “created” card comes out of the box. The effect is much better if you force the card using a peek method an transform it into a “thought-of” card effect. This way the spectator does not remove the selection from the deck, then loses it and creates it from a blank card.
In all of these effects, “something happens” to the card, your audi-ence will not think you’re switching a card for another, but instead
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“doing something” to the card. For example, you can introduce a defective card into the box and change it into a regular card. Here’s an idea if you really want to shock your audience. A picture card is introduced into the Romero Box. When the card is removed from the box, the spectator’s face is on the picture’s face. Obvious-ly, you’ll need a little bit of preparation for this one. The amazing Mago Antón already had a version of this effect, which he released in the Magic Multimedia series. Imagine the spectator’s reaction when he sees his face in the card.
Alice’s tunnelFollowing the same line of thought, my dear friend Miguel Puga, Mago Migue, told me about an effect of his in which he talks about Alice in Wonderland. He calls it “Alice’s tunnel”. HE tells the audi-ence about the adventures of Alice in wonderland, talking about the time she entered a tunnel and diminished her size. A chosen card becomes a symbolic representation of Alice. The selection is placed inside a clearly empty the card box. After shaking the card box for a few seconds, the box is opened and the card inside it dumped onto the table. It’s a miniature size version of the selection.
Tricks with picturesYou can perform the same type of effect, but using photos instead of cards. You could change things in a picture. For example, one of the subjects in a picture is seen holding a selection. There’s some-one in the picture who wasn’t there before. The picture changes from color to black and white, and so on.
Tricks with drawingsObviously, you can use drawings too. A face that changes its ex-pression. A drawing that colors itself. You can insert into the box spare elements that integrate into the picture, as we did in the di-amond pips trick. For example, spare letters that fuse into a paper forming a word.
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The rubber bandsYou can use objects, too. Two rubber bands that link together after being placed into the box. Two cut out figures that end up holding hands and fusing as one. And a very long etcetera. As my friend Anthony Blake would say, anything that your imagination can come up with.
Tempus fugit
My good friend Xavi Puk is known for his outstanding creativi-ty. In his wonderful book, “How to produce 30 dogs and a button from a top hat” (a title that’s a statement of intentions in itself) he shows us a new way of thinking about our magic. Xavi has sent me the following effect. Although in essence is just a transposition be-tween an object and a card, the presentation adds an atmosphere of mystery to it. Xavi is the perfect example of how we should al-ways try to see things from different perspectives. .
¬ EffectA spectator selects a card from a shuffled deck, and places it into the card box. The magician then talks about time and how it is one of the most valuable things in the world. He then tells the spec-tator he has a gift for him: a little bit of time. He shows a small hourglass, then turns it over and starts it. The magician asks the spectator to select another card. When he does, it is the same one he chose a moment ago. It looks like the magician succeeded in go-ing back to the past! When the card box is opened, there’s no card in it. Instead, there’s a little bit of sand, which the magician gives to the spectator as he advices him to make good use of his time.
¬ ExplanationYou will need two duplicates, an hourglass and a little bit of sand. Place the sand between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. Force the first duplicate and place it into the Romero Box. Exe-cute the drop, switching the card for the sand. Show the hourglass and talk about time. Force the second duplicate. Act surprised and
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proceed with the rest of the effect as per the description. I included this effect in the book because I think it teaches a valuable les-son. How using creativity and imagination we can combine differ-ent objects, add a good presentation and turn a simple effect into something more.
Romero’s paella*
There’s no limit to my friend’s imagination. Ángel Simal, a great friend and magician from Palencia, sent me the following effect. Show a bowl full of rice, and apply some stick glue to a playing card. Ask a member of the audience to put the card into the bowl in order to make some of the rice grains adhere to the card. As he wants no one to mess with the card, the magician asks the spec-tator to place it into the card box. The magician takes the box and starts making calculations. He knows the weight of the card box, a single card and a grain of rice. After concentrating for some sec-onds, the magician is able to guess the exact number of rice grains stuck to the card.
