Moving Cards by Sean Taylor

A pack of cards is shuffled, and spread face-up on the table. The magician glances across the spread for merely a few seconds, the pack is turned face-down and he turns away. Whilst his back is turned, a spectator selects ANY card, remembers it and returns it to the pack but in a different location. Turning back, the magician glances once more across the spread and removes A SINGLE CARD. It is the selection. This classic plot, conceived over 80 years ago by Moe, magic’s original underground man, has fooled magicians the world over. For the first time in print, you will discover a collection of new and original work focused on unlocking the full potential of one of card magic’s cleanest, purest and fairest effects.

This carefully conceived, photo illustrated ebook takes you on a unique journey, beginning with the basic effect as Sean witnessed it in the late 1980s. It then twists and turns, developing and extrapolating both the effect and the method, to give you a broad palette of ideas and variations suited to many different performing situations. It is this gradual development of the effect which has appealed greatly to those lucky enough to see the early proof copies. This is a perfect example of how effects develop through continued experimentation and you will see that thought process played out in the various interpretations.

Moving Cards requires no special cards or extra props, no sleight of hand, no stooges, no forcing and no pre show. You begin and end with a single deck of any style cards (in fact they can be borrowed).

“Australia’s Sean Taylor has lived and breathed this trick for more than 25 years (and fooled me with it several times too!) Here he offers at last, his thoughts, developments and work on this simple, yet powerful plot. In true ‘Marlo’ fashion, he offers, not one but numerous methods and variations (I counted at least 10). Some of these suit casual performing situations, some are fully developed, professional performance pieces. Some require no memory work, others are enhanced by a small amount of simple memorisation. Some you’ll perform in minutes, others will require some bedding down.

You can be sure though, that if you handle cards as a professional or purely as a keen amateur, there is something here for you. The plot might be 80 years old, but the ideas are fresh, new and highly original. In a world where the over-hyped one trick DVD dominates, there are still a few who have the foresight and will to produce quality written works. This is manuscript is such a piece. I’m delighted to see this material in print, but a tiny bit sorry that our secret is out.” - Bobby Dexter