Wild Card

Wild Card is a packet trick card routine. Eight cards of the same value are placed on the table, some face up and some face down. The magician then introduces the "wild card", which is different than the other eight. As the magician flips each card with the wild card, they change to the same value as the wild card.

History

The Wild Card concept began with Hofzinser's "Everywhere and Nowhere" ca.1850 in which he transforms a row of cards into duplicates of the chosen card using double-ended and duplicate cards.

The next step took place when Brother John Hamman published Mystic Nine in The Card Magic of Bro. John Hamman S.M. (1958) written by Paul LePaul. It used ten ungaffed cards.

Peter Kane published a new version which uses double-faced cards as Watch The Ace in Hugard's Magic Monthly (April 1962).

Bill Simon read the Kane effect and showed it to Lou Tannen one day at Tannen's Magic Shop shortly after it appeared. Lou asked Frank Garcia to work out a handling of the effect so Tannen could place it on the market--and this is how "Wild Card" was born. The Garcia handling is very different from Peter Kane's. Had Lou Tannen put "Based on Peter Kane's 'Watch the Ace'" on the instruction sheet, Garcia would have received the credit he deserved for his superior variation. Instead, the Garcia marketed handling carried no credit and Garcia was accused of stealing Peter Kane's trick. In fact, Garcia used only Kane's idea of doing the routine with double-faced cards.

Variations and publications

• The Mystic Nine by Brother John Hamman in The Card Magic of Bro. John Hamman S.M. (1958).
• Watch the Ace by Peter Kane in Hugard's Magic Monthly Vol XIX, No. 8, April 1962.
• Making the Wild Card Wilder by David Lederman in M-U-M, Vol. 53, No. 12 May 1964
• North Bigbee's Joker Plus in The New Phoenix No. 385, December 1963
• Ed Marlo's Wild Card & Wild selections & The Wild Purist in Expert Card Conjuring by Alton Sharpe (1968)
• Roughly Wild by Aldini Marketed effect (1969)
• The Philosopher's Stone by Eric C. Lewis in Genii, Vol. 34, No. 6 February 1970
• Those Wild, Wild Aces by Ed Marlo marketed by Magic, Inc., 1971.
• Derek Dingle's Wild Fire New Stars of Magic, Vol. 1, N°1, 1972.
• Bruce Cervon's Really Wild in Genii, No. 05, May 1972.
• Flip's Wild Card by Flip Hallema in Kabbala, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1972;
• "Wild Card - Another Version" in The linking Ring, Vol. 53, No. 11 November 1973.
• Wild Deuce by Nick Trost. Marketed effect in 1974
• Larry Jennings Impromptu Wild Card in Epilogue, Epilogue Special 3, part 2 (1975) and again in The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings (1986), page 186.
• Wild Card in Pabular Vol 1, No. 8, April 1975.
• Phil Goldstein's "Con-clusion" in Son of the Bat, Jr. No. 10 (1975)
• Hand-out Wild Card by Jon Racherbaumer, Kabbala Vol. 3, No. 3, 1976, page 43.
• Frank Garcia Wild Card Miracles (1977)
• Duvivier’s Printing. In french L'Imprimerie, described in 1977 in Cartomagie 2006, then marketed.
• Larry West's Wild Wild West. (Shows up in Linking Ring articles by 1977)
• Wild all the Way by Bro. John Hamman. Richard's Almanac, Vol. 2, N° 14, oct 1984, page 131.
• Two Bit Wild Card by Daryl Martinez in Richard's Almanac, No. 19, March 1984.
• ESPecially Wild by Paul Hallas, marketed effect by Meir Yedid (1986)
• Darwin's Wild Card in Darwin Ortiz at the Card Table 1988
• The Mystic Nine, page 213 from The Secrets of Brother John Hamman written by Richard Kaufman (1989)
• Taming The Wild Card by Racherbaumer in The New Tops, September 1991
• Taming The Wild Card by Jon Racherbaumer in The New Tops September 1991
• The Wild Card Kit by John Racherbaumer (1992)
• The Tamed Card by Tommy Wonder in The Books of Wonder, Vol 1 (1996)
• In The Hands Wild Card DVD 2005 Tom Dobrowolski/Chicago Magic Bash Productions

• Impromptu Wild Card by Jonathan Townsend,in Apocalypse 1-5
• Impromptu Wild Card Variation by Millard Longman in Apocalypse 6-10
• Really Wild Jokers by Peter Marshall in Apocalypse Vol 6
• Twist and Show by Walt Maddison in Apocalypse 7
• Wilder Card by Shigeo Takagi in Apocalypse Vol 8
• Paul W. Cummins' "The Workingman's wild card" in Apocalypse 11-15
• Really Wild Deuces by Jed B. Smith in Apocalypse 16-20
• "Wild Jokers" by Dan Fleshmann in Excellence of Dan Fleshmann by John Mendoza
• Roberto Giobbi's "The Really Wild Nine-card Trick" in Card College 2
• The Wild Exchange by Jerry Mentzer in Card File Two.

References

• http://stevensmagic.com/gemini/Mike%20Rogers/WildCardVariation.htm
• http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=294393&forum=2