In order to perform this trick, you will need to place a prepared card into the Romero Box, sticking a set number of rice grains to it and switching it for the spectator’s forced card. Ángel’s idea is very good, and we could use it in many different ways. For ex-ample, using an envelope instead of a playing card and asking a spectator to put some rice grains inside it. You could use a small envelope that fits into the Romero Box, or a card sleeves such as the ones card collectors use to protect expensive cards. You might have to cut the sleeve slightly so that it fits between the flap and the back of the box. Place a set number of rice grains into one of those sleeves, then hide it into the Romero Box and proceed to the effect. The use of the box is completely justified. The sleeve is inserted into the box so that the magician cannot see anything. To make the divination even more mysterious, you can shake the box near your ear or place a single grain of rice in your hand, as if comparing the weights.*Translator’s note: Paella is a typical Spanish dish made with rice.
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This trick is a perfect example of how the Romero Box can help you create specific effects that might come in handy if you ever need to prepare something special for a special occasion.
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Utilities and alternate box configurations:
Double Flap.Romero Box Tool.
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The Romero Box is a tool that will allow you to solve problems and get out of situations that arise when trying to develop or im-prove an effect’s method. I will now explain four ways of using it that I think are relevant. Although they’re not a magic trick per se, they can help you in many moments.
Switching cards
Why is such an important use for the Romero Box in a tiny little paragraph, instead of having its own chapter written in big capital letters? Well, I have questioned this myself, and I’m the book’s author! There could be hundreds of tricks written using just that principle. But I think this is an obvious use of the Romero Box once you know how it works.
Switching cards is something magicians need to do very often. The circumstances of the switch can be a myriad. At the end of an ef-fect you might have to switch tricked cards for regular ones. At the beginning, after showing some cards are normal, you might need to switch them for gaffed ones. During the course of a routine, etc. The use of the box in these situations is completely hidden, since for our audience there’s no effect that involves it. We use the box to switch cards but, for them, the cards are always the same.
The Romero Box allows you to easily switch up to four cards. You will have to consider that the flap might stand out a little bit if you put so many cards under it. But if you place the box in the right position, no one will ever be the wiser. Remember, the box does not play any role in the effect, and it’s of no importance whatsoever to the audience. The outer flap of the box will also be of great help if you want to hide the fact that there’s a big group of cards hidden in it. You can also play with the position of the box in relation to the audience. The opening of the box does not have to face them. Play with the box, placing it in different positions until you find the one that better suits your needs. Thanks to this, the Romero Box will be of great help in order to solve several “delicate” moments during your routines. Before I finish this section, I would like to remind you
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that, actually, there are extra thin cards on the market. These cards look like regular ones while being extremely thin. Of you use them, you will be able to hide even more cards inside the Romero Box.
The vanishing card
This is a very useful principle, and one that works perfectly with the Romero Box. I’ve tried it in several occasions and curiously, although I thought the audience would be suspicious of the box, actually they don’t care about it.
The principle consists in tearing a card into pieces, then vanishing them with the aid of the Romero Box, then having the card re-appear in an orange, an envelope, etc. Obviously, if you just place the pieces into the Romero Box and make them vanish, everyone will think the method is in the box. But, if you dump the contents of the box and confetti appears instead of the torn pieces, the audi-ence’s attention is diverted from the box into the magical appear-ance of the confetti. I was the first one surprised at the fact that the audience didn’t care about the box. I could not explain why the Romero Box worked so well for such an effect. I just stared at the audience, as surprised at them as they were surprised at the confetti´s appearance. I guess they might have thought I was as shocked by the effect as they were.
I suppose that the confetti diverts their attention from the box and that the audience assumes that, since there’s confetti getting out of it, there’s nothing left in it. Once confetti stops coming out of the box, the only thing I do is to blow on it as if really wanting all the confetti to come out of the box, which I then turn upside down and shake a couple of times. Try it, you’ll see it’s a great option to make those torn pieces vanish if you don’t want to use a thumb tip or devil’s handkerchief. I think this is one of those ideas “worth the price of the book”, as magic retailers would say.
