Rising Cards

Rising Cards (also known as Card Rise, Aerial Cards, and Obedient Cards) is a classic effect in which one or more cards (selected or called for) rise up and out of the deck. Some stop at the top of the deck, while others keep on rising and float around.

History

The Rising Cards effect was mentioned by Thomas Garzonus in La Piazza Universale di tutti le professioni in 1626, although no description of the method. Mr. Garzonus reported that Abraham Colorni made a mentally selected card rise out of the pack.

A method was published in Hocus Pocus Junior in 1634.

Notable Performances

Hooker Rising Cards

Dr. Samuel Hooker baffled some of the greatest magicians of his time with invitation-only showings of his Hooker's Rising Cards routine in a small theater he constructed at his own home in Brooklyn Heights, New York around 1915.

Queen of the Air

Howard Thruston's Rising Card act in which the chosen card would rise out of the deck and float through the air.

Marketed Versions

• Devano Pack
• Kundalini Rising Cards
• Tenyo Rising Cards
• Paul Fox Rising Card Trick
• Lyons Card Rise - conceived by Dr. L. Vosburgh Lyons around 1936 and made by Herman Hanson. Lyons licensed it to U.F. Grant who made and marketed it around 1937.

Publications

• New Era Card Tricks - Cards Rising Through the Air (uncredited but created by Carl Soerenson) (1897)
• Howard Thurston's Card Tricks - Chapter V - An Entirely New and Original Collection of Miscellaneous Card Tricks, Including the Correct Method of Performing Thurston's New Rising Cards (1901)
• The Art of Magic by T. Nelson Downs - Chapter IX Rising Cards (1909)
• Tarbell Course in Magic Vol. 2 - Lesson 27: Rising Cards (1928)
• Greater Magic - Chapter XVI: The Rising Cards (1938)
• The Big Book of Rising Cards (PDF) by Claude Klingsor (2010)

References

• http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=233621#Post233621