Difference between revisions of "Torn and Restored Card"

Revision as of 15:58, 16 July 2008

The Torn and Restored Card is a plot wherein a playing card (usually chosen by a spectator) is torn into pieces and then restored. There are many techniques to accomplish this, some even allowing for the card to be signed, and most requiring sleight-of-hand. There are also different presentational approaches. For example, David Copperfield performed it with an extremely valuable baseball card on one of his television specials. He used a version by Chris Kenner called Torn Asunder, which was advertised to the magic community but never actually released.

Questions

First ever published torn and restored card?

According to Potter's Index, it seems to be :

• The Torn Card Restored, page 196 in Chemical, Natural and Physical Magic by G.W. Septimus Piesse (1858)

First published routine to use a signed card?

In The Magic Wand, Vol. 22, N° 160, dec. 1933, page 191, A Marked Torn and Restored Card Effect by Leonard Saunders.

It's not really a sign card but the spectator writes a number on one of the index corner.

In The Cardician by Edward Marlo (1953), page 187, The Second Method, the magician puts his initials on the back of the card and the spectator does the same on the face.

See also Signature Card Restoration, page 6 of New Applause Winning Tricks by Samuel Berland (1956)

First published routine to use only one card?

Variations

• Ultimate Rip-off by Paul Harris in Art of Astonishment uses only one card. First published in Supermagic (1977)
• Reformation, page 16 of Notes on Card Tricks and Other Diversions (Lecture Notes 1996) by Guy Hollingworth
• A Destroyed and Reproduced Card, page 219 of Drawing Room Deceptions (1999) by Guy Hollingworth.
• Hoodwink by Ben Harris and his Wink Wink in Quarks & Quirk
• The Cardboard Contortionist by Jay Sankey - a two signed cards are torn and restored.