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Forcing a piece of paper
The card box is also a good place to “mix” slips of paper with mes-sages written by spectators. Ask them to insert the papers into the box themselves, then shake it as if mixing them. Obviously, if you previously hide duplicate slips and execute the Drop, you can force the selected message. You’ll have to use small slips, though. And, instead of paper, you could use stamps, collectible cards, puzzle pieces, etc.
Forcing a key
This is a particular use of the idea I have just explained, but I think it deserved a section of its own, since the effect you can per-form with it is a classic of mentalism. The great Víctor Cerro gave me the idea, which consists of hiding inside of the Romero Box the key we want to force on a spectator, usually the one that opens the lock. You can then proceed with the classic effect in which the last remaining key is the one that will open the lock. Start by showing several keys to the audience (none of them opens the lock, but you’re the only one who knows that) and place them into the Romero Box. Shake the box in order to mix the keys. Using the card box as a kind of “shaker” justifies its use perfectly. Several members of the audience take a key from the box. When only one is left, execute the Drop and switch it for the one that opens the lock. Once you know the principle you can perform several varia-tions. For example, you can show a working key and switch it for a non-working one before placing it in the box. You could also insert the key that open the lock into the Romero Box first, and execute the Drop before placing the rest of the keys inside. Please note that the keys you use for the effect must be made of a material that’s not attracted by magnets. You can get them easily done at any locksmith.
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Double flap
The Romero Box allows you to place two flaps inside of it. Just place one of them in the front and the other one in the back. Set-ting the box like this allows you to perform several effects in which both flaps are activated in sequence. Let’s see some of the effects you can perform with two flaps.
A great part of the transformation effects already explained on this book can be performed in two phases. There’s a first, non-com-plete transformation, then the effects ends with the complete transformation of the object inserted into the box. For example, you could place a picture of the magician holding a card with its back showing. A card is selected and, when the picture is removed from the box, the card is showing its face… but it’s a Joker. The magician tells the audience Jokers are wild, and places the picture back into the box. With a snap of his fingers, the magician opens the box once again and shows that the card in the picture has fi-nally changed into the selection.
Gabriel Zas sent me another good idea for an effect. The specta-tor selects a card, let’s say it’s a Queen. The magician tells the audience that it’s dangerous to shake, or twist the card box too quickly if there are cards inside, as the results are unpredictable and strange things can happen. He then places a Joker into the card box, shakes and twists the box and, when he opens it, there’s a strange, half-joker, half-queen card. The “hybrid” card is placed back into the box and, after waiting for a few seconds, it complete-ly changes to the selected Queen.
You can also change a card twice. A good example is changing two Jokers into two selections. The magician places two Jokers on the table, then has two spectators select one card each. The first Joker is placed into the box, and changes into the first selection. Then the second Joker goes into the box and changes into the second selected card.
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Another nice idea for the double flap is a torn and restored card in two phases. First you restore part of the card, then the whole card is restored.
The double flap system also allows you to increase the number of outs in the multiple outs effects already described. For example, you could have up to six outs in a card trick. You would use three double face cards, one hidden beneath each flap and a third one inside the box. If you go for this option, it will be extremely impor-tant to study the order of actions when turning the box over and executing the Drop before the final revelation. Instead of cards, you could use slips of paper with different messages on them.
As you can see, using two flaps opens an endless world of possibil-ities, only limited by your imagination. Transformations, predic-tions, switches… and many more, not found yet.
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Romero Box Tool
You can combine the Romero Box with other gimmicks, such as Katsuya Masuda’s WOW. My friend Fran Maza has a beau-tiful version of the “close-up sub trunk” using the Romero Box and Masuda’s WOW. But, if there’s a combination that suits the Romero Box perfectly, that’s “Tool”, the gimmick my French friend David Stone made popular not long ago.
Due to the characteristics of the box, the Romero Box can work as a Tool. There’s a magnet right in the very center of both the face and back of the Romero Box. The flap holds three magnets, one in the center and one in each upper corner. You just need to make the gimmick card in order to have a complete Tool.
