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

Most agree that Wild Card concept began 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 liked "The Mystic Nine", and published his version which added double-face cards as Watch The Ace in Hugard's Magic Monthly ( April 1962).

Bill Simon showed Kane's effect to Frank Garcia, who started performing it in his gambling act. Garcia gave his handling to Lou Tannen, who marketed it under Garcia's name as "Wild Card".

Variations and publications

• Derek Dingle's Wild Fire New Stars of Magic, Vol. 1, N°1, 1972
• Larry Jennings Impromptu Wild Card Epilogue, Epilogue Special 3 part 2 (1975) and again in The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings (1986), page 186.
• Hand-out Wild Card by Jon Racherbaumer, Kabbala Vol. 3, No. 3, 1976, page 43
• Wild all the Way by Bro. John Hamman. Richard's Almanac, Vol. 2, N° 14, oct 1984, page 131.
• 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
• The Wild Card Kit by John Racherbaumer (1992)
• Duvivier’s Printing. In french L'Imprimerie, described in 1977 in Cartomagie 2006, then marketed.
• "In The Hands Wild Card" DVD 2005 Tom Dobrowolski/Chicago Magic Bash Productions

• Larry West's Wild Wild West. Date ?

References

• http://stevensmagic.com/gemini/Mike%20Rogers/WildCardVariation.htm