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By Mathieu Bich
I found the delay concept back in November 1999, by fluke, by forgetting a gimmicked card from
my trick !easy twist! in a normal pack.
The delay principle using a combination of sticky tape and a mechanical principle seems to have
been published for the first time by Lubor Fiedler.
The first explanations of card ejection using a rubber band were described in ! Hocus Pocus
Junior!, released in London between 1620 and 1634!; it was explained how to eject a card using
a hair, a string or even a spring
Lots of magicians have then on used rubber bands to eject cards, such as Hen Fetch, Karrel
Fox, Ed Mishell (Elastrix) and even Alex Elmsley who used a complex gimmick (built recently
by David Soloman and Gary Plants)
Fin Jon, David Britland, Jeff Mc Bride and many other magicians used invisible elastic
thread to animate cards placed within a deck. If you are interested by the theme, I recommend you
to get hold of !Le Grand livre des cartes montantes! (the big book of rising cards) by Claude
Klingsor, it will give you several methods and a few historical references on the subject

Caution: the card is being ejected at high speed and could potentially
hurt someone if it reaches the face or another body part. Never
orient the side where the card will be ejected towards your audience.

---------------------------------------------------------Making THE gimmick:

To make a gimmick, you need 4 cards, a piece of normal tape, a piece of double-sided tape, and
some thin latex rings. To make the latex rings you need a tube made from thin latex (from a latex
glove or better from a condom).
To cut the latex rings in a smooth manner (no rough edges), use a X-Acto Knife (industrial knife).
Be careful not to cut yourself!
The latex you use should be the thinnest possible. The latex youll find in most !pharmacy! aisles
of supermarkets is 0.07mm thick. It is often lubricated, so clean it with soap, and store it in a bag
with talc powder. The rings I use with the 0.07mm thick latex are 5,5mm in width; if you cant find
the 0.07mm thick latex, play around with the width of the ring you make (5mm, 5.5mm or 6mm)

Fold a white sheet of paper and slide your latex piece inside.

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Cut the whole thing in regular bands (5.5mm of width).

The folded piece of paper !holds! the latex while you are cutting, avoiding it to
fold or stretch. It sort of traps it. You will get nice & smooth rings, with no rough
edges.

Place 2 indifferent cards between the 2 cards that will constitute your
gimmick (pocket).

Tape the base of these 2 cards together

(with 1 or several pieces of tape)

Remove the 2 indifferent cards, open your !pocket card! vertically.

Place a piece of double-sided (1cm x 1cm) in the bottom left corner of the
lower card of the pocket (The face down one on the table).
Put your finger once or twice onto it to remove some of the stickiness.

Take scissors and cut slightly the bottom left corner of the face up card (top
card of the pocket).

Close the pocket card and wrap the latex ring around its centre.
The latex rings break regularly, I recommend to make a few ones each time you
decide to make one....
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FOR LEFT HANDED PEOPLE:

Even though you can adapt most of the moves used in the routines given above, I advise you to
take a pair of scissors and to cut slightly the right top corner of the top card of the gimmick
instead of the left one.

---------------------------------------------------------Basic ejection:
A card is selected, and then placed back into the deck. The deck is put down onto the table, the
magician steps back in order to be away from the deck. One card shoots out of the deck: the
selected card.

Needed material:

- For the basic ejection, you will need the !pocket card! and a latex ring.
- Before the first use, place your finger onto the double sided tape 2-3 times in
order to remove some of the stickiness.
Place the latex ring around the pocket card lengthwise, in the centre.

Set up:
Place the pocket card face down onto the table, opening towards the audience, and place the rest
of the deck on top of it.

Method:
Take the deck in your hands and have a card chosen by your audience.

While your audience looks at the card, cut the deck in order to bring the
gimmicked card around the middle of the pack.

Take the deck in your left hand in biddle grip, take the card off the
spectator with your right hand by its top right corner.

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Riffle down the pack with your left thumb, and stop between the 2 cards
forming the pocket this is easy as the top card of the gimmick is
shorter than the bottom one at the left front corner therefore, there
will be a natural stop at that point (the same as the one produced by
short cards, but at the corner).

Place the spectators card in the opening, while maintaining the pressure
with your left hand in order to prevent the card to shoot out while you
are placing it in the deck.

Once the card is fully inserted, square up the pack and keep the
pressure. At that point, the card is ready to shoot out, so be careful.