You will need three flat magnets, the smaller the better. I use round, 20 millimeter x 0,5 millimeter ones. You can find them in stores that specialize in rare earth magnets, or in magic stores. You will have to stick the three magnets on the face of a playing card, then cover them with the “face” of a card box. You’ll have to place the magnets carefully. What I mean by this, is that the mag-nets have to be placed in the gimmicked card so that, when they adhere to the box’s face, the card ends up squared with the box.
The best way to place the magnets is to make sure the flap is ad-hered to the face of the Romero Box. Then place the card you’re about to gimmick on top of the box, and put the magnets on top of it so that it is perfectly squared. Then, use double sided tape to stick the magnets to the card so that they don’t move. From a regular card box whose design matches the onein your Romero Box, cut the ”face” and stick it to the gimmick card, covering the magnets. Add some glue and you’re ready to go. For even better re-sults, I recommend you to put some double sided tape on the edges of the gimmicked card.
We will call this card the Tool card, and it will adhere perfectly to the face of the Romero Box, with the added bonus that, if the
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flap is on the box’s face, the Tool card will be attracted with much more force due to the addition of the strength of the magnets in the box and the flap. But, no matter if you use the flap or not, the Romero Box makes for a perfect Tool. The combination of Tool and the Romero Box opens an endless world of possibilities. If I start thinking about them, I feel the urge to stop writing and start playing with these two wonderful gimmicks.
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Card through card box
This is the perfect example of a trick using the “Romero Box Tool”. It’s included in the video demo I recorded for my website, you can watch it at www.romeromagic.com. Many magicians emailed me asking for the method for this particular effect, as they didn’t know how to do it using just the Romero Box. Well, the secret is the “Romero Box Tool”.
¬ EffectA spectator selects a card. The magician places the selection face up on top of the deck, then shows a completely empty card box. When the box is dropped on the deck, the selection penetrates it, vanishing from the top of the pack and instantly appearing inside of the box.
¬ ExplanationThis is pure eye candy. You will two duplicates. Hide one between the flap and the back of the Romero Box, facing up. The Tool card starts on top of the deck.
You will need to force the duplicate of the card hidden in the Rome-ro Box. I recommend you to use the following method. Place the forcing card under the Tool card, then cut the deck as close to the center as possible, so that the Tool (with the force card under it) ends up close to the center of the pack. Because of the Tool card’s thickness, it will be very easy to cut to it. The Tool card will end up being the bottom card of the top half. You can ask a spectator to cut “close to the center” or cut to the card yourself.
Take the card that has been cut to (the forcing card) and pace it, face up, on the table. Take the top half and overhand shuffle it as you talk, bringing the Tool card to the top. Place the cards you’re holding on top of the former bottom half. The tool card will be the top card of the deck. Place the selection on top of everything, face up. Take the Romero Box and drop it on top of the deck. The card hidden by the flap will appear inside of the box, and the card on top of the deck will “vanish” between the box and the Tool card. Re-
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move the card from the box, and casually flash its face, as you show that the selection is no longer on top of the deck. A true miracle.
Variations Once you know the method, you can perform the effect using dif-ferent objects. You don’t have to limit yourself to using playing cards. You could place different objects, such as a business card or a bank note, on top of the deck and have them penetrate the box. If you use a business card, you can use all of the subtleties explained in the “Business card revelation” section. If you can do it with a spectator’s business card, you’ll have a miracle on your hands.
If you choose to perform the effect using a bank note, you could duplicate the serial number. In order to do so, you’ll need two bills with consecutive serial numbers. Using a razor blade, you can re-move the last digit from both bills quite easily. If you do so, both bills will seemingly have the same serial number. You will have to ask a spectator for a bill and switch it for one of the two “dupli-cates” in order to perform the effect.Romro box
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The close-up sub trunk
This effect allows you to present the Houdini’s amazing sub trunk. You might be thinking “I’ve already read that. Even with coins!”. The big difference between this effect and the two other previously pre-sented is that you will use face up cards. A little big illusion that you can perform inches away from the faces of your audience. This trick, my dear reader, is a killer. If you want to utter baffle your audience, to have them look at you with puzzled faces as they feel like entering Neverland, don’t hesitate to try it on them. You might be thinking I am exaggerating, and that I am too proud of the trick because it’s my creation. Just try it, then tell me what you think.
