INTRO
Frist I like to thank you for your support of the Will Tsai Fusion. One of the major reason that I named the effect after myself is not just because I am profound of this particular piece, I also love the abbreviation of it! Many of the lay audience who have witness this effect in the past just naturally screamed out the abbreviation name of the effect without knowing it. I've always thought that's a pretty cool name... Aside from the history of the name, this e-struction system is a combination of video and written instruction form. For a long time, I found myself struggling with DVD playback in terms of learning to construct a gimmick with precision. Angles, position, and handling are just too hard to analyze with everything that's moving in the screen. This system is made with blown up hight quality photos on the construction of the gimmick and video instruction on learning the handling and moves. Hope you'll have an exciting journey of perhaps something new that you have not thought of :) . Best wishes to my new friend, Will Tsai
BASIC CONCEPT
This section contains a brief explaination of the concept behind this effect. Again, it is formed with two major part of machanic - Visual change and deck display. A. Deck Display To logically explain what's happenning, let's start from the deck display. Throughout the history of Rough & Smooth spray (R&S), gamblers and magicians use R&S to secretly, or perhaps I should say openly, conceal a card from within the deck and produce this specific card as needed. A very popular and clever use of this idea among magicians would be the Invisible Deck. Cards are all concealed in a specific order, thus won't be seen while displaying the cards with spread, and the performer is able to produce any one concealed card from within the deck. My approach to the use of R&S, is to be able to display both the traditional 'display 26 cards' and 'concealed 26 cards' with no apparent movement; simply by applying pressure on slightly different portion of the deck while spreading the cards. This way, both sets of the card (eg. Set A - Blue, Set B Red) can be displayed by a simple spreading. Spready can be broken to show full cards on both sides because while displaying the face of cards from set A, you are actually displaying the back of the cards from Set B, and reverse the other way too. This allows the illusion of two time change to be created, while everything is cleanly shown under extremely fair condition! B. Visual Change The change change is used in combination of the deck display change to strenghen the moment that the magic happen. While it's not a must, and I'll explain quite a few alternative ways to the change (there are effects which doesn't involve with this visual change explained in this version), there are some very interesting biological and psychological principles involved in the working of my approach to the illusion, which can also be found in my book 'Handbook of Visual & Psycho Perception'. If you read Japanese, I personally think it's a must read and very interesting book which contains no trick but all human physical facts which correlate with human biological and psychological perception. Of course the visual change can be achieved by your favorite sleight of hand, this change is just my personal vision of how this effect looks like in my mind. Interestingly, although this visual effect is gimmicked (modified flap card), it is not any easier than sleight of hand to execute it. It's a gimmick that involves dedication and practice!! Again, this is just my personal preference and it is included for the sake of completeness in sharing my effect. Please feel free to adapt and modify the effect in anyway that you prefer.
MATERIAL LIST
This section contains a quick material list of what you will need to construct the effect. There are basically two parts to make the effect happen. A. Deck Change 1. Rough & Smooth spray 2. One normal deck of card x1 3. One straight deck (one way forcing deck) x1 4. Card size (width-wise) envelope(s) (1 would work, but recommend 5)
B. Visual Change 5. Dental dam ( Rubber glove would work but dental dam recommended)
DETAILED CONSTRUCTION
This section contains a detail construction of the deck. Quick overview: Cards are frist sapareted into two sets (Set A-before change, Set B-after change). Two sets are sprayed in specific portions of the card, the prayed area would form a Z shape if you look from the side of the card as illustrated. Fig 1. Stop portion on card back
Fig 2. Turn the very same card up side down (vertical direction), spray in the same position. The spray area should be on the reverse end on front and back.
Fig 3. Sprayed cards stack in alternative order, with Set 1 (red) in one orientation, Set 2 (blue) in opposite orientation.
What you will need first, is half a normal deck and half a straight deck to form a complete 52 card deck. However, in the major routiine that allows you to end clean, you'll only need 13 cards from each deck. It's up to you to do a complete deck for the sake of practice and play with the other routines included. Step1. Cut the envelope See figure. Cards will be sprayed in a 'almost ' half and half manner. The envelope will be used as a shell for the unwanted area to be sprayed. Note:You will need to leave a small space between the sprayed area and the centre of the card. Thus, you need the cutted envelope to be slightly longer. Also, keep the spray at least 30cm above the card and don't over spray it. Over sprayed cards will be VERY SMOOTH!
Step 2. Spray the card
First spray the top portion of the card. Instert the card into envelope and spray. See figure.
This is where the spray should have covered on the card. See figure.
Step 3. Praying the back of the card Turn over the card upside down, and spray in the same position as you did. So the previous spray area is down on the bottom portion.
This is where the spray should have covered on the card. See figure.
