The Billet Article - The Jay Sankey Lecture

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 379 - May 2003, Authored by Keith Pickles

The Jay Sankey Lecture

On the 28th March 31 members and 12 visitors turned Up to welcome Canadian," Jay Sankey, to the Bradford Magic Circle. Jay explained that he had been performing magic for the past 27 years, and then proceeded to demonstrate some of his thoughts on the art.

He had a card chosen, which was then mixed into the deck. A card then shot out of the deck, but it was not the chosen one. The card then changed into the chosen card. This was done by getting a break when the card was returned to the deck and cutting it to the top. He changed the card by doing a top change, as he appeared surprised at the wrong card.

Darren wrote his name on the face of a chosen card. Jay tore the card into 4 pieces, whilst holding the back of the card to the audience. He placed a rubber band around the cards and placed the pieces under the band. Taking the card back out, it was now fully restored. Basically this revolved having the bottom three cards reversed and the chosen card being returned to the second from the bottom. Double lift the bottom two cards to show the chosen one. When this is returned to the deck the bottom card is then taken and torn. Whilst this is happening, the chosen card is folded it into four. The rubber band goes around the deck covering the folded card. The torn card is placed at the front and the cards reversed by throwing the deck from hand-to-hand, turning the deck on the third throw. The work is done.

Jay also demonstrated various coin vanishes and moves, including a coins across effect, none of which I can describe in any detail, so I won't even try. I am sure that those who were there and were interested in them will have picked them up, and most likely we will some of them demonstrated over the next few months.

A spectator wrote his initials on a piece of paper. Jay rolled this up and placed it into the spectator's hand. Jay wrote his name on another small piece of paper. He rolled this up and then set fire to .it and from the flames out rolled a piece of paper with the spectator's initials on. The piece of paper in the spectator's hand now had Jay's name on. All that this involved was Jay switching the spectator's paper for one on which he had previously written his name as he rolled the spectator's piece up. Jay then wrote his name on a piece of flash paper and rolled it around the spectator's piece. The flash paper is lit and the spectator's paper rolls to the table.

Victoria chose a card. Jay added three more cards and returned them to Victoria. When he took the cards back they had turned into one large version of the chosen card. Jay forced the l0H. He had the fake card on the bottom of the deck. He counted off four cards and just switched this for the card on the bottom when handing it to Victoria.

Jay then demonstrated a simple penetration effect with two straws. I am sure this will be one that many of those there will be using for friends and family.

Jay then showed a £5 note and gave a purse to a spectator to hold. He tore a corner of the note and vanished it, to find it re-appeared in the purse held by the spectator. Then he restored the £5. This involved starting with 2 £5 notes, one in a thumb tip. He folded the borrowed £5 fairly small. He then brought the other £5 note out of the thumb tip and switched the pieces. He pretended to tear the corner (this of course had already been done with the piece already being in the purse). Then he pretended to vanish the corner before taking it from the purse. The finale was a reverse switch of the P5 note in the thumb tip.

Jay held up a card and asked Stevie B to name it. Stevie said 3H. Jay put the card face down. Jay then asked Stevie to name a card suit. Stevie said diamond. Jay dropped the card onto the table face down. Jay then asked him to name a colour. Stevie said black. Again Jay dropped the card on the table face down. This, not surprisingly, was a one-ahead principle. On the first occasion, Jay takes out a black card. When Stevie says 3H, Jay then takes out this card as his second one. When Stevie said diamond, Jay then took this out as his third card. On this occasion Stevie said red as his colour, which left Jay incorrect on this occasion, but still able to get away with two out of three. To reveal the cards in the correct order Jay turns over the top & bottom cards as one and revealed them in reverse order i.e. colour, suit & card.

Steve Gore was asked to think of a card from a number which Jay was showing (22 to be exact), whilst he held the remainder of the deck in his (Steve's) hand. Steve then named his chosen card. Jay then dealt the cards out, face up, on the table. Steve's card had gone and was found amongst the cards in Steve's hand. This worked because Jay had 22 double-faced cards. All the cards on the side, which he showed Steve, were also amongst the cards held by Steve. After he had shown the cards all Jay did was reverse them and then deal them out to show that the chosen card had gone (none of the reverse sides of the cards matched the front sides). The double-sided pack had 3S as the top card on one side and 3C as the top card on the other side, which helped to make them seem the same.

Jay then borrowed a £10 note. He folded it thinly and then dropped a ring on it from just above, He then had Stevie B hold the note at both ends and the ring appeared on it. This merely worked by the fact that the ring was already on there when Stevie got hold of it.

Finally Jay had a spectator choose a card and write their name on it. The card was placed into the middle of the deck. The spectator wrote their initials on a 10p. This was wrapped in tissue (flash) paper. The paper was placed on top of the deck and lit. The coin burned through the cards and stopped at the chosen card. Jay sold this as IN A Flash. The fake cards are at the bottom of the deck to start with. The card is chosen and a break obtained between the two halves. The card is replaced there and the fake half placed on top. The coin nicely hides the holes in the cards. When the flash paper is lit, the coin drops nicely through the holes.

Jay received an excellent round of applause for a lecture which was exceedingly well received by everyone present.

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