¬ EffectTwo cards are selected. We’ll use the Ace of Spades and the Queen of Hearts as an example. The Queen is placed face up on top of the deck and the Ace, also face up, into the card box. The magician drops the card box on top of the deck. When he removes it, the card on top is the Ace of Spades. The card in the box is now the Queen of Hearts.
¬ ExplanationYou will need two pairs of duplicates, let’s say two Aces of Spades and two Queens of Hearts. Place one of the Aces face up on top of the deck. Put the Tool card on top of it. Hide one of the Queens face up between the flap and the back of the Romero Box.
Force the Ace of Spades and the Queen of Hearts. Place the Queen face up on top of the pack. The Ace of Spades is introduced into the Romero Box face up. Just by dropping the Romero Box on top of the deck, the Queen will end up hidden between the Tool card and the box, simultaneously revealing the Ace of Spades. At the same time, the flap will switch sides, hiding the Ace in the box and revea-ling the Queen of Hearts. The transposition is complete.
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Bonus Effect: The “same same but
different” principle
VII
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Before I finish this book, I would like to share with you a principle I’ve been using in my shows for many years, one the I named the “same same but different” principle. It’s a very useful idea for mentalism. I wasn’t going to release yet. I wanted to save it for another book, since I’ve developed quite a few mentalism routines using it. But I think it’s a good idea to share it with you now, so that you can apply it to some of the tricks you will perform using the Romero Box. Actually, the principle is hinted in the “maga-zine test” routine.
Let’s start by defining the principle: there’s plenty of objects that, while being very similar or exactly the same, can be identified as different by the audience. For example, in the “magazine test” routine, the forcing page was full of barbeques, although different ones. This can be considered a basic application of this principle. The best way to use the concept, or at least the one I think suits it better, is using postcards. I love using postcards for magical ef-fects. You can apply many card magic techniques and principles to them, they make for colorful routines, the effects are surprising, easy to follow and, in my experience, the audience prefers an ef-fect where the revelation involves “Venice” to one with “the sev-en of spades”. But, going back to our “same same but different” principle and its application to postcards, you can easily obtain several postcards that belong to different places or monuments of the same city. For example, I can have postcards of New York de-picting the statue of liberty, Madison Square Garden and Times Square. They’re all different, but at the same time they belong to the city of New York. Obviously, if select outstanding landmarks it will be very easy to see all the postcards belong to the same city, but there are many postcards with pictures of places that are hard to recognize, even if they were taken in famous cities. This allows you to use four of five postcards from the same city, but depicting different places, and where only one of the pictures is easily recog-nizable for the audience. If you gather several groups of postcards from different cities, you can easily create a “postcard deck” where all the pictures are different, while at the same time there are only three or four possible cities. It’s like using an ESP deck where the
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five symbols are repeated following a pattern, only the symbols are cities. And the fact that every card seems different makes for a very nice addition. If you “guide” the spectator to think about the city, instead of the monument depicted in the postcard, you can perform many divination/mind reading/prediction effects. For example: “You’ve set on a postcard. Think of the city that postcard belongs to. Have you been there? Would you like to go? Concen-trate. I see two words… you’re thinking about NEW YORK”. This principle allows you to perform a lot of ESP deck routines using postcards, something our dear Dr. Carl Zenner would most likely approve.
Another powerful tool using the same principle is what I call the “Svengali postcard deck”, so to speak. It consists on taking four groups of four “same same but different” postcards and sixteen random ones of completely different cities. Then “create” a deck by alternating a “same same but different” postcard with a random one. The resulting “deck” is what I call a “Svengali postcard deck” an amazing tool that will allow you to perform a myriad of effects.