Take the pack in dealing grip. Then grab it with your right thumb and index
fingers, at the bottom left corner.

Release the deck from your left hand while the right fingers squeeze
down hard on the corner (to allow the double-sided tape to stick).

The left thumb and index grab the front of the deck,

And pivot it towards the left (the right thumb and index behind the axis
around which the deck rotates)

The right hand squeezes one last time onto the tape, and then the left
hand put the deck quickly down onto the table.

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After a few seconds, you will see one card move, and then shoot out.

The delay is caused by the interaction between the latex and the double-sided tape; the more the
tape adheres, the longer the delay; therefore the pressure you put on the corner of the deck with
your right hand fingers plays a role to fine tune the delay, have a look at the section about it.

Note!:
The length of the delay is not a problem in itself, as long as there is one, and as long as the card
doesnt shoot out as soon as you put down the deck onto the table 2 seconds are enough. If the
card doesnt fully shoot out of the deck it isnt a problem either; the most important is that this
card stands out of the others.
If the card ALWAYS stays stuck amongst the others, have a look at the end of the explanations in
the appropriate section. If you are experiencing troubles, check the end of the description USEFUL
TIPS

Variations:
Lots of presentations are possible: in the spectators hand, in a sealed plastic bag, or even in a
solid box It is also possible to put several gimmicks in your deck to eject several cards in a row

---------------------------------------------------------Ejection out of a ribbon spread:

A card is selected, and placed back in the deck. The deck is put down on the table, the magician
steps back, and the selected card shoots out on its own.

Needed material:
Same as before: gimmicked card (pocket) and the latex ring

Set up:
Place the pocket card face down onto the table, opening towards the audience, and place the rest
of the deck on top of it.
As this method uses a spread, it is described for a right-handed person. If you are left-hander, you
can adapt your handling, or reverse it completely in the condition you placed the double-sided tape
on the right side of the inside of the gimmick. Have a look at the section !making the gimmick!
for more details

Method:
The method is identical to the basic ejection up to the insertion of the
selected card in the deck.

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Once the card is loaded in the gimmick, the left thumb and index grab
the bottom left corner of the card, but keep the pressure with your
right hand as well.

The left hand squeezes hard to allow the tape to stick. Then both
hands move towards the left of your close up mat / table. The left
hand releases the deck and the right spreads it left to right. You now
just have to wait for the card to shoot out.

---------------------------------------------------------Ejection from the card box!:

The selected card shoots out of the closed card box left on the table moments before.

Material needed:
The basic gimmick and a card box.

Set up!:
Cut the 2 small tongues on the side of the opening of the card box.
To facilitate the opening of the box, you also need to round slightly the main
!tongue! of the lid. You just need to roll it around a pen to give it a nice and
smooth curve.

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Method:
The principle is the same as the basic ejection; however you need to bring the gimmick at the top
third of the deck instead of the middle.

When the card is loaded, place the pack in the box

(make sure the back of the cards is at the bottom of
the box, so the card can shoot out of the box

Grab the box with the left thumb and index

fingers at the bottom left corner (where the
tape would be), and close the box with your
right hand.

Show both sides of the box while squeezing hard

to allow the tape to stick. Put the box down, and
wait

Note:
If the card remains stuck after coming out half way, you need to place the gimmick higher in the
deck (closer to the top card); do a few tries to see where you get the best results

---------------------------------------------------------Vertical / Distance ejection!:

Needed material:
The basic gimmick and a card box.

Setup:
Same as the basic ejection.

Method:
Once the selected card is placed inside the gimmick, put the deck back into the box (as before), but
DO NOT close the lid.
Place the box onto the table, with its opening towards the ceiling. The card will shoot out vertically.
The card ejects at great speed, so make sure that neither yours or the spectators faces are in its
line of fire

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Note:
To avoid struggling to put the box vertically on the table, you can put a piece of double-sided tape
at the bottom of the box, to help it stand up

---------------------------------------------------------4 aces or sandwich ejection!:

Material needed:
In order to easily eject more than one card, it is better to modify your
gimmick
To avoid too much friction at the moment you are making the gimmick,
before sticking the 2 cards together, 2 other cards are inserted
between the cards that will form the pocket (to give the gimmick more
thickness). It allows creating more space inside the pocket.
As a general rule, make your pocket by using one card more than what
you want to eject. To eject 4 aces, place 5 cards between the 2 that
constitute the pocket. Same for the sandwich effect (3 cards), place 4
cards in the middle of the gimmick when sticking the tape.

