Marakesh Mystery by Collectors’ Workshop

Effect: In the long annals of our craft, few effects have evoked as strong an audience reaction as the spectre of the rising cards. Perhaps it is the combination of seemingly impossible feats not only finding the chosen card but exerting some sort of psychokinetic force that underlies the charm of the effect. Or, perhaps it’s simply the extraordinary visual appeal. In any event, it’s one of those effects that everyone does sometime.

Take stock. How many rising card effects do you have? And yet, in all the variations, the rarest of the rare is the legendary Any Card Called. Dr. Hooker produced one and, as far as we know, there is only one in the world, immaculately restored by Los Angeles’ John Gaughan. And, yes, the cards sit beneath a glass globe, the audience member calls out a card, and that card rises. Others have attempted facsimiles. The Neyhardt houlette is a much-valued collectors’ item. But the mechanism is far too intricate and unwieldy to be used in actual performance. The Neyhardt version, when it can be found, goes from $300 to $500.

The Hooker version is unattainable at any price. Collectors’ Workshop now announces, with considerable delight, the Marakesh Mystery. It’s a simple effect the great ones usually are. You open a beautiful brass box. Inside is (1) a deck of cards and (2) a small pad. Have the spectator think of a card and record the thought on the pad. That’s right, the card is unannounced. Seemingly, the only one in the world who knows the identity is the spectator. Performer lifts up brass box, without removing the cards, and requests that the spectator paint his thoughts on the canvas of his mind. And the thought-of card rises in the box. A thoughtful, stunning effect, handcrafted in our Workshop. A thoughtful, stunning effect, handcrafted in our Workshop. Dr. Hooker would have been pleased

The method apparently wasn’t original to CW as I have seen “older” versions of this particular effect appear on ebay, though the CW version was likely the “Rolls-Royce” of the bunch. A spectator thinks of a card and writes it down on a slip of paper. A solid brass case with a simple “skeleton” brass frame shown; frame is withdrawn containing a deck of cards. Both sides of the frame can be shown as in the images. Without removing the deck, the frame is held up with one hand only and the thought of card just rises out of the deck. It’s beautiful magic at its best. One limitation was that the deck will rise any pip card called for, but not the face cards. This was not a problem as the suggested patter easily eliminated the face cards in the spectator’s choice. That is still 40 different cards under your control! Amazing prop and stunning magic.

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