Let’s see an example. Imagine you have four postcards from New York, four from London, four from Paris and four from Rome (actu-ally, I suggest you to use less known cities). Prepare a deck following this sequence: NEW YORK(1)-indifferent-LONDON(1)-indiffer-ent-PARIS(1)-indifferent-ROME(1)-indifferent-NEW YORK(2)-in-different-LONDON(2)-indifferente-PARIS(2)-indifferent…
Using this setup you can clearly show a “deck” made of what seem to be completely different postcards, since the ones that belong to the same city show entirely different pictures. No one will ever be the wiser. Actually, I often use a deck setup with only two cit-ies, and I’ve had no one ever suspect anything. And obviously, the possible outcomes are only two. And, why not? You can add even more cities depending on the routine you wish to perform. This is the starting point for multiple effects. I’ll show you one using the Romero Box.
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This routine can be included in the “multiple outs” group. Take two double sided cards, and write the name of a city on each side. Following the previous example: NEW YORK and LONDON on one of the cards, PARIS and ROME on the second one. Hide one of the cards between the flap and the back of the Romero Box. Place the other card inside of it. As I already explained in the “multiple outs” section, you’ll have to know on beforehand which way the box should be facing, and if you need to execute the Drop in order to get to each possible out.
Show the box to your audience and tell them there’s a prediction inside. Show them the postcards, and make sure they see they’re all different. Execute any shuffle that does not disturb the se-quence. The best option I’ve found is the Thurston shuffle. Start dealing postcards on the table, and ask any spectator to stop you whenever he wants. When he does, take a look at the postcards in order to see which one belongs to one of the “same same but differ-ent” groups. It can either be the last one dealt, or the one on top of the deck. Act accordingly and ask the spectator to take the one that matches one of your predictions. Ask him to concentrate on the place, if he’s ever been there, to picture the name of the city in his mind… little by little, it will be clear that the trick is about the city, not the exact location of the postcard’s picture. Show some other postcards, reinforcing the fact that he could have chosen any city. Because of the setup, it’s very easy to do so and show many different options. Remind your audience about the prediction in-side the box. Ask the spectator to name the city he’s thinking of. Open the Romero Box and show your prediction.
This is just one of the effects you can perform using this principle. I’ve used the Romero Box since it helps me to make the effect practical and direct. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of applications for it, and I hope someday we’ll meet in a convention and you’ll show me an idea that will bring me joy and make me even more grateful to the goddess of magic for giving me the privilege of being a ma-gician and sharing this wonderful art with people all around the world.
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WOULD YOU LIKE TO EASILYPERFORM VISUAL, HIGH IMPACT TRICKS THAT WILL AMAZE EVEN
THE TOUGHEST AUDIENCE?
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Detailed and thorough instruction included in a two hour video. And, as a final surprise: How to use the ARHO without a jacket!.
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BILL TO PENAn amazing effect where a signed bill ends
up inside a permanent marker.
PLASTICA signed card is magically laminated,
plus bonus mentalism effects.
Find out more about the amazing magic of Antonio Romero at:
www.RomeroMagic.com
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IM-POST-IT-BLEA powerful tool that allows you to secretly know
the information written on a post-it note.
THE TRANSPARENT STABBED CARDThe spectator stabs his selection in a deck
wrapped up in transparent plastic.
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CARD KABUKIA surprising and wonderful confetti explosion!
THE TRANSPARENT CUPSA unique cups and balls routine using transparent cups.
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CLOSE TO THE MOONAn unbelievable version of “Out of this world”
in which the spectators shuffle the deck.
TORN AND RESTORED NEWSPAPERA practical solution to this classic effect in
magic. Can be performed surrounded!
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HANKY TO PENA signed handkerchief end
up inside a marker!
REAL TIME CLIPBOARDThe definitive mentalism tool. See, in real time, the information written by a spectator on a clipboard.
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AR MARKERA new gimmick that will allow you to perform an amazing
multiple marker production with an amazing surprise ending.
OLIVERIOA magical and extremely funny location of a
card. An ideal routine for all audiences, either kids or the most demanding adults.
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LIMITLESSMORE THAN 50 EFFECTS USING THE ROMERO BOX