You have a margin of error of 2 cards, therefore it is pointless to build a

gimmick for the 4 aces and one for the sandwich, but 4 aces wont fit in
the basic gimmick used for the basic ejection.

Set up and method:

The set up and methods are identical to the basic ejection; it is just done with 4 aces loaded
instead of 1 card you can load them one by one or all at once in the gimmick if you place them
one by one, be careful to keep the pressure to avoid the previously loaded ace to shoot out while
loading the next one

Variations:
You can do a sandwich using the same gimmick.

Set up and method fOR THE SANDWICH EFFECT:

Pull out 2 jokers and have a card selected.

Load both jokers face up into the gimmick,

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And then place the selected card between the 2 jokers (if you riffle down
back of the deck towards you with your left thumb, it will be easy to stop in
between the 2 jokers).

------------------------------------------2 steps ejection / Spooked

I wanted to try to recreate the same effect as the famous !spooked! by Nicolas Einhorn using
that principle. To obtain a movement of the top packet before the ejection, you need to modify your
gimmick.

Material needed:
2 modifications are necessary to perform this variation, but to make it easy, temporary remove
the latex ring.
First of all, the 2 cards should not be stuck together anymore (no more
pocket); remove the tape present at the base of these 2 cards. You get 2
face down cards onto the table, the right hand one being the bottom one (a
small piece of double sided tape is still on its bottom left corner), and the
left the top one.

Take the right hand card and turn it face up

and put a piece of double-sided tape (roughly
1cm x 1cm) on its face, but on the centre left (see picture)

Put your finger a couple of times on this piece of tape to remove some of its stickiness. Then put it
face down on the other face down card.

Place back the latex ring around this double card, and place the newly
made gimmick in the pack

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Method:
The method is similar to the basic ejection; just make sure to press down
hard on both zones where the double sided-tape pieces are before
placing the cards onto the table.

The zones where you need to press are at the bottom

left corner and on the right side of the cards.

Note:
The stickiness of both pieces of tape for this effect is crucial; it will take a few tries before getting
the effect you want

--------------------------------------------SOME USEFUL TIPS

Facilitate the ejection:
By placing some talc powder on the latex
ring and on the gimmick card (inside and
outside of the pocket), the ejection is made
easier.
Put some on the 2 zones where the latex
will be in contact with the playing cards.
You can also reduce the stickiness of the
double-sided tape by using smaller pieces or more used pieces.

To reduce the frixion, and avoid breaking the ring, the latex must stay
flat around the cards

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Fine tuning of the details:

The delay is caused by the interaction of the latex and the double-sided tape: the more it sticks, the
longer the delay. Identically, the weaker the tension (with a smaller band of latex), the longer the
delay.
The pressure your put on the cards also plays a role in the delay The temperature of the room
where you are performing has an effect on the adherence of the double-sided tape. Warmth
increases the stickiness, whereas cold reduces it. Considering these factors, the delay can vary
between 2 to 40s.
If you want to be very precise, I advice to try your gimmick before using it in performance... In
informal conditions (session for example) I play a lot with my cards before starting performing
tricks, I also try my gimmick without the audience knowing it Of course, I avoid the card to shoot
out, but it gives me an idea of the delay it needs before ejecting
If the card doesnt get out of the deck properly or too slowly, use talc powder.
When the double-sided tape is getting too old, it starts to leave a deposit on the cards, and takes a
long time before releasing it; that means it is time to change it.

Storage
Latex doesnt like being stretched for a long time. If you plan on not using the gimmick for several
days, remove the latex ring, and place it in its talc-filled bag, otherwise it is likely to break.

Give the impression of a perfect timing:

As the card generally move slightly before shooting out, if you pay attention, you can do a magic
move just before it comes out; it will look even more magical.
Dont forget it is hard to time precisely the delay. The main thing is that you have enough delay so
that nobody thinks you triggered something before you placed the deck down Sometimes it takes
a while, so prepare something to say to avoid uncomfortable blanks

I would like to thank:

Thanks to!Michael Weber, Sbastien Clergue, Clara Bich, Thomas Civade and Jerome Burnet

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