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B'Wave
This packet version of the Brainwave effect, is a product of a twenty-year evolution.
It appears to begin with Edward Marlo. Marlo published “The Named Reverse” and “Think Ace” in the September 1963 issue of The Linking Ring, Vol. 43 No. 9, pp. 69-74, back dating these items to private notes made on July 3, 1957, and October 10, 1956. This seems the earliest published example of the effect of a named card of a set value being produced face up in a face-down, four-card packet. These early efforts lacked the odd-back feature, but Marlo had attended to that elsewhere, offering multiple methods for “Technicolor Thoughts” in Ibidem, No. 25, May 1962 (pp. 559-568 in Vol. 2 of the 2001 book edition). These were said to be taken from private notes of Sep. 6, 1958. In Kabbala Three (1975, p. 41), he contributed “Cased-in Technicolor Thought”, said to be taken from May 27, 1965, notes, although the trick is also confusingly dated 1967 in the introduction. This uses two r/b double-backers, a red-backed double-ended Ace H/D and a blue-backed Ace C/S. However, Marlo was tardy in publishing this and failed to note that the method had been publicly preceded by…
“Parade of the Kings”, a marketed trick released in early 1972 by Supreme Magic; see the ad in the April 1972 issue of Magigram, n.p. The Supreme company never credited anyone with the invention of “Parade of the Kings”, and the identity of the creator seems to have remained unknown. Ken DeCourcy, who was well-connected with Supreme, wrote in the November 1992 issue of their Magigram, “I don’t know who invented ‘The Parade of the Kings’. It's such a clever concept that I feel his name should appear on it.” Supreme's editor didn’t comment. This trick was immensely popular for years, helped by Supreme’s releasing a jumbo-card version in 1973. The packet for “Parade of the Kings” consists of two r/b double-backers, a red-backed King of H/D and a blue-backed King of C/S. The only differences between this trick and Marlo's “Cased-in Technicolor Thought” is that the later uses Aces and a card case to hold them, in place of an envelope.
In late 1974, Nick Trost marketed “The Deuce You Say” (see ad in the Sep/Oct. 1977 issue of Magicana, Vol. 24 No. 149, n.p.). Sid Lorraine discretely wrote in the Jan. 1975 issue of New Tops (Vol. 15 No. 1, p. 27), “THE DEUCE YOU SAY is similar to an effect marketed in Europe using four Kings.” Indeed, Trost had reinvented “Parade of the Kings”, the only difference being the value of the cards used. The trick is included in Trost’s Subtle Card Creations, Vol. 3, 2011, p. 794. Trost mentions that his inspiration for “The Deuce You Say” came from hearing of “Kings Choice” by the Dutch magician Marconick, released by Louis Tannen, Inc. in early 1973 (see M-U-M, Feb. 1973, p. 39). The only difference between “Kings Choice” and “Parade of the Kings” is that the packet is brought from a vinyl envelope instead of a paper one. The Tannen ad for “Kings Choice” used a poor reproduction of the (misleading) photo from Supreme's ad for “Parade of the Kings”, suggesting a connection between the two companies. Why Marconick was credited with the trick by Tannen but never by Supreme is unknown.
In Jan. 1984, Mark Leveridge marketed “Cards on Parade” (see Genii, Vol. 67 No. 12, Oct. 1994, p. 130; also an ad in Opus, Vol. 2 No. 4, Dec. 1988, p. 8 ), which he later included in his 2000 compilation, The Collected Card Magic of Mark Leverage, Vol. 1, p.33. Leverage claimed to have been the first to add the blank-faced kicker to the plot. But…
Max Maven, in the instructions for his “B'Wave”, cites Karl Fulves as having “suggested” the premise in 1978. This was in Fulves's Four-Card Brainwave, pp. 9-10. The suggestion appears at the end of Fulves’s fifth method, which is identical to “Parade of the Kings” and Marlo’s “Cased-in Technicolor Thought”. Fulves says this method was “attributed” to S. Leo Horowitz. Although no substantiation is given for this, it sounds likely, as Horowitz used double-backed cards in a number of tricks. If the trick is indeed Horowitz's, that would date it long before the anonymous “Parade of the Kings”. At the end of this fifth method, Fulves mentions that the effect could be done with a four-index Ace and three blank-faced cards.
Building on this idea, Maven created “B'Wave”, c. 1991-1992, with its triple climax of producing a named Queen face-up in a four-card packet, then showing that the Queen has a different back—and the other three cards have blank faces. He sold this trick at lectures, then released it to a larger market through Hermetic Press, Inc. in 1993 (see ad in The Linking Ring, Vol. 73 No. 4, Apr. 1993, p. 22).