Step 4. Stacking and Testing the sprayed cards For testing purpose, you can just spray two blue and two red cards, wait till they are dried to see if you have done the right job. Since it could be tricky to learn how to spray properly when you first start using the R&S spray. It's always a good idea to do the 'testing' before you spray on all cards and found you might did it improperly. To stack the sprayed cards and run a trial test, see figure
To run a trial test, have just a few cards stacked like above figure(such as four cards below).
To test out the first set of color display, rest your thumb slightly above the center of the card (top sprayed portion, portion A in previous figure), simply do a push spread to see result.
To test out the second set of color display, rest your thumb slightly below the center of the card (lower sprayed portion, portion B in previous figure), simply do a push spread to see result.
Note: The reason you are displaying three cards on the first trial, two cards on the second trial, is because you are concealing while displaying one of the two sets at a time. If you use a blank card on top, it should make a lot more sense.
Step 5. Continue untill all cards are sprayed Continue spraying all cards untill you finish spraying the number of cards you need.
Tips on fastening the praying process... Over the years I've applied and explored this principle in many of the visual card effects/plots. It only takes 10 minutes to spray each deck once you know what you are doing. The quickest way that I found is to cut a few more envelopes and spray a few cards at a time.Usually 5 to 8 cards. This would speed up the process tremendously. However, keep in mind that it takes a good 30 seconds to a minute for the spray to dry. If you start stacking while the spray is still wet, the deck won't be able to work properly.
Step 6. Stacking the cards Refer back to the figure in Step 4 . First thing you need to have, is all prayed cards in the same orientation, blue and red separated. With both sets positioned in the same orientation one next to the other. Turn one of the pile 180 degree clockwise. And stack the cards one by one in an alternative order untill you finish. Step 7. Final Check Since it's hard to tell where the rough area by seeing with bare eyes, it's sometimes very easy to mixed up the orientation and cause the deck to work improperly. A desk light makes it a lot easier for a final check. If the orientation is mixed, the deck won't work properly. In addition, the deck won't work at this point if you want to check the orientation by spreading the cards. Due to the construction of the deck, there are a few tricks and tips you need to learn to operate the deck smoothly. Please see the 'Handling' section.
COLOR CHANGE GAFF
This section contains detail instruction on constructing the visual change gimmick. Quick overview: The gimmick involves an elastic flap card made with dental dam or rubber glove (Dental dam recommended). This gimmick has been around for a long time and only became popular in the recent 10 years. Quite a few marketed products uses elastic flap card in slightly different way. However, a friend recently introduced me to Henry Evans's Modern Time effect, and I found the g immick works perfect for the WTF. If I have found the product 6 years ago, it'd saved me a lot of time to construct my own. If you are a lazy builder, strongly recommend that you just go and purchase the above effect. Not only you will receive a gimmick that's perfect for this effect for just a few dollars more, there are extra gimmick which allows other very cool effects to happen. Fig. Elastic Flap Card - Once the gimmick is activated, the flap flips over when let go due to the tension of elastic material such as dental dam or rubber skin.
Here's what you will need (if the card is changing from blue to red) Red Card x1 , Blue Cards x 2, Any Card x 1 (In this case, it is a red Guarantee card below)
Step 1. Quick go over on what you need You need to peel off the back design layer of one blue card and one red card, chop the 'any card' in EXACTLY half, and chop the dental dam in half vertically. The photo below shows the ratio of the dental dam that I use in comparison to a playing card (2/3 : 1). I assume the purchaser of this effect have a basic understanding of producing card gimmick. However if you need more information, check the last section of this page for tips and method.
Step 2. Trimming the skin In a moment you will need a skin later that matches exactly to one of the 'any card' piece. It shouldn't matter which piece you use, since both should be exactly the same size. At this point, just precisely eyeballing the skin with the piece and trim the skin.
As the result, you should have a skin piece that matches the card piece like below.
Step 3. Gluing the cards Glue the 'any card' pieces to a red skin. In this case, I'll stick with magician's best friend, rubber cement. In the photo below, the two red pieces are the back sides of the 'any card' pieces, and the white card is the front side of the red back skin layer. The sides shown are the sides rubber cement should be applied on.
First piece glued
Second piece glued
Step 4. Sharpening the edge Now carefully fold the piece like such, creating a sharp edge on the junction of the two glued pieces.
Shown below - This will become the 'after changed' card. The more precisely handle the better. Side View
Step 5. Gluing dental dam Glue the dental dam in the approximate position shown below, on top portion only.
Side View
Step 5. Attaching skin piece Now that the dental dam is in position, attach the skin piece that we prepared in the first step to the portion where we glued the dental dam like below.
