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.1857 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.
• Wild Cards (Patter)' by Gene Gordon in New Tops, November 1962
• North Bigbee's Joker Poker in The New Phoenix No. 385, December 1963
• Making the Wild Card Wilder by David Lederman in M-U-M, Vol. 53, No. 12 May 1964
• 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, No. 1, 1972.
• Bruce Cervon's Really Wild in Genii, No. 5, May 1972.
• Flip's Wild Card by Flip Hallema in Kabbala, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1972.
• "Wild Card - Another Version" by Joe Bruno 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.
• Be-WILD-ering Cards by Flip in Pabular Vol 1, No. 8, April 1975, page 89.
• Phil Goldstein's "Con-clusion" in Son of the Bat, Jr. No. 10 (1975)
• Gypsy Curse, marketed trick, with special cards by Peter Kane (1976)
• 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).
• Impromptu Wild Card by Jonathan Townsend,in Apocalypse, Vol. 5, no. 2, Feb. 1982, page 595.
• "Wild Jokers" by Dan Fleschman in The Excellence of Dan Fleschman by John Mendoza (1983).
• Really Wild Jokers by Peter Marshall in Apocalypse, Vol. 6, no. 8, August 1983, page 805.
• Two Bit Wild Card by Daryl Martinez in Richard's Almanac, No. 19, March 1984.
• Wild all the Way by Bro. John Hamman. Richard's Almanac, Vol. 2, No. 14, oct 1984, page 131.
• Twist and Show by Walt Maddison in Apocalypse, Vol. 7, no. 11, November 1984, page 990.
• Wilder Card by Shigeo Takagi in Apocalypse, Vol. 8, no. 8, August 1985, page 1096.
• ESPecially Wild by Paul Hallas, marketed effect by Meir Yedid (1986)
• Impromptu Wild Card Variation by Millard Longman in Apocalypse, Vol. 9, no. 2, Feb. 1986, page 1175.
• 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).
• Paul W. Cummins' "The Workingman's Wild Card" in Apocalypse, Vol. 13, no. 11, November 1990, page 1855.
• Taming The Wild Card by Racherbaumer in The New Tops, September 1991.
• The Wild Card Kit by John Racherbaumer (1992).
• Really Wild Deuces by Jed B. Smith in Apocalypse, Vol. 18, no. 9, September 1995, page 2545.
• The Tamed Card by Tommy Wonder in The Books of Wonder, Vol 1 (1996).
• Roberto Giobbi's "The Really Wild Nine-card Trick" in Card College 2 (1996).
• In The Hands Wild Card DVD 2005 Tom Dobrowolski/Chicago Magic Bash Productions.
• The Wild Exchange by Jerry Mentzer in Card File Two (2000).

References

• http://stevensmagic.com/gemini/Mike%20Rogers/WildCardVariation.htm
• http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=294393&forum=2
• Harry Riser tells the real story behind “Wild Card”
• Conjuring Credits' article on cards:wild_card