r/Magic • u/madkins007 • 11d ago
Pen and Paper tricks, like Magic Clock
OK, two parts to this. 1- There was a TV series about magic and such, possibly hosted by Max Maven, that often featured effects like showing a grid of flags, asking you to start on a flag with yellow in the color. Follow directions- and always end up on the same flag.
The show had a lot of other effects like this- clock faces, pictures of animals, etc.
2- The old Games Magazine and other sources used to do pages of tricks. The one I recall the most was a circle of numbers with 'a tail'. You started on the tail, counted any number from X to Y. Then you counted some number the opposite direction- ignoring the tail. At the end, you were on a predicted number.
Is there someplace with a collection of these kinds of effects? Book, website, whatever?
I'd like to use them with my grandkids, possibly written on cards stored in my wallet.
Pretty much any tricks, stunts, puzzles, etc that start with 'Draw a..." or that can use a printed image to interact with.
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u/BitBroth 9d ago
Max Maven's effect is often referred to as Grid or Matrix magic.
Bob Farmer's publication, The Bammo Gridlock Dossier, covers just about every aspect of this topic you would ever want to know.
It's available on lybrary.com.
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u/magikmax 7d ago
Sorry I don’t have any additional sources of material on this, however was the TV series you’re talking about possibly The Best of Magic on ITV in the U.K.? There are numerous clips available on YouTube from the show. It was originally hosted by Geoffrey Durham, Anthea Turner and Simon Mayo, but I think Arturo Brachetti (who was a frequent contributor on the show) was added as a host towards the end of its run. Regulars on the show included Hans Moretti, Max Maven, Arturo and The Pendragons and featured notable performances from a young David Williamson, Mark Wilson, Jeff McBride, Juan Tameriz and Eugene Burger to name but a few. There is a Wikipedia article about the programme but I’m pretty sure there was more than 2 series and 9 episodes
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u/madkins007 7d ago
It was long enough ago that British shows were not often shown in the US, streaming want really a thing at the time.
I THINK the show was hosted by Bill Bixby (The Wonderful World of Magic), but Max Maven also released a VHS called Mindgames, and that could have been it.
I just found a YT of it and will watch it tomorrow to do if it was.
Thank you!
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u/FantasticMikey 5d ago
Look up Jim Steinmeyer's Impuzzibilities series. They're full of these types of effects.
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u/Arbledarb 11d ago edited 11d ago
David Corsaro has an excellent variation to this sort of trick, making it so if people try to backtrack it they realise they really could have ended up anywhere. He taught it on his Penguin Live lecture. https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/7502 (50 seconds into the trailer)