Side View
Step 6. Flattening the elastic pieces Press the card down flat and attach the lower part of the dental dam. Again, it's only the lower parts need to be attached so it doesn't hurt the elastic nature of such material. From
what you see extruding from the previously attached portion, I glued only about 1/3 at the very end.
Step7. Attaching it onto the last piece Take out the last blue card that's left, and attached the gimmick you have been working on onto the blue card with areas shown below. It should look as if it's a complete blue card when you activate the gimmick, and a complete red card when you release it.
Activate status shown
Notice that after the gimmick is constructed, some have concern about 'flashing' the gimmick since there's an extra half size piece on top of a full size card. However, keep in mind that when you hold the deck in your hand during the performance, the audience is looking down at an angle. If you look at the card at an 30 to 45 degree angle, it's a perfect optical illusion which they can't see. Also, when you spread the card and ask have your audience select a card, your thumb will run on top of the gimmick to give you the cover needed. Final Product The final gimmick card would naturally want to snap back from it's activate position due to the elastic material inside of the card.
Tips & Methods - Cutting the dental dam See figure. Various size can be found over the Internet. I personally pick mine up at local dental supplies. If what you have around you is too big in size, trim the dental dam/rubber skin down to the proper size. Cutting dental dam/condom/balloon/and rubber product is very tricky. The easiest way that I found is to put such material into an envelope. This way, the friction inside the envelope would catch the rubber and makes the cutting procedure more smoothly. In such case, cutting with a very sharp cutter also helps. I personally found scissor doesn't work well in such job. Tips & Methods - Peeling card skin Peeling card skin can be tricky. If you have no previous experience, it could take a while to master it. There are quite a few marketed product that teaches you how to do this efficiently. If you are interested in constructing your own effects and gimmicks, definitely check those out. However, I'll briefly go over the HOWs. Each card is formed with three layers, front design, center layer, and back design. What you need is only the back layer in this effect. First warm the card up by putting a ruler ( or anything with firm edge) on top of the card against a flap surface, pull the card 90 degree up to destroy the 'stiff-ness' of the card. Very much like preparing manipulation card. Do this on the other side to. This would soften the cards a bit and make the following procedure easier. Take one of the corner and knock against hard surface. After a few knocks you should see the card layers start to split. Take the desired layer using only your thub nail, and firmly peel up just the corner like below. Don't try to peel too much at this point, you have a very good chance of braking it.
Turn over the card, pushing the skin layer against the flat surface, and peel on the stiffer layer (remaining double layer). This should make it a lot easier to peel the layer off without ruining the card. It may take you a few trials to get it work the first time.
Final Thought
After all the hard work just reading the instruction to construct the gimmick... Henry Evan's Modern Time seem to be a good idea now ... I am a very enthusiastic person on designing and hand-making my own effects. I've hand made gimmick in this nature so often over the years, it only takes me 10 minutes max to hand make one. However, if you are making it for the first time and would have to shop around for materials needed, Henry Evan's Modern Time gimmick does seem like a bargain. It's precisely made and also come with other fancy gimmick that you may like and consider. :) My best wishes on your journey of experimenting new card crafting techniques.
PRESENTATION
This section contains the core presentation that I personally use in the WTF routine. Feel free to use the concept and develope your own. I'd be more than happy to hear ideas from you :) My buddy Gerard and Paul Harris also have a few incredible approaches to the handling of this effect. They are all incredible stuff from two of the greatest minds in magic. Enjoy! Best wishes, Will Tsai Note: I assume that you have already watched the basic handling of this effect, and know exactly what's going to happen in the procedure of the trick. Therefore, this section will not contain basic handling and moves, but presentation, different approaches, and handling procedures. Core Presentation - Eye of Perception, Will Tsai "Many would wonder about how magicians do what they do? We create illusions. As the matter of fact, everything that we do happens only in your mind. It's all about perception and it's very hard to explain, let me demonstrate what I meant to you. [display the cards and do the selection] Many magicians that I know are good with sleight of hands. They are able to control cards using only their fingertips. I am not that good, so over the years I've learnt an easier way for myself to do this. Look directly into my eyes... Done. First I'd try to influence your sense of color...[direct their attention to the deck, do the color change, slowly
display front and backand, enjoy the reaction, and go on with the routine ], now just think of your card... [display all different cards by spreading the cards vertically upon chest level, close the spread and...] If you concentrate hard enough... you'll start to see your cards everywhere... [display all 'straight' cards]"
Note: In this presentation, I normally use a full deck, and use my Forth Dimension [a jacket-less topit system. No, you do not have to, and please don't tuck your shirt into your trouser..] to clean up the trick, as I later patters about what they saw was just an illusion, and there was never a deck in my hand. However, my buddy Paul has kindly provided an incredible solution that allows the routine to be ended clean in spectator's hand. If you are not a topit person, you'll love this! As the matter of fact, I am a topit-addicted myself and I still love and use this method a lot! Handling of Magic in Hand approach that Ends Clean, Paul Harris
Paul has a very interesting idea which allows the effect to happen in spectator's hand. This handling involves less than half a deck (26) sprayed cards in total (half of each color). The other half deck is simply straight forcing cards (all the same). The idea is to hand the spectator the straight pile from the begining, perform the effect visually with the half deck in your hand, tab the spectator's closely guarded hands and to make the magic happen in their hand. It is psychologically routined, so that the visual-ness of this effect is 'educated' to the spectator, causing the magic in their hand to happen in their mind! The best part about this is, this gap of attention is created so strong, that while the attention is shifted to the cards in spectator's hand, the performer can literately step back, stick the gimmicked card and take out the other half straight pile. It's not even a switch, but a simple put and take movement that no one sees. I've personally performed with this approach surrounded, not only the end result is incredibly clean to the audience, the psychology built in this approach, from visual convincer to the transition of sensational aspect of skin touch and the perception the audience receives, really give different layers to the effect and it ROCKS!
