Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Cut-deeper Force

This force, while inspired by Henry Christ's 203rd Force from Annemann's S-h-h-h-! It's a Secret, 1934, p. 41, was, according to Ken Krenzel, the idea of Edmund Balducci. Krenzel knew Balducci well, and co-authored with him the first published trick to describe the force: “The All-fair Coincidence” in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 14 No. 6, Nov. 1956, p. 502.

Nevertheless, Karl Fulves, in Prolix, No. 4, Aug. 2008, p. 270, points out a close precursor in Sam Mayer's “Another Do as I Do”, in the Sphinx, Vol. 45 No. 5, July 1946, p. 143. Mayer uses a sequence of four increasingly deep cut-and-turn-over actions to force the top card. Not long after this, Fred Braue published “Little Card Rise” in his column in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Vol. 6 No. 8, Jan. 1949, p. 501. In this trick, Braue married the Mayer force with Sid Lorraine's miniature-card pop-up production that was first explained in The Linking Ring, Vol. 8 No. 1, Mar. 1928, p. 33, “A Novel Card Discovery.” Braue's explanation pared the cut-deeper force down to two cuts and turns. Thus it seems Mayer deserves credit for the cut-deeper force, with the two-cut handling following shortly after, its conceiver as yet undetermined. Fulves supplies further history and variants in the Prolix article cited above.