Card Warp

Card Warp is a card routine by Roy Walton as an outgrowth of Jeff Busby's "Into the Fourth Dimension... and Beyond."

Card Warp is a unique effect in which one card is folded in half width-wise (i.e., squat and fat), and another lengthwise (i.e., long and thin), then the latter is pushed through the former and emerges inside out (i.e., if it begins folded back-outward it emerges folded face out).

History

Busby's "Into The Fourth Dimension", designed for a standing performance and combined several effects,m contained an opening effect of a card turning inside out. He did mention at the end of the manuscript that the "Inside-Out Card" effect could be performed separately adding "The trick can be done impromptu by tearing a card neatly but secretly." and that, at the finish, the gaff can be hidden by tearing the card into pieces for 'souvenirs'. Roy Walton revamped the trick and added several ideas of his own and "Card Warp" became a modern standard. One factor that makes it so appealing was that only two cards are needed to perform a devastating effect.

Many magicians have built upon, expanded, or otherwise varied the effect since its publication, including Bob McAllister ("Greenwarp," Richard's Almanac, September, 1983), Darwin Ortiz ("The Card Warp Deck," Darwin Ortiz At The Card Table, 1988), Tyler Wilson ("Scarred Warp," Dominatricks, 2006), Jay Sankey ("Definitely Warped," 100% Sankey, 1990), David Acer ("The Card-Warp Get-Ready," a.k.a. "Prepare for Warp," Natural Selections, Volume II, 1999), Bob Farmer, Howard Schwarzman, and Bruce Cervon.

Jeff Pierce collected material related to Card Warp for an encyclopedic book on the subject call Card Warp Tour.

Quotes

• "Card Warp hit the magical market for the first time at the IBM Convention on the 19th September, 1973. We [Davenports] took 220 (yes, two hundred and twenty) with us and sold them all in one day." - Abracadabra magazine

• "In 1970, while still in my mid-teens, I purchased a Japanese book issued by the Tenkai Prize Committee called MASAO ATSUKAWA'S CREATIVE WORKS IN MAGIC. The book dealt with original effects by Atsukawa and a great deal of the material utilized the shape of objects to create some unusual magic - topological magic, if you will. I became interested in one of Atsukawa's effects called 'Three Quarter Card'. The gaff is basically a card with one quarter missing, that allows a penetration effect to take place. The problem was that the cards could not be shown cleanly. In playing around with the Atsukawa effect, I hit upon the idea of replacing the missing quarter with just a slit running from one edge of the card to the centerpoint. This allowed me to perform all sorts of unique penetration effects, but in a much cleaner and more open fashion. Still playing with the single slit card, I eventually came up with the E-fold idea which led ultimately to the effect of a single card turning inside out - an effect which was finally written up in November of 1972 and published in January 1973 as INTO THE FOURTH DIMENSION...AND BEYOND. I think it fairly well known that this was the effect that led to Roy Walton's variant handling that was issued (and I might add, initially without permission, but belatedly given after the effect was on the market) as CARD WARP. This took the magic world by storm." - from Jeff Busby's Epoptica (Number 6, August 1984)

Variations

• Bob McAllister ("Greenwarp," Richard's Almanac, September, 1983)
• Darwin Ortiz ("The Card Warp Deck," Darwin Ortiz At The Card Table, 1988)
• Tyler Wilson ("Scarred Warp," Dominatricks, 2006)
• Jay Sankey ("Definitely Warped," 100% Sankey, 1990)
• David Acer ("The Card-Warp Get-Ready," a.k.a. "Prepare for Warp," Natural Selections, Volume II, 1999)
• Weirdling by Michael Weber on Paul Harris' True Astonishment DVDs
• Stapled Warp by Andrew Gerard on Paul Harris' True Astonishment DVDs