Here's the breakdown Tape the bottom of the last card of the top sprayed pile like below, making a long card. The end result should look like this, from top, color change gaff (if needed), sprayed cards, long card, and straight cards. First vertically spread and run through the top half of the deck (sprayed cards) to show every card is indeed different. Cut above the long card and ask the spectator to hold onto the pile that's left in your left hand. At this point, the long card should be the only one that's blue color and all cards below are all red. You are simply casually displaying the blue while asking the spectator to hold out his hand. In a moment you'll need the spectator's hands to be in a sandwich position. The easiest way to do this without having to adjust their hand is to show them with your gesture while asking them to hold out their hand. They'll naturally mock your hand guesture. Steal the long card away by adding it to the bottom with your right hand gaff pile and put the straight pile with the red back directly against the palm of the hand that's on top position. Lower his hand along with the deck down to complete the sandwich. This way, the spectator won't be able to see the color of the pile that he's holding, making the final phase of the effect seem miraculous since there's no apparent way you can do any dirty work while he firmly believes that he's holding the blue cards.
Easy and Logical Switch, Gerard The approach from Gerard involves a very logical and casual full deck
switch in the end of the routine. I've always love the way Gerard thinks and approaches magic. Simple and elegant. The idea is to pull the WTF deck out of an unmatched color case (eg: blue deck out of red case). Point out that the colors are unmatched just as if you did not know it. This makes the deck's return to the case after the color changed very logical, allowing a casual switch with the deck in the case during an off beat moment. Switching a deck inside a case naturally makes the whole movement very slick and unnoticeable. I personally prefer a comedy approach using this method. An one liner or a little joke would work perfect to create the 'moment' for the switch. In addition, I've also done the routine reversely in this particular approach. I first have the card selected, show the audience that every card is different, turn all cards into their card, then do the color change! It comes logical to me to pick up the case for the comparison purpose right after the color change.
Extra Effects - Other effects that I have explored and worked out complete routines... 1. Instant Triumph This effect does not need a color changing gaff. As the matter of fact, this effect does not need the color change portion of the trick at all. It's just a simple spread, close, and re-spread. However, you will need double facers to accomplish this effect. If you make the gaff with all regular cards, it will only be magically turning all cards face up and face down except the first card! 2. Back in Time This idea was first arose from a casual phone conversation with Paul Harris. It was first very exciting to explore my favorite plot in magic back in time. However, after I worked out a few models, I found it was impossible to avoid the 'tiny edge' problem(if you make the deck with BEE, you'll know what I meant). The color differenciation was too big, it'd work but it's hard to perfect and guarantee its perfect working every single time. UNTIL that I found the easiest solution to it... The reason that I had the edge problem, is that I special treated the full card so it looks old and ancient. But to the audience, it is equally effective if you simply treat the 'color back' (eg. the color pattern of card back, edge not included). You have to try it to see how well the presentation plays to lay audience. But again I have to pre-warn you, it's a lot of work to make this deck, and you might not get it on your first try! Paul and myself both agreed that this plot is extremely interesting, but I decided to do color changing effect in the demo, not only because the color shows up better from the camera shot in the demo, a major portion of my work is presented around human perception too. Thought if I am putting my name on the product, I should share the presentation
that I personally perform with and hopefully allow my work to tell a little bit about myself. 3. Visual Mental Photography For the folks who work with Mental Photography knows this is a killer effect. While I really like it as it is, I think the WTF approach would allow the deck to look more innocent as you are not turning the deck and dribbling from different direction. All the turning and dribbling looks too 'pro' in opinion, the WTF approach just looks more 'lay man' handling